One of the best tracks off ontime RS Artist to Watch MGMT's debut is “The Handshake,” a psych-rock headtrip that features no repeating verse or chorus. As the group’s Ben Goldwasser told Rolling Stone last November about the band’s approach to songwriting, “We write specifically not to have traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure, and we try to challenge ourselves and see if we can write songs that didn’t fall back on that.”

No kidding: MGMT have just dropped a brand new jam that, like “The Handshake,” also features no repeating verse or chorus. Only this time, Goldwasser and his songwriting partner Andrew Van Wyn Garden have stretched their songwriting philosophy into a 13-minute psych-rock mindfuck that features about a half-dozen song segments masterfully woven together. (You can pick up the tune, called "Metanoia," at iTunes; check out a live version above.) There’s a little something for everyone here: sunny Beatles-style pop; searing shrieks of electric guitar; theatrical, over-the-top vocals that evoke Freddie Mercry; country-tinged slide guitar; pipe organs; eerie, Haunted House-appropriate dirges. It’s insanely ambitious — but somehow these guys pull it off. And at ninety-nine cents, this thing is a bargain.

Who: Malibu's Shwayze. One-half L.A. playboy and one-half trailer park MC, the duo look to prove they're more than just reality television stars with their self-titled debut album.

Sounds Like: If you're unfamiliar with their MTV show Buzzin', Cisco Adler describes the duo's tunes as "California chill stoner music," as evidenced by the duo's Sugar Ray-meets-Pharcyde first single "Buzzin'." Shwayze, the other half of the duo, says Adler's music industry father Lou "brought the California sound in the Sixties. Cisco and I are reinventing it for right now."

Vital Stats:

(more...)

Wondering what's blaring through the speakers at our interns' desks? They'll tell you — themselves — in our newest feature What the Interns Are Listening To.

Who: Creature Feature, a Los Angeles two-piece known for their horror-movie-driven anthems, make the kind of music that will be immediately recognized by avid Danny Elfman fans. Formed after a Halloween party in 2005, the duo made up of Curtis RX on guitar and Erik X on synths get their inspiration from slasher flicks like Blacula and Creepshow.


Sounds Like: Fantasy rock: Creature Feature's seemingly light, carnival-like songs have dark undertones and evoke lots of playfully gory imagery, like The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride do onscreen.

(more...)

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Hospital Ships
The Buzz: Fractured folk from Lawrence, KS, the Ships combine quavering vocals with delicate instrumentation.
Listen If: You'd like the Flaming Lips if only their songs were a bit tinier.
Key Track: "The Shots I Drank," a seasick nursery rhyme played out against rolling piano and hazy flutes.

The Band: Marching Band
The Buzz: Swedish duo crafts pillowy pop, brightened with bands of psychedelia.
Listen If: You spend Saturdays eating mushrooms and listening to the Shins.
Key Track: "Gorgeous Behavior," which is full of twinkling guitars and cascading AM radio harmonies.

The Band: Women
The Buzz: California band with un-Googleable name write lower-than-lo-fi pop songs.
Listen If: You like songs where you can see the stitching, and care more about melody than instrumentation.
Key Track: "Group Transport Hall," where a swift acoustic strum carries a spry, childlike vocal.

Who: Lo-fi folk-rock quintet from Philadelphia featuring Adam Granduciel of the Capitol Years and guitarist Kurt Vile, who releases solo records boasting stunning fuzzed-out guitar jams.

Sounds Like: Bob Dylan cranking out jams with Sonic Youth. Granduciel, whose adenoidal croon eerily recalls the Bard's, has a knack for penning cryptic ruminations on life, death and hitting the road. "There's a song you hear on the radio/ It's a funeral march," he sings on "Arms Like Boulders." "So you change the channel/ But it's all you hear/ As you’re driving up the 101 from Mexico to California." Meanwhile, his band turns spacey noise-blues epics that sometimes stretch on beyond the 10-minute mark.

Vital Stats:

(more...)

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Spitzer
The Buzz: French electronic duo with no interest in escorts and a penchant for music that sounds like bright green sine-waves.
Listen If: You have a fondness for fat keyboards and skinny beats.
Key Track: The remix of Kylie Minogue's "In My Arms," which sets the Aussie diva's soulful vocals against spitting synths.

