Nu Rave Brain Wave

Chain and the Gang are rocking the fuck out of my world right now. Music’s Not For Everyone just came out this past week, via K Records, and I’m pretty sure this music is for me. ‘Not Good Enough’ is a wonderful anthem that I think probably more human beings need to hear, but besides my own misanthropy, it’s a great song. The brightly sung refrain, which goes over some darker piano bits, ‘If you feel like you’re not good enough / Well you’re probably not / And you know what? / You never ever will be‘, literally kills me every time. I wanna use words like sparse, bare, and stripped back, which of course, this song and the whole album are — but there’s something extremely compelling about the ridiculousness of it all – the sardonic/winking lyrics, the sloppiness, the mishmash of ‘songs’ and spoken word. Once again, this is not for everyone, but if you’re reading this blog (well, as a regular reader, if there is such a thing) this is probably for you.

mp3 | Chain & The Gang – Not Good Enough

Stolen from our great friends over at Pitchfork, The singles club is a venerable indie-label tradition, but it’s about to take a leap forward. K Records’ new singles club involves absolutely zero physical product, so nobody should sign up hoping for some limited-run red-vinyl 7″. Instead, subscribers to K’s new Singles Zip-Pak will get digital files of new K music once a week for a year.

For $50 (or $45 before May 31), you get two or more songs per week from various K artists, all from forthcoming K releases. Artists lined up include Mirah, the Strange Boys, Jeremy Jay, Ian Svenonius’s latest project Chain and the Gang, and K founder Calvin Johnson’s band the Hive Dwellers. The tracks will arrive six weeks ahead of their physical release, and subscribers also get all sorts of extra goods: exclusive mixes, bonus songs, live documents, exclusive photos, custom wallpaper, and other stuff, as well as a $3 credit at the K Digital Warehouse.

Singles start arriving July 1. K has all the details, as well as a “sonic sampler” of Singles Zip-Pack tracks, right here.

This will be the 3rd or 4th time the Strange Boys have played the best venue in LA aka the Echo, and this will be the first time I miss it. Last time, in June, they had the Growlers opening for them in what we called the greatest lineup ever yet, somehow Liz has managed to almost outdo herself with Chain & The Gang and the awesome Neverever opening. This is absolutely not to be missed.

mp3 | The Strange Boys – Be Brave

Ian Svenonius does it again. Recently got Down With Liberty…Up With Chains!–yeah, I’m late on this– and I am so, so impressed. Every song feels like a call to arms. Just listen for yourself. Do NOT miss them with The Strange Boys (!!!) at the Echo on February 26th.

mp3 | Chain and the Gang – Reparations

Chain and the Gang @ myspace