But the reason you need more Kanye West is not because this is true, but, rather, because Kanye himself knows it to be true, and more importantly, because of the degree to which this troubles him. It frustrates him that the world doesn’t appreciate his genius…the fearlessness of his collaborations and the way he pushes himself into to create visual music that never loses its hip hop soul…all the while churning out hit after hit after hit…What more do we want from him?

I’m not sure that Kanye knows the answer but I think he’s drawn the battle lines and the battle for our hearts and adoration will take place on the internet. In the past 2 months, he has augmented his already outrageously cool blog with 2 additional surges – Since july, Kanye West is on twitter and Facebook and he is properly on – tweeting and posting 4-5 times a day with the hunger, originality, humour and swagger of all his previous work.

I could go on, instead, below are my favourite Kanye West Tweets thus far (spelling as per Mr. West):

7. ‘When people are in jeans…I got leather pants…shirt optional…chain heavy (this was the last in a sequence of tweets about pants)

6. Ima make a book of my tweets…tweetbook.

5. She asked me why I’m so dressed up?…I told her, “cause I’m not headed to the gym right now.”

4. No seriously…I said my teeth are real diamonds…these are not fronts…I replaced my bottom row of teeth with diamonds

3. Nigga, my screen is 13 feeeeet #DONTTALKTOME  (preceeded by: Avatar on the 13 foot screen…wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!!!!)

2.  Dating Models I had to learn how to like small dogs and cigarettes

1. 1. Hold on…I’m bout to hop on this #BABYMAMAJET the jets Billionaires give to they baby mamas or they 1rst 2nd or 3rd wife. 1.2.Hold on…let me see if I can get a pic of this small ass jet!!!

Two weeks ago, he posted his high school yearbook photo on Facebook. I could go on but I think the point is self evident. You need more Kanye West? Damn straight. Follow him.

Not that it’s been gone for long, but since he did that Au Revoir Simone remix I’ve really had my strong feelings for Jens Lekman reawoken. I admit that he sometimes gets a little too sweet and naive for me, but in general I dig the honest straight forwardness in his music too much to let the rest annoy me and after so many years of frequent plays he still works for me. His almost Kimya Dawson’ish naive lyrics always tell the cute stories of failed dates, successful dates, awkward situations (like the one with Nina from Berlin which must have been really weird!) and misinterpreting make believe as maple leaves, and sometimes music doesn’t have to be much deeper than that.

I’ll try not to get my hopes up too much, but with his most recent piece of work ‘The End of The World Is Bigger Than Love’ and previously mentioned remix it could seem like he is slowly getting warmed up to release something more substantial (maybe an actual album) in near future. That would be pretty awesome. Anyway first enjoy this new song, It’s super sweet maybe even too sweet, but when it’s Jens you either like him that way or don’t like him at all. And while you are listening you might as well read these few words that he wrote about the song. He’s a good writer.

Jens Lekman – The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love

It was the day before the american election 2008 and I was filled with a hopelessness that only a McCain supporter could have shared with me at the time. I was in Washington DC to perform for swedish TV, sitting in the couch with a profesional smile on my face, joking with the hosts and discussing the lobster with the TV chef. I saw the clips online sometime ago, it’s amazing what an actor I can be if I really make an effort.

It’s a song of hope. When love turns it’s back on you it’s nice to know there’s a world out there that doesn’t give a shit about your problems. That forces you to keep your head held high and move on. A world that is fragile and beautiful. Maybe it can sound cold to some of you, but let me make it clear that I believe in love, I just get so wrapped up in it sometimes that I need to put it into proportion. It’s something you have to do a lot when you’re Jens Lekman.

