Crushin’ on You! New Luv Jams: HTDW + Poolside + Slam Donahue + Felix Green

Slam Donahue

Slam Donahue – luv u

So there’s been a lot of okcupid talk/mishaps amongst friends lately, and don’t deny being on the online human catalog, ‘cus everyone is – or in the very least, someone you know is. What I find interesting though, is the alarming number of people who flock to okcupid immediately following a bad break up. Instead of oh, you know, dealing with the break up by focusing on and being content with yourself for a while until you can fully grasp and appreciate i.e. loathe dating again, people pounce onto the dating site to reel in yet another significant other replacement. I find this “coping mechanism” beyond annoying, (maybe ‘cus everyone I seem to date has ‘ex-girlfriend-issues’) but to others, it’s a passage of throwing themselves ‘back out there,’ as if this is some sort of vicious Hunger Games of love and if you’re single, you might just die.

So whether you’re ‘fighting’ singledom, or are eye rollingingly happy, here are four luv jams that’ll make you swoon:

Tom Krell aka How to Dress Well makes an appearance on Coco Stereo often because 1) He’s like, ridiculously dreamy and 2) He’s REALLY good at what he does, and that’s creating fragile, beautiful, impactful R&B jams that make you wanna get doooown… and/or mostly cry. Here’s another gem (my favorite thus far!) from his soon-to-be-released album Total Loss:

How to Dress Well – & it was u

I saw Poolside open for Twin Shadow a couple of weeks ago, and dare I say, I actually enjoyed their set more – gasp! They’re full of indie pop, a hint of electro, and sweet beats. Also, the lead singer looks like Erlend Øye from Whitest Boy Alive which is simply adorable. This bouncy jam is from their recently released album, Pacific Standard Time.

Poolside – Kiss You Forever

Slam Donahue are a couple a’ bros from Brooklyn – suuuurprise! And their sound is a little more indie-popaliscious than what I typically listen to, but the lead singer’s voice is addicting and this jam, off their new EP Hemlock Tea, is catchy as hell.

Slam Donahue – C’mon C’mon

So “Felix Green” was just on this blog (Holobody), but anyone who does a Mariah Carey cover will undoubtedly make it back to the top of the blog in no time.

Felix Green – Fantasy (Mariah Carey cover)

New Jam Roundup! AlunaGeorge + Generationals + Tame Impala + Animal Collective

AlunaGeorge

AlunaGeorge

About six months ago, a homie of mine asked if I’d listened to the AlunaGeorge EP, You Know You Like It. He said it was the “hipster bubblegum-pop event of the season.” I looked up two songs and waved it off.  “Just a Touch” and “You Know You Like It” were catchy, but I was having 90s R&B flashbacks, and I just wasn’t in the mood for the sound at the time. However, with the recent release of AlunaGeorge’s “Your Drums, Your Love,” arguably the strongest jam of the lot, I’ve succumb to the “hipster bubblegum-pop” and have been fully immersing myself in the “baby-voiced aesthetic” that the duo produce. “Your Drums, Your Love” will be ‘officially’ released early October and their debut album is slated for early 2013.

AlunaGeorge – Your Drums, Your Love



Generationals has a new addictive jam FINALLY! … and a new EP, Lucky Numbers. The duo from New Orleans, Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer, produce indie “jangle pop” and since their Con Air album release in ’09, I’ve just haven’t been as excited about their jams, until now. Lucky Numbers is a synthy, upbeat, summery little number that’ll get you bouncin’.

Generationals – Lucky Numbers

Perth, Australia – The city everyone told me not to bother visiting while I lived in Melbourne – But then again, that’s a typical Melbournian response for you – No where in Australia is as great as the all-mighty Melbz. However, amazing things do hail from Perth, like the psychedelic rockers Tame Impala. The groove rock band has a new album, Lonerism, due October 9th and Elephant is their debut jam – It’s a dreamy, brilliantly rockin’ trancey number that gets you in the 70s moooood.

