Fedde Le Grand has been producing since the turn of the century, exploding on the scene in 2006 with his ground shaking release of “Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit”. Ever since, Fedde has been teeter tottering on the “commercial” side of house but his new masterpiece assures us he’s sticking to his roots. Just released yesterday, “Autosave” is about as fresh as cinnamon sugar Febreeze.

Fedde Le Grand – Autosave <-♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand – Let Me Think About It <-♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ (198 kbps)

– Chronic Mncher

Nearly everyone in the English speaking world can recall being told at some point or another to “never judge a book by its cover” or that “it’s what’s on the inside that counts,” and while there certainly are exceptions to these mantras, London-based quartet-but-sometimes-quintet Yuck certainly is not. Beneath the surrealist and somewhat grotesque album art of the band’s self-titled debut is an absolute gem of an album.

Based in London, Hiroshima and New Jersey, the album itself is as eclectic as the band members. “Yuck” ranges from 1990’s-esque indie pop jams, with buoyant and breezy tracks like “Sunday” and “Georgia,” to lo-fi ethereal acoustics like “Stutter” and “Suicide Policeman.”

The emotion behind the songs vary as well, with the youthful declaration of freewill in “Sunday” saying “I’ve got a choice now, I’ve got a voice now” to the distorted repetition of “Should I fit in?” in lo-fi crush “Rubber.” While the album offers a broad range of sound and style, it is consistent in its retro appeal, meanwhile avoiding sounding like just-another-indie-throwback band.

Despite their age (backup vocalist Ilana is still in high school and frontman Daniel is 20), they’ve clearly developed their own unique sound. And their pure talent is evident—“Yuck” was recorded on a Dictaphone in guitarist Max Bloom’s home. With so much promise, Yuck is likely to generate a lot of hype over the next few months, and deservedly so. It will be exciting to see what the future holds for them.

-Witler

Tracklist

1. Get Away
2. The Wall
3. Shook Down
4. Holing Out
5. Suicide Policeman
6. Georgia
7. Suck
8. Stutter
9. Operation
10. Sunday
11. Rose Gives A Lily
12. Rubber

12FV

Although I’m sorry to have had to push the YOLO list to today, I’m pretty glad I did. Last night marked a milestone for indie music. If you haven’t heard already, Arcade Fire took the award for Album of the Year at the 53rd Annual Grammy’s beating Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Lady Antebellum! It took awhile for the magnitude of this to hit me, but the top40s music world just took sharp turn towards open mindedness. I only wish they chose more approachable songs to play to that crowd (i.e. The Suburbs). I’m excited to see where music goes in the coming years and even moreso to see Arcade Fire perform a headlining set at Coachella! If you want to see my post on them with my favorite songs, go here. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to the YOLO mentions this week, because I stumbled on some quality tunes. Here’s to 30 weeks! #proudofmyself #nottwitter

-Skinny Genes

YOLO30

Click here to grab them all.

Arcade Fire – Keep The Car Running (Indie Rock)
Breakbot – Please Don’t (French House)
The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness (Rock)
Empire of the Sun – We Are the People (TGIK Remix) (Electronic/Indie)
The Killers – Smile Like You Mean it [TGIK’s broken heart mix] (Electronic Indie)
Dada Life – White Noise Red Meat (No Body’s Moombahton Remix) (Electronic/Moombatohn)
Tame Impala – Solitude Is Bliss (Psychedelic Rock)

Redial, a heavy electro group from Australia, began a competition; challenging DJs and producers from all over the world to remix their electrotrash, ‘Venom’. Many stepped up to the plate, including Drivepilot; however, One Man Ben has the key to my electro loving heart.

Redial – Venom (One Man Ben Remix) 192kbps

Bonus

GlowTape! (aka Dan Cella) is an up and coming producer out of South Florida. Here’s some solid mash to get you through the week.

Bittersweet Electric Sky Touch (GlowTape!’s String Cheese Mash Up)
A 5th of Kryptonite (GlowTape!’s 5th of Sanity Mix)
Steve Angello VS Cream – Sunshine Of Knas (GlowTape! Mashup)

– Chronic Mncher

Armed with a slew of unconventional instruments and raw talent, New York’s Freelance Whales offer a quirky, youthful freshness that is nearly impossible not to fall in love with. Their debut album Weathervanes strikes a perfect balance between melodic/instrumental innovation and general eccentricity to produce an album that you can’t help but smile while listening to. It’s optimistic without being too poppy and charming without being cheesy. With sweetly idiosyncratic lyrics (i.e., “Shut me up with your long tubesocks/they don’t scream ‘Hey, let’s just be friends’”) and a folksy vibe, Weathervanes manages to fit in with the indie greats of the past decade.

