Monday, June 30, 2008

Live: Amy Winehouse punches a fan

Jesus Christ. I can't even say anything about this mess. I was going to go into a whole rant about how hopeless she is, but really, what is there to say that hasn't already been said? The title says it all. Just watch the clip and sigh.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Music Videos: The Stars

Welcome to the video for "Bitches in Tokyo". It's one of the most fun and creative videos in recent memory, and it's a total joy even when it's slightly dumb.

Bitches In Tokyo

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Live Music: Sigur Ros

Sigur Ros's new sound has gotten them more attention than ever, and they deserve every bit of it. "Gobbledigook" is rapidly becoming a new alt/indie classic, and is building up more and more of cult following every day. Every live performance I've seen online of this song has been lovable as hell, and every last one of them involves confetti in some capacity or another, which sounds so stupid, but is shockingly endearing when a fun little Icelandic band does it.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

New Music: Ding Dong the Motherfucking Witch Is Dead

Liz Phair's got a new song, and it's a little difficult to tell how good it is. You see, the only version of the song we have so far is a live performance from her "Exile" anniversary tour, and live? She's a little tone-deaf sometimes. It's a bitter, bitter song about the douchebag that ran the record label that she just escaped from, and it sounds like it could be really, really, good in a setting where she's a little more on-key. Seriously, there are some very upsetting high notes in this song that need to be worked on, but in general, it's her getting back to what she does best: genuine emotions (she really hates this fucker)and no radio-pop bullshit.



By the way, I like this song more and more every time I hear it. "Ding Dong, his crooked soul, hang yourself on ROCK AND ROLL!"

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

New Music: Verve comeback single

The Verve, believe it or not, are coming back, and their new single popped up today. It's not officially released until August, but it's on their Myspace page now. It's really, really nice. It sounds like a Verve song without falling back on "Urban Hymns"'s sound. It grows on you more and more every time you hear it.

Love Is Noise - The Verve

Monday, June 23, 2008

Covers: Hole does Velvet Underground

I was going through the Velvet Underground catalog during work today because my job is boring, and I ran across an old cover of Hole doing "Pale Blue Eyes". Is it ugly? Uh huh. Is it also raw, emotional, and completely genuine and real? Abso-fucking-lutely.

Pale Blue Eyes (velvet Underground Cover) - Hole

Friday, June 20, 2008

Introducing the New Audioclash Banner

Now up is a rough edit of the new banner for the blog. It's tiled with "Fake paintings" (made with Corel Painter Essentials) of a diverse set of some of our favorite musicians (in order): Jeff Buckley, Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney), Kurt Cobain, M.I.A., Iggy Pop, Rivers Cuomo, PJ Harvey, Jenny Lewis, Jimi Hendrix, Karen O, and Henry Rollins. The idea here is diversity: different genres, styles, eras, mainstream success levels, on and on. We'll be back next with more content, and hopefully a banner with better resuolution.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Live Music: ELBOW

It's capitalized because it's amazing. The audio quality isn't great, the camera is in a bad spot, and you can't see a whole lot, and you can still tell that this is an amazing performance. It's "Grounds For Divorce", a brilliantly raw blues-rock song in a style that these guys don't do nearly enough of, and they make the song a few thousand times more intense than the studio version at this show. Watching it makes you want to throw yourself at the stage on the screen as soon as he opens his mouth, and that only becomes more true as the guitars come out to attack you.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Music Videos: 13 Animated Radiohead Videos

Radiohead continues to prove that it has no shortage of great promotional ideas by opening a contest where fans can submit their own animated video of any song from "In Rainbows". Here are the thirteen semifinalists that you can vote for. By far my favorite was "VDTP", the "Videotape" video with the paper birds.



Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

New Music: Wolf Parade

People are too busy with the arguably shitty new Coldplay album to notice that an awesome little band called Wolf Parade released a new album. It's a short but dense 9-track album that manages be very different and indie but still mostly accessible (except for a few spots towards the end). The clear standout is "Call It a Ritual", which hit the internet a few weeks ago.

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Monday, June 16, 2008

As Seen on TV: State Radio

I watched a repeat of the last season finale of "Weeds" this morning, and noticed something I didn't notice the first time I saw it: How unbelievably brilliant the song that played while Nancy burned her house down was. I'm actually a little outraged that the band that made it isn't more famous. That band is State Radio and the song is "Keepsake", the most heartbreaking yet strangely sweet song that you've never heard before. It's good enough to earn three versions embedded in this post: the original album version from "Peace Between Nations", a live version with nice audience claps, and a quieter, more acoustic performance.

