new Peaches makes me want to “Fuck the Pain Away”

Hearing the new Peaches single “I Feel Cream” and the new Peaches mixtape (via Drums of Death) makes me want to fuck the pain away.  Both because the new Peaches is so bad it makes me hurt, and because it makes me nostalgic for the Peaches who occasionally hit the mark.

You can stream “I Feel Cream” at Peaches MySpace page, and you can download the Drums of Death mixtape to preview other new Peaches tracks here.  I seriously couldn’t even come close to listening to the whole mixtape, but maybe you can.

Is it just me or does Peaches “I Feel Cream” sound terrible in kind of the same way as Calvin Harris’s new “I’m Not Alone“?

MP3: Peaches “Fuck the Pain Away”

Seeing as it’s St. Patrick’s Day maybe I should just drink the pain away instead of fucking the pain away. Here’s hoping I see some naked green girls today.

[via Brooklyn Vegan via N.A.S.A who need “green girls” to help sell tickets for their very mediocre music]

OMFG, The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize?” is The Official Oklahoma Rock Song!

Wow.

It’s totally bad ass that the Lips won this, and it’s all thanks to you alternative music nerds spending so much time on your computers and voting for the Lips! (Actually it’s probably thanks to us promoting the hell out of this contest.)

Is this honor too mainstream for the Lips?!

Well, The Flaming Lips have a history of successfully crossing over into the mainstream whilst maintaining their integrity (see Warner Bros & Flaming Lips Alley).

And as a wise-man once said:

“I don’t usually like alternative music but these guys rock!” – Beverly Hills 90210 Heartthrob

Grizzly Bear ‘Veckatimest’ Leaked, Already?! Ed Droste Responds

Wow, I really hope Grizzly Bear decides to release Veckatimest a lot sooner than May 26th now.  While I imagine vinyl LP sales will be unaffected by such an early leak, digital sales may suffer… maybe?! (I sort of doubt it actually).

Rumor has it that the leak may not be the best quality rip (a transcode), so anyone with a hint of audiophile in them will likely upgrade later – whether it be by legitimate purchase or, ummm, other means (torrenting the official release).

Edward Droste, of Grizzly Bear, Tweets:

And receives some @replies:

I vote that bands need to start leaking their own albums so that people don’t needlessly spend 3 months listening to a sub-par rip.  I mean sure, people could just wait and not listen to the leak, but how many people – regardless of guilty feelings – are actually going to hold out?

I mean seriously, are you going to download the leak???

PS: Is this where I’m supposed to leak individual MP3’s and link them to Hype Machine so that people can download the album song by song tomorrow???

wild Grizzly Bear captured (via audio/video)

Sorry for missing a couple days of posts my friends – I’ve been “out in the wilderness where internet cannot exist unless you bring satellite dishes.”

But while I was out there I did some nature walks, and on one of these nature walks I had a chance encounter with a Grizzly Bear family.

The family seemed to be very calm yet passionate in their natural environment.  Quietly I watched and listened as the Grizzly Bear family sang a beautiful song with accompaniment from the full orchestra of animals that surrounded them. Fortunately I had my “stealth camera” with me to capture the moment without being noticed/scaring the Grizzly Bear family away.

This song is a never seen/released before tune, and I’ll probably win an award for being the first/not being the first to capture it.

Grizzly Bear calls it “Ready, Able” and it will appear on the forthcoming Veckatimest LP.

They also sang a song that I’ve seen/haven’t seen on National Geographic World Music before – it was called “Colorado.”

Should I do a segment on this Grizzly Bear family for my forthcoming Indie Planet Earch documentary series?!  I’m almost done my segments on the Panda Bear and the Caribou.

Still Anticipating DOOM… this is the “Official Demo Leak”

About a week ago (or that’s when I first noticed it) a 5 song promo for DOOM’s forthcoming Born Like This LP “officially leaked.”

I’ve seen it tagged as both a “5 Song Sampler” and as an “EP.”  Presumably it is just the demo that DOOM’s management sent out to music critiques/journalists/etc. – which means that the management knew the tracks would inevitably leak, and were more or less OK with that.  Watching this DOOM leak spread is kind of amusing, it makes me realize that the blogosphere/Pitchfork Forkast are kind of slow to the punch (although I forgive Pitchfork ’cause they are legit & have to tread carefully).

