Hidden Bonus Track is dead...

...long live Hidden Bonus Track. Or something.

Meanwhile, I recommend this blog. Or this one. Okay, that last one's not really a blog, but still...fun stuff.

I'll stick a fork in this blog in a week or two, i.e. it will be coming down. I hate cobwebs.

Thanks for reading, y'all!

oh my poor, neglected blog...

...has it really been a month since I've updated you? Sorry to my loyal readers...all three of you...for the extended silence. Work has been crazy.

For now, I'll mostly just be frantically posting new content on Metromix and occasionally tweeting about it. So head over to my Twitter account if you want to follow what I'm working on these days. Eventually I'll start updating this sucker again, too, but it'll probably be awhile.

Or...maybe Metromix will actually give me a blog. Wouldn't that be a kick in the head.

OK...back to work. Later!

Q&A: Lady Sovereign

I had interviewed Lady Sovereign once before, back when she was just getting introduced to America and had been pegged by everyone as hip-hop's Next Big Thing. It didn't quite turn out that way, but to her credit, she regrouped and recorded a new album with her own producer, on her own imprint, and while I can't really say it's better than her first record, you do get the sense when you hear it that she's keeping it real, as the kids like to say. A lot of the tracks are just downright wacky in a way that most American hip-hop never dares to be. ("Let's Be Mates," in particular, is a pretty outstanding ode to the outsiders, set to a groovy electro beat.)

Anyway, this time I got to chat with her in person at South by Southwest, which was cool. She's very nice, even tinier than I expected, and smokes a lot. I hadn't heard the whole album yet, which is always a bit of a drag, but she didn't seem to mind. Maybe in this day and age, artists are relieved to find out you haven't heard their unreleased album yet--that just means it hasn't leaked yet.

I just missed her set at the Perez Hilton party the day after our interview, which I was bummed about until I learned that she had cancelled the gig anyway. Oh, well. I'll catch you live one of these days, Sov!

Song of the day: Doves, "Compulsion"

So how freakin' good is the new Doves album? It's my favorite by far since "Lost Souls" (their best by a mile as far as I'm concerned--and yeah, I know everyone loves "The Last Broadcast," but I thought it was hit or miss).

I haven't listened to it enough for a favorite song (or songs) to emerge, but an obvious early standout is "Compulsion," which features the best use of a disco bassline by a rock band since...Blondie? The Stone Roses? I'm not sure, but you have to go back a ways. And that guitar solo at around the four-minute mark...outstanding. It's so good to hear these guys back on top of their game.

Compulsion - Doves

Is electroclash back?

True fact (as Stephen Colbert might say): between now and June, the world will be graced with new albums from Fischerspooner, Peaches, Felix da Housecat, Miss Kittin and the Hacker, Tiga, DJ Hell and even Larry freakin' Tee, who invented the term "electroclash" in the first place. Is it back? Does this mean we all have to start pretending again that dance songs about fucking on the dancefloor are just HIGH-larious?

Although I actually have a soft spot for some electroclash (Tiga, in particular, is kind of awesome), I have to say that I really hope not. Ironically lame dance music, which is what a lot of electroclash was, is still lame dance music. On the whole, I'd rather get down with my bad self to Kool & the Gang.

Anyway, here's my Metromix gallery of ex-electroclash artists (electroclash survivors?) who are on the comeback trail in 2009. You've been warned.

(P.S. I have to admit that Casey Spooner's headwear--basically, an industrial lighting fixture humping a straw boater--is pretty cool. I predict they'll be all the rage at Burning Man this year. Goodbye, steam punk--hello, Twain-dustrial!)

Song of the day: The Little Ones, "Tangerine Visions"

Los Angeles has been developing a reputation lately for bands that produce either crazy post-punk noise (No Age, Abe Vigoda) or '90s-aping alt-rock (Silversun Pickups, Giant Drag). Not that there's anything wrong with that. But it's a fantastic town for smart, hooky indie-pop, too. There's no scene per se, just a bunch of bands like the Submarines, the 88 and the Bird and the Bee who seem happily oblivious to our city's reputation for rejecting anything that doesn't reek of hipster cool.

Add to that list one of my new favorite bands of the past couple of years, the Little Ones. One listen to their music and it's pretty clear that their record-geek publicity photo isn't some ironic pose; these are just guys who deeply and unabashedly love pop music, whether it's Billy Joel or the "Top Gun" soundtrack (if you squint real hard, you'll see those albums in the publicity photo--along with Bruce Willis' debut solo album, "The Return of Bruno"). And they're not afraid to break out the melodicas and toy accordions to make it, either.

(By the way, sorry this is only a 30-second clip. I'm currently seeking a better source for embeddable one-song players. Any suggestions?)

Tangerine Visions (Album Version) - The Little Ones

Q&A: Peter Bjorn and John

I was supposed to interview Peter Bjorn and John at SXSW, but things got a little too hectic for it to happen. So instead, I settled for a phoner with Peter Moren. I left out the part where we talked about their disastrous show on the first night of SXSW ("oh, you were at that show," Moren said when I brought it up--apparently, the band's own crew was late getting to Austin, which helps explain why the trio seemed so helpless in the face of their various technical difficulties), but otherwise, most of what we talked about found its way into the Q&A. Hope you enjoy.