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Deer Tick new single 20 Miles

Published
by
billy
on July 1, 2010
in music
. 0 Comments

One of my favorite dirty rock (and/or bar bands) of the last five years has been Deer Tick.  I’ve been to both of their shows that were close enough for me to drive to and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed their particular brand of what I can only describe as the second coming of the Lynyrd Skynyrd era.  Recently they’ve released a new album entitled The Black Dirt Sessions (amazon) (itunes) and the first single I’ve had a chance to listen to is really the epitomy of their sound.

mp3 : Deer Tick – 20 Miles

If you enjoy this song at all make sure you get out and support them at a live show.  They’ve never been a disappointment live.

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A Collection of Random Covers

Published
by
billy
on June 25, 2010
in music
. 4 Comments

So it’s a Friday, and the World Cup is in full swing, and if you’re like me that means you really don’t care about much else (let alone writing a new post for your little blog).  And even though I’m more than thrilled to watch the US v Ghana game tomorrow followed by the England v Germany game on Sunday I’m still taking time to post a few random cover songs that have caught my attention over the past month or so.  You are very very welcome.

mp3 : Crooked Fingers – Under Pressure (Queen Cover)
There are days when it’s hard to comprehend the impressive talent that was Freddie Mercury.  I’m not sure the world will ever see another front man that literally owns the audience in the way that Freddie could.  I’m not even sure it’s possible anymore.  All that aside this is a fairly faithful rendition of the Queen staple that sounds like Neil Diamond is on vocals.

mp3 : Katy Perry – Electric Feel (Acoustic MGMT Cover)
There are days that I secretly love Katy Perry.  Then there is the rest of the year when I openly disparage most of her music.  Today I sit uncomfortably between those two norms as I openly state that this cover is very interesting.

mp3 : Passion Pit – Tonight Tonight (Smashing Pumpkins Cover)
Sometimes it’s hard to stomach a cover of one of your favorite songs.  Fortunately for Passion Pit they’ve left the song almost entirely intact; they’ve simply updated the instrumentation and swapped out Billy Corgan’s vocals for ethereal pixie harmonies.  Well done.

mp3 : Serena Ryder & The Beauties – The Funeral (Band of Horses Cover)
I’m not sure anyone could ruin this song.  Ever.  This cover is subdued and changes the melody ever so slightly in an interesting and somehow even more melancholic way.  The harmonies used are quite nice as well.  After listening to this cover, though, I can’t help but think how Wakey!Wakey! would do it.

mp3 : The Fray – Heartless (Live Kanye West Cover)
I’m not really a huge fan of The Fray (too sappy) or of Kanye West (over.rated.) and to be honest I’m not really a huge fan of the studio version of this cover.  For whatever reason this live recording of the cover leaves behind the morass of the studio recording and sounds exactly the way it should have been recorded the first time around.

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Arcade Fire is Leaking Songs

Published
by
billy
on June 21, 2010
in music
. 1 Comment

If you’ve been trolling the internet over the past month or so you’ve most likely stumbled upon a smattering of tracks off the upcoming Arcade Fire album The Suburbs which is due out later this year.  To be honest, after hearing the tracks, I’m not nearly as excited for the full album as I used to be.  Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s that we’ve been spoiled already this year with gorgeous albums from The National and Jonsi (amongst others), but I’m not sensing the underlying brilliance that I was hoping for.  I do hope that I am scared for no reason.

mp3 : Arcade Fire – Ready To Start
mp3 : Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait

To be quite frank the song Ready To Start would sound more at home with Julian Casablancas on lead vocals.  The last minute, when the melody breaks down for a moment, you start to feel that Arcade Fire is back on track, but the track never crescendos, never reaches any sort of musical epiphany, never really sounds like Arcade Fire.  The other track, the ripped from a radio broadcast We Used To Wait, has a lot more promise to it.  If the rest of the album is more like We Used To Wait there’s still a chance; if most of the album sounds like Ready To Start we’re probably going to be disappointed.

