This track is the sex:

Nightfall (The Chaotic Good Remix) - Kavinsky

Shout out to Crustacean Cognition: Various Things to Post (RANDOM BATCH OF AWESOME) for turning me onto it.

Electric Daisy Carnival Breakdown

One girl overdoses and everyone goes crazy. Raves are on the hotseat these days so I thought it timely to post the EDC review that my school chums did recently:

Apes With Barrels: EEDEESEE

Saw this on IndieBlogHeaven.  Gotta love Jack White. Check it out:

Watch the full episode. See more In Performance at The White House.

http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834520f5d69e2013485989668970c

Grab ceo's "Come With Me" For Free!

Finally, iTunes puts up a good Single of the Week.  Mr. ceo would like you to download it: iTunes Link

Wolf Parade: Expo 86 Review

"Expo 86" is the third studio album from Canadasian-rock marauders Wolf Parade.  The new LP   is defined by its cohesion between songwriters Dan Boeckner (guitar) and Spencer Krug (keys).  On previous albums "At Mount Zoomer" and "Apologies to Queen Mary," the songs sounded very hollow, isolationist, as if Krug and Boekner were clashing and competing to be heard on every song, or if they weren't competing they sounded absent or bored on the tracks that weren't theirs.  "Expo" is the first time that Wolf Parade has sounded like a BAND, which isn't necessarily good or bad.

It all starts with Krug's "Cloud Shadow On the Mountain" which sounds remarkably similar to Black Sabbath's "Paranoid."  I'll put them up at the bottom so you can compare them.  You might not hear it at first, but they have the exact same drumbeat, tempo, and a very similar structure.  Listening to the song, there comes a part where I'm waiting for that famous riff that is played at the end of Paranoid's verses (on "pa-ci-fy" and "sa-tis-fy, here they should land on "find your horns" and "scorpion" but, alas, they don't *sigh*).  Anyways the song is great, very weird lyrics about scorpions and dreamcatchers.  Looks like Krug's gotten into peyote recently (aka again and all the time lol).

Then comes Boeckner's "Palm Road," a fairly straightforward song about watching the apocalypse from an island.  Cool stuff.  These two tracks are pretty good examples of the Wolf Parade from Mount Zoomer and reminiscent of some the work off "Apologies."  I agree with Pitchfork's review here that the examples of band cohesion start after "Palm Road."  It's interesting that the first two songs talk about a dream of being reborn and the destruction of society.  Perhaps these are conscious metaphors for Wolf Parade's inception of a new musical approach and the destruction of their old one on "Expo."  The reason I say this is because the cohesion is so apparent from this point on that it seems weird to me that there would just be two isolationist tracks at the beginning that don't fit in with the rest at all.  Maybe it's bullsh**. Whatever.

Anyways then it's Krug's "What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)," which is driven by a pulsating Boeckner riff and classic affected Krug lyrics.  Krug accentuates the mood with ethereal synths and the drums keep pounding.  There's an annoying breakdown in the middle, which gets tedious. But it's a fine track and a  great example of the two working together.  Cool lyric: "I've got a sandcastle heart/ made out of fine, black sand./ Sometimes it turns into glass/ when shit gets hot."

Boeckner's "Little Golden Age" takes the inverse approach:  driving synth, accentuated by a simple guitar riff and nuanced and personal lyrics from Boeckner about drinking and waiting for things to be perfect and then it never lasts.  He sings "Freeze, freeze, freeze Little Golden Age."  Time is fleeting.  One of the best songs on the album.

Then it's Krug's "In the Direction of the Moon."  It sounds cool, cohesion and everything blah blah blah.  It's alright. Nothing great here.

Finally it's time for "Ghost Pressure," my favorite song on the album solely because it has the coolest synth part in the world.  Boeckner howls "Little vision come shake me up, shake me up!" and finally at the end Krug chimes in and the two close it out together.  They rarely sing together, so it's awesome to hear.

"Poboy's Nerfect," besides the really stupid title, is cool jam and has one of the simplest song structures I've heard from Wolf Parade.  Coolest line on the album: "...built this city on cocaine lasers."

"Two Men in Tuxedos" SUCKS!

"Oh You, Old Thing," has two great synths (and a Spanish guitar for a millisecond).  This is one of Krug's best on the album.

