Last month I got really really tired of all the mediocre bands on Myspace who tried to solicit themselves to me, despite not having even the remotest similarities in mutual tastes. In hopes to have some fun, deflect the spammiest of friend requests, and encourage bands to not waste my time — and really consider whether or not I would be interested — I announced on FBM and my own Myspace that I would be reviewing the songs and profiles of any Myspace Music page that I got a ‘friend request’ from.
A Severe Reaction is the first band since I wrote about the idea to pop up in my inbox. I was sort of pleased at how the content of A Severe Reaction’s page seemed it would lend itself to my ‘Stop Requesting Me’ campaign. They have a one posted song, “FuckinMove,” a logo, and band photos ’shopped to fly the neons de rigueur for current hip things.
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Posted By Sasha
These are three gems I ran into in the last day or two, added to my small playlist of music I can enjoy just as music and not as dance floor fillers.
CSS- Move (Cut Copy remix)
Cut Copy is always dependable. Soft, rhythmic anthems and Australian Electro-pop. Which seems necessary to save CSS from fading from memory after “music is my hot sex” left the stage. The end of this song is the most interesting the last two minutes being almost entirely soaring melody, the vocals long forgotten.
Fleet Foxes- Heard them Stirring
And here lies the the next big NW band. Hot on the heals of The Decemberist and their runaway success is this Seattle five piece with long names and deep, beautiful voices. This is my favorite song on the album for the shear power of the opening soar…
The Bug- Flying
This is some of the most mellow and haunting dubstep to emerge yet and it is a nice contrast to the “angry” sound of the newest star.
Posted By Sasha
I usually avoid posting mash ups or songs that other blogs are all over. And for that matter I have until recently considered myself a Justice hater (reluctant fan, bittered by the shallow hipster fawning). And Britney Spears? I must be lost. But sometimes things just shine so bright.
Imperial Stress- Justice VS John Wiliams
Dior Homme Spring Summer 09 Mix- Justice
I Just Wanna D.A.N.C.E. With You (Neon Coyote Remix)
Me against the music- Britney Spears ft. Madonna (Justice Remix)
Posted By Sasha
No one can turn down an easy target, you always end up telling your favorite story over and over and somehow I always end up playing my favorite songs 10, 000 times over before moving on. Ladyhawke is one of my favorites, deeply cemented by my girlfriends absolute obsession with them. And besides who can hate any song that Alex Gopher remixes? (Click that link and you get thirty eight new songs including four Alex Gopher songs.)
Well the newest single just dropped on the web-o-sphere and this is the song you should be buzzing about, a gritty almost garage rock (Yeah Yeah Yeah’s?) disco banger with a throbbing bass line and a “Bang bang bang, on the wall, from dusk till dawn” refrain that takes it to a pop hit instantly, folding into the foliage of Goldfrap and Yelle.
Dusk Till Dawn (Canyons Garage Disco Mix)
Posted By Sasha
House parties can be a tricky bunch with semi-illegal gatherings of rowdy people usually ending one way or another, very quickly. I like my friends but damn I have seen them do some stupid things at house parties. Blunts, backyards and some DJ getting pelted with 40’s. Good ones are great.Nakedness, sweaty basement masses, hundreds of beautiful track bikes locked to random trees and a general excited, crazed feeling.
I predict this one will be good based on location and bands playing.
If some one (that lives there?) wants me to take this down you better get a hold of me soon.
And for those of you that were about to get out your microscope-
August 16th
1905 SE Clinton
Swim Swam Swum/Southern Belle/one band I can’t make out
Bands at 7:30, DJ’s at 10
drink specials
Posted By Sasha
He wears giant red Mickey Mouse ears, a cartoon grin and light up eyes. He is young and selling out arenas with progressive house that occasionally veers in the direction of epic and electro. He is from Canada, has a strange name (you have to restrain yourself from saying “Deadman 5″ every time you read it) and he is well worth getting acquainted with.
