Hope your summer lovin' was excellent.

Death Cab for Cutie - Summer Skin (MP3)

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Death%20Cab%20for%20Cutie%20-%20Summer%20Skin.mp3] 

I’ve noticed that I watch a lot of late shows. NBC, really. And “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John with Victoria Bergsman was performed on a rerun of Carson Daly’s late show (don’t worry, I’m not a wild fan, he’s not standup material) and I think Conan or Jay the other night. So, I take this as another sign. That and I really like the song, so I’m going to share. Its been running around the mp3 blog circuit a lot, too.

It’s delicious. No history here, just a good song, and I admit I have not heard anything by PBJ before, so this could be the beginning of a good music-and-me relationship.

P.S. Soon we’ll have the remix done by Kanye West. Oooh!

Peter Bjorn and John Official Website // MySpace // Buy Writer’s Block

Young Folks - PBJ ft. Victoria Bergsman

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Young%20Folks%20-%20PBJ.mp3]

Shiny Toy Guns // The Rapture

Venue : In the Venue, SLC

Date: 05-02-07 

So you've already heard all the negatives about the STG show.  Now you get to hear about the good stuff, namely the performances themselves.
We showed up pretty late, yet again, but this time we didn't miss the opening act.  I'm so glad we did because the Rapture encapsulate all that is good about disco.  It doesn't matter how you feel about disco right now, what matters is that if you take everything that is good about any musical genre, it will be good sounds.  On top of that one member of the band, what you would call the keyboardist, is not needed on keyboards for every song.  During those songs he fills the roll of either saxophonist or percussionist.  And by percussionist I mean he dances around with a cowbell and beats it like nobody's business.  It's superb to view.  Also, his saxophoning is akin to that heard on the Beastie Boys track "Brass Monkey" [which I've decided to be the hyphy-est thing ever].  The Rapture are great, but they didn't adhere to the opening act standard practice of saving your biggest hit for the end of the set.  Not a big complaint, but it threw of the momentum of  the show.
Regarding the headliners, there are a lot of nice things that I want to say about Shiny Toy Guns and their live performance.  I hope I cover them all.
First of all, these people take every aspect of their music seriously.  I mentioned earlier that they scrapped the album We Are Pilots twice and redid the whole thing.  That sort of obsession spills over into their live shows, too, with fancy lightings, projections, and serious energy.  They also have and interesting positioning on stage.  Normally a four-piece band will be set up like a diamond, with drums in back, bass and guitar on left and right, and a charismatic frontman out in [surprise] front.  STG was, left to right, Mikey Martin [drums], Chad Petree [guitar, vox], and switching spots were Carah Faye [vox, keys, sometimes bass] and Jeremy Dawson [bass, keys].  I'm very, very, very glad they did this because Mikey Martin is one of the most entertaining people to watch ever.  Dude likes hittin' stuff.  And since a number of songs feature some kind of electronic beat in addition to his drumming, he has a lot of free space to work in.  Also, he enjoys spitting on his bandmates.

One of my favourite things about the set was that after they played "Le Disko" a good number of the dumber people at the show made their exodus, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the show.  "Le Disko", by the way, was dedicated to us in SLC, but then more specifically to Provo.  I have no idea why, and am immensely intrigued.  If anybody can tell me the reasonings, I shall repay you tenfold.  Also they gave shoutouts to X96 for being generally kick-awesome.

Results:
The Rapture: Superfun dancy sounds.  They like you very much.
Shiny Toy Guns: Amazing energetic times.  They've only got one album out, so their set was actually shorter than the Rapture's.  Got a cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped" [a billion times better than Rammstein's], but no "When They Came for Us".
Final Verdict!: An amazing tour.  Both bands are brilliant, keep an eye on STG.

 Related Links:

 Shiny Toy Guns Official Website // MySpace // Buy Their CD

 The Rapture Official Website // MySpace // Buy Their CD

Related Audio:

You Are The One - Shiny Toy Guns

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01%20You%20Are%20The%20One.mp3] 

When They Came For Us - Shiny Toy Guns

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/04%20When%20They%20Came%20For%20Us.mp3]

The Rapture - Mirror

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Rapture%20-%20Mirror.mp3] 

Otherwordly Beats + Caterwauling + Ear Sex = Thievery Corporation 

I considered not writing this post, thinking, "Everybody has to know who the Thievery Corporation is…", but then I realized that even if one of you didn't know who they were before you read this post, then it was all for something. I'm so nice. And it would defeat our purpose.

Thievery Corporation was introduced to me by a friend when he was drunk, telling me how awesome they were. I took all this with a grain of salt, but he did burn me a disc with some of their stuff. I guess some people can communicate honestly when intoxicated. Well. I got hooked.

