Even More Minus the Bear

So I know Matt promised to stop posting about Minus the Bear for a bit, but that promise doesn't include me, and I figured it was about time I got a post on here anyways. On the old blog, Matt never posted, and I always did. Now we're totally reversed, and I think it's time to even it out.

So this weekend was the first time that it actually felt like Fall here in South Carolina; the weather was a bit chilly, but not too cold, there was football tailgating, (we lost to LSU 24-17,) and I listened to some songs that inexplicably remind me of Fall.

One of those songs is Minus the Bear's "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse." For whatever reason, this song, and this CD really remind me of Fall. And all the songs on this CD have awesome names, that have nothing to do with the song. (My personal favorite is "Get Me Naked 2: Electric Bugaloo")

So enjoy this song, pick up the CD, and seriously, we'll stop posting about this band for a while.

Minus the Bear - Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse

Didiom: Streaming Music on Your Blackberry

So I was making my rounds this morning on the Blackberry blogs, and I came across a nifty little application. It's called Didiom, and it allows you to stream music from your computer to your Blackberry. It also offers a mobile store which is accessed from the application. It offers you the ability to purchase the song for your phone, or computer, or both. It's only in beta right now, but it will surely continue to grow. The way the Didiom gets your music from iTunes to your phone is quite clever. You have to also download a desktop application and have your computer connected to the internet. It then sends your songs over the internet to allow your phone to stream them. The best part is that the application is free. The store and the songs there are obviously not. I'm hoping this will catch fire among other companies creating mobile software because it is a great idea. If you have a PC, definitely check it out and let me know how it works seeing how the desktop software is not compatible with Macs yet.

Music From My Home

This week's selection is a slightly older one. Coming together in 1990, The Pietasters got their start playing small bars in and around Georgetown. They've come a long way from that point now. They've toured with the likes of the Toasters, played at Warped Tour and the late HFStival, and have gone out on numerous headlining tours. They're biggest feat, playing in front of a sold out crowd backing the godfather of soul, the late James Brown. They're gone through many line up changes, hopped around labels (Hellcat, Moon Ska, Epitaph, and Fueled By Ramen) but they're still touring and making new music. If you ever get the chance to check them out live, definitely do so. They're an amazing band that'll get you skankin all night long.

Here are a couple live tracks from the band:
Girl Take It Easy
Drinking & Driving
Biblical Sense


[Amazon]

New Guilty Pleasure - Lights

Lights is a 21 year old synthpop singer songwriter hailing from Ontario Canada. She's cited Bjork, The Knife, and Phil Collins as a few of her major influences, which is very apparent in her songs. She's only released a self-titled EP in March, but there's no word on when a full length will be out. Lights is currently on tour with Copeland, Lydia, and Lovebug.
You can pick up her EP and T shirts here
And definitely check Lights when she's out on tour:

10/17 Toronto, ON - Mod Club
10/18 Fredonia, NY - SUNY Fredonia
10/24 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
10/26 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs
10/27 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10/29 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
10/30 Chicago, IL - The Bottom Lounge
10/31 St. Paul, MN - Station 4
11/1 Omaha, NB - Slowdown
11/2 Denver, CO - Marquis Theater
11/3 Salt Lake City, UT - Avalon Theater
11/5 Boise, ID - The Venue
11/6 Seattle, WA - El Corazon
11/7 Portland, OR - Satyricon
11/8 Orangevale, CA - The Boardwalk
11/10 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
11/11 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre
11/12 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
11/14 San Antonio, TX - White Rabbit
11/15 Dallas, TX - The Door
11/16 Norman, OK - Meacham Auditorium
11/18 Nashville, TN - Rockettown
11/19 Columbia, SC - New Brookland Tavern
11/20 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
11/21 St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre
11/22 Orlando, FL - The Social
11/23 Orlando, FL - The Social

(photo courtesy of UR Mag)

Passion Pit at CMJ

My favorite new band released their CMJ schedule not too long ago. If you're gonna be anywhere near New York City, I highly recommend you go see Passion Pit at least once.
Here are their dates:
10/21 @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/23 @ Fader Lounge
10/23 @ Annex (Club NME)
10/24 @ Piano's
10/25 @ The Yard

And since I have't put up anything since last Friday, I'll be making up for it tonight.

