Launched in 2008 in Cincinnati, indie-rock band Walk The Moon is starting to gain national attention with the release of the “Anna Sun EP” last week. Check out the colorful cover art and the video for “Anna Sun” below. The band is now recording their new album, the first for major label release.
Video after jump.
The Belgian-born, Australia-based multi-instrumentalist Gotye (“ga-te-yay”) has been releasing music under the radar since his 2003 debut Boardface. Yet with the viral sensation of his video for “Somebody That I Used to Know” (46 million views and counting, plus 30 million views -in two weeks!- for Walk off the Earth’s cover; both videos below) – and the U.S. release of third album Making Mirrors (out digitally now, on CD January 31)– anonymity is a thing of the past. That song, a duet with up-and-coming Aussie songbird Kimbra, is the apotheosis of Gotye’s striking sound: playful electronics, memorable choruses, and the hungering vocals of a young, heartbroken Sting. And what exquisite heartbreak there is! From the jumpy New Wave of “Easy Way Out” to the ghostly loss of ambient closer “Brontë,” Gotye (born Wouter De Backer) reflects his pain and our own back to us. And, my oh my, do we love what we see.
Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, follows up his fantastic 2010 debut album on February 21 with the release of Put Your Back N 2 It, a collection of haunting, brief gay-centric songs. The first single off the album (see cover after jump, plus free mp3), “Hood,” has a video featuring porn star Arpad Miklos. It’s a quirky mix of tough and tender…and did its job in getting us worked up for the album.
Is Brooklyn the center of the world? Manhattan-ites may beg to differ, but there’s been no healthier musical epicenter these last five years than the kids across the Williamsburg Bridge. The National, The Drums, Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens and many more alt stars call Brooklyn their home, as do the four members of pop-punk upstarts Black Taxi. With their second album We Don’t Know Any Better (available tomorrow) Ezra Huleatt (vocals/keys/trumpet), Bill Mayo (guitar/vocals/triangle), Krisanan Soponpong (bass), and Jason Holmes (drums/vocals) out-stroke The Strokes on opener “Tightrope,” bring Men at Work to electro on current single “Hand,” and channel ’90s alt-vets Cake on the kicky title track. There are a lot of influences – and a lot of borrowed parts – that keep this Black Taxi, and you, moving.
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Our final MPFREE player for the year kicks off with the lead track from critic’s darlings School of Seven Bells‘ (pictured above) forthcoming album Ghostory, due late February. Brit band The Good Natured offer up “Video Voyeur,” an advance taste of their debut album due to be released in 2012. Swedish buzz band Icona Pop had their current single “Nights Like This” mashed up with Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” – and the results are pretty stellar. Copenhagen’s The Asteroids Galaxy Tour also have a new album coming next year, and they’ve delivered a dance remix (by CSS) of “Heart Attack.” Among our other tracks this month are the lead single from San Francisco’s Imperial Teen (their fifth studio album is out next year), and a typically wonderful dance track from NYC’s The Juan Maclean.
Modern Tonic December 2011 Mixtape by moderntonic.com
Excuse us our insensitivity, but most posthumous releases from recently deceased musicians should remain, for the most part, buried. (Michael Jackson’s Michael, anyone? We thought not.) But for Amy Winehouse’s Lioness: Hidden Treasures (out December 6) we’ll make an exception. Could be her passing’s still fresh for us; could be that this collection of disparate tracks plumbs her love of the retro sound that thrust her into the spotlight. Regardless, we’re happy to hear her soulful croon on chestnuts like “Our Day Will Come” (done reggae-style), “A Song for You” (AM ballad with extra gravity), and even her scuffling take on “The Girl from Ipanema.” And her duet with Tony Bennett on “Body and Soul” is especially numbing – a reminder of what we’ve truly lost now that she’s fully gone back to black.
Videos after jump.
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Since the Brits treat their flame-haired citizens like nature’s scourge, it’s only fitting that ginger-mopped troubadour Ed Sheeran is converting them all into rabid fans. His debut + has been a U.K. hit since September, and in advance of 2012’s U.S. release Elektra’s dropping the teaser EP The A Team next Tuesday. These four tracks show the folksy side of Sheeran – he’s Jason Mraz, Damien Rice, and David Gray rolled into one – but don’t be too fooled. Sure, “Give Me Love” and two previously unreleased tracks, “Firefly” and “Fall,” are soft love songs. But the title cut – which catapulted Sheeran into the spotlight – is a harrowing tale of drug addiction…with more surprises like the beat-boxing “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” and impending fatherhood cut short on “Small Bump” to come when + finally gets here.
Videos after jump.
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Two Kate Bush releases in one year? First Director’s Cut and now the hour-long song-cycle 50 Words for Snow (out November 22) – it’s like a holiday gift from the gods (preferably one that looks like Henry Cavill in Immortals, but we digress…). Bush’s work rate has been glacial – six years since her last release, Aerial, and, prior to that, 11 years since The Red Shoes – as have her general tempos and melodies. These seven songs are long, dense, layered, and breathtaking, like a good old-fashioned snowstorm. From the dulcet vocals of her son Bertie on opener “Snowflakes” to the Elton John duet on the romance-across-the-ages ballad “Snowed in at Wheeler Street” to the erotic reveries of “Misty,” 50 Words for Snow will light a fire in your heart keeping you warm long after the season is over.
Stream 50 Words for Snow in full now at NPR.com.
