University of San Diego Radio

Floating on a mesmerizing stream of eccentric beats and fresh rhythms, Zero 7’s fourth album Yeah Ghost, sounds like it would be the perfect background music for one of those dreams that you strive desperately to remember.  The innovative sounds that come streaming into the listeners ears seem to take him or her into a stratosphere not normally visited in everyday interactions, but are undoubtedly still there residing somewhere deep within the subconscious.

Their lyrics, when decipherable, meditate upon the enticing thoughts one might have when attracted to another, or the motivations behind acting kindly to others.  Should someone let the music take over their body many of their tracks would invoke a very unique dance out of them.  The beats seem so unconventional and bizarre independent of each other, but as they are meshed together strategically they flow perfectly as one, “Everything Up” is a perfect example of this.  Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns, the electronic duo from London, have delved into a deeper sound that hasn’t quite been penetrated before.  Singer/songwriter Eksa Mtungwazi also helped to put a fresh spin on the album by lending her vocals to songs like “Medicine Man.”  Other artists featured include Sia and Jose Gonzalez.

Some tracks like “Mr McGee” fill the listener with charisma and energy, while others like “The Road” take the listener into a rather melancholy state of mind.  Zero 7 has captured the art of evoking emotion through music, and they use it most skillfully.  If you really allow yourself to embrace the music, it will make you smile, and perhaps even cry.  Just as the album draws you into this curious region of thought at the beginning, it delivers you from it in the end as well.  The final song, “All of Us,” releases the listener from the trance-like state they may have found themselves in while enveloped in the music.  Nonetheless, the listener is left wanting more.

Mr McGee

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Everything Up (Zizou)

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1.) February – The Appleseed Cast
2.) Save My Soul – The Whip
3.) We Started Nothing – The Ting Tings
4.) Hunting For Witches – Bloc Party
5.) Beyond Right Now – STS9
6.) Mr. Blue Sky – ELO
7.) Sound is Vibration – Atmosphere
8.) I Get Around – Dragonette
9.) Night on Fire – VHS or BETA

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Throughout Coachella 2009, I kept seeing subtle things (and not so subtle things) alluding to the power of music.  Eventually, it became overwhelming how many beautiful moments were amassing in my short term memory.  I decided that I had to record them using the median with which I am most capable manipulating, the English language.  Some things witnessed were altogether reminiscent of religion, in particular Christianity.

1.  The checkpoint that all fans had to pass through before entering reminded me of dipping one’s hand in the bowl of water to bless one’s self before entering into a church.  Just as that is meant to be a spiritual cleansing before entry into the church; we also had to be cleansed of weed, alcohol, and whatever else we might attempt to bring into the stage area.  They weren’t very good at checking.

2.  The majority of people – or at least the die hard fans – walked from concert to concert barefoot for the most part.  It is common for religious devotees to take off their shoes before entering a religious place.  For instance, Moses took off his shoes before approaching the burning bush.  It is also customary to take one’s shoes off before entering a Hindu temple.

3.  During the Paul McCartney concert, a woman was holding up a towel with John Lennon’s face on it.  Paul pointed to it, and the cameramen quickly captured the image for all to see.  Need I say what this is reminiscent of?  In case you’re a little hazy on your “Stations of the Cross,” I’m referring to the station in which the woman wipes Jesus’ face with a towel only to come away with an image of his face on her towel.  I suppose John Lennon was onto something when he said that he was bigger than Jesus.

4.  At People Under The Stairs, fans were so fervently waving their hands in the air with the beat of the song that it reminded me of a Southern Baptist Church times 100 maybe.

5.  People were getting immensely dehydrated at the Lykke Li concert, so she took a water bottle and sprayed people with it.  It looked like she was blessing her fans with water just as a priest may do occasionally as he descends the aisle.

6.  At the end of the Girl Talk concert, a blow up raft for a pool emerged from somewhere and the DJ was on top of it.  He stood atop of it as all of the fans supported it with their reaching arms.  He was legitimately crowd surfing.  I felt like a water molecule in a stream or something, and he was walking on us.  The connotation is abundantly clear now, I’m sure.  He was walking on water like Jesus.

7. Speaking of Jesus’ miracles, many of my friends possessed the power to change water, not into wine, but into vodka.  We carried it around with us wherever we went in our water bottles.

8. Just as mass has its Eucharist, which consists of the body of Christ and the blood of Christ, so too did any given concert have it’s own distorted version of a Eucharist.  Except, instead of consuming a crappy wafer and some cheap wine, we consumed weed, vodka, e, etc.

Perhaps this experience that is Coachella seems so similar to Christianity because it is essentially living life to its fullest extent.  It’s the same concept as religion as it originated.  A bunch of people amassing around someone with a message is what it’s all about.  Each one of those artists has a message to tell humanity and a parish to sing it to who will inevitably sing it back just as a parish community might sing hymns.  In a way, each artist is emitting out into the universe a philosophy regarding how to live life.  Which philosophy do you adhere to?

It was Sunday afternoon at Coachella, and my body was finally letting my nervous system know just how much abuse it had received over the course of the weekend.  My friend and I were looking for a chill concert to go to so as to relax before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  Looking at the fifth little pamphlet I had gone through (none of them lasted very long in my pocket) we saw her name.  My friend had never heard of her before, but I insisted that we go.

Lykke Li came on stage and transported us to her realm of understanding concerning the universe.  It was absolutely phenomenal.  The passion that she had for her music literally seemed to ooze from every pore of her being (yeah, it’s not a big deal, but I was chillin front row center, on the fence).  It was a unique experience amidst Girl Talk, The Presets, N.A.S.A., People Under the Stairs, you get my drift.

