An Intern Moment

F

Here's a donation request letter from FMC, a group I've been interning with in DC the past few months. Throw us a few bones if you're feeling philanthropic. It really would go to a great cause . . .

"There has never been a more important time to contribute to the future of music.

As the music community continues its rocky shift to a largely digital platform, there are unprecedented policy questions before us. At this point in history, seemingly disparate issues — from spectrum reform to media ownership to internet regulatory structures to copyright — are now inextricably linked. Yet it’s crucial that we not ignore the perspective of the artists themselves as we work towards creative solutions to shared challenges.

Future of Music Coalition exists to amplify musicians’ voices on the issues that affect their livelihood. From artists’ right to expression to access to media like radio and the internet, FMC seeks to inject the creator viewpoint into broader issues of public policy. You can help with this mission.

I'm inviting you to join me as a proud supporter of FMC.

http://futureofmusic.org/donate

FMC’s programs and campaigns:

1. assist artists in becoming empowered self-advocates

2. help musicians to understand their health insurance options

3. defend open internet principles that inspire a level playing field for all musicians

4. improve conditions in radio so more artists can reach the airwaves

5. provide platforms for musicians to engage directly in policy debates

The future of music is bright, provided we seize this historic opportunity to create structures that reward artists and allow for the kind of innovation that will inspire audiences. Through education, research and advocacy, FMC has become the voice on issues at the intersection of music, technology, policy and law. Their mission to improve the lives of musicians couldn’t be more critical, and you can help carry it forward."

http://futureofmusic.org/donate

RIYL: suburban rooftop blues, sunbaked daydreams, and the call of the beach

Real Estate - (s/t)

Putting the drift in driftwood on Woodsist records (2009)

There's something powerful and alluring about the thought of escaping to the beach. It's cliche for sure; yet its endlessly appealing all the same. Visions of careless backstrokes and sprawling atop warm beds of sand hold a promise of comfort that's a welcome relief from the drear of mundane daily life.

The New Jerseyans who make up the band Real Estate know this beach-longing well, as they've captured its sentiment in full on their striking debut record. On standout cuts like "Fake Blues" and "Beach Comber," melodic surf-guitar lines float alongside slack-jaw drums and lead singer Matthew Mondanile's wistful, toned-down singing. On its surface the music's sunny vibes evoke a youthful optimism for the possible. However, once the album's sedative pace fully sets in its clear there's just as much resignation here as hope. In other words, the good times are past and suburban ennui is here to stay---at least until summer returns next year. In the meantime, give this gorgeous record a spin.

RIYL: free and easy folk-rock, tea at sunrise, and a tamer Devendra Banhart

Vetiver - Tight Knit

Sub Pop records (2009)

After three steadily overlooked albums of sweet and gentle folk-jams, Andy Cabic took his San Francisco-based band on up the road to record their latest album under Sub Pop's illustrious black and white banner. The supportive backing of such a reputable label has certainly helped spread the reach of Vetiver's charming tunes, but the veteran quality of the band's music is still undeniable on its own. On Tight Knit, Cabic leads Banhart and the the rest of the Vetiver cast through acoustic songs that are mellow, rolling, and very well polished---never demanding or affronting in any way. Easy listening doesn't get any better than this.

RIYL: the ivories tickled, group singing, and the Basement Tapes of today

Bombadil - Tarpits and Canyonlands

on the Avett Brothers' Ramseur records (2009)

More Ketchup. Against the grain of fidelity-unconscious garage rockers that seemed the dominant musical trend of 2009, the North Carolina-bred Bombadil manage to still focus on substance over style, writing piano-led music that's difficult to classify but easily identified for its peculiar wit and magnetism. Some have even gone so far as to mention The Band in Bombadil's description. There's also something of the Mountaingoats and Ben Folds in their sound, although much less obnoxious if you ask me.

New Orleans' horns, bands big enough to fill a short bus, and old-world folkpop

Sgt. Dunbar & the Hobo Banned - Charles Mingus' Garbage Pile

blowin' worldly and woozy on B3nson records (2009)

Time to play catch-up.

Check out the new EP from this Albany, NY collective. Reminds me at times of Devotchka, Beirut, and even Neutral Milk Hotel. Sounds just like it's titled.

RIYL: childhood, and ambient psych-pop

Atlas Sound - Logos

growing up now on Kranky records (2009)

Excusing the awkward album cover, the newest record from Bradford Cox reaffirms two things: first, that the prolific and Midas-like songwriter has an apparently bottomless well of song material; and second, that his music---whether with Deerhunter or under the Atlas Sound moniker---is increasingly moving away from the inaccessible noise-experiments that first put him on the scene and more towards a hook-centric, dream-pop. As a huge fan of Cox's more recent output, this continuing gravitation towards pop bliss is more than welcome, and there's a lot going on with Logos that I'm excited about. Whether it's the genius collaboration with Noah Lennox of Panda Bear and Animal Collective on "Walkabout," the naive promise of "Sheila," the awesome arc and build of the epic "Quick Canal," or the haze of bleeps and loops on "Washington School," Cox has done it again with another rewarding batch of enigmatic and juvenescent pop songs.

