When it comes to music, people like to pretend our world fits neatly into black and white, hip-hop and r&b, rock and rap. But is it possible that one artist can bring the rock, the soul and the pop music lover together in one blissful Technicolor orgy? If anyone can, it’s Bay Area musician Chris Marsol. On his bold debut album, “Butterflies, Lipstick and Handgrenades” (Clear Label/Hiero Imperium), Marsol fuses together rock, soul, pop and electro, resulting in a record where no two tracks sound the same. Arranged and produced by Marsol, “Butterflies, Lipstick and Handgrenades,” drops March 30, 2010.

Marsol and his band made this record the old-fashioned way: they got together at FM studios in Berkeley, CA.

“It was a 24 hour recording session split up into two days,” explains Marsol. “Before the session, we rehearsed over a period of months to solidify the arrangements. Then we all tracked our parts simultaneously, in one huge recording room so the music had an organic sound. We recorded it exactly the way we play it live at shows.”

How did this rock artist end up on one of the Bay’s most esteemed hip-hop labels? “In 2007 my business partner gave Hiero’s owner Tajai (of Souls of Mischief) some of my music. Unknown to us, Tajai had been listening to it while on tour. When he got back, a meeting was set up and we decided to work together.”

“I want my label to represent quality music in general, not just underground rap,” explains Tajai of why he signed Marsol. “Chris has talent and energy that the world needs to see.”

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, home of Haight-Ashbury, Marsol is the product of the hippie movement, Psychedelic Rock, the Black Panthers. Admittedly, he wasn’t around during the revolution, but the spirit of art, freedom, and progressive thinking still illuminates the Bay Area — and Marsol’s music.

“As a child, I didn’t discriminate between genres of music,” notes Marsol, who includes Pink Floyd, Cream, Stevie Wonder, Nirvana, Genesis, Stone Temple Pilots, D’Angelo, Radiohead, and Hall and Oates among his favorite artists. “I only distinguished between what I liked and what I didn’t like.”

At 6, Chris was singing in his church choir and stealing the spotlight, dancing at his family reunions. By 11, he was locking himself in the bathroom, writing and recording his first songs with a Radio Shack tape recorder. At age 17 he taught himself how to play the piano and eventually taught himself the guitar.

When asked about the meaning of the album title, Marsol shrugs, “There’s no meaning until you create one.”

Features collaborations with folk legend Donovan, David Bartholomé, Lisa Kekaula, Yael Naim, Lily Frost and cover art from famous French comic artists Dupuy & Berberian

Variety Lab
Team Up!
Release date: December 15, 2009
Peermusic / Digital Pressure
variety-lab.com
myspace.com/varietylab

How did this project come together?

“Soda Pop Confusion” (feat kidsaredead):

Download.

This is a diverse and super funky mix of tropicalia, electro, acid jazz and bubblegum pop with a surprise at every turn. From the vocodered disco-rock of Let’s Boogie to the sun-drenched acoustica of Mireia there isn’t a moment here that doesn’t ooze laid-back Mediterranean cool.

- Clash Magazine

Spanning multiple genres and featuring collaborations from some of the most inspiring artists in the world, Variety Lab’s sophomore album Team Up! is set up to be the most wonderful musical surprise of 2009. From the original blueprints through to the execution it’s a grand slam. Collaborations with folk legend Donovan, David Bartholomé, Lisa Kekaula, Yael Naim and Lily Frost creates a broad musical spectrum while French comic artists Dupuy & Berberian bring Variety Lab’s vision to life.

Variety Lab is the alias of one Thierry Bellia. His first CD – 2003’s Providence – gained notoriety for its lead single “London In The Rain,” which was, at the time, included in every single lounge compilation. As in the past Bellia, alone, put Team Up! together, but he did not forget to emphasize his friends’ assistance in the process. Let’s just name his henchmen from the French band Orwell (Jérôme Didelot and Alexandre Longo, aka Cascadeur and winner of the 2008 Inrockuptibles CQFD prize). Making use of his friends, instruments, machines and other weird objects (for instance the Optigan, a toy devised back in the 70’s), Thierry has worked non-stop on this project.

As for the biggest collaboration, after months of swapping tapes across the channel with Bellia, folk legend Donovan himself flew across to Paris to offer his voice and his experience to the spacious and bouncy opening track, “Is This The Last Time.” “I was delighted to be asked to join Variety Lab on their project. I flew into Paris to record. I helped to re-work the song and had great fun with the band. It’s a cool track and I am pleased to present this first single with Variety Lab. It’s a funny lyric and I brought out the humor with one of my quirky accents that I use when I take on the character in a song. It’s a perfect new pop record to dance and meet a new friend or lover,” Donovan says.

On three other tracks, “We Should Be Dancing” (the video has now been viewed over 125,000 time on YouTube), “Mireia” and the very rocky “Not Enough,” it is David Bartholomé, the lead-singer with the excellent Belgian band Sharko, who grabs the mike. And then the fantastic and frantic Bellrays’ vocalist, Lisa Kekaula, with her husky and roaring voice who sings on “Let’s Boogie,” a groovy and vocodered track that oozes sheer rock and soul energy from Detroit. The youngster Vincent Mougel from Kidsaredead comes in next to blow some sugary foam on the sweet candy that is “Soda Pop Confusion,” while Thierry’s fellow Nancy-born Mona Soyoc naturally joins the project as a next-door neighbor, and adds some sensuality to the very eighties “Money,” a cover version of the track by late 70s-early 80s English band The Flying Lizards, who had themselves borrowed it from the soul crooner Barrett Strong. Next, Canadian songstress Lily Frost croons over the lush, crackly ballad “This Parade” before 2008 pop sensation Yael Naim closes the album with her version of “Love Is A Bird;” originally a Variety Lab demo that has gradually evolved, first in the expert hands of Cascadeur, then by David Bartholomé on a Sharko album. “Love Is A Bird”, a simple, and beautiful idea, that leads us strolling from one end of Team up! to the other, filled with a feeling that can be summed up as the more, the stronger, the prettier and the merrier.

Team up! is more than a mere album – Much more. It is like awaking from a soft dream.

Variety Lab
“Team Up!”

Tracklisting

01 – “Is This The Last Time?” (feat. Donovan)
02 – “Money (That’s what I Want)” (feat. Mona Soyoc)
03 – “Which way to go (Reprisa)”
04 – “We Should Be Dancing” (feat. David Bartholome)
05 – “Soda Pop Confusion” (feat. Kidsaredead)
06 – “This Parade” (feat. Lily Frost)
07 – “Hola Mireia”
08 – “Which Way To Go”
09 – “Mireia” (feat. David Bartholome)
10 – “Let’s Boogie” (feat. Lisa Kekaula)
11 – “Not Enough” (feat. David Bartholome)
12 – “Love Is A Bird” (feat. Yael Naim)

First we heard the comedy of the night’s host, Joshua Meyers, which was hilarious. We really had no idea as far as what to expect from the comedians. You know Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, Larry David and Eddie Murphy are some of our favorite comedians, and we generally have a pretty high bar for what’s funny, but the comedy was definitely enjoyable for the night! Plus, we had never been to an event that has comedy mixed with music, but the event kept us engaged the whole night.

Samuel Stewart was our favorite musician of the night, but all that we heard from the other musicians was also good. Fu, short for Fuquan, was our favorite comedian, although everyone made several funny jokes in their acts. We actually got to chat a bit with Fu before his show and he was good dude, willing to talk to us about whatever, and agreed to get in a few photos. So, we might be biased by that, but Fu is also straight hilarious, which you’ll see for yourself if you watch his video below.

Going to this show didn’t have the feel of going to your typical show. Everyone behind throwing the show, as well as the people attending it, were all super friendly and cool. It’s not always that you go to a show and feel like you could strike up a conversation with anyone, but the vibe at the Echo Curio was all warm and fuzzy that night, and not at all snobby and exclusive. Wait, nobody slipped ecstasy in our drinks at the show, right? Wait, it was a BYOB event, so never mind. It was a fun night beginning to end though and there was nothing not to like.

One thing that’s amazing about Samuel Stewart’s music is his raw talent as a musician. We can’t help but think about the whole “fruit doesn’t far that fall from the tree,” idea, given that his father is Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics. Naturally, Sam is going his own direction with his music, but right away we were struck by sheer musical ability from him, and the professional caliber of his music. Lots of people want to be musicians, but some people don’t just have it in them. Even for famous musicians, there’s a struggle in waffling on the quality of your work, perfectionism, self-doubt, etc., but we believe Samuel Stewart should be bypassing all of that (even if he might not be) because it’s clear that he has put a lot of hard work into his tracks and has a passion for the music he makes.

We’re probably also biased towards Samuel Stewart because we think the Eurythmics made such fantastic music: our favorite track being, “Here Comes the Rain Again,” although we learned at the show from Sam’s Manager, Angela, that “Sweet Dreams, is in fact, the most popular Eurythmics track of all time. It makes sense with the Marilyn Manson cover and all, but our favorite here is still “Here Comes the Rain Again.”

