Free The Robots "Ctl Alt Delete"

The 4th installment of the promo videos for the release of Free the Robots Ctrl Alt Delete came out today, and it's an awesome way to spend 37 seconds of your life. The album drops today, and it is pretty awesome if you're into crunchy, digital, future-beat atmospherics.

Scarface in our schools

I don't know anything about this, but it's amazing - a little disturbing, but amazing.

Desoto Strut II

If you like art, music and maybe a glass of vino - then you need to swing by on Saturday and support some great local artists.

Hebermehl's Spring Doubts

Check out the new show from Matt Hebermehl, which opens Monday at 11Ten.

Video: Starkey "Stars"

Peep the new video from Starkey. He's American, but far better known in England than in the States, just like Robert Frost was at the beginning of his career. Maybe Starkey will be the poet laureate of dubstep.

Stars (feat. Anneka) by Starkey from Ben Curzon on Vimeo.

Vinyl Appreciation Night

We got the first one on the books - a laidback Sunday evening affair where local DJs and record collectors air out their favorite tracks. Many thanks to everyone who came out, to all the DJs, and an even bigger thanks to Indigo Arts Center for hosting. There some audio recordings of the evening that I will try to get around to posting asap. Lots of good jams were played. The next one will be April 25, so mark your calendars.
Some pics from the evening (courtesy of JinHi/Indigo)
From top to bottom: Kozel looking like he just climbed out the Velvet Underground, King Jake - the lumberjack of funky jazz flanked by the Indigo Weredeer and me cueing up a 45.

Sunglasses live at Hangfire 03-27-10

Here's a little tidbit from Sunglasses farewell show at Hang Fire. They fucking rocked the place. It was a big sweaty mess by the time they wrapped up.

Dare Dukes live at Co-Lab

Here's a little video I shot of Dare and the Blackstock Collective performing at the Co-Lab last night. There's an unfortunate amount of crowd at the beginning, but it subsides as the song picks up.



Visit Dare's website for info on music and upcoming shows.

This is how a Harem girl dances...

Did anyone get the Cabin Boy reference in the title of this post?

Daedelus "Righteous Fist of Harmony"

I meant to post something about this earlier in the week, when it came out on Tuesday. I planned to have a tighty review written up for your enjoyment, but life interceded, and I am just going to say this:

This album is really worth buying. It's thoughtful, precisely executed  and diverse in its styles and textures. It would make an excellent gift to spoil yourself or for a friend who finds pleasure in music. You don't have to be a fan of "electronic music" to like this either.

Check out "Order of the Golden Dawn" featuring, if I'm not mistaken, his wife, Laura Darlington.

Not only did he make an awesome album, there's also an awesome concept behind it (via his publicist):

Bridging the demise of the magic-inspired martial arts fighters of the Boxer Rebellion to the post modern malady of technology and imagination, Daedelus constructs a soundtrack-of-sorts to the struggle of both 19th century China against colonialism and modern man's inevitable hurl towards an unknown future. 
After seventy years of China's opium-related subjugation by Queen Victoria and her allies, a force of resistance fighters -- termed "Boxers" by the British -- rose to the challenge in 1898. Calling themselves "The Righteous Fists of Harmony," this secret society of martial artists felt they held magical powers: they believed themselves bulletproof, able to fly, and capable of raising the dead (who would then fight alongside them). And so began the brief Boxer Rebellion; three years later 100,000 Boxers had fallen, their magic helpless against the cutting-edge machinery of war. The British prevailed only to face ultimate defeat, as their empire rapidly declined. Daedelus endeavors to compose a requiem for the end -- of beliefs, of lives, and of an era.

yU "On Ya Head"

Wow. This new yU track is ridiculously hard.

"On Your Head"

Riding the wave of success following Diamond District's In the Ruff, main man is following it up with a solo LP, "Before Taxes". By the by, the title for his new album is the same as that of a mixtape he put out last year, which you should go find.

You can follow him on twitter.

Alex B "You and I Both Know"

It's been a busy week, but this is just what I was looking for to take the edge off and prepare for what should be a pretty interesting weekend.

Dare Dukes, Little Tybee and Book of Colors are playing at the Co-Lab tonight, followed by Sunglasses "farewell Savannah" performance at Hang Fire later. They are about to head to Maryland to record an LP and then tour.

[By the way, can I mention that I hope those fellas from Sunglasses return to Savannah as heroes rather than settling down in another city, it kills me to watch all of our great talents sapped by the attraction of larger markets like NYC, ATL, LA, ATX.]

What I started out to mention was that this track Alex B track "You and I Both Know" is the bees-goshdarn-knees and you should check it out if you're into jacked up soul finely chopped with a dash of glitch and some serious space funk.

