VOTD - M.I.A - Born Free

You remember M.I.A. don't you... she was gonna retire from music altogether, start a clothing line... have a baby. Then Paper Planes blew up and so she kinda did a "Psyche! ... I'll be back after the baby" ... Well she's back, and with a freaking awesome video that would make Trey Parker and Matt Stone super happy. The Gingers... they must be stopped.... oh I'm guessing this is a little NSFW... I'm pretty sure I saw a boob for a split second and of course there is gratuitous violence.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Spooky Folk

It's a local Thursday type of day... so today we are gonna talk about Denton based Spooky Folk. The joke has been made plenty of time that their music is neither spooky nor folky, however it does kinda fit in the psyc-folk category. Take this song for example. "Polaroid" .. it starts out with a Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet/Cure/New Order-ish and then it pulls out a little country folk vibe. Its an addicting song although slightly schizophrenic... its kinda like they stuck a totally different song in the middle of their song. Not complaining though.. I like it. And extra points for rocking beards. Their self titled album should be out soon.

Listen:Spooky Folk"Polaroid"




Spooky Folk - Polaroid

Clare and the Reasons

Clare and the Reasons burst on the NY indie pop scene in 2007 with the release of The Movie which had some guest appearances from old school Beach Boy producer Van Dyke Parks and Sufjan Stevens. Since then Clare married one of the reasons, and they have released a new album Arrow. The album isn't groundbreaking... although I like the use of orchestration and horns... its very St Vincent like and I love me some Annie Clark.... its just catchy pop goodness. And Clare's voice makes me feel all tingly inside. It's a lot like Nina Persson... and Nina still makes my knees quiver ever time I hear her.

Listen:Clare And the Reasons"Murder, They Want Murder"




Clare and the Reasons - Murder, They Want Murder

Roommates.

Bring Back Cassettes! I like how everything old is new again.... First there was the resurgence of Vinyl... now with the popularity of Lo-fi, some people such as the Roommates are releasing cassette singles again. and I'm intrigued. But before we get into the actual cassette... lets talk about the band... Roommates is a side project of Ben Cook aka Young Governor aka Lil Bitey, who is a guitarist for Fucked Up and his roommate Mark Fosco who also played with Cook in another band... Marvelous Darlings.

So now that the roommates are actually The Roommates, they decide to record a 4 part series of cassettes that they will release on Scotch Tapes, perhaps one of the most awesome label names ever (although Secretly Canadian is still the best). The first of which is called Wi. I would say buy it, but it's already sold out... they only made 99 copies. But a new one is on the horizon, so be on the lookout for that.

The songs on Wi are "Back to the Sun / Girlfriend Swap". Its lo-fi power pop at its best... very ramones-ish but with 80s pop tendencies. I especially like Girlfriend swap because the lyrics are hilariously creepy. BTW doing an google image search on "Roommates Girlfriend Swap"... totally NSFW... in the end I couldn't find any pics of Mark and Young Governor together... so I just gave you the guv.


Listen:Roommates "Back to the Sun / Girlfriend Swap"




Roommates - Back to the Sun / Girlfriend Swap

Friday Ramblings: a cover and Local Natives and the Pretty Reckless

So first off, let me say that I could have SWORN I posted Local Natives before... I loved "Sun Hands" and I know I thought about posting it whenever I finally got Gorilla Manor. However I didn't apparently because I can find no evidence of the song anywhere on my site. Huge oversight on my part. I will correct this mistake. The LA band played the Sons of Herman Hall last night, and it was a killer show. The guys sounded great. And I love that the guitar player has the whole John Oates look going. Nice Stache sir. And the lead singer kinda looks like Charlie from Always Sunny. But that's neither here or there... they rocked the sold out show and I was shocked by the cult following they have. I'm calling it now. they will play ACL. They will play the Heineken stage. Bob Has spoken.

Ok so from Gorilla Manor you get this:

Listen:Local Natives "Sun hands"




Local Natives - Sun Hands


But it's friday right? so I should post a cover... specifically a killer talking heads cover.

Listen:Local Natives "Warning Sign"




Local Natives - Warning Sign




And just for good measure another cover by the Mates of State. Apparently they are gonna have a new mixtape out this summer called Crushes and its all covers. This one in particular is "Laura", originally by Girls.

Listen:Mates of State "Laura (Girls Cover)"




Mates of States - Laura (Girls Cover)





Speaking of Crushes and Girls... what about Gossip Girls? So 16 yr old Taylor Momsen has a band called The Pretty Reckless. Scary huh? Scarier is thatt it actually does not completely suck. Her voice has a bit of a growl to it, and the vibe has got the classic angry young woman influences... Joan Jett, Hole with a little bit of The Donnas and Brody Dalle (Spinnerettes) and a tad bit of Poe thrown in. Hey but what do you expect when the 90s Grunge scene was basically classic rock for this girl. The debut album drops in September, however there is a song on the Kick Ass soundtrack... although based on the lyrics to "Make Me Wanna Die" it sounds like it was probably written for The Twilight series... very vampire-esque. Personally I like "Blender" better. I'm officially intrigued.

Listen:Pretty Reckless "Blender"




Pretty Reckless - Blender


Listen:Pretty Reckless "Make Me Wanna Die"




Pretty Reckless - Make Me Wanna Die

And speaking of movies... did you hear that they are making a sequel to Avatar? Apparently the sequel will take place in the Oceans of Pandora. Really James Cameron? First you borrow Dances with Wolves and now you are gonna dabble in Waterworld? Leave poor Kevin Costner alone.

The Pack A.D.

The Vancouver duo Pack A.D. has a new album coming out next week called We Kill Computers... I love the sound of this band... not quite as Jack Whitey as the Dead Weather and not quite the same as the Black Keys but a nice mix of the two... perhaps they are their estranged cousins that show up on the sitcom when the ratings start to dip to get new viewers... not that Jack white or the Black Keys are experiencing a ratings dropoff... I think they are at the height of their stardom. Whatever the case... Becky Black Wails. I loved their last outing. "All Damn day Long" made my top 13 songs of 2008. I'm excited for more.

Listen:The Pack A.D. "Crazy"




The Pack A.D. - Crazy

Minus the Bear

Today You got Booned will feature the first single from the fourth Minus the Bear album, Omni... named after guitar player Dave Krudson's new toy... a Japanese Omnichord synthesizer straight from 1981. It seems that the band decided to get a little more experimental in their ways on the new album... especially the first track which is "My Time" .. however they didn't abandon their old style completely... there are still plenty of fabulous guitar riffs and all sorts of random sound effects going on, but on a whole I think the album is a lot less out there than the other albums. much more poppy and far more groovy. My favorite track would have to be "Into the Mirror" I think... its got more groove than anything else in the album... Its weird though.. listening to some of the tracks on the album makes me feel like I'm listening to 80s pop...

So here is "My Time" and couple of Bonus videos... A song that did not make the new album unfortunately... chicken (wrapped in bacon) AND a video for "Throwin' Shapes" that we saw a few times at the Granada while waiting for Yeasayer and Javelin... and its sillier than the thought of the Cowboys going 8-8 next year....


Listen: Minus the Bear "My Time"




Minus the Bear - My Time