popwreckoning

As a record label, Paris’s Kitsune seem unable to make a misstep when signing bands. The latest artists they took a chance with that made it huge here in the U.S.? Hopefully La Roux and Two Door Cinema Club ring some bells for you. And it’s quite possible that the first album Kitsune releases on this side of the Atlantic, thanks to a recent deal with Cooperative Music and Downtown Records, could be just as big. As might be expected from their name, Is Tropical, a dance trio from London, make tropical music. And their debut album Native To, which quite possibly might be “the” soundtrack to the summer, is dropping just in time for the warmer weather, this Tuesday.

Early on in the game, Kitsune gave away “The Greeks” as a free download. With its quick guitar line, infectious chorus and relentless beats, it’s no surprise it’s been a runaway success online. Certainly, some of its popularity has to do with the unveiling of its NSFW promo video featuring kids in shooting each other, cartoon blood flying. Not really my thing at all, but I guess dubious promotion is better than no promotion. I like “South Pacific,” the opening track, much more; it’s got the same guitars as ‘The Greeks’ but is more mellow and less frenetic, which is better for summer driving music anyway. It’s like a tropical version of the The’s “This is the Day”. Watch the video for it below.

The tropicalia vibe continues through “Land of the Nod,” sounding like it could easily be placed as the background music for a Club Med advert, and “Clouds,” suitable for a Super Mario game set in the islands, mon (if Nintendo ever decides to go there, that is). “Think We’re Alone” will remind you of Cut Copy. And I did say this band was “dance”, and this is clear in the track “Lies” (not to be confused with Fenech-Soler‘s “Lies”). Compressed synths stretch around this track’s corner, and the words “they don’t love you / they just need a little sex sometimes / gotta shine through / don’t beat yourself up for being too blind,” while cynical, they ring true about some of the worst liaisons, don’t they? “Berlin” sounds like Kraftwerk redux, but with more heart. And vocals echoing all the while.

Here is the main problem I have with Native To: while of course there is echo and reverb on dance albums, for some reason, there’s too much of both on here. I admit that to some people, this is endearing because it gives the music a “lighter”, floating on air-type of quality. But a song like “Zombie,” with a dark vocal and even darker buzzing synth, tells you this band is capable of being a heavier band. It’ll be interesting to see what direction they take for future material – whether they stick with the tropical, dance beat formula or go somewhere else.

This is a good question, because there are songs on here that just don’t relate to the others. “What????” isn’t satisfying, with quickfire rap as an overlay on an otherwise hohum synth base. After Lupe Fiasco “lifted” the chorus from Modest Mouse‘s “Float On” for his recent single, “The Show Goes On,” you should be looking at the Is Tropical tune “Take My Chances” with a jaundiced eye. The melody’s a bit similar, isn’t it? Groan. The album ends with the instrumental jam “Seasick Mutiny.” It’s okay, just repetitive. While there are definitely some worthwhile tracks on Native To, I can’t call it a 100% stellar album. But it’s definitely worth looking into if you want to equip your car with some fun new tunes this summer.

Native To by Is Tropical will be released in North America on June 14 on Downtown Records.

Tracklisting
01. South Pacific
02. Land of the Nod
03. Lies
04. The Greeks
05. What????
06. Clouds
07. Take My Chances
08. Oranges
09. Berlin
10. Think We’re Alone
11. Zombie
12. Seasick Mutiny

Is Tropical: website | myspace

Welcome back, readers!  I don’t know about you but summer time usually makes me want to get back into hip hop and R&B music.  There’s something about summer jams, anthems (see: Usher‘s “Love In This Club“), and danceable hip hop that makes me want to get on the dance floor and get down.  As if creative lyrics and mystifying dance moves weren’t enough, I’m constantly impressed by the creativity and diversity of famous songs that are sampled.  Sometimes it can be brilliant, other times it can be a disaster.  Case in point: Will Smith penning “Will 2K” that borrow from The Clash‘s “Rock The Casbah”.  Stick to Jerry Bruckheimer movies, Big Willy.  Today I’m featuring a handful of tracks that sample other artists in a unique way.  Enjoy!

–

.Puff Daddy and Faith Evans (feat. 112) – “I’ll Be Missing You”
Sample: The Police – “Every Breath You Take“
Who would have ever thought Puff Daddy was a Police fan?  Fresh pain over his dear friend’s death (Notorious B.I.G.) got the creative juices flowing in this memorable tribute cover song.  Normally I’d be appalled at the idea of somebody ripping of The Police’s killer bass line, but Puff Daddy manages to make this song work.  I particularly love the addition of 112 to sing the heart-wrenching, repetitive chorus.

