For me, this week’s t61 highlight was that San Francisco-based band, Minipop, joined the site. Honestly, with so much music from the SXSW sampler, I was easily overwhelmed, especially with more of the rock stuff. However, Minipop was one of those bands that just stood out to me after listening to their song, “Like I Do”. If you don't know already, I have a slight bias toward dreamy indie pop songs. I actually thought about blogging about them before, but now that they’re t61 official…even better!
Before t61 came along, I had no idea I’d be digging this electronic, 80s-vibe sort of dance music. Particularly, I’ve been very pleased with the two mixes from Moulinex that have come to the site, and I hope more are on their way. Not to be confused with the French manufacturer of small household appliances, Luis Moulinex is a Portuguese dj/German producer who is part of D.I.S.C.O.Texas, a collective of artists (think RAC). I didn’t think anything would come about my random question during my interview with Andre (of RAC) about being from Portugal, and then I read this interview with Luis Moulinex who also admitted Portugal not having a thriving music scene. Portugal sure looks like it's missing out as these artists are fleeting their native country and going elsewhere. Anyway…Moulinex = good stuff!
…and obviously I immediately liked SymbolOne too. Apparently these are long lost “musical” twins that reunited. Not only that, they are Justice and Danger-approved! Justice featured “Love Juice” on their (rejected) Fabric Xmas Mix, and Danger has put his own spin on the track as well.
So…I saw Lykke Li last Monday at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. To be honest, I thought I was going to miss out since I got off of work late and she was the opening act. Luckily, there was another act before her, so I sort of sped for nothing. Anyway, the crowd was mainly filled with a rather eager, bright-eyed, college youngsters from what I can tell near the stage. The older folks seem to be content being on the sidelines.
Eventually, out walks Lykke Li in her belted baggy black attire and gold chains, followed by the rest of her bandmates. The setlist starts off with Lykke Li singing the high-pitched, staccato ooh, ooh, ooh's of the slow tempo "Time Flies". Then, it picks up with "Dance Dance Dance" and slows back down a bit with "Everybody But Me".
El Perro del Mar was the main act of the night and she came out to do a guest performance on "My Love". The next song might have been "Let It Fall", but my memory has faded regarding the setlist. Anyway, the crowd, of course, got giddy for "Little Bit", but I really thought the highlight of the show was the upbeat performance of "Breaking It Up." Even my friend who is absolutely unfamiliar with Lykke Li remembered that song the most. Lykke Li then closed out her act with "Tonight" and "I'm Good, I'm Gone".
This show had so much more than the expected handclapping. Add the cowbell, the kazoo, and the megaphone on top of Lykke Li's pelvic thrusts and hip sways, just makes it a great show. That, and I love the fact that the guys who play the keyboard and drums were on either side of Lykke Li at the front of the stage, and the guitar in the back. The percussive aspects are really instrumental to her music, in my opinion.
While my friend and I didn't stay for the main act, we ended the night by walking past the star of Entourage on our way out of the venue. That was my friend's highlight of the night, even though we didn't know his name other than 'the guy from Entourage'. (Btw, it's Adrian Grenier...however, I had to look that up.)
Oh, and I guess I should end off this post with something new. Here's a track by Kleerup with Lykke Li on vocals.
Perhaps you guys are better than me and looked into D*R*I a bit more earlier when it had posted onto the homepage. Dri is Adrianne Verhoeven of the Anniversary, Art in Manila, and Fourth of July…and should definitely not to be confused with the punk, metal, trash music of D.R.I. In contrast, her music is downtempo trip hop and easy on the ears.
I don’t know how long it’s been, but I still can’t get enough of this song. It’s from her solo debut album, Smoke Rings, which was released last November.
I highly recommend that you visit her Virb page where you can stream most of her album.
Btw, I just made two other posts as brief commentary, but I set them at an earlier date so I don't bombard this blog simply because I'm trying to play catch up. If you're interested, you can click on the link or tag to my column.
While thesixtyone appears to be more geared toward indie rock, every so often we get a refreshing addition to the site. If you like CéU, you should definitely like the sounds of Luisa Maita, another native of the Brazilian São Paolo music scene. Modernizing traditional Brazilian music, she delivers a variety of samba, jazz, afrobeat, and soul, creating an eclectic sound that makes for easy listening.
Just in case you were unaware, she actually debuted on thesixtyone months ago with this track below. Took a while for it to take off from what I remember since some listeners told me it wasn’t there cup of tea at the moment, so I’m really glad she received a better reception this time around.
