s n e a k e r b i k e ¯•¯

(when it happens on thursday)

I’m heading over the pond to England tonight so I won’t be around on friday, the lovliest of all weekdays, to bring the music to the sneakerbike massive. So this week friday comes early with 6 glorious days worth of found blog treasure. Hopefully our boy Q will fill in with some gems for the next two weeks.

Just found out about this fine little thing called Alice Smith, and I’m quite smitten. I’m actually pretty sure she’s from heaven. For such a small frame she packs some serious funk per cubic inch too.This track has her lending her vocals to a Freeform Five’s beat which judging from the tunes on her myspace page is a bit of a departure stylistically. It works well though. Easy on the ears and it doesn’t hurt at all that she looks…. how she looks.

Alice Smith – Love Endeavour (Freeform Five’s Freeform Reform)

Here’s Kanye West doing one of my favourite tunes ‘Gone’ live at Abbey Road studios. Hearing his music with live keys and strings has me thinking that he may be one of the best composers of our generation. He doesn’t just lay great beats over great samples. He weaves thick textures and sculpts massive sounds into something much bigger. Listen to the tune and if you still don’t believe that he’s something special get Chris Q to do his interpretation of Ye’s patented reverse arm thrust.

Kanye West – Gone (live at Abbey Road Studios feat. Consequence)

A nice fat juicy remix of The Futureheads’ ‘Skip to the End’ by Digitalism… Digi-who-wha?… I don’t know. Google it or something.

Futureheads – Skip to the End (remixed by Digitalism)

Hey guess what… MSTRKRFT took the vocals from an indie-ish song and added a fat dirty baseline as well as a healthy dose of claps and cowbells… Shocker! I’m playing.. I’ll never get sick of that shit. This time it’s The Gossip’s ‘Listen Up’ who are getting quite a bit of buzz of their own all of a sudden. MSTRKFT always seem to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to getting their hands all over that next shit. By the way, Sneakerbike advises you to go out and buy their new album ‘The Looks’. If you like their original compositions like ‘Easy Love’ you’ll love the album. It’s def. one of the best albums of the year.

The Gossip – Listen Up! (MSTRKRFT re-lick)

p.s. Sneakerbike advises you to buy all the albums from all the artists… ever.

(but he didn’t care about you yesterday)

These tracks were all written this year.

80’s influence: Kate Bush (only acknowledged and intentional)

Zeigeist – Tar Heart

80’s influence: The Pretenders (only better)

The Long Blondes – Weekend Without Makeup

80’s influence: The Cure (only Canadian-er)

Paper Cranes – Milk Run

80’s influence: The Stone Roses (only crunchier)

Under Electric Light – Night Out

80’s inlfluence: New Order influenced vocals perhaps (really I just wanted an excuse to post my newest remix project)

Le Sport – Chemical Drugs (Remixed by Julian Simpson)

If you’d rather be in your den shooting things, typing to robots or scouring for the latest in liquid crystal display t-shirts on a sunny sunday afternoon you might just want a little perspective. As with any indulgence, it’s all fine in moderation.

“Technological addictions are operationally defined as non-chemical, behavioural addictions that involve human-machine interaction. They can be either passive (e.g. television) or active (e.g. the computer) and usually contain inducing and reinforcing features, which may contribute to the promotion of addictive tendencies.”

Just in time for Summer, John Fluevog and Gnarls Barkley are giving you the chance to dance away in your Flash New Fluevogs, listening to Gnarls Barkley on your Brand New Apple iPod*. So throw on a black hat, pour yourself a glass of milk, slide some flavour on the turntables and ENTER HERE.

(it’s friday)

This was not the greatest week in music. I don’t know why but the tunes failed to move me this week. It wasn’t from lack of effort either. I looked high, and low under rocks and behind trees. I exhausted all the usual sources and nothing made itself obvious. I should have known it was going to be a dissapointing week when I came across a bluegrass version of one of my favourite songs ever; ‘Float On’ by Modest Mouse as rended on the “pickin’ on Modest Mouse” bluegrass tribute cd. That less than inspiring cover (which you’ll thank me for not posting) did however get me thinking. I’ve heard a number of redos recently which have caught my interest so why not use this week – the week the music died – to reflect on a few of them.

