Star Slinger: "Moet & Reese"

That artwork says it all.  And by that I mean these beats is pregnant.


Star Slinger - Moet & Reese by Star Slinger

CSS: "City Grrrl"

Indie rock fans are often excoriated for being too dismissive of mainstream pop music - obligatory, token coverage of R&B titans like Rihanna and Beyonce in Pitchfork and other indie-centric blogs not really fooling anybody - but to that I would respond: if Top 40 pop music is about anything other than formulaic, unchallenging pablum (musical comfort food) repeated ad nauseum - same production values, sound-alike verse-chorus-verse structures - then there would be no reason "indie" mainstays like CSS wouldn't regularly show up on the charts.  Unpolished, rough around the edges beat aside, "City Grrrl" has everything the mainstream demands out of a Katy Perry song - catchy yet familiar chorus, teen-friendly rock star posturing - but, unlike an actual Perry song, there is a sense of individuality here.

So basically my rebuttal is this: it's not so much that indie rock fans reject pop music as it is that pop fans tend to marginalize anything that indie aficionados would consider "pop" in the first place.  Without the multimedia blitz of cookie cutter superstar producers, high profile hip hop guest stars for that added street cred, and frequent radio play sandwiched between established giants like Coldplay and Lady GaGa, what chance does CSS - an inherently pop band whether you want to admit it or not - have in the cold light of the status quo?


CSS - City Grrrl feat. SSION from Freak! Produtora on Vimeo.

Glass Candy: "Warm in the Winter"

Could Portland become the next Brooklyn?  Maybe.  They already think they invented food trucks and the meme "Keep ____ Weird", so why couldn't they have invented indie rock as well?  Smug pretense aside, there is a veritable shitload of great bands coming out of the Pacific NW right now, and not only is Glass Candy signed to Italians Do It Better (this year's Mexican Summer, for those of you who don't read your Hipster Runoff) but I just noticed they put out an album called Geto Boys in 2009.  The Geto Boys had a song called "Read These Nikes".  Nike is based in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland.  Coincidence?  Yes, absolutely.

Ford and Lopatin: "Too Much Midi (Please Forgive Me)" [Alan Braxe Remix]

There's a certain genre I like to think of as Alamo Drafthouse music.  For those non-Austinites, the Alamo Drafthouse is a movie theater chain based in Austin, Texas that programs a lot of cult and niche films, particularly at their flagship downtown location.  They also show a lot of clips and ephemera prior to the movie for early arrivals, and these clip sequences tend to be capped off by a highlight reel of upcoming "event" programming.  These highlights themselves are underscored by some kind of upbeat electronic track almost without fail, and the only thing I have to say about Alan Braxe's remix of Ford & Lopatin's "Too Much Midi (Please Forgive Me)" is that it's the most perfect Alamo Drafthouse song I've ever heard.



 Ford & Lopatin -Too Much Midi (Please Forgive Me) (Alan Braxe Remix) by ALAN BRAXE

The Rapture: "How Deep Is Your Love?" [A-Trak Remix]

A Bee Gees cover from The Rapture?  Not so fast.  We may live in a post-racial world but it's not quite perfect yet.  In the meantime do settle for this delightful A-Trak remix of "How Deep Is Your Love", arguably the most club-/radio-friendly Rapture cut since "House of Jealous Lovers" all the way back in the pre-hashtag era.  The album version may need a little extra juice in getting over on the mainstream, but it has definite remix potential, as witnessed below.


 The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love (A-Trak Remix) by A-Trak

Captain Ahab: "The Kingdom of Light"

Jesus Christ.  This is not safe for work, this is not safe for any goddamn thing.  If you can get past the ingestion and expulsion of bodily fluids and flash-cut nudity, there are some interesting inoffensive visuals, but Captain Ahab and mad genius video director Lawrence Klein are not afraid to galvanize their audience.  You're either down for whatever or you should stick with Fleet Foxes camera phone clips.

Klein appears to have done most if not all of Captain Ahab's videos thus far.  They're all pretty madcap and NSFW, but unless I've overlooked something I'd say "The Kingdom of Light" is their collaborative magnum opus of gross out sleaze.  Judge for yourself, but you've been warned.
 The Kingdom of Light from Captain Ahab on Vimeo.