As Erik SQUEEEEEEE'd about last week, Justin Timberlake has FINALLY returned to the studio to record some actual goddamn music, and today he debuted his newest song "Suit & Tie" with rapping duties fulfilled by Jay-Z. It's the first single from his upcoming new album The 20/20 Experience to be released later this year. Read more about that here.
But back to "Suit & Tie." Well, of course I like it. It's got shades of Marvin Gaye, R. Kelly, and god knows who else... I'll have to listen to it more. BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK? Check it out, and vote in the legally binding poll over on Blogtown!

Something worth considering before the music industry—or any other creative endeavor—goes on suing their own customers: users of P2P file-sharing networks buy 30% more music than folks who don't share songs online.

Or so says The American Assembly, a think tank tied to Columbia University.

U.S. P2P users have larger collections than non-P2P users (roughly 37% more). And predictably, most of the difference comes from higher levels of ‘downloading for free’ and ‘copying from friends/family.’

But some of it also comes from significantly higher legal purchases of digital music than their non-P2P using peers–around 30% higher among US P2P users. Our data is quite clear on this point and lines up with numerous other studies: The biggest music pirates are also the biggest spenders on recorded music.

H/T: Torrent Freak

Every six months or so I clean off my desk. Time to do something with all those notes, taxes, receipts, ash, batteries, earplugs, breath mints, lighters and the rest. Of the many items that pile up are news clippings I tear for reminder or further review. One such was Marques Toliver, from the New York Times, the week of April 18th, reads as such:

This classically trained violinist from Florida has spent time busking in East London, but he has now shifted his considerable talent to the unusual hybrid of baroque R&B. In his hands, it is fascinating: Mr. Toliver croons fitfully about spirituality over intricate string solos, joking dryly between songs to break up the bleak tension. His debut EP, “Butterflies Are Not Free” (Bella Union), is promising throughout. — STACEY ANDERSON

Which led me to this pair of mesmerizing live performances:

I guess Toliver came to Portland a year ago. Anyone see him?

• I wonder what it's like to be 54 and to know this is what people think of when they think of you

Prince Rogers Nelson was born today, 54 years ago. He was funky. He maintained that funkiness until the age of seven, at which point it leapt forward along the evolutionary scale in a way the race of man had not seen before, and would not see again until he turned 20 and released For You, his debut album. At that point, Nelson worked tirelessly to hone and refine the funk, his weapon of choice, into an apocalyptic missile of music, deploying multiple payloads upon an unready populace for most of the '80s and '90s.

Unlike most fallouts, this purple precipitation was welcomed as it descended from the clouds, spattering against the barn roof, slicking up the wheels under the little red Corvettes tooling down Alphabet Street. That period is still celebrated, even now: There's The Prince vs. Michael Experience at Ted's on June 9th (by the way, there's no question - Prince wins that fight), and Jackpot Records is screening the ridiculous 1984 comedy/melodrama Purple Rain at the Bagdad Theater on June 15th & 16th.

Of course, in the '90s, dude got super-fucking weird, became kind of a self-parody and fell the fuck off in alarming fashion while stashing a stockpile of tantalizing funk bombs behind the doors of his oft-referred to vault.

But after the jump, we can ignore all that. We can, instead, remember, via the miracle of YouTube, some of his finer moments, at least until his crazy ass orders his army of lawyers to pull any and all evidence of his former majesty from the internet.

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• The Cry!

In the years since their tragic exit, Portland has seen it's share bands pay homage to the Exploding Hearts' plucky mess of punky glam pop. Most can be discerned by hair cuts alone—long on the sides, bangs cropped caveman short.

The Cry! are no exception, but their Hearts-inspired "Modern Cinderella" is an exceptional tune, an unshakeable mix of hooks and tongue-in-cheek self-depreciation. Can't help but smile when, after love (or lust) goes sour and the overlooked protagonist is "headed home on the bus."

LISTEN:
The Cry! - "Modern Cinderella"

Check out more at The Cry!'s Bandcamp. The group is in the midst of a national tour. They return to Portland on June 23 to play the Kenton Club. More info at their website.

