Welcome to the Monday Threesome! We’ve always enjoyed the way that bands intermingle when they belong to a certain scene — the way members float into and out of each other’s bands, creating a sense that music is truly a living, breathing organism. Here, we’re using the group Continue Reading

#FF is a weekly series of posts from The Wild Honey Pie where we suggest one music-related person for you to follow on Twitter and tell you why they’re so great.

When people ask me what sort of music we share here on The Wild Honey Pie, I generally don’t know exactly what to say. Simply put, it’s mostly “indie pop”, but overall that feels like a bullshit answer that doesn’t begin to capture the creativity of the artists we love and write about. There are a ton of “blog” bands out there that we love — we love the obscure and quirky, we love the slightly weird, we love the artists who produce albums for themselves and not the masses. We also love ourselves some really Continue Reading

Communication Breakdown – Led Zeppelin // Buy

Babe I’m Gonna Leave You – Led Zeppelin // Buy

I should probably preface this article by saying that I’m absolutely nuts over Led Zeppelin. My own opinions aside, though, it’s important to revisit Led Zeppelin I to explore the genius of the band’s music during its original release and the legacy it still holds today. While the songs are at points excessive and overly-confident, the album successfully captures the intense, spontaneous feel of a band that had only known each other for two weeks. The Continue Reading

What are you doing tonight? Do you have some special plans? Some special love related plans? Let’s not fool ourselves, you guys are doin’ it tonight aren’t you? Everyone should be involved in some kind of sexy time activity this evening, and Continue Reading

Welcome to another Monday Threesome! Though this past weekend has been a mixture of uncomfortable cold and snow, we here are in a jovial state of mind. Local Natives are Continue Reading

When great music and beautiful visuals come together, they can form a sacred unity that excites your sensors and captures your heart. This is the kind of reaction San Fran based blog Yours Truly (@yourstrulysf) garners on a regular basis. Not only do they have a widespread and finely tuned radar when it comes to new music, they’re rather apt in the video department as well. Interviews, intimate performances, private sessions and particularly great collaborative projects are just a few examples of what these guys do exceptionally well. You definetly want to have them in your twitter feed — not only do they consistently point followers towards great content, they also have a pretty wicked sense of humour too. Continue Reading

Welcome to another Monday Threesome! Each of the bands this week falls within the realm of electro/snyth pop, focusing on keyboards, falsettos and rhythms. They play a dance hybrid of indie rock and electronic music, but within that somewhat narrow subgenre, each is able to bring something unique to their sound and leave their mark. One is a veteran, and the others are some new bands we are very excited about.

Known for their very passionate falsetto vocals, big hooks and synth-in-the-front sound, not to mention the project’s humble bedroom beginnings, Passion Pit (@passionpit) has evolved into a lock-step live unit. Michael Angelakos famously recorded his debut EP as a Valentine’s Day present to his girlfriend, but the release’s unexpected acclaim eventually allowed him to record a full length with a full band. Though the music still has a certain laptop pop aesthetic, the additional members have allowed Angelakos to mature as a performer and writer.  These three live sessions show examples of how cohesive they’ve become on stage, a testament in part to the tight-as-hell drumming: here, here and here. This band’s lush keyboard arrangements and Prince meets Sunny Day Real Estate vocals put them at the forefront of the dance-rock scene. Stay tuned for their second full length album, which is slated for release later this year.

Lighthouse – NewVillager // Buy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

NewVillager (@newvillager), who incorporate heavier drum machines and synthesizers into their tracks, may be the most electronic of the bands here. With vocals that seem to mimic the stylings of TV on the Radio, their album is the definition of the thinking man’s dance music — the songs make you move, but they also stand up to close inspection. Their use of multiple vocalists and calculated effects combine to create the group’s huge sound. To enhance their live performances, though, the band also incorporates their skills in visual arts, creating a fully immersive experience. You can preview three tracks from their new album on MySpace, and an additional track on YouTube. Finally, there’s an impressive, acapella live session that the band did for Rockstone Sessions. You can also visit their website to read some unique interviews and check out the blurbs to the right side which represent the band’s “Mythology” — very intriguing stuff.

Stay Kids – ANR // Buy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Last year, Miami’s ANR (@anrmiami) (Awesome New Republic) had us all eagerly awaiting their debut full-length (released in March). Describing themselves as psychedelic pop, they combine lush vocal harmonies, twisty, evolving instrumentation, loud synths and an insistent rhythm section to create a druggy dance-pop sound. Though somewhat reminiscent of MGMT, ANR are much better songwriters and far less cheesy in their arrangements. “Stay Kids” has one of my favorite recent opening lines: “I left the world of the working man to be immature and sometimes insecure.” Like much of their music, it’s quirky but very heartfelt. Equally adept at the bouncy numbers and the ballads, this is a band to keep your eye on.  Listen to the three tracks from their 2011 full-length here.

