Love and Talent: New Music Monday

There are very few music lovers in this world who have not heard of Mr. Robert Nesta Marley, known by the world as reggae legend, Bob Marley. This man changed music as we know it and believed the world could be cured of hate through music, so to cover his songs is no small feat. Yet, that's exactly what Corrine Bailey Rae has done. Her new EP, The Love EP, covers Prince, Doris Day and Paul McCartney and The Wings. One of the notable covers is of Bob Marley's "Is This Love."



This version is different than Marley's, but Rae gets the message across the same way. She takes the song and will preserving it's beauty, makes it her own. I can't say I've heard a better cover of Bob Marley. This NMM is a definite have-to-listen.

-Whitni

You Can Hear; Are You Listening?

Stories come from everywhere. From every corner of the globe, every single nook and cranny. This happens in music too. Music has the unyielding ability to give us stories in the form of beats and chords, making it feel so much more powerful. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea by singer-songwriter PJ Harvey is the sixteenth album on the SMP to be reviewed, and I have to say that this review will be mixed, leaning towards positive. Polly Jean is well established in the music world, and it has been a interesting process listening to music closely related to artists like Bjork and Massive Attack, sounds which I haven't really listened to before now.

I will say, right away, that this is a 'listen to it twice' album. Really, with most albums, you should listen at least twice, but I don't always feel the need to do that. It's like leaving meat in the fridge overnight to let the spices soak in; you just hear everything a little differently the second time around. Once it's soaked in a bit. The first time I scanned this album (listened to it), I didn't really like it. It was kind of boring. True, I wasn't really listening, but I could tell it wasn't my sort of thing. So, I listened again. I can see why Rolling Stone, NME and Pitchfork all gave creds for this album. It's, I have to say, not that bad.

As a reviewer, I have to work to separate my music from my feelings. This is hard, because music makes you feel, always. Stories makes you feel like you are walking around your own favorite city. For me, that would be either Cincinnati or Austin. You can see the memories, you can feel the same feelings you felt at any defining moment. But this is also happy music. It makes you smile. It makes you feel elated, but it doesn't force it. The music is like a by-product of the happiness.

Harvey is successful in telling her own city story. Her previous albums had had a more melancholy sound, and she worked to make this one lighter. The first song on the album, "Big Exit", hits you with powerful guitar, and then a strong woman's voice. I have to say, it's nice to review a woman's album again. There is power within the whole album, but there is also repetitiveness. The sound doesn't change too much. Some might like that, but I don't. That is probably what made me feel bored the first time around.
My favorite tracks were "A Place Called Home" (3) and "This Is Love" (10). Whitni liked "This Mess We're In" (7), which featured Thom Yorke from the band Radiohead. I liked that one too. There really aren't any bad songs, just ones you don't feel the need to point out, or they just weren't memorable.

Overall, pretty good album. According to its placement, I wouldn't put this above Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys (that was way too low on the list) , Fleet Foxes or U2, but it does deserve to be on the list. It wasn't my favorite, nor was it easy to review (sorry if this review seems to suck), but definitely listen to it. And definitely more than once.

-Raivynn

Games For Kids - New Music Monday

Monday kids, welcome to a new week! Today's lovely new tune may sound familiar, not because you've heard the song, but because you've probably heard the artist, especially if you've taken a peek through our archives. We're going back (back back back) all the way to June 2010, when we reviewed Bright Eyes We Are Nowhere And It's Now. We gave the album a fairly good review and I am proud to say Conor Oberst (lead singer) is my homeboy.

So, with that being said, the SMP is happy to introduce you to some excellent new listening this incredible band has just put out.



The song is called "Shell Games" by Bright Eyes and their new album, The People's Key, is being released on Febuaray 15th, Conor's birthday. But until then not only can you hear the song here, but you can download it for free! This isn't a scam or anything, I promise, it's legit. Click here kids (and grown-ups)!

-Whitni

PS- Want to read that review about Bright Eyes? You can click here! Or would you prefer to hear more of their music? Check out our "Listen While You Read" box on the right!

New Music Monday... Sunday... Monday...

