Wannabe pop culture purveyors Pitchfork recently called Boy Crisis the “absolute worst band in the world right now”. They’re definitely smarmy, flippant, and cliché (both Pitchfork and Boy Crisis), but I can dig.
Boy Crisis – Dressed to Digress
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Artist: CX KiDTRONiK
Song: Big Girl Skinny Girl (feat. Tchak Diallo)
Album: Krak Attack
Release: 05/12/06
Man Party is a four-piece electronica outfit from Seattle, and despite being a relatively young band, they’ve already established a nicely polished sound. The group recently dropped their first release, The Tiger Game EP, which is available on iTunes and several other online music stores. It’s a nice little debut, consisting of five laid back (but danceable) electronic-esque tracks. The lyrics are a tad cringe-inducing, though most likely intentionally so. I have to admit “robots fucking humans fucking robots fucking humans” confuses me with its simultaneous brilliance and stupidity.
The track below is “Robot Overlords”, my favorite from the EP. I wish all of their songs had the hard-hitting dance sensibility as the last minute or so of this track. Here’s hoping the guys of Man Party will take their chilled-out sound to more uptempo territory for their full-length debut next year.
Man Party – Robot Overlords
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Artist: The Cool Kids
Song: Delivery Man
Album: N/A
Release: N/A
Download the MP3 (as well as the 9th Wonder Remix) at Green Label Sound.
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Artist: Annie
Song: Songs Remind Me of You
Album: Don’t Stop
Release: Currently scheduled for 04/27/09
Artist: Tobacco
Song: Street Trash
Album: Fucked Up Friends
Release: 10/14/08
Every once and a while, I stumble across an artist who is truly electrifying; one that I feel compelled to share with anyone who will listen. Janelle Monáe is one such artist. After making a splash with guest appearances on Big Boi’s Got Purp? Vol. 2 compilation and Outkast’s Idlewild soundtrack, Monáe released Metropolis: The Chase Suite through her own independent label, The Wondaland Arts Society.
Inspired by the 1927 sci-fi film classic Metropolis, Monáe’s Chase Suite tells the story of a female android (Monáe’s alter ego, Cindi Mayweather) who is targeted for extermination after falling in love with a human. The futuristic backdrop provides a fictitious framework for Monáe to poke at social issues without seeming didactic. The Chase Suite is a short, 5-track affair, designed to be the first of four suites released every few months, which together complete the entire Metropolis story.
Shortly after The Chase Suite was released in late 2007, Monáe signed to Sean Combs’s Bad Boy Records (ugh), where she was supposedly given a blank check and full creative control (hmm… maybe Diddy’s not so bad after all?) A special edition re-release of The Chase Suite with two extra tracks dropped this August, but the other three planned suites are still M.I.A., nearly a year after the original’s release. (What happened to that ‘every few months’ thing, Janelle?!)
Below is the newly-released video for the outstanding track “Many Moons”, which further expands upon the chic futureworld Monáe has created for her sci-fi tetralogy. I’m going on record declaring “Many Moons” my favorite video of the year.
Janelle Monáe – “Many Moons”
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