New Music Monday #9 - Merdan Taplak
Truth be told, I knew nothing about Merdan Taplak until 34 hours ago. The Artist Manager of some friends mentioned me in a tweet:
Some Doug, all the way from Canada, just bought @merdantaplak’s debut album. Love! #initforthehoney (@janeccman)
Sidenote: Don’t you just love Canadian connections? I do. Send them all my way!
My curiosity was immediately piqued. New music? I’m there. Plus, if “some Doug” from Canada liked his music, maybe I will too. I eventually landed on Merdan Taplak’s website and on the Video page—since the Music page wouldn’t load on my iPhone and I was too lazy to load up my SoundCloud app. The first thing I played was the video above for “Nice to Be A Girl” featuring Eline Mabilde from Gent, Belgium (is everyone from Gent?!) (She’s really pretty, by the way.) The song is cute, and, as a girl, I love the lyrics, but the video with the kids playing house puts it over the top. I mean, did you see the way their feet dangled under the table? They couldn’t even reach across to play footsies. And the boy wore a fedora to his show and killed it!
Sometimes I wish I was a boy
Sometimes I just want to destroy
Merdan is a DJ/producer from Antwerp, and his debut In It For The Honey, which I’m listening to right now on SoundCloud, came out only a month ago. Pretty cool that he’s even got Princess Superstar as a guest artist (among others) on the album. There are so many instruments on all the tracks; it blows my mind. I think my favourite, besides “Nice To Be A Girl” is “JIMS”.
Honestly. When did I start listening to techno?
Merdan Taplak
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | SoundCloud
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New Music Monday highlights my favourite new musical discoveries. The series will encourage me to actively seek new music and (hopefully) encourage others to open their ears to something new. Got a recommendation? Write me!
Sucré - "When We Were Young" (Music Video Premiere)
New Music Monday #8 - Sucré
I’m only a little over two weeks (16 days to be exact) away from seeing Eisley live again, for the second time. This time, they’re performing as part of Canadian Music Week 2012 at the Drake Underground. Boy, I can’t wait. I’ve been listening to—and in love with—Eisley for probably seven or eight years. Their newest album, The Valley (2011), blew me away. Just as I thought they could impress me any further. If you’ve never heard of Eisley, well, then…yikes. Get on that.
One-fifth of Eisley, Stacy Dupree-King, announced she was working on a new project last year, a project with her husband/drummer Darren King of MUTEMATH (another fantastic band) and Jeremy Larson, best known to me as the talented and beautiful—and one of my favourite bloggers ever—Elsie Larson’s husband (not to undermine Jeremy’s own talent as he’s a fantastic multi-instrumentalist). The project was revealed to be named Sucré, French for “sugar” or “sweet”.
I’ve been anticipating the first single for a long time, and finally the music video premiered today on Spinner (see link above). The video, directed and edited by Darren, is whimsical, light, fantastical, sugary and sweet—perfectly matching the song and Stacy’s voice. I love the use of the mirrors, light, and projections. I’ve been itching to visit Red Velvet (Elsie’s store), but now I’m even more tempted to make that trip down south.
Sucré’s debut album, A Minor Bird, will be out April 10. I can’t wait!
When we were young
I never had to carry
Those fears I have today
You take me when I close my eyes
Sucré
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
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New Music Monday highlights my favourite new musical discoveries. The series will encourage me to actively seek new music and (hopefully) encourage others to open their ears to something new. Got a recommendation? Write me!
New Music Monday #7 - Horses on Fire
It’s Monday, and I’m listening to one of my new favourites on repeat, and—for once—I’m not entirely exhausted from work and le social life, so here I am!
I honestly cannot recall how I found out about Horses on Fire. I also have no idea how popular they are in Belgium. All I know is that for a band that doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, Horses on Fire feels like a band I’ve listened to for years. I love their album. Love.
They call themselves “Belgium’s best-kept guitar secret. Up until today, at least.” I might have to agree with that. They have that vintage rock sound the modern radio desperately needs, to counter all the ridiculous teen pop and angry, dirty hip hop. And I can definitely imagine Horses on Fire becoming a huge hit on 102.1 The Edge. Perhaps, it’s their familiarity that has me in love with them. Sadly, I’m awful at pinpointing who bands sound like, i.e. they are a touch of x with a mix of y and the vocals of z. I can’t do that. (Which is why I can never be a professional music critic.) You tell me: who do they sound like?
Their untitled debut album was released only three weeks ago on February 6th, 2012. Their Belgium album release show was five days ago, and their Netherlands show isn’t even until Thursday. The band is comprised of Thijs De Coledt on guitar, Michélé De Feudis on vocals and guitar, Alessandro De Feudis on drums and Anthony Statius on bass guitar. My three favourite songs on the album are “Draw The Line” (see music video above), “Raw Meat”, and “Better Than You”. Stream their album in its entirety and tell me which is your favourite.
I also love their music videos. That robot kills me. “I’ll 11011 you ‘til you drop, love.” <- That needs to be on a t-shirt.
If these guys get famous in North America, I want to be credited as the girl who made them that. Keep that in mind, k?
[Edit:] I lied. I think I figured out how I learned about them. Studio Brussel’s YouTube channel, duh. As always. It was their cover of Easy that had me hooked.
Horses on Fire
Website | MySpace | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | SoundCloud
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New Music Monday highlights my favourite new musical discoveries. The series will encourage me to actively seek new music and (hopefully) encourage others to open their ears to something new. Got a recommendation? Write me!
