I haven’t been more excited about a band since the Postal Service released their album, and that’s quite a while ago. Broken Bells is the collaboration between the guitarist and lead vocalist from the Shins, James Mercer and artist-producer Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse. Brian Burton is well know for his contributions in The Grey Album and producing albums for artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Beck, and the Gorillaz. James Mercer is the iconic voice behind the indie rock band The Shins, whose music was predominately featured in the movie Garden State.
The pair decided to work together after meeting at a Danish music festival in 2004 and finding they were fans of each other’s work. Mercer and Burton began recording together in secret at Burton’s Los Angeles based studio in March 2008 and describe their material as “melodic, but experimental, too”.
Check out the video for their single “The High Road”:
Saturday night I was DJing at a friends house party with over 200 people. Plenty of alcohol, beautiful people, great vibes all around. It all came to a halt minutes after playing this one song, just as cops busted the party and told us to leave. The song, Zero Machine a remix of the Smashing Pumkins by Le Castle Vania off the Voice Of Treason Album.
I cannot believe the positive feedback I got on this track after playing it, so I thought I’d share it with everyone. It’s a thunderous electro remix, great synth leads, heavy bass drums, and powerful guitars, perfect theme song to a night of mayhem. Check it out:
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One cloudy afternoon and a little wine can produce beautiful images. Check out my latest story with friend, Julia Kristin from Click Models NYC: “Feels like I’ve been here before”
The New York Times Style Magazine’s blog is running a great series of photographs by Greg Kessler. He captures the before and after looks of models after they go through hair and make-up. Check it out: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/model-morphosis/
Take a look at the newly introduced Windows Phone 7, I am drooling over the beautiful and clean interface, the emphasis in typography and grids. I think Microsoft has actually out-Appled Apple.
Being an avid music listener and sometimes a self proclaimed trendsetter I am always scouring the blogosphere for that next best thing. I realized I must be lacking in that department, as this story only came into my periphery 3 years too late. But nevertheless, I am glad to share this with everyone. Music blog Stereogum has been teaming up with Australian music producer and mashup artist team9, to produce yearly mashup albums of the best tracks from that respective year and a few oldies. As they like to describe them, these ‘bastard pop’ albums are a real treat; free downloadable quality music. Here is a retrospective look at the last 4 years:
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MySplice 3: 2008 Mashed Up 1 “Britney Gets Bloc-ed” (Britney Spears “Womanizer” vs Bloc Party “Mercury”) 2 “B.F. Meets T.I.” (Ben Folds Feat. Regina Spektor “You Don’t Know Me” vs T.I. “U Don’t Know Me”) 3 “Good After Time” (Lykke Li “I’m Good I’m Gone” vs Cyndi Lauper “Time After Time”) 4 “Albert And Katy Sitting In A Tree” (Albert Hammond Jr. “GFC” vs Katy Perry “I Kissed A Girl”) 5 “Debbie Does Montreal” (Blondie “Call me” vs of Montreal “Id Engager”) 6 “Bang On A Milli” (Lil Wayne “A Milli” vs The Breeders “Bang On”) 7 “Lockdown Shelter” (Kanye West “Love Lockdown” Vs. The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”) 8 “Disturbed Youth” (Rihanna “Disturbia” vs Beck “Youthless”) 9 “Killer Mirror” (The Killers “Human” vs Arcade Fire “Black Mirror”) 10 “Crystal Holiday” (Crystal Castles “Magic Spells” vs Naughty By Nature “Holiday”) 11 “The Sound Of Roses” (Human Highway “The Sound” vs Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City” vs Stone Roses “Waterfall” vs Extreme “More than Words”)
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MySplice 2: 2007 Mashed Up 1 “It’s A Sweet Ghost Party” – (Band Of Horses vs. Guns N’ Roses vs. 2 Live Crew) 2 “M.I.A.-Team” – (M.I.A. vs. The A-Team Theme) 3 “Smalltown Apology” – (One Republic vs. Bronski Beat) 4 “Roc Knife” – (Jay-Z vs. Grizzly Bear) 5 “A Forest Prayer” – (Bloc Party vs. The Cure) 6 “Loose Dancing” – (Bangers & Cash vs. The Bee Gees) 7 “My Man My Bomb” – (Feist vs. New Young Pony Club) 8 “Smokey Fire” – (Arcade Fire vs. Smokey Robinson vs. The Gunsmoke Theme) 9 “Countdown To Girls” – (Europe vs. Sean Kingston vs. Calvin Harris) 10 “Ratatat Under Ether” – (Ratatat vs. PJ Harvey)
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MySplice: 2006 Mashed Up 1 “Swan Together” (Thom Yorke vs. The Beatles) 2 “Lets Make Love And Listen To Junior Boys” (CSS vs. Junior Boys) 3 “Daddy And The Thief” (Wolfmother vs. Gnarls Barkley) 4 “Cold War Fiasco” (Cold War Kids vs. Lupe Fiasco vs. Lily Allen) 5 “Silent Saints” (The Knife vs. U2 & Green Day vs. Spank Rock) 6 “Big School” (Hot Chip vs. Peter Gabriel) 7 “When Will My Cheated Heart” (Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs. Diana Ross) 8 “Flaming Clipse” (Flaming Lips vs. Clipse) 9 “Roscoe Eyes” (Midlake vs. Jimi Hendrix) 10 “Young Cats” (Peter Bjorn And John vs. The Cure)
