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beach house guest

9 Mar

I was dog sitting last night, and I swear as soon as I turned off the TV and turned on this Beach House song Lilly went from running around on a rampage-like exploration of my apartment to snuggling right alongside me on the couch and on the sound. Very well trained.

Today’s Indie: Myth / Beach House

‘you came rolling down the cheek / you say just what you need’

With a chill and sigh inducing sound to it, Beach House’s new track, Myth, reminds me of a more glum version their simple and soft Take Care. It continues to both mystify me and delight me that these vocals are coming from a woman… the first year I was into them I never questioned that they were male. Oops. #indie

Today’s Untz: This Head I Hold / Electric Guest

‘take drink / sit back / don’t think / the more I listen the deeper I sink’

Has this song been in a commercial? I feel I have heard it in my subconcious a million times. Bring it on a million more. LA based up and comers Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton are generating quite a bit of buzz before their upcoming SXSW debut, and rightfully so. #untz

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slow machine

7 Mar

It can be hard to keep track of seasons in San Francisco, where we often have summer in winter and winter in summer, but the calendar tells me it is just about spring. Festival season is right around the corner, and I can feel it in the air. Receiving this little delivery was just a bit like Christmas morning…

Today’s Indie: Shake it Out (acoustic) / Florence + the Machine

Florence + the Machine: Shake-It-Out-Acoustic

’cause I like to keep my issues strong / it’s always darkest before the dawn’

Speaking of Coachella, Florence + the Machine is one of the acts I am most highly anticipating. Here is a serving of indie chicken soup for the soul/ears from her: an acoustic take on Shake it Out that warms you from the inside out. I came across this yesterday afternoon and it cheered me right up from a dreary afternoon of Excel Pivot tables, instantly taking me somewhere else entirely. Silence is cut by Florence’s strong voice going solo, and when the guitar folds in, I literarily get chills – actual goosebumps. Things build beautifully from there. This video is a nice accompaniment, and definitely adds to the mesmerizing effect this take on the song can have. Enjoy. #indie

Today’s Untz: Slow / MRTN (Final DJs remix)

‘just try and stay calm / baby take it slow’

Nothing about this song makes me want to take it slow, and about ten seconds in on my first listen I knew I wanted to share it. This is the second track that has caught my attention from German duo Final DJs, who are awesome enough to thank just about every person that comments on their SoundClouds. Nice and talented, I dig it. #untz

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black and white valleys

2 Mar

Short post today because Thursday’s happy hour led to happiest hour. But great music comes in small packages. And sometimes there is clarity in early morning fog.

Today’s Indie: Down in the Valley / The Head and the Heart

‘I saw your face in the crowd and you came out / just like the sun and the moon and the stars at night’

I am going to cheat, and repost the first song I ever posted on this blog way back on  January 16th, 2011. The Head and the Heart captured my heart two years ago, and now they have a music video out for my favorite song that captures everything that I find knee buckling in them. The video shows how far they have come, amongst sound checks, violen strings, wagging dog tails, tambourine screams, stretching alongside battered vans, and snapshots from the live performances I know so well. As I gear up to see them cause me to pass out with joy in the desert sun of Coachella next month, I share the feeling once more. I know there’s California… #indie

Today’s Untz: Black to White / Felix Cartal ft. Miss Palmer

Moving piano, sultry female vocals, and a hook that has any headache transformed into head shake in seconds… this will be on my pre-game playlist for the next few months. And then some. #untz

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dream work

29 Feb

February 29th! Leap Day. I always take ‘holidays’ (I use the term loosely here) as a chance to reflect back and take stock on where I was on that day the year prior, but Leap Day requires a deeper delve back into the past. Four years ago I was a senior in college, battling the bitter cold of Chicagoland winter and studying for midterms, my future unknown. Now I find myself four years into ‘adulthood’ (I use the term loosely here) and firmly nestled into sunny California. Four years from now I will be who knows where, and THIRTY. Today is a friendly reminder that time is moving, whether we notice it or not. Gotta eat up each minute of it, and fill it with music.

Today’s Indie: The Dream Has Faded / Geographer

‘don’t you think it kinda looks like / like we’re driving straight into nothing / like we’re trying to catch it in our headlights / but the night just keeps on running’

San Francisco’s own Geographer released their new album, Myth, yesterday and my burning anticipation was met with sweet musical relief. The album further proves these guys are the real deal, with smooth yet disrupting synth-rock, arcing 80’s-inspired-but-better vocals, stirring lyrics and a sound that is decidedly their own. I love the way Geographer’s music makes me feel, and the degree to which I feel it, and I think that is one of the best things you can say about music.

This wistful and rolling song, The Dream Has Faded, is my favorite so far, but you can stream the whole album via Paste Magazine and choose one for yourself. #indie

Today’s Untz: Body Work / Morgan Page ft. Tegan and Sara

‘I get shy in these lights I feel your body doing overtime’

It is a beautiful thing when both my worlds get so perfectly satisfied by the same song. Indie veterans and sisters Tegan and Sara team up with DJ Morgan Page and the result is something almost as dance worthy as their classic track with Tiesto, Feel it in my Bones. Sexy, sexy dance pop.

The collaboration happened a while back but officially debuted this week with a new music video. Enjoy. #untz

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time on desert islands

27 Feb

The best weekends lead to the worst Monday morning blues…

Today’s Emo: Desert Island / Mansions on the Moon

‘you found all the pieces and you rebuild me / all that surrounds me’

Here is the perfect mellow musical antidote from Atlanta indie pop trio Mansions on the Moon. I was floored on first listen by their song Leaves Fall, but Desert Island comes in at a close second with its tingly xylophone and hushed, arcing vocals. The track is off of the group’s debut EP, Lightyears, and the whole thing is entirely outer space worthy. #indie

Today’s Untz: As Time Breaks Off / Delorean

As Time Breaks Off grabs you on first breath, even though (or maybe because) the first few moments sound like we are heading into Eye of the Tiger.  With throbbing beats and epic guitar, it is a fast moving song that carries you with it, instilling a sense of movement and time that feels fitting for a song called As Time Breaks Off from a band named after one of the most epic time machines in history. An oldie but a goodie, the track is off Basquean group’s 2005 album, Transatlantic KK, which has been on heavy rotation on my Spotify all week. #untz

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your sunshine

24 Feb

A heat wave has washed over the Bay Area for the past few days, and being trapt indoors during 70 degree weather in February is torture. A sun soaked untz and Friday to the rescue…  and a long lunch in the park.

Today’s Indie: Call Your Boyfriend / Noah and the Whale (Robyn cover)

‘don’t you tell him how I give you something that you never even knew you missed / don’t you even try and explain how it’s so different when we kiss’

A playful little twist on Robyn’s Call Your Girlfriend, English indie popsters Noah and the Whale flip the table and tell us how to politely call our boyfriends and let them know they have been traded in for new flames. While this sounds like the nicest way to go about such a conversation, the whole uptempo spin on NATW’s cover has a smug little grin behind it that Robyn’s original version doesn’t have — she sincerely sounds a little sad and sorry for the chick, like she’s been there too (ahem Be Mine). I guess boys will be boys… but I like it. #indie

Today’s Untz: Sunshine / Picture Book (Justin Faust remix)

‘I feel like the summer inside’

Here is a can’t help but smile electro popsicle of a track, aptly titled Sunshine and perfect for melting you into the weekend. Syrupy sweet in lyrics and sound, it might be advisable to consume in moderation to avoid a tummy ache, but I had it on repeat all Thursday afternoon. Picture Book is comprised of two brothers who were born stateside but grew up in the UK, and Sunshine is the first release of their first official EP, At Last, out in January. German DJ/producer Justin Faust washes a dreamy wave over the single in his remix, and it is in a word, nom. #untz

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shut the night out

22 Feb

I took Monday’s holiday is a blogiday, left the laptop at home and spent the day outside enjoying the splendors of San Francisco, ending it all with a sunset over the bay with a four legged friend. Now back to work, but with a little help from another friend, who guest wrote today’s Indie on Jhameel, one of the Bay Area’s own.

Today’s Indie: Shut Up / Jhameel  (guest post by Erik Eppel)

‘is it that I might have heard you shoot the pistol / like an animal you tear apart your prey and then kiss them’

I’d say I went to a concert Monday night, though, when this guy took the stage, the show assumed the character of a séance. Song after song, Jhameel channeled MJ’s ghost—bolstered not just a little by a totally reimagined “PYT”—into a frenetic trance that alternated between lyrics whispered with the sweaty passion of nude bodies in the dark and screamed with a spark that reminds us being human can, and perhaps always should, be wild and reckless. With contagious riffs, a bass line that charms hips like snakes, and yelping lyrics, “Shut Up” exemplifies Jhameel’s energy.

Scattered groups quickly coalesced into a single whistlin’, hootin’ and hollerin’ body at foot of the stage, and the high of the truly New coursed through the crowd’s veins as first one and then another concertgoer turned to a neighbor with the look of instant addiction.

Casting all metaphor aside, Jhameel simply blew me away. I cannot think of higher praise than love at first listen, and as I write this post the morning after, I’m nursing a terminal idiot crush formed in the furnace of Jhameel’s performance at Bottom of the Hill last night.