Lastly, she has also been featured on Musica de Bolsa, which is like Brazil’s equivalent to La Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows.
Sidenote: Once again, I highly recommend Aurgasm, a music blog that deviates from reporting the usual rock form and focuses on presenting a variety of other musical styles such as downtempo, folk, nu jazz, chanson, scandinavian, jazz, cuban, brazilian, electro, soul, jump blues, bluegrass, film score, and electronica.
I’m a bit surprised Electric President didn’t take off immediately when it was uploaded to thesixtyone, especially when their sound reminds me of Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service, and Styrofoam. A few weeks versus a day sort of shows how reliant we are on familiar names. Anyway, Electric President is comprised of two guys, Ben Cooper and Alex Kane.
….and I literally kept playing these two songs over and over again.
From last.fm: The songs are characterized by nasalized voices, acoustic riffs, MD-four tracks, SM58, and some computers.
Also, to find out more about Ben Cooper’s other music projects, you can visit his website at this link. If you’re interested in checking out his artwork, you can click here.
P.S. I sent a brief message over myspace letting him know the songs were sitting at the top of the homepage at the time. He replied and was appreciative. So he knows about thesixtyone now, but I think it ends there.
Radical Face’s Website Radical Face’s Mypace Electric President’s Mypace (I think this one is run by the label)
How fantastic! The Ting Tings have a song featured as a free download this week on iTunes. The song is called “Great DJ” which according to NME, was the most popular indie track so far for 2008 back in March. Amazing what an accidental wrong chord can create when learning the guitar (see interview clip below).
The Ting Tings is a British indie pop duo, and they are set to release their debut album, We Started Nothing, on May 20th. I was instantly hooked when I first heard the percussive opening of “That’s Not My Name” on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic last fall. The rest was just darn energetic and catchy, not to mention, there's handclapping too. Nic Harcourt even listed their self-released Demos as number two on his top 10 albums of 2007. You can also catch a studio session and interview they did on his program here.They’ll re-release the single on May 12th.
Diving into the world of jazz, I liked this week’s iTunes free music download selection, Melody Gardot’s “Worrisome Heart”, the title track off her latest album.
She has a very interesting story as well. Four years ago, she was struck by an SUV while riding her bicycle, suffering serious pelvic and head injuries where she could barely sit up for ten minutes. In addition, she endured short term memory loss and heightened sensitivity to light and sound which still continues even today. Thus, she has to wear sunglasses and hearing devices in order to perform. During her recovery period, her doctor suggested music therapy as a way to rebuild neuropathways in the brain. Unable to sit at the piano, she instead picked up a guitar and made some recordings from the bedside, eventually releasing them on an EP titled Some Lessons – The Bedroom Sessions. It’s interesting that prior to the accident, she didn’t even consider pursuing music as a career. Anyway, she is often described as a mix of Madeleine Peyroux and Norah Jones, the latter more apparent in some of her other less jazzy songs.
From CD Baby: Brooke Waggoner began playing piano at age 4 and took classical lessons for a grand total of 17 years. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in music composition and orchestration, hoping to one day score films and orchestrate her own projects. She says her songs tell of a "lone 23-year-old girl, sagas of daily life, [and] bits of poetry" that are "all melded with honest proclamations and confessions."
At performances, she says she "tries to create pictures and take people on journeys." She pulls from many artists to create her sound, such as Electric Light Orchestra, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Aaron Copeland, David Bowie, and Chopin. Doo-wop, droopy melodies and sighs and swoons also find their way into her songs.
Never forgetting her classical lessons, Brooke says she strives to "connect the 'classical world' with the 'mainstream world' by showing people it all works hand-in-hand." Although they may be presented differently, she says: "The beauty in the structure of a Mozart piece is essentially the same structure used in pop songs”
While the second review wasn’t all too thrilled about her EP, I really don’t think you can beat the fact that she made it available for free. I've listened to it multiple times over the months and that’s pretty good in my book.
You know, on rare occasions the Palms Out Blog does good things. While I may not like a majority of the mixes, it does introduce me to artists worth looking into a bit more, like this Belgium-born, Australian-raised, ARIA-award winning artist, Gotye (Wally De Backer). I honestly don’t even know where to begin in describing his sound because he has a very wide range. One song will you remind you of one artist, while another song will remind you of a different artist, or a combo…yet in the end, creating a sound all his own.