What's up Mondayers? Well, Sundayers I guess. I bet you (whoever you is!) are wonder exactly why I'm posting New Music Monday on a Sunday. Well, right now, computer time is a little hard to come by and I wanted to make sure that you guys had something to read come Monday morning/afternoon/evening.

This song isn't really new, and neither is the band. The Black Keys have been around since 2001 and their latest album, Brothers, is the one that really got them off the ground. This single, "Tighten Up", was released in May 2010, but is just starting to get mainstream radio play.



The video is great ("But he smells like ranch dressing!") and I love Patrick and Dan's look and sound (the whole hobo and geek making indie music thing really works for them). We here at the SMP rated them as the best new artist of 2010, and I see them only getting bigger in '11!

-Whitni

Have A Good Laugh, Kids

Found this video while doing some stuff online- it features Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, the guys who make up The Black Keys, and Ezra Koenig, lead singer of Vampire Weekend, on the Colbert Show having a sell-out off. It's hilarious and, hey, who couldn't use a good laugh?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
MeTunes - Grammy Vote - Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney & Ezra Koenig
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

- The SMP Mgmt

Down For Beats? New Music Monday

Good evening sir and madam Mondayers! Again, happy new years to you! This week's song is a blast from the future, not the past! In the past it would have been unheard of for a Jewish guy to make traditionally "black music", like rap or soul. Yet, here is Alex Clare making soul-reggae-blues and, well, why shouldn't he? I'm not trying to play the race card in a negative way. I think this is awesome- both the phenomenon...



...and the song. "Up All Night" by Alex Clare hit the street about a month ago, but his name is still unknown to many lips, despite the obvious awesomeness of his music. I know I constantly say I dig stuff, but I really dig this song. You should too.

-Whitni

Ok Talk! An Interview With Youtube Band Sensation Ok Go

The SMP is proud to present an awesome interview with a really cool band. Ok Go has been giving the world music since 1998, and are known for their funny/weird music videos, like "Here It Goes Again" (which won a Grammy), "A Million Ways", "This Too Shall Pass", and "White Knuckles". The have released three albums, their latest being Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky. Thanks to Jennifer Lloyd for interviewing the band's lead singer (and cutie), Damian Kulash. Peace, love, and treadmills.

Ok Go performed on October 10th at the House of Blues in Chicago. Jenn talked with the lead singer, Damian Kulash about their live shows, choreographed dances and why the older Star Wars movies are better than the newer ones.

Jenn Lloyd: What do you enjoy most about performing live?

Damian Kulash: It’s kind of hard to put into words. It’s the emotional connection with the audience that when a show is going really well everyone is sort of feeling things when we go for as much energy as possible and get everyone as fired up and as excited as possible. Standing there in a crowd of 200 or 2000 people and everybody is concentrating on the same feeling, it’s an amazing experience.

JL: Does Ok Go have any preshow routines?

DK: Tours are so repetitive that the whole thing is a little like a routine. About a half hour before we go on we make sure everyone has their monitors ready and everything is ready for the performance. There’s a moment of focusing before anything happens, but it’s not like we all speak a Latin prayer or something. It’s a very functional thing, but because we do it every day it has a routine quality to it.

JL: Describe an Ok Go show in 2-3 words.

DK: Fun, surprising, colorful

JL: What do you hope to achieve as a musician? When will consider being a musician a success?

DK: I don’t think there’s ever a particular moment of a single plateau that is a success. Success is being proud of what you make and being excited about the places you are going. I think if you ever decide you have achieved all you want to you are finished. I think you are always working towards the next new project.

JL: So, you graduated from Brown University. Did you go in knowing you would pursue music?

DK: I was both art and music. I was going to pursue visual art afterwards but I guess I felt like the things happening in the art department and the art world in general didn’t resonate well for me. Music was really fun for me; I had been doing a lot of music and I had bands and played a lot in my bedroom in high school so I was doing a lot of music. I don’t think I figured it would become a career or anything. At school I started working in the music studio at college and become completely fascinated with that process.

JL: Do you feel that musical ability can be made better through learning in school versus picking it up on your own?

