Hip To Be Square

Until I learn how to redirect visitors to this site automatically to my new site, please click or copy and attach the following link www.hip2besquare.net.

Blogger.com has been a great place to conduct my daily blogging activities. I may even head back this way if maintaining my own site becomes to be too much of a hassle.

Let me know what you think about the new site. As with this blog, there will be many changes to the new one.

See ya on the other side... I'll leave you with some recent music I've picked up...

Midlake - "We Gathered in Spring"
Pre-order Trials of Van Occupanther here

Johnny Cash - "Love's Been Good To Me"
Bu American V here

Hot Chip - "Over and Over"
Buy The Warning here

Spank Rock - "Bump"
Buy YoYoYoYoYo here

CSS - "Fuck Off is Not the Only thing You Have to Show"
Buy Cansei De Ser Sexy here

Just been a bit hectic here in Boston. Recently moved closer to where my heart belongs up here - CENTRAL SQUARE. And as moves go, the blogging usually slows down. Not that it's ever too rampant around here any way. (looks like I'm not the only Boston blogger stricken by moves)

But in, the meantime, I thought I'd share a few tracks with you. One classic, one BUY NOW!! and one just down right nasty.

And the picture above is a cool shot I found on my camera (oh how I miss thee) that I took at the Cold War Kids show. This is the crazy bass player that likes to bounce around and hit everyone on stage. They all kind of do that but he seems to like to do it more then the rest of the gang.

Classic "bring's back 80's memories":
David Bowie - "Magic Dance" (Labyrinth Soundtrack)
Purchase Here

BUY NOW!!!
TV on the Radio - "Hours" (Return to Cookie Mountain)
Purchase Here (U.K. Release only. Correction: Interscope has set a US Release date for 8/1. Check your local record store for details. Thanks to March to the Sea for the heads up.)

Down Right Nasty
Daft Punk - Cochella Festival Set (One continuous MP3 so it's a long download). Crowd can be a bit overpowering at times but if you listen on a good sound system and drown them out a bit with bass, you should be ok.

Oh sweet lordy me. Can I count the ways of how jealous I am. When you have a buddy from college that's really having a go at it in the music industry and things begin to look promising, you start to ask yourself questions about your current state of affairs.

But enough about me....

Dirty on Purpose is releasing their album, "Hallelujah Sirens," today. Go get yourself a copy at the following locations:

North Street Record
Other Music
Insound
AmpCamp
eMusic
iTunes
Tower.com
Amazon.com

The 'Fork gave this one a pretty darn good review. While many have had bad experiences with Pitchfork (I was sorely upset at their Diamond Nights and Sun Kil Moon review), you can't deny that their opinion does mean something to all us music lovers.

Some of you may remember this group from their performance up here during the NEMO festival (My post during this occasion). Unfortunately I'm an idiot and decided to partake in an activity that is currently not the norm for me in these post college years and ended up missing most of the show do to my tired eyes (hint hint). But if there is a dreamy, no wait I hate that description, more like euphoric indie rock band experience that you need to check out, it's most definitley Dirty on Purpose. They make great music and another great thing, they're a nice group of brooklynites. Their record label is pretty cool too, I guess (my jealousy coming out in that remark).

Be DOP's friend on myspace and listen to some of the new tunes off of "Hallelujah Sirens".

AND GO SEE THEM LIVE (if you live in boston) AT GREAT SCOTT ON SATURDYAY, JULY 8TH. Which is bunk because I will be down in their neck of the woods for a wedding. A freakin wedding, which will be a blast, but man, what timing.

It's been awhile since I caught some orchestral music. I love seeing a good symphonic piece every now and then. While I was thrown for a loop at first when I heard that the Boston Pops would be playing without My Morning Jacket for the first hour of the night, it ended up being a good strategy on the part of the Pops and My Morning Jacket. One full hour of MMJ and the Pops was enough and well worth it. This wasn't your typical MMJ show where Jim James and Co. throw their locks out over the crowd and blow you away with their distorted reverbed effects. While the reverb sound was still apparent, it was the full backing orchestra that really took front stage. And I didn't really focus in on this aspect until about the second or third song. At first, I said to myself, "MMJ is sounding kind of flat right now". But in reality, it was just the Orchestra drowning them out. You had to focus on the strings, horns and percussions of the orchestra to really appreciate this show. If you went just wanting to hear MMJ rock out their songs off of "Z", then you came seeing the wrong show. There's no question that a straight up MMJ show is more rocking then what we saw on Wednesday night, or Thursday night if that's when you went. But there is also no question that it was well worth the experience.

You really couldn't have picked a better rock group to compose symphonic music over. It worked so well with their sound and Jim's voice sounded down right immaculate inside Symphony Hall.

Check out MMJ with the Pops on Letterman, here.

Read an article on the shows by the Boston Globe, here.

