Let’s put the Electro Pop renaissance on hold for a bit and shift to a Pop Rock act that has written some timeless songs. Irish 90′s Alt. Rock stars The Cranberries have recently gotten back together and will be kicking off their U.S. tour in New York City tomorrow night at Terminal 5. Judging by their two SOLD OUT shows to open the tour in New York, it seems like at least 6,000 people still care. Despite not securing a ticket of my own, I also still care. Watch my favorite song, “Ode To My Family”, below.
Just a follow up on my post from last Friday about tUnE-yArDs. You can get a little more background on the adorable children in the video at Pitchfork. Watch below, to hear her latest single “My Country”.
I had to hear Yukimi’s sexy vocals again today. This is the Little Dragon singer on a dubstep track produced by UK artist SBTRKT. Watch the video for “Wildfire” below. Something about the eerie nature of the video reminds of the video for “Lovely Bloodflow” by Baths.
To shift into something a little less cosmic, but still heavy on the synths and electronics, I want to feature an artist who put out another of my favorite albums of 2011. LA’s Pat Grossi goes by the name Active Child, and his debut full length album You Are All I See was a slice of heavenly ambient music blended with ethereal R&B influenced vocals. Active Child makes use of various 80′s styled analog synths, but layers them over much more updated electronic drumbeats that carry a distinct Hip-Hop flavor. The real ‘X-Factors’ at play are his uniquely engaging falsetto vocals and the harp, which he plays live in concert. The harp seems so out of place, but in fact I have featured this odd combination before in this post about Teebs. Watch “Hanging On” below to see how Active Child rocks it in this setting.
So, I’ve been absent for about two weeks now, and I really feel like I need to share this really well done collaboration that happened last Saturday night out in San Rafael, CA. The following concert was held at TRI Studios. TRI Studios is a state-of-the-art performance studio for broadcasting live HD video and audio streams directly to the Internet. The Bridge Session was presented by HeadCount. HeadCount is a nonpartisan organization that works with musicians to promote participation in democracy in the United States. It is best known for registering voters at concerts.
In between sets of the musical performance, political figures and activists weighed in on topics such as getting money out of politics, protecting the First Amendment and the 2012 Presidential election. Panelists included independent Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer, No Labels cofounder Mark McKinnon (a former media advisor to George W. Bush, John McCain, Bono and Lance Armstrong), climate change activist Jessy Tolkan, and Grateful Dead lyricist and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) cofounder John Perry Barlow.
More importantly to me is how the concert aimed to bridge the gap between Jam music and Indie Rock. Bob Weir was backed by an ensemble that included The National’s Scott and Bryan Devendorf and their bandmate Aaron Dessner, along with many longtime friends from Brooklyn’s vibrant independent music scene: Thomas “Doveman” Bartlett and Kyle Resnick, both frequent collaborators of The National, Walt Martin of The Walkmen, Conrad Doucette of Takka Takka, and Sam Cohen and Josh Kaufman of the Yellowbirds. Kaufman was also the event’s musical director.
Sorry I’ve been absent for the last 5 days. To continue from last week’s theme and begin a transition towards a related style, today’s video comes from Baths. The 22 year old LA artist produces a heady mix of ambient layered electronic music propelled by choppy, hip-hop beats. I find him to be the link between chillwave artists and the beat music made popular by Low End Theory parties in the LA underground. Watch the haunting video for “Lovely Bloodflow” below, it’s from Baths’ debut album Cerulean which was released in the summer of 2010 on LA based indie label Anticon. From here, we’ll touch upon a few artists in the Brainfeeder crew, also from LA, that are pushing a similar aesthetic coming from a more overtly hip-hop influenced background.