.Lloyd – “Get It Shawty”
Sample: Technotronic - “Pump Up The Jam“
I absolutely love this song that was actually originally written for Usher.  Lloyd’s 2007 summer dance tune is the rare gem that got me out of my chair and on the floor that year.  In fact, I still get chills whenever I catch it on mainstream hip hop radio stations.  Recognize the chorus?  Any child of the 1980′s will be quick to scream “Technotronic!”

.Kanye West (feat. Lupe Fiasco) – “Touch The Sky”
Sample: Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up“
One of the more versatile hip hop artists of this generation, Kanye West turned my head with this incredible track that features a memorable rap by Lupe Fiasco, another one of my favorites.  He took Curtis Mayfield’s memorable tune, slowed it down, and turned it into a mega-watt hip hop anthem about climbing the charts.  This cover only proves the boundless imagination of Mr. Kanye West.

.Beastie Boys – “She’s Crafty”
Sample: Led Zeppelin – “The Ocean“
Much like the audacity of Puff Daddy, Beastie Boys went back in time and enlisted the help of Led Zeppelin’s catchy guitar riff for “She’s Crafty” in a way that is oddly endearing and not the slightest bit offensive.  Perhaps the genius of this not so shameless pilfering is the fact that this was done over 20 years ago when the idea of mixing rock with hip hop was still a musical taboo.  Looks like “she” isn’t the only one who’s crafty.

.Gym Class Heroes – “Clothes Off!”
Sample: Jermaine Stewart – “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off“
Hey, I love the original and I’m not ashamed I find the cover equally hysterical.  Gym Class Heroes take’s the world’s best abstinence anthem and spins it on his head.  Jermaine Stewart was quick to say “we don’t have to take our clothes off to have a good time” and instead offered above-the-clothes fun mixed in with a little cherry wine.  Apparently, this isn’t good enough for GCH as they insist “we have to take our clothes off” for all night partying and got Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy to emphasize this in the high-pitched chorus.  I bet former classmates are sorry they picked lead singer Travis McCoy last in gym class now!

This week I got a little behind so I decided to dedicate one entry to this week in St. Louis concert coverage so below shall include a few words and photos about Josh Ritter, Guster and Lupe Fiasco.

On Tuesday night, a sold out Off Broadway was packed as Josh Ritter and his band dedicated songs to the Jonas Brothers who were in town the same night and raved about St. Louis’ rather wonderful City Museum. The set ranged from his later full band material in addition to his early solo work, both working rather well with fans eating up every second of his over two hour set.

Stand out songs from the night:

“Good Man”, “Girl in The War”, “To The Dogs or Whoever”

Guster graced the Live on The Levee stage on Friday night showcasing their rhythmic abilities as they covered their catalog of classics such as “Fa Fa”, “Amsterdam”, “Satellite” and even adding a new song into the mix from an album they are due to finish after this current tour.

While Guster served as headliner for the last weekend of Live on The Levee, Lupe Fiasco closed down the series with a sea of fans blanketing the stairs under the Arch. Lupe energetically, if not crazily, commanded every inch of that stage as he ran from side to side, working the crowd as he rhymed his way through cuts off Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor and The Cool.

Josh Ritter: website | myspace
Guster: website | myspace
Lupe Fiasco: website | myspace | The Cool review | @ virgin mobile fest 2008

Back in June, I was awakened by a text message from a very excited friend who read that Sonic Youth was going to be a part of Celebrate St. Louis’ Live on The Levee in which the city provides free live entertainment. Needless to say, I thought this was merely a rumor considering Sonic Youth not exactly striking me as a family-friendly act and for free no less. Talk about too good to be true. To my surprise however, the art-rockers were actually the band scheduled to kick off Live on The Levee which is a month long series following Fair St. Louis over the Fourth of July festivities.

The Arch grounds were packed with punks young and old, the older crowd bringing their kids. It’s not everyday you see toddlers with such good taste in tunes as they dance around to Sonic Youth.  As the band made their way through a set consisting of a huge portion of new material off their new album, The Eternal (which sounds even better live if you ask me), Thurston Moore asked if the weather was always this nice because they were looking to re-locate and out of true rarity, it was not 100 degrees here in St. Louis in July so they lucked out weather wise.

As the sun faded behind the city skyline, the true Sonic Youth concert experience took over as their lighting, rendered unseen in pure sunlight, began to blanket the band in warm red lighting and a series of flashing white backlighting. The band joined by former Pavement bassist, Mark Ibold, continued their 90-minute set until Sonic Youth’s noisy second encore was cut off by Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzer” coming over the loudspeakers  and fireworks display.

Sonic Youth – “Sacred Trickster”

The Live on the Levee series continues through August 1st featuring acts such as Little Feat, Angie Stone, Guster, Gretchen Wilson and Lupe Fiasco. If you’re in the area and looking for an evening of free entertainment, do yourself a favor and head downtown to the Arch, have a seat on the steps, crack open a cold one and enjoy yourself. All proceeds from the vendors on site go to charity so do your part.

