Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Remix Pepper's "Freeze" and Win!

Ladies and gentlemen, get your remixing chops ready. Starting Saturday (Feb. 28), Pepper is inviting you to make your own musical masheries of their song “Freeze”!

While Pepper originally hails from Hawaii, they now bring you their fresh mix of reggae, rock, and punk straight from sunny southern California. No, I’m not talking about Sublime here, but rather, the evolution of the brah brah music that they gave birth to. Pepper’s sound takes you from rum-fueled reggae party jams to warm coastal pop that makes you feel like you’re summertime chillin’ no matter the season. Freeze is a song from the latest Law Records release, Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations“, which was produced by Sublime producer and former Butthole Surfer Paul Leary.

Pepper has loaded the stems to Freeze into their Remix Wizard and now wants to hear what you can do! You have two options for making a remix: you can download the stems for free and use any software you want; or you can click on the widget’s MixMaker link to make a remix in MixMatchMusic‘s simple online music editor. If you’ve never experienced remixing before, or just want to see how Freeze was made, check out the MixMaker! Either way, make sure to you upload your remix to the widget so that others can listen to, vote on, and share it.

The Freeze remix contest runs from February 28 to March 28 (2009), and Pepper will hand pick three winners. If you win the grand prize, you get two VIP passes to the next Pepper show in your hometown for your friends, and the chance to shadow Pepper’s sound engineer for the day (from load in to load out at a show in your hometown). How cool is that!

The grand prize winner will also receive the T-RackS 3 Deluxe Mastering Suite and AmpliTube Fender® (courtesy of IK Multimedia); a Law Records backpack full of Pepper swag; one pair of SkullCandy headphones; an autographed photo of Pepper; their remix featured on Pepper’s myspace; and their remix released on an upcoming album from Law Records. The first runner up will receive a copy of AmpliTube Fender from IK Multimedia, and the second runner up will get a copy of the T-RackS 3 Standard Mastering Suite from IK Multimieda. Both runner up winners will also receive two VIP passes to the next Pepper show in their hometown; a Law Records backpack full of Pepper swag; their remix featured on Pepper’s myspace; and an autographed photo of band.

So what are you waiting for, brah? Enter the Freeze remix contest here! And, look out for Evolving Music‘s interview with Pepper early next week.

What I'm Hearing, Vol. 10

For last month’s new music update, click here.

February brought some very excellent music my way. An update of 84 songs spanning most genres included some new music as well as some hidden gems from the years past. Enjoy!

Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: In their first studio album since 2005’s You Could Have it So Much Better, the Scottish blokes return with another round of rollicking, high energy rock music. The staples of their previous musical endeavors are all here, from the steady lock-step drums to the grinding and rapid guitars, all accentuated with Alex Kapranos’s distinct vocals that he ranges from soft caress to forceful leader to out and out yell. While the album doesn’t provide much in the way of evolution from previous work, that’s not to say it’s not solid. In fact, in an era where numerous bands change their face and sound from one release to another, a little continuity isn’t a bad thing. They slow it down nicely with “Dream Again,” showing a more melodic touch to their sound, and on “Bite Hard” they show their ability to start slow to build to a frenetic and recognizable chorus structure. Don’t Sleep On: “Can’t Stop Feeling,” “Twilight Omens,” and “Bite Hard”

Glass Candy, Deep Gems and B/E/A/T/B/O/X: This is a group I just heard about out of Portland, OR. They’re currently on the Italians Do It Better label, with B/E/A/T/B/O/X coming out in 2007 and the Deep Gems album of unreleased tracks released in ’08. With an eerie female lead vocalist in Ida No, this group specializes in a delicious mixture of 80s pop music fused with dark/deep disco sounds. The grimy bass grooves, melodic keys and moving beats create a vision of dark streets on a rainy night or a dimly lit club for slow dancing hipsters, but would also feel right at home on the Scarface and Grand Theft Auto 2 soundtracks. Imagine a collaboration between Tangerine Dream and Nine Inch Nails with Kelli Dayton, formerly of the Sneaker Pimps, on vocals. If you like 80s, or disco, or just some dark music you can listen to in your cruise to an unmentionable location, Glass Candy will keep your head nodding. Don’t Sleep On: “Feeling Without Touching,” “Etheric Device,” and “Touching the Morning Mist.”

Lake, Oh, The Places We’ll Go: This relatively new (at least in terms of mass release appeal, just signed to K Records) lo-fi indie pop/rock group out of Olympia, WA caught me by surprise. Taking liberally from multiple genres and mixing it up with lyrics from both a male and female vocalist, the album doesn’t fit any one mold. There are hints of Say Hi to Your Mom, Death Cab for Cutie and Peter Bjorn and John here, but also moments of quiet melody that hearken to Feist or Sia. Some of the more uptempo indie moments on the album bring to mind Throw Me the Statue. Pianos, guitars, handclaps and horns find their moments at various points throughout the album, leading to a well-rounded and easily enjoyable album that is effortless as a listen. Don’t Sleep On: “Minor Trip,” “Dead Beat,” and Bad Dream.”

