BAND YOU SHOULD KNOW: Those Darlins

This one time at band camp...Nikki and Jessi Darlin met while attending Rock N' Roll camp in their hometown state of Tennessee.  It wasn't too long after the two moved in together and were playing some tunes on the front porch, when they met and invited Kelley Darlin to join them.  Since leaving the porch, these three bad ass chicks have spread their crawfish eating, beer guzzling, country-style rock n' roll all over the country.

Trust me, these darlins are not your typical girl group -- their songs may be catchy and relatively simple, but in no way do Those Darlins resemble a pop group.  The band's self-titled debut album released in 2008 was jam-packed with songs that sounded as if they were recorded directly onto a cassette tape (which is actually how they record their songs), in a large red barn somewhere in the Appalachians. Tracks like "Snaggle Tooth Mama" and "Wild One" capture the rural, punk-like party character of these tomboy girls, while "Hung Up On Me" leaves listeners with no doubt that this trio aren't the type of girls you want to mess with.

With the recent release of their new album, Screws Get Loose, Those Darlins take a slight turn in sound, perfectly bridging their typical country/bluegrass song structure with their good ol' fashioned rock n' roll aesthetic.

Check out Those Darlins' newest music video for "Be Your Bro" below:

Those Darlins - "Wild One"

run fo' cova, SANTI is back!

A record deal with Roc Nation, an appearance on new stand-out Beastie Boy's album Hot Sauce Committee Part 2, and songwriting for Christina Aguilera....what can't Santigold do? From the immense guest-appearance catalog under her belt and almost three years since her last full-length album release, the queen of unconventional pop is back again, this time with an album she claims is, "Peter Gabriel-big."

With one of the new album's tracks, "Go" fetauring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, leaked earlier this year, there is major talk about the not-yet-named album and its unbelieveably long list of collaboraters that helped with this record including--Diplo, Switch, Nick Zinner and Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio.

After her last album, Santogold, released in 2008, Santi has a lot of people and fans hoping that she will live up to expectations. In an interview with Paper Mag she talks new album and life after the release come Fall.

"For now, though, she's sequestered in the studio, finishing her album. Then it's back out on tour across Europe, sharing her new songs and learning to play them live. 'For me, writing songs is a cathartic process,' she says. 'I always say my songs are about myself. Some of them are meant to be almost like a pep talk. It takes a lot to put yourself out there like this. You need all the reinforcement you can get.'" 

Check out the single "Go" leaked in April below:

 

What do you think about "Go"? Think Santi's new album will live up to her first?

the mysterious Shabazz Palaces

Seattle, Washington-- Shabazz Palaces, the brainchild of Ishmael Butler, former member of Digable Planets, is the first Hip Hop act to be signed to indie rock powerhouse label, Sub Pop, so there must be something noteworthy about them. Few interviews, lack of web coverage, a bare official website, Palaceer Lazaro, the name by which Butler now goes by likes to keep himself and those he works with under wraps. For Butler, fans should be focusing on the music and the lyrical poetry that infest ever bump of his dubstep sounding beats.

Palaceer's (Butler) music defies most all hip hop and rap guidelines-- no lyrics about getting bottle service and taking a bunch of bitches back to the hotel room --and not the usual followable, danceable beat of a T. Payne song. Shabazz reaches deep into the dirty, grimy corners of the electronic music forum, but does not get pigeonholed in any specific sound. Shabazz Palaces explores the depths of funk, London-sounding dubstep, and typical Mbira drums and music. Political hip-hop for the Obama generation.

Their new album, Black Up, due out June 28th transcends hip hop boundaries, is forward thinking, and displays a diverse range of sounds as original as Palaceer himself.

Although the album does not come out until next week, you can stream the entire album on NPR. Which you should totally do, you won't be disappointed.

MUST CHECK OUT: "Youlogy" and "An echo from the hosts that profess infinitum"

COCOROSIE: THE NOMADIC SISTERS

Cocorosie: two American born sisters who spent little time together growing up, meet up suddenly in Paris in 2003,  start making music, and travel all around Europe, spending most of their time in Paris, Buenos Aires (where they team up with multiplatinum studio engineer, Nicolas Kalwill), and New York, and make sweet, sweet music AKA their new album, Grey Oceans.  This new studio album was made in 6  recording session with Kalwill at this renowned local Buenos Aires studio called, Panda.

