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How To Dress Well. From Brooklyn.

Gayngs performing my #1 song of the year. Amazing. Can’t wait to see them play in Toronto this fall.

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Kendal Johansson – Blue Moon

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Kendal Johansson, new artist on Sincerely Yours, covering Big Star. Soft anthem. One of the year’s best songs.

Not that I didn’t already love Katie Stelmanis, but this nicely shot Mitch Fillion video of her performance the other week suggests she’s moving in a slightly more pop direction, even bringing some disco into the mix, and that her band sounds great. These songs and new recording “The Villain” on her myspace indicate that her album coming out later this year is going to be a force. Just listen to the first song in this video. I’m very stoked.

Also, Ariel Pink has released a cool video for “Bright Lit Blue Skies”. Apparently the song is a Rockin’ Ramrods cover, didn’t know that! First saw it on Gorilla vs. Bear.

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I posted a stream of Ariel’s excellent new record Before Today last week. It’s been officially released today! You can buy it here.

Idiot Glee – All Packed Up

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Idiot Glee – I Want The Night To Stay

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So I’ve never met James Friley, but his band Bedtime went on a tour with The Ghost Is Dancing a couple of years ago. He’s got a solo project now too, called Idiot Glee. He got in touch with me and we swapped songs, and I really like his sound. I guess I’d call it psychedelic doo-wop? It’s definitely has an affinity with the a cappella bits in Animal Collective, Noah’s songs like “Derek” or “Ponytail,” especially when he’s playing around with sampler effects. But he’s drawing heavily from classic doo-wop too. The result is a really original sound, one that excites me. I look forward to what he’ll do next…and I hope to hear more bands make music like this in the future.

Idiot Glee – Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers cover)

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I also particularly like the rhythmic back-up vocals in his cover of Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine,” they have a very electronic feel somehow, and they sound like something I’d like to try myself. Idiot Glee has released one self-titled EP, and you can stream it for free and download it for a mere $2 at his Bandcamp page, which means he gets 100% of the money, instead of iTunes getting a 30% cut for doing basically nothing. (I use Bandcamp too, and don’t understand why more bands don’t. I’m sure that given the choice with buying an album on iTunes for $10 and the artist getting $7, or buying it direct and giving the artist all $10, every fan would choose to buy direct. iTunes could be sitting on a pretty shaky business model if Bandcamp ever takes off in a huge way.) Idiot Glee is also going on tour in May, touring the mid-West and Northeastern US, as well as shows in Montreal and Toronto. Check his myspace for the dates.

MGMT – Brian Eno

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Google says that “idiot glee” was a phrase used by Brian Eno in an a lecture called “Into the Abyss.” Google also led to me to a really fascinating 1979 lecture Eno gave entitled “The Studio as Compositional Tool.” Really interesting meditation and historical analysis of the changes in studio technology and how they’ve affected composition. We’re always one step behind him, he’s Brian Eno.

Little Dragon – Feather

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Little Dragon – My Step

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I’ve been meaning to post about Little Dragon‘s Machine Dreams for some time. It was one of my favourite albums of 2009, but unlike a lot of records from last year I continue to listen to it a ton. They’re an electronic foursome from Gothenburg, Sweden, and Machine Dreams is their second record. It’s a stylistic shift from their first album, which had a lot more R&B and trip-hop influences in it. This one’s electronic pop music that’s pretty eclectic, each song has its own feel, and that’s evidenced by the two songs I’ve posted above. “Feather” is a dreamy ballad with soaring vocals and lots of reverb, while “My Step” is an uptempo song, featuring and awesome throbbing bass in the choruses and minimal synth stabs in the verse. Although those two tracks are probably my favourite singles, the album is very consistent, and keeps getting better with each listen. Buy it. They also guest on two songs on the new Gorillaz record, which is also worth hearing.

I was lucky enough to catch Little Dragon live last year, and they were so effing great. Lead singer Yukumi Nagano’s voice was pitch-perfect, she had an awesome outfit and amazing moves. The band was unbelievable. I would have moments where I’d wonder, “Who is playing that amazingly complicated synth part?” and then I’d realize it was actually the bass player, using an effect I’m sure, but still crazy good musicianship. Superlative superlative superlative – enough of my gushing. They’re currently in the middle of a west coast US tour, then they’re headed to Mexico and Colombia. Then they’ve got a handful of European dates in May. Check their myspace for details. They are seriously not to be missed.

One last track for y’all. Here’s the animated video for “Swimming,” also off of Machine Dreams. Made by Yukumi’s dad! Actually, no, due to EMI’s absurd policy regarding Youtube videos, I can’t embed it here. Now I don’t even want to post a link to it. Labels gotta learn. But if you google it you will find it.