Video: MGMT - "Alien Days"

Weird song, weirder video.

Jam of the Day: Cut Copy - "In Memory Capsule"

Off their stunning new record Free Your Mind, Cut Copy's "In Memory Capsule" is pure pop perfection. Once it gets its killer hooks in you, you will not be able to resist.

Non-Sequiturs

Drool.

Beefy hairy Daddy.

Damn handsome.

I love a man with a big pole.

I normally don't go for smooth, but wow, what a body.

I love my chunky/beefy boys.

Almost too big.  Almost.

Surfer hottie.

Tackle me please.

That furry belly kills me.

Ditto.

Woof daddy!

Almost too skinny for me.  Almost.

Jaw droppingly gorgeous.

Yes, please.

Sexy eyes and beard.

Grrrr.

Lovely.

Beautiful belly and chest.

Hey Daddy, what you doing?

Damn, pretty perfect.

Massive chest.

Sitting on the stoop sexy.

Butch Daddy.

Hot body.

Grrrrr.

Gorgeous fur.

Cutie.

Hairy bull.

Yum.

Damn damn damn.

So handsome and sexy.

Chesticles.

If you italicize something twice does that just mean you have a flatline?

I am going to admit it, I don't think Modern Family is funny.

Sad commentary on our society when I have to question and look into every news article or sob story to make sure it is legitimate before I can believe it.

No, your album is not terrible; it is worse, it is boring.

This is so damn cute.

On most new shows, you can't get too attached to characters quickly, as sooner rather than later they are likely to be killed off.

Why does everyone become an armchair philosopher when someone dies.

RIP Lou Reed.

This is my blog. I don't need anyone telling what I need to put on here or what shouldn't go on here.

LOL.

We saw Disclosure this past weekend at Terminal West. What a great venue to see a band; it is a relatively small venue (holds about 700 people), great sound and acoustics, and just well thought out. Disclosure were great, as was the opener T. Williams, but man the crowd was douchey.

What is the point of working out if you won't take off your shirt to show the results?

There is not enough money in the world to pay me to watch the reality series about Bruno Mars' sisters.

Why can't people just use Google to answer silly questions?

There is always that one friend of yours that is a wet blanket about everything.

Pretty much.

Making a comment about abuse of an animal, even in jest, is completely offensive to me.  And the fact that you don't even apologize when I call you out on it is amazing.  Good luck with being a douche the rest of your life.

Speaking of animals, I have to suppress major eye rolls when someone refers to their partner as their "pup." Ugh.

Pet peeve of mine, when someone you are supposed to meet messages you right at the time they are supposed to be there to say they are running late. No, you are not running late, you are late, and you could have messaged me earlier.

Dealing with cable TV provider customer service is an exercise in futility at times. I think they purposely make it difficult to get through and to the correct person to speak with in order to dissuade you from calling.

New work out routine means extra sore this week.

Your cute for the day.

Lyrics Rattling Around My Brain

"Waiting in the hole for rescue
Gotta have faith, you'll be near
Darkness side has come to test you
You know he will succeed if the act is won
Riches of the world are for you
You gotta fill the souls of your daughters and sons

Oh, shine brother, shine on
Oh, shine brother like the sun
Oh, shine on
All you got to do is hold on
And get help just stand up straight
Oh, shine brother, shine on
Oh, shine brother like the sun

Love, free your mind
Free your mind
Free your mind

You gotta reach the sky
If you want your life to shine
You gotta reach the sky
If you want your life to shine
Free your mind."

Cut Copy
"Free Your Mind"

"Hipster by heart but I can tell you how the streets feel
Everybody thirsty and they looking for a refill
If the gang eatin, guns barking at your doggie bag
Get took out for your take out now you carry out
Murder by delivery, married at the paramount
I just coughed up a fair amount
Of niggas might air it out
Judge a book by cover so we never educated
It ain't about racists poor and rich segregated
Just to get the bacon dawg, you gotta go HAM
Use to be lost til I found who I am
But it took the hook to eat the palm on my hands
Locked tryna get real creative with the spam
Locked in a jam cause a nigga serve butter
Just to get a little bread had to keep tomato smothered
All I really wanted was to overdub my vocals
But no one ever thought that I would take it past local
High a'top a totem man somebody shoulda' told 'em
That if money grow on trees being rich is dime a dozen

So I'm smoking by my lonely
By my goddamn self
I don't need your help homie
Cause don't nobody really know me
Said nobody really know me."

