Jack Peñate‘s album Everything Is New was on some heavy rotation back in 2009 when it was released. I had just discovered him that year and by total chance I even got to see him live opening for Miike Snow at the Empty Bottle in Chicago after a galaxy’s worth of stars aligned, and his set was most enjoyable. But then I didn’t really hear anything from/about him since then, until his name appeared in my Twitter feed the other day in reference to this one-take track, recorded live in his home just a few weeks ago. It’s a pretty great example of his all around musical chops. You can download an mp3 of the song fo free over at jackpenate.com.
Hey, good news, I can still see! So you’re not free from me just yet. In other news, Sweden wins again. Miike Snow is releasing the long awaited follow up to their 2009 debut album aka my favorite album of 2009 with Happy To You, out on March 20th. Of the couple of songs we’ve heard from the album, this somewhat brooding tune is my favorite so far, and it’s not just because of some guest vocals by one of the most babetastic babes out there, Ms. Lykke Li. It’s almost as if this song was written to be played live as you can just hear how easy it will be for them to slowly grow this tune until the crowd is unknowingly in the midst of an all out dance party. If you like Miike Snow in recorded form, you will adore them in live form.
This post was originally going to be entitled “Ellie Goulding – Heartbeats (The Knife Cover)”, but then I decided I’d find another Ellie Goulding cover that I hadn’t heard, because I know she’s done a lot of covers and her song selection for her covers is usually pretty legit I think. I was tempted for that second song to be her recent cover of Rihanna’s “Only Girl”, but then I decided I just couldn’t do it. So then I found this one and thought it could be the real deal, and I think it is. The original tune is layer upon layer of instruments and harmonies and it’s really, really great. I just recently included it on a mix, in fact. But the best songs are the ones that can be totally stripped down and still hold up just fine.
And then there’s the original reason for the post, her cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” (which of course was also memorably covered by Jose Gonzales) on BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge, which has brought us many memorable covers that we’ve posted before, like my favorite favorite, the Miike Snow cover of La Roux’s “In For The Kill“. So here’s another pretty good one. And just like the First Aid Kit cover of Fever Ray’s “When I Grow Up” (I hope y’all are OK with this gratuitous backlinking), the acoustic version really showcases just how good the song actually is. Also, just about 2 weeks until I see Ellie Goulding at Coachella, so there’s that too.
Let me count the ways that this remix got me real excited. First off, we all know that I am among the biggest Miike Snow fans in town and that I love their remixes just as much as their original tunes, so a new Miike Snow remix was smile worthy on its own. But Amadou & Mariam are another act that hold a special place in my musical memory, as their 2009 Bonnaroo performance was near the bottom of my list as I had no idea who they were but turned out to be one of the most fun, most energetic and overall most enjoyable sets of the 4 day festival. And as Miike Snow has been known to do lately (see this La Roux cover for more evidence), they took the road sometimes less traveled and didn’t blow this one out of the park but instead spoke with their subtlety. In fact, I posted this song earlier this summer (right here) but to be honest hadn’t really listened to it since, so I had to pay pretty close attention to even hear the Miike Snow influences, but then they became crystal clear. The consistent beat of this song works perfectly into the trademarked Miike Snow chords that rhytmically find their way into so many of their tunes. The other good part is that this puts Miike Snow within two degrees of Damon Albarn, the hit social connection game that is taking over the internet.
Let’s play an example round. Let’s pick someone at random. How about….Fred Savage – star of the hit family drama “The Wonder Years”. Fred Savage was in The Wizard with Jenny Lewis. Jenny Lewis was in Rilo Kiley. Rilo Kiley performed on “Later…With Jools Holland” with Jack Penate. Jack Penate toured with Miike Snow in the fall of 2009. Miike Snow remixed “Sabali” by Amadou & Mariam, which was produced by, you guessed it, Damon Albarn! With the 30+ people the Gorillaz are touring with right now, the connections are growing exponentially.
That was fun. Anyway, this track is one of three “Sabali” remixes from a full album of remixes aptly named Amadou & Mariam Remixes due out in January.
This song appearing before me seems pretty timely, mostly because I hadn’t listened to the XX in ages until this past weekend in Seattle when the friend I was staying with suggested we listened to it while we played some darts and had other general hangouts. Here are a few shots I snapped of the weekend.
A few notes: we stumbled upon Post Alley by accident and didn’t even know about it, so that was cool. We hiked up Rattlesnake Ledge and that was cool. We never saw Mt. Rainier and that was not as cool. We got out of town just before snowmageddon (aka 3 inches of snow). It doesn’t sound like much, but this is how crazy it was with those hills. This video would be a lot better if the soundtrack wasn’t so grim. The craziest is maybe the car near the beginning that does 2 full 360s.
But anyway, after listening to the XX in a first time in a long time and always loving Gorillaz, this was a handy dandy little cover track that I enjoyed upon listening. This was recorded in the BBC1 Live Lounge, where artists always do awesome covers. Like when Miike Snow so memorably covered La Roux a few weeks back. Check it here if you missed it, because it is also so good. That’s all I really have to say about it.
There are times in the life of a blogger, in the world of incessant promotional emails, when a subject line comes through the hopper and you instantly know it’s going to be musical gold (or at least silver) without even having to listen to a song (I think I start a lot of posts like this. It’s mostly because I’m not very creative and don’t have much to say), and then you listen to the song and all of your expectations are confirmed. This time, it was the pairing of producer turned musician Mark Ronson with NYC’s up and coming Holy Ghost. The song is “Somebody To Love Me”, with vocals by, wait for it, Boy George AND Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt. Let’s not confuse this song with Queen’s “Somebody To Love”, which I may or may not have thrown into a recent playlist as a little surprise. I know this isn’t a huge electronic banger, but it’s kind of my ideal version of a banger. A really awesome beat that never lets up, a great vocal track and production for days. And there’s pretty much no way anything can go wrong when you start out with a great Ronson-produced track and throw in the dark disco that is all things Holy Ghost. Like peas and carrots.
Right at the top of my list of bands that I’m starting to think will never ever come to Detroit to perform are Miike Snow and Yeasayer. And while Yeasayer has done a few massive tours and have no excuse, I guess I can give Miike Snow the benefit of the doubt since their tours typically aren’t quite as expansive. But it seems to be getting close to that time when we start wondering when we will start hearing about the next Miike Snow album in the works. Luckily for us, we still occasionally get some new tidbits to hold us over until that happens. Today, it’s the guys covering the wildly popular La Roux tune “In For The Kill” live on BBC radio. I always talk about how their live show is so impressive for it’s huge breakdowns in nearly every song, but they’ve really held back in this cover and at first I wanted it to really explode near the end, but their restraint is really enjoyable. And the bells might win the MVP award in this one for adding so much to the mood. I’ve said it before but I will say it again. If these guys come to your town, you go see them, no questions asked.
For the last three days, you’ve all been hearing about the video. I’ve never made a video before, so I was a bit worried about it, but just tried to capture as many moments in time as I could in hopes that they could be spliced together into something not terrible. And now that the video is complete (thanks to iMovie being super easy to use), the time has come to share it with the world! I’m mostly happy because normally I would talk about doing something like this and find myself with 15 seconds of video at the end of the weekend. So I was happy to learn that I can, in fact, sometimes follow through.
WARNING: This was all shot on my old point and shoot camera, so the quality is going to look extremely grim in comparison to any other Coachella videos you’ve likely already watched. But I think it gives mine a more “authentic” feel to it. The everyday man’s Coachella recap video.
The theme of the video, much like the weekend, is night and day. And this seemed to be the perfect song to use for such a theme.
Wasn’t that fun? Did it make you a little nauseous? I hope not, but I can see how it could.
Here are some other final thoughts on the weekend, and then I will stop talking about Coachella, except for constantly and incessantly referencing it.
- This was my first Coachella ever, so I have no frame of reference, though it seemed like a lot of people were bitching about how crowded it was. Compared to other fests I’ve been to, this was by far the least crowded, and not only that, it was extremely easy to get relatively close up for almost any show, minus maybe a headliner or two, without camping out all day. It seemed that for the most part, this crowd didn’t really stick around from one show to the next, so if you were in position as soon as the previous show ended, you could usually get within the first 15 or 20 rows without a problem. Major plus.
- Favorites of the weekend. In no particular order, Fever Ray (queen of darkness), Local Natives (killer afternoon set. Just killer), Miike Snow (they always bring the heat, but it got even more broughten in a packed tent as the sun went down), Aeroplane (of all the fantastic DJs I saw all weekend, their mix of songs was the most right up my alley. And they saved what started out a miserable day). Honorable mention to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I loved everything about it but I couldn’t get over the vocal issues. That being said, they got huge bonus points for happiness, quirkiness and energy and general fun. But really, I enjoyed most of the acts I saw quite a bit.
- Wish I would’ve seens. Thom Yorke, not sure what I was thinking on this one. Hot Chip, because I don’t know when I’ll get to see these guys again. Deadmau5, despite conflicting with Fever Ray and even though I just saw him recently, mostly because of this video I saw of his SIIIIIIIICK dj table. Shit looks crazy!
- I said it before, but the Sahara tent is off the hinges. The crazy lights and all day dance party are not to be missed. The only downside, the kids and their drugs. I’m not juding anyone based on what drugs they want to take, but I am judging people who are stupid and irresponsible about it. I had at LEAST 5 people directly surrounding me throughout the weekend just collapse and pass out. It was really gross to see. At the Gorillaz show, the guy behind me collapsed right on his face and didn’t wake up for a solid ten minutes. His friends’ response? “He’s done this a few times today, but he always gets right back up.” Like I said, I’m not juding anyone’s recreational drug use, but at least try to be responsible about it, and look out for your friends. It didn’t help that most of these people looked like they were barely old enough to drive a car.
- Cancellations. Shit happens, and it sucks. Nothing anyone could have done about any of it, but still grim to say the least. But overall I was happy with the acts I did get to see. And the people who are like “I maybe saw one good performance this weekend” on the message boards need to stop going to shows, because what’s the point if you never have a good time?
- The overall ambiance of the fest is the best I’ve ever experienced. The Chicago skyline as the backdrop of Lollapalooza is pretty spectacular, but being surrounded on all sides by endless palm trees and mountains is both spectacular and extremely relaxing.
- The layout of the fest is also one of the best I’ve seen. The long and narrow Lolla setup leads to inevitable clusterfucks left and right. And Bonaroo’s circular setup is a better alternative. But it seems like it only takes 10 minutes to walk from one end of Coachella to the other. A major plus when you’re trying to catch consecutive shows at opposite stages. The setup does lead to some issues, however, like when the whole world was trying to see MGMT and the crowd was essentially surrounding the Outdoor Stage (where the band was performing) and extended all the way back through the Gobi and Mojave tents.
- Cameras. What do people think about bringing their nice cameras? I saw millions of them and it seemed like security was allowing them for some reason, so I was debating all weekend if I wished I would have brought mine. I think that I wouldn’t want to have to worry about it getting damaged, a very distinct possibility in those crowds, but I was also pretty underwhelmed with my shots, so I guess it’s a trade-off. I think a small handheld video camera may be in order for my next fest, however.
- Diplo got some major props this weekend. Aside from what I hear was an absolutely bonkers Major Lazer set, both David Guetta and supergroup Club 75 included “Pon de Floor” in their sets. Not too shabby.
- The tents. The tents are good and bad. If you are inside the tent, they are amazing. I love the enclosed feel, the shade they provide, and the great sound. However, when the tents start to overflow and you find yourself on the outside, they kind of blow. But as long as you can arrive a little early to the show you’re seeing, this is usually not an issue.
Misc.
- Throw away your garbage, people.
- Children, stop trying to get to the front 5 seconds before (or after) a show starts with all 45 of your closest friends hand in hand. Spend more time making sure your 45 friends aren’t on course to have a drug-induced death scare before the day is over.
- What’s with all the feathers and face paint?
- There’s going to be traffic whenever tens of thousands of people are in one place. Deal wit’ it. Or drive over the fence like the guy in front of me did, saving me at least a half hour on the way out.
Thanks to Beta Mike for the rad pic above that I stole from him.
Here’s to a great Coachella 2011. I leave with a few remixes by Aeroplane, the act that really kicked things off for me this year.
