Twinkling rhodes piano. Ambient computer noise. A lightly funky acoustic guitar loop. If you were under the impression that The Cornel West Theory was all about fire and brimstone—a safe assumption, given the ski masks and angry vibes depicted in this video–, well, they can also take it down a notch. “An Angel For You,â€� a track that the band’s label, Sockets, just posted on its blog, is sort of hiphop nytol. In a good way, though. After all, it’s summer, and there’s no harm in invoking the ghost of Marvin Gaye.

Beck: “I’m Waiting For My Man”
The Velvet Underground’s original version of this song made scoring drugs sound exotic and cool. Beck’s cover, on the other hand, is probably a little closer to reality. The second offering from the singer’s Record Club website, where the singer will be covering The Velvet Underground & Nico in its entirety, is dense, sloppy, and out of tune. This is not the sound of hipsters slumming in urban bohemia but a long stroll to the drum circle with your bare-foot Dead-head neighbor. A different activity, for sure, but not one lacking in charms of its own.

She & Him: “Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, who perform together as She & Him, take a swipe at the most frequently covered of all Smiths songs for the soundtrack to Deschanel’s new movie (500) Days of Summer. As those covers go, this is a pretty traditional rendering, with heaps of reverb and a gazillion overdubbed acoustic guitars. But Deschanel delivers the vocal with the requisite amount of melancholy and the cover holds its own just fine alongside The Deftones version.

Wu Tang Clan ft. Raekwon, Sean Price, and Cormega: “Radian Jewels”
It certainly sounds like Wu-Tang–synths strings, minimalist beats, Raekwon–but apparently “Radiant Jewels” and Chamber Music, the Rza produced record it comes from, is not a new Wu-Tang Clan record. Instead, according to a particularly confusing press release, it’s just a record featuring new music made with participation from every member of the group and a live backing band that emulates the classic Wu-Tang sound. So maybe it’s better than a “real” Wu-Tang record? Go figure.

Gareth Williams: “Anger of Fire”
Gareth Williams’ role in This Heat, the experimental/post-punk band in which he performed during the early ’80s, seemed somewhat subversive. While his band mates, drummer Charles Hayward and guitarist Charles Bullen, were traditionally skilled musicians, Williams approached things from a more naive and unschooled perspective. He mashed on a bizarrely tuned keyboard, played back tape collages, and fueled the group’s more abstract and unpredictable moments. But “Anger of Fire,” written years after Williams had departed from This Heat, is surprisingly tuneful. Built on two acoustic guitar chords and a reggae-inspired rhythm, it suggest that Williams, who passed away in ‘01, certainly had more in his head than noise.

When Justin Moyer isn’t busy contributing to Washington City Paper he can often be found wearing a dress and singing slightly-bratty post-punk songs under the name Edie Sedgwick. Call it a commentary on the nature of celebrity. Or call it a conscious attempt to transcend the confines of the ordinary. Or, well, just watch this interview that All Our Noise recently taped and hear Moyer/Sedgwick attempt to explain it himself.

Edie Sedgwick will perform with Kid Congo Powers, and Exactly as part of the New York Night Train Happening @ Civilian Arts Project
Saturday, June 27th,
11pm / $10 / 21+

Interview: Edie Sedgwick from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

Also, you might check out this concert video from France.

Edie Sedgwick on Attic Addict from Attic Addict on Vimeo.

Bloc Party: “One More Chance”
No, you did not just get Rick-rolled; this is it, the new Bloc Party single. “One More Chance” is a song for the club, but not the arms folded, tight jeans, indie-rock club to which the band previously belonged. No, this is club with a capital “C.” Front man Kele Okereke croons, the drums bang, and the pianos glisten like beads of sweat on Right Said Fred’s manly decolletage.

Polvo: “Beggars Bowl”
In 1997 Polvo were slackers. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina band’s records were charmingly sloppy and haphazard. But “Beggars Bowl, the groups first new material since reuniting last year, suggest that Polvo has gotten a little more professional in its approach to music making. There are thundering power chords, technical grooves, and if you were to only listen to the song’s first 30 second, you might swear you were listening to metal-FM. That said, Polvo doesn’t sound too bad shredding in earnest.

B.o.B: “My Sweet Baby”
B.o.B swipes some samples from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack–from “Love is Strange,” to be specific–but don’t be fooled, this is not a sensual romp with Patrick Swayze. Rather, it’s more like being belted with a radio station call sign for three minutes.

Real Estate: “Green River”
As far as music goes, New Jersey’s central export is blue-collar mythology. Which might put Real Estate, who hail from the Garden State, in some danger. From the sound of “Green River,” with it’s gentle melodies and sweetly chiming guitars, the band might not even be able to take The Four Seasons in a fight. Maybe Real Estate needs to relocate to a state that won’t squash its sweet but naive vibes.

