Hype Monitor: Ting Tings, Ponytail and HEALTH

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet. This week: a few choice picks from the charts at BlogFreshRadio.

**The Band:** Ting Tings
**The Buzz:** British boy/girl duo dish out dance tracks done up in neon; find themselves scoring iPod ads and Gossip Girl.
**Listen If:** The first thing you did with GarageBand was make a Lily Allen/Franz Ferdinand mashup.
**Key Track:** “Shut Up and Let Me Go,” which updates the guitar strut of Blondie’s “Rapture” with lyrics about getting off and getting angry.

**The Band:** Ponytail
**The Buzz:** Bonkers Baltimore band creates chaotic compositions bursting with joy, possibility and life.
**Listen If:** You’re tired of pasty whiners and want music that sounds like a series of exclamation points.
**Key Track:** The spectacular “Beg Waves,” where a breathless strum does battle with vocalist Molly Siegel’s euphoric ululations, resulting in a song that lifts the spirit while blowing the mind.

**The Band:** HEALTH
**The [...]

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Jeremy Jay

What’s the Deal? Jonathan Richman once wrote, “So if you liked that, you’ll love this.” For example, if you like the sweet deadpan melodies of Richman, you’ll love the sparse, stately heartache of Angel Town, CA’s Jeremy Jay. His excellent debut, A Place Where We Could Go, was released May 20 on K Records and takes equal cues from Richman’s solo output (”Hold Me In Your Arms Tonight”), ’50s slow dance favorites (”The Living Dolls”), and Hunky Dory-era David Bowie (hidden track “Oh, Bright Young Things”). Jay’s tunes are perfect for getting lonely, being together, and everything indefinable in between.
Who? Claiming inspiration from such luminaries as Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Francois Hardy, Jeremy Jay has released several singles and EPs leading up to the release of his debut, including the groovy “Airwalker.” And although Jay’s sound is influenced by his love for ’50s rock’n’roll, his songwriting [...]

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Lil’ Kim Drops “Ms. G.O.A.T.” [SOHH.com Dailies]

Lil’ Kim’s officially releasing her street disc Ms. G.O.A.T. next month.

Visit SOHH.com for the complete story.

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Woxy’s Modern Rock 500 Has A Lot Of Songs On It, Including One By G. Love And Special Sauce

Over Memorial Day weekend Woxy counted down the 2008 edition of their Modern Rock 500. (That’s the first time I’ve written “Modern Rock” since the early ’90s.) The songs don’t have to be from 2008, but there are newer tracks that made it on there, as well as some that are not new … like Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper’s “Elvis Is Everywhere.” Woxy’s The Futurist blog has the list posted in its entirety, but we’re just giving you the top 100. Of course, we’re always game to split hairs beyond that. For instance, it’s probably worth noting “Under The Bridge” came in at 101, Feist’s “My Moon My Man” debuted at 500, and the National’s “Mistaken For Strangers” showed up for the first time at 452. Also: Still no songs by Vampire Weekend.

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Los Campesinos! Break Hearts in Chicago

Two weeks into their U.S. tour behind debut full-length Hold On Now, Youngster…, Welsh brat-punkers Los Campesinos commandeered an indie rock cacophony, reserving no amount of xylophone tinks, Korg blasts, or viola pulls to reach maximum heartache and squawk last night (May 27) at Chicago’s Empty Bottle.

Ra Ra Riot tugs the genre with Morrissey croon, but frontman Tom Campesinos! and his six other musical compatriots sharing mic duties sought solstice in Art Brut cheer and Pavement breakdowns, the latter which the band gave a nod to mid-set with a Malkmus-worthy, witastic rendition of Slanted & Enchanted B-side, "Frontwards."

Otherwise, the punk wunderkinds drew heavily from Hold On Now, Youngster…: "You! Me! Dancing!" and "My Year in Lists" came supported with audience shakes and handclaps, while the band whipped out glockenspiels and dual cowbells over colliding guitars. Pop fury was prompted by bleeding lyrics — "If this sentimental movie marathon has taught [...]

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When Archie Met Cookie

*American Idol* is the type of show you either hate, or fist-fight your roommate over when they suggest watching *House* during commercial breaks.
For the latter, the only thing possibly sweeter than having six-day-champ David Cook show up at your office for lunch is runner-up David Archuleta joining him, and the two spending the afternoon calling each other “Cookie” and “Archie” as they attempt to figure out which of them is being addressed.

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Breaking Artist: Tokyo Police Club

Who: Tokyo Police Club, a Toronto quartet who played to audiences at the Coachella, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury festivals before they turned twenty-one or even released their debut album.
Sounds Like: Too poppy to be post-punk but too clean to be garage-rock, TPC marry bright keyboards and the buoyant voice of singer/bassist Dave Monk into perfect danceable two-minute tunes on their debut album Elephant Shell.
Vital Stats:

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The Cool Kids

What’s the Deal? The Cool Kids’ slow, deliberate vocal flow coupled with simple rhythms harkens back to the glory days of acts like Boogie Down Productions and EPMD. And the duo’s much-anticipated sophomore EP, The Bake Sale, which is their first commercially available disc, flaunts the Windy City natives’ vintage influences with ten tracks both new and old. “88″ smolders like a N.E.R.D reinterpretation of Run DMC’s “Peter Piper,” chock full of throwback hip-hop style and a smooth recital of a hook from “The Safety Dance.” And “Black Mags” just may go down as the smoothest ode to BMX bikes ever recorded over a beat easily duplicated on an Amiga.
Who? The Cool Kids are a different kind of internet coupling. Chuck Inglish met Mikey Rocks three years ago through MySpace — an online community where the duo eventually culled many of their fans. The two did production work together, [...]

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Courvoisier/LRG/Complex Media Pop-Up Shop Tour [ProHipHop: Hip Hop Business]

Just Blaze & Jonas Bevacqua @ Courvoisier LRG Pop-Up Shop: NYC Complex Media facilitated the recent House of Courvoisier LRG Pop-Up Shop Tour as part of Courvoisier’s Find Greatness Within campaign created with Lifted Research Group (LRG) co-founder Jonas Bevacqua: The…

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Premature Evaluation: Weezer - The Red Album

Red leaked in fits and starts and birthed “Pork And Beans”’s beloved YouTube-centric video before we’d heard the album from start to finish. Though we had most of it. If you add it up — three plus four and carry the aforementioned single — that’s eight new Weezer songs. That left two small gaps, right at the end of the record: “Automatic” and “The Angel And The One.” So, are those two any kind of tipping point? Or has the point already been made? Oh, before that, we should mention that we also have the somewhat bland cover of the Band’s “The Weight” as the sing-a-long UK “bonus.” Americans, you aren’t missing much.

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