Illinois is a band from Pennsylvania... go figure

I should have posted about Illinois sooner, but I might not have even been blogging when I first started listening to them. Their latest album, Lemonade Stand, is good, but not as good as their earlier albums. This lack of polish might be because it's culled from demos in their catalog rather than brand new material. The tracks I like on Lemonade Stand are: Shoot the Moon, Ecco Bella, Metropolis, Mountain, and Posture.

Illinois is a bit folky, a bit discordant, a bit stompy, a bit country, a bit electronic, but almost always catchy and melodic. They remind me most of Folk Implosion or any other Lou Barlow stuff, but also bring to mind Beck's folkier work.

It's pretty difficult to find their music online, but this is probably one of their best tracks. You can also get a few free tracks from the band's website below.



http://www.illinoistheband.com/

Bag Raiders Video Shows Some Hot Monkey Love

I'm rededicating myself to posting more often. I've got three months of stuff to post about, so I'll try to make it short and sweet in the interest of getting more stuff up here more often. I know it will somewhat be ignored, but once in a while someone stumbles on the blog and they like it.

Bag Raiders are fun and have two songs I like a lot. They're Passion Pit-esque. Full of synths and a good dance beat with high pitched man vocals. The video for Sunlight features a chimp gone bad, which is always a bonus.



I also like Not Over. This video features a time traveling caveman.

Maximum Balloon Provides Maximum Awesomeness

Dave Sitek is a guitarist and producer originally from New York, now based in Beverly Hills. He's probably best known as a member of TV On The Radio. but in my opinion, his first solo album under the name Maximum Balloon is his best work so far. To me, it's much more accessible and fun than TVOTR, but you know, that's just me.

Each song is a collaboration with similarly minded artists such as Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, David Byrne, and two other members of TVOTR, Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe. Pretty much almost all of the collaborators seem to have some connection to Sitek's previous work producing or playing.

My favorites are Apartment Wrestling with David Byrne, Groove Me featuring Theophilus London, and Tiger featuring Aku Orraca-Tetteh, but the whole album is pretty solid. My favorite part of the Groove Me video is the fact that London is wearing a Smith College hat the entire time. I wonder if he went there?

Gram Rabbit - Party in the Desert

Gram Rabbit - They rock. They dance. They glam. They electro. They clash. They country. They sexy. They have a thing for bunnies and cults. They from Joshua Tree in the deserts of California, and there's something weird and beautiful about them. Their sound is luscious and somehow manages to be fun and sinister at the same time.

I would say they remind me most of Madonna, Lady Gaga, and the Ting-Tings, but way more strange than any of those. In that sense, they're more like Electric Six. Their latest album, Miracles and Metaphors, continues their awesomeness. Here's my favorite track on that album, Candy Flip, and below are some other great tracks from their catalog.



The Rest of Us Sleep and In My Book off of RadioAngel & the RobotBeat


Bloody Bunnies off of Cultivation


Cowboy-Up off of Music to Start a Cult To


Her Secret Power off of The Desert Sound EP - Listen to it here.

Restless Blogger

Restless People is a band from Brooklyn (where else) that has a fun, tropical, electronic sound. They sound like a cross between Passion Pit, Vampire Weekend, and Yeasayer. If you like those groups, you'll probably think these guys are the bee's knees also.

Check out the single, Days of Our Lives, and you'll know what I mean.




Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that there's a lot of folks saying Restless People pretty much ripped off this song, Two Months Off, from a much more established British band called Underworld. They are pretty similar, but I would say the Restless People song is more interesting. And the other songs on their new album are strong and (hopefully) not ripped off.

Hudson Mohawke - Spacey DJ Guy

These two tracks by DJ Hudson Mohawke are happy, bouncy, high pitched anthems of electronic mayhem.

Enjoy if you like RJD2, Prefuse 73, Emerson Lake and Palmer, or Yes.

Fuse


Rising 5

Amanda Blank - Baltimore's answer to M.I.A.

Amanda Blank is on a bandwagon, but she's on a pretty good bandwagon. Blank follows in the steps of M.I.A. and Santigold as a female singer/rapper with an eclectic, electronic sound. In light of some of the explicit nature of her lyrics and her riot grrrrrl delivery, she also owes a huge debt to Peaches. That being said, she reminds me most of the great female hip-hop trio from the late 90s, Luscious Jackson (whom you should of course check out if you're unfamiliar with them).

My three favorite tracks are Make It Take It, Something Bigger, Something Better, and Shame On Me.

I Love You - Amanda Blank