The album's first single, "Lemonade", pieces together an assortment of elements including the sisters' characteristic simple piano-driven melodies with sporadic, stale-sounding drum, and melancholic lyrics. But what is best is their unbelievable vocal prowess; their whispery, yet childlike pitches; their voices, our only guide on a journey through their chaotic culmination of sounds, that they call sounds.

With much attention being paid to their newest album, don't forget to check out their others, especially Noah's Ark, which I actually have on repeat right now. Be sure to check out the album titled track "Noah's Ark" and "Beautiful Boyz" below:

HOLY CRAP, diplo and douster 'turn us on'

Question, how is it that whatever Diplo touches, turns to gold? Like how can one man take three amazing songs and make them into one MEGA song and prove it better than the originals?

With the help from good friend and fellow DJ/Producer Douster, Diplo pulled off a collection of mixes called ON! Its their track, "One Kid" a masterful reworking of Nicki Minaj's "Just Shitted On 'Em", Sleigh Bells' "Beach Girls", and Swedish House Mafia, that the two Producers' talent really shine through.  Based on how I automatically started dancing when I heard this song at work, I am sure that this song will soon prove the anthem for those warm, raunchy summer nights. 

If you go to Diplo or Douster's facebook page all you have to do is LIKE their page and you will automatically be able to download the first three songs of the album, including their mix of Travis Barker's "Can a Drummer Get Some".  

here it is on youtube:  ONE KID

GARDENS AND VILLA

I was lucky enough to interview these guys last September for The Santa Barbara Independent's annual band issue, during which they expressed how excited they were about working on and completing their first album with singer/songwriter/production guru Richard Swift in rural Cottage Grove, Oregon. Now, almost nine months later, Gardens is fostering a strong following all over the country, particularly in Santa Barbara (their musical hometown) and Los Angeles (where they will be playing a show at the Echo July 14th).

They’ve got kindred spirits in Bowie and the Moody Blues, thanks to melodies dressed in the fanciful trappings of ’70s psychedelic jams, but unlike their predecessors, these five also weave in lessons from disco and new-wave synth-pop. Growing out of the collapse of an earlier music project, AVE Caesar, which consisted of guitarist/vocalist Chris Lynch, keyboardist Adam Rasmussen, and drummer Levi Hayden, the trio later added bassist Shane McKillop and Dustin Ineman to round out the Gardens and Villa lineup. In turn, the grooving quintet has recorded and finished their debut album (set for a July 5th release), and, in the process, fostered the vibes that propel every aspect of their current musical catalogue.


Check out these Santa Barbara natives and don't be afraid to get lost in their intoxicating and addicting haze-pop!

PLANNINGTOROCK channels Bowie/Berlin

Janine Rostron, aka Planningtorock, might hide behind a fake block-like nose that almost appears as if she had a large lego piece implanted under the top layer of skin on her nose, but on her new album titled, W, trust me when I say that she does absolutely nothing to hide her experimental expertise.

In an attempt to channel the darker, grimier, and particularly unexplored territories of a seedier Berlin club scene, which seems that only Bowie (on his albums known as the Berlin Trilogy) and now Rostron have been able to capture on an album, she has created a mix of songs that not only show-off the vigor behind her slow and soulful crooning, but also demonstrate her outstanding ability to puzzle sounds and samples together, in ways that even seem foreign to the uber diverse group of musicians/producers/instrumentalists on her label DFA.

Although Rostron's electronically charged vocals play a major role in the spacey feel that each track expels, its the synthesized bass, collection of bells, thick strings and the chopped-up eighties style sax that linger in the background that make you feel like you are being pushed and pulled in disparate directions. From the bump and throb of the song, "The Breaks", to the hypnotic vibrato of the album's ninth track, "Jam", Rostron serves up a sundry blend of grooves.

check out this junoplayer for a preview of the new album, W