In case you didn’t know, Imogen Heap is one half of the band Frou Frou (with the other half being Guy Sigsworth). Their hit song “Let Go” was included onto the soundtrack for Zack Braff’s 2004 indie classic Garden State. And yes, Imogen Heap is actually her real name.

Jack Daniels, gaffer's tape, assless chaps, a pack of smokes, and...a banana?

Death has the unexpected benefit of restoring relevance. Michael Jackson is dead so we forget about the bleached, siliconized, plastic surgery testing ground that was once his face, and we chose to set aside his suspicious activity with children, and we toss the Liz Taylor obsession, the crotch-grabbing, and his increasingly stilted moonwalk into a pit of gossip waste matter. Along with the Elephant Man’s bones and a chimp named Bubbles. The King is dead. Long live the King.

Let us also note that Keith Richards has outlived yet another rock star.

There was something in the misty air this past month. A convergence of death and nostalgia that started with David Carradine dying of auto-erotic asphyxiation. So I dusted off my old Van Halen cd’s and watched videos of David Lee Roth on YouTube. His videos are both primitive and visionary, like finding a Stone Age-era walkman buried among bear bones and flint axeheads. You can almost see them as they would appear now. The irony is 2009-ready, the showmanship is unapologetic, and the music…well, it’s schmaltzy enough for American Idol fans and self-referential enough for Ben Folds Five groupies. To wit:

[See post to watch Flash video]

I’m looking for interpretations of this video because I can’t figure it out. Yes, it contains plenty of 80’s parodies (Cindy Lauper, MJ, Billy Idol, Willie Nelson, Culture Club, etc.) and yes, it’s the usual Diamond Dave mug-fest bordering on unbearable. But there’s a message in it. Somewhere.

Which brings us to the real sequel to The Karate Kid: Ralph Macchio’s Crossroads. The year is 1986, two years after Daniel LaRusso won the All Valley Karate Tournament. We assume Elisabeth Shue dumped him, Johnny Lawrence has gone from bully to sycophant, and Mr. Miyagi no longer needs Daniel’s help around the house. Our young hero leaves the suburban confines of Reseda and attends Juilliard for classical guitar. His studies bring him to another old mentor—this time an African-American version of Mr. Miyagi—who trains him in Mississippi Delta blues which eventually leads them both to another tournament. Sort of. Only this time fists and feet are replaced with guitars and harmonicas and William Zabka is replaced with shredding impresario Steve Vai, and the results are…well, awesome. Compare The Karate Kid’s final duel:

[See post to watch Flash video]

With Crossroads’ final duel:

[See post to watch Flash video]

Our last item connects DLR with Steve Vai by way of DLR’s post-Van Halen supergroup. Billy Sheehan on bass and Vai on guitar with a lycra-clad David Lee Roth resulted in one of the best album names ever. Eat ‘Em And Smile. It also resulted in this gem:

[See post to watch Flash video]

And if that synchronicity doesn’t impress, maybe this will: William Zabka worked DLR’s Eat ‘Em And Smile tour. As head of security.

First of all, the video has nothing to do with the song. The concept of the video seems to have come out of left field. I thought that Drake was above the whole big-breasted-women-in-skimpy-outfits-talking-in-sexual-innuendo in rap videos thing. Guess not. Secondly, the video is directed by Kanye West, who has basically no directing experience whatsoever. I realized that it was Kanye West the moment I laid eyes on the high school lion mascot; it basically screamed of Kanye’s The College Dropout and its bear mascot.

Even when you talk with people who went, Bonnaroo is hard to describe. If there’s a God, I hope heaven is a big ol’ Bonnaroo in the sky (sure as hell I’d go to church more often). Some friends from Boston College plus some and I all arrived around 5 am on Thursday, pitching our tent and canopy by the light of the sunrise. We napped, and then the adventure officially started.

Here’s the layout of Bonnaroo, 700 acres of former farming lands: Centeroo is an area where all the stages are located and carnival-like vendors. That majestic red archway you see in your friends’ Facebook albums? That’s the entrance to Centeroo. They sell anything from traditional pizza to deep fried gator, and as far as souvenirs go, buy a cool band posters or a didgeridoo. When and if you go, make sure to stop at the Wonder Waffle stand to get the hot waffle sandwich: a cube of vanilla ice cream between two thick waffles smothered in chocolate syrup. Surrounding Centeroo are all the campsites grouped by movie titles and divided by that movie’s characters. Ours was Pussy Galore in the James Bond area… we all got a kick out of that. Port-a-potties are located throughout, and you get used to peeing in the dark after the first two nights. Showering is a no-no. I mean you can for a little less then 10 bucks, but if you’re going to Bonnaroo you might as well do it up right.

Say hi to my friends Kristen and Josh.

Bands play all the time, til everyone’s strung out at 4 am and dancing their asses off. But considering an audience of 75,000 sticky-sweaty people, getting to the front can be a complicated process. Due to a string of great shows on Saturday, we made it to the front for some out-of-this-world entertainment. We edged in the side of This Tent as Bon Iver’s falsettos shivered my bones in 80-degree humidity. He closed with ‘Wolves,’ having the audience sing over and over “What might have been lost” until we were shouting the line 10,000 strong. At that point the crowd headed out and we headed in, close to front row for Of Montreal. I had already seen them in April at Paradise Rock Lounge in Boston, so I was expecting an identical set. Same costumes, different experience. There’s just something about seeing Kevin Barnes in a smoking (literally emitting smoke) fur poncho doing the cha-cha in broad daylight as a brontosaurus with giant arms catapults balls into the audience. After bopping around to ‘Rapture Rapes the Muses’ and grooving out to ‘A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger,’ they smashed their instruments in a distortioned cacophony that simply defines Of Montreal, and proceeded to hurl their bodies atop the audience to crowd surf.

Here’s a taste of a live Of Montreal show that I recorded at the Paradise show, apologies for the quality.

Barnes once explained his performance style in an interview with the Daytrotter crew:

I’ve always loved the theatrical side of performing. I never really got into the whole indie rock approach of taking the stage in your street clothes and just playing the songs. That isn’t fun for me. I really want to put on a performance that people will remember. That means considering the visual aspect of things. I hate going to see shows that just have this static image. I think it’s important to have lots of movement on stage, lots of changes in the images you present to the audience.

Of Montreal

The Decmeberists were up next. If I had to narrow it down, I went to Bonnaroo mainly to see Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Of Montreal, Phoenix and MGMT. The Decemberists were my favorite show at Bonnaroo 2009. A fan informed me that their set was a straight play through of their latest album The Hazards of Love, and they did so without conversation or even a pause. Dark lighting, robotic dancing, violent timpani banging followed by a half-hour encore of fan favorites, which showed a lighter side of congenial performance. I can’t tell you the set list, and I don’t know the names of the band members without Google-ing them, but I can tell you it was just phenomenal.

In the flesh, the Decemberists

This article could easily be longer than a senior thesis. To list my favorite performances is like naming all of the places in the world I’d like to visit - it’s endless and actually sort of boring to everyone but me. The last thing I want to squeeze in here is a note about the people. For four glorious days, I shared a really strange freedom with tens of thousands of other people from all walks of life, ranging from all ages, with different intentions. I watched teeny boppers play around in the mushroom fountain, babies strapped onto ambitious parents, young bucks drinking beers with their friends, and I particularly remember these two middle-aged women swaying their arms with floor-length dresses and mom haircuts. The Healing Shaman was seen daily, carrying a sign advertising his services, doing yoga and chanting “heeemmehpennay, huuuuhhhh” behind us as we walked to Centeroo. There were bearded men wiggling their hips to sound checks, and a man whose bad trip required 8 paramedics and a needle to a neck.

Everyone was just really satisfied to live in a tent, meet new people, and listen to good music.

In your lifetime, go to Bonnaroo. If you’ve already gone, you don’t need to me to tell you to do it again. It is beyond an experience.

Heeemmehpennay, Huuuuhhhh. Photo Cred: Evan Waters

From what I’ve heard, Dan Deacon’s live shows are unbeliavable. Check him out, incase you haven’t already. His latest album is Bromst, which was released back in March. Listen to his hit “Get Older.”

[See post to watch Flash video]

Feist and Patrick Daughters

Once upon a time there was this brilliant film director named Patrick Daughters who directed short films, commercials and videos for indie artists. They were brilliant. The end?

Ooh, not even close. This Cali cool man is all but 33 years old, pumping out more indie-related videos than a 17-year-old guitar player with a bad haircut and a YouTube account. He’s the one behind the avant-garde, split screen video of King of Leon’s ‘Bucket’ and the iPod-induced sensation of Feist’s ‘1234′ (not to mention the ultra chic ‘My Moon My Man,’ ‘Mushaboom,’ and ‘I Feel it All’).