Since MP3 Blogs have the insatiable desire to re-leak tracks that are already effectively available via torrent trackers, MP3’s of these 5 songs have been popping up on indie/hip-hop blogs all over the web.  I understand using MP3 Blogs to discover new music, read articles, and get remixes/early singles… but for downloading most music are they not totally archaic compared to torrent trackers?  Downloading tracks from MP3 Blogs is the contemporary equivalent to using FTP.

Wouldn’t it be easier for blogs to just post links to .torrents than it would be to post individual MP3’s to Z.Share?!

Anyways, if you want these 5 leaked tracks you should probably hit up some torrent trackers, or if you prefer blog-surfing I suppose you could track them all down via Hype Machine.  Honestly though, it’s probably worth the wait to hear the album as a whole before spoiling it by hearing a third of the songs in advance.

I know that waiting for an official release is hard and all – but I’m sure you’ll be able to torrent the Born Like This LP really soon.

Here’s streams of the DOOM Born Like This EP/5 Track Demo/5 Track Sampler/etc. Tracks are in the correct order:

DOOM “Ballskin”

DOOM “Lightworks”

DOOM “Angelz” (ft. Tony Starks)

DOOM “Cellz”

DOOM “That’s That”

I’m definitely enjoying “That’s That” and “Ballskin, but my favorite track so far is “Angelz” – and that’s of little surprise, being that it’s a Ghostface (aka Tony Starks) DOOM collaboration.  There is also a new MF Doom/Ghostface Killah collobartion soundtracking the new GTA trailer. Now where the fuck is that MF Doom/Ghostface Killah collobarative LP we were promised way back in 2005?!

This is the REAL tracklist for the Born Like This LP:

01. Supervillain Intro
02. Gazillion Ear
03. Ballskin
04. Yessir (ft. Raekwon)
05. Absolutely
06. Rap Ambush
07. Lightworks
08. Batty-Boys
09. Angelz (ft. Tony Starks)
09. Cellz
10. Still Dope (ft. Empress Sharhh)
11. Microwave Mayo
12. More Rhymin’ (ft. Kurious)
13. That’s That
14. Suppervillainz
15. Bump’s Message
16. Thank Ya

A Photo Tribute to Steven Page: Ex-Barenaked Lady

Canadian rock icon Steven Page has officially left The Barenaked Ladies via “mutual consent.”

Which basically means he got his ass kicked out for being too bad ass and controversial.

However, I feel that Steven Page has been misunderstood.

The drugs, the young girlfriends, the rehab, the weight loss/weight gain – they’re all just unfortunate side effects of a man trying to find meaning in his life:

Trying to become a more authentic rockstar.

This is for you Steven Page, may your solo career be more meaningful than your 20 year BNL career:

PS: DON’T FORGET THAT…

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz/It’s Leaked: Ethical Dilemma

Well what do you know, the forthcoming Yeah Yeah Yeahs It’s Blitz! LP has now leaked.  Although, it looks like we’ll be waiting until closer to the release date for a good 320/flac version of the album – OMG, someone on the YYY’s team should rectify this, the release is only 6 weeks away! *sarcasm* (Just in case you don’t get it).

As Marc Hogan recently wrote in Pitchfork’s Forkast, “Yeah Yeah Yeahs take over the dancefloor with “Heads Will Roll”, the second track (um, unless you count the full album leak, for which heads will no doubt roll) to emerge from forthcoming third album It’s Blitz!”

What I’m wondering is:

Now that we’ve reached the point where a full album leak is virtually inevitable (unless the band chooses to release the album digitally before sending out promo copies; see Radiohead In Rainbows (2007), Fever Ray s/t (2009), etc.) is it still a faux pas to review an album leak?!

What would you say if I reviewed It’s Blitz! this week?  Would you flame the comments with words like “torrenter” and “thief,” or would you happily read the review?

Would reviewing leaks jeopardize my journalist integrity and openly expose me for “conspiracy to dismantle the music industry,” or would it set me on a pedestal for “embracing the future of music?!”

At first glance, it appears that Hype Machine is already littered in unreleased MP3’s from It’s Blitz!  So if the majority of other bloggers are totally OK with actually being the first to leak a song (which I’m not inclined to do on LaCinta) wouldn’t it only be a fraction as bad for me to review leaked albums???

