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Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - My Baby

Earlier this week, musicnotetaker posted about The Take Away Shows at La Blogotheque. I have been addicted to the video of Margot and the Nuclear So and So's performing "My Baby". Guitarist and Vocalists, Richard Edwards quietly strums and sings the song as violins glide in and out and random percussion sounds are created by whatever objects are available. The songs climaxes and ends with the band and their friends singing along to the song. This video gave me goosebumps and filled my heart. It reminded me of how beautiful music can be and the power it has to bring people together to all sing along.

Everyone should have friends like these.


Margot and the Nuclear So & So's - My Baby - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Daedelus - Sundown

Here's the video/animation to Daedelus's song "Sundown" off the album Denies The Day's Demise which was released on Mush Records back in 2006. The video was directed by Clay Lipsky,the multi-Emmy Award winning designer/director based in Los Angeles.

I like how Clay personifies the lines and uses them as heroes (and Daedelus's music playing!) to bring back the sunshine to a dismal factory-infested city. An environmental message, fo sho. My favorite part are the choppy stop-motion bits juxtaposed with the capoeira-like percussion line that busts out mid-song, brightening up the saddened electro overtones.

Daedulus is now on the Ninjatune label releasing memorable songs like "Fair Weather Friends" from the album Love To Make Music...which also is a sweet animation worth checking out.

Check out this phat remix of Daedelus's more recent work Hrs:Mins:Sec (Etan remix) with Shuttle doing the mix. Shuttle originally hails from Southern Maryland (301/240!!!) growing up with the B'more/DC electronic/club scene...moving on to the Boston underground jamming out with his tightly knit Basstown crew. His highly anticipated debut release will feature Cadence Weapon and a remix by fellow up and comer High Rankin courtesy of Ninja Tune worldwide.

PS. did anyone notice how there have been two FRIDAY 13th's in a row this year?

Harvest of Hope Recap

Harvest of Hope was a musical bliss with Florida's punk and indie scene melding into a cluster of sunshine, sweat and sunburn. There were so many artists at the festival...and I'd hate to NOT mention all bands, but here's my scope on how HOH went down:

::most energetic::

Monotonix was incredible! The 3 piece band got dirty - and by dirty I mean head diving into the pit with mud on their faces. Unconventional and nomadic, they didn't even set up on stage - they migrated through the crowd, peaking everyone's curiosity as each song was played. Lead singer Ami Shalev commanded us into chants , encouraging crowdsurfing while he made his rounds floating on top. Yonatan Gat's lucious locks streamed in the wind while posing on the stage rails - guitar in air belting out headspinners, while drummer Ran Shimoni and his whole drumset was raised into air battling beats - getting the crowd to jam along with him (you should've seen the other bands looking on Ami when he climbed up the huge stereo sound system before diving back into the crowd). The Israeli influence was definitely there but Monotonix just takes it to the next level channeling legends like Led Zeppelin - here's a snippet of the Tel Aviv-based band: Body Language.

OK OK...don't want to forget Wu-Tang, since they are a given. Put yo hands up and do the wuuuuuuuu taaaaaang , wuuuuuu tannnng. W !

::newbies but goodies::

SunBears! was adorable. I happened to stumble on into their set and was blown away by the duo with Jonathan on piano/leads and Jared on drums while a cheesy but effective visualizer strobed behind them. Check out their track "I'm Alive". They also happen to be from Florida.

::most satisfying::

I was so happy to see The Mountain Goats, well John Darnielle ...although I know I'm going to make it through this year...having not seen Peter Hughes. I was so smitten when he played Tallahassee (i heart that place) when the crowd cheered "I HOPE U DIE, I HOPE WE BOTH DIE" ::sigh:: a sigh of satisfaction.

::the tearjerker::

I wish I could put Dave Dondero in my back pocket so he could sing to me at a moment's notice about all his travels and woes. On stage he lit up with his acoustic set - even more genuine than a rugged pair of Levis, this Californian bred can lay it on thick with his sincere lyrics that make alt-country americana folk, rock harder than ever. Here's his take, a ode to Florida if ya will "South of the South".

::local sensation::

Black Kids is a 5 piece band hailing from Jacksonville,FL and boy are they charming! They've been making headway across the US with their upbeat pop 'n dancey tracks. Here's a remix done by The Twelves of their song "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You"...

::hypnotists::

This was Deerhunter's first time playing at a festival and I'm shoooooo glad they did. The swirling sound of psychedelic-surfy guitars got me all fuzzy and put me into a musi-coma. I walked away wanting more and disappointed that they couldn't play a full set. Check out their song "Little Kids" from their latest release Microcastle and here's the track that got me going "Wash Off" off their Florescent Grey EP ....you could just play their album on repeat on a sunny afternoon in the grass sipping on some o-Jizzle.