"Yulia" is the most anthemic and most epic song on the album while also being the second shortest.  You can imagine it being a crowd favorite at gigs, with the easy chant-chorus of "Yulia, Yulia, Yulia" which often reminds me of Elvis Costello's "Allison."  

And then there is the phenomenal Cavo-O-Sapien, where everyone just goes berzerk.  It's very punk-rock with crazy spastic vocals from Krug and complex riffs from Boeckner, featuring some Boeckner chanting and then Krug sings the guitar melody and I'm like WHAT WAS THAT?  and don't forget about the Cav-O-Sapien!!!!  IT'S CRAZY and tons of fun.

"But I've got you/ until you're gone..."

Now when you're comparing Wolf Parade's "Cloud Shadow On the Mountain" and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," listen to "Cloud Shadow" from 0:23-0:34 seconds and then immediately listen to "Paranoid" from 0:12-0:24 seconds. Same drumbeat, same structure.  If you go back and listen to "Cloud Shadow" your mind will even fill in the "Paranoid" guitar riff at the ends of the verses. Pretty cool.

Cloud Shadow On the Mountain-Wolf Parade by TheBoyandColors

Black Sabbath - Paranoid by Stelios_K

Ghost Pressure-Wolf Parade by TheBoyandColors


Cave-O-Sapien-Wolf Parade by TheBoyandColors


Overall let's go with a 7.5 good vibes/10.

I'll Try Anything Once (But I'm Still Going with the Demo)

“I’ll Try Anything Once” is an early demo of what would eventually become The Stroke’s “You Only Live Once” off their third LP “First Impressions of Earth.”   This early version has been a fan favorite for ages and was released as a b-side on the “Heart in a Cage” single, but it’s hard to find and isn’t featured on iTunes or other online music retailers.  Recently, Julian Casablancas has released an EP entitled “Live from Electric Lady Studios, WRXP New York,” which features a live recording.  However, the latest take lacks the intimacy that is one of the demo’s main attractions.  Sofia Coppola agrees, choosing the demo version as the main musical accompaniment for the trailer of her latest film "Somewhere."


I'll Try Anything Once-Julian Casablancas by TheBoyandColors

Memory Tapes Messes With Your Mind

Memory Tapes is a puzzler.  His songs kind of have a Caribou-y Hot Chip-y feel but then throw in a little Neon Indian and season with 80s pop.  It’s an interesting concoction and it’s been a chore to try to pin it to a genre.  I guess the term is glo-fi or “chillwave.”  Toro y Moi are in the same camp.  In this case I think the genre isn’t important.  The sound is diverse weaving from post-dilla beats, to weird Flylo-esque samples, to indie pop, to world music, to house and electronic.  Part of the fun is tracing the songs as they morph and evolve over their duration.  Listen to “Bicycles” and “Stop Talking” and see for yourself. 

Bicycle-Memory Tapes by TheBoyandColors

Stop Talking-Memory Tapes by TheBoyandColors

Magic Kids Keep the Endorphin Levels High with "Summer" Jam

“Summertime is for sweethearts” croons Bennett Foster in a velvety voice that sounds low but isn’t really before eventually launching into a Brian Wilson falsetto accompanied by orchestral strings which then fade away, allowing a wavering organ to slip in and out of tune and warble in playful youth and insanity. This track is a phenomenal ode to masters Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson.  Magic Kids are doing for orchestral pop what Sufjan Stevens did for orchestral folk: inventing it.  And it really is some of the freshest most interesting music I’ve heard lately.  Check out their single “Summer” and keep your eyes peeled when their album drops later this year.  

Summer-Magic Kids by TheBoyandColors

New Arcade Fire is Well-Received

Arcade Fire released two singles today from their upcoming third album entitled "The Suburbs."  The first is a double single featuring songs "The Suburbs" and "Month of May." These are two of the earliest virally-released songs off "Suburbs" and have been on the Arcade Fire myspace for some time.  Next is the "Ready to Start" single. Now, this one justifies the post title.  The song has already shot up to #10 on the iTunes Alternative Chart, surpassing Edward Sharpe's "Home" and Sky Sailing's "Captains of the Sky" and has reached #177 on the overall chart (that should tell you something about the state of the Alternative genre lol).  Good for them! Personally, I'm not really sure if I like the new songs.  I think "Ready to Start" is a great pulse-pounder, one of Arcade Fire's best (and maybe the only) high-energy rock songs.  But there's NO CHORUS! Oh Arcade Fire, you're only, yet really annoying, flaw. Write choruses!  On the other hand the song has some really cool lyrics: "Businessmen drink my blood/ like the kids in art school said they would."  I don't know what to think.

