Less than two months ago had somebody asked if I was familiar with The Dead Weather, I would have identified them as little more than another of Jack White’s many offshoot projects stemming from his days as a White Stripe. The man is a musical gypsy, meandering from group to group in a constant search for whatever sound he wants to craft next, lending his skill and genius to improve those around him so that he can express himself entirely. According to what The Dead Weather has become, it seems he has something dark and heavy to get off of his chest.

The band came together almost on a whim when White’s The Raconteurs were playing with The Kills in Tennessee. They asked Kills lead singer Alison Mosshart to perform with them as White was losing his voice; following the show the pair joined with Dean Fertita (guitar) and Jack Lawrence (bass) to form what I’m convinced is one of today’s only pure rock n’ roll bands. Their sound is versatile, extending from jazzy piano melodies and bass lines to grinding, distorted guitars always backed by White’s driving drum beats.

Saturday night, the band took the stage to an enormous roar from White’s home audience in Detroit and before we knew what had come over us the band was playing at a rampant pace. Their second song, “60 Ft. Tall” from their first album “Horehound” had everyone yelling back at Mosshart “I can take the trouble/cause I’m 60 ft. tall!” and as the night continued their energy was only fueled by the audience’s rising excitement. Standing only feet from the stage I could literally feel the audience tense and relax as the four carefully commanded the audience with dark and heavy guitar riffs (“So Far From Your Weapon” and “Treat Me Like Your Mother”) to some of their more soothing songs (“Will There Be Enough Water”) in what seemed to be an endless and refreshing ebb and flow. Adding to the experience, Mosshart and White’s methods for controlling a stage are markedly different; while White plays with the confidence of an experienced crowd pleaser and master musician Mosshart compliments her sultry voice and energetic dancing with a swagger that oozes sexuality, rage, and all things brooding. During one of my favorite moments of the night Mosshart strutted to her microphone during “Hustle and Cuss” holding a cigarette between two fingers in her right hand and a pair of maracas in her left. To say that the woman is a true performer is a gross understatement.

Playing for his family and fans, White along with Mosshart dominated the stage for nearly two and a half hours of pure rock n’ roll ecstasy. I can only remember one other concert packed with more energy and its likely that the Mars Volta only made that big of an impression because it was my first concert. Regretfully my videos from the night are not posting quality, but so that you can get a feeling for just how impressive they were that night please check out the videos below. To get a better sense of what The Dead Weather can offer you be sure to pick up their two LPs “Horehound” from 2009 and “Sea of Cowards” released earlier this year.

Since attending their concert at the Fillmore last Saturday, my head has been in a fog. To be honest, I don’t quite know what to listen to on my iPod, what to download off the internet, even what to play during a night’s pregame. I’m convinced for the first time in a long time that rock n’ roll, true rock music, is still alive.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Robert Hood-Are You God?

When one thinks of that cumbersomely inclusive descriptor that is “electronic” music or “electronica” more often than not the average person conjures the image of some fist-pumping 18 year olds sucking on lollipops and pacifiers at a “rave” (perhaps the most misunderstood musical phenomena ever, but that’s a rant for another day).  Robert Hood, however, is here to break that mold.  As founding father of that elusive genre “minimalist” electronic music which for so long went unacknowledged, Hood has done well to bring electronic music back to its roots and original intentions by bringing a refreshingly cerebral approach to electronic music with a thorough thematic production that gives the listener an enrapturing experience on his recently released album Omega.

When I talk about bringing electronic music back to its roots, I’m far from exaggerating. Like fellow Detroit native Carl Craig, Robert Hood brings out a sound which resonates with the first electronic music artists whom, arguably, spawned the musical genre in my nearby hometown metropolis of Detroit. Robert Hood is a founding member of group Underground Resistance as a ‘Minister Of Information’ with Mad Mike Banks & Jeff Mills. Hood has worked under the names Monobox, Inner Sanctum, The Vision, among many other aliases as he continually searches to define his inner voice and sound.  Robert Hood is no chump when it comes to the electronic music game and his most recent full length album Omega is a shining example of that.

