popwreckoning

TV on the Radio and Arctic Monkeys will headline the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 6 PM.  Also performing are Panda Bear, Warpaint and Smith Westerns. Tickets go on sale Saturday, June 18.

Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox, also know as Panda Bear, will make his Hollywood Bowl debut sharing the stage with producer Sonic Boom.  Panda Bear’s latest album, Tomboy, is currently topping the CMJ charts, and the Hollywood Bowl performance will be the only West coast performance in support of the album. Warpaint, the critically acclaimed Los Angeles quartet, and Chicago’s Smith Westerns also make their Hollywood Bowl debuts.

This is an event that LA doesn’t want to miss. For more information and complete artist biographies, visit:  www.hollywoodbowl.com

Melbourne’s synthpop act Cut Copy have released their third studio album Zonoscope, recorded over several months, in their hometown and then mixed by Ben Allen (Deerhunter, Animal Collective and Gnarls Barkley) in Atlanta. The album was released on Modular Recordings on February 8. With their fame being stabilized by their second album, In Ghost Colours, released in 2008, the new album has been in the making since the comedown of their second album. Zonoscope is in the same ballpark as LCD Soundsystem and Phoenix, but throw in some 70s and 80’s, with just a dash of tropical summer beats.

The band, being around about a decade now, is very ambitious in the sense that they devoted a 15 minute block to the song “Sun God.” The song is one of the more immediate tracks in the sense that it has a more distinct sound and an entire minute of the mantra: “You’ve got to live, you’ve got to die, so what’s the purpose of you and I?” Then the song is swept away into a spiraling instrumental until the end of the album.

Though in that ambition, it could alienate those who were looking for a continuation of In Ghost Colours. Especially with the stark contrast from 30-second fillers that filled In Ghost Colours to the abstract instrumentals that divide the tracks, giving the listener a flowing album and something that wasn’t expected. These could easily be mistaken as flukes instead of the miniature bits of genius they are.

Even in the small bits of chaos throughout the album, the band’s soul is in every note that they hold on to and every lyric that frontman Dan Whitford sings is a dazzling soft silky tone that also hides a bite. The band has it all for sound, upbeat kaleidoscopic synths, soothing vocal hooks, tropical percussions, bouncing disco beats and a Caribbean vibe. The album in itself is a melting pot of all of these ideas with the same shimmer that led to the band getting to where they are now. “Take Me Over” is a brilliant display of almost all of these aspects, and with the catchy hook: “take me over, take me out, through the jungle, through the night, to paradise,” it is one that can be instantly loved. “Where I’m Going” is an explosive festivity of a rock ’n’ roll core with kaleidoscope synth. It explores a new place that the band has yet to go and a possible hint into where they could be going.

Zonoscope is the most pure form of Cut Copy and their boldest effort to date. It is something new and the band has been consistently making new music and pursuing new territories. Also, keep in mind that the childish mindset that was seen in In Ghost Colour is still there at the core, but has started along the path of maturity and is shown through Zonoscope.

Track Listing:

1. Need You Now
2. Take Me Over
3. Where I’m Going
4. Pharaohs & Pyramids
5. Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution
6. Strange Nostalgia for The Future
7. This Is All We’ve Got
8. Alisa
9. Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat
10. Corner of the Sky
11. Sun God

Sometimes there are those albums that hit you in a place that haven’t seen the light of day in months. I mean, you have all the glittery pop that sinks its way into your eyeballs, the dance rock that makes your feet jitter about, the heavier rock that you feel in the depths of your stomach, and then there are albums that penetrate your cerebral cortex like Friends for Now, the debut album from the San Francisco collective Young Prisms.

