You might remember the "I'm in Miami, b*tch"-track from a while back from these guys. A title like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Might have been even better without the part with the female vocals. The video complements the track really well.
Jakwob feat. Smiler - Right beside you
Dubstep seems to be at it's prime right now with even Britney Spears and Martin Solveig using dubstep elements/breakdowns in their recent singles. Jakwob is another dubstep producer and this is a nice, poppy track.
Magnetic Man - Anthemic
And just the round off the obligatory dubstep chapter, it's pretty hard not to move to the sounds of the new Magnetic Man track too.
Benelux
Das Pop - Skip the rope
Excellent jumpy, poppy track by Bent and his buddies. The video was shot with a hundred or so camera-phones, but the end result isn't that spectacular, really.
Sherman - Days go by
As much as Sherman personally prefers the solo acoustic performances, I hope he continues the fine string of pop singles he's made so far. Bonus points for the immediately recognisable opening seconds.
Selah Sue - This world
Selah Sue seems to generate a lot of animosity, and apart from the artificial Jamaican patois, I can't really grasp what puts people off. Might be one of the best singles so far, starting with a bassline reminiscent of the "Stan"-track by Eminem, culminating in the chorus.
Hooverphonic - One, two, three
The new Hooverphonic is nothing really special, but bonus points for the great retro, asymmetrical marine-outfit by Noemie. Impossible not to think of the following track while hearing the chorus lyrics.
Pop
Rumer - Am I forgiven?
I've been checking out most festival coverages (Pinkpop, Glastonbury, Rock Werchter, T in the Park), and a lot of bands really failed to make an impression, but one pleasant discovery was Rumer, a English singer who looks a bit like a cross between Adele and Emily Deschanel, and who specialises in melodic, orchestrated pop with a retro touch. Ideal lazy afternoon, Radio 2-material, and there's nothing whatsoever wrong with that.
Alice Gold - Runaway love
One of the more recent pop princess wannabe's is Alice Gold, and I have no objections, your honor.
Katy Perry - Last Friday night (T.G.I.F.)
Never really got into her previous "E.T."-single, but this one really hits the spot. The outfits and haircuts in the video are a bit like "Hot Tub Time Machine", and the song and lyrics are pretty funny as well ("think I'll have a ginger ale/that was such an epic fail").
Kaiser Chiefs - Little shocks
I was really unimpressed with recent Kaiser Chiefs performances, and the new single is just no fun.
Rock/Indie
Cold War Kids - Finally begin
Seems like somebody slipped these guys a Vampire Weekend cd, the African-inspired guitars polishes their once edgy sound into the realms of all things pop.
The Naked And The Famous - Young blood
It doesn't happen that often that a band from New Zealand attempts an international breakthrough, but these kiwis with their bombastic, electronic sound might just have a shot.
Death Cab For Cutie - You are a tourist
The main selling point of the new DCFC single is the repetitive cheerful guitar riff. Ben Gibbards haircut may induce temporary blindness and should be punishable by law.
The Horrors - Still life
The Horrors are back, once again with a new sound, slower and less eerie and abrasive than the "Primary Colours"-record.
Bon Iver - Calgary
Nothing wrong with the new Bon Iver single, choosing a less acoustic and more electronic path than the "For Emma, forever ago"-album. Almost has a sacral, religious vibe to it.
The Shoes - People moving
Two brothers from France, recommended for "Tv On The Radio"-fans, because the vocals sound very similar.
The Joy Formidable - Whirring
Hitting the radio waves from Wales, this female fronted three-piece and their bombastic indie rock. The frontwoman is called Ritzy, if someone was looking for baby names inspiration. I'd never heard of the word 'abacus', but with a little help from my trusted friend wiktionary, I'll go ahead and guess it's used here in it's architectural meaning: "The uppermost member or division of the capital of a column, immediately under the architrave."
The Joy Formidable - A heavy abacus
Glasvegas - Lots sometimes
There's not a lot of buzz regarding the latest album by these Scots, but anyone with a lost adolescent crush will be able to relate to the lyrics here.
Warpaint - Bees
Saw this track in the Glastonbury coverage and it blew me away. Great, compelling bass sound. Fabulous song structure. Eerie guitar riffs. The post-rock influence in the riffs bar the usual obligatory endless repetitiveness. The fun thing about this band is trying to ascertain which band member is the hottest. The main vocalist used to be/is a model, and the main guitarist dated John Frusciante once upon a time, but the slightly boyish bassist is also a force to be reckoned with, and we all know there's nothing sexier than a female that knows how to play the drums. Really tough call.
Yuck - Holing out
Album review coming up, this London outfit is succesfully reviving the nineties alternative rock/grunge scene. They seem to have a thing for videos that aren't quite suited for work, and this track features pretty much the same guitar solo twice because it's that good.
