Song of the Week: Kate Nash, yeah yeah yeah

For at least one song, Kate Nash has pulled off what so many others, from Rogue Wave to Editors to Liz Phair to Garth Brooks, have struggled with: a change in musical direction. Granted, hers is the easier path, from safe, girly pop to riot-grrl rock. And naysayers will say she’s just ripped off Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which, of course, she has. But a Karen O copy is a lot better, in my book, than a Lily Allen copy, and “I Just Love You More,” with its head-bopping rock riff and perfectly placed squeals, does what most of Nash’s too-cute songs usually can’t: it leaves you wanting more.

Kate Nash: I Just Love You More (from Pitchfork)
from the upcoming CD My Best Friend Is You
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Album of the Week: Yeasayer turn up the AC

Yeasayer: Odd Blood

Yeasayer imagine themselves as a funkier Animal Collective, and Odd Blood is undoubtedly influenced by Merriweather Post Pavilion and its mix of Brian-Wilson-style overdubs and tribal rhythms. But the Brooklyn-based three-piece succeeds most when it plays to its strengths: danceable grooves and a terrific, strong-piped lead vocalist – more Miike Snow and less AC. Take second single “O.N.E.,” a track with a wicked mid-song beat that is instantly remixable. Or “Love Me Girl,” which almost, just almost, turns into a house track with its Italo-style piano riff and big beat opening (complete with an 808 State seagull sample). But it doesn’t commit, and falls back into the safer experimental sound that Odd Blood is more packed with. B

Yeasayer: O.N.E. (from RCRD LBL)
from the CD Odd Blood
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New Sounds: Benin City’s heavy groove

London-based five-piece band Benin City is one potent combo, blending several sounds into their Afrofunk mix, from the expected (the James Brown-style sax-and-drums rhythm section) to the less so, including vocalist Musa’s spoken-word, The-Streets-like interjections and one mean electric cello. “Boogieman,” from their debut EP Invisible Cake, really shows off Benin City’s ability to mix heavy groove with social commentary, a track about the increasing level of suspicion and surveillance in UK society. And as you’ll see from their YouTube video below, bet you’ll want to catch them live...

Benin City: Boogieman
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Album of the Week: Marina and the Diamonds’ over-the-top Jewels

Marina and the Diamonds: The Family Jewels

I don’t think UK sensation Marina and the Diamonds will achieve the kind of popularity to merit a musical one day, à la ABBA’s Mamma Mia or Queen’s We Will Rock You, but if it happens, The Family Jewels is tailor-made for the stage. Glammy flourishes, vaudevillian piano touches, and then there’s Marina Diamandis’s over-dramatic, high-low voice. It’s no doubt Marina has an excellent pop songwriting touch – it’s why major label Warner snapped her up from indie boutique label Neon Gold – and the Family Jewels is poised for mainstream success somewhere in the range of Florence and Gaga. But it’s the less-Broadway songs, like stripped down “Obsessions” or Enya-ish “Numb,” that impress the most. (For evidence, check out her acoustic rendition of current UK hit “Hollywood” in the video below. Much better.) B+

Marina and the Diamonds: Hollywood (Fenech-Soler Remix) (from RCRD LBL)
from the CD The Family Jewels
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Next Big Thing: First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit, a duo of startlingly talented and young sisters from Stockholm, show that Swedes not only do pop best, but they also kill at folk music. Take a look at the video of their acoustic cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and tell me it doesn’t take your breath away (especially when backup sister Johanna Söderberg comes in). And “I Met Up With the King” (downloadable below, and also on JeffMix2010.02.21), with Klara’s feisty, world-weary vocals, lives up to the motto on their MySpace page: “We aim for the hearts, not the charts!”

First Aid Kit: I Met Up With the King (courtesy Wichita Records)
from the CD The Big Black & The Blue
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JeffMix2010.02.21 – the best in new music

This month’s podcast features music from Zambri, Kid Sister, The Octagon, Angus and Julia Stone, Lo-Fi-Fnk, Drive-By Truckers, MNDR, Golden Girls, Headlights, The Radio Dept., Civil Civic, Sir Yes Sir, Nottee, First Aid Kit, Hesta Prynn, Slothbear, Via Audio, Los Campesinos!, Jonsi, and Naive New Beaters.

To purchase music from these artists, visit jeffmix.com.

