Tik Tok, please stop!

The gal with the dollar sign in her name and her song “Tik Tok” slowly are slowly making their way into every crevice of our lives. “Tik Tok” has been used to promote television shows such as Project Runway and Minute to Win It (Have you seen that show? It’s ridiculous. AND AMAZING.) It’s also found its way into shows like The Hills but even moreso peculiarly, The Bounty Hunter and The Simpsons. In fact, if you missed it (because I’m pretty sure no one really watches new Simpsons episodes anymore), in order to roll with the musical week on the Fox Network, Groening and clan changed up the couch gag by having the cast sing “Tik Tok”. It’s true, nothing is sacred anymore.

As an added bonus, my friend Aaron Allen (formerly of Valeyra and Spanish For Valerie) helped record a remake of “Tik Tok” with his boys, Game 7. Aside from the cheesy slideshow, the guys changed the hook to “Drink, Drink” and whipped up some clever lines. It’s worth a once over listen but you can download it for free if you’d like!

Either way you listen to it… you gotta admit, it’s ridiculously catchy. You’re welcome.

Album Review: Quiet Company – Songs For Staying In EP

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love it when bands know how to market themselves. I love it when bands understand the power of the world wide web. And I especially love it when they have fun while doing it all. With their upcoming Massive Release show to celebrate the release of their new EP, Songs For Staying In, Austin-based Quiet Company is a band that will put a smile of most of your faces in one way or another.

The first time I ran across Quiet Company was during my NX35 countdown project. I had listened to their album, Everyone You Love With Be Happy Soon, and their “carefree, light-hearted, and fun” tunes provided the perfect soundtrack to those first few inklings of spring we had at the end of February. Well, they have crafted six new songs just in time to provide the perfect soundtrack for summer. Especially for you young lovers out there.

Songs For Staying In is exactly what their album title combined with their album cover implies. Love songs set to the great, catchy pop-rock hooks Quiet Company is known for. The first track, “How Do You Do It?” is saccharine goodness. As I walked to worked to work today, I started out a sleepy zombie. Within the track’s five minutes, I found myself walking in step and bobbing my head to its fanfare chorus. “Things You Already Know” continues the “upbeatness” before the EP slows down to the beautiful, simple track, “Hold My Head Above the Water”. Incidentally, this song is led by frontman Taylor Muse’s wife, Leah. What’s more lovey dovey than that? Definitely not the next track, “Jezebel” which is also titled, “A Song About My Friend and that Whore He Dated”! The song still manages to fit within the theme of the album though as it closes out with its outcry of, “Come back to me!” The album closes with “If You Want” and “The Biblical Sense of the Word” which solidly seals this EP as one of the best albums to listen to this summer.

Aside from their sunshiny tunes, Quiet Company are also fun as they’ve been really building up their upcoming Massive Release show. They’ve held a video contest, released videos of their own each week on their site, and have worked hard to make sure their fans have as much fun with their music as they do. Not many bands are as quite as charming as these fellows, and personally, hard work and personality do factor into my appreciation for a band’s music (just as rude, sloppy work factors into my dislike into otherwise talented bands!)

Austinites, join Quiet Company for their Massive Release show with Stereo is a Lie, Murdocks, The Eastern Sea, The Rocketboys, and The Black and White Years this Friday night at Encore. For ten bucks, it’s a steal, folks.

- RSVP for the Massive Release show here: http://www.quietcompanymusic.com/tickets

- Pre-order Songs for Staying In and download the album now before it releases on May 11: http://www.quietcompanymusic.com

- Stream for free their full-length album, Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon: http://quietcompany.bandcamp.com

The Guestlist w/ Yeahdef

This was originally written for Subservient Experiment.

There’s people that work hard. And then there’s Joey Liechty. Best known as Yeahdef, he somehow manages to juggle a day job, college, and enough shows to make you wonder if he ever sleeps. You can find him week after week at Hailey’s in Denton, chopping and mixing everyone’s favorite tunes from the ’80s and ’90s to make the people dance. There’s a reason Yeahdef was voted Best DJ by Dallas Observer readers and it’s not just because he puts in the hours necessary to master his art. He’s innovative and unafraid to intertwine his l33t skills with his setup. He’s streamed Twitter feeds and text messages through projectors during shows, crafts his own playful flyers, and recently unveiled his project, Playlister, which allows everyone to vote online for the tracks they want to hear on ’90s nights. Given his sense of all things musical, technical, and Gen-Y nostalgic, it only makes sense that his Guestlist brings all of those together.

Be sure to dance back in time with Yeahdef on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or catch his new dubstep monthly gig, Dentstep, at Hailey’s. And if you have time in between, try to beat him at Words with Friends.

Read Yeahdef’s Guestlist at Subservient Experiment here.

Super blog is super!

Sorry I’m late to the game today but I’ve been nursing some allergies. Hello, spring! I know I’ve been super duper quiet lately but it’s because I’ve joined forces with DayBowBow and SubEx to bring you DFW’s first “super” blog, GOLION!

The future is now, as DayBowBow.net, SubservientExperiment.com, and TheNeener.net have joined forces to become GOLION. We hope our loyal fanbases will understand our new directions as we aim to better serve the DFW music-loving community. Our mission statement is as follows:

The ever-changing environment of online music coverage makes it all but impossible for any one entity to survive on its own. So with this in mind, we’ve decided that the best plan was for each of our entities to combine into something more than we could be on our own. By becoming something bigger than the sum of our parts, we hope to provide the area with the best in local and national coverage while still keeping the voices that we worked so hard cultivate with our other projects. We thank you for your prior support and hope that you stay with us as we grow.

Whee, It’s Free: Quiet Company

I’ve been so burnt out on blogging and reviewing that I quietly vowed to myself to take a week long hiatus. But as luck would have it, this is worth sharing: To celebrate their 1-year anniversary tweeting, Quiet Company is giving their away their entire full-length album for free TODAY ONLY… if you give them your e-mail address. Not a shabby deal considering their album has some great, fun tunes that is perfect for rolling down your windows and smiling. I know because I’ve done it recently. No lies.

Submit your e-mail and download their album, Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon here: www.tinyurl.com/qcemail.

Also, Dentonites, this Austin-based band will be making their way north on Friday to play with This Old House, OK Sweetheart, and The Hope Trust at Hailey’s so stop by and thank them for the free tunes!

WHEE!