11/30/10

Hercules and Love Affair "My House"


Hercules & Love Affair - My House

“My House” comes from Hercules And Love Affair’s upcoming sophomore album Blue Songs which comes out January 31st via Moshi Moshi. It continues the group's soulful house bent with a fan-turned-collaborator, Shaun Wright, taking on vocal duties. P4K recently interviewed Andy Butler about the upcoming album here. The tracklist is below.

Blue Songs Tracklist:
01. Painted Eyes
02. My House
03. Answers Come in Dreams
04. Leonora
05. Boy Blue
06. Falling
07. I Can’t Wait
08. Step Up
09. Visitor
10. It’s Alright

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11/26/10

A Bold Assertion Was Made.

At Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, after the turkey and before the pie, my brother made a bold assertion. With his usual bravado and unruffled confidence, he claimed, with great audacity, that he was, in fact, the inventor of the Chicken Dance.


Instantly, he was met by the naysayers calling, "Bullshit!" He remained stodgy with his statement, resolute in his proclamation that he was, without doubt, the inventor of the wedding reception favorite enjoyed by small children and elderly women alike. Facing a crowd of disbelievers and heretics, he told us how it all began.

It all started at a wedding reception in 1994...

11/23/10

James Blake

“I hope people enjoy listening to my music as much as I enjoy making it.”


James Blake is a 22 year old electronic composer and singer from London. He has released four EPs so far; Air&Lack Thereof/Sparing The Horse, The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke EP, which came out earlier last month. Together with Airhead he also released two tracks, Pembroke and Lock in the Lion. He has also remixed tracks by Untold and Mount Kimbie.

11/22/10

New Cut Copy: "Take Me Over"

Cut Copy - "Take Me Over" Premiere

"Take Me Over" is the Australian dance-electronc trio's first official single from the long-awaited, upcoming third studio length album Zonoscope, which will be released on February 8 of 2011 via Modular. You can stream the track above via sound cloud. "Take Me Over" is available digitally now and will be released on 7" in the very near future.


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The Bulleted List, November 22

Traditional Holiday Meals

  • Thanksgiving: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing
  • Fourth of July: steaks, burgers, various beef products
  • Christmas: hot chocolate, cookies, Rumple Minze
  • Halloween: fun-sized candy bars, Jello shots, Pepto Bismol
  • Cinco de Mayo: enchiladas, tequila, those same enchiladas
  • Easter: body of Christ, blood of Christ, jelly beans.

11/17/10

Thrown Under the Bus

In the spirit of furthering 31/Chi's break with reverance, I'm here to talk about the phrase "throw under the bus." This is an idiomatic phrase in the American lexicon which is generally defined as "to sacrifice or scapegoat another person, usually for personal gain." It's kind of like "backstabbing," except I usually consider quite a few political connotations with that particular term. Well, that or the movie Mean Girls. I think the tantamount parameter of throwing someone under the bus is the idea of doing it to save your own ass or advance yourself. Either way, you're a fuckwad. But that's not to say I'm presenting myself as wholly innocent. I'm sure that at some point we all have--or will--throw someone under the bus. But I'm not here to play on the moral overtones of a hyper-competitive society or the influences that absolute evil can play in someone's choices. No, no, no, I'm here to dig into the deeper, meatier substances at hand.

Namely: why a bus?


Ok, yeah, I can grasp it a little better now. That is a pretty massive Greyhound capable of cruising the U.S.A. at high speeds. If you're thrown under that mother, you're a goner. But can't the same thing be said for any number of large, steel vehicles or other forms of transportation? Maybe we should have a gander.

Thrown under the train.


I love trains. The railroad is one of the things that helped make America great (aside from stealing all the land from Indians and allowing corrupt government officials to get extremely wealthy.) Aside from all that, though, there is very little I enjoy more than the click-clack of a passing train. Love for trains and the adorable picture of Thomas the Tank Engine aside, though, I really don't want to be thrown under one. Just ask this zombie how it feels!

It feels like he got cut in half!

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Heart in Your Heartbreak"


The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are coming off a pretty great year. Last February of '09, they released their debut, self-titled pop LP to resounding success and reviews. Later that fall they released their Higher Than Stars EP with successful reviews as well. This past spring, they released a new single, "Say No To Love" which was a fantastic tune as well. They're now about to release another new pop-glam single, "Heart in Your Heartbreak" on December 14 via Slumberland Records. With what has become a seemingly vintage "Pains" sound, the indie pop group is preparing to release their sophomore LP, Belong. No word on a release date for this LP but we're assuming that "Heart in Your Heartbreak" will be the lead single.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak by forcefieldpr

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart : Say No To Love

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11/15/10

Holidaze.

It's getting to be that time of year where everybody seems to be talking about getting ready for the "holidays." Of course, they're talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love both these holidays, I'll admit it. I just don't get why these two holidays are the sole recipients of the genericized nomenclature "holidays."
They're great holidays, don't get me wrong.

Who doesn't love that the Indians and pilgrims started getting along, even though the pilgrims were total dickheads? As we can see in this picture, the love affair between guys with beards and guys wearing fur vests is as old as America itself.



Or that Jesus was born in a barn before he grew up to develop a distaste for the 2010 AL Wildcard winner.


Or that an overweight cat-burglar in a red velour jumpsuit chills with a snowy Frankenstein falsely granted life by a bewitched head-piece?



Hold on, we have to take a second and talk about how messed up the above season's greeting really is. "Christmas joy warms the heart." Seriously, Santa? You're standing there with a snowman and you're advocating warming things up? That arm around Frosty's shoulders is looking less like a friendly embrace and more like a maniacal death grip from a psychopathic Kris Kringle.

New Girl Talk album


Here's your new motivation to work out this week (ha). Gillis promised it would be out this year and here it is. Download the new Girl Talk album, All Day, here for FREE via his label, Illegal Art. That's all for now. Enjoy.

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Panda Bear "Last Night at the Jetty"


Listen to both sides of the new Panda Bear single, "Last Night at the Jetty", which is out December 6 via Fat Cat Records. Single artwork above.

No word on the eventual release of Tomboy yet. Fingers crossed for near future. Rumor has it that the reasoning behind all of these singles is to pay for the mastering of the crazy new sounds we'll be hearing in the new album. 31st/Chi can neither confirm nor negate this rumor.

Last Night At The Jetty by goodgirlcarrots


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11/14/10

The Bulleted List, November 14

Does It Really Matter?

  • family (yes)
  • faith (yes)
  • work (yes)
  • hobbies (yes)
  • school (yes)
  • black holes (no)

11/12/10

New jj : "Let Them"

"Let ‘em talk, It ain’t my fault, Let ‘em stay, Let them snitch, Let them die,”


Sincerely Yours has offered up this new jj single, "Let Them" and the b-side "I'm The One / Money On My Mind", for free. This new track incorporates a T.I. “cover” and a track with an XX sample. This fantastic track captures an uptempo beat, with the emotion of a ballad mixed with great samples/covers and the warm Swedish feel we've grown to love/expect to hear from jj and other artists in that helm. Once again, this Swedish duo killed it and have driven me to return to the gorgeous sounds produced on their latest LP, jj n° 3.

jj : Let Them

jj : I'm The One / Money On My Mind

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11/11/10

Computer Magic


Those of you who follow this blog and specifically my posts (AllejandroPablo or "AP") may have noticed me mention a couple times that I am a graphic designer and enjoy the design aspect of many things. I also enjoy music. So obviously when these two are combined in some manner, I get a raging "hard-on", if you will. That being said, I have been known to show certain biased to those (including music artists) who have a background in graphic design (via Toro Y Moi aka Chaz Bundick). This leads me to Computer Magic. Computer Magic is Danielle ‘Danz’ Johnson. Quite honestly, I don't really know shit about Computer Magic except for the following:



1. Danz is from upstate New York and now resides in Brooklyn.

2. Computer Magic has been making demos and putting them up online, there are no official hard releases (yet). She has two digital EP's out, and available at their website.

3. Danz also has experience as a graphic designer so seeing that her music is electronic and she has a gd background, I find the name "Computer Magic" to be quite appropriate and fairly astute. Then again I'm a sucker for clever play on words.

So yeah, not much is really known about this band. Computer Magic is electronic and I enjoy their/her sound. Because of the latter, I thought I'd share it with our ensemble of readers.

Computer Magic : About You

Computer Magic : Hiding From Our Time

Everyone Feels That Way Sometimes by Computer Magic

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Things I Wouldn't Want to Meet in the Forest

I don't spend a lot of time in the forest, but there is a Creighton basketball game on Friday night and if I have a few drinks at the Qwest Center I might end up on the woodland trails on the Iowa side of the pedestrian bridge. If I don't come back, one of these things probably got me!

