Discovery's First LP Surfaces

Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles have been in collaboration for about a year now to produce this self-titled LP. It is scheduled for release on July 7, 2009 on XL Recordings. With their separate bands, these two are pretty amazing; combined, they're sure to please (EDIT: I can totally see a few of these tracks making it onto a Mark Rowan mixtape in the near future). This album is pretty catchy, but then again, I consider who put this together and am not surprised.

Initial reactions to Discovery so far are very positive. The remakes of both "Can You Tell" by Ra Ra Riot (now "Can You Discover?") and "I Want You Back" by Jackson 5 are impressive to say the least. These tracks are ethereal and bring in pieces of other genres; for example, the former sounds like this could easily drop into a reggae tune and the latter sounds like it was reproduced by Crystal Castles with its video game quality.

I think it's fair to say that there's a larger VW influence in this LP. "Swing Tree" and "Slang Tang" follow some of the patterns set by the band -their trademark bridges and such could have easily fit into the VW record, though with a lot more synth. I think their kwassa kwassa is showing.

1. Orange Shirt
2. Osaka Loop Line
3. Can You Discover?
4. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend [ft. Angel Deradoorian]
5. So Insane
6. Swing Tree
7. Carby [ft. Ezra Koenig]
8. I Want You Back
9. It's Not My Fault (It's My Fault)
10. Slang Tang

... Will it live up to your expectations?

P.S. I also totally agree with this visual representation of feelings as the LP progresses.

Stereogum/RAC Remix Album Available for Download

Just stumbled upon this one and it has some goodies. I would go into more details about which tracks I like the most, but my Internet it currently hating on streaming music and the download is just wrapping up now.

RAC, or Remix Artist Collective, is a "artist agency strictly devoted to remixing." Simple enough. What you need to know is that they've done some killer remixes (I recommend Ra Ra Riot's "Manner To Act" for starters, but I'm biased towards them) and recently teamed up with Stereogum to put together RAC Vol. 1.

I'd go on, but really you can just start streaming below. If you like it, head on over to the Stereogum post and check out some more details, like the liner notes, torrent and individual track downloads. We'll link to the zip file below. Neat artwork too.



Download:
Stereogum Presents... RAC Vol. 1

Oh, and if you like this stuff, definitely check out more of RAC's remixes on their site (Tegan and Sara's "Back In Your Head," anyone?) And Stereogum's Memorial Day mixtape.

Ra Ra Riot Signs on to Barsuk Records

Syracuse, NY-based Ra Ra Riot has announced that they have signed with Seattle label Barsuk Records to release their first full length album on August 19th. The album is entitled The Rhumb Line.

Other Barsuk artists include: Death Cab for Cutie, Mates of State, Rilo Kiley and Rocky Votolato.

Vampire Weekend + Ra Ra Riot = Discovery = Amazing

What happens when you combine two of my favorite current bands? A little thing called Discovery.

Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend has teamed up with Wes Miles from Ra Ra Riot (which you should know by now I love) to form the POWER DUO. Too soon to call them a power duo? Maybe, but seriously, listen to this. It's great.

They have three tracks on their MySpace now, one being a new version of Ra Ra Riot's "Can You Tell" renamed "Can You Discover." From the MySpace you can also tell that the two have an EP in the works, so we'll be sure to update you as more substantial information surfaces.

I can only assume Batmanglij is doing a majority (if not all) of the producing while Miles mans the vocals. The result is really fun and I'm interested to see if they switch on occasion. It's like Usher meets Cadence Weapon beats, but coming from the guys from Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot.

Postal Service eat your heart out.

Ra Ra Riot Again Tonight!

Man, I love me some Ra Ra Riot. Or as Ed so tactfully put it, "I'm on their dick." Either way, our calendar seems to be missing their show tonight at Yale. They will be at the Calhoun Cabaret at 189 Elm Street with Bottle Up & Go, Sea Sick, and Lady Lovelace and the Calculator Death Machine. Bottle Up & Go was with the band last night at Wesleyan, or so I thought they would be because at least I missed them. Other than that, it's a completely new show.



I've made the observation that they are 20x better live than on their album, and Jamie agreed with me. Even more of a reason to check them out tonight.

Oh, and Extra Life sucks. They played right before Ra Ra Riot yesterday and bored Ed into leaving. I don't blame him (Well, I do. He's an old man). Their lead singer didn't stand throughout the whole performance, which is a big no-no for live music. Solo acoustic shows are the exception. He also had the nerve to make fun of a guy dancing like a maniac to Ra Ra Riot, so in short your band sucks and you're a dick. Enjoy the rest of your tour.

Ra Ra Riot Tonight and Later This Month

Ra Ra Riot will be in New Haven tonight at Cafe Nine (250 State St.). They were on tour - or at least played a few shows - with Tokyo Police Club a month or so ago. I missed them then, but now that they are in Connecticut I will be sure to check them out this time - you should too.

They released a self-titled EP last July. There's two songs off that on their MySpace, as well as some various demos. If you can't make it tonight or if you are reading this after the event, don't fret. They will be back soon enough. February 27th, in fact. They will be playing at Wesleyan with Sam Rosen, Bottle Up & Go, and Extra Life.