Radio Dick – This Post Took Forever Edition

We’ve dished out quite a bit of content this week, so I suppose I’ll get to the music list early.  If you’re just tuning in, I’ve switched up the way these Radio Dick posts go, attempting to offer a little more commentary on the tracks I’m posting.  This week, I’ve got an interesting mix of material from around the globe.  The scene’s been a tad quiet with all of the madness going on at CMJ.  Hopefully, our writer James, who just spent the week rambling around NYC, will hit you with any coverage he was able to either 1) document, or 2) remember.  The twitter feeds have been making me jealous all week, as most of these bands have been performing in various clubs all around The Big Apple.  Check back for any coverage we may end up with.  My initial fear was that Brooklyn Vegan ate James, as he disappeared for the first few days of the festival.  I’ve since made contact with the man, so we at least know he’s alive.

Tracks this week are all fresh out of the creative birth canal, folks.  They span all genres and there’s enough here for everyone to share.  Nobody hog all of the goods.  Have a great work week, too.

Cloud Control – Gold Canary (Radio Edit) – This is my favorite on the list, not due to musical divergence, but becuase it jolted me awake today.  I began the day with a cup of joe and some sullen, mellow tunes on the turntable.  A gritty start to my weekend was blown away with one spin of “Gold Canary.”  It’s a proper indie rock song, make no mistakes, but the trippy synthesizer and guitar tandem work mid-track stapled open my eyes and loosened my shoulders. Gorgeous background vocals and handclap/snap percussion make it nearly impossible not to indulge over and over again. Ooohs and ahhhs and periodically vibrant chants create an upbeat anthem to start any grey day.  Cloud Control’s debut is expected to hit the shelves in early 2010 and this is the first released track.  Let the hype begin.

Cloud Control – Gold Canary (Radio Edit)

Damien* – Confidants – The Italian group Damien*, launched this track, also through IGIF’s Music Alliance Pact, and it’s a killer throwback blast of guitar crunch and arena filling choruses.  It’s an ass-shaker from its opening chord to the last.  Damien* has a panache for big time hooks, delivered with a tinge of gutsy attitude that serves them well.  As a highlight point, the last thirty seconds is a kick to the groin that launches it distantly away from simple brit-pop labels.  The track wails out with  loud crashing cymbals and a galloping riff for the ages. It’s good to know that we don’t need to re-invent the wheel to create a rock song.  It’s also refreshing to know that I don’t need wild shifts in style mid-song to find it enjoyable.  The high octane rhythm of the track doesn’t vary from beginning to the end.  Word.  It was difficult to look them up on the web, but use the links I’ve provided.  It’ll steer you in the proper direction to learn more about the band.

Damien* – Confidants

The Uglysuit – 1902 Deep Ocean – The underbelly of this stunning track is sinister and dark. Minor chord-driven folk simplicity is at the heart, and emotionally taut vocals leave listeners on the edge of something unclear.  Flutes, hand shakers, and plucky classical guitars emit a strikingly medieval tone.  Lush background vocals and super sharp lyricism bring us more of what we’re used to from the Oklahoma shoegaze/folk/rock outfit.  Big and hollow, there’s a comforting warmth to the entire song. The Uglysuit takes a slight left turn from their traditional sound, and truthfully, it’s cathartic and breathtaking.  The song has underpinnings of a bygone era and time period, and it’s wicked the way they modernize the sound.  The classical guitars are actually plugged in and tinged with just the right amount of distortion volume.  Swing this track into the rotation for times of introspective isolation.  It’s not a sad tune, but contemplative certainly comes to mind.

The Uglysuit – 1902 Deep Ocean

Emergency Blanket – Next Passenger – Peruvian band, Emergency Blanket, assaults listeners in “Next Passenger” with a straightline rock sound.  While the track isn’t going to shake the industry with innovation, I defy you to dislike the arena hooks, early 90’s fuzzy sound and late 60’s attitude.  The band’s garnered quite a bit of praise in South America, and we caught the track over at the killer blog, I Guess I’m Floating.  The Music Alliance Pact is a conglomeration of worldwide blogs with a goal to expose emerging musicians from around the globe.  Some hit bank and some don’t.  This track works well, and sometimes there is a refreshing sincerity to music when bands present their spin on traditional American rock standards.  A little bit of research into the band suggests quite a bit of success, and this tiptoe outward into the US scene is hopefully worthwhile.  Check out the band’s myspace link above and if you’re digging this track I’ve posted, it’s likely you’re going to find some more where that came from.

