A bit lopsided on the psychedelic tip, this first round of weekly song selections features tracks from some unreleased idolaters, a veteran electronica duo's final opus, neo-hippies, and an imaginary expat. Shout out to the last days of the cafe. And Moms.
Just click on the links to listen and/or download the songs.
Sun:
The talents of wunderki
()d Zach Condon are easy to take for granted. The man isn't so a much a songwriter as he is a composer. On this track, from his double EP
March of the Zapotec/Real People: Holland released earlier this year, his signature Balkan horns and Ukulele are given the day off and replaced with drum machines and a few new-age synth lines. Condon's highball-laden croon is still the smooth, glassy centerpiece, however, and it holds this welcome genre-foray together. Is there anything this guy can't pull off?
Mon:
KanYe-approved and recently signed to
Kanine records, these two childhood friends from St. Petersberg Florida are unreserved about their obvious Animal Collective worship (they've got three AC covers for download on their
blog). Some have cried derivative, but it shouldn't matter when Blind Man's Colour make such awesome, compelling music of their own. Look for this track on their upcoming full-length release,
Season Dreaming, out sometime this summer.
Tue:
The four hour-plus, moshing, campfire sing-along jam party these dudes put on is one of the most fun live shows I've ever seen. They opened with the guitar riff from the
Top Gun theme and never looked back. Their fifth album and first for Secretly Canadian imprint
Dead Oceans came out this past Tuesday. Get down with this first track's slippery funk groove and bouncy Afro-beat.
Another recent release and one of my most-anticipated in a long while. Jason Quiver follows up the sleepy, vintage folk-pop of the expansive and overlooked
Can't Go Back Now (2007) with a darker, but no less elaborate batch of new songs. "Once We Walked In The Sunlight" is the record's hallucinogenic opener.
Thu:
Liz Harris, who performs under the moniker 'Grouper,' makes fuzzy, ambient-folk music that seems meant for playing only after dark. She was also recently named one of Willamette Week's
Best New Bands of 2009. This is the second track from her gruesomely-named 2008 album
Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill.
Fri:
Telefon Tel Aviv - "The Birds"
courtesy of iamthecrime
The January release of Telefon Tel Aviv's third proper album was overshadowed by the
sad news of the death of Charlie Cooper, one half of this Chicago/New Orleans duo, only a few days prior. As far as anyone can tell, suicide has not been ruled out as a possibility, and it brings to mind the frequently-observed coincidence of a tormented spirit and creative output. I'm pretty unfamiliar with TTA's back catalog, but "The Birds"--and the way it conjures up coasting through the empty 3 am streets of some industrial district--is full of a strange, entrancing serenity.
Sat:
Ponytail - Celebrate The Body Eclectic (It Came From An Angel)
courtesy of instrumental analysis
The word catharsis gets thrown around a lot, but few descriptions fit this Baltimore foursome's musical brand of primal therapy better. Unintelligible yelps and shrieks resume the place of lyrics, urging the hyper-drive drums and charging guitars into blazing eruptions of exuberance, with only a few quiet pauses for recovery. The band's apparent ecstasy feels throughly genuine, and it's hard not to be raising your arms to the sky with them by the time "Celebrate" reaches it's seven minute conclusion. They just played the
Vera Project here in Seattle on Saturday night.
dfj