Music From My Home Update

Now I know I already wrote about Wale last week, but new news has popped up concerning the man who's mission is to put DC on the hip hop map. On the verge of his debut album dropping, it was announced on elitaste.com that Wale has another mixtape coming out. This time he's teaming up with LRG and 9th Wonder. So far I've only found 2 songs. He's rerecorded and added another verse to his remix of MIA's "Boyz". The other song is a new one entitled "5 Minutes" and features Skyzoo. Be sure to keep checking elitaste.com for updates on the upcoming mixtape, LRG x Wale x 9th Wonder Presents: Back To The Feature.

On October 15, Wale and UCB will be shooting a video for "Nike Boots" at Mirrors in DC. The video will be directed by Chris Robinson. The shoot starts and 7:30PM and is only for all of you who are over 21.

Lastly, Wale will be up at CMJ on Ocotober 21st at SOB's for the Allido Records showcase. Also on the bill is Daniel Merriweather, Rhymefest, and the boss Mr. Ronson.

Here are the two new songs off the mixtape:
MIA - Boyz (Remix feat. Wale)(2008 Version)
Wale - 5 minutes (feat. Skyzoo)

Kid Robot x The Simpsons

I know I'm pretty late on posting anything on this huge collaboration but I actually picked up one last night to see how they actually were. I've always loved The Simpsons and have always thought Kid Robot came out with really cool figures, and it was only like 8 dollars.
There are 24 figures in the series including Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Hippie Homer, Mr Burns, Smithers, Krusty, Sideshow Bob, Itchy, Scratchy, Apu, Fat Tony, Chief Wiggum, Barney, Comic Book Guy, Lucious Sweet, Duffman, Bumblee Man, Funzo, Snake, Devil Flnaders, and Mr. Teenie.
Me? I got Homer.

Check them and pick on up here

Still on a Minus the Bear Hit

Menos El Oso isn't my favorite Minus the Bear album by far, but Pachuca Sunrise is definitely the standout for me. Just the lyrics do it enough for me, not to mention the instrumentation, especially in the first verse.

Midnight on a beach on the Mediterranean
and I miss you,
even here taking it all in.
The sand, silvered, carries the moon
on its shoulders.
Is it possible to put this night to tune
and move it to you?

Don't cry, I'll bring this home to you
if I can make this night light enough to move.

Cargo ships move by
tracing on the horizon line.
There's a luster from the city lights
on the waves that kiss our feet
and we're thinking of going in,
the time's getting thin.

This is a city for not sleeping
and the clocks are set by feel.
At this moment from where I sit,
none of it seems real.

I swear this is the last I'll post on the for like a week

Minus the Bear - Pachuca Sunrise

New Minus the Bear EP

As if Minus the Bear haven't put out enough EPs already, they just released another yesterday. Acoustics is a 7 song EP which features 6 of their songs done acousticly, and one brand new song. It's only available as a digital release unless you catch them on their current tour, which is the only place where you can pick up a phsyical coopy. Here's the track listing:
1. Guns & Ammo (new song)
2. We Are Not a Football Team (from Highly Refined Pirates)
3. Burying Luck (from Planet of Ice)
4. Knights (from Planet of Ice)
5. Pachuca Sunrise (from Menos El Oso)
6. Throwin’ Shapes (from Planet of Ice)
7. Ice Monster (from Planet of Ice)
I personally was hoping for more from Highly Refined Pirates. The new track, Guns & Ammo makes up for it though. The guitar work in it lives up to typical Minus the Bear songs. Song after song, it's the guitar parts and how they complement each other so well that hooks me at first. This entire song though just really does it for me. It's delicate and mellow. It's not as layered as their electric songs, but it still comes off that way. Well, enough of me blabbering on and on about it, have a listen for yourself to see how you feel about it.

Minus the Bear - Guns & Ammo

A new challenger to iTunes

Everyone knows that iTunes is the leader in digital music sales. That's a no brainer. With digital sales continuing to rise, more and more companies are looking to start their own online stores to compete with iTunes. So far, none of them have really succeeded. But there might be hope now.
As of this morning, Unverisal Music Group will be offering it's catalog to Dada.net. Dada already was offering Song Music Entertainment's catalog. Now with Universal on board, it has the two biggest labels supporting it.
The deal is you subscribe on a monthly basis for 10 dollars. With that, you can to download 15 songs. Comparing it to iTunes, you basically get songs 11-15 for free, or get each song at 66 cents. The best part, it is completely DRM free! Once you download the song, you can do whatever you want with it. You can put it on your phone, any mp3 player, you name it and you can do it. In the next coming weeks, the company will be coming out with a mobile verison of it's store for cellphones.
The only downside I can tell right now is that you can only download 15 songs a month. Hopefully they'll work that out. Also, if you don't use all 15 downloads, they won't roll over to the next month. Other than that, it sounds pretty nice. The website's design is a little cheesy too, but for what it offers, I personally don't mind.
Check Dada out for yourself!

Source: TG Daily

The other Blackberry Application Store

There has been a lot of buzz lately on the leaked confirmation of the Blackberry Application Center. Working much like the Apple's version for it's iPhone, these 3rd party applications must be approved by Blackberry. The catch, it will only be available for the new Blackberry Storm. While looking around for more information on this, I came across something that's useful for us Blackberry users that won't be getting the Storm, BerryStore. It's just in beta currently, but it does look promising.
Users can get into BerryStore by downloading the application for the website. After installing, you can access the store simply by opening it up on your phone. Right now, the store is divided into 8 categories; Books & Reference, Business & Finance, Lifestyle, News & Weather, Social Networking, Sports, Travel & Navigation, and Utilities. There aren't too many applications currently, but the ones that are available have reviews from people who have already used them. Right now, every application is free, which is a great thing.
BerryStore's website encourages developers to send their applications to them so that they can be added to the store. Aside from that, any regular person who cannot find a certain application on the store can submit it to BerryStore, regardless of if they helped create it or not. I think that is one of the best features of this whole idea.
Overall, I think BerryStore is very impressive. It is extremely conveinent and easy to use. It is available for almost every phone, not just the latest. It seems like the developers are open to all kinds of feedback, as well as offers for adding new applications to the store. And with it still being in beta, I can only see it growing. I hope you all take a moment to check it out and if you have a Blackberry, to download it and try it out.

BerryStore

New Jersey Offshore Wind Farm Gets One Step Closer...

Garden State Offshore Energy was award the rights to build a wind farm Friday Night. These wind farms would be located roughly 16 to 20 miles off the coasts of Atlantic and Ocean counties. The wind farm would be able to produce up to 346 megawatts from 96 turbines. Garden State Offshore Energy now needs to get permits to build the wind farm from state and federal agencies. They will also need commitments from manufacturers to build the actual turbines. Prior to this, both Delaware and Rhode Island passed decisions to let offshore wind farms be built. Now with New Jersey also getting closer to having wind farms be built, could New York be next? There are talks of projects off Long Island and New York City.
This really impresses me that all these states are finally supporting renewable energy sources, I just hope it's not too late.

Source: The New York Times

Music From My Home

Wale has been creating his own hype over the internet for the past year or two now. He's released two major mixtapes, the latest being released with the help of 10 Deep. He has Mark Ronson is backing him up. Interscope signed him over the summer. And he's made it his mission to put DC on the rap game map. His lyrics are actually meaningful and not about crap. He's also bringing a new mix to rap by combining elements of go go into his music. If you check his myspace, it's got a quote from Rolling Stone saying that "Wale has more crossover appeal than weed"

Make sure you look out for his debut album when it drops. This guy's gonna be something special.

Nike Boots (Remix feat. Lil Wayne)
Two A Days Makes You Stronger

Britney Spears, MSTRKRFT, and Young MC

Britney Spears, MSTRKRFT, and Young MC are getting together to form the latest super group.
On an unrelated note, I found three amazing remixes on Hype Machine about 30 minutes ago.
Check'em out below:
Britney Spears - Womanizer (The Teenagers Remix)
Young MC - Bust A Move (Diplo Remx)
MSTRKRFT feat. NORE - Bounce (A Trak Remix)

Oh and they're not getting together and forming a super music group.

Ratatat at Starlight Ballroom

Last night my girlfriend and I went to see Ratatat at the Starlight Ballroom.
We got there right in time to catch the band right before them Panther. They were an interesting band. I enjoyed the music that they played, but the singing just didn't do it for me. Very too much reverb, didn't really ever catch my attention, and it just didn't seem to fit them music. Then after about at 30 minute wait, Ratatat came on. Right from the start they put on a great show. Song after song, hearing them live makes the records sound so dull. They definitely brought a lot of energy and the crowd was feeding off of it. I was surprised when they finished because it did not feel like the hour that had gone by.
Then came the encore, which was the best part of the show for me. They only played two songs, but they were my favorite two songs. I expected one of them but the other caught me completely off guard. They started with Mahalo, the b-side to their latest album. They then finished the night with seventeen years, which was by far the best song. Definitely check them out as they make their way around the country. It'll be well worth the money.
Here's the two songs from their encore:
Mahalo
Seventeen Years

[Myspace] [Amazon]

Banksy at it again...

It looks like Banksy has hit New York again...

Source: The Worlds Best Ever