Human Giant | “Other Music”

It’s the best parts of High Fidelity, sans Jack Black and with a late-2000s twist. Non-serious music fans, forget about watching this video… or just let your pride shrivel up and die.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain | “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

All props to Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, but this uke version is way more punk than those Seattle-ites could ever deliver.

UOoGB – Official site | MySpace | Last.fm | Wikipedia | Amazon

Similar artists: The Gothic Archies, The Magnetic Fields, They Might Be Giants

Loney, Dear | “Saturday Waits”

The first day of summer usually calls for lemonade, patterned shirts reminiscent of grandma’s dining room tablecloth, and specially crafted mix CDs full of boys singing in their best breezy falsettos. Swede Emil Svanängen’s basement recording project Loney, Dear has saved me on many mixes in honour of this summer already (and it’s barely begun). Check out “I Am John” (courtesy of SubPop), and you’ll be aching to don your shades, jump into a convertible and take a extended road trip with the windows rolled down.

Have a happy first week of summer, kids. It’s gonna be a good one.

Loney, Dear – Official site | MySpace | Last.fm | SubPop

The Choir Practice | Beltin’ It Out @ Ukrainian Hall, Vancouver

The choir genre is hot, and there’s more to love in this group than meets the ear: it’s a hodge-podge supergroup of the Vancouver indie scene, including members of P:ano, Great Aunt Ida, The Gay Straights, and the A.C. Newman band. And if you can’t get a grasp of what’s going on in the video above, check out the written review of Friday night’s extravaganza.

The Choir Practice – Mint Records | MySpace | CBC Radio3 | Last.fm

Similar artists: Akron/Family, Langley Schools Music Project, P:ano, Great Aunt Ida

The Pipettes | “Your Kisses are Wasted on Me”

(Deep inhale) Okay, seriously. Could we can all this “Yay! Go team!” media hype surrounding The Pipettes? Sure, I get weak in the knees when I see a band outfitted in their Sunday’s best, but this group, fronted by three lasses from Brighton, England, just tries way too hard.

I like cute. I like quirky. And manufactured bands are okay. To a great extent, most bands and artists are manufactured, really, so any argument based on that doesn’t hold. The Pipettes’ songs are cute, saccharine, and explosively poppy, and they make an absolute perfect accoutrement on a sunny day, but their live show, as photographed above earlier this year in Austin’s Flamingo Cantina, pumps out nothing more than kitsch without sincere passion. If dance moves are your thing, then forget this and get yourself a ticket to see Britney Spears.

Anyway. (Exhale)

The Pipettes play Vancouver tonight at the Plaza Club. Despite my own bitter misgivings, I think most people will dig this sort of stuff. At least they have stage presence, and it got me riled up enough to write a post about it. That certainly says something.

The Pipettes – Official site | MySpace | Last.fm | Amazon

Similar artists: The Shangri-Las, The Ronettes, Architecture in Helsinki, The Concretes

Tapes ‘n Tapes vs. The Killers | Battle of the Indie ‘Staches

“Insistor” – Tapes ‘n Tapes

I have a love-hate relationship with the mustache. Rock stars can definitely pull it off, as can the donut-munching cop down the street. My best friend Chad or Uncle Joe? Uh, not so much.

Let’s take, for instance, the video above — a single by darlin’ midwestern indie rockers Tapes ‘n Tapes — lead by mustachioed singer and guitarist Josh Grier. Now, this furry number, I can handle. Perhaps because he’s a rocker. Perhaps more because I can admire it at a distance.

Almost immediately, the video reminds me of another mustachioed visual treat, the overplayed video I hate to love by The Killers — “When You Were Young”. Though vastly different in intent, the lead singers in both videos convey a particular sense of confidence — the former showcasing Grier’s let’s-have-fun and I-don’t-bloody-care-what-you-think indie attitude and the latter (below) oozing with lead Brandon Flowers’ I’m-a-pompous-arse-nugget and look-at-me-I’m-the-king-of-the-world swagger.

“When You Were Young” – The Killers

The overflow of confidence displayed in these two clips surely sprouts from the ’stache. What a return of this furry facial anomaly to the masses could represent for modern society, who knows. I do know, at least in these two cases, that the mustache has injected an extra dose of rock cock in the rock cock blood stream.

Face it, when you wanna be king of the world, you have to go all the way. Just do me a favour and be a rock star if you’re going to do it. Okay? Okay.