Anyhow, the song that came cruising through t61 is a remix of “Heart’s a Mess”. To me, the vocals in the mix start off like Junior Boys that then progress into something similar to Shiny Toy Guns. Check out the music video of the original version below.
He also has other crafty music videos which can be viewed here.
So where does the name Gotye come from? Well, according to wiki: Wally was embarking on a project that was, in his own words, "about refiguring past things (old vinyl sounds) with my own ideas". It therefore seemed appropriate to draw on his past for inspiration for the project's name. Wouter, Gotye's real name, from Flemish translates into French as Gaultier (or Gautier or Gauthier). Wally's mother used to call him Gaultier as a pet name. Drawing on this and choosing his own spelling gives us 'Gotye'.
Gotye is pronounced "gore-ti-yeah" in Australian English.
In summary: Wouter > Walter > Wally Wouter > Gaultier > Gotye
One of the early artists I learned about from t61 was Thao Nguyen. This may be strange, but I vividly remember "Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)" being the first song I ever double-bumped, and it was a rather costly, early bump too. However, it was well worth it when I was “poor” since I had listened to the song over and over again. What’s kind of interesting is that the listener who had “discovered” the song was my first-ever subscriber, which in turn ended up being the first listener I subscribed to (both cases excluding Sam and James, of course), and is now the first fellow 61er that I’ve met in real life…and out of all things, we caught Thao Nguyen in concert. Sort of brought things in full circle for me.
While temporarily sitting on a side bench inside The Echo (a hip, low-key, small venue in Los Angeles) before the show started, I looked down and about five or six feet in front me, I see these cowboys boots, which I knew was a signature of Thao’s…and long and behold, it was her standing and selling her merchandise at a table. I didn’t have the guts to talk to her or anything, but from what I observed, she seems really cool, charismatic, and down to earth.
It was almost inevitable for me to see Thao with the Get Down Stay Down perform. There was quite a bit of handclapping and stomping involved, and you guys know how much I like the handclapping. It was even syncopated too. They certainly brought the energy on the little stage. It also helped knowing her songs beforehand too because I don’t think these guys in front of me really knew who she was since they were pretty stoic and one kept checking his phone. On the other hand, I had these two girls right next to me who were upbeat and excited to see Thao, which made up for them initially trying to push me over to the side in attempts to move closer to the stage.
Occasionally in between songs, Thao would just say whatever came to mind. One was mentioning how she wanted to shop for some vintage clothing to wear for the show (there’s lots of vintage stores around the Silverlake/Echo Park area) but ended up wearing an outfit she’s been wearing for much of the tour, so she joked, “Don’t come any closer, really, don’t.” I wish I had pictures to share since I had a really good view, but unfortunately the few that I took came out all blurry since I hadn’t taken the time to learn the different functions on my relatively new digital camera. I’ll figure it out someday, but at least I found a picture on her myspace where she's wearing the same shirt dress, so that works.
All in all, I liked it. From what I can tell, most of the songs came from her latest album We Brave Bee Stings and All. Would've been nice to hear "Chivalry" but they ended up playing another song called "Tallymarks" off her previous album, Like the Linen. Anyway, being Vietnamese myself, it’s nice to see an artist like Thao break the conventional mold of indie folk rock. Too bad I couldn’t bring my friend who is also named Thao Nguyen (yes, it’s a very common Vietnamese name). Unfortunately that Thao has different taste in music and went to see Leona Lewis perform at the Jimmy Kimmel show.
Though you won’t get the same energy as from a live show, you can check out her studio performance on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic by clicking here. Below is a video clip of "Big Kid Table" from the live session.
Excerpt from an interview conducted by The Guide: Los Angeles Times: Q:What do you want for yourself 10 years down the road? A: I think I have very realistic goals. To be honest, I’d like to get a salad spinner…
Alright, I’m going to stray into the mainstream world a bit because I really like this next artist who Rolling Stones listed as an ‘artist to watch’ last year. Her name is Estelle. She’s British and is already pretty big in the UK from what I’ve read and is starting to make a bigger mark in the States. She’s been compared to Lauryn Hill since they share a similar musical style and pull influences from all sorts of genres. That, and Estelle can rap and sing. I also sort of think of her as the female counterpart of John Legend, which makes sense since she was the first artist signed to his record label, Homeschool Records. Her album, Shine, has already been released in the UK and is set to release in the U.S. on April 29th.
