BANG-A-RANG, RUFIO

4.29.2009

TURN YOUR LIGHTS UP HIGH

This song absolutely kills it. "Grim Reaper Blues" by L.A. trio The Entrance Band.

Another gold star for NPR's all songs considered podcast.

4.28.2009

EVERY EVERY DAY I SEE MY DREAM

Props to Big Reider for the heads up.

4.27.2009

For me, there's pretty much nothing better than a lazy, sunny, Sunday afternoon spent unhurriedly thumbing around a record shop. The prospect of copping that one album I've been coveting non-stop the past few weeks, or, even better, the excitement of stumbling onto a new favorite through some chance of impulse is a satisfaction I find nowhere else. So yesterday at Sonic Boom was a great day.

More great stuff of late . . .

BLK JKS - Mystery EP

Seems this South African band's hype train has been steady rolling since a while back, but I was firmly in the dark until I threw on a pair of headphones yesterday at a listening station and was left slack jaw by "Lakeside." Here's an interesting bit about the group from the NY Times (via the BLK JKS' blog):

"Now and then it’s easy to guess that Blk Jks, from Johannesburg, are an African band on their four-song “Mystery EP”. That’s when they go bounding into three-chord South African township grooves in “Lakeside” or overlay the reggae foundation of “Summertime” with syncopated guitars. But Blk Jks make their music in a global swirl of possibilities; they are an art-rock band...While the lyrics (mostly in English) ponder philosophical quandaries — “All the wise men ’round the world don’t know the answers” — the band’s quick-fingered, multilayered vamps well up out of murky echoes, piling jubilation atop the anxiety, before submerging again."

The band is signed stateside to constant hitmakers Secretly Canadian. Here's hoping a full length is on the near horizