Music Monday

July 20, 2009

Afrobeat featuring Ezra Koenig to help fuel our summer escapades? Yes, please. The not-so-modestly-titled collaboration between Malawi’s Esau Mwamwaya and London’s DJ/producer duo, Radioclit—The Very Best—tapped the Vampire Weekend frontman for this awesomely smooth hit. Summer weather finally here – check. Can’t stop listening to it summer track – check. Kick-ass Lion-King-looking cover art – check. Enjoy!

josh-homme-iggy-pop-press-crop-andreas-neumann

Iggy Pop + Josh Homme

Infinitely Mirrored Room

Dream of Better Days

The Find

July 14, 2009

This past May was Bike Month in NYC. Unfortunately for all of us (and the poor, neglected bikes), no one told that to the weather. So it was more ‘Take the Subway and Just Be Happy It’s Not Snowing Because, Really, It’s Almost That Cold and Wet’ Month. So I’m calling a redo. That’s right, since May and June turned out to be such depressing wash outs, let’s use the rest of July—the rest of the summer, really—to celebrate all things bike. First, let’s start with:

The Wheels

Already set on this front? Great. If not, and you happen to be in the NYC, I highly recommend checking out Recycle-A-Bicycle, a non-profit that runs bike mechanic courses in three NYC Public Schools and allows students from around the city to intern at their storefront. There, kids and adults take old, naer do well bikes that have been donated to the organization and fix them up better than new. Not only is a great cause, they’ve also got some kickin’ bikes. That’s right. Kickin’.

Case in point: My bike, the St. Tropez (that handsome guy up there). From what I can tell online, it’s either a bottom-of-the-barrel crap bike from Long Island or an awesome Japanese racing frame. I’m going with the latter, obviously. Especially since it’s got ‘Made in Japan’ on it (who can fake that?). But the point is, regardless of whether it started off little better than a hopeless trike or it’s a long-lost 80’s samurai bike, it rules now and seems to ride in tip-top shape. So, when you get a chance, check out one of R-A-B’s two shops in DUMBO and the East Village. Failing that, embattled craigslist is always a great place for used bikes. Or, if you’re jonesin’ for a shiny new bike, just stroll on down to your local bike shop. Oh, though it seems fixed gear bikes are officially uncool: Urban Outfitters has started selling customized fixed gears on their site. And the bike nerds are huffin’. Though it is sort of fun to hit the random button and see the crazy color combos. Who wants to pedal that much though? Next:

The Helmet

Alright, I’m the first to admit that I would totally prefer to be biking around all Cary Grant-style, with only a fashionable fedora and a brightly-colored ascot to protect me. Like this guy. But, the truth is, I live in New York, where people barely care about or notice other drivers, much less dudes and ladies on bikes. So, yeah, I don’t want to get my head bonked, man. The problem? Most of those helmets are LAME. But there are a few companies out there that are producing some not-so-lame, almost-cool, better-than-a-head-injury numbers. My favorite: Bern Unlimited, a Massachusetts company that specializes in skate, BMX, and generally cool, angular headgear. The problem with them, though, is that their sizes run weirdly small. So even an extra-large wouldn’t quite fit my head (huge brain) and I looked kind of like a carton stick figure when I did finally get it on. So my back-up was the Faction by mainstay Bell Helmets. Not quite as hip, but it also doesn’t look like brightly-colored Predator/Alien/Transformer head. And, though they don’t have any retailers state-side that I know of, Danish company Yakkay is making a very valiant effort to pretty up your brainware by crafting smallish, sleek helmets and accompanying hat-like covers. I’ve never seen them first-hand, so my only worry is that they would make even normal people’s heads look enormous with all that protective and decorative material up there. In the photos they actually look a little equestrian. Cool? Not cool? Only the Danes can tell for sure.

The Route

So, New York—and likely every other major city in America—is trying their best to be more ‘green.’ As annoying as the greenwashing of our consumer culture can be (add green dye to any cleaning product and voila!), it seems the bandwagon jumping is, for the most part, a good thing. One effort Bloomberg and his administration are making to cut down on CO2 emissions in the city is to encourage bike-riding by creating more bike lanes in all five boroughs, with the ultimate goal of creating 1,800 miles of lanes by 2028. Now, that’s a whole lot of dedicated bike lane-age, but, as anyone who uses bike lanes on already busy roads knows, sometimes knowing the less congested, safer routes is even more valuable than having specific lanes for your pedaling. I mean, which would you choose? Tiny bike lane where car service drivers are constantly double-parking and suddenly opening their doors or a tooling down a lovely, tree-lined street where little bluebirds follow you around tying ribbons in your hair as you go? Totally the bird accessories route, right? Which is why we were thrilled when our friend Vaidila Kungys and his pals started up Ride the City, a Web site dedicated to providing bike routes to anywhere in the city. The site allows you to prioritize your route by pretty safe, really safe, or most direct and, though it first focused on New York City, later expanded to cover Chicago as well. And just this month, the site expanded once again to cover one of our favorite cities, Austin, Texas. Though there doesn’t seem to be any way to specify routes featuring fashion-forward avians, we’re assuming that’s on its way.

