It was hard not to notice the prominence of indie bands featured in this year’s Super Bowl commercials. We had heard that NFL licensed Wake Up from Arcade Fire and that all proceeds would go to help Partners in Health in their Haitian relief efforts. But we were surprised to find Arcade Fire’s song used as the NFL anthem, with several versions playing throughout the game.
Then to hear Grizzly Bear’s Two Weeks in the backdrop of a VW commercial that featured Stevie Wonder? This one caught me off guard.
Keeping in mind that just a few days ago Vampire Weekend was #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 charts, fans of indie music are asking questions.
Is this a signal of the rising stature of indie music in this new decade? Does it show us that indie music is seen as commercially valuable to our society?
Kanine Records posted a new Surfer Blood video for Swim, the second track on Astro Coast. Directed by Kevin Chapados & Chunwoo Kae, the video follows John Paul Pitts, the vocalist for Surfer Blood, in what seems to resemble a crazy dream where he finds himself running through the streets in his skivvies as mascots create mischievousness.
Here are four songs that will keep you warm on this wintery day, when headphones double up as earmuffs:
The first song is by Surfer Blood, an up and coming band from Florida that is creating a buzz with their debut, Astro Coast. Glint is a new band from Brooklyn, and this song is from their self-titled EP. Peter Gabriel recorded an album of covers, surprising Bon Iver with his take on Flume. Archeology is a Portland duo that are answering their five EPs with their first full-length,Memorial, on March 16.
Over twenty hours of videos are uploaded to Youtube every minute. With that immense volume of footage being poured into the YouTube cauldron, we need effective filters to find videos.
In October, 2009, a new video filtering site was launched, called TubeRadio.fm. Focusing on music, TubeRadio is a tool where you can search YouTube according to artist name and TubeRadio creates a video playlist for you in a web app player that resembled iTunes.
“TubeRadio is a music player for the web, built around YouTube. So it has the largest music library in the world because you can have access to anything that’s up on YouTube. And YouTube has millions and millions of songs.”
Searching for Fleet Foxes brings up album covers that the band has released. Clicking on the album cover and then selecting “add albums to playlist,” and TubeRadio creates a video playlist of the album. While you’re watching the playlist and you’re not happy with a video it selected for a particular song, click on the gear and select “find replacement”.
You can also create video playlists by searching for songs or artists, and then dragging/dropping the video into your playlist. Once you finish your playlist you can share it with others.
TubeRadio also integrates social aspects into the site. You can subscribe to other users, for example, post shout outs, view their public playlists, etc.
While your’e watching a video, you can browse other releases by the artist, read the artist’s bio, or browse similar artists (these features are powered by Last.fm). You can also view the lyrics of the song you’re listening/watching.
Seeing that YouTube has become a lake of videos that are merely songs with a photo slideshow, TubeRadio is a great tool for finding music on YouTube when you’re not necessarily wanting to watch music videos or live footage. This could be a cool way to stream videos on a backdrop at an event or party.
Currently TubeRadio doesn’t support embedding playlists on other websites, but they informed me via Twitter that they’re adding an embedding feature soon. This could be a great tool to manage embedded video playlists on blogs, and we’re seriously considering to integrate TubeRadio playlists for the next Puddlegum website design.
TubeRadio is also finishing an iPhone/Touch app (and dare we say iPad?), so you’ll soon be able to carry TubeRadio in your pocket.
Check out their introductory video, then visit the site: www.tuberadio.fm
Last weekend TW Walsh stated on Twitter that he was going to broadcast a live stream, and turned on his MacBook camera while mixing a song. An hour later fifty people were peering into Walsh’s basement, asking questions and chatting. Fans were noticeably excited as TW showed his mixing and mastering equipment, answering questions from eager friends. He briefly surprised the viewers with ten seconds of a new Bazan song, but wasn’t in a position to reveal any information about the song.
TW Walsh is most widely known for his involvement with David Bazan in Pedro the Lion. He also has a solo project called The Soft Drugs. Last year he mixed/mastered David Bazan’s debut solo album, breaking into the Billboard 200 for the first time.
Artists and record labels TW Walsh has mixed and/or mastered for includes: David Bazan, Ra Ra Riot, Rocky Votolato, Asthmatic Kitty, Rosie Thomas, J. Tillman, Barsuk Records, Jade Tree, Secretly Canadian, Saddle Creek and many others (the complete list can be found on his website).
Efterklang has a new music video for Modern Drift. The video was produced by Kristian Leth, “based on Dyrehaven, den Romantiske Skov, a film from 1970 by the acclaimed artists Per Kirkeby and Jørgen Leth (Kristians father).” This famous danish film, and thus the video, shows the four seasons in Denmark.
Modern Drift is the first single for their third studio album, Magic Chairs, which will be released February 22nd via 4AD.
Tunng is set to release their next album, …And Then We Saw Land, on March 1st, 2010. Set for official release in mid-February, you may have already heard their first single, Don’t Look Down or Back, from various blogs. Tunng crosses a bridge between folk and experimental electronica, thick with British accents, and is one of our favorite bands in this niché genre.
