LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

Three of the best reviewed albums in the past 2 years have been from James Murphy, the DFA label owner's project "LCD Soundsystem". The first self-titled debut album dropped in 2005 with amazing reviews. Murhpy's infectious, catchy beats are smooth and mature, I would say eletronica for sophisticated, hipsters who enjoy indie rock. Now, for me 2007's "Sound of Silver" is the better album (although MetaCritic has them both clocking with an astounding score of 86). Sound of Silver has shown a little more maturity and growth from the debut album... the whole thing melds together so well and is an ideal album to toss on while trying to get some office/desk work done. Now, in addition to this LCD also dropped an album this fall called 45:33. Commissioned by Nike (sell-out? Meh, the debate goes on.... if bands still have street cred after Apple uses their tunes, then why not other companies?). The idea of this album (which a seamless mix of LCD's tracks) is to serve as the perfect soundtrack to your workout - building up, plateauing and then coming down. A clever idea, which, surprisingly, seems to work. The reviews for this album were even better!

Download Sound of Silver, here! Read the MetaCritic reviews here.
Download LCD's self-titled 2005 debut here. And the very cool 45:33 mix here.
Check out their biography here at AMG.

Check out the "All of my Friends" video here:

Pride Tiger - Lucky Ones

Wholy crap! How did I miss this band? I was sitting home last night when a good friend, who's very musically inclined, tipped me off about a little West Coast band named "Pride Tiger". I had never heard of them before, but decided after checking their site to go down to the Paramount and check them out.... I was totally floored. These guys rocked hard, and get this -- the lead singer is the vocalist. He's rocking out so hard but manages to maintain clean, crisp and smooth vocals over the hard rock backing. The band lines up vertically, bassist and lead guitar, drummer in the middle and rythm guitar on the other side. Very novel idea... the drummer rocked so hard and looked so happy, even though there was all of 40-50 people there. Either way, one of the best shows I've seen in a while! Their music is classic rock and roll, think a modern-era Thin Lizzy... but also in the same vain as Death From Above 1979 and the Panthers. Definitely a solid album which you should give a listen to.

You can download their debut album, "Lucky Ones" here!

They have a very limited profile at AMG.

Check out a video of the boys during Canadian Music Week playing "The White Witch Woman Blues":