Del The Funky Homosapien - whose real name I dearly wish was “Derek” - has rather a fine new album out called Funk Man (The Stimulus Package). I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the latter part of that title was probably added at the last minute, following recent economic events

The album’s available for free download, but just in case you’re thinking that must mean it’s a pile of unlistenable garbage, I can assure you that’s not the case. Just listen to “Land Of Funk”, below - it risks throwing too many things at the wall, but the end result is a vibrant, bouncy delight which will make you want to have a funky barbecue, whatever one of those is.

And… doesn’t it remind you of a certain Justin Timberlake song?

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Del The Funky Homosapien - Funk Man (Stimulus Package) free download

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday April 16th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

That chap to the right, crying like a girl while pretending to have gotted something in his eye, is Hervé. You might know him as The Count from off of The Count And Sinden, who released that amazing “Beeper” banger last year with Kid Sister. It was the one that went “hitmeonmybeeper beepah beepah”, and so on.
Despite being described in press releases as French, and despite having all these silly names, Hervé is actually an Englisher. But he does make the kind of music like you might expect to find on French label Ed Banger.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday February 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Further proof that anyone toting a guitar in 2009 might as well chop it up for firewood, Milke (right; click image to enlarge) have already been big-upped (bigged-up?) by lots of people far cooler than I. “Love Get Out Of My Way” is released as a single on March 16th, with a debut album due to follow later this year.
With all the plaudits they’ve received from the cool kids I was like, “Not going to like ‘Love Get Out Of My Way’. Shan’t”. But then I listened to it, and I was like, “OK, it’s good.” And then I heard the Designer Drugs remix - which you can download for free after the jump - I was like, “THAT IS FUCKING BRILLIANT.”
And then everyone in the office was like, “You in the corner, we are trying to work here, please stop talking to yourself.” And I was like, “OK.”

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday February 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am

Being a fan of upbeat West Coast-style jangle rock, I Was A King’s “Norman Bleik” is proving pleasing to my ears at the moment. The beginning reminds me a lot of Teenage Fanclub’s “Neil Jung”, which is good because I love that song, yet bad because if I say it aloud it is yet another instance of me showing my age.
It totally passed me by that this song’s title probably refers to the Fanclub’s lead singer, “Norman Blake”, until one of Stereogum’s smart-arse commenters pointed it out. Another sign that age is withering my brainium, perhaps.
Hang on, this song title is a sly reference to Teenage Fanclub’s “Neil Jung”, which, as I mentioned, it sounds like! Ha! Take that Stereogummers! You missed that, didn’t ya?!
Anyway, download the track after the jump if you’d like. I Was A King are Norwegian and can be found here.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday February 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm

I’m sure I can’t be the only person with feelings towards Jason Schwartzman (left, click image to enlarge) that verge on the psychotically jealous. He looks cool, he can act, he’s funny, he can play every instrument ever invented, he can sing, he can write really pretty songs. And he NEVER leaves the toilet seat up.
His second album under the guise of Coconut Records, Davy, was released to iTunes last week, but you can currently stream it for freezies at Spinner.
Like Coconut Records’ first release, Nighttiming, it’s a charming, sparely produced little collection of pop-rock tunes. I’m not sure it has anything as instantly affecting as his debut disc’s “West Coast”, or as chart-friendly as its title track, but it is a pleasing listen which, I imagine, will reveal more loveliness with further listens as the end of winter comes into sight.
Listen to Davy here

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday January 26th, 2009 at 11:45 am

Fabchannel.com - given the name, you won’t be surprised to hear it’s Dutch - has a pretty good webcast tonight. They’re showing indie darlings Of Montreal, supported by Casiokids, live and for free on their site from 7.30pm.
The site, rather like Grand Crew in France, allows you to stream high-quality footage from previous performances as well. As I write I’m looking at MGMT’s performance at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, where Of Montreal will play tonight.
Other extremely decent acts whose gigs you can stream include Those Dancing Days, Junior Boys, The Teenagers Calexico, Kate Nash, Lightspeed Champion and the dearly departed Pipettes.
Head here to see Of Montreal live tonight

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm

A heck of a lot has been written about Spotify recently, but since Shiny Media’s office soundtrack is currently being provided by the application it’s only fair I give it a mention as well.
Spotify is an application you download, and then it provides you with free access to stream thousands of tracks and full albums. The interface is really easy to use and you don’t need to wait for tracks to load up - they just play. Then, if you want, you can drag and drop them into a playlist which you can send to other Spotify users as a URL. You can also make your playlist collaborative, so other users can add tracks remotely.
That’s what we’ve been doing in the office, meaning the music we work to can vary wildly and, as you’d expect, lead to witch-hunts where we try and root out the person who put on “Cotton-Eye Joe” (actually, that was me). The one catch is that every 20 minutes or so you’ll hear a short advert, which seems a small price to pay for such a wide selection of free music.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 21st, 2009 at 11:50 am

This is a hipster collaboration so cool it’s a wonder it didn’t end in a fight to the death over whose shades were colourfulest.
Fortunately, as well as being very of the moment, M.I.A, Santogold and Spank Rock are all very amazing, as this - sorry, there’s simply no other term for it - BOOMING BIZNESS illustrates.
If you’re wondering who N.A.S.A are, they’re Spike Jonze’s brother and a pro skateboarder. Of course. It couldn’t just be a couple of bedroom geeks, could it? They have an album due for release next month with a whole host of stellar buddies helping them out, including Tom Waits, Method Man, David Byrne and Karen O. See a full tracklist here.
With a cast list like that and beats like these… Click over to stream “Whatchadoin’?”

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 14th, 2009 at 11:50 am

You’ve watched Fever Ray’s new arse-chilling video so now it must be time for the rather long remix, yesh?
Hey hey hey, come back - if you have a monotonous spreadsheet to complete in the next eight minutes and twenty-four seconds, this will DEFINITELY help you. Get it into your ears and get on with it.
Older viewers: do the first two minutes remindez-vous of The Breeders’ “Cannonball”?

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 14th, 2009 at 10:10 am

Oh well, best make that 199 digital music startups in 2008. Mixwit, the site which allowed users to create online mixtapes and - crucially - made them look pretty, has announced it will shut down before the end of the year.
The news was posted on the site’s blog on December 10th, but perhaps the news didn’t circulate effectively, because now the site’s creators have mailed the blog post to users. They remark:
We’ve put a year of work into Mixwit so this choice wasn’t taken lightly. I won’t go into the details of our situation but state simply that we boldly marched into in a position best described as “between a rock and a hard place.”

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday December 18th, 2008 at 10:10 am