Art for art's sake, I couldn't have said it better myself, Montreal natives The Tanuki Project, are an alternative electronic visual band. Which means you're going to be saying, "a guitar shouldn't make noises like that" a lot. Every performance is like an exhibit at an art gallery, pushing the limits of your artistic senses making you draw connections between visuals and audio.
I first heard their single High Unholy under the Cyberpunk_music subreddit, the music video was a little hard to watch, being completely about police brutality, but once that visual is out of your head its not hard to imagine surfing around a sci fi city blasting these tunes which I guess was the whole reason I found it where I did. If you need a little help with the imagination part check out their website, specifically their live sets to get the whole scope of the combination act.
The Tanuki Project have been described as "The Ting Tings meet Nine Inch Nails", I would say more Metric meets Sybreed, or Airlock meets 65 Days of Static, either way its a perfect blend of hard rock styling, driving electro beats, and haunting vocals. The fact that they're Canadian just seals the deal for me. So pick up their album One by One and the High Unholy single for the great price of free below and hit all those links above for a little networking.
Also if the band just happens to see this I apologize for my recent lack of writing skills, I thought it was more important just to get the word out. So please support the artists and check us out on Facebook here. Cheers.
Alright let me set the scene for you, last week a buddy of mine went to a show here in St. Catharines, and proceeded to get so drunk he forgot to pick up an album for me, the album was by local legends, Lambs Become Lions. I had heard of them maybe two days before, I was drawn in by their song Lake Ontario a ballad of love found and lost on the shores of our inland sea. It clicked, I could swear that it was written for me, for the nights spent watching love set against the beach, and wondering what it was that I did right, and wrong. Emotion aside, said song is on their Cicada EP which is not available for download as of yet but that and their song Small Town Dreams are available on their Facebook page for the great price of free, just a little incentive to do some digging. But if you have a craving for post rock with a hint of electronic then we have something you might enjoy, Ghosts of A Fallen Soldier, their (I believe) first studio album. Although sadly lacking the folky vocals of their newer tunes it still gets its point across in droning guitars and progressive drums patterns, and is a must download for anyone who fancies themselves a connoisseur of fine music. For a small city band you can't get better.
To continue this week of frantic yet somehow lazy posting, I bring you an unsigned alt rock band from Sacramento, CA, Broken Iris. Originally I heard one of their tracks in a montage, don't ask which one. I was entranced by the dark overtones of sadness and hate, but somehow the depressing mood was overshadowed by the fast drum patterns, and slightly uplifting vocals, once you take a deeper look there really is a light at the end of this tunnel. One criticism, throughout the album I kept expecting the vocalist to just break and start screaming all post hardcore like but this never happened, maybe if they get together for a new album they should find someone to do maybe some back up growling or something, just boost the emotion. Overall a satisfactory experience. If you're into the whole slightly depressing alternative scene then give them a try and please consider buying their album or checking out their website here. If you don't have money look below for the torrent I used, its all legit, if there aren't enough seeders let me know I'll see what I can do.
Gorilla Warfare Tactics, are a very chill hip hop trio from New York City. Keep in mind I use "hip hop" very loosely, their style is a tough one to label, infusing old school spirit with new school technology and instrumentation. Their mixtape, Premier, although short packs a massive punch and was a smash hit on the sites that were lucky enough to feature it. So grab it up and show some love.
Hadouken! Brush of that fireball and get on your feet! From London, UK, with love Hadouken! may be the most annoying band to try and find at your local record store, when I went when it was first released I had to wait a month and a half for it to be shipped in from the UK. But by George it was worth it. For The Masses, has been shaking my speakers and my expectations for just over a year now and I still haven't gotten past how damn amazing it is. Combining drum and bass, hip hop, pop punk, and just about everything else into a hard hitting, skull cracking, thrill ride of an album Hadouken! is not an act to be missed.
Amazingly enough we've only had to artists for our next alphabetical sequence, I Set My Friends On Fire and Innerpartysystem, both of which are more than worth a download.
Now we get into the section I was most looking forward to, Interpol. A three piece post-punk revival band from NYC, Interpol is that kind of music that at the start I was very tentative to invest in. The Heinrich Maneuver was playing on Much Tv almost constantly and truthfully it got annoying after oh... the second round, (keep in mind this is before I really got into music). One day I happened across their album Our Love To Admire on sale and took a chance, and I never went back. Our Love To Admire is an amazing rendition of a broken heart, full of cryptic riddles and soul searching poetry, there is not a day that couldn't be brought down to earth by it. So if you have the time give it a try, I promise it won't disappoint.
Thanks again for stopping by, if you enjoyed the music today please support the artists and take a trip over to our Facebook page and show some love.
Today, I bring to you Josh Ritter. I know nothing about him other than his music, and even that I am fairly new to. Even so, I think that his music is pretty interesting, and there is a lot of variety in it. His music is the kind that you need to sit and listen to in order to truly appreciate it. His lyrics are truthful, easy to relate to and pure genius.
I am going to use a bit of a simple format for today, as I do not have a lot of time to be sitting here writing this post. I have download links and a video of a song from each album. I am only missing one album as far as I know, and that is his self-titled album from 1999.
Thank you again for all of your support! We've been doing pretty good with posts this week. There should be a new song coming out by She Said Save me, and as soon as I get it, I will post it for you as well.
First off apologies for this being my first post this week, I've been conned into working eleven hour days damn near all week. That being said if anyone feels like buying me a car then I would be able to post on time...
You all know about Death Cab For Cutie, the smash hit four piece alt rock band from Seattle, rocking Atlantic Records and having just released their eighth album not too long ago. Truthfully Codes and Keys didn't really live up to my expectations, I really don't think they can ever improve on Narrow Stairs, I really don't.
Narrow Stairs was released in 2008 and like many other albums, was introduced to me by my best friend who happened to be living with me at the time. I must admit like a lot of his music I was skeptical at first, it would be another year or so before I was kicked off my heavy metal high horse and brought down to earth enough to appreciate the subtle poetry that makes up this entire album. Most every song can be interpreted as sad on this album, and with that melancholy piano in the background I have a hard time not feeling every expressed emotion that passes through my stereo, so take a chance on one of my all time favourite albums, I suggest "I Will Posses Your Heart".
EDM is an electric collaberation between Jesse Hughes and Queens Of The Stone Age's frontman Josh Homme. I remember hearing "Wannabe In L.A." one day on the radio, and from there on it seemed as though my lifes mission was to hunt down and purchase all three of their albums. With each purchase I become more and more of a fan and it seemed as though every song became more hilarious as I progressed through the albums in a reverse chronological order. "Whorehoppin (Shit, Goddamn)" will always be one of the funniest songs to sing with your parents. To start you on your way you should hit their album Death By Sexy, then if you are a kindred spirit track the other two down and love life.
If you've ever been lucky enough to have been on the recieving end of one of my famous music chats you'll know about Freelance Whales. Freelance Whales are a five piece indie rock band from Queens, New York. I'm not entirely sure how it was I ended up on their website one day but I distinctly remember finding their album Weathervanes and being very sad it wasn't available at my local record store. Long story short I ordered it in and fell in love.
Weathervanes is a thirteen track masterpiece of modern music that never grows old. From track one you'll have a hard time counting all of the different instruments that flit across the tracks, and I would suggest you don't even try. Every song on this album is designed to put a smile on your face and if they don't then we seriously need to talk more.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you didn't find the album download links then you should leave a comment here or on our Facebook, and again apologies for the lack of posts this week, hopefully the following few days will be better, but stick around and find out either way.
I've been hearing some complaints lately, many echoed by myself, I put the word "Daily" in the title back when I had the time to post daily, and for not keeping my promise I apologize. As my apology I present to you oh mighty viewer an idea I may or may not have stolen from one of my fellow publishers, every Friday (time permitting) we'll go through my itunes Library alphabetically and pick an artist that has yet to be featured here as well as recapping the ones that have been. Hold me to it audience, three artists every Friday starting now.
