Yeah!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a new album out. Or rather, it’s been leaked. Funnily enough, Kanye West seems to have announced it.

I downloaded the new album. It’s okay I guess. They’re no longer the fearsome raucous band I discovered in 2004. Back then I was just about entering the world of new music. The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, and Radiohead dragged me kicking and screaming out of the stuffy confines of the Temple of Classic Rock. I used to go to an internet cafe in Indra Vihar to discover new music. I think I used launch.yahoo.com. I remember watching crap-quality videos on a weak connection. That was where I first heard The Killers’ “Mr Brightside”. The sound was so bad I didn’t realize how spectacular the song was.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs initially piqued my curiosity for visual rather than aural reasons. (As should be obvious from the photos!) Karen O was totally out of control in the video for “Date With The Night”, and showed a mysterious emotional side on “Maps”. I couldn’t tell whether I liked “Maps” or not, but I felt compelled to keep listening to it. It seemed as though it was building up to a climax, but the cathartic release was withheld. As I found out later, the album more than provides the soaring heights I thought were missing.

So here are some songs from their first album, Fever To Tell. Watch the videos! Spike Jonze (of Being John Malkovich fame) directed “Y Control” — a creepy but gripping bit of avant-garde weirdness. The music is pretty kick-ass — Karen O gets a lot of attention, but this three-piece features only two instrumentalists; they makes a most excellent racket.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Date With The Night [mp3]  [video]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Maps [mp3]  [video]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs– Y Control [mp3] [video]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Modern Romance (+ hidden track) [mp3]

(If you don’t like wild punky music, go straight to “Modern Romance”.)

Zorro Has Thrown A Doughnut At You

Hattip: IndiaUncut.

This old story

There are some albums that will never get old, no matter how many times you listen to them.

For me, Menos el Oso by Minus the Bear is one of them.

I love every single track on this album and if it didn’t take me so damn long to upload just three songs, I would upload the entire album. You will either love Minus the Bear and their lyrics, riffs, disjointed yet coherent sound…or completely hate them. I don’t need to say anything else because the songs say it all better than I ever could.

Minus the Bear – Memphis and 53rd

Minus the Bear – Drilling

Minus the Bear – Pachuca Sunrise

Looking Down From Ethereal Skies

 

The real value of the storage capacity, though, is that it has freed up my ThinkPad’s puny 33 GB hard drive, previously full to capacity (220 MB free, I had) and allowed me to hit the torrents with a vengeance. Not for movies– I have more than enough of those now– but for music. I have in my My Music folder a Notepad file called “Songs To Get Jul 07″, in which I write down the artist and song name every time I hear something I like. It has three running lists– of ‘regular’ music, trance and other electronic dance music, and progressive metal. I’ve started with the prog, getting Dream Theater’s three most recent live albums (each of which are three CDs long), an album by a band called Circus Maximus, a fantastic solo album called ‘Suspended Animation’ by Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci, and Keane’s 2008 album ‘Perfect Symmetry’ that at first listen seems strangely devoid of hooks, but perhaps it’ll grow on me… ah, there’s a hook now.  Also on the list for today are Symphony X’s recent masterpiece ‘Paradise Lost’ (the strongest prog album I’ve heard in the past year), albums by Spock’s Beard (‘Day for Night’) and Sonata Arctica (‘Silence’) that I want for specific songs on them; and some old albums that I had on audiotape but lost when cassettes went extinct: The Police’s ‘Greatest Hits’, Ace of Base’s ‘The Sign’, and Bon Jovi’s ‘These Days’ (Jana gave me that as a birthday present in 1996 or ‘97: seventh grade, and a brilliant bloody present it was. The previous year he gave me Shaggy’s ‘Boombastic’– not such a great one, that!).

It’s not perhaps the coolest set of music you’ll find in early 2009; it can hardly be described as new, sharp, angular, or upbeat; only The Police’s and Bon Jovi’s lyrics come close to meaning anything significant; but it’s music that I love and haven’t had for years. Thank Ceiling Cat for the interwebz and p2p sharers, really.

Coeur de Pirate

I discovered Coeur de Pirate somewhat differently than normal. I was browsing the HD video channel on vimeo, and found “Comme des Enfants”. It’s simple, sweet, and very French. (More specifically, French-Canadian.) I knew a guy who claimed to like any song with piano in it. I’m not that extreme, but Coeur de Pirate (Béatrice Martin) makes excellent use of the ivories. Her voice is youthful-bordering-on-childish, but manages to just about avoid being too twee. I downloaded the album, which proved to be a little gem. No firecrackers; just subtle, joyful, thoughtful music. Makes me wish I understood French. But perhaps it’s better this way. I can imagine the lyrics speak of impossibly beautiful autumn days, and Montreal streets, and the little ups and downs of an arty, quiet life. 

I”m posting “Comme des Enfants” and the accordian-tinged “Berceuse”. 

Coeur de Pirate – Comme des Enfants [mp3] [vimeo] [youtube]

Coeur de Pirate – Berceuse [mp3]

 

[I recomment watching the vimeo video -- it's much higher quality than youtube.]

Be Happy Cow

Ok. Moving on.

What we need around here is some happy music. And this stuff has got me through a perfectly bonkers week, so I’m pretty sure it works.

I tried doing some serious journo-poking-around to dig up some dirt on Harlem Shakes. All I got was that they’re from Brooklyn. Good for them. They do make some seriously happy poppy music though. Sunlight has been on endless loop on my computer at work. It even makes Excel sheets fun!

I guess I could come up with an intelligent sounding critical appreciation of their music, touching upon (among other things) their super sonic layering, their creative use of fuzz and reverb and the hint of Bappi Lahiri that kicks in at 0:29 on Strictly Game. Oh, and there’s a smooth, fruity finish with hint of tannin in the aftertaste as well.

But, I won’t. Here’re all the songs I could find. I loved them all.

 

Harlem Shakes – Sunlight [mp3]

Harlem Shakes – Strictly Game [mp3]

Harlem Shakes – Technicolor Health [mp3]

 

What the hell, let’s just make this is a mishy-mashy post of joyful randomness. Here’s more music. I’m going back to grinning at no one in particular. Have a good weekend, folks.

 

Blitzen Trapper – Furr [mp3]

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Magick [mp3]

Flight of the Conchords – Hiphopapotamus vs Rhymenocerous [mp3]