New Feist song: Don't Make Me Wait

mp3: Doug Paisley (with Feist) - Don't Make Me Wait

Doug Paisley's album Constant Companion, which came out last month, features Feist on the above song.

Feist's new documentary film Look at What The Lights Did Now has recently been screening on an obscurely small number of cinemas across the world, but according to her website it will be released as a DVD in stores December 6th in Europe and December 7th in North America, with a bonus CD. I'm honestly excited about absolutely any new material from this lady, so I'm looking forward to it.

Kele (from Bloc Party) has taken a break from guitars

• mp3: Bloc Party - Flux
  
• mp3: Bloc Party - Your Visits Are Getting Shorter
  
• mp3: Kele - Tenderoni
  
• mp3: Kele - Everything You Wanted (RAC Remix)
  

The career development and evolution of musical style that Bloc Party's Kele has gone through is pretty much a typical nightmare scenario for lo-fi enthusiasts or any strict rock fan who frowns upon drum machines and electronic beats. While Bloc Party's promising earlier EPs and classic debut Silent Alarm saw them mostly wander in rough, unpolished post-punk landscapes driven by dirty guitar solos/riffs, the band took a turn towards slick studio production in the sophomore album Weekend in the City. Then, in the stand-alone singles Flux and One More Chance, and the third and final studio album Intimacy, Kele's growing love for danceable club music made the band delve deeper and deeper into electronic music.

Many old fans were disappointed by this turn, as so many of these all-electronic synth-driven tracks made a total waste of the incredible guitar skills of lead guitarist Russel Lisack, which arguably was one of the band's major trademarks in the early period of their career. While I can agree with those missing Lissack's soaring guitar solos, I for one actually really enjoy Kele's electronic material. It makes a lot of sense that Bloc Party now have (de facto) disbanded (they've officially been on hiatus for about a year) and that Kele has started up an electronic solo project, while Russel Lisack's makes use of his guitar skills on, among other things, Ash's live shows.

Above, you can download two of my favorite danceable electronic Bloc Party tracks, plus another two tracks from Kele's solo album that are stylistically quite close.

Kele's The Boxer came out back in June this year.

Kaos / Digitalism / Holy Fuck / New Wine

Hello internet, here is some electronic dance music I am currently fond of.


//// German DJ Dennis Kaun, also known as Kaos, makes cold sounding but somehow still uplifting electro/house music that takes you right to the clubs of his native Berlin. Both of these tracks are a few years old, but I didn't discover him properly before now, and you shouldn't miss out either!

mp3: Kaos - Lessons In Love (feat. Erlend Øye)

mp3: Kaos - Cerebral Tremolo (Brennan Green Edit)

//// Another German artist, Digitalism is a duo from Hamburg, which together with Berlin is one of Germany's major electronic music hubs. The Daft Punk influenced duo rose to international fame with their 2007 debut album Idealistic, which has been described as 'dance punk' or 'house-rock hybrid'. Their debut was very innovative and fresh sounding, and one of my favorite electronic albums of all time, so I was very excited when they released a new track to the internet earlier this week. Unfortunately 'Blitz Trailer' is literally just a 'trailer' to their upcoming EP, but it still makes me hungry for more. Download it below, and also check out two older tracks if you're new to these Hamburgers.

mp3: Digitalism - Blitz Trailer

mp3: Digitalism - Idealistic

mp3: Digitalism - Pogo (Shinichi Osawa Remix)

//// Holy Fuck is a quite unusual electronic band, with highly progressive songs that fall somewhere between post-rock and electronica in their sound. While Digitalism merge Electronica with the beats of danceable indie rock bands, Holy Fuck pushes electronica towards soundscapes closer to bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor. Another band to emerge from the booming alternative music scene of 00s Toronto, Canada, the members of Holy Fuck of course are intertwined with the other alternative music artists of the city that we have covered so extensively in this blog, most notably Broken Social Scene. BSS producer Dave Newfeld also produced Holy Fuck's debut album, and band member Brian Borcherdt used to play in By Divine Right, a Toronto band who also counts (Broken Social Scene's) Brendan Canning and Leslie Feist to its former members.

mp3: Holy Fuck - Silva & Grimes

//// Norwegian dance-synthpop-band The New Wine (which I most recently covered a month ago) just released their debut album in their home country, and are aiming to internationally release their blend of guitars, funky bass lines and retro Nintendo-esque samples sometime around new year's. Check out the track 'Words on Fire', which in the band's own words is one of the album's "more clubby/dancy songs".

mp3: The New Wine - Words on Fire

Ma Ma Mashup Mix Fever

Todays song is created by producer Norweigan Recycling. This mashup contains over 16 different songs from artsts like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Micheal Jackson and Cee-Lo. All miss,mix,&matched and stitched back together into this beautiful mashup.