The Look

Biking has had some link to fashion since its very inception. Remember bloomers? Knickerbockers? Their use in the 1900’s helped liberate women’s fashion all so they could ride around the city skirt-free (hot). Nowadays fashion-infused biking seems more prominent than ever, treating bike routes in trendy neighborhoods like sped up open-air runways. Don’t believe me? Check out the last fall’s New York Times Field Guide to the NYC Bicyclist. That dude with the dog basket: Awesome. Or how about chictopia.com, who’s paired with TopShop‘s bicycle club to give away special TopShop bikes to bikers who post their chicest looks. And, again, the Danes, with all their bike fashion, have a Copenhagen Cycle Chich blog. Those Danes…. Fashion voyeur, the Sartorialist (aka – Scott Schuman) even has a bike-specific section of his blog. So, yeah, seems like your bike sweats aren’t gonna cut it anymore.

Friends, we’ve been robbed of much nice weather this spring and summer, but no more! We will not fall victim to these days of slow-moving malaise ANY MORE! Hear me, weather.com!? No more! So get your bike on, yo.

Journal

Start to Finish

The Song

Music Monday

July 13, 2009

I feel like the best covers totally reinvent the song their paying tribute to, leaving you with absolutely no desire to hear the original. This week’s Song of the Week doesn’t quite do that (I’m totally looking for the Bruce Springsteen mix our friends Dave and Deirdre made us now), but there’s something spectacularly beautiful and emotionally naked about Beerjacket‘s cover of the Boss’s Dancing in the Dark. Yes, unfortunate name for this one-man Scottish acoustic folksman, but his new album, Animosity, is well-worth the listen. Very Elliot Smith, with a little Scottish flair. So much good music out of Glasgow lately…

Earth Day

The Find

Got Milk?

Music Monday

July 6, 2009

Happy July, everyone. We here at KoR hope you are all on the mend after what was surely a celebratory, intensely patriotic weekend.

This Music Monday we bring you the Photons‘ Where Were You Last Night. This eight-piece, San Francisco-based chamber pop band makes music that sounds like party, so they seem a fitting choice for this week.

Plus they seem to have started quite an awesome blog, The Song Club, that presents readers with weekly themed song-writing challenges. We liked the challenge from a few weeks back: “Write a song about your favorite mythical beast. Do it in a really fast tempo.” The resulting, Death by Dragon, written by Casey Saran rules a lot. Def check it out.

Music Monday

My Old Mousepad

Akashi

From the Nest

July 1, 2009

Sweet + Sara Marshmallows

It’s tough being vegan in this world sometimes. Sure, there are the parades in your honor all the time, and all those ‘Thanks for Not Eating Me’ cards you get from the farm animals, but, in all honesty, we’re missing out on a lot of pretty awesome tasting foods out there.

True, when you learn the details of what goes into the production of things like cheese or eggs or what have you, and the suffering that’s brought upon the animals involved in making these things for us, and then you take into account that, no, we really don’t live in a rural, small-town world when it comes to supply and demand anymore and industrialized food production is solely responsible for not only billions of animals in pain and life-long confinement, but also ravages upon the environment and human health, when you pay attention to all of that, it’s 100% worth it. Why would you want to be a part of that system?

