Stuck In My Skull 341 — “Below the Surface” [HIPSTER WEEK PART 4]

HIPSTER WEEK, PART 4 || Song: "Below the Surface" || Artist: Ben Preston || http://youtu.be/FB9cvps5bPQ ||

[youtube http://youtu.be/FB9cvps5bPQ]

Comments: Happy Thursday everyone! I have a bad habit -- my desktop on my computer is so cluttered with virtual sticky notes that sometimes I can't actually see my own background. Usually, I have at least one sticky full of music. I generally forget to look at them, but for some reason, I remembered to tonight. And, oh, am I glad I did. Continuing the theme of 'Most of Hipster Week is Electronic,' Ben Preston. As I recall, I originally ran into this song on Pandora, and liked it so much that I wrote down the track name and artist. Going back and listening to it again, I'm having trouble staying in my seat, because my ears are commanding my body to dance! Enjoy!

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Stuck In My Skull 340 — “We Lost the Signal” [HIPSTER WEEK PART 3]

HIPSTER WEEK, PART 3 || Song: "We Lost the Signal" || Artist: Fidgital || http://youtu.be/HrU0A7W48FA ||

[youtube http://youtu.be/HrU0A7W48FA]

Comments: Note to self, get a normal sleep pattern and keep it. Anyway, welcome back to Hipster Week! Though at this point, it might be worth calling these last few days the "Canadian Electronica Special Series," as Fidgital is another Canadian act. Given only a phrase to describe Fidgital based on what I've heard, I'd call them ambient electro-jazz. Woot for making up genre titles. Fidgital's website uses some slightly different language.

Fidgital is electronic pop that draws inspiration from jazz, big band, techno, and an ever-widening range of genres. We (Producer/remixer Keith Gillardand vocalist Ryan Slemko) work with a cast of talented electronic and jazz musicians from Vancouver, Canada and all over the world to create progressive, unique, and ultimately catchy pop music.

Anyway, "We Lost the Signal" is a nice and mellow jazzy track, and I love it. It's about as calm as I am... Which is very, as it's 2:08 AM at time of writing. Good night to me, good morning to you, and good music to all.

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Stuck In My Skull 339 -- "So Beautiful" [HIPSTER WEEK PART 2]

HIPSTER WEEK, PART 2 || Song: "So Beautiful" || Artist: Adriane Lake || http://soundcloud.com/adrianelake/so-beautiful-2 ||

http://soundcloud.com/adrianelake/so-beautiful-2

 

Comments: Well, we have retroactively declared this week to be Hipster Week! It's been FAR too long since we've done a Theme Week, and we just couldn't help ourselves. The rules of Hipster Week are pretty simple: The video must have less than 1,000,000 hits on youtube. And with this entry, I'm impressed. It has zero hits on youtube. Actually, the song I originally wanted to hit isn't on Soundcloud either! So, I settled for this equally-excellent track by the same artist. Adriane Lake is a Canadian producer of electronic music, and that's about all her bio really says. She's hipster enough not to have a wikipedia entry. Regardless of that, her CD Morning Glow recently made its way into my hands, and I love it. This song is featured on Soundcloud, and did I mention it's downloadable? You're welcome. If that doesn't sell you yet, here's a chunk of description from her website to either make or break the deal for you.

With Morning Glow, she brings a tenderness, sweetness and emotive quality to her squishy ambient and thumping arrangements. The addition of her own vocal layers and lyrics to a number of the tracks adds a quirky nerdy femininity when melded with organic textures and stiffer electronic instruments. Using uncommon time signatures, deep bass, treated acoustic instruments and even found sound Morning Glow is an unusually accessible confection of otherworldly songs, decorative textures and unorthodox beats.

Enjoy the song!

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Entry 296-- "We Can Make the World Stop"

Song: "We Can Make the World Stop" || Artist: The Glitch Mob || http://youtu.be/ls-LYas5j8U ||
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls-LYas5j8U]
Comments: I wasn't originally looking for this song, but when I couldn't remember the name of The Glitch Mob's song that I was looking for, I clicked the video and promptly fell in love with the tune. The Glitch Mob is an interesting sound, representing a sub-genre of electronica (appropriately, "glitch") that hasn't worked its way into the mainstream of electronic music yet, let alone mainstream pop. Oddly enough, it reminds me most heavily of the soundtrack and sound effects in the web game "Give Up Robot" produced by Adult Swim Games (heads up-- trippy lights and sound, bordering on epileptic, and a huge black hole of time and productivity). Either way, the group (what I've heard of them) and the song are both excellent. Enjoy!
Edit: Sorry this didn't go up on schedule-- either I derped or Blogger derped, and I'm not sure which.

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Entry 241-- "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)"

Song: "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)"
Artist: Moby

http://youtu.be/JXtuVCgtDSY
Comments: Happy Monday, folks! For those of you (us?) who think that Mondays really suck, have an awesome song to make it suck less! According to Wikipedia, this version of the song "Extreme Ways" has been used in all three of the films (thus far) in the Bourne film trilogy, which you should definitely watch if you haven't already. Also according to Wiki-- and verified by the dedicated team of fact-checking monkeys here at Stuck In My Skull (read, me)-- the chord in the beginning of the song has a history. Before Moby used it in this track, it came from a cover of the song "Everybody's Talkin'" by Hugo Winterhalter, who covered the song (as best as I can tell) from the original by Fred Neil in 1966. So, it turns out the soundtrack for a 2000s action movie was something like 40 years in the making. Sometimes, music has got a crazy history. Anyway, enjoy the song!

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Entry 240-- "Tongue Tied"

Song: "Tongue Tied"
Artist: Grouplove

 

http://youtu.be/1x1wjGKHjBI

Comments:  Hey everyone! Amanda here to wrap up the week. This song has been stuck in my skull for a couple days now and I felt I needed to share it with you all today. Apple featured it in a commercial last year, essentially catapulting the band into mainstream success. And I am definitely a fan. Grouplove (sometimes spelled GROUPLOVE) has a fun, youthful pathos about them that is kind of irresistible and  "Tongue Tied" captures it perfectly. It comes off their debut record and is a fantastic amalgam of rock, pop, electronica, and indie music that makes me want to dance and headbang all at the same time.The music video is also quite entertaining. If you like what you hear, I suggest checking out their entire album. Happy listening and happy Friday!

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