Love Is A Boat And We're Sinking

I've been loving Dinosaur Pile- Up for a while now and I thought it was about time that I gave them some bloglove too. Their music is a mix of the indie rock á la The Strokes and grunge. Remember grunge? Yeah, it's become a much maligned term, but who cares when the music sounds great... and worry not, I haven't seen any flannel shirts. Yet.

"Love is a Boat and We're Sinking" is great indie rock (almost poppy), while "My Rock'n'Roll" is very reminiscent of Foo Fighters circa The Color and The Shape (an album I'm especially partial to). Enjoy!

Dinosaur Pile- Up - Love Is a Boat and We're Sinking



Dinosaur Pile- Up - My Rock'n'Roll

Pop Gone Afro

Afropop and afrobeat have been around ever since Fela Kuti and Tony Allen sat down together and produced those wonderful songs way back when... Talking Heads and Paul Simon then took influence from it and created some fantastic music on their respective albums Remain in Light and Graceland album. However, since then there have been scant with pop bands referencing afrobeat. Yes, Manu Chao and Amadou & Mariam* have had a fair amount of success, but it wasn't really until Vampire Weekend last year - and to some extent TV on the Radio, The Foals and Yeasayer - that there were succesful indie bands who explicitly pointed to afrobeat as a direct influence.

* Amadou & Mariam's Damon Albarn produced Sabali is by the way one of 2008's definite highlights

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa



Lo and behold, now it seems that afrobeat influences are cropping up in pop and it's great. Afrobeat has such a happy sound to it which really fits pop and makes for great infectious happy music. Two recent examples - and personal favorites, of course - are Slow Club and Jack Peñate's recent singles.

Sidebar: Knowing Peñate's last output this new direction is markedly different and so much better than the Wham!-inspired pop he did before (Wham! as inspiration... Wtf?).

Anywho, enjoy these bits of afrobeat-tinged pop:

Slow Club - Because We're Dead



Jack Peñate - Tonight's Today

When the World Gets Dark, Baby

You know when you hear a song for the first time and you're just blown away by how great it is? So great that it makes you sit down and just listen. Bliss... well, I got that with The Entrance Band (or according to some, Entrance). I was listening to the always excellent NPR All Song Considered podcast when Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater Kinney fame) recommended them as one to see at SXSW.

The Entrance Band - Grim Reaper Blues



That opening of the song immediately caught me and from then on it's sheer awesomeness. The sound is old hard blues-y psych rock - there can be no doubt about that. Reminiscent of fellow revivalists Wolfmother, but much more psych. The leadsinger's voice is perfect and if someone had told me that it was actually a song from the 1970's I would have believed it.

And don't get me started on the song title, Grim Reaper Blues... You have to love that.

I haven't actually listened to more of their stuff, but if it's as good as this then I'm a fan... actually, strike that. I'm already a fan.

Feel like dancing

Dancing is good excersise - Fact - and having been out all weekend for better or for worse I've had my fair share of it. Now, enough about me... There's a lot of good electronic music being made at the moment, which might mostly be down to me being a fan of french touch house and anything with distortion, heavy bass and/or tons of synth. In any case, I like it.

So here are three videos with some of the latest and greatest for you to bust a move to on the dancefloor or simply pull a muscle to in your bedroom. Whatever tickles your fancy.

Simian Mobile Disco - 10,000 Horses Can't Be Wrong



Simian Mobile Disco's debut album was jam packed with great songs and the signs are that the next will equally great. However, while the last one was more soft-ish house-ish (eg. Believe) this next one sounds more like Berlin minimal (I guess the signs were there with Sleep Deprivation). An odd, yet awesome move, seeing as the rest of the electronic scene seems to be favoring french touch house at the moment. In any case I'm loving this song. Also check out Synthesise while you're at it, which has an almost identical video (lazy buggers) and features a Todd Rundgren sample (awesome). Born to synthesise since 1975.

Calvin Harris - I'm Not Alone



Now I'm not a huge fan of this song, but I've put it up mostly because it's as obvious a dancefloor smash hit as any. You just know that kids all over the place will be dancing away to this one. And why not? It has a sweeping sort of synth (lovely filter on it) and some very cheesy lyrics that are easy to remember. I predict: Summer hit. Easy... okay, so maybe I do kinda like it as a guilty pleasure.

AC Slater - Rock It Out



I said I liked bass, right? AC Slater has been around for a while now and joining the Trouble & Bass crew is a perfect match. I quite like this song (even though it is very bassline-y, which can get a bit much sometimes admittedly) and from what I hear people have been litterally rocking out to on the dancefloor when he plays it. Fact.