This album came to my attention very late at night, in the last remaining hours of winter freedom between quarters at my University, and it couldn’t have been the better soundtrack to the occasion. Music that my elders may sometimes call “noise,” Young Prisms sound like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth got together on a sunny day and took some acid. It’s very post-post-post-rock, almost like the falling action of the Animal Collective-esque climax, if post-rock was described in dramatic structure. Now some of you may be like, “then why the hell would I want to listen to that?” Some of you may be like, “Anything that sounds like Sonic Youth must be a work of genius,” and some of you may be like, “what, acid? I want some.”

Whichever person you are, the music that Young Prisms put out on their debut record might be exactly your cup of tea, or it might just be a special cup of tea for a certain kind of mood.

For me right now, it’s my cup of tea.

Being of the “shoegaze” variety, lyrics are often indecipherable, and therefore aren’t the most important part. Like I said before, the music (whether I can understand the lyrics or not) found its way into my brain and drowned my head in sound. Now I’m sure it would be a different experience if it was live or if I was on drugs, but as a completely sober human being I enjoyed Friends for Now very much. I will warn you however, it’s definitely not an album to belt out with your friends on a long drive with the windows down or “dance” to (I say “dance” because it would be more like swaying and…well…gazing at your shoes). The songs on Friends for Now rang from the 0:58 trippy and distorted “All Day Holiday” to the 5:57 dreamy epic “In Your Room,” but all of it flows together perfectly, and when your iTunes is set on a 10-second crossfade, it makes for quite an interesting listening experience. “Feel Fine,” “If Don’t Get Much” and “Breathless” are my stand-outs, mixing the fuzzy guitars with an easily discernible baseline, melody, and beat, which definitely makes Young Prisms more than just “noise.” Now get the album, start a pot of Yerba Mate, plop yourself down in a huge comfy chair, turn the lights down, put on your inexplicably large noise-canceling headphones, and let ‘er rip. Hopefully, if you’re in the right mood, you’ll quite enjoy it.

And I’m off to have another cup of tea.

Tracklist:
01 Friends For Now
02 If You Want To
03 Sugar
04 Eleni
05 In Your Room
06 All Day Holiday
07 Breathless
08 Feel Fine
09 I Don’t Get Much
10 Stay Awake

Find them here:
Tumblr
Myspace

Danish experimental pop quintet Oh No Ono is making their US debut on Brooklyn-based Friendly Fire Recordings with their latest collection of audio intricacies and oddities, Eggs. The band formed in 2003 and released their first EP, Now You Know Oh No Ono, in February 2005. Since then, they have become one of the most influential bands in Denmark; band members include Aske Zidore (guitar, vocals, samples), Kristoffer Rom (drums), Nis Svoldgaard (bass), Kristian Olsen (keyboards) and Malthe Fischer (guitar and vocals).

To record their latest album, the band locked themselves away in a small country home for nine months to create a trippy, instrumental-filled, highly-textured bag of enjoyable odd. Each of the ten songs seems to get stranger and more unique as you travel alongside their drums, bass, guitar, vocals and animal noise-filled journey to a place far off this planet. Their sound is inherently their own. It is a compelling mixture of bizarre and catchy tunes that border on the verge of “what were we listening to?”

Oh No Ono is a pop band that mixes electro, new wave and psychedelic styles to become an alternative sound similar to that of Animal Collective and Brooklyn-based band Grizzly Bear. Personal stand-out songs include “Swim,” which emanates an eerie and peaceful sound that is entirely mutually exclusive, “Icicles,” a song with an on-again, off-again haunting operatic feel and my personal favorite, “Helplessly Young,” which is a fast-paced, poppy rock song.

Oh No Oho – “Helplessly Young”

Watch “Swim”

This band definitely has a voice, a knack for the weird and the desire to create a new sound in every song. After listening to Eggs, I started to wonder how these songs came about. Were they on acid? Meth? And then I remember they spent nine months in a country home together. Whatever Oh No Ono did, it worked.

Watch out for the US debut of Oh No Ono’s latest release, Eggs, on January 26, 2010.

