PMA | Pretty Much Amazing

Strangers In Stereo: Say Hello / SXSW

Luis Tovar — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:19:02 PDT

Bringing 20 of the world’s most dynamic music blogs under one convenient roof, Strangers In Stereo (SiS) aims to eliminate the daily dilemma faced by every music fan — “What should I listen to?”. The answer is simple, SiS.

Launching on March 15th, 2010, our network draws from a wide range of geographies, genres and demographics. With writers scattered across the globe in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Bahrain, London and Stockholm, SiS takes cultural diversity to a new level. Aggregating select posts every week from each of the affiliated blogs, the network will cover new releases, live shows, news and more, through innovative and exclusive features. As bloggers, we’re close to the music and Strangers in Stereo offers a unique enterprise with which to push the boundaries, shaping independent music as we know it.

As blogs become a more accepted form of musical promotion and opinion, the challenge to make a difference as an individual grows. Strangers In Stereo allows blogs a chance to be a part of something bigger. Each month the network reaches a combined audience of 2 million unique users, ensuring a built in audience of music fanatics.

We’re working with Chicago-based digital lifestyle agency Mess Marketing to provide a professional product; Mess’ past clients have included Microsoft, Burger King and Red Bull.

The future will see SiS branch into new areas, promoting independent music, putting on events across the globe and much, much more. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Don’t be a Stranger…

The Strangers // Creamteam / The Culture of Me / Disco Demons / Discopunk / First Up / Forward Music / Hard Candy Music / The Music.FM / The Music Ninja / Muumuse / Ohh! Crapp / Pigeons and Planes / Pretty Much Amazing / Sheena Beaston / Stoney Roads / Tastes Like Caramel / Too Many Sebastians /Typanogram / Vinyl & Vodka / Yours Truly

Join Us @ SXSW 2010

To celebrate our launch in style, Strangers In Stereo is throwing a huge party at SXSW 2010, during the Music portion of the festival. Our SXSW party will be the first of our live events and we have brought together a great lineup of bands (see below) to mark the occasion. You wouldn’t want to miss out. Read on for more information about our SXSW Party.

Venue

Elysium is a 500 capacity venue in the heart of Austin, less than 5 minutes walk from the Convention Centre. The event will be first come first serve, and 21+. The show will run from 12-6PM, with set times to follow.

Elysium, 705 Red River St., Austin, TX 78701

Bands

MY GOLD MASK
With Chicago duo My Gold Mask, we can safely say that there is no substitute for the real thing. Come on down, stand under the speakers and try and resist the crunching drums, cutting lyrics and generally awesome tunes. Go on, we dare you.

NIGHTWAVES
NightWaves is Kyle Petersen and Josh Legg. In addition to writing and performing as NightWaves, Josh and Kyle run Binary Entertainment and the Binary Blog. Talented, hey?

HUSSLE CLUB
After spending years as a touring/session drummer for Santigold, Spank Rock and HEARTSREVOLUTION, Prince Terrence has chosen the perfect time to step out into the spotlight. Arriving in 2010 with Hussle Club, the SiS party will be one of his first live performances. Big things await.

CHEW LIPS
Signed to uber cool French label Kitsuné, Chew Lips will be bringing their fresh brand of electropop stateside. Fronted by the energetic Tigs, they will be playing a set of material from their debut album, Unicorn.

CHIDDY BANG
Philadelphia’s Chiddy Bang (comprised of Chidera Anamege & Xaphoon Jones) are making the transition from their indie-sampling antics to genuine chart botherers. With “Opposite Of Adults” they have the chart bothering single (which even references SiS Blog Pretty Much Amazing)

THE HOOD INTERNET
The Chicago duo juggle live duties with being an internet phenomenon, keeping us hooked through their mashup mixtapes. Live, we will settle for nothing less than a full-on stage invasion. You have been warned.

COUSIN COLE
The man behind numerous mind blowing mixes will be manning the decks, dropping sets each set.

Strangers In Stereo Mix by Immuzikation

Tags: Strangers In Stereo, SXSW 2010

jj ‘jj nº 3′ Album Review

Chris Barth — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:07:38 PDT

Vinyl giveaway details at the end of the review.
jj
jj nº 3
Secretly Canadian
out March 9th
81 /100
[Rating Scale]

Rate jj’s jj nº 3

jj are, intentionally, a fairly mysterious band. The duo seemed to appear out of nowhere earlier last year, producing blissfully sweet indie pop that had immediate appeal. In a year when Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors were moving experimental sensibilities toward the mainstream, jj sounded like they were headed in the opposite direction. It’s a vision that has steered them well thus far, and they’ve stuck with it on their sophomore release. It is easy to imagine the songs on jj n°3 as avant garde house remixes of bubblegum pop tunes.

