so its october, sue us.
Mos Def – Summertime (Hurricane’s Jazzy-J Mix) (Feat. Esthero)
its sunset in jamaica. we’re going all the way back. marley for marley. dub for dub. get wrecked.
Damian Marley – It Was Written (Chasing Shadows Dubstep Remix) Bob Marley – Is This Love (Logik Dubstep Remix)
b3science recently caught up with Ben and Ian from Chop Shop Records’ latest signing, Mackintosh Braun about their new LP Where We Are, the digital age, music licensing, fat free soy milk and more… check it out:
b3sci: a band of many influences, how has Mackintosh Braun evolved artistically on Where We Are from the days of your self-released debut The Sound?
Ian: we’ve been writing so much over the last couple of years that we’ve learned a lot about how we write songs together. i mean ‘the sound’ came out in 2008. but we had written all those songs in 2007, so we’ve had a lot of time to develop our sound and the way we write songs. this album gave us a chance to share a bit more of ourselves with the listener, and try things musically that we’ve always wanted to.
b3sci: If time and technology were no obstacle, and you guys could collaborate with anyone… ever, past, present or future, who would it be with and why?
Ian: Ratatat
Ben: ian’s got a real Ratatat thing going right now.. they’re great. ummmm, i’m gonna have to say, steely dan. that would pretty much make my dreams come true…
b3sci: how do you feel your synch in MTV’s 2010 season promo has influenced the future and fate of your band?
Ben: i think it’s cool whenever someone wants to showcase your music, and for us it was a compliment when i saw the MTV promo. we can’t really worry about the effect it might have on our future, for us it’s just about getting the music out there and hoping people attach to it.
b3sci: music licensing has come a long way in the last 10 years for emerging and established artists. what was once considered taboo and damaging to an artist’s cred is now of the most sought after opportunities. how would you guys like to see the fate of music licensing evolve?
Ben: music licensing has come a long way, it’s pretty incredible that so many great bands are getting opportunities that they never would have before the current “anti-jingle house” era that we’ve all grown into. i think to answer the question, popular culture and music go hand in hand, so to have it all so accessible now, everywhere you turn, is pretty great in my opinion, it’s helped us tremendously.
b3sci: how does it feel to be signed to Chop Shop Records, and have your vision supported by one of the most influential tastemakers (Alex Patsavas) in the entire entertainment industry?
Ian: it feels like if we planned it from the beginning, it wouldn’t have worked out better than this. it’s a great feeling…
Ben: yeah, it’s pretty great to have someone with her vision and ear for music support us like she does, everyone at Chop Shop is amazing. like ian said, it couldn’t have worked out better.
b3sci: first impressions speak millions, especially in today’s digital age of short attention spans. when somebody has the Mackintosh Braun “experience” for the first time, what is the first impression you’d like those listeners to walk away thinking?
Ian: “i’ve been waiting to hear that”
Ben: i want them to first feel the goosebumpy feeling in your arms when you hear that hot ass track, then i want them to think “damn, that’s some dopness.”
b3sci: what song on Where We Are do you feel most proud of, and why?
Ben: I was just telling ian that i’m really proud of the title track “Where We Are”. i just think we did a great job on that one, the drums sound great, i love the bridge, i’m just really proud of how that song came together.
Ian: I think for me it would be “Made For Us”. One of the reasons is that I love how you can hear both of our personalities come through in that song, and some of the things we tried and experimented with instrumentally, came out really well. there are a few notes in that one that really tug on my heart strings.
b3sci: what song, or artist, made you want to write and share music with people?
Ben: Led Zeppelin had a huge influence on me in my younger days, my mom got me into them when i was in 5th grade. i just always wanted to write music, and create sounds. i’ve never really thought about doing much else, it was the thing that i always had the strongest desire for. i still do.
Ian: I would have to say it was The Beatles, when i was listening to the song “help”, john lennon sings the line, “my independence seems to vanish in the haze”. the feeling that line gave me was so electric, that i knew i wanted to write music and try to create that for someone else.
b3sci: given the current landscape, who would be your top three acts to tour with?
Ian: Ratatat..
Ben: how bout Daft Punk, Royksopp or even Air would be amazing. There are many, many bands that we would love to tour with. lots of good music out there.
b3sci: What’s in your iPod? What album/artist is rocking your world right now?
Ian: loving’ “The Suburbs” by the Arcade Fire, and of course anything by Ratatat.
Ben: really love Wild Nothing “Chinatown” and i’m also diggin Real Estate “Out Of Tune” right now as well.
b3sci: what are 5 things that each of you guys absolutely couldn’t live without?
MB:
1) weed
2) our studio..
3) is that 5 things??
b3sci: what are 5 things that each of you guys could totally be cool living without?
MB:
1) fat free soy milk
2) third eye blind
3) people who ask about your shit, and then talk about their shit right away..
