Bryce Rudow likes music. You can send all hatemail to [email protected] and tweet vitriol at him @btr0218 (or follow him to make him feel more popular while getting access to random new music he doesn’t have the time to write about).
Overloaded by all the “new music” options you keep hearing about? We’re here to help. Here are four songs we think you should fucking know (this week).
Hey all you people out there in Internet Land. A quick bit of housekeeping before we get to the Tunes You Should Fucking Know this week:
Because Bryce loves the kids and wants them to not die, I feel like it’s important to share this incredibly fascinating and insightful look into the world of molly distribution in the EDM world.
Article alums We Are Match (previously know as Match) released an acoustic version of their stellar song “Violet” that may overtake the original as my favorite song by them and that you can find here.
And just because we could all use a little more Louis CK wisdom in our lives, I’m throwing this in too.
Now on to the music!
- Big Data – “Dangerous” (Clementine and The Galaxy Remix)
I don’t often write about remixes, and there are a few reasons for that. For one, as a rule, I usually like and care about the original more than any remix of it. Secondly, if a remix is THAT good, I can usually count on All Things Go’s Kwasi Ansu to make sure it finds its way to me. Lastly, and probably most importantly, getting into the Remix Game opens a Pandora’s Box that I’m just not ready for. Each song I listen to would now come with four different versions that I also have to check out? Nope, I just can’t. It’s like when you got math homework in high school and you thought it was just questions 1-5, but then each numbered questions had subquestions A-G. My weak brain couldn’t handle that torture back in math class and I refuse to subject it to that now.
But sometimes, just sometimes, a particularly great remix sneaks its way onto my radar and into my iTunes. Clementine and The Galaxy’s remix to Big Data’s “Dangerous” is one of them.
Big Data is a collaboration between Alan Wilkis of PRINTS and David Armbruster of Joywave, an article alum whom I adore and who crushed a recent set at U Street Music Hall. When “Dangerous” was first released, it was noted for its ominously funky bass line and paranoid lyrics, with many sites delving into the song’s message about the perils of online voyeurism (not to mention the cool interactive video experience that came with it).
The remix, however, takes the original and perverts it to a sultry, eerie basement dance track where the electronic instruments and vocal manipulations sound almost sinister. It warps and distorts the song into a contorted version of its PSA self before unleashing an unexpectedly awesome guitar solo and shattering around its own outro. The original track was good, sure, but this is an outright experience. My hat goes off to Clementine and The Galaxy, whom I promise to check out later this week.
“Dangerous” is the first single released off Big Data’s EP which is supposed to get released quite soon, and if you’re in the mood for more remixes of it, Joywave decided to get meta and remix their lead-singer’s side project’s single AND they pull it off.
- Tereu Tereu – “Savage Love” (LYRIC VIDEO WORLD PREMIERE!)
Between the BYT staff and regular contributors, there are tons of “Have you heard of ____” and “You have to check out _____” emails/texts/Facebook messages regularly floating around in the ether, but it’s unusual for Assistant Editor and official dudette Stephanie Breijo to email me directly with a Tunes You Should Fucking Know suggestion, so when she does, I pay attention. And when earlier this week, I saw in my inbox an email from her with “TUNESSSSSSSS!!!!” as the subject line, I knew I was in for something good.
In it, she let me know about a local act called Tereu Tereu who have a new album under their belt, which she thought I would like. Always ready to find the next big thing out of D.C. to get behind, I eagerly hit play, and could kiss her square on the mouth for this one. After only a few spins of their album, they can consider me an official fanboy.
I’m doing my best to forget that their well-written PR statement (which is a real rarity) perfectly describes their sound as a mixture of ’90s indie rock and post-punk influences, but it was a great elevator pitch. Their album sprawls across and borrows from a few seemingly disparate genres of rock, but it remains a cohesive effort despite its changes in tones, style, and grandeur. Sometimes it reminded me of My Bloody Valentine’s somehow-enthralling shoegaze, sometimes I thought it perfectly captured the raw energy of At The Drive In, sometimes it affected me with the emotional intensity of the late ’90s troubadours like Travis Morrison and Connor Oberst. It’s not often I can be blown away, relaxed, energized, shocked, and inspired to dance all from one album, but they found a way to do it.