They say abuse stems from the impossible return to that first high; given how I’m already jonesin’ for another show and eager to confirm Jhameel–Live is a drug that delivers that virginal vertigo every time, it looks like I’m happily headed down that path. #indie from Erik

Today’s Untz: The Night Out / Martin Solveig (A-Trak remix)

‘how does it sound if we spend the night out’

I will be brief with my untz after Erik’s epic opus above: the original version of this song serves as the perfect soundtrack for a drive through the city, but A-Trak’s version (premiered on Fools Gold radio show this week) feels primed and ready for a crowded room of revelers. Revel on: a night out sounds great. #untz

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plastic bicycles

17 Feb

My boyfriend gave me the most romantic Valentines Day gift of my life: a box of shinny new custom made The Untz and the Indie t-shirts!  Going to rock these at Coachella this year and quickly garner several hundred thousand more listeners who dance their faces off, or chill. ❤

Today’s Indie: What You Want / Bombay Bicycle Club

What You Want / Bombay Bicycle Club

‘trying to keep a face up tonight / even when the guy’s got you right / coming off the wrong side, you know / oh you force it all’

Saw BBC play the Rickshaw Stop last night, and while I am the sleepiest cat on the block today, the boys put on a great show, highlighting a lot of songs from their newest album, A Different Kind of Fix. What You Want is a more somber track than their shake inducing single, Shuffle, but I found it the most striking. There is a Frightened Rabbit / Fleet Foxes vibe to opening vocals, which gives way to something with a bite to it, and I like the way echoed lyrics give the impression of a round in a lot of their stuff. Coffee please. #indie

Today’s Untz: Our Perfect Disease / The Wombats (Plastic Plates remix)

‘it was the perfect disease we had / something to argue and scream about / who can I see about contracting it back?’

For my next musical adventure and in my quest to balance my inner untz and indie, I am going to see Plastic Plates at the Mezz next Friday. Futuristic space disco, I am ready to dance my face off to you. Here is a fun little remix of The Wombats from him.  #untz

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young and naive

15 Feb

I hope everyone is nursing their chocolate and heart shaped meatloaf and champagne (or whiskey) hangovers from Valentines Day with some strong black coffee and some solid midweek music. Here are a couple tracks to get you started.

Today’s Indie: Into the Black  / Chromatics (Neil Young cover)

‘it’s better to burn out / than to fade away’

As I get older, I am finding my dad has had more of a musical influence on me than I ever expected. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, Neil Young played on near constant loop throughout my childhood amidst a lot of rolled eyes and sighs from my sisters and I. To my chagrin, now the old songs that I complained about with such vehemence in my youth have come back to visit like an old friend you never realized you liked in the first place but are happy to see again. There is familiarity and comfort woven throughout so many of them, so when I came across this cover of Into the Black the other day I was instantly struck by it.

While I have posted some funky dream wavvy covers of Harvest Moon, lo-fi Oregonians Chromatics spin a darker, more subdued web around Neil’s song that is settling into me in just the right way. I don’t know if I will ever show such allegiance as to post classic Neil (maybe on your birthday dad) but I will admit to embracing him with newfound respect. Rock and roll is here to stay. #indie

Today’s Untz: Naive / The Kooks (Jean Tonique remix)

‘so how could this be done / by such a smiling sweetheart / you’re so naive’

A quick change of pace: put on your roller skates and turn on a disco ball, it is time for a Wednesday afternoon old school Kooks dance party around the office. I have heard Naive and a dozen remixes of it more than I can count, but I am loving the pacing of Jean Tonique’s take here… turning it up.  #untz

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parisian chapstick

13 Feb

I listened to today’s tracks driving through the back roads of Napa this weekend, and while I had heard them both before, there is something about sunshine, rolling hills, cracked windows, and a little vino in the veins to open a song right up to you. Cheers.

Today’s Indie: Paris / Geographer

Paris / Geographer

‘you say you feel nothing hoping nothing’s all I’ll leave behind’

Geographer, I love you, and I am loving the layers of sound in Paris. There is a subtle urgency in singer Michael Denri’s voice which feels fitting in a song about love and loss and leaving, perhaps before you are quite ready to go. The SF trio release their new album, Myth, February 28th, and are playing a regrettably sold out show at the Independent on March 3rd. #indie

Today’s Untz: The Drop / Cherry Chapstick

Katy Perry move over – I have found a much better use for Cherry Chapstick. With ringing beats, 80’s inspired vocals and a drop that doesn’t have to knock you over to still floor you, this is the perfect Monday morning sound. The track is off Ontarian trio Cherry Chapstick’s 2009 Silencer EP. #untz

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