—

I found The Cry! on a mixtape compiled earlier this year by the Mean Jeans' Billy Jeans. As he explains:

Sup? Here’s a mix of my favorite bands that Mean Jeans have toured or played with in the past year or two. Some total punk, some pop, some local Portland bands, whatever; all of these songs rule and they are all bands that are playing and touring now. Hopefully there’s some stuff you’ve never heard, get their records! - Billy Jeans

Indeed, lots of good stuff here. Highlights, besides "Modern Cinderella," include The Barrecuda's "Dog Food," Zulu Peals' "," White Fang's "Alien," and White Wires' "Don't Call Me When You're Ill."

The whole track list is available below the jump. But you can just skip that and download the Billy Jeans' mixtape here.

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We'd certainly be remiss in our duties if we failed to hype you on fledgling "record label and fun machine" Beer on the Rug, so here's the gritty: First thing you gotta know about this Midwestern tape outfit is that they deliver 100% on the indulgent party promise of their namesake. This is no-holds-barred, ADD pill-times galore, irretrievably deep down the h-pop k-hole: mulched elevator swag, dorm room synth-dorking, and unapologetic DIY dorkpop. It doesn't get much more zonked than this, folks. And just take a look at that artwork. What you see is definitely what you get—and with BOTR releases, it's always A-OK to judge a record by its cover.

In just 12 months time, the crew over at Beer on the Rug has garnered a lot of buzz with releases by the likes of Laserdisc Visions, CVLTS, and Napolian, but what's got us even more stoked are their stacks of soon-to-be-released titles that I'm not gonna spoil for you just yet. Instead, let's have a look and listen to this superb trio of their newest drops, including the debut LP from local Gnar Tapes/White Fang founder Erik Gage's newest alias, Free Weed.

Free Weed - Beer On The Drugs C19
Gnar mom Erik Gage joins BOTR’s ranks and blasts off axe in hand, shredding already spaced faces to flecks of carbon dust. This spliff riffin’ bong pop is not recommended for consumption by DARE members or the faint of heart. Features rubber burnin’ sensations like “Sci-Fi,” “Friend of the Guitar,” and “Caprica”. Pop this bad boy in your home stereo and blaze loudly for good measure.

LISTEN:

Free Weed - "Friend of the Guitar"

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The most intentionally weird dude of 2012's first quarter has got to be Mac Demarco. Mac's ADD-aesthetic has shape-shifted enough times in the past couple months that it's impossible to predict what you're gonna get from the guy, and his non-commitment to style is a refreshing take that you don't expect from your typical DIY pop dork. Like I said, the guy's all over the place—just search his name to reveal photo and video of him assuming the costumed personas of imagined AM-dial pop stars, practicing outlandish accents, and sitting on the toilet. Demarco's soon-to-be-released Rock and Roll Night Club is similarly chameleonesque—one minute he's sounding like a sloppy Bowie, the next like some late-to-the-party Brooklyn buzz band, and at times even like (dare I say it?) Ariel Pink. It's disorienting in the coolest way, and overall a rather creative record.

But this video, man... he messed up. It's not a terrible song, but the treatment is pretty much everything wrong with the resurgence of throwaway cable access-style media. Blatant Tim and Eric green-screen posturing, armpit-sniffing, WAY too much air guitar, and some guy faux-masturbating at the end... It's awkwardly immature, screaming out, "Hey, I'm a freak! I'm pretending to not give a shit, please love me!" Give me a break. No, I'm not missing the irony. If you're going to make a bad joke out of your music, at least make it a good bad joke.

Such a shame, too. The trio of tracks uploaded to Bandcamp a couple months ago had me anticipating one of the best (if not strangest) new voices of the year. I'm torn—DeMarco has potential for sure, but I'm hating this latest turn from him. Clearly, I need a little help deciding if this is crap or not.

If you're a band that requires folks—or inquisitive music journalists—to "like" your shit on Facebook before allowing them to listen to your music you can go to straight to PR hell, a place swarming with jacked up marketing gurus where you'll only be treated to marketing speak for the rest eternity and all your ideas are truncated at 140 characters. Burn famewhores, burn!

