Good Weather For Airstrikes

Yeah, it took me a long time to announce the winner of the Guillemots prize pack contest, and yeah, I’m sorry, but the goods are still available and the time has finally come to announce the lucky winner. Congratulations are in order for none other than “Lodi C”, who will be receiving the fabulous Guillemots t-shirt dress, as well as a copy of the ‘Motts debut From The Cliffs EP and an autographed copy of the beautiful vinyl double-gatefold edition of the EP. Lodi, you’ve been contacted via e-mail, congrats.

As for those of you who didn’t win, don’t throw your laptop across the room in a jealous rage just yet; there’s still some Guillemots downloadable goodness to be salvaged in this post. The band’s debut LP dropped earlier this month, and while it wasn’t quite the album of the year that I had hoped it would be, it’s still one of the year’s elite releases and the best debut of 2006. While none of the new, non-EP tracks are able to top the unparalleled bliss achieved by “Trains To Brazil” (though to be fair, no other song this year has been able to either), the LP has it’s fair share of amazing new songs, the best of which are title-track “Through The Windowpane” and “Annie, Let’s Not Wait”, with that little stuttering keyboard effect in the former being one of the sonic highlights of the album. When it comes to Guillemots’ music, I’ve always much-prefered their more upbeat tracks, and unfortunately Through The Windowpane is heavy on the slower ballad-type songs (though that is by no means to say they aren’t good as well), but every track on the album serves to show the innovation of the group’s musicianship, and first and foremost, the absolutely incredible range and power of lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s unbelievable voice. Album closer “Sao Paolo”, which the band regularly uses to close their live sets as well, is a shining example of Dangerfield’s amazing songwriting ability and the band’s aforementioned ingenuity, testing one’s patience with it’s 11+ minutes run-time but ultimately rewarding the listener with it’s powerful “thrown across water” refrain that begins at the seven minute mark and eventually erupts into an impromptu latin jam session that nods to the song’s title and guitarist Lord Mangrao’s Brazilian heritage. This band’s future couldn’t be brighter, and I cherish the mere idea that I will someday be able to witness their brilliance live. Keep an eye out for another Guillemots-related treat coming in the very near future, but for now enjoy these three gems from the new album.

MP3s:
“Through The Windowpane” - Guillemots ((highly recommended))
“Annie, Let’s Not Wait” - Guillemots
“Sao Paolo” - Guillemots

One of my goals for GWFAS 2.0 is to post more high-quality live recordings, and what better place to start than with my favorite live recording from my favorite band: Bloc Party’s set from last summer’s Leeds Festival. Bloc Party bring to the table an unrivaled vitality and energy in their recorded material, and this energy is only intensified exponentially in a live setting. More often than not, crowd-generated noise detracts from the quality of a live recording, but in this instance the sound of thousands of simultaneous hand claps (see: “Banquet”) and the crowd’s chants and cheers only adds to the intensity of the performance. Bloc is the kind of band that is absolutely made to play to thousands in a festival setting, as they’re able to build off the energy of the crowd better than any other band I’ve ever seen, and this recording from last year’s Leeds Festival is perfect evidence of this. A must-have for any Bloc Party fan.

SOUND QUALITY: A-

Bloc Party, Live @ Leeds 2005:
01. “Banquet”
02. “Helicopter”
03. “Little Thoughts”
04. “She’s Hearing Voices”
05. “So Here We Are”
06. “The Pioneers”
07. “This Modern Love”
08. “Two More Years”

My only Bloc Party live experience, and the pinnacle of my life to this point, transpired only one month ago at VICE’s Intonation Music Festival in Chicago, and it was, suffice-it-to-say, a little bit life-changing for me. Though the setlist revealed their intention to play two new live songs, “Uniform” and “Wet”, the latter was excluded in a tragic turn of events. However, “Uniform” sounded brilliant and is shaping up to be one of the most diverse and unique songs Bloc Party has ever witten, with four distinct sections all with their own respective climaxes and lyrics that wonderfully sum up the detatched indifference in the youth of today’s society (for the full lyrics click here, courtesy of James from Blog Party). Fortunately for everyone, a very high-quality recording of the song has surfaced on the internet that is even more clear and crisp than the Coachella recording from a few months back. Download the new track below to get a better glimpse at the evolution of Bloc Party’s songwriting and the new style that is to be featured on the group’s sophomore album in favor of the dance punk sound they’ve come to be known for. Russell Lissack’s guitar solo in the song’s waning moments is his perhaps his best ever, and my desire to hear a studio version of the track grows more and more insufferable with every passing day.