The Reward is Cheese- Deadmau5 VS Jelo
Merrymaking (Deadmau5 remix) – Calvin Harris
The Turning Point- Deadmau5
and gray adds – Daft Punk – harder faster stronger (deadmau5 edit)
Posted By Sasha
Plans may fall through, bad things may happen, but rejoice: Richard Swift is giving away his Ground Trouble Jaw EP.
Richard Swift – Ground Trouble Jaw EP
So, whatever bad things may come throughout the day can now be wiped away.
You should download this because I told you to, and because I haven’t been doing that much lately.
Posted By David Hutchinson
The Bug is the hottest new dubstep joint since Burial, which makes it near the head of the pack by any calculation in such a small pond of a genre. Dub is not always for listening to in a calm relaxed state, there is also the potential for driving, slap you in the face bass intricacies. I would not call it angry but I might not call it peaceful. Miles away from the creamy R&B relaxation of Archangel, we have the new side of dubstep. The Bug is not coming to Portland any time soon but Skream just happens to be playing at Crown Room tomorrow night. And that calls for a word of it’s own.
The Crown Room is the oddest venue of all in Portland, a slightly successful bar in a neighborhood where ever other bar is very successful. It is not that they are doing anything wrong per se, it just lacks a crowd, there is no well defined one group of people that frequent the place. It also happens to be author of a bold and hopeful gesture, booking Skream out of the blue, taking the biggest Dubstep artist out of the giant clubs of Europe and bringing him to the mostly uninformed West Coast to play on a thursday in old town. I’m excited!
The Bug- Angry (Featuring Tippa Irie)
The Bug- Poison Dart (Skream Remix)
Skream- Midnight Request Line
I’m a little sad that I have to miss the outdoor screening of FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR to go to this show but I will live. Also going on, first Thursday, The Fix and Strength playing at Rotture with my buddy Guidance Councilor.
Posted By Sasha
We will throw a banging party every fourth Saturday at Rotture. For our debut event party we are very proud to bring you DJ Kue backed by our favorite local talent. We have written quite a bit about DJ Kue in the past so it is easy to preview the music he will be playing. This is the cutting edge of house and electro, a rare moment in Portland. Please come, please bring your friends, not to be missed.
Posted By Sasha
Yesterday I publicly (with two close friends) attacked the Flugtag as a commercially despicable waste of time. Why jam yourself into a crowd of ten thousand under the burning hot sun (it’s pretty gray today actually) to watch a bunch off fools take running jumps into the heavily polluted Willamette? Especially with the red bull costing money and the senses attacked from every direction by corporate advertising. The more I talked about it the more I realized I sort of did want to go. It’s stupid but it’s kind of funny. I only wish you did not have to wait so long between flights…
Then I was listening to a band called Music Video? and I wanted to hate them for the name. Or how darned earnest they sounded , the whole page screamed collage-indy-cotton candy. The more I listened the more I liked it, building instrumentals, little electronic loops and a voice that was a little too close to Ben Gibbard (more Postal Service then DCFC, thank god) for comfort. That pedigree I just endorsed makes it sound like they are going to be HUGE.
Music Video? is playing at the Towne Lounge on August Tenth.
Music Video- Seasick
Posted By Sasha
I have heard stories of the Faint selling ten thousand dollars of merch in a few hours at shows in California. I have seen the effects of this band on popular culture, on the style of thousands of kids in between hipsters and skaters. This was the one that made it, the successful crossover that music companies dream about. You can dance and be a rocker! You can listen to Saddle Creek and turn on the strobe light! Four years later the mania has died down but is about to be rekindled as the Faint release an album on their own label.
The new album? More chunky, less smooth. More rocky, less catchy. New ground, artistic ground, a little less maniac but with the trademark sound remaining, deep dried out vocals sung over broken glass synth. It should be huge.
The Faint- Machine in the Ghost
The Faint- Mirror Error
Buy it when it drops on August Fifth.
Posted By Sasha