The song is called "Miracles" and takes its biggest samples from Micheal Jackson, but it goes all over the place and has a great sound quality.

While generally not a huge fan of mash-ups, this song has it's own appeal for its sheer size, artist selection, and decadent feel.

heres a link to Norwegian Recycling's myspace

Eels videos from Tomorrow Morning

Yesterday, Eels released the second music video from their latest album, Tomorrow Morning. The new video, for 'Baby Loves Me', has a really quirky and low-budget feel to it, a big contrast to the high-production and completely awesome video they released for 'Spectacular Girl' back in July. You can watch them both out below, and be sure to check out the whole new album - I personally think it's the best music (frontman) E has made in years.



What a guy.

mp3: Eels - Baby Loves Me



An unusual Eels video, but possibly one of my all-time favorites from the band's 15-year career. Love the combination of the songs innocent lyrics/sound and the video's plot.

mp3: Eels - Spectacular Girl

Video: Animal Collective - Bluish

Animal Collective just released a (belated) official video for 'Bluish', one of my all-time favorite songs by the band. 'Bluish' is from their highly acclaimed 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavillion, and this very trippy video in my opinion matches the psychedelic sound of the album perfectly.

mp3: Animal Collective - Bluish

The lyrics are simply beautiful. Try giving this stripped-down acoustic cover a listen, and this fact will probably become even more apparent to you:

mp3: Sondre Lerche - Bluish (cover)

Two slow remixes

mp3: Broken Social Scene - All To All (Spirit If Remix By Kevin Drew & Ohad Benchetrit)

mp3: Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Eat More Cake Remix)

Turn down the lights, take it easy and enjoy these two chillout remixes. Eat More Cake are a four-piece electronica band from London, here doing a very sweet take on Stardust's 1998 French house classic. Kevin Drew and Ohad Benchetrit are two of the many members of supergroup Broken Social Scene, and here they add their personal touch to one of my favorite tracks off their own band's latest album, Forgiveness Rock Record.

Here are the two originals:



Classic music video that takes me right back to elementary school.




Cute and minimalistic live performance.

K.C. Purposely

I already did a post about K.C. Accidental, but with Arts & Crafts re-releasing the albums, I figured I would post a song from the same EP/part I referenced before.

mp3: Silverfish Eyelashes

A song with a lot of build-up, and it's rather long. It's definitely worth it though. There's a reason these two essentially spawned an entire generation of relationships and music that is Broken Social Scene, Arts & Crafts, and all the various bands and histories of each of its members and collaborators.

Enjoy, and try to see them live if you get the chance. An amazing show. Buy their album and a t-shirt!

Three new releases

mp3: The New Wine - Delete, Rewind

Norwegian synthpoppers The New Wine (I previously covered them here and here) finally came out with new material in Norway yesterday, the single-track digital release 'Delete, Rewind'. The band will be touring Norway in October and Europe in November. It is unfortunately still unknown when they will start releasing material outside Norway, and also when their fabled debut album - which they reported recording in studio back in May - will finally be out. Good to hear something new from them though, and it makes me hungry for more!




mp3: Röyksopp - The Alcoholic

I posted the first small tastes of Röyksopp's fourth album, Senior a month ago, and now the release date is just around the corner: September 13th is the day the acclaimed Norwegian electronica duo's new all-instrumental concept album is officially released. I've had the chance to listen through Senior in its entirety, and I must say it's definitely darker and less accessible than last year's radio-friendly Junior (the best way to experience the new album, the two musicians suggest, is 'in a dark room with an opium pipe in your hand'), but ultimately much better. Check out my favorite track, 'The Alcoholic'.




mp3: of Montreal - Enemy Gene

Another much-anticipated album that comes out next week is False Priest, the tenth studio album by Athens, GA based indiepop eccentrics of Montreal (out September 14th). Two months ago, I wrote about my anticipations for the album after having heard the first leaked track, 'Coquet Coquette'. Back then, I was puzzled by how the album was supposedly going to be very r&b and funk influenced, while 'Coquet Coquette' really sounded like one of their more straightforward indie rock tracks. Now, after having given False Priest ten listens, the answer is clear: 'Coquet Coquette' is really just an exception, and not representative of the album's style at all. In of Montreal's manic-depressive catalogue, False Priest is the manic answer to the depressive Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer: a hyperactively manic, upbeat, funky and flamboyant affair with an ever present pumping bass and high falsetto throughout its 53 minute playtime. Beyoncé's younger sister Solange Knowles as well as close of Montreal friend Janelle Monáe make wonderful vocal contributions to the album and not only make the whole 'indie pop turned r&b' concept work, but actually seem quite sincere too. Check out the track 'Enemy Gene' featuring Monáe, or read my blog entry about her previous collaboration with of Montreal.

