Alright. Norwegian electric band Royksopp has been posting juicy little blurbs about their new album, Senior, for months now. They’ve pushed back the release date once or twice, and have finally announced that the album, originally due for earlier this summer, would be released September 13th. The album is meant to accompany their prior album, Junior; while Junior contained lighter and more energetic tracks, Senior is said to contain some of the slower, darker, more lethargic tracks.

But the album has been leaked.

That’s right. The whole album has been floating around almost every major torrent site and on a few filehosting sites. And, may I say, it’s fantastic. It’s really, really good.

You can download Senior from ThePirateBay.org here. But please, buy the vinyl or something. The album is totally worth it.

Download Senior now.

Ever have one of those times when you put your iPod on shuffle and stumble upon a song that you’ve never heard before? Well, yesterday was one of those days. I was in the car, feeling rather bored, and was in need of entertainment. I put my iPod on shuffle and came across the song “Days Go On,” by Greg Laswell. I honestly couldn’t tell you how the song ended up on my iPod. I had never heard of it before. Regardless, there I was, sitting in my card, bored out of my mind, with my iPod on shuffle. And then this song came on.

The sound.

The vocals sound a lot like Coldplay’s, or like Doves’s. I probably did a horrible job with those apostrophes. At any rate, can you hear it? I kinda like it. It’s impressive how high the guy can sing without tensing up. It’s very smooth, and easy on the ears.

As for the beat… Hmm. I feel like I should be able to place it, but I can’t right now. It’s very rhythmical, although a lot of that comes from the guitar and the piano, more so from the drum. The piano part is fairly straight forward, almost like this one Ingrid Michaelson song my friend introduced me to earlier this week. The drum is rather catchy. It’s the same as the drum from a whole slew of pieces (the first that comes to mind is Gnarls Barkley’s “Going On”).

There’s a bit of processed-ness to it. If you listen closely, you can hear guitars in reverse in some places, and the drum is sequenced in a few places. It gives it a bit of an edge, despite the fact that most of the actual instruments are very much acoustic.

The song flows really nicely. It starts at a brisk pace and keeps it up throughout the piece, making it really good for… well, things that need a pace, like walking, or thinking, or something like that. I wouldn’t really want to listen to this sitting in bed trying to sleep unless I really liked caffeine and had RLS or something.

Still, the song is, as a whole, awesome, and you should really give it a listen. How might you do that, you ask? Well, here’s a convenient set of links and embedded flash videos to help you meet that end.

Listen to it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkS2b-yRwUo

Download the song (along with the rest of his album) from iTunes here.

Stream the song in higher quality from GrooveShark here.

Visit his website.

There’s nothing quite like seeing an opening band, not knowing what to expect, and being absolutely blown away. The band in question, or rather, the musician, was “Larkin Grimm,” an incredibly interesting woman who plays both harp and guitar (among other things, I’m sure).

She and her two band members were opening for Rasputina last night. The band was fascinating in appearance, to say the least. Larkin and her bass player were dressed in these slightly retro skirts, while their drummer looked like an H&M model, complete with fedora and vest.I loved it. I care about stage appearance. I’m a dork like that.

Screw that, how did they sound?

Right, their music. I almost forgot. Imagine, if you will, taking the mood and lyrics of the Dresden Dolls, and forcing it upon a band like Doves. It was a sad, slightly eclectic kind of music, with a bit of a dusty, almost southwestern twist in one or two of their songs. It was very passionate, too. Some of the music they made was just an intense buildup of “acoustic noise,” as Grimm calls it in her bio.

The drummer was, in my opinion, the most interesting to watch. Rather than using drum sticks, he had what looked like thick, frayed rope, which he whipped around his drum set, creating a sort of muted, hushed sound.

The bass player has to be given credit, too. Her playing was absolutely smooth and streamline, without the slightest hint of tension. I wish I could do that. Regardless, she was also a fantastic backup singer, staying in tune with the other two members, which is something I really find fantastic in a live performance. I hate hearing a band that’s fantastic in recordings, but utterly dismal in live shows (like The Mars Volta, although I think that’s more because they’re absolutely smashed every time they do live shows).

That’s another thing; the whole group sang, which I thought was kind of neat. It’s always a bit foreign-looking to see a band in which the drum player, for example, sits there with his (or her) mouth sealed the whole time. It almost looks out of place.

Afterwards

After the show, they sold CD’s for “whatever you can give us.” People gave jewelry , bread, and “sometimes even money” for their CD’s. I’m sure they have quite a collection of interesting and semi-valuable trinkets by now. I got a live CD, which I’ve yet to listen to (mainly because most of the time between the concert and this post was spent sleeping).