Appeals to fans of: The Postal Service, Arcade Fire, Dawes, Local Natives, Frightened Rabbit

-Witler

Tracklist

1. Generator (First Floor)
2. Hannah
3. Location
4. Channels
5. Starring
6. Kilojoules
7. Broken Horse
8. Danse Flat
9. Ghosting
10. We Could Be Friends
11. Vessels
12. Generator (Second Floor)
13. The Great Estates

Full album

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to successfully compile C+A+D‘s first exclusive interview with none other than The Twelves. I was a little ecstatic to be given this opportunity because I can’t count the number of hours I’ve spent on their essential mix and remixes. It’s such a fulfilling experience to see the faces behind such appreciated talent and, in this case, hear what they have to say. It also made the trip up to SF that much more worth it considering they threw down the funkiest two and a half hour set we could have asked for. Being star-struck aside, I feel like this interview will shed light on a lot of info you all probably didn’t know about this glorious duo.

C+A+D: How has touring been so far for you guys?
12s: This was the third show actually, so there is not a lot to tell quite yet. We played Edmonton and Vancouver in Canada and San Fran tonight. So far so good though! Edmonton was a Thursday and there was like 800 people and tonight sold out also so, so far so good.

C+A+D: What’s with the lack of LA dates? I know there is a pretty massive fan base waiting for you guys to come back after HARD Summer.
12s: We weren’t able to set dates down there because of Coachella. You’re not supposed to play around the area 2-3 months before and after. It’s the one place we really would play and every tourist wants to play…especially because we’re really tight with the promoter there.

C+A+D: Well I was going to ask this later, but how did you guys feel about getting that Coachella spot? Have you ever been? It’s a pretty major accomplishment as far as the music scene goes around America.
12s: No, no..we’ve never been. We only believed it when we saw the poster. Up til then we heard only rumors and were like “Is this gonna happen??” But only when it’s on the poster on the official site, we can say, you know..it IS gonna happen.

C+A+D: Yeah that’s what I was waiting for…people are always trying to get everyone hyped with fake posters. It’s frustrating.
12s: We were on the fake poster…and uhh we spread it to everyone haha. We saw the message board and people were all excited about it, and we just thought it was funny. We didn’t want to deny it. But we really didn’t know until it was on the official site.

C+A+D: And you guys have never been or heard of the magnitude of the event?
12s: We’ve heard of it ever since we started. When we started, playing at Coachella was like..”the thing.”

C+A+D: Exactly! Coachella is where it’s at as far as it goes around here. Congrats on that!
12s: Yeah it’s something you put on your tombstone…”Played at Coachella 2000 whatever.” haha

C+A+D: It’s going to be cool. I know you guys said you’re bigger on the club shows but Coachella has its own thing going on. Thousands of people are going to see you guys.
12s: I dunno how many people are going to watch us, but we’re definitely going to watch a lot of people.

C+A+D: A couple years ago when I went I saw Fleet Foxes and I noticed you guys like to remix them from your essential mixes and others that are just floating around.
12s: Yeah yeah yeah, some guy really wanted to hear us play it so we put it in this mix..He pretty much demanded it. Not sure if the Fleet Foxes guys would like it though.

C+A+D: When did you guys start touring internationally? What’s your favorite place that you’ve toured at so far? Any places you guys want to go that you haven’t been?
12s: 2007. It was a small tour. We were sleeping at promoters houses, going from New York to Chicago but it was good fun. We really love playing here (San Francisco), I know it sounds cliche, but it was the first place we played at in the U.S. And yeah sure! We’re supposed to go to Rome, so we’d love to get that done.

C+A+D: And now the question that had to be asked..why The Twelves?
12s: It’s actually a weird coincidence. We were born in the same city, on the same day, same year, same everything…July 12, 1980. [Luciano] He’s my evil twin. haha

C+A+D: I was really curious as to how you guys felt about this. But you can’t read any bio, any description, any anything without you guys being referred to as “Brazil’s answer to Daft Punk.” It was even in your essential mix.
12s: Ahhhh we hate that..we hate that. We can’t compare. [Luciano] I did shake Guy Manuel’s hand in Paris and I revere them. But that’s the closest we get. It’s embarrassing..I wonder who came up with it. [João] Pete Tong? In the essential mix? [Luciano] Nahh he’s an announcer he doesn’t come up with marketing slogans..I don’t think so anyway?

C+A+D: How is the scene in Brazil? How did you guys start doing what you’re doing given what’s going on down there?
12s: I think we started mainly because of a lack of a scene, in Rio at least. I dunno, there’s a small indie rock scene in Rio, but it’s pretty much people just playing the same tracks every night. So we wanted to try and do better than that. We were in an indie band, but we wanted to try to make tracks for the dance floor setting.

C+A+D: What other instruments can you guys play? What made you guys want to do the DJing thing instead?
12s: [Luciano] In the band I played bass and João played guitar, but I feel like I was more of a drummer by trade. I had been playing drums for like 8 years. But yeah we were trying haha it just didn’t really work out. Didn’t go anywhere.