Visit his website for more info.

Oh yeah, the other reason this weekend will be awesome - the debut of the Savannah Record Club's Vinyl Appreciation over at  Indigo Arts on Sunday at 5pm. Come by and check it out. Lost gems and forgotten prodigies.

Also, in a side note to the aforementioned Dare Dukes, you should check out the new project featuring the Blackstock Collective (Dare's band) bass player Charles, it's called Brandywine. Live band doing laidback hip hop instrumentals. Grab a copy of their new EP from their blog. Good stuff.

They will be making an appearance at the Savannah Urban Arts Festival - the full line up of which is probably being released in the next couple of days, and which I will be sure to post, because it will be really awesome. Drop by the website for some of the stuff already listed, including a couple artists and the week's lineup.

Trek Life x J.Bizness

This left coast pair just dropped a nice little EP called Rhymes with Reason. If I remember correctly, Trek Life was supporting Diamond District on their recent Euro tour.

Take a taste of the second track "Back Again," which has me vibing like Tribe - might be that Trek's vocals have a little Q-Tip in 'em for this joint.

Grab a copy of the EP for free right here.

Dilla's Safety Dance

Check out this Dilla rendition of "The Safety Dance" - which stands as one of, in my opinion, one of the jams that really sums up the 80s. Rococo foppery, midgets, synthesizers - that pretty much sums up 80s dance-pop.

Listen/grab a copy here.

For reference, here's the original.

Music at the Co-Lab

This friday, check out Sav alt-rocker Dare Dukes doing sets with Atlanta's Little Tybee and Book of Colors. It'll be an all ages show, which is nice, and the first show music show at Co-Laboratory. They've been holding the visual arts lately, and it's nice to see them branching out to help fill the need for all-ages venues (even if it's just hosting a show in an art gallery.)

Check out more on the Co-lab over at their blog, including this nice little video documenting their St. Paddy's experience.

Saint Patricks Day 2010 from Alex Farkas-worthy on Vimeo.

Ebert, singing computers and RIP Arthur C Clarke

Roger Ebert just tweeted this.  Part of the explanation as to why Hal sang it, as part of an anecdote about Arthur C. Clarke dying two years ago today. It's pretty awesome.


Check out Ebert's blog here. And I'm too lazy to find the link at the moment, but go find the amazing profile of him that appeared in Esquire recently.

Savannah Record Fair 04/10/10

If you love music and comics in their physical form, and not just how they sound in your iPod or your Kindle, then you need to swing by here. For vinyl junkies in Savannah, this bi-annual fix for crate digging itch is a must. More info here. Also, a thumbs up to SCADradio for getting this together.

On a related note, I heard a rumor that we could be just a few months from having a new record store here in town, the first since the shuttering of both State Street Records and Discount Records and Tapes in late '07/early '08.

Green me up Scotty

If you're in Savannah for the country's second largest St. Paddy's day celebration, and you're tired of mediocre Zeppelin covers, go spend time at Hangfire where lots of good bands will be playing, including Sunglasses, Howler and Cusses. DJ starts at 5pm, music begins around 7. It'll give you something to sway along with after drinking all day.

SpeakEasy "Do What I Do"

This man Speak Easy aka Scandalous aka Sean Fahie has just given the world might be the most classic sounding hip hop song of the early 21st Century. The bar has been raised. This joint sounds like it just fell out of someone's futon on a cassette that hadn't seen the light of day since 1996. He's got a mixtape coming out in the next couple weeks.
"Do What I Do"

Beat Konducta in Africa

Madlib steps in and raises the bar. Tight lines and minimal - like the audio equivalent of late-50s Swiss typography. Check out the new album here. Vinyl ships on 3/23. Digital available now.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

I don't know what to say what about this band's name: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. If it's an obscure reference, then please clue me in, because I'm completely unfamiliar. It grew on me for a minute, but I'm still not satisfied with it. It is not nearly as interesting as their music.

There's a lot of Rolling Stones circa 'Emotional Rescue', some 80s pop, a shot of late 70s electro-wave and sprinklings of various other things from the nebula of the Brians Eno and Ferry. It becomes something that is like subdued-glam. It makes me nostalgic for several eras all at once, which, in a way - means that is has extracted a bit of timelessness from the Over-Soul of good music.

Check out there introductory handshake: "Round and Round"

Also, check out what could be the weirdest cover art of recent memory. It makes me smile, but doesn't really prepare you for what their album sounds like.

You can also join his mailing list and download the song. 

Vinyl Appreciation - 3/28, Indigo Arts Center

I'm rounding up a bunch of Savannah's coolest DJs to host an early evening session where we play all the awesome records that we never get to play at bars or parties because of the audience demands. Bring your sweater because it'll be cool. Deep cuts. Excellent selectors spanning genres and styles. Come hang out. Take it easy on a Sunday evening and check out some music you might not know.

It all goes March 28, 5pm at the Indigo Arts Center (703D Louisville Rd, Savannah GA). $3 at the door, with all proceeds benefitting the space (which is a non-profit dedicated to keeping a low-cost performance space open) and the Savannah Urban Arts Festival, which runs April 18-25, and will be chainless. SUAF still has a few days left for artist submissions, so if you're in the southeast and you make music, art, film/video or whatever, go to the website and fill out an application.

Facebook Event Page. 

Oh No Ono x Caribou Remix

I've been resisting this band based on their name. I don't know why, but something about the Yoko reference triangulated by the proximity to other groups' names like Ok Go, plus the Stones Throw beat-smith Oh No - it seems like they should have gone back to the drawing board at some point for their moniker.

But, when I saw they'd gotten some treatment from Caribou, I checked it out.

Check out "Eleanor Speaks" (Caribou Remix)  it starts out sounding very Blur/Damon Albarn ish and then drops straight into some deep dub step territory. Interesting. It's not a new classic or anything, but it'll occupy a few minutes of your commute well.

New MGMT track "Flash Delirium"

Hipster icons MGMT return for a Sonic the Hedgehog inspired album that breaks away from the musical formula that brought them to where they are. The new song has been floating around for a few days.

Check out "Flash Delirium" here. (via Pitchfork)

Update: One of the members of MGMT apologized for leaking this song after reading how outraged some people were about how different it was from their previous hits. I think that's lame on both sides. Listeners, don't cry when your favorite band tries something new until you've heard the whole album. MGMT, be proud that you didn't try to make "Kids" again, because you have the right to be multi-dimensional - so long as that experimentation doesn't turn out like Peter, Bjorn & John's follow up to Writer's Block, which almost seemed like a cruel joke.

Jackin' for Beats

For your comparison...no lawsuits ever resulted from this to my knowledge, but the similarities are pretty noticeable...



And the follow-up:

Video: Free the Robots promo

Bug out on this for a minute.

Free The Robots "Ctrl Alt Delete" Promo Video #1 from Alpha Pup on Vimeo.

He'll be wandering around the South in mid-May (*w/ Glitch Mob):

May 12 2010  Club 828    Ashville, North Carolina*May 13 2010 Valarium    Knoxville, Tennessee*May 14 2010  Limelight    Nashville, Tennessee*May 15 2010 New Earth Music Hall    Athens, Georgia*May 16 2010   Masquerade    Atlanta, Georgia*May 18 2010   Alabama Music Box    Mobile, Alabama*May 20 2010   House of Blues    New Orleans, Louisiana*May 21 2010   Rich's    Houston, Texas*
May 22 2010   La Zona Rosa    Austin, Texas*

We Put the 'A' in Austin

Atlanta is going out to rep hard at SXSW. They're lead on the hip hop front by SMKA and a tight crew. Get their artist sampler here and be prepared to bounce to the hooks if you're headed out to Austin next week. Catch Savannah native Brittany Bosco's new track Ragdoll on here too.

 


Download a copy here. 

Video: Yeasayer "O.N.E."

Check out the vidoe for Yeasayer's single "O.N.E." off Odd Blood. The video is like semi-post-apocalyptic version of the scene in the Blues Brothers where they play the theme to Rawhide in the honky tonk bar, except it's a rave instead instead of a honky tonk, there's less broken glass, and someone drives an old Honda.

"O.N.E." by Yeasayer from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

Aleon Craft x SMKA "Wonderland"

The newest leak from ATL up and comers Aleon Craft and SMKA dropped this morning. It's called "Wonderland." AC's new project The Prologue Pt 1 will come out March 15th, so keep an eye out for it. If you like what you hear, download it here.

Free The Robots "Ctl Alt Delete"

Free the Robots is about to drop his new album Ctl Alt Delete and it is a beast (just got the advance, and will try and have a more complete interview momentarily).

Alpha Pup is offering up a leak of "Orion's Belt Buckle". Grab a copy of the track here.

Bonobo's record is out in 2 weeks

If you don't know Bonobo, you're missing out on one of the most musical downtempo producers ever. Animal Magic was my, and still is, one of my favorite albums to chill with late night.

His new album Black Sands is out on 3/23. Judging from the preview, it will be excellent. Richly textured and deeply musical.

Check out a preview of the new track "Eyes Down".