At any rate, Larkin Grimm. Listen to her, because she loves you. Her albums are cheap, and her music is good. You don’t have very much to lose. Well, ok. Maybe you stand to lose $10, but it’s worth it.

Visit her site

Download a few free tracks from her site

Buy her albums on iTunes

Now, a small mini-album has been released, entitled “Outer Spaces,” containing four songs made either entirely with DopplerPad, or at least in part with the software. And they aren’t bad. I was impressed that such simple software could create such interesting music.

Here, take a listen:
Outer Spaces by retronyms

The album is totally free, so you can download it here if you’d like. Hell, I even put it on my iPod. It’s worth listening to if you have a spare 20 minutes or so.

Visit the “Outer Spaces” homepage

Download the album for free

Charlie Slum – Outro

Download audio file (Outro.mp3)

Charlie Slum – So Easily Forgotten

Download audio file (So-Easily-Forgotten.mp3)

Yeah, yeah. I’ve been doing a lot of music promotion recently. You’ll live, I’m sure. That being said, I’ve been getting interested in a few young, local artists as of late, and wanted to help them get word of their music out. The latest and greatest is Cameron Bell, also known as “Charlie Slum.” He’s really a brilliant self-produced rapper from Pittsburgh. His mixtape, “The Headband” is coming out in 2 days (the 15th), so I’m really excited for that. He mixes mainstream beats with some truly unique lyrics to create some fantastic music. Plus, he’s passionate about what he does. His music is personal, which really adds to the whole experience. Seriously, give his stuff a listen.

Check out his Facebook Page

Listen to him on MySpace

GET THE MIXTAPE! [OUT 5/27]

Here’s his cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciF-YyAVk70

Check his youtube page out.

DJ-ing

New topic. Just for kicks, I recorded myself DJ’ing. Again, it’s not great, but I do want some feedback. That being said, tell me why I suck. Here are the videos. (A total of about 18 minutes of mixing).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=69wm_PBfucs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6TvRB1hHw

Here’s the track list:

“Loader” - Shadow Dancer
“Rock, Paper, Scissors” - Fukkk Offf
“Pogo (Digitalism’s Robotic Remix)” - Digitalism
“Boom Boom Pow” - Black Eyed Peas
“Satisfaction” - Benny Benassi
Ghosts n Stuff (Radio Edit) - Deadmau5

Download the 18 minute mix here.

Download audio file (mbsh1.mp3)

What do you think?

I’d love to hear some critiques. I threw this together in a day and a half, and this is all improvisation on my friend’s part. Plus, the song is only about a minute and a half, so I wouldn’t even consider it “finished.” Regardless, post some feedback!

A’ight, internet. I know that technically this was published on Sunday Night, but I don’t think anyone really cares, right? This week’s selection is a song by PT Walkley, called “Somebody.” It’s a bit more along the lines of the kinds of music I typically post, unlike last week’s post. Its very chill, mellow, and happy, for those of you who smile too much. Anyways, since I couldn’t find a suitable video for the song on Youtube, here’s a neat little mp3 I found on someone else’s site. Usually I don’t like stealing bandwidth, but when it comes to music, I like to be safe, rather than sorry. There’s always strange stipulations about hosting music on your site, no one likes legal complications. Anyways, here’s the song. Eat up, and be sure to tell me what you think.

Download audio file (18%20Somebody.mp3)

The good, the bad, and the video.

I love the song for two reasons: its fantastic use of a string quartet to back up the vocalist’s guitar (check the video out if you don’t get what I mean) and its fantastic, yet subtle, buildup of sound throughout the song. The song reminds me of Panic at the Disco’s later album, with its use of typical band instruments in conjunction with a symphonic melody-line, which, in retrospect, is almost exactly what I just said, yet worded differently.

Regardless, after digging on youtube for a music video of the song, I found this, which seems to be a well-recorded live version of most of the song, and it really shows just how many people it took to make it. I found it rather remarkable that it could all be pulled off, particularly when none of the musicians can see each other, but hey, it works. Anyways, watch it. It’ll make you smarter.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2piOqRBwxY

Here’s the video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdixPNqlACk

As a note, the video clips were from the fantastic movie, “Let the Right One In.” It’s on netflix. Watch it.

Now that thats out of the way, onto what I think of the song. While a bit repetitive, it is very, very chill, which I’ve come to like in my music. Wikipedia calls his music “electronica,” although you could easily shove it under “ambient.” What’s ambient? If you’re too lazy to look it up, the song you just heard is ambient. Clear enough, isn’t it? Very relaxing, very soft, slow, not too harsh.

That being said, what do you guys think? Good, bad, or ugly? Leave some comments; I’d be happy to hear about your thoughts on my musical taste.