Hillbillies


I know that "sons of the soil" is probably a more P.C. term to use here, but I'm not going to put on pretenses about the toothless multitudes lurking out in the woods. I know they're just simple country folks trying to live their simple country life, but I can't help but be a bit wary and suspect that that simple country life involves gutting me with a rusty Bowie knife. The hillbilly lifestyle manifests a certain menace to non-hill folk like you and me Look at the kid in the above picture. I guarantee he's not playing the intro to Freelance Whales' "Generator^First Floor" on that banjo.

On the other hand, they might offer me some of their modest boondock hooch.
I can get behind an idea like that. And a beard like that.


Aliens


To me it makes perfect sense that aliens have never contacted humans. If I was a vastly technologically superior species that had unlocked the science behind traveling the universe, I wouldn't waste time with a bunch of doofuses who still drove around in cars. It's kinda the same reason that people don't reach out to the fishes and shell-creatures of the ocean; we don't really have that much to learn from them.

If this analogy holds true, though, it unlocks another, more terrifying notion of aliens. Question: when is the one time humans reach out to the fishes and shell-creatures? Answer: when we want to capture and eat them! If I cross the path of those little hairless rubberfaced goons while I'm out for a romp in the woods, they are more likely than not intergalactic versions of these guys.


I don't wanna get cracked and dipped in alien butter.

Rick Moranis



Yes, on one hand it would pretty awesome for me to be able to say that I met Rick Moranis, star of such classics as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2. On the other hand, if Rick Moranis is in the woods in the middle of the night, there is absolutely no way he is up to any good.

Get the hell out of there. Don't look back.

Grizzly bear


No, no, no, I don't mean these melodic alt-rockers. If I ran into them in the forest, the worst thing that could happen is an acoustic set from Horn of Plenty or Chris Taylor trying to show me his tattoos.

I meant this kind of grizzly bear.


If I chanced upon one of these godless killing machines I would soon fall victim to its ferocious nature, powerful jaws and savage claws. I really don't think I could be that upset about it, though. Bears are awesome so getting gruesomely mauled by one makes me kind of awesome by association. If I do meet up with a Ursus arctos horribilis, my only hope is that I can give it a high five before it crashes its massive paws and razor sharp claws through my face.

An evil wizard


An "evil" wizard seems pretty redundant here, because if a wizard is lurking around in the forest in the dark of a winter night, he's guaranteed to be evil as the day is long. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than an evil wizard. I know. As someone who might have almost ran into the feared and infamous "glider" I can assure you that any iniquitous practitioners of magic are not to be taken lightly. Evil wizards loath the rest of mankind and most of them have gone crazy from the neverending carousel that is immortality. The only thing the have left to break up the blurring monotony of endless life is blasting mortals like you and me into a fiery and utter oblivion, after they torture us.

Alternatively, what you mistook as a wizard was just a homeless guy.
And when you're hammered you consider them to be pretty harmless.


Low life jamboree to ensue.

11/10/10

Leaks.

Leaks are not good. In fact, more often than not they are outright devastating.

A leak can sink a ship.


Or define your elementary career.


But I'm not talking about leaks in the bulkhead or your under-roos. I'm talking about when an album leaks. For a complete teardown of the term, I don't mean when an album can't hold water without spraying it all over the place, I'm talking about when an album finds its way to the internet masses before its official release date. For example, Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon II: the Legend of Mr. Rager could be found and downloaded about 3 weeks ago. And since I live with the venerable and multi-talented AP, it had been found and downloaded about 3 weeks ago.

Got it.


To put this in terms our readership can ably grasp, we have had this album for around 3 episodes of Modern Family. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "That's awesome, you've been able to jam that record for like 3 weeks!" And yes, we have had that opportunity. But we only jammed it for like 10 days. I'm sure at some point it will resurface and get quite a few more listens, but in this day and age of constant new tunes, it's hard to focus.

So what's the big deal? My issue with leaks didn't really arise until yesterday, Man on the Moon II's actual release day. Twitter and Facebook seemed to be alive with excitement for this highly anticipated rap album. We were being left out of a great collective human experience.

Like this kid.



Now I'm not trying to talk us up as the great finders and lovers of leaked albums like it elevates us to some type of musical Olympus. What it really means is that we spend a lot of time on the internet and don't have many other friends. But let's get back on topic.

It just so happened that this bit of leak related soul-searching fell near another bit of leakage--and no we're not talking about that moldy pipe under the sink. We're talking about the news out of beautiful Boulder that this guy...


...was getting fired and this guy...


...was replacing him.

I got this news from my favorite Buffs related news site--shout out! www.cuatthegame.com.
However, I got this leaked news pretty late at night, before it reached much of the Colorado faithful. So, the next morning I was left out of the general euphoria that swept the Black & Gold Nation.

