What's Shakin Uptown

The Harlem Shakes are a band I know very little about outside of the fact that I'm obsessed with their new EP Burning Birthdays. I also know that lead singer Lex was polite enough to take the time to read my myspace profile and respond with a real message when I sent them a friend request. I'm glad I caught this band on the way up cause soon he won't have time for those sorts of niceties.
All the pieces snap together to build a jigsaw puzzle of this years big thing in indie rock. First you build the outside edge from the angular guitar grooves of The Strokes, back when they knew how to have fun. Then you look for all the vocal colors splashed across the mosaic. The Walkmen, CYHSY, Paul McCartney, 60's soul and the rest. Finish putting it together when you layout the pieces for the wide expanse of sky behind it all. Its the same sky that Bloc Party moves you toward, till you push right over the edge of the cliff and soar 3 minutes into a song. Take one look at it all together, then break it apart and drop everything back in the box. Now even though you know exactly how the pieces fit, I bet next time you have even more fun putting it all together again.

The Harlem Shakes- "Red Right Hands"

I Could Not Undo This Desire

For my money, Joanna Newsom's Ys was the crowning musical achievement of 2006. Nothing else came close to gracing the heights it reached in terms of musicality, lyricism, or unabashed pathos. Its a career defining work, that I think even she'll find difficult to match again. May she never try.

I do hope for more music from her, but nothing that might detract from the power of the concept she's crafted here. A classically trained harpist, she's thrown the doors wide open on her song craft and poetic content. Her first record, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was an announcement of a new voice in the indie scene that valued both compositional structure and mythic prose. Her childish pitch blended with well-worn themes of being and understanding to imply both innocence and aged resignation. On Ys she pushes this idea to the wall with the help of musical heavies Steve Albini (Producer), Van Dyke Parks (Arranger), and Jim O'Rourke (Mixer). These are bold statements comprised of mini song movements and epic Homeric poetry, the shortest of which clocks in at just over 9 minutes long. There's no irony within these bars and if you can't give yourself over completely to the sentiment then you might find indulgence where I see passion.

The clip below shows Joanna playing my favorite track from the album "Sawdust & Diamonds". Though I can't claim to have extracted meaning from every line, I find the lyrics supremely moving. Its a treatise on birth, love, death and above all desire. Music moves me to tears pretty often, but even I laughed at myself as I sat at work wiping my eyes the first time I saw this. Luckily I came prepared with a tissue when I posted the link.

Joanna Newsom- "Sawdust and Diamonds"

Poppin Off In Sweden

Through a series of complicated and highly accurate mathematical equations, scientists have been able to calculate that the exact center of the pop music universe rests somewhere within the borders of what is modern day Sweden. Theories abound as to why this is the case but all credible sources regard it as an immutable fact. Immediately upon birth, Swedish children have even been known to belt out frightfully catchy, chart-topping melodies when spanked. Perhaps the future holds answers to this mystery but for now we are simply left to scratch our heads in wonder and dance with abandon.

Run down the names: ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, The Cardigans etc. Perfect pop music from blond haired artists with infectious hooks. Helping carry on this tradition, singer-songwriter Robyn is doing her countrymen proud and steadily becoming one of the best pop acts on any continent. If you know her at all, its probably from one of her mid 90s American singles "Show Me Love" or "Do You Know (What It Takes)". Both of which used to blast from the hatch back of my Honda CR-X after track practice. She never got huge stateside, but kept making music and turned out a couple of smash singles in Europe. In '05 she started her own label, Konichiwa Bitches, and put out the self titled album Robyn. The video below for "Handle Me" is a lot like her music, simple in execution but dead on with the charm. I love how the guys ice grillin the camera look so perfectly real. And could she be any cuter in those cornrows and bamboo earrings...not likely. The song to download, "Konichiwa Bitches", is from the '06 Rakamonie E.P. Use this one to brighten up any dull moment with hardly no effort at all. Robyn makes it easy.

Robyn- "Konichiwa Bitches"

Robyn- "Handle Me"