I saw Wall-E last week and absolutely loved it.  I’m a huge fan of everything Pixar’s done (except for Cars, which was just ok) and this film is right up there with Toy Story as my favorite Pixar film.  I actually got choked up in a couple parts, it was a completely wonderful movie experience.  There were so many iconic moments in the film that I know will be remembered for years to come. If you haven’t seen it yet, I urge you to check it out.

The movie inspired me to look to my music collection for applicable songs and make a 10 song mix for the film. I’ll point out what the song has to do with the Wall-E’s story while keeping it as spoiler-free as possible. Right-click the song title to download the songs.  Enjoy!

The Futureheads - Robot

Wall-E is a Robot.

Smashing Pumpkins - Tales of a Scorched Earth

The first half of the Wall-E takes place on Earth which has turned into a deserted wasteland.

Radiohead - Paranoid Android

Wall-E meets another Robot named EVE who is at first very paranoid.  Also, like Thom, Wall-E often curiously wonders “What’s there?”

Daft Punk - Digital Love

Aww, Robots falling in love.  Adorable!

The Snake The Cross The Crown - Electronic Dream Plant

We soon find out EVE’s eco-friendly purpose.

Eluvium - Indoor Swimming at the Space Station

Wall-E follows EVE to a Space Station.  Where people ride around on floating chairs and go to the pool.

Sufjan Stevens - Dear Mr. Supercomputer

There’s a very Hal-9000 type of presence on this ship.

King Harvest - Dancing in the Moonlight

Probably my favorite scene of the movie is when the two Robots are dancing in Outer Space.  It’s a gorgeous scene.

Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand In Mine

All Wall-E wants is someone to hold his robot hands (the album title here is also relevant - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place).

Guided By Voices - Gold Star for Robot Boy

Wall-E saves the day.  Gold Star!

***

Read the Ridiculously Positive Reviews of Wall-E (19 perfect scores at Metacritic)
Sign up to pre-order Wall-E on DVD.

Have a great 4th of July, everyone!

From the David Vandervelde songs I had previously heard, I had pegged him as a glam rock revivalist.  His new album, Waiting For The Sunrise, shows me a whole new side of his artistry though.  There’s a very laid back, 70’s AM Gold type of sound here complete with vintage organ and plucked acoustic guitar.  It makes for a fantastic summer album, perfect for relaxing on the porch with a summery drink of your choice in hand.

After the first few listens, the standout track for me is “Someone Like You”.  There’s something instantly appealing about the song that I can’t put my finger on.  I love the melody, the gorgeous instrumentation, the colorful lyrics, and wonderfully placed cooing background vocals.  The song floats along in such an easy-going manner, that once it’s over you won’t even notice its been six minutes.  “I Will Be Fine”, the opening track to the album, is another lovely, sunny song that adds twinkling piano to the mix.  Download both below.

MP3 Someone Like You
MP3 I Will Be Fine

Pre-order Waiting For The Sunrise

I made this mix a few weeks back of some of my favorite songs of 2008 so far just for personal listening and I think it’s one of the best mixes I’ve made.  I’m actually on a family vacation now which is why the posting has been a bit light but I have the mix uploaded and I’d love for you guys to download it, listen to it, and tell me what you think.  This isn’t a definitive best songs list from me, just some of my favorites of the year that I thought sounded good together.  And a picture of Arnold giving a thumbs up.  Click here to download.

1. The Lodger - The Good Old Days MP3
2. Cut Copy - Feel The Love
3. The Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave MP3
4. Cloud Cult - When Water Comes To Live MP3
5. Evangelicals - Midnight Vignette
6. Vampire Weekend - M79  MP3
7. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Think I Wanna Die MP3
8. These United States - First Sight
9. Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood MP3
10. Quinn Walker - Save Your Love For Me MP3
11. Ladytron - I’m Not Scared MP3
12. Wolf Parade - Language City MP3
13. Shearwater - Leviathan Bound MP3
14. Barton Carroll - Dark Place
15. Mates of State - The Re-Arranger MP3
16. The Epochs - Opposite Sides MP3
17. Okay - My
18. Islands - I Feel Evil (Creeping In)
19. M83 - Graveyard Girl MP3

