serious case of the 'mondays'

Mondays are just the worst. We get it. Even as disembodied voices coming over your speakers, we are not immune. So, in order to combat the universal foe that is 'Monday' we had our friend Amanda co-host with us again, our metaphoric "spoonful of sugar" to help the "Monday medicine" go down. We always love having Amanda in-studio with us because she definitely brings a level of class and intellect that is just not achieved between me and Maria alone.
For today we chose a topic that was fitting for having our friend help us out on the show: "Collaboration". I know we've been doing a lot of music stuff for you guys recently but I've been dying to share some of these new albums with you guys. So today we talked about Broken Bells and their new, self-titled album. Nothing felt better than spinning their tracks on the air --- really. As we mentioned on the show, Broken Bells is a collaboration with The Shins' lead singer James Mercer and producer Brian Burton, also known as Danger Mouse.



We are loving this folk/indie, electronic hybrid. I'm a big fan of The Shins, but you don't have to be a fan of The Shins to appreciate this all new band. James Mercer's pure vocals are only highlighted by Danger Mouse's contribution of synthesizers and other digital noise. This album is really a great representation of successful collaboration because it takes two music makers from different genres to create a really cool, unique sound. It has a somewhat familiar sound to The Shins in James Mercer's voice, but it's just the little hints of futuristic synthesizers that take this band in another direction. If you loved Wincing the Night Away you're really going to enjoy Broken Bells. Regardless, this is a great album and I expect to be hearing loads from Broken Bells in the near future.



Here's the link to their website where there are tons of really cool graphics and videos for you guys to check out :
http://www.brokenbells.com/home.html





Always a pleasure.
-K