Emergency Blanket – Next Passenger

OOIOO – OOIAH – The folks at Thrill Jockey boast a unique and refreshing roster, and they’ve been mopping up 2009 with a raucous stream of edgy and distortion heavy rock n’ roll releases.  This track popped into my electronic mail a couple of days ago, and I’m not quite certain how to label it.  For certain, sneering intensity and frenetic jungle-esque vocals are immediately noteworthy.  Their forthcoming album, Almonica Hewa, is set and ready to fire.  This song is super busy and filled with energetic eruptions of sound.  The quartet could equally belt out tribal chants as anime-inspired cartoon pop.  Underneath all of it is a layer of guitar sludge.  It’s a unique mixture of wicked and frivolous.  For the daring, snag this and play it often.  Curiously, it’ll wander into your memory banks quickly.  Imagine listening to an operatically trained monkey, playing tribal music with a Les Paul in Madison Square Garden to 40K fans.  That about sums this up.  Entirely interesting.

OOIOO – OOIAH

Parlour Steps – Bleeding Hearts – The jangly opening to “Bleeding Hearts” hits me in the same vein Okkervil River does; I get behind smarter-than-thou pop releases with enough distortion to keep me honest.  This track isn’t short of hooks, but includes a percussion driven mixture of piano work, megaphone delivered vocals and plenty of rock-the-house energy.  The quartet is an indie pop band in the truest sense.  The two minute instrumental tilt to close this track out is gorgeous and points to a hefty amount of talent immediately.  Anthemic piano hooks swirl at the song’s close.  A cocky nonchalance is the fire to the gunpowder of Parlour Steps’ sound.  They’ve got chops and throw it down well.  See them up there in their suits?  They’d equally fit in as a grungy hipster-clad quartet as well.  Playback value is high on this one, chaps. Order their album, The Hidden Names through Nine Mile Records.

Parlour Steps – Bleeding Hearts

Lipgloss – Land of Lords – A looping honky-tonk guitar fill provides the backbone of the repetitive and jumpy underbelly of this track.  The beauty of this song, however, is in its inconsistency.  It’s a mixed drink of huge psych-pop choruses, growling vocals, and 50’s surf rock.  Wait a minute, that can’t be right.  Maybe it’s part honky-tonk and complete psychedelic synthesizer rock.  No.  Maybe?  The central thesis here is that the track is epic and filled with multiple styles and shifting sounds.  The song ends up miles away from the twangle jangle of the opening verses.  It’s difficult to label, but huge and ambitious just the same.  Regardless of classification the listeners choose to pin on this Argentinian band, there’s a lot of oozing talent flying around your ears here.  These guys listened to cool records, for sure.  Be careful, like me, not to accidentally find the asian “Lipgloss” band.  Follow this link HERE to find out more about the band and where to snag their self-titled EP and for information about what’s in store.  Keep an eye on this band.  I think they can step right into the US indie market immediately.

Lipgloss – Land of Lords

O’Lovely – A Different Day – This New Zealand outfit creates a darker spin on traditional pop in “A Different Day,” a track centered around a dark guitar sound and repetitive riff.  Singer, Laura Lee, has a set of pipes and goes after it vocally throughout the song.  Far away and drifting anger rises throughout the song.  Despite the heavy, heavy fuzz on the track, it’s super endearing and beautiful in its own right.  The drone and feedback of the guitar will be with you long after you hit the stop button.  As if trapped in between a dungeon and a swank British night-club, this song spans the gap between fluffy and fist-clinching.  A little bit of research suggests that this new and darker vibe is on purpose and you can expect a lot more of this.  The Lost Luck EP, where the track comes from, is out now.  Follow the links to hit their myspace page for more information.

O’Lovely – A Different Day

Midnight Juggernauts – This New Technology (Memory Tapes Remix) – Today I include two Memory Tapes tracks, and I believe I’ve posted just about each new remix and released track that has dropped this year, mainly because I’m fully into the smooth sound.  This particular mix of “This New Technology” is more sharp around the edges than some of the other mixes Memory Tapes has completed recently, but it’s not without merit.  The lively and upbeat tempo is insanely lucid and crisp.  Bongos and drum machines pair up with the door-creaking wail to begin the track.  Triumphant sirens blare and jar the listeners.  More percussion and phat beats enter at minute two.  Nothing too difficult to dissect here, but the unique twist on the Jugg’s stuff is cool.  The looping and layered synthesizer horn effects in the middle of the track are a highlight point.

Midnight Juggernauts – This New Technology (Memory Tapes Remix)

Memory Tapes – Walk Me Home -  The newly leaked “Walk Me Home” just hit the ether a few days ago, and it continues in similar modes as other Memory Tapes proper leaks.  A slow and lush opening awakens a sleeping giant of sound, incredibly rich in 80’s nostalgia and rhythmic diversity.  Synths swirl and dark, rich sound textures are layered throughout.  As I’ve previously mentioned, maybe it’s my childhood that makes these tunes sing to my core.  I’m typically a rock guy, but Memory Tapes is hitting grooves in my spinal column and has been all 2009. Get the bandwidth ready, as it’s 16:52 of kick ass ambiance.  I took a nap to this today and woke up and it was still playing.  The 6-8 minute mark of the track brings out some excellent fodder for video games.  I’ll leave the intelligent discussion of Memory Tapes to others, as I just like the feeling I associate with it.  Then again, maybe that’s the goal.