This a repost of a rough version of the post because the one I made disappeared...just like that. Not cool, blogger.com! This was the second to last edit, so there may still be some slight typo's or grammatical errors, I don't feel like correcting them for the second time around, so you'll have to bear with me.
Dance/Elektro
Katy B - Lights on
Katy B is - or so I'm told - the comtemporary queen of commercial dubstep-influenced music. Really digged the "Katy on a mission"-single and the collaboration with Magnetic Man, and here comes the second single. Ms. Dynamite is kind of annoying here, and Katy only barely pulls off a Beyonce-style vocal in the second verse, but all in all, another good track, even though the version I hear on the radio seems to have the little bit of punch that this youtube version is lacking. Lyrically, this is the English counterpart of "Nein Mann". Funny thing is, they try to make a glamourous video with lots of flashy lights, but we see Katy mostly in oversized sweaters and simple tank tops. Oh, and for someone from a dubstep origin, I expected her dance moves to be a lot better, I must say.
Robyn - Call your girlfriend
Yet another excellent elektro-pop track by Robyn, she's clearly on a roll with her string of Body Talk Ep's and albums. Although I was a little disappointed when I saw she performed with a voice track running in the background on Jimmy Kimmel.
Poolside - Do you believe?
Nice and superchill track based solely around a piano-riff. Could just as well have been a Chilly Gonzales track.
Morning Parade - Under the stars
I've heard some people say this is a promising band and this song has a nice build-up. Unfortunately, this is all very untrue. The structure of this track is just a mess, the elektro parts of this track have been done a lot better by Animal Collective and Delphic, and to make matters even worse, the singer sounds a lot like the one from Linkin Park on certain song parts. Skiiiip.
Miami Horror - Sometimes
And now for the New Order adepts of the week, Miami Horror. Decent enough track, the video has a distinct Lost-feel.
UK
Arctic Monkeys - Don't sit down 'cause I've moved your chair
On their previous album "Humbug", we got to know the slower, heavier side (reminds me of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a little) of the Arctic Monkeys, and looks like they're trying to develop that side even more on the new album. To me, it sounds a little generic and boring, and lyrically, Alex Turner seems a little lost here too. "Do the macarena in the devils lair" is a disappointing line from the man that once poignantly described contemporary British youth culture. And besides, Mauro is the only person I know that can pull that style of nonsensical lyrics off.
Miles Kane - Rearrange
Incidentally, the other member of Last Shadow Puppets is also back and recently released his first solo single (without his - now defunct?- band The Rascals). Definitely closer to Last Shadow Puppets than Alex Turners latest endeavours. Not the kind of stuff that has me running to the music/iTunes store, but this is well orchestrated pop, perfect radio material. Oh, and Miles, I just got off the phone with Sir Paul McCartney, and he wants his sixties haircut back, sorry matey!
Adele - Set fire to the rain
So I wasn't too found of Adele's first single of her "21"-album. I like this one better. I read somewhere that she's a good and loose performer so I checked out her performance in the Jools Holland show, I found her to be a little too static.
Everything Everything - Schoolin'
And now for something completely different, how about some prog-rock people? A modest hype in the UK, but I doubt this is material continental Europe is going to fall for. Really rhythmic with some slight African influences, I guess you could make a Talking Heads reference? Summarizing: if you decide to check this out, chances are you will be horrible annoyed by this track, but I can guarantee it won't bore you.
Cat's Eyes - Face in the crowd
Faris Badwan from The Horrors pairing up with a female opera singer to make girl group influenced record (well, an EP to be exact). That's interesting to say the least. Luckily, it's not one aria after another on the debut single, Badwan sings most of the verse and Rachel Zeffira sings the chorus, the tempo of the latter being the main appeal of this song. Fans of The Raveonettes should normally dig this. The director of this video might just be a big fan of the "Bohemian Rhapsody"-video.
The Vaccines - If you wanna
Yet again, the new single by The Vaccines fails to really deliver a surprise, but it's a poppy up-tempo track and the singers voice is a lot less annoying on this one so I can dig this. The video is a simple performance video.
Belgium
Hooverphonic - Anger never dies
This is Hooverphonic in full "James Bond soundtrack"-mode, pretty much what they are best at. A lot of strings, a functional rhythm section and some subtle, well dosed guitar licks, and a track that fits the new vocalist better than the previous one. Most played track on Italian radio this week, and in fact, most video comments seem to be in Italian. The video featured Noemi Wolfs performing in a club (gentleman or sailors, I can't really tell), dancing away, alternating between Japanese martial arts stances (I definitely see the cranebird at some point) and Vanessa Chinitor "Like the wind"-esque moves.