Set List:
No Way
Sacred Trickster
Calming The Snake
Stereo Sanctity
Walkin Blue
Poison Arrow
Malibu Gas Station
What We Know
Antenna
Leaky Lifeboat
Hey Joni
Anti-Orgasm
Massage The History
//
The Sprawl
Cross The Breeze
//
Shadow of a Doubt
Death Valley ‘69

Live on The Levee Series Schedule:
Jul 24 – Angie Stone @ 8 p.m.
Jul 25 – Gretchen Wilson @ 8 p.m.
Jul 31 – Guster @ 8 p.m.
Aug 01 – Lupe Fiasco @ 8 p.m.

Sonic Youth: website | myspace | The Eternal review
Live on the Levee: website | tickets

This year marked the 2nd Annual Virgin Mobile Festival, and while I wasn’t at the first, I think it’s pretty safe to say that this year’s topped last year’s. V-Fest 2008 was expanded to two full days with over 40 bands and DJs performing in 2 different locations. Hot indie acts, superstars and living legends all played the 2-day festival held at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.

PopWreckoning photog Ajay Malghan attended last year and accompanied me this time around. Saturday morning proved to be very directionally challenged, so we didn’t show up at Pimlico Race Course until halfway through the Swell Season’s set, but check out what the day had in store:

Cat Power - 12:00 -12:50 // North Stage

Cat Power

KT Tunstall – 12:15-1:00 // South Stage

KT Tunstall

Duffy - 1:00-1:55 // North Stage

Duffy

Gogol Bordello – 1:20-2:10 // South Stage
Due to some bad directions from a gas station attendant who clearly hated her job, Ajay and I missed

Gogol Bordello

The Swell Season – 2:15-3:05 // North Stage
No pictures are available of The Swell Season’s set, but they played beautifully to an eager crowd.

Lupe Fiasco – 2:30-3:25 // South Stage
One of the main reasons I headed down to Virgin Mobile Festival was to see Lupe Fiasco and it was not short of absolutely worth my time and effort. He opened up his set with the energtic “Kick/Push” and played other favorites off last year’s The Cool including “Hip Hop Saved My Life” and the super infectious “Go Go Gadget Flow.” On the latter, Fiasco’s guitarist played with his teeth, which was quite impressive.

Halfway through the set, Fiasco experienced problems with the monitors, but hardly let the issue affect his hyper energy and resumed the set with hit single “Super Star” once the matter was resolved. Lupe got the crowd riled asking, “Can I get an ‘Amen!’ Can I get a ‘Shalom!’” before performing tracks from his debut Food & Liquor, most notably the drawn out “Daydream.” Definitely a must see.

Lupe Fiasco

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – 3:25-4:15 // North Stage
I’d seen Ms. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings at The Roots Picnic in June and there was no way I was missing their set at VFest. Jones was her sassy self, shakin’ it on stage and constantly telling the Dap Kings to kick it up. At one point, she brought a young man on stage and sauntered up to him telling him that she was going to teach him how to love his girlfriend “slow and easy.” In addition to her cheeky demeanor, Jones can sing! Don’t miss out on seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.

Sharon Jones

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings

Bloc Party - 3:45-4:35 // South Stage
No pictures are available for Bloc Party’s set, but rest assured that their set was both crazy and fantastic.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela – 4:35-5:25 // North Stage
This duo played a beautiful acoustic set with a welcomed exotic tinge.

Rodrigo

y gabriela

Wilco - 7:00-8:15 // North Stage
Wilco is just amazing and not much else needs to be said on how wonderful their set was.

Wilco

The Silver Beats / Chuck Berry – 6:30-7:30 // South Stage
From the way the line-up was arranged, it was assumed that Chuck Berry’s backing band would be the Silver Beats, a Japanese Beatles‘ cover band. This, however, was not the case. The Silver Beats played a half hour set of meticulously well-played Beatles songs including “Daytripper” and “Hey Jude” which, though unexpected was rather enjoyable, before legend Chuck Berry hit the stage in a red sequined shirt, bolero and sailor hat.

The Silver Beats

Despite fashion choices I would neither make for myself nor suggest to others, the 82 year old Berry totally owned the stage and showed every other guitarist at the festival just how the guitar should be played. It was nothing short of an honor to be able to watch Chuck Berry perform, even for just a half hour.

Chuck Berry

Foo Fighters – 8:15-10:00 // South Stage
Pictures for the Foo Fighters are unavailable, but they were hands down the most impressive act of the night. They owned the festival as the crowed rocked hard and cheered along as Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett and a handful of tour performers powered through their hits [think of a Foo song on the radio, yeah they played it] and some randos. Grohl is hilarious on stage and his banter/mocking is reason enough to attend the Foo concert nearest you.