Tame Impala – Elephant

Animal CollectiveHave you streamed the new Animal Collective album, Centipede HZ on npr like just about everyone else has? Applesauce from the new LP is by far my favorite jam and it stays true to Animal Collective form. Listen to most of the jams pre-release on npr (and now Spotify) for the goods. Enjoy the video (and all its weirdness) for Today’s Supernatural from the album, out early September:

Animal Collective – Applesauce

K-Pop Literally Meets Electro-Pop: 2NE1 + Elite Gymnastics

It was brought to my attention by a fellow English teacher still living in Korea that (MY K-pop band), 2NE1 was recently in tha’ Pitchfork house – and more interestingly enough, they were being interviewed by James Brooks from Elite Gymnastics – A wonderful combo of two of my favorites in their respected genres: K-pop literally meeting Electro-pop.

Back in April at a show, I mulled around Elite Gymnastic’s merch booth pointing out their lack of …well, merch and curiously asked Josh Clancy, who is now no longer in the band (!), about their obvious obsession with and the influence of K-pop on their band. “Have you ever actually been to Korea?” I asked. “Well, no.”

I Love 2NE1I don’t think it’s possible to understand the wide, weird world of K-pop, unless you’re fully forced/immersed into it. Having lived in Korea for a year as an English teacher, I fully grasped the madness that is K-pop mania, and when I first landed in The ROK, I quickly realized that K-pop would be the only exposure to music I’d ever experience outside the comfort of my own computer. Like kimchi, Koreans breath, sweat and eat up every ounce of K-pop – You can’t and won’t ever escape it. The interesting thing about it, however, is that everyone in the country is obsessed. Three-year-old babies and/or 75-year-old ajummas picking up trash in the park gladly sing along and more importantly, dance to it. Apparently once you K-pop, you can’t stop.

Giving in, rather than resisting the never-ending ear wash of catchy K-pop jams playing in every possible direction undoubtedly made my year in Korea easier, and to my guilty-listening-pleasure, 2NE1 became my fav ‘edgy’ K-pop group. I mean, according to Wikipedia, 2NE1’s official color is Hot Pink. – Doesn’t get any edgier than that. Now on to the good stuff…

Elite Gymnastics,  the New York by way of Minneapolis electro-pop band (of now one), with a serious K-pop crush recently released Andreja 4-ever for the Adult Swim’s Single Series. I hear he’s also going to be touring with Grimes in the near future.

Elite Gymnastics – Andreja 4-ever

This is my all-time favorite Elite Gymnastics jam, and one that I still listen to on repeat for ungodly amounts of time.

Elite Gymnastics – Omamori

You can’t mention 2NE1 and NOT post this video, ‘cus it IS “the best.”
2NE1 – I Am The Best

NEW VIDEO: Grimes Gets Anime-Tastic with Genesis

Grimes - Genesis Music VideoIf you’ve been hiding under a rock this morning, you may not have seen the internetz blowing up with Grimes‘ new music video for Genesis – arguably the best track on her 2012 album, Visions. The video (also playing full-screen on her website) is anime-tastic and Claire is dressed similarly, and oh so sweetly like Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon aka the “pretty soldier” – fitting! The new music video is the perfect combo of sweet, whacky and wild… just like Grimes. Enjoy:

Grimes – Genesis 

Hopelessly Obsessive Over You: Mac Demarco & Holobody

Mac Demarco

Mac Demarco

I feel like there are two kinds of people in this world:

1. Those who discover a jam or band that stuns them with such beauty, amusement, intensity, or ridiculously sweet beats that it ignites an obsessive compulsive desire to play said jam and/or band over, and over, and over in one sitting…

2. Those who obviously never have this urge and/or find this behavior odd. A friend once told me that if she really loves a jam, she purposefully won’t listen to it on repeat and/or often because she doesn’t want to tire of it – This just seems unreasonable and completely impossible to me. Obsession over a jam has got to be some sort of ultimate, true form of appreciation, right? So in the spirit of sharing my ultimate appreciation, I present to you my latest obsessions: Mac Demarco & Holobody.

1. I’m hopelessly obsessed with the goofy/creepy/catchy Mac Demarco and his weirdo, soft rock, “pop jangles” that the Canadian often refers to as “jizz jazz.” His debut album, Rock and Roll Night Club came out in March of this year, and he’s announced another coming real soon-like (October 13th). Each jam on his debut album is like a keepsake of uniqueness, unraveling oddities that range from sleazy to crooning; see the charm for yourself in his video below. I can’t wait to hear what he’s got under his sleeve for Mac Demarco 2 – I’ve already picked up my ticket to see him in San Francisco at the Rickshaw Stop in September  – He’s on tour now, catch the “creep” while you can!

