We've got this whole thing going where we've noticed that certain segments of the indie rock upper echelons don't give any props to the Silverlake scene. We're here to shed some light - it's not all good but it's not all cheeseballs either.
We've had our eyes on this band Gliss for a few years now (someone tipped us off to them at, of course, SXSW) and so when Ryko hit us up we were glad for the chance to support.
The video is a lo-budge but lovely rooftop affair directed by Joel Bentow, whose work you've seen on various network shows but as far as we can tell this is his first music video.
That's right, the new Gnarls Barkley video opens with Justin Timberlake, who we happen to know also guests on the album. And then goes into what American Bandstand should have been like - a dirty dance party full of neon clothes and Cee-Lo.
The video was directed by Happy. Yeah, you try Googling that. We found out Happy also helmed the Sarah Vaughn and Adam Freeland remix of "Fever" that Verve released a few years back.
When we had Hot Chip here and asked them various ridiculous questions, we had to ask them about something we read in either Blender or Spin or one of those about their new album - the band described it as a mix of a Prince record and black metal.
So we were wondering: can you put both Prince and Black Sabbath on a mix CD and if so, how do you segway?
Our pals over at mtvU have launched have launched a new underground hip hop show called The Lab that we think you might be interested in watching. It's hosted by the legendary Pete Rock and while some of the videos are a little wtf (Amanda Diva?) it also had great new stuff from Big Noid, Chen Lo, Madvillian and more.
They also have a slew of free downloads from the artists and got the premiere on this Del tha Funkee Homosapien vid for "Workin It".
Just kidding, that's not even remotely what she says. The two sat down with MTV News to talk about "The Other Boleyn Sister" but we couldn't resist asking about ScarJo's upcoming Tom Waits cover album. Not much in the way of news nuggets get revealed, but Portman does say Johansson sounds a bit like Nina Simone when she sings.
We learned about twee popper Dylan Mondegreen when we met the head of Norway's Division Recordsat by:Larm. It was one of the most amazing moments at a music conference we've ever had because before he'd even tell us about any of the artists on his label he made us name every artist from Norway we knew. Then he tells us he thinks we'll like Mondegreen's music and that it's rather like Belle & Sebastian, if we know who that is.
IF WE KNOW WHO THAT IS! We made him take that back and today commenced an email campaign to out-cool him.
He was right though - about us liking it, but not about Dylan Mondegreen sounding like Belle & Sebastian.
As always we're totally late to the party though and you already heard all about this from Pfork. There go our cool points.
We forgot our MySpace password. Thank the universe for auto-remember. We dusted off the Subterranean page, deleted the spam and decided to run another installment of A&Ring our MySpace friend requests for you, loyal readers.
Gray Beast - we listened to them first because they kindly emailed us to say since we're fans of Dntel perhaps we'll like them. They were right! We do! It's soothing beepy music with emo lyrics, naturally from Seattle. We detect a small hint of MGMT in the vocals.
Friended: yes!
The Roseline: Holy Neil Young, Batman! This Lawrence, KS band are all up in CSNY's shit. It's kind of sick how great this band is, judging solely on the tracks up on their MySpace. We highly endorse them, if you're into the vaguly c&w leanings of the '70s Laurel Canyon set. Which we are.
Friended: yes!
Amungus: Some sort of production duo from L.A.? Some songs are backpack, some dance tracks? We can't figure out exactly what's happening here but it's terrible.
Friended: absolutely not
Photo withheld to save your time.
Pico Vs. Island Trees: Not only do we like the music quite a lot but we kind of want to make out with them. They're adorable. It's like twee keyboard rock that's achin' to be power pop? If Let's Active (you remember them right?) were more new wave.
Friended: yes!
Ok, just one more Chris Walla clip we didn't show you because we feel the need to admire his suit again.
We asked him if he thought the whole Canadian border scuffle was a sign from the fates that he should stick to analog recording. He replied with way more information that we thought we'd get!
It might just be the eyebrows but The Rascals look rather Oasis-y to us. The sound, however, is...well, not really any one thing. It's got the driving bass lines of a Love and Rockets, the angular guitars of a Franz/Arctic Monkeys and the lyrical arrangements of a Blur with just a dash of psychedelica thrown in for flavor.
"Out of Dreams" is from The Rascals' EP of the same name, but the boys just released a new CD last week called Suspicious Wit on Delta Sonic in the UK. They're kind of a big deal and not just because front man Miles Kayne is doing a side project album with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys (we've heard it and it's quite remarkable).
We think they're making a play to become the next most famous band from Liverpol - you know after Echo and the Bunnymen.
We've been wondering how the whole successful up and coming band thing is working out for Vampire Weekend - they're on the cover of the current issue of Spin, they'll be MTV's Artist of the Week next week and they're touring through your town right now (hope you bought a ticket).
So we asked the guys to send us a photo blog and some insights. It's sort of amazing what you can learn about people.
"Cowboy enthusiast Christopher Tomson was able to fulfill a lifelong dream while on tour recently. Our friend Erin's mom gave us horseback riding lessons when we were in San Diego!" - Chris Baio
"This picture is from November 3rd, 2007 at the Bastard Club in Berlin. We were lucky enough to play the club on its last night before it was renovated. In this picture Chris and Chris are hanging out before sound check." - Rostam Batmanglij
More photos from the secret lives of Vampire Weekend after the jump. Includes a bowling fetish.
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