I’ve always loved the noir feel of this video:


[See post to watch Flash video]

You may also recognize these wow-wow videos directed by Daughters:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - ‘Date With a Night/’ ‘Maps’/'Turn Into’
Bright Eyes - ‘Four Winds’/'Hot Knives’
The Shins - ‘Phantom Limb’
MIKA - ‘Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)’
Death Cab for Cutie - ‘Title and Registration’
Beck - ‘Nausea’

So it’s no surprise Grizzly Bear’s video for ‘Two Weeks’ is raising eyebrows… it’s just another masterpiece from the dancing, floating, spinning mind of Daughters.
Released from their latest album Veckatimest, ‘Two Weeks’ has this juke-ragtime feeling with just enough sunshine to give you the creeps. The video most definitely does it justice:

‘Two Weeks’ cries a sad sort of romantic with its simple lyrics and harmonies that have an I-found-Jesus vibe. In the video, the loafing lids over bug eyes plus those slow-forming smirks reflect the lovesick melancholy in the song, and the holy locale just ties everything together for me.

Three cheers to Grizzly Bear and Patrick Daughters! A beautiful playoff fit for an independent film festival.

We’ll keep it short and sweet today. Our favorite rapper from Degrassi is back in the limelight again. We’ve already posted two of Drake’s mixtape albums, Comeback Season and So Far Gone, so it only makes sense for us to post the third. In this case, that would be Room for Improvement, Drake’s first official mixtape. This album is definitely a throwback, as it was released in 2006. Give it a good listen, see where Drake’s roots lie, and compare it to his new stuff.

1. Intro
2. Pianist Hands (Skit #1)
3. Special Featuring Voyce
4. Do What You Do
5. Money (Remix) Featuring Nickelus F.
6. A.M. 2 P.M. Featuring Nickelus F.
7. City Is Mine
8. Drake’s Voice (Skit #2)
9. Bad Meanin’ Good Featuring Slakah the Beatchild
10.Thrill Is Gone
11.Make Things Right
12.Video Girl Featuring Sean G.
13.Drake’s Voice (Skit #3)
14.Come Winter
15.Extra Special
16.About The Game (Remix) Featuring Trey Songz
17.All This Love Featuring Voyce
18.Drake’s Voice (Skit #4)
19.A Scorpio’s Mind Featuring Nickelus F.
20.S.T.R.E.S.S.
21.Try Harder
22.Kick, Push (Remix) Featuring Lupe Fiasco
23.U.P.A. Outro

DOWNLOAD: Drake - Room for Improvement

Just stumbled across this collection of sick remixes that was released the other day from Team Teamwork, thanks to my girl Courtney. It’s so good, that I couldn’t wait around for Mixtape Mondays — I had to post it now in time for the weekend. The Good-ass Remixes Vol. 1 is the second release by Team Teamwork. Their first was The Ocarina of Rhyme, which was a mash-up album featuring hip-hop and the soundtrack of the video game classic The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.

On The Good-ass Remixes Vol. 1, Team Teamwork mixes and mashes T.I., Lil Wayne, Kanye, Nas, Talib Kweli, UGK, Slim Thug, Ghostface, Outkast, and others with the likes of Sigur Rós, Iron & Wine, Elliott Smith, M83, Múm and more. The result is wonderfully danceable and catchy. I’d consider Team Teamwork to be like The Hood Internet’s hot sister. The group is relatively unknown at the moment, but I would not be surprised at all to see them playing at Coachella or Bonnaroo in a few years time.

Here’s the tracklist:

1. T.I. ft. Sigur Rós - Big Shit Poppin’
2. Lil Wayne & Birdman ft. Okkervil River - Stuntin’ Like My Daddy
3. Kanye West & Nas ft. Man Man - We Major
4. Talib Kweli & UGK ft. Jens Lekman - Country Cousins
5. Slim Thug ft. Iron & Wine - Heard of That
6. Killer Mike & Shawty Lo ft. Elliott Smith - Two Sides
7. Gucci Mane ft. Drug Rug - Pillz
8. Joell Ortiz ft. Steve Winwood - Hip Hop
9. Kanye West & Lil Wayne ft. M83 - Lollipop (The Remix of the Remix)
10. Ghostface Killah ft. Múm - Holla
11. Outkast & Killer Mike ft. DatA - The Whole World
12. [BONUS TRACK] Big Pun & Fat Joe ft. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Twins

DOWNLOAD: Team Teamwork - The Good-ass Remixes Vol. 1

“He who fights with monsters  might take care lest he thereby become a monster … and if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

You may recognize these words from the great American novelist Mark Twain, or you may have just seen the quote scribbled on the opening frames of the music video for  MGMT’s hit song song, “Kids.” Either way, there’s no denying the fact that this is one weird-ass music video. And that’s putting it mildly. I’m pretty sure that MGMT planned the entire music video while on acid. Now that I think about it, acid-inspired music videos seem to be a recurring theme for MGMT.