Her current single is “American Boy” featuring Kanye West which is already No. 1 in the UK. Speaking of Kanye West, there’s a new video out for his song “Homecoming” featuring Chris Martin.
She has also worked with Faithless on a song called “Why Go” which I really like. If you haven’t already done so, check out the video. It should possibly encourage you to enjoy life and keep on dancing.
And to tie this entire post back to t61, guess who has done a mix of her current single? That’s right, Danger! Have a listen. Estelle - American Boy (Danger Remix)
Alright, so this next post of mine is completely out of left field as I know zilch about hip hop. However, I stumbled upon this new single that’s been out for a couple weeks from a group I haven’t heard of before but has worked with extremely notable producers.
From wikipedia: “Teriyaki Boyz is a j-hip hop group from Tokyo, Japan. The four MCs in the group are Ilmari and Ryo-Z from Rip Slyme, VERBAL from m-flo, and WISE. Nigo is the DJ and founder of the popular Japanese streetware brand A Bathing Ape. Hence the group members are prominently seen sporting Bathing Ape wear for live concerts and in music videos.
Their debut album from Def Jam Recordings and (B)APE Sounds titled Beef or Chicken? was produced by a who's who of rap and electronica producers including ADROCK of the Beastie Boys, Cornelius, Cut Chemist, Daft Punk, Dan the Automator, DJ Premier, DJ Shadow, Just Blaze, Mark Ronson, and The Neptunes. Their first single "HeartBreaker", was produced by Daft Punk and contains elements of the Daft Punk song "Human After All".
Two tracks by the Teriyaki Boyz were featured on the The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift soundtrack, the title track "Tokyo Drift (Fast and the Furious)", and "Cho L A R G E", featuring Pharrell which had previously been released on their debut album Beef or Chicken?.
In 2007 the single, "I Still Love H.E.R.", was released, which was produced by and featured Kanye West. West also appears in the promotional video, which was shot as a YouTube parody.
On March 19 2008, the Teriyaki Boyz released their latest single, "ZOCKON!", featuring Pharrell and Busta Rhymes.”
I don't know the slightest bit of Japanese, so I'm not really sure what they're rapping about, but it's catchy and has...how you say, a phat beat? (I'm definitely not one to use that sort of lingo.) Though, I did manage to skim through the video comments and find out that "zock on" is an anglicized spelling of a phrase in Japanese slang, zokkon, which is often used to describe when one is seriously crushing on someone or something, if that helps. Anyway, I like the suaveness Pharrell adds to the track. And a slight comment on the video, I could do without Busta Rhymes's attempts on breakdancing.
Also, I've linked the other tracks to videos I found on YouTube if you're inclined to check those out too.
[Sidenote: I've updated my post on Low vs Diamond by including a recent video clip they've added to their myspace.]
Sometimes, blog scrapes are a good thing. Otherwise I wouldn’t have found out about this Brooklyn neo-folk singer, Jaymay (aka Jamie Seerman).
According to her website: "JAYMAY is a storyteller. The narrative runs through each one of her songs, a melodic thread of self-reflection and eloquent articulation, threading through music that is both graceful and bold. The songs are chapters, tales of the young woman who stepped out onto the street one night to find and lose love and move forward, open to the dangers and wonders offered by the world."
Apparently her CD player broke and she only had access to a few Bob Dylan tapes which prompted her to pick up her brother’s guitar and start writing her own songs.
While not as interesting as the Take Away Shows, here’s another taste of Jaymay. This song is called "Big Ben." I initially wanted to put up "Sycamore Down" but this one's a bit more raw and acoustic, and you can hear all the cars buzzing around. For other clips of her London tour series, check out YouTube.
Also, you can download a free track called “Snow White” by going to this link.
Her other popular tracks are “Gray or Blue” and “Blue Skies” (yes, two more songs containing the “blue”)…though everything of hers is pretty good if you like this sort of stuff.
This will probably be one of the rare times I mention bands, but things really seem to be moving forward for these guys this year. I first heard this band on my local indie station (Indie 103.1 FM) a couple years ago when they called themselves Colored Shadows, and I've somewhat been keeping tabs on them ever since. This LA-based band is now known as Low vs Diamond and is signed to the same UK record label as the Killers. After a couple EPs, they are set to release their self-titled debut album this upcoming May.
Earlier this month Low vs Diamond participated at SXSW and in the past have opened for Air and the Sounds. This July, they will be part of the first-ever Pemberton Festival lineup held in Canada, which is headlined by Coldplay, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jay-Z, and Nine Inch Nails.
