yup, that's them. Fergus & Geronimo. Taken from their MySpace page.

Quite the band name right?!  This is another Texas band.  Texas is on the up and up when it comes to music. Living in SoCal has its definite perks but sometimes LA bands are more about the superficial, pretty factor rather than being true musicians.  Operative word being sometimes.

Anyway, right now Fergus & Geronimo aka Andrew Savage (Cool Kids) and Jason Kelly (Wax Museums) are hard to track.  If I had to place them I’d say lo-fi, ’60’s inspired music.  There is some kind of Motown-y feel to the music.  Unfortunately, I can’t back that up.  Ha.  Just listen to the songs and you will just feel that groove.

Anyway, they have an LP coming out in 2010.  All I can really say is that I’m diggin’ it.

“Tell it in My Ear” by Fergus and Geronimo

“Harder than it’s Ever Been”  by Fergus and Geronimo

from Neon Indian's MySpace Page

I don’t know if I mentioned this but a couple months ago I got a membership to eMusic…a place to legally download music online.  Ibet you didn’t even know a place like that existed.  Anyway, it is a monthly membership where I can download a certain amount of tracks per month.  Still on the fence on whether I’ll keep it but for now it is a go.

One of the albums I kept going back to was Psychic Chasms by Neon Indian.  For no reason it just spoke to me.  Honestly, I think it was the cover–nice, bright, and geometric.  But I never did because I worried that if I miss spent my downloads I would regret.  Plus, I hate following the hype of others.  I like to come to my own conclusions.  So, instead, the album just stared at me on my computer screen…until recently.  I finally downloaded it!  And there are no regrets!

Neon Indian aka Alan Palomo is a 21 year-old Mexican guy who was raised in Austin, Texas and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.  You may also recognize the youngin’ as VEGA.  Wait, VEGA is a one-man electronic group whereas Neon Indian is not.  Palomo enlisted Alicia Scardetta for help with the band visually.  You know how it goes–elecctronic shit has to be fun for the eyes as well as the ears!  Scardetta was his high school friend who was able to come up with rad projections as well as some videos.  And the pairing is a perfect fit…even if you never really see her.  I would like to give her some credit because her existence in the band is kind of m.i.a.

Don’t be mistaken though, Vega and Neon Indian are not the same.  In my opinion, Neon Indian is more fun and more hip.  I mean, how could you not love songs with titles like “Should’ve Taken Acid with You” and “6699 (Don’t Know if You Know“?

The song that I have for you to listen to is “Deadbeat Summer.”  I think it is an easy-on-the-ears, enjoyed by all type song.  It is one of those songs that bloggers and hipsters die over.  Don’t hate it because I said that…. I promise, it is good.

Psychic Chasms by Neon Indian

“Deadbeat Summer” by Neon Indian

I really like this YouTube video interview of the band.

…but this video puts them together.  :)

So the “Single Ladies” song was inspired by this Bob Fosse choreography.  This video uses the Bob Fosse dancers but Beyonce’s music.

Ha.

Sky Ferreira. Taken from her MySpace page.

Every so often I frequent the good ole Hype Machine… you know, to see what is out there and what those other bloggers are lovin’ and postin’ about.  Today I just clicked on the “popular” button and let that shit run wild.  And I ended up running into this:

Sky Ferreira and Skeet Skeet- Happy Dre

You have to admit it.  Pretty catchy, right?  I think she likes doing redo’s because she also did a similar redo of a Stevie Nicks song.  I have to say, my attention was caught.  I mean, who the heck is this girl?

So I searched.

She a 16-year-old, MySpace lovin’, Los Angeles native.  Wouldn’t have guessed that age.  Furthermore, 5 years ago she sang a little ditty to Michael Jackson which brought him to tears.  Because her website was a push to follow her on Twitter and receive email updates about what time she last peed, I decided to venture into MySpace land–I don’t need updates from a teenie bopper.  No thanks.

As I went through her pictures I saw her with my girlfriend, Amanda Blank!  How has this girl been around and I haven’t noticed?!?   Add that name to a list of good, fun, clean, artists like Bloody Beetroots, Cobrasnake, Chester French, Aeroplane….

So keep on the look out I guess…. she doesn’t have a full length out—-yet.

A friend recently offered me a challenge–to create a mixtape of 10 songs.  No genre specifications, no preferences.  Just make it good…and try to use music that he hasn’t heard of.

