Thursday, May 7, 2009

Track Reviewz: The Sounds "No One Sleeps When I'm Awake"

Ah. The Sounds. 
When I first heard their straightforward-rock-dance music it was blaring out the windows of a now defunct club on Sixth Street in Austin during a SXSW festival. 
Luckily, I was able to use my platinum Artist badge to sneak in and I've been a fan ever since. 
It doesn't hurt that their lead singer, Maja Ivarsson, is gorgeous as hell (tattooed forearm and all) and a dead ringer for Debbie Harry. 
The band recently dropped "No One Sleeps When I'm Awake," the lead single off their new album (out June 2) which sounds like the mantra of my last coked-out girlfriend. 
Sounds fans fret not: the song delivers. It's another mid-tempo rocker with synths and repetitive guitar leads that carry the instrumental parts.  
The catchy single just dropped on iTunes to hype the new record: "Crossing the Rubicon."
Check it out on their myspace, here.
There's also a lot of great new HD videos of the group performing new songs live on their page.
Doesn't that bleach-bloned beauty sound great? Uh, I mean the band's good too. Yeah. 

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Starfucker: Greatest Band Ever?

If you were at SXSW this year, then you either heard about or caught a live show by Starfucker —easily the most talked about act of the festival. 
The trio, hailing from Portland, mixes beats, blips, monologues and catchy melodies that are reminiscent of some of the greats. Check out their myspace page here. 
You may or may not be into fuzzy keyboards (of which I am an adamant supporter) but I'd wager a case of PBR that you'll be humming  "Pop Song" or "Medicine" within minutes of finishing either. 
They just dropped a new album today — Jupiter — that packs a party's worth of dance numbers into eight tiny tracks. Though the band never really touches on topics deeper than love and tongue in cheek 1980s references, if you're looking for this generation's disco equivalent to Weezer, look no further. I have been spinning their last record (which can be heard on LaLa) non-stop poolside since the sun started making it's presence known last week. It has stronger songs in my opinion, but Jupiter is still good for a good time.  
I have a strong feeling this record will be on everybody's Summer Jamz playlist. 

Check out the band's latest video for "Medicine," here.