We've Moved!

Moved to a wordpress. Follow here to keep up with our musical madness:

http://lipstickcommunism.wordpress.com/

love always,
Michelle + James

Recent new music obsessions. Thanks 2010.

2+ years later. Sheesh, just call me the most absent-minded and tardiest blogger out there, but let's be honest, the music scene evolves and updates so much it's hard enough to keep up with it let alone write and rave about it. So, I spend my days on ONTD and let Pitchfork and Stereogum do most of the hard work for me.

But with Summer music festivals rolling around and my April MCAT looming, why not start up again? (anything to not spend another moment on organic chemistry.)

Here are some of my favorite tracks from recent album releases/leaks that will make your day so much more beautiful. And if you live in Los Angeles I bet you thought that wouldn't be possible. tsk tsk.


1) I have waited so long for Angus & Julia Stone to release their new album, "Down The Way." And from the moment I heard the first single from it ("And The Boys") on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic months ago I was crawling out of my skin for it's slow trickle onto the interwebz. Already upon first listen I am enamored with the Aussie brother-sister duo all over again.



+1

Angus & Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane (mp3)


2) Speaking of sophomore releases, I first heard Here We Go Magic when they were on tour with Grizzly Bear and I loved their self-titled album. Haven't given this new one "Pigeons" the undivided attention it deserves but the single "Collector" has definitely found its way onto my heavy rotation list already, so I have great expectations for when i devote myself to it tomorrow.

Here We Go Magic - Collector (mp3)


3) The Morning Benders are a young Berkeley indie pop quartet. I dare you not to fall in love with them after watching this video. (also, Donnie put it best: "Whoa I was not expecting that voice to come out of that man") They are a quirky and rather pleasant band who have shared the stage with the likes of The Kooks, MGMT, and The White Rabbits.




4) Two Door Cinema Club are a young Irish three-piece making brilliantly hooky, melodic guitar pop (from clashmusic.com). They are playing at The Troubadour on May 5th, so if you're in the area and want to start off your Cinco de Mayo with a bang come on down and meet me on the dance floor.



So many great songs I can't choose just one. Here's one more from their album "Tourist History"

Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work (mp3)

Don't even get me started on the new Joanna Newsom (perfection; epic), Gorillaz, Jónsi, She & Him albums (and the list really does go on). They will have to be saved for another post. Fingers crossed that I get around to this before 2011.

I leave you, however, with a promise that my 2010 Coachella Survival Guide will be posted very soon. It's a big mofo packed with what I believe are the essentials from most of the artists on the bill. I know I know, I truly am a god among men since I have given you so many wonderful gifts already today.

Also I am contemplating turning this into more than just a blog on music. I haven't done anything in so long it's like a fresh start, right? James Michael, you still down for the ride?

xx,
Michelle

brilliance unveiled in a new peek at IM's new EP

go here!! and download the new Intricate Machines EP while you can and find out once again why we can't get enough of these boys. And why we will await with bated breath for what they'll release next.

look out 2008. lipstick communism is coming back with a fervent urgency this year.

intricate machines

This post has been a long time coming. Life got in the way, and consequently the world, or my limited view of it and complete self involvement in thinking everyone's just dying to ready my next post, has been deprived of knowing true greatness. Never having been one to like a band just because a friend is in it, I can honestly and unbiasedly say that these boys are one of the most captivating bands you've heard in a long time. Their much anticipated "Whale" EP is exactly what has been missing in your life, precisely what you've always wanted but maybe never known.

With every listen, the EP gets better and better. Highly textured and deeply diverse, Intricate Machines wavers between and weaves in elements of jazz, rock, and electronic music masterfully. They can present the listener with a cacophony of noise and slight dissonance and then almost immediately juxtapose this feeling of disarray with their characteristic soft melodies and ethereal vocals. Making for a listening experience that may leave you with goosebumps after only five songs.

Pretentious indie kids never you fear. You can openly rejoice and embrace these boys with open arms because even Amoeba Records in Hollywood has been swept off its feet by the musical delight that is Intricate Machines. Their EP can be found in the "music we like" section of Amoeba, and they have nothing but praise for the new record:
"Delicate precise instrumentation and melodicism abound on this deeply textured musical expression. It sorta combines the elegant song sense of Bends-era Radiohead with the more accessible rhythmic diversions of King Crimson. Yes. You'll play it once and enjoy it more the second time and beyond."

