The Animal Show » Passion Pit

This time you can call it a comeback

Edward — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:53:56 +0000

I was at a social function last night, and a formerly mustachioed friend came up to me to ask me what the hell was up with this blog of mine. My first reaction was, naturally, what the hell is up with that late great mustache of yours, but my second reaction was “what blog?”

They say you don’t know you’ve hit rock bottom until you can see China on the other side. Well, after leaving that social function, another friend made me watch a slideshow of his abroad pictures. Was it a sign? Almost certainly. Really contrived pithy aphorisms don’t grow on trees. At least, not where I’m from.

The truth is that I’d stopped blogging because there wasn’t any music out there that was getting me going (with a few notable exceptions, but they were by no means the rule). But this summer has been a downright cavalcade of elegant albums progressing onto the scene at a slow clip. I’ve never liked Arcade Fire more, been more blown away by a debut album than Janelle Monae’s (don’t hold me to that), or been as scared shitless as I was the first time I heard Salem. More on that later. More on a lot later. MORE LATER YOU GUYS.

For now, I’m dropping an Animal Show exclusive release. Everyone’s favorite mashup artist (and by “everyone,” I mean all five of your faithful correspondents here at the Show, which is to say everyone who matters in this confused, mosque-hating world) E-603 has remixed a sleeper off tourmates’ Passion Pit’s Manners, an album which also continues to grow on me. Ethan takes “Seaweed Song” and given it the Passion Pit handclaps it was missing, synths to the wall, and a Ratatat-reminiscent guitar line sure to make your hips quiver. Even if the kid may never make another E-603 album, this track makes clear that we have years of production and remixing to look forward to. Now when’s that Air Bud sophomore release coming?

Play it loud:

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Seaweed Song (E-603 Remix) – Passion Pit (YSI)

Are You Immuzed?

dfjacobs — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:05 +0000

It’s been more than a year since we last checked in with Alfredo Lapuz Jr, or, as he’s known on the streets, Immuzikation. His absurd skills have surprisingly only managed to improve with time. To say that he’s thumpin’ out the hits is an outrageous understatement. While none of these tracks are iPad new, the thought of you not having them in your iTunes kept me up last night, well, that and the cocaine. How he was able to blend the tremendous hits “Ambling Alp” and “Giving Up the Gun” so seamlessly that it actually sounds like one song, I’ll never know. Immuzikation is truly a master of his craft, and an artist who should absolutely be watched. With his abundance of talent, no one can be certain what Mr. Lapuz will do next, but I can promise you it will be miraculous. And thus endeth another installment of “Mailing It In” with your host, David Jacobs.

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Giving Up the Alp (Vampire Weekend vs. Yeasayer) – Immuzikation (YSI)

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One More Time to Pretend (MGMT vs Daft Punk) – Immuzikation (YSI)

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Sleepydream – Immuzikation (YSI)

Immuzikation is AMAZING

More Bang for Your Buck

Edward — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:17:16 +0000

Boyz, In Da Hood.

Usually, I don’t pay much attention to mixtapes. It’s been my experience in the past that you have to cut through a lot of crap in order to get to the good stuff. That said, there are a few key exceptions to this rule, and that comes in the people who know best how to maximize the mixtape. The best example I can think of is Wale, whose Mixtape About Nothing flaunted copyright laws in mixtape-perfect form, while showcasing his ability to rhyme on every and any topic. Lil Wayne also manages to make his stuff consistently awesome, so that each mixtape is newsworthy. And, after their Swelly Express, Chiddy Bang are making a serious case for inclusion among the ranks of those hip-hop all-stars.

We’ve heard of these Chiddy boys both with their summer-smashing “Kids” and in the form of a sweet mashup courtesy of their DJ, Xaphoon Jones. Lucky for us, the mixtape holds pace with those two. The production value on it is pretty amazing, and they drop some samples that are sure to please. The highlight in my opinion is “Truth,” which samples the only Passion Pit song as catchy as “Sleepyhead,” “Better Things.” Plus, they reference Full House’s Jesse Katsopolis, so what’s not to like? Kickstart your week with a bang, and thank me later.

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Fresh Like Us (feat. Yelle) – Chiddy Bang (YSI)

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Truth (feat. Passion Pit) – Chiddy Bang (YSI)

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All Things Go (feat. Sufjan Stevens) – Chiddy Bang (YSI)

Grab the mixtape for free here.

Did Brown Reinvent the Wheel?

dfjacobs — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:42:28 +0000

Teenage fun

After reading my first few articles, hopefully you are all thinking, “Edward struck gold again, who is this young Renaissance man?” And while I hope that the belief applies to more of you than my mother, I trust that you are not so outraged by my writing and musical selections that you find yourselves collectively organizing to storm my house, pitchforks in hand, asking for my head, or at least my wordpress password. Remember, Edward has his reasons for everything; I was not just brought to the Show to end my incessant begging.

You see, young Skywalkers, the educational establishment which I attend happens to be the very same institution that famed Ivy League front man Adrian Simon and lesser known yet equally awesome Ivy League guitarist Alex Beer attend. And it just so happens that I am actually pretty good friends with the both of ‘em. Now, what does this mean you ask? Didn’t the Ivy League disband? Well, yes and no. Yes they did, but it lasted about 30 minutes. They have a new CD in the mixing stages and from the one or two songs I’ve heard, you will not be disappointed. “Adrian Simon and other kids playing instruments” stay true to their bubble gum pop roots and a bust out an even tighter record than their debut (I say all this having heard only two of their new songs, although I have heard most of the others live).

But for all of you New York based readers (or at least those of you within 6 hours driving distance), boy, do I have a surprise for you! November 14th at Don Hill’s, Adrian, Alex, Dan Hockstein (the regular bassist, for all of you non-Ivy aficionados), and Griffin Emerson (a dashing young drummer who’s been groomed for the role of drummer for about 4 years), will all assemble to play a show entirely devoted to covers. And good ones too, I can’t reveal the set list, but I can give you three previews of classic Ivy covers. I think it’s safe to say I’ll see most of you in a few weeks.

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The Good Life (Kanye West Cover) – Adrian Simon (YSI)

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Sleepyhead (Passion Pit Cover) – Adrian Simon (YSI)

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Buy U a Drank (T-Pain Cover) – The Ivy League (YSI)

But really, go to the Ivy League concert, it’s gonna be insane.

Audio Safari — Bigger and Backer

Edward — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:44:29 +0000

The Animal Show does not and never will condone violence against any creature on the Earth. But, c'mon dudes, it's Tintin!

I can hear your thoughts. Fact. And I hear you thinking, “where the hell is Edward? Did that bastard ditch us again?” Shut up, mind noises. I’m right here. In fact, I’ve been sitting right here for the 2 weeks since I last posted. DOING WORK. Do you know what that’s like? No, you don’t, because you waste all your time reading WEBSITES. Laaaaaaaame. Seriously, I’ve been doing meaningful shit. Like analyzing pure monadic schemata. How much schematic analysis have you done recently? That’s what I thought. But now I’ve come out of the logical woods and back into civilization, arms full of musical goodies to distribute while you’re asleep, like Santa but with creepier facial hair. So leave your stockings near your router, because here I come.

First, it’s time for a hats off to Dave, for covering my absence so ably and wordily. He enlightened us with some pretty sick Arcade Fire b-sides, hit us with a NASTY Sufjan mash-up, and titled a post so well, I thought I was about to read some Magic Tree House fanfic (not the first time I’ve been disappointed by not finding some Magic Tree House fanfic). More importantly, however, Dave did the important work of reintroducing some oft-mentioned, never (til now) realized Animal Show features, namely album reviews. I’ve got a couple in the pipe, that I’m going to hit you with early next week (NEW SUFJAN NEW SUFJAN NEW SUFJAN). But first, I’munna bust you in the face with some JAMS. ANIMAL SHOW STYLE.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to the often-maligned but never forgotten Audio Safari! I set the bar pretty high there with how much I liked the Silver Sea’s “Imaginary Girl” (and if you don’t have that song, you should immediately click the link above and go download it and listen to it a million bajillion times and then burn it onto mix cds for all your friends, drawing hearts and stars around it on the enclosed tracklist). But I still stand behind these songs. They rule. Like them. Now.

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Flashing Lights (High Contrast Remix) – Kanye West (YSI)

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Never Chasing Pavement (Urban Noize Remix) – Jay-Z feat. Adele and Kanye West (YSI)

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Sleepyhead (The Knocks Remix) – Passion Pit (YSI)

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The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance (Miike Snow Remix) – Vampire Weekend (YSI)

Keep your eyes peeled for my promised review of Late for the Sky, as well as much BQE goodness.

A Reintroduction

Edward — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:34:57 +0000

New suits in space!

Once upon a bible, Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness. I could tell you why, but I’m too lazy to ask my dad (getting told bible stories is the worst). I’m not going to call myself Jesus because we all remember why John Lennon was shot, but I will say this: I have returned from my own 22 days in the wilderness (or 317 blogdays), and, as I remember Jesus did, I’ve returned bearing a domain name. Yes, as you may have noticed when you clicked your old animalshow.wordpress.com bookmark, we’ve set up shop over at theanimalshow.org. And though my absence may have led you to frequent tears and repeated questioning of whether life is worth continuing, rest assured I’m back and badder than ever.

If your continual frantic facebook messages, emails, and drunken tweets are any indication, you haven’t taken the absence well. You want to know why it is I’ve abandoned you. Well, folks, there’s a joke answer and a real one. One is that I’ve been busy building an Uncle Fumerous entirely out of purple, green, and orange Play-Doh.

The other is that I’d simply burned out on mp3 blogs. For a little while now, I’d been feeling oversaturated with new music. The dozen odd requests for listens and mp3s I get sent daily don’t help, but I felt like it was time for me to take a step back and reevaluate what it was I wanted to do as a blogger, or whether I wanted to continue at all. It was becoming very clear that the need I felt to post 6-sentence blurbs daily to maintain my position on hype machine was sucking most of the fun out of this, and I ended up posting the sort of stuff I would normally sit on in order to keep a new post on the front page. The hours I spent on the top 100 songs charts on hype machine waiting for my songs rank among the time I spent playing one-suit spider solitaire as the time I consider most uselessly wasted. And they provided less entertainment at the time than spider solitaire.

Guess which answer was the joke!

Anyway, I’ve decided that, from now on, I’m only posting material I’m really excited about. I won’t put stuff up in order to have stuff up. And I’m not going to try to be on the verge of something hot and new. If I like it, I’ll post it. Old, new, obscure, mainstream, remixed, original — who cares. Just good material, and just when it speaks to me.

That said, I think I’ve got enough stuff from the past weeks to continue posting regularly for some time, so don’t take this as a “yeah, I’m back, but only when I want to be.” I’m still here for you, and I still want feedback, as always. Besides, we’ve got a number of pretty cool additions we’ll be sending your way. Longtime spiritual advisor Louis Weeks will be joining the staff to provide live reviews of up-and-coming bands he finds in the scene this summer, and that super-secret surprise Marquis Meowmers alluded to some time ago is still on the way. Keep your mouses pointing here, dudes. This is the summer of the Show.

Until we meet again (and it will be soon, I promise), here are some sweet summer songs for you to scarf down, including the song I listened to 57 times since we last spoke: Nickel Creek/Chris Thile’s phenomenal “If You’re Gonna Leave Me (Set Me Up With One of Your Friends).”

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If You’re Gonna Leave Me (Set Me Up With One of Your Friends) – Nickel Creek (mega) (YSI)

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Blame It (feat. T-Pain) – Jamie Foxx (mega) (YSI)

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Forgot About Coke & 11th (Starters Remix) – Eminem & Spank Rock (mega) (YSI)

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The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix) – Passion Pit (mega) (YSI)

Another Reintroduction (and more Thile)

Passionately Pitting

marquismeowmersiv — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:22:19 +0000

This is a Passion Pit. Alright, give me a break here, you can only take this pun so far...

As you may or may not remember I, Marquis Meowmers IV, am a fan of Passion Pit. In fact, there was a period of time where I would listen to Sleepyhead every morning to get myself psyched for the day that lay ahead of me. Similar to Rocky, I had a theme song that would play me to the top of the stairs within Franklin Patterson Hall. And right as the song climaxed into a cacophony of danceability, I would always summit the stairs, turn around, and look back at the great physical challenge that I had overcome during my montage. So, when I turned my attention to the blogosphere and discovered that Passion Pit’s lead single (titled ‘The Reeling’) from their first full length (titled Manners) had been released, I was excited. Now, I know what you’re asking: “What is Marquis’ opinion of it? How does it sound? Where on the internet can you download it?” Well dear reader, fret not. All these questions (and more) will be answered below the jump.

