DEVO

I had heard that my childhood-through-now favorites of zany-new-wave-sci-fi synth-pop-punk band Devo was coming out with new material, but I for some dumb reason didn’t get totally insanely excited, cause now I listened to some, and yeah. YEAH. IT’S GOOD. Really good! Now they are one of the Coachella acts I am most excited for (not that they weren’t before… *EVEN MORE EXCITED*)

It sounds just like the good old band I have always loved, but with a 2010 polish (the synths! oh, the synths.) My source for this statement is the awesome website Club Devo’s Song Study, which is in itself very amusing, and a neat way to promote the album. They’re letting fans vote on which 12 out of 16 songs will be on the upcoming album, Watch Us Work It (guess that track’s going on no matter what the fans say, haha).

I find it so awesome these guys are apparently rocking harder than ever, 30 years after their “heyday”. If you’ve only ever heard “Whip It”, check out more of their material… their performances are also somewhat legendary, and I think their “ideas behind the music” are truly some of the best and most innovative the world has ever seen. Domes off to you, DEVO. <3

Hot Chip “I Feel Better” video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Hot Chip video for another single from One Life Stand, “I Feel Better”. This video… is SO FRICKIN WEIRD AND AWESOME. Watch it and be delighted/disturbed. It starts with a really hilarious boyband and goes in directions you can only imagine… I LOL’d and LOL’d again. (Click hotlink to watch, can’t embed the video)

Thanksgiving Minimix

Well, I can’t say I’ve ever heard a “Thanksgiving” song… (not to say they aren’t out there – just ask Guffy here) so I decided to make a mini mixtape involving songs with Thanksgiving-y titles.

(Of course I forgot my music hard drive when I came home, so I can’t actually upload these right now.. argh! But I will upload them on Sunday. By the time everyone has totally stopped caring about Thanksgiving, hahah.. but these can provide you with a respite from the onslaught of Xmas music… *cringe*)

Kaiser Chiefs – Thank You Very Much

Beck – Nicotine & Gravy

Frank Black – Pie in the Sky

Paul Revere & The Raiders – Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)

What about you? Are there any Thanksgiving songs you love? (or hate? or love to hate??) What about Thanksgiving-y titled songs, ala this playlist?

Coming tomorrow… Black Friday minimix!

Let’s talk about electronic music genres

Holy shit, Wikipedia. Check out their list of electronic music genres. IN-FUCKING-SANE. I mean, wow. There’s 26 subgenres of House listed, 22 kinds of Trance, 16 types of Jungle/D&B, and 15 categories of techno. And many, many more.

There’s a lot to be seen here. I bet I could spend several hours looking through a ton of these, and I probably will now that I know it’s here, haha.

Clownstep seems to be the one the eye is drawn to first (at least for me, and for Sara and Matt when I showed them the page), but it turns out that one isn’t an actual genre, but a pejorative term for a specific kind of Drum&Bass. It’s sure a funny name though.

Jumpstyle is a genre, though. “Jumpstyle is a dance and music genre mainly practiced in Europe, specifically the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and northern France,” it says. Here’s a tutorial for the dance! hahaha! I love it. We decided we want to do this at the Boys Noize show tomorrow, though it would be a genre crossover since I’m pretty sure BN isn’t Jumpstyle

Doomcore? Not your thing? What about Terrorcore? Death Industrial? Nu-NRG? Bubblegum Dance? Am I the only one who is fascinated and endlessly entertained by the existence (and names) of all these weird, hyper-specific, and (in their own way) wonderful subgenres?

Most of my favorite music falls under the heading of Rock/Punk influenced electronic music (Dance Rock)… Mainly Electro rock, New Rave (and New Wave), Synthpop, Dance-punk, and some Dark Wave and Electroclash. I do like disco too, but am not as well-versed in the subgenres of that other than Italo-disco (hello, Glass Candy) and nu-disco (again, Glass Candy, haha).

I’ve never heard the word ‘chiptune’ before, but now I know how to describe those nintendo-y sounding songs I love so dearly. God, I love Wikipedia!

Art Brut Halloween show – Davis, CA

Heeell yeah! Having just seen a fabulous SF show from our dear friends Art Brut (I like to imagine we’re dear friends, anyway) during the summer, I was stoked to discover they’d be playing for free on the Davis campus on Halloween night.

My only regret is that Davis is so lame (ok.. let me amend that to say ‘is so lame sometimes’), cause the show was sooo fun, and yet majorly underpopulated in a huge hall

The band was wearing costumes! How awesome is this picture:

Glowing eyeballlllls. Creeptastic! They were in their fine exuberant usual weird form, which I really enjoy. There actually was a pretty good amount of dancing given the small size of the audience and considering this isn’t really ‘dance’ music (so much as ‘rock out’ music).

Eddie came down into the tiny crowd and stormed around, haha.

 

I think it looks like he’s about to touch that guy’s face.

I have to say if I had never heard them before, I definitely would think they were kind of strange, and obsessed with DC comics to a bit of an unhealthy degree, haha. (they played “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes” and altered “Modern Art” to instead be about DC comics, ie. “DC comics make me! want to rock! out!”)

At another point he was like, “You know, it helps to have a band, ‘cause you can turn your problems into songs, and get over them. And this song is about erectile dysfunction. Ready, Art Brut!” *rock out*

After the show I got a pretty neat mug (it says “BRING ME TEA. BRING ME COFFEE.”) from the band’s bassist, Freddy Feedback (the only girl in the band). Haha, from this picture, you’d think we actually were good buddies:

Freddy (devil), me (from the future), and my sis Chelsea (viking). Interesting that we all have horns of some kind (mine are less noticeable here, but they are actually antennae).

Halloween good times.

About to start writing my reeeeeally long Treasure Island festival entry, but just had to post this first. I heard this old disco gem a few days ago, and just now checked out the video… HAHA.

I’ve never seen anyone look so NOT excited, especially considering the lyrics and sound of the song. How he keeps his face so blank is beyond me, and the hair makes it even more hilarious! I can’t believe he isn’t dancing at all, rather just stepping around in a very calm and composed fashion. Dude.. can you even hear what you’re singing to??