C+A+D: Do you guys listen to songs differently now that you’ve been remixing as much as you have? What’s your favorite remix that you’ve done?
12s: [João] I think so, yeah. I think people got scared of the remix scene though, because it kinda got out of hand. [Luciano] Awhile ago it was easier to find vocals for tracks so we could remix with them. Now people don’t really release vocals as much as they used to. Because if you do, you get like 30 remixes in a day and most of them are shit. [Luciano] Favorite remix of ours? I like the Fever Ray one. [João] And I really like The Virgins one we did.

Random dude in the hotel lobby: If you were being attacked by a swarm of midget monkeys flinging poo, which one of you would run and which would stay and fight?
12s: [João] ha! I would just laugh probably. [Luciano] I would make a bracelet out of their heads for sure.

C+A+D: What about producing? Now that you’ve guys have pretty much mastered the remix thing…are you going to try and make some more originals?
12s: Ehh we haven’t mastered anything. We’re always trying, but we’re always touring. It takes a lot of time to get used to the studio environment again and start being productive. If you’re doing a lot of gigs, it gets tough. [Luciano] I like hearing when you hear a band made an album in the country side, in an abandoned warehouse. I think it’s a good thing. You need to isolate yourself from email..and whatever. You have to focus. [João] I envy artists who can produce while they tour. It’s so hard. Because in my time off, I don’t even want to listen to music, you know? Sometimes, silence really is golden.

C+A+D: How about the essential mix? How’d you guys go about pulling that off and laying out the tracks and stuff?
12s: Someone new a guy that new a guy that new a guy, pretty much. [João] We were supposed to go home and do the essential mix for two weeks, and we really wanted to do it that way. And the guy was like, “No you have to do it now!” We were touring at the time too, so it’s actually a live recording from a show in Scotland. [Luciano] We were going to do the London one, but it turned out to be shit. I rented a bass and stuff to do it live, but it didn’t really work. [João] Yeah plus you were really drunk…

C+A+D: Is there ever a time you feel like you’ve made it? Like you’re where you want to be? Or are there things you still want to accomplish?
12s: Those moments definitely exists, but they last like 30 seconds, and then after that 30 seconds you’re like “nahh gotta go do it bigger next time.” You forget about it. There are ups and downs to the whole thing. When we go home and we play 5 nights a week, it all feels really good, but when we start traveling you just feel like you could do better. But ultimately, no one is ever satisfied with what they have. We’re happy.

C+A+D: Last one. You’re stranded on an island..1 album, 1 bottle of alcohol. What’s it going to be?
12s: [Luciano] Bottle of alcohol, easy: Kettle One. [João] Probably have a 6 pack of Hoegaarden. Album? Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins. [Luciano] I’d take Mozart’s Requiem.

C+A+D: That’s it then..Thanks a lot dudes and for the fucking awesome show.
12s: Our pleasure, really. Time for Arizona in the morning..

If you want to see videos I got from the stage, check out our YouTube page. It was a massive sold out show, and rightfully so.

Bonus Funk

Fever Ray – Seven (The Twelves Remix) Delightful Choice!
Radiohead – Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)
Daft Punk – Aerodynamic (The Twelves Remix)

Every once and a while I’ll scope some of my ancient iTunes playlists and unearth some long lost buried treasures. This morning I haphazardly found myself browsing an inconspicuous folder labeled ‘elton’; I stumbled upon something EXTRA special!

Immeasurable contributions to the music world, an inspiration to many and, one of the greatest DJs of all time, DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) was a true pioneer. Adam had this incredible ability to mix the unmixable; he would fuse hip-hop, electro, breaks, 80’s, funk… DJ AM took any and every possible genre and could blend them in a whirl of ear pleasing goodness. I had the extraordinary opportunity to witness DJ AM and Travis Barker lay down the most eye popping, panty dropping, face rocking set at Coachella 09’, without a doubt, the greatest hour of my life (you can snag the set here). The man, the legend… you’d think he had it all. Unfortunately, despite his massive success, Adam was unable to drop a nasty drug habit. August 28^th 2009, a date that will never be forgotten.

On a bit of a happier note, here’s a five-part set DJ AM threw down for Elton John’s 60th birthday bash (6 hours of auditory satisfaction). The set’s tone is on the mellow side, perfect for those early morning cram sesh’s or those late night Del Taco runs.

DJ AM – Elton John’s Kickback Part 1 (1:19:43)
DJ AM – Elton John’s Kickback Part 2 (1:15:29)
DJ AM – Elton John’s Kickback Part 3 (1:01:43)
DJ AM – Elton John’s Kickback Part 4 (1:08:03)
DJ AM – Elton John’s Kickback Part 5 (1:20:00)

DJ AM Rest.In.Power.

– Chronic Mncher