This past weekend WDCV brought Wiz Khalifa to town for Saturday’s hip-hop night of our Rock-Hop weekend. His new mix tape, Kush & OJ, came out just a few days earlier. Despite pitchfork’s snobbery of having their finger on the pulse of new, underground music, we were a step ahead of them on this one. WOOT! Check out their review, they gave his mixtape a 7.2. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Category: Music
Jen’s New Obsession – The Pack A.D.
So my friends at Pirate sent me this awesome album that I can’t get enough of currently. It’s called We Kill Computers and it’s by The Pack A.D. It’s a girl duo consisting of Becky Black and Maya Miller from Vancouver. It sounds alot like if The White Stripes and The Black Keys got together and had a baby, but that baby looks more like the White Stripes than the Black Keys. That baby’s siblings are also The Kills and The Gossip. Wouldn’t you like to meet this baby?
Pack A.D. is loud, edgy without being noisy and obnoxious. It’s got a grungy, unpolished Jack White-ish guitar riffs along with Meg White-esque simple and clean drums. The opening of Pack’s Crazy is reminescent of the Stripes’ The Hardest Button to Button and Pack’s Everyone Looks Like Everyone has hints of Stripes’ My Doorbell. The vocals on Cobra Matte sound like Amanda Palmer from The Dresden Dolls and she’s super awesome. Even without all the similarities, it’s an awesome album that you should seriously check out. Tune in to wdcvfm.com and 88.3 to hear it played all the time.
The Slow Club: Yeah, So
I don’t know about you guys, but one thing I really look forward to about warm weather is summer music. You know what I mean–bright, cheerful, fun music that just makes the sunshine seem that much brighter. The debut full length “Yeah, So” from Sheffield, England band Slow Club is definitely a candidate for that great warm-weather album.
Slow Club consists of guitarist Charles and percussionist Rebecca. Their music is a perfect balance between folk and pop songwriting: sweet, melody-driven, and full of vocal harmonies between the two members. It’s classic and free of gimmicks, and while it may not be mindblowing, having it playing in a room will make everyone a little happier.
You can listen to Slow Club on their myspace–and, of course, by listening to WDCV!
Heavy Rotation as of April 5th
Hello Lovelies! We have been busy little beavers here, working on getting everything ready for our awesome Rock-Hop concert weekend, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve been ignoring heavy rotation! Here’s what we’ve got for you this week:
Disco Biscuits- Planet Anthem: Brotastic jam/livetronica from Philly. Some good cuts, solid synth and tight baselines.
Fugitive Souls- Strangers EP: COMING TO DICKINSON APRIL 16TH.
The Bird and The Bees- Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oats: Hall and Oates cover album Woot! Private eyes are watching you.
Josiah Wolf- Jet Lag: A member of the band Why? this cd sounds like a more chill version of what Why? usually creates.
La Strada- New Home: I wasn’t quite sure about this album at first but it really grew on me! It’s a really versatile album with a ton of different instruments and that seems to jump from genre to genre
Rotary Downs- Cracked Maps & Blue Reports: AMAZING ALBUM. A band from New Orleans with really creative lyrics and a diverse sound.
Anything you guys think we’re missing? Give us a shout and we’ll do our best to get our hands on it.
Much love,
WDCV’s Music Directors
Heavy Rotation Update!
Hey all you lovely Internet people! Wondering what’s new in WDCV’s heavy rotation? Well you’re in luck because the WDCV music directors have been busy little bees putting all sorts of new and great stuff in heavy rotation. So if you feel like your music collection is getting a little stale, check out some of these recommendations.
Drink Up Buttercup: Born and Thrown on A Hook-They are coming to DICKINSON in our Rock/Hop show!! They sound like The Beatles if they did more drugs. I’m not the only one who thinks so, honest.
Dark Dark Dark: Bright Bright Bright- Besides their awesome naming skills this is a super album with great vocals and complex chamber-pop instrumentals.
Bonobo: Black Sands- A super chill album with epic reach and massive emotional pull. It’s one guy who plays all the instruments by himself. (Written by another MD- Bonobos are monkeys that “penis fence” for real, look it up. I learned this in 9th grade bio).
Adam Green: Minor Love- Adam Green is from the group The Moldy Peaches comes out with a not so folky sound but it’s still pretty awesome- striking a good balance between tenderness and tastelessness.
Kasper Bjoke- Standing on Top of Utopia (EP): Solid downbeat electro from Denmark.
Portugal. The Man- American Ghetto: I have no idea who this sounds like, but it sounds like someone good so don’t be scared. Most of the songs are good so pick one!
Capsule-Player http://blogs.dickinson.edu/wdcvfm/2010/03/capsule-player/
Turin Brakes: Outbursts- Self proclaimed indie folk rock, but it’s not too folky I think they just call it that because some of the songs are pretty laid back. “Sea Changes” and “Mirror” are my favorite tracks of the album.
She + Him: Volume Two- I’m really excited about this album. I honestly like it better than their first one. It’s a peaceful kind of happy. You can’t go wrong with any track.
So that’s what we’ve got for you this week. Hopefully your willing to open up your ears to something new!
Hugs and Kisses,
WDCV
The Modern Electric
I’m always trying to represent bands from Northeast Ohio, seeing as many people around here are always bashing Ohio for many reasons – football, politics, the stereotype of “backwardness.” Instead of responding to criticisms by bashing all your states, I just try to change your opinion on my home.