She genuinely is a master of her craft.  Her lyrics are the sort that you feel like you could have written because you can empathize with them so much.  They seep into your body via osmosis and fill you with love for her music.  “Little Bit” and “Dance, Dance, Dance” were classic, but “Complain Department” was played with a completely new vibe than on her album.  She introduced it by giving a little homage to her home country, “Are you all ready for some Swedish techno!”  She laid all her emotions out on the table for all to see.  She was a bit like Feist, but instead of singing in little parables, Lykke Li seemed to take her human emotion to a deeper level. Later on that day, she dueted with Peter Bjorn for the song “Young Folks.”  It was absolutely epic to see her again on the Coachella Stage. I’d see her again in a heart beat.  If you haven’t given her a listen yet, I strongly recommend looking her up pronto.

Ever since I lost my job as an RA, my free food radar has been in pristine condition.  So, going about my day to day scurry for free food, I ran into my good friend Morgan Oakland who wanted me to attend “DemROCKrady” an event that she had helped put together with her poli sci fraternity, pi sigma alpha.  Free food, free music, give away prizes, and cute guys to take pictures of for the Vista and her fraternity, what more could I ask for?  I popped in with my mondo camera and a friend, and was blown away by the student talent that took over the stage in the UC forum.

Unfortunately, the student body wasn’t out in full force to witness the insanity that ensued on that make shift stage, but regardless, the student musicians that so willingly expressed their passions for music, were most certainly legitimate.  Brittany Steffen, a Junior who had just turned 21 that day, stuck around despite her newly acquired ability to purchase alcohol (legally), to listen to Andy Cullison, JP Kennedy, and Justin Hall.

The night, though crowds were scarce, was epic, and as it came to an end, the 21+ took the after party to Guava.  Not to mention, the political science honors fraternity that put the whole show on was able to amass a large pile of canned food to go towards their canned food drive.  I also came away with an Obama coffee table book.  Not too shabby Pi Sigma Alpha!  Let’s hope that our student musicians can find more student support in the future.  Maybe with a little help from the newly emerging USD Radio?

“montanita” Ratatat
“Blind to You” Collie Budz
”We Are Your Friends” Justice
“Are You The One?” The Presets
“Salvador” Jamie T
“The First Vietnamese War” The Black Angels
“The Ocean and the Sky” The Sound of Animals Fighting
“Lights and Music” Cut Copy
“Starstrukk” 3OH!3
“We Own the Sky” M83
“Dream Machine (Downtempo Mix)” Mark Farina & Sean Hayes

I can’t take complete credit for this play list.  I posted a message on fbook for all of our DJs and someone that didn’t even go to our school responded with a play list.  We didn’t have a profile for him, but I was so stoked by his selection, that I just had to find a way to put it up.  So I threw in a few more of my songs to give it embellishment and put it up under my profile.  Thanks Blair Berger.  You have the most legitimate taste in music, and your play lists are always greatly appreciated!

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“Lenin” Arcade Fire
“Hard To Find” The American Analog Set
“Innimer Synqur Vitteysingur” Sigur Ros
”Ageless Beauty” The Stars
“Far Far” Yael Naim
“Paris Is Burning” Ladyhawke
“I’m a Lady” Santigold
“To Be Myself Completely” Belle and Sebastian

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Altogether The Ting Tings have churned out a very fresh sound.  It’s reminiscent of Santogold or The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  It evokes an energy that makes you want to get up and go.  For a solid week, I would blast the Ting Tings at full volume on my way to the beach in preparation for a good surf session.  “Shut Up and Let Me Go” became that song that I obnoxiously play for everyone in the parking lot for all to hear as I suit up and wax up.  I can’t take my iPod out there with me, so I like to get a legitimate song stuck in my head before getting into the ocean and tackling the waves.

They’re very creative with their use of instruments.  Just like many before them, The Ting Tings come to us from Great Britain.  After dabbling in other bands, Katie White and Jules De Martino started out as an impromptu duo, and their songs started to generate a following.  Katie White’s vocals have a unique sound to them.  They mesh well with the energetic rhythm of her electric guitar and the uppidy drum beats.  When you listen to them, they seem to have this quality about them that reminds you of something that you can’t put your thumb on.  That’s probably because you might have heard them during the Victoria’s Secret fashion show earlier this year or when they performed in Times Square in New York during new years.  They’ve also been featured on Gossip Girl.

Let’s hope that they use all of media coverage as a launching pad for further creative beats.  It seems like so many bands live and die by shows like The O.C., Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, etc.  They are currently putting together their second album.  They are primarily doing so in Paris and Berlin hoping to sap some creativity from the grandeur of both locations. Let’s hope they succeed in encapsulating the energy of those two places, because let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to go clubbing in either one?  Clearly, they’re a very happening duo, so keep tabs on them; they’re very up and coming.  And for all of those planning on being inebriated by the various bands to be tearing it up at Coachella, The Ting Tings will be taking the stage on Friday.  +

“Way Down” N.A.S.A.
“Jai Ho” A.R. Rahman
“Get Seduced” The Faint
“DVNO” The Justice
“Hang Loose” People Under the Stairs
“Rich Man” 3OH!3

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“Little Bit” Lykke Li
“Cello Song” The Books
“Killing for Love” Jose Gonzalez
“I Still Care for You” Ray LaMontagne
“7/4 Shoreline” Broken Social Scene
“Look At Her Face” The Coral Sea
“White Winter Hymnal” The Fleet Foxes
“Rangers” A Fine Frenzy
“Bottle Up And Explode!” Eliot Smith
“Futures and Folly” Blitzen Trapper

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