The Band: Air France
The Buzz: Bright pop duo deliver everything the Swedes have taught us to expect: sweeping synth-strings, sweet pop vocals and skyrocketing synthesizers. Added plus: Air France are more subdued than most.
Listen If: You fondly recall St. Etienne, or like music that implies more than it states outright.
Key Track: "June Evenings," which buries a light, heavenly melody under layers of fizzy atmospherics.

The Band: Kasai All-Stars
The Buzz: Endlessly inventive Congolese outfit is the second band selected for the mighty Congotronics series, and their blend of bustling thumb pianos, ecstatic chants and otherworldly rhythms is a long, gleeful trip into the surreal.
Listen If: The words "you've never heard anything like this before" are your idea of ultimate praise.
Key Track: "Quick as White," whose sublime morse-code rhythms quickly turn space age and spectacular.

Who: Los Angeles' Metro Station, a sugarcoated emo quartet led by the older siblings of two Disney stars — including one who's currently topping the charts.

Sounds Like: Led by singer/guitarist Trace Cyrus (yes, Miley's old brother), Metro Station bridge the gap between Fall Out Boy's emo pop and High School Musical, especially on tracks liked their million-selling synthed-out single "Shake It." "We never thought this one would succeed," Cyrus says. "At first we just had the chorus. Our manager told us, 'You need to write verses for this!'"

Vital Stats:

(more...)

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Black Kids
The Buzz: The backlash is on: formerly adored Florida band netted buzz this week for amassing blogosphere bile.
Listen If: You want to hear what every pasty 20something is arguing about on their LiveJournal.
Key Track: "Hit the Heartbreaks," which is all polished pout and pretty chorus.

The Band: Ida Maria
The Buzz: Norwegian vocalist Ida Maria Børli Sivertsen powers through brash power-punk with snide, sneering panache.
Listen If: You've spend the last year wishing someone would show those Scandinavian buzz bands where the volume knob was.
Key Track: One of the hands-down best singles of 2008 (never mind that it technically came out in late '07), "Oh My God" starts like PJ Harvey and explodes into full-on neurotic chaos. Check the video for the full freakout.

The Band: Sic Alps
The Buzz: Take in the trash! Deliciously scuzzy San Fran duo got no time for fancy production.
Listen If: You've got a soft spot for the No-Fi Outta Tune Roughed Up Blues.
Key Track: The blown-out garage number "Message From the Law," which does acid-washed Nuggets rock on a 25-cent budget.

Who: Indie rock vets Love as Laughter, who are finally ready to quit their day jobs with their first proper studio album Holy.

Sounds Like: The rougher side of the Seattle music scene with elements of Pavement and Neil Young thrown in the mix. After 14 years, more than 20 band members and five DIY albums under his belt, LAL frontman Sam Jayne entered the studio with the Clash producer Joe Blaney to create an album full of songs Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock calls "amazing," with tracks like the Talking Heads-ish "All Parts of Me" and the romantic rocker "Konny and Jim."

Vital Stats:

(more...)

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet. This week: a few choice picks from some buzzworthy acts on the Hype Machine.

The Band: The War on Drugs
The Buzz: Trio from Philly do a cockeyed take on FM country-rock.
Listen If: You find yourself spending a lot of time defending Neil Young's Trans.
Key Track: "Arms Like Boulders," where Adam Grandciel's Petty-esque moan yawns across fields of gleaming guitars.

The Band: Abe Vigoda
The Buzz: L.A. experimentalists center instrumental free-falls with sturdy, earnest melodies.
Listen If: The thing that bugs you about free jazz is the tunelessness.
Key Track: "Bear Face," where a barrage of 16th notes suddenly kick out into a motorik jam that would do Neu! proud.

The Band: Nomo
The Buzz: Michigan collective do computerized take on Afrobeat.
Listen If: You ever tried to replicate Fela Kuti cuts with your Commodore 64.
Key Track: "Brainwave," where a single electronic squelch kicks and pitches over rolling percussion.

[Photo: Courtesy Secretly Canadian]