Yeah Yeah Yeahs + Bass + Glitches = all this stuff

Posted in News with tags , , , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Erik Burg

So the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new album It’s Blitz! finally hit shelves this week. Everybody and their mother has already heard it. Everybodyzero1 and their brother already loves it. It’s first official single, ‘Zero.’ has gotten more than its fair share of remixes too. The original is great though, so a few of these kind of disappoint me though, I have to say. But let’s get started:

‘Zero’ Disco Weirdos Re-Edit. The longest of any of the remixes featured on here, Disco Weirdos have seemingly found the key to a good remix of the track. Plenty of bass, but unlike the other mixes I’ll get to, these bumps are timed great. Booming to the cry of “Zero,” the bass adds a great kick when at first it seemed destine to just be like any other remix of any other track ever. The last half of the track adds another layer of high pitched synth over-lay that adds a lot of excitement to the song as well. What comes of all this is the perfect club single, it kind of gives of a little bit of a ’90s feel too it at the end too, but I love it. 

‘Zero’ MSTRKRFT Remix. As much of a fan as I am of MSTRKRFT, I have to say this right away: “Come on guys.” Not only was your new album a huge let down, but now this?! What Disco Weirdos did right, these guys did wrong, too much bass right from the first line. The all treble and echoing breakdown in the middle is nice, but seriously, it takes a lot more than deep hits to keep anybody interested. Sorry, but feel free to pass on this one.

‘Zero’ N.A.S.A. Remix. Again, a highly touted group that I was overly excited to hear make a run at this track, but the result… pretty boring. It’s sort of the middle ground between the first two mixes, it has the treble breakdown with glitchy and skipping vocals, but with little bass when it maybe should have more. In the end, it’s hard to tell this one apart from what MSTRKRFT brought to the party, making their effort seem all the more average. 

‘Zero’ Erol Alkan Remix Preview. First off, this is only a minute long preview, and the full length isn’t quite out yet, so with a grain of salt I suppose. I’ve gotta imagine this edit is going to run a pretty long length too, because in the 1:10 preview there is about a one word vocal sample. I like what what I hear though, It’s a bit more house-y too, and feels massive compared to the other tracks. “Shellshock” is the one word we hear from Karen O, and then Erol slaps you over the face with all the bass. It’s silly how good this mix could be, so get excited.

Oh yeah, and did I mention THIS is happening. Be excited people, be very excited.

89.3 The Current announces Decemberists, Yeasayer, and more for Rock the Garden ’09

Posted in Concert Dates with tags , , , , , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Ryan Buege

On Saturday, June 20th, the grassy amphitheater lawn of the Walker Arts Center will once again become the finest concert hall in the city for one night only. In their yearly Rock the Garden Festival, MPR’s 89.3 The Current and the Walker Art Center have teamed up to put together another envious lineup of independent rock that will be anchored by a headline performance from The Decemberists, currently supporting their new album The Hazards of Love. Other performances will come from Calexico and Mind Inversion favorites Yeasayer and Solid Gold, so it’s going to be an evening of amazement from start to finish. Also, it’s an all ages event and they promise some awesome food and refreshments throughout the day, so there’s really no reason not to bring entire gang out for a night of fun.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on April 22nd, but if you’re an MPR or Walker member you can order now!

TICKETS: Click here to purchase

Keep reading for the full schedule of events… Continue reading

The Body Beneath releasing Rise of the Insidious with two shows this weekend

Posted in Audio, Concert Dates with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Ryan Buege

The Body Beneath

It’s not talked about nearly enough, but the Twin Cities have truly been a hotbed for some incredible technical death metal bands over the course of the last several years. Last year The Crinn were able to secure a recording deal with Nuclear Blast, earlier this year Iron Thrones self-released a new album to a national audience, and now the brutal death metal quintet known as The Body Beneath is poised to release a brand new EP of savage, shredding, blast-beat laden progressive death metal insanity. Rise of the Insidious is receiving a April 4th release via The Fifth Moon, and to support the release, The Body Beneath with be playing two shows – one at Station 4 on Friday and another at The Rox in St. Cloud on Saturday.

Rise of the Insidious is the first time that we’ve heard from The Body Beneath since their 2007 album Compelled to Suffer. Having now evolved far beyond being simply a With Dead Hands Rising off-shoot, The Body Beneath is sounding extremely confident and more capable than ever. Any hardcore influences are hard to detect on the preview tracks from Rise that are posted over at the band’s MySpace; instead its more of an onslaught of the most brutal sounds, taking cues from heavyweights like Hate Eternal, Krisiun, and Aborted. “Crushing all who oppose” is this band’s motto, and it’s an apt one. Really folks, this is some brutal metal!

LISTEN: The Body Beneath, “And the Sea Will Give Us Its Dead” (from Rise of the Insidious, available 4/4)
LISTEN: The Body Beneath, “A Flood of Red” (from Rise of the Insidious, available 4/4)
LISTEN: The Body Beneath, “Path of the Depraved” (from Rise of the Insidious, available 4/4) 

Be sure to take the opportunity to get your hands around the Rise of the Insidious this weekend at one of these shows. Underground death metal is a beautiful thing, and The Body Beneath will be surrounded by some fantastic local talent during these release shows. More information after the jump… Continue reading

Vampire Hands and Daughters of the Sun both stream new songs

Posted in Audio with tags , , , , , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Ryan Buege

Local music fans look to be poised for one amazing year of psychedelic rock; within the fast few weeks, both Vampire Hands and Daughters of the Sun have uploaded new music from their forthcoming releases.

