the black belles

Looking for a gritty, indie, garage-rock band? That's also an all girl group?

If you answered yes to the first question, please proceed. If you answered yes to the second question, you should probably go rethink your life choices.

This is not a girl group. It's basically just the band Jack White would have made if he were a woman. And cloned himself. Thrice.

Check out Third Man Records'/ Jack White-discovery The Black Belles and the music video for their debut single "What Can I Do?" here at theblackbelles.com

You won't be disappointed, I promise- super duper promise.

happy birthday, yoko!

Today, the Imagine Peace Tower will light up Reykjavik to celebrate Yoko Ono’s 77th birthday. The tower, built in 2007 as a memorial to John Lennon, is a beautiful and loving tribute to both John and to the ideals he shared with Yoko. Happy Birthday, crazy lady! Check it out here: imaginepeace.com

Random poll: Are Ono's legs photoshopped or not? Does Tina Turner have some competition?

anxiously awaiting mgmt's sophomore album

MGMT, why do you tease us so?

After capturing our hearts and ears with their debut album Oracular Spectacular all the way back in 2007, MGMT has been seemingly MIA. (LETTER PLAY! ba-dum-bum). The psychedelic synth-rock duo have spent the past few years touring- appearing at almost every known music festival in the US as well as abroad, and supporting acts like Radiohead and Beck on their respective tours.

But now, finally, there is promise of a new album. Congratulations is set to be released on April 13^th. You can pre-order the album on MGMT’s website, and there is even a limited edition CD and vinyl available for purchase, complete with …a limited edition scratch-off cover with custom metal coin. Huh. Well. It’s just too bad the cover doesn’t also double as a lotto scratcher, because then the album title could be really coincidentally awesome if you won. Didn't think that through, guys, huh?

The sonic the hedgehog-esque, acid trip of an album cover is pictured above, and I guess if it speaks to the music that will be contained below its neon surface, then I am totally excited. More indie dance music, just in time for sunny summertime weather and long sweaty nights! Woop Woop

Go Pre-Order their album on MGMT's website

Ben Goldwasser of MGMT in an interview with UGO.com: "Yeah we had a preying mantis for a while, and it would dance. It would get really excited whenever we put on the second side of Combat Rock by The Clash. So yeah, the music of "Time to Pretend" was really inspired by the bug's dance movements."

music joke

Courtesy of xkcd

decemberists side project

My excitement= not contained

While perusing the interwebs, I came across a posting from last month on The Decemberists' website speaking of a side project. Dubbed Black Prairie, the spin-off band includes Decemberists Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, and Nate Query and welcomes new players Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld from the Portland music scene.

Due to my overwhelming happiness and mind-blown-ness, I am left speechless and therefore leave the most pressing details to the band members themselves. So, without further ado...

From decemberists.com-- "This eclectic bluegrass-but-not-really group will make its live debut at Noise Pop in San Francisco next month. Their record, Feast of the Hunters' Moon, will be released later this spring."

In the name of all things castaway and cutout, walk, run, fly to their show at Noise Pop on February 27th, and check out Black Prairie's myspace, complete with two songs from their upcoming album- "Red Rocking Chair" and "Back Alley".

Thank you, Black Prairie, for quelling my want for more.

UPDATE 7/19/10: Got to go see them play while they were in LA a couple months ago. The show was sweet- The Living Sisters opened (whose band members include Inara George from The Bird and The Bee and miss Margaret herself from The Decemberist's Hazards of Love, Becky Stark). Super low key, totally worth the $15 just to chill on the back patio drinking beers next to Chris Funk and Jenny Conlee. Solid night of indie bluegrass.

grok music

I consider myself to be fairly internet-savvy, but I guess I missed the memo on this little site. Grok Music is a website akin to Pandora; it helps you discover new music based on your current favorites. However, Grok Music differs in that its function is primarily visual, presenting visitors to the site with a "music map" - kind of like a musical family tree. You just type in the name of a band you like, or maybe that you're curious about, and the site pops out a map of new artists that you might also like. Grok also provides short descriptions about each new musician, links to listen to tracks from a featured album, and of course, links to purchase the music from iTunes or Amazon.

Above is my sample music map for Björk, it's fairly bitchin...and surprisingly accurate. Not bad Grok. Not bad.

new features to come

My favorite thing to do pretty much, um, all the time is looke for music news gems, so I'm going to post my findings here!

Get excited, this is not a drill. Breaking news to come...

Hear No Evil,

Lara

track 3: the polysics- "i my me mine"

It’s exciting to get to play home-town tourist every once in a while, especially when you live in L.A. Luckily for me, a friend of mine from France is hiding in California for a few months while she shirks the responsibilities of post-college job hunting, and I get to show her how amazing California is! On one of my recent trips to visit friends at UCLA, I brought my Frenchie with, and played tour guide like it was my job. She toured campus, went to a house party, dropped in on a class, drank cheap beer out of red cups, learned beer pong, ate at In-N-Out, saw a pseudo-celebrity (Kim Kardashian), bought some flip flops, frequented college dive bars, ventured through Venice Beach, and last but certainly not least, went to a show at the Roxy on Sunset. The Roxy is a place I’ve always wanted to go, but never got the opportunity to when I was at UCLA. It’s a well known, Sunset strip venue; tiny- but a great little spot to intimately view your favorite bands or up-and-comers. It’s fun 'n' gritty: dark, no frills, sticky floor, sticky bathroom, but that’s kind of the best part: The Roxy doesn’t mess around, it serves its purpose as a music venue and that's about it.

Who did we see? "The Polysics! From Tokyo....JAPAAAAAN!" The crazy Devo-inspired-Japanese-punk-new wave band rocked our faces off. Clad in orange jumpsuits, name tags, and futuristic rectangular sunglasses, the Polysics have so much energy and enthusiasm in their act that you forget they’re singing in Japanese and you mosh into the music. The ridiculously prolific band luckily played a bunch of their better-known songs like “Kaja Kaja Goo” and “I My Me Mine”. The lead singer/guitarist, Hayashi, jumped around the stage, screaming and dripping sweat until the last beat, while their female keyboardist/ back up vocalist, Kayo, complete with robot-voice-effect headset, was in C3PO mode the entire act. She even stayed robotic as she unplugged her synth and walked off stage: no smiles, no waves to the crowd or anything, just gone. It was like the Polysics had been on a mission from planet punk to rock our world from 11pm-1am and when they were done, they were gone…

Definitely worth the ridiculous cab fare to get to the Roxy, and I am sure Mlle. Emmanuelle will not be forgetting this trip.

Check out their music video for “I My Me Mine”

Hayashi, from the band’s myspace blog- “I prayed ‘Hope I could have a great show today too!!!’ Anyways I’m so hyper tension!!!! Because of this today’s show was so cool!!! Everyone’s was so awesome, and our tension was brilliant as well!!! Thank you Los Angeles!!!!”

P.S. Kayo is leaving the band in March, to pursue “normal woman” things:

Kayo, from the Polysics’ website.- "I have almost given my all to the Polysics during my 20s. From my 30s, returning to a normal woman, I feel like wanting to do normal things. I wanna try lots and lots of normal things. "