Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Spring Tigers Live at Eclipse Thursday 5/1


We're continuing our streak of great live bands opening up the night. This Thursday, Spring Tigers from Athens are passing through and rough things up a bit.

They remind me of Of Montreal on speed meets XTC or something along those lines. Loads of hand claps, sugary sweet choruses, jerky guitar riffs, and just plain great songs. I couldn't find any tracks for you to download, but I stole this rather twee and funny video from their Myspace page. (the sound is from their live show at SXSW)



Come out Thursday night and support them and if they're not enough, we'll be giving away Portishead stuff all night long. All that for next to nothing and I'll be DJing as well.

Woo Hoo.

The Cassettes...They Just Won't Listen


Cassettes Won't Listen has had two digital-only releases, the EP Nobody’s Moving and the instrumental LP The Quiet Trial. Both records have received a lot of attention, including radio tastemakers WOXY and KEXP, and the supposed bastion of cool SPIN. He's also been named one of Urb’s Next 100 for 2007. In the wake of these releases, a wide range of artists, commissioned countless Cassettes Won't Listen remixes, including El-P, (featuring Trent Reznor), Midlake, Asobi Seksu, The Postmarks, Dr. Octagon, Pela, Dirty on Purpose, Mr. Lif, and Morcheeba, amongst others; most of which kick ass.

Cassettes Won't Listen embodies an otherworldly and distinctive blend of electronica and indie rock, with comparisons being drawn to the Postal Service, Beck, Hot Chip, The Notwist, and DJ Shadow. His live show blasts at a frantic pace with Jason hopping from turntables to guitar to keys and vocals as a true one-man band. Small-Time Machine his first album is the sum of all these parts.

Entirely written, played and produced by Jason Drake, Small-Time Machine deals with many of the themes that touch us all, including: love, betrayal, hope, disappointment and the quest to find what's missing in each of our lives. Small-Time Machine is the next chapter in the career of one of the true new voices of the 21st Century. This record just might give From Bubblegum To Sky a run for one man band album of the year.

Download: Paper Float (Gutter Mix) hosted on Mediafire
Myspace: Cassettes Won't Listen

Robert Forster Has A Go On His Own


Robert Forster’s first album in 11 years, The Evangelist finds the Go-Betweens co-founder as winsome and haunting as ever. Nearly two years after the death of Grant McLennan, his fellow Go-Between and writing partner of 30 years, Forster has produced an album that is both wildly progressive and haunted by the ghost of his artistic soul mate. “Demon Days,” co-written with McLennan shortly before he died, is an all too telling spine tingling journey into oblivion. “Pandanus” and “Did She Overtake You?” are lively juggernauts that delightfully reprise the rhythmic tensions of Spring Hill Fair. “The Evangelist” is a wistful cousin to “He Lives My Life” (from The Friends of Rachel Worth) and “From Ghost Town” is a deeply personal and poignant farewell to a lost brother. Throughout, The Evangelist is a masterpiece of honesty and compassion.

Forster himself describes The Evangelist this way, “I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to make another record but this summer it just materialized. It’s a direct record. I’ve written seven of the songs, and three are co-written with Grant. Adele and Glenn from The Go-Betweens are with me. It’s not Oceans Apart 2 – it’s something else, but with trails going into the past and I’m proud of it.”

Download: Pandanus

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Heloise and The Savior Faire


New York’s electro-rock outfit Heloise & The Savior Faire will release their new album Trash, Rats and Microphones April 29 via Simian Records (Elijah Wood’s new label and joint-venture with Yep Roc Records). Produced with and engineered by Andrew Schneider at Translator Studios, Trash, Rats and Microphones captures the energy, sexuality and humor of the live show.

With a live show described by Disorder Magazine as a “multi-orgasmic experience with heels on,” Heloise & The Savior Faire have gained popularity in the UK after making their TV debut on The Graham Norton Show. An electrified collision of late-70’s disco-infused dance punk and 80’s synth-pop, the band is fronted by the charismatic Heloise Williams and backed by two electrifying dancers (Joe Shepard and Sara Sweet Rabidoux) as well as a full band (James Bellizia on guitar, Luke Hughett on drums and Jason Diamond on bass).

The Times UK has described them as “somewhere between Goldfrapp and The Scissor Sisters.” That's a really good description as, "Downtown," is ridiculously like the Scissor Sisters if there was an actual sister singing every song or maybe a little like Leslie Hall if she wasn't quite as funny.

The album features guest vocals by Debbie Harry who recently called Heloise & The Savior Faire her favorite underground band in The New York Times Style Magazine. Harry is featured on the songs “Canadian Changs” and “Downtown.”

Download: Downtown

Friday, April 25, 2008

Wallpaper Release Party at Eclipse on 5/8!


Wallpaper is the enigmatic onstage existence of Oakland music addict Eric Frederic. In another life, he fronts a prog-rock powerhouse (indie stalwarts Facing New York), but in this one, he's a pop-pushing kingpin as interested in art as artifice.

The Wallpaper project began in early 2005 as tweaked satire, Frederic funneling his earliest influences (P-Funk, New Jack, East Bay rap) into two EPs of diced, digital beats and lyrics caricaturing the pop vernacular. But as the Hyphy hip-hop movement crested in Frederic's backyard, something changed. "I saw that classic Bay Area sound resurfacing," he says, "that same psychedelic, drippy, care-free, funky approach that reigned from Sly Stone to Digital Underground." He needed to pay tribute, and in a hail of house parties and homemade discs, Wallpaper was reborn as Ricky Reed, Frederic's disco-smashing doppelganger.

This glitz 'n' grit champion of the groove has since become a gilded name in the underground, wooing crowds with a computerized croon, live reinventions of R&B classics, and tales of excess in the Information Age. Live, Wallpaper is joined by Arjun Singh on drums. They have blown spots alongside such notables as Subtle, Darondo, LA Riots, Electric Soft Parade, and Nino Moschella.

T Rex will be available digitally everywhere April 29. As a bonus, there's a remix of "Evrytm We Do It", exclusive to iTunes. Additionally, Eenie Meenie is releasing an "Evrytm We Do It" 7", with the remix on the B side. OR just come out to POP! at Eclipse on May 8th and get an official promo only Wallpaper CD for absolutely nuthin!

Download: Evrytm We Do It

Ghostly International and [Adult Swim] Unveil Ghostly Swim!


Record label Ghostly International and modern cult programmers [Adult Swim] have unveiled Ghostly Swim, a free digital only release of 19 new songs from Ghostly artists such as Dabrye, The Chap, Matthew Dear Tycho and Aeroc amongst many others. One great record label and the best segment on late night TV = some damn fine free stuff!

The compilation is available only through Adult Swim's website (which is linked below). The free collection includes favorite friends of the label like School Of Seven Bells, and Detroit's Deastro, Milosh (Plug Research), FLYamSAM (Warp's Flying Lotus and Samiyam), and Dark Party (Eliot Lipp and Leo123) as well as new signings Michna and The Chap.

Hell even if you like 3 songs on the thing it was worth the price of $free.99!

Download Ghostly Swim

Shows Not To Be Missed in May!


Here's a listing of some really good shows upcoming. I've provided links to every band where possible. Check 'em out and then see them live. I can personally recommend Spring Tigers, Bonde Do Role, The Death Set, Bryan Scary (crazy shit!!), and the ever classic MLWTTKK!

5/01 Spring Tigers w/Portishead Release Party & DJ's Paul POP! and Scottish Brian at Eclipse

5/07 Bonde Do Role w/The Death Set at TSI

5/10 Bryan Scary and The Shredding Tears, The Merks, The Last of What's Left at Jack Rabbits

5/16 Sunbears at TSI

5/18 My Life w/the Thrill Kill Kult (old industrialists unite!) at Jack Rabbits

5/21 Yo Majesty, Heavy Flow at Jack Rabbits OR The Roots at Freebird

There will be several other bands playing at Eclipse throughout the month of May. I'll have those up w/links shortly!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

From Bubblegum To Sky


PiL, meds, disco, half Mexican, half Japanese, The SOS Band, monster guitar riffs, drinking, more drinking, The dB’s, divorce, death, arrests, cannibalism, no compromises, The Bee Gees, shimmering melodies and stalking. FROM BUBBLEGUM TO SKY ain’t no sunny pop affair – it just sounds like it.

A Soft Kill, the third full-length album by FROM BUBBLEGUM TO SKY is certain to be considered one of the greatest one-man albums of the year (if not the only one-man album of the year). Only the maturity that comes with brushing against and immersing oneself in the influences mentioned above could bring out an album that is at once ultimately catchy, realistically morose, and expertly played.

The one man is Mario Hernandez and he’s been wrestling with a few demons. Hernandez’s previous records Me and Amy and the Two French Boys (Eenie Meenie, 2000) and Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen (Eenie Meenie, 2004) certainly hinted at genius – what with the confessional lyrics sung in a helium tinged voice that lights the drapes on fire meeting the hook laden crunch fest that cools ‘em down. He demurs, stating, “This record is much more inspired – less obvious indie pop, more organic and drunk. It’s an outlet and easily my favorite record.”

A Soft Kill in a sense revolves around the concept of the vices people use to kill themselves slowly. Feelings we’ve all felt are wrapped in pristine pop melodies, sandpaper-y guitars and a vocal style dictated by the radio programs of second generation pop songs and high voiced singers that Hernandez listened to before departing Japan for America at the age of 12.