Tracklisting:
01. Eleanor Speaks
02. Swim
03. Internet Warrior
04. Icicles
05. Helplessly Young
06. The Wave Ballet
07. The Tea Party
08. Miss Miss Moss
09. Eve
10. Beelitz

Oh No Ono: website | myspace

Animal Collective has released yet another video that will take several views to take it all in. “Brother Sport” off Merriweather Post Pavilion is directed by Jack Kubizne.

The year 2009 turned me into an Animal Collective fan in more ways than one. Very early on in the year, I came upon Merriweather Post Pavilion (MPP) after reading about it on one of my favorite blogs, Hipster Runoff. I didn’t listen to it very much after downloading it, mainly because I didn’t “get it.” I didn’t understand Animal Collective at the time. But in May, I caught the second half of Animal Collective’s set at the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Columbia River as I waited for the Decemberists to start, and they mesmerized me. I still didn’t quite understand what it was, but I just knew that I liked it.

After that, I listened to MPP a lot over the summer. And a lot this fall. And Strawberry Jam a lot. And Feels a lot. And Campfire Songs a lot.  So when I heard earlier this fall that Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox,  Davey “Avey Tare” Portner, and Brian “Geologist” Weitz were releasing a new EP to follow-up their January masterpiece, I jumped out of my sneakers.

Fall Be Kind met my highest expectations. Once I got it, I plugged my earbuds in and just listened to it, basking in the all-encompassing sound that Animal Collective banked on with MPP. But what was different with Fall Be Kind was how it dropped the sometimes-frantic energy that made MPP such a good dance album as well as a great album to groove to. Fall Be Kind felt exactly like the cozier, eerier b-sides that they left off of MPP. Fitting for the title, I felt like was literally listening to fall – dark, heavy, peaceful, and at times, dewy.

The EP opened up on the swirling energy of “Graze,” a 5:22-long epic that moves like a carnival ride – the excited anticipation to the long and anxiety-building straightaway to the smile-inducing loops and twists. Animal Collective even used some wicked pan flute to up the fairytale feel. “What Would I Want? Sky,” a track that samples the Grateful Dead’s “Unbroken Chain,” also stays with the bright vibe that “Graze” kicked the EP off with. It isn’t quite as frenetic as the first, but this Fall Be Kind EP moves swiftly from one song to the next. That’s also something that sets this EP apart from MPP – Portner and Lennox’s contrasting vocals and how they harmonize wonderfully. Even with the haunting third track, “Bleeding,” Lennox’s voice is the driving force over the simple and ghostly bass line. The undertones never change, and Lennox’s voice never really changes all that much either. “Bleeding” felt even more like a cut from Lennox’s solo album Person Pitch than an Animal Collective song.

If I had to pick a low-point to the album, but only if I absolutely had to, it would be “On A Highway.”  It didn’t bring as many new sounds to Animal Collective’s repertoire and the repetition that “Bleeding” did so well didn’t quite work as effectively on “On A Highway.” But either way, it’s still awesome, just not quite as awesome as the other songs on the album. The last track on the album, “I Think I Can,” brought this EP full circle – finishing on the twirling xylophone and the overlapping singing by Lennox and Portner. Like a great conclusion to an essay, “I Think I Can” refers back to the introduction to the album. But without being a repeat of “Graze,” “I Think I Can” felt like the zig zag that fit in on top of the big block in Tetris – like it wasn’t originally meant to fit there, but it does anyway.

Since these were tracks compiled together as cuts from MPP, previously recorded BBC tracks and tour favorites, they obviously weren’t crafted together as a cohesive album to begin with, but they still are amazingly cohesive.

I know I’m gushing, but thankfully, I “get” Animal Collective now. If you don’t get them yet, I insist that you listen to them in backwards chronological order, starting with Fall Be Kind and Merriweather Post Pavilion. You’ll get it, and you’ll thank yourself for that.

