Playlist of the Week: Groove Directive 3

This playlist is the ultimate power in your dance universe.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

Turn it up.  Blow it out.  Movement, movement, bass, bass.  Beats as remedy.  Forever.  Repeat.

iPad, iPhone, and other smart phone users, click here to play the playlist.

Spotify version of the playlist is located below the track listing. Not a Spotify member?  No problem. An 8tracks playlist (requiring no membership) is also found below.    

QMJ: 4 Rad New Under-the-Radar Albums You Need So Hard

Lord above, please let someone create a comic book version of me someday.  Amen.

We're not even to the end of March yet and the overwhelming sense that 2013 is already a better music year than 2012 is hard to ignore.  With such prominent (and generally high quality) releases at the "top end" of the attention spectrum from artists such as Atoms For Peace, Nick Cave, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, etc., it's a sheer numbers game thus far in 2013 that's allowing some truly amazing releases to fly slightly under the radar.

While bands like Foxygen, Autre Ne Veut, and Phosphorescent aren't exactly household names, they're getting a considerable amount of that super-special and fuzzy "indie buzz" and aren't really what I'm talking about here--though I'd strongly recommend any of these albums.  Instead, I give you four albums from artists you may or may not be aware of whose excellent new work has been largely "undercovered" thus far in a jam-packed new year.

1.  OutRun by Kavinsky: Daft Punk's carefully-crafted frenetics meets Glass Candy's retro sheen and style.  An digitally-flush journey full of revelations both subtle and dramatic.  Hot-blooded nocturnal escapism of the highest order.

Click HERE to listen to OutRun on Spotify

2.   Specter At The Feast by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: The coolest band name in music today returns with a big bad noise-rock creation full of ambition and some real tenderness.  The work here is at once muscular but never hard to listen to.  Many of the songs are long but never feel aimless.  There's so much heart here and it's great to see BRMC's re-energized climb back from their middling days (think Baby 81) continuing in 2013.  Post-punk made with classic rock elements.

Click HERE to listen to Specter At The Feast on Spotify

3.  Images du Futur by Suuns: The words "hypnotic" and "haunting" are used far too much in music critique and I know this.  But damn if there aren't two better words to describe this band, their sound, and their overall tone.  There's a cocktail of talent, vision, and likely psychotropic drugs at play here that continues to draw me back in--but it's an inclination I'm all too happy to indulge.  Electric pulsating waves of audio interference.  But in a good way.

Click HERE to listen to Images du Futur on Spotify

4.  Us Alone by Hayden: Look, I'm not gonna bullshit you.  This is indie folkie (occasionally sad bastard) music and there's plenty of that out there.  But Hayden--as he has for years--possesses the ability to make it exceptionally well.  His firm yet vulnerable voice can teeter, but endearingly so and it never starts to beat you (ahem, Bon Iver).  Hayden transcends other folkie compatriots with his layered harmonies and his adventurous instrumentation that never feels like an aping.  Personally, I love an artist who can use both a piano and an organ in the same song so very well.  There's a gentleness here that is never weak and with repeated listens it becomes genuinely magnetic.  Those of you loving on the new Phosphorescent album for it's delicate yet sweeping and skilled musing will enjoy this album thoroughly.

Click HERE to listen to Us Alone on Spotify

QMJ: Spoken Word Nick Cave (!!!)--The Secret Life of the Love Song

After my first live experience with the GREAT Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds this past week in Dallas, I proceeded to go on a Google hunt for anything and everything Nick Cave.  Fortunately, I stumbled upon some absolute GOLD in the form of this spoken-word recording of a lecture that Cave gave on how he views the love song, how he writes them, the role they play in "actualizing" God, etc. The recording includes both his lecture as well as intimate versions of a handful of his songs performed to lend context to his overall message.  Hearing him describe his process, his thinking, and his overall songwriting motivations is nothing short of mesmerizing.  The link above also includes the full transcript!

Playlist of the Week: Weekender 5

True giants never really stop casting giant shadows.

A short hiatus, but alas I've returned!  I'm backed up so hard with new good music, I'm not sure I could take waiting much longer.  So I won't.  But I've been busy taking hugely rad life steps, traveling America, and gearing up for another big rock 'n roll show in my beloved hometown.  I'm all up in lots, clearly.

But you want this.  You need this.  Your weekend is kicking off with a dozen fruits to tame your hunger along the road to rock salvation with a variety of classic and contemporary flavors.  A dozen tracks and a dozen "becauses":

1.  "Protovision" by Kavinsky:  Because as my friend TJ Clark so eloquently stated to me earlier this week, "I'm sure the new Daft Punk will be good, but if Outrun (by Kavinsky) was the album DP released, people would shit themselves."  And I concur.

2.  "2020" by Suuns: Because I am equally creeped out, intrigued, and impressed by the electronic voodoo these Montreal wizards of audio create.  Listen under a variety of influences.  

3.  "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" by David Bowie: Because David Bowie is a treasure.  And if he's decided there's a good reason to make music again, I dare say you can be assured there's a good reason for you to listen.

4.  "People Power" by White Mystery: Because two-member rock bands done right are a pleasant surprise these days--and because they will be sharing their bombastic brand of beat-making tonight here in Oklahoma City.  I'm there. You're there.  We're all there.

5.  "Jubilee Street" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Because Nick Cave is both the monster hiding in the dark and the angel sent by God to come save us all.

6.  "Default" by Atoms For Peace: Because while everyone focuses on lead singer Thom Yorke, I'm fascinated by the idea of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea making good music for the first time in a decade and a half.

7.  "Jezebel" by Sade: As I get older, I've begun to hear Sade's stylistic influence in places I didn't expect.  Check out Destroyer's Kaputt or the most recent Ducktails release The Flower Lane.  I swear, I'm not making this up.

8.  "Sewr Rat" by Copperheads: Because it's 95 seconds of absolute rock relentlessness that is missing nothing except maybe the letter "e"--but I don't ever seem to notice.

9.  "Prairie Rose" by Roxy Music: Because to be ignorant of the greatness of Roxy Music's 70's catalog (as I have up until recently) is to be missing a huge portion of your glam rock education.

10.  "Blurry Nights" by Hayden: Because his new album--like much of his career--has flown almost criminally under the radar in 2013 and it's time for a reckoning.

11.  "Drive Inn" by The Boom Bang: Because this week the band announced that it would soon be no more and the loss of my city's most entertaining live act has hurt me more than I expected.

12.  "Raspberry Cane" by Youth Lagoon: Because while the new album has yet to fully take me in, the flashes of brilliant soft touches and pure soul of Youth Lagoon is nearly impossible to ignore.  And because I don't know what the hell a "raspberry" is, but am hoping this song will eventually educate me.

 iPhone and other smart phone users, click here to play the playlist. 

Spotify playlist below the track list. Not a Spotify member?  No problem. An 8tracks playlist (requiring no membership) is also found below.