Danny Brown
"Lonely"

"Boys, I love 'em
They come a dime a dozen
Boys, I leave 'em
They come and go like seasons
I don't trust 'em, I don't need a reason
Won't bother fussin'
Some even catch me teasin'

I saw one looking at me from afar
Then one with good looks and had glasses on
Then one in hot fashion that's worth a ton
I think I'll add them to my collection

Too many boys at the party that I like
It aggravates my A.D.D.
I came with him
But I'm leavin' with someone else
Too many boys I kiss goodbye, can't control that
No matter how hard I try
I came with him
But I'm leavin' with someone else

And in my head I'm singing
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la
La la la
I'm leavin' with someone else."

Sky Ferreira
"Boys"

Appealing Things

Versatility
Cut Copy
T. Williams
Acid house
Getting our house reserved for Bear Week
The word sprechstimm
Uber snuggle kittens

Annoying Things

Bitstrips
New Yorker attitudes
People who block the dumbbells when they work out

Concert Watch: Phantogram - "Don't Move"

We are skipping out on the traditional Halloween celebrations in order to catch Phantogram at the Masquerade tonight. They put on a phenomenal live show.

Jam of the Day: Earth House Hold - "A Little Late For That Now"

Slow building ambient techno track with some gorgeous vocals. Over its 11 minute run time it adds and subtracts parts beautifully.

Album Review: Danny Brown - Old

Danny Brown
Old
Rating: Woof Daddy

Danny Brown's mixtape XXX was a messy record about drug-fueled desperation, and he warned that its follow up Old would only get deeper and more introspective. Split into two parts, Old is basically Brown's mind laid open bare, focusing on his past, present, and future selves, warts and all. Ruminations on his past drug use, dealing, and time in jail share space with more party-fueled, festival ready tracks. Brown shows that he is trying to distance himself from his past yet finds it clouds and colors everything he does. Sometimes he's able to get beyond it and sometimes not, all the while showing he is simply human and doing his best to not make the same mistakes. While this sounds dry on paper, Brown matches his lyrical ruminations with some of the most modern and edgy beats and backing you will hear today. Self-confessed to being influenced by records as diverse as Radiohead's Kid A, Joy Division's Closer, and Love's Forever Changes, Old is a rich, sonic tapestry that unfolds like a kaleidoscope, fractured against itself.

Side A is the more past leaning side of the album, and is the more darker and bleaker side of the record. On the harrowing track "Torture," Brown watches his uncle smoke crack and almost burn his face off,



on the brilliant track "Lonely" he gets more resigned to what seems to be the predestined life of an addict, rapping "So I'm smoking by my lonely/By my goddamn self/I don't need your help homie/Cause don't nobody really know me,"



while Brown hits the bottom on "Clean Up" where he misses texts from his daughter while getting high.



On this half of the record, Brown is his lyrical best, "Wonderbread" turns a trip to the grocery store into a harrowing look at poverty and drug use,



"Gremlins" has Brown being the street savvy wise talker,



and on the Purity Ring assisted track "25 Bucks" Brown's raps about growing up in his drug infested neighborhood merge well with Megan James' more surreal and earthy ruminations.



These tracks lead into the more party-oriented tracks on Side B, showcasing Brown's more extroverted side, with the more haunting tracks from Side A coloring each and every corner. While these tracks seemingly glorify drug use and partying, the fact that you have seen the darkside of what can happen with them tends to shade things a little darker. Of course, these tracks also feature some of the most club and party ready beats on the record, drawing from UK bass, grime, trap, and EDM, utilizing producers as diverse as SKYWLKR, Rustie, and A-Trak. Some of the most frenetic tracks are the skittering and bass heavy "Dip,"



the blistering "Smokin & Drinkin."



and the druggy collaboration with A$AP Rocky, "Kush Coma."



It all comes to a meditative close with the haunting collaboration with Charli XCX, "Float On," with Brown languidly rapping over trill beats.



Old almost feels like Danny Brown doing a career retrospective, as it touches on his many different personalities and styles. In lesser hands, this could be an unholy, unstructured mess, however, Brown is in complete control and expertly guides you through this journey through his mind. It is a relevatory release that demands your attention. It is the best hip-hop record of the year so far.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Jam of the Day: Katy B - "I Like You"

Another great track from Katy B. I am eagerly awaiting her new record in 2014.