Track Listing:
01. Graze
02. What Would I Want? Sky
03. Bleed”
04. On a Highway
05. I Think I Can

Animal Collective: website | myspace

Domino Records is excited to announce that Lightspeed Champion has returned with his second album, Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You. The follow-up to 2008’s Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is an epic collection of twelve pop songs, two instrumental intermissions and one piano étude, set for release on February 1st.

Lightspeed Champion mastermind Devonte Hynes‘ early leaning towards American country dressings is traded here for a palette that draws on classical music and even musical theatre. Producer and mixer Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley) assembles the eclectic grab-bag of influences: joltingly ‘70s guitar and synth sounds, classical piano, Greek choruses shouting reprisals, and at least one ukelele-driven moment. The first single from the new album is entitled “Marlene” and will be out January 25th (happy birthday to me!) with an exclusive double seven inch for sale at Domino Records’ online store. Watch the trailer for “Marlene” below.

Dev also has a new interactive website, where you can create a profile, upload images and videos and talk to fellow Lightspeed Champion fans. The site also includes new track “Heavy Purple,” that Popwreckoning featured months ago by the way. You can download “Heavy Purple” by signing up at LightspeedChampion.com. On the site, Dev is uploading lots of stuff including short films, photos and exclusive music, as well as continuing his already popular blog. Currently you can enjoy Dev’s Wordplay orientated Three Sentence Movie reviews, as well as his pun of the day.

Lightspeed Champion: website | myspace | @ world cafe live

Phoenix’s fourth LP drop, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, was critically praised by critics the world over and shone a light on a band that through no choice of their own, eluded immense popularity. One track off of that album that was well received was “Love Like A Sunset.” Though I do enjoy the track, I don’t hold it in as high esteem as others when compared to others from the album, however, I quite like the remixes.

.Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset
“Love Like A Sunset” is an extremely long song, running close to eight minutes, with the majority being a dark and moody instrumental composition. The piano keys fall like raindrops on a cool and dreary evening, the melody hums, and a foreboding essence plumes from the staccato guitars. Though around six minutes in, sunshine breaks through the gloom with sweetly strummed guitars, Mars’ gentle vocals and a slower pace that ends with “You’re like a sunset.”

.Shuttle Remix
The Shuttle remix is concise, which is welcome. It’s not ominous or brooding like the original, but comes in with programmed drums that pitter patter throughout the track. Brief, but intense pushes on synthesizers are intermittently inserted, but right away we are welcomed with Mars’ vocals, which is the best part of the track. From there the song picks up with insane pace, become a pseudo techy house mix, with fuzz, distortion and bubbles of electronic tweaks. Also worth noting is that Shuttle is a member of Passion Pit, with whom Phoenix was playing a few shows with.

.Animal Collective Remix
The AC remix sticks to the blueprints of the moodiness of the original. The song is raw with a touch of tribal drums and the airy feel of the original. Here, too, Mars’ vocals come in without any delay and echo across the tune in a spacial manner. The remix picks up a little speed but for the most part sticks to this format, pleasant, understated, but nonetheless great to listen to.

Phoenix: website | myspace | @ rumsey playfield | @ monolith | @ record bar

Photo by: Dese’Rae L. Stage

Saturday’s adventures could not begin without doing one vital piece of preparation: I checked weather.com. Sun and humidity was what I had to look forward to for the day. After Friday, that seemed like a good thing. After actually enduring it for a whole day, I almost wished for the rain back…almost.

Being press has a few perks, so I started off at a Playboy party of all things. I dressed up in a cute dress and hoped that I wouldn’t look too out of place with my rather average breast size. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only non-Playboy girl at the party and the Playmates were all super nice. The party was a fantastic way to start the day. I received colored hair extensions from the in-house stylist, Aura Friedman, enjoyed a nice mimosa to start my day and had a delicious breakfast of a fancy brie cheese cracker creation while listening to the DJ stylings of DJ Mom Jeans–aka Danny Masterson, or as many know him: Hyde from “That 70s Show”. The place was all decked out with Twister and make out rooms, but the best feature of all was the great view of Grant Park from the top of the Hilton Hotel. Absolutely breathtaking.