According to their bio to LastFM, one of my time consuming websites…
“The Modern Electric is a Cleveland-based Indie-rock band. They are comprised of 4 young gentlemen, Garrett Komyati (vocals, organ/piano) Bryan Lecky (guitar) Matthew Puleo Childers (bass) and Michael O’Brien (drums). All born and raised in the Cleveland area, they play local venues and continue to expand their growing fan base and show their undying love for their city.” (http://www.last.fm/music/The+Modern+Electric)
“David Bowie (Save Us All)” is a tribute to the rocker and my top most played song “Love and Misery” is about the songwriter wondering what he did to deserve heartbreak.
The album is available on iTunes but if you want to hear a song or two tune into my show on Mondays between 8 and 10pm.
WDCV’s Heavy Rotation (As of March 12, 2010)
Just in case you were wondering what WDCV is playing in our heavy rotation, here’s a list of what we’ve got!
Pavement- The Best Of
Manchester Orchestra-Mean Everything to Nothing
The Splinters-Kick
Frightened Rabbit-The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Rouge Wave- Permalight
Sade-Soldier of Love
The Weatherthans- Live From Burton Cummings Theater
Sambassadeur- European
LoneLady-Nerve Up
Ernest Gonzales-Been Meaning to Tell You
Quasi- American Gong
Local Natives-Gorilla Manor
Hanne Hukkelberg- Blood from A Stone
Six Gallery- Breakthroughs in Modern Art
Golden Triangle- Double Jointer
Shearwater- The Golden Archipelago
Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise
Gill Scott- Heron—I’m Not Here
Holly Miranda- The Nocycian’s Private Library
My Robot Friend- Soft Core
Jeff The Brotherhood-Heavy Days
Field Music-Measure
Datus- Neut
The Law- A Measure of Wealth
Galactic- Ya-Ka-May
Gigi- Maintenant
Los Campesinos!- Romance Is Boring
Massive Attack- Heligoland
Shannon and The Clams- I Wanna Go Home
Cute Lepers- Smart Accessories
Rachele Eve- Mouth of Feathers
Lightspeed Champion- Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You
WALE-Attention Deficit
Whew! What a ridiculously awesome list of bands. It’s kind of overwhelming right? Now that I’ve got them all down, the next time I update, I will just let you know what we are putting in for that week and I’ll even give you a little blurb about the record, written by WDCV’s lovely music directors. But this should give you something to start with…
capsule – PLAYER
With WDCV’s new music blog finally up and running, I figured I’d also throw in my two cents with a review of “PLAYER,” the new album by capsule, one of my favorite groups in any genre.
For those of you who don’t know (and shame on you!) capsule is a Shibuya-kei duo from Tokyo who create some of the slickest electropop out there. They write predominantly in Japanese (although a lot of English samples make their way into their work), but that shouldn’t stop you. I absolutely love this group and I don’t even know any Japanese.
As for PLAYER, it marks the group’s tenth release via Yamaha subsidiary (and capsule-owned) label Contemode, and while perhaps not their best effort, it is indeed solid from start to finish. The album alternates between catchy vocal-laden tracks to hard-hitting instrumental jams with a few hip-hop samples thrown in for good measure. I personally tend to enjoy the vocal tracks a bit more – I recommend “I Wish You,” “Can I have a Word,” and “Love or Lies” – but the instrumental tracks like “The Music” also satisfy, even if some might find them a tad redundant. Even if electro isn’t your thing, I would still advise giving them a try…you won’t be disappointed.
Look out for it in Heavy Rotation this week, but for a quick preview, check out the following music blog: http://toomanysebastians.blogspot.com/2010/03/capsule-player.html. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
1.) Stay With You
2.) Player
3.) I Wish You
4.) The Music
5.) Factory
6.) I Was Wrong
7.) Can I Have a Word
8.) What do you want to do
9.) Hello
10.) Love or Lies
-James W-K
Ted Leo’s “The Brutalist Bricks”
Ted Leo says, "The cover might not make any sense at first, but if you stare at it long enough, you will go blind and then it won’t matter."
Ted Leo’s new album, “The Brutalist Bricks,” comes out tomorrow on Matador records. The album has been described by some as “peculiarly fresh,” and by me as “pretty much the greatest thing I have ever heard, ever.” Stylistically, the album follows 2007’s “Living with the Living,” but with a condensed, grittier sensibility and new energy. While the overall sound is delightfully consistent, there’s enough variety to keep things interesting, and Theodore’s songwriting really shines through. It’s a solid release that, if you are anything like me, you will play repeatedly for about a week straight.
There’s no way I can do the album justice in a few words, but luckily the album is available for free streaming on Myspace. Get into it! We’ll also be adding it to our rotation at WDCV, so you’ll get to hear it when you tune in.
Mr. Leo is currently on tour supporting the album release, and will be coming to our area around early April.
Free Music? New Pretty Lights EP
So here I am, with 70 or more pages to do of history reading when my friend Peter texts me and says “new pretty lights. some is sooo chill.” The two of us saw Pretty Lights at the Note in West Chester, PA in November and it was an awesome show. It’s just this guy Derek Vincent Smith, and he’s from CO, but live he’s accompanied by drummer Cory Eberhard.
This text of course led to some procrastination when I downloaded the new EP on www.prettylightsmusic.com. The new EP is called “Making Up a Changing Mind.” I just finished listening to it, but so far I enjoy “Understand me now” and “I can see it in your face.”
His other albums are “Filling Up the City Skies,” “Passing By Behind Your Eyes” and “Taking Up Your Precious Time.”