Nouvelle Vague are not my favourite band in the whole world. I find them to be a bit of a novelty act. The all lounge – all the time theme wears bit thin for me rather quickly, unless I’m on one of my barbituate benders. Occasionally though, they get it right as they have here with their rendition of Billy Joel’s ‘dancing with myself’. A word of warning though – too much dancing with one’s self can cause one to go blind.

Nouvelle Vague – Dancing With Myself

The original version of ‘Hounds of Love’ by Kate Bush was great and one of the the things that made it great is how loosely held together it felt. It sounds almost as if it was captured in one take and very well could have been. The Futureheads are quite the opposite, very detail oriented with an obvious focus on solid timing, production, and mixing. Those are the differences I’m hearing and I’m not quite sure what it all adds up to except that I love them both.

Futureheads – Hounds of Love

I first heard ‘Heartbeats’ by Jose Gonzalez a few months ago and immediately thought it was one of the prettiest songs I’d heard in a long time. It sounds so natural I had no idea it was actually a cover. The original, it turns out, is by The Knife and is not pretty. In fact it’s dark and harsh and after a few listens quite addictive. Despite being less organic sounding than Jose’s cover, the original has bucketloads of raw emotion.

The Knife – Heartbeats

‘Maps’ by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s is another all time favourite of mine so before pressing play on this reggae inspired version by Bonjay I was a bit worried that I was about to witness a butchering. The thing that saves this version is that it’s nothing like the original. The basic vocal tune is the same and so are the lyrics but as far as I’m concerned it’s a completely different song which does quite well standing alone. When is a cover not a cover?

Bonjay – Maps

p.s. spend your allowance at the record shop.

thanks to my man Carlos for this link to a sweet app that lets you stream tv. especially usefull when your trying to see a world cup game at work. just click on espn2 for live matches ;)

link

a site that i visit quite often for music news seems to have gone through a major update. loving the layout and graphic style so i thought i’d share. generally good write-ups on bands and a varied range of genres. lots of sample tracks to download or add to an online playlist.

Enjoy, but keep coming back here on fridays for tunes we like ;)

 dig.it

(except for saturday of course)

I’m really hoping this tendancy towards creative blends of punk and electro isn’t just a passing fad as the holier than thou critics seem to be suggesting (those who aren’t able to guess tomorrow’s sound before it happens seem content to rely on being the first to hate something in order to preserve their web cred (i’m looking at you pitchfork)). Regardless, i’m not quite done with it, especially when it’s done this well. CSS stands for Cansei de Ser Sexy, which translates to “tired of being sexy.” I’ve been trying to wrap my head around some of the lyrics and I’m getting stuff like: “Alala Alala gimme 3 wishes… I wanna be the dirty finger and you’re such bitches” wondering if they wrote the lyrics in french then ran them through babelfish… Best sounding nonsense i’ve heard in a while.

CSS – Alala

Peaches are the sexiest fruit.
Peaches – Do Ya

These kids from Australia know how to rock. This is probably the most reserved song on their self titled album. I’m hearing definite shades Karen O from the yeah yeah yeah’s in the vocal styling which is a good thing if you ask me. When did it become uncool hear something, love it, and want to try it yourself?

Be Your Own PET – Adventure

This is my desert island song of the moment. I can’t get enough. I love the sounds. I love the vocals. It’s a dirty pretty thing if ever there was one.

Walter Meego – Romantic Floss (flosstradamus remix)

If I hadn’t discovered the Walter Meego track above this very week, the blurb for this one might start out ‘This is my desert island song of the moment…’. As it stands though this is Chris Q’s desert island song or rocky mountain song as it happens. Either way a beauty.

Sebastien Tellier – LaRitournell (Metronomy remix)

What? Nelly Furtado two weeks in a row? I can’t help it… This tune is just so catchy. Although, Timbaland, dude, nice nice beats but please leave the singing to the pretty girl.

Nelly Furtado – Maneater

p.s. The artists are starving, please feed them.