As a self-contained pop machine (occasionally joined by bassist Frank Jordan and Keyboardist Bill Evans) Hernandez does the control freak edict of Billy Corgan and Dave Grohl proud on A Soft Kill. No one should be playing drums on a FROM BUBBLEGUM TO SKY record but Hernandez -- this kind of urgency demands the percussive touch of the author, after all! And is he ever keeping time – 11 songs, 30 minutes. It doesn’t get any better.

“I feel like it’s a band, even though it’s just me,” he says. “The things that people are doing to me, or I’m doing to them, or whatever experiences I’m having -- that’s the band. I couldn’t write without those experiences and in a way that’s what a band member does.”

FROM BUBBLEGUM TO SKY’s A Soft Kill will be released by Eenie Meenie Records as a digital download and vinyl LP only. The vinyl configuration will come packaged with a FROM BUBBLEGUM TO SKY t-shirt designed exclusively by the Brown Sound Clothing Company, available online and in select lifestyle stores. Check out the company that created this exclusive offer HERE.

Download the single Even The Sunbeams.

So Here We Are...


It's been AGES since I've put any sort of MP3's up for you all to download. After Amber informed me of the weird shit that Myspace was doing with outside links I figured it was more of a hassle than it was worth if it took 7973974 clicks and DNA typing to actually download a song. For some strange reason when you would click on the link of the mp3 that I would post, it would take you to a screen saying you were leaving Myspace and that the link might be malicious. Well that's a load of shite. Myspace, it seems, is so ridiculously paranoid about spam that they're becoming like AOL did way back in the 90's.

Anyway, I came up with a solution but it's taken me forever to get it completed. While I never stopped accumulating MP3's I just didn't have the time to put together anything substantial. Until now. Yes it's true! I decided to take the big leap and start a POP! Stereo blog.

As unbelievably motivated as it sounds, POP! has entered the ever so trendy world of blogging (I can hear the peanut gallery ooohing and ahhing). Anyway, listed below are over 50 mp3's for your downloading and listening pleasure. The following genre's are represented...
-- indie
-- indie pop
-- twee pop
-- folk
-- electro
-- classic alternative
-- rock and roll
-- consolecore
-- and who the fuck knows what else.

My advice to you is to take about the next hour and start downloading. Check back frequently as I'll be posting stuff up all the time. Seriously. Oh, if a link is broken and doesn't work let me know!

Your homework is to download the following...

Gentleman Auction House - Book of Matches
Cassettes - Paper Float (Styrofoam Remix)
The Black Hollies - Paisley Ground
Hysterics - Mostly Untitled
Caroline - Sunrise (Sunset Mix)
Caroline - All I Need (Owen Vallis Mix)
Hysterics - Radical Chic
Erik Levander - Oskarpa
Amplive vs Radiohead - Vidoe Tapez
Barry Adamson - Spend a Little Time
Dirtbombs - Sherlock Holmes
Teenagers - Starlett Johansson
The DoDo's - Jodi
The DoDo's - Fools
Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today
Birds of Avalon - Measure of the Same
The Oh Sees - Ghost In the Trees
Cassettes - Paper Float (Scott Through Remix)
Yip Yip - Sprinkle Council
Yip Yip - Jazz Rats
Yip Yip - Gender Changers
Everest - Rebels In The Roses
The Death Set - Negative Thinking
St. Bernadette - Money In The Air (Black Panther Mix)
St. Bernadette - I Own The City
St. Bernadette - Side Step
St. Bernadette - Such Ease
Joshua Morrison - Alabaster
Hospital Bombers - The Devils Music
Health - Triceratops
Health - Triceratops (CFCF Remix)
Health - Triceratops (Acid Girls Remix)
Health - Crimewave
Health - Perfect Skin
Health - The Problem Is (Thrust Lab Remix)
Plastic Constellations - Stay That Way
The Pharmacy - Mirror
The Pharmacy - Adeiu Adeiu
Pleasureboaters - Elliptical Realism
Pleasureboaters - Deck Hand Paterson
Silver Seas - Imaginary Girl
Bridges and Powerlines - Uncalibrated
The Epochs - Giving Tree
Flat Duo Jets - Rawhide
Flat Duo Jets - Everybodys Movin
Camphor - The Sweetest Tooth
Camphor - Confidences Shattered
Steve Smith - Hit Me Up
Steve Smith - Restless (Radio Edit)
Steve Smith - Comedown Queen
Steve Smith - That Town
Dune - 80 Years (We Know You Love It Remix)
Ivy League - London Bridge
Gentleman Auctionhouse - Book of Matches
We Were The States - Up Your Sleeve
We Were The States - Till Morning Comes
Tall Firs - Hairdo

Have fun and welcome to the POP! Stereo.