As you may or may not know, Popular Damage is a dance-punk /pop act from Berlin and Manchester composed of Nadine Raihani and Stephan Hengst.
Since then, it’s been an upward success spiral with shows, tours, and even an apperance at the Brandenburg Gate. Popular Damage’s latest EP The Royal Fly, out this month, well and truly raises the bar, featuring a new and re-recorded version of their classic “Everybody Got Young” and remixes of “Everybody Got Young” by Double Dragon & Fukkk Offf, as well as the tracks “Exclusive” and “Easy Money” (with a remix by Beatshaker & Blender).
Until that EP hits the 'sphere...enjoy these remixes...
Merge Records is excited to announce that Sweden's Shout Out Louds will be releasing their new record, entitled Work, on February 23, 2010. Work is the band's third album and second for Merge. It was recorded in Seattle and produced by Phil Ek (The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses).
After a year of touring behind their acclaimed second record, Our Ill Wills, the band went their separate ways -- singer/main songwriter Adam Olenius to Melbourne, Australia, keyboard/vocalist Bebban Stenborg to Los Angeles, drummer Eric Edman, bassist Ted Malmros and guitarist Carl von Arbin back to Stockholm - and took a much needed break. Olenius wrote many of the new songs in Australia in a tiny room, with a little synthesizer, an acoustic guitar and garageband on his laptop. He passed them on to the others who listened closely from their corners of the world, questioning and challenging him until the songs that make up Work had all passed the test.
And now that they have all passed the test, the band has allowed us to check out the first track to emerge from the upcoming record, "Walls."
So it's Black Friday here in the States. The day Americans long for, kill for, save for. Nothing says American commercialism, greed, and chaos quite like this day. It's amazing at what people will do to save $100 off a TV. Last year, people died in the crush at Wal-Mart and then on top of that, retail announced that sales were still down. This year is predicted to be much like last year, in other words flat. It's kind of karmic justice in a round about way for both corporations and the greedy shoppers who fill their coffers.
Anyway, for those of us, who don't partake in the chaos, there's enough other stuff going on. There's more football then you could possibly ever watch although as I say that, I've got ESPN360 goin', SEC game on one TV, Big East game on another, and UFL in between. Damn...that's alot. Yes...I love the sport.
Of course, there's always Ten Tracks You Need as well. Kick off your holiday season right, with a veritable bevy of tracks that you need in your life. Enjoy them and if you're headed to a mall or retail outlet...good luck. I'll be watching football...and strategizing my light hanging philosophy for tomorrow.
The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody (Sometimes Disney just knocks it out of the ballpark)
Competition November sees the launch of an exciting competition for new producers, with the chance to win a 3 single deal with a top label, inclusion on an exclusive compilation album and a host of prizes. The competition is to be judged by a panel of leading industry figures including Timo Maas, Orbital, D Ramirez, James Zabiela, Steve Mac, Meat Katie and Dylan Rhymes....
Leading UK dance imprint Lot49 has carved out an enviable reputation as a forward thinking electronic label, enjoying success within Techno, Electro, Tech-house & Breakbeat genres, now label bosses Meat Katie & Dylan Rhymes are creating an opportunity for budding new artists to gain a fast track place to success in the industry.
To enter the competition is quite simple, just write an extraordinarily good and original piece of dance music and submit it to the label via their dedicated dropbox (full details below).
There will be 14 finalists chosen by our resident producers (see artist page on www.lot49.co.uk).
Those chosen will then go on to the next stage - this means you are already a winner and you are guaranteed a release on Lot49 as part of the "New Lot" compilation and you will receive a selection of goodies from the label’s sponsors.
From here the chosen recordings will be voted on by a panel of world class DJ/Producers who will pick out ONE winner for the TOP PRIZE
HOW TO ENTER (you have until December 1st) 1) Go to www.lot49.co.uk competition page and register with your email, artist name and country 2) Submit up to three separate tracks with them clearly labelled by artist and title in the following format [Artist_title.wav] to
The World’s Hardest Working Telescope and the Violent Birth of Stars, is the much anticipated debut full-length from the ladies of HotChaCha, and follow up to 2008’s critically acclaimed EP, Rifle, I Knew You When You Were Just a Pistol.