Memory Tapes – Walk Me Home

Golden Silvers – True No. 9 Blues – Stereogum posted a bit ago that London’s Golden Silvers was a “band to watch” and one spin of this track clearly exhibits why.  They just wrapped up performances stateside at CMJ and are aiming for our ears over here in the US.  According to Stereogum, there’s plenty of buzz across the pond, as their album, True Romance has been out for awhile.  Luckily for us, it just dropped over here earlier this month.  This particular track is off of their debut.  Killer bass lines and smooth keys rip through the whole track.  The synths, while dominant, are never overpowering and everything’s mixed impeccably.  This isn’t the type of track I normally post, but I’ve played it ten times already today and you’ll understand why when you hit it.  The funky bass grooves are stellar.  True Romance is available now through XL Recordings and I’ve already ordered it myself.

Golden Silvers – True No. 9 Blues (True Romance)

Warpaint – Elephants – Brian posted Warpaint’s other released track, “Billie Holdiay,” so I include the second track, “Elephants” in today’s post.  Their album, Exquisite Corpse is now out on Manimal Vinyl, and this track is a bruising blend of edgy and trebly guitar, entrancing percussion, and dark vocals.  The song spins through multiple shifts, each growing a bit more eerie as they progress.  The song becomes more violent and spastically distorted as it rises is tension.  The trio holds the fort down with big bass lines in the background and stop-and-start methods.  Check out “Billiew Holliday” as well.  There’s no shortage of angry chick rock in the folds of today’s scene, but the smoothness of this track sets it apart.  In many ways, this could be seen as subtly gentle crooning, but I think there’s a definite wickedness to the vibe the quartet is spitting out.

Warpaint – Elephants

The Whigs – In the Dark – My first taste of The Whigs was, and I’m not a bit ashamed to admit it, seeing them open for Kings of Leon at Detroit’s Fillmore late last year.  This was before the gluttonous bloodsucking KOL decided to unleash on the music industry.  Of course, despite the fame KOL has reached hard for, they’ve always attempted to pair up quality unknown indie acts to tour along with them.  Maybe this is the way they pay homage to their stepping stone to teenage rockstar status.  In any event, I walked out of that show understanding that The Whigs was best enjoyed in a live performance.  Last year’s Mission Control, on record, was blah for me.  The live show, however, was huge and full of enthralling energy.  They have a panache for southern sentimentality with hooks big enough to hang steers off of.  The trio played musical chairs instrumentally and certainly held their own weight in the sold out concert hall.  Fans began the show indifferent and ended applauding and asking for encores.  I didn’t feel last year’s album equaled the largeness of their live show.  “In the Dark,” from their forthcoming LP, has me fairly excited to see if they can do it this time.  It’s a big pop-rock song with an asterisk.  The last minute and a half waivers between pop song and ugly, sneering breakdown. A snarling synthesizer crescendos the track out.  It seems to mirror what I’ve long thought with The Whigs.  They’re a band teetering on the edge of fame and holding onto their excellent musical talent.  This album should tell the tale.

The Whigs – In The Dark

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix) Club Edit – This is the lone remix from left field in our list this week.  The A-Trak remix of “Heads Will Roll” has been running around the internet on epic levels for the last week or so.  This Club Edit version is danceable and lively.  I’m not much of a dance guy, but, I can get behind the reworking of a track I love in the first place.  As a general rule, I’m against the remix.  However, Brian brought up an interesting point this week as we rambled back and forth at work.  If the intent is strictly for fun, I suppose I can deal.  This A-Trak remix, at least as far as I can tell, has no malicious intent, so I post it on that premise.  I also have played it over and over again all day.  Remixes be damned!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix) Club Edit

Faded Paper Figures – Logos - I had seen several tracks mentioning “Logos” flying around the interwebs but was mistakenly confusing it for Atlas Sound’s most recent release.  Our writer Rob clued me in on this one in the last few seconds before I put this post up, so I’ve placed it on here to round out today’s list at 15 killer songs.  Immediately, “Logos” pops off as electronically tilted, but in a more subtle, non-obtrusive way.  Silversun Pickups, as Rob mentioned in our discussion, is a pretty apt descriptor here.  Smooth synthesizers roll through the song with ease and the accessible guitar work and arching chorus hooks are impossible to dislike.  Gentle vocals pop and emblazon themselves into your craw pretty quickly here.  This track’s lighting up the internet right now, and there’s probably healthy reasons for that.  I’ve played it six times straight through since downloading it.  The interesting dichotomy that manifests itself is completely comfortable; one one hand it’s a synth driven pop anthem.  Underneath all of it, however, is an impeccable attention to composition, and full on band sounds play an equally important role.  Their LP, Dynamo, can be purchased by going to thee band website HERE.  The band’s “New Medium EP” is in the works and looks to be released within the next couple of months.  Apparently, the trio is bi-coastal, with one member working at Yale University and another taking up residence in LA.  A spot on Grey’s Anatomy this week certainly has helped things.

Faded Paper Figures – Logos