comp: Should Have Been Dead On A Sunday Morning

Arms Wide Open

OESB is back after a break stint of vacay with a new comp paying tribute to one of the greatest, most mind-bendingly peculiar acts in recent memory– Creed. The new six song comp features masterful reworkings, covers, reduxes from the likes of Autre Ne Veut, Alice Cohen, Pretty Lightning, Sleep Creep, Hurricane Ike and Green Gerry. The deliverable is a slice of post-modern classicism, with each artist focusing a morsel of a Stapp's catalog, breaking it down into pieces, and re-assessing it as fresh material in their own vein. Take Alice Cohen's cover of "Higher." I'm pretty sure Alice is not a Creed fan, but she breaks down the #1 Mod-Rock Worship track into an unsettling tweaker ballad– hairspray huffing vox and all. (At first I thought Jimmy Ferraro was spitting pitch vox, but I stand corrected.)

ANV does his thing all over "What's this Life For?"– squealing and shifting directions like vocal shuttle runs over blown out bass-snare hits and distorto guitar-synths(?) akin to his wavering vox. All sorts of alter boy sins cumming to in the confession room on this one. Meantime, Green Gerry turns "With Arms Wide Open" into a cathedral reverb, neck clapper. A fresh new beginning for OESB, who reportedly maybe turning this into an infinite mixtape.

Download Should Have Been Dead On A Sunday Morning (an OESB Tribute to Creed)

video: Autre Ne Veut "Emotional"

Feelings In My Heart

Another video from Autre Ne Veut's self-titled debut on OESB/Upstairs, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite pop records of the year. This one is for "Emotional", which squirms in Paisley Park zones. At times it feels like an aching, heartfelt ballad, but it isn't a romantic tune, rather a self-doubting, strung-out-in-the-corner ballad, more in tune with being broke and not able to afford your habit than losing your soul mate. It's the sort of emotionally overboard, yet completely pragmatic pop that Adley has a knack for producing. Neck-and-neck with "Demon Eyes" for my favorite track on this outstanding debut.

show: Autre Ne Veut, Gatekeeper, Laurel Halo, Airbird

Tonight

Big show tonight at Zebulon for the release of Autre Ne Veut's debut on OESB/Upstairs. (Peep the new ANV video below.) Joining ANV will be the pulverizing dark wave of Gatekeeper (who were fucking amazing at the recent Games show), as well as futuristic femme fatale Laurel Halo, whose King Felix EP has been in high headphone rotation, as well as the live debut of Airbird, aka Joel Ford of Games, whose "Part of the Game" has been one of my favorite jams this summer, as has his cover of the Beach Boys "Surfer Girl," which is slated to appear on The Report Vol.2 compilation. (Grip here.)

Free show, don't miss it!

Airbird- Part of the Game

update: OESB

So Sing Along

Well, Todd just laid an Operative Dumbo Drop sized box on my mailbox. Major update from the always provocative Olde English Spelling Bee, who are finally putting Big Troubles debut LP Worry in the palm of the listener's hand. Been waiting for this for over a year, and couldn't be more stoked. Might as well be a major label debut, whatever that means these days. Be sure to grip it asap, which you can, as all orders will be going out this week. Don't hesitate. Seriously.

In other OESB realms, Bobka favorites Pigeons are back with a new 7-inch, the first since their heavenly Lunettes last year on Soft Abuse. Clark & Wednesday are now back in the States, and somehow found time to produce a video for "The Paradise," the A-side from the new single. (View above)


It's been a while since we heard from Greatest Hits, the danse pop machine fronted by Zak Mering (Raw Thrills) and Tyler Thacker. Last I saw them they were DJ'ing at Silent Barn between sets by Speculator, Tonstartssbandht and Run DMT. Seems like they've been re-working their dance floor sensations in bedrooms across Bushwick and are now ready to drop their debut single. If you slept on their (formerly) free to download record Greatest Hits Vol.1, stop dreaming and hop to. The rest of your 2010 will be incomplete if you do not funk on the madness that is "Danse Pop" and "Make You Mine." Serious jammers, for serious party people.

OESB, along with our homeys at Upstairs CDR, are also proud to bring the debut (lots of debuts) from Autre Ne Veut to the listening arena. A bombastic blast of pop sorcery, AVN's been splicing synthetic tracks together 'neath the murky streets for a while, occasionally popping out of a manhole to wiggle & wail on the floor of a beer soaked "venue." His jams are often headphone appropriate, with nether land swirls bringing ethereal melodies to light under solar examination. Been intrigued with his live show and the tracks on MySpace for a minute, as well as his last (NSFW) video, but "Soldier" is what really grabs me. Unpretentious drum-machine enabled bliss pop. Check the video below. Highly rec'd.

And last, but not least, some new shit by OESB mainstay Ducktails. The label's got the new 7-inch, featuring "Hamilton Road," a cut from the forthcoming Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics LP, set for November release on Woodsist. Also, Ducktails Live on WFMU 12-inch from Inflated just came today, and the mastered version of this LP sounds phenomenal. DL it here, and make sure to delete your old unmastered copy.