Yeah yeah, you’re thinking, the Von Bondies, something about Detroit rock ‘n’ roll, the lead singer got in a fight with that White Stripes dude, their big song a few years back “C’mon C’mon” was in some American car commercial (Detroit, right?), give me something new, 3hive. We here at 3hive have often shared some guilty pleasures with you over the years, and the Von Bondies do that for me. There’s just something about their simple, hook-filled rock with the anthem-like lyrics you can shout along to that gets me going.
The Submarines
You’ve heard the Submarines by now. They’re getting a lot of buzz nowadays, but even if you haven’t, just think of the commercial for a certain fancy cell phone that everyone seems to have these days. See, you have heard them.
Our motto here at 3hive is “Sharing the Sharing,” where we share free and legal MP3’s. And there are so many times when we want to share an awesome band, but they don’t have any free MP3’s on offer. I’ve been wanting to share an old fave of mine since the start of 3hive, Jackdrag aka Jack Dragonetti, for ages. “Aviating” is one of those songs I just keep coming back to over the years. But no MP3’s to share. Then he formed the Submarines with Blake Hazard, moving on from his eccentric folk-pop to more electric, pure pop. Their song “Peace & Hate” from their Declare a New State LP is one of my faves from 2006. But no MP3’s to share. However, the day of sharing has finally come. For their current tour with the Morning Benders, this now husband-and-wife duo has released a free single covering the Benders’ song “Waiting for a War.” Patience pays, eventually.
The Soft Pack
After seeing the Ettes last Thursday night (awesome show!), I had a host of events, and my own laziness, prevent me from catching the Raveonettes and the Soft Pack Friday night. Formerly known as the Muslims, the Soft Pack has a wonderful cover of Spiritualized’s “Walking With Jesus,” one of my top songs of all time. Their song “Parasite” is my current favorite song; the throbbing bass makes me wanna move, and the steady pounding drums and vocals are heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground. The singer of this San Diego outfit sounds like a young, modern Lou Reed influenced by all the great bands (too long to list here) who were influenced by the VU.
Travels
Mona and Anar were destined to make this music together. That’s the only explanation of how they can (seemingly) effortlessly create such beautiful, personal, intimate, and delicate music. Their second LP The Hot Summer is out now, again self-released; why there aren’t labels lining up to get their John Hancocks on the dotted line is beyond me.
Original Post Sept 17, 2007:
Travels is the duo of Mona Elliott of the band Victory at Sea and Anar Badalov of Metal Hearts. The two met and fell in love while their bands toured together, and Mona has recently battled breast cancer. So they have quite a lot of emotion to put into their deliberate and simple music, which is full of a sense of togetherness and enjoyment that could only come from their combination.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Slumberland is putting out some great pop these days from New York bands. Recent releases from Crystal Stilts and Cause Co-Motion! will be followed up this month with the self-titled debut from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. POBPAH continue the Slumberland tradition of fine noise-pop, in the mode of Velocity Girl, the Ropers, Black Tambourine, with boy/girl harmonies, choice bits of fuzz and jangle, and crisp drums, all wrapped together by clever songwriting. Said debut album will be out February 10th, in the middle of their East Coast tour.
Quintron
It’s time once again, for a number of reasons, for Mr. Quintron to appear on our fair pages four years to the day since he first featured. The biggest reason being his new album that came out two months ago on Goner Records, Too Thirsty 4 Love. Recorded on 2 track, it’s Quintron playing his custom Hammond/Rhodes combo organ with working headlights and utilizing his Drum Buddy creation, in his native New Orleans with his partner in crime and puppet shows, Miss Pussycat. The other reason: I needed something to help me get over some High School Musical-inspired, Disney Channel-ish, over-produced, over-scripted, pre-teen/teen flamboyance. Let’s just say Mr. Quintron came through for me.
Original Post: Jan 5, 2005:
This one is for Sean. Over the years, Sean and I have recommended bands to each other, with limited success. It all started back in 1993 when I went into the music store where Sean worked and told him I was bored with everything in my music collection. He handed me a Green Day CD which I traded in shortly thereafter, despite the rocking cover of the Who’s “My Generation.” Sean, a la Ronald Reagan, says he “cannot recall” handing me Green Day, but I assure you it happened. Another notable moment was in 2000, when he and I (and Sam) were in San Francisco at Ameoba. I recommended Jessamine to Sean; he bought a CD, and probably traded it in shortly thereafter. But it all finally came together, thanks to 3hive, when Sean posted Louis XIV. I just love “God Killed the Queen.” Success! I then hipped him to an early ’90s British band, Five Thirty, whose mod, power pop, blues, fuzzed-out wah stills gets my feet shakin’. Another success! So after our little fun with The Herms yesterday, I wanted to post Mr. Quintron for Sean. Mr. Quintron is a one-man band and organist extraordinaire, who has also invented the Drum Buddy (see below). It is to my great shame that this New Year’s Eve I missed Mr. Quintron playing “Grandfather Time” at the stroke of midnight at the Hi-Tone in Memphis, just 12 minutes from my house.
Times New Viking
Times New Viking sure make a whole lotta racket for only three people. The fuzz, the pounding, the screeching organ; it’s like The Velvets on speed, the Velvets how they sounded in the earphones of the young, impressionable future members of Times New Viking.