Download a couple tracks from MMJ's album, "Z" below and buy their album, here.

It Beats for You
Off the Record

Also, I can't forget to mention that there were 3 other bands that were showcased at this show - Unbusted, Jake Brennan & The Confidence Men and The Slip. Didn't see Unbusted but caught a glimpse of Jake & Co. and from what I heard, I enjoyed their sound. Jake has a great voice and they've got that retro reverb thing going on that I can't get enough of. And of course, The Slip. Once again, I'm looking forward to hearing their new album, when ever it gets released.

A recent email I received reminded that there is a guy out there doing what only Gnarls Barkley and Andre 3000 wish they could produce. Andre 3000 has been looking for a way to change the rap sound. Don't get me wrong, I think Andre is in his own right doing his part to create a new and improved pop rap sound, but Straiht Wikid Crew from Muscatine, Iowa is in a whole new ball park. He mixes some of the weirdest sounds around and some how he comes away with a great tune. The young Hare Krishna (you heard me correctly) has his first album, Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1, available for purchase, here.

Here are a couple of tracks to wet your whistle (Dirty Dancin recommended):

Dirty Dancin
Columbo
Get on Down to the Beat


I think it's put perfectly on www.kaliyugademolition.com - "You will not enjoy the "Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1" CD if you're content with what is currently being played on the top 40 charts, if you want to get wicked crunk in 'da club' , or if you're expecting to hear harsh lyrics like Eminem's degradation of women.

If you're open minded to a new hip hop music style then you'll be happy with the "Kali Yuga Demolition Vol 1" CD."

And, if you havent picked up Phoneix's new album, It's Never Been Like That, you best get your self over to your local record shop and get that bad boy. Great album, epsecially for the summer. Great songs, each one. The album in general is a bit different then their previous albums. But it's still Phoenix with just a little less 80's.

I've got only one song for you below. I must be honest, when I first downloaded a few tracks from this album a little while back, they didn't stand to well on their own. But when put together on this album, it really comes alive. But if there is any track that will catch your ear, it's Rally.

Rally

Purchase album, here.

Squeezing a post in during the week. Kind of a new one for the Square here. I only seem to get around to posting on the weekends and it's a habit that I need to get away from. Especially since I saw CWK and Tapes n Tapes on Monday and haven't even talked about it yet.

But I digress. I wanted to post these tracks so here they are.

First track is from Justice, a new band from France that just signed to Vice Records. They formed in 2003. Apparantly these guys are going to take over the electronic dance craze scene that knocking Daft Punk out of what many would consider to be the top bill for this type of music. They only have an EP out with Vice but the full length is due out in the Fall. In the meantime, download the track below and see what you think.

Kicks in with your basic high hat 4/4 dance rhythm and you think it's just going to be another standard dance mix, but then they hit yer ass with some serious distorted bass lines and crazy sound effects. Real crazy stuff in this track.

Waters of Nazareth

Second track is one of my favorite artists, Cassettes Won't Listen, from Brooklyn. Let me tell ya, this cat has a great thing going for him. Looking forward to his first album. This track is from Dr. Octagon's new album, The Return of Dr. Octagon, which comes out June 27th. Cassettes helped out on the album and here's his remix of the song Aliens.

Quick note, if you are a young striving artist that likes to make music video's, head over to CWL's myspace page for information about how you could be the director for his next video that Dope Lotus Records will be promoting to a number of outlets, include MTV.

Aliens (Hearing Aid Remix)

Purchase from iTunes CWL's EP, Nobody's Moving, by clicking here

These two tracks should help you get your weekend off to a good start.

Bonus Track:

Thom York - The Eraser
The Clock

If you haven't heard about the infectious movement sweeping across the indy nation about the dance craze, then you best check your self, cause it's upon us and Man Man is at the helm of the movement.

Shot over to PA's Lounge, one of Boston's premier locations for indy shows, to catch the Man Man craze and also came across a pleasent surprise in the opener, Roommate. But, before I get to Roommate, lets talk about Man Man for a second. First, their looks are deceiving. My first impression was that they were going to be aggressive personalities and hard to approach, completely false. Very nice guys, and of course, they live in the city of brotherly love so it makes sense - Philly forever baby. Second, their stage presence is perfect, and makes you just want to scream out, MAN MAN!!! They're all over the stage, bouncing around and getting in to the thick of the crowd.

Be Man Man's friend at myspace
Visit their official website
Purchase their albums, here

Roommate was interesting. Roommate is essentailly one guy from Chicago, Kent Lambert. On any given night he could be playing with one person or nine. But Kent has some great lyrics and plays a mean Keytar. He also loves the plinky sounds from a Nintendo Gameboy.

Visit Roommates myspace page and check out some sounds and then head on over to Kent's official site to learn about the album, Songs the Animals Taught Us and to see if they/he will be showing up in your neighborhood.