Posts Tagged ‘The Shins’

CD Review: Broken Bells, “Broken Bells”

Broken BellsThe first time I listened to Broken Bells’ self-titled debut, I was completely unaware of the band’s pedigree. In the end, I feel like this actually gave me a chance to enjoy the record without any preconceived notion of what to expect. Had I known I was listening to the new project from the minds of Danger Mouse — credited here under his given name, Brian Burton — and James Mercer, of indie rock act The Shins, there is a good chance that I would be more critical of the album. Instead, I found myself wrapped up in the songs, enveloped by the sound, and enjoying the down tempo vibe of the record.

The project started as a mutual admiration, shared between Burton and Mercer, and discovered when the two performed with their respective bands at the 2004 Roskilde festival. Flash forward four years to 2008 when the duo locked themselves down in Burton’s studio and challenged themselves to expand beyond the box they respectively fit in. For Burton, this meant abandoning the trappings of being Danger Mouse, and focusing on live instrumentation. For Mercer, the challenge was to stretch his vocal repertoire to its limits. The result is, arguably, one of the better records to come out in the first quarter of 2010. (more…)

Mix Six: “Body Parts and Food”

DOWNLOAD THE FULL MIX HERE

I think it’s obvious that the title of this Mix Six is pretty gross.  I mean, if I were in the restaurant business, having a title like “Body Parts and Food” would certainly be the death knell for my venture.  But, since this is music we’re talking about, I think you can figure out where this is going by simply using your noodle (Ha! I food reference — and a stupid second grade one at that) and thinking about bands who have branded themselves with a moniker that certainly gets attention. So, here we go with a little musical tour of the morgue and the produce aisle — um, I mean, bands with evocative novel names.

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Harper’s Findings: 6/03/08

A selection of “Findings” from the back page of Harper’s Magazine, June 2008.

Scottish scientists found that women are instinctively attracted to the faces of men who want long-term relationships, whereas men are instinctively attracted to the faces of women who want one-night stands; French bio-statisticians declared Caucasian women to be more attractive than Caucasian men; a computer learned to identify beauty in Caucasian women; and a team of European sexologists reported that 40 percent of Italian couples were not having sex, due in part to Italian men’s declining sex drive and growing predilection for prostitutes and cybersex. (The Bar-Kays, “Sexomatic [12" Mix]” [download])

Students exposed to subliminal Apple logos were found to answer questions more creatively than subjects exposed to subliminal IBM logos.

Marine biologists revealed that male Abdopus aculeatus octopuses may strangle to death rivals in defending the females whom they have seduced by swimming in a feminine manner, and paleontologists discovered that sexual reproduction first appeared about 600 million years ago among tube-shaped creatures living in spats on the seafloor. The gonorrhea bacterium was determined to be the strongest organism in existence. (Yeasayer, “Germs” [download]) (more…)