Books on Tape is actually just one Todd Drootin (should that make it Book on Tape?), current resident of Los Angeles (where I’ll be landing tomorrow, by the way). Todd was raised on punk, but was then hooked by electronic music and hip-hop as he began making music. The result: “beatpunk,” as coined by Todd himself. The energy and spirit of punk, expressed through electronics, very deliberate and focused, not as brash and concussive as say Atari Teenage Riot or Les Georges Leningrad.
Think About Life
Montreal’s Think About Life is more than that. The debut album, Think About Life, out yesterday, May 2nd, is more than that. Think About Life is a way of life. As they sing on “Paul Cries”, “Put on your shoes and your clothes, get set, get set for life, get set, get set for life.†And with the feverish backing dance beat and shrill pounding drones that cause spontaneous body convulsions/dancing, how can you not?
Les Georges Leningrad
Petrochemical Rock. That’s how Les Georges Leningrad describe their music. These crazy Montreal post-punks are concussive, explosive, and just plain loopy. Imagine Atari Teenage Riot raised as Quebequois on The Fall and performance art.
Kiss Me Deadly
Regular readers of 3hive will recall Sam mentioning on Monday that he should be tested for OCD (although I would replace “tested” with “treated”). You will also recall my many posts that taken together demonstrate my own obsessive compulsive behavior. It’s music; how could we react any other way? The focus of this week’s OCD-ness is another Montreal band on the Alien8 label, Kiss Me Deadly. Formerly emo/math rock, KMD have moved towards a dancier sound that’s still deeply EMOtional, full of earnest energy and rather dependent on the ’80s. If only KMD had been around in the ’80s, I might have actually enjoyed years of school and church dances. These songs from KMD’s tour-only EP Amoureux Cosmiques provide a glimpse into their full-length due out this fall.
The Unicorns
These Montreal hipsters do — oops, I mean, did — play a lovely brand of ’80s-tinged rock/pop/dance music. Slated as the next big thing, they instead split up. What can I say? It happens to the best of them, but that’s still no excuse to pass over these songs. Get those feet a-dancing!