Let me tell you.  Everyone loves a good mixtape.  That shit is fan-fucking-tabulous.  Sometimes you just don’t want to listen to the same singer for 12 songs in a row.  That is why Pandora has blown up—even if their matches aren’t always right.  I mean, who knew that Sting and John Mayer were considered the same family of musicians?  I mean, they are both talented but…come on.  ;)

Anyway, when I make a mixtape it isn’t some 5 minutes-to-make mash-up of songs. I get really big about the flow from song to song. I guess that was one of my talents when I did my radio show.  The songs just kinda blended into each other.  Somehow I could start a show with Thievery Corporation but end with Spank Rock.  It was a progression.  A progression that magically worked.

So I pose you this question.  If you were to make a mixtape, what would be on it and what would be the requirements for a song to make it on?  Certain genre, certain type of lyrics?  Just your favorites?

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.

I wish that I had more time to invest in my love for music.  I feel super hectic these days and can’t seem to find the time to just sit down, relax, and listen.  So I signed up for eMusic yesterday, a website that gives you a certain amount of credits to download music each month.  It is like the Netflix of music.  I quickly learned that a lot of music that I am into simply isn’t available.  Bummer.  I totally support my local record store but I thought this could be a fun, quick fix for trying out new music…legally.    But it is a funny little website.  I can download the old M. Ward CD’s but not the newest one (which is fine because I already own it but I was just searching and fucking around to see what I could get).  I could get Bjork but non of the newer stuff just her live shows.  WTF?  So it is going to be a work in progress.

I also bought tickets to the Pablove Benefit Concert at the Avalon only to realize that I have a wedding to go to the same day.  I was uber excited to see Band of Horses, Sea Wolf, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Tom Morello…and many more but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.  I’ve never sold my tickets online but it seems like it is a must now.  Bummer, it was for a good cause too–raising money to fight child cancer.  Any suggestions for getting these tickets off my hands???

I think I need to set a music schedule for myself since I am so enveloped in my daily life.  Maybe something where I set aside an hour to myself to update myself.  I mean, how am to keep all of you up to date when I can’t even get myself on track??  Hahaha.  It is sad when one has to put her passion aside in order to get shit done.  But do not fret my pet.  I am on this and will keep the blog alive. 

As for music that I have grooving to… it is a bit random if I do say so myself…

I went to Fingerprints and picked up these:  Sufjan Stevens The BQE, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Up From Below (which I discovered randomly on David Letterman and on YouTube), and Dead Man’s Bones S/T.

The latter CD was recommended to me by an employee of Fingerprints.  It is kinda creepy and yet incredibly enjoyable. Although there are a LOT of people in the…group (for lack of a better word)…overall its concept was brought to fruition by Ryan Gosling (YES! The actor) and Zach Shields.  The cd is very D.I.Y.  The pair met because when Gosling was dating Rachel McAdams, Zach was (and still is–I think) dating her sister.  From what I understood the two bonded over their love for creepy, Halloween-y type shit and decided to create a production…however, it was only the music that stuck.  Thus, Dead Man’s Bones was created with the help of The Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s Children’s Choir.  The two came up with a list of rules so that the music could remain raw and true.  For example, no more that three recordings of the same song, no click track, and the instruments had to be played by them (and Tim Anderson of Ima Robot).  Both ended up learning, playing, and recording instruments that they had never learned before.  Also the intergration of children into their music is interesting.  There is something about their youth that brings the album to life.  I think this is something that Shields and Gosling recognized.  Children really latch onto new things and try their best to succeed.  Surprisingly, their parents didn’t mind the darkness of the music and the lyrics.  On the last day of meeting with the children’s choir the song “In the Room Where You Sleep” was recorded.  Gosling was on the piano and vocals, whereas Shields was playing drums.  The children are in Halloween costumes, standing on risers singing the chorus.  From here the track was recorded, the video was made, and finally after it was all done, they had a wrap party that included a bounce house.  Rad.

Love it or hate it, it is pretty interesting.  There is something catchy and raw that holds my attention.  Definitely not my typical music.  Props to the actor gone musician.  Not too shabby.  Not too shabby at all.

So, every other day or so I take the time to peruse the blogs…get in my load of new music.  Randomly, I decided to go  to http://www.gorillavsbear.blogspot.com.  It is one of those blogs filled to the brim with great newmusic.  To think that I am the be-all-end-all of finders of new music is to be in total denial.  I love music and am therefore on a cosntant search for something to satiate me.

Soundway Records is a U.K.record label that specializes in something very unique–60’s and 70’s funk, disco, and rock from West Africa.  Their newest release is comprised of a slew of different musicians that recorded this stuff from the 60’s to the 80’s but were never released.  The album, Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Ghanaian Blue 1968-1981, is ridiculoualy fantastic.  Talk about getting your hips moving.  The rhymthms are multi-dimensional and the guitars are all over the place…in a good way.  Sometimes you have to wonder whether you are listening some remixed James Brown or something by Quantic.  But the truth of the matter is that these are songs.  It also proves that music is something universal.  In the end, it doesn’t matter that most of the songs are in a different language–the message still translates through the instruments.

