Bolster Your Holster

Is it selling out? Moby’s album “Play” was used to advertise everything. He was accused of selling out. But, perhaps it was the best decision he made.

Midnight City, a song featured on my top 111 of ’11, is everywhere lately. I hear it on Satellite radio, in the malls and stores, the bars, and even soundtracking scantily clad supermodels with wings. A Victoria’s Secret ad released a few months ago features the fantastic track, focusing mostly on the instrumental synth parts that pretty much define the song. Some might view the usage, or permission of usage, of a song to sell commercial wares as selling out, however it seems that in today’s music marketplace the placement of songs on TV, whether it be in commercial or a show, is one of the best ways to promote your song. Especially in an era of Shazam and google, it has become increasingly easy to identify a song heard outside of the traditional methods of song distribution.

It is also a great way to promote younger and less popular bands, as purchasing rights to songs by lesser known artists will be significantly less than that of an arena selling artist like Coldplay or U2. Recently Nike used a rather epic portion of the song Snjóljón by by one of my favourite new bands Lockerbie. The exposure that this will give Lockerbie could be invaluable in pushing them forward. Below is the commercial for the Össur Flex-Run with Nike Sole.

And with the recent success of previously (relatively) unknown bands based off of television show placement, it looks to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. THe artist/band gets paid or free promotion, and the show/commercial gets a better scene or a more noticeable ad. In the past several months, bands such as fun. and Adaline have benefitted from these situations. fun.’s song “We are Young” has exploded after being featured in a Glee episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul-pLYo5MJ8&w=560&h=315

And Adaline has received a lot more attention to her debut album after being featured prominently during a very emotional scene during the Fall finale of Grey’s anatomy (and another song again in January).

Selling out? Cashing in? Mutually Beneficial?

When I was younger, I would record Letterman every night. I would then fast forward on the good old VCR and get to the end of the show where the music was. Eventually I would end up watching some of the episodes and growing into his quirky humor. But Letterman always had some great music. Nowadays, the PVR is set to record my fav bands on all the late night shows.

It seems that Ryan Adams and David Letterman have had this special connection for awhile. Ryan has performed on the show numerous times and has done some special webcasts after the show. This week, Ryan Adams performed a 70 minute webcast for the show. The set covers his entire career, from Whiskeytown to Ashes and Fire. The opener “Oh my Sweet Carolina” is nearly as pretty as the version I posted last week, just lacking Laura’s harmony. But the overall set is quite stellar and is a must see for any Ryan Adams fan.

Watch the entire set through the link below.

UPDATE: It seems the link has expired: so here is a link to the first song, click related to watch the other performances individually.

http://www.cbs.com/e/qiJWlKZpwPvK0Y9mo0cUkd2xvzCsPJ9h/cbs/1/

We have been attending several festivals the last few years, and we love the experience and the music and the discovery. One of the festivals that we really want to get to is the Doe Bay Festival. Unfortunately this year we had a contractual obligation to be somewhere else, and their tickets sold out in 3 minutes. Their lineup this had a few newer established bands, and a lot of up and coming bands. One of these bands is the fantastic Pickwick. From their fan videos online, Pickwick is a band to see live. They exude a modern soul vibe that just makes you want to dance and wave your hands in the air. They incite raucous dance parties onstage, and they encourage their concert going fans to bring their own shakers and tambourines.

Check out the Live from the Basement videos (By the great Sound on the Sound) below and then head over to their bandcamp (I love Bandcamp) page and buy some stuff. I did.

Earlier this year Canadian R&B singer Abel Tesfaye released a free mix-tape entitled House of Balloons that caught the attention of almost every music critic and fan around. Using the moniker The Weeknd he promised two more mix-tapes in 2011. Last night he delivered Thursday, a dirtier, grittier follow-up. The album can immediately be identified as a The Weeknd record, but adds some new instrumentation with marching drums, horns, acoustic guitar, a guest spot from Drake and more vocal manipulation than ever before.

Oh, by the way, it is available for free from The Weeknd’s website.

Check out a couple tracks below:

Life of The Party:

The Zone:

As mentioned last year, my wife and I attended Iceland Airwaves in October as part of our honeymoon in Iceland. It is a fantastic festival that awards the opportunity to see loads of great bands and make lots of musical discoveries.

