How I got laid last night....two words

Sebastien Tellier. Produced by Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, Sebastien Tellier's Sexuality is some SERIOUS baby making music. The 80's are back. Fingers of Steel (that actually is a track title) is a definite banger. Sexual Sportsware and Manty pack all of the sinister sexuality of the Blade Runner soundtrack. This is considered a good thing in the most classy sado-masochism circles. I know. I have seen these beastly orgies on Redtube. Expect this album to be a muse for the dirtiest remixes on the Hype later this month.

In light of my afterglow, I have chosen to include the Zander Manshel Ep, Groove.

Sexual Sportsware

Fingers of Steel

Gooove EP

Wardicus Wednesdays #3 - Covers

For whatever reason, I've been listening to a lot of covers over the course of the summer. In lieu of any new music, here's the best of them:



Dan Rossen - Too Little, Too Late
Dan Rossen lends his haunting vocal talent to Jo Jo's Too Little, Too Late. According to Pitchfork, he recorded the song for fellow Grizzly Bear member Ed Droste's 29th birthday. Too cute.



Mobius Band - Digital Love
Former Sepomaners Mobius Band released the Love Will Reign Supreme EP last Valentine's Day full of covers of songs about love. The last track is the beautifully arranged electroacoustic version of Daft Punk's Digital Love.



Final Fantasy - Peach, Plum, Pear
This version of Peach, Plum, Pear is off of Final Fantasy's Young Canadian Mothers 7". Notice the volume change at 1:56 when Owen Pallett moves closer to the mic. Meh, it doesn't bother me as much as Joanna Newsom's voice.


Dr. Dog - Heart It Races
Dr. Dog covering Architecture in Helsinki. God, I love this. I've listened to it ten times a day, everyday, since the beginning of summer.



Math the Band - Zelda Theme
Math the Band's Cover EP is available for free download on their myspace. It's chock-full of 90's greats. Of course the song I remember the most from the 90's is the Zelda theme (I probably heard it for a month straight while (re)beating Ocarina of Time.)

Wardicus Wednesdays #2 - The Obligatory Pitchfest Post

Here in the second city things are gearing up for the Pitchfork Music Festival 2008. And while the six people currently crashing on my floor prepare for the likes of Public Enemy performing It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, I am preparing to write a 1200 word essay on representations of advertising in Nelson Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm and Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. So while hundreds swarm on to Union Park and I stay at home doing work, you can enjoy a few ditties by some of the bands you might have missed (or that I just really like) that will be performing without us.





Titus Andronicus is not only a play by The Bard, but also a punk band. They sound like The Clash. Really, really like The Clash. But that's not a bad thing. In fact, it's a great thing. See also: Times New Viking, No Age





If you're a sucker for that almost-bluesy folk-rock the likes of My Morning Jacket that's gotten so big over the past year, then the Fleet Foxes might be just what you need. See also: Dodos, Bon Iver





Songs in A&E is vastly different than Spiritualize's other releases. Jason Pierce has shed his love of higher planes of ambient electro rock for higher planes of gospel. See also: I don't listen to stuff like this normally.





Santogold isn't actually playing Pitchfork, but she is playing Rock the Bells, which happens at the same time. Aaron Gensler really likes her. (And if that's not a compliment, I don't know what is.) See also: M.I.A., The Gossip

monsters having fun, happy happy!

omg omg.
first there was my personal #1 crush and middlebury fave andrew bird as dr. stringz.
now mega-cutie feist takes on sesame street with a slight adaptation of her mega-hit for the preschool set. in my mind this redeems it post-ipod-commercial-selling-out.
i especially like when she says "chickens just back from the shore" because something about that just smacks of new jersey.


reminds me of my first taste of the joys of alternative rock:



although, nothing will take the place of my ALL TIME fave:
the oinker sisters.



(ps: that right there is especially for my momma)
(pps: after re-watching those a few times, i think my early love of these videos says a lot about me as a person)
(ppps: i dare you to watch all three and not be really really happy)

Wardicus Wednesday - #1

I've decided to revive an old tradition here on the blog and bring you weekly updates on what I've been listening to, what I should be listening to, and what I hear at parties.





This is all over the blogs these days. The kids just can't get enough of it, and I can see why. The album is filled with distorted riffs coming from squeaky guitars and sometimes there are even squeakier violins. Throw in some distant vocals and you've got lo-fi mastery that owes more to the Velvet Underground circa The Velvet Underground than Pavement.






This is Tape, and they're the best new thing I've heard in a long time. If Octopus Project, Port Blue, Explosions in the Sky, and Talk Talk spent a night on barbiturates and lots of wine, Tape would be the love child that rose incarnate from the resulting orgy like Venus from the sea. They blend instrumentation and electronic noise together quietly, powerfully, and transplendently.






Everyone should know these guys. They just put out a new album entitled Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. Say that ten times fast. No, try it in English: With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly. It's different than any other Sigur Ros album you've heard, but when was the last time Sigur Ros put out an album that wasn't. I'm assuming by now that everyone has heard the single Gobbledigook, so here's something else.






The incredibly blurry picture above is of Dan Friel. He is a member of Brooklyn-based noise rock band Parts & Labor, but I'm going to write about his new solo album. Friel plays keyboard and guitar and sings but does all them through every sort of comb filter and vocoder imaginable. Sounds kind of like Dan Deacon, but less dancey and more... well... noisy.




And finally, a little anecdote. Yesterday, returning from class, I stopped off at the Whole Foods in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. I only needed a few things: some soymilk, yoghurt, peanut butter, &c.. I was in the dairy section looking for yoghurt, but there was a man between myself and it. However, I was also between him and the milk that he needed. We met each other's eyes, did that thing where one person steps out of the way, but the other moves too, and kind of shuffled around each other. It was awkward, but I got my yoghurt and Andrew Bird got his milk.

I don't actually have the song I was going to share, but it's Don't Wait For the Needle To Drop by Dosh. It features Bird plucking some nasty beats. Hypemachine it or something.

put a price, put a price on my soul

this is what finals in berlin make me feel like.
also this video is my current favorite thing.

lil jon, he always tells the truth

this is my second attempt to post from berlin. while berlin is full of bacchanalia and late night dj sets, i've only seen a few local bands play here, and not for lack of trying, but rather for lack of expendable income. my musical memories of berlin have been forged by the few live shows i got to see, 100,6 motor fm - my ersatz-wrmc if you will, and lots and lots of viva and german mtv.

why do i love german mtv and viva so much? let me count the ways ... there are episodes of charm school, rock of love, and next uncensored in english to fulfill my brain's trashy tv quota. there are specials on britney spears involving 3 or more fake "experts" who predict her certain demise. there is the painfully awkward culture of lovelorn german teenagers who spend what must be hundreds of dollars of their parents money every month text messaging these television stations

well in between tokio hotel music videos and episodes of date oder fake? - a show in which a girl has to correctly guess which of the three guys she is on a "date" with is gay, which is taken, and which is single - they play the most amazing and random music video countdowns. my personal favorite of all time was titled "wish you were here" and featured a random sampling of germanys favorite dead musicians. the top five list featured elvis, queen, nirvana, johnny cash and of course number one was the notorious b.i.g. - its a cultural smorgasbord perfectly suited for my pop-culture-saturated tastes.

where is this love letter to german television programming going? namely, yesterday, after watching a hilariously poorly dubbed mark ronson appearance, german mtv served up this little gem:



it seems that my german counterparts can't get over vampire weekend either, and i have since seen this music video about 80 times in the last week (and i swear im not watching THAT much tv ...) - i love it. i love the song, i love the font in the video that is reminiscent of wes anderson, i love that it was all shot in one take, i just love love love it, and i hoped you guys would love it too.

also, germans call them wampire veekend. say it out loud. its funny.