Donald Judd Untitled (six boxes)

Let’s start with the good, for it far outweighs the bad.  This album from concept to conception is beautifully done; it is rare I find an album that catches my attention with a central theme or motif that defines the tracks but lets the music speak for itself overall. Hood’s Omega is set (almost as if yes, it was a movie set) in a post-apocalyptic world that is more or less already Detroit. It has a superfuture feel to it that begs comparisons to works like Tron, Terminator, Blade Runner and of course Robocop. This comes as no surprise when you realize that Omega is actually Hood’s interpretation of a soundtrack for the 1971 Charleston Heston post-apocalyptic classic The Omega Man. All this along with Hoods thoughts on The Omega Man provide crucial context for the album in much the same way a minimalist installation like those of Donald Judd can be extremely difficult to fully understand without some context of the artist’s intentions and the artistic movements that it is in dialogue with. So says Hood:

“I feel like I prophetically see the world and the way it’s headed. Just standing from a watcher’s perspective, and just watching politics, watching the economy, watching oil spills on the Gulf Coast, and the ecology, and feeling like I see something coming and nobody else is really paying attention to it and it’s like I’m already living there. Imagine, say in thirty years from now, this is what it is but I’m living there now. People don’t even realize where we are, and I have to snap myself out of it and say no, we’re not there yet, you’re getting ahead of yourself. But it weighs heavy on my heart. Watching Charlton Heston in this world where, like you said, he thinks he’s the only one, it just resonates with me.” Source

The complexities of Hood’s otherwise very uncomplicated ‘minimalist’ sound then become much more apparent, something I have great respect for.

Perhaps the only downfall of all this is what also is it’s unique strength: minimalism.  As much as I think Hood does a terrific job of creating profound meaning for something where there may seem at first glance there is not much there, at the end of the day some of the tracks on Omega are just a little to repetitive and seem out of place.  This may be due to my relative lack of familiarity with the entirety of the growing “minimalist” movement but it is my first impression nonetheless. Tracks like “Alpha” and “Towns That Disappeared Completely” starts to just grind on my ears and the thought of listening to more than two or three of those repetitive sounding tracks on one album is almost too much to bear. Without Hood’s fantastic sense of composition and creativity, Omega would no doubt fall apart.

But it doesn’t, and so I recommend it highly.  Hood’s unique artistic vision and sense of the future we are already living in makes for a terrific album.  Omega often feels like an auditory version of the movie it is meant to compliment and captures an apocalyptic superfuture sound which can be haunting.

Give the album a listen and enjoy. To download right-click and “save as”.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Robert Hood-Alpha

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Robert Hood-The Workers of Iniquity

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Robert Hood-Omega (End Times)

Interview with Robert Hood from TV.Jekyllethyde.fr on Vimeo.

Earlier this week Newsweek put out an insightful report on the decline of American creativity. The report profiles the research of professor E. Paul Torrance started some years ago and geared toward measuring the creativity of children. Through a series of tests, children are asked to perform tasks that indicate to psychologists a “Creativity Quotient” of sorts. What’s most interesting is that while the tests are obviously imperfect, the correlation between a child’s CQ and their eventual accomplishments as adults was “more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.”

Furthermore, Newsweek goes on to describe the importance of “creativity” for success, the overarching theme being that the decline of creativity in the United States not only has individual consequences but implications on a macroeconomic level.

“The potential consequences are sweeping. The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.”

The lesson here: quit those video games and do something…anything.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

About a year ago while perusing random DJ Myspaces, I noticed in a particularly remarkable photo a turntable desk that seemed to be floating in mid air. I took it to be a Photoshop trick and moved on with my day, but thanks to a friend I now know that it was the geniuses at Berlin based design firm Metrofarm.

Their work ranges creating innovative furniture, designing attention grabbing retail displays and packages, design consulting, and curating for galleries and individual clients. Needless to say their high-end DJ desks are my favorite, especially the one that is built directly into the wall (!!!) but their site (www.metrofarm.net) showcases their talent including projects they’ve done for Nike, Absolut Vodka, and Pioneer. Make sure you check ‘em out, these guys are pretty good.

As the latest addition to the Mediated Media writing staff I wanna thank James for allowing me to collaborate with him on this.  I’ve always been technologically unsavvy so having something like this site to move with is a small blessing.

For those of you wondering 21/M/Ann Arbor, MI. For everyone else, my name is Bryan D. Davila, I’m a senior at the University of Michigan but am originally from Los Angeles, CA (Alhambra to be specific). I’ve been a music enthusiast since I can remember; thanks to my sister, some early favorites of mine include Weezer “Blue”, RATM’s “Battle of Los Angeles”, and Beck “Odelay” to name a few. However, my biggest life regret to date is making Limp Bizkit “Significant Other” the first album I ever purchased.

I’m a DJ on campus playing parties, small clubs, and on a radio show on 88.3 WCBN FM Ann Arbor (www.wcbn.org). I enjoy dance music when it comes to mixing so if you happen to catch my show (Sunday mornings 3-6am EST) you’ll notice that I often go from electro to house to disco to minimal and back. For a more laidback feel, check me out on WCBN Sunday nights from 11pm-1am where I host while my friend DJ Teddy Ruck-spin plays hip-hop to ease you into the week.

