Psychedelic rock without the administration

[Live action shot of Xu Xu Fang by Rachel Carr, 2008]

Remember when Sony Music tried to get everyone excited about psychedelic rock with MGMT’s stunning debut studio album? Good times, until MGMT put on the worst live act I’ve ever seen in my life at Slim's in San Francisco. The dismal show was no fluke, with negative reviews across the country. One friend told me that the leader singer stumbled onto stage, muttered “I’m too f'ed up to play” into the mike, jacked his iPod into the PA, and left listeners with a wonderful little playlist. Quite rationally, I immediately distrusted “psychedelic rock” as a label constructed by executives to cover up MGMT’s complete naiveté. Fortunately, two local artists from Los Angeles and New York are slowing repairing my damaged psyche:

Xu Xu Fang fuses a downtempo rhythmic structure (aka trip hop) with psychedelic rock and a mastery of instrumental and vocal arrangements to bring The Cure’s “Fascination Street” into the 21st century. Likewise, “Your Way” manages to incorporate influences from the vanguard of the late millennial trip hop movement (Nightmares on Wax, FC Kahuana, Sigur Ros) while simultaneously striking out new ground.

• Xu Xu Fang - Fascination Street
• Xu Xu Fang - Your Way
• Nightmares on Wax - You Wish
  

Xylos adopts a vision of psychedelic rock bursting with upbeat sunshine. Featuring guest vocals from Ira Tuton and Anand Wilder of Yeasayer, their latest EP (available for free at their website) remains experimental without abandoning carefree lyrical composition and pop hooks, especially on “In the Bedroom.” According to the track, relationships based purely on physical attraction inevitably lead to disaster. Thanks for the astute analysis.

• Xylos - In the Bedroom
• Xylos - Yellow Flip Flops
• Yeasayer - Sunrise
  

Anti-Post Bonus: Pool Party Music for Robots

[ ... or birds]

Ricky: "At our hotel room we're gonna have kind of a pool party, that California gangster style, you know what I mean? Kick-ass pool party thing."

• Dub Pistols - Back to Daylight
• The Golden Filter - Favorite Things
• Frankie Knuckles - Your Love
• Stereo MC's - Connected
• The Very Best - Tengazako (M.I.A Remodel)

In tribute:

• Michael Jackson - Thriller (Disco Tech Remix)
• Jackson Five - I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix)
• Michael Jackson - P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing) - [disco classic immortal, from Ibiza to your living room]
  

The Dirty Projectors Anti-Post

This is the anti-post where I abandon any sort of analysis or reflection, and brazenly add to the hype from music critics who call Dirty Projectors' "Bitte Orca" the best album of the Holocene epoch. Though I still preference Veckatimest, just buy "Bitte Orca" now so when I get back on the train, we can all have some reference points from the summer of 2009.

• Dirty Projectors - No Intention
• Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move
  

To round out the post, I leave you with two of the most sophisticated anti-critics of our generation. In their pithy articulation, "If they didn't have a part of the song that, liked, sucked, then it's like the other part wouldn't be as cool." Indeed, Butthead.

From Indie-Rock to Auto Tuned Euro R&B

[Ezra Koenig rocking the double collar]

Apparently, I missed a rather obvious path from starving indie-artist to international phenomenon: The Auto-Tuner. Enter Discovery, the fresh project from Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij (with a cameo from fellow mate Ezra Koenig) and Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles, which attempts to revitalize the stagnant pool of contemporary American R&B with Euro-electronic pop hooks and coy use of the Auto Tuner post-mortis.

Music critics and bloggers spent the last few months in a paralytic state of adulation over the upcoming release of the Discovery LP. Every review followed a standard formula. After disposing with the perfunctory takedown of Auto Tuned rap albums, critics expressed amazement that Batmanglij jumped from preppy indie-rock to Justin Timberlake style electronic R&B, ‘correctly’ Auto Tuned Koenig’s vocals, and still managed to construct a great record with Wes Miles.

• Discovery - Carby feat. Ezra Koenig (moved to zShare due to copyright infringement on box.net, remember, these are samples, go buy the album!)
  