Ready to Start-Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire "Ready To Start" by OctopusWindmill

The Beat is Too Sick!

So I heard this beat a while ago (The Bully Plank by Paper Tiger) and was just waiting for someone to rap over it... well, no one did.  So I said, "Okay. I'll do it."  Here it is. Hope you like it.

P.S. "Ambushkas" means "ambushing babushkas," at least to me. (BTW if you wanna download the mp3, just click the downward facing arrow in the right sidebar of the soundcloud below. it's free.)

Heart Left in the Sand:
Heart Left in the Sand-The Boy and Colors by TheBoyandColors

Summer of Surf Rock: Wavves, Japandroids, Surfer Blood, and More!

Summer 2010 is here and so are the music trends:

Trend #1: Surf Rock

Artists- 

Japandroids

Wavves

The Drums

The Soft Pack

Cloud Nothings

Male Bonding

Surfer Blood

The Young Veins

This list starts on the punk-ier side with Japandroids and Wavves, bands whose popularity among the likes of Pitchfork and Sterogum perplexes me; these are the same sites that utterly despise Blink-182.  Wavves and Japandroids have a VERY Blink-esque sound so why are they exempt?  My theory is that since garage-punk was so common and popular back in the 90s, it was easier to be "that guy" and rebel against it, listen to The White Stripes, and think you were cooler than everyone else.  But now that garage-punk is almost extinct, hearing a band like Wavves or Japandroids sounds fresh and cool.  But whatever, I've always been a Blink fan and as long as it isn't to emo-y I like the genre. More Kool-Aid!  

After that we transition to the pop-y-er side of surf rock: The Drums, The Soft Pack, and Cloud Nothings.  All three are very different.  The Drums are super upbeat with lots of energy and songs about Summer and surfing.  Soft Pack's strong suit is their simplicity; early on while listening I designated them the California-Strokes.  Now obviously, they're not nearly as good as the Strokes (most of their lyrics fall pretty flat) but it has that kind untampered-with, raw guitar-bass-kickdrum style.  It's quintessential "alternative." If The Strokes were from Cali playing out of a beach-garage in Santa Monica, this could be them.  Cloud Nothings is classic modern/indie pop music with 90s-style punkwhine vocals and an organ player, which is a nice touch.          

Male Bonding and Surfer Blood walk the line between the punky surf rock of Wavves and Japandroids and the ambient choruses of The Beach Boys.  On their respective albums you'll find fist-pounder's like Male Bonding's "Year's Not Long"  and Surfer Blood's "Swim," but also shimmery time reflections "Franklin" and "Catholic Pagans."

Lastly, we have the Beach Boys, I mean the Beatles, I mean the Kinks, I mean The Young Veins.  They are comprised of the guitarist and bassist from Panic! at the Disco, which really threw me off and predisposed me to hate them but after giving 'em a fair listen I have to say, they're making some pretty good music. They go full Beach Boys on their solid summer jam "Take a Vacation!"  Apparently, other times they're the Beatles or the Kinks, but really it just sounds like 60s pop... which in my opinion is a good thing.     


Here are the killer tracks:


Post Acid-Wavves by TheBoyandColors
Younger Us-Japandroids by TheBoyandColors
Saddest Summer-The Drums by TheBoyandColors
C'Mon-The Soft Pack by TheBoyandColors
Didn't You-Cloud Nothings by TheBoyandColors

Franklin-Male Bonding by TheBoyandColors

Floating Vibes-Surfer Blood by TheBoyandColors
Take A Vacation!-The Young Veins by TheBoyandColors

So there you have it.  Get ready for a summer of beach, sun, and surf (rock).  

