SXSW Pro-Tips – Last-Minute Considerations (AV Club Austin)
20 Tips For Surviving and Thriving SXSWi (Wired)
Anticipating SXSW 2011 (The Horn)
10 SXSW Tip Posts Worth Reading (and a funny video worth watching) (CenterNetworks)
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Playlist:
Hall & Oates – You Make My Dreams Come True
Tears For Fears – Sowing the Seeds of Love
Matthew Wilder – Break My Stride
Hall & Oates – I Can’t Go For That
The best way I can describe something as downright odd as the sound of Eric Braden, aka NYC’s Old Bowl, well…..I really can’t. You’re just gonna have to go download Intricate Days and find out for yourself. Braden recently dropped the LP on his site in that DIY pay-what-you-want style we all love so much. Â But perhaps if J Dilla decided he loved the Books and his favorite Beatles song was “Revolution 9,” that would be akin to the sharp, sound collage mindfuck Old Bowl has put together here. Â There is nary a stale moment; the listener is engaged throughout the spaced-out clipped beats, sampled dialogue, and snipped obscure songs. Â It’s a stirring compilation of progressive beats, mesmerizing melodies, and, at times, beautiful chaos. Â Take the trip for yourself.
Take a listen to “SHAME:”
Spring break is upon us, and with it the finest week of the year, SXSW. As is customary, my friends and I are gonna RAGE and make like Andrew W.K. and PARTY HARD and all that good stuff. New parties and showcases are being announced every day, and next week I hope to have a list of my picks for ones to check out. In the meantime, however, after the jump is a list of bands I am hoping to see this year while meandering around downtown Austin, and you should try your damndest to see them as well.
Out of all the 70’s-80’s arena rock groups, who are now staples of the yacht rock club (think REO Speedwagon, Styx, Foghat, Foreigner, et al), Journey is probably the one whose popularity has endured and been passed on to a younger crowd better than the others. Why? Well, perhaps it’s because everyone’s parents owned a copy of the band’s Greatest Hits album (shown above). After all, it has sold 15 million copies and spent 760 weeks on the Billboard charts, and it’s Journey’s best selling album.
Maybe it’s because “Don’t Stop Believing” has never exactly left the pop music consciousness; it was, after all, the only thing my Freshmen roommate would listen to whenever he came home – I mean, he would just blare it repeatedly, over and over and over and over. Not to mention it’s a karaoke staple and pretty much the most unavoidable song in the history of the world….I hate that I still like it, I really do.
Everything off this compilation is heard on the radio every day, and in bars, clubs, and the occasional Girl Talk mashup. And Journey, as this comp proves, had some pretty badass songs (even though “Lights” and “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin'” are pretty much the same song). Sure, Journey’s greatest hits aren’t perfect, there are some duds, and sorry, world, but these guys can’t top my love for Foreigner or REO, but there are some jams in here, particularly “Any Way You Want It.” How can you not crank it when that one comes on?
“Any Way You Want It”
“Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin'”
“Lights”
Trailers for upcoming movies. Some are good, some not as much.
Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.
Though not as groundbreaking as the group’s first two albums, Dear Science was arguably the big breakthrough to mainstream popularity TV On the Radio had been working so hard to accomplish – they had finally found a way to incorporate their pop-craft tendencies into sharply constructed accessible songs. While Return to Cookie Mountain still had an experimental tendency, Dear Science is mostly a more straightforward recording all the way through – it simply picks up where “Wolf Like Me” left off.
Kyp Malone’s harmonizing is in full force here – it’s even more at the forefront, since that ultimately is TV On the Radio’s trademark. His “oohs” and “aahhs” are backbones to some tightly built indie dance. David Bowie’s not around to help lay down the boogie, but it hardly matters; wound up rump-shakin’ “Golden Age” and “Dancing Choose” are two of the best upbeat tracks the band has put together. Meanwhile, the group continues to expand and flex their songwriting muscle, with jam “Crying” and the strong ballad “Family Tree.”
In just a few weeks, we’ll have the first new material from TV On the Radio since this album was dropped back in 2008, and first samples sound promising, even if they seem similar to the groundwork lain here. With smart writing, concise production, and an always energetic live presence, Dear Science, which debuted on the Billboard 200 at #12, was the group’s first shining moment in the spotlight of “big bands” in the world of indie rock. TV On the Radio has always been a progressive collective, and I look forward to their triumphant return in 2011.
TV On the Radio – Halfway Home
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Playlist:
Architecture In Helsinki – Contact High
The Cool Kids – Bundle Up
Wavves – Horse Shoes
James Vincent McMorrow – If I Had a Boat (Star Slinger R ‘n’ B Thug Mix)