Keepsake - State Radio

Keepsake (Acoustic 06) - State Radio

Keepsake (Acoustic 04) - State Radio

Friday, June 13, 2008

Covers: Orchestral Oasis

Oasis always had the best melodies, so I've heard a lot of instrumental covers that work amazingly well. One of them is this violin-guitar cover of "Live Forever". You can visit the poster's profile to see "Wonderwall" get a similar treatment.

Music Videos: Goldfrapp

Here's the most relaxing, calming video (and not in a boring way) to be released in the last few months. It's "Caravan Girl" by Goldfrapp, and it works that "Simple but endearing" angle to the best possible effect.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Covers: Klaxons do Timberlake

Here's the Klaxons covering "My Love". The cover doesn't veer too far from the original, but the synths are more rooted in acoustic sounds, giving the new version more of an indie edge to it. Cool stuff.

My Love (Justin Timberlake Cover) - Klaxons

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

New Music: My Morning Jacket

Wow. "Evil Urges" came out today and I'm not sure where to start talking about it. The first thing you need to know is that it's really uneven. Tracks range from riveting to horrifying. There's at least some good ideas in there, even if they go horribly horribly wrong. Standouts, for better or for worse: "Remnants" and "I'm Amazed" are fantastic; the title track and "Highly Suspicious" upset and disturb me on a very deep level, and not in a good way. Have they lost their minds? Probably. But in some places on the album, it's not a bad thing.

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

Monday, June 9, 2008

New Music: The Pharell-Casablancas-Santogold collaboration

IT'S HERE! Julian Casablancas, Pharell, and Santogold came together to make a song for a new Converse All-Stars campaign, and the result worked out brilliantly. "My Drive Thru" does a shockingly good job at being to fit in on both a Strokes album and a Santogold album, and will most likely remain my favorite pop song of the summer.

My Drive Thru - Santogold, Julian Casablancas, and Pharell

Friday, June 6, 2008

Live Music: The Black Keys

I was apathetic about "Attack and Release" at first, but I love that album more and more everyday. The latest song off A&R that I've fallen in love with is "I Got Mine", and here's a vid of them performing that song at their AMAZING show at the Astoria last week:

Covers: Amy Winehouse and Goddaughter do Alicia Keys

It's been a while since we posted about poor crazy-ass Amy Winehouse, so I decided to throw this clip up. Amy Winehouse filmed an acoustic performance of her and her goddaughter (who I've heard is 12, but I'm not completely sure) performing "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys. The Goddaughter's got a beautiful voice for her age, and Amy supportively playing the guitar next to her is really cool to watch for some reason. The person that posted the video on Youtube disabled embedding, but you can go to the clip at this URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTQgo2amQLk

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Leaks: Coldplay's "Viva La Vida"

So, Coldplay's new album leaked today. It's... not great. It's not awful, but it's by far their weakest album yet. This was supposed to be the album where they stretch their limits, but 2/3 of the album is just so shockingly boring. And I was never one of the people that thought they were boring before. I thought "Parachutes" had a lot of great songwriting, "X&Y" was sonically flawless, and "Rush of Blood" was a nice balance of the two, but this new album just doesn't have anything worth connecting to. The only really surprising, intriguing, memorable song in the whole set was "Yes!/Chinese Sleep Chant". It's the only departure from the earlier work that's actually any good.

Yes!/Chinese Sleep Chant - Coldplay

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

New Music: Weezer

New Weezer is out! "Because why not?" seems to be Rivers' motto as he skydives into this new set of songs. It's one of the most ambitious albums of the last few months, and it pays off well. It's instantly accessible, but you appreciate it more every time you hear it again.

Weezer - Weezer (The Red Album)

Monday, June 2, 2008

Covers: Watch Prince perform "Creep" before it gets deleted

Prince's latest hissyfit has been about banning vids of his performance of Radiohead's "Creep" from Youtube, even though HE DOESN'T OWN THE SONG. I really wasn't that interested in this, but I watched it from beginning to end to spite him. It made me feel better somehow. It's not a bad performance. As of 7:36 CST on 6/2/08, this video was functional.