“Carby” is an instant pop classic and an essential summer track. Underneath the Auto Tuned veneer though, Koenig’s lyrics unearth a level of self-reflection completely missing in this formulaic blogger bewilderment. First, these same reviewers bemoaned Vampire Weekend’s rapid jump from playing apartment parties at Columbia to sitting in the hot seat with Terry Gross on Fresh Air (granted, the interview was horrible). Since part of VW’s mainstream success obviously derives from ability of Batmanglij and Koenig to produce ‘pop’ tracks, their exploratory mission into R&B should come as no surprise. Second, the purported death of the Auto Tuner among rap artists provides Discovery with the perfect opportunity to raise the Phoenix from the ashes. This sly resurrection paradoxically exposes the insularity of indie-rock while reestablishing ‘post-modern’ credentials among critics jaded by the celebrity of Vampire Weekend. Third, quite simply, Discovery is good music.

• Jay Z - D.O.A (Death of Autotune)
• Discovery - Orange Shirt
  

Taken together, these points force the painful admission (from myself, as well) that perhaps all those Auto Tuned rap artists were actually pioneering new musical ground. When the ethos switched from ‘boorish’ rap to the ubiquity of pop lyrics, and had the blessing of prominent indie figures, we started to listen. Also, composing a great album never hurts.

• Discovery - Can You Discover
  

Discovery is out on CD and vinyl July 7.

An Hour in the Smelter DeeJay Mix

[Pic: Ideal Type, 2008]

For the last few summers, I've been fortunate to have enough time to sit down and meld together my favorite tracks into continuous mixes. This summer is no exception. Unlike my other mixes, however, I adopted a much slower, funkier, and dubbed out tempo until the finale. An Hour in the Smelter features several innovative producers, notably Burns, Trentemoller, D.I.M., and James Braun, that straddle the fine line between club hedonism and electronic music as a rhythmic art form. In the end, I simply couldn't resist the sonorous allure of Orbital and Grizzly Bear remixes, as well as an end of the night, hands in the air, floor destroying bootleg of Smashing Pumpkins.

Follow link to download a CD Quality mp3 from zShare:

Tee Anders Volpe - An Hour in the Smelter Summer 2009 Mix

Or stream the mix from SoundCloud here:
http://soundcloud.com/tvolpe/an-hour-in-the-smelter-2009

Tracklist

1. Please Don't Touch (The Golden Filter Dub mix) - Polly Scattergood
2. Lisztomania (Classixx Remix) - Phoenix
3. Kilometer (A-trak Dub Mix) - Sebastien Tellier
4. We Are The People (The Golden Filter vs. Burns Remix) - Empire Of The Sun
5. Give A Little (Trentemoller re-adjustment) - Caldwell, Andy
6. Weak Generation- Revolte
7. Sunglasses At Night (D.I.M. Remix)- Tiga & Zyntherius
8. Spanish Fly - James Braun
9. Yes Maam (Trentemoeller Remix) - Visti & Meyland
10. Donut - M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade
11. Lick My Deck- Sebastian Ingrosso & John Dahlback
12. For Da Loverz (Nelsen Grover Remix) - Sharam Jey
13. Sunrise (Hey Champ Remix) - Yeasayer
14. Halycyon (Original vs. Tom Middleton Re-Model) - Orbital
15. Two Weeks (Fred Falke Remix) - Grizzly Bear
16. 1979 (Glow Tape!'s 2009 Remix) - Smashing Pumpkins
    

Expanding Indie-Rock: Selling Out, Mockery, and Dance Music

[Pic: Philip Klinger, 2009]

Indie-rock certainly does not need to jettison a class-based ethos. Other genres, from the cocaine-rap of Young Jeezy to the contemporary classical minimalism of Philip Glass, appeal primarily to very specific groups. Ideally though, music should promote cross-pollination. In fact, indie-rock appears to be following three different paths to expanding their listener base:

Jump to Pop
Start small. Write well. Run the local club gamut. Hone your skills. Get lucky. This classic formula for ‘selling out’ is such a dominant part of our collective psyche that it needs little explanation. Yet it provides a straightforward path for indie groups to expand beyond the college crowd. Just like Vampire Weekend before them, Thao and the Get Down started out as a local cult secret several years ago. Now “Bag of Hammers” plays in the background at JCrew and represents the commercial front of Clorox. Trade your dormitory soul for argyle v-necks and bleach wipes.