::amazing live::

So when Health came out with an album release last year, I thought that they were pretty intense other than their light-hearted smash Glitter Pills on their split 7" with Crystal Castles. I had to step into their world of electroslashin trashing guitars with massive feedback and tribal beats. But they do it so WELL. If you get a chance to catch 'em on tour, you bettah. They'll be in Greensboro,NC March 25th @ Green St. Club. For more tour dates click here.

::bands i didn't see that i really wanted to::

I suck for not having gotten to the festival in time to see King Khan and the Shrines, along with Girl Talk. Bummertown.

::last words::

Did you know that The Harvest of Hope was a benefit? Uh, yeah, this festival was created to raise awareness for the non-profit organization "Harvest of Hope" that provides financial, educational, and service oriented aid to migrant farm workers all over the country. A great fest indeed.

Win a Graniph t-shirt from 3 Snapshots

As many of you already know, I write a separate music blog called GET OFF THE COAST. 3snapshots.com has given me a free Graniph t-shirt to give away. For free. All you have to do is click here and leave a comment with your name and email address, and I'll pick a winner at random at the end of the week. So go do that.

Arcade Fire -Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) Covered by Rock-afire

Who is Rock-afire? duh it's the Showbiz Pizza house band! Aaron Fechter, the guy who created these characters and the whole function system, programs these things to play cover songs. It's pretty on point. and pretty hysterical. I remember when I was little and had a birthday party at Showbiz. Those things always creeped me out!



check out more gems like MGMT, Usher, Shakira and more at YouTube. The Shakira one is absolutely ridiculous it's so good.

La Blogotheque

French filmmaker, Vincent Moon, shoots and uploads onto his Paris-based blog, a weekly series of fresh music videos. Instead of inviting bands into sets or studios, he convinces them to perform outside, on rooftops, in elevators, bathrooms, the streets (free concerts!). They are impromptu, often improvised, uncut, unique performances from up and coming bands. Moon has filmed Arcade Fire, Architecture in Helsinki, Final Fantasy, Animal Collective, Man Man, Bowerbirds, and Grizzly Bear to name a few. I wont tell you which one to watch because they're all good. They're called the Take Away Shows.

DUM DUM GIRLS

I've recently been listening to a lot of Lo-Fi Fuzz Noise Pop etc. stuff. (I hate categorizing so I just call it by everything I can attach it to.) Dum Dum Girls fit right into that oh so specific category. They recently released some pretty awesome videos for their songs "Catholicked" and "Blank Girl", two of their most solid songs. Check out "Catholicked" above, which features old footage of a girl being catholicked spliced together, and "Blank Girl" below.

Mixtape Club

Ah-may-zing!



Mixtape Club is a collective comprised of three people, Chris Smith, Jesse Casey, and Michelle Higa. As far as I know, this creative and dynamic trio met while studying at a university, and with their animation forces combined, they ended up creating some pretty powerful stuff.

Since then, their talents have been recognized and they've started getting hired by some big time names, to create videos for everybody from My Morning Jacket to Nike to Yo Gabba Gabba to Bette Midler to Yeasayer to Showtime (for the series 'The Tudors').

They don't stop at music videos, though! If you follow this link you can check out some of their actual Mixtapes, (although they aren't actually mixed up, it's more like a playlist/podcast).

Make sure to check out their website Mixtape Club because the videos look much better downloaded as HD MP4s (although it actually just streams them), and if you're really interested, there's a few 'behind the scenes' shorts that are just as intriguing as the videos themselves!

Harvest of Hope Fest

Some of us from the Ninjatronics Crew are heading down to St. Augustine, FL for the Harvest of Hope Fest!

Since Langerado was canceled this year, Broken Social Scene decided to pull out of the HOH fest...which would've been nice to go see, but - with 4 stages, still a killer line up. I smell a podcast. . .

Here's whats on my list in no particular order:

- Deerhunter
- Health
- King Khan and the Shrines
- Girl Talk
- Murs
- Harlem Shakes
- GZA/Genius
- Kool Keith
- Ra Ra Riot
- Diplo
- The National
- Her Space Holiday
- The Mae Shi
- The Mountain Goats
- Monotonix
- Dave Dondero
- Black Kids

Dr, Dre - Goin' Off (Rare Roadium Swap Meet mixtape)

The Roadium Open Air Market is an outdoors market in L.A. teeming with hundreds of merchant stands and thousands of bootlegged, questionable, or just plain bizarre things for sale. While more or less a flea market on crack, it also holds swap meets in which people bring items and trade each other for their sundry goods. In the mid-80s the Roadium swap meets were a hotspot for upcoming DJs to come trade mixtapes and get a feel for each others' sound and the rising hip-hop movement in general, and a young artist by the name of Dr. Dre was often in attendance. He brought with him some of the freshest beats and the lyrical stylings of some notable early hip-hop artists such as L.L. Cool J and 2 Live Crew. My personal favorite of the dozen or so mixtapes he produced for these swap meets would have to be Goin' Off, circa 1986ish. Side A of the album is some true hardcore shit with mad scratching and heavy beats, but the real awesomeness for me comes on Side B, a half hour electro hip-hop dance party that'll make you shake your ass while chanting along to "hey hey, we want some pussssssssayyyyy!" Even Kraftwerk makes an appearance in the mix, for god's sake.