DK: They’re totally different processes, I don’t think better or worse. You become more efficient if you are trained, but I think music encompasses a great many types of communication. What’s so wonderful about music is that you can make it with a beat and a chord. You communicate incredibly complicated, fulfilling, emotional statements that words could never get to. That doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with someone’s skill. Different things: like asking about being a good writer. If you want to become a good writer you certainly make it a lot easier by being a good writer, but becoming a good writer is also helped by spending a lot of your time writing, but that doesn’t mean you will be good.

JL: Did you know how successful the videos for A Million Ways and Here it Goes Again would be on YouTube? Do you think it was because of YouTube that they became so popular?

DK: I don’t think we predicted exactly what would happen and no I don’t think it was all because of YouTube. The logic of the question is like asking, do you think you are alive because of air, you certainly need air to survive. Those videos traveled the world via YouTube but the success is not just because of YouTube.

JL: How did the idea of dancing on treadmills come about?

DK: We had danced on the stage for years for sort of shocking the audience. One of the big challenges of mine at shows is that a lot of people have set expectations of what should happen all the time and it gets really boring; what they expect to happen happens. There’s no surprise or excitement. Having choreographed dances on stage people just thought songs would have crazy routines. Having done that for a few years we came up with a new dance routine with my sister for the song A Million Ways and when the video of that exploded online, I thought to myself if we can have a video that by accident travels the world at that speed then we can make an intentional video. So we altered the parameters of the dance so there would be something where we weren’t repeating ourselves but going somewhere new. That’s when we came up with the idea of the treadmill.

JL: It seems that Ok Go is into making complicated music videos that require a lot going precisely right. How would you describe your music videos?

DK: I think that says it pretty well. I think that music itself is a version of choreography. You get a bunch of people together and what everybody does when they hit the right outcome creates something that is bigger than the parts. When you hear a song you don’t think, ‘I hear a bass and also a guitar and also drums’, what you hear is the emotion and feeling that is behind the music. Choreographing is doing the same thing visually: coming up with system by which every part has to be just right to achieve the outcome.

JL: Your song, "A Good Idea at the Time", from the CD Oh No is a response to "Sympathy for the Devil". Why did you decide to take on such a well known song?

DK: I really love that song. I was listening to it and there is a line in it about the troubadours were killed before they reached Bombay. I tried to figure out what that was about and went online to find out what that was referring to. This was all during Bush’s second term and I was not a fan of what was going on politically. I was thinking about how the evil that is perpetrated in our world does not have to be by mysterious forces like the devil, but just by us so I wrote a song about it.

Two selected student questions from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois:

Sara Koehnke, junior: You get a lot of press for the treadmill video, but what was your favorite video to make?

DK: The "White Knuckles" video that just came out.

Connor Schmidt, freshman: What is your opinion on the newer Stars Wars movies?

DK: Not a big fan. I feel like they didn’t have the magic that the original three had. You can tell from our music videos that we are big fans of no constraints. The original Star Wars were amazing because you felt the technology, incredible people created a futuristic universe. When you move into our decade and you have computers that can do everything you lose some of the magic of the futuristic world. I just felt like I was being yelled at by a computer.

Interview performed by Jennifer Lloyd in October 2010.

New (Crystal) Music (Sounds) Monday

Monday grinders, welcome to the new year! What 2011 will bring, I have no idea. Just know, the SMP is going to be here to turn you onto new music and love on the old. This is the first NMM of the year, so I looked deep and wide, trying to find some good stuff. If you don't like what I pick this week, remember, come back next week and see what's new- you might like that!

So... you can probably tell we here at the SMP like The Beatles. A lot. And The Beatles (as well as other guitar wielding 60s and 70s bands) influenced a genre called britpop, which is right where today's chosen band fits in.



The song is "The Loneliest Star" and the band is Thirteen Senses. Their album, Crystal Sounds, is coming out in February and I will be looking for it. The song is traditional indie pop of sorts, but leaks with a little something I just can't give words to. I got to say, I love Britpop. In fact, I love most anything British. Now take that and run with it!

-Whitni