• Thao and the Get Down - Bag of Hammers
• Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand a Chance (Chromeo Remix)
  

Post-Modern Self-Deprecation

Critic and expose the very class structure that confines your genre. The most enjoyable method is the gangsta-rap cover song. Following the path blazed by Ben Folds Five, The Klaxons sardonic and brilliant cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” is arguably better than the original, which attracts a more mainstream audience. All the while, the subtle mockery of the entire construct of musical ‘genres’ is instantly appealing to the English-major hipster crowd. As Tom Yorke bemoaned back in the Halcyon days of indie-rock, “this is our new song, just like the last one, a total waste of time. my iron lung.” So aloof, so hot right now.

• The Klaxons - No Diggity (Blackstreet Cover)
  
• Radiohead - My Iron Lung
  

Dance-Off
The burgeoning fusion of indie-rock and dance music over the past half-decade speaks to a more Dionysian path. Innovative producers, such as The Twelves from Brazil, remodel indie tracks into a funky amalgamation of base hedonism with beats so infectious that both Arcade Fire and Jeezy fans find themselves locked in a frantic pants-off dance-off. Of course, this simply shifts the genre from the insular structure of indie-rock to the more cosmopolitan dance music scene. While different groups certainly meld on the dance floor, socio-economic considerations never disappear. In fact, it’s possible that such divisions are merely remixed and amplified.

• The Twelves - 5 Minute Minimix for BBC Radio One
• Radiohead - Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)
• The Ting Tings - Great DJ (Calvin Harris Remix)
• The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health (Trentemoller Remix)
  

Indie-Rock as Erudite Funk

[Pic: Chrome Waves, 2007]

My initial discovery of The Whitest Boy Alive in 2006 presented a confusing paradox. On the one hand, heavy bass lines and rhythmic syncopation cast the group as a sort of European dance floor machine, much like the 1980s English punk-funk band Public Image Ltd. Yet the lyrics conformed to the indie-rock fascination with emotional breakups, depression, and the general trials and tribulations of being an educated youth with tender feelings. I simply couldn’t decide whether to dance or ruminate.

• Public Image Ltd. - This is Not a Love Song
  
• The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage
  

The recent release of “Rules” by Whitest Boy cleared up this puzzle. Although the instrumentals still display a Euro-electronic rendition of American soul, lead vocalist Erlend Øye pushes the lyrics beyond the pale of nerdy bookishness (he also laid down vocals on Röyksopp's pop hit “Remind Me”). Only a very small minority would publicly dance to “1517,” a track about long-term cycles of karma “in northern Europe since medieval times.” This is erudite funk for hipster coffeehouses and Boston dorms.

• The Whitest Boy Alive - 1517
  
• The Whitest Boy Alive - Intentions
  

Sasha Frere-Johnes is wrong. Indie-rock has both vigor and rhythm, as typified by The Whitest Boy Alive, LCD Soundsystem, and Of Montreal.

• LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous!
• Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
  

The real problem is class. It’s safe to say that Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown can get a party started no matter the socio-economics on the dancefloor. Even if contemporary indie-rock acts are clearly influenced by these masters of funk and soul, their lyrics and ethos explicitly aim to please the upper-middle class college educated crowd. Is this even a problem? And if so, what's to be done?

• Marvin Gaye - Got to Give it Up
• Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground
  
• James Brown - Night Train
  

The East-West Summer Mixtape (part II)

[Pic: Algo, 2009]

In anticipation of an upcoming series on the socio-economics of indie-rock and dance music, the second part of the East-West summer mixtape features a slew of tracks with heavy hip-hop, blues, funk, reggae, and four-to-the-floor dance influences.

Quite conveniently, innovative world dance DeeJay and producer Nickodemus just released his sophomore album this week on ESL records. Reminiscent of Dreadzone, “Sun People” fuses a bold blend of international beats (from Latin America to the Middle East) together with humid New York City sunshine. A quintessential summer album, Nickodemus provides the perfect contemporary compliment to classics from Ini Kamoze and The Beta Band, cover updates from The Dynamics, and summer releases from Phoenix and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

[To download mp3s, open the link in a new window, and then download. All files are CD quality when possible.]