I’m obviously dead slow here since all the other blogs have been talking about it for the past two months, but since the obsession is now greater than ever I feel that I must share it with those of you who read this one. So far I’ve used every opportunity I’ve gotten to play it at parties and forced it upon all my friends, I’ve played his songs 34 times on iTunes and haven’t grown the least tired of his music yet. Swedish Niva has been like a ghost in my head (no pun intended!) since I was first introduced to him by a friend from Regnsky. He sounds like summer and makes me wanna go to the beach with good friends and drink a cool box of Grey Fox and think of nothing. Mmmmmmmmmm……

Niva – Ghost In My Head

Niva – The Boy From the Sun

Their story is a fascinating one as, following the release (and critical and popular acclaim) of 1996’s Seacaucus, the band were put under pressure by their record label to produce a more pop sound. Declining to do so put them in a contractual pickle and so for the next 7 years, the 5 Wrens lived together in  New Jersey while holding day jobs and playing music on the side and generally wondering if life had thrown them anything else besides lemons. Eventually (2003) the side  of music became large enough to hold a full album’s worth of  songs and was called The Meadowlands.

The Meadowlands was the lemonade…bitter with failure and the fear of a life lived in anticlimax which was  now moving into its mid 30s but also showcasing deft pop inflections so catchy that the album never got weighed down by the sentiment. If anything, it emerged as a form of emotional infinity – songs of regret and hopelessness so beautifully executed, they were actually uplifting.

Bad food metaphors aside, talk of a new album is only good news.

Below, find a photograph of the Wrens that will cause you to question my opinion.

On September 6′th something both sad and awesome is happening. The inevitable tribute album to David Bowie will be released which presumably means that he, after five decades and 24 full albums, is retiring. Sad because well… Bowie retiring is a sad event to expire (and there ain’t nothing you can say about THAT), but awesome because the tribute album, given the name We Were So Turned On, features good names playing nice songs. Among others we have Vivian Girls, John Frusciante and, one that I’m looking very much forward to, hilarious supergroup Megapuss.

Additionally there is Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and let it be no secret that since their first and only full length album Up From Below from 2009 I’ve been completely and helplessly in love with this nine-piece indie rock band. Though I’ve never seen them live I’ve spent an embarrassingly large amount of time watching them perform for various media which has only left me with an even greater desire to experience their performance first hand, but I guess I’ll just have to wait patiently for that.

Their contribution to the album is a cover of the early Bowie single ‘Memory Of a Free Festival’ from 1970 that was reissued on Space Oddity in 1972. It seems to me as if they took one song they thought sounded the most like something they could have made themselves, tightened up the loose ends a little (not much though, it’s still over six minutes long, less than a minute shorter than the original) and made it their own. It is enchantingly summerish and I suspect that this was one of the reasons why they chose to release this particular song before autumn came around! So quick question: am I the only one who can’t help longing for lovely festival vibes when it plays?

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Memory Of a Free Festival (David Bowie Cover)

David Bowie – Memory Of a Free Festival

Oh and by the way, put a dollar in the cookie jar now so you can BUY the album when it comes out. By doing so you are supporting an organization called War Child that helps children in countries with war as all the profit goes to said organization. Think of the children!

I’m tempted to think it must be one of the most hyped indie releases ever… every last move made by the band has been tracked by ever last URL in the blogosphere…from their emergence post recording in February…to the limited number of summer tour dates…to the free single releases for download. It seems to me to be the great indie inevitable – like the indie world is waiting for King Win and Queen Regine to cast their gaze upon the indie universe and provide the movement with its next great direction or thing to ponder. (by the way, I can’t guarantee I’m being facetious, I think there’s 30-45% chance it could be just that)

Anyway, the indie inevitable, in all 8 of its uniquely bland suburban shades will land in a record store and on a pc near you August 2nd.

Below find the first time in the history of your life you seriously gave a more than passing consideration to owning 8 versions of the same thing. 

Funny story. At first this video for ‘Meet Me In The Basement’ went viral as a fan-made reaction to the riots in Toronto during the G20, but then the band saw it, approved it and made it the official video for that Forgiveness Rock Record song. It’s hard to tell exactly what the video tries to say, so I guess you can interpret it however you want to, but I’m thinking that it might be like a ‘humanity is a disease‘ slash ‘look at all these fucking man-made issues‘ type of thing. Potent rage on video; something that’ll get your blood pumping! I suppose that you could make a few less obvious and probably better interpretations, so I’ll let you do that, but should you not want to I recommend that you just watch it and let the madness grab hold of you for almost four minutes. Be warned, however, strong pictures are featured, e.g. a tear-inducing clip from Jaws where a whole man is swallowed by a big shark. Spookey…

Below find typically uplifting accompanying single art that reinforces why you love indie artists…

The single itself is called ‘Where I’m going’ and is an interesting hint of a possible new direction. What’s still there are the electronic and guitar flourishes that will forever draw comparison to the french electro set, expansive ‘everyone-join-in!’ ambition and a general optimistic tone reminiscent of the first four tracks of 2008 release In Ghost Colours, which, for me, was one of 2008’s best albums.

