2-10-12 - "Needing/Getting" ~ OK Go

Yet another ridiculously fun music video from OK Go.  This one takes a different approach on the Rube Goldberg theme of the This Too Shall Pass video - now it's an electric car and some pretty good timing on a piano-laced desert stunt track:

Oh yeah, and here's the album version, where the visuals aren't nearly as impressive but the audio is a little clearer... well actually it's pretty distorted guitar, but.... yeah.

"So I been sitting around, wasting my time

wondering what you been doing

aw, and it ain't real forgiving, it ain't real forgiving

sitting here picturing someone else living..."

PS - you can download the "video version" (car version) of the song on the band's facebook page.

12-02-11 - "Boomerang" ~ Bassnectar

I've been in strange musical moods this week, or unusual for me, anyway.  Here's a little something you may or may not enjoy - but I enjoy it, and you won't know until you try!

11-28-11 - "Modern Drift" ~ Efterklang

So due to a combination of a busy holiday with family and a lack of a reliable internet connection, I skipped a few days of posting.  I bet you were outside your minds waiting for someone to tell you what songs to which you should listen.  Or more likely, you didn't miss it at all, but now you're ready for some more.  Good Lord willing, and the creek don't rise*, I'll try to work in a few bonus posts to make it up to you.


Here's a somewhat trippy tune from a Danish band.  The intentional "accidental" dissonant chords of the falsetto piano over several sets of lower notes on the keys create an unsettling, yet soothing sensation.  The song seems to deal with that feeling of lacking direction that so many of the youthful generation experience these days, and with a relationship struggling to stay afloat through these rudderless times; however, the band apparently doesn't like people posting the lyrics online so it's hard to be sure that everything is being heard correctly...


(WARNING: music video has some PG-13 imagery; kind of like "Bohemian Like You".  If you have sensitive eyes, use the second "video", which is just the music, or the third, which is live in Montreal.  Several other decent concert videos out there, also...

"When the morning dies
and I come to you
with a broken lie
that I made for you..."
_________________________


* - one of my favorite sayings, complete with some interesting history.  Also a line from a Johnny Cash song, which I might get around to posting one day... oh wait I'm already looking for bonus/makeup posts so here it is, YAY!

11-15-11 - "Slow Days It Was Super" ~ Moshimoss

Here's a little ambient / instrumental tune that caught my ear recently.  It's by a Japanese artist, and kind of reminds me of another instrumental track I posted which also has something to do with Japan.  This one has a gentle vibe of bygone years, with children's voices echoing over the subtle synthesizers and bells...

Check out the bandcamp page too

10-29-11 - "Electric Dusk" ~ Gloryhound

Something a little different for you tonight.  I'm kinda digging it, although I need to give it a few more spins to decide for sure.  Let me know what you think:

9-16-11 - "Tommib" ~ Squarepusher

I heard this song in the soundtrack for the movie "Lost In Translation."  It's used in a scene (see below) where a character is staring out her hotel room window over Tokyo, feeling alone in a big city, while her husband is off working.  I had a similar culture-shock experience in Japan a few years back - well, without the husband part, and I'm not as good looking as Scarlett Johansson.  But feeling isolated despite being surrounded by people - with that I can empathize.  As an American, the difference between visiting Europe and visiting Asia is drastic.  In Europe, I had at least a rudimentary grasp of German, Spanish, and Italian and used my recollections of high school Latin classes to decipher a decent portion of signs and whatnot in Italy.  But in Japan, ninety percent of what is written is in some combination of kanji, hirigana, and katakana.  Not as easy to get by over there.  Being the only light-haired person in a sea of black-haired folks is pretty surreal, too...

Anyway, the song captures the mood quite well, and is a very simple synthesized instrumental melody.  Check out both the scene and the original tune.

Tommib (audio):

Lost In Translation Scene (once again, YouTube and Blogger have bested my embedding skills!)

