Hot off the French Riviera and into my suburban home, a bike ride away from a large, democratic swath of California beach, via our trusty suggestion box is Hifiklub. Their album was produced by Earl Slick, best known for his guitar work on Bowie’s Young Americans and Station to Station albums. The first single, “Babe Doll” starts off with a Blur-esque dance beat, moaning guitars lead to spoken/sung vocals, the guitars go all angular, and then they’re just Dave Allen’s deadly bass groove shy of ushering in France’s Gang of Four resurgence. The band was kind enough to offer up a second track off their album, French Accent, which we’re happy to pass along to you even though thematically it’s the antithesis to our little “sharing the sharing” project here. Yep, it’s all about stealing from your favorite bands, but in the artsy sense of the word, not in that smarmy blogging way of stealing.
The Upsidedown
Similarities between the Upsidedown and the Dandy Warhols are to be expected. Having signed on to the Dandy’s new indie label Beat the World, they also recorded their new LP Human Destination at the Dandy’s Odditorium studio. If mockery is the sincerest form of flattery, the Upsidedown, with members hailing from Portland, Missouri, Kansas, and San Fran, flatter their Dandy mentors by their use of crisp drumming, a steady rhythm, and effects-laden guitar driving the melody. On tour now with the…you guessed it…Dandy Warhols.
Ruby Isle
Get ready to cut the rug, because this here is a bumping dose of pure dance energy from this indie supertrio. Dan Geller and Mark Mallman grew up together in Wisconsin playing chess and trading mixtapes. After graduation Geller, whose mixtapes often included The Smiths, The Cure and New Order, moved to Athens, GA, started up Kindercore Records, and began recording pop-tronic gems under the name I Am The World Trade Center. Mallman, who had contributed bands like Pink Floyd and Velvet Underground to their mixtapes, went the art school route and began recording over the top piano pop under his own name. The two reconnected and wanted to blend their styles of music. That’s when drummer Aaron Lemay stepped in. When he heard the demos he said, “I can’t let you two fools attempt this madness alone.” Then there were three fools making foolishly fun arena dance music. I can imagine a grafting of Daft Punk and Queen producing a sound a lot like this.
Goldcure
Goldcure is an Austin-based group that sings about love, god and other things that keep us up at night. Though you might expect such subject matter to tend toward theatrics, there’s something calm and reassuring about how the vocals and guitars shimmer and shine around each other. Goldcure is certainly not playing to Austin’s fabled bar scene with such erstwhile calming yet expansive ditties, similar to their city-mates in Shearwater. It’s enough to remind you why you’re up in the middle of the night in the first place.
Free Raveonettes Remix EP
New Project Jenny, Project Jan
The Mojomatics
Italy’s Mojomatics automatically struck a chord with me. They amp up The Plimsouls’ folksy-punk, or Jon Spencer’s bluesy-swagger, with their hyper tempo and snarky tone. And get this: there’s only two of them!! I’m dying to see how they pull this off live. Make sure you grab all three of these tracks. I had a hell of a time deciding my favorite. Hit the banner below to stream a full album of honky-tonk-cow-punk, perfect for 100 MPH square-dancing. Giddy-up!
Suretoss
My “3hive” bookmarks folder has, sheez I don’t know exactly, hundreds of links to bands that I have bookmarked over the years. For one reason or another, most of them hadn’t made it onto our pages, the biggest reason being a lack of free MP3’s to link to. Looking back through said bookmarks folder brought me first to The Dutch Elms, who did appear on 3hive four years ago, and then to Suretoss, who didn’t make it. Looking back, it was probably because these songs below were listed as belonging to a future release. I can’t tell if they were ever released, but upon this recent listening I found that I still enjoy Suretoss’s spirited indie rock which reminds me of old faves like Superchunk and Les Thugs. More songs can be found on their site.
The Upallnights
In this time of political posturing and ramblin’ rhetoric I’ve found someone with whom I can agree: Introducing The Upallnights, who have proposed the following plan for potential supporters: “Let’s go to the airport and catch a random flight…Let’s got to where the governments don’t lie and everything you eat tastes like blueberry pie.” If they’re including a scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream in the deal, count me in! The Upallnights are nothing more than four unassuming lads from Stockholm armed with guitars, drums, blasting out jangly punk pop bullets that will keep your feet dancing. The cover of their new EP, Factory Sessions, should give you an idea of the band’s modus operandi. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of young boys with light sabers, let me tell you they mean business. Stay out of their way, cuz they, um, just wanna have fun.
Girl Talk
At the risk of revealing myself as A) behind the times, and B) a complete tool, I’m going to share that I’ve recently gotten back into heavy exercise. At the gym, I usually listen to (here’s where the “complete tool†part comes in) This American Life or some other talky podcast where I don’t have to worry about (tool again) consistently high-energy beats. But praise be to Pittsburgh’s Greg Gillis, whose Night Ripper from 2006 is a (the behind the times part) mashup masterpiece that (tool) keeps my adrenaline PUMPED, man! For my money, Z-Trip is still the high-water mark of such guerrilla hip-hop-classic-rock-punk-pop-whatever mixing, but what Gillis does with the riffs from The Pixies, the Strokes and Weezer in “Hold Up†helps me burn 500 calories in two minutes. Girl Talk’s newest, Feed the Animals, is available here for whatever price you want to pay, which I’ve already done so that I can take my workout to anotha level of behind-the-times toolness. Join me and feel the burn!