HiPSTERWAVE

Mary Anne Hobbs talks about her famous show on BBC Radio 1 and her opinions on part of the West Coast experimental electronic music scene. Hobbs goes a little overboard in her admiration of Flying Lotus here. He’s great and all, but comparable to Hendrix? Really?

Here’s where glitchy instrumentals meet beautiful and sad moods, bringing a track that’s put together well, if you happen not to mind so much digital influence in your music.

Styrofoam is Arne Van Petegem, a Belgian one-man glitch electronic music project (indietronic) on the independent record label Morr Music. The track in focus, “Couches In Alleys (Feat. Ben Gibbard), is like down-tempo lap-pop. Since I keep using the genre label, I’ll give some background: lap-pop is basically pop music with electronic influence that was mostly produced with only laptops. Of course, it certainly takes a vocalist to add to the mood of these songs, but there’s nothing “pop” about the lyrics in lap-pop songs, really. You could argue that the lyrics or music appeal to popular culture, but there tends to be a clever twist in the lyrics that brings these tracks above your run of the mill Britney Spears tune. Don’t get me wrong, though, the production / instrumental end of Britney’s releases is really tight! Seriously. At any rate, I really like what Styrofoam is doing with the instrumentals here. The chopped break swooshes and clicks are right up my alley. Definitely not overlooking the melodic synthesizer work either.

On the album, “Nothing’s Lost,” Styrofoam worked together with artists Valerie Trebeljahr (Lali Puna), Andrew Kenny (The American Analog Set), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service), Bent Van Looy (Das Pop), Markus Acher (The Notwist, Lali Puna), Miki Yoshimura (Munk) and Alias. I can’t believe it took me four years to discover this track! I also can’t believe Ben Gibbard hasn’t collaborated on more songs of this style.

But enough about all of that. Let’s get to the song that has been elected our song of the month. And, a random video clip that was created by an arbitrary YouTube fan that decided the song moved her enough that she simply had to do something about it!

Now, listen to the hit.

Discography

Albums

2000: The Point Misser Morr Music
2000: A Short Album About Murder
2003: I’m What’s There To Show That Something’s Missing
2004: Nothing’s Lost
2006: The Same Channel [Joint album with Fat Jon]
2008: A Thousand Words Nettwerk

EP’s & Singles

2002: RR20 Rocket Racer
2002: Styrofoam/Dntel Split [7" Split]
2002: To Simply Lie Here And Breathe [7"] Morr Music
2003: A Heart Without A Mind [EP]
2005: Live
2008: Bright Red Helmet Nettwerk

Remixes

2001: múm, Please Sing My Spring Reverb, Please Smile My Noise Bleed
2002: Tristeza, Casio, Mixed Signals
Giardini di Mirò, A New Start, The Academic Rise of Falling Drifters
The American Analog Set, The Postman, We’re Computerizing And We Just Don’t Need You Anymore, Updates EP
2003: Zorn Marianengraben Marianengraben
2004: The Go, Find What I Want, Over The Edge
2005: The Postal Service, Nothing Better, We Will Become Silhouettes
The American Analog Set, Cool Kids Keep, Set Free (Japanese edition)
Jimmy Eat World, Drugs Or Me, Stay on My Side Tonight [EP]
The Free Design (with Sarah Shannon), I Found Love, The Now Sound Redesigned
Plastic Operator, Folder, Folder EP
2006: Najwa Nimri, Capable, Capable
Five Deez, Let The People Know, Let The People Know
The Submarines, Brighter Discontent, Remixes EP
Leigh Nash, All Along The Wall, Remixed 2 EP
2007: at the close of every day, Rain or Shine, Leaves You Puzzled

As mentioned in the Death Cab For Cutie Post, Ben Gibbard formed The Postal Service with Jimmy Tamborello and debuted with their only full-length release on February 18, 2003. Several songs on the album feature guest vocals from Jenny Lewis, the lead vocalist of Rilo Kiley, in addition to vocals from indie rock musician Jen Wood. Coincidentally, Rilo Kiley member Jenny Lewis dated Jake Gyllenhaal and then later Ben Gibbard. She is now the ex-girlfriend of them both. Lewis also starred in the 1989 film The Wizard, which was excellent for any Nintendo fan that’s actually old enough to have played the original NES in its heyday, because the movie placed emphasis on The Power Glove and of course Super Mario Bros. 3. The Mario aspect of the movie was especially exciting because the highly anticipated game had not been released before the film, which meant that the film was North America’s first introduction to the game, which eventually became one of the top-selling video games of all time.

Chris Walla and Dntel produced Give Up. Walla played the guitar and piano on several tracks. The album’s most well-known single was “Such Great Heights“, which has been featured in advertisements for UPS and Kaiser Permanente. The song has also been covered by Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Brack Cantrell, and Iron & Wine. The Iron & Wine cover appeared on the soundtrack for the film Garden State, as well as a commercial for M&M’s. Give Up was the Sub Pop label’s most successful release since Nirvana’s debut album Bleach.

Such Great Heights:

The District Sleeps Alone Tonight:

Before we get this started, whether you’re an avid fan or barely know anything about the band, feel free to check out our selected Death Cab music and videos before proceeding.

So they’ve been around for a while and I only really noticed them in 2001. I don’t think Death Cab For Cutie was nearly as big back then as they are now. After all, they weren’t signed to Atlantic Records and Warner Music back then. The John Byrd EP is my favorite live recording of the band and The Photo Album are two of their all-time favorite releases of mine, but there’s something to be said for all of their records with the exception of the first (1998) and the most recent (2008). That’s just my opinion though.

Something About Airplanes (1998)
We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes (2000)
The Photo Album (2001)
Transatlanticism (2003)
Plans (2005)
Narrow Stairs (2008)

Feel free to disagree. I’m really a fan of The Postal Service as well; however, with only one full-length release from 2003, “Give Up,” it really seems like Ben Gibbard (DCFC”s lead vocalist) is kind of excessively loyal to Death Cab, while viewing The Postal Service (with a much more electronic flavor) as more of just a side project he had/has with Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel.) Tamborello produced the majority of the instrumentals for the “Give Up” record.

Ben Gibbard:

Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello: