British babe, Charli XCX steams up the airwaves with her raspy pipes and grimy, girl-powered love songs. With a tone reminiscent of Metric’s Emily Haines, the 19 year old displays a maturity beyond teen years with a personalized sensibility for her own synth-laden species of emo-pop.(...) Read More about Charli XCX: I’ll Never Know (162 words)

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Wildcat! Wildcat! is Jesse Taylor, Michael Wilson, and Jesse Carmichael: four Los Angeles-bred friends since the age of fourteen. It’s a bond thick enough to hear.

Their single, “Mr Quiche” holds beats as hip hop as they are sexy trailing along quavering synths and grime-filled bass-lines appropriate for a sunny summer soundtrack. Miike Snow fans will find the falsetto vocal similarities and twinkling electro-vibes to be most comforting. Although, their grooving melodies don’t quite take on Snow’s strong, militant tones– to the delight of those more inclined to the soft touch of Grizzly Bear.

The trio has remained relatively under the radar until their recent on-stage collaboration with friend, Natasha Bedingfield, with not even a publicist to their name. But good music gets around. Stay tuned for more from the underground, because you won’t find these cats in the light of day on Pitchfork or iTunes just yet.

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The marriage of electronic and psychedelic mischief in progressive rock have not always ended happily ever after, but Australia’s  Jagwar Ma chops too finely to be taken for granted. Lead by former Lost Valentinos member, and praised producer, Jono Ma, the group remains in their cloud of mystery–providing little information via social outlets about their members and whereabouts. And, this only magnifies our intrigue.

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B-side track, “What Love” displays a more cut-and-paste side than their 7″ single “Come Save Me,” featuring a Beatles-esque psych-pop sensibility. The songs, which were officially released in February of 2012 will hopefully be joined by a full album soon on new label on the scene, Blue Rider. Until then, enjoy this one here! Happy listening.

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TV Girl is like a good recipe. Everything is in moderation, making for a sun-sprinkled, indie pop creation sailing on just the right amount of vinyl sampling–topped off with a carefully placed post-punk cherry. Borrowing from what sounds like, Johnny Tillotson’s “Rhythm of the Rain,” sample-happy duo, including Trung Ngo and Brad Petering, enter murky copyright waters once again.

TV Girl’s debacle with the law followed an unapproved use of Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me,”and utterly wiped the internet clean of their hit single, “If You Want It.” But despite the publicity obstacle, their popularity has not dropped but gained with yet another well-received single titled, “I Wonder Who She’s Kissing Now.”

By merely stepping one foot into the field of golden oldies, the twosome enable themselves to live among the pseudo vintage, while remaining right here in 2012 with us and our sample-crazed affinities. Check out the new track, and meanwhile read their fantastic letter to Todd Rundgren himself:

Hello (It’s Me). This is Trung and Brad from TV Girl. Today we were unpleasantly surprised to find that the Warner Music Group started making good on their promise to remove our music from the web. Several blogs reached out to us after receiving takedown notices regarding our music. We noticed that you posted our music, so we thought we would reach out to give you a heads up and give our two cents.

Just to clarify, TV Girl had nothing to do with the takedown notice. We have no affiliation with Warner Music Group or any other songwriting association or record label. The copyright claim is on behalf of Todd Rundgren for the use of a sample from his song “Hello, It’s Me”.

Even though it’s a bummer that our particular song is being silenced in this way, we feel that this is representative of a larger issue that will only get worse as blogs continue to gain influence over an increasingly desperate music industry.

When the song started getting really popular late last year, we reached out to the copyright holders to get the sample cleared so that we could avoid this mess. Their responses were completely unreasonable. To give you an idea, one company demanded 100% of all proceeds from any money made, in addition to us paying a $5,000 clearance fee. Basically they were saying: “Fuck you, we have all the power, either pay us or take the song down.” Because we weren’t making any money off the song anyways, and because it had already spread around the net thanks to blogs, we declined their offer.

The fact is, because of the amazing independent promotional capacities of music blogs and sites like Bandcamp, it’s increasingly unnecessary for bands like us to align ourselves with major labels or music companies like WMG. Our use of the sample easily falls under the protection of “fair use”. WMG’s actions are a rather blatant attempt to bully independent artists and blogs into playing by their rules. It’s easy to see tactics like this becoming more common as the industry continues to shift.

Obviously, we wouldn’t recommend keeping the song up if there’s any chance of your site being affected. We just thought that you and your readers might want to know about this issue as it directly affects every band, blog, and music fan operating outside the mainstream music machine.

Thank for listening, and feel free to post about or reprint this e-mail. We are truly grateful to all the blogs and fans that have supported us.

-Trung and Brad
TV Girl

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There are, undoubtedly, heads double taking their Shazam results, and radio heads tilting in surprise to find that this flower child of a single was birthed after 1970. (...) Read More about Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: That’s What’s Up (175 words)

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Search no further: Your airtight solution for any particular doldrums is brought to you by Portland group, AU. In orchestral likeness to Beirut, both vocally and climactically, the duo confidently experiments with world-moving horns, tingling strings, and peaking pianos. (...) Read More about AU: Get Alive (90 words)

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Listen to “Home is Where The Heart is” here

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For a split second the room fills with a tinge of Karen O. Then Minus The Tiger strikes you with their synth-pop single, “Home Is Where The Heart Is,” and you are pleasantly surprised. Then Anne Broekman and the family – Maarten Besseling (husband), Jesse Broekman (Anne’s sibling), Arthur Adam and Jos Terlingen – go jungle happy on piercing lyrics and swinging melodies. Suddenly you’re on a music bender which harkens Portishead (...) Read More about Minus The Tiger: Home Is Where The Heart Is (95 words)

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Listen to “Finding Reasons” here

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The muscles of electro-rock are contracting under the epithet New Build. The anatomy: LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip. Al Doyle, Felix Martin and Tom Hopkins have rolled out their debut 12-track album, Yesterday Was Lived And Lost this month (mastered by New Build and Club Ralph). They further extend their musical hamstring with a five-star (...) Read More about New Build: Finding Reasons (136 words)

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Listen to “Live Your Life (Video by Pharrell)” Here

In a panoramic view of self-reflection (and New York City), Yuna launches her latest work: the video to her January hit Live Your Life (Fader Label) produced by Pharrell Williams. The Malaysian-native holds a law degree and a vocal fishing line for good ears. She made a splash appearance during (...) Read More about Yuna: Live Your Life (168 words)

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