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Posts Tagged “listening station”

listening station

CSS' Creative Path Is Littered With The Corpses Of Bygone Alt-Rock Stars

Those of you who lived through the '90s, when "alternative music" broke and was subsequently broken, may remember the unfortunate cycle endured by a few bands who stormed out of the gate with a strong first single: The song would be inescapable, the album would be mostly decent, and the follow-up would sound like the band in question had all of its edges shaved off by producers, executives, and self-made delusions Apparently the Brazilian glam-punk band CSS, known by many as "that band from the iPod Touch ad" but who I hold near and dear to my ears because of the still-infectious "Alala," is now in stage three of that evolution. More »

10:30 AM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Maura Johnston
580 views, 4 comments

Latest by StuntKockSteeev: I feel like the line between reality and fiction has blurred dangerously when an idolator post makes me weak thinking of my eighth grade crush on Nina Gordon, remembering it more fondly than 90% of my real relationships. more »

listening station

Ida Maria Gets Exclamatory


In the hour or so that has followed since I was first sent this video, which is by the Swedish-by-way-of-Norway singer Ida Maria, I have listened to the tense, frenetic song in the clip three times and ripped through all the songs offered up on her MySpace page twice. (The last part of that equation would have probably taken more time had Universal, her current Norwegian label, not been scrooges about letting entire songs from the records they've put out stream from her embedded player. Booo!) "Oh My God," which is a solo track in the clip but appears in duet form on her MySpace-posted demo, soars because it's simultaneously nervy and nervous, and the jittery video is almost as fist-clenching as the jumpy guitars. More like this, please! [YouTube / MySpace]

1:05 PM on Wed Mar 19 2008
By Maura Johnston
122 views, 5 comments

Latest by Halfwit: @brasstax: "Stella" is a great song, but it's only a few months till Martha and the Vandellas have to drop a legal smackdown: + Watch video more »

listening station

Tut Tut Is Watching Every Move You Make

My knowledge about Kansas City/DC's Tut Tut is scant at best—I found them through WPRB's Facebook page. This sort of stumbling around makes me love the Internet! Tut Tut are firmly rooted in the Elephant 6 aesthetic (this shit never dies, huh?), and frontman/band mastermind Alex Abros' vocals suggest many heavy sessions listening to the Magnetic Fields. The flaws in production keep this from sounding hopelessly devoted to their reference points, as well as retain its own appeal. With that said, when Tut Tut manages to get the mix just right, as in "Pins On Your Purse," the payoff is big—a well-worn groove accented by ukelele and classical guitar plucks, strings as wide and open as the midwestern skies and a catchy chorus that sticks in your head. [Myspace / Facebook / Iron Paw Records]

4:00 PM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Maria T Sciarrino
58 views, Comment

listening station

Mussels Make Us Happy As A Clam

Yesterday's travels around Austin took me to the back patio of a pizza parlor that was putting on a three-day popfest, and I stuck around long enough to hear a set by the Brooklyn band Mussels, whose chiming, revved-up rock and roll bounced off the baking concrete and made the slowly-heating-up afternoon all the more pleasant. It probably says something about New York's music "scene" that I had to go all the way down to Austin to find a band that wasn't hyped to the gills by the city's blog-equipped cognoscenti that also happened to be actually pretty decent, but I'll save all that cranky thinkpiece-styled stuff for my return to the drizzly early-spring weather of the East Coast. [MySpace]

9:45 AM on Fri Mar 14 2008
By Maura Johnston
132 views, Comment

listening station

Kirsten Ketsjer Is A Rock Band, Not A Person In A Rock Band


The Danish trio Kirsten Ketsjer The Rock Band—named, I was told, after a friend of the band who was in no way affiliated with its music—play nervy indie rock that a friend compared to their sorta-countrymen 18th Dye*. Which is music to my ears—and a very apt analogy, although Kirsten Ketsjer's music gets a little more frenzied and experimental at times, with singer/drummer Anja Jacobsen caterwauling so hard during one epic song's freakout that I thought she was going to propel herself off her drum kit's stool and out into the club's side lot, leaving broken glass and gorgeous guitar arpeggios trailing behind her. [MySpace / Yoyooyoy] More »

6:29 AM on Thu Mar 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
125 views, 3 comments

Latest by Penny Royalty: Their album that came out last year, "Fffooo K Tsssch" (note: I may be spelling it wrong), is just terrific. more »

listening station

Diving Onto Torche's "Grenades"