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BOTR vol 14

Published
by
billy
on June 17, 2010
in botr and music
. 4 Comments

At long last another installment of Best of the Remix.  As before this is a random collection of remixes that I personally find enjoyable.  Some are, by default, better than others.  Enjoy the music and if you’re looking for the rest of the series click here.

mp3 : 2pac vs TV on the Radio – Me Against The World (Dave Wrangler Remix)
For some reason I have been absolutely in love with a recent string of mashups that combine classic hip hop rhymes with indie/modern rock.  This mix is almost flawless.

mp3 : Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling (Tom Molloy Remix)
I somewhat loathe this song on a regular basis.  This remix succeeds in that it makes the Black Eyed Peas almost bearable.

mp3 : Britney Spears – 3 (T-Minus 321 Remix)
A fairly straightforward, mostly club ready, remix of Britney.  When, exactly, did Brit make the transition from pop princess into crazy town?  And do you care as long as remixes continue to flow?

mp3 : Crookers (feat Soulwax & Mixhell) – We Love Animals (The Love Supreme Remix)
I was looking through a scrapbook my mum made the other day and she wrote down that my first spoken word was “dog.”  Apparently I love animals.  Enough said.

mp3 : Crystal Castles – Celestica (Professor Purple Remix)
I love this remix.  It’s smooth, it’s hallucinogenic, and it has a great beat.  It also builds over time and if you’ve ever read a single post here on TWF you know that I love when songs do that.

mp3 : Cullen – Easily Impressed (Calling In Sick Remix)
This remix reminds me of playing stupid video games when I was a wee lad.  The repeated synth background gives me visions of entering the final stage.

mp3 : Ghostland Observatory – Sad Sad City (Pretty Girls & Lasers Remix)
This might by my favorite remix in volume 14 of BOTR.  It’s fully of standard 80′s sound effects which fits nicely with the kids’ current obsession with bringing the 80′s back.

mp3 : Jay Z vs Red Hot Chili Peppers vs Queen – 99 Problems Can’t Stop (I Love Brand X Remix)
Yep, it’s official; I love hip hop vocals over rock (or pop or indie) anthems.  Give me more.

mp3 : Kid CuDi – Pursuit of Happiness (Benny Benassi Remix)
Minimalistic at times, bass heavy at others, this remix adds a nice twist to CuDi.

mp3 : Kid CuDi – Pursuit of Happiness (Steve Aoki Dance Remix)
The start of this remix will have you thinking it’s a cookie cutter remix.  Spoiler alert; it is not.

mp3 : Kid CuDi – Pursuit of Happiness (Them Jeans Remix)
I once lived on the beaches of Thailand for two months of my life (a brilliant two months I might add).  This is the type of remix that would blast across the sand every night (and that’s a good thing).

mp3 : Mariana and the Diamonds – I am Not A Robot (Doorly Remix)
A clever reworking of a very Feist-like popcorn pop song.  And who wouldn’t love the line “and I am not a robot!” ?

mp3 : Plushgun – Mixtapes (Buffetlibre Remix)
You’ll need to give this remix a good thirty seconds to really catch on.  Be ready though, because at about thirty five seconds into the remix you’ll find it suddenly impossible to sit still.

And there you have.  Now someone go and use a remix as background music to a highlight reel from the first week of the World Cup.  Cheers.

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The Books and Jose Gonzalez cover Nick Drake

Published
by
billy
on June 16, 2010
in music
. 0 Comments

If you can remember all the way back to 2009 the Dessner brothers (from The National) helped out Red Hot Organization with a little compilation album entitled Dark Was The Night (amazon) (itunes).  To be honest it’s ok if you’ve forgotten this slice of music as, well, most of it was largely forgettable.  One song that still catches my ear from time to time is Cello Song.

mp3 : The Books (feat Jose Gonzalez) – Cello Song (Nick Drake Cover)

To be fair the remainder of the album is decent, but it’s nowhere near the level of this cover.

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Florence and The Machine cover Beirut

Published
by
billy
on June 14, 2010
in music
. 1 Comment

Florence and The Machine have always pulled at my ears due to the copious amount of quality remixes their songs produce.  Although, for whatever reason, I haven’t really found myself listening much to their original work.  That might all change if they keep putting out emotional covers of brilliant songs.  Postcards from Italy is easily the most recognizable Beirut track and Florence and The Machine provide a mostly straightforward interpretation of the song complete with ukulele and plaintive vocals.

mp3 : Florence and The Machine – Postcards from Italy (Beirut Cover)

In the most basic sense this cover simply works.  Enjoy.

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B.o.B. and Rivers Cuomo find Magic

Published
by
billy
on June 10, 2010
in music
. 0 Comments

In certain situations math can be a tricky subject.  In this case it’s rather straightforward.  B.o.B. + Rivers Cuomo = Outkast.  Ok, that might be an oversimplification.  It might be more B.o.B. + Rivers Cuomo = Andre 3000 + Weezer.  Yeah, that feels better.

All cheeky quips aside does anyone else notice that B.o.B. on this track sounds uncannily like Andre 3000?  If you didn’t know better (or if you remove the “Hi, my name is B.o.B.” vocal from the start of the track) you could almost find yourself believing this was arguably the better 1/2 of Outkast back behind the mic.

mp3 : B.o.B. (feat Rivers Cuomo) – Magic

For the completionists among you this track hails from the B.o.B. album The Adventures of Bobby Ray (amazon) (itunes) which was released earlier this year.

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Josh Ritter album So Runs The World Away

Published
by
billy
on June 9, 2010
in music
. 8 Comments

Josh Ritter has a new album and I’m still confused as to what I really think of it.  I’ve put it on repeat in my car and I don’t really know what to say.  At times the album is absolute genius.  The opening three tracks are solid from the instrumental opener Curtains, through the pop folk buildup of Change of Time, and continues into what is arguably the best song on the album (maybe even the best song released this year), track three The Curse.  From this point on, unfortunately, the album takes random lefts and rights seemingly at will.  It’s as if after writing three wonderful Josh Ritter songs he couldn’t figure out what he wanted to sound like for the remainder of the album.

It’s hard to love this album as a whole because it feels like Josh Ritter couldn’t decide on who he wanted to imitate on many of his songs.  At times it feels like he’s borrowing from The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, the always present Bob Dylan, and on one track in particular (track seven, Lark) Josh literally sounds as if he’s Paul Simon.  And while, on one hand, it’s great to incorporate past genius into our present day creative process, on the other hand it’s just as important to find our own voice.  Ultimately this is what’s most confusing about this new album; Josh Ritter has done a great job of establishing himself as one of the preeminent singer/songwriters currently making music, and he did so by finding a modern folk sound that he owned, but on this album, at times, it feels as if he’s drifting away from himself.

mp3 : Josh Ritter – The Curse

If you get a chance to hear the entire album, So Runs The World Away (amazon) (itunes), listen specifically for the way that Josh continually drifts from one influence to another in a rather disconcerting way.  Probably the most offensive of the transitions comes when the brilliant track The Curse segues into quite possibly the worst track on the album Southern Pacifica.  Ultimately it’s a great album, possibly even a top ten album of the year, but it could have been brilliant if it was filled with Josh Ritter songs and not cluttered by his various ventures into aping other artists.

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Kid CuDi track All Talk

Published
by
billy
on June 8, 2010
in music
. 2 Comments

Bear with me as I continue to upgrade the underlying structure of TWF behind the scenes.  Yes, most of those changes don’t affect you at all.  Yes they are important.  Yes they do take away from me being able to blog about music.  Yes a brand new look is coming to this page (it’s time to step out of the dark… soon).

In other news CuDi is amazing.  I’m not a huge fan of the section during which Chip Tha Ripper is allowed to talk (although it is growing on me), but other than that small segment this track is beautiful.  Who else in the current generation of rappers uses his rhymes and his samples so effectively?  No one does this as well as CuDi.

mp3 : Kid CuDi (feat LCD Soundsystem Chip Tha Ripper Christian Bale) – All Talk

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Metric covers The Strokes and Bob Dylan

Published
by
billy
on May 27, 2010
in music
. 3 Comments

I’ve been absent from this hallowed hall for far too long now.  I do apologize, but I’ve been busy.  I’m attempting to cobble together a massive playlist for an upcoming wedding reception and that (along with the latest album from The National) has monopolized most of my music listening time.

Fortunately I stole some time back over this past week to listen to a handful of random songs strewn about here and there on the web.  Even more fortunately for all of us I stumbled upon two covers that Metric have done that are worth a listen.

mp3 : Metric – Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright (Bob Dylan Cover)
mp3 : Metric – The End Has No End (The Strokes Cover)

The Strokes cover is especially nice.

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