Peter Bjorn and John and Conan O’Brien

Because you can never listen to too much whistling…

ENCORE QBiM DOWNLOAD: Peter Bjorn and John, “Young Folks”

Have you seen the video for “Young Folks”?

Jeremy Fisher

It’s been a great start music-wise for 2007. There’s been quite a diverse range of releases (the legitimate kind and those of the leaked variety), and recently I came across a great album by singer-songwriter Jeremy Fisher called Goodbye Blue Monday. Quite the multi-talented artist, Fisher has hand-crafted a series of animated videos for some of the album’s tracks himself, like this one for one of my favourite tracks, “Cigarette”:

Jeremy Fisher, “Cigarette”

He’s started up his own blog site to post the videos, so you can check out the rest of them here. Fisher can effortlessly combine solo acoustic performances with a full band sound, topping it all off with an indie sensibility that makes him sound fresh and exciting. He goes beyond your typical concept of the singer-songwriter, much like Ben Kweller or Amos Lee, or Hawksley Workman himself. If you’re finding some of the “avant-indie” a bit hard to digest, Fisher is a tonic that goes down smoothly, doesn’t upset your stomach, and leaves you with a healthy glow and joyful buzz. Drink up.

Jeremy Fisher online: official site | Myspace

Try to Remember Always Just to Have a Good Time

So pretty much everybody has already salivated all over Panda Bear’s upcoming album, Person Pitch. I’m not quite as excited as everyone else, perhaps due to my lack of Animal Collective love. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I find a bunch of their songs to sort of be a mess – some of them are good, but too many of them lack structure. Person Pitch seems to take this more “ambient folk” method as well, but it plays up the harmonies that AC always flirt with, with much more accessible success. Do I recommend that you check it out? If you love the ‘Collective, you’ll love it; if you can’t figure out Avey Tare and friends, well, you will like this more than most of their albums, but you probably won’t be getting all Gorilla vs. Bear on its ass.

Panda Bear, “Bro’s [Remix by Terrestrial Tones]“

Mother Mother: dip your tongue into their honey pot

Vancouver’s Mother Mother have announced that they’ve signed to Last Gang Records, home of Metric and DFA79 (RiP). Their debut, Touch Up hits the store on February 20th. When I uploaded the album into iTunes, it came back classified as “folk” under genre, which would not have been what I expected at all. I’ve heard the band’s music referred to as “post-modern pop”, but after hearing opening track, “Dirty Town” I’d be more inclined to call Mother Mother “hallucinogenic bluegrass punk”.

Mother Mother, “Dirty Town”

With three vocalists, the touching, sugar-coated harmonies drip sweetly off the tunes, arranged mostly with traditional instruments (lending them the aforementioned folk-like quality). It’s not until you start listening to the lyrics themselves that you realize the sweetness comes with some sharp-tongued come-ons and an overt sexuality that will raise more than just a few eyebrows. The more I listen to this album the more things I start to love about it.

Mother Mother, “Touch Up”

Mother Mother online: official | Myspace | Last Gang Records

Matt from QBiM Presents, for the Week of 1/21/07-1/27/07…

First up are the kisses:

Hilary Clinton
It’s really pretty exciting that there is a genuine possibility that we will have a woman president after the next election.

Reunions
Last week, My Bloody Valentine said that they “are 100% going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless [they] die or something.” Hearing that call to arms, The Police seem sure to get back together, Dinosaur Jr. have not only revealed a new shoe, but also reunion album details, and Rage against the Machine and The Jesus and Mary Chain have reunited as well for…

Coachella
The line-up is so good that Interpol, Arcade Fire, and The Decemberists aren’t even headliners. Well, okay, maybe that’s just beacuse they have their priorities screwed up (RHCP headlining Day 2? What?), but they’ve still got the three aforementioned acts, as well as the suddenly-hot !!!, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, Explosions in the Sky, Peter Bjorn and John, and the two reunions we talked about before.

Colts
After years of dominating the regular season, Peyton Manning & co. are finally heading to the big game. It’s also awesome that Tony Dungy completed the twofer of first African-American coaches to get into the Super Bowl.

Brain Eno
The guy is really just awesome all around, between his past discography and production credits, and now he’s helping Coldplay do something good for their next album. At least we hope.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “Some Loud Thunder” (from the Fall 2006 Tour EP)
This song sounds just like the new album should have sounded – slightly noisy, but still the good ol’ fashioned bizarro-indie-pop.
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And now for the snubs:

Hilary Clinton
It’s great that we could have a woman president, but why does it have to be her?

Deaths
R.I.P. Disco D and Uwe Nettelbeck.

Pitchfork Festival
They give us a headline that makes us think there will be details about who’s playing, but then its just dates. Great. Now I know which dates in July to keep open. Thanks, guys. Also, they’re up against some good competition what with Coachella’s line-up and all. If they don’t get Joy Division back together or something, I know where I’ll be.

Saints
After taking the title of “America’s Team” from Bill Parcells (good riddance) and the Cowboys this season, they went and lost to the Bears. Well, at least it allowed Lovie to be the first African-American coach in the ‘Bowl.

Brain Eno
He’s not helping Keane or Razorlight. Doesn’t he realize that all brit-pop bands need a hand?

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “Some Loud Thunder” (from the upcoming Some Loud Thunder LP)
This song embodies what is wrong with the album as a whole: the base style isn’t any different, there’s just some obnoxious shit goin’ on to make it seem like there’s a major evolution. Thanks, Dave.
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