Speaking of chill… Animal Collective just surprised everybody with a brand new music video on their website.  It’s a pretty sweet montage of surfin’, skatin’, and hangin’ out.  Perfect for Chillwave Friday.  Enjoy!

Because Friday is, without a doubt, the most chill day of the week, How Not to Live will be bringing you the very best new artists and tracks from the frosty new sub-subgenre of electronic indie music.

This week was all about MILLIONYOUNG.  With a name better suited for a 14 year old suburban rapper, this dude creates excellent tunes that have a little island flavor in them.

Here’s the description from Last.fm:

“MILLIONYOUNG‘s hypnagogic, late night, loping pop loops bloom in the shadows of delirious dream territories; Mike Diaz’s aching, arching, always overhead vocals floating lonely above an effervescent, imagined coastal paradise of found tribal drum snippets, syrupy synth rushing and brilliantly colourful, drawn-out circular guitars that just absolutely refuse to fade or break, shading braincells in never-lived nostalgia; making stomachs shift with strange sickness in a beautiful, unshakeable way.”

If you want to feel like you’re hanging out on a beach at midnight some time during 1983, then check out ‘Hammock’ from last year’s “Sunndreamm” EP.  For the perfect soundtrack to your basement Nintendo sessions in… well, 1983, then check out ‘Soft Denial’ from this year’s “Be So True” EP.  Both songs posted below.  Enjoy!

MILLIONYOUNG – Hammock

MILLIONYOUNG – Soft Denial

Passion Pit recently covered the Smashing Pumpkins classic, “Tonight, Tonight” for Levi’s Pioneer Sessions.  Here’s what the Levi’s site said about the performance:

“Lauded electro-pop band Passion Pit have re-crafted the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” in a manner that is at once reverent and full of daring. Michael Angelakos’ affinity for the song is clear in the way his high voice hems to the original melody. But where the Pumpkins went for ambitious grandiosity, Angelakos submerges the song into an electronic world of synth.”

Anywho… I love it.  Hope you do, too. Enjoy!

Passion Pit – Tonight, Tonight

If you followed How Not To Live 3.0 (or 2.0) then you know that I’m a HUGE fan of Pogo.  The songs/videos composed of sounds from popular movies like UP and Alice In Wonderland (not the shitty Johnny Depp one, either) have often left my jaw on the floor.In Pogo’s latest Pixar project, Toyz Noize, he takes “vocals and chords recorded from ‘Toy Story’, some extra cymbals and a sine wave bass” to create something a little different from his past projects.  I think this one may take some time to grow on me.  Enjoy!

Pogo’s Website

DJ BAHLER has somehow tapped into my late teenage years and mashed up 2 of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures from the aughts.  I’m going to go ahead and dedicate this one to my buddy Bryan over at Rice and Veggies because we recently had a discussion about the lack of rap-less mashups. Enjoy!

A Thousand Miles to Ohio (Hawthorne Heights VS Vanessa Carlton) by DJ BAHLER

Surely a throwback Mike Hindes’ classic Requiem for a Toy Story video mashup, somebody has decided to take some classic lines from the classic TV show ‘The Wire’ and sync them up with scenes from the Toy Story trilogy.  While the video and audio don’t sync perfectly every time, it’s still amusing.  I especially like the Senator Davis Dog growl. Enjoy!

The internets have been especially helpful during these trying time for our eardrums, providing a way for Samsung TVs to ‘filter out’ the buzzing:

We’ve also been given helpful instructions on how to use this hellish tool:

And now, you can turn any website into a World Cup 2010 game!

Okay, I get it.  I’m just speechless over the whole thing.  Sampling everything from Dashboard Confessional to Marvin Gaye (in a 10 second time period), DJ JewBoy travels a well-worn path of mega-mashup artists (E-603, Super Mash Bros., and  Girl Talk) but what he brings to the table is new pop and indie music being sampled alongside the classics.

It’s like a collaboration between Girl Talk and The Hood Internet: packed with irony and so many nods to the indie Gods that you’ll find yourself grinning at the sheer silliness of it all.  These acts have come a long way and it’s nice to see somebody like DJ JewBoy try to stand out a little bit.

By the way, the song titles are all hipper than grandma’s Facebook profile. “Tigers Love Pepper…” and “Mein Kampfy Shoes” are my personal favorites.  The best part is that the album is free and you can download it here (click on the ‘Music’ tab).  Here’s a sample for ya. Enjoy!

DJ JewBoy – Pancakes? More Like Blandcakes!

Kisses is the new musical act from Jesse Kivel, frontman of LA-based indie-folk foursome Princeton.  I saw Princeton open for Ra Ra Riot a little less than a year ago and was impressed with their sound.  With Kisses, though, Kivel takes off in a whole new direction.  A direction many, including myself, have been referring to as “chillwave”

Imagine Neon Indian remixing a Jens Lekman song and you’re getting close.  Imagine the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack on acid, with vocals from Dave Gahan, and you’re even closer.

The album “Heart of the Nightlife” (or at least the version that has been floating around) is full of songs for that drive home.  The drive home from an all-night party with your friends, while half of you remember the night in hushed whispers and the other half nod out to the bumps in the road.  The drive home from visiting your girlfriend’s parents house, when it’s totally uncomfortable to let her rest her head on your shoulder while you drive but you let her do it anyway because, holy shit!, this music is perfect.

I’m going to get a little ballsy here and give you 3 songs by Kisses.  If I end up in jail for this, it will be worth it.  I only wish that I could pre-order this album right now (it’s not supposed to be released for another 6 months or so).

Please enjoy, and spread the word about Kisses.  It would be a terrible shame to allow Jesse Kivel’s new project become as underrated as his last.  Keep in mind that these track names (excluding ‘Bermuda’) could be incorrect.

Kisses – Kisses

Kisses – Bermuda

Kisses – Lovers

Fuzzy synth loops are all the rage these days.  Add some wacky tropical beats and a sun-kissed band name and you’ve got instant 2010 indie cred.  What Tanlines may lack in musical originality, they make up for in clever tweets.  Today’s read:

IDEA: A band or DJ named “Remix Contest”

Get it?  Check out “Three Trees” below.

Tanlines – Three Trees