Total Time: 1.2 Hours

Download Full Mix Here

We’re quickly approaching the halfway point to 2008, and that can only mean one thing.  It’s time for midway-through-the-year lists. I’ve been relistening to all my favorites from the year and deciding which ones were worthy of a much-heralded list placement.  It wasn’t easy, but I settled on 12 (and a half) favorite albums for this year.  I also made a nifty graphic that includes visuals from all the albums I have listed.  I noticed there was a theme for album covers this year: Disembodied Body Parts, Chandeliers, and Clouds (every album has at least one of these items. odd right?).

These 12 and a half albums (because it’s half of 25) are listed in chronological order and only include albums physically released in the first half of this year (sorry Girl Talk, Hold Steady).

Evangelicals - The Evening Descends
This was a big grower album for me.  I loved “Skeleton Man” from the beginning but it took seeing their absolutely wild live show and spending some time with the album to realize that the rest of the album is just as amazing.  Dripping with horror b-movie film references and delicous psychedelia, The Evening Descends is an incredible album from a still-developing band.

MP3 Skeleton Man

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
If you take away all the crazy hype that this band has received, you still have a 11 ridiculously catchy tunes. It’s amazing how strong people’s opinions are of this actually fairly unassuming, fun pop album.  I still listen to it and enjoy it on a regular basis, and I’m of the opinion that M79 is one of the best songs of the year.

MP3 M79

Quinn Walker - Laughter’s An Asshole / Lion Land
This is my one oddball pick on the list, but if you’ve ever listened to Quinn Walker’s music you probably realize that this double-album, his first ever official release, begs to be recognized.  Quinn’s music ranges from psychedelic tribal folk to epic post-rock to highly-orchestrated baroque-pop, sometimes in the same song.  There’s also moments of breathtaking, transcendent beauty here like “Smile For Me”. I honestly can’t recommend this guy enough.

MP3 Save Your Love For Me
MP3 Smile For Me

British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Easily the most anthemic, epic rock album released this year.  If you answered “yes” to the album title’s question and can listen to huge choruses and even huger guitar riffs without immediately making silly comparisons to U2, you need to pick up this album.  This music is powerful, majestic, vast, sublime and explosive.  It’s also probably my most listened to album of the year.

MP3 Waving Flags

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
John Darnielle is a ridiculously talented guy, both musically and especially lyrically and this album is one of the best of his illustrious career.  Unlike Get Lonely (which I loved) there’s a lot of variety on this album, especially thematically. Heretic Pride features some absolutely gorgeous instrumentation, some much-needed rocking out moments, and some of Darnielle’s best vocal performances ever.

MP3 Sax Rohmer #1

Sun Kil Moon - April
Sun Kil Moon is a band I had no knowledge of going into the year.  After hearing April I rushed out to get the rest of the band’s albums and am now glad to call myself a fan.  These songs are intimate, hypnotic, and beautifully played with lush acoustic guitar, piano, and string flourishes. From the sprawling ten-minute epic “Lost Verses” that opens the album to the plucked acoustic greatness of closing track, “Blue Orchids”, everything on April is drop-dead gorgeous.

MP3 Lost Verses

Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
After last year’s outstanding, breathtaking album The Meaning of 8, Cloud Cult shot up to “new favorite band” ranks in my book.  I obviously was very excited when the band released Feel Good Ghosts so soon afterwards.  The album doesn’t match the greatness of 8, but there’s plenty on here to love including some of the most jubilant and triumphant songs the band has recorded.  Seeing many of these songs being played lived, raised my already sky-high appreciation for this band and this album.

MP3 When Water Comes To Life

Islands - Arms Way
This is an album that takes some time to fully appreciate how awesome it is.  Return to Sea was a more immediately catchy, but Islands have fully expanded their sound here and created a much darker, theatrical, epic album.  Arm’s Way is filled with bombastic instrumentation and elaborate compositions, but also leave room for some of the completely infectious melodies that made fans fall in love with them in the first place.