Now lets introduce my pick for our premier A-Z series, The Arkells. Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, The Arkells are quite possibly the best example of Canadian talent, their debut album Jackson Square is one of my all time favorite rock albums and the CD has barely survived all the times its been tracked around the country with me.
Unless you've been hiding under the proverbial rock then you've heard of BT, a widely known Grammy nominated electronic producer and composer. I first took notice after hearing a remix of his song Forget Me, then I took a trip over to itunes and purchased his album These Hopeful Machines. BT redefines electronic music, mixing in rock and orchestral themes, and I was hooked at first listen.
I think we're definately getting into my top 5 favorite artists. Cage The Elephant, there is not a day that could not be improved by their amazing sound or lifted by the shear amount of feeling put into their songs. I was first drawn to them after hearing their song Ain't No Rest For The Wicked on the radio one day, then further when it appeared as the opening track in the game Borderland. Their Self Titled debut album Cage The Elephant is a masterpiece of alternative rock and a battlefield of poetic liscence. This is a must buy, I command it!
After all those links I'm not sure the hour I spent was worth it, but if you liked todays post give me some feedback on our Facebook page, and please support the artists.
Welcome to our second official Hipster Humpday. You're here because you feel that todays music just doesn't quite live up to your standards, and thats good cause it shouldn't. Gone are all the great names from yesteryear and they took the talent with them, or so we thought. Here to instill a new found purpos in your ipod, is BadBadNotGood, a three piece jazz band from Toronto. Also known as the "Odd Trio" these guys met at Humber College and bonded over some very soulful music, jamming all improv like to many a hip hop song. Wait hip hop? Yup their first album you'll be surprised to hear is a mixtape of hip hop put to jazz. Their new album BBNG is available at their bandcamp for the great price of free and is chock full of top notch jazz with the heart of hip hop. I myself rarely listen to jazz but BBNG had me driftin off all day and I can't say I didn't want to go.
I figured I should make some of the Wednesday articles the same format as Tuesday, so stick around for three amazing tracks that have been floating me this week. Miami Horror, Reptar and Handsome Furs.
Thanks again for stopping in, hopefully I've shown you some of the amazing talent that's hiding just around the corner these days. If you like it or not, head on over to our Facbook page to stay updated about this and our other blog and to just be a better person. Also big ups to Gabe for letting me know about BBNG and a huge thanks to the publishers of the Burning Ear for not having me killed for stealing so much music.
I finally managed to post something on time. I'm doing this in lieu of doing my readings and organizing my time as I should, but hey, sometimes you need a break.
This past Saturday (I can't believe that's almost a week ago now...), I went to a small concert nearby. First up was the young man that I am writing about for you today. He's a student at the university I attend, and just a little earlier this evening I could hear him in a room a floor down and across the hall from mine singing and playing his guitar, which is always a nice atmospheric touch to my studying.
Joel Strauss is what I would call a unique artist. He is not so "outgoing" and "sociable" as one may assume a musician would be, but neither he is reserved and quiet. I think it's quite a great balance actually. On top of it all, he's a genuinely nice person and an amazing artist (I mean musically...I have never seen any other art form from him, so I wouldn't count it out, but that's not my focus, haha). I was blown away by his lyrics and his sound when I heard him live, and I feel honoured to be at a school with such a talented person.
I had C. listen to some of the songs last night, and I really liked the way that he described the first song, "Beyond my Flesh and Bone." He said, "It has a nice feeling to it...melancholy but hopeful." I think that's the way that a lot of his songs come across. Some of them are very catchy, and often keep my mind captive for hours on end.
I do not have a current video for you to listen to straight from this page, so I decided to just leave it out altogether, rather than using an outdated video, but if you go to his Bandcamp site, then you can listen to all of the tracks on this album and if you like it enough or just feel so inclined, you can purchase the album there as well. Purchase it. Listen to it. Love it! I think it's worth it. So common! Support the artist this time, please! :)
