Puppets get down

Puppetmastaz, yes really

Justin already introduced us to the latest Modeselektor album, but I feel that it is right and proper to drop another track off of Happy Birthday!. You'll note that there are actually two tracks here; "Dark Side of the Frog" is the intro to "Dark Side of the Sun," the banger in question. True soldiers will download both tracks and listen to them sequentially, so as to experience the full effect of how slamming this track is. Please comment if you've ever heard the words "bitch motherfucker" combined in a more righteous way.

Modeselektor - The Dark Side of the Frog [Happy Birthday! LP, 2007]

Modeselektor - The Dark Side of the Sun (feat. Puppetmastaz) [Happy Birthday! LP, 2007]

In the spirit of boastful rap, here's Count Bass D explaining why no one can touch him behind the boards. The knives are drawn very long. Count keeps an awesome website which you should visit if you like this song.

Count Bass D - Sifting Through Records [Ohio Players EP, 2004]

One very important thought

Sad

I'm pretty sure that in all my excitement to describe the pathetic nature of Movedigital's demise, I forget to make one thing clear: this means that you won't be able to download any files in earlier posts. Sucks, I know. Even I (in my infinite magnanimity) feel your pain (o humble readers) because this was a useful way to have some tunes available in "the cloud."

But we soldier on, as all noble causes must. This is a track I meant to post earlier but got too lazy. I'm pretty sure it's one of Big L's earliest appearances on record. It's from 1992. "LETHAL!!"

Showbiz & A.G. - Represent ft. Big L, Lord Finesse, DeShawn

No point exists (Akron/Family)

1/6 Akron/Family

What kind of band starts off a song with gentle guitar strumming and the words: "I wanna see the thing-in-itself/I don't wanna think no more/I wanna see the thing-in-itself/I don't wanna think no more/I wanna see the thing-in-itself/I don't wanna see nothing else/I wanna see the thing-in-itself/I don't wanna think no more"? Obviously a band made up of dudes who were paying at least half-attention in philosophy class. Coincidence that one of this band's new songs is called "Phenomena"?

Akron/Family are one of the most exciting bands out right now. Critics lumped them in at first with the "freak-folk"/"New Weird America" movement, but on their current tour they're busting out prog rock songs, folk songs, soul songs and (yes) 7 man posse-style rap songs, all held together with some well-rehearsed dynamics. It's very bloggish to get hyperbolic about bands but I really do think they're in the upper echelon of contemporary rock music.

Akron/Family - There's So Many Colors [Love is Simple, 2007]

Akron/Family - Phenomena [Love is Simple, 2007]

Akron/Family - Suchness [Akron/Family, 2005]

Finally finally

A Ponys

Some changes here at Hey! Student, as the service I was using to host my files (Movedigital) up and folded over the past week. They made some heart-wrenching pleas for cash on their blog, to the effect of "hey we need $40,000 in five days can ya help?" I would link to these posts, in which the word "courage" cropped up an inordinate number of times, but the blog went down with the rest of the ship. They created a Facebook group called "Save Movedigital.com!," but it should really have been called The Saddest Facebook Group in the World, because last I checked it had about 8 members, and I'm pretty sure that three were the co-founders, meaning the rest were most likely their friends. So much for social networking eh?

So I guess 2004 was a pretty good year for rock. The one and only record by On!Air!Library! came out that year, and so did the first album by Chicago band The Ponys. Unlike some of their American contemporaries (this is when the Sufjan Stevens cult of influence was approaching its height), The Ponys were concerned mostly with straight-ahead rock. They sound way more like The Smashing Pumpkins, than, say, Pavement or any other indie touchstones.

I won't spoil it, but I really like the beginning of this album. The first track, "Let's Kill Ourselves," easily made it to the "Awesome Track 1s" show we did on the Indie Rock Suckfest (to my knowledge, still WNUR's longest-running Freeform program). Please enjoy Laced With Romance, hosted by the possibly temporary file service, Drop.io.

The Ponys - Laced With Romance, 2004