It's been just over a year since Amanda Brown, co-owner of preeminent outre-psych label Not Not Fun, first launched off to release dance records under the imprint 100% Silk. At that time, NNF was relentlessly saturating the underground market with acclaimed mutations of psych, drone, and trance, but Brown wasn't content to simply ride that wave. She was already busy predating the current vogue in rave and house music, as exemplified first by her collaboration with Matrix Metals' Sam Meringue under the ego LA Vampires, and soon after with the announcement that Silk was to begin curating the releases of like-minded artists. Now, just over a year later, Amanda and 100% Silk are already lining up their 26th release, and the label is one of the fastest-rising on the planet.

For a better idea of what Silk is getting at, peep this bitty from their mission statement: “Making 45 RPM 12 inch singles of diamond-life dance & bliss-disco & basement luxury grooves by friends and lovers from all over the world.” Think of Silk as an auteur of mulched, bedroom casino music, crowned with an aesthetic penchant for over-processed pads and a refreshing absence of exclusivity. Seriously though, don't just take my word for it. Instead, chew on these gum-snapping new drops from Silk (including one from "Prince of Portland" Paul Dickow, AKA Strategy) and make up your own mind.

Strategy - Boxy Music
"Prince of Portland Paul Dickow turns his no-nonsense Nudge-sludge awesomeness into revved-up, avant tech-house arousal as Strategy. The moniker has found Dickow checking out hooks in his Community Library and niche-in’-out nooks on Kranky. With SILK he separates: “Skanking Stabs” stomps with reverb canned-can drums, bouncing in a dancehall vault. “Feel The Earth” is not your daddy’s acid jazz, with its bouncing house arresting piano bar tipped jar. “Starry Day” soft serves up a swirl of 80’s vamp funk, contempo computer chocolate chips, and haywire Cyberdyne scheming sequences. The dueling “Bolly Valve” tracks mix Arabic woodwind skill scales with whisper sizzle clatter data. Limited edition, with hot pink pop art Neu-bout-town jackets designed by the artist. Strategic move for winning your love."

Polysick - Flow FM
"Tune in Tokyo, Rio, Rome, to Flow FM, Polysick’s choppy, blip-bloppy, reality-byting radio station. Channel glide between robotic-chaotic dub, ecstatic acid static, sunny synth sampladelica, Jack-the-Risker groove stabs, Rowdy Rick Dees-sleaze, organ-doning vogue-zoning, crunk color wheelies, sweet jellies and sick jams. And now a word from our SILK Sponsors: Flow FM has the sleekest sounds on the blare-waves."

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..when mere hours after someone dies press releases start appearing in your inbox, meticulously packaged and sent bearing starched, meaningless missives and followed promptly by laundry lists of collaboration and production credit.

You are soulless hounds and ye shall not profit!

Then again, I lose no sleep for Whitney Houston. And shame on those who pretend to.

Verbatim, from the mind of Portland newcomer and unconventional sound artist Jason Urick regarding his beguiling new record I Love You for Thrill Jockey:

"This record was recorded and pieced together during a very transitional period of my life. A lot was in flux in regards to location on the planet and people and relationships within said planet. My feeling regarding these changes had a tendency to fluctuate between very excited and confident with uncertainty and alternatingly unsure and nervous, sometimes fluctuating between the two rapidly from second-to-second. I became very hyper aware of the relationships of opposite emotions and started to notice these types of relationships more and more around me. Around this time I was recommended by a friend to watch the movie I Love You by Marco Ferreri. In this movie Christopher Lambert plays a character that falls in love with a talking keychain. More specifically a keychain that only said the words 'I Love You' when whistled at. Around that time I was starting to mold the material that would make up this album into more cohesive pieces. I began to use the phrase 'I Love You' as a mantra of sorts while working on this material. Running the phrase over and over in my head until the words started to break down and render the phrase foreign again. In these meditations I became more at peace with the music making process and more unsure/unfamiliar with it at the same time. This feeling spilled over into my understanding of myself going from feeling very in tune in body and mind to completely adrift in a large universe, again in very rapid succession until all that remained was a vibration. It feels silly and potentially useless to describe such personal and brief experiences in words, however it is my hope that within the record I am able to communicate these ideas/feeling to sound where it might make more sense." -Jason Urick

Thank you, Jason, for sharing. And welcome to Portland.