Where it gets interesting is that the song seems to draw a great deal of inspiration from an area of pop never openly referenced by the group before – california dream pop vocal layerings a la Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, immediatley evident in the slower paced execution and oohs aahs and lahs that percolate every vocal break.

To be honest, I’m ambivalent – worried that this means I can’t expect my 2011 summer dance fix to come from Tusk but excited at what hints at the creation of a new pallette for a band that continues to execute with a beguiling pop sensibility. Whether we end up dancing or singing along to the final product doesn’t shake the conviction that some element of your 2011 summer will be soundtracked to this. Hit the link for the track.

www.cutcopy.net

After some months of traveling, nine blurry days at Roskilde Festival and in general way too many days spent away from The Internet, I think that we are slowly getting ready to start up the blog again, and what better way to do that than with an Au Revoir Simone remix from someone who’s also been quiet for some time now, namely none other than our Swedish friend Jens Lekman. The song is from the remix album Night Light featuring only remixes of the songs from Still Night, Still Night. I was pretty amazed to find Jens Lekman as a person who could remix songs because I never pictured that man behind anything else than a classical instrument, but apparently computers are fine too. The remix is super smooth, non-electronic and Lekman managed to give it his own sound by replacing the synthesizers with violin and harmonica. I recommend that you put it on your iPod and enjoy it in the sun with a cold glass of white wine. Cheers!

Au Revoir Simone – Shadows (Jens Lekman Remix)

In related news The Hood Internet also recently did a mash-up with Jens Lekman and R-Kelly which is definitely worth listening to. Has a nice grandiose lean back white-suits-blinG-blinG-crystal-poppin’-hip-hop-catch to it.

It is clear that the band is in their most cynical and clever form yet. Devo has turned their comeback and new album into a conceptual statment on the condition of our modern consumer-driven culture. The so-called De-evolution (or Devolution) is what Devo uses to describe what’s happening in our world where people are becoming increasingly corrupted with consumer and material values. Steven Colbert, who holds his own, said he would prefer to believe in “Intelligent Decline” verses “Devolution,” a joke that also seconds what Devo is saying.

What Devo did in creating their new record was utilize market studies research and real-life focus groups to choose every element of the album, titled Something for Everybody, for maximum consumer response. Through the focus groups, the band determined the final tracklist and track order, the suggestive album art (above), the new jumpsuits for the band members, and all the color palettes, from the album design to the new color for their iconic dome hats.

Without even knowing it I participated in one of Devo’s color studies some months ago when I played their “Find Your Devo Color” game online, which no longer exists. What I thought was an innocent and irreverent flash game turned out to be a tool for market success. The personal damage may be negligable, but on some level I feel tricked, and that’s the point of their project. People become attached to brands and products as if they were on their side, when they are really just trying to make the biggest profit. Muck like the lovely lady on the cover, we are blindly accepting products as if they were holy communion.

Devo are here to inform us that we are being used by a system that wants to sell us more, more, more. These days, every time I buy a product like a DVD or a movie ticket, the cashier asks me for my zip-code as if it is required for my transaction. In fact they are really just recording demographic statistics to figure out which communities buy what products so that they know what to sell me, how to sell to me, what to advertise on my TV and web browser, and, eventually, how to get me to buy more things.

The irony is that Devo’s market research is actually a sound formula for making more money themselves, and in calling out the system they are using it to their maximum advantage. But I trust Devo for having the right intentions, even in an industry like music, where coporations and Gordon Gekkos are using all the tools in the game to shove shitty art and shittier values down our throuts until, one day, we choke.

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Devo on the Colbert Report:

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And don’t forget this one from Thor.