I’m excited to contribute to Mediated Media; hopefully within the next few weeks you will get to know me a little better through my posts and the mixes I hope to put together for the site. For now I’ll leave you all with a small gift:

Yesterday, the production team Special Problems released a video that they did for Flying Lotus’ track off of Cosmogramma title “Mmmhmm”. Featuring Thundercat, “Mmmhmm” is great in itself, but the video takes soothing vocals and an atmospheric melody to another level. Moving between distant astral planes and NES game worlds, Special Problems did well in producing this video for Fly Lo. I trust you won’t be disappointed.

Bryan

Compliments of newly added Mediated Media member/author Bryan Davila (a.k.a. Thelonius Funk a.k.a. DJ Funk It).  I’ve got some sick new new from English guitarist, producer, and co-founder of Allido Records.  Ronson has produced some of the hottest albums and artists of the past decade including: Sean Paul - Dutty Rock, Teriyaki Boyz - Beef or Chicken, Ol’ Dirty Bastard - Osirus, Amy Winehouse - Back to Black, Wale - 100 Miles & Running, Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing. It comes as know surprise to see that for his new single “Bang Bang Bang” he enlisted the talents of none other than Q Tip. One thing is for sure, Ronson knows how to put out hits.

Enjoy the video and check out his Myspace for more tracks.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Lazaro Casanova- Tropicasa Summer Mix

If there is one thing I love about Summer it’s mixtapes.  Today I’ve got one more for you listening pleasure, this time from Miami native Lazaro Casanova. Casanova pumps out some serious House tunes latent with Funk and Afro-Cuban roots. I was interested to read his bio on his website and learn that

“He is a regular at Club Aura in Monterrey Mexico, where he holds a residency and plays an infamous 7 hour set, which ends at about 11 am. Aura is responsible for many great acts coming to Monterrey including, Matthew Dear, Seth Troxler, Magda, Richie Hawtin and more.”

I guess I know where I’ll be making an appearance in Monterrey as I make the move to Mexico in the coming months; I’m pretty thrilled to catch this dude live and dance ’til daybreak.

Enjoy Mr. Casanova himself as he keeps it sweltering for the Summer.

[via Discobelle]

I used to be a huge hip-hop head. Used to be. Until discovering this mix from the good folks at Discobelle it had been quite some time since hip-hop/rap had managed to hold my attention for more than 3 songs at a time with the singular exception of Diplo’s Free Gucci mixtape. So you can imagine how refreshing it is to hear this superbly blended and well thought-out mixtape by French DJ/producer Brodinksi.  This latest mixtape is a two-parter the first half of which is addressed to hip-hop/rap that I surprisingly found more enticing than the B side of straight up electro mixes (shocking, indeed).  Be sure to take a listen and follow the links to check him out some more.

Enjoy.

BEST OF EVERYTHING – ‘The Hip Hop Side’ by BRODINSKI & DJ ORGASMIC by brodinski-boe

[BONUS]

BEST OF EVERYTHING – ‘The Electro Side’ by BRODINSKI by brodinski-boe

BEST OF EVERYTHING – ‘The Hip Hop Side’ TRACKLIST:

1. Oj Da Juiceman Feat. Shanell – Caviar (00 : 00)
2. Young L – Martian Llap (1 : 57)
3. Nicki Minaj – Getting Paid (3 : 51)
4. 8 Ball & MJG Feat. Young Dro – Bring It Back (4 : 59)
5. Dorrough – Play My Game (6 : 10)
6. Yo Gotti – Women Lie, Men Lie (7 : 22)
7. Yung Joc Feat. Lil Wayne – Drip (8 : 45)
8. Candi Redd – Independent Bitches (Feat. Rasheeda & Kandi) (10 : 13)
9. Spodee – Don’t do it (11 : 46)
10. Deuce Poppi – Do It Again (12 : 46)
11. Big Sean – What u Doin (Bullshittin) (14 : 09)
12. The Dream – Hit it On The Road (16 : 31)
13. Brisco Feat. Lil Wayne – The Wall (17 : 54)
14. New Boyz Feat. Ya Boy – Rockin’ (20 : 31)
15. Lil Boosie Feat. Foxx & Webbie – Wipe Me Down (21 : 42)
16. Nipsey hussle – Here goes nothing (23 : 04)
17. Rich Boy Feat. Polow Da Don – Standing on a Couch(24 : 28)
18. California Swagg District – Teach Me How To Dougie (27 : 18)
19. Lady G – Poppin’ (Super Turnt Up) (29 : 35)
20. New era – Stop playin (31 : 10)
21. Young prince featuring young Sam – Lights, camera, action, jerk
(32 : 16)
22. E-40 Feat. Gucci Mane – Whip It Up (33 : 14)
23. Snoop Dogg Feat. Kid Cudi – That Tree (35 : 22)
24. Ray J – Formal Invite (36 : 36)
25. Flip major – Flip (37 : 52)
26. Big Boi – Shutterbugg (38 : 47)
27. 8ball & MJG – Get Low (40 : 02)
28. Ciara Feat. Ludacris – High Price (41 : 37)
29. Shanell Feat. Mike Mean – Work That (43 : 59)
30. Tay Dizm Feat rick Ross – Beam Me Up (46 : 00)
31. Robin Thicke – Cocaine (47 : 53)
32. Omarion – Wet (50 : 00)
33. Ludacris Feat. Shawna & Dru Hill – Rollercoaster (51 : 44)