Young the Giant

mp3: Young the Giant - My Body

My body tells me no / but I won't quit / I want more!

I'm hooked to this track - so energetic, raw and catchy. Young The Giant are a quintet from Newport Beach, and even though their self-titled debut record isn't out until October 26th, they've already grown a considerable fan base through their very solid live performances (check out the video below to get a taste!) and an EP. The sweet guitar riff, the rough, organic sound, their tireless youthful energy and the hedonistic lyrics on this track remind me of the young Strokes of the Is This It era. I'm looking forward to hear more from these guys next month!

The only band that REALLY matters! FreeCreditReport.com

Recently Freecreditreport.com decided to hire an actual band to promote their site after the previous set of commercials did so well. If you are unaware what I'm talking about, then you are surely missing out. The catchy upbeat little ditties in every song actually were entertaining and the goofy face of the band were hard to resist.

(This one is my personal favorite. My first car looked just like that, but was red)

Anyway, it turns out these guys weren't a real band and just actors paid to sing the song. While an effective jingle, the freecreditreport.com marketing team decided to take it up a notch and do a band search for the new face of freecreditreport.com. The search took a few months and got plenty commercial coverage (including MTV!), but finally we have a winner.

They are the ... Victorious Secrets! (irony)

What does everyone think? Did they deserve to win? The other 3 runner ups will be posted at the bottom of the post if you didn't get to catch them.

For more information on The Victorious Secrets check out their myspace or their official band website. Their pop rock sound is actually pretty infectious.

(exert from their myspace)

Here's what other anonymous people are saying about
The Victorious Secrets!

"They are not too bad actually."

"Hey... they're okay."

" They remind me somewhat of a grungier Sloan. Shocked that this isn't horrible! I'm sure I'll be sick to death of it though. "

"...interesting chord progressions, and lead vocals that don't infuriate me."

"If I have to put up with it, this is perfectly acceptable."

" Something about their songs remind me of the Von Bondies. I kinda don't hate it. "

" It's not horrible... "

THE OTHER BANDS WHO FAILED

Evolove

The Poets Dance

I Love Monsters

New Weezer Single & Album

"Dude, you got some ... Arnzt on you"






For anyone living under a rock or for anyone who just gave up on the band, Weezer is releasing their latest album on September 14. Back with a tongue in cheek album cover and title, Hurley**, is set to be more "raw rock and roll" then previous albums and the current single shows this to be true. "Memories" is a step up from the latest batch of Weezer turdlets i.e. Raditude, but will the new album show promise to go back to the days of the famed Blue Album or even Pinkerton? Not quite, but for now we just got to give Weezer time.


"Memories" along with the other 9 tracks on Hurley are the first releases from Weezer on their new label Epitaph. Maybe after the big label move Weezer will start to make more and more sonic changes to a less "pop/rock/radio friendly snooze fest" and more to some of "Say It Aint So".

In the meantime, this song will be rocking most alternative/college radio station playlists for a long while and Weezer will be headlining the ever famous Seattle Bumbershoot festival this sunday along with Rise Against and Hole.


Weezer: Memories

**An album named after the famous character played by Jorge Garcia on the television show Lost. To be honest I was hoping for a Lost concept record, or maybe some answers to Season six but you cant win em all.