At any rate, we’re reasonably satisfied with how the audio came out in the videos below, but it was just too dark (among other recording issues) in too much of the clips. Remind us to shine bright lights on all performing artists we record in the future. Video drama aside, the show was still great fun and it’s too bad if you missed it!

LA-based, Samuel Stewart, is the son of Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and at the young age of 21 has already been working diligently developing his musical career.

Stewart produced his brother’s record, The Giving Tree by Django James and The Midnight Squires. Sam’s first EP, The Beginner is forthcoming, set for release in mid-October.

Here’s the first track and title track from the record:

Download.

Check out more from Samuel Stewart, including tour dates, here:
myspace.com/samuelstewartmusic

Check out more from Sam Stewart at his Myspace.

Also check out Plays Well With Others if you like what you saw/heard.

So we just received a copy of Jonathan Denmark’s Books record. First off, we’ve never gotten music mail in such unique packaging, or mail in general. The packaging is an encyclopedia volume. Specifically, it’s Volume 5 of a Funk & Wagnalls Standard Reference Encyclopedia, including the terms Bubonic through Cellular. What better way to ship the Books release than in a book with Funk in the title? That’s right. Denmark’s agent sends out his releases proper.

At any rate, it’s a great EP. Favorite tracks include “More to Expect,” “Arizona,” “Great Dietitian,” and “Blessing.” Needless to say, we like this blend of acoustic/indie rock, experimental electronic music, and hip hop Denmark has put together. It’s hard to classify Denmark’s music, but that’s part of what makes it different.

There are also pieces of food for thought spread throughout the EP. For instance, “a gift is not a blessing if it causes you more stress,” from the track “Blessing.” How true this statement is, but people don’t commonly acknowledge that gifts can be burdens. In fact, you could even get accused of being spoiled or cynical if you try to explain why a gift causes you stress.

So, don’t just take our word for it, check the album out for yourself!

Here are two tracks from Denmark that sort of show the variety of his style. Lots of different flavors together in these songs. Hard to say the tracks are one genre alone.

“Worse Things (As Interpreted by Tucker McClure):”

“Great Dietitian:”

Don Diablo’s remix for One eskimO’s “Givin’ Up.” We love the vocals and synth work in this track. Don Diablo is already famous without a plug from us, but this track is catchy. It’s also somewhat different from the usual style of Diablo.

This remix of One eskimO’s “Givin’ Up” is taken from their forthcoming album “All Balloons.” Don Diablo altered the original song with added strings, synths, his trademark percussion, and a nice break and bassline combination. One eskimO’s forthcoming album is produced by Rollo (Faithless) and will be backed up by a series of animations produced by Passion Pictures, the team behind the act “Gorillaz.”

Download.

Kids these days are doing crazy stuff in their home studios. There are lots of remixes of this floating around on YouTube but this sounds like it’s one of the best.

Here’s the original version of the track from the game Portal:

So, Scott Herren is now releasing music under three monikers: Prefuse 73, Savath Y Savalas and his latest project with Zach Hill, called Diamond Watch Wrists. All three tracks are continuing the Prefuse 73 pattern of straying from his original style to more rock influenced tracks with breathy vocals and mellow beats. Of course, Herren has released plenty of laidback tracks in the past, but he seems to be following a trend with his music for the past couple years.

At any rate, on with the music.

First off, our favorite track, from the Savath Y Savalas project, entitled “La Llama:”

Next is more in line with the Prefuse 73 we know, and why wouldn’t it be–given that it’s released under the Prefuse 73 artist name–although still new and different compared to older Prefuse stuff.
“Preparations Kids Choir (album version):”

And last, but not least, is from Herren’s latest project. We’re sure that people are bound to like this, but it’s just less up our alley since it’s so different from the Prefuse 73 we know. Of course, Diamond Watch Wrists could certainly start to grow on us.
Diamond Watch Wrists (Prefuse 73 + Zach Hill) – “Onward Push Me Out:”

Download.

Here are some press releases for all you devoted Prefuse fans.

