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Friday’s back – the day when I try to introduce a new song, album, or band.  Not too much planning this week, so please excuse the rush job but found one that I definitely recommend you checking out.

MSTRKRFT - Fist of God

MSTRKRFT’s latest album Fist of God was released on March 17, 2009. The title track has a hard electro melody on top of a heavy 4/4 beat drum hit, making you feel like you are being punched by the Fist of God at each beat (but in a good way!).  Definitely a track to get you off your butt and start moving.

Overall, the album keeps on the faster/harder side, although with some interest mixed in with a little disco-ish melody over Breakaway (feat. Jamal of the Carps) and a little R&B mostly due to the vocals with It Ain’t Love (feat. Lil’ Mo).

The album has a decent mix of vocal and non-vocal tracks, which is nice depending on your mood. The 11 tracks are available on iTunes for the typical $9.99, so its not the best value but its not bad.

A week or so ago I saw this weird, and yet mesmerizing, commercial with a guy walking through parties seemingly through different generations.  Through each scene this very cool raw drum line, catchy piano, and vocal track persisted, somehow seemingly to fit into each generation – I suppose I could say timeless.  I wasn’t really paying attention, and so didn’t know what the ad was for, and didn’t particularly remember the music afterwards.

A few days ago I caught the ad again.  This time my girlfriend commented that the guy in the commercial was “cute” (there’s no accounting for taste ;) ), but I was rocking out yet again to the song.  Ended up being a Barcardi Mojito commerical, and I decided to look it up.

The track in the video is Daylight from Matt & Kim, a duo from Brooklyn, NY.  Matt is a vocalist and keyboardist, and Kim vocalist and drummer, and you can find more bio details in their Wikipedia entry.   Also, have to give them credit for not only having a blog on their main site, but embracing the web as it is and  kicking it with Flickr.

Not only is Daylight a great song, but I’ve been bringing back my early Nintendo days with Cinders, in which the keyboards remind me of a sped up puzzle arcade game of some sort, but again with Kim’s catchy drum lines.

So for this Music Friday, check out Matt & Kim.

The other day I was searching around the iTunes Store and happened upon the band Owl City. I listened to the track Hello Seattle and thought it as pretty catchy, so I wrote the band name down and moved on.

Today I was clicking through a new site I found called RCRD-LBL and it has regularly posted free downloads of new tracks – definitely one  I’ve bookmarked and will keep checking out.  But what did I find?  Owl City again.  This time for a newer track called Hot Air Balloon released just last month in May 2009. The band caught my eye twice in one week so it was time for some more attention. On the RCRD-LBL site, the free track was no longer available for download, but I discovered if you sign up for the Owl City Mailing list on their site (http://www.owlcitymusic.com) its available for free download.

Also found the following YouTube video, but I’m sure it will get pulled:

The Band

So the band is in fact one guy – kudos to the difficulty in doing that +1 point.  And his name is Adam.  +1 more point.  He’s in his early 20s and is from Minnesota. For those who know me, they know why MN gives him a third point. That’s three more points than I have.

The Music

Adam’s voice sounds vaguely Blink 182-ish – more spoken-word than melodic angel.  The catchy keyboards and melodies remind me of The Postal Service, with a little bit of poppy Jason Mraz kicked in.  (Although I don’t think Adam Young is quite at the Mraz caliber just yet as I think Mraz is obscenely talented, even if his music doesn’t necessarily reflect that, but that discussion is for another post.)  I can’t say the music is the most interesting I’ve ever listened to, and the pop-hater-fanboys will jump on the “I hate Owl City” bandwagon in a flash. But I’m more for enjoying my music, and for a quick listen you will get just that: some joy.

iTunes has the Hot Air Balloon single (but as noted above – you can download it from http://www.owlcitymusic.com after signing up for the mailing list), and an EP (Of June) and album (Maybe I’m Dreaming) both from December 2008.  Haven’t bought either yet, but if don’t stop humming Hello Seattle I may have to.

Bottom line

Owl City is great to jam out to, but I’m not sure I could listen to too many of their songs in a row.  If you listen to Hot Air Balloon and Hello Seattle back-to-back, you might not notice when the song changes. But I’m still humming: Helloooooo Se-att-le….

PS: Suprise! You can also follow them on Twitter @owlcity.