Pallers
Just the other day, my buddy Roland from my freshman year of college said on Facebook that “Love Like Blood” by Killing Joke was the best song ever. While I think “The Fall of Because” is Killing Joke’s best song (let’s not even get started on the topic of “Best Song Ever”), it did cause me to pull out some old records of other electronic tinged artists of that era that Roland introduced me to, namely Click Click’s Rorschach Testing and Clan of Xymox’s self-titled LP. The Labrador Records site describes Pallers as “the darkest and finest electronic music we’ve heard in a long time.” That’s the perfect description of Pallers, who take the dark electronics of the previously named bands, yet add vocals with an amazing Swedish pop sensibility a la fellow Swedes The Radio Dept, making what was old new again.
Love is All
A Hundred Things Keep Me Going Back to Love Is All (in no particular order):
1. Their pep.
2. Their perk.
3. Their punk.
4. They tour the U.S.
5. Their gravity.
6. Their levity.
7. The way they blend the two.
8. The way they leave the holes out of the O’s, A’s, and R’s in their artwork.
9. “Last Choice.”
10. “Spinning and Scratching.”
11. The ’70s look of their artwork.
12. “Movie Romance.”
13. Josephine.
14. Josephine’s artistic sensibilities.
15. They’ve covered Prince (though he made them leave it off their EP. Boo! Hiss!)
16. They’ve covered A Flock of Seagulls
17. They’ve covered Dire Straits
18. Nicholaus.
19. “19 Floors.”
20. When Josephine and Nicholaus sing at each other.
21. “It might seem strange, I don’t want to change, I don’t want to interact.”
22. “Last Choice.”
23. The guitars.
24. Their artwork leaves me wanting more.
25. They’re not afraid of repetition.
26. “Turn the TV off.”
27. Their label is called What’s Your Rupture?
28. James.
29. James’ last name.
30. Several of them used to be Girlfrendo.
31. The “found” feeling of the photographs in their artwork.
32. “Turn the Radio Off.”
33. Josephine’s wearing a band-aid on her nose in the “Wishing Well” video.
34. They like to share.
35. Their ’80s sound.
36. It’s the saxophone that really nails it.
37. Their pop.
38. “I’m not your kind and you’re not mine, but for tonight you’ll have to do just fine.”
39. They’re from Sweden.
40. Clay likes ’em.
41. Clay will like me more for sharing more Love Is All .
42. “Make Out Fall Out Make Up.”
43. Their cut and pastey logo.
44. Markus.
45. They rock their pogo pop sound like their lives depend on it.
46. “Give It Back.
47. The cowbell on “Give it Back.”
48. When Josephine and Nicholaus sing together.
49. Hot Chip remixed them.
50 “Talk Talk Talk Talk.”
51. They’ve covered The Pastels.
52. “Wishing Well.”
53. “Wishing Well’s” keyboard riff.
54. They gave Spin an MP3 of “Wishing Well.”
55. Johan.
56. “Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites.”
57. They gave Pitchfork an MP3 of “Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites.”
58. “Sea Sick.”
59. Josephine singing all whispery on “A More Uncertain Future.”
60. Adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline.
61. “I keep the one I love in the freezer.”
62. Not only do they make music together, some of them make kids together.
63. “Felt Tip.”
64. The explosive opening to “Give it Back.”
65. They’ve covered Faith No More.
66. They like polka dots.
67. They sound like Siouxsie & The Banshees sped up to Altered Images’ pace.
68. Red, white, black, and blue.
69. Their primary colored seagull t-shirt.
70. Seven seven inch singles.
71. “When Giants Fall.”
72. Their similar saxophone swagger of Romeo Void.
73. “Ageing Had Never Been His Friend.”
74. Sometimes they sound like they’re going to fall apart.
75. They never fall apart.
76. “A More Uncertain Future.”
77. Josephine and Markus didn’t laugh when an interviewer asked them what “indie” means to them.
78. When Josephine wears b/w stripped shirts that match her keyboard.
79. I like this second album more than their first.
80. I can’t wait to hear their next album.
81. “New Beginnings.”
82. They’re not too distracted to ponder infinity.
83. They hand printed their own re-usable grocery tote bags.
84. “Rumors.”
85. They’re not too jaded to throw money into wishing wells.
86. Black, white, and pink.
87. “Used Goods.”
88. Woodie.
89. Wyatt.
90. The technicolor video for “Ageing Had Never Been His Friend.”
91. They’re just plain fun dammit!
92. Love is All can cleanse your soul of Leo Buscaglia.
93. Their MP3s we linked to two years ago still work.
94. “Trying too Hard.”
95. “Busy Doing Nothing.”
96. l.i.a.
97. Fredrik.
98. The Bees remixed ’em.
99. They’re the perfect soundtrack to a bounce-house party.
100. Coming up with this list.
The Sweet Serenades
I’ve got too many playlists of Swedish bands. The first was simply named “Swedes,” then came “More Swedes” and “Even More Swedes,” all including Swedish bands that can find by a little searching our 3hive archives from recent years. Now I’ve got to start another one to include the Sweet Serenades. Martin and Mathias, after many years of friendship, finally decided to start making making music together in Stockholm. The result: a sound that runs the gamut from 50’s pop to 80’s arena rock to today’s hipster indie rock, all in one song, like their new single “Mona Lee.”