Album Review: Cut Copy - Free Your Mind

Cut Copy
Free your Mind
Rating: Woof Daddy

Over the course of three albums, Aussie act Cut Copy have subtly been moving from more guitar-centric dance rock to full on electronic dance music, and never more so on their fourth record Free Your Mind, a trippy, sun-kissed love letter to the late 80s and early 90s summer of love in the UK. Drawing inspiration from Primal Scream's Screamadelica, acid house, and the whole Madchester scene (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Charlatans), Cut Copy have come up with their most consistent and their most fun record. While many people will decry that Cut Copy have abandoned their New Order-hook galore sound for something more ephemeral, these tracks insinuate themselves within in you to where you can't get rid of them, and honestly, the whole record is a grower, with each listen revealing more and more going on behind the scenes.

Free Your Mind is structured like a warehouse party with highs and lows, taking you on a journey through an evening of partying, with whatever you are taking making the journey freer and more intense. Starting with the aptly titled "Intro," the record kicks off with trippy electronics and voices telling you to "free your mind," which leads into the title track and first single, which throbs and pulsates with a thick house groove, vocal stabs, and deep bass line before erupting into a frenzy of piano rolls and wailing diva vocals. It is the perfect opening to this record as it announces itself with purpose and direction.



"We Are Explorers" continues the trip with squiggly synth lines, bright emotive keyboards, and insistent beats, with singer Dan Whitford taking you on a "journey into the morning sun."



"Let Me Show You Love," takes things into hazier territory which much denser use of layers of keyboards and electronics, Whitford's voice taking on an even more Bobbie Gillespie-ian tone, masked and manipulated, as the druggy pulse of the track takes over with intense rave synth stabs.



While this build throughout the record could get monotonous, Cut Copy is seemingly aware of this fact, and place short, trippy segues throughout the record with odd film samples and swirly instrumentation, which serves to add some texture and variety to the constant forward motion. From the almost Pink Floyd-esque meanderings of "Into the Desert," it flows into the brilliant track "Footsteps," which starts out almost nonchalantly with a deep house vibe, rising washes of keyboards, twisted vocal samples, and throbbing bass line and somehow before you know it becomes a furious rave banger.

You are almost halfway through the record before any notion of a guitar comes into play. "In Memory Capsule" opens with some delicate acoustic strumming before becoming a lush, synth led earworm, which is perhaps one of the only traditionally structured pop songs on the record. It would be a crime if this was not a single.



But all notions of traditional songcraft go out the window on this record which consistently reminds you it is first and foremost a dance record. Even on more early-referencing Cut Copy tracks like "Dark Corners & Mountain Tops," what seems like a more guitar led mid-tempo ballad suddenly takes a turn at the end into ambient techno territory. The record rightens itself again with big club and festival track "Meet Me In The House Of Love," which is the centerpiece and boldest track on Free Your Mind, with its amazing build, taking you where your mind and feet want to go.

Free Your Mind ends the journey with "Take Me Higher," which spot on references Primal Scream's Screamadelica with its housy piano stabs and diva vocals,



and the swirly, Spiritualized-esque barn burner "Walking In The Sky," with its psychedelic guitars, gospel-like backing vocals, and tidal waves of analog synths. It si the perfect track to end the album, as it closes finally with the brief instrumental, "Mantra" which closes the record as it begins with swirly keyboards and sampled dialogue.

Free Your Mind is by far Cut Copy's most focused and well realized work. Here they stick to their plan with confidence rather than timidly testing the waters. It's as if someone told them they had to make a record with no guitars and they stuck to it. Free Your Mind is one of the best records of the year, and certainly one of the best dance/rock hybrids to come along in awhile.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Video: Justin Timberlake - "TKO"

Justin Timberlake gets driven off a cliff in the slick clip for his single "TKO."

Jam of the Day: Warpaint - "Love Is To Die"

Moody first single from Warpaint's upcoming self-titled second record.

New: Disclosure - "Apollo"

Seeing that I just caught their live show this weekend, Disclosure unveil a new track "Apollo."