The band, rather than pushing their pseudo-derivative mainstream pop inclinations into the background, confront and embrace them immediately on jj n°3. Opening track “My Life” covers Lil Wayne’s autotuned chorus from The Game’s song of the same name – the lyrics of which are drawn from Birdman’s “So Tired” – before concluding with the ubiquitous chorus from ATC’s techno megahit “Around the World,” which itself was a cover of Ruki Vverh’s “Pesenka.” Re-read that sentence and try to process it, I dare you. In equation form:

Or something like that. I think calculus might get involved somewhere along the line. Regardless, the point is that it’s a bit of a curveball of a first track that certainly encapsulates the diversity of influences convergent in jj’s music. “My Life” kicks the album off on a strange note, sure, but that note – however out-of-left-field it may be – does not linger for long.

Immediately, recollections of “My Life” are swept away by the vaguely Caribbean drums and synthesized strings of “And Now,” which in turn are swept away by the harmonica introduction to the album’s third track and first single, “Let Go.” From one song to the next, lush and worldly instrumental tracks back Elin Kastlander’s dreampop vocals, each addictive and catchy enough to eliminate any memory of the preceding track. Every song from jj n°3 can and will get stuck in your head – which song gets lodged only depends on which song you listen to last.

In rare interviews, jj’s Kastlander and Joakim Benon are cryptic and opaque. Their music is anything but. Their second album is immediate and listener friendly, albeit imbued with darker undertones. The duo is ultra-melodic, consistently building songs around the framework of a contagious hook. At times, jj n°3 borders on melodic overload; some salt might be nice to balance out the sugary production. The songs that work best – like “Into The Light” and “Voi Parlate, lo Gioco” – are peppered with drum machines, vocal samples, and audio clips from soccer matches, a quick palate cleanse that only makes the record more delectable.

I hate to lump jj in with other Swedish artists, but it’s difficult to ignore the similarities between Kastlander’s voice and those of fellow countrywomen Taken By Trees, Lykke Li, and El Perro Del Mar. Paint those artists with the sonic brush of The XX, and you begin to approximate the sound captured on jj n°3. It’s a beautiful landscape, and the second stellar album from the duo in the last twelve months. But you get the feeling it’s not the end of the road for this duo. With hints at hip hop mixtapes, rumors of collaborations with The XX, and any number of questions swirling around this enigmatic pair, it only remains to see what they have in store for the next sweet go-round.

To enter to win a copy of jj’s jj nº 3 on LP (or CD, if you’d like), all you have to is leave a comment and retweet this review. Have you heard the album? If so, rate the album (above) and leave a comment with your thoughts on this review and the album in general. If you haven’t heard the album, comment about your expectations, or listen to it in its entirety at on the Lala player above. Make sure to leave a valid email address in the comment field. Entries will be accepted until March 22nd.

Tags: jj

Listen to She & Him’s ‘Volume Two’ In Its Entirety

Luis Tovar — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:43:39 PDT

I know you’re as excited about this album’s release as I am. You don’t have to wait any longer to listen to She & Him’s Volume Two, because NPR is streaming the whole thing.

Remember, you can download the album’s first two singles, “In The Sun,” and “Thieves” for free. Volume Two is out March 23rd (next Tuesday!) on Merge.

Tags: Album Stream, She & Him, Zooey Deschanel

Ellie Goulding x Chiddy Bang “Under The Sheets”

Luis Tovar — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:15:31 PST

Following up their mad “Stylo” remix, Chiddy Bang take on Ellie Goulding’s fantastic “Under The Sheets“. The remix will appear on Chiddy Bang’s Swelly Express follow-up, Air Swell. Just like The Swelly Express, the tunes on Air Swelly were inspired, written and recording during Chiddy Bang’s travels (this time, cross-Atlantic) and meteoric rise in the music industry. In fact, Chiddy’s debut single “Opposite of Adults” (or “Kids”) is currently sitting within the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart!

Download Chiddy Bang’s remix of “Under The Sheets” below:

[via]

Tags: Chiddy Bang, Ellie Goulding

Best of the Week Ending March 12th

Luis Tovar — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:23:54 PST

This is for all of you readers who don’t stop by PMA on a daily basis — I’ll point you to my favorite posts of the last week.

Album Reviews: On Friday (3/12) we reviewed Free Energy’s highly anticipated debut, Stuck On Nothing; and on Wednesday (3/10), we stamped Broken Bells’ self-titled debut with our “Favorite Albums” tag, the fifth album this year. Both reviews come paired with a LP/CD giveaway.

Giveaways: We are currently giving away The White Stripes’ new Live CD/DVD documentary Under Great Northern Lights.

Listen to new songs from MGMT (“Congratulations“) and LCD Soundsystem (“Oh You“)

Download new songs from Drake (“Over“), MGMT (“Flash Delirium“) and Neon Indian (“Sleep Paralysist“) for free.

Watch great new videos from Yeasayer (“O.N.E.“) and Lady GaGa (“Telephone“).

No tags for this post.