Pretty much, leaks are the opposite of "wasting the good surprise on you."


Well, that's that.

Oh, and I guess this album leaked. I'm not gonna download it though. Because I already hate it.


Cynicism is in for the 2010s.

11/9/10

New Green Trees "Tubular Dude" & tour


Green Trees has just released a brand new EP, Tubular Dude which features one track that is also called "Tubular Dude" and is 15:45 in length. The EP can be downloaded below or at Green Trees' host site.



Catch Green Trees at one of their upcoming shows:

Green Trees at Zoo Bar w/ Ron Wax, Gloworm, Lincoln, NE
Wed, November 10 @ 9:00 PM

Green Trees at The Old Orfice w/ The Yuppies, Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship, Omaha, NE
Sat, November 13 @ 8:30 PM

Green Trees at Minneapolis, MN
Sun, November 14 @ 9:00 PM

Green Trees at Madison, WI
Nov 16 2010 9:00PM

Green Trees at Frank's Power Plant, Milwaukee, WI
Wed, November 17 @ 9:00 PM

Green Trees show w/ HEAD ON ELECTRIC Milwaukee, WI
Nov 18 2010 9:00PM

Green Trees at WHITE LIGHTNING WAREHOUSE W/ ALEX BODY, PLUS MORE
Nov 21 2010 9:00PM Iowa City, IA

Green Tress at KC SHOW
Nov 22 2010 9:00PM Kansas City, MO

Green Trees at Mad Ave., Lincoln, NE
Fri, December 03 @ 7:00 PM

Tubular Dude by alexknust

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11/8/10

Powerful Science 9/11 Samsessions


One of 31st/Chi's personal favorite up and coming bands, Powerful Science, is an eccentric pop group from Lincoln, NE that consists of John Freidel, Peter Kapinos, and Joshua Miller. Their debut album, 9/11 Samsessions, can be purchased/downloaded here. In a recent conversation with band member John Freidel, he mentioned that Powerful Science will soon be going on a short Midwest tour. He also mentioned that Powerful Science is already hard at work on new material. Both bits of information have us pretty excited and we'll be sure to keep you updated. For now, enjoy 9/11 Samsessions album. As of now Powerful Science's only scheduled upcoming show is at Bourbon w/ Free Energy (14th and O) in Lincoln, NE on Tuesday, December 7 at 9pm. If you're in the area, you won't want to miss out on this one as it is sure to be a great show! Also enjoy this new video for "Rebel Clones".

Powerful Science: REBEL CLONES from Love Drunk on Vimeo.


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11/7/10

New Smith Westerns


The Smith Westerns are from Chicago, and as far as I can tell are either named after a tourist trinket manufacturer in Tacoma or a chain of honkytonk restaurants in south England. Maybe both. Imagine being on family vacation somewhere kind of corny and sucky but running into a girl or boy who is also on family vacation in the same corny, sucky place. You guys buy each other pins from the gift shop at the foot of a rollercoaster, maybe they’re little cowboy hats. You throw some skeeball. Then you go back to your hometowns and write each other crazy letters for the rest of the summer while listening to Marc Bolan. That’s what this band sounds like. So maybe they know what they’re doing with the name. Regardless, this shit is so good we had to learn all the words just so we could yell it at grumpy snitches on Cuming Street. Yes, this is a total Lightweight band.


“Weekend” is the opening track and lead single from Smith Westerns‘ highly anticipated upcoming second LP Dye It Blonde, out January 18 on Fat Possum. You heard it here first kids, tell all your friends.

Smith Westerns : Weekend

Smith Westerns : Imagine, Pt. 3

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11/5/10

Tennis


Tennis is Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, a husband/wife duo. The idea for the project began one day a couple of years ago when Alaina made fun of Patrick for playing Tennis in college, which is an elitist rich man’s sport. A year later the two fled their hometown Denver to spend eight months sailing and exploring the North Atlantic coast. During their adventures they began writing music together documenting their experiences.

Tennis have been receiving some serious buzz in the blog world for a bit of time now. Tennis' sound could best be described as a slightly lo-fi, easy-listening, 60's-esque obscure pop with a warm sound. If that description doesn't do it for you (which is more than likely the case) then check out their sound for yourself below. Their Baltimore EP came out earlier this summer and though it only has three songs on it, the release received very warm reviews. The Denver-duo's full-length debut, Cape Dory, will be released January 18 via Fat Possum. The magnificent album cover below is apparently an homage to this. Goofballs.


Tennis : Marathon

Tennis : Baltimore

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