Catnip for Hipsters

Death of the Catnip

I thought I should at produce one last post before shutting down the doors of Catnip, at least in its current incarnation. As I posted a while ago, I have recently quit my job and started attending University again to obtain my Masters, which I knew would greatly reduce my ability to keep this blog up to the level that I would really like. However, things have changed yet again which will stop me from being able to post tracks on the blog at any sort of regularity.

I have recently been given a radio show on the local student radio station, the VBC. From 1-2pm on Friday afternoons (8-9pm Thursday night Eastern USA time) I will be hosting ‘Tracks from the Backpack’, a show devoted to hip-hop, which can be heard here. This means that all the time I previously spent digging out the best of the new tracks from across all genres will now be focused on putting together weekly playlists for my show.

It’s with great sadness that I am closing the doors to Catnip, as it has grown far bigger than I could have ever imagined in my wildest dreams. I hope you all stay subscribed to the blog though, as I will likely use this space to post podcast versions of my weekly radio show. However, I know that of my subscribers come here for the indie rock tracks, so I thought it was only fair to let people know that if that’s what you come here for, you will be out of luck for the foreseeable future.

Thanks again for supporting Catnip, it’s been a great ride.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork

I have really been enjoying Ted Leo’s latest album, Brutalist Bricks, for the past couple of weeks. It would be really unfair to call the album a return to form, as the man has been making some of the most consistently great pop-punk of any artist in the last decade, but I have already come back to his latest album more than I ever did Living with the Living. Anyone familiar with Ted Leo will know what to expect with the latest album (strongly, politically-tinged pop-punk tracks that can be found here and here), so I wanted to showcase a track that’s a little different. After a rather bizarre intro about the UN, Bottled in Cork bounces along with some great downbeat guitar playing that makes it nearly impossible not to nod your head along to. It’s always a pleasure when one of your favorite artists produces a great album that you actually reach for instead of just going back to the classics and Ted Leo has done just that.

Dubliners - Dirty Old Town

I have a tradition every St. Patrick’s Day to listening to Irish music from the morning I wake up, until the moment I go to sleep (I may also find some time for drinking in there somewhere). More than any other traditional music, Irish music still resonates with me, no matter how many times I have heard many of the songs covered. While my favorite Irish band will always be the Pogues, but I want to shed a bit of light on a more traditional Irish band, the Dubliners. The Dubliners have been making music together since 1962, and were one of the biggest bands in the Irish folk scene. Dirty Old Town needs no real explanation, as the title pretty much says all you need to know, but it remains one of my favorite tracks about dreaming of a life much better than the one you are currently stuck in.

As a side note, Ted Leo also does a pretty awesome cover of this track live.

Automata - Give and Take

It’s rare that I can actually use Catnip to actually accomplish much more than stroking my own ego, but occasionally the opportunity does present itself. I recently discovered that an old friend of mine has starting singing in a Chicago-based band called Automata, who’s self released EP can be this downloaded for free here. Even though a friend mine is a member of the band, I wouldn’t feature the track if it wasn’t as good as ‘Give and Take’, which contains a vocal performance which has to be heard. The song has a very smoky, old-school soul vibe that is pitch-perfect, with the vocals bringing an incredible power to the chorus that always threatens to push the song over the edge, but pulls back just in time.

The main reason for posting this track today is to give them a little publicity while they are in the running to be remixed by the producer Bonobo. If you like what you hear, head on over to his website and cast your vote for this track in his remix competition here.

Murs - Bad Man!

Hip-hop has been sorely underrepresented around Catnip in the past couple of weeks, especially with great new albums from Strong Arm Steady and Freeway/Jake One being released, but that’s about to get rectified. I have recently been getting into the string of amazing albums that 9th Wonder (from Little Brother) and Murs put together earlier decade, and this track is definitely a standout. Built on an obscure roots-reggae track from The Mighty Diamonds called Illiteracy, 9th breaks down the sample and creates a hook that will be stuck in your head for days. Murs jumps all over the opportunity to fill the track with classic hip-hop braggadocio, made all the better by Murs insistence that it’s not his fault that you wanted a bad man.

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Neon Indian - Sleep Paralysist

The new Neon Indian track “Sleep Paralysist” picks up right where his album left off. It’s loaded with heavy bass and a storm of effects that reflect front-man Alan Palomo’s mad scientist approach to music making. This song was recorded at Terrible Studios, owned by Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear- he even helped with mixing and mastering! Who’s seeing them at SXSW with me? Who’s seeing them at SXSW twice with me? At least make sure to get the new track here.

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