GelaSkins | What's the Skinny?

It's another day to get a little bit of feel good.

Jamie Lidell IS the man (and also known as JIM according to his impeding release) and has released the second video from his sophomore release next week. Well, maybe sophomore isn't the most correct term in this case. For someone that's been releasing minimal techno albums for the better part of a decade, definitely not, but in his current incarnation as a funk machine churning out sexy tunes to get down to, fo' sho!

As we've come to expect from mr. Lidell at this point, his melodies are saccharine, his beats tight and funkay, and his "No way I'm this white or English" soul vocal stylings are just f***ing killer - no two ways about it.

Peep these two awesome cuts: Another Day and A Little Bit of Feel Good. What I love about these videos  is that he's decided to go a very Stanley Kubrick-esque route with video content, which has very little correlation with the lyrics or even sytle of music - awesome!  Who knew a horse could give him a little bit of feel good?

Here Is What Is

You would be hard pressed to escape the far reaching influence of Daniel Lanois. The man has been producing peerless records for the biggest artists in music for over 20 years, writing and recording his own critically acclaimed work all the while keeping his artistic ego in check. The man is responsible for five U2 albums (and not all the shitty ones either, I'm talking Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby.... yeah that's right!), Peter Gabriel So and Us, a couple Bob Dylan albums, Luscious Jackson, Emmylou Harris, etc.

Yeah.   

Here Is What Is comes as a companion album to his recent foray into the world of cinema with a film by the same name about the making of an album, a subject Daniel is intimate with to say the least.  The record swings to and fro from Lanois'  weeping lap steel guitar (his personal favorite instrument), to the weaving piano lines of Garth Hudson (formerly of The Band) to the impossible touch and feel of Brian Blade's drums, with surprising ease.

This record doesn't quite capture a time and place like Belladonna did, nor does it have all the flowing soul and energy of Shine but what it does exude is raw (albeit well produced) emotion and more than any other of his records allows you to experience what it's like (or what I can only imagine) in Dan's world. I was very lucky to have witnessed two shows Dan staged at The Great Hall (Queen and Ossington) back in September in conjunction with the release of his film at the Toronto International Film Festival and looking back on them, it was a  perfect representation of what this album brings to the table now, an amalgamation of his intimacy as artist and producer shown in emotion and honest, down-to-earth soulfulness.

I'd highly recommend this album to anyone that likes music.

MP3:  Where Will I Be?

MP3: Duo Glide

Wookin' pa nub in aww de wong pwaces...

Random Strangeness...go.

This girl wants a guy that looks like Link from the Legend of Zelda for a soul mate, and what better place to find one than on Craig's List! Good God. This pains me that people are starting to look to video game characters as mates. I think she spent too much time online in dark chat rooms listening to guys tell her that it's at least 8 bits, 9 and a half if they get really excited.  Maybe I'll see if I can't buy myself a Lara Croft lookalike on Ebay. Via Geekologie.

I know it's a couple years old but goddamn this video is funny - Thanks Del!. Monty Python meets George Lucas - Hilarious!

David Choe has been killing the streets of London with his dope style graf. Love it!

Via Wooster Collective.

This little gem was shown to me yesterday and I laughed so hard I almost cried. I want these 2 guys in the video to come and play a party at my house where people drink too much and pretend to be ironic by wearing place mats as scarves and other stupid en vogue accoutrement that seem to be sweeping tragically hip scenesters.

Ok Music...

Jamie Lidell is back and once again he's bringing the nasty funkedelia, which in and of itself is somewhat of a miracle considering he's white and British. I kid of course, but his new record "Jim" is slated for release at the end of april and has already revealed some smooth goodness.  Check the awesome grooves of "A Little Bit of Feel Good" below.

Canadian Music Week started last night and, seriously there's hundreds of bands playing throughout the city over the next 3-4 days.  Here's my pick for show of the festival. D Tour: A Tenacious Documentary will also be making it's Canadian debut with a Q and A featuring Kyle Gass afterwards. RAGE KAGE!

Cat Power's latest effort "Jukebox" has been in heavy rotation here at GelaSkins HQ and I think it's truly the first great album of 2008. If you haven't checked it out yet,do and here's a snippet from it.

Chan covering Frank on Later...with Jools Holland.

Freebass will rock your face off. Guaranteed.

3 bass players in one band? Sounds ludicrous right? Wrong. Lest we forget one of the monoliths of rock, a little band called Spinal Tap... yeah, you're welcome. Well, there's a new kid on the block and he means business. The new kid is called FreeBass and it's made up of 3 bass giants from the past 30 years.

Peter Hook, Mani and Andy Rourke, all Mancunians by nature and all responsible for shaping brit pop and indie rock for the scores of bands that came after them. These gents got their humble starts in a few bands you might have heard of - Joy division/New Order, The Stone roses and The Smiths. Daaaaaamn.