Mac Demarco – Rock and Roll Night Club

Mac Demarco – My Kind of Woman (This one’s from the new album)

Holobody

Holobody

2. Holobody consists of siblings Luke and Charlotte Loseth who refer to themselves by their faux/pseudo/stage names: Felix Green and Sea Oleena. They’re originally from Saskatchewan, Canada but now live in Montreal and make dreamy, pyschadelic, experimental, indie, shoegaze pop. Their debut album Riverhood was released in May of this year and I’ve had it on repeat incessantly, specifically the jam Prelude. They also have a ‘zany’ tumblr that features musical goodies including mixes, solo songs, etc. You can stream Riverhood in its entirety and/or discover their individual solo projects on bandcamp too.

Get Nostalgic & Fall in Love… Again. NEW: How to Dress Well – Again

Tom Krell aka How to Dress Well

Tom Krell aka How to Dress Well

I was watching this two-part documentary on Woody Allen last night, and the whole thing made me very nostalgic… for what, I don’t even know. It was so good, it made me miss something I don’t/didn’t even have (NYC livin’, love, talent?)… wait, did I say nostalgic? I meant depressed. Hah, kidding. The clips of a young Woody Allen and Diane Keaton working on Annie Hall together were charming, whimsical and romantic. The storyline of Annie Hall alone exposes this raw, realistic love story – The notion of falling in love, and then falling out of it…

Tom Krell from How to Dress Well has struck a similar dreamy and nostalgic chord with his latest beauty of a wavering and delicate version of Janet Jackson’s 1993 hit and ballad, “Again.” According to Ad Hoc: “Again will be available as a limited edition 7” for those who pre-order his upcoming Acéphale album, Total Loss, which comes out September 18th.”

Listen and fall in love again…

p.s. I accidentally played the jam and the movie trailer at the same time, and it’s actually pretty fitting. Try it.

How to Dress Well – Again (Janet Jackson cover)

NEW (and unusual): Prince Rama – Top 10 Hits of the End of the World

Prince Rama - Top 10 Hits of the End of the WorldToday is one of those days where you feel like saying, “Fuck this shit!” and thus commence to pretend you live in some crazy Twilight Zone world where everyone doesn’t annoy the shit out of you, oh, and you get paid really well. So since we’re on the topic of pretending, I present to you Prince Rama‘s latest project and soonish-to-be-released album: Top 10 Hits of the End of the World.

According to Stereogum, this album is a compilation of jams in which Prince Rama, the Brooklyn-based band is pretending to be the “ghosts of ten different pop bands that died during the apocalypse.” UMMM… Sure. Sounds like someone else was also having a “Fuck this shit!” kind of time too, however, it resulted into some seriously cool sounds. The band promises that the new album will include a plethora of music genres including: “cosmic disco, motorcycle rock, new-wave grunge, tribal goth, Arabic pop, and ghost-modern glam.” – Funky!

Their debut song from the album, “So Destroyed” is trippy and beyond addicting… you know, for a fictional dead band w/a fictional top hit and all:

Rage Peace (Channelled by Prince Rama) – So Destroyed

The album is due out in November. Here’s the tracklist including list of faux dead bands Prince Rama is/will/are channelling:

1 “Blade of Austerity” – Guns of Dubai
2 “Those Who Live For Love Will Live Forever” – I.M.M.O.R.T.A.L.I.F.E.
3 “No Way Back”- Nu Fighters
4 “So Destroyed” – Rage Peace
5 “Receive” – Taohaus
6 “Radhamadhava” – Goloka
7 “Fire Sacrifice” – Black Elk Speaks
8 “Welcome To The Now Age” – Hyparxia
9 “Exercise Ecstasy” – The Metaphysixxx
10 “We Will Fall In Love Again” – Motel Memory

Outside Lands Underdogs Prevail: Thee Oh Sees, Sharon Van Etten & Reggie Watts

John Dywer from Thee Oh Sees

John Dywer from Thee Oh Sees

Another Outside Lands music fest has officially come and gone from the foggy summer city that is San Francisco. Every year, the three-day music/food/art shit show is held amongst the trees in Golden Gate Park – which also happens to be a mere 15 minute bus ride from home – hello convenience! Nothing’s better than the ability sleep in your own bed after spending an entire exhausting day dancing with and/or being a drunkard in the dirt.

