So while I’m listening to Kawaii, my better half asked (or rather accused), “Are you listening to ’80s music?” I could only reply, “No, it’s Kawaii.” Sure Kawaii may take their name too seriously — “kawaii” is Japanese for “cute” — but don’t confuse them with the other ’80s electronic imitators (good and bad) out there. The keyboards, the boy/girl vocals…it’s all tinged with the influence of Esquivel, the master pop hipster, as heard in the fluttering electronic samba of “Friends Make You Lonely.”
Red Eyed Legends
Here’s a sure-fire invitation to hatemail: My world would be just fine without the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and other New York scenesters that would do your biology homework for you if you paid them enough but couldn’t share an unironic moment if the presidency of these United States depended on it. That’s why it’s entirely illogical for me to like this faux-Brit pinball dance of a song from Red Eyed Legends as much as I do. Maybe it’s their Midwestern roots that make their post-no wave head-jerking sound so free of pretense even though they’re trying so damned hard to be pretentious. If there’s any musical lesson to be learned from the recent election it’s that we New Yorkers are way out of touch — it’s the middle of America that shapes our collective conscious, so listen up.
Limbeck
I was one of those kids who got beat up during recess at elementary school because I knew all of the state capitals by heart and told everyone what they were, in order. Limbeck are like that, too. Their pop is jangly (there’s that word again) and fresh, their subject matter is late-teens and early-twenties heartbreak/confusion, and their knowledge of geography is absolutely impeccable.
Jon Sheffield
I’m kicking myself that I’m just discovering Sheffield, who’s already four albums deep into his recording career. His is quiet, playful electronic music wrapped in small pop-size packages. Sheffield frequently samples his son, Gabriel, which gives his music a sweet, innocent texture. There’s a quality here that rings my holiday bells as well. When I hear these songs I see snow. And when I see snow, I’m inevitably carving deep tracks into the freshly fallen. Which begs the question, when’s the 3hive snowboarding excursion going down?
Postal Service
Now that our beloved Postal Service appear destined to become a Harvard Business School case study, Sub Pop is scrambling to keep up with demand. Pending some new original material, that means releasing Give Up on vinyl with a bonus (if you don’t already own the CD singles, that is) 12-inch of B-side covers, like Iron & Wine’s tender rendition of “Such Great Heights,” and remixes, wherein dance music for bookworms gets transformed into, well, dance music. Included here is an example of the latter, and a couple for the uninitiated…what few of you are left.
Kaskade
Ryan Raddon, aka Kaskade, got his start by sneaking his tracks into the stacks of demos at Om Records during his employment tenure there. Raddon, teaming up with a regular and rotating cast of collaborators, with an emphasis on live instrumentation, refuses to slump during his sophomore season. Here he offers up a couple off-menu items, a downtempo hip-hop cut and a spacey, chilled-out, four-on-the-floor track.
Bearsuit
Brits. You’ve got your serious ones, like Bush (the band, not the W), and you’ve got your silly ones, like Bearsuit. Fun, catchy, with enough crunching guitar and animal costumes to keep it going. Their shows have just got to be a grand ol’ time. “Chargr” is the new single to be released November 15th.
Busdriver
Rapping about the rap lifestyle anymore comes off as uninspired straw-grasping. But when it’s rolling off Project Blowed crewman Busdriver’s tongue it sounds more like the demon spawn of Cornel West, H.L. Mencken, and Jon Stewart — and believe me, that would be some demon friggin’ spawn. In a genre full of cultural critics, Busdriver is the guy whose intelligent sarcasm almost always exceeds his peers yet is funky enough to let the masses in on the joke. I wouldn’t want to be holding the other microphone in a rap battle with this cat, but I’d sure want to be in the studio audience.
Blanche
Like the soundtrack to an old-fashioned gothic western (is there such a thing?), Blanche songs are creepy, twangy, and very, very pretty. With sad banjo and moody vocals, these slow, ghostly country songs let the listener drift back to the days of pre-industrial America. You know, the good old days, before the electric light bulb illuminated the sneaking shape of the sly killer and cast his shadow across the barn door for the hapless victim to see.
Le Tigre
Le Tigre on Universal Records? Can it be? I mean it, can it really be? Yes, friends of 3hive, it’s true. So just to prove that Le Tigre haven’t gone soft or started hanging out with labelmate Lindsay Lohan, listen to “New Kicks” off their new album, This Island. And while you’re at it, watch the video for “Deceptacon”. My four year old loves it.