MP3 Abominable Snow

Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
It’s true, Re-Arrange Us is not as breathtakingly original and spectacular as Bring It Back, but I still can’t get enough of this album.  The unbelievably catchy melodies are there, and they still do boy/girl harmonies better than any other band out there.  This album is easier on the ears then anything they’ve done before (a good or bad thing depending on who you ask) and features a more varied musical palette, which on awesome songs like “Re-Arrange Us”,  “Get Better”, and “You Are Free” is a very good thing.

MP3 Re-Arrange Us

Shearwater - Rook
I loved Shearwater’s last album, Palo Santo, which was a breakthrough album for the band and Rook improves upon the band’s sound in almost every way.  Johnathon Meisburg’s vibrant vocals alone are enough to bring someone to tears and matched with the dynamic, enchanting instrumentation you have one of the most beautiful albums of the last few years.  If you can listen to a song like “Leviathan Bound” without getting chills, you probably don’t deserve to have ears.

MP3 Leviathan Bound

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Dan Broekner and (especially) Spencer Krug are two of the best songwriters in indie rock today, so you know this album is going to be good, but At Mount Zoomer surpasses all my expectations and provides an album that will likely go down along with their debut as one of the best indie albums of the decade.  The album is thrilling ride of proggy explosions and rock opera anthems.  More accessible than anything from Sunset Rubdown or Handsome Furs, this album combines the best parts of both frontmen into glorious triumph.

MP3 Language City

Sigur Rós - Með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust
Sigur Ros haven’t ever made anything close to a bad album, and they’re not about to start now.  The first single “Gobbledigook” sent fans into a excited frenzy about the band’s new sound, but the album has shown that the band hasn’t at all abandoned their massive scope of music.  They’ve just evolved their sound to be much more jubilant and spirited that we saw in smaller doses on Takk… and now is fullly-realized in incredible songs like “Við spilum endalaust” and “Inní mér syngur vitleysingur”.  There’s still flashes of the longer, drawn-out epics like the beautiful “Festival” but it seems more of the band efforts have gone into making shorter, livelier tracks which I couldn’t be more happy with.

MP3 Inní mér syngur vitleysingur

Favorite EP of the 2008 (so far):
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP
I decided to include Fleet Foxes Sun Giant EP as the half of my twelve and a half favorite albums, partly because I didn’t have the room to put the full-lenghth on here and because it is, in it’s own right a fantastic collection of acoustic chamber pop songs that is still revealing itself to me.  I still can’t get over the lovely, gospel-like qualities of the vocals in songs like “Sun Giant” and “Drops In The River”.  Easily one of the best new bands of the year.

MP3 Drops In The River

Just Missed:
Jamie Lidell - Jim
Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Honorable Mentions:

Los Campesinos - Hold On Now Youngster
Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
The Dodos - Visiter
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
M83 - Saturdays=Youth
No Age - Nouns
Okay - Huggable Dust

Let me know your favorites of the year (so far) in the comments!

This summer, I’m working at the front desk of the Courtyard by Marriott hotel and there’s a TV in the lobby that’s always on.  This being the case, I see a lot of commercials and recently, I’ve recognized quite a few bands I’ve talked about on here.  Does this mean that the music supervisors for these commercials read my blog religously?  I can only assume so.  Here’s a few of the artists/songs I’ve noticed recently with MP3s and link to video when available.

Saturn Outlook: Noah and the Whale - 5 Years Time (MP3)

This is the commercial where the car drives by and coloful paper cut-out things appear everywhere and the car turns into a sailboat.  Cute video and obviously the song choice is top-notch.  Can’t wait to see Noah and the Whale at Lollapalooza (playing the same stage/day as Radiohead no less).

Watch Commercial

JC Penny: I’m From Barcelona - We’re From Barcelona (MP3)

This is the second commercial I’ve seen using I’m From Barcelona recently (Jeep had a commercial using “This Boy”).  This commercial ran up to and during Fathers Day this year and featured some kind of Father’s Day Parade. Glad this band is getting more exposure, Let Me Introduce You To My Friends is a fantastic summer album.