Your hometown in the new Arcade Fire video

I love Arcade Fire's new album, The Suburbs. I'm personally enjoying it much more than Neon Bible - the nostalgic stories of childhood in the suburbs in their newest effort appeal much more to me, and feel so much more personal and sincere, than Neon Bible's ambitious and grandiose attacks on church, state and society. The band further explores the theme of childhood memories in their amazing new interactive music video 'We Used to Wait', which lets you enter the town you grew up in for some very sweet personalized video collages!

mp3: Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait

Röyksopp Adventures in Barbieland

Norwegian electronica duo Röyksopp are releasing their fourth studio album, Senior, on September 13. The album is entirely instrumental, a drastic turn from last year's poppy, vocal-driven Junior. Today, they finally gave their fans a taste of several of the album's tracks, in the form of the extremely weird, quirky and hilarious short film "Röyksopp Adventures in Barbieland". The ten-minute video clip features Barbie dolls, clips of new songs, and the two musicians themselves dressed to look like, er, 'senior citizens'.

video: Röyksopp Adventures in Barbieland

The new album sounds promising, it seems like Röyksopp are going back to their roots: The 2001 chillout masterpiece Melody AM with its many atmospheric, haunting, instrumental tracks.

mp3: Röyksopp - In Space (From Melody AM, 2001)

Danky Dank Dank Dank Dank

No...

This Girl

Boner Shot #1

Boner Shot #2

Interested?

Juliana Popelka or better known as...



Lisa Dank is a DIY Pop Star who invented herself in the Seattle scene. Love her or hate her, she has the same immediate polarizing effect as Lady Gaga. And that's not only where she stops though, she has the same aesthetic choices in flamboyant clothing and over the top presence.

Not only is she a strong force visually and on stage, but her catchy beats and diva pop star singing are nothing short of intoxicating too. She definitely is not going to be winning American Idol, but her imperfections are easily dismissible for the entire package being presented.

Crazy stage theatrics, commanding stage presence, and in your face pop aren't anything new to music. The only thing is nobody is doing it at such a level that she is now. Sure people can purchase 30$ tickets for a Adam Lambert show, but how many artists do you know can command a stage with the same strength and get everyone moving in a bar suite for 100?

In summary this self proclaimed princess makes indelible pop music with big beats, dance club hooks, absurd lyrics, and the "dont give a fuck" attitude that it takes to keep things interesting.

This is a Live Perfromance

mp3: Lisa Dank - "On The Radio"

On the Radio by Lisa Dank

Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!

While randomly stumbling across Ondemand videos, I saw the band name "You Scream, I Scream" and had to click for a listen. What I found was nothing like I expected. In fact of being some awful crunkcore band, its in fact a rather delightful pop/rock romp about dogs.

The band is fairly unknown, I mean the only Internet sources they have are their own myspace page. How they got on my Ondemand music selection is beyond me, either way I just prefer to see this as destiny to show this adorable song and music video with everyone else.

So without further adieu here is You Scream, I Scream: "Dog"

Hopefully after watching that your all amped up about dogs and are running to your local pet pound to pick up one....

Here's a few other songs to add to that Dog playlist...

The Suicide Machines: "Sometimes I Don't Mind"

Cat Stevens: "I Love My Dog"

New Cut Copy material

mp3: Cut Copy - Where I'm Going

mp3: Cut Copy - Lights & Music (Moullinex remix)

Melbourne-based Cut Copy have given us the first taste of their upcoming third album, in the form of the free track "Where I'm Going". It's a tough task to make a follow-up to the hugely popular 2008 album In Ghost Colours - an insanely catchy synthpop album filled to the brim with danceable hit material. Judging by this first track, they're approaching the task by just doing something rather different: the follow-up seems to be 60s and psychedelica inspired, which is a major turn away from the New Order / 90s dance influences of the In Ghost Colours. That's judging by one new track, though - it will be interesting to see how this turns out!

Download the new track above, along with what I personally consider to the hands down best remix of any of the first album's tracks.

Cut Copy's new album is due out early 2011.

New of Montreal track: Coquet Coquette

mp3: of Montreal - Coquet Coquette

False Priest, of Montreal's first album in two years, is scheduled for a September 14 release. Being a big fan of the band, and honestly believing that every new album they make always turns out to be better than everything they've done before, my expectations are sky-high. The news I've heard of False Priest so far, and the hints from frontman Kevin Barnes as to what it will sound like, have been rather contradictory and puzzling. On the one hand, the album will supposedly be even more funk and r&b influenced than the funky previous two albums, on the other hand it's supposedly marking a return to 'real' instruments and a more analog rock and roll sound like on the earlier of Montreal releases - away from the drum machines, sequencers, loops and synths from the latest three.