I made it into the park to catch a bit of Miike Snow and as the main singer pointed out, yes Miike Snow is a band and yes it is spelled with two “i”s and that isn’t changing. Miike Snow was a lot better than the last time I saw them, but I did lose interest when a slow number was played that just never seemed to end. They need to keep people dancing and fortunately they figured that out and bumped it up a notch for the final song.

I passed by Ida Maria warming up her husky and bold voice at the Citi Stage. Her powerful vocals followed me as I walked to the other side of the park to see what would be my favorite act of the day at the Budweiser Stage: Los Campesinos.

Los Campesinos just tore it up. The last time I saw them–and this was just a few months ago, mind you–they played to a small crowd of like 20 people in a tiny bar in Omaha. For an early set, they had a huge crowd that could have rivaled many of the later day acts and not only were these people there to watch them, but they actually knew them. I couldn’t believe how a crowd of half drunks managed to keep up with complicated clapping patterns that some of the songs called for. Lollapalooza had been the band’s first show on U.S. soil, so it was a bit of a nostalgic set and this was a bit of a step up from the last time they played. I was glad to hear a new song thrown in the set.

Gareth Campesinos, lead singer, seemed especially surprised with the crowd they drew and the fact that the festival organizers gave them a whole hour for their set and even commented on how the band might have been speeding through their songs faster than they intended. The crowd didn’t mind and just continued dancing.

If I hadn’t already concluded that Gareth’s bright red face as he jumped around the stage, the tribute to Elliott Smith in honor of what would have been his birthday this weekend, and the many talents of Aleksandra Campesinos as she sang and played keys were enough of a reason to conclude this was the best set of the day, “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks” as their finale cemented that view. As the crowd was participating by raising their hands to show “One blink for yes, two blinks for no,” Gareth decided to come out and join them and sing from the crowd. Now, the drop from the Budweiser Stage to get to the crowd is not a short distance and security looked a bit alarm about what to do, but some how the singer made it to the audience and even later back on stage during the big instrumental build-up. As if that wasn’t insane enough, once he was back on stage, the other guys set down their bass and guitar and they then took their turn dropping down like 15ft off the stage, over the barricade and crowd-surfing for the duration of the song. Completely insane, it has been great to see this band come into their prime. I just hope that Aleksandra’s departure after this tour doesn’t hurt their quality too much.

After Slash came out as a special guest last year at Perry’s Stage, I thought perhaps something amazing like that would happen again. But after standing over at Perry’s Stage forever and watching him perform with Stripper McSlutterson only to bring out the “special guests,” I was kicking myself for giving up a spot where I could actually see Arctic Monkeys just to see him perform with DJs from earlier in the day on the last number. Lame.

Arctic Monkeys brought out all their hits, but with the size of their crowd and not being able to even really see them, I figured I stood a better chance just watching their new live DVD.

I tried to catch buzz act No Age on Citi Stage, but thought it too messy. I know the one guy is recently injured, but even being lenient for that, these blog darlings are no longer darlings of mine. I did not get their hype.

Coheed and Cambria is a band that everyone should see whether that is their type of music or not. Anybody who can keep up that falsetto when bogged down by that much hair is simply a site to witness. I came across their set as they were digging into their Rockband-popular hit, “Wake Up”.

Exhausted from my trek around so many stages, I chilled in the grass for a few Glasvegas songs. They sounded fine, but their performance was ho hum. I find a wee bit more energy to check out Santigold‘s circus-like set. Shiny stage outfits dazzled in the sun and despite the heat and exhaustion that was settling in by this point in the day, it was hard not to dance to this set.

