Obsessively blogging about pop music, pop videos, pop stars, and pop culture from inside the MTV headquarters in Times Square. We also have a slight Jonas Brothers problem. And a little fixation with Tokio Hotel.
Are you getting tired of all the music headlines going to new Brooklyn bands? I bet you the players in Los Angeles' thriving scene are way over it. Why's everybody always talking about Brooklyn when the West Coast boasts a dream team of new talent, turning out a steady stream of polished, moody rock?
Although the rap game gets L.A. plenty of love, lackadaisical, harmony-laden smog-pop hasn't had a true moment since The Beach Boys and The Mamas And Papas ruled the late '60s. But that has been changing, slowly but surely, thanks to the radio dominance of a new class of sun-bleached bands.
I don't know what it's like where you are, but over here in NYC we're deep into the nicest day we've had all year. Major sunshine and big smiles all around. It's perfect weather for the endlessly optimistic power-pop of Two Hours Traffic. The Canadian quartet started out as kindergarten playtime buddies, and they recreate the same five-year-old wonder that brought them together in their irresistibly sunny songs.
But don't get the wrong idea here. Though their tunes are loaded with jangly guitars and sweetheart harmonies, Two Hours Traffic still knows exactly how to get down to business. Their flowery melodies and bucking backbeats add up to unstoppable combos of Beach Boys breeze and Strokes-y swagger. That one-two pop punch has already landed the band among the TV soundtrack elite, earning them airtime on Gossip Girl, The Ghost Whisperer, Smallville and The OC.
This weekend they add MTV's own Camp'd Out to their list of credits. The two-hour docu-drama follows a group of Broadway stars through the grueling paces of a competitive theater camp. Two Hours Traffic's "Stuck For The Summer" is the official theme song!
See what all the fuss is about in their barn-burner "Stuck For The Summer" video and then tune in to MTV this Saturday at noon to see Camp'd Out!
You may remember Catlin Crosby's face from such shows as Malcolm In The Middle, That's So Raven and That '70s Show, but it's her voice that you should really be getting to know. The Hollywood pop princess is so good, she's already worked with Babyface, Robin Thicke and even Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson.
Her self-titled debut album is loaded with the kind of Regina Spektor / Feist-y ditties we've come to expect in the backgrounds of iPod commercials and big-screen teenage romances. In the whimsical video for first single, "Still Have My Heart," Caitlin bops around an animated scratch-paper backdrop, dealing with a string of doofus blind dates, including one with a dentist! And yes, those dates are really Zach Levi, from Chuck, Albert Reed of Dancing With The Stars, House's Jesse Spencer, and Robert Hoffman, from Step Up To The Streets.
Watch this little charmer, keep an eye out for Caitlin Crosby in upcoming Danny DeVito movie, House Broken, and check out Caitlin's side-project site, loveyourflawz.com, where "imperfect is the new perfect."
Holy underwater Motown magic fireworks. The Dashing Suns. I'll be damned. This seductively sunny little intersection of every band the '60s and '70s ever loved is really making my morning with its scratchy guitars, ooh-ahh Caramello vocals and vintage head cold production value. Monkees, Modern Lovers and Troggs! Definitely sounds more like something you'd discover in your mom's leftover Creedence records than on the Internet.
The Dashing Suns are a four-piece out of Oakland, California, and they certainly deliver on all that West Coast promise laid out by The Beach Boys, The Mamas & Papas and so on and so forth. Jangly and irresistible, their fuzzy pop fantasies reek of post-prom oceanside campfires. A fact which, in combination with their recent run at SXSW, all but guarantees that they won't go unsigned much longer.
For more on The Dashing Suns at SXSW, keep an eye on Jansport -- the classic backpack company is using The Dashing Suns' "Future Thunder" to promote their insanely cool new Heritage Series. As part of the promotion, they followed the band on a road-trip/mini-tour from Oakland to Austin, filming concerts, car drama and everything in between. When that goes live, we'll be sure to share it with you here. I'm expecting plenty of solar flare and sepia tone. Definitely something to look forward to!
Man, I been begging to do a post on Animal Collective here for ages but the powers that be keep telling me "No, our audience isn't ready for that far out noise rock." That being said, there is no denying that every time I see Animal Collective, the crowd gets younger. And I can't think of a better testament to their greatness!
What other band has started out at the obscurest end of the art rock spectrum and come all the way into the mainstream spotlight without substantially sacrificing fans or cred? Death Cab? Nope. Bright Eyes? Eh, sorta... Modest Mouse? Definitely not. Even if they had, none of those bands was ever quite as adventurous as Animal Collective.
Since the recent release of their eighth (EIGHTH!) studio album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, the din of mainstream Animal Collective praise has developed into a full-on roar. People are plain-old losing it for Animal Collective, ranking it among Kid A, Pet Sounds and Revolver as one of the best albums ever. And it's not just the critics who are flipping. My little brother tells me that his whole school (Nicolet High School in Milwaukee, WI) is mental for Merriweather, too. "Everybody's Facebook status is Merriweather Post Pavilion," he tells me. It's a full-on phenomenon.
BUT! Are we ready for an Animal Collective invasion? Is there room for them in the buzz bin among Miley and the Jonases? Is there room at the Tokio Hotel (ugh, sorry)? Well how about you just watch the video for "My Girls" and get back to me on that? Deal?
Charles Hamilton puts aside his beef with Soulja Boy Tell'em for the moment to take on a bigger nemesis: The Beach Boys. Though he never explicitly comes out and says it, once you read between the lines it's so obvious that Charles Hamilton is throwing hand signals, insulting couplets and generally bad vibrations in the MTV debut of his video, "Brooklyn Girls." The Beach Boys, after all, are the sucker MCs who clowned "East Coast girls," despite digging those styles they wear on their 1965 dis track "California Girls." Stand down, co-writer Mike Love.
We'll see how that one plays out... Meanwhile, the Brooklyn MC is playing it cool. Just check his "Brooklyn Girls" video. The XXL cover boy and self-proclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog fetishist wanders around New York City in giant headphones, checking in on all the ladies and making all the smooth facial expressions. No dancing. No gimmicks. Just old-school real talk. Keep an eye on this one. And protect ya neck, Brian Wilson.
Are you getting tired of all the music headlines going to new Brooklyn bands? I bet you the players in Los Angeles' thriving scene are way over it. Why's everybody always talking about Brooklyn when the West Coast boasts a dream team of new talent, turning out a steady stream of polished, moody rock?