The full-length finds HotChaCha expanding upon many of the ideas laid out on their debut EP, and adding new instrumentation and sophistication to their arrangements in addition to naming their records with titles that are their own paragraphs.
The 11 songs presented on The World’s Hardest Working Telescope and the Violent Birth of Stars, run the gamut from staccato sing-a-longs to slowly building atmospheric explorations. This is not your sisters garage rock band. While many of HotChaCha’s songs come in at under the three-and-a-half minute mark, are incredibly danceable, and high energy, it would be an oversimplification to classify them solely as adherents to the ol “punk / new wave” formula.
Think Pearl from Powder, the whole of Sahara Hot Nights, the mysticism of Concrete Blonde, and a hot Los Angeles night and you have a pretty good idea of where HotChaCha are coming from. It's an infectious combination that's as sexy as it is garagey. Add in a sense of hilarity for naming songs things you would never think and you have one heck of a band that's so much more than just another average garage rock revival band.
Bullet & Snowfox was born in a quaint West Hollywood café in the late summer of 2008. It was there, at Joey’s Café, that Kristen Wagner and Josh Shapiro saw the perfect creative counterpart to one another and thus, the music making began. After both having been involved in un-fulfilling projects, they were convinced that it was time to do things their own way.
With Josh heading up the track writing and Kristen covering all things vocal, they easily established a division of labor that gives the songwriting process an element of freedom that both had been so desperately looking for. With influences that span across the map from Siouxsie and the Banshees to Megadeth, they have developed an indie-dance-pop sound that is truly all their own.
With song subjects ranging from bitter break-ups to a quirky take on neurosis, they clearly cover all the bases when showcasing the make up of their personalities. Although these two bandits hail from opposite coasts, Kristen from San Diego and Josh from Pittsburgh, they share more in common than even they would care to admit. Both were raised in middle class homes with relatively sane parents, both college graduates, both have limited tolerance for general stupidity, both are maddeningly stubborn, and both just wouldn’t settle for the painfully suburban lives they were set up for. Eventually, amongst the sea of dreamers wandering the streets of L.A., they found each other and set out to conquer the universe (or at the very least, write some great songs.)
That right there is my kind of band. The take the gloss, sheen and plasticity of Los Angeles rough it up a bit, dip it in sugar and come out with pop songs that will own you. They're seductive, hooky, and freaking really really great. If all pop music was like this Lady Ga Ga would be living in a refrigerator box!
Today's Treasure Trove comes to us from the Department of Experimental Indie Rock and Adriana Lima!
Four-foot industrial blades hanging like chimes. A disassembled church organ rigged with wires running into a computer. As much art installation as rock concert, the most conventional things on True Womanhood’s stage are the timpani drums. And these homemade instruments are not mere sonic curiosities but integral parts of the band’s tightly crafted, inventive songwriting. Grounded on friendships going back to middle school, band members Thomas Redmond, Melissa Beattie and Noam Elsner play in an instinctual style that is sonically and emotionally loud.
The trio has emerged out of the doldrums of post-Dischord Washington, D.C. with a collection of haunting pop gems that are surprisingly mature given the band’s youthful exuberance and predisposition towards experimental music. True Womanhood is not merely satisfied with merely making music as it is inventing it!
A lot of things have changed for Sam Billenrecently. He is about to release his first solo record in 5 years with indie label The Record Machine. It is his first since leaving Northern Records who also released his decade-long band, The Billions, that called it quits last year. After the break up of the Billions, Sam took some time to focus on making his own music and starting a family (Sam just recently became a father).
Produced and recorded and made entirely by Sam himself, Headphones and Cellphones sees him adapting rather nicely to being away from the band dynamic. He's still got the ability to write quirky pop songs but now they're purely his creation and come off sounding a bit like The Postal Service. Yeah, I know that's a bit cliche, but Sam does have a voice that would make Ben Gibbard blush and if the songs are this good, then who cares.
Headphones and Cellphones is music with a heart and soul and I guess that's bound to happen when you become a dad. Good stuff indeed.
MP3s on the POP! Stereo are available for a limited time only and are intended for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear, or read about support the artists by actually purchasing their albums, going to shows, and buying their merchandise.
If you own copyright to one of the songs posted and would like it removed, email us at djpaulpop@yahoo.com.