RIYL: autumn's melancholy, meticulous guitar-pop, and Britishness

The Clientele - Bonfires On The Heath

out now on merge records (2009)

Another incredibly consistent autumnal brit-pop record from these underrated English tune smiths. Building on the successful past expansions of their jangly 60's sound into a now fully realized inclusion of string sections, steel guitar, and female backing vocals, The Clientele seamlessly move from seductive uptempo pop-jams to dreamy and lonesome suburban melodies---everything guided by the band's tight precision and sense of arrangement. Maybe their best record yet.

RIYL: equatorial dance parties, paradigm shifts, and afro-pop positivity

The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa

overcrowding dance floors everywhere on Green Owl records (2009)

The Very Best are a transcontinetal collaboration of Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and the English production duo known as Radioclit. The euphoric jams they make together are a celebratory and hybrid mix of African harmonies and dance-ready electro beats that explode conventional 'world music' cliches with their appeal to that something which precedes any exclusion by way of race, language, cultural membership, or niche understanding: the human impulse for gettin' down.

I had a chance to catch their live show last night at the DC 9, and it blew minds. As always, the music is its own best spokesman, so check out the record and see what I'm getting at. If Warm Heart of Africa leaves you wanting more, your next move should be to download the free mixtape The Very Best released as a promo record sometime last year.

RIYL: getting high on dubs, a seamless mix, and beats you've never heard of

DJ/Rupture - Uproot

riding de new riddims on the Agriculture records (2008)

Brooklyn DJ and crate-digger with some serious obscure beat-mining skills puts together 23 track mixtape of crossbreeding, mostly dubstep grooves. A bass-lover's heaven and a hypnotizing, narcotic listen---soon to be bobbin noggins at a coffee shops near you. This is Rupture's 4th official mixtape.

RIYL: blown-out melodies, a promising songwriter, and the jingle jangle morning

The Love Language - (s/t)

out now on Bladen County records (2009)

I've only room for another quick fly-by, so here goes. The Love Language was one of my first exciting new finds when I returned from the Orient earlier this spring. The self-titled debut album from this Raleigh, North Carolina group is a real corker, chock full of spirited sing-along jams that lurch and shuffle their scratchy melodies into your memory banks a la Guided By Voices. Led by the inspired charge of lead singer/songwriter/down-on-his-luckster Stu Mclamb, this record showcases a brash and versatile new talent with promise to spare. In the meantime, however, be sure to check out the classic pop-writing genius of "Lalita," "Sparxx," or "Stars."

RIYL: coastal music

Port O'Brien - Threadbare

bearing the elements on TBD records (2009)

Not a lot of spare time this week, but it's my intention to keep the music coming. To start, here's the newest album from the Alaska-by-way-of-California group, Port O'Brien. Threadbare is the band's third full-length, and it mostly picks up where the other two left off: with gritty and bucolic folk-rock songs, inspired by the husband-and-wife duo of singers Van Pierzalowski and Cambria Goodwin's, and the members' day-jobs as crabbers, bakers, and fish-cannery workers. Art definitely reflects life, here.

If you find this album to be your cup of tea, I'd strongly recommend picking up their previous records, The Wind and The Swell and All We Could Do Was Sing. Both will make the winter a lot more bearable.

RIYL: trios, time-signature hopping, and spastic blues-punk

White Denim - Fits

flexing their muscles on downtown records (2009)

Three dudes hailing from Austin, Texas who are making some of the most interesting pop music I've heard in months. There are so many fleeting ideas, spazzy time-shifts, locked-in grooves, noise-explosions, starts, and stops on this record its tough to classify. Not that labeling is important here, just that the music defies constancy. Other bands like Maps + Atlases, Pretty and Nice, or Menomena come to mind---if only for their similarly fun sense of experimentation and incendiary playing skills. Give "Start to Run," "Regina Holding Hands," or "Mirrored and Reverse" a shot.

There's some confusion regarding the contents of this album. Some places have it as a double album, like Lala does below, others only include half the songs. The minimal sleuthing I've done has uncovered that the first 12 songs comprise the official "Fits" album, while the remaining 11 are a collection of previously released EP songs and B-sides. Enlightenment is power, sucka.