MP3: “Uniform” (Live @ Intonation, 6.25.06) - Bloc Party ((highly recommended))

It’s official: Good Weather for Airstrikes showed up late to the party. No lie, we’ve been sitting on this for a while now, and my lazy ass hasn’t gotten around to posting it yet. I know it’s a cop-out, but let me drop a little reality on you: no matter how late you are to a party, if you show up with Girl Talk’s Night Ripper you’re in no danger of missing the fun, ’cause you had the fun with you the whole time.

Girl Talk has been everywhere. Night Ripper made it to the Holy Grail: Pitchfork’s Best New Music list. The blogosphere is blowing up about Girl Talk, with good reason. This album is genre-defying. There aren’t many genre-defying albums any more; most genres have been pretty well defined in the past half-century. I’m not saying there aren’t countless groups that walk the line between genres Man In Black-style, but if you go so far as to consider the mash-up a genre, consider the genre defined. Night Ripper takes mash-ups not just to a whole new level, but to a whole new dimension. There are at least 200 different samples on the 16-track, 42-minute opus, and Girl Talk, some working better than others but all of them equally thought-inspiring. There are a handful of moments in every song where you’ve no choice but to sit back and think “how the hell did he do that?” Even if you don’t like this album (and, as a result, are an effectively soulless being), there’s no way you can’t appreciate Girl Talk’s complete mastery of mash-ups.

Though this album is undoubtedly best digested as a whole meal in one sitting, I can’t just post all 16 tracks. I highly recommend you buy this album (click here to do so), because Night Ripper is easily the best mash-up album ever crafted. Considering The Grey Album launched Danger Mouse to the Gorillaz-producing half-man half-Gnarls that he is, it’s impossible to fathom where Girl Talk is headed after this masterpiece.

“Too Deep” is probably my favorite song on the album. Dem Franchise Boyz club banger “Oh I Think Dey Like Me” provides the vocals over an ever-changing backdrop, but the highlight is probably halfway through when the instrumental from “Come Together” comes in, segueing perfectly in to some Smashing Pumpkins. The song closes out on the high-point of Houston-slick rhymes over The O.C.-theming boys of Phantom Planet’s “California” piano part.

“Smash Your Head” is officially Pitchfork’s favorite jam, with good reason. Lil’ Wayne and Nirvana is seemingly a match made in purgatory, but when it breaks out in to Jeezy’s “Soul Survivor” verse it’s a breath of fresh air. That drops out to what is hands down the best moment on the album: Biggie + Elton. Biggie’s opening verse from “Juicy” plays over “Tiny Dancer”’s memorable piano, leading in to a sped-up version of “Tiny Dancer”’s chorus, as sung by the love child of Elton John and Alvin and the Chipmunks (yeah, they all got in on the action).

The Purple Ribbon All-Stars’ “Kryptonite” gets chopped and screwed to start off “Bounce That”, before the memorable guitar intro to the Breeder’s “Cannonball” comes in. Out of nowhere come the Pointer Sisters, with smooth jazz not far off the horizon. By this point, you’re probably asking yourself how the hell this all works. The answer? Night Ripper is genius. I can’t explain it. It’s something you need to hear for yourself. Ludacris leads the song to its slow-riding close.

The Smashing Pumpkins show up again to open penultimate track “Overtime”, and it makes perfect sense to everyone now that Girl Talk has done it to lay Three 6 Mafia’s “Stay Fly” on top of the Pumpkins guitar heroics. The middle of the song goes straight middle school on your ass, ordering you to “make that tootsie roll…” to the front, to the left, and even to the right.

Night Ripper is something you need to hear to believe; no words can do it justice because sitting at home or at work reading all the insane combinations Girl Talk throws out you there is simply no way to fathom that it could actually work. The reason the album is genius is because it does. The whole album is a risk, and it’s the risky albums that stand the test of time. As long as the mash-up genre remains, Night Ripper will be a classic.

“Too Deep” - Girl Talk ((highly recommended))
“Smash Your Head” - Girl Talk ((highly recommended))
“Bounce That”- Girl Talk
“Overtime”- Girl Talk

My most anticipated movie of 2006 is far and away Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep, the visionary’s silver screen follow-up to 2004’s amazing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Gondry is my favorite music video director of all time, having directed the majority of the White Stripes’ incredible music video library as well as multiple amazing clips for The Chemical Brothers, Bjork and more. Gondry became one of my favorite major motion picture directors with Spotless Mind, his only US feature film release, and The Science of Sleep, due out in the US September 15 and starring Gael Garcia Bernal and the wonderful Charlotte Gainsbourg sees him primed to become an even more well known and sought after commodity in the US film market.

