SKYLAR GREY: singer-songwriter in a new millenium

   / Dark-Pop, Hardcore-Ballads, USA          (Posted in Danish, 2012 February 15th)

As a consequence of my general curiosity I had to test MTV Push (mentioned in the previous post). It took 4 attempts and I found something very interesting!

Skylar Grey (her real name is Holly Brook Hafermann; the first album is released under the name Holly Brook) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer.

She has worked with Marilyn Manson, Rihanna, Eminem, P Diddy and Dr. Dre. She was nominated for a handful of Grammys 2012 in cooperation with others, but did not win.

More info below ...

She started her career as a child: she performed in a folk duo with her mother, and at age 15 she sneaked into bars to perform / play with jazz musicians in Wisconsin. At age 18 she moved to Los Angeles and made a demo. She was discovered by Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson, who helped her progress.

She changed her artist name to sound more original and less feminine - "it's more masculine. I'm not a very feminine person." she says.

She works with a lot of other artists and has been nominated for her good work.

She has released two albums - the third published 2015.

M U S I C Click:

Skylar Grey video "Invisible":

http://youtu.be/NVVrT_wNw_Y

Skylar Grey's website:

http://www.skylargreymusic.com/

MTV Push Denmark:

http://www.mtv.dk/shows/mtv-push/

FOSTER THE PEOPLE - super brilliant!!!

   / Indie-Pop, Indie-Rock, USA 

Here is a big new name: Foster The People. 

Foster the People origin from Los Angeles, they started in 2009 and consists of Mark Foster (vocals, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, guitar, programming, percussion) + Cubbie Fink (bass and backing vocals) + Mark Pontius (drums and extra percussion) + they have two extra musicians on stage, on tour.

Before further info, here's Call It What You Want, one of their many great tracks:

Mark Foster has had a long "non-career" and was, in spite of great talent and many songs written in many genres over many years, unable to find a group and a breakthrough. When he finally got together with someone and started a band, things went just as slow ... until it suddenly sped up. "Everyone is calling me and emailing me - what do I do? Who are the good guys, der er the bad guys?" Mark said, as he went from being a guy who could not get hold of anyone to a guy who suddenly gets hundreds of emails. "For so many years, it was slow, playing in front of pretty small crowds and trying to get your friends to show up ... And then all of a sudden, it kind of took off ..." 

Their cool debut album (Torches, 2011) made gold / platinum in the USA, Canada and Australia. The single below: Pumped Up Kicks (2010) went #1 more places around the world, it was nominated for a Grammy and won a Billboard Music Award.

Foster The People are nominated for 1 Brit Award in 2012 and 2 Grammy's in 2012 (where they will be playing with The Beach Boys and Maroon 5). They have been nominated for 2 MTV music awards 2011, 2 Q awards 2011 and at SharkOneAwards they won the New Artist of the Year-Award. They have recently been on MTV Push ("Do you need a new favorite band? Then MTV will help! Each month, we Push you the newest and hottest acts in the world and, of course, explains why they are so special."; O)

Foster The People did release 2 albums and 2 EP's, so far.

M U S I C Click: 

Foster the People website: 

http://www.fosterthepeople.com/us/home

MTV Push: 

http://www.mtv.co.uk/mtv-push

SKRILLEX - evil electro in a whole new league

   / Dubstep, Electro-House, USA.          (Released in Danish, 2012 January 23rd)

This is Skrillex. A brilliant electro-musician, who seems to be nerd / genius and a rising star.

Skrillex is Sonny John Moore, born in 1988 in Los Angeles, a former frontman of the post-hardcore band From First To Last. In 2007 he started his solo carreer. Skrillex has made 1 album, 14 EP's, some singles, remixes in amounts and been a guest artist on various people's tracks.

23rd of december 2012 he released a new music video, quite "noir" (especially when you look at the date it was released and the story in the video), watch closely ...

Skrillex informs that the music he started listening to was Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson ... which tells us where he gets "it" from. He has made electro music since he was 14 years old!

In 2011 he was nominated for 5 Grammy's (including Best New Artist), the BBC's Sound of 2012 and MTV's best Electronic Dance Music. He has won a total of 6 Grammys by now.