JeffMix podcasts: 20 songs, every month, the best in new music.
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Song of the Week: Morning Benders offer Excuses

Morning Benders are this month’s big buzz band with good reason. A couple of excellent pre-release tracks – including the surf doo-wop single “Excuses” — a don’t-miss, cameo-filled promo video (see below), and A-list indie-band networking (including opening slots and production help from Grizzly Bear and Death Cab For Cutie) are building let’s-see-what-they’re-all-about expectation for this California college quartet’s second album Big Echo.

Morning Benders: Excuses (from Stereogum)
from the upcoming CD Big Echo
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Album of the Week: Hot Chip’s one frustrating band

Hot Chip: One Life Stand

Hot Chip may have helped usher in the electro-pop age, but they still haven’t fully mastered it. And while their third record, One Life Stand, is tighter than its messy predecessor Made In the Dark, it suffers from the same frustrating problems: an over-indulgence in slushy ballads and an under-commitment to the band’s near-peerless envelope-pushing dancefloor-friendly tracks. For every “I Feel Better,” with its that’s-how-you-do-AutoTune shimmer, and the snare-drum-and-piano beat of “Hand Me Down Your Love,” there’s the wilty “Brothers” or “Keep Quiet” or the appropriately named “Slush,” songs that suggest the band knows they’re trying our patience. Even the slower songs that do work, like the slinky “Alley Cats,” lack the edge that Hot Chip doesn’t show often enough. B+

Hot Chip: Take It In (from RCRD LBL)
from the CD One Life Stand
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New Sounds: Bad Veins roll

At first I thought Bad Veins wasn’t a good name for the Cincinnati duo whose music is far less punk than their moniker suggests (think Religion or Brains). But on second thought and several listens to tracks from their debut self-titled CD, it’s a perfect metaphor for their hard-to-nail-down, genre-neutral sound. There’s a bit of fuzz rock (“Falling Tide”), Rentals-style synths (“Afraid”) and more straight-ahead earnest indie pop (“Gold and Warm”). I particularly like their quieter tracks, like “Go Home” with its warm, electro production and Stars-like trumpet coda. Not bad at all.

Bad Veins: Go Home
from the CD Bad Veins
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Song of the Week: Japandroids win

“Art Czars,” a limited-release new track from slacker-punk duo Japandroids, is a well-timed reminder that Vancouver is home to more than just teal-coloured clothing and killer luge tracks. The song, with its Metallica-tinged opening and Thermals-style hook, is the first of a planned series of post-Post-Nothing seven-inch singles to be released and recorded during tour breaks this year. And as the B.C. boys sing, here’s your punk rock back!

Japandroids: Art Czars (from Stereogum)
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Album of the Week: Toro Y Moi causes confusion

Toro Y Moi: Causers of This

Part of the first allure of Toro Y Moi, 23-year-old South Carolinian Chaz Bundwick’s nom de musique, was the mystique (the odd Spanish-French name, the photo-filled blog) and the burgeoning go-in-any-direction talent. The few early tracks posted on his MySpace page and elsewhere, while rooted in the new chillwave sound, also showed flashes of funk, surf rock (“109,” which found its way onto the Blessa EP) and pop (including his terrific take on “Human Nature” off a Michael Jackson tribute record). A bunch of those songs have made it to the full-length Causers of This CD, including the hard-to-pin title track and the stop-start treat of “Talamak.” But aside from new song “Low Shoulder,” the rest of Causers of This is less invigorating and more chillwave-y than I expected. Odd. B

Toro Y Moi: Causers of This (from RCRD LBL)
from the CD Causers of This
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Next Big Thing: MNDR

Caps-locked NYC-via-L.A. DJ/singer MNDR (real name: Amanda Warner) has been steadily building a Lady-Gaga-meets-Santigold buzz for her smart beats and blow-’em-away live sets. Details and tracks are scarce on her MySpace page, but “Fade to Black” (as can be heard on JeffMix2010.01.24) and the slowed-down, brilliant left turn “I Go Away” (promo video below) show huge, OMG upside.