You can view the trailer or download it in iPod-compatible .mp4 format here. Be sure to note the tasteful placement of Death Cab’s “Your Heart Is An Empty Room” as the soundtrack in the second half, and though it’s my least favorite song on Plans (which doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t still really enjoy it), it really works for the trailer.

MP3: “Your Heart Is An Empty Room” – Death Cab For Cutie

The film is also notable as it marks Charlotte Gainsbourg’s first starring role in a major US film (though she played a small supporting role in 21 Grams), and Gainsbourg will be releasing a major solo album this summer in France and this fall in the US, which is one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Why would the debut record from a female solo artist whose work I’d never heard prior to this point make it onto my most anticipated albums list? Well, listen to this and tell me this isn’t the most exciting collaboration of 2006: Jarvis Cocker’s lyrics + music by Air + vocals by Charlotte Gainsbourg = Charlotte Gainsbourg’s debut, 5:55. Seriously.

A good amount of you are only familiar with 2 out of 3 of the name’s above (the second two if you’re French and slept through Pulp’s mid-90’s ascent to Brit Pop dominance, the first two for everyone else outside of France), but for those of you not in the know Charlotte Gainsbourg is the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg, a French pop star in the 1970’s who went onto a brilliant career scoring films in the 80’s. The elder Gainsbourg is generally regarded (especially in France) as one of the most brilliant musical minds of his era, and 5:55 will be Charlotte’s debut in the international music scene, though she released Charlotte Forever, which featured 13 year-old Charlotte singing songs written by father, in 1986. Presumably out of respect for her father, former Pulp frontman Cocker, whose lyrics were regarded by many as the quintessence of late-90’s working-class Brit Pop, has contributed the words for this record, which Gainsbourg sings in hushed delicate tones, with piano-based, otherworldly production courtesy of the French soft-electronica kings Air. Few other musicians, especially in the electronic realm, have such a complete mastery of their medium as Air does, and they are at the top of their game once again on 5:55. The production is centered around twinkling piano chords and wonderfully complements Gainsbourg’s tender voice. Charlotte’s vocals aren’t initially overwhelming; she possesses a voice that is neither powerful nor awe-inspiring, but her vocals have a very unique purity and delicacy to them that steadily endears her to the listener (think a much more hushed [and less vocoded] Imogen Heap on “Hide and Seek” for a reference point).

Despite my initial neutrality towards the album, it’s now firmly entrenched in heavy rotation on my iPod, with lead single “The Songs That We Sing” and likely eventual single “Everything I Cannot See” grabbing the spotlight as two of the best songs I’ve heard in 2006. This album is already predestined to be a huge hit in France when it’s released this summer, but the album is a darkhorse to be not only a critical hit but a commercial success as well, as the Fall US release will coincide with the release The Science of Sleep. The indie kids will love it because of the Cocker/Air connection, Starbucks twenty-somethings will like it because Starbucks will (or at least they should) sell it, your Mom will love it because it’s just the kind of stuff she likes, and pretty much everyone else will love it because it’s just that good. Now I feel really badly about building up the album so much only to stiff you on the mp3 (leaving you with a case of “aural” as Everett might say), but the high profile of the album in France means the posting of album mp3s to the internet would reap dire consequences, and I’m not tryin’ to go down like that (seeing as that’s already happened once this year). However, you can listen to snippets of the aforementioned lead single and the album’s title track at Charlotte’s MySpace page, and trust me that this’ll be one of the year’s best debuts and be sure to check it out when it drops this fall.