Not to mention Fela Kuti and Sir Victor Uwaifo are also featured in the album.  Yum.

This is the only track that I have been able to find.  The album is released November 10, 2009.  Check it out

Them Crooked Vultures

The Band Members (Photograph by Joseph Mohan)

I am just trying to understand what is going on with this supergroup rock band.  I’ve heard little bits here and there but I can’t seem to get my hands wrapped around what is going on with them.  The band is comprised of Dave Grohl (of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana) on drums, Josh Homme (from Queens of the Stone Age doing vocals and guitar, John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass and keyboards.  Also, Alain Johannes from Queens of the Stone Age is a live rhythm guitarist.

The crazy thing is that this was first talked about all the way back in 2005 when Grohl talked to Mojo Magazine about his next project being with Homme and Jones.  And it wasn’t until 2009 that things started rolling.  Then band did a few shows in Europe and just finished a quick tour around the United States (that didn’t include California).  Sad.

As you can tell I am being really bland because I haven’t been able to get my hands on any tunes.  Even their damn MySpace didn’t have music up when I checked.  What’s a girl gotta do to get a sample??

The album is coming out November 17th and is self-titled.  Here are the tracks:

01 No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
02 Mind Eraser, No Chaser
03 New Fang
04 Dead End Friends
05 Elephants
06 Scumbag Blues
07 Bandoliers
08 Reptiles
09 Interlude With Ludes
10 Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up
11 Caligulove
12 Gunman
13 Spinning in Daffodils

Every little thing I hear gets me all hyped up.  Can’t wait for the full-length.

Here is just a quick little sample of what to expect….it might get your panties wet. 

Them live playing “Elephants“

And a teaser if “Elephants” done in the recording studio

is an amazing LP.  I am so that I picked it up.  The Kings of Convenience are reminiscent of another time.  They note Nick Drake as an influence in their music and I can hear it.  That and maybe some Simon & Garfunkel.  You know how I was looking for music to do homework to?  This album would fit right in.  I know I said not too many lyrics but there is something just inherently soothing in their voices and instrumentation.  Norway put out two rad musicians.  Their lyrics make…sense.  You can relate to them it isn’t some fucking haiku that you can’t make sense of.  Thank you.  THANK YOU.

There is this song “Power of Knowing” and the lyrics are sad yet ring true to everyone…

I see you changing, girl, from day to day
impressed by, and trying to immitate.  Those
who are older, those who are colder.
Suddenly embarassed by your age.  A
bigger blessing, girl, is being young.  The
power of not knowing where you belong.  I
tried so hard to keep it not lose that
secret.  Waiting for someone like you to
come along.  Maybe it was me that made
you old.  Stole whatever it was that made
you glow.  A little touch of something, a lot
of love for nothing.  And now a heart once
open is now closed.

MMmmmm.  The beauty of youth and how those that are young dream of being older only to have the old dream of being young.  Having that fire and innocence to believe that anything in life is possible.  And how relationships can squelch that beautiful flame.

Anyway, I will try to put some tracks up soon to listen to.  They are yummy.

New Moon's leading couple--Robert Pattinson & Kristin Stewart

I am not part of the Twilight-obsessed clan but have recently taken some interest because of how huge the fan base is.  Once my older sister jumped onto the bandwagon I decided to Netflix that shit to my house.  And…it was aight.  I guess it is better to read the books and then watch the movie.  However, it is always nice to get a little invested in a movie about forbidden romance–it pulls on the giddy girls part of my heart.  And yes, that does exist.

Anyway, the first movie didn’t really have a soundtrack to write home about.  It had a few Paramore tracks and  Muse and Collective Soul made an appearance on the soundtrack.  I feel the main gap in obsession in Twilight comes from the college generation..the twenty-somethings.  And I feel like the creators of the movie fixed that this time with a killer soundtrack.  Whereas the original motion picture only had one of the artists I am obsessed with (Iron & Wine), this one has a never-ending list of bands/musicians that I love.  I mean  Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Death Cab for Cutie, Anya Marina, Thome Yorke, and The Killers…and that is just a few of ‘em.  Furthermore, I think the majority of the tracks are originals rather than being pulled from albums that already exist.  I appreciate that.  I mean, the soundtrack for Twilight: New Moon even got its own website: http://www.newmoonthesoundtrack.com.  Funny, eh?  I really liked the Bon Iver/St. Vincent track and Grizzly Bear’s.  One warning, the album is kinda down tempo and light.  So don’t go thinking that it is music to bump in your car because it isn’t.  It is music to relax to.

Here is the video for Death Cab’s song “Meet Me in the Equinox“, which is also on the soundtrack.