Oceans of Noise

>Not In Love

Posted on January 18, 2011 by carsk

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I’ve been meaning to write about this track for a while, but forgot all about it until the release of the video got the ‘sphere blowing up my rss feed. Anyways, I was completely in love with Crystal Castles debut album and a little underwhelmed by the sophomore effort. However- this song featuring Robert Smith is by far one of my favorite songs of 2010. Its amazing how it can sound like the Cure and Crystal Castles all at the same time. Enjoy!

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>BBC Live

Posted on January 17, 2011 by carsk

>As anyone who has received a mix from me in the past four months knows, I’ve been obsessing over James Blake and counting down the days until I can buy his album here in the US. Then I plan to attend his concert posthaste because I have the feeling it will be amazeballs. Until then, here is a rather lovely live session from the BBC he did. The guy really knows how to make the dubstep turn into sexy time.

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>New Burgher on the Scene

Posted on January 15, 2011 by dowkstar

>Well, well, well, if it isn’t another hometown homeslice of mine, blowin up! Mac Miller, the latest young star from Pittsburgh has just landed on my laptop. He’s a pretty chill hip hop artist, although I must admit I was not expecting this kind of sound from a 19 yo white boy. Bro’skie put out some pretty cool stuff, including this rap, set to an uptempo version of Owl City’s Firefly. When I was watching some of his vids, I came across “Get a Clue” and immediately recognized the beat from “They Say” by a trio of some of my favs: Common, Kanye and Mr. Legend (incidentally, they picked up the beat from a song by Ahmad Jamal). The keyboarding, coupled with a soft snare in the background really works well for this track.

Aight, Stillers, make us Three River Fans proud and stomp dem Ravens (‘n at)!!

Posted in Mac Miller, Pittsburgh, Sample | Leave a comment

>The Animals Dance in the Safari Disco Club

Posted on January 14, 2011 by dowkstar

Yelle just released a brrrrrrrilliant track, Safari Disco Club, pulled from their upcoming album of the same name. The electropop beat is super catchy, and even if you don’t understand a lick of french, you can’t help but get down with this track. Free download on Soundcloud, get at it, NEOW!

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F8750863 Safari Disco Club by YELLE

Posted in Electropop, French, Yelle | Leave a comment

>Get the hell out

Posted on January 13, 2011 by carsk

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I first heard about Alex Winston, thanks to an awesome cover of ‘Pull My Heart Away’ she totally rocked. Now the Knocks have helped produce a killer track for her new album, and I’m championing it as the new theme song to Big Love. Just don’t do what I did, and sing the hook out-loud in an open plan office. People will wonder about your personal life.

Via: Neon Gold

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Lykke Li rocks my world

Posted on January 12, 2011 by carsk

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Lykke Li’s new album is one of the things I’m most excited about in 2011. Her first single ‘Get Some’ was a holiday anthem in my house, and the fabulous Magician has done an awesome remix of her new track ‘I Follow Rivers’. So courtesy of the awesomeness that is GottaDanceDirty; enjoy!

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>Lets have a toast

Posted on January 11, 2011 by carsk

>This is a little old but I’m using the excuse that I unplugged pretty hard in Maui last week as my reason for not sharing this before. I might not dig his actual music but Josh Groban is hilarious as evidenced in Glee and now here:

Posted in Josh Groban, Kanye West | Leave a comment

>The Smith Westerns are neither Western, nor Smiths….Discuss

Posted on January 11, 2011 by dowkstar

So yeah, the Smith Westerns are an excellent sounding indie band that I just recently discovered through one of leslietron’s epic share seshes on reader. I have to say I really dig their sound and style, but the constant static/buzzing accompanying the lyrics in their debut album has really been throwing me off…..which is why I’m looking forward to the upcoming release of Dye It Blonde on Jan 18! It sounds like they should have “fixed” some of that and the song below sounds very polished and clean – I dig it. This will definitely be an album I pick up immediately…only one week to go!

Old Self-titled Album: – Tonight
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F591836 The Smith Westerns- Tonight by ornamentation

New album: Dye It Blonde – All Die Young
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F8842769 Smith Westerns – “All Die Young” by forcefieldpr

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>Niyaz Rocks the Rāga

Posted on January 4, 2011 by dowkstar

>Whew. Finally made it back to Seattle after a great trip back to the ‘burgh. I got to hit up my friend Nathan’s, who basically has a recording studio in his basement, where I listened to him, Isaaaac, Cook, and Woj jam out. They are putting together some really great stuff and I can’t wait until they finish the recordings and get the legal stuff finished so I can push it out here.

Anyway, Woj and I were messing around on some of Nathan’s congos and he got to beating out Tunak Tunak Tun, which I had never heard, so he politely shared. Quite ridiculous…….ly fantastic! After we’d indulged in Delar Mendhi for a bit, Nathan (really just a super musician himself) pointed us to Niyaz. Perhaps they have the subcontinent connection, but that’s about it. This song, sung in Urdu, is gorgeous and I can’t get enough of the intro. The mystical sound produced by that guitar/cello-ish instrument is mesmerizing. Hope you enjoy too

Posted in Bhangra, Niyaz, Pittsburgh, Urdu | Leave a comment

>2010 in concerts

Posted on December 30, 2010 by carsk

I’ve had a pretty amazing run. I started this year unemployed and adrift and have ended the year one incredibly blessed young lady. (ish. ladyish.) I’ve been lucky enough to have amazing adventures, listen to some fantastic music, get a new job and apartment, and generally raise the shenaniganry bar pretty high. In addition to SXSW, Sasquatch, and Austin City Limits festivals here are the shows I saw this year. Thanks to my favorite people in the world for dancing with me like a crazy person, going camping with a bottle of Woodford, driving through deserts, and taking me on repeated trips to Taco Deli. I seriously have the best friends ever. And Dowks- our bet is still on for 2011.

In No Particular Order:

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
Stars
Phoenix
Musical Autobiography Sketchfest
Matt Nathanson
Fun.
Wheezer/ The Limousines
The National
Mumford & Sons
Arcade Fire at the Greek
Arcade Fire in Big Sur
Robyn
Ratatat/ DOM
Mat Pond Pa
Fools gold
Broken Social Scene
Miike Snow
The Very Best
The xx
The National
Vampire weekend
Passion pit
Minus the Bear
Kid Cudi
Freelance Whales
LCD Soundsystem
Dirty Projectors
The Heavy
MGMT
Massive attack
Deadmau5
Temper trap
She & Him
Drive-By Truckers
Chiddy bang
Washed out
Uffie
Best Coast
Nicky Jean
Cool Kids
The Black Keys
The Strokes
Beach House
Girls
Spoon
Mayer Hawthorne
Broken Bells
Dan Black
Mat and Kim
M.I.A.
Muse
Flaming lips
Pete Yorn
The Morning Benders
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Band of Horses
Cage the Elephant
Talib Kweli