So, speaking of work, here’s one of my favorite songs “about” trabajo, from hip hop DJ/producer RJD2. Simply titled “Work,” from his 2002 album Deadringer, the song is so good, it sometimes helps you remember what you’re working for in the first place.
The Midnight Juggernauts have an otherworldly sound that is refreshing and sinister at the same time. Their catchy hooks grab you right away and don’t let go. The band, originally from Melbourne, released their debut album Dystopia in Australia in August of 2007 on their own label Siberia Records. Their new video for “This New Technology,” the title track off of their second album, features men in robes with faces that appear to be composed of multi-colored beads and streaming images coming at you while you’re flying through space. I’m not sure what the intended meaning is behind this symbolism but I can’t stop listening to the song. If this transcendental jam hooks you on the Juggernauts too, you’re in luck. They are set to play three shows in New York in October, at the Bowery Ballroom on 10/21, at the Fader CMJ show at the Ace Hotel and at Santos Party House on 10/24.
Even though we were all doing that brand new dance called “The Loco-Motion” twenty-two years ago, the Australian bombshell responsible for the craze, Kylie Minogue, is only now having her first full-blown U.S. tour. Minogue exploded back onto the club scene with her 2001 hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” which is as hard to shake as the title suggests. She has a huge and loyal fan-base outside of the U.S. which is sure to expand now that her “For You For Me Tour,” which will make stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Toronto, finally kicked off in Oakland last week. She will play three nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom starting this weekend. Today’s jam is not only, in my opinion, her best song, but this video is cool enough to watch again and again.
Maybe it was the recent “Oral History of 2 Tone” article in Spin, or the fact that this week was a tough one for a lot of people (from what I’ve heard, at least), but I’m taking a cue from The Specials and heading out after work tonight and not coming home until tomorrow morning. Sláinte, friends.
With the release of his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago, Justin Vernon, the lead singer of Bon Iver, solidified himself as one of those singers whose soft haunting vocals are hard to forget. Since then, his music has become increasingly experimental.
On the Blood Bank EP, released earlier this year, his sound had a more ambient, boundless quality and he is taking it even further on his collaboration with post-rock band Collections of Colonies of Bees. Together, Wisconsinites Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, Justin Vernon, and Thomas Wincek, form Volcano Choir and they just released a short album of experimental pop, Unmap, in late September. On the album, Vernon’s voice is the most distinct, but it is one of many, both falsetto and full, that are harmonized and layered on top of one another. The music on Unmap is infused with a sense of limitless possibility partly because these tracks aren’t really traditional songs, composed of verses and choruses, and words tied to meanings. The music is more about the harmonies, layers, and textures of sound that they are creating. This makes sense for a collaboration between Vernon and the members of Collections of Colonies of Bees, who were described by Pitchfork as having “proven to be the rare instrumental rock band with ideas about how to keep things both surprising and musical …” For more evidence of that listen to “Flocks IV.”
Today’s jam, “Island, IS”, the first single off the album, which they have available for download today through their label Jagjaguwar records, is probably the most conventional song, on the album but, in my opinion, it’s the best.
East Village to Brooklyn 