The Outside Lands line up was interesting in that it ranged from Skrillex, to Big Boi, Santigold to Stevie Wonder, Metallica, fun., Jack White, Beck, Passion Pit, Justice and other random bands. While the line up had some serious competition in the form of ‘big name bands,’ There were a slew of bands who performed way beyond expectation, and down right rocked the fuck out. Sure, Metallica had flames bursting from hell on stage, and Skrillex threw down beats from a high-rise space ship for Christ’s sake, but as far as no-thrills go, the Outside Lands underdogs certainly prevailed.

Now I know you’re like, suddenly expecting me to list Washed Out, Tanlines, Explosions in the Sky, Geographer, Tennis and every other indie band that performed (as every other blog will) – They’re great bands and had sweet sets, but to put it simply: they sounded just as they always do. Thee Oh Sees, Sharon Van Etten & Reggie Watts, however, were the undeniable highlight of Outside Lands purely due to their ridiculous raw talent and exceedingly amazing stage presence. hear for yourself:

1. Thee Oh Sees: Wow! Does this band know how to fuckin’ rock it or WHAT? What amazingly energetic, upbeat and pumped-up performers. The San Franciscans’ set was full of garage rock, sweat, spit, body surfing, (look ma!) no-hands beer chugging, guitar slinging, whiplash inducing fun. I also had the pleasure of seeing them for a second time donning black masks after David Cross did a stand up set about colon cleanses. Thee Oh Sees are an absolute must-see if you’re into having a good time and moving your body at a show – hey, some people aren’t.

Thee Oh Sees – Tidal Wave

Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten

2. Sharon Van Etten: Not only was Sharon Van Etten‘s voice even more beautifully stunning live, her sarcasm, wit and banter with the audience, and ability to belt out such heart-felt and somber lyrics with a laugh and an occasional “That’s fuckin’ right!” was downright impressive. The Brooklyn indie folk singer gave background stories to each song; some she even mocked (Give Out): “This is a song about moving to NYC for love… You can go ahead and throw up now.” Listen and weep:

Sharon Van Etten – Give Out (found on her 2012 album, Tramp)

Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts: Standing on stage donning suspenders and his iconic ‘fro, Reggie Watts worked the crowd with his hilarious, yet catchy-as-hell beatbox hip hop set. I swear he had to’ve made everything up on the spot, but it certainly worked in his favor. Reggie Watts combines the best of both comedian and musician worlds by enticing fans with satirical and laugh-inducing lyrics, yet still knows how to throw down some seriously funky beats.

Reggie Watts – Fuck Shit Stack

NEW Electro-Bubblegum-Pop: Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen

Ellie Goulding - Anything Can HappenThere’s no denying that Ellie Goulding, the UK sweetheart of pop produces some of the most unbelievably catchy indie-electro-pop jams that consistently blow you away with each release. Goulding’s hearty yet simply sweet voice and synthy beats combine the best of both bubblegum pop and electro worlds.

“Under the sheets,” from her debut album in 2009 was my first introduction to the addiction and pop prowess that is Ellie Goulding.

No surprise, the electro-pop princess has done it again. Anything Could Happen is the debut single from her upcoming album, Halcyon due October 8th (UK) and October 9th (US.).

Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen

NEW Psych-Rock Jam from SF Band: Moon Duo – Sleepwalker

Not sure why, but for some reason there seems to be an unfathomable number of bands (okay, I can only think of two right now) who are hailing from San Francisco and forming, performing and producing ridiculously good psych-rock, post-punk, and/or darkwave, all with “moon” in the name. ie. The Soft Moon, and Moon Duo. No complaints though, as the sounds these two bands produce transport you into a deep psychedelic trance that make you forget it’s Monday, and you’re rotting… er, working in a cubicle.

Vice Magazine said it best back in November of 2009: “If you like your goth music dignified and spooky like Death in June, then you should come over and we’ll have a little goth-together where we have some beers and turn off the lights and listen to Moon Duo.”

Moon Duo (Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips and Sanae Yamad) already have another LP Circles due sometime this fall. Download Sleepwalker – the first track on the anticipated album for FREE on Soundcloud.

Moon Duo – Sleepwalker