And so I present to you, for a limited time, both the streaming and downloadable versions of the complete Goin' Off album. Get it while it's hot! (Or reheated, anyway.)

Happy dancing everybody.

Gospel - The Moon Is A Dead World

So i was looking up the band envy and went to their labels page and saw their roster and saw all the other bands that are now, and have been on that label (level plane records) and listened to all the mp3s they had and found Gospel. Holy dick punch Batman. I got so pumped listening to this record that I almost puked. They have very high energy, up tempo, hairpin turns, highly percussive, raw screamy kinda vocals. with that kind of singing im not usually a huge fan of, but works in this outfit pretty well. They are set pretty low in the overall mix, so i feel that its not much of a hindrance to them. Sadly I don't know if they are still around and playing shows, but I hope they are.

I would describe them with a likeness to some bands like Cinemechanica, a hint of The Mars Volta, also some sections are very Red Sparrows'ish.

Telepathe

Yet another awesome band from nyc, Telepathe, made up of Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais. They will be hitting the road for the next two months, starting out at SXSW and then opening for the Faint & Ladytron in April.

The video below is for the song "So Fine" which is on their album Dance Mother, scheduled to come out April 14th through IAMSOUND Records. The video was directed by Katherine Nolfi.

In an interview with Busy and Melissa, they stated that they prefer to collaborate "with women only" and that they get "bored by having to stick to our 'roles'". Check out the video, I like the grocery store scene and the choreographed dance scene the most.



Their tour dates w/ the Faint and Ladytron are below. Check their myspace for SXSW dates:

April​ 1st Milwa​ukee,​ WI @ Turne​r Hall Ballr​oom
April​ 2nd Minne​apoli​s,​ MN @ First​ Avenu​e
April​ 3rd Chica​go,​ IL @ Metro​
April​ 4th Chica​go,​ IL @ Metro​
April​ 6th Toron​to,​ ON @ Phoen​ix Theat​re
April​ 7th Montr​eal,​ QC @ Theat​re Telus​
April​ 8th Bosto​n,​ MA @ House​ of Blues​
April​ 10th New York,​ NY @ Webst​er Hall
April​ 11 New York,​ NY @ Webst​er Hall
April​ 13th Phila​delph​ia.​ PA @ The Troca​dero
April​ 14th Washi​ngton​,​ DC @ 9:30 Club

Gang Gang Dance

I'm a little late jumping onto the Gang Gang Dance epidemic, but I had seen their name everywhere but just never had the chance to hear them until they came on my last.fm station while I was at work. The song that got me was Nomad for Love which you can listen to for free at last.fm. Check out the video above to see their live performance. Their experimental sounds start off slow, but then transgress into a unique concoction. So trust me, it may start off boring at first, but it's worth the wait.

Also check out this video where Lizzy talks about how they come up with their live performance and create the different sounds they use.

Ninjatronics heading to Des Ark show

The Ninjatronics Team is running off the Chapel Hill tonight to catch Des Ark, before she heads out on tour (finally!). Check below for an updated list, including the much awaited SXSW 2009.

3.1.09 >>Nightlight Chapel Hill, North Carolina - w/Yardwork! (TONIGHT!)

3.18.09 >>Atlanta/Athens TBA
3.19.09 >> Birmingham/Pensacola TBA
3.20.09 >>SXSW Austin, Texas
3.21.09 >>SXSW Austin, Texas
3.22.09 >>Ducbo New Orleans, Louisiana -
>>This show is from 2pm-7pm...short sets from each band...this is the order! w/ Ben Davis & the Jetts Prizzy Prizzy Please Stupid Party Shell Shag Future Virgins Turboslut Pygmy Lush Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? Des Ark This Bike is a Pipe Bomb.

4.1.09 >>Green Bean - Greensboro, North Carolina - w/Diane Cluck
4.2.09 >> The Spazzatorium - Greenville, North Carolina -w/Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu)
4.3.09 >>MACRoCK TBA - Harrisonburg, Virginia -
4.4.09 >> MACRoCK TBA - Harrisonburg, Virginia -
4.5.09 >>Snug Harbor *Keep-A-Breast Benefit* - Charlotte, North Carolina -
4.16.09 >> Shakori Hills 1439 Henderson Tanyard Road -Pittsboro, North Carolina -

She'll also be opening the 4-day festival at 4pm on Thursday, & will play another solo set: http://shakorihills.org for more info!

: : : : : : :FOLLOW UP POST SHOW: : : : : : :

Ninjatronics @ Des Ark Show from Ninjatronics Studio on Vimeo.

For more vid's click here