It also looks like fans on the official Yeah Yeah Yeahs message board (which I assume is moderated by Yeah Yeah Yeahs management) are already discussing how much they like/don’t like the unreleased tracks.  I also noticed over at the Village Voice that someone commented on a Yeah Yeah Yeahs post, saying that “We leaked it. People from the official YYYs board site Peace!”

Isn’t it awesome to have such amazing fans?

Hipster Runoff Hacked/Not Hacked

Hipster Runoff (HRO) has either been hacked, or Carles (the blogger) has staged a hoax.

Either way,  hundreds/thousands of HRO tweens are currently confused, frustrated, and searching for meaning/answers.

If you’re interested you might find the situation interesting:

HRO hack post.

HRO Twitter.

You can take it from there.  You are a Private Investigator now (but this is probably a case best left for Veronica Mars).

This all reminds of that time (a couple days ago) that  Star’s MySpace page got hacked in order to make fun of Ben Folds.  Hmmmmm…. inspiration… or coincidence?!

But honestly, the real question is: who would dis Ben Folds?!  Ben Folds is the man behind William Shatner’s Has Been (2004), and when the captain of a starship releases a phenomenal album, the producer of the album is to be granted freedom from insult, forever.

Take the HRO Hack/Hoax poll here to express your opinion.

is Lo-Fi Indie Noise Rock the Soundtrack to this Depression?!

America, and the rest of the world, is in the midst of one of the most significant economic recessions of modern times, and I believe the hard times, unemployment, uncertainty, anger, and frustration that is plaguing average citizens of the world, is going to result in a continued growth of lo-fi indie noise rock.  Much like early punk rock represented an anti-establishment DIY aesthetic, lo-fi indie noise rock has the potential to define a currently frustrated indie-youth subculture.

The timing seems perfect, the metaphorical electro bubble, while not necessarily burst, has certainly been deflating.  The vast quantities of DIY electro acts and music blogs to emerge between the release of Justice’s Cross (2007) and Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colors (2008) is impressive, but while a lot of enjoyable dance/party music has came out of the recent electro wave, it has gotten to the point where enough is enough, and a lot of music critics and music fans have found themselves SCREAMING FOR SOMETHING MORE ABRASIVE.

I know I’m not alone in this feeling.  Two easy examples of music publications who clearly share this attitude are Pitchfork Media, and Gorilla vs Bear.  Neither will dismiss great indie-pop/indie-electro/indie-disco (for the most part), but both have been pushing less accessible noise rock over the last 12 months.

Similar to how indie-pop (see Postal Service, The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Super Furry Animals, Stars, The Pipettes, etc.) started loosing its dominance post-2005, electro/disco is starting to become a little less market dominant now (although for me dark-disco – ie. Glass Candy/Chromatics – still feels appropriate).

The bands that I currently have picked out for the “soundtrack to this depression” include No Age, Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Wavves, and Times New Viking.  These bands are not necessarily my personal favorites – although I love the Wavvves LP (2009) –  but I believe they constitute a genre, a time, and a place in music that we’ll be able to look back at, and say “oh yah, I listened to indie-noise-rock when my Bachelor’s Degree couldn’t even get me a job as a burista, and I couldn’t fucking handle listening to another indie-pop/electro-bloghouse hit on the fucking Hype Machine.”

While the aforementioned noise-rock bands are the type of music that I’m really looking at here, I feel it would be selling this era of music short if I were not to mention indie-popular music from other genres that possess some of the lo-fi, harder to digest, less accessible aesthetics of noise-rock.  Just to note, when I say lo-fi I’m referring more to an audio aesthetic than a recording technique.

Lower-fidelity rock acts like The Dutchess and the Duke gained popularity in 2008 (via Pitchfork’s Best New Music, surprise surprise), and indie-metal acts like Harvey Milk received a little more attention from not-so-metal music publications (but I still can’t relate to any metal, and I have a feeling a lot of indie-nerds feel the same).

Recently garage rock bands like The Strange Boys (a LaCinta favorite), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (early-Sloan meets Exploding Hearts), and Cymbals Eat Guitars (Built To Spill meets early-Modest Mouse) have been received with excellent reviews.

The Black Lips are set to release their grimy new album 200 Million Thousand (2009), and they kicked off the online media frenzy with a series of bad ass stories from the band’s attempted India tour (which is probably being edited for VBS.tv as you read this).

