PurrView #34 - Chillout Music

   Okay, so I'm just going to say it: music on the radio nowadays is extremely annoying and consistently leaves me unimpressed. Seemingly, a song can be utter crap with senseless lyrics to top it off; but as long as you add tacky smut, a house beat and/or auto-tune, it's a hit, right? Wrong! And aside from the badly-done electronic-music-overkill on the radio waves today, rap, hip-hop, R&B and rock have tragically continued to nosedive awkwardly over the years, resulting in weak lyrics and concepts, (not so) hidden marketing schemes, and just plain bad taste (examples in image directly below).

   My birthday was November 14th… Another wonderful year has come and gone, and it feels great to be a sexy, single, successful, ambitious, and active 28-year-old woman. Music has always been a completely essential element in my life, and since I was a child, I've had quite an open-minded, vast array of musical tastes. Through my years of experience in activities such as ballet, gymnastics, piano lessons, concert band, percussion and choir, I've been exposed to classical, jazz, gospel, Broadway, opera, and ensemble pieces. Through my training in cheer and modern dance, as well as raving and concert-going with friends, I've developed a liking for other musical genres such as rock, punk, EDM (electronic dance music), blues, folk, funk and hip-hop. But as I arrive at my 28th year of life, one thing I've noticed about my current taste in music is that I've matured a bit, in a fashion that I'm really loving and embracing.

 DJ Krush

 

   My current taste in music is chill and usually paced at about 90-100 BPM. This "downtempo electronic music" helps me relax and focus-- and it stimulates my mind. Thanks to Pandora's Music Genome Project, You Tube, Facebook, word-of-mouth and my own research in music, I've found myself drawn to a more soulful, more refined, more mature taste and feel-- atmospheric, instrumental and experimental with scarce vocals and hip-hop roots. Musicians like Portishead, Zero 7, J Boogie, RJD2 and Stephane Pompougnac are the soundtrack to much of my day as of late. I like to think of it all as my generation's dark and satisfying easy listening. With elements of bossa nova, trip-hop, ambient music, jazzy vocals, deep synthetic touches and soft bass,  it is best described by writer Dean Carlson (Pandora.com) as "the welcome niche of a pretension-free, post-party intellectual chillout," as he spoke of one of my favorite musicians, Bonobo.

  If you're ready for some "pretension-free chill out" music, test out some of the below acts. I have a feeling you'll find them to be soothing and sweet to the soul…

~Meow~

Pennies

Nightmares on Wax

  Pretty Lights

  Massive Attack

  Gramatik

PurrView #33 - Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"

   Black Keys fans, like myself, anxiously awaiting the release of the duo's follow up to 2010 LP Brothers, can satisfy their Black Keys craving in the meantime by checking out "Lonely Boy"-- first release from the upcoming album.

   El Camino-- due out December 6th-- is an album that was dreamt-up, written, compiled, recorded, and edited purely within the walls of Eye Sound Studio, Nashville. Under the direction of well-known producer Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, The Gray Album, Rome w/ Jack White and Norah Jones…), Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney (pictured above) have pumped out a soul-enriched album that is described by Auerbach as "strong melodically, and it's short and to the point" (Scaggs, p. 28). The Black Keys continue to present to us their timeless rock and roll sound which has only strengthened and evolved since the group relocated from their native Akron, OH to music mecca, Nashville, TN.

   "Lonely Boy" is a single that I just can’t put down right now. With lyrics like, "Oh, Oh-oh. I got a love that keeps me waiting," The Black Keys once again, successfully deliver and have truly embraced blues-rock in the first single from El Camino.  Though the song paints a picture of a heart-broken, lonely individual who's jaded by his love that leaves him waiting in vain-- the beat has me singing along and clapping to the all-too-familiar scenario presented in the song.   It's a song that makes you want to gyrate and twist the heartache out of your system, just like the star of the video-- actor/musician/security guard, Derrick Tuggle. In the video, D-Tug (as Auerbach and others refer to him) sampled bits from well known numbers and later explained, "I took some moves from everybody: John Travolta from 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Pulp Fiction,' the Carlton Banks dance from 'The Fresh Prince' and a little bit of Michael Jackson, so it was a smorgasbord of everybody in there" (Montgomery, mtv.com).

   The tambourine and organ-accents appropriately compliment and polish the song's essence and hints at that decades-old rock and roll sound.  Overall, "Lonely Boy" is a song/video package that boasts perfection in simplicity.

~Meow~
Pennies 

References

  Montgomery, J. (2011, October 27). Black Keys 'Lonely Boy' Video: Meet the Dancing Machine. Mtv.com. Retrieved November 12, 2011 from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673294/black-keys-lonely-boy-derrick-tuggle.jhtml

  Scaggs, A. (2011, November 24). Q&A: Dan Auerbach. Rolling Stone, Issue 1144, 28.

  

PurrView #32 - Deer Tick - Beauty Bar Las Vegas

Providence, Rhode Island's Deer Tick made a stop in Old Downtown for a show at Beauty Bar Las Vegas October 29, 2011. Their fourth studio album-- Divine Providence-- hit shelves on October 25. 

Check out my write-up on the show for Las Vegas Weekly!

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2011/nov/01/dressing-occasion-deer-tick-downtown/ 

Good times in the backyard at Beauty Bar Las Vegas

John McCauley

Dennis Ryan

StuntPogoNick's Animation set to Deer Tick's "These Old Shoes" (My favorite Deer Tick song)

~Meow~

Pennies