Dragonette – “Our Summer”
Just when I was hoping for new material from Dragonette, I get a new press release about them e-mailed to me with a brand new single (that isn’t on the Fixin’ To Thrill album) called “Our Summer“. It’s basically a hot summer song with infectious beats that samples the lines from Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”. This is cowbell and pot-clanging done right. Move over Kesha and Katy Perry, Dragonette’s coming with some GOOD pop music.
Top 5 European Music Festivals For The Summer
Summer time is here and it is time to start packing up and go on the search for the best music events around Europe. July- August is the busiest time of the year for festival’s organizers- all of them work extremely hard to make sure that their event will stand out in the crowed and top all the other crazily invested festivals out there. So, where to go?
In order to help you make your choice we gathered here the most unique and popular music festivals around Europe for summer 2010:
1. Dance Valley Festival, Netherlands- 7th of August
This mind blowing open air festival is definitely worth attending. The main theme for this year is: ”Where Fantasy Meets Reality” – sounds pretty promising, don’t you think? 4 different main stages with pumping house progressive and trance music, more than 200 brilliant D.J’s from all over the world, sexy dancers and exceptional decoration- all is part of the program. Put on some colorful cloths, get your old shoes from the closet- and get ready for a wild day!
2. Boom Festival, Portugal- 18-26 August
The Boom festival’s main aim is to inspire people to engage with each other and be free spirits for only a few days. The location is deep inside a magical forest where you will soon forget where you came from and who you are. What is planned in the program? Psychedelic Goa trance music, stimulating art objects as part of the setting, healing area where you will be able to recharge yourself and many more surprises. It is also nice to know that the festival is welcoming everybody- from an older couple who come to enjoy the live act to little children who will get ecstatic by the music and colorful surroundings.
More after the jump…
Klaxons – “Echoes” (Music Video)
These past couple months I’ve been lazy blogging, I’m sorry. I just forget to post things or I procrastinate, which is why I’ve missed posting a lot of important things, like how I love Klaxons.
The music video for “Echoes” by Klaxons just came out, and it’s an amazing video. The song itself is already a wonder. I can’t wait for the release of their sophomore album, ‘Surfing The Void’, which comes out August 23rd. It’s going to be one of the best albums of this year.
Maximum Balloon – If You Return (Feat. Little Dragon)
Just today I heard of Maximum Balloon, TV On The Radio’s David Sitek’s side project. Since last month he has released a couple of singles under Maximum Balloon, with the debut album due for August 24th under Interscope records.
“If You Return” features Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano. The track has toxic, funky electronic buzz with overlapping bleeps and a hard to resist synth bass. This is a type of song I would imagine robots would love to dance to. Or even humans. Yukimi’s mysterious, eccentric vocals graces the vivid electronic sound from Sitek.
The debut album will also feature other artists like Karen O, David Byrne, and Theophilus London. Will Sitek’s solo debut be stronger and more successful than Kyp Malone’s Rain Machine, who is his TVOTR bandmate? Only time will tell.
Check out the splendid video clip of this song below. It’s either a sneak peek at the music video or a promo for the album. The danseur glides across the rooftop so elegant and light, it’s beautiful.
She & Him – “Thieves” (Music Video)
If you know me, I’m a sucker for She & Him and here they have released a grainy black and white video for “Thieves”. Both Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are in this video, and two children are running around and playing their characters as well. They’re all so cute!
Kid Cudi, Best Coast, Rostam Batmanglij – “All Summer” (Music Video)
Here’s the music video to “All Summer” by Kid Cudi, Best Coast and Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend for Converse. The mp3 is available to download for free a couple posts down. The video features the 3 of them dancing and having a good time in an apartment. The bobble heads kinda freak me out.
Panda Bear – “Slow Motion”
Oh gosh, I haven’t listened to Panda Bear in a long time. I know that “Tomboy” was released via vinyl only this past weekend but I didn’t want to ruin it by listening to shitty vinyl rips so I resisted myself from listening to it. Just today Pitchfork posted the high quality stream of “Tomboy”‘s b-side, “Slow Motion“.
If you haven’t known, “Tomboy/Slow Motion” will be the first from a singles-series that will lead up to the release of his 3rd album under the same name, released this fall. The next single is “You Can Count on Me/Alsatian Darn” which will be out this summer via Dominos. “Tomboy” will be out July 20th.
Kid Cudi, Best Coast, Rostam Batmanglij – “All Summer”
Converse gathered Kid Cudi, Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast and Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend to make a collaboration song called “All Summer“. I admire and respect each of these artists individually, and combining them together is just an explosion of love. Each of these artist’s styles are present. “All Summer” is the perfect indie-pop summer song, but it’s one of those songs that stay for a bit and you forget about it in a couple of months.
Watch a short 2 minute interview of each of these amazing people and download the track on their website here, or download below:
Kid Cudi, Best Coast, Rostam Batmanglij – “All Summer”
The Drums – “Let’s Go Surfing” (The Raveonettes Remix)
The Raveonettes made an intensely wild remix of The Drum’s “Let’s Go Surfing”. It seems like the only thing they did was add a harder, more rock sound to beach pop which sounds fantastic. This is a perfect example of adding just a bit to a remix which makes a huge difference.
The Drums – “Let’s Go Surfing” (The Raveonettes Remix)
The Pass – “Treatment of The Sun”
3 months ago I posted about The Pass, who were also featured in the 2nd issue of our magazine. Their catchy indie-pop songs caught on to me quickly. Now they’re back with a new music video (Pretty Much Amazing exclusive!) to “Treatment of the Sun” which was edited by their biggest fan and a blog buddy of mine, Zach from We Listen For You. This will be the opening track of their new album ‘Burst’ which will be out this fall.
In the meantime, you can purchase their ‘Colors’ EP and “Treatment of the Sun” here.
Cults – “Oh My God”
Cults, the anonymous band (not anymore, although they still don’t have a Myspace) we were all awing about because of the release of “Go Outside” are releasing a free single called “Oh My God” for the Kia x Adult Swim singles project.
The song starts off with a drum beat accompanied by people talking in the background, then comes Madeline’s sweet voice (did you know that she used to be in a punk band?). Listening to this song I quickly realized their signature: a xylophone being played in the same tome as each syllable that she sings.
The Cults 7″ EP is sold out but you can still download it here, and see their tour dates here.