Lo-fi psychedelic bands like Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, and Black Dice have seen increased attention over the last year, and newcomers like Pit Er Pat, Tickley Feather, and Blind Man’s Color have left strong first impressions.” The Pitchfork Twitter account (via Mark Richardson) recently tweeted, “Are my headphones in worse shape than I thought or did the new black dice come up on shuffle?” – and to me at least, that comes across as a huge compliment.

Even electro has had its share of lo-fi makeovers, with groups like Heartsrevotion and Pictureplane making danceable electro a little less accessible, and a little more noisy.

There have also been 8-bit electronic groups like Truckasauras and Dan Deacon taking the stage, and musicians like Nite Jewel have put a layer of dirty makeup over the typically polished electro/disco model.

Given the notable rise in popularity of noisy indie music, rockers like No Age becoming involved in skate culture and starting their own record label, and teenagers like Nathan from Wavves receiving unbelievable initial attention, it seems that – for the moment anyways – my prophecy of lo-fi indie noise rock becoming the soundtrack to this depression may just become reality.

“Got no car. Got no money.  I got nothing nothing nothing not at all.  Got no bike. Got no girlfriend. Got no time. Got no money. Got no friends. Got no family.” – Wavves

Just you watch, day by day you are going to become more attracted to feedback, and distortion, and emotions other than “let’s dance!”  Times New Viking may sound like a hell-of-a-racket at first, but before long you’re going to be gritting your teeth, and banging your head, while you embrace the noisy racket.  It only makes sense, because you’re probably going to be unemployed, in debt, pissed off, and totally lost any day now.

Here’s some link to MP3’s so you can start building your soundtrack to the depression (if you haven’t started already).  Go ahead, a change in musical pace might be just what you need, and I mean what else are you going to do? Listen to MSTRKRFT’s abomination of a new electro album?!

No Age “My Life’s Alright Without You”

Link To MP3

Titus Andronicus “No Future”

Link to MP3

Titus Andromicus “Arms Against Atrophy”

Link to MP3

Vivian Girls “Second Date”

Link to MP3

Vivian Girls “Where Do You Run To?”

& “Surfing Away (live)”

Link to MP3’s

Dum Dum Girls “Catholicked” ❤

Link to Mp3

Wavves “So Bored” *& “Weed Demon” ❤

Link to MP3’s

Times New Viking “Drop-Out” ❤

& Titus Andronicus “My Time Outside the Womb”

& No Age “Eraser”

Link to MP3’s

If you can think of any other bands I should include in my lo-fi-indie-noise-rock grouping, or have any other thoughts that may be of interest, please leave a comment on the article.  I’m really hoping LaCinta’s readers take more to discussing matters with one another via commenting on the site.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Disappoint Me, Again

The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs song “Zero” is streaming over at iMeem, but here’s a link to the song emeded at Stereogum (might as well give a blog the traffic).

Here’s my Yeah Yeah Yeahs breakdown:

Fever To Tell (2003) was phenomenal. Seriously heart that album (even still).

Show Your Bones (2006) was WAY TOO POLISHED & BORING.  It wasn’t bad, but it lacked all the energy and thrill of Fever To Tell, and I mean why would you want to hear Karen O doing anything but orgasming out her mouth?!

Is Is EP (2007) gave me hope.  It was WAY BETTER than Show Your Bones.  I loved the opening track “Rocker to Swallow” and the rest was pretty solid too.

Now the new single “Zero” from the forthcoming album It’s Blitz! (2009) is well, a little mundane.  It sounds like Karen’s voice is wanting to get all freaky and orgasmic, but it’s just not getting there.  And the music to accompany it just really isn’t all that exciting.  Definitely not at all what I was hoping for.  Super disappointed right now.  Really really really hoping that the album as a whole is better, but I have my doubts.

On a side note: Hate being critical of bands.  Wish my my ears just liked what I told them to like, so that my current favorite bands didn’t represent the early adopter stage of the new indie music graph; really want to heart bands for more than just their debut and/or sophomore album.

There’s still a few bands releasing consistently good music, see Animal Collective, and Radiohead + Beck + The Flaming Lips (for the most part), and hopefully! the new Grizzly Bear album is fabulous. Hint: The new Beirut EPs WILL DISSAPPOINT YOU.