Ruby Suns, Cranberry

Ruby Suns - Cranberry (buy)

Two-part "Cranberry" opens with a sampled rhythm that is eerily similar to something we expect to hear from Animal Collective (see: "Into the Flowers"). Over it we hear vocals but no lyrics, and if we still listened to CD's this would be called "Cranberry (Prelude)." But we don't, so this extended introduction serves to complicate what is an otherwise tropical sounding pop song. There are major similarities between Animal Collective and Ruby Suns: their use of experimental, unidentifiable sounds; the buried pop structures.

In the radio-edit half of "Cranberry" the synth melody takes the place of what we once used guitars for, and their timbre is sea conch and steel drum. "Cranberry"'s combination of indie music technology and tropical rhythms serves as warning that summer is near. Will it make your friends happy at your next grill? Probably.

Haunted Graffiti

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round


"Round and Round" captures the sound of nostalgia with a chorus that washes over you like a tide. This is chillwave afterall right? The layered vocals and jubilant refrain sound like yellow-tinged sky, lomography, the 1960's and well, summer. It's vintage sunglasses, the release of She & Him's Volume II, Mad Men, the WSJ's write-up on chillwave, and your father's old shirts; what else do you need to know that 1960 was really just 2010 sans internet. It's such an obvious question, that I don't think it's asked enough: Aren't hipsters our generation's hippies?

Yellow Wings and 5 Rings (Precious!)

Keepaway - Yellow Wings (buy)

"Yellow Wings" has the vocal gibberish sample and prominent rhythms that are most often associated with Animal Collective. A song that features more layers of percussion than harmony, it also feels instantly similar to Caribou's "Odessa." At times the snare drums sound like a marching band, but this is clearly the accessible offspring of Animal Collective; says Pitchfork, "Keepaway also have an inclination toward indie-rock accessibility, allowing them to sidestep the formlessness that can suffocate more strict A.C.-devotees."

Merriweather Post Pavillion's inspiration however is left plainly on "5 Rings." The ooh ahh harmonies and hardly-there-except-for-texture guitars sound almost stolen. Even the cryptic lyric that is repeated through the song seems to harken back to AC, where words often have less significance than their inflection.

Secret Disco Party

The Hundred in the Hands are my new favorite discovery. "Dressed in Dresden" was a no-brainer entry into my top 10 tracks of 2009, and while the endless stream of remixes don't improve on the original's sexiness, they've been the only releases with which to judge the band. Playing in what was described to me by lead singer Ellie D. as a secret show, to a sparse and fashionably-late arriving crowd THITH kicked some butt. The combination of precise machine-made beats and very timely guitar patterns feels the right kind of good. Look for a full write-up and INTERVIEW at the end of the month.

The Weekend Remixes

Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn Flexin' It (Passion Pit Remix) (buy)
Marina and the Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot (Passion Pit Remix) (soundcloud) (buy)

Buzzy band this week, Two Door Cinema Club sounds like another Ben Gibbard rip-off, but in better taste than Owl effing City. The Passion Pit remix finds its place between the electronic beeps and buzzes of The Postal Service and the post-emo pop of Death Cab For Cutie. As for the band in general, I can't figure out what they are (tell me this doesn't sound just like DCFC). There is an untenable association in my mind linking them to New Pornagraphers.

This Marina and the Diamonds remix is topping Hype Machine I know, but it fits the theme of Passion Pit remixes too nicely to ignore. What I lack for in originality I make up for in timeliness. Plus, who doesn't love the lyric "You are not a robot, not a robot" mixed over PP sweeps and filters, only to hear them drop out and hear from a robotic talk box: "I am not a robot."

Flash Delirium--New MGMT

In case you're not following any other blogs out there, or you're just super selective and only like this one:

MGMT - Flash Delirium (get it from their website)

This pretty much flies in the face of every reason I write a blog, but I'm a little caught up in the hysteria and can't think rationally. I don't even know if it's a good song yet. It seems cool, sounds like MGMT... and a few other bands that sound like MGMT.

Mashups on Caffeine

Hood Internet - Wetter and Jeffe (Twista vs. Boyz Noize)

The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.

- Pagnol

If Girl Talk is mashups on cocaine, Hood Internet is mashups on caffeine. That sounds tame but it's not, it's actually about the speed of substance abuse that is right for mashups.

This should have been posted as a weekend track because it's that kind of great. Check out this track and other free Hood Internet tracks at Soundcloud.

There's A Place For Us

Reni Lane - Place For Us (buy)

Because you needed another electro-pop-dance-lady singer in your library. There's a line where electronic music gets too electronic even for indie music fans. Reni Lane and this remix of her first real single "Place For Us" are on the fun-but-I'm-not-at-a-rave-yet side of it. Just like contemporaries Ellie Goulding, Little Boots and Marina and the Diamonds, it's easy on the Boyz Noize and A-Trak bass thumps of the aughts. Which is so euro. Sorry someone would have said it if I didn't.

Girls Gone Oscar Wilde

Kisses (removed at request of label) Bermuda

It's been tough lately to find new songs that really grab me, so I'd been going backwards into old albums that deserved a dusting. That was until EMPT and IGIF pointed me in the way of the insipidly-named Kisses. A moniker that should have already been claimed by a 90's girl group, was somehow available to the LA-based Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson. Their self-prescribed tag line: "Girls Gone Oscar Wilde" is about as inspired as the color of my socks. Not a clue about what that is supposed to mean.

Kisses is about two weeks away from blowing up (when they'll play SXSW). The warmer weather that suits this disco-influenced chillwave pop will make them about as irresistible as milkshakes and Shack Stacks. Check out their Myspace, which yesterday had less than 4,000 views. But that's probably just because no one uses that shitshow anymore. I'm sure they're already a big deal in Asia.