But man, cheese? That stuff was good. I feel like it almost always tops the ‘Here are the Things I Miss’ list for vegans. Which is why it surprised me a while back when a friend of mine was pining over the long-lost taste of marshmallows. I mean, marshmallows were fine and all, but they were no 10 year aged sharp cheddar. I don’t think I really gave them much of a thought after going vegan. Then again, I don’t really camp, so…

For anyone who doesn’t know, traditionally, marshmallows are made with fun stuff like the hooves and bones and skin of animals. More specifically, the gelatin in marshmallows is made with the hooves and bones and skin of animals. It gives them that, I don’t know, marshmallowy feel. Gross, right? So imagine my friend’s joy a little while back when onto the market sprang Sweet & Sara’s vegan marshmallows. Rumor had it that, not only were they cruelty-free, they were also pretty damn good. Long-time vegan Sara Sohn started the company in Queens after spending over a year in the kitchen trying to mad scientist these things up and get them just right. Turns out, all the work was worth it: the texture is superb—just enough give and not too gooey—and they actually taste better than your run-of-the-mill, buy ’em in a bag marshmallows. More along the lines of a gourmet marshmallow, which I recently realized does actually exist. Seems odd…like a gourmet Cheez-It. Oh, and the big question: How do they melt? The answer: Superbly. And not in a ‘Hey, that vegan cheese melts…um…sort of alright…for vegan cheese’ kind of way. In an actual, this is the way marshmallows melt way, be it over a camp fire (so I’m told) or in a microwave at 3AM between two ginger snaps with a piece of dark chocolate (Katie’s genius).

Why’m I (is that a legit contraction?) talking about these things now if they’ve been around for over a year? Because, ever the perfectionist confectionist, Sara’s now graced us with three new marshmallow products. In addition to her straight-up marshmallows and her AMAZING pre-packaged s’mores (circle of marshmallow on thick graham cracker covered in really nice dark chocolate), she can now boast three new superb sweets: Rocky Road Bark, with almonds and marshmallows in dark chocolate; Strawberry Marshmallows, for those of you jonesing for that strawberry Quick flavor of yore; and, best yet, Cinnamon Pecan Marshmallows (pictured above, before we devoured them all). The CP marshmallows boast a lovely balance of sweet and nutty flavor. Totally our favorites of the new bunch.

So if you’ve been robbing yourself of the wonderfulness that is marshmallow bliss so all those poor animals could hold onto their hooves and bones and skin, on their behalf, we thank you. But rob yourself no longer! Pick some of these sweet treats up. Totally worth it. And now that Whole Foods markets have started carrying Sweet and Sara nation-wide, they’re easier to find than ever. And seriously, try the microwave-gingersnap thing. Best.

November Mixtape

Woodcat

From the Nest

Reviewsday

June 30, 2009

It seems, in the last few years, that London’s cornered the newly-created market of soulful white singers—Amy Winehouse, Adele, Joss Stone, likely a hundred others I don’t know of. Don’t get me wrong. Most of those artists and the music they produce I adore. I mean, who doesn’t love Adele? Total d-bags, that’s who. Anyway, my point is that, even though I think most of the music in this vein is good to great, it obviously harkens back to an older form of music, namely 60’s and 70’s soul. Much of the music from the new soul invasion tries to freshen things up a bit, adding a spin to the sound—Winehouse has to go to rehab, Adele shows that she ain’t gonna stand shit, shows that she’s united, etc.—but it’s all drawing from this same pool of creativity that’s roughly 30 to 40 years old at this point. Which, again, is fine. Sometimes that’s exactly what we want to hear. But, let’s face it, it’s not wholly original. It’s a throwback to a time long-gone. Which brings me to what I like about Florence and the Machine

The recording name for Florence Welch and whomever happens to be backing her, Florence and the Machine—oft referred to as FloMac, for better or for worse—takes a different approach to making great music. Welch’s voice is spectacular in the same way that Winehouse’s and Adele’s voices are spectacular. You’ve got the range, the growling, soulful vocalization, all the good stuff that usually lands a singer smack dab in the middle of a soul revival group of some sort. But with FloMac (sorry, it’s shorter, easier to type), they’ve stitched together this new, contemporary outfit for what some would call an old, sometimes more formal voice. They’ve avoided the easy math: Soulful Female Vox + R&B Band + PR Package = Awesome Sales. Welch has the voice for that equation, and I can only assume London—where she studied and took to stage—is lousy with soul bands right now. But Florence and those who helped her carve out a place in the music world chose a different route, either because it made sense on a fundamental, song-writing level or maybe just because they didn’t want to be lumped in with what has to be a dying genre at this point. Regardless, the result is great.