Chevy Malibu: Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye (MP3)

Just saw this commercial today and recognized the riff immediately (Lazy Eye was one of my favorite tracks of ‘06). I don’t remember any specifics about the commercial (pretty standard car-driving-through-tunnel it seemed) but the song sounded like some kind of remix or edit. 

Rhapsody Digital Music: Throw Me A Statue - Lolita (MP3)

This ad is on all the time, and actually features the song and the Throw Me a Statue album cover (the non-naked lady version) both of which appears on different mediums (computer, tv, mp3 player, ex-girlfriends house).  It’s a very good commercial overall, and I’m betting the band is really happy with all the exposure they’re getting from it.

Watch Commercial

Atlantis Cruises: Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You (MP3)

This commercial is obviously a response to the Juno craze, and the commercial (for a cruise in the Bahamas) actually features a re-written version of the song with lyrics like “Let’s go ride a couple of dolphins/Or maybe play tennis/Or do some golfing”.  I’m normally a fan of using songs in commercials (as you can see from this point), but this song just seems to trendy at the moment.  Also not a huge fan of changing your lyrics for a commercial.  Oh well, maybe a few more people will buy a Moldy Peaches album now.

Wishbone Salad Dressing: Spank Rock - Bump (MP3)

Hearing Spank Rock in a salad dressing commercial is totally surreal, considering both how obscure the artist is and how raunchy his lyrics are (the commercial uses the cleanest part of the song).  I got to hand it to them though, it makes for a pretty fun commercial.

Watch Commercial

Any other commercials out there that I’m missing?

The new Girl Talk, Feed The Animals, is available for download. I just heard to the entire album and it’s the funnest time I’ve had listening to anything all year. The first song alone has “Gimmie Some Lovin”, UGK - “International Player’s Anthem”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, Lil Wayne - “Pop Bottles”, TI - “What You Know”, and “Nothing Compares To U”. It’s Night Ripper Part 2 essentially but I agree with Gregg Gillis when he said that this one takes it to the next level. The amount of huge hits on here is insane.

The song selection includes stuff as recent as Hot Chip’s “Ready For The Floor” and as old as ? and the Mysterious “96 Tears”. There’s some seriously crazy mash-ups here also. Public Enemy and Len’s “Steal My Sunshine”. “Paranoid Android” and Jay-Z “Roc Boys”. Yo La Tengo’s “Autumn Sweater” and “Ghetto Superstar”. Eminem and Yael Naim “New Soul”. “Get Low” and “Sunday Morning”. Styx “Renegade” and Dr. Dre “Biches Ain’t S**t”. Lil Wayne and “Under The Bridge”. Also, where else can you hear The Carpenter’s “Superstar” and Metallica “One” played side-by-side with Lil’ Mama rapping over it?

You can download the album for free here, or pay 5 dollars you can get the album in FLAC and get a seamless download. Here’s a couple of the best tracks for you to sample (no pun intended):

MP3 Girl Talk - Play Your Part (Pt. 1)
MP3 Girl Talk - Set It Off

The Lollapalooza Schedule went online yesterday and it is looking really good. I’ve been thoroughly examining it and making my choices, and through the process getting really excited for this festival. Not too many harsh conflicts here, but unfortunately some bands (mostly ones I’ve already seen) I was looking forward to like Battles, The National, Cat Power, Mates of State, Lupe, Jamie Lidell, and CSS I’m going to have to skip out on. But I’m going to be able to hit up all the biggest names I wanted to see (namely Radiohead, Kanye West, Wilco, Broken Social Scene, Gnarls Barkley). I’ll also be checking off a bunch of bands on my “bands to see” list (Noah and the Whale, Go! Team, Explosions, Devotchka, Office). So here’s what my schedule looks like so far:

Friday:

12:15 Noah and the Whale
1:00 Manchester Orchestra
2:15 The Go! Team
4:15 Gogol Bordello
6:15 Bloc Party
8:00 Radiohead

