Time of the Season

The alpha version of the Loudcrowd website launched almost two years ago, in August of 2008. We’re very proud of it, this online community for people who love music and want to do more than just listen. Our users have sent millions of dances and listened to thousands of tracks while discovering the best new music from around the world. In the meantime our other games, Music Pets and Super Dance, have grown rapidly on Facebook. Because we want to make sure that all our active projects receive the attention they deserve, we have decided to focus our effort on our other games. Loudcrowd will deliver its last dance this week, on July 29, 2010. 

As the last blog post I’ll write, I’d like to look at some of the very best bow-outs in music history. I asked myself, what are the very best last tracks on final albums? Which songs kick your ass so hard and make you sit down on the ground and cry because that group will never be around again (forgetting for one moment the simple fact that unless an artist is dead all bands seem to get back together for reunion shows these days)? 

With links to YouTube videos of these songs, here’s a top ten of the most bad-ass finales in music history. And yeah, it’s a pretty “rockist” list — one that favors melancholic type tunes. If you don’t like it, feel free to post your own suggestions in the comments!

Hope you are having a great summer and be sure that the Conduit Labs team has many rad surprises in store for you.      Later — DJ Yeti

1. Nick Drake, “From the Morning”

2. Minor Threat, “Salad Days” 

3. Nirvana, “All Apologies”

4. ABBA, “Like an Angel Passing Through My Room”

5. Joy Division, “Decades”

6. The Zombies, “Time of the Season”

7. Led Zeppelin, “I’m Gonna Crawl”

8. Sleater-Kinney, “Night Light”

9. Neutral Milk Hotel, “Two Headed Boy Pt.2”

10. My Bloody Valentine, “Soon”

PICK OF THE WEEK: Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National

I don’t think I can accurately describe how excited I am now that a new National album is out in the world and in my filthy little hands. It’s been too long since Boxer came  along and blew my mind. Unfortunately the album was ruined for me as I went on a 20 hour road trip forgetting every CD except Boxer. Somewhere around hour fifteen, with The National playing on repeat, the joy the album gave me was replaced with rage. And the idea that God was talking to me.

Luckily, The National have decided to end my pain and release High Velocity along with lead single “Bloodbuzz Ohio.” It’s everything that a National fan would want: Moody and thoughtful, yet it builds to an anthemic chorus.

And if anyone is having trouble understanding the line “I was carried to Ohio by a swarm of bees” let me explain it: No offense to Ohioans, but I have been to Ohio many, many times and its Midwest charm has been lost on me. The only way you could force me back would be to have a swarm of angry bees carry me. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I’m choosing to interpret the song.

-DJ Bears!

PICK OF THE WEEK: Kiss that Grrrl - Kate Nash

I really wanted to pick some really avant garde and insanely complicated song this week so that everyone on the internet would think I was cool. The only problem was that Kate Nash had to come along and release a perfect pop song. Instead of sitting down and listening to the latest noise-jazz meets space-punk release, I found myself listening to “Kiss That Grrrl” on repeat. (I’m assuming this is the type of song Iyaz was singing about.)

Eventually I had to stop fighting my body’s natural urges. Kate Nash is spunky and psychotically obsessed which creates an immensely enjoyable experience. The slinky guitars and horns made me sway my hips in a feminine manner while imagining that I was chorus member in a doo-wop group. It doesn’t hurt that I misheard the line “I will shrink up” as “I will shrink her,” making me think of The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. And anytime a song reminds me of 1950s B-Movies it’s a great thing. 

-DJ Bears!

DOUBLE PICK OF THE WEEK:

Laura Palmer’s Prom - You Say Party! We Say Die! + Twin Peaks - Surfer Blood

One night when I was ten years old I was sick with the flu and couldn’t sleep. I went into the den and tried to  fall asleep to the TV. Except that my channel flipping lead to David Lynch’s “what the heck” masterpiece Twin Peaks. As I watched a backwards-talking midget in a checkerboard room, I assumed that I was suffering from some fevered hallucination. It soon dawned on me that this was an actual program and it terrified me. Jump thirteen years later, and I still haven’t the nerve to watch the show. Though it looks like the rest of popular culture demands that I see it.

First those awesome bus ads came out piquing my interest. And now rock bands demand that I see the show because eventually all rock music will be about Twin Peaks and if I don’t get on board then I’ll be stuck listening to Fleetwood Mac and Candlebox for the rest of my life.  —DJ Bears

Top Five Driving Songs of All Time

Music and cars have had a long, torrid love affair and considering how much time I spend in my car, I thought I would share with you my completely unscientific and completely opinionated list of the Five Greatest Driving Songs of All Time. 

5. Cars with the Boom - L’Trimm

Debate this decision if you like, but are you really going to stand there and tell me that you don’t like the cars that go boom?

4. The Price of Gas - Bloc Party

Do you want a fun, danceable post punk jam to listen to on your next road trip? And do you also want that song to make you feel guilty every time you stop to fill up your tank? If you love the feeling of schadenfreude then this is the song for you.

3. Race With the Devil - Gene Vincent

When it’s late at night and I find an empty road, nothing makes me feel cooler than putting on “Race With the Devil,” pretending that my hair is thick enough to comb into pompadour, and flying down the street. The Blue Caps clean licks and Gene Vincent’s “uh-huh” lyrics make this the best song about a car chase with the devil out there. And there are a lot.

2. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

Most driving songs are about putting your foot to the gas, and finding freedom by escaping an old life. But despite its suicidal despair, “There Is A Light…” is probably the truest expression of car love: It’s about a man wishing to be free of inhibition; his greatest joy is riding in the passenger seat next to his object of affection. If you want more you can read my senior thesis entitled “The Automobile and Western Culture: Representations of the Id, Ego, and Superego.”

1. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

In the end this was a toss up between “Born to Run,” “Thunder Road,” and, really, Springsteen’s entire oeuvre. It’s the quintessential American song. Filled with lines like “The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive” that are pure adrenaline sparks. The song seems made purely for putting the windows down and screaming along. And don’t even get me started on the ‘hut back buah” grunts before the sax solo. Pure power. If I ever die in a huge, fiery car accident it’s going to be because I needed to play air-sax while driving.

Pick of the Week: Skin and Bones - Flashy Python

Call it fate, or destiny, or whatever you want, but if it wasn’t for being a broke college student three years ago, I never would have stumbled upon Flashy Python, the newish band from members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Dr. Dog and The Teeth.

You see, three years ago I was broke. But I also wanted to pick up some new music so I went to the used record shop. Seeing as how I had no money, I only searched in the bargain bin. That’s when I came across The Teeth’s debut album “You’re My Lover Now.” I had never heard of the group, but I felt a connection, a mystical voice calling me that said “There are worse ways to spend $1.99.”

I went home and listened to the album. I listened to it again. And then again. I loved it. I was in love with it. I felt like Leif Ericson having just discovered new land. I was a proud adoptive mother who made friends sit with me and listen rather than look through an album of baby photos. I began checking their website, hoping they would announce a tour date close by. In April 2008, I learned that they were breaking up and I would never get to see them. I was crushed and betrayed.

Flash forward until this week. My wounds have healed and I was thinking of what music made me really happy this week. And I returned to The Teeth. As I listened to them, I was filled with music euphoria. I ran to my computer to put this piece together and when I went to The Teeth’s website, I discovered that they had teamed up to create a supergroup in Flashy Python. They hadn’t betrayed me. They were like a caterpiller who needs to hide in its cocoon so that it can come back as a butterfly and have sex with old people. 

Or they’re just talented musicians who had ended one project to work on another. Either way, I don’t care. I’m just happy to have stumbled upon another great band.

-DJ Bears!

Pick of the Week: Tora Tora Tora - Pretty & Nice

Guys, I have a secret for all of you. Are you ready for it? Summer is almost here! I know, I know. Spring just started, but when you get out of work and the sun is still shining, it’s the world announcing “Summer is near, so take off those coats. Go grab some frisbees and sandwiches. Then meet me at the beach and we’ll have a party!”

That’s what the Boston-based Pretty & Nice make me feel when I listen to them. In fact, when I write my conflict-free beach party movie called “Frisbees and Funbees” I think I’ll contact the band and see if they’d be willing to score it. Their music is spiky and infectious and their songwriting process seems like that of an excited ten year old. They’ll move from angular guitars, to toy piano, to electronic fuzz and back again in the span of two and a half minutes. And when I’m driving home from work, pretending that my sunglasses are Ray Bans and that I’m actually a sexy lifeguard with a dark secret, that’s exactly what I want to hear.

-DJ Bears!

Pick of the Week: Maneater/Rich Girl/Heard It On The Radio - The Bird and The Bee

There was no way I could only pick one song this week. I mean, The Bird and the Bee released an entire album of Hall & Oates covers and I managed to pick only three. I consider that a massive showing of restraint.

And don’t lie to me, and certainly do not lie to yourself. When you heard that The Bird and the Bee would be paying tribute to the Daryl Hall and John Oates, paragons of 80s blue eyed soul, you probably flipped your lid. Because I did. So tear yourself away from Daryl Hall’s endlessly entertaining website for a moment and listen to The Bird and The Bee’s quirky tribute.