Fall in love with Intricate Machines here and here. You can trust me on this one.

And here are two tracks off their EP that aptly bring about that feeling of being infinite we so desperately seek in the music we devote ourselves to.

intricate machines - What Do You Know? (mp3)
intricate machines - No Feet (mp3)

my english is no good

So where to begin, where to begin...

I'll start with Tokyo Police Club, which apparently was only chosen because they liked the way it sounded. Weird?...not so much. So i'm excited because they are playing LA again, at the Troubadour ... but it sold out before i could get tix : [

So me and mish have been so busy with everything in our frantic little lives, but now we're still dealing with everything in our little frantic lives. If that made sense to you at all, cheers. (like i said, my english is no good)

Tokyo Police Club - Your English is Good (imeem)

Tokyo Police Club - Your English is Good (mp3)
Tokyo Police Club - Box (mp3)

Kevin Drew's Spirit If...

"I wanted to be in love when I was young. People wanted to be astronauts, I wanted to be attending orgies and constantly in love. Those were my aspirations."-Kevin Drew

How can one not be enamored with a man of such hopes and dreams?
Kevin Drew, beloved frontman of perhaps my favorite band of all time, Broken Social Scene, is coming out with a solo album. The first in a series of Broken Social Scene approved and presented by collections. Drew's album, Spirit If..., will be released on Arts & Crafts September 18th, and judging by the leaked track "tbtf" (Too Beautiful To Fuck), we will most likely be swept off our feet by this man all over again. Confronted with Drew's familiar delicate vocals, pianos, and in true BSS-fashion, temporary dissonance/chaos and skittering bottles, this track screams tainted perfection. I just can't seem to stop listening to this song.

Kevin Drew - tbtf (mp3)

GARDEN

Simon Lord, former frontman of Simian (before they parted ways and formed the now clubkid obsession Simian Mobile Disco) has been involved in a lesser known side project, GARDEN. Taking the brooding psychedelic folk element present in earlier Simian work, he released the album Round & Round last year on the Static Caravan Label. Because Never Be Alone has become such a staple due to its sudden resurgence with Justice's remix of the song, there is a subtle familiarity in Lord's voice, but don't be fooled, because GARDEN has taken his contribution to Simian in a very different direction.


GARDEN - Throw Yourself Upon The Wind (mp3)
Simian - LA Breeze (mp3)
Simian - Never Be Alone (mp3)

f.r.i.e.n.d.s.

20
so it was my birthday...bitches.
idk how else to celebrate but with my friends, all of which are the greatest friends anybody could ever have. ever.

les georges leningrad

Probably the best thing to come out of Montreal were this trio of performers aptly named les georges leningrad. Supposedly, they recently broke up, but who cares. I'm so into this scary yet funky, chopped-up jittery punk. In more ways than three, they are like cananda's answer to anything 31g. If i were to describe their sound, i would say that at times they can be as experimental as the Plot, as upbeat as Quintron, or as dark as the Vanishing.

netsil
les georges leningrad- supa doopa
les georges leningrad- fifi f

china room

If Radiohead, the Pixies, and faint elements of the Killers procreated in a drunken haze of brilliance and glory the world would be left with this band, China Room. China Room is indie pop at its best. Their self-released album, "Put On a Smile, They're Coming Your Way" presents us with songs of despair and hope set in the bright lights and glamour of the big city. This Los Angeles based band has been touring this town and winning hearts since 2004, and are about to go on tour once again, up the Coast. They've performed with some indie favorites, including the Grey Kid, the Shore, Black Black, the Cold War Kids, and have also performed a month-long residency at the Tangier in Silverlake. Keep your eyes peeled for China Room because I expect nothing but greatness from these five gentlemen.

Check them out here. And be sure to pick up "Put On a Smile, They're Coming Your Way".

