Friday, November 07, 2008

Genius: Young Folks / Ice Cream


Genius’d Song: Young Folks
Artist: Peter, Bjorn, & John
Album: Writer’s Block







Selection: Ice Cream
Artist: New Young Pony Club
Album: Fantastic Playroom

Genius Results:

Song - Artist
Young Folks - Peter Bjorn & John
Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games - Of Montreal
The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
Down Boy - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb - Spoon
Pieces Of The People We Love - The Rapture
He War - Cat Power
Off The Record - My Morning Jacket
Lights Out - Santogold
Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club
M79 - Vampire Weekend
Let's Call It Off (Single Mix) - Peter Bjorn & John
Requiem for O.M.M. - Of Montreal
What Light - Wilco
Gamma Ray - Beck
I Summon You - Spoon
Cheated Hearts - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Nature of The Experiment - Tokyo Police Club
Up Against The Wall - Peter Bjorn & John
Ageless Beauty - Stars
Obstacle 1 - Interpol
West Coast - Coconut Records
Huddle Formation - The Go! Team
Y Control - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Young Folks
's third album, Writer's Block (released in 2006). The single features Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes as a guest vocalist. The chorus is based on the song, "Rich Folks Hoax" by Rodriguez.
The song first attracted notice on websites such as MySpace and YouTube, and was used in a number of commercials and television shows. Only since mid-2007 has the song earned extensive airplay on American radio, most notably on dance radio outlets like KNHC/Seattle, KNGY/San Francisco and Sirius Satellite's "The Beat".
The song was ranked #5 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Tracks of 2006"[1] list. Pitchfork reviewed the song on 19 July 2006, giving it three out of five stars [1]. The song was also voted #2 in the 2006 NME Track of the Year poll.[2] Planet Sound named this their #2 single of 2006. The song was named the number one song of 2007 according to the iTunes Music Store. Y-Rock On XPN also named the song #1 of 2007.
On Peter Bjorn and John's recent Australian tour, Victoria Bergsman's vocals were performed by Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura. The group performed the song on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 29 January 2007, and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 18 May 2007 (the latter with Tonight Show band member Vicki Randle on bongos). On 29 September 2007, the band played "Young Folks", with Victoria Bergsman's vocals, on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on BBC1.
The single was re-released on 17 September 2007, when it reached number 13 in the UK, beating the original chart position of number 33 in 2006.
The accompanying video was directed by Ted Malmros with animation by Graham Samuels.
The song is featured on the 2007 compilation album, Acoustic 07, the FIFA 08 soundtrack, and was also used in the E3 trailer of Lips, the video game. Gossip Girl also uses this track for its theme.
New Young Pony Club
New Young Pony Club are a five piece indie/electronica band from London, England. Taking influences from New Wave bands such as Talking Heads and Blondie, and combining them with dance rhythms and synths, they are perhaps more deserving of the "Nu Rave" tag than many other bands in the sub-genre. However, like other bands associated with the label, they are quick to dismiss it.[1]
The band are keen to take their cues from a whole range of sources, and try not to risk becoming too close to the sound of any one other band. [2] Their own take on their music is “We marry the dance ethic with the pop ethic, and make something that you can dance to and sing along to.”[3]
Success
The band has enjoyed cult success in their early years. Their highest chart placing for a first release was #47 for second official single “The Bomb”, though a re-release of Ice Cream reached number 40. They put their lack of chart success down to not having the “desire to make really radio friendly singles”, but also claim that they “don’t want to be the biggest band in the world”.[2] Indeed, many of their records are hard to find, and tracks appear on iTunes only fleetingly.[9] Though the rock cliché is to be “big in Japan”, New Young Pony Club are very successful in Australia, the home of their label, where they are often played on Triple J, the “Australian equivalent of Radio 1”.[9]
The band’s debut album, Fantastic Playroom, was released on Modular Recordings on July 9th[10] in the UK and August 28th, 2007 in the US. The band apparently had an album’s worth of songs when they signed to Modular, but decided it would be more ambitious to write a whole new album for the label, which has resulted in it being delayed for over a year.[9]
Since its release, Fantastic Playroom has received excellent reviews from the music press in Britain. Mixmag, for instance, described the album as "magic" and awarded it the coveted title of Album of the Month in its July issue. On 17 July Fantastic Playroom was shortlisted for the 2007 Mercury Prize.
Ice Cream


The Bomb

No comments: