Turn the Beat Around… Again

dfjacobs — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:00:33 +0000

Image Courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

Since my last post, the world has turned to crap. Time Square fell under siege, Greece almost collapsed, BP pulled an Exxon Valdez in the Gulf coast, the Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla was celebrated (oh wait, Cinco de Mayo was a pretty rowdy fiesta), Tennessee almost sank (and with it all photo evidence of Edward’s awkward years), and Lost ended. Suffice to say, the world is a pretty depressing place without dfjacobs. So to cheer all of you up, I decided to continue my only most read post of the last month: Turn the Beat Around.

Launching our rave is “Crown on the Ground” by noise pop’s burgeoning stars, Sleigh Bells. Comprised of Alexis Krauss and Derek E. Miller, the Brooklyn duo formed all the way back in 2008. On May 11^th, they released their first album (that wasn’t a demo) Treats, and it’s spectacular. Even for those of you averse to the feedback spewing and amp destroying that the noise pop genre is famous for, Sleigh Bells’ album may yet make a convert out of you. Treats is indubitably one of my favorites of the year, and the highlights include (but are not limited to) “Tell ‘Em,” “Kids,” “Riot Rhythm,” “Infinity Guitars,” “Rill Rill,” and “Crown on the Ground.” For those of you keeping score at home, I just listed six of the eleven tracks. I swear, the album is THAT good.

From burgeoning stars to seasoned doyens, our next track is “Dance Yrself Clean” by electronic superstars, LCD Soundsystem. The James Murphy helmed dance/punkers released their third studio album This Is Happening on May 17^th. The album, much like Treats, is dazzlingly brilliant, and another early front-runner for our best albums of the year list. LCD Soundsystem is similarly mesmerizing live; putting on one of the greatest shows I have ever seen on Saturday night at Terminal 5. Finishing with a balloon filled rendition of “Empire State of Mind” (see picture above), the show was simply tremendous, much like their album.

Capping off this trio of dance hall destroyers is our first Hip-Hop track of day, “Like a G6” by the Cataracs. Chances are, if you’ve left your house at any point in the last month, you’ve heard this blazing hot track, but nonetheless I couldn’t resist appending it to this article. Recently, the duo of Cyrano and Campa released a free mixtape titled, I Thought They Were Black!?, with their track “2Nite” debuting at 24 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Airplay charts. While their lyrics are not going to cap the oil spill, bring solvency to Greece or recover Edward’s embarrassing photographs (oh phewf, we never lost those) they make incredibly fun, party starting music (“Poppin bottles in the ice, like a blizzard/ When we drink we do it right gettin slizzard”). So with that I’ll conclude my latest self-indulgence, and I promise to release another article with much less lag time, and hopefully at a considerably lesser cost to the world.

The Animal Show » The Cataracs

Turn the Beat Around… Again