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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 albumAlight 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.
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.
All music is posted with the expectation that if you enjoy yourself you'll go out and support these artists. Buy some records! See some shows! If anyone wishes something removed, I'm all ears.
This blog relies heavily upon LaLa, a digital music site that combines the better features of others into one superlative service. For free, you can listen to any song in its entirety-- one time--before deciding if you want to purchase it. Plus, you can upload your current iTunes library onto your LaLa account for free and have unlimited access to those songs whenever and wherever you can get online. All you gotta do is sign-up. No joke.