China Room - Disco Chopper (mp3)
China Room - Mortars for Sale (mp3)

a t.s.u. obsession

So there was this song floating around my computer the other day, and I couldn't help but want to spin it on the radio, let alone I couldnt stop listening to it in between classes. I guess I could just totally relate to having panic attacks. Catchy tunes, catchy tunes.

*Some tracks off the Sunshine Underground's Raise the Alarm
the sunshine underground - panic attack
the sunshine underground - dead scene

french electro takes no prisoners

These days it seems you can no longer find yourself anywhere that hasn't been mesmerized by the spell that is the resurgence of French electronica. This scene has literally exploded onto our airwaves and shows no signs of relenting anytime soon. Ed Banger Records, leading the pack, has taken the dream Daft Punk created and ran with it. Not only run, it's rejuvenated, seizure-induced, adorned with bright blinding lights and hipster kids aplenty that dream. With the arrival of acts like Justice, Para One, SebastiAn, Tepr, Uffie, and countless others, listeners and stander-bys will not be found sitting in their seats for long. This Unique Parisian brand of mind numbing, sweating, pulsating, head banging, constant propulsion is spreading like wildfire. But the burn hurts so good.



Para One - Dundun Dun (MSTRKRFT remix) (mp3)
Kavinsky - Testarossa Overdrive (SebastiAn remix) (mp3)
Tepr - Minuit Jacuzzi (dAta remix) (mp3)

d.e.a.d.

mmm...Decay Ends A Decade, a recently transformed Sheffield three-piece with the addition of a drummer, just keeps getting better. I first got wind of them from the I Was A Cub Scout tour mixtape, a light mix of songs that probably got their party started. The point being is that D.E.A.D. are an incredibly upbeat bunch although they sing of not-so-upbeat situations. They remind me of ghastly winter nights where you find yourself lost in a familiar place, completely helpless, and yet you can still make sense of it all. But on another note, they kind of resemble close friends ( i'm assuming) I Was A Cub Scout, hailing back to the better days of the Postal Service, with striking soft vocals, Crystal Castle-like bleeps, scaffolding harmonies, and a dark, persistent rhtythm that makes you want to get up and dance around your room.

*Matt was nice enough to send us this unreleased and untitled track which I shall lend a name, and few others
Decay Ends A Decade - Helpless (mp3)
Decay Ends A Decade - Notes(mp3)
Decay Ends A Decade - Diagnosis Apocalypse (mp3)

something that just kind of popped up, ladies and gents, today we bring the twofer
I Was A Cub Scout - I Hate Nightclubs (Katie's ¡Forward, Russia! Remix)(mp3)

old but prevalent obsession.

Crystal Castles, reminiscent of the video game so closely associated with their name, is the digital world come to life. They are a Toronto two-piece who have become the remix masters of the here and now. Their genius was first revealed to me upon hearing their remix of the Klaxons' Atlantis to Interzone, and it has been an amorous love in the bruised knee fashion ever since. Characterized by truncated vocals, mnemonic super mario blips and beeps, trashy synths, and raging, glitchy bitcore, this duo transcends the boundaries of music and reality. This is electronic gold. Not to be pigeon-holed as just re-inventors of what has already been created, their own personal brand of music is just as noteworthy. Together they create a reverberant, violent tumult that is ordered enough to be a pernicious variant of pop, but fucked up and rough enough to become obsessed with.


5/26 - Crystal Castles at the Echoplex.
If you're going to be in LA, or even if you're not, you should make your way out to the echo that night.
We'll see you on the dance floor.


Crystal Castles - Airwar (mp3)
Crystal Castles - Untrust Us (mp3)

what we had

Strangely, but not surprisingly, Dan Boeckner ( Wolf Parade ) is at it again, this time partnering up with fiance Alexei Perry. Together they form the duo, Handsome Furs, a two person creepy-folk collective that is built on repetition, minimalist themes, and a drum machine. The nine song debut tells the story of big and small town disdain and romantic nostalgia, in a dark , brooding manner. Comparitively, they are by far the darkest and most thought out of the three projects, a definite step in the right direction for Boeckner and Perry. In light of things to come, Handsome Furs debuts their upcoming release, Plague Park, tuesday, May 22nd.

Oh, did i mention that i'm obsessed with them...well I am.

Handsome Furs - "What We Had" (mp3)