The Uncool

UnCool Update: MUST WATCH Janelle Monae on Letterman

Margaret The UnCool — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:36:16 +0000

The Archandroid by Janelle Mona

Many of you have already seen the impressive performance Janelle Monáe gave earlier this week on the Late Show with David Letterman, (May 18, 2010). But if you haven’t, we’ve got it for you here. From the trademark Monáe ‘do to the James Brown moves, this is true showmanship folks.

Janelle Monáe performing “Tightrope” from ArchAndroid on the Late Show with David Letterman.

– Margaret at The UnCool

UnCool Update: Beach House Debuts Zebra Video

Margaret The UnCool — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:45:36 +0000

Enjoy the visual dreamyness to go along with the trailing clouds and dappled sun you hear in Beach House’s “Zebra.” This impressionist treat is little more than staring at the colored lines vibrating along to the tunes in your media player, but it’s beautiful. And would you really want to distract from Victoria Legrand’s amber-tinged vocals?

We say no.

SubPop Records
Directed by Mark Brown

Thanks to themusicslut for the heads-up on this release.

– Margaret at The UnCool

UnCool Update: Free Energy Debuts New Video for “Bang Pop”

Margaret The UnCool — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:46:37 +0000

Free Energy debuts new video on MySpace Music for the “Bang Pop” single. Take a gander below.

Bang Pop

FREE ENERGY | MySpace Music Videos

– Margaret at The Uncool

The UnLive | 45 Review: Mayer Hawthorne and James Pants

DJ Chas — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:34:58 +0000

It’s a two-for-one 45 today. Both Mayer Hawthorne and James Pants appear on this Stones Throw “promotional use only” release that first appeared on March 17th at SXSW. Wish I could say that’s where I scored my copy, but no, mine came in the U.S. Mail. Aside from being a promo-only release, the cool thing about this 45 is that each artist is covering the work of the other.

Mayer Hawthorne and James Pants

Mayer Hawthorne takes on James Pants’ “Thin Moon,” while Pants reworks the Hawthorne tune, “Green Eyed Love.”

My personal tastes tend to skew more towards Hawthorne than Pants, but I like both sides of this release a great deal.

Simply put: This is “make-out” or “doin’ it” music. Sure, flipping the platter on your turntable might break up the mood a little bit, but I would imagine those of you who like this will be playing an mp3 version anyway. So, you can just add it to the “doin’ it” playlist on your itunes. Incidentally, if you don’t have a heavy dose of soul on your “doin’ it” playlist, you either: A.) Do Not Have a “doin’ it” playlist, or, B.) You are “doin’ it” wrong. I’m just sayin’…

On to the tracks…

The sides are labeled according to producer and original artist so, the JP side features Hawthorne doing “Thin Moon” and the MH side features James Pants doing “Green Eyed Love” Make sense?

JP Side (Mayer Hawthorne) Side:

Ok, I like the pure soul sound Mayer strives for on this. I really dig his falsetto and love the instrumentation on this. Hawthorne strips the original of its digital electronic sound and delivers a really sweet soul ballad.

MH (James Pants) Side:

Pants takes the soul balladry of Hawthorne’s track and adds tons of digital effects, synths, and a vocoder or auto-tuner. It’s not Framptonesque or Cher “Do You Believe” style or Lil’ Wayne or T-Pain or whoever else employs these things these days. It has a unique sound, but something about his stuff always makes me feel like he digs 80’s sounds and technologies. Regardless, I am a fan of this as well.

So there you go, stepping off my funk train for a couple of choice cuts to slow it down a bit for the lovers.

Enjoy.

– DJ Chas at The UnCool

The UnRecorded | Live Music: Local Natives and Suckers at Schubas

Greg — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:24:11 +0000

Local Natives and Suckers
At Schubas Tavern, Chicago, 5-14-2010

We get to Schubas right on time for the 7pm early show and notice something odd right away: while the place only has about 30 people inside, all 30 are crammed up at the very front of the stage. And nobody is playing yet. Local Natives has built such a following that people are getting there early to stake out their spot in advance of the sellout crowd… something we usually see at much larger venues for much larger bands, not a group with one album (Gorilla Manor) that technically came out three months ago.

Those of us who come early are treated to the opening band, Suckers, who hail from—you guessed it—Brooklyn, home of all things indie and buzzworthy these days. Luckily, the band is beyond buzzworthy; they are actually pretty fucking terrific. If I were cool, I would have known about these guys last February when Stereogum called them a “Band to Watch.” But I am not cool (I just read that article this morning,) and therefore am wowed when about a minute into their first song, Suckers’ team of four frontmen explode in gorgeous gang-chorus vocal harmonies. They sound like four David Byrnes singing for the Polyphonic Spree with a little Madness thrown in.

Suckers is a percussive-heavy band: almost every member plays drums, cymbals or maracas…sometimes all at the same time. And just to keep things even, drummer Matt Frazier also sings and plays keyboards while drumming. The other players, Quinn Walker, Brian Aiken, Austin Fisher and “Pan”(the only name he has publicly provided) switch instruments often, playing guitar, keys, bass or trumpet depending on the song. At one point, Aiken uses a drumstick to alternately strum his bass and bang an electronic drum. Walker uses the same technique with his guitar on a later song, but with a maraca. The whole performance was shot through with improvisational energy and glorious pop crescendos. A great surprise. Suckers “Wild Smile” Due out June 8 on Frenchkiss Records

Local Natives has a lot to live up to by the time they get to the stage. It’s a confident move putting a band that good ahead of you. Their confidence is warranted, though, as they deliver a complex and energetic show. LN is like the older brother band to Suckers: five guys, very percussive, gang vocals, beautiful harmonies, and most of the guys trade off instruments. Interestingly, while Suckers’ album is produced by Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder, I hear a lot more of Yeasayer’s sound in LN’s music. I also hear some early Police, which is both cool and pretty rare these days.

Three different guys switch lead vocals, but the greater portion seems to go to the impressively-mustachioed guitarist/singer, Taylor Rice. Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kelcey Ayer could also lead a band on his own, as could guitarist/vocalist Ryan Hahn. Bassist Andy Hamm and drummer Matt Frazier hold down the intricate rhythm section, which often has two or three guys drumming at the same time, blending rim clicks, cymbals, toms, kick…whatever they can put a stick on.

I figure Local Natives might reserve their energy somewhat for the 10pm show, but it seems full-on to me, and we get 55 minutes, which is three minutes longer than their only album, so no complaints there. Everything sounds as clear and clean as the record, with highlights including “Airplanes,” “Wide Eyes,” “World News,” the closer, “Who Knows Who Cares” (with Suckers’ Pan guesting on trumpet) and the haunting, tribal, Yeasayer-esque “Sun Hands” as an encore. Then we clear out for the next sold-out house.