I watched a little TV on the Radio, but they didn’t have anything new to add from the bajillion times I’ve already seen them this year. So I again trotted down to the other end of the venue to watch punk rockers Rise Against. I got distracted by Lykke Li on my way and actually found her entertaining despite the hideous black bag of an outfit she was flailing around in. Her gentle voice and sturdy beats made her a good pairing to hang with the likes of Santigold and other dance acts that had impressed throughout the festival. Rise Against surprised me with how many of their songs that I knew. I really thought I only knew “Swing Life Away”, which isn’t even a fair example of what they actually sound like. They weren’t my thing, but they weren’t bad.

Animal Collective got the crowd jumping with their ethereal and trippy beats paired with colorful video imagery and lots of lights. I loved them, but I think the Tool fans hated them as their set started to go over their allotted time and into Tool’s. Tool finally said fuck it and took to the stage anyway. Industrial metal kept me surprisingly entertained for a few songs, especially with the bass lines. However, I soon decided to move on to see how the late addition headliners, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, were holding up.

Considering that a majority of the people at the festival already had their tickets before they knew the YYYs would be there, Karen O and company drew one of the largest crowds yet. The tiny front woman with a big voice and even bigger stage presence did a good job feeling the shoes of the Beastie Boys. Even her lyrical flub during an acoustic version of “Maps” was forgivable and it kind of made the band all that more loveable. I think many would have said Saturday was a weaker day for the sets, but sticking around for YYYs was worth it.

We tried to get into an after party with Santigold and Passion Pit, but apparently being told you’d be fine with an RSVP/VIP pass meant nothing when they still had a guest list. I suppose one night of sleep wasn’t too bad and at least waiting in line for the party I got to watch a cellphone video of Bassnectar, whom I had never really heard of, but people just could not stop talking about after Saturday’s line up.  Based off the poor quality video that still made Bassnectar look bad ass, I’m kind of kicking myself for not being on this bandwagon already. Alas.

Lollapalooza: Saturday in summary:
Best set of the day: Los Campesinos / Yeah Yeah Yeahs tie (and I hear Bassnectar killed it, but can’t personally attest that)
Best surprises of the day: Los Campesinos crowd-surfing, despite the long drop from the Budweiser Stage to get to the crowd; Yeah Yeahs Yeahs performing “Maps” acoustic (great even with a lyric flub)
Breakthrough of the day: Delta Spirit; Los Campesinos
Biggest let downs of the day: No Age; Perry’s special guest–I guess you can’t top Slash
Crazy crowd moment: Drunk guy came up to me, took a picture with me and then ran off. So odd.

Lollapalooza: website | schedule | set lists | friday

As Fuse TV continues their extensive summer music festival coverage, Fuse TV has announced that they will be airing all of the highlights from this year’s Lollapalooza festival, which starts today!, on August 15th.

This year’s lineup promises to ensure a continuation of the legendary festival’s cutting edge acts with Kings of Leon, Jane’s Addiction, Rise Against, Depeche Mode, the Killers, Tool + MANY more, including our personal favorites like Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band, scheduled to perform.

Additionally, Fuse is helping music fans stay connected to all of this year’s  Lollapalooza ’09 artists with Twt-a-palooza, a centralized online hub that lets you find, filter, and interact with thousands of tweets from the musical acts playing this year’s fest! Log in with you Facebook or Twitter account to ensure that you don’t miss a beat from one of this summer’s hottest musical gatherings: http://fusefest.fuse.tv/a/home

Wait, it gets even better… like free music? Well, Fuse has over 50 Lollapalooza ’09 artist tracks up for FREE download now on their site! Free tracks from Animal Collective, Alberta Cross, Neko Case, Band of Horses, Deerhunter, No Age, Santigold and MUCH more can be found right here: http://fuse.tv/tours/lollapalooza2009/downloads.html

Enjoy, and be sure to tune-in to Fuse on August 15th @ 9pm/8c for Fuse Fest: The Best of Lollapalooza ’09.

Fuse’s Best of Lollapalooza: website | twt-a-palooza | find Fuse in your area