SX - Black video
Already featured this song in the previous post, but they played an excellent live version at the radio studio so here they are again. Also caught their live set in Roeselare a couple weeks back, but that was mildly disappointing, to be honest. Couple of good ideas, but not enough to fill a half-hour set, and the soundmix was also sub-optimal. Check the live version of Black Video here.
Amatorski - Soldier
I can be really short here, the Portishead "Three"-album influence here is inevitable. Good thing they are evolving into new areas, but you really can't top Portishead - Machine gun when it comes to eerieness.
Hong Kong Dong - Lesbians are a boy's best friend
(First of all, let me warn you now that the video below contains some (albeit non-vulgar, I might add) display of body parts that are usually kept (and hidden from sight) in a brassière and should therefor be watched in a discrete non-working environment.) Hong Kong Dong is a Ghent-based band with Sarah Yu and Boris Zeebroek (siblings and comedian Kamagurka's human progeny) sharing vocal duties, although you will be hearing mainly Boris on this one. This is arty(-farty), alternative rock, and does a good job at sounding different. This is sexy and catchy, and stands out because of the high-pitched falsetto vocals. Boris is sporting white shoes and ditto pants, and a bright pink shirt and ditto bathrobe. In a Belgian music video environment where the only way to look pimp is to wear a costume (Triggerfinger, Customs and Hooverphonic spring to mind) or be a hipster (hello Bent from Das Pop), we've reached a whole new level of super-pimp right here. Good stuff.
My homies in Hessian made a video for a song of their debut EP. Get ready to be blown away, video's really well done as well. Heavily metal-influenced hardcore (don't expect any mosh parts), the guitar sound brings Entombed to mind.
Other
Foo Fighters - White Limo
Well, Dave and his mates (teaming up with Pat Smear from Nirvana and The Germs fame) released yet another seemingly mediocre record, but at least this advance single was lots of fun. Big thumbs up for the nineties performance video parody and the Andrew WK headbanging moves.
Jonathan Jeremiah - Happiness
Hearing the song on the radio, I expected a Barry White-shaped Afro-American, but turns out Jonathan Jeremiah is bearded,slim Caucasian. Nice little track, not too much more I can say about this. For fans of: Ray Lamontagne.
Crystal Fighters - At home
Crystal Fighters is Spanish-English band. They use some traditional Basque instruments and elements, but luckily, they don't sound too folky. This track has a distinct eighties feel, and truthfully, when I first heard it, I really heard Asian influences.
Lykke Li - I follow rivers
This is a really simple song, but the playful production with the fun bongo sounds make it a fun song nevertheless. The same playfulness Lykke Li seems to have lost a little, judging from her Jools performance. Stale and boring, nothing like the Pukkelpop performance a couple years back when she actually moved around on stage and did Vampire Weekend-covers.
Foster the people - Pumped up kicks
This is a strong candidate for the "summer hit 2011"-award. Still not that sure if the song is really about shooting kids, but this laid-back track is hard to resist and the chorus is likely to be lodged in your skull for several days to come.
Smith Westerns - Weekend
In every interview I've read with this band, the interviewer tends to focus on the young age of the band members. They're the American counterpart of Freaky Age, so to speak. If you're having Hanson flashbacks right about now, don't worry, it's not that bad. This is a supermelodic, dreamy track with a lot of "ooh ooh" backing vocals, a lot of good influences and an fairly obvious Beach Boys-reference in the short intro. "Do you think it's normal/to go through life oh so formal?"
Best Coast - When the sun don't shine
I shot a couple of videos at the nearby Best Coast concert a couple of weeks ago. They don't have the best live reputation, but the set left little to be desired. No shortage of "oooh-oooh-oooh"-type vocals to say the least. Bobb Bruno (on the right) was wearing a shirt by some obscure black metal band. That guy rules. Check the video below and you can easily find the other ones I also uploaded.
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Heart in your heartbreak
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart is back with their second full length album called 'Beyond'. "Heart in your heartbreak" is another fresh, poppy track that does not disappoint for a second. In the video, the band is wearing whigs and helping out in a music instrument store.
Random nineties
Sugar Ray - Mean machine
Sugar Ray's first couple of singles were pretty cool, but then the band chose a commercial pathway and things got less interesting. This song still sounds as awesome as it did 15 years ago, I just love the attitude. The singer is going for the Bobby "Twin Peaks" Briggs look, the bass player is going for the Scott "red hair phase" Weiland look, the guitarists moves are just plain awesome and there's also a bulldog in there.
LOL
Rebecca Black - Friday
Closing off with the LOL song of recent times, you probably saw this video already.. Plenty of laughs in both the lyrics and the awkward dance moves-department, although I must say I kind of enjoy the particular language accent."Gi'in down on Friday!"
