Bloc Party - "Hunting For Witches" (Crystal Castles Remix)

*MP3: Bloc Party - "Hunting For Witches" (Crystal Castles Remix)

The Crystal Castles' remix of Bloc Party's "Hunting For Witches" is hot. Check it out.

(Ian Anderson)

Pop Music in the Spring

**Previous post was deleted by the IFPI. Here is a repost without the mp3s and only Hype Machine links. (3/23/09, 11:03 AM).

Yeah, yeah, I like pop music. Mostly this is because I like fun. However, the best part about liking pop music is liking pop music in Spring. It's 48-degrees, windows are down, and the top 40 hits are thumping. So, here are my nominees for 2009's most-likely-to-be-heard-at-a-

party-in-the-spring. Notice the balance between newbies and classics, top 40 and indie-pop, which are both crucial elements to any Spring-time party mix. Not to mention the back-to-back Rihanna play, because, after all, everyone just wants to hear "Umbrella" on more time.

It's all there, just press play.

*MP3: Kelly Clarkson - "I Do Not Hook Up"
*MP3: Beyonce - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
*MP3: Kid Cudi - "Switchin Lanes"
*MP3: Lady GaGa - "Poker Face"
*MP3: Taylor Swift - "Love Story" (Pop Mix)
*MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Dull Life"
*MP3: Britney Spears - "Circus" (Diplo Remix)
*MP3: Royksopp - "The Girl and The Robot"
*MP3: Ra Ra Riot - "Ghost Under Rocks" (Passion Pit Mix)
*MP3: Rihanna - "Whipping My Hair"
*MP3: Rihanna - "Umbrella" (Ft. Jay Z)
*MP3: Asher Roth - "I Love College"
*MP3: Bloc Party - "Signs" (Armand Van Helden Remix)
*MP3: Kid Sister - "Get Fresh" (Starters Remix)
*MP3: Black Eyed Peas - "Boom Boom Pow"

(Ian Anderson)

Everybody Else Is Posting It, So Why Shouldn't We?: Bloc Party - "Mercury"

Based on the ridonkulous enthusiasm that the new Bloc Party track is getting throughout the blogosphere, I'm pretty sure we're going to get kicked out of the Nerdy McNerdington music club if we don't write about this song. Can't you hear the cries of "one of us! one of us! one of us!". Ian, block the door! April, grab the pitchforks! We gotta fight the powers that be! By which I mean we have to assume that bloggers are angry enough at us to actually leave their dark, cavernous basements from where the dwell to hunt us down and kill us. Fat chance of that happening.

Bloc Party's first record, Silent Alarm, was an album that rang the bell on the post-punk revival of the early aughts. The album's brash, youthful exuberance manifested itself into smart, bratty quotations of The Pretenders, XTC, Gang of Four, and a whole host of other post-punk acts. Driven by sharp, treble-y guitars, and fast tempos, Silent Alarm impressed many. Its follow-up, A Weekend In The City was a bit more divisive, because the group had jettisoned many of Alarm's charms to create more straightahead, anthemic album.

I guess that, in the span of an album, or whatever it is that will follow-up "Mercury" (remix record?) Bloc Part have gone from driving to Brighton to the weekend, they're going to arrive late to Williamsburg. This song almost has too much going on. It practically screams "EXPERIMENTAL THIRD ALBUM". Perhaps they were a bit stung by cries of sell-out based on the overt commercial calculation of their last album. As a result, it seems like Bloc Party decided to become overtly ambitious in an entirely experimental way. I thought City was an album that, while having incredible peaks, including the Morrissey-esque wit of "The Prayer", and the working-class sympathy escapist anthem "Waiting For The 7.18" (sweet jesus, I love that track), it was an album that ultimately sunk underneath its intentions. "Mercury" does the same. They've thrown in everything but the musical kitchen sunk. Ironically enough, nothing seems to stick.

Bloc Party MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Last Days Of Summer: Chicago's Hideout Block Party

Download: Bloc Party - "Waiting For The 7.18"
Download: Andrew Bird - "Simple X"
Download: The 1900s - "Bring The Good Boys Home"
Download: Blue Ribbon Glee Club - "Waiting Room" (Fugazi Cover by Chicago Based Punk Choir Group)
Download: The Cinematics - "Break" (Scottish Dance-punk band)
Download: The Frames - "Falling Slowly"
Download: The Changes - "Water Of The Gods"
Download: The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - "Tear Down The Opera House" (Chicago punk-folk band who just signed to Bloodshot Records)
Download: Art Brut - "I Will Survive"
Download: Dan Deacon - "The Crystal Cat"
Download: Head of Femur - "Leader and the Falcon"
Download: Mucca Pazza - "Alarm"
Download: O'Death - "Only Daughter"
Download: Cass McCombs - "Opium Flower"

This past weekend, I attended the 11th Annual Hideout Block Party, which is one of the great late summer/early fall music festivals for the city of Chicago. The host of the event, The Hideout, is one of the great, small bars in the city and a wonderful place to catch bands in an intimate setting. It's a bit out of the way (so it's more than just a clever name), but absolutely worth going there. Every year, The Hideout (whose owner, Tim Tuten, is the emcee at the Pitchfork Music Festival) hosts a block party. The area surrounding The Hideout is huge and industrial, for the most part, so they can have a big outdoor concert despite the fact that the venue itself is tiny, tiny, tiny.

All of the bands are great, the food is delicious, reasonably priced and made by locally-owned business and, most impressively, all of the proceeds go to charity - which included these organizations: Literacy Works, Tuesday's Child and the Thomas Drummond Elementary School . I've made a playlist consisting of all of the bands who played the block party this year. They include some familiar names, both nationally and on the Chicago scene, as well as some groups you may not have heard of. Listen to them all and enjoy!

Here's a list of highlights of the weekend:

-Andrew Bird finally being mixed by someone who gets his sound
-The Frames bringing up two star-struck female fans to accompany singer Glen Hansard on his Once ballad "Falling Slowly."
-The Frames bringing up the Blue Ribbon Glee Club for an absolutely pitch-perfect rendition of "Where Is My Mind?" by The Pixies.
-Dan Deacon's hilariously strange countdown to the beginning of his set.
-Art Brut's Eddie Argos razzing bandmate Jasper Future about his supposed lack of guitar playing prowess
-The 1900s rousing rendition of "Bring The Good Boys Home" to close their set (as well as Cynthia Plaster-Caster's introduction of the band)
-Blue Ribbon Glee Club's cover of "Spider of Mars"
-The short films accompanying Andrew Bird's performance

Those were but some of the excellent highlights of the weekend. But perhaps the best highlight of all was the interview I did with The 1900s. Look for that one in the next couple of weeks. They'll be more MP3s coming later today (I'm typing this at a computer other than my personal one and, naturally, stupid blogger didn't save the work I stayed up til 1 in the morning doing). So, for now, the MP3s posted at the top will have to suffice. But stay tuned (literally) and you'll get more.

It was an awesome weekend overall and I can't wait to see what The Hideout does next year.

(Jonathan Graef)