Skrillex will be playing for the first time in Denmark 5th of may 2012. The concert at Store Vega was sold out in 24 hours and the gig was moved to Forum. Ah, would like to have been there :)

If you want an impression of Skrillex Live, you can search Youtube for the clips from one of his tours: listen to "Skrillex-The Mothership (Massive Mix)"there are 8 parts - he mixes "every genre of techno known to man!!!!" - It IS massive :-) (Link below)

M U S I C Click:

Skrillex - The Mothership (Massive Mix):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Skrillex-The+Mothership+%28Massive+Mix%29

Skrillex website:

http://www.skrillex.com/

Skrillex at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrillex

SPOTIFY - Apps

   / Streaming Music, Technology          (Posted in Danish, 2012 Januar 16th)

EDIT: There have been major changes in Spotify Apps, the following article is outdated, but check the musicvideo below. There will be a new article on this later ... link will be posted here: later

An apostate YouSee Play user confesses :)

I have for some months had the pleasure of comparing YouSee Play with Spotify. Spotify was an alright streaming solution, but Yousee Play did the same thing for free, if you were a YouSee costumer, so why bother, I thought ...

Then I discovered Spotify Apps and I was sold - since that I haven't been using Yousee Play, although it is of no cost to me. For those who don't know Spotify yet: it's a service that streams music, for free with commercials every 4 tracks or without commercials for dkr. 50,- per month ($ 7,19) or in higher bitrate and for mobile and so on for dkr. 100,- per month ($ 14,39). They have 17 million tracks right now (EDIT! Now more than 30 million tracks). You must have email or facebook account.

Now what's up with the Apps? ... people who don't know them ask (and the rest nods their heads) ... explanation follows below after this video with the band called Feed Me, which I did not know until I tried the app "We are hunted", where you discover new music in several ways.

The number of apps are growing...

Here's some interesting ones:

123 Toplists - Danish charts.

Radio - drag a song on the icon and you hear music based on the song's style and so on.

Billboard - Billboard charts from the USA.

fuse - today's short music news combined with relevant playlists.

Gaffa - Scandinavia's biggest music magazine, news, reviews, tracks, concerts and playlists.

Moodagent - drag a song at the icon, select your mood and whether the intensity should be increasing, decreasing or have another curve. Then you'll get a personal playlist.

Pitchfork - Reviews of albums, with playlists.

Rolling Stone - great music and lifestyle magazine. Lots of reviews, recommendations, and top-lists etc. From the past "many" decades til now.

Share my playlists - super area with all kinds of playlists from all sorts of people and places with every kind of music. Exciting.

Songkick - find concerts with your favouriet bands? Never again sold out!? Maybe not ...

Sound Drop - throw a playlist and invite friends into the listening room - across the country / world. Or go into a listening room - area is divided into genres.

Top10 - make your own top10 lists (maybe top10 songs on Copenhagen / winter / of an artist etc.) and listen to others.

TuneWiki - super app that finds and displays lyrics for the songs - if there is no lyrics yet, you can add your own.

We are hunted - as mentioned above, discover new music within areas and genres.

M U S I C Click:

Spotify:

https://www.spotify.com/

"4/4" - a new super program with Kasper Bjørke

   / House, Electronica, Disco, Radio          (Posted in Danish, 2012 January 7th)

Score (max. 5):      ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

I just heard the debut of the new music program from the excellent musicradio channel DR P6: the show "4/4" (Four Fourths) with Kasper Bjørke, Fridays at 19-21.

It was a SUPER cool experience ...

Below is a little about the show and the man, but first one of the many great tracks you heard him play ...

Storm Queen - It goes on

The program has according to P6 these qualities:

In 2012 P6 BEAT will be hosted by none other than Kasper Bjørke. Bjørke presents the cream of electronic music - mixed with classics and twists within Disco, Italo, New Wave, No Wave and Post Punk. With a look back and a look forward, always with a relaxed atmosphere ...

And Kasper Bjørke we know from the duo Filur, one of the country's best house / dance / electronica acts. (One of the groups one really would like to see / have seen! Check their hits on the web.) He is a Danish, internationally known musician / producer / remixer / DJ, and has worked with Trentemøller, Stina Nordenstam, Pernille Rosendahl and many more.

The show is filled with many truly delicious numbers presented and commented by Kasper Bjørke. He says the programs will include: mixed treats from the last 40 years of electronic music, new and old, odd songs and mini themes for record companies and producers that we should "keep an eye on." The first hour was Kasper's own favorite-producers publications from 2011 and the second hour a mix of interesting stuff.

Above: Supermax - Love Machine (a track from a later broadcast)

EDITED: The program 4/4 was broadcasted from January 2012 to December 2013. You can download / listen to 85 "4/4"-shows via podcast and on DR's website (link below).

M U S I C Click:

DR P6 Beat - 4/4, website, listen here:

http://www.dr.dk/p6beat/4-4

Kasper Bjørke's website:

http://www.kasperbjorke.com/