Their new album, …And Then We Saw Land, was recorded over a span of twelve months, and follows Good Arrows from 2007. For three songs the ‘inner chorus’ was expanded to The Mega Chorus, “a 15-strong group of collaborators and drinking buddies who lent their voices to the album one rainy night in an abandoned school hall in Old Street.”
Tunng’s approach for their latest collection of songs is more “open” and “adaptable.” Describing the new album, the band said, “We learned that you don’t always need structure! As long as there is presence, emotion and groove.”
In 1966 Bob Dylan embarked in a new musical direction, taking the folk community by surprise. They had viewed folk music with acoustic guitars and vocals as the purist form of music, thumbing their noses at the exploding popularity of rock music. This sentiment for folk could be felt especially in Britain as bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and The Kinks brought blues-influenced rock-n-roll to the forefront. Bob Dylan had become the icon for the purists, and they weren’t quite ready for his change.
What people didn’t realize about Bob Dylan is that he had constructed his persona, even devising his own name to support this act. After four years of recording and touring as a folk purist and protester, Bob Dylan wanted to explore a new style of music, a style that would later be called folk-rock.
When Dylan surprised the purists with his jangly and bluesy rock, they responded in outrage. Folk concerts at this time were generally reserved, with the audience clapping politely in between songs.
In 1966 Dylan toured England after having ‘gone electric.’ He would play the first half of his set as he had during his days as a folk artist: guitar in hand, harmonica contraption around his neck, and singing alone on stage. The crowd would listen politely, enjoying his folk renditions of his new songs. But when he would come out on stage with a group of musicians (that would later become known as The Band) during the second half of the set, the audience would react in anger.
Bob Dylan’s performance at The Royal Albert Hall was recorded during the 1966 tour in England and released in 1998 in the Bootleg series. It captures the audience’s response and Dylan’s interaction with them (many consider it the best live concert recording ever released).
Because something is happening here,
But you don’t know what it is.
Do you, Mister Jones?
Bob Dylan – Ballad Of A Thing Man
After the song a spectator shouted out “Judas!” Dylan was shaken, responding with “I don’t believe you. You’re a lier!” Then he turned to his band and shouted, “Play fucking loud!” as they kicked into a tense version of Like a Rolling Stone.
It was this recording that Steve Jobs selected to have playing on the sound system before he started the Apple iPad Keynote. As people took their seat moments before the Keynote, you could hear the exchange between Dylan and his audience from the 1966 recording, and you can’t help but suspect that Steve Jobs is expecting a similar reaction to the iPad.
With hindsight we know that Bob Dylan’s folk-rock infusion would create a genre that would be accepted (and influential for coming decades). Steve Jobs must believe that the iPad will have its own niché in the market, even though every other company that has attempted to market a tablet computer has failed.
History will show us whether Jobs’ venture into the tablet computer is successful or not. If it fails, will it be because we simply ‘didn’t know what it was,’ as Ballad of a Thin Man suggests? In spite of failures from previous tablets, Jobs is willing to turn to Apple and tell them to play loud.
I was thrilled almost immediately when I first heard Uniform Motion earlier this week. Technically a British band, Uniform Motion is based out of Toulouse, France, and poses a deep understanding of new media and how to integrate it with their art.
In June, 2008 Uniform Motion began posting video episodes of new songs and comic strips every two to three weeks. In December, 2008, they were asked to perform at Apple Expo and more opportunities followed in 2009.
In February, Uniform Motion is releasing Life in the Unites States, and I have to say that I’m hooked! Their song, Roll Over, from their new 2010 album, Life, will be a track on Rock Band, which should give them the needed boost and exposure.
Interestingly enough, the core of the duo is Andy Richards and Renaud Forestié, though Renaud doesn’t perform music. Instead, he produces the comic strips, videos, and realtime drawings during live shows.
“During our live performances, Renaud live-sketches using a video projector, while Andy builds up a soundscape with with his guitar, loopstation and voicebox resulting in a hypnotising audio-visual experience.”
We’ve been anxious to for the next collection of Midlake songs since The Trials of Van Occupanther sprung on us in 2006. In one week Midlake is releasing The Courage of Others, an album that took them close to two years to write and record.
We were thrilled with their acoustic EP that followed The Trials of Van Occupanter, and The Courage of Others heads in its direction. In November of 2008 Midlake spoke with Puddlegum about The Courage of Others, an album that was already named. Erick Pulido shared, “We feel like its matured a bit from that album [The Trials of Van Occupanther]. I will say that it is darker than Van Occupanther.”
Midlake – The Courage of Others tracklisting:
Acts of Man
Winter Dies
Small Mountain
Core of Nature
Fortune
Rulers, Ruling All Things
Children of the Grounds
Bring Down
The Horn
The Courage of Others
In The Ground
Puddlegum began in 1997 as one of the first online music magazines. It is managed by Flick, and has gained respect from many in the recording industry.
Over the years Puddlegum has accomplished quite a few things we are proud of:
Being mentioned by Thom Yorke during a BBC Radio interview (concerning our Tens Theory), and being written about in Rolling Stone. We have also made the front page of TUAW, Digg, and VH1’s Best Week Ever, and have been featured on USA Today, and Reuters.
Contact Flick by phone: (574)386-0851
email: flick@puddlegum.net
AIM: pooroldflick
