Dance Sister Dance

So you all know how much I love the Scissor Sisters for their musical prowess and fantastic stage moves, but little did I know that they were interactive web geniuses as well.

If you go to www.dancesisterdance.com you can insert pictures of you, your friends, or your idols and watch them dance to the Sisters' latest single "I don't feel like dancin".

For your viewing pleasure I've created one with the most popular person on the planet, David Hasselhoff.

Click here to see it.

**FYI, this video only has one Hoff in it, but you can create them with two different people, or two of the same person. Go crazy!**

Britpop. I live it. I love it. We don't really have a shortage of it here in New York, but there's nothing like being just bathed in all the latest and greatest while staying in London. It pours from the radio, comes across in cafes, and is painted on billboards across town.

#1 on the scene these days is The Kooks - a foursome from Brighton, none of whom top the ripe old age of 19 but who've already achieved triple platinum in the U.K. Stateside their popularity is wavering - probably due to the fact that their music wavers between pop, rock, ballads, with splashes of reggae and funk thrown in. They've got influences from The Kinks, The Strokes, and true peers Arctic Monkeys. One of the singles off their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, "Naive," has the same flavor as Razorlight's latest single "In The Morning - melodic, catchy, pop. But just as they can sell - their album is triple platinum - they've got songs on Inside In/Inside Out that explore their range. Ballads like "Seaside" and mini-post-punk anthems like "Eddie's Gun." Some folks (i.e. Pitchfork) find this range disjointed and difficult to follow, but for The Kooks, this is what gives them their edge. According to lead singer Luke Pritchard,

"Bands tend to do one thing and then stick to it. With The Kooks we plan to do the opposite. When there's so much music to explore, why limit yourself?"

I'm with Luke - the young irreverence, hope, and screeching energy that echoes from The Kooks is contagious. I love the way their music vacillates, excites, and explores. And at just 19 and under they have a ways to go... The key will likely be if they can make it to their next album.

The Kooks are currently on a very quick US tour - visiting New York this Saturday night at Northsix in Brooklyn and then to California before starting a big European tour.

The Kooks Homepage
MySpace

Round the world and back...

Hello friends!

Boy, it has been a long time since I've posted and it feels good to quite good to be back here. I've not been neglecting you all though, I promise. I just took a 10 day jaunt across the pond to Europe for a bit of sightseeing, drinking, and general over-indulgence that comes with a real holiday.

Luckily though I took time to explore the music scene via locals, music stores and magazines and I've returned with some recommendations, the first of which being Scottish band The Fratellis.

This Green Day meets The Futureheads meets The Libertines threesome hails from Glasgow and have been burning up the charts in the U.K. Their first single released in April and their album, Costello Music, is currently #2 on the charts there. From this band you can expect 3 minute manifestos of Clash-esque short and upbeat chords, lyrics that shake your head and make you want to dance. Guitarist Jon Fratelli can hold some nice solos, but he's not meant to be the next Jimi Hendrix, and there are no grandiose notions of that here. These guys are out to make even the most stubborn of toe-tappers throw their hands up in excitement.

Unfortunately they haven't yet released any music in the U.S. but keep on the lookout via their website and myspace page for more info on these guys - especially any upcoming live shows.

www.thefratellis.com
http://www.myspace.com/littlebabyfratelli

Something old, something new

In today's NY Times there's an article about private-press albums, the reissuing of old songs from *very* little known artists that are now being sold through the internet and small labels. The Times suggests that the growth of these private-press albums (mostly over the internet) is directly related to the current overwhelming availability of music on the internet - artists are now capable of uploading entire collections onto the web for the world to hear via MySpace, etc. Consequently, serious collectors have to quench their insatiable thirst for new music by hunting for the rare recordings of artists no one has ever heard of: artists who made one LP at 1,000 copies they gave away exclusively to friends and families. The private-press labels then reissue them as compilations or solo albums.

This article brought up two points of discussion for me:
1) How the internet truly is breathing a new life into the music industry, they just don't really know or understand it yet.
2) I was reminded of the satisfaction one has in discovering artists of the past and just how much they've influenced my favorite bands of today.