MNDR: Fade to Black (from Pitchfork)
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Song of the Week: Lo-Fi-Fnk march on

Swedish electropop duo Lo-Fi-Fnk take their time between releases, but when they put something out, like 2008’s straggler single “Want U” (which can be heard on JeffMix2009.03.28) or 2006’s “Wake Up” (from their only proper album Boylife), they’re usually heat-seekers. “Marchin’ In” (which, according to their MySpace page, the band has “leaked” themselves) is no different, a slinky, radio-friendly banger with song-of-the-year potential. Imagine if they put out more than one song every two years…

Lo-Fi-Fnk: Marchin’ In (from Stereogum)
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Album of the Week: Laura Veirs’ tame Flame

Laura Veirs: July Flame

Laura Veirs’ new CD July Flame was on my shortlist for highly anticipated albums of 2010, based on the strength of two previously available tracks, the delicate “I Can See Your Tracks,” and “July Flame,” an exquisite slice of folk pop (which can be heard on JeffMix2009.10.25). Both songs lead off the CD, but the magic soon stops with “Sun Is King,” the kind of dreary folk song that can make one swear off the genre. Thankfully, July Flame picks up from there, yet doesn’t deliver on the more polished promise of the first two tracks. Veirs’ comfort zone is wordy, unadorned acoustic ballads – like “Where Are You Driving?” and the Jim James (My Morning Jacket) duet “Make Something Good” – solid, yet safe. More flame please. B

Laura Veirs: Sleeper in the Valley (from KEXP)
from the CD July Flame
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New Sounds: LOGGY logs on

Cali college all-capped rapper LOGGY is riding several musical waves on his debut mixtape, Up All Night. The Asher Roth / Atmosphere comparisons are evident – and promoted on his MySpace page – but he also aims for music bloggers’ soft spots by sampling liberally from indie hits, capitalizing on a smart, growing trend (see Chiddy Bang). “Our Little Secrets” (downloadable below) bumps Passion Pit’s dancefloor-friendly “Little Secrets” and “Rich Girl” gives The Virgins’ similarly named track its sample-ready due. (And there’s a sample in “We Lounge” that I know I know but can’t figure out its name!) LOGGY might have trouble clearing these samples for a proper album, but they’re right on for a mixtape.

LOGGY: Our Little Secret
from the Up All Night mixtape
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Song of the Week: Drive-By Truckers work it

Georgia rockers Drive-By Truckers add to the take-this-job-and-shove-it canon with a perfect Monday morning song, the hardly subtle “This Fucking Job.” They might be full-time rock stars now, but Patterson Hood and his band still understand how “working this job can be a kick in the pants; working this job is like a knife in the back.” Ace riff, too.

Drive-By Truckers: This Fucking Job (from Stereogum)
from the upcoming CD The Big To-Do
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Album of the Week: Four Tet’s ambient Love

Four Tet: There Is Love In You

I was lured into Four Tet’s new album by the fantastic slow-boil single, “Love Cry,” coming on the heels of “Moth,” his dark, groovy collaboration with Burial released last spring. But There Is Love In You is mildly disappointing, despite being the sort of smart, well-crafted ambient house record that Four Tet is known for. “Moth” and especially “Love Cry” (which hits a deep, powerful second gear at the 4:25 mark) had me prepped for a more crowd-moving record. Instead, with atmospheric electro songs like “Circling” and “Plastic People,” it’s really more soundtrack-like, especially good for pending documentaries by Gary Hustwit of Helvetica fame, or perhaps as an interesting selection if you worked at a funky clothes store. Yes, it’s Gap-worthy. B-

Four Tet: Love Cry (from KEXP)
from the CD There Is Love In You
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Next Big Thing: Nottee

The Lykke Li / Robyn comparisons are inevitable, so let’s get those out of the way right now. Yonge, blonde, Swedish, eccentric, minimal dance-y Björk-influenced pop – it also describes the provocatively named Nottee (née Nova Drougge), who, on the strength of only two tracks on her MySpace page (one of which is featured on the latest, influential Kitsuné compilation) is quickly gathering buzz. I was kind of hoping “Control” was a cover of the Janet Jackson classic, but Nottee’s track is just as jamming. Nice.

Nottee: Control (from NME)
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JeffMix2010.01.24 – the best in new music

This month’s podcast features music from Blah Blah Blah, Cocosuma, So Cow, Blind Pilot, Two Door Cinema Club, Tap Tap, MillionYoung, Cloud Nothings, Paul and The Patients, 87 Stick Up Kids, Darwin Deez, Eels, The Soft Pack, MNDR, The Futureheads, The Swell Season, We Have Band, Tapetheradio, The High Wire, an Wolf Gang.

To purchase music from these artists, visit jeffmix.com.

JeffMix podcasts: 20 songs, every month, the best in new music.
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