Free Energy ‘Stuck On Nothing’ Album Review

Genevieve Oliver — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:47:05 PST

Vinyl giveaway details at the end of the review.
Free Energy
Stuck On Nothing
DFA / Astralwerks
out May 4th*
74 /100
[Rating Scale]

Rate Free Energy’s Stuck On Nothing

Philadelphia foursome Free Energy’s much-hyped debut album, Stuck on Nothing, is what you would put on in your car if you were escaping from somewhere boring. It’s driving, cathartic, danceable, youthful, the kind of record you would put on a couple miles down a monotonous highway to wake you up, spur you to roll down the top, get you doing an awkward dance in your seat. This seems like Free Energy’s whole M.O. – let’s do something to feel good. Let’s do something to be happy. Let’s do something to get away. “We’re breaking out this time,” Paul Sprangers croons in the album’s first five seconds. “We’re gonna start a new life.” With hooks this irresistible, bright power-pop instrumentals, and an overwhelming sense of positivity, it’s impossible not to believe him.

Free Energy’s melodic chops are best suited to the upbeat power-pop jams they serve up in the record’s first half – the Guitar Hero wailing of “Free Energy,” the “Boys are Back in Town”-esque chord progressions and incongruous saxophone licks on “Dream City,” and, best of all, the infectious big drum beats and syncopated vocal on album standout “Bang Pop,” which has all the pop sensibility to qualify it for daily rotation on Z100. Some of the slower tunes, like “All I Know” and the joyous explosion of album closer “Wild Wind,” manage to hold their own weight, helped along by the band’s masterful waily guitars and loud drums. Sprangers’ voice is warm, calm, and something about it is identifiable – or maybe it’s just his lyrics, which are always sweet, heartfelt affirmations: “You’re not alone!” The electric, infectious positivity conveyed through both music and lyrics is Free Energy’s greatest strength.

But, perhaps Free Energy’s greatest downfall is how well they know their strengths. Those waily guitars and loud drums and prominent vocals sound good – they sound really fucking good. Those first three tracks are awesome. All you want to do ever is roll all the windows in the car in the springtime and drive around on the back roads yelling all the words to “Bang Pop” – “I was super messed up like it would never end!” Can you get down with that? I can get down with that. Shit, that’s all I want to do ever from now on!

The thing is, Free Energy’s (admittedly very successful) formula works wonders for the album’s first half, and after that it’s easy to think “Hmm, this is alright, but can we do something that doesn’t start with some Boston-style power chordage?” Not to say that the second half of the album is weaker – “Hope Child” is a straight-up jam, as is “Light Love.” Free Energy are, unquestionably, a talented band, who have masterfully put together an album that that sounds great and plays to their strengths – but I know they are capable of more variation, more risks, and more depth.

To enter to win a copy of Free Energy’s Stuck On Nothing on LP (or CD, if you’d like), all you have to is leave a comment and retweet this review. Have you heard the album? If so, rate the album (above) and leave a comment with your thoughts on this review and the album in general. If you haven’t heard the album, comment about your expectations, or listen to it in its entirety at on the Lala player above. Make sure to leave a valid email address in the comment field. Entries will be accepted until May 4th.

* Stuck On Nothing is already out on iTunes. It will be released physically, May 4th.

Tags: Free Energy

New MGMT “Congratulations”

Luis Tovar — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:12:33 PST

Earlier this week, MGMT debuted the first single from their hotly anticipated Oracular Spectacular follow-up, Congratulations. It would not be an overstatement to say that “Flash Delirium” was welcomed by a flurry of mixed reactions by fans (personally, I thought it was great).

Well, the album’s title track, “Congratulations” has leaked, and you can listen to it too now (and download it, if you’re sneaky). If you weren’t big on “Flash Delirium”, you probably won’t be into “Congratulations”, but I can’t see why that would be the case. Listen to the track below, and pre-order Congratulations at Insound.

STREAM: MGMT “Congratulations”

Congratulations is out April 13th on Columbia.

Tags: MGMT

Lady GaGa “Telephone” (feat. Beyonce) Music Video

Luis Tovar — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:53:43 PST

You can watch Lady GaGa’s nine and a half minute tribute to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction in her new music video for “Telephone”. While the chola fights, product placement, unusual fashion (smoking cigarette sunglasses, beer can hair rollers, CSI tape “body suits”), the mass murder and the infamous Pussy Wagon are far more interesting than the song itself, this hasn’t stopped “Telephone” from becoming Lady GaGa’s sixth straight No. 1 song on Billboard’s Pop Song Charts.

Tags: Beyonce, Lady Gaga

The National “Terrible Love” (Live on Fallon)

Luis Tovar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:02:16 PST

The National debuted “Terrible Love,” the lead track off their highly anticipated Boxer follow-up, High Violet last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The audio doesn’t sound too great on regular computer speakers, so I suggest you pop in the headphones.

High Violet is out May 11th on 4AD. Are you ready?

Tags: The National

New jj “I Know”

Luis Tovar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:31:56 PST

Listen to this new jj bonus track, “I Know”, which can only be found on the jj nº 3 LP (via).

You can buy jj nº 3 here.

Tags: jj