DIAMOND WATCH WRISTS TO RELEASE DEBUT ICE CAPPED AT BOTH ENDS ON WARP THIS APRIL

SAVATH AND SAVALAS – LLAMA (STONES THROW)

Prefuse 73 Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian & Diamond Watch Wrists Ice Capped At Both Ends (Warp)

1. “Soul Meets Body.” Okay, so this was the second track of Death Cab For Cutie’s (DCFC) Plans record. Plans was the first truly commercial DCFC release, as it was on the major label Atlantic Records. To top it off, “Soul Meets Body,” is probably one of the most pop-sounding rock tracks on the entire album: we can’t deny the fact that we heard it being played at The Gap; but hey, we still appreciate its sound aesthetic very much. The line “‘So brown eyes I’ll hold you near because you’re the only line I want to hear,” speaks against all the triteness (among other adjectives) of people adoring people with lighter hair and eyes. Excellent.

2. “What Sarah Said.” This track loses to “Soul Meets Body,” because it’s just not something that you’re always in the mood for. Depressed and low, yet profound and interesting, tracks are reserved for certain moods. Whereas, tracks like “Soul Meets Body,” are not reserved for any time per se.

3. “Title and Registration.” Love the commentary about the glove compartment never holding gloves. This begs the question though, what should the glove compartment or glove box be called? The storage compartment? The storage box? The storage box that is on the front passenger side of the vehicle? It is funny how things in general can just stick even when they are no longer valid. So, I suppose DCFC is just commenting on the fact that people are creatures of habit. That’s our analysis anyway. Sure, you could take things at face value, but why do that when you could over-analyze?

4. “Styrofoam Plates.” Everyone knows that the lyrics of DCFC are pretty exact when it comes to achieving their purpose. Whatever you consider the purpose of lyrics to be, we believe that Death Cab lyrics are tangible to everyone, even for non-fans. This song was awesome until we learned that it’s not true that Gibbard carries a lot of hatred towards his father from a childhood of severe physical abuse, but rather merely a friend of Gibbard’s had a similar situation and the friend’s story gave rise to the song and not actually Gibbard’s own life experiences. The song is still effective regardless though, just slightly less enjoyable from the intellectual standpoint. Everyone’s life history has upsetting, emotional or even traumatic experiences caused by their family or lack thereof.

5. “Tiny Vessels.” The harsh nature of this song is interesting. Not only that, the song contains an analysis of how depressing it can be to fall out of love with someone. Again, though, if you’re happily in love. with no end to your relationship in sight, this song isn’t going to have the same effect on you.

6. “Passenger Seat.” How beautiful. Chris Walla has really outdone himself with the piano melody and overall instrumentals here. Further, Gibbard adds a relaxed and peaceful mood to this song.

7.“Technicolor Girls.” First-off, what is Technicolor? Oh, you probably at least have some idea, or a less than vague notion, but do you really know what the exact meaning is? Wikipedia to the rescue:

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc.), now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain’s Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952. Technicolor became known and celebrated for its hyper-realistic, saturated levels of color, and was used commonly for filming musicals (such as The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain), costume pictures (such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Joan of Arc), and animated films (such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia).

The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1915 by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock, and W. Burton Wescott.

And there you have it. So, DCFC likes old-school stuff. We really can’t stand most things out of the 50′s, although with age and the move to Southern California, the fascination with things from the Technicolor period are a lot more prevalent. This, in turn, makes all things that could have been viewed in Technicolor somewhat more palatable.

8. “Wait.” This reminds us of smoking cigarettes. At least, when we used to smoke. Smoking is bad, okay? But when we used to smoke and spend more time socializing than working–the opposite of now–this song was pretty appealing. Isn’t being able to relate to lyrics what it’s all about?

9. “Title Track.” Another track about the degradation of relationships and life itself. At 1:39 in the album version, the transition is fairly notable. Regret in any relationship is not a pleasant emotion. Of course, I regret things that I really enjoy all the time. Yes, I live for regret and all of its lovely tidings.

10. “A Movie Script Ending.” Dirty words, asterisks in for the vowels. The way this song flows exercises restraint while simultaneously building up to higher-energy moments. We’ve listened to this track so many times that we’re kind of tired of it by now.

But here is a bonus track that we could not figure out where to insert into the top 10 at this time. Our selection of it is inspired by the work of other artists on our site!

“This Charming Man:”

From her record released yesterday entitled It’s Not Me, It’s You, here’s a Lily Allen track that reminds of Johnny Cash: surely it’s in the guitar. Not something you commonly see from British artists, of course, most rock artists think Cash is cool. No pun intended.

“Not Fair:”

We like the fact that Allen has a sort of electropop style in her songs as well.

“Back To The Start:”

“Fuck You:”

The chorus of her track “Who’d Have Known,” totally reminds us of the Elliott Smith’s “Say Yes.” You can compare for yourself to see what we mean:

“Who’d Have Known:”

“Say Yes:”