The Gossip

The Gossip, a three piece band, brings so much raw unfiltered energy it makes your  body want to dance and explode. I wish I could say I’m being hpyerbolic but I’m not. The song immediately starts and doesn’t let go of you. Though they are only a three piece band, their sound never becomes bare or simple.

Standing in the Way of Control is such an amazing song not only for its energy but also the sense of empowerment it gives, largely due to Beth Ditto’s spectacular voice. None of the instruments use any heavy effects, you can almost hear the fingers slide across the bass strings when the bumping bass line comes in. Be sure to check out their Myspace for their tour dates. Their live shows only ups the energy, a must see concert.

Definitely check out the Le Tigre remix, more of a slower electro-rock mix and the Soulwax Nite version adds a layer of electro-dance on top of the already infectious song.

MP3|Standing in the Way of Control - The Gossip

MP3|Standing in the Way of Control (Soulwax Nite Version) - The Gossip

MP3|Standing in the Way of Control (Le Tigre Remix) - The Gossip

-Erick

The Anti Hype Muxtape

We’re pleased to announce The Anti Hype’s weekly Muxtape! We’ve previously covered Muxtape, so I won’t go into details. All I’ll say is you just have to click on a song and your weekend starts, easy as that. It will updated every week with new tunes and remixes. Our first playlist is: Melodies perched on a Beat. Check it out and tell us what you think. Click here for a tracklist.

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Vampire Weekend (and the issue of overhype)


So I finally decided to try out Vampire Weekend’s debut self titled album after weeks of buzz both from word of mouth and across the blogospere. I finally caved when I saw them on Uncrate.

Sound wise they are partially orchestral (ala Polyphonic Spree), have vocals that resemble Kings of Leon-meets-The Fratellis and a hint of Foals in there too (possibly in the percussion department and frenetic guitar in the song A-Punk).

The problem with overhypeing something is that it often leads to its own detriment. An example of this in the film world was the new Indiana Jones movie, it wasn’t the quintessential ending to the series that was being promised. It was good, at best it was as good as one of the originals but it wasn’t anything amazing. I feel the same way about VW. Don’t get me wrong, I like some of there stuff, but I was expecting the next Apes & Androids or something based on the buzz. The thing about Apes & Androids is that they weren’t nearly as hyped in the beginning, possibly do to their very “distinct” sound and bizarre performances at gigs in NYC. A&A’s rise seemed more gradual and natural as opposed to VW which felt more forced. Leading to my conclusion of them having an image bigger than their sound, they seem… empty or like they are missing something.

But that’s not to say the band is bad. Not at all, I see a lot of potential. My favorite tracks from the album are Mansard Roof and M79. The first has a very interesting and fun beat. Seeming almost carribe in percussion at parts but then using more classic instruments throughout. M79 then has a surprising intro as the band uses a harpsichord and violins/violas. Again the use of these classical instruments in a new way is giving this band a distinct flavor that look forward to hearing more of in the future.

I’d like to know what you guys think. Am I being too hard on them or is there weight to my argument? Please leave a comment with you thoughts and possibly other examples of overhype.

-Alx

MP3| Mansard Roof - Vampire Weekend

MP3| M79 - Vampire Weekend

MP3| A-Punk - Vampire Weekend

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Deadmau5 Edit)


I’m not one for Daft Punk remixes usually. I’m a bit of a Daft Punk purist. I didn’t thoroughly enjoy Daft Club the remix album of Discovery nor Human After All Remixes. Although Alive 2007 is an exception since it was done by Daft Punk themselves and was phenomenal. Don’t get me wrong, there were good remixes, but nothing that would hold my interest as a great song/remix in my mind. Then I came across this. A good buddy of mine from Oakland who was at Cochella last year told me about a Deadmau5 remix of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger he had heard. I had to find it. I started listening to it, started off like any other trance/house song, then the the lyrics from the Daft Punk original started trickling in. Then it kicked in and that was it. I had found something great.

This is without a doubt one of the best remixes of a Daft Punk song around. Something about it just works. Its simple with a very good beat that just gets in your head then slows down into a trance like state and comes back to finish you off. Maybe I need to get back and listen to the other remixes at some point but right now I’m on my 20th playthrough of this song and its not showing any sign of tediousness. If you want an epic Daft Punk remix for your next dance party I suggest checking out this song.

MP3| Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Deadmau5 Edit) - Daft Punk

-Alx

Shy Child

Drums and Keytar. Do I really need to say anything else? All right, so Shy Child is two guys from New York City on Keytar and drums making ridiculously fun and catchy songs. It’s full of synth lines that just ride the drum-beat into dance rhythms. They simply are so much fun to listen to and, most importantly, I can’t really think of any other band that are like them. Their whole album, Noise Won’t Stop is worth checking out and definitely worth buying.

They’ve done a few remixes but definitely check out these two songs, “Astronaut” where the drum beat and the synth parts are just made for each other, and you can’t help but start moving and dancing. “Summer” totally encompasses exactly what summer should be about, so if you want a song that spells out summer for you, download it!

Check out their Myspace.

