The Tape

Here is the video for TPC’s next single, “Tessellate.” The song is fantastic and the video is fun too.

Chris Walla and Dave Monks look very similar. Judge for yourself.

and

its the long blonde hair, methinks.

Okay so you all know we here at the tape love our man Wale. His 100 Miles and Running mixtape is gold, so is his release “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” where he raps over the hit Justice single. We are highly anticipating his “Mixtape About Nothing” - inspired by my favorite show, Seinfeld. Featured here today we have a Nike ad featuring the Wale song Nike Boots. Check this shit, its fly(er than the rest of ‘em).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xLtq56ksaAQ

Okay so you all know we here at the tape love our man Wale. His 100 Miles and Running mixtape is gold, so is his release “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” where he raps over the hit Justice single. We are highly anticipating his “Mixtape About Nothing” - inspired by my favorite show, Seinfeld. Featured here today we have a Nike ad featuring the Wale song Nike Boots. Check this shit, its fly(er than the rest of ‘em).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xLtq56ksaAQ

I recently had a chance to chat a little bit with Phil Dickey, (second from left) drummer, singer, and songwriter of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. His comments about their new album, Pershing, available from Polyvinyl on April 8th:

“i’d suggest listening to it on a warm day…i think it’s more of a spring/summer cd.”

well said, Phil. well said.

here’s where the standard band interview is condensed to 30-seconds of essential questions.

how do you write songs?

“i don’t know. some days i don’t feel like playing guitar. i just feel like doing other things and moving around. usually, something happens, or i get an idea and i really want to write a song about it. i like when a guitar part sounds like an idea, a person, or a place. i like making them match up. i’m not a great guitar player, so i try to rely on simple sounds and layering parts. the other guys in the band come up with way different ideas, so that really makes the songs way more interesting.”

how did you come up with your name?

“we were in high school and we wanted a really stupid name to counteract all the high school bands who had serious names.”

BONUS

ashkap: we call our website “The Tape” because of a club we founded where pass around a usb stick of music. “The Tape Club” is so named because we thought that mixtapes were cool. when i opened my broom lp and saw “tape club” in the the thanks section got really excited until i realized that you couldn’t mean us because you’ve never met us. oh well. it was still exciting.

phil: tape club 4ever.

Thanks to Phil and the band.

Why? released their new album, Alopecia today. Hairless. Awesome. Check out the track below.
Why?
“The Hollows” (mp3)
from “Alopecia”
(anticon)

Buy at Rhapsody
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon
More On This Album

No! This post doesn’t have anything to do with racial equality, cats, or Phil Collins. It’s the genesis of my new weekly, Discovery Duecedays!?!

This week, appropriate to the current political tornado, it’s Columbus, Ohio natives Our Cat Philip. (See Above)

Their website lets you know, “Our Cat Philip is a really good band…. We promise” and they look like they aren’t chronic liars, like much of the music industry today.

Led by two pianists, OCP (Ordinary Clown Posse anyone?) roll with instruments including bass cello, banjo, and other stuff besides guitar giving them an interesting and original sound. Their EP I Am Made of Steel is available on their website, for free, just how we like our music and waffle fries.

Standout track “Call The Moon” leads on with a Broken Social Scene vibe and a wonderful conclusion. Check it out all the way to the end. The real gem here is “Time is Just A Healer for the Sick” Take my word for it. I can’t wait to see what these boys do next, right after they finish college.

Our Cat Philip - Time Is Just A Healer For The Sick

Our Cat Philip - Call The Moon

Our Cat Philp Website

I Am Made of Steel EP and other songs

EDIT: ALERT ALERT

OUR CAT PHILIP’S COVER OF SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN’S “HOUSE FIRE” IS BEAUTIFUL AND PIANO LED PLEASE YOU LISTEN JAGSHEMESH

Our Cat Philip - House Fire (Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Cover)

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

A name.

A band.

A legend.

SSLYBY (sly boy, silly bee, Sicily bye) have just released their sophmore effort,

The art is interesting to say the least. I’ve had multiple people tell me it looks like anything from feces to leaves. moving on…

SSLYBY has been one of my favorite bands for a long time, as evidenced by my last.fm page on which one can see that SSLYBY is my 5th played artist, a mere 20 or so tracks away from the 4th, Radiohead. So how is it that I listen to a small indie pop band from Springfield, Missouri as much as the arguably greatest band of our time? The answer is not a conscious thing for me. SSLYBY make me feel good. They are a good band. They are not world famous nor revolutionary in their style nor instrumental masters. But the boys from Missouri trying their best to sound like what life is really like make them more genuine and real. In the coming decades one can only hope that with a generation of children reared on auto-tuned manufactured hits by artificial fronts for teams of hit-factories like Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers, real bands like SSLYBY can continue to exist and create music, that while not completely shocking, can make people feel tangible emotion. A song by [Sony music-thinktanks] may make it to the top on the ringtone downloads charts, but Broom and Pershing sound like a summer day. Not a notification that someone is trying to contact you, but the sound the ocean makes when it hits the shore. The sound that is made when all of your friends pile in the car to go to Coachella.

And now, the review.

Pershing is certainly a step in a different direction for SSLBY. Broom had its share of poppy runners, but the real (i.e. people who didn’t just get “Oregon Girl” from the OC soundtrack) fans gathered around songs like “House Fire” and “Anna Lee.” Pershing seems to be dominated by songs like “Oregon Girl” again, and in that sense, it works quite well. Lead single and opening track “Glue Girls,” along with “Boring Fountain,” “Modern Mystery,” second single and strongest track “Think I Wanna Die,” and “Oceanographer” all seem to go after the “I’ve been around the world but I never seen another Oregon girl” tack, although “Oceanographer,” the longest song on the album at 4:45, is bogged down by itself. “Glue Girls” and “Think I Wanna Die” particularly pull it off. “Boring Fountain” “Dead Right” and “The Beach Song.” are all great tracks. “Some Constellation” is a nice quieter song, and “You Could Write A Book” is also a staple SSLYBY song, harmonies and tight hooks all the way through. The album really shines on “Think I Wanna Die” and especially quasi-closing track “HEERS.” HEERS is the one that particularly matches the style and emotion of “House Fire”.

So is Pershing good? Yes. Is it great? Yes. Is it amazing? Most of the time, yes.

Our third favorite canadian band, Born Ruffians, just dropped their new album, Red, Yellow & Blue. The curiously In Rainbows-esque cover art is below. It really is a great album and surpasses by far their self titled ep, which was found in the Amoeba clearance for 3 bucks. shame.

Red, Yellow, and Blue is really a step up from the EP. Y’all know I’m a sucker for yelpy Canadian indie rock, but this album really stands on its own. The band, though it is only drums, guitar, and bass, sounds expansive and deep. Harmonized vocals and rounds make for more interesting sounds on many tracks, like Barnacle Goose. There really isn’t an obviously weak track, maybe Badonka Donkey, but the real standout is “I Need A Life” This song it just amazing. Emotional, raw, and full of that Born Ruffians energy you all know and love. Back and forth vocals speak lines like “my cup is half empty, been that way all my life.” and “the sun is shinin’ but we stay inside, stay in bed till we feel alright” but after all these seemingly dreary lines, the truth comes out: “oh but we go out at night.” Born Ruffians may be not such a ridiculous name, cause these kids were born to party.

Born Ruffians - I Need A Life

I saw the movie poster for the upcoming Charlie Bartlett the other day. I couldn’t help but notice it bore a striking resemblance to Calvin Harris’ album cover for I Created Disco. Take a look and judge for yourself.

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