RIYL: eerie blues-folk and quavering vocalists

Timber Timbre - (s/t)

advancing forestation by way of Arts & Crafts records (2009)

Taylor Kirk, the man behind Canada's Timber Timbre, describes himself as "haunted by the history of pop music." Whatever those demons may be, the dark blues and folk music that Kirk produces is all the proof needed to see what he means. The latest Timber Timbre release is a beautifully eerie one, with Kirk's shivering yet stark baritone at the front and center of the hushed and richly-textured songs. The whole record feels as if recorded alone in some cavernous and dimly-lit room. Try "Demon Host" and "Lay Down In The Tall Grass" as your starting points.

RIYL: garage-rock revivals

The Mantles - (s/t)

breaking their instruments on Siltbreeze records (2009)

The Mantles are a San Francisco bunch who've got a soft spot for the clang and matted-hair indifference of garage-rock and its glory days. The version they play is very melodic, however, once you get past the surface noise, and also kind of jammy. Whichever way you describe it, their self-titled debut record is excellent, and one I've been spinning all morning. Highlights have got to be "Look Away," "Don't Lie," "Samantha," and "Thin Reminder." Don't say I didn't warn ya.

RIYL: mystics, and Swedish Pop by way of Kashmir

Taken By Trees - East of Eden

going east via Rough Trade records (2009)

Taken By Trees is the solo project of Swedish chanteuse Victoria Bergsman, formerly of The Concretes and "Young Folks" fame. Her second album is full of beautiful, experimental pop songs that feature Bergsman's distinct voice amongst heavy doses of traditional Indian and Pakistani instruments. The record also includes her inverted take on Animal Collective's massive "My Girls." In addition to that cover song, check out "To Lose Someone" or "Anna."

RIYL: some more lo-fi and nostalgic electro-pop jams

Washed Out - Life of Leisure EP

on Mexican Summer records (2009)

Riding the recent surge of 'dream-wave' songs pumping out of speakers this summer and fall courtesy of Neon Indian and Memory Tapes, among others, Ernest Greene (a.k.a Washed Out) has produced this short and sleepy gem of lo-fi tunes. They make a fine companion to these rainy days and the message that their dreary skies carry: that summer is not coming back anytime soon.

"Feel It All Around" is probably my track of choice.

RIYL: soul-saving, joyful Americana, and travelling bands

Delta Spirit - Ode To Sunshine

preachin' the good on rounder records (2008)

I've been battling a gnarly fever/cold the past few days and have been neglecting the blog in exchange for plenty of fluids and free movies on TV. I'm not out of the woods quite yet, but it's safe to say I'll be back on my feet in a day or two and am already ready to start typing away again.

Today's post was inspired while cooking dinner the other night. The skies were dumping rain and the first scents of winter had me longing for something familiar and uplifting to soundtrack the turkey chili that was shaping up nicely on the stove. So I dug deep in my iPod's nether-space and pulled out Delta Spirit's "Ode to Sunshine," one of my favorite discoveries of last year and a band I'd expected to blow up huge by now.

The tunes this rambling San Diego group make are impossible not to like. They greet life with a bear-hug and want everybody to join in for the chorus. Elements of blues, soul, and gospel are played on a ragtag batch of instruments that includes trashcan lids, marching band drums, and harmonicas, the music set to lyrics about spirituality's blessings and people coming together. Rumor has it these boys can rock a mean live show as well. If you've got time for only a song or two, I recommend starting with "Trashcan," "People C'mon," "Strange Vine," or "Children." Look for their second album to be released sometime early next year.

Delta Spirit - Trashcan from La Blogotheque

RIYL: side projects, good fun, and jukebox-ready rock

Drummer - Feel Good Together

aiming for the bleacher seats on Audio Eagle recordings (2009)

After five solid albums of raw and innovative blues music as The Black Keys, the guitar-and-drums duo of Dan Auerback and Patrick Carney have temporarily gone separate ways to pursue their own side projects.

While Auerback put out his first solo record Keep It Hid earlier this year, Carney just released this album with his new band, Drummer, in which he doesn't play drums--surprise!--but is found slappin the bass instead. The result is a fun-loving album full of guitar-heavy, classic rock-ish jams that would sound equally at home soundtracking a Guitar hero duel or accompanying the open road. Feel Good Together is never as rootsy as anything the Keys have put out together, but fans of Carney's past work should still find plenty of thrills to enjoy here. Cue up "Mature Fantasy" or Every Nineteen Minutes" for starters.

RIYL: a grandaddy of indie-pop, double-digit guitar workouts, and tongues in cheeks

Yo La Tango - Popular Songs

making it look easy on Matador records (2009)

Today's post is the second in the last week about a high(er)-profile release from a longtime indie-veteran that you probably don't need me to tell you about. Even so, the effortless resilience with which Yo La Tango refuses to quit making their brilliant quirk-and-fuzz niche-pop is worth any additional attention.