When I was asked to guest-blog, I was truly upset that the gig wouldn't be like "Weird Al" Yankovic hosting AL-TV in 1988 and I could just play Utopia videos all day. Luckily one of the bestest rock bands around dropped a new track on their MySpace page, thus barely meeting the vaguest, most minimal of requirements for a "news peg"! More »

3:30 PM on Mon Mar 10 2008
By Christopher Weingarten
226 views, 2 comments

listening station

The Futureheads Engage In Some Controlled Chaos

British spaz-punks The Futureheads have posted a new song to their MySpace page, and I definitely think it needs to be released from the confines of its embedded player to be properly appreciated; it's one of those tracks that needs to be listened to repeatedly in order to get it. See, "The Beginning Of The Twist" starts off sounding so straightforward as to be almost kinda glammy, but as things move along an advancing horde of background singers almost menacingly harmonizes its way to the song's forefront. Given that the Futureheads' greatest strengths are always brought to the fore when the members indulge their reform-school glee club urges, that chaotic chorale actually serves as a backwards complement to the song's restrained opening, so anyone within listening range can hear the band limbering up for whatever "twist" is being referred to in the title, whether it's the dance or a plot kink. [MySpace via A to Z]

3:45 PM on Fri Jan 25 2008
By Maura Johnston
115 views, Comment

listening station

Los Planetas Sneak Into Your Galaxy

I've been in Spain a little over a week now and already I've talked to some drunk Madrileños in a bar about Nick Cave and pestered a local for recommendations. She gave me a list of Spanish bands, and so far my favorite is Los Planetas, a stoner pop band in the vein of Yo La Tengo who've been around since the mid-'90s. Last night during a stint of Idolator Pop '07 data entry I happily listened to the songs on their MySpace page several times through, soaking up the '90s college radio aesthetic. More »

5:56 PM on Tue Jan 15 2008
By Kate Richardson
265 views, 2 comments

Latest by nerdlinger: This post totally takes me back. I studied abroad in Madrid in the spring of '96, and I remember discovering "Que Puedo Hacer" (the best Lemonheads song Evan Dando never wrote...in Spanish) and Los Planetas, and what a wonderful thing more »

listening station

Lil' Mama Demolishes Everyone In Her Path


"Everyone needs T-Pain, Maura. Haven't you figured that out?" Jess asked me when I griped about the new Lil Mama single, which features T-Pain and Chris Brown, to him. And I can see his point in a way; Lil Mama's follow-up single to "Lip Gloss," the not-bad-at-all "G-Slide (Tour Bus)," was one of those songs that managed to hit only in the alternate pop universe of TRL, and her album's been pushed back so much, she probably won't be very lil by the time it comes out. So starpower can only help her career. But! More »

1:30 PM on Fri Jan 11 2008
By mjohnston
406 views, 5 comments

Latest by jasonelias: I was out by the "Janet Jack" line. more »

listening station

The Best Mousse-Shilling Song You'll Hear All Day


Recently spotted on MTV2: an ad with a soundtrack that absolutely leapt out at me, in large part because it sounded as if it had been concocted by some cunning songwriter who'd heard Lionel Vinyl's mash-up of Jet and Girls Aloud* and decided to rework its formula—bratty, girly vocals, glammy guitars—into a song of its own. I actually rewound the ad five or six times just to pick out the lyrics, in the name of "research." More »

12:05 PM on Thu Oct 18 2007
By mjohnston
249 views, 1 comment

Latest by KinetiQ: Yeah, whenever I feel all "me horny, you sexual object" two of my friends and I grab someone and drag them around by their feet. You've gotta corner em in the bathroom first though. It's totally never creepy. To quoth the more »

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Listening Station: Schooner Tightens Up

Schooner's 2004 debut, You Forget About Your Heart, was a true promo-pile discovery—a low-fi guitar-pop record with lots of unexpected stylistic turns and no shortage of invasive choruses. The Chapel Hill, N.C., outfit's next album, Hold On Too Tight is due out in August, and it's been getting heavy rotation at the Idolator flophouse; two new tracks are below, though we also encourage you to get Heart pumping on your stereo: More »

12:00 PM on Tue Jun 26 2007
By Brian Raftery
368 views, 2 comments

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Listening Station: Once Again, A Band Of Bees Takes Flight

Last fall, we griped about the fate of a U.K. rock-soul group called the Bees (a.k.a. A Band Of Bees), whose excellent albums have all been dumped into the marketplace with zilch support from its U.S. label, Astralwerks. Earlier this month, the group's third effort, Octopus, was finally released here in the States—and once again, it was met with little or no fanfare. Come on, Astralwerks! What will it take to at least get these guys a few U.S. gigs? If it means having to say nice things about some Fatboy Slim/Air collaboration, we're willing to do it. More »