On top of these two confusing bits of news, there's the intriguing fact than Jon Brion is producing the album. The combination of Jon Brion and of Montreal worked fantastically on 2009's excellent Jon Brion Remix EP, so I'm excited about the prospect of Brion putting his magic touch on every single one of False Priest's songs. of Montreal have finally presented a first taste of the album to the world: the track 'Coquet Coquette' was released as a free digital single on June 25th, and yesterday another track, called 'Hydra Fancies', appeared on the internet through the blog Some Kind of Awesome. Both songs certainly sounds different than the of Montreal I'm used to - more polished production than ever before, and a mix of instruments that differs heavily from both the lo-fi rock of the earlier albums and the electronic style of the latest ones. Most of all, though, it just sounds like the band has grown up, and in a very positive way. I can't wait to hear the rest of this one!

New videos: MGMT and Gorillaz

MGMT and Gorillaz both released new videos today.

mp3: MGMT - It's Working



Definitely no new 'Kids' (which truly is one of the most memorable music videos I've ever seen), but it suits the song - one of my favorites off the new album - quite well.

mp3: Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill



Cute as always! Nice mixture of CGI characters and traditional 2D cartoon characters, too.

Party like it's 2007: Arcade Fire, Panda Bear and Klaxons are back

In my opinion, three of 2007's very best and most memorable albums were Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Panda Bear's Person Pitch and Klaxons Myths of the near Future. All three generated absolutely massive hype, and harvested top scores from record reviewers and/or prizes. Since then, however, it's been been quiet around these three artists. (Well, in Panda Bear's case it's just been the 'Panda Bear project' that's been quiet, as his band Animal Collective have almost constantly been in the spotlight, and enjoyed endless amounts of attention)

Now, the follow-up albums are finally on their way! I got my hands on leaked tracks by all three artists this week, and they're all very promising sounding. I think it's going to be a great autumn for alternative music!

//// New Arcade Fire: The Suburbs and Month of May



mp3: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

mp3: Arcade Fire - Month of May

While Funeral balanced between the down-to-earth and the loud and pompous, Neon Bible mostly stayed within the latter style, filled to the brim with dramatic church organs and anthemic choruses. If these first two tracks are anything to go by, The Suburbs takes a step down again: 'The Suburbs' is slow, unpretentious and beautiful, while 'Month of May' in my opinion sounds like the most straight-forward rock and roll track Arcade Fire have ever recorded - in a good way!

The Suburbs is out August 2 in Europe and August 3 in the US.

---

//// New Klaxons: Flashover



Klaxons - Flashover (alternate link)

This sounds like the darker moments of Myths of the Near Future, and I love it. Nothing very unusual or surprising here, but it doesn't sound old either. What is really unusual and rare, is that the four young sophisticated Brits didn't name the song something that's a literary reference! Announcing their return as "here comes the flashover" is pretty badass/cute, though. Good to have you back, guys!

Surfing the void will be out sometimes this fall.

---

//// New Panda Bear: Tomboy



mp3: Panda Bear - Tomboy

Person Pitch was a dreamy sounding piece of sample patchwork, and it sounds like Panda Bear is continuing the same trend in this year's release. He's been playing a couple of solo shows the last month, presenting a lot of new material. Unfortunaly there are no studio versions available yet, but I'm sure they'll start surfacing soon, with the album only four months away from release. For now, enjoy this live version of the album's title track!

Tomboy is out September 2010.

Janelle Monáe feat. of Montreal - Make The Bus

mp3: Janelle Monáe feat. of Montreal - Make The Bus

On Tuesday, Georgia-based soul/indie-pop singer Janelle Monáe released her debut album The ArchAndroid, and the same day she performed the album's first single, Tightrope, on Letterman. The single is a collaboration with fellow Georgia musician Big Boi (of OutKast fame), and is some of the most fresh and funky sounding stuff I've heard since Hey Ya hit the world almost a decade ago.



Her artsy and eccentric persona really shone on her first television performance ever. My favorite song of hers right now, however, is definitely Make The Bus – another collaboration with a fellow Georgia star: of Montreal's equally eccentric and artsy Kevin Barnes. It's arguably more of an of Montreal song than a Janelle Monáe song, but as a big fan of Barnes, I just love what he does in this song.

In Barnes' earlier albums, he made quirky, modest and introverted lo-fi music heavily inspired by the Beatles and 60s psychedelia, but in 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? he introduced his new alter ego 'Georgie Fruit' on the latter half of the album, and while in this character, he explores a loud, extroverted, funky, shrieking falsetto side of himself that showcases his more recent and different influences, such as Prince. On 2008's Skeletal Lamping, the Fruit character dominated most of the album, but he still never let that side of him completely loose - until he collaborated with Monáe. This is going to be one of my favorite tracks for this summer, for sure!

