Sometimes you need a break from Radiohead and Sea Change. Sometimes you just want to smile, be silly and jump in the air. Well, happy, catchy music with an irrefutable giddiness is the breed of melody Matt & Kim make. And if your face muscles need a workout, they will be your Richard Simmons. Hell, you might be sore for days after catching a show from this Brooklyn duo. If any of this rings your bell, peep the tour dates below and get your smile on.
Some awesome sauce happenings in the music world this week; one of those wonderful weeks where there was so much great stuff, it was hard to narrow down which ones to post. So, let’s get to it, eh?
I love, love, love She & Him (confession: I also have a total girl crush on Zooey Deschanel and kind of… sort of… okay totally want to be her BFF (clarification: NOT in a creepy Single White Female sort of way though). She’s absolutely gorgeous, makes awesome films (500 Days of Summer; Elf (don’t lie, you know you loved it); The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) awesome retro-inspired music, wears the cutest clothes and just comes across as one of those people who’s just… cool, you know?). Anyway, so as I was saying, err, writing rather – I love She & Him. Miss Deschanel and M. Ward do some fine work indeed; there was a time in my life – what seems like many moons ago now – where I swear they wrote a particular song just for me. It literally depicted exactly how I felt at the time and ever since then I have completely loved these two. Check out their adorable, “retro-futuristic” video for the song “Don’t Look Back” directed by Jeremy Konner.
This week, some great new releases…dance-punk duo Matt and Kim release their long-awaited follow-up to Grand; Huey Lewis takes the Train to Soulville; speaking of Train — they’ve released their long-awaited new one, Save Me San Francisco; speaking of San Francisco, The Bay Area’s Big Four (Metallica/Megadeth/Anthrax-well, N.Y. too/Slayer) have a DVD out of their joint performance overseas. Weezer carries the tongue-in-cheek flag proudly by proclaiming Death to False Metal. Til next week then…
Elvis Costello - National Ransom
Matt And Kim -Sidewalks
Huey Lewis & The News - Soulville
7 Walkers (Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann & Papa Mali) – 7 Walkers
N.E.R.D. – Nothing
Neil Diamond – Dreams
Good Charlotte – Cardiology
Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas II You
Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party
Brad Paisley – Hits Alive
Black Dub – Black Dub
Train – Save Me, San Francisco
Weezer – Death to False Metal
NOTA – NOTA
If you’ve seen their behind-the-scenes special from Lollapolooza, you know that a Matt and Kim show means not only happy, catchy music — but a certain irrefutable giddiness, contagious in a way not unlike that rage virus in 28 Days Later (only, yes, HAPPY.) Fans jump onto the stage, seemingly unable to control their love for the duo’s catchy, almost jingle-like dance-punk. There’s copious hugging (sometimes featuring the nudity of actual registered sex offenders) and Kim and Matt run around the stage like children let loose for recess after a miserable half-day, tossing around tee-shirts and balloons and whatever they can find just to spread their infectious cheer.
If you’re a fan of dance-punk in the latest, you’ve no doubt heard of Matt and Kim by now. From some humble beginnings, the Brooklyn-based duo helped re-define the genre and morph it into something completely their own – something infectious, catchy, saccharine, addictive. Relentlessly…happy. (Check out that video below and tell me ya don’t feel at least the urge to crack a smile.) And perhaps even more than any other band, the two have shown how you utilize the Internet as a revolutionary marketing and self-promotion tool : with the help of MySpace and Facebook and a legion of other online social networks, Matt and Kim sprawled from no-name band on a no-name label to industry/AOR giants. Lollapollooza? Been there. Video Games? Too many to count. MTV? Yeah, if it matters anymore. (In case it does, they won breakthrough video at the Video Awards for “Lessons Learned”, off their album Grand.) Endless networking and self-advertising and self-releasing has spread them to the mainstream like a virus; everything from Gossip Girl, to Bacardi commercials, to HBO’s 24/7 and countless network television shows have proven susceptible to the charm and wit they extol. And now that we’ve caught it, we couldn’t help but post their latest single, “Cameras”. It’s from their forthcoming album Sidewalks, due out November 2, 2010.
In a day and age when most bands you see live rely on a backing track, Brooklyn based dance-punk duo Matt and Kim do it the old fashioned way, with a drum set and a keyboard. & The Lightning-bolt chemistry the two share on stage helps fill any gaps their instruments may leave.
Tuesday is the new Friday. Don’t believe me? The lineup of LA Weekly’s 101 Festival at Universal Studio’s Gibson Amphitheater proves it. The bill boasted four diverse musical acts, all of whom got their starts from humble, do-it-yourself beginnings and have emerged as leaders in the indie rock world. Can you say as much for your Friday—let alone Tuesday—night?