We’re men enough to admit what drew us to The Young Professionals’ debut 9-00 To 17-00, 17-00 To Whenever is the campy video for percolating single “D.I.S.C.O.” Yet there’s more to TYP than stilettos and giggles. Comprised of out songwriter Ivri Lider (above right) and producer/composer/DJ Johnny Goldstein, both Israeli, this electro side-project is big on beats, heart, and politics both far-reaching and intensely personal. “Family Value” redefines the nuclear unit for an inclusive world. Or, as Lider sings it, “shame’s not something I dance to.” The banging “20 Seconds” follows Lider on a club crawl for Mr. Right (and Mr. Right Now). And “Deserve” is an elegant electro apologia about the crippling internalized homophobia that often keeps us from loving one another. But no more. These young professionals make it safe to come out whether you’re wearing a corporate suit or six-inch heels.
When Summer Camp’s theme song came over the speakers during debut Welcome To Condale (out Tuesday), we knew we were smitten. “I can be a real serious bitch,” Elizabeth Sankey flatly declares, “if I don’t get what I want.” Well, hello Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls and other punk pop Divas – meet your fiercest competition! London-based Sankey and helpmate Jeremy Warmsley double-down on big radio hooks here – from his punky piss-take “Brian Krakow” to her nostalgia-baiting closer “1988” – with one eye (or is that two? four?) on commercial success. Our picks for hitsville? Opener “Better Off Without You” – think She & Him with cavernous drums – and “Losing My Mind,” where Sankey does her prettiest doo-wop voice while Warmsley channels the Human League. Sankey needn’t worry about her inner bitch. Summer Camp’s gonna get everything it wants and more.
Like everyone else, we’re obsessed with royalty. Yet we don’t mean Queen Elizabeth or Charles or William and Catherine, but the one true monarchy: Queen. Freddie, Brian, Roger and John. The four camp-loving, boundary-pushing rockers celebrate decades of service with the first authorized book about the band, 40 Years of Queen (out Tuesday). Written by music journalist Harry Doherty, this elaborate coffee table book traces Queen’s early ’70s dog days, their Live Aid 1985 triumph (they did, they did rock us), singer/provocateur Freddie Mercury’s death from AIDS in 1991, and the lingering legacy of their hold on the pop world. Packed with rare photos and removable memorabilia (replicas of posters, tickets, backstage passes, etc.), 40 Years of Queen is as engaging, ornate, and thrilling as the band’s timeless music.
Dance music is often described with hard verbs: slamming, throbbing, etc. Yet one of our favorite types of disco is the kind we call “creamy.” On The Sound of Arrows’ debut Voyage (out Monday November 7), Swedes Oskar Gullstrand and Stefan Storm produce layers of pillow-y, cascading synthesizers for their dreamy tunes. Opener “Into the Clouds” – whose melody returns in the album-closing instrumental fantasia “Lost City” – meshes the breathy, yearning vocals of Storm to jubilant lyrics about escaping lives of drudgery. Where does Storm want to go? Straight to the disco floor. Their catchy Eurodisco pays homage to Erasure (“Conquest”), Pet Shop Boys (“Nova”), and the mega poppy side of OMD (“Magic”). Don’t misunderstand us; we love our hard beats and pulsing dance jams. But getting lost something creamy is a good thing too.
Music videos after jump.
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When Lungs took off in the U.S., Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine seemed to be as despised as she was lauded. That cavernous, theatrical voice of hers – the wailing, melodramatic pagan Gothic-ness of it all – turned off as many as it turned on. Ceremonials, her superb sophomore release (out November 1), won’t convince the naysayers what they’re missing, but, well, it does prove that they’re just wrong. From the pre-release singles “What the Water Gave Me” (dark-hued romance) and “Shake It Out” (stomp, baby, stomp), to highlights “Heartlines” (shriek along, kids) and “Never Let Me Go” (the big-lunged ballad), this is high-toned drama fine-tuned as pop bliss. Ceremonials is one twisted ritual you don’t want to miss.
On their U.S. debut Skeleton (out today), U.K. threesome The Good Natured makes a rowdy and jubilant noise. Front-woman Sarah McIntosh – and her giant swath of Goth-chic hair – takes her young band (including brother Hamish on bass and drummer George Hinton) through six spiky, swooping post-punk tunes (with a disco remix thrown in for good measure). Opener “Your Body Is A Machine” marries the angular gestalt of Siouxsie Sioux to the dramatics of – how fitting – Florence + the Machine. “Wolves” is as danceable as Dragonette propelled by The B-52’s. And the title track, in both original and remixed versions, is a rambling stomper for both punk clubs and dancefloors. Though a short introduction to The Good Natured (24 minutes), this Skeleton has plenty of meat on its bones.
The only jail we’ve ever been able to imagine ourselves in is the one we often see in porn fantasies. But after one listen to Penguin Prison’s self-titled debut (out now), we know exactly the perfect place to be incarcerated. This one-man band project from New Yorker Chris Glover is a kaleidoscope of shiny beats, slithery keyboards, and enthusiastic vocals that puts the fun back into funk. From the disco clarion call of opener “Don’t Fuck With My Money” – featuring gasps and screams like it’s the second coming of Michael Jackson – to the retrosexual yearning of current single “Fair Warning” (video below) Glover is a one man hit parade. And the eight remixes on the Limited Edition make this prison more like the hottest club in town.