For those of you who’ve been crying yourselves to sleep ever since Daft Punk released Human After All, their incredibly lackluster follow-up to 2002’s incredibly flawless Discovery, it looks like there may be hope for you yet. Human After All was a crushing dissappointment to those who had fallen in love with Discovery, and while for fans of the French dancetronica kings it may have seemed like there was nothing left to live for, Justice are here to save the day. Incidentally, Justice, which is comprised of Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Auge, is an electronic duo also hailing from France, and to get an idea of what they sound like, try to imagine what Daft Punk might sound like if you drenched their jams in a thick layer of grime and sweat and sex. The perfect example of this sound and the group’s best work to date isn’t an original production but is actually the duo’s incredible remix of Simian’s “Never Be Alone”, which despite the fact that it’s been floating around European clubs for nearly three years now, has just been re-titled “We Are Your Friends” and released as a single (credited to Justice vs. Simian) on Virgin subsidary Ten Records. However, that’s not to say that the duo’s original productions are anything short of awesome, either. Justice’s debut release, the Waters of Nazareth EP, dropped last year in France and the UK, but has since seen a re-release with bonus remixes (including one by the lately-untouchable Erol Alkan) and the EP finally saw a domestic release last month on VICE Records. The title track is, as expected, the hottest jam on the album, and while I’m at a loss for words as to how to describe it as anything other than sheer, unadultered hotness, it’s one of the year’s better dance tracks and should definitely please anyone whose been waiting for the next Daft Punk ever since Human After All came out and shat all over fans’ hopes for the band.

The duo have also been in high demand as remixers, and have remixed tracks for Death From Above 1979, N.E.R.D., Franz Ferdinand, and even Britney, nearly all of which maintain the the high standard set by Justice’s other work, and you can get a taste of this below with the duo’s excellent remixes of DFA1979’s “Blood On Our Hands” and Franz Ferdinand’s “The Fallen”.

MP3s:
“Waters of Nazareth” - Justice ((highly recommended))
“We Are Your Friends” - Justice vs Simian ((highly highly recommended))
“Blood On Our Hands” (Justice Remix) - Death From Above 1979
“The Fallen” (Ruined by Justice Remix) - Franz Ferdinand

Prepare yourselves, Americans, because Toronto’s Pilate is ready to invade our country. Their first full-length, Caught by the Window, was released in 2003 in Canada, taking two and half years to make it stateside. Their follow-up, Sell Control for Life’s Speed, has already dropped in Canada. It’s American release has been delayed, however, because of the band’s name. They fear the litigious nature of the United States and have officially changed their name to Pilot Speed to avoid any court battles in America. The general consensus is that this new name is much less cool, but we hear at Good Weather for Airstrikes try to remain open-minded about such things, and the fact remains that the band itself is pretty good. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, and Pilate (er, Pilot Speed) is a pretty sweet band.

Sell Control for Life’s Speed covers a lot of ground in its eleven tracks. The instrumentation is very strong and quite varied, but it is lead singer Todd Clark’s voice that carries every song. The voice itself is evocative of Chris Martin, though slightly less overwrought. The best songs on the album see Pilate having a good time with their instruments during the verses and letting Clark’s voice take over for the often soaring choruses.

The first song, “Knife-Grey Sea”, rides a beautiful minute-long intro that completely drops out before the verse kicks in. One of the more emotional tracks on the album, the climax of an episode of Whistler, Canada’s version of The O.C. was written to follow perfectly the tempo of the song. The song was playing continually on set and in the editing room, and “Knife-Grey Sea” lends its crashing concluding crescendo to the scene perfectly.

The lead single for Sell Control for Life’s Speed, “Barely Listening”, is a bouncy, Death Cab-esque song with a haunting chorus. Though most would say that NHL ‘07 is not the best video game to be featured in when your goal is to leave the Canadian market and break big in America, “Barely Listening”’s inclusion on the game’s soundtrack can’t hurt its exposure stateside.

Pilate is in the process of shooting a video for the albums next single, “Ambulance”. The song is nothing special, and is definitely comparable to some of Snow Patrol’s new album, but Clark’s voice again sets it apart during the chorus. His voice isn’t necessarily the best I’ve heard, but it has a very compelling quality that serves to separate Pilate from their fellow indie pop-rockers such as Keane and Snow Patrol.

MP3s:
“Knife-Grey Sea” - Pilate
“Barely Listening“ - Pilate
“Ambulance“ - Pilate

PREFACE: This is somewhat of a repost, as I already wrote and posted this back in January on the old GWFAS, but I’ve had consistent requests for more Phones remixes and access to the old ones, which have been unavailable since the old site went down last month. Thus, I’ve updated the post with the rest of the Phones remixes I have, which amounts to nearly his entire remixography, save for a few missing, impossible-to-find ones, namely his newest remix he completed for Simian Mobile Disco.

Phones is the remixing pseudonym of Paul Epworth, who moonlights as the UK’s hottest producer. Epworth has turned in near-flawless production jobs for Maximo Park, Tom Vek, The Futureheads, and most of all Bloc Party, thus earning him the prestigious title of my favorite producer. Though Epworth’s first love is production, he’s also been remixing and recording his own music since the age of 17. However, shortly after forming a band he “realised that the studio was the pinnacle of musical creativity, the place where the imagined becomes material… [and he] set about learning the laws, understanding the principles, and disregarding most of them in favour of instinct”. Phones is the name he works under remixing the songs of bands he’s produced, and according to his site, all remixes are created in 8 hours or less on his Apple laptop, and he hopes “they are as fun to dance to as they were to make”. This post will be a long one, but not enough can be said about Phones’ mastery of the songs he remixes.

Many of you are probably familiar with his “Banquet (Disco Edit)”, as it appeared as the final track on Bloc Party’s debut Bloc Party EP, but Phones has created even more incredible masterpieces for the likes of Tom Vek and The Futureheads. Like no other remixer, Phones completely reinvents the tracks to the point that they frequently can’t even be compared to the original. For example, at times I’m tempted to say that his “Hounds Of Love (Wolves At The Door Mix)”, which clocked in as our third favorite remix of 2005, surpasses The Futureheads’ original (which I know seems impossible), but the two are so different that comparison is futile. On his “Wolves At The Door Mix”, Phones isolates The Futureheads’ a capella yelps and then surrounds them by synthesizer squiggles, computer glitches, and all around techno-pop glory, turning the blissful original into a dancefloor masterpiece.

On his “I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes (12″ Version)” mix he actually improves on Tom Vek’s original, turning it into a grinding industrial beast of a song. He leads you along with whirrs and bleeps behind Vek’s vocals until the 1:22 mark when all of a sudden the beat falls out and he hits you with the song’s vicious guitar riff, alternating the call-and-return guitars between the left and right speakers, in a moment of sheer visceral hotness. Phones also remixes Vek’s “Nothing But Green Lights”, transplanting onto it a driving percussion section and focuses everything on that twinkly-swirly-keyboard noise that makes the original so great, before dropping it like it’s hot at the 3:36 mark and adding a catchy-ass keys line (NOTE: I actually have no idea what instrument makes that twinkly/swirly noise but it’s awesome).

Epworth’s latest production project has been for White Rose Movement’s Kick, released last March, featuring hit singles “Love Is A Number” and “Alsatian”. The latter gets the Phones remixing treatment, and he takes the danceable original and well, just makes it more danceable, adding jarring percussion and all kinds of synthesized bells and whistles. Phones also turns in decent efforts for The Rake’s “Retreat” and Annie’s “Heartbeat”, but a decent Phones remix is still better than 90% of other remixes out there. Those remixes specifically mentioned in this write-up are the cream of the crop, but I’ve included them all for download below and there’s nary a bad effort in there. Download Phones’ nearly-complete remixography below, because seriously, dude can do no wrong.

MP3s:
“Hounds of Love” (Phones’ Wolves At The Door Mix) - The Futureheads ((highly recommended))
“I Ain’t Sayin’ My Goodbyes” (Phones’ 12″ Version) - Tom Vek ((highly recommended))
“Banquet” (Phones’ Disco Edit) - Bloc Party ((highly recommended))
“Retreat” (Phones’ Repeat Mix) - The Rakes ((highly recommended))
“Nothing But Green Lights” (Phones’ Madchester 90’s Remix) - Tom Vek
“Heartbeat” (Phones’ Maximo Remix) - Annie
“Fit But You Know It” (Phones Futureheads Mix) - The Streets
“Alsatian” (Phones Gone To The Dogs Remix) - White Rose Movement
“Ooh La La” (Phones Re-edit) - Goldfrapp
“Krafty” (Phones Reality Remix) - New Order
“Romantic Rights” (The Phones Lovers’ Remix) - Death From Above 1979
“Not Great Men” (Phones Extended Version) - Gang of Four
“Never Felt Like This Before” (Phones Volt Version) - Shaznay Lewis
“Love Is A Deserter” (Phones Cardiac Unrest Mix) - The Kills
“Thousand Cuts” (Phones Slasher Remix)  - Wolf & Cub

I haven’t really solidified my opinion about this one yet, but as Ben (who was kind enough to hook me up with the track) pointed out, the Springsteen vibe is undeniable. Hotly anticipated major-label radio single + already been fucked by ezarchive once = You Send It this time; get it while you still can.

MP3: “When You Were Young”* - The Killers [follow link]

Decent at the very least, but definitely provides no immediate evidence to back up Brandon Flowers’ claim that the still-untitled follow up to Hot Fuss is “one of the best albums of the past 20 years”.

*webrip, not retail quality