Today there isn't much hype about Ska music, but back in the 90's there was a huge push to involve horns in punk rock. I was all about it, being a skateboard kid it fit perfectly in my library of music. This is one of the best bands from the Ska genre Mad Caddies and their song "Big Brother." The Mad Caddies caught my attention at the Van's Warped Tour in Pontiac, Michigan back in the late 90's. Along with huge names like NOFX, The Suicide Machines, No Use for a Name, Eminem, and more, they stood out as a mischievous group of punk rockers. Mad Caddies played a brilliant punk/ska set that made me have to go get their album Quality Soft Core from their merchandise booth. I then listened to it all the time and showed all of my friends. I still pop it on from time to time and skank it out.
Miike Snow is a very odd band name, especially considering there are three people in the band and none have that name. The band is made up of Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg, and Andrew Wyatt. They call it "A three headed band with a one man name" on their facebook description. This is the official video for "Pretender" all of which was filmed during a Miike Snow performance at Hard Summer Music Festival in Los Angeles back in August of 2012. The video depicts a guy (The Perfect Human) with a cartoon type of face having the time of his life while extremely drunk at the concert. "Pretender" is a sort of futuristic indie-rock jam with lots of energy and experimental blends of sounds. There are a lot of really good songs from Miike Snow, you can get more info on tour dates and new releases on their official website by following the link.
Battles is a very experimental style of rock band, they are all talented musicians that can go off on musical tangents leaving the listener wondering what just happened. "Atlas" comes from the debut album by Battles entitled Mirrored. The album name is very fitting due to the incredible use of patterns found in many of the songs. Battles sort of reminds me of Primus, using powerful banging bass slaps along with raw recordings. This is about as indie as you can get with rock music and vocals, just when it seemed like everything had been done before musically, Battles comes through with a new take on grunge music. Mirrored is a long song basically split into tracks, thus the abrupt ending, so you have to listen to the whole album to get the full effect. You can listen to the entire Battles album Mirrored here on Spotify.
The Bird and the Bee are a rare 2 person band. Inara George (The Bird) provides amazing vocals and guitar on some tracks, while Greg Kurstin (The Bee) does studio production and plays keyboard. "Polite Dance Song" is from back in 2007 on their EP titled Please Clap Your Hands. This silly music video was directed by the one and only Eric Wareheim from the "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" I find Inara George's voice to be completely mesmerizing, she is a superior quality vocalist. The Bird and the Bee are a must for any chill playlist, go check out more from them now.
