The Hippodrome

My pal Josh Hirshfeld has a little band by the name of Miracles of Modern Science, also known as M.O.M.S.. Fresh off a stint at the Terrace F. Club in Princeton, New Jersey, M.O.M.S. is a rock-space-dance-chamber quintet consisting of drums, upright bass, mandolin, electric cello, and violin. There’s also a lovely choir on this track.

The recording quality isn’t ideal, but I felt it would be a real shame not to get a live video of these folks before Merge comes knocking down their door. Without further ado:

Your search for the perfect band t-shirt is over, p4k hopefuls. A friend tipped me off to Bygone Bureau’s latest installment of Indie T-Shirt that won’t sell. So even if you don’t think Win Butler is the new Jesus, or Andrew Bird doesn’t have much do with your sexuality, you can probably glean between 30 and 40 cred points by studying Bygone Bureau’s “snarky” independent content. In fact, 50 cred points says I see some of these shirts at the Go! Team show tonight.

Make sure to check out the first installment as well.

Streak Download

Dan Smart lives up to his name—intelligent literary, poetic, and artistic references are abundant in his solo work. As a member of Probably Vampires, Smart adds keyboard textures to songs inspired by “real, true, unwavering 60′’s pop sound,” but as a solo artist he thankfully allows himself the chance to indulge in heavier themes in music that includes “overlapping elements of country, folk, rock and roll, electronic, and experimental art music, sometimes all rolled into a single song.”

Freed from the constraints of live performance that define the parameters of Probably Vampires, Smart says his solo work is conceived as “‘recorded music’ … dictated more by what I feel that the songs ‘want’ or ‘need’ more than on what they ‘have’ to have.” He enjoys taking risks and experimenting, just out of curiosity to see what will transpire without having to worry about “hooks or dance-ability or something like that.”

Smart tells me that the the The Hippodrome’s feature song, “Streak,” was “actually composed for a modern dance project by the same name for a University of Illinois student. It was loosely based (both the dance and the music) on John Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl novels, but it is also a song about making the biggest, longest, loudest, and most colorfully noisy streak on this planet in the time that you have, because that’s all you can do.”

Indeed, the song lives up to the artist’s description. It begins with hushed vocals that quickly billow into an ecstatic choir, all while smeared (you could even say “streaked”) by fantastically long delay tails. This spacious introduction sets up the entrance of a country-sounding acoustic guitar right out of left field; this is quickly joined by sequenced drumbeats that support the wordless and ever-lifting vocal motif. The precision and professionalism evident in this recording might incline listeners to envision Smart working in some grand, complicated recording studio somewhere, but this is not the case. Smart home-records all parts for his solo material himself, and says he “did not use Pro Tools or any computer programs to record this music, apart from an MPC 1000 to sequence some of the samples.”

At Smart’s own MySpace page, you’ll find “Greyed Rainbow,” a song based on Smart’s poem inspired by a Jackson Pollock painting of the same name. You’ll find samples from “weird, religious cassette tapes that [he] found in truck stops and at thrift stores.” In his lyrics, you’ll find themes of religion in relation to death, communication, and relationships, even though Smart says “I don’t consider myself to be religious in a strict way whatsoever.” If you’re well-read enough, you might even be able to draw parallels between Smart’s music and his professed inspirations: “a lot of modernist and post-modern writers/thinkers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Eliot, and even Woolf.”

With sharp songwriting and copious academic references, Dan Smart proves there is intelligent life on the internet. Check it out for yourselves.

To pop my cherry as a writer for The Hippodrome, I reviewed the UK based music website, Arkade.com. At first, I thought that perhaps “arcade” is just spelled with a K across the pond, like they usually spell color or favorite with a U, but I it seems that Arkade’s creators only had edginess in mind. Crazy kids. Anyway, Arkade advertises themselves as the “new ‘Online Stage,’” an independent service that enables artists to sell their music. Out of Arkade’s options, (of which there were many) I found particularly interesting the groups for Christian Gangsta Rap, Chamber Music, Euro House, Euro Techno AND Euro Dance, and Porn Groove. Later I found out that the only artist listed under Porn Groove, Dane, found his biggest hit in a song called “Bombs and Hummus.” If that’s not Porn Groove, I don’t know what is.

After I signed up for the service, it was pretty simple to figure out. The side navigation bars make it easy for you to browse, search, read artists blogs (my favorite to peruse), study the charts, and connect to the industry directory. There are some problems with searches for new artists however, as with so many genres, it may be difficult to find an artist quickly and easily. Also, discovery of a new artist is otherwise hindered by the additions of production companies and mix tapes within the collective searches. Once you find an artist you’re interested in, you may preview a clip of any song offered, like iTunes. After listening to a few artists and reading comments, I realized that the preview is often significantly different than the actual song downloaded. The preview sometimes has an extremely rough feel to it, as if the song was recorded on a TalkBoy (that portable recorder Kevin had in “Home Alone”). Undoubtedly a disservice to the artist, it should be mentioned that not all the previews suffer from lack of quality, but nearly half were seriously altered.

As an artist looking to sell some music, Arkade is a solid option, as you get to keep 100% of the money as well as set your own price for your music. There are four packages available; single pack (free), EP pack (10 pounds), Album (20 pounds), and the Distributor pack (30). Basically, the bigger package you get, the more songs you can upload and the more someone can download (unfortunately even with the biggest package only 300 of your songs can be downloaded, the free pack is a mere 50). As far as actually getting paid, Arkade credits your paypal account up to five months after the sale has been made. Not quite the best case for those struggling artists who need that money in the bank. As a buyer, purchasing music is as simple as adding something to your shopping cart and checking out (with helpful tools to convert prices to the pound, the euro, the dollar, and yes, thankfully even the Yen).

Overall, I feel that while Arkade has its benefits, including a very accommodating help and troubleshooting section, the problems in previewing music and arduous task of finding an artist take away the magic for me. As an artist, I feel that it wouldn’t hurt to be a part of the Arkade community, but the hassles with choosing a distribution package may not be worth the trouble. The site has definite potential, and it’s a source I’ll be perusing every now and then, especially when I’m looking for an addition to my growing Porn Groove collection.

Well no, I’m sorry to prematurely expose a potential feature, but this charming video from The Lisps finally begins to add credence to The Hippodrome’s never ending quest for rad unsigned music videos. While we keep searching, enjoy The Lisps’ (lol) “I’m Sorry.”