4) traffic in portland getting worse
5) the kazoo, even though jimmy made it sound awesome on “crosstown traffic”.
b3sci: What role do you think the internet will end up playing for music discovery in the future?
Ben: the largest role, it’s so important these days in discovering music.
Ian: yeah, we really may not have gotten here without it.
Mackintosh Braun info
purchase Where We Are
the talk of the UK in the city conference, manchester act DRUGS remix the egyptian hip hop jam from last year. get into it.
Egyptian Hip Hop – Rad Pitt (DRUGS Soviet Mix)purchase egyptian hip hop / DRUGS info
rating: 8.5
Sure we’re not the first to say it, nor will we be the last, but LA needs a music festival that holds up to SXSW, NXNW, In The City, CMJ, etc. We’re not talking street fests, FYF or Muse Expo, we’re talking like a downtown LA Artwalk of music. just check the Artwalk each month… the crowd is there, the scene is there, the food is there, but only on occasion the right bands are there – but never all at once. Last weekend FILTER Magazine put on the first official Culture Collide Festival at various eastside and downtown LA venues. The festival showcased their choice selection of established and emerging artists from around the world over a period of four days concluding with a free outdoor festival on the last. And so blahblahblahscience has put together an overview of our favorite moments for those who may have missed it:
Electro-pop collective KAMP! (Poland) were a pleasant surprise at the Echoplex. ‘Euro’ blends of synths, live instrumentation, and vox (not short on David Bowie homage) paints a pretty good picture. Not your typical ‘yeah were an 80’s new wave flashback here to prove something’ group, but rather it’s like KAMP! share their take on 1980’s dance parties into the future, the near future. A young band that does what they do well, and worth their notice.
3 piece Kordan (NY), has a pretty good sound on tape. That being said low-fi, electro-pop bands should hit up their producer ASAP. The trio lurped their way through a rough set. We here at b3sci are all for sloppy and simple musicianship, as long as it’s got a soul to it, and there’s a tune there. but not this time, sorry guys… write some tunes and do some rails if you must. Other disappointing acts included City Riot (Australia), and The Boxer Rebellion (UK)… who btw we were pretty stoked for (Union has some good tunes on it).
Black Lips (Atlanta) closed the Echoplex opening night with a set that proved difficult for any to live up to the following days. The band came out sporting t-shirts, button downs, and ever classy K-mart, native american’esque ‘half-zip’ fleeces (circa ’95). These dudes played fucking LOUD. Their songs translated live and they were tight, but when they weren’t it didn’t matter… because of the sheer passion they played with. Not many bands can pull off ‘everybody sings in our band’ with such non-contrived class. The band tore through their set of strat-jangled pop jams with early Beatles/Quarrymen craft and a shameless new born CBGB mentality. Black Lips are a group with seemingly substantial influence on many punk inspired Indie acts of the day, and they showed why they’ll remain relevent.
Other highlights and honorable mentions during the 4 days of Culture Collide include:
Casiokids (Norway) with their take on obscure dance-pop that seems to live somewhere between The Rapture and a toned down Friendly Fires, just add nice pianos and jonsi-ros vox.
White Lies (UK) continue to deliver 5-piece layered synth and guitar based rock done right. The band split their set with tracks from To Lose My Life.. and their forthcoming LP due in January (which a listening party on Monday proved material worth another spin or two in our books).
Phantogram (NY) who continue to deliver great ideas with a mid-90’s Cardigans like sensibility, though their fill-in drummer still didn’t seem to be doing them any favors.
Amusement Parks On Fire (UK) are worth keeping an eye on, with a nice aggressive layered-guitar sound, but they are young and have some growing to do in terms of chemistry and performance.
Cass McCombs (California) was a pleasant listen, debuting some of his new material while Darker My Love bassist Rob Barbato backed as part of the band.
Tokyo Police Club (Canada) once again proved they should be the official college pizza-party band of the decade! Their catchy Pop/Rock with just the right attitude, energy, and touch obscurity is hard to deny. Dudes know how to have a good time. Even Jeff Apruzzese from Passion Pit showed up to rock the bass and join the party on “Your English Is Good”. Conclusion, if i worked for Pizza Hut then my commercials would have/sound-like TPC songs.