Tapes ‘n Tapes – official site | MySpace | Last.fm | eMusic

The Killers – official site | MySpace | Last.fm | Amazon

Arthur Russell | Documentary on a Legend… in the Works

(freeze frame of Jens Lekman in the currently-in-prod Arthur Russell doc)

There are days when a song catches me off-guard, and I’m forced to take the long way home just to hear the piece in its entirety. It’s something that happens almost every time I hear Arthur Russell’s “A Little Lost” (mp3). This cello-injected, avant garde jazz-esque piece is one part pop, one part genius, and the remainder parts shiver-worthy, a trait indicative of most work on the Another Thought release. He gained relative mainstream notoriety and acclaim with his late ’70s/early ’80s disco dance era hits (“Go Bang”, for one), but I don’t think he’s received true credit for his worth, despite many posthumous releases since his death in 1992. So when I learned about this new documentary in the works, you can bet I got a little excited: it’s about freaking time.

And he certainly makes eclectic documentary material: a mid-Westerner turned Manhattan art scenester, Russell led an explosively creative and eccentric life. He lived in a Buddhist commune, trained as a classical Indian musician, and collaborated with David Byrne, Phillip Glass, and Allen Ginsberg among many others. He was well known within the art community but was perhaps too far ahead of his time for anyone to appreciate on a grand scale. Now, 15 years after his death due to complications from AIDS, his star is casting a greater light beyond the closed world of musicians and high brow critics, which may be substantiated (whether you like it or not) by T-Mobile UK’s use of “This is How We Walk on the Moon” in a recent ad campaign.

Heck, I’m not going to argue when it comes to sharing the love of good music. The more outlets, the merrier. As I said, it’s about freakin’ time.

Arthur Russell – Official documentary site | Wikipedia | Last.fm l eMusic

Datarock | “Computer Camp”

“She’s not that kind of a girl, Booger!”

It would take more than hand cuffs and a head-dunk into a toilet to stop me from playing “Computer Camp Love” over and over again. The song’s a perfect mix of quirk, retro flair, and Scandinavian novelty, and I pity the fool who tries to stop me from belting out the lyrics and playing it on loop over and over… and over again.

Press play. Rinse. Repeat. Play. Rinse. Repeat. That’s right. You’ve been Datarock-ified.

Datarock – Official site | MySpace | Last.fm | eMusic

Similar artists: Hot Chip, The Rapture, The Presets

Ra Ra Riot | Drummer John Pike passes away

SXSW 2007: I was trying to escape from a mediocre Sage Francis show at Emo’s when Syracuse’s Ra Ra Riot left me drooling in my tracks. I’d walked into a raucous house party, full of thrashing, swaying, young 20s-ish kids playing their instruments like they were making sweet love to them. In no time, I was leaning up against the stage like a little girl who’d found her long lost daddy. It didn’t matter I had no clue who they were, because they had me wrapped around their little fingers, “had me at hello”, and they just wouldn’t let go. Heck, I didn’t want to go: I knew I was watching a band that was gonna go somewhere, and they’d be one of the few I would actually MySpace and keep tabs on after the festival.

Basking in the glory of their March 2007 self-titled EP, the group was starting an uphill climb in the leagues of indie pop, and were scheduled for a summer tour with Tokyo Police Club. But just the other day, I noticed a mysterious bulletin on my profile page, reading a sombre “Last night our drummer John Pike went missing at 3 am.” I thought it was a cruel joke, and returned to the site the next day to prove it wasn’t true.

However, one full day after the initial post, on the evening of June 3, 2007, fans learned Ra Ra Riot drummer John Pike passed away after disappearing from a post-concert party in Massachusetts. People continue to congregate on MySpace comment pages as I type, sending their condolences, and Tokyo Police Club have already changed their profile picture to honour the 23-year-old musician, with the caption “All our best to your family and friends, John.”

All my best from me, too. Thanks for the music, John.

Ra Ra Riot – Official site | Wikipedia | MySpace | Last.fm | eMusic

Dan Deacon | Try a Little Crazy with Your Morning Coffee

Dan Deacon on Coastal Sunrise, NBC

This clip gives me serious hope for American morning television. I dare say if everyone saw this video, Dan Deacon would be elected the world’s President of Awesomeness. Seriously.

Deacon’s art collective, Wham City, based in Baltimore, Maryland, is a group providing “creative freedom and emotional support from people who are a danger to themselves and those around them.” Hallelujah. If these kids can keep up the joyful spirit so often missing in the art-school-esque music scene, then Wham it up, baby. Wham it up good.

OCDJ and Videohippos are two more examples of Wham’s collective greatness, proferring blips, vocals, and rapid fire beats as part of their own wild, computery dance mixes. And who cares if electronic stuff ain’t your thang: how can you pass up a free mp3? You can’t. You just can’t:

MP3 | “pls stp th hstl” – OCDJ
MP3 | “Cool Shades” – Videohippos

Dan Deacon – Official site | Wham City site | MySpace | Last.fm | eMusic