Gourmet Jams From Vermont

Philippe Bronchtein is Bearplane, the one-man DJ-Dancemaster-Freakfest out of Middlebury, Vermont. For one man in a tiny little town, Bearplane sounds pretty damn huge. Easy to listen to, but never stale or repetitive, Bearplane's tracks are interesting and technically precise. And with only 2 albums out, I expect he will keep on making groovy music for quite a while--hopefully gaining some well-deserved popularity as well.


And yes. That is a bear. riding a shark. with a machine gun. radical

Bearplane - The Weekend (It's Got to be Phonkay)

The whole album can be found on his myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/bearplanebearplane

i'm going to brag

Today's post is a bit of a love letter to my Minneapolis home. After Chicago, there is no better city for music in the Midwest than in the 612. Omaha has Conor Oberst, Oklahoma City has the Flaming Lips, but the eclectic mix of bands that come out of Minneapolis is unmatched.

My favorite new discovery in Minneapolis is the up-and-coming band Total Babe. Discarding the fact that one of their members lives on my block, this band of 17 and 18 year-olds sounds fun and fresh (comparisons to Feist and Camera Obscura are inevitable.) It is not revolutionary, but it definitely isn't boring, and my jealousy meter is off the charts for these kids.

Total Babe - Bearbones




And below we have just a sampling of the all-star music Minneapolis has put out both in recent history and from way back when.

Atmosphere - Sunshine
Prince - When Doves Cry
The Replacements - I Will Dare
Semisonic - Closing Time
Tapes 'n' Tapes - Cowbell
Cloud Cult - Chemicals Collide
Mason Jennings - New York City
The Battle Royale - Oh Martha

bring the illinoize

thanks to Carter Bellaimey / Evan Adams-Hanson for showing me this wonderful album of Sufjan Stevens rap mash-ups.




I don't even like a good deal of the mash-ups out there, but Tor does a very good job taking short samples from Sufjan tracks, adding better drums/bass, scratching things up a bit, and looping them over and over again just like a good hip-hop song should.

Here Tor pins Sufjan's "Star of Wonder" (from his Christmas album) with Aesop Rock's "None Shall Pass." On the album, Tor features Outkast, Brother Ali, & More.

Tor / Sufjan Stevens - Star of Wonder / None Shall Pass


check out the whole album here

ego tripping on the dark side of the moon

Best Rock and Roll album of all time? Meet Wayne Coyne




Right before the decade came to a close, the Flaming Lips released their heavily-anticipated cover of the entirety of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (with help from Wayne's nephew's band, Stardeath and the White Dwarfs). Naturally, there will be a lot of pissed off classic rock purists writing off this album--but these are the same people who think that good music stopped being made twenty years ago. The Flips meet expectations and live up to the hype with this one, mainly because while some tracks are less strong than the originals (Speak to me / Breathe), and some sound fairly similar to the originals (Us and Them), there are some tracks that simultaneously manage to stay true to the original while adding a freakishly amazing edge. I would have given my appendix to have been there to see it played live on New Years last week in Oklahoma City.

Take the Great Gig In the Sky, for example. Thanks to the Flaming Lips, new generations can once again get blown away by a truly timeless album.