Shark? – “Hey Grrl”

Last time we saw Brooklyn’s Shark?, they were happily covering Beat Happening’s anti-Christmas, Christmas hit, “Christmas” (for good measure, once more, Christmas!). Now they’re doing all sorts of stuff: playing shows, releasing an EP, acting like they are some kind of band. Yeah, okay.

Their EP, Noise Maker is out today, and if it’s half as rowdy as “Hey Grrl,” then it is probably pretty rowdy. As “Brooklyn Garage” becomes a somewhat acceptable tag (ironically, because there are very few carports around here, but “Brooklyn Rented Practice Space” doesn’t really sound genre-fied), Shark? manages to sound consistently fresh. It may be the party-time synths (party-time synths mean ‘time to party’), or the drums that sound like Zach Hill violently beating a 7-11 dumpster. Either way, “Hey Grrl” is infectiously trashy.

Even the spelling of “Grrl” is a little tweaked from the norm. Tons of bands are using AIM-speak in their album titles (the Mae Shi’s HLLYH), song names (uhh..Katy Perry’s “Ur So Gay”) and band names (try LOL, “one of Utah’s finest dance and rock cover bands.” I found this on Google, unable to think of another Internet band name. I am still right). But Shark? takes the typical “grl” shortening, and makes it “grrl,” making the whole thing a bit more animalistic.

Bottom line: this song brings the Pabst keg to the party. You bring the grrls.

Download Shark?’s Noise Maker EP right now.

by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Brooklyn Vegan Hosting What Could Be Unquestionably the Hippest Haiti Fundraiser Possible, With Zach Galifianakis, Britt Daniel, Justin Vernon, and St. Vincent – The Only Way This Could Get Hipper Is if Win and Regine Butler Engaged Physically Onstage and Called It “Art” (But Seriously, Go To This. $45 At the Door) [Brooklyn]

Stream Grizzly Bear Covering Hot Chip’s “Boy From School,” Stripping It Down to a Haunting Yellow House Era Dirge, Uncovering Hot Chip as Apparently Brilliant Pop Arrangers, Surprising Every Single Person Who Has Listened to Music. Ever. [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me Has Been Revealed to Be 3-Discs Long, Thus Causing It’s Title to Be Paradoxical; Released February 23 [NME]

Stream What Could Possibly Be a New Song From Daft Punk, “Fragile,” Which Popped Up on a Daft Punk Fansite, and is Allegedly Appearing on the Tron: Legacy Soundtrack. As It Sounds Like it Was Crafted By the Cold, Metallic Hands of Overtly Powerful Robots, I’m Willing to Believe It’s True [Idolator]

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Stream Peter Gabriel Covering the Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage,” Which Should Not Be Played In Front of Your Potential Lovers House Out of a Boombox, If You Expect to “Get the Girl” [Stereogum]

compiled by Max Sebela

I’ve been known to criticize buzz bands’ MySpace pages. The now-dated social network, with its limited blog toolsets and style capabilities, sadly remains the very best way for a band to host .mp3s, and can lead to some terrifyingly awful web design. But Hooray For Earth has no excuse. The thing is caked with low res purple text, symmetrically layered behind, that is supposed to disjointedly read “Hooray For Earth” (stay with me, that’s the band name). Behind the text is a VCR display, and what I can only guess is the windshield of a car. Where is the car going? Most likely into bad Myspace hell (which is probably more populated than actual hell (to be fair, bad Myspace hell is probably the same place as actual hell, as one of the lost Commandments was “Thou Shall Not Upload Low Res and Obscured Images As a Background To One’s Social Network”)).

Still, as with Suckers before them, I’m willing to forgive the bizarre/sad/desperate aesthetic choice on merit of the songs. “Surrounded by Your Friends” is the best kind of electro posi-jam, right up there with James Murphy’s “All My Friends.” Simple, 8-bit pulses and drum pads back up the vocals, which are languid and rhythmic, if not slightly apathetic. As the chorus soars in, “In then end, you’re surrounded by your friends,” the listener is forced to smile. Isn’t that what we all wish?

As the world ends, I hope yellow-warm synth kicks in, and I look around, and there are at least a couple of my friends there. A four-minute pop song is able to evoke that – from a band with the worst Myspace page I have ever seen.

Stream it here.

by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Vampire Weekend is Number One on the Billboard Charts; I Still Claim They Have Many Hurdles to Get Past the ‘Blog Backlash,’ or Can Willfully Ignore It and Begin Sleeping in Piles of Sweet, Sweet Cash that Wasn’t Inherited From a Trust Fund [Brooklyn Vegan]

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Raekwon Promises Two Albums in 2010, After Taking Well Over a Decade to Follow Up Cuban Linx; He Also Encourages Us to “Rt this crack….,” Which Either Refers to a Tweet as Crack (Funny), or Encourages the Spread of Crack-Cocaine Via the Web (Funnier) [Tiny Mix Tapes]

compiled by Max Sebela

“Oh my Lord, so FUNKY.” This is what you are about to think to yourself/say outloud (for those who find themselves in a semi-social situation midday through a Wednesday, or are of the sort likely to be overcome with excitement toward funk that you begin to speak outloud) when listening to Soundpool’s “But It’s So.” A thick, dreamy shoegazing guitar jumble, driven by an even thicker disco beat, “But It’s So” is immediately one of the best tracks recorded by the NYC quintet, who have been relatively quiet since 2008′s Dichotomies and Dreamland.

The track is good enough to ignore the chorus of, “But it’s so…,” without really understanding what “it” is, or what this “it” is “so.” And if you really feel like you need an answer, just fill in “hot” at the end of the line, and you’ll be just fine.

“But It’s So” is set to appear on Soundpool’s upcoming LP Mirrors in Your Eyes, released sometime early on this year on Killer Pimp. With this, and Music Go Music’s Expressions both due out soon, 2010 is already shaping up to be a pretty great year for disco-revival. Which, depending on how receptive you are to disco, means 2010 is shaping up to be a good/awful year for new/tired music.

Soundpool – “But Its So”

by Max Sebela

IN THE TUBE
Yes, it stars a full cast of puppets. Yes, the majority of the eleven -minute duration is spent on these puppets speaking to each other, and almost nothing to do with a Dan Deacon song. Yes, the puppets almost exclusively speak with content that breaks down almost all possible metaphysical views. No, there is no sense trying to draw out literal meaning from the nonsense of what you are about to watch:

But, as with most Dan Deacon material, even if you viscerally hate the thing, you end up with the inevitable conclusion that it is brilliant. Because buried under all the pop fluff (here, the fluff is puppets and a tiger-costumed Deacon, who is simultaneously the devil), there is just more fluff. Deacon’s music is like a set of Russian stacking dolls. You approach it under the assumption that, if you just spend enough time unpacking, you’ll get to something deeper and more significant; there must be something behind how seemingly randomly intricate the mess of organs and sequencers is.

But there isn’t. It’s as fluff-filled as any pop song or children’s show, even if it seems like it shouldn’t be. Being a genius is great; being genius enough to make everyone think you’re a genius is way better.

by Max Sebela

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compiled by Max Sebela

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compiled by Max Sebela