For an example of one of the songs on Skeletal Lamping that sounds close to this, check out Id Engager and its lovely video.

En vill hest (Prince Thomas remix)

mp3: Casiokids - En Vill Hest (Prince Thomas Remix)

Two months ago I wrote about Norwegian electropoppers Casiokids, who since have released their sophomore album Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar. These days I'm hooked to fellow Norwegian Prince Thomas' remix of one track off the album, En Vill Hest. So atmospheric and lush, and I love the way he uses the acoustic guitar samples. Try it for yourself, and have a great and sunny May week!

Beardy men

Yesterday, I was riding the tram through the city, and when it passed a small sushi place I noticed that all of its three costumers had big beards.

It looked like they were a band or something. A 'beardy men indie-folk' band.

... like Bon Iver

• mp3: Bon Iver - Brackett, W9
  
• mp3: Bon Iver - Re: Stacks
  
• mp3: Bon Iver - Lump Sum

... or Fleet Foxes

• mp3: Fleet Foxes - Mykonos
  
• mp3: Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

What happened to beardy men indie-folk? Neither Bon Iver nor Fleet Foxes have released any new LPs in two years now. I can't believe it's already been two years. Apparently Fleet Foxes are working on a new album that's going to be released in the fall, though! I'm pretty excited about it, after their very strong debut effort. To be fair, Bon Iver at least did an EP a year ago. Hope they start work on a new LP soon! I wonder how long Fleet Foxes' and Bon Ivers' beards have grown by now.
(their beards pretty small at the start of their tours in 2008, but quite long and manly looking by the end of 2008).

Remixed Beach

Speaking of taking the cheerful and bright 'Beach' by Mew and turning it into something sinister and dark, that is exactly what Danish electronic artist Trentemøller has done in his great remix of the song. I've been addicted to this song for about a week now:

mp3: Mew - Beach (Trentemøller Remix)

I haven't been this hooked to a remix of a song with the word 'beach' in its name since my favorite DJs, Brazilian The Twelves, remixed 'Beaches and Friends' (possibly their catchiest and most danceable remix to date):

mp3: Database vs. French Horn Rebellion - Beaches and Friends (The Twelves Remix)

Enjoy, and I hope you'll have the chance to take a trip down to the beach this week and soak up some nice May sun. Where I live, it suddenly snowed today - for the first time in weeks - so my chances are looking pretty bad.

Music from Brooklyn

• mp3: Animal Collective - Leaf House. From Sung Tongs, 2004
  
• mp3: Dirty Projectors - Gimme Gimme Gimme. From Rise Above, 2007
  
• mp3: Yeasayer - Ambling Alp. From Odd Blood, 2010
  
• mp3: MGMT - Congratulations. From Congratulations, 2010

What do all the above songs have in common?
They were all made in Brooklyn! Although it is New York's most populous borough, it still amazes me how much good alternative music has been made within the confined space of these 70 square miles in recent years. I remember there was a lot of buzz about Brooklyn's alternative music scene around 07/08, and in the past two years several of the bands from that period have reached out to bigger and bigger masses, achieving world stardom - like the above four bands.

Animal Collective have since moved away from Brooklyn, though, appearently being tired of the whole place and its people - which they made a point of in their song 'For Reverend Green' (my favorite Animal Collective song, off 2007's Strawberry Jam), where they depicted Brooklyners as 'wasted' and 'depressed'. MGMT have stayed in Brooklyn, but recently announced that "If the fabled Brooklyn music scene does exist, we're definitely not part of it".


The Hundred In The Hands

But there are still numerous interesting new bands emerging from Brooklyn's vibrant music scene today. My most recent discovery is The Hundred In The Hands. This indie pop boy-girl duo lists accessible pop music such as the Kinks, Beatles and Michael Jackson as their main inspiration, something that was evident on the first few songs they recorded. On their debut EP This Desert, however - which is out on May 18 - they showcase a more "ethereal, gauzy side" of their tastes (to quote the band).

To me, the darker soundscape, vocal style and drum machines are slightly reminiscent of the best moments of Ladytron. Ghosts (my favorite track off the EP), with its downtempo, dark but soothing sound, should also be perfect for anyone who loved the XX's debut album and is looking for something new in the same mood. The rest of the EP wanders between different styles, but always combining guitar and coldish electronic sounds in a way that brings artists like New Order, The Cure and (the already mentioned) Ladytron to mind. Check them out for yourself, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

mp3: The Hundred In The Hands - Ghosts