Anway, after making it through the minute-long intro, and ignoring the fact that they traumatized a small child throughout, the video turns out to be pretty mediore. For some reason, I’m getting the feeling that they’re just trying to hard to be eccentric and/or edgy. But that’s just me.

It might be the intro’s pulsing and the sing-stuttering or maybe it’s the rock pop and glazed vocals. I don’t know for sure, but whatever the reason, Phoenix’s single ‘1901′ got me through finals week despite late nights, all nighters, and pure misery.

Emergency song kit coming your way:

It was the first single released from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix’s long-awaited May release. Well, probably more long-awaited for perennial Phoenix fans hailing from France and other European countries. Wolfgang is their fourth album release, which was some surprise to me, an American fan who’s just recently hopped the Phoenix train.

After some hefty google-ing, I discovered quite an impressive history.
It’s crazy to think these guys started out over a decade ago in suburbs on Versailles. Before the name Phoenix was even established, they were more ambiguously known as those dudes playing in that remix of ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’ by Air. Things got serious when guitarist Laurent Brancowitz committed to Phoenix by officially leaving Darlin’, an unsuccessful starter band with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (no worries, the two soon became Daft Punk).

By 2003 Phoenix discreetly tapped into the US underground when ‘Too Young’ was featured in Lost in Translation, the sulky and witty drama directed by award-winning screenwriter Sofia Coppola. This was some good exposure for their first album United, and with each album the reviews became more fanatic. Listeners loved how the music moved and grooved, even describing Phoenix’s tunes as, “Pop at its finest.”

But this fourth album release has brought them to new heights. Phoenix is the most blogged artist on Hype Machine and first runner up on Elbo.ws. XMU channel 43 on XM radio rotates multiple Phoenix singles among Grizzly Bear’s ‘Two Weeks’ and ‘Golden Skans’ by Klaxons. All in all people believe that after three albums, Phoenix still has it, and now the boys are really bringin’ it.

That’s word from popular opinion, let’s see what long-term fans are saying:

“Phoenix are one of the greatest bands to come out of France in the last 15 years (along with Daft Punk and Air, two of my great musical loves, and several other bands that formed around the same time), and they are finally receiving some well-deserved attention. Phoenix just keep getting better, and they know it — they love it, they exploit it, they bathe in its glory. Seriously, who else would have the “couilles” to title their fourth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix? But it’s justified: This album is pure shining genius from a band rife with unique sound and creativity, a gift that the American public is starved for in these vapid, manufactured-Disney-pop times. I’ve been hooked on Phoenix since the moment I saw their “If I Ever Feel Better” video while living in Paris in 2001. Over the past decade, Phoenix have continually reinvented their sound — with undeniable cohesion and hat-tips to previous albums — and WAP, their pièce de résistance, is no exception. ” - M. Mills, Amazon.com customer

A well-put, honest review from a man who know what he’s  talking about. Now my take:

I heard a greater part of this album piecemeal via satellite radio and the internet, and I believe each song is its own chunk of brilliance. My first impression was something like,  ”These disco vocals are reminiscent of  Kevin Barnes in the best way, and I love their house twist on alt rock.” So come the day I finally hear Wolfgang in its entirety, and the only flaw I can find is repetitiveness. The chemistry among the first five tracks is almost tangible. It’s easy for a band of this genre to OD on toe-tapping, head-bobbing poppiness, but they politely refrain. And just wait til you reach the delicate installment of some raw danceability with track four, ‘Love Like a Sunset, Part I’ followed by its cute and breezy counterpart, ‘Love Like a Sunset, Part II.’

And here they are now, conveniently bundled in one song for your listening pleasure:

Visualize:

After the fabulous five, the tracks are still individually strong, but the album grows tiresome. You listen, sort of, and  kinda click around your iTunes for a new artist. It’s weird, because soon you’ll fall in love with ‘Lasso’ or ‘Rome’ when it comes up on shuffle, just not when lost in the sea of the entire CD. (Or maybe that’s just an anecdote from my Saturday night, who knows?)

So there you have it, popular opinion vs. avid listener M. Mills vs. just me.

Have a go, and tell us what you think. For the greater good of your ears, invest some time in Phoenix.