Telefon Tel Aviv, Immolate Yourself: While I’ve been listening to Telefon Tel Aviv since their sophomore release Map of What is Effortless, it wasn’t until I heard about their newest release that I learned about the death of one half of the laptop duo, Charles Cooper. Unfortunately, not much is known about the circumstances surrounding his death, other than he was missing for about a week before he was found, but given the dense emotional contexts of the group’s music, it isn’t hard to see where some levels of despair may have existed for Cooper. While Map brought their electronic sounds to a simple and accessible short format, Immolate Yourself is a densely layered piece that screams of despair behind towering walls of sound, melancholy synth work and distorted and echoed lyrics. At times beautiful for the music and others simply horrendous because of the distress the music belies, Immolate Yourself is a perfect study of what happens when depression meets a talented musician who simply can’t get it all out on paper. No word yet on what Joshua Eustis plans to do, but having been a long time friend of Cooper, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a bit difficult to go back to the studio without him. Don’t Sleep On: “Your Mouth,” “Helen of Troy,” and “M.”

Zion I, The Take Over: Having already written a review of this album (that you can find here), I won’t say much other than to mention that the songs grow on me a bit more each listen. Don’t Sleep On: “The Take Over,” “Antenna,” and “Coastin'” featuring K.Flay.

The Singles Artists: These artists didn’t get full albums on the music update, but they definitely had a hit or two that got thrown in. For hip-hop fans, check out Kool G Rap (“On the Rise Again,” “What’s More Realer Than That”.) If you like old time classic rock and roll but have grown weary of listening to your Led Zeppelin albums over and over again, check out the new throwback work of the Golden Animals (“Queen Mary,” “My My My”) If you’re an indie rock listener, give Ruby Isle a try (“How It Hurts,” “One Trip.”)

MixMatchMusic Tra.kz releases: For those of you who haven’t been following, MixMatchMusic recently launched Tra.kz , a URL shortener for all things music. As part of that release, a number of bands released new music using the site, to tremendous results. The Expendables, Giant Panda Guerrila Dub Squad, Trifonic, and Pepper all released some new tracks. From Trifonic, we got “Gutter Box,” as well as a smoking remix of Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown.” Pepper brought a soundboard recording from a live concert with “Too Much.” For those with more interest in Pepper, we’ve got an interview coming up, as well as a remix contest, so stay on the lookout for that.

Another great month for new music… can’t wait to see what March has in store. Keep listening.

New Orleans Mardi Gras in the 40s and 50s

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! As you prepare to give something up for lent, watch people you know go through the process, or just enjoy the festivities surrounding the occasion, I leave you with a glimpse of the early days in New Orleans:

Open Mic – Where?

You’ve uploaded your stems, been collaborating with others, publishing your music on MixMatchMusic… things are going well! So what else can you do to get noticed? Have you ever attended an open mic? What? You don’t know where to go? No worries.

Openmic.us, like MixMatch, is dedicated to helping indie musicians find places to play and be heard. Also, there are all sorts of tips for musicians on the site. How to rock an open mic, tips on recording, editing & mixing and more. The OpenMic.us site is comprised of 43 local city web sites. Go to the site, scroll down and check out the open mics available in your city. Who knows… the right person could be grabbing a drink while listening to you jam.

The OpenMic.us Network is operated by Open Mic Entertainment, the premier operator of live-music open mic events in the U.S.

“Citing a severe shortage of reliable open mic information in the Web, we decided to verify the accuracy of every open mic that we could find”, stated OpenMic.us founder, David Craver. He continued, “Since we have over 13 years of experience in running live music open mics, we felt that we really understood the needs of the open mic musicians in our country”.

“We like to support anything that helps musicians”, stated Electro-Voice PR Chief, Guy Low. He also said, “The OpenMic.us Network is a valuable resource for musician hobbyists and professional musicians alike.”

RemixComps.com: Remix Contest Tracker

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We recently stumbled upon another solid resource for all you remixing aficionados out there. RemixComps.com is a new site that finds all the remix contests going on and tracks them for you. That’s right – it tracks them for you. Go ahead, be lazy. Just bum around on the site and find stuff to remix. Browse contests easily by Top Rated, Closing Soon, Quick List etc and even access old contests in Just Ended or the Archives. Or, for the ambitious UGC-prone among you, you can also submit your own contests or ones that you find.

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Once you are sold on the concept and create an account, you can comment on and rate the contests. That’s how the good ones end up in Top Rated, obviously.

This service goes hand in hand with MixMatchMusic’s Remix Wizard for those who set up their remix promotion as a contest, i.e. set a deadline, include prizes. For example, Zion I’s remix contest is currently being featured on RemixComps – it ends March 12 and features some pretty kickass prizes like the winning remix being featured on Myspace and played on a radio set/podcast, plus signed copies of rare Zion I vinyl and more. Definitely worth a shot!

What a great way to delve deeper into DIY remixing culture. Rather than wasting time scouring the internet for songs to remix and sites that allow it, you can spend your time actually splicing and dicing the music and creating your own killer mixes.

For more info, check out their blog and follow them on Twitter.