Below, stream Urick's new video for "Ageless Isms," directed by Portland's own brilliant art freak Ashby Lee Collinson. Collinson's treatment of Urick's noise and manufactured electronic environments succeeds by building upon the music's rapid development and conclusion of motifs in a disorienting, yet sincere and thought-provoking style. It takes a rather delicate touch to balance the organic and synthetic poles of I Love You, a contrast that would surely have splintered in less capable hands. So, if you'd like to get to know Collinson (the mastermind behind Experimental Half Hour's Princess Dies) a little better, you can start by checking out her fund-worthy video project over at Kickstarter. And don't forget to attend an intimate evening with Urick this Sunday, January 22, as he headlines a night of fringe local talent at Valentine's.

• Conlon Nancarrow

On the recently re-named Sound of Young America (now known as Bullseye), host Jesse Thorn gets an enlightening bit from Dan Deacon. The way Deacon describes music is marvelous. He may never get to see a new color, Deacon says, but with music the palate and spectrum are ever expanding.

One of the artists who helped Deacon hear a new color is Conlon Nancarrow, a composer who wrote pieces that could only be performed by player piano. Conlon's righteous torrents of notes are a stunning precursor to electronic music. I never realized that the blipy and wobbly sounds we associate with computers—especially early 8-bit and 16-bit Nintendo-like synthesizers—could result from playing scales at top speed. The best example of all is embedded in the interview.

LISTEN: Dan Deacon on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
Dan Deacon, The Song That Changed My Life by Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

All aboard!

That's right, it's the R. Kelly cruise. From the McRib-lovin' mind that brought you "Bump n' Grind," Trapped in the Closet, and urinating on underage girls, Carnival is proud to present the Love Letter Cruise, embarking next October for a five day excursion through the Bahamas. If we needed any furthur proof that Kelly is the voice of our generation, this is it.

It isn't cheap (tickets start at $1500), but the cruise features a wealth of entertainment, including a fashion show and modeling contest, mock game show, waterslide fun, and even a wellness seminar! Sounds like a great time to be had by all—let's just hope they chlorinate the fuck out of that pool (because of, you know... the pee).

All kinds of stuff been piling up. Probably a lot of it since lost. For a time, all I could think about was Cass McCombs, who I recently saw and wrote about in what might just be a bitch of a story. It'll be in print Thursday. And let me add: don't miss Thursday's show at Doug Fir. Really, you must hear "Bradley Manning" in all its live glory. Amen and hallelujah.

Let the cleansing begin:

- A$AP Rocky and his crew used Nurses' "You Lookin' Twice" as a loop for a live free-style. Which makes me wonder all the more: why the hell isn't Dracula a smash hit? Who's missing out and fucking up here? Something is screwy with the embed so WATCH IT HERE. It's tight.

- Can Noel and Liam Gallagher just become subjects of a clinical study of the ego? I don't care at all about their music but these fuckers are and have always been stunning to watch as they unravel into limey, slobbering, jagged, and sometimes radical cunts under questioning. To wit:

New York Times Magazine : Aerosmith’s Joe Perry once suggested that cocaine isn’t particularly expensive. What’s expensive are the decisions you make under its influence. Agree?

Oh, yes, yes indeed. I got a £110,000 supercar that was built for myself, and I didn’t even have a driving license. They said it would take about a year and a half to build, and I was thinking, Great, I’ll have easily learned to drive in a year and a half. Like a small dog, I completely forgot about it and started partying with supermodels, and about a year and a half later somebody delivered it to my house, and I had no idea what they were talking about.

Get the whole interview here.

- Elvis Costello is right to tell fans not to buy his new box set that the label priced at over $200.

“Unfortunately, we at www.elviscostello.com find ourselves unable to recommend this lovely item to you as the price appears to be either a misprint or a satire.”

...

“If you should really want to buy something special for your loved one at this time of seasonal giving, we can whole-heartedly recommend Ambassadors of Jazz [by] Louis Armstrong," the singer went on, pointing out that the Armstrong box set offers 10 albums for the same price as the Spinning Songbook.

He added: “Frankly, the music is vastly superior.”