On her debut EP, A Lot of Love. A Lot of Blood., Welch and company have sculpted some pleasing, largely original soundscapes to showcase her beautiful voice. The best efforts on the four-song + one remix album—Dogs Days are Over and You’ve Got the Love—are pieces held together at first by light, sparkly strings (mandolin and harp, respectively). They both then progress at their own pace, bringing in strong, danceable drums, and throwing in a healthy dose of musical breaks lest we forget how awesome Ms. Flo’s voice be. The EP also gives us a great cover of the Cold War Kids’ Hospital Beds, which does get a bit of a more traditional treatment with Welch goin’ all gospel on us, again employing a slow build, then adding minimalist acoustic guitar, single tom hits, and then, finally, full on choral attack, complete with tambourine. Her other more popular single, Kiss with a Fist, is the only place I can hear the oft-written about similarity to the White Stripes. Whereas I was never a huge fan of the Stripes, I am actually endeared to Fist, I think because it again avoids an overly-retro musical treatment and sidesteps a straight-up blues progression, making a bit more stripped down punk than blues, which is always a plus in my book.

Overall, Love/Blood is a superb EP and a great debut. In addition to the likable, nicely-arranged songs, with both her lyrics and PR imagery, Welch paints a compellingly weird, macabre, art school view of herself and the world, again amping up the contemporary and avoiding the throwback. And I’ll take arty darkness over rehab, as far as subject matter goes. So I can safely be counted among the throngs of others excitedly awaiting the full-length, Lungs, that should hit shelves/interwebs next month. In the meantime, enjoy these two tracks from the EP—posted with the kind permission of I AM SOUND RECORDS— and go get a copy of the whole thing yourself.

Dog Days are Over

You’ve Got the Love

The Find

The Jealous Sound

PF Candle Company

Music Monday

June 29, 2009

Esser

The electronic music world is constantly battling itself—struggling with the yin and yang of the genre and striving for a tasteful balance between the sound of sterile math and more natural organic structure. Which is why it’s all the more refreshing to have newcomer Ben Esser making waves of late. Recording simply under Esser, the 23-year-old Brit brings an accent-soaked not quite so harsh as punk feel to modern electronic pop that sounds very nice and has the music world abuzz. His new album, Braveface, has highly anticipated state-side and he just finished a well-received show here in New York. We’re a tad more partial to his release from last year, I Love You, but this week’s Song of the Week and his current release, Headlock, is really great too. Check it out in the sidebar there.

And, on a side note, apologies, as always, for the lax posting. We promise copious content this week, friends.

The Great American Eclipse

Cate Le Bon

Arata

Music Monday

June 22, 2009

Alexi Murdoch + Away We Go
This week’s Song of the Week comes from smooth-voiced, musical maestro Alexi Murdoch. Murdoch hails from Scotland and, despite evidently being quite the recluse, just finished a US tour in anticipation of his soundtrack to the new Sam Mendes movie, Away We Go, and his forthcoming new full-length. With his husky whisper and beautiful acoustic finger plucking, the first comparison he draws is that of Nick Drake. But the saddest thing for me about Nick Drake’s amazing music was finding out that had long since been dead the first time I heard it. So here’s wishing Murdoch a long, happy, productive life.

And for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, seriously go see Away We Go, with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Such a beautiful, great movie. We decided a while back that we don’t generally see enough movies to start rating them, but, if we did, this would get our highest marks.

Drive to LA

January Mixtape

Damn Right

This is Not My Beautiful Post

June 15, 2009

We’ve got a new edition of Whistle While You Work up over at The Discerning Brute, where we strangely compare vegan recipes to awesome bands. Mmmmm. Rock. This time, Heaven + Hell Tacos vs. Death, the long lost 70’s protopunk band from Detroit.

Vegan Malai Kofta

Soy Chorizo Tacos from Oaxaca

Phantogram

Music Monday

June 15, 2009

This week’s Song of the Week is brought to you by Parisian, Dan Black, whose album is out next month. We’re a fan of the ‘Hey, Americans Can’t Quite Get Away with Sounding This Pretentiously Awesome’ sound and, current faves, Passion Pit, have given this single of his some quirky edging that works. We’re an even bigger fan of the original, which we highly recommend getting. It’s got the nice vocal hooks minus some of the dancehall sound. Holla.

Music Monday

Iggy Pop + Josh Homme

Infinitely Mirrored Room

Dream of Better Days

The Find

Journal

Start to Finish

The Song

Music Monday

Earth Day

The Find

Got Milk?

Music Monday

Music Monday

My Old Mousepad

Akashi

From the Nest

November Mixtape

Woodcat

From the Nest

Reviewsday

The Find

The Jealous Sound

PF Candle Company

Music Monday

The Great American Eclipse

Cate Le Bon

Arata

Music Monday

Drive to LA

January Mixtape

Damn Right

This is Not My Beautiful Post

Vegan Malai Kofta

Soy Chorizo Tacos from Oaxaca

Phantogram

Music Monday

Photo Archive

We Are The City

Music Monday