One of the most interesting aspects of Twitter is determining whether a band’s/person’s account genuinely represents who THEY are, or if it’s simply a smokescreen of social BS. In the case of LA-based yoga teacher turned MC turned all around psychedelic, spiritual sound-smith Gonjasufi (@gonjasufi), his Twitter presence is a pure, existential projection of everything he seems to be on wax. In short, he keeps it very real within 140 characters or less.

The reasons to follow him stack up pretty high — he’s brash, he’s bold, he’s fond of all caps and he even likes to send little pictures of planes to indicate where he’s travelling. Not to mention, he has a pulsing, technicolor avatar and a background picture of what seems to be a still from an Akira Kurosawa movie. Aesthetics aside, the dude is full of substance as well as style. He tweets fantastic meditations on everything from politics, spiritual awareness and the human condition to parenthood and work ethics. Continue Reading

This week’s top releases are on opposite ends of the spectrum. One album Continue Reading

Happy Monday everyone! A couple of weeks ago, I came across what one might call a “YouTube Sensation” by the name of Pogo. His music absolutely blew me away, so, of course, the wheels began turning for the next Monday threesome. This week, we’re bringing you a variety of minimal techno music, where the artists use their talents to create tracks of almost perfect beauty and simplicity.

Over The Ice – The Field // Buy

Back in 2007, when From Here We Go Sublime was released and blew up, techno was neither a style I was familiar with nor one I really cared about. A buddy of mine, though, started raving about The Field and how I had to hear his record. While I initially scoffed at the idea, only halfway through the first track, “Over the Ice”, I was completely hooked. This experience began my spiral into electronic music, a genre that I now follow closely. Axel Willner of The Field is known for his process of creating electronic music by layering incredibly short “micro-samples” with quick loops of live instrumentation. His songs feature a large amount of repetition and are generally very simple, but this only serves to enhance their beauty and make moments when the compositions open up all the more affecting. On newer albums, he maintains his clean, original style, but also adds elements such as vocal harmonies and more complex composition. The artist page at The Field’s label, Kompakt, allows free streaming of most of his songs. Also, YouTube has a live performance of “Over the Ice”, the song that changed my musical brain forever, which features a live rhythm section that gives the song a unique, more organic, sound.

Famous for the edited videos he posts on Youtube, Pogo (@pogomix) is one of the most original voices in modern electronic music. Also known for fusing micro-samples, he usually splices together scenes from movies and television — sometimes these are musical moments, but very often they’re simply moments of speech that he tunes to create music. While this style may seem like a gimmick, the videos are actually just a unique form of expression. Forged with incredible detail, the clip collections (some of which are less than half a second long) are spliced together to form surprisingly beautiful music. Pogo incorporates a wide variety of sounds, from funky to pretty, sunny to contemplative, and he’s an artist well worth following. His Bandcamp page features numerous albums available to stream and one (Weave and Wish) available as a free download. His newest video, a true nostalgia trip, was created from clips of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The music is bouncy and clever but with the same ethereal nature found in all of his music. I can also guarantee that this track will leave the phrase “Arnold Schwarzenegger” stuck in your head for days. Another video, Bloom, which he spliced together from old Disney movies, is truly one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve experienced lately. These final two videos are slightly different stylistically and demonstrate Pogo’s filmmaking skills. They both feature spliced footage of the environment and interviews that he shot and conducted in Bhutan and Johannesburg. The cinematography is gorgeous and very indicative of Pogo’s well-rounded style. Enjoy!

Atra Aeterna (@atraaeterna), the project of Zack Mitchell, approaches minimal techno in a very different way.  Less sample driven and more organic, the songs feature dark and cinematic soundscapes using synths and electronic elements. Mitchell is also a classically trained pianist, though, so keys are also heavily featured in his music. “Monolithium”, off Machinations, for example, begins almost entirely as a solo piano piece, but combines subtle electronic and string touches as it progresses, including a sort of glitch beat towards the end. The way classical sounds and techno combine here is very unique and interesting. As with the other artists, Mitchell approaches his songwriting from a fairly minimal perspective, using heavy repetition and never combining 4 notes when 2 will do. The songs are also Zen-like in their tranquility and loveliness, though Atra Aeterna definitely has a darker, slightly unnerving undercurrent to his music. His Bandcamp page features numerous albums both free to stream and free to download.