Here's a site I found where you can preview some of their songs. "Life After Love" is the song that first caught my attention on the radio and "Heart Attack" was a single released last year in the UK.
[update: 03/28/08] Just saw this on their myspace and thought I'd add a clip so you can get an immediate sample of what Low vs Diamond sounds like.
I also sent a message through myspace encouraging them to check out t61. The keyboardist, Tad, sounded interested and suggested I send an email to their management...so I did, but who knows what will happen from there. At least it was worth a shot :-)
I suppose I’ll resume my column with another Swedish artist. Ever since her song came to t61, I know you all have had a “little bit” of Lykke Li, but there’s so much more great stuff from her! [Sorry, I just had to use squeeze that in. Awful, I know.] As another listener pointed out, she sings the female vocals in Peter, Bjorn, and John’s ever so popular “Young Folks,” so she is among a strong core group of musicians. Actually, Bjorn Yttling produced her album, Youth Novels, which was released in January over in Sweden. Overall, I really like the minimal/lo-fi indie pop sound.
If you’ve read my comments on her song, then you have probably checked out this video directed by Mattias Montero, which I described as “trippy.” It was nominated for Best Video at the Swedish Grammy Awards, an equivalent to MTV’s VMAs in the U.S.
Her current single is “I’m Good I’m Gone” and this is the video of the acoustic version featuring the following guests: Robyn, Adam & Bebban (Shout Out Louds), Daniel (The Concretes), Lars (Laakso) and Mikael (Hjalmar). Is it just me or do I see some sort of chicken dance in this one? Also, Robyn's probably big in Europe, but it's been ages since I've seen her.
So I initially liked these two upbeat tracks the most, perhaps it was the handclapping that automatically drew me in, but I found myself loving all her tracks on myspace.
[Not quite sure what to call anything I post, but I wanted to start sharing some of my personal picks, whether it be t61 related or not.]
Over the weekend, I caught this new YouTube clip of an artist I found a while ago on Aurgasm. Her name is Maia Hirasawa. To me, she is like a fusion of Meiko, Victoria Bergsman, Feist, and Sara Bareilles, all of which is a very good thing. She made her solo debut last year and has since received rave reviews and is quite popular in Sweden. She was also awarded Best Newcomer at the Swedish P3 Gold Awards in 2007.
Maia Hirasawa - "The Worrying Kind" (Originally by The Ark)
Current Favorite Artist: It changes from week to week, but since I recently found out about Jaymay, I'll say her. (ultimate favorites include Madeleine Peyroux, Feist, and Aqualung)
Artist you most wish would upload music: Got a few: Junior Boys, Blonde Redhead, and Pink Martini (in regards to rock music: Athlete, The Cinematics, and Low vs. Diamond)
Your musical guilty pleasure: The Killers
How did you hear of The Sixty One? My friend, Mitchell, sent me an email - he knows I'm always on the hunt for something new to listen to.
How much less productive are you since you've joined? A good amount, but that's because finding music is much more enjoyable than hitting the books.
What is the biggest change you'd make to The Sixty One? Same as what has already been mentioned before, specifically
Listener's bio section (occasionally there's other music finds outside the61 that I'd love to share)
Tunebox shake-up (more efficient way to tunebox multiple users at once, notification pop-up, larger writing field)
Revision of subscription activity (fills up extremely fast and I tend to miss some things) [edit: Initially I listed sortable stats, but I'm not sure if I really care all that much about it anymore]
Who is the listener you'd most like meet to in person? I'd love to meet all the regulars, though if I had to choose, perhaps rkeller4 (the painter), redbaron (the writer), and imonlysleeping (the light bulb?).
What do you think of Second Life Avatars for musicians and users? There's so much natural beauty in the real world – go capture it!
What sort of stuff would you like to see on this site? Interviews of artists or featured artists, video picks (youtube, takeaways, etc), latest album releases (and maybe t61 listeners' reviews), forums for music discussion, and links to other worthwhile music sites.
For me, this week’s t61 highlight was that San Francisco-based band, Minipop, joined the site. Honestly, with so much music from the SXSW sampler, I was easily overwhelmed, especially with more of the rock stuff. However, Minipop was one of those bands that just stood out to me after listening to their song, “Like I Do”. If you don't know already, I have a slight bias toward dreamy indie pop songs. I actually thought about blogging about them before, but now that they’re t61 official…even better!
