New White Rabbits Album Spoon-influenced

White Rabbits are preparing to drop It's Frightening, their sophomore album for May 19. When I first stumbled across the listing for this record somewhere on the Internet, I noticed that whoever posted about it said that White Rabbits enlisted the help of Britt Daniel of Spoon as producer. That explains a lot.

At first the two bands produced relatively original and different sounds, but were tied by their use of rock piano and similar vocal parts. By all means I think Daniel is part of the superior band (they have the advantage of a good group of albums in their repertoire ), but the Spoon influence is too obvious. And beyond that, "Lionesse" is a huge rip-off over every dramatic 007 theme song remake.

The vocals sound even more alike, the drumwork too similar, but White Rabbits to manage to pull out an original track here or there.

Stand-out track (single): "Percussion Gun"

A New Obsession with Black Cab Sessions

This morning while I was reading through the dozens of websites I check out every day, I came across a new feature from the BBC that video tapes single songs films by indie artists or bands in the back of a British cab. They only get one take so the songs aren't always going to be perfect. So far, the Black Cab Sessions are up to 42 Chapters.

To sum it up quickly, this seems like an English version of La Blogotheque that Melissa blogged about a few months ago. This format certainly works better for some than others. Lightspeed Champion a.k.a. Dev Hynes playing "Tell Me What It's Worth" with just his guitar sounds great. Unfortunately, The National didn't fare so well. "You've Done it Again, Virginia" feels flat without the album production values with it. Other good sets come from Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon and The Felice Brothers.

Here is the Lightspeed Champion chapter.

Spoon's EP is Out

We haven't granted that much attention to Spoon, well, not as much as Vampire Weekend or our Kanye posts, but they're slightly more under the radar. Today, however, their Don't You Evah EP is out and it's a big deal, or a 6.7 out of 10 deal.

The tracks include remixes of Spoon's "Don't You Evah" by Diplo and Ted Leo along with their version of "Don't You Ever" from Natural History's original version. They're a fairly good supplement to their 2007 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga for contrast. While Ga Ga Ga has a rough distinction, the EP goes for a dance mix. It's fun.

Here's the video for the full-length album track:




EDIT: Merge has a list of songs from the EP, full audio tracks included.