MP3| Astronaut - Shy Child

MP3| Summer - Shy Child

-Erick

Midnight Juggernauts

In my younger and more vulnerable years when I began to listen to this “electronic” music, one of the first electro/dance songs I heard was a Midnight Juggernaut remix of I Get Around by Dragonette. I can’t lie, It’s pretty amazing, definitely a dance song to start the night.  A few of their songs can get a bit repetitive but put you in a sort of hypnotic trance, like Tombstone and I can’t help but follow. The drums feel very real, the bass is subtle but balanced, the modulated voice sounds distinct but human, and the synths feel right in place. Their songs are definitely work checking out and the remixes they’ve done are simply killer( Wow, I just said that). Hearts on fire is another awesome remix they did. They just released their full length album Dystopia, if the songs below spark your interest.

MP3| I Get Around (Midnight Juggernaut Remix) - Dragonette

MP3| Road to Recovery (Miami Horror remix) - Midnight Juggernauts

MP3| Tombstone - Midnight Juggernauts

MP3| Hearts on Fire (Midnight Juggernatus Remix) - Cut Copy

-Erick

(I had the chance to see them at live. I was really impressed, pics here)

Muxtape - Old school music sharing, reinvented.

Muxtape is a new service that basically allows you to quickly set up an account and upload 12 songs that become available to stream as your digital mixtape. This is a great way to share music with people quickly be simply uploadeding the song to Muxtape and distributing the url. Its been literally a day since Muxtape launched and already it has exploded! Its been featured on Wired, Darling Fireball and 37signals, the site has been reblogged on Tumblr over a hundred times, its an upcoming story on digg and not to forget it already has thousands of users! As if that weren’t enough as of today it already has a new awesome feature allowing people to see sets of randomly selected muxtapes on the main page. The idea of the project is brilliant. The problem with “mixed tapes” whether you used a CD, flash drive or an actual tape you were using a physical medium to give music to someone, music is all digital now and digitally distributed, mixtapes were obsolete and the idea nearly became extinct.

Justin its creator basically realized since the music is digital so should be the medium on which it is distributed. The result was a super simple, totally legal and extremely effective, totally digital and high quality way to share music with firends. I can see this becoming as big as facebook or myspace. Everyone will have their social network accounts and a Muxtape to share music with people. Justin says he’s working on a bunch more features, like added customization and RSS.

The only hopes I have for this are that it doesn’t try to integrate, like say in the future you will be able to embed your muxtape on a blog or in facebook or something. It would totally defeat the idea and purpose. And the only additional feature I’d like to see is a favorite system similar to vimeo, so if you see a muxtape you like you can favorite it and have it appear in a list that you can check out at a later time. This could also double as a friend system and a follow system, you (and possibly others if the favorites were made public) will know who your friends are / what their muxtapes are and maybe the possibility of a email notification if someone changes their mixtape. But other than that, the formula for how it works is perfect, it works and it shouldn’t be messed with. There were a bunch of cool webapps I can you think of that were near perfect for the function that they served but down the line the developers kept adding/subtracting/revamping and eventually ended up ruining the formula that worked so well.

Muxtape is a great way to share and discover music by bringing back the mixtape into the digital era. Get your muxtape @ muxtape.com.  You can check out ours at alx.muxtape.com and erick.muxtape.com

-Alx-

Crystal Castles

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So Crystal Castles has released their self-titled album. It is something else. While they are an electronic duo mainly experimenting with 8-bit synth lines and drums, I like to think of their music as the “soundtrack to a computer turning on”, the computer being female. Anything can happen or come in when listening to their songs, so it seems. The hard drums create a beat (almost dance, some are) to carry you as synth-lines rise and fall to lead you to euphoria. Had to post about them as soon as I heard their album. Download them if you want to listen to something completely new!

MP3| Untrust Us - Crystal Castles, (Computer turning on)

MP3| Alice Practice - Crystal Castles, ( Strap in, mind-blowing song)

Mp3| Atlantis to Interzone(Crystal Castles Remix) - Klaxons, (Their remixes are equally amazing)

-Erick

Come as You Are (Nirvana Cover) - Emilie Simon

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So really quickly, my friend Kyle sent me this link to Emilie Simon doing a cover of Nirvana’s Come As You Are. I did a previous post mentioning Emilie Simon, so I’ll just reiterate that she is incredibly talented as a songwriter and singer as well as incredibly cute! As a whole, they use strings, piano and percussion unlike anything I’ve heard. I say this about few bands but I would buy any of her albums. Check out her myspace for her new song “Space Oddity”.

MP3 (low quality)| Come as You Are (Nirvana Cover ) - Emilie Simon

MP3|  Desert - Emilie Simon

MP3| Le Vieil Amant - Emilie Simon

MP3|Fleur de Saison - Emilie Simon

-Erick

Estelle - American Boy ft. Kanye West (Video)

So my friend just got back friend the UK and posted this video on Facebook. I have to say, I like it, it has enough electro to hold interest and catchy enough to make one smile.

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Her name is Estelle and has an album out in April. Also check out Kanye West’s album Graduation, it’s worth a listen, simply for “Stronger“and “Flashing Lights.” MP3 Coming up soon. :)

MP3| American Boy - Estelle