12:27 PM on Mon Jun 18 2007
By Brian Raftery
939 views, 12 comments

Latest by Recury: @Brian Raftery: They are played on the radio on a station here in Orlando. Heavily. It's really annoying actually. more »

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Listening Station: Milking "Cornflake Girl" For All Its Worth

By request, here's another cover version of Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl," this time performed by the D.C. powerhouse known as Jawbox. Weirdly, according to Wiki, Amos' original version hit No. 4 in the U.K., surely making it the second-most popular raisin-related song of all time. More »

4:00 PM on Tue Jun 12 2007
By Brian Raftery
734 views, 6 comments

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Listening Station: The CosmoSonics Are Wild At Heart

The Idolator flophouse is stacked high with promo CDs, many of which we'll never get a chance to listen to, especially the ones with stickers that say "special Diddy remix" or "produced by Les Claypool." But Pittsburgh's CosmoSonics went straight to the top of our must-listen pile when we noticed that their press notes name-checked the WIldhearts, our beloved metal-pop band. Thankfully, the 'Sonic's Junk Rock ... For Lovers does not disappoint, and we're confident that the two tracks below will please fans of throwback sleaze-rock: More »

10:15 AM on Thu Jun 7 2007
By Brian Raftery
253 views, Comment

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Listening Station: Apparat Gets Closer To The Edge

For the last few weeks, many of our electro-pop-inclined friends have been going nutty over Walls, the latest record from German artist Apparat (a.k.a. Sascha Ring). We love our electronically addled pals, but sometimes they steer us toward records that sound like two coffee presses tasering each other, so we treat their suggestions with caution. But in this case, they were right: Walls is lovely, intense stuff, with no shortage of stand-out tracks, including the brooding "Hailin' From The Edge," below. We predict 1 comment, from Ned Raggett. More »

8:45 AM on Wed Jun 6 2007
By Brian Raftery
634 views, 7 comments

Latest by KinetiQ: Not bad. It reminds me a bit of UNKLE's 'Psyence Fiction' album, but with less DJ Shadow I'm-taking-this-extremely-seriously thundering drum lines. For serious! Listen to this, and then UNKLE's "Bloodstain" back to back. It's pretty clear that while Apparat know more »

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Listening Station: Sniffing Out Dogs

Two years ago, a London-based band called Dogs put out Turn Against This Land, a really-pretty-good debut that never got released here in the states, possibly because they are one of thousands British guitar acts writing three-minute anthems. This month sees the release of a follow-up album, and if the vigorous "Dirty Little Shop" is any indication, it'll be worth yet another trip to the import section (or at least a quick scour of some U.K.-savvy .rar. blogs): More »

12:58 PM on Fri Jun 1 2007
By Brian Raftery
298 views, 1 comment

Latest by Mike: Dogs were absolute shite live 2 years ago. Up there with the worst bands I ever seen and walked out of. Influenced by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and QOTSA they say? This song has much more promise but c'mon lads, more »

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Listening Station: You Are Invited To The Dismemberment Plan's Reunion Shows

Last month, beloved D.C. dance-rockers The Dismemberment Plan (1993-2003) reunited for two shows that helped raise funds for Cal Robbins; we were sorry we missed the shows, but Can you see the sunset from the southside? has pretty-good-quality MP3s from both nights, and now we're really sorry we missed the shows. A few highlights below, though you might want to goose the volume up a bit to get the full effect: More »

1:55 PM on Wed May 30 2007
By Brian Raftery
444 views, 4 comments

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Listening Station: Velvet Revolver Rages Against The Machine

"She Builds Quick Machines" is the first single from Velvet Revolver's not-particularly-well-named Libertad, and as far as ongoing intra-band struggle between STP and GNR, this is one is definitely in Weiland's wheelhouse (that "push right now" bit, which could have been lifted straight from Core). We're feeling ho-humish on this one—it's hard to believe anyone still believes rhyming "exes" with "Texas" is a novel lyrical tactic—but we'll hold off further judgment until we hear Libertad's token power ballad ("Fall To Pieces" still makes the magic): More »

8:45 AM on Fri May 25 2007
By Brian Raftery
1,931 views, 9 comments

Latest by FionaScrapple: Not bad, but kinda "butt-rock"ish. If ya know what I mean. more »