It all started with a little rain and line up. We were in line to go see someone at the main venue. And then it started to rain. Rather than stand in line in the rain for half an hour we decided we would go grab a pint of the delicious brew Viking across the street at the pub. We walk in and there are about 20 people conversing in the lovely local language we don’t speak. We grab a Viking, and then this group of “Kids” take the stage. We move up closer to the stage and 40 minutes later we leave with giant grins on our faces. This band was amazing. They are often compared to Sigur Ros for obvious reasons, but they are not a mere copy. This is Icelandic Post-Rock with purpose. It is sweeping and powerful. It is driving and melodic. It is commanding and beautiful.

Following the show, we get back in line abuzz with what just happened. Right behind us are some other Canadians that are talking about them as well. They had seen them earlier in the festival and had to go see them again. We get back home to Canada to find out they have nothing to buy or listen to. Eventually they release a few tracks on their site to download and listen to, and they are great. But not enough.

This week their debut album Ólgusjór was released on iTunes. A lot of bands recordings can’t live up their live experience, and the opposite is true of many. Ólgusjór is a magnificent album. The only thing it lacks is the sight of these youngsters and their giant smiles as they play along. This is music made by people who love music.

Below is a sample of the album in the form of the track Í Draumi. A piano based number that is driven but the repeating drums and then escalated by those awesome horns and accented by strings. The rest of the album is as good or better, so head over to iTunes and buy the album to support this talented young group from Iceland.

-Shaun

Today Pitchfork Best New Music’d a new track from the Fantastic new Cass McCombs album “Wit’s End”. And as much as I enjoy that track, I can’t stop listening to the opener “County Line”. As with nearly all of Cass’ recordings, Wit’s End is a casual throwback feeling album that rarely picks up the pace. But it is full of melody, insight, and texture. To me “County Line” feels like a journey. Almost as though he is taking a familiar route that he would take to a former lover and he is forced to remember the failures of the relationship with the fortune of hindsight. But that’s just what I get. And when he gets to that sad falsetto that just pours out the pain, wow.

There is a dark and moody NSFW video for the track that interprets it completely differently, but works just as well. Take a watch and a listen and get sad. It’s over at V Magazine. It appears I can’t embed it.

And here is my fav track off his last album. Not nearly as sad.

- Shaun

In the same vein as my last post, this one is about Icelandic music and Sound Cloud. The Iceland Music Export has released a compilation to promote new Icelandic music entitled “Made in Iceland 4″. This collection is a fantastic sampling of music that is a varied as the small country is. And any compilation that opens with “Of Monsters and Men” and close with “Lockerbie” to me is a winner. The opening track is reminiscent of the trends that we are seeing out here in North America with the roots and folk revival and it reminds me a lot of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.

I am really feeling terrible today, so I am gonna throw this on and take a nap. Take a listen below and as always let us know what you think.

-Shaun

Calgary has really taken off in the last few years when it comes to Alberta music festivals. In recent years their Folk Music Festival has decided to take an opposite approach to the more popular Edmonton one and recruit acts that appeal to a younger generation of fans, while really stretching the interpretation of ‘folk’ in the festival’s name. For 2011, I am more excited to see Calgary’s Folk Festival lineup than Edmonton’s because they seem to bring in more bands that I like and they are willing to take a risk that may upset die-hard ‘folk music’ fans.

The other growing festival is Sled Island, a four day, multi-venue music and arts festival that began in 2007. Artists such as Les Savy Fav, The Breeders, Jonathan Richman, Jose Gonzales and The Melvins have appeared over the years among a slew of Canadian acts, comedians and visual artists. I’ve never managed to make the trip down for it, but this year I’d really like to, especially since a few of my faves are playing. This year the festival runs from June 22 – 25 in many venues throughout Calgary, Alberta. Tickets went on sale in March and cost $179, or $349 to feel like a VIP, for the whole festival. Check out Sled Island’s website for more details.

I’m patiently awaiting the full lineup which will be released later today, but for now some of the headliners have been released including:

The Dandy Warhols
Blonde Redhead
The Buzzcocks
Of Montreal
Kurt Vile
Chad VanGaalen
The Greenhorns
Sleep
The Raveonettes
Chali 2na
Braids
Hunx and His Punk
Alberta Cross

Update! I stole this from Exclaim, don’t tell. Here are some more acts that will be playing:

Adebisi Shank,  Alejandro Escovedo, An Horse, AU, Bare Wires, Barn Burner, the Bellrays, Biblical, Bison BC, C’mon, Cursive, Deer Tick, Demon’s Claws, Dinosaur Feathers, the Donkeys, Dreamdate, Drunk Horse, Dum Dum Girls, Electric Six, the Intelligence, Jeff the Brotherhood, Jenn Grant, Jim Ward, Julianna Barwick, Justin Townes Earle, Keys N Krates, the Lytics, the Lusitania, Man Man, Minus the Bear, Moon Duo, the Muffs, Neil Hamburger, Orgone, Ortolan, Parts and Labor, Pierced Arrows, Pujol, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Red Fang, Skratch Bastid, Sleep, the Soft Pack, Sonny & The Sunsets, Starfucker, Surf City, the Sword, Teengirl Fantasy, Thee Oh Sees, Tig Notaro, Times New Viking, Twin Shadow, Wild Flag, Wild Nothing, Yip Deceiver, Zola Jesus

Rest of the lineup to follow as announced. Stay tuned!

Lately I have been getting confused by the whole definition of Dubstep. Dubstep has obvious similarities to Grime, Drum and Bass, and Uk Garage, but then there are the artist’s that push things in different directions. It seems that there are different sub-genres of dubstep that are starting to emerge. And with the dubstep influence starting to saturate itself into North American Pop artists like Brittany Spears, it is an inevitability. First were the DJs and artists like Skream and more recently like Rusko. Then there was Burial, who to me defined the dubstep sound. And then came James Blake which was completely different. And even more recently (If you can legitimately say that) comes Jamie Woon.

Jamie Woon is associated with Burial which has really hyped up his forthcoming release. But in the end its the songs and the voice that are really what sets him apart. While James Black has a killer emotive voice that is showcased on a few tracks, his album is more of an educated listen that rewards with time. Whereas Jamie Woon sounds like a legitimate soul singer with a penchant for electronic production. He is Dubstep’s crossover artist. And it explains why the James and Jamie are beginning to be called Post-dubstep.

Below are three videos. The new video for Lady Luck. A song that reminds me more of Craig David then it does Blake. This is a radio friendly jam that is getting heavy remix treatments.

The next is likely my favourite track by him so far. It is co-produced by Burial and has a strong yet subtle Influence.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0pTo9Z_XU&w=640&h=390]

And the last video is an acoustic number called “Waterfront” which is appropriately sung by the waterfront. Just him and an acoustic guitar. Completely different than the last 2 songs and it showcases his voice, songwriting, and versatility.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NjwqduNsbo&w=640&h=390]

His debut album is set to release on April 11th. I expect this to be an extremely strong debut that has a chance to break through on several levels. The comparisons with James Blake will likely continue, but it looks to be the year for (post) Dubstep to infiltrate North America.

-Shaun

Yesterday when I was writing up a post I noticed that we were getting a lot of hits for people googling “We get up early just to start cranking the generator”. Which is from a song by the fantastic band “Freelance Whales” which I featured on my Best of 2009 list. I was confused as to why, but just assumed that the song was getting airplay somewhere in the world finally. Then this morning I read that the A.V. Club started up season 2, so I jumped on over to hear the first track, and lo and behold, the commercial before the song is a Starbucks commercial featuring the song “Generator ^ First Floor”. So if you are interested in the song head on over to the Post I made about the album back in November 2009 and give it a listen. The commercial is below.

[brightcove vid=824127061001&exp3=88719743001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=1612549662&pk=AQ~~,AAAAAGAdjh4~,FRd2Oughfq-VNNcHts-WSJ6a8MgLnJW1&w=480&h=295]

As for the A.V. Club. It is a fantastic little series in which Artists choose a song from a list of great songs to cover. Once an artist does the song it is crossed off, and can’t be done again, meaning that the further down the list the artist has less songs to choose from. The first one in this season is Iron and wine (featuring Marketa Iglova) covering “One more try” by George Michael. I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the original, but Iron and Wine do a fantastic version. So head on over to the A.V. Club and check it out. I can’t wait for the Little Red Corvette cover, should be one of the earlier choices.

And for those fans of George Michael out there, you likely remember the song Careless Whisper and it’s accompanying video. Well there is a video of sexy sax man playing the sax part in public that is worth watching. You may find yourself humming the sax part for the next few hours but it is rather entertaining.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaoLU6zKaws?hd=1&w=640&h=390]

So enjoy a George Michael and Freelance Whales kinda afternoon.

- Shaun