rabble rabble

Happy holiday weekend. To celebrate summer's arrival, theres a new Bomb The Music Industry! album on the way, called Vacation. If the song "Everybody The You Love" is anything to go by, this release is going to be a break from the depressing content of their last two records.

To celebrate Vacation's arrival, the band has released an instrumental version of a yet unreleased song from the album - "Vocal Coach" They want you to provide the lyrics and send it - you know what, they describe it better and in the cruise control to awesome.

BTMI! BRING YOUR OWN SINGER

album of the week: 5.4

Ancient Astronauts

Into Bass And Time

(2011)

Why you'll love it: Stands right alongside first Gorillaz and Deltron albums.

Why you'll hate it: White-friendly hip-hop.

Plastic Beach did not do it for me. It's not a terrible album, but compared to Demon Days (2005), it's rubbish. So what in this new decade is going to fit that specifically designed Gorrilaz shaped gap, especially since I don't listen to much hip-hop to begin with? Enter Ancient Astronauts.

Hailing from Germany, this is a DJ duo with various guest vocal appearances. They hit all the right beats of a classic Dan The Automator production. Good use of samples. Smooth laid back style, but with enough variation never to keep boring. A cool central theme (this case being the whole astronauts thing). Honestly, if you were to tell me this was a Dan The Automator record, I would not call it into question.

The guest appearances are ok. No performances leapt out at me, but none turned me off. It's the instrumentals that make this album memorable and fun. "Anti Pop Song" is a top quality jam. "Peace in The East" has good use of the Indian and Middle East region vibe. "Calvert Street Rock" is old-school English dub ska. There is a bit more variety to this album than you may expect.

To be clear, this is NOT a Gorillaz copycat band. There is a whole punk and rock range of influences Gorillaz have that are not present here. It's all hip-hop and instrumentals; stuff that I loved in the old Gorillaz and Deltron 3030 albums. My personal scope is so limited that I'm provided with a fair replacement, but that is not their intent. It's great music, that you should check out, even if you think you don't need it.

my camera does what I say

Music videos with a touch of interaction isn't a completely new idea. An article I about the following music video mentioned a Black Eyed Peas video, and I remember an indie band doing a video where you can click around a space during a song. Devo's just for the hell of it, super cool "What We Do" music video takes it a bit further by adding a ticker at the bottom that directly links to the band's webstore whenever one of the models change outfits.

It's further corporate satire, the theme of Devo's 2010 album, Something For Everybody. Devo mugs and parades around the landscape as if they were still in their 20s. Great music video, and seriously, one of the best Devo songs ever.

album of the week: 5.3

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Belong

2011

why you'll love it: young love in a 80's ballad vibe.

why you'll hate it: the 80's were terrible!

A few weeks ago, we looked at TV on The Radio's Nine Types of Light. Among other things, I was very impressed with their ability to craft love songs that felt mature, honest, and thoughtful. Belong is on the other end of the spectrum. Their love songs are juvenile, exaggerated, and impulsive.

You'd expect a name like The Pains of Being Pure At Heart to lay on the cheese thick, but their self titled debut found its way to me somehow last year, and really won me over. Either their sappy lyrics were restrained on that release, or the indie surf rock fuzz managed to distract me entirely. I came away glibly praising them as "No Age, but good!"

Belong starts off on the right foot, with a nice pace. A bit more bubblegum than the first album, but good distorted pop. After that, the assaults begin with eye-rolling catch phrases. The music eventually gets sappier as well. We're talking high school prom class of '86 sap. The Pains' production has an old school feel, but they're tapping into a subculture of the past that should be dead and buried. Halfway into the album, I feel trapped in a John Hughes film, and those are films I do NOT want to be in.

If you're still nostalgic for 80's pop ballads, and enjoy unrealistic on-the-nose love song lyrics, then you've hit the jackpot. If not, Belong is audio repulsion gel.

Heck yeah, 2000