With all the success that Foster the People has been having lately, remixes are inevitable. Good remixes on the other hand are not. Well, I can assure you that these remixes are definitely worth our time. RAC (Remix Artist Collective) have literally been tearing up the remix scene with all their remakes of popular indie songs and this one is no different. I’ve spent quality time on their soundcloud, so if you’re iTunes is fiending new music I suggest you mosey your way on over there. The Gigamesh remix is undoubtedly my favorite of the two. He Took ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ and made it even catchier..and we all thought it would be impossible.

Also, just a heads up but Foster the People’s first full length titled Torches is set to release May 23! I’ve been listening to it on repeat to try and make my mind up on how I feel and…you know what, it’s pretty damn good. You can preorder it on their website in the meantime.

Foster the People – Houdini (RAC Remix)
Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks (Gigamesh Remix)
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/Music/FTP/Pumped%20Up%20Kicks%20%28Gigamesh%20Remix%29.mp3]

YOLO Mentions bring attention to special
songs featured in that week’s YOLO List. Get the latest list here!

With indie and alternative music being where it’s at, finding new music is as easy as watching a new episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (season 7 on the way!). And every once and awhile a commercial will surprise me with a quality tune I haven’t heard before. Let me start this off by saying that I’m pretty sure I’ve found a new love. Mette Lindberg, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour‘s frontwoman, is an adorable piece o’ meat and her sexy European accent brings only positive things. The Danish band consists of vocalist Lindberg and producer Lars Iverson. Their live act extends to a sextet that even has a badass horns section. They had their breakthrough in 2008 when they opened for Amy Winehouse and Apple featured “Around the Bend” in one of their iTouch commercials. Most recently, and how I found them, they were caught performing “The Golden Age” in a Heineken ad during NBA playoffs.

Commercial value aside, these guys have a lot to offer. Stringing similarites from acts like Dragonette and Lykke Li, this psychadelic pop band is a time machine ride from the 70s to today and back…and then through space. Their debut album Fruit was released in late 2009 and it’s a basket packed to the brim with a fresh selection of catchy goodness. They just put out The Golden Age EP mid April that featured three new tracks and an 80s cover. Real good stuff! I’d keep my eyes peeled for these guys.

Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Fantasy Friend Forever
The Golden Age
Around the Bend

Debut album of one-man-show Pandit, Eternity Spin is the musical documentary of a dream. It opens with heavy-lidded acoustic track “Pack Your Bags,” a song that feels like a solitary train ride to “nowhere, really.” There’s something soothingly melancholy about it; tortured yet compliant. The album’s pinnacle, Kodiak, is a gentle confession that could lull you to sleep. The rest of the album tumbles into an eery world of dream pop. Psychedelic beats with hushed vocals, each track sleepily blurs together like a sequence of dreams and what you’re left with is a feeling rather than something you can adequately describe.

Tracklist

1. Pack Your Bags
2. Artichoke
3. Skivvies
4. Kathryn, My Love
5. The Midi Orchestration
6. Scotch
7. We Reach Out (feat. Star Slinger)
8. August
9. Kodiak
10. European Dance Theme (feat. Foxes In Fiction)

Like so many bands of the current era, Chicago foursome Smith Westerns emerged from the smoky murk of their parent’s garage, releasing a sound that oozed with youthful arrogance and lofty dreams. Dynamic and rebellious, they delivered a noisy percussion driven self-titled debut that often sounded like Wavves-covering-Harlem with evident Beatles/Bowie influences.

Two years later and two years older, the boys have cleaned up their sound and maybe even grown up a bit. With their follow-up album Dye It Blonde, the band has been audibly refurbished, clearing up most of the dizzy scuzz of their debut meanwhile clinging onto the Brit-pop inspiration. Though it can be easy to compare it to Oasis circa Heathen Chemistry and T. Rex, Smith Westerns have certainly concocted something deliciously psychedelic of their own.

Their mastered synergy is evident from the get go with addictive and contagious pop jam “Weekend.” The lyricism is enough to make an angsty teenage girl blush with sweetly flirtatious lines such as “Weekends are never fun unless you’re around here too” (Weekend) and “All of my time should have been, in the end/ with you with you “ (Smile). Perhaps the cornerstone of the album, “All Die Young” is a tumbling tribute to John Lennon with muffled organs and “Something”-esque wails.

Overall, the album is a complete success. It’s got that timeless edge that suits nearly everyday with something to offer nearly every emotion. Even with a clearly established territory, Smith Westerns are eclectic and random enough to keep us wondering what’s next from them. I have nothing but optimism for their future.

Tracklist

1. Weekend
2. Still New
3. Imagine Pt. 3
4. All Die Young
5. Fallen In Love
6. End of the Night
7. Only One
8. Smile
9. Dance Away
10. Dye the World

Free Candy

Girl In Love

The CoachellAltDelight series will put focus on the low key Coachella
artists that we at C+A+D feel like you should know about.
Less than a week till we’re all together!

If you’ve got a musical sweet tooth, chances are you’ve already heard of New York City’s The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. It seems appropriate that the band was named after an unpublished children’s book–there’s something sweetly melancholy about their sound, like a story you vaguely remember someone reading to you as a child. As you continue to listen, though, you realize why they seem so familiar: their sound is a fizzy hodgepodge of indie from the past two decades. Something in the vocals and driving bass bears an uncanny resemblance to Belle and Sebastian, meanwhile drawing comparisons to Peter Bjorn and John and even Passion Pit. Sharing the Coachella stage with Cut Copy and The Black Keys, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart just might provide you with a nice musical dessert on Friday.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart-Young Adult Friction
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart-Heart In Your Heartbreak

The CoachellAltDelight series will put focus on the low key Coachella
artists that we at C+A+D feel like you should know about.
Less than a week til we’re all together!

New York five-piece Freelance Whales are among my favorite new-ish bands. Formed in 2008 after connecting on Craigslist, the band is known for their unconventional creativity. They’re awesomely idiosyncratic with their synthesizers, glockenspiels and strange lyrics. Yeah, I don’t know what a glockenspiel is either. Taking the stage on Saturday, they’re a show I wouldn’t miss; they’re the kind of quirky and youthful fun that’s awesome to see live.

Freelance Whales

Freelance Whales-Starring
Freelance Whales-We Could Be Friends

The CoachellAltDelight series will put focus on the low key Coachella
artists that we at C+A+D feel like you should know about.
Less than a week til we’re all together!

Formed in Sweden in the mid-1990s, The Radio Dept. sounds like something out of a dream…within a dream. Amidst digitalized drums and ethereal vocals, the band manages to channel the likes of The Smiths in a sort of hazy, downplayed manner. The overall energy they bring is calm–the sort of vibes you’ll want on the second day of Coachella, giving you a rest before the inevitable madness that will be day three; i.e., The Radio Dept. will give your throbbing ear drums a break but still put on a great show. If you’re looking for an awesome band with a lesser crowd, I’d suggest checking these guys out.

The Radio Dept.

The Radio Dept.-Heaven’s On Fire
The Radio Dept.-Domestic Scene