The Labor Day Weekend Electric Zoo Music Festival

Let yourself go wild this Labor Day weekend at the Electric Zoo. Don’t let the name fool you, this won’t be your average petting zoo, Electric Zoo is an open-air music festival where your inner animal can be unleashed in electro-dance mania. For 2 days Randall’s Island Park will be home to a mass of music lovers swarming to 4 stages for NYC’s best electronic musical talent. Over 70 artists including Major Lazer, The Chemical Brothers, Moby, Boys Noize, and Dirty South will take part in this final salute to the steamy summer heat. A music festival that can be compared with the likes of Glastonbury and Exit Festival in Europe, Electric Zoo boasts an unparalled sound system, massive lighting rigs, and an unforgettable experience. Two-day general admission passes can be purchased for $157.

www.electriczoofestival.com

Sleigh Bells: Treats

Mom & Pop

@SleighBells

Myspace.com/SleighBellsMusic

On their dizzying debut Treats, Brooklyn-based Sleigh Bells prove that there’s more to this thrash-pop duo than a Santa-centric moniker and bold and brash live show. Throwing down thumping hip-hop beats and seething heavy metal guitars this terrible twosome—composed of songwriter and producer Derek Miller and singer Alexis Krauss—combine gritty, street-inspired noise with Krauss’ saccharine-laced vocals for a pleasantly juxtaposed sound. With a bratty nursery rhyme-like sing-song quality on tracks like “Riot Rhythm” with its taunting chorus, minimal beats, and literally screaming background vocals it’s the perfect theme song for the coolest school bully—ever. “Infinity Guitars” offers a classic rock riff layered over speaker-blowing beats, while the subdued summertime groove “Rill Rill” shows the sophisticated softer side of these riotous Brooklynites.

The Black Keys: Brothers

Nonesuch

@BlackKeysNews

Myspace/theblackkeys

It’s unclear whether the dynamic duo of guitarist Daniel Auerback and drummer Patrick Carney behind the blues-rock outfit fell temporarily out of love with their sonic craft, but their last two lackluster offerings barely made a critical or musical impact. On their eighth studio album Brothers this Akron, Ohio twosome have reignited the music mojo for one of their most arresting efforts to date. With a soulful swagger, Auerback and Carney have amped up their bare bones primordial blues with hip-swiveling funk beats, Hendrix-like twisted guitars, and a hip-hop-like rhythmic sensibility that transcends the limitations of their two-man sound. The gravelly falsetto-laden stomp of opener “Everlasting Light” is a sensual aural explosion full of texture and light, and the sinister beat and laid back West Coast appeal on “Too Afraid to Love” prove that The Black Keys got their groove back.

LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening

DFA/Virgin

@lcdsoundsystem

www.myspace.com/lcdsoundsystem

LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is a master of blue-eyed electro jams. Known for his idiosyncratic dance music and talk-heavy vocals, Murphy makes hip-shaking beats for people that typically find electro cringe-worthy and dance jams frightening—wallflowers beware! On LCD Soundsystem’s third studio offering This is Happening Murphy employs his signature tactics and lo-fi approach to banger culture with tribal-infused percussion, tinny keyboard tones, and talk-you-through-it Kermit the Frog vocals to pontificate on romantic liaisons, drunk females, and mean friends. Loopy opener “Drink Yourself Clean” starts slow but builds to a funky climax with soulful vocals and a swaggering bassline while the glitchy “One Touch,” with an infectious chorus and Ian Curtis-like detached vocal delivery, is guaranteed to be a hipster-approved mainstay.

Liars: Sisterworld

Mute
www.myspace.com/liarsliarsliars

Though not through a looking glass, Liars boldly enter into an alternate reality―a “sisterworld” in which to explore their unique identities―with their fifth album. The L.A. by way of New York by way of L.A. trio has both figuratively and literally never stood still, but through their 10-year-long career, they’ve always maintained a defined sense of purpose and focused self awareness. They Threw Us All In A Trench was a ballistic bender through Brooklyn when rent was still low; They Were Wrong was an exploration of the netherworlds that exist in close proximity to our metropolises; Drum’s Not Dead was a horizon-expanding sojourn bred by displacement (it was recorded in Berlin); and Liars was a reminiscence of things past, namely the scatterbrained beauty of adolescence.

Sisterworld is, in a way, a culmination of its four predecessors, but with a holistic vision of things past and present, private and public unlike ever before. The bulk of the LP is sluggish, steaming rock that pushes and pulls between introversion and explosive euphoria. Jams like “Goodnight Everything” and “Drop Dead” exemplify this dichotomy. This underlying vibe is intersected, though, by spastic punk ditties (”The Overachievers”), kraut meanderings (”Proud Evolution”), and shoegaze-y torrents of emotion (”I Still Can See An Outside World”). Liars will never become dissociated from their keen yet brash sense of rhythm and song structure and shall always be known as the flip-floppers of today’s rock scene. One minute they’re melancholy (”Scissor,” “Too Much, Too Much”); the next they’re doom and gloom (”Drop Dead”). Prepare for the emotional roller coaster of your life.

-Nik Mercer