Point #1: The music industry (amongst other content industries) continues to grapple with monetizing a move from hardware to software. For a long time there's been the sense that once recordings are released into the atmosphere the artists (and more importantly the labels) lose control over them and consequently are unable to make money off of them. The truth of the matter though is that the internet gives fans and collectors an infinite Virgin megastore at their fingertips. And what's better, there are more tools to growing and influencing your music collection on the web than there ever could be in a brick and mortar store. The "if you like", "other listeners also bought" and similar such programs open up listeners eyes and ears to the endless spider web of musicians that he or she might find themselves in love with - almost a democratization of the encyclopedia of musical recordings out there: now anyone can have them, not just obsessive compulsive collectors.

This theory is nothing new, and in fact it is what's fueling the rapid growth of information sites like Wikipedia. I recently read an interview with Wiki founder Jimmy Wales in Good Magazine (a great new mag, btw) in which he was quoted as saying "One of the biggest problems of the digital divide is the cost of access to information... We seek to make that cost as close to zero as possible." Now, there's no way that's a possibility for the music industry as the artists need to live, but there is a sort of barrier to embracing the fact that this democratization of recordings and musical information is a good, ne great, thing for the music industry.

Point #2: This point was actually fueled earlier this week by the Built to Spill show I saw at Warsaw in Brooklyn. Sitting in the crowd and looking at the remarkably varied ages of the concert-goes I was reminded that a band like BtS has been around for about 15 years, and listening to Doug March's hauntingly captivating voice and guitar riffs it was nearly impossible not to think of bands at the height of their popularity - i.e. Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse - were directly influenced by BtS.

Despite what some critics might fault as an inability of artists to create anything new (is everything we listen to really just a recycled version of something of the past) I love to hear influences of past musicians in my new favorites. Just like The Rapture sings on their new album, "everybody's got a little piece of someone they hide" it's fascinating to realize that contemporary artists like Jenny Lewis probably listened to Eels and carried that twangy, soulful, singer-songwriter theme through her writing in Rilo Kiley and in her own band. And to hear Guided By Voices' disjointed sometimes Ramones-esque and more often Pixie-ish 2 minute songs pop up as softer versions in Dirty on Purposes' albums - well, it's just enjoyable for me.

Hold Up...

Tomorrow is the launch of The Hold Steady's newest album, Boys and Girls in America. I've posted about these guys before, but the lead up to this album has been hilariously overpromoted that I thought I'd do a quick round up for everyone.

Quickly to summarize, The Hold Steady is a Twin Cities band that prides themselves on being local, American, and very accessible. They write songs about actually people that you probably know, situations you've most likely been in if you grew up in any suburban town, and lead singer Craig Finn weaves in real and fabricated US cities into many of his songs.

Pitchfork has long been obsessed with The Hold Steady, and boldly gave the new album a 9.4 today. For me, they've been a bit of an acquired taste - in theory I love what they're all about, beer, small bars, and real life situations, but in practice Craig Finn's yelling of his lyrics can become somewhat grating.

That being said, Boys and Girls of America (currently available for streaming on Vagrant here) is very "listenable." If you liked The Hold Steady already, you'll love it, and if you thought songs like "MilkcrateMosh" and "You're Little Hoodrat Friend" got old quickly you might just enjoy the softer beats and melodies in Boys and Girls.

What I've found funniest about The Hold Steady though is watching the blogosphere just snowball them into the atmosphere. As I mentioned, Pitchfork has been championing them forever and last week Idolator picked up on their bias and poked some fun at them by polling readers on what grade Pitchfork would rate Boys and Girls (10, 9.9, etc). Pitchfork shot back with the exclusive first listen to the full album stream of Boys and Girls and a little ribbing of Idolator while they were at it (this kind of rivalry I predict will be entertaining for no less than 3 months).

Then this Saturday I open up my paper to see an enormous 2,300 word essay about none other than The Hold Steady, complete with an interactive map of the states and cities they've written about/been influenced by and audio clips.

Regardless of what I ultimately think of The Hold Steady, I back these guys for producing their own type of music and keeping to their motto of being a local band as well as letting the hype work in their favor. Anyone who says they've sold out doesn't appreciate the fact that they've produced a major commodity: unique music amongst a scene of repurposed chords, and they should be able to make some cash out of that. More power to 'em!

Below a round up of some recent coverage of The Hold Steady:

NYTimes Arts Section
Pitchfork - Review of Boys and Girls In America
Idolator commentary on Pitchfork's Coverage of The Hold Steady
Boys and Girls Streaming Music