Sunday headliners and last minute additions, Jenny and Johnny (Los Angeles) closed the outdoors part of free festival day. Like true Indie Rock royalty, Siverlake Darling, Jenny Lewis and the crew arrived 40 minutes late. They opened with “Committed” closing track and personal favorite from the Im Having Fun Now LP, and closed with “The Next Messiah” off Jenny’s Acid Tongue LP. Still things were testy… there were sound issues, and during one of the band’s 2-3 minutes of nothingness in between songs a fight in the crowd began causing Jenny to intervene. All in all, Jx2 were great live and if all of Im Having Fun Now was as good as “Scissor Runner”, “Big Wave” and “Committed” then we’d have ourselves one of our choice albums of the year.
our final highlight from Culture Collide is Fran Healy (Scotland), front man of late 90’s and early oughts darlings Travis. Rather influential to my musical coming of age, it was incredible to not only shake Fran’s hand that night but to also watch him perform his Shakespeare-like pop/love songs in such an intimate setting. Perhaps the most witty songwriter I have ever seen perform live, Fran owned the over-capacity church of standing room only, and line outside the door. Telling jokes, timeless stories about, and tricking the crowd into believing that major collaborators from his new debut solo effort Wreckorder were there to perform with him (namely Neko Case and Paul McCartney). Having seen Fran perform with Travis several times before, his voice wasn’t in top form, which could have had something to do with the 90 degree non-air/conditioned/stuffy church, or the sound problems, but regardless Fran made his way through a set that included Travis tracks like “Writing To Wreach You”, “Sing”, and “Driftwood” in addition to new solo material like “Buttercups” and standout Wreckorder favorite “Sing Me To Sleep“. His set ended with a standing ovation, and one well deserved for one of the best songwriters of the last 15 years.
In conclusion, FILTER’s first Culture Collide fest proved a succesfull showcasing of emerging global talent. Should be interesting to see how the fest evolves, and is recieved by LA next time around. If you missed it this year be sure to hit it up next.
new from oakland native chris turner is this killer liquid love track. as heard on wednesday’s gilles peterson programme, this soul number flat out floored us on first (as well as many many repeat) listen(s). the arrangement features some awesome horn tones, claps, super cool rhythmic elements, and a simply fantastic swath of melodies. check it below.
Chris Turner – Liquid Loverating: 8.7
Wow, yeah! The Miike Snow crew hit Boston on Sunday 10/10/10, an appropriate date seeing as the performance was no doubt a 10 10 10! Where to begin… ENERGY! This show had so much of it, from the band itself to the lights, the fog, the kids. We were literally moving the entire 75-minute or so set. Whew! That’s a hell of a workout!
Miike Snow’s 2009 record Animal is fantastic. One of the best pure songwriting records of last year; just the understanding displayed on that record of the multi-fold relationships between rhythm and melody and how the two pair and work together is off the meter. And really, the ability to write a song like Britney Spears’ Toxic, one of the best pop hooks of all time period, as the Swedish contingent of the band Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg won a Grammy for doing, speaks for itself.
So, yes, the record is killer. But the live show…..FUCKING PHENOMENAL. Miike Snow’s Boston performance was truly that, a performance. The show had an arc, it had waves, it pulsed; the tempos pushed outwards, the arrangements ebbed inwards. The whole experience was just totally completely fantastic. Highlights from the set, for us, included a beefed up rendition of the pop perfect Black and Blue, and encore jam The Remedy. These are songs meant to be shouted, meant to be sung aloud, meant to be echoed back at a live show.
The crowd participation/into it-ness was at a very high level. The music was loud, but the kids were louder. The kids were overpowering. Waves of outstretched arms, bobbing heads, frantic shoulder manaeuvers, moved as shadows against the back-lit sextet of Miike Snow performers. The lights, fogs, lazers, other atmospheric type shit were great.
Near the show’s end, frontman Andrew Wyatt lamented that this would be Miike Snow’s last Boston gig for awhile, “We’re making a new record.” We can’t wait.
but right now, we gonna up you on how we just chill
Mux Mool – Lady Linda (Devonwho Remix)rating: 8.0
vaccines! jenny lewis! ringo deathstarr! use your star power! ok, the vaccines are one of our fav uk debuts this year, blow it up is a pretty fresh single. get into it. jenny lewis and jonathan rice are committed to keeping you year’s supplied with jams. this new committed tune rips, roller skate. things we like about ringo deathstarr: band name, they sound pretty much exactly like mbv, things we don’t like about ringo deathstarr: they sound pretty much exactly like mbv. imagine hearts is a good fuckin tune though, lets come on.
The Vaccines – Blow It Up
new today! bk band arpline re-up local natives’ summer jam smash wide eyes serving up a smooth fresh flow. yeah! our uk kids does it offend you yeah take this halloween zombie jam but the namely scary sounding natalia kills do their own re-up. we’re diggin it. and lastly, we’ve got new material from b3sci fav cut chemist. povo de santo is taken from the vet mixman’s new LP joint sound of the police. check it.
Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Arpline Remix)
kanye hooks up w la roux for the much anticipated in for the kill remix (remix remix remix remix). (see kanye we can add our own echo too.) (too too too too too) get into it.
La Roux – In for the Kill (Remix) (Feat. Kanye West)rating: 8.0
ladies and gentlemen, i give you the banger. via nme and dr. martens and hollywood. p.s. RIP solomon burke. dude was legendary. buy his records.
Verbal & Yoon – Cherry Bomb Sage Francis – Three Sheets To The Wind (Dan Le Sac remix) by PCPCP
purchase / info