• Nickodemus - N'Dini
  
• Dreadzone - Once Upon A Time In Jamaica
  
• Ini Kamoze - World a Reggae
• Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Paradise
• The Dynamics - Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield Cover)
  
• Fujiya And Miyagi - Collarbone
  
• The Beta Band - Squares
  
• Moscow Olympics - Second Trace
  
• Phoenix - Lisztomania (Classixx Remix)
  
• A Ha - Take On Me (The Twelves Remix)
  

The East-West Summer Mixtape (part I)

[Pic: Steez, 2008]

Gangster rap artists of the nineties had it all wrong. Instead of battling over sexual prowess and thug efficiency, they should have focused their lyrical diatribes on a genuine difference between the East and West coasts: summertime.

Out West, California lays claim to a crisp wave of scorching dry heat that catalyzes countless pool parties and endless outdoor romps. Musically, think of the crunchy beats, snare drums, and clean samples immortalized by Dr. Dre and Pharcyde.

Back East, a blanket of humidity slowly engulfs DC and New York, ushering in warm nights, a sanguine attitude towards life after months of winter, utter laziness, and a flood of inchoate interns. East coast summer begs for the sort of tracks that literally drip with the pervasive moisture here. Think dubbed out beats, heavy reverb, and deep rolling basslines.

In a two part mixtape, I bring together the best tracks to compliment summer on both coasts. Look for some Beta Band and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble next time.

[To download mp3s, open the link in a new window, and then download. All files are CD quality when possible.]

• Chris Isaak - Wicked Game (Trentemoller Dubby Games Remix)
• The Clash – Guns of Brixton
• Steel Pulse – Your House
• Jamiroquai – Drifting Along
• The Shins – Sea Legs
• Brian Eno – Deep Blue Day
• Polly Scattergood – Please Don’t Touch (Golden Filter Dub Mix)
• The Pharcyde – Passin’ Me By (Hot Chip Remix)
• Al Green - Love and Happiness
  

Grizzly Bear and R.E.M: Forging a Lyrical Smelter

[Pic: Nina Katchadourian, 1996]

Last week, Brooklyn quartet Grizzly Bear debuted Veckatimest to anticipated critical acclaim and ubiquitous blog support. The album combines sonorous vocal melodies with instrumental production that oscillates between instantly accessible pop tracks, such as the brilliant “Two Weeks”, and the more esoteric, but equally fulfilling “Ready, Able.” As these two tracks demonstrate, Grizzly Bear wields an impressive lyrical smelter to push forward the vanguard of musical development.

Yet how original or innovative is the album? Retrospectively, Grizzly Bear and other ‘groundbreaking’ pop artists merely build upon the foundations laid by R.E.M. and Radiohead decades ago.

• Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks (320 kps mp3)
  
• Grizzly Bear - Ready, Able
  

[To download mp3s, open the link in a new window, and then download. All files are CD quality when possible.]

Exhibit One: “Belong” and “Endgame” from the 1991 release of Out of Time, R.E.M.

These two marvelous B-Side tracks underscore the same sort of choral climaxing backed by sprawling bass lines so prevalent two decades later on Veckatimest. Moving to the uber-mainstream, The Killers also inherited this style, on display most readily in “All These Things I’ve Done.”

• R.E.M - Belong
  
• R.E.M - Endgame
• The Killers - All These Things I've Done
  

Exhibit Two: From “Planet Telex” (1995) to “Idioteque” (2000)

Since the influence of Radiohead on contemporary artists is rather obvious, consider the evolution of song production from the psychedelic-pop of “Planet Telex” to the more dark and electronic “Idioteque”. Meld together the core elements of each and the influence on Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, and Yeasayer is unmistakable.

• Animal Collective - My Girls
• Yeasayer - 2080
  
• Radiohead - Planet Telex
  
• Radiohead - Idioteque
  

Now I just need to draw a link between gangster rap and Grizzly Bear.

• Grizzly Bear - The Knife (Girl Talk Remix)