Broken Social Seen It

Five years before You Forgot It In People there was Cornelius.

It's all there. The timid vocals, the electronic flourishes, the hyperactic drums, the female background singers, the guitar shredding, the layered production. The singing is in Japanese instead of Canadian, but it's basically the same things as "Almost Crimes" or "7/4 (Shorelines)."

Cornelius - New Music Machine

And this was released by one guy in 1997 instead of 10+ in 2002.

Bob Pollard Who?

What with the O.C. and Grey's Anatomy and Outback Steakhouse, indie rock appearing in primetime is literally an everyday occurance but this one still caught me off guard.

I do not watch this show and I have no idea what it is about. Honestly. But when I heard the opening riff of I Am a Scientist coming from the other room, I quickly ran to see where it was coming from. Low and behold, Guided By Voices was playing in the background of "Samantha Who?"

It's become very obvious that the twenty and thirty-somethings that grew up listening to all this indie rock are now the music supervisors of today's network television shows. Weird to think that when this song was released, Christina Applegate was still Kelly Bundy.

Pomegranates

FINALLY, Northwest indie-rock shows up in Southern Ohio. Pomegranates are the first Cincinnati band I've heard that HAS to be compared to early Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. Sounding like these bands is nothing new in the world of indie rock, but it is in Cincinnati.

This is my favorite Pomegranates song: The Children's Progress

And the band wears cool uniforms too!



Finally, Bad Veins have another good Cincinnati band to play with... (Other than Toy Band, of course!)

RCRD LBL LNCH TDY

RCRD LBL just launched today. It seems to be a new music website/label/blog/promotion/advertising/community machine.

Sooo, what is RCRD LBL?

"RCRD LBL is a network of ad supported online record labels and blogs offering completely free music and multimedia content from emerging and established artists." - RCRD LBL FAQ

What does that mean?

I'm not really sure.

What do you know?

They don't like vowels.

Songwriting 101

Magnetic Fields maestro, Stephin Merritt, was a guest on NPR's All Songs Considered this week. He took part in "Project Song." It's a musical challenge where an artist is given a picture and a word as inspiration and has two days to write and record an original tune.

The picture:
The word: 1974

Go here to watch Mr. 69 Love Songs brainstorm, write, and record...

And here's the song he came up with - Stephin Merritt - A Man of a Million Faces

Proactiv Monkeys

In their new video, Arctic Monkeys frontman, Alex Turner, shows off his adolescence. Somebody get this guy some Clearasil!

"Teddy Picker" Directed by Roman Coppola...

With friends like these, who needs friends...

This was supposed to be the European tour where everything went right: her group had earned a prestigious support slot with The Decemberists, booked the flights and headed over the Atlantic. So what went wrong? Her eyes roll: “I dunno. Ask The Decemberists."

Student Direct's interview with Land of Talk's Lizzie Powell hit a chord with me. Call it rooting for the underdog, or taking pleasure in other's pain, but hearing her talk in such a straight-forward way about her experience with the Decemberists' makes me like her music more.

Especially this track - Land of Talk - All my Friends

After listening to "All my Friends", this YouTuber will be slightly amusing...