An overzealous fan threw his car keys on stage during a particularly rowdy song and Grohl picked them up saying, “Who’s the jackass who threw his keys on stage?” He then went into how the keys and car (an assumed Toyota Celica) were Grohl’s 2008 bonus. He also informed the crowd that drummer Taylor Hawkins’ real first name is Oliver and proceeded to call him ‘Oliver’ and ‘Ollie’ for the remainder of the night.

Having never seen the Foo Fighters before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I can now honestly say that it’s got to be one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Jack Johnson – 8:45-10:00 // North Stage
I wasn’t missing a second of Foo Fighters, especially as Ajay and I worked our way as close to the front as possible, so I missed this set. The thing about Jack Johnson, though, is if you’ve heard one song, you’ve really heard them all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but I’m just sayin’.

Jack Johnson

Photos: all photos provided by Virgin Mobile USA Media

Kanye West / Rihanna / N.E.R.D. / Lupe Fiasco tour dates now scheduled:

April 2008
16 – Seattle, WA – KeyArena
18 – Sacramento, CA – ARCO Arena
19 – San Jose, CA – HP Pavilion at San Jose
20 – San Diego, CA – Sports Arena
21 – Los Angeles, CA – Nokia Theatre LA Live
24 – Tuscon, AZ – McKale Memorial Auditorium/U of AZ
25 – Las Vegas, NV – Red Rocks Casino Resort
26 – Albuquerque, NM – Journal Pavilion
27 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
29 – Oklahoma City, OK – Ford Center
30 – Austin, TX – Frank Irwin Center

May 2008
1 – Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center
2 – Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
4 – Duluth, GA – Arena at Gwinnett Center
5 – Tampa, FL – Ford Amphitheatre
6 – West Palm Beach, FL – Sound Advice Amphitheater
8 – Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
9 – Raleigh, NC – Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
10 – Bristow, VA – Nissan Pavilion
11 – Virginia Beach, VA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
13 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
15 – Mansfield, MA – Tweeter Center
16 – Hartford, CT – Meadows Music Theatre
17 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center (formerly Tweeder Center)
18 – Scranton, PA – Toyota Pavilion
20 – Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre
21 – Toronto, Ontario – Molson Centre
22 – Auburn Hills, MI – Palace of Auburn Hills
23 – Chicago, IL – United Center
24 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
27 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Credit Union Centre
29 – Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place
30 – Calgary, Alberta – Pengrowth Saddledome

June 2008
12 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo

Rivers Cuomo Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
It’s been projected that a solo album by Rivers Cuomo would be nothing but reject material from past Weezer albums, which makes some sense, but the solo album(s) of Kevin Devine (Miracle of ’86), Emily Haines (Metric), and Rocky Votolato (Waxwing) have all been extremely well-received, as have more commercial artists who’ve embarked on their own (think Beyonc� and Justin Timberlake). But much like Weezer’s most recent releases, Rivers’ solo debut leaves a lot of room for criticism in the album’s beginning tracks but grows steadily stronger as the disc continues to spin, with the last track, “I Was Made For You,” as perhaps its strongest and definitely the only one able to hold a candle to any Weezer song. An experimental of the hugely popular “Buddy Holly” that plays with overlapping harmonies leaves much to be desired, as does his strange cover of “The Bomb” by Ice Cube. Rivers gift for songwriting seems to fall flat and his emo guy routine gets boring without the rest of the band to push him out of his lyrical depression, though not a bad album to own.

Key Track: “Longtime Sunshine”
boomp3.com

Lupe Fiasco The Cool
Lupe’s latest album has great potential of shunning the myth of the sophomore slump as he ventures into a concept album based on a characters from his debut album Food & Liquor on the track “The Cool.” The concept of the album is about a boy who was raised without a father and is instead by two characters Lupe introduces in this album, The Streets and The Game. Only four tracks on the album necessarily address the concept, but Lupe’s poppy and positive rap style shines through on each upbeat track. Lupe continues to experiment with different styles throughout the 19-track album providing a track for everyone from pop lovers to rockers, electronica fans, and of course gangster rappers.

Key Track: “Go Baby” featuring Gemstones — poppiest and catchiest track on the album

boomp3.com

Snoop Dogg “Sensual Seduction” from the forthcoming Ego Trippin’
It’s no surprise that Snoop’s newest single, from an album to be released next year, drops two weeks into his new reality series Father Hood. Luckily, the single is much better than what I saw of the show. As soon as the first notes hit, I immediately began getting into the beats and Snoop’s surprisingly smooth vocals. There are four versions of the new single: the clean, the super clean, the dirty and the instrumental. We’ll feature the clean version since that’s what you might hear on the radio and it just seems more appropriate.
boomp3.com