-TheBoyandColors

Das Racist: Shut Up, Dude Mixtape Review

You all know them through their misunderstood social commentary
Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell quirky hip-hop trio Das Racist is made up of hyper-literate rappers Himanshu Suri and Victor Vasquez, and occasional hype-man Ashok Kondabolu a.k.a. "Dap."  Cursed and blessed with an instantaneous spotlight after "Combination" officially crossed over into meme-dom, Das Racist has been busy proving their act's legitimacy to the world.  Finally, with their official mixtape "Shut Up, Dude" 's release we can be the judges of that:

But B4 we get to the actual songs here's something to mull over:

Das describes their method as "deconstructionalist," "sawing the legs out from under hip-hop as they celebrate it" (I don't know how to use footnotes on blogger, this quote if from a New York Magazine article by Josh Eells, Josh, please don't sue me), complete with repetitive lyrics and what would be considered lazy poetic composition if it weren't for the knowledge that they are apparently doing it on purpose.  There are three things that come to mind with the term "deconstrucionalist":

1. It's not a word (the real word is deconstructionist)
If deconstructionist is the implied term then I consider the two primary definitions
2. The architectural sense of dismantlement, demolishing, etc. as everyone has taken Das's statement to mean (exemplified above) or
3. The literary theory (Thank you 11th grade Great Books)

What?

Deconstruction is essentially the cop-out of literary theories.  When after a long school-night of looking for feminism, Marxism, modernism, and Freudian complexes in some book you never read in the first place, the best way to relax is to say "Screw it all! I'm going with Deconstructionism!"  It is the anti-theory that says that a work is inherently self-contradictory and that any attempt to formulate a uniform theory about the work will be undermined by clashing details.  Awesome right? This sounds a lot like Das Racist to me.

So here's my theory: Maybe I'm just justifying a really stupid misuse of the word by Victor and Himanshu, but I give them more credit than that.  I think they must also take into account the literary theory's definition when describing their work.  Das doesn't have a "style," purpose or intent and any attempt to issue them a moniker will go up in smoke.  As you will see, Das's songs are too intrinsically weird.  And the fact that they say "deconstructionalist" instead of deconstructionist is really funny because it is essentially proving the deconstructionist theory: their attempt at using an intellectual term undermined by their incorrect knowledge of it.  Genius! You better have meant this to be the case, guys!!

Ok so obviously Das Racist are way smarter than "Combination" attests to.  The problem is; that isn't always a good thing.  The proof is their comedic rap "Fake Patois," which is simply four minutes and seven seconds of them making fun of artists with simulated accents.  Now this idea by itself is great, but in execution (or lack there of) it falls flat.  Victor simply raps "(insert name) had a fake patois" while Himanshu adds "O-ridgey-nal rude boiiiiii" 's to the mess.  It's a funny idea that would have been better executed by the likes of Andy Samberg, someone with perseverance, willing to see an idea through to the end (Ras Trent kicks this songs a**), and a heart to appeal to his fans.  Das Racist are smart and talented, but it seems they have no goal to please people.  They're making music for themselves and that's why the songs are so alienating.  But I've bagged on them long enough and only talked about one song.  Das Racist does have a few gems on the album.

"Rainbow in the Dark" is their masterpiece, laden with pop culture references, featuring the sickest beat on the album.  It'll make your head hurt trying to lock down exactly what they're saying.  Some of most strictly lyrical rhymes are on here as well:  "In the periphery/of little Sicily" "tiny-ass chicken sandwiches/it's outlandish kid."  And some of the smartest: "We could eat the flyest cave-aged cheese fa' sheez ma/ yeah we're getting gruyére/ as if we care/ we could eat Roquefort/ or we could just kick it like Rockports."

"Shorty Said" is another great one, with an actual perspective and slight narrative as Victor and Himanshu mock their experience with racial profiling.  Here's Himanshu's part: "Shorty said I look like Slash with no hat on... shorty said I look like Devendra Banhart/ shorty said I look like that dude from Japan's art/ you know the dude who did the Kanye album cover?/ shorty said I look just like Egyptian Lover."  

As you can see, Das are at their best when they have a format, narrative, or message. The fact that I consider "Rainbow" and "Shorty Said" to have a format/narrative should tell you something about the other songs on the album.  Yes "Combination" is fun for a little while, but you won't want to listen to it more than a couple times. Most of the songs on "Shut Up, Dude" are in the "Combination" camp: half-assed rhymes with no poetic composition, repeating stale lines sometimes up to seven times.  It's sad because with their level of talent they could really create some everlasting hip-hop.  Unfortunately, "Shut Up, Dude" ends up with four amazing tracks and 13 "Fake Patois"s.



Cop these:  "Rainbow in the Dark," "You Oughta Know," "Shorty Said," "Deep Ass Shit (You'll Get It When You're High)."  The rest are all bulls***.

P.S. for a VERY different take, check out the Pitchfork "review" here: Shut Up, Dude