Some of you may be familiar with the track "Lebanese Blonde", which was featured on the Garden State soundtrack. (I swear, every song in the world has been featured on that soundtrack, and I've never even seen the bloody film.) They recently released their album "Versions" in 2006, which is a compilation album featuring a handful of outside artists. 

Possible categories: electronic, dub, acid jazz, lounge, world, ambient, experimental, indie, etc. 

What I like about Thievery Corporation is the global feel they have. They combine styles of music from all over, and languages, too, which makes for a quality blend of sound. Added to their political bent, you get music which is a sign of the times, and to me, representative of ever-increasing surge in globalization. (I'm an anthropology major, what can I say. <<—That. ) 

So, you have quick rundown of Thievery Corporation, a handful of links, and some selected mp3s. They're quite hard to choose, because TC is one of those groups whose albums have 12 out of 13 uber tracks. The ones I chose are from the albums I'm more familiar with. I'm not writing a band history because I don't care what year the DJ was born in. Its all about the music, dawg.

Related Links:

Thievery Corporation Official Website

Thievery Corporation on MySpace

Thievery Corporation Wikipedia Entry

Thievery Corporation at Last.FM

Related Ear Sex(doing a bit different):

Le Monde

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/02%20-%20Le%20Monde.mp3] 

Facing East

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/02%20-%20Facing%20East.mp3] 

Lebanese Blonde

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/04%20-%20Lebanese%20Blonde.mp3] 

Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes 

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01%20-%20Heaven%27s%20Gonna%20Burn%20Your%20Eyes.mp3] 

At War with the Mystics

So I know I'm going to lose mondo indie points for this, but I've yet to really catch on to the Flaming Lips. They seem just a little bitty bit beyond my grasp. Dave says I just need to sit down and listen to the Soft Bulletin a few times through. I mean, just once was enough for Steve Burns (more on that later). Anyway, being part of the music committee at the Kage, I get the opportunity to sample musics sent to us by well meaning record labels.  I saw a Flaming Lips album and thought this was my chance.  Unfortunately it wasn't a full album of new material, rather a lengthy promo for "the Yeah Yeah Yeah Song", containing three different versions of the same, along with covers and other goodies.  I appreciate that the song isn't simply remixed, but given an entirely new treatment entirely by the band.  It's a really good song, I like it.  Listen to all three versions, they are for your enjoyment. Peaces.

Related Links:

The Flaming Lips Official Website

The Flaming Lips on MySpace 

Buy This CD

Related Audio: 

The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (Radio Edit)

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01%20The%20Yeah%20Yeah%20Yeah%20Song%20(Radio%20Ed.mp3]

 The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (Chicken Fried Hoedown Protest Rally)

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/09%20The%20Yeah%20Yeah%20Yeah%20Song%20(Chicken.mp3] 

 The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (In Anatropous Reflex)

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/10%20The%20Yeah%20Yeah%20Yeah%20Song%20(In%20Anatr.mp3] 

 Reggae + Radiohead + Awesome = Radiodread/Easy Star All Stars

Easy Star All Stars - Radiodread

Easy Star All Stars Official Website

Label :  Easy Star

Okay, happy new year and all that. Blah, new review. Three years after the underground sensation that was Dub Side of the Moon Easy Star Records presents their followup: Radiodread, a similarly reggae'd up recording of Radiohead's OK Computer. As with the previous project, there are some tricky bits and some spots where the idea really shines. Well, my original plan was to write yet another very shining review of an album that I got on impulse. However, it's been a while since I've listened to it and the euphoria's worn off a spell. That, of course, didn't stop me from buying another Radiohead tribute over Christmas break. Yeah, I'm a bit of a tribute whore. I'll do my best in the future to spare you fine readers of such flights of fancy. Anyhow, Radiodread. It's actually pretty much what you'd expect. I was impressed at how well the heavy riff part of "Paranoid Android" translated into blasts of horns. The rewording of "Fitter, happier" made me smile quite a bit. Probably the coolest two things about this album are found in the liner notes: the album is [a]done entirely without samples and [b]done with Radiohead's permission and blessing. Final Verdict: Great, but mostly as a novelty. And I promise not to review the RH trib I'm listening to right now. Unless by popular request.

Related Links :

Buy This CD!

Easy Star All Stars

On MySpace 

Related Audio: 

Lucky

[audio:http://www.lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Easy%20Star%20Allstars%20-%20Radiodread/11%20%20Lucky.mp3]

Climbing Up The Walls

[audio:http://www.lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Easy%20Star%20Allstars%20-%20Radiodread/09%20%20Climbing%20Up%20The%20Walls.mp3]