Local musician Clark Sabine, who performed in the bands Statehood, The Andalusians, The Motorcycle Wars, and Metropolitan, passed away Tuesday night at a hospice facility in Arlington after a long battle with cancer. He was 33 years old.

Read More “Clark Sabine 1975-2009″ »

Fort Reno’s website is finally back online with a spiffy redesign and, more importantly, a full summer concert schedule. Local faves like Imperial China, Benjy Ferree, Casper Bangs, and Title Tracks all have dates booked.

Shows will be taking place every Monday and Thursday and will being at 7:15 pm. Also, if you have some spare change, feel free to make a donation.

Full schedule after the jump:
Read More “Fort Reno Posts Full Summer Schedule” »

Guitarist/noisemaker/gentleman Chris Grier–who has performed with Kohoutek, To Live & Shave in LA, and Scarcity of Tanks–recently assembled a digital mixtape for Sockets Records. It’s the third in the Fringe Era series, which has also featured contributions by Occupational Athlete (aka Patrick Connolly) and Washington City Paper beer guru Orr Shtuhl. Greir has provided some choice cuts here, though–including as yet unreleased tracks by Love of Diagrams and Wylde Ratttz (the studio band composed of Ron Asheton, Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, Mike Watt, and Don Fleming) as well as a few old time favorites.

Clipse (ft. Pharrell): “I’m Good”
Clipse has finally leaked a track from it’s long-in-the-works follow up to Hell Hath No Fury and, surprisingly, it’s a love song. But before you get down on the dour coke-rap duo for going gushy, keep in mind that that the object of Clipse’s adoration on “I’m Good” is Clipse. Pusha T and Malice get all up on themselves, praising their taste in cars (”Hell yeah the rims match!”), their accessories (”Ice cubes on my chest, look at my blackberry freakin’ me on the texts”), and letting themselves know that they’re quite a catch (”Fly as I could ever be/ a level of success that you could never see.”) You have to hand it to them, though. When it comes to some Clipse-on-Clipse action, they’re not afraid to come on strong.

Ganglians: “Lost Words”
Remember that scene in Animal House where John Belushi rips the guitar out of a hippie’s hands and smashes it to bits against the wall? “Lost Words,” by Sacramento’s Ganglians, might insight a similar style of blind rage, at least for the hot tempered. Gilded in reedy falsettos and cascading waves of autumnal guitar, this is, ostensibly, a song about going to the grocery store.

Black Meteoric Star: “Death Tunnel”
A name can go a long way in techno. Were this song composed under a more upbeat moniker and given a title with a little more sunshine, it could easily be misconstrued as party music. But this is “Death Tunel,” by Black Meteoric star, and as such, the track’s pulsing sequenced synths suggest something more sinister. This is music for vintage-sci-fi dystopia and the darkest old-school Nintendo games.

Gang Gang Dance: “First Communion (TV on The Radio Remix)”
Less of a remix than a grudge-match between Manhattan and Brooklyn’s two most widely discussed art-rock bands. But there are no winners or losers here, just judiciously programmed 909s. TV on The Radio hurls itself into one of the better songs from Gang Gang Dance’s Saint Dymphna, stripping off some of the original’s lush synthesizers and locking down the tempo to a steady, if jittery, pulse. It’s hard to call it an improvement, but it’s hardly a throwaway.

Musical inspiration and theft often go hand in hand, but most of the time the crimes tend to be immaterial—a lifted chord progression or a borrowed melody. The theft that kicked off AB’s Original Breaks, however, is not the sort of thing that could be explained away as homage.

“I had a laptop stolen from me,� says drummer Andrew Black. “And when I bought a new laptop I decided that since I’m around ProTools so much, I should learn it. So, I started re-tracking all of these drum breaks that I had been playing and cataloging them.�

Black took four of these breaks—minute-and-a-half percussion grooves with minimal instrumentation meant to be sampled by hip-hop artists—and pressed them to a 7� single, dubbing the project AB’s Original Breaks. They’re up-tempo and lightly funky, the kind of thing that might have been snatched out of the middle of a James Brown tune. “I sit down and I try to play them and see if it feels like people would want to move to it,� says Black. “I like to play at about the speed of the human heartbeat—90 bpm. A lot of my favorite go-go is at about 90-95 bpm.�
Read More “Title Tracks Drummer Andrew Black Releases 7″ of Drum Breaks” »

After a year or so of relative silence, DC/Baltimore/Atlanta-based Hoss Records has revamped its website, cleaned up its game, and released its fall release schedule. It was worth the wait, though.

The label has just released the first installment in it’s “Techno” 12″ series, which features Mi Ami (which includes two former members of DC’s Black Eyes) performing two side-long quasi-covers of dubstep pioneer Shackelton’s “Blood on my Hands.” It’s a step in a different direction for the band, embracing slowly evolving synthesizer drones and tweaked 808-style bass, rather than squealing noise-guitar solos.

Read More “Hoss Records Releases New Mi Ami 12″/Announces Ecstatic Sunshine LP” »