If you couldn’t get enough of it the first time on Frank Chan’s This Summer Vibes mixtape on the post before this, here you go. Great video for a great song.

Breakbot – Baby I’m Yours (feat. Irfane) – HD from Ed Banger Records on Vimeo.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Franki Chan-This Summer Vibes Mix

I think I’m in love. I feel like I say this at least once a month but Mad Decent up and done it again.  Whose the latest attraction on world-renowned record label Mad Decent’s site this month (besides Diplo himself and Major Lazer)? Franki Chan.  I honestly feel like it’s not even fair that Mad Decent exists in the electronic music world anymore, they just consistently attract too good of talent. Somehow (please don’t ask me how or hold it against me), I had never heard of this enchanting  Midwest’s own Master of the Mix from Indiana but no doubt after some proper listening he now holds a spot in my top electronic artists.

Franki Chan is an originator and innovator all his own as the founder of record label/ graphic design haven/ artistic movement headquarters IHEARTCOMIX. With its beginnings as a home base for Chan and fellow right-brainers in LA in 2005

“About a year later, IHEARTCOMIX RECORDS released their first records, an EP by BOSTON based rock sensations, PROTOKOLL, and the debut full length of indie darlings, MATT & KIM. Both were met with critical and commercial success, with press appearing in SPIN, NYLON, URB, ROLLING STONE, ANTHEM, VENUS, NME, SOMA, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE VILLAGE VOICE and THE STRANGER to name a few. MATT & KIM’s video for their first single ‘YEA YEAH’ ended up airing on MTV2 and became an internet blog phenomenon. The band even hosted an episode of MTV2’s SUBTERRANEAN.”

How this entire organization and Chan himself have managed to fly under my radar all these years is embarassing, refreshing, and a testament to the fact that I need a little ‘time out’ from Ann Arbor.  There is so many good creative juices flowing through this hive mind that I can almost feel it emanating from their website transposed through electronic signals and out my screen.

Anyways, back to the music. Chan’s latest Mixtape recently released on the Mad Decent blog (of course, where else?) really drew my attention to do all this research and so far digging through Chan’s Myspace page (where you can find most of his mixes for free by the way) I REALLY like what I hear.  Franki’s style is both completely sensible and balanced, not over-done at all, and super engaging without losing my interest or boring me with a repetitive track or style.   This latest This Summer Vibes Mix is next to Major Lazer’s Summer Mix podcast of last month as the both the best of the summer and a highly regarded new favorite mix summing up some of the best tracks of the past year or so.  Highlighted as some of my favorite tracks on the mix are right off the top Breakbot’s “Baby I’m Your’s”, Holy Ghost’s new track “Say My Name”, the Kitsune favorites Classixx with “I’ll get you” (Gigamesh did a great remix of this some time ago which you can hear right here), and LCD Soundsystem’s “All I want”.

Don’t sleep on this mix at all as this is sure to be the perfect soundtrack to those long days on the beach and even longer nights around the fire or dancing through the night.  Absolutely brilliant.

[BONUS]

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Franki Chan- Australia Summer Mix

Track List This Summer Vibes Mix:

1Breakbot – Baby I’m Yours (Aeroplane Remix)
2Scissor Sisters – Invisible Light (Stuart price Remix)
3Holy Ghost! – Say My Name (U Tern Remix)
4Groove Armada – Paper Romance
5Classixx – I’ll Get You (feat. Jeppe)
6Whitest Boy Alive – Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)
7AKA JK – SOTWTGYO (K.I.M. Remix)
8Mowgli – We Think It’s Cool
9Senor Stereo – Hot Damn
10Koobra – It’s You
11Goldfrapp – Alive (Joakim ‘Vocal’ Mix)
12The Chemical Brothers – Swoon (Don Diablo Remix)
13Visitor – Love (Club Edit)
14LCD Soundsystem – All I Want