And the very best part of all of this is that the title of the album is Interpreting the Masters: Volume 1. Who knows what they could have in store for us next — perhaps they’ll recreate the Patrick Bateman approved Sports by Huey Lewis and the News?

And if this post has made you want to hear the originals, here is a Youtube playlist with forty Hall and Oates gems.

-DJ Bears!

Pick of the Week: The Wrestle - Frightened Rabbit

Up until two years ago, I knew three things about Scotland. They were Sean Connery, the Lochness monster and that a mass mooning is sound military strategy.  But then Midnight Organ Fight came out and thanks to Frightened Rabbit, I learned one more thing about the country: it is a breeding ground for amazing and earnest rock n’ roll. Frightened Rabbit are like cultural ambassadors; they’ve opened up my little brain to a wondrous new world through label mates We Were Promised Jetpacks and The Twilight Sad.

With Frightened Rabbit’s new album Winter of Mixed Drinks, they’ve kept the epic nature of the previous record, but with the addition of band members, they’ve widened their sonic pallet. No song exemplifies this better than the pulsing, melodic and grandiose sound like “The Wrestle.” It’s certainly a Frightened Rabbit track, with lead singer Scott Hutchison’s warbling voice, and choral “ooh ooh oohs” throughout. But the band is also more refined these days and have added layers of sound and shoegaze to their pop/folk/rock/what have you.

They’re currently touring, and even though they’re skipping Los Angeles, I’ll post the dates for people living in luckier cities.

-DJ Bears!

Pick of the Week: When I Go - Slow Club

My eighth grade self would hate me. In eighth grade I only listened to bands like Minor Threat and spent a lot of time trying to perfect Sharpie drawings of the Dead Kennedys “DK” symbol on my desk. Now I find myself listening to “When I Go” by the cute and folksy duo Slow Club. I can just imagine younger-me stumbling upon modern-day-me and staring with mouth agape as modern-me sashays across the room to lyrics like “If we’re both not married by twenty three/Will you make my year and ask me?”

And I’m totally fine with that. Because Slow Club are damn good. And because every time I hear “When I Go” I find myself smiling. The song is catchy, the vocal interplay is gorgeous and fun and the words are reminiscent of a more pessimistic “When I’m 64.” And if you think I’m being an overly mushy mush-brain, then I dare you to listen to this song and not feel the same.

-DJ Bears!

Pick of the Week: Under Control - Good Shoes

I want to give a hearty thanks to Good Shoes for releasing the first single of 2010 meant to embarrass me. For the London based quartet, “Under Control” is just another tight and riff heavy post-punk jam that’s insanely catchy. It also happens to be about sex. The melody is so in-your-ears delicious that you’ll be forced to sing it wherever you are and it doesn’t discriminate based on age or sex or appropriateness of lyrical content.

Imagine for a moment that you are me and you’re sitting at work. Maybe you start by lightly humming the song. It may be annoying to the others in the office, but it’s still well within the realm of decency. But then imagine that you begin mouthing the words like “We’re side by side/with her legs between mine.” Perhaps a little unsettling, but so far security doesn’t have a need to remove you from the property.  Then imagine that you start really feeling the song and without realizing it you’re full on American Idol-ing lyrics like “Lips on lips/Meet salty skin/And her muscles tense/As I tighten my grip.” When you snap back to reality, you realize you might have a sexual harrassment suit on your hands and it’s all thanks to the fine young gentlemen in Good Shoes.

And the video, which I linked to above but will do again here, is a perfect and hilarious fit to the song which should be viewed immediately. Unless you’re at work and they have a policy against women weightlifters in bikinis.

-DJ Bears!

Pick of the Week: You Must Be Out of Your Mind - The Magnetic Fields

It’s a really great time to be depressed and wallow in self pity. With the Eastern seaboard buried under two feet of snow, it’s the perfect time to get in bed, pull the blankets up and stare at the ceiling while mulling over every wrong decision you’ve ever made. Luckily, The Magnetic Fields have come out with a new album, Realism, to soundtrack these not-so-halcyon days.

If after listening to their last album Distortion, you’re worried Realism might not be calming enough—stop. The Magnetic Fields have returned to their poppy folk wheelhouse and opening song “You Must Be Out of Your Mind”  highlights those strengths. It’s full of a plucking banjo, strings and Stephin Merritt’s distinctive drone. It’s also full of classic Merritt lyrics like, “I want you crawling back to me/Down on your knees, yeah/Like an appendectomy/Sans anesthesia.”

The Magnetic Fields are also touring, so if you can find the inner strength to get out of bed and possibly take a shower, you might end up having a great time with fellow Seasonally Affected music fans.

-DJ Bears!