New Radio Dept. - "The New and Improved Hypocrisy"

New Radio Dept. - "The New and Improved Hypocrisy"

We at BCB loved The Radio Dept.'s 2010 offering Clinging to a Scheme so we are obviously thrilled at the appearance of a new song. "The New and Improved Hypocrisy" is soft-spoken as is the Swedish way but we have never had any problem with all things Swedish. Subtle melodies and atmospheric instrumentations back the rather biting politically charged lyrics: "We don't want democracy/ we have our way around it". Ouch.

The Radio Dept. - The New and Improved Hypocrisy

Olof Arnalds - "Crazy Car" Video

Olof Arnalds - "Crazy Car" Video

I have liked Olaf Arnalds for a few years now since her 2007 album Vi Og Vi, which featured hushed folk songs in the vain of Vashti Bunyan. Her new album Innundir Skinni continues the lovely and intimate songwriting. Arnalds voice is half the intrigue and like other notable female vocalists, Bjork and Joanna Newsom, this may be a love it or hate it situation. Anyway I love it. Scott posted the video for the title track a bit ago and now there is one for (the rather uplifting) "Crazy Car". The video basically depicts the two vocalists singing with some scattered images thrown in. After all, "what's wrong with vanity?"

Olof Arnalds - Crazy Car

Boxer/Briefs #7

Boxer/Briefs #7

-William Burroughs interviews Jimmy Page

-The Atlantic considers Bob Dylan

-(My favorite) N+1 has a brilliant consideration of Hip-Hop as a misrepresented genre and of the general state of contemporary culture:

One reason hip-hop reached the masses like it did is that no other music better predicted or embodied the forms that postindustrial cultural consumption would take. Most casual hip-hop listeners, for all the handwringing about their being influenced, do not actually listen to rap lyrics. They listen to the beats, and what hip-hop’s beats suggest is a cultural world in which you are completely surrounded by reproductions of culture, in which culture never stops quoting itself in bits and fragments, in which sequels and remakes depend on the audience’s familiarity with the original documents.

Married in Berdichev - "Wait" and "Funnel Clouds"

Married in Berdichev - "Wait" and "Funnel Clouds"

Married in Berdichev sounds like if Grouper made music and Bjork and Laura Gibson had a child who sang with a cold (see "Funnel Clouds"). She uses loops really well. She can sing really well. Album should be out this year. Stay tuned. Lots more highly recommended here.

Married in Berdichev - Wait

Married in Berdichev - Funnel Clouds

Fight Bite - "Celeste" and "Petrified"

Fight Bite - "Celeste" and "Petrified"

[via]

Summer is ending and the weather is starting to get sleepier and cozier. Fight Bite would like to soundtrack the transition. Singer Leanne Macomber plays keys for Neon Indian, but you will get none of that vibe here. Their music is like drinking too much wine and being really sleepy but really peaceful. I have read that, unlike most other nostalgia-invoking acts recently, Fight Bite actually records to tape, i.e. its not digital. This is for real.

Fight Bite - Celeste

Fight Bite - Petrified

A Short Catalogue of Recent Kanye Rumblings

A Short Catalogue of Recent Kanye Rumblings

Kanye West's performance at the VMA's the other day made me remember that there are several things I have been meaning to post. Since his return to performance, short video release, and recitation at twitter and facebook Kanye has under-convincingly performed one of the most promising tracks, lyrically speaking, called "Mama's Boyfriend."

On a better note, he has released a remix for the excellent track "Power" featuring Jay-Z and Swizz Beats (who work well on their own too). The remix starts off normally enough with a (Taylor Swift name dropping) verse from Jay but then we get a new (lesser but still good) verse from Kanye wherein he gets political ("bring out troops back from Iraq/ keep the troops out of Iran) and drops a couple bars "in Islam". From there the track completely shifts and brings you back to the 90s ("I've got the power"). Kanye offers a few more verses demonstrating his ability to shift modes at the drop of a beat.

"Monster" is a song that I didn't really 'get' at first. Its a kind of seedy Raekwon-feeling back-beat that lets the actual rapping take precedent. Once you focus on the rapping however, the fact that Kanye works "sarcophagus" into his verse becomes entirely apparent. And then, of course, Nicki Minaj completely owns the track managing to sound like an angry schizophrenic thesaurus ("all up in the bank with a funny face/ and if Im fake I ain't noticed cause my money ain't!"). The track definitely took on an unprecedented intensity at Jay-Z's Yankee stadium performance this week. These people already know the words!

(For more of this incredible show including a performance of the "Power" remix, see here).

"See Me Now" is a definitely radio grabber. A summer feel good, cruising with the top down sort of track. Kanye gives us a few ringers ("Im Socrates/ but my skin more chocolaty" or "if you fall on the concrete/ that's your ass fault"). Beyonce attacks the song with her ferocious vocal prowess. The track clocks in at a little over six minutes and maybe drags on a little too long. "See Me Now" and the lustful rumination, "Devil in a New Dress," mark the weaker releases from the recent Kanye-internet complex. Both have their moment but would probably work better in the flow of an album.

And of course there is "Runaway" which West debuted at the VMA's (and which it looks like is the title of Kanye's new album?). It seems that the CD quality versions have been taken down but I have a demo version linked here. The lovable refain of the song; "Let's have a toast for the douchebags". Now we get the self-deprecating Kanye...Kan-yay! The recorded track is pensive and brooding but the VMA version (also the VMA closer) just feel really sad. Kanye invites us to hate him as much as he does. I don't think I really want to. Nice move Ye. Pusha T gives his verse and Kanye closes it out with a an auto-tuned interlude. Worth seeing.

Kanye West - Power

Kanye West - Power (Remix feat. Jay-Z and Swizz Beats)

Kanye West - Devil in a New Dress

Kanye West - See Me Now (feat. Beyonce and Charlie Wilson)

Kanye West - Monster (feat. Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj)

Lakairomania/ Ima Robot - "Ruthless"

Lakairomania/ Ima Robot - "Ruthless"

Skateboarding Friendlies Ty Evans and Spike Jonze put together this video of the Lakai Skateboarding team for Transworlds Skate and Create competition. It is seriously the most mesmerizing thing I have seen this summer.

New Deerhunter - "Helicopter" Video

New Deerhunter - "Helicopter" Video

Deerhunter - Helicopter (Live on BBC)