Vampire Hands are kind enough to present their listeners with two entire tracks streaming on their MySpace page for their soon-to-be-released Hannah in the Mansion full-length album. As someone who endlessly enjoyed the low-key psych rock of last year’s Me and You Cherry Red, this release is on my highly anticipated list; hearing these new songs hasn’t dampened my expectations at all. “Funny Stories” is a smoky, dark, sneering pop rock song that seasoned fans will be sure to appreciate, and “Invisible Stairs” is a new adaptation for VH – noisy, heavily layered orchestration and sound effects that retains their folksy charm but sees them progressing noticeably. Head to their site to listen in, and keep returning to Mind Inversion to see when we can expect an official release for Hannah in the Mansion!

LISTEN: Vampire Hands, “Invisible Stairs” (from Hannah in the Mansion, forthcoming)
LISTEN: Vampire Hands, “Funny Stories” (from Hannah in the Mansion, forthcoming)

Daughters of the Sun is a Minneapolis band that embraces psychedelia to an even more noticeable degree, and now their MySpace page is now hosting an excerpt of “The Long Way”, an extremely ethereal and meditative mirage of sound from the bands new album Ring that helped transport this listener to another dimension. Truthfully, the hallucinogenic rhythms and enchanting vocals are sure to only be a small precursor of epic noise adventure that is about to be released. This is an album to pay attention to, my friends! Follow the link below for a taste.

LISTEN: Daughters of the Sun, “The Long Way (excerpt)” (from Ring, available 4/25)

Keep reading to learn about the ongoing Wavves/Vampire Hands U.S. tour (show at the Entry on 4/5!) and see local dates from Daughters of the Sun (w/ an entry show on 4/2!)… Continue reading

Evidence goes to the far left once again

Posted in Downloads, Media, Video with tags , , , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Tim Althaus

ev-2 Here we are with another straight fire laced track by Evidence featuring Fashawn and Alchemist. As you may recall, both of these two emcees complimented Evdience on the original “Far Left“, and “The Far Left 2” is no different. I have to say that out of the three emcees on this track (with no disrespect to any of them) Fashawn steps up his game the most. Fashawn is one of those cats that you are going to be hearing me talk about quite a bit (especially when Boy Wonder drops) in the future.

All of these cats have new projects coming out this year so make sure you watch out for those because every single one of these albums is going to be top fucking quality. “The Far Left” is taking over Hip-Hop this year it seems.

You can download the track here.

Spotted @ 2DopeBoyz

Here’s a little video to make you all realize how nice Fash really is… Continue reading

Method Man & Redman take you behind the scenes of “International”

Posted in Media, Video with tags , , , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Tim Althaus

Vodpod videos no longer available.

This is a nice look behind the scenes of Method Man & Redman’s new video for the single “International” off of their upcoming LP Blackout 2. Every single time I watch a video with Red & Meth I end up laughing my ass off, and this one is no different. Makre sure you check out this video (it had me in stitches) and double make sure you pick up Blackout 2 when that shit drops.

Del to drop FREE album!

Posted in Downloads, Media, Video with tags , on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Tim Althaus

Here is a sigh of relief to this of you who have been hating the recession as of late. It appears as though Del The Funky Homosapien (of Hiero & Deltron 3030 fame) will be dropping a free album on April 7th entitled Funk Man (The Stimulus Package). He apparently will also be dropping even more material for free in the near future. Make sure you jump over to this site to grab the album on April 7th.

Listen to Big Business’ Mind the Drift; U.S. tour scheduled

Posted in Audio, Concert Dates with tags , , , , , , on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Ryan Buege

Well, the hard rock heavies in Big Business were able to get a break from the road in November, and after finishing the vocals in LA, the new album Mind the Drift was mixed is now ready for public consumption! After releasing the physical copies TODAY, Big Business have posted their entire new album for streaming listening online at their website! Head over to mindthedrift.com to hear the latest.

Also, it’s no secret that Big Business is a band that likes to tour. In fact, recording on their upcoming album had to be postponed for nearly half a year last year when the Melvins invited the band back out on tour. They are once again ready to get back out to the clubs to play some shows.  Keep reading to see all of their forthcoming dates with Tweak Bird, including a show at the Triple Rock Social Club in mid-May… Continue reading

Northern Outpost Ep. 7, Military Special performs and interviewed

Posted in Video with tags , , , , , , , , , , on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Ryan Buege

Northern Outpost, the Max Becker created local music interview and performance online TV show, is back for their seventh episode. This week their featuring the Minneapolis-based spontaneous electro-rocking clan of Military Special who have just released their new album Civil Union. On this week’s show from Uptown’s Owl Recording, we get to hear about they band’s growth on Civil Union, what they enjoy about playing locally, and their take on the longevity of the high quality local indie rock scene that they are now a part of. Watch it til the end to see these young prodigies rock out to a very appropriate, highly entertaining cover  of “Space Humping $19.99” from the Fiestas and Fiascos LP by late-90s TC post-punk/synth-rock innovators Lifter Puller (featuring Craig and Tad currently of the Hold Steady). And don’t forget bookmark NorthernOutpost.net to stay tuned for the final episode of the season (and to check up on previous episodes you may have missed). Enjoy!

Keep reading to see all of Military Special’s forthcoming tour dates… Continue reading

P.O.S. performs “Savion Glover” for Yours Truly

Posted in Video with tags , , , , , on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Tim Althaus

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I posted the first part of this video series earlier when Stef had performed the track “Goodbye” off of his new album Never Better. This second part here, has him performing the track “Savion Glover” with Plain Ole Bill and Mike Mictlan. Yet another great video from P.O.S. as he talks briefly in the beginning about the situation that he had when he was growing up as a kid. He tranisitions into the track real smooth with Mictlan as his hype man for the track.

Editor’s Note: Does anyone know where the hell I can get that hat that Mictlan is wearing?