What can you expect from Dan the Automator and Russell Simins? Everything and more! After shelving the album last year in order to record material and bring it up to their collective high standards, the two are reportedly releasing Naturally next month. Dan’s manning the programming and electronics while Simins is once again ripping apart the drums, guitars and vocals. Of course this dynamic duo knows how to throw a party, so they’ve invited Sean Lennon, Cibo Matto (my best guest as to who’s singing on “My Balloon”), The Mooney Suzuki, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The song title that best represents the sound on this album is “Rock Party,” because, well, that’s exactly what this album is. Overall the album is a gritty, rhythm and blues attack with the Automator’s beats and programming ratcheted up something fierce. Then there’s “My Balloon,” this airy, psychedelic treat in between the sound and fury. The album slowly mellows and concludes with a few reflective indie-rock slow jams. Fans of the Blues Explosion will probably dig this more than the Gorillaz gang, but all y’all should give it a spin!
Bishop Allen Video
Awesome Snakes
The Awesome Snakes are Danny and Annie carrying on the legacy on their dear, departed Minneapolis band the Soviettes. Punk rock bass ‘n’ drums that is dirty, obnoxious, in-yer-face insulting, and full of enough attitude to make you feel young again.
The Egg
Compared to my pals here at 3hive, I don’t know jack about electronic music. I can tell you all about country and jangly guitar pop, but deep down inside all those synths kind of freak me out. Maybe it was too much Herbie Hancock back when my dad built a pirate MTV converter in 1985 or so. Therefore, if The Egg isn’t cool, you’ll have to forgive me, ’cause I think it’s pretty kicking. At least it doesn’t give me a headache, which every other electronica track I pull seems to do. So here’s how I found out about this British quartet that’s been making records for a decade or so: SXSW. Every year, the website for this Texas blow-out has about five hundred free MP3s, and I get all download crazy for a day or two. The Egg was one of my random grabs, and it got me moving, and one click begat another… Enjoy “Funky Dube,” live from Glastonbury, and forgive me if it ain’t all that. I kind of think it is.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
Here’s one that’s long overdue for an update and what do you know we’re just in time for Casiotone’s single collection due out this week. It’s called Advance Base Battery Life. The opening track, “Old Panda Days,” is classic CFTPA and highlights Owen Ashworth’s cunning command of couplets rhyming “boyfriends I shouldn’t have kept” with “stupid flatbeds we never swept.” You’ll have to listen to get the context. Not one to leave us hanging, Ashworth will quickly follow his singles and rarities collection with his fifth album, Vs. Children, of which “Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm” is part and proof that while Ashworth may be a one-man band, a one-trick pony he ain’t.
Note: Be sure to check out the SXSW Megamix from Tomlab, K Records, and Asthmatic Kitty. No medley nonsense here, just lots of full-length gems.
Old and Panda Days [MP3, 3.2MB, 192kbps]
Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When The Saints Go Marching In) [MP3, 2.1MB, 160kbps]
Sam’s original post 2/4/2006::
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has been one of those monikers that kinda gives away the ending before you even press play — like Rage Against the Machine, or Insane Clown Posse. I say “has been” because now Owen Ashworth (who from some angles looks remarkably like 3hive’s Jon Armstrong, see for yourself) has joined forces with producer Jherek Bischoff to expand his sound beyond its lo-fi trappings. “Young Shields” is the lead-off single from the resulting album, Etiquette, which by all indications still speaks to the Painfully Alone, just with less Casiotone (and a lot more of everything else) than before. “Cold White Christmas” is also from the new joint… Where was this track when I was putting together my Christmas podcast? Oh well, this one defies seasonality. When isn’t a good time for some chilly melancholy?
Young Shields [MP3, 2.9MB, 128kbps]
Cold White Christmas [MP3, 4.6MB, 128kbps]
Bobby Malone Moves Home [MP3, 2.5MB, 160kbps]
New Year’s Kiss (version) 4-track home recording [MP3, 2.5MB, 160kbps]
Graceland [MP3, 2.5MB, 160kbps]
Neil Halstead U.S. Tour
Helicopters
Man, recessions suck. It’s all work, work, work. I’ve been woefully ignorant of all of these Internet happenings except perhaps Twitter because, y’know, that’s just quick random thoughts, right? But what we could really use in these lean times are free MP3 downloads. So god bless you for going strong with 3Hive, Sean and Joe and Clay, because there’s so much great music out there and, long hours be damned, we gots to share the sharing! Like Chicago’s Helicopters, a group that got its first major exposure by winning a battle of the bands contest that gave them a slot at Lollapalooza. And they didn’t stuff the ballot box, either. Like the Chicago Man of the Decade, Helicopters offer a complex yet accessible brand of hope that is a sea change from a cynicism that has prevailed for too long. It’s no small feat considering they have three primary songwriters. Such musical trinities can lead to a garbled mess of influences. And while you’ll get a smorgasbord on Sizing Up the Distance, from synthed new wave reduxes to driven guitar anthems to emo wails, there’s a common thread of pop craftsmanship that pulls it all together. These are some finely crafted gems, and at least one of them is free. The Spring thaw is upon us, and hopefully the financial thaw is about to follow – and with Helicopters, my thaw soundtrack is coming together nicely.
Belleisle
In college I was a creative writing major, and that same subject was my favorite class ever to teach in high school. Were I to still be teaching the class, I think I’d probably use the text to Belleisle’s track “Talks a Lot” as a classroom sample of the “every poem is a song” idea. The song, from the 2008 album Longstanding, exhibits a narrative sense that I just love. Speaking of love, I’m starting to feel that way about Belleisle, (and it’s not just because I used to go to the Frederick Law Olmstead-designed Detroit park of a similar name when I was a kid). The Montreal-based team of Rebecca Silverberg and Tasha Cyr make up the core of Belleisle, and their smooth delivery and surprisingly tasteful moments of dissonance are making me smile a whole lot, making me want to wax poetic.
New Phoenix Single
I like Phoenix. And they like you. To prove it, they just released their new single “1901” as a free download. Gotta go here to get it. No email or log in necessary. The band will issue their full album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix on May 25th.