The songs below are in a definite time warp – we’re just not sure where from but according to “The Cavalier of Fun” (Ricco Vitali) himself, their destination is 1980. “Imagine a one man space odyssey to discover new worlds, new beats, new sounds… Cruising through galaxies of retro synths spinning out huge solos, arpeggios [...]
The fifth track from Starfucker’s self titled album, Starfucker. Perfect music for a lazy day. I heard this band, Starfucker, open for Passion Pit about eight months ago at the Moore Theater in Seattle. I remember thinking that I had to check these guys out when I got home later that night, but it never happened… Then, much later, I fell upon this tune, “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” while surfing MySpace and knew instantly that I had rediscovered a fantastic urban pop sound.
Adam Palomo is Neon Indian. Born in 1988 he knows very little of the NES and the 80′s. So for Palomo, Neon Indian is a musical exploration into a decade that has long since past. I will of course listen to the Neon Indian’s LP Psychic Chasms unintendedly, with a childhood-like nostalgia. The next two songs are my favorites from Psychic Chasms, while not great musical pieces their synthed melodies are charmingly vintage and harmonic.
RAC, the Remix Arts Collective, just released a remix of Ra Ra Riot’s “Boy”. RAC takes the original – throws some dream pop at it and pushes with a slightly quicker pace. Personally, I prefer the original, but as remixes go… this refresh is as professionally done as you’ll find.
Fools Gold took Free Energy’s “Bang Pop”, a pure 70′s stoner track, and put it through a course in Afro Electro Pop. The outcome is surprisingly dreamy, until the vocal highs kick in and it turns epic. I highly recommend this one with some sunlight.
Enjoy!
FREE ENERGY – BANG POP (FOOLS GOLD REMIX)
update: Thought some people might be interested… Here is the original track from Free Energy titled “Bang Pop”.
The new Ra Ra Riot album, titled The Orchard, is set to release on August 24th. Barsuk Records is offering up Ra Ra Riot’s latest for download as FLAC and MP3, or you can pre-order a hard copy like it’s 1970 and they’ll mail you a Vinyl. 80′s Babies will be glad to know that Compact Disc’s are also available at Barsuk Records.
To celebrate this moment have a listen to Ra Ra Riot’s first single off The Orchard, “Boy”.
Enjoy!
“Boy” by Ra Ra Riot
chris
2:06 pm on 30/07/2010 Permalink
| Reply Tags: christina castellan, ivan ives (2), ivan ives back, ivan ives you, ivanives, you
Super savvy LA hip hop artist Ivan Ives is the first I’ve seen officially go off-record and fully adapt to the new way music is distributed over the internet. Rather than spending a year on putting together a full album and forcing consumers to spend upwards of $10, Ivan Ives has taken a 1960′s approach to distribution. Every month his fans get the opportunity to pick up his newest track for less than $1 on iTunes and Amazon. It’s a great way to consistently engage his fans and get them excited for every 30th day of the year with minimal financial risk involved. Ivan Ives has dubbed this his First of the Month project and plans to release it as a full album at the end of this year, but of course he won’t stop you from just picking up your favorite tracks along the way, in fact he encourages it, “For a long time musicians were able to package two great songs with ten bad ones, call it an album, and make you buy it for $15 at Tower Records. Today, digital distribution is challenging artists to combat music stealing on the internet by producing a higher percentage of great songs on an album, the type of music they don’t mind paying for…” – Ivan Ives
Here are two of Ivan Ives’ latest tracks, the first of which is called, “Back” debuted back on July 1st and premiering ahead of schedule is August’s First of the Month, “You” ft Christina Castellan.
Lets kick off Spring with a blissfully warm Summer tune, “Pumped Up Kicks” because Summer will never come soon enough…
Foster The People is a new band from LA, get to know them now because they’re going to be all over the airwaves in the coming months. They are the newest band in the mix of with the likes of: Phoenix, Empire of the Sun, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit etc. They produce the music that makes normal people smile and indie kids jump with their arms pointed to the sky. I’m really loving this track so have a listen and then after you fall in love click on the remix by The Highweights below and fall in love all over again.
I’m probably the last person in the musical blogosphere to mention Vampire Weekend’s second album Contra. Partially due to technical reasons with the site and partially because I wanted to listen each song carefully before putting my thoughts down.
This album reminds me a lot of Kanye’s 2nd album Graduation, in a relative, not musical sense. From song to song you can tell that Ezra Koenig has grown up since the bands first self titled album, Vampire Weekend. In contrast to their first LP (brilliantly indulgent Afro-pop) Contra has musical ambitions set in a multiple of genre’s, showing the musical precision and boldness that VW can bring to the ever changing indie sound. From it’s natural sounds to synth-pops; decorum to peccadillo; party prose to hopeless balladry; Contra blends polarizing sounds in a brave new way and the result will likely be up for album of the year. Have a listen (below) and you won’t be disappointed. My favorites thus far are White Sky, Run and Giving Up the Gun.
