Kyp Malone, guitarist-singer from TV On The Radio, is set to release his debut solo album. Kyp is calling the project Rain Machine and is releasing the album through ANTI- on September 22. For more info on Rain Machine, including the cover art and tracklist, click here.
Have a listen to one of the tracks off the album. Very cool. Enjoy!
I found some awesome new music this weekend- a band called The Very Best. The Very Best are Esau Mwamwaya, a drummer/singer from Malawi, and Radioclit, the London-based production duo. Their debut album is supposed to drop this fall- so check out one of their new tracks below. It's called "Warm Heart of Africa" (ft. Ezra Koenig- singer of Vampire Weekend).
If you rate this track then check out the band here. You can download their mixtape for free, which includes an awesome take on Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". Enjoy!
Discovery is the side project of Vampire Weekend's keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's lead singer Wes Miles. Listen to this cool new band here for a bit of synthy electro pop. The album artwork (above) is so awesome!
The Flight of the Conchords, "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", have made it cool to be fourth. Mmmmmm Moro!
One of my favourite movies of recent times is Into The Wild - an adaptation of the 1996 book, of the same title, by Jon Krakauer. The movie, written and directed by Sean Penn, tells the story of Christopher McCandless- a college graduate who rids himself of his credit cards and savings and sets out in search of adventure living off the land in the wild. The cinematography of the movie is absolutely stunning and Emile Hirsch puts in an amazing performance as McCandless. Another great part of this movie is the soundtrack. Eddie Vedder delivers a collection of folk/roots songs that add another inspiring layer to the "wild" feel of the movie. I finally got around to downloading the album today and I'm really digging Vedder's folksy-side. The album artwork is really cool too.
Here is Eddie Vedder's Guaranteed from Into The Wild.
Side note: There is a second soundtrack for Into The Wild featuring the Michael Brook-composed original score. It's also a good listen and it plays a perfect companion in the movie to Vedder's original songs.
If you enjoyed the movie, I would definitely suggest you read the book as well. It offers quite a few interesting side-stories of similar wildnerness adventurers, including Krakauer himself. Also, if you want some more good reading, my favourite Jon Krakauer book is Into Thin Air - Krakauer's personal account of the 1996 Everest Disaster that won Time magazine's "Book of the Year". It's so suspenseful you will finish it in a couple of days.
Well quickly going back to Eddie Vedder, while I was searching for the music video above I found this cool duet with Ben Harper. I reckon they should definitely write a few tunes together! Enjoy.
It actually reminds me of that Diffusion of Innovations theory I studied in marketing about how new ideas spread through culture. In this case it's how a dance movement spreads through a music festival!
The topless crazy dancing guy is the Innovator. The guy in the green T-shirt and the big guy in the black T-shirt are the Early Adopters. Next come the Early Majority and before long they are followed by the Late Majority. The lame people that are rocking up to dance after the music has stopped are the Laggards.
Marketing made easy...and really funny. Now go start your own movement!
Don't you hate it when people you dislike ruin a band for you by liking them. These people somehow manage to taint the band with an uncool brush just by proclaiming they like their music. This happened to me with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs first two albums. I knew a few of their tracks- I didn't love them, but I thought they could grow on me. I was thinking about checking out their albums when I discovered a "disliked person" (who-shall-not-be-named) thought they were totally cool. Ruined! I couldn't bring myself to buy the albums. In fact I think I kind of started disliking the band just to spite this person.
Lame I know, but you probably know what I am talking about right?! Maybe not music, but maybe something else. Baby names perhaps?! That's definitely another one for me. I'll come up with a cool name for my kid (just thinking ahead is all) only to remember some fool from my past who had the same name. Ruined!
One plus side of this way of thinking is that it certainly helps to narrow down your choices- with so much music and so many names out there you've got to narrow them down somehow. Maybe this is your subconcious helping out a little...
Anyways back to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. So, I totally love them now and have been thrashing their new album It's Blitz! pretty much since it came out. I somehow managed to forget my uncool association. Not sure if it's because I haven't seen the "disliked person" in years, because I'm a bit more mature with my music choices (not my baby names though) or just because the album is definitely their best yet and a huge leap forward from their last two.
Or maybe it's simply because Dave Sitek, from TV On The Radio, co-produced it. I think he, they, are real cool and if uncool by association works on me then so does cool by assocation.
So while I am finally getting around to checking out their first two albums, I think you should check out their new album whatever your feelings for the band. Here's their rad new video for "Heads Will Roll".
Little side note. Did you notice the skinny black tie on the werewolf? I think they are very cool. Barcelona's stylish coach, Pep Guardiola, has been rocking them recently (see pic below). I think he may be the Michael Jackson werewolf from the music video above...
This video was recommended to me by Tony Hawk. Yeah he's a close personal friend of mine (read Twitter). It is lame, but it's still pretty funny I have to admit. "Mullet with headlights?" is my favourite line- totally awesome! Wonder if they can put this song version on SingStar?! Now that would be cool. If you really dig this video there is a whole bunch of other videos similar to it- just search under "Literal Video Version".
Add a little dub to your life with the Easy Star All-Stars. This New York City-based group has just released their third album- a dub and reggae cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band called Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band. This album follows on from their 2003 Pink Floyd cover Dub Side of the Moon and their 2006 Radiohead OK Computer cover Radiodread. Listen to them here mon!
If you are sitting at home one lazy night watching some useless piece of television because nothing better is on, then turn the TV off, turn your computer on and go to TED.com. TED.com: Ideas worth spreading is bascially a conference-turned-global community of people wanting to learn more about the world we live in. The website shares thousands of videos featuring talks/performances from some of the world's greatest thinkers and teachers. The videos can be persuasive, they can be courageous, they can be ingenious, fascinating, inspiring, beautiful, funny, informative...
Whatever they are, they are about spreading ideas- about discovering and inspiring. So hurry up- get discovering and get inspired!
Here are three videos I found on my first visit to the site today:
Here's a thought-provoking musical take on racial stereotypes from Stew called "Black Men Ski".
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