hipster olympics

it was inevitable:

cheer sally up

New Buffalo’s new album Somewhere, Anywhere comes out 28 August 2007. I’m just sayin’.

the galaxy down under

Midnight Juggernauts are the latest thunder from Down Under (sorry, couldn’t resist). I’m really hooked to their new album Dystopia. If you mix Ratatat, Ladytron, ahem Daft Punk and some Bowie-esque vocals, you’ll get an idea of the jam you’re in store for.

“Into the Galaxy” is clearly the hit single from the album, which you can stream on their Myspace. I also heartily recommend “Road to Recovery” and “Shadows.”

Video for “Into the Galaxy”:

P.S. My blogging may slow down a bit since I am a working stiff again. I’ll do my best.

doing time for silly crimes

Ready for some more infectious synth-pop from Sweden? The Tough Alliance are Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund, and they’ve got an addicting new single from their New Waves EP called “Silly Crimes.”

Stream the song on their Myspace, as well as “Holiday” from their Holiday EP. GVB has the latest on their collaboration with Victoria Bergsman covered here.

Watch the amusing “Silly Crimes” video here:

* * * * * * *
Bonus: GVB covered a great new book called Real Fun, a compilation of Polaroid pictures of your favorite indie rock stars.

destroy steez nutz

The latest amazing export from the Windy City is White Savage. They got my attention because the frontman of The Ponys, Jered Gummere, plays several instruments in the band. Several of his Windy City cohorts (from Chin Up Chin Up and Baseball Furies) make up the rest of the band, and they are currently on a small West Coast tour.

They are streaming only one song on Myspace, “Destroy Yr Style.” Be in the mood for balls-to-the-wall, apeshit garage punk instrument-bashing. Maybe I’m just in the mood for this stuff right now. Get past the first minute of the song and you’ll see where the song actually starts coming together.

Their live shows are, needless to say, out of control. They are playing tonight at Spaceland in Los Angeles. Uh, I am THERE.

Here’s a taste of their first show ever, from 31 December 2006:

your mom

Not much is known about Mom, an instrumental duo from Denton, Texas, since up until this point they’ve only had self-released, hand-made CDs that are now hard to find. They’ve signed with Texas label Pancakes for Mattie, and their first EP, Little Brite, is now out. (According to their Myspace bulletin, it’s only available at local record stores in Texas, I’m waiting to hear back from them regarding mail order.)

If The Books and Cliff Martinez collaborated, I can only imagine it would turn out something like this. Mom uses violins, cellos, guitars and a tasteful amount of electronics to create beautiful electro-acoustic songs. They are currently streaming four songs from Little Brite on their Myspace, the best being “Green Echo.”

Here’s the video:

Update: They’re still working on the mail order biz, but if you search “Little Brite” on iTunes you should find it there.

hot blood

The Forkcast dropped a bombshell last Friday by plugging the latest remix by Hot Chip — “Quick and Painful” by Free Blood, a Brooklyn dance-punk band consisting of singers Madeline Davy and John Pugh as well as members from !!!.

They have yet to release anything officially, and Hot Chip has already pounced on the remix, taking the song into overdrive. I know I say this a lot, but… damn it’s one of the best dance party songs I’ve heard in a while.

You can stream the song on the Forkcast here. (There’s a little mystery behind the Forkcast post now. On Friday, I read the post and saved the permalink address. While the permalink still works, Pitchfork seems to have removed the post from the main forkcast archives. Anyone know why?)

ratatatouille

I owe this post to my homey Mojo, for pointing this song out to me. Ratatat have unleashed one of the sickest party songs of the year, a remix of “Party and Bullshit” by Biggie, on their latest album Remixes Vol. II. It’s currently streaming on their myspace, or you can download it here.

They’ve been nice enough to offer two other tracks from Remixes Vol. II for download:

“The Mule” by Z-ro, Devin the Dude & Juvenile
and
“Allure” by Jay-Z & Biggie Smalls

Apparently this remix album was unleashed back in March, but I don’t see any proper channels where you can purchase it. That being said, well, email me and maybe I can tell you where to download the whole thing.

Language in these songs is probably unsafe for work.

powers of five

This post is dedicated to my homegirl Sierchizzle. The Eames Era is a five-member indie-pop group from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, led by singer Ashlin Phillips.

The song that got me really into them is “Last to Know”, which you can download here. You can also download “Both Hands Full” and “When You Were A Millionaire” from their new album Heroes and Sheroes, which are both solid choices for your next indie dance party.

Cruise ‘em on myspace.

leading by example

The wonderful writers at Stereogum introduced me to the rapper Example today, who has a tight debut single called “So Many Roads.” Example is Elliot Gleave, who is a protégé of UK rap group The Streets, so if yr familiar with them, you know what yr in for. I was never a big fan of The Streets, mainly because I found the vocals too abrasive. Example’s rapping has a tight grip on the song and doesn’t try to spit out a million lyrics a minute.

“So Many Roads” features a great sample from “We’ve Only Just Begun” by The Carpenters (read that again), and you can watch the video here:

Hit up his myspace and check out “Who Needs Sunshine,” “I Don’t Want To” and “Take What I Want.” Keep the summer dance party going!

His album What We Made comes out 3 September 2007.