“The Reeling” opens with a really cool and pretty catchy chopped-and-screwed synth line that shows a lot of promise. Like all the other songs Passion Pit has released, “The Reeling” is one part sappy love song, two parts synth-nerd, and infinite parts dance floor. The song seems to have a little less energy than “Sleepyhead,” the lead single off of their (or maybe it’s just a ‘he’? Is this still a one man operation?) Chunk of Change EP, which may or may not work for you. It doesn’t detract from the song’s catchiness, but it doesn’t give me the same feeling I got when I first heard “Sleepyhead” (which was an immediate sense of “holyfuckingshit this is a goddamn BANGER”). Additionally, Pit seems to be leaning a little bit more towards analog instruments, especially in the rhythm section, which gives it way too much of an 80’s throw back feel. I mean, as fun as it may be to pretend to like Flock of Seagulls, I’d like to think that if you put out an EP filled with super rad nu-disco that you wouldn’t want to move back to previously charted territory…

That said, the song IS good. It will be making its way onto the dance floor, and you will be enjoying it. Its catchy chorus and oddly dancey mid-song breakdown have me both coming back for more and terribly excited to hear to full LP. The Almighty Musical Deity (Pitchfork) gave the single a 6; I’m giving it a 7.5. It’s a fun song, but it doesn’t have me jumping up and down, shaking my ass to its fullest like Sleepyhead did (and still does). I also took off some points because they forgot to put A FUCKING DANCE MACHINE CLAP TRACK on it. Like WTF? I need more electronic claps. Hopefully ‘Manners’ will deliver.

Passion Pit – The Reeling

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Additionally, if you’d like any more remixes of “Sleepyhead,” please ask me. I’m at 11 and counting…

[Insert Super Smash Bros. Joke Here]

marquismeowmersiv — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:39:28 +0000

I bet this comparison has never been made on the internet ever.

So, last night I decided to forgo my usual Saturday night routine (chugging mouth wash in my boxers and a bathrobe while watching episodes of Mork and Mindy on T.V Land) and ‘hit the town’ if you will. The main (only) attraction? A real live Passion Pit show at the ole’ Iron Horse. After chugging a ‘cognac and tonic’ and two Sparks I donned my keffiyeh and was there like shareware.

Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with Passion Pit (which is Drew, because everyone else actually DOES read Pitchfork/Spin/MTV2’s news section), the band actually consists of one guy with an awesome hair cut and some very remarkable pipes: Michael Angelakos. Pit’s first EP was a “belated Valentine’s Day gift to his Girlfriend’ which makes the band’s conception ADORABLE. Similar to Bright Eyes, he tours with a full ensemble despite recording everything himself, which meant that I was met not with a lone pianist, but 3 pianists, a bass player, and a drummer (who has a really sweet electro-side project that takes a lot from Dubstep and tech).

The show was PACKED, which doesn’t say much considering that the Iron Horse is a tiny little nothing of a venue, but the rest of the shows at that venue have all be relatively small, seeing how there was room to move and no one bothered hanging out on the second floor-balcony. The first band, Paper Route, SUCKED. I’m not talking about “oh haha, it’s trite and played out like Bloc Party” sucked, I’m talking about flat-out “Dane Cook in My Best Friend’s Wedding” sucked. I don’t think I talked to a single person there who wasn’t unhappy with their performance. And the worst part of it all? They proudly announced that they were from my hometown right at the end of their set. As if Nashville doesn’t get a bad enough rap from Kid Rock, Paramore, and Billy-Ray Cyrus…

Dane Cook and Hannah Montana’s Dad bashing aside, the venue really warmed up when Passion Pit blasted on stage, opening with “I’ve Got Your Number”, and by the time “Better Things” was playing, the place was on fire… everyone was gettin’ down with the fury of a thousand suns. One thing that truly shocked me was how familiar everyone was with the lyrics… I was under the impression that Passion Pit was under the radar with a little play on MTV2’s College Rock show, but I was absolutely wrong. Of course, the band is big for a very good reason, the music this kid writes is accessible to so many different “musical sub-cultures”: club goers, lyric fanatics, synth nerds, people who love that ‘electronic clap’ sound a lot (that’s yours truly). The other thing of note is the vocal ability of this kid… serious fucking pipes. You can hear it on the EP, but those things can be doctored in post-production. The guy still kills the highest of high notes live, kind of like that guy from The Darkness (I believe in a thing called love… oh yeah).

Unfortunately, their set was ridiculously short. This is probably because they blow through tunes like it ain’t no thang (I’m in a 70’s blaxploitation mood tonight… sorry) and really don’t have too many songs in their container-like-object of music. However, Mr. Angelakos did announce that their new album was almost finished and would be available in May. Thank god… I’ve almost played the Chunk of Change EP to deaFFFF.

Additionally, while writing this article, I acquired more remixes of Sleepyhead than I could have ever wanted. I managed to wade through them all, but I’ll only give you two, because that’s all you’ll want. Plus, as my old P.E instructor used to say, It’s not the ‘gettin’ there’… it’s the gettin’ there (I don’t get it either…).