Album Review: Arcade Fire - Reflektor

Arcade Fire
Reflektor
Rating: Woof Daddy

Say what you will about Arcade Fire, but no one can slag them off as being reticent. If any band these days follows the maxim "go big or go home" they would be the poster child. Following their surprise Grammy award for best album for The Suburbs, Arcade Fire returns with Reflektor, an expansive double album that draws inspiration from the film Black Orpheus, the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, writings of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, Haitian rara music, as well as practically any art-pop record of the past 50 years, from The White Album, Low, and Achtung Baby. It is a go-for-broke record that is in turns brilliant, bloated, icy, hot, awe-inspiring, and head scratching but never less than intoxicating. Using the Orpheus myth as a jumping off part, Reflektor loosely trails through that epic of undying/unwavering love and its sad resolution, but fractures it through our age's over-saturation of media and information overload. It's a paranoid and shaky journey with lots of false steps, restarts, meanderings, but somehow all comes together to be a rewarding listen.

Working with retired LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy as producer, Arcade Fire channel into their most fervent influences, primarily Berlin-era Bowie, Talking Heads, the Rolling Stones and Beatles at their more experimental, into something bordering on excessive but reigned in just at the right time. Each song almost goes through moments of frustration where you have no idea what they are doing, but then out of the chaos, that bright light of invention comes through and you see where they are going. Based on the odd guerrilla marketing campaign for the record back in September, it was apparent the follow up to their already epic Suburbs record was going to take things in a different direction. The title track, a swirly mesh of disco, dance-punk, horns, and David Bowie is indicative of the journey you are about to embark on. At once it is recognizably Arcade Fire but looser and freer, with a light touch of bouncy synth-bass and Undercover-era disco Stones drums, the track rises from an almost minimal beginning into a mass of scraping guitars, analog effects, rising strings and horns, taking off into a high-soaring flight.



From here the album basically jumps all over the place, with most tracks hovering around the six minute mark, never really following any sort of direct path or trajectory. Not that every track is experimental or impenetrable. The more traditional tracks act as places to catch your breath before going down the twisted winding path that Orpheus had to endure. "We Exist" throws together swooning choruses with Motown-esque basslines along with a more standard rock basis, and will be a crime should they not release it as a single.



"Joan of Arc" is a more blistering single, bursting out of the gate in a fury of punk guitars, but winding down into a more rock based slew of guitars and analog synths, while "Afterlife" is a gorgeous, synth-led track that is perhaps their finest single to date.



But these moments of traditional song structures takes a back seat to the remainder of the record which can be a bit of an overwhelming mess at times. From the odd "Hidden Track" that opens the record with 9 minutes of backward masking, found sounds, strings, horn wonk-outs, and general sonic wankery, you wonder at first whether you have stumbled into Arcade Fire's own Metal Machine Music. Luckily, this is merely an overture to the creativity that lies within. There is the dub-inflected "Flashbulb Eyes," the messy barroom club crawl of "You Already Know," and the pairing of "Here Comes The Night Time" with its analog synth washes and more Caribbean feel, and its sister track "Here Comes The Night Time II" with its ghostly pallor of haunted strings.



Even when the record sort of goes off the rails in its back half, Reflektor is still mesmerizing. It is showing a band at the height of their career and popularity not afraid to take risks. There is a trio of tracks that kind of stop the momentum that was running pell-mell from the outset, but they still have their own ramshackle charm. "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" is a swoony and mooney mess of strings and synths and acoustic guitars that feels like a clash between every late Beatles record playing at once. "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)" settles into a locked groove and feels more natural than its predecessor. While "Porno" really feels like this record's albatross, a icy and cool electro track that is misplaced in the grand scheme of things. It is an interesting detour, and by itself a good track, but just feels out of the loop and would have made for a more interesting B-side.

But these slight meandering missteps don't overall retract from the glorious mess of a record that it is. I thoroughly loved how Arcade Fire truly go for broke here and how somehow, in the end, it all ends up working. While Reflektor is not their masterpiece, to me that designation goes to the epic The Suburbs and not the overrated Funeral, it is still well on par with those striking works. Arcade Fire have definitely set the bar high for their contemporaries with this record, and have even set the bar high for themselves in the bargain.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

New: Lady Gaga - "Venus"

Here is another look into Lady Gaga's upcoming ARTPOP record. Based on what we have heard so far, the record feels like a stronger effort than Born This Way, but still sounds a little strained. "Venus" is by far her most direct track so far. Not bad, but not great.

Jam of the Day: Mannequins On 7th Street - "Wailing of Hesione"

London based via Belguim duo Mannequins On 7th Street fall somewhere between the R&B stylings of How To Dress Well and the spectral post-punk of The xx. Whatever you would like to use to classify them, it is still brilliant.