I did have a hard time determining the right track to write about, though. I couldn’t decide what was the best starting point for jumping into this band. Should I go with the idiosyncratic post-punk “Cut The Line” or the immediately accessible “Crackle and Hiss” or the riffed-out “Teeth Like Mountains” or the dizzyingly epic “Twin City”or even the slightly-Yorkean album closer “Spanish Lynx” (whose sporadic double-tap snare hits get me every time)?
Eventually, I followed the band’s lead in terms of track listing and decided on the album opener “Savage Love” because it’s such a quick punch in the mouth as to what this band is not just about, but, with that driving guitar line, alt-pop sensibilities, and heavy breakdowns, what they are capable of. It’s raucous but controlled, emotive but confident, and it perfectly sets the tone for the following 10 tracks that comprise Quadrants, the fourth (and in my opinion best) release from this two-piece that, after years of honing their chops, finally seem to have come into their own with a definitive lineup and an album they can truly show off.
I’m even putting my money where my mouth is when it comes to Tereu Tereu and will be ducking out of the block party/kegger at my house (if you know/can figure out my address, you’re invited) on Saturday night to check out their set at Rock and Roll Hotel. They’re opening up for Pet Parade, so make sure to get their earlyish (relative to a Friday night show).
P.S. Thank you to the group for letting us premiere their lyric video. It’s everything I didn’t expect and more.
- Drop Electric – “Waking Up to the Fire”
It is with all the giddiness and excitement in the world that I get to announce for the next edition of the Who The Fuck Are You? (working title), a first listen/interview series, I’ll be sitting down with D.C. rising stars Drop Electric to get a premiere spin of their upcoming LP “Waking Up To The Fire,” which will be released October 22nd.
I’ve previously written about their song “Empire Thrashed,” but with the newly released “Waking Up to the Fire,” we’re treated to their new, more electronic sound hinted at on the album trailer they released last July . Pay attention to the music video too, as they spend as much time on their visuals as they do their music and it shows, and keep your eyes peeled next month for our Who The Fuck Are You? session with them.
And now it’s time for a very special edition of…
THE GUEST WRITER YOU SHOULD FUCKING KNOW: Kara Weisenstein Edition
Editor’s Note: Kara Weisenstein is a Guest Writer You Should Fucking Know because she grabbed life by the horns, emailed me asking if she could (and said that she loved the column, which didn’t hurt), and attached this chill song called “Black Crown” which I really enjoyed. She’s based out of NYC, she cites Tunes You Should Fucking Know for her love of We Are Match (see above), and she once dated a guy because of Spotify.
- Honeyblood – “Bud”
I like conundrums. Give me two Scottish girls singing surf rock. Give me a lone guitar and a drum kit that sound as full as a four-piece band. Give me a sunny melody over lyrics about masochistic dating habits. Give me a song that sounds like Best Coast meets Jenny Lewis fused with The White Stripes, and you’ve got the awesome debut track “Bud” from Glasgow duo Honeyblood.
And while these self-described “noisy Scottish girls” sure sound like a lot of bands, check yourself before you pigeonhole them. “Bud” plays like a quick two minutes of catchy pop-rock bliss, but a careful listen reveals bracingly honest lyrics that flow like poetry. (If you want a fun exercise, check them on YouTube and enjoy listening to Scottish brogue slide into Cali crooning.) Twenty seconds in, the line “Nip it in the bud / They don’t make it hurt enough / Dead in his tracks / When I finally think I’m never going back / They begin to flower” pretty much describes every not-so-good-for-you fling I’ve ever entertained. The cat-and-mouse game of young love via a flowering plant metaphor? “When all of the leaves have buds falling off / What must you do / But wait for the frost / Nip it in the bud.” I can dig it.
I’m not one for scouring the blogosphere for The Next Big Thing (I can’t tell you how many of my obsessions come from personal recommendations or Spotify marathons whilst housing Malbec with my roommate on our fire escape), but Honeyblood is channeling that sweet-and-fierce vibe I’m loving about Chvrches and Haim this year. And since their debut track is produced by Rory Atwell of Palma Violets and they’ve opened for Sleigh Bells and Deap Vally, I’d bet Honeyblood is a band to watch.
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*Thumbnail image by Shervin Lainez.
If you/someone you know is up for the task of writing non-sequitered musical ramblings, feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected], tell me I look pretty, and convince me why you should be a Guest Writer We Should Fucking Know.