MP3 Noah and the Whale - Five Years Time
MP3 The Go! Team - Huddle Formation

Saturday:

12:15 Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos
12:45 The Ting Tings
1:30 Dr. Dog
3:30 Devotchka
4:30 Explosions in the Sky
5:00 Spank Rock
6:30 Broken Social Scene
8:00 Wilco

MP3 Devothka - Comrade Z
MP3 Broken Social Scene - 7/4 Shoreline

Sunday:

11:30 Office
1:00 What Made Milwalkee Famous
2:15 Nicole Atkins & The Sea
3:30 Black Kids
4:15 Iron & Wine
6:15 Gnarles Barkley
8:30 Kanye West

MP3 Office - Wound Up
MP3 Gnarles Barkley - Going On

Check out my page at sched.org to see a more detailed schedule.

The winner for harshest conflict this year is: Broken Social Scene vs. Lupe Fiasco vs. Battles. I wanted to catch all three of these bands, but am opting for Broken Social Scene, partly because I love them and heard their festival appearances were epic and partly because I want to be at the Bud Light stage to see Wilco. Also, I don’t think I want to deal with all those Rage fans at Lupe Fiasco (you’d think they would schedule something a little less polarizing after what happened at Coachella).

Aftershows are up also.  I’m hoping to catch Battles w/ Foals on Saturday Night at the Double Door.

I was a huge fan of Australian trio, The Grates‘ debut album Gravity Won’t Get Us High and it looks like the band is up to the same high energy pop antics this year with the recently announced Teeth Lost Hearts Won. I grabbed their first single, “Burn Bridges” from Said the Gramophone and it is simply wonderful. I can’t think of many other bands who bring the kind of enthusiasm to their music and live shows as The Grates do. “Burn Bridges” features one of the band’s best melodies along with a monster riff and plenty of hand-clapping, chanting, and general rocking out. Somehow the band fits this massive whirlwind of sound into 2 minutes and 26 seconds. Such an awesome song.

MP3 The Grates - Burn Bridges

***

Fatboy Slim’s new project, The BPA (short for Brighton Port Authority) just released a video/song and it’s pretty great. I never was hugely into Fatboy Slim but I remember they had awesome music videos usually featuring dancing (Praise You = renegade improv dancers, Weapon of Choice = Christopher Walken dancing) and “Toe Jam” is another great, much more racy addition to the band’s video library. The concept is a bunch of people at a 70’s dance party get naked while black bars cover up anything indecent. In a creative twist, the nudists use the cencorship bars to spell out words, make fancy designs, and play Pong. The song itself (which features David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal) a funky retro dance tune that I quite enjoy.

MP3 The BPA - Toe Jam

Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink was my favorite debut album last year so you can imagine how excited I was to hear that that Bodies of Water was coming out with another album so soon. While the first time around their album was self-released, but A Certain Feeling (coming July 22nd) will be released by one of the best indie labels out there, Secretly Canadian. From what I’ve heard of the album, it will be another dramatic collection of gospel-folk anthems. The passionately-sung four-part harmonies, easily my favorite aspect of the band, hasn’t gone anywhere and for this one the instrumentation has been amped up to match the band’s vocal theatrics.

The first song on the album, “Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey”, is a great example of what I love about this band. The song starts with a lovely melody singing “Rise up now, my darling” (possibly hinting group’s own ascending vocals?) and continues with a triumphant verse sang by David Metclaf. Like pretty much all of Bodies of Water’s songs, “Gold…” builds to a grand, sweeping chorus featuring some of the most joyous and intricate harmonies I’ve heard from the band, while the bridge alone has 3 or 4 distinct melodic segments. Not to mention the stirring bursts of trumpet throughout the song. Well done, Bodies of Water.

MP3 Bodies of Water - Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey (removed by request)
MP3 Bodies of Water - Under The Pines

On a somewhat related note: Gorilla vs Bear has a post up that includes BOW leader David and quite a few other artist’s favorite albums of the year so far. Well worth checking out.