9-14-11 - "Polish Girl" ~ Neon Indian

This one is delightfully trippy, and the video matches that vibe.  I'm not quite sure what's going on in the song or the video, but this is one case where I'm fine with just enjoying the beat for now, and I'm sure everything will become clear next time I drop acid... wait I've never done that and don't intend to start.  And despite the fact that Neon Indian has a song titled "Should Have Taken Acid With You", I'm sure he hasn't either.  Drugs are bad, boys and girls.


Anyway, apparently there's this girl, see, and she hails from the land of halushki and pierogies n'at, which is fine by me.  Many Pittsburghers enjoy these fine Polish cuisines, and as a resident of neighborhood of Polish Hill(ish), I count myself as one of them.  So the girl cooked some Polish sausage and pierogies for Neon Indian, who in turn wrote this song to commemorate a lovely evening... yeah, that's a solid interpretation of the song.  I'm gonna roll with it.  Enjoy:

7-30-11 - "Adelai" ~ Lohio

Still don't believe the Pittsburgh indie music scene is legit?  Here's further proof.  I haven't yet seen Lohio live, but songs like this assure me that I must do so in the near The instrumentation is delightful, the vocals ethereal, and the lyrics confounding yet simple.  Top it off with an amazing video featuring a cute kid's romp with a friendly monster (oddly reminiscent of another video I posted a while back), and you have yourselves some fine art:

Oh hey look this song just so happens to also be another of the excellent Echo Chamber series:

Once again, Draw Us Lines' dedication to promoting great music (especially local) comes up aces.


"are there wolves coming after me,

are there wolves coming after me…?"

7-3-11 - "End Love" ~ OK Go

Here's a fun one, with a synthy, 80s-ish feel.  OK Go are just a fun band, good for when you want to just bob your head and enjoy life and music.  Here's another interesting and innovative music video by the band who built a following in that way, this time featuring stop-motion dance moves, a goose, and some other fun and random stuff.  Watch for the kid at the bottom right around the 3:30 mark...

"Cause no one's gonna save you if you don't swim for the boat, 
No one's gonna save you if you won't take the rope..." 

6-23-11 - "Don't Get Stuck (Proud Elephants)" ~ Delicate Steve

This guy was on World Cafe the other day, and he's got some pretty sweet and fun tunes.  It's instrumental, it's ethereal, it'll make you smile and probably bob your head or tap your toes or something.


Steve Marion is just a kid from Jersey (the only black mark on him) who wrote some music and recorded it.  But it's a little different than anything I've ever heard before, and he's got a heck of a PR team ~ they wrote an utterly fictitious, but highly entertaining, press release hyping the band, complete with lines such as "...most of these songs are both too musical and too insane for the typically dim-witted American consumer."   It's epic.


Give the song a shot; tell me what you think.  The video has some psychedelic moments and old cartoons to add to the experience if you so desire, or just listen:

PS - you can take a gander at the entire album over on Bandcamp:  


delicatesteve.bandcamp.com

1-20-11 - "Execution Day" ~ The New Pornographers

This one's a bit weird musically (maybe lyrically, too).  But I like it.  And it was in my head tonight.  So there you go.

Live:

"Oh blast, I drank the wrong draft down,
two sips from your crown;
the drops you left for me,
am I so easily appeased?"

1-19-11 - "This Too Shall Pass" ~ OK Go

OK Go are possibly more famous for their music videos than for the songs themselves, but they have some pretty good stuff musically too.  This one's tons of fun.  (oh btw, it just occurred to me tonight that I can slap YouTube videos right into posts, rather than linking.  how about that.  booyah.)

"You can't stop these kids from dancing, and why would you want to,
especially when when you are already getting yours?
'Cause if your mind don't move, and your knees don't bend,
well don't start blaming the kids again..."


BONUS:


Rube Goldberg Music Video:

AND


Band Music Video:

What fun. (these versions have their own audio which is different from the studio cut.  each is spiffy in its own right.)