All of the band's calling-cards are present on this release, their 14th: The loungy piano-riffs, stretching avant-noise freak outs, fragile-smartass introvertism, and those catchy hum-along hooks. Such a wide swath of styles might at first seem too disparate and doomed to fail, but keep in mind the pedigree---at this point in their over two-decade career the Hoboken, New Jersey trio is in total control. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

RIYL: folk, blues, electronic noise, and the beautiful extension of their illogical amalgam

Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

layin' it down on the unstoppable Dead Oceans records (2009)

The 9th album from these ex-Red Red Meat masters of envelope-pushing acoustic music. Picking up where the incredible Roots & Crowns left off, Califone further harness their idiosyncratic blend of roots music and experimental noise, fusing these seemingly disparate elements into something that feels seamless and natural; a beautiful end result of observing traditions past while embracing the tug of the future. "Krill" is a great place to start.

RIYL: an indie-rock stalwart's (final?) opus

Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy (2009)

contemplating the great unknown on Warner Bros. records (2009)

Doug Martsch and his longtime bandmates are back after three long years with another dense and compelling album of multi-tracked guitar wizardry and resonant subject matter. At no point does the record depart from the familiar space of jammy and pensive indie rock that Built to Spill has trademarked over the past two decades, although the band's continued maturity as a group and careful labor as artists is evident in the many details and flourishes embroidered within each track.

Rumor has it that in making this record the impulse of perfectionism was so intense and painstaking it drove Martsch to question whether this would be the band's final album together. If they can still make songs like "Good Ol' Boredom," "Done," and "Tommorrow," let's hope not.

RIYL: tamborine guitars, the Velvet Underground's posture, and mumbling

Crystal Stilts - Crystal Stilts EP

doin' their thing on Woodsist records (2008)

At first go round, the way this Brooklyn five-piece deliberately smothers their sound in lo-fi has the potential to come off as exhibitionist. Call it too affected or just plain unpleasant, the band's songs feel as if they were recorded in some long-abandoned New York subway tunnel: a few lonesome mics at one end and the band waxing drowsy at the other. Take another minute or two to let their muffle-rock tunes fully seep in, however, and you might find yourself enjoying the way this recording style actually softens any delineations between the dampened percussion, jangly guitars, and mumbling vocals--merging them into a single blurry cloud of enveloping noise and melody that's surprisingly catchy as well as perfect for lying around and doing nothing.

The band's full length album Alight of Night, which came out only a few months after this EP was released last summer, is also pretty excellent. Although six songs of brooding lo-fi rock is just the right dosage, if you ask me.

Don't miss highpoints include "Crippled Croon," "Converging In The Quiet," and "Shattered Shine." They are the tunes that have been firmly stuck in the shadows of my head for almost a year now.

RIYL: communes, 60's hippy-pop, and the Polyphonic Spree

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

channeling the summer of love via Vagrant records (2009)

This is too spot-on not to quote. As James Christopher Monger of allmusic.com writes:

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros have crafted a love letter to Laurel Canyon and all of its quasi-mystic juju that is as infuriatingly contrived and retro as it is forward-thinking and majestic. . . . but despite all of the analog equipment and peacenik grandstanding, standout tracks like "Home" "Desert Song," and the aforementioned "40 Day Dream" sweep you up in their grandeur like a patchouli tornado and dare you to take your clothes off and jump in the lake with them.

I'm also partial to "Come In Please" and "Om Nashi Me." Feel the love, brother.

RIYL: the nightlife, unapolgetic pop, and british accents

Jack Penate - Tonight's Today

making volume knobs turn clockwise on XL recordings (2009)

No time to waste today. Check out this British soul-crooner's recently released second album. Slip on some knee-high socks and glide down your nearest hardwood floors to "Tonight's Today."

RIYL: bucolics, experimental Americana, and Akron/Family's positivity

Megafaun - Gather, Form, and Fly

taking off on hometapes (2009)

The second album from this Durham, NC posse that used to play with Justin Vernon (a.k.a Bon Iver). Lots of prog-rockish country and noisy folk tunes. A big, bold record that I'm still digesting, but clearly deserves attention.

I once saw Megafaun as the backing band for Akron/Family at a show they opened with the Top Gun theme song. Unbeatable.

RIYL: Non-Linearity and warm, organic folk

Le Loup - Family

steeling worried minds via Hardly Art records (2009)

I've been all over the place--literally--driving across this spacious country of ours and trying to establish a life for myself over here in D.C. Such an undertaking has kept me insanely busy, and the blog has fallen to the wayside. I'll do my best to keep posting with some regularity, but the number of words per day is not promised.

Today's record is from a former DC band, Le Loup, who've up and left to find new inspiration (kinda like yours truly), settling in the basement of a small Maryland cabin to record this inspired album, their second. I wasn't a huge fan of Le Loup's first album, but this latest effort is blowing my mind. There's not a single song on hear that doesn't completely envelope you in its rounds of swirling harmonies, acoustic guitar and banjo, sonic experimentalism, and drum-circle percussion.