These blokes have been talking about this project for approximately 8 years and are looking to pull the trigger on it, with a number of cameo vocals on the album from Billy Corgan, Ian Brown, Liam Gallagher and Tim Burgess along with full time lead vocalist, Gary Briggs of Haven.  Hope to see something from these guys real soon...and they'd better cover Big Bottom to have any street cred.

Consider yourself Warned...

So the Hot Chip have been rocking under our (read: my) radar for quite some time, but it was their 2002 Sanfrandisco E Pee that has been rinsing around here recently that has really sparked a renewed taste for the indie electro sound. Having been sufficiently sucked in by their delicious pop vocals and moderately groovy bass lines from the EP, I figured it was time to try on the full length.

Their latest effort 2006 "The Warning" was put into high rotation for about a week around the office and one thing occurred to me: they've chosen the wrong band name. They should be called Hot Shit!!!!!!!!! (That's right, with 9 exclamation points)
Three thumbs way up! (I really only have two, but they're abnormally large so they're equivalent to 3 normal human thumbs) Seriously though, these guys have some real songwriting talent, and I can only hope they're as good live as they are on wax. They've given way to a fuller, more dance-oriented sound compared to earlier works and it appears on all fronts to have worked.

It's a very accessible record those of you that might not be fully diggin' the electro sound and to give a some reference, these guys would be like The Postal Service's older, cooler brother that got all the girls, straight A's, burned mad spliffs and played guitar better than anyone you know.

I'll be giving the Hot Chip a tasting at the 'Roo this year, but please feel free to write in and give your reviews if you have seen them live.

Uh Oh! The 5-0 are coming!

May Buddha bless the good men and women of Superfly Productions, the geniuses behind the mother of all rock fests in North America, Bonnaroo, not to mention Jazzfest and Vegoose to boot. They've put forth a healthy offering of awesome already with this years initial lineup, with more artists yet to be added. Most notably on this who's who of musical madness they call a roster are rock gods The Police. The Police???  Shit yeah! But really The Police are just one on a list of gitch-stainingly good bands that are going to whip the crowd into feverish frenzy for a few days this coming June.

Have a look see...

• The Police · Tool · Widespread Panic · The White Stripes · Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals · Wilco · The Flaming Lips · Manu Chao · The String Cheese Incident · Franz Ferdinand · Bob Weir & Ratdog · Damien Rice · Ween · Gov't Mule · Ziggy Marley · The Decemberists · Kings of Leon · Michael Franti & Spearhead · Wolfmother · Regina Spektor · The Black Keys · Galactic · DJ Shadow · Gillian Welch · Spoon · Keller Williams (WMD's) · Sasha & John Digweed · STS9 · Old Crow Medicine Show · The Hold Steady · North Mississippi Allstars · Fountains Of Wayne · Hot Tuna · Feist · Hot Chip · John Butler Trio · Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys · Aesop Rock · The Richard Thompson Band · Dierks Bentley · Xavier Rudd · Gogol Bordello · Junior Brown · Tortoise · T-Bone Burnett · Mavis Staples · Clutch · Cold War Kids · Dr. Dog · Paolo Nutini · Brazilian Girls · RX Bandits · The Nightwatchman · The Slip · Girl Talk · Railroad Earth · Martha Wainwright · Rodrigo y Gabriela · Annuals · Tea Leaf Green · Sam Roberts Band · Elvis Perkins in Dearland · Charlie Louvin · Sonya Kitchell · Mute Math · Apollo Sunshine · Uncle Earl · James Blood Ulmer · The National · The Little Ones · Black Angels · Ryan Shaw Lewis Black & Friends · David Cross · Dave Attell

See I wasn't lying to you...that's an earful of awesome iffen you ask me.

Here's a few shots i found kickin' around the ol' interweb from last years 'Roo...

Thom Yorke

The beautiful Chan Marshall (AKA Cat Power)

The Church of Scientology's finest export : Beck

Charlie T Wilbury Jr. AKA Muddy Wilbury (Jesus did he ever rock last year!)

See you on the greeezly side of things down on ol' Rocky Top!

Peter Bjorn And John get Writer's Block

If you haven't checked out these Swedish indie minstrels yet, what the hell are you waiting for??  Their sophmore effort is riddled with catchy hooks (complete with and without whistling) endearing keys and wonderful low-fi esthetics that'll have you digging out your old Eric's Trip records and  reliving your indie rock roots. Dig it!

Everyones favorite really really indie rock blog Pitchfork gives Writer's Block an 8.5 so it must be worth a listen or two...then again they're lustful, drooling fanatics of Joanna Newsom so take that as you like.

Here's a link to a video for the most excellent track Young Folks and one to their homepage