Apples in Stereo

You've gotten your movie fix with the week's DVD releases, ready to a amp up your music, too? Here are the three biggies shelves today, and good news — they're all great and uniquely individual.

Heartbreak warfare: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned — but it can make for an amazing album. Kate Nash sings about cheating and breakups on her latest album My Best Friend Is You. Not that the tracks don't have lighter moments, like on the clap-happy "Paris" or "Do-Wah-Doo" which masks jealousy in a retro, 60s girl group package. In the more upfront "Mansion Song," the singer drops the act with a beat-poetry style rant (with the obligatory f-word used repeatedly for effect). Someone obviously hurt Nash's feelings, but luckily, we reap the benefits.

The future's bright: Rev up the DeLorean. Apples in Stereo brings us into the future of electro-pop with Travellers in Space and Time, an energetic album full of tracks that are easily to bop and toe-tap along to. The nerdy and math-obsessed lead singer Robert Schneider sounds as uniquely high-pitched as ever, as the boys play around with noise (did I even hear cowbell?) like they got their hands on a Casio's keystrokes. The result is completely fun, so be sure to check out "Dance Floor" — that's the one with the video with Elijah Wood — and "Hey Elevator."

One more to give a listen when you read more

If you saw me at my desk this afternoon then you would no doubt notice all the chair dancing I'm doing to the new Apples in Stereo song, "Dance Floor." Besides being recorded with retro-futuristic instruments like vocoders, vintage keyboards, and Mellotrons, the video is all sorts of geeky. In it, actor Elijah Wood plays a middle school science teacher (corduroy jacket, sweater vest, and all!) who travels through time. We get a glimpse of wormholes, a really dorky Elijah playing with chemistry flasks and math equations, and a pretty techy microphone, too. Elijah, who signed Apples in Stereo to his music label Simian Records, also filmed a cute public access-esque science show that acts as a companion to the music video.

OK Elijah. Because it wasn't enough that you already saved Middle-Earth, you're also a time traveling "Science Show Host of the Year"? Be still my geeky heart. Check out the video after the break.

Elijah Wood is really immersing himself in the music scene. Not only does the actor own a record label, but he also continues to lend his talents to one of its acts, The Apples in Stereo. After directing a video for the group's track "Energy," now he's stepping in front of the camera for a catchy tune titled "Dance Floor," off their new album to be released later this month.

In the music video, Wood plays a science teacher who goofs with a time machine and lands in an Apples in Stereo performance. The beginning reminds me of Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep, but once Wood joins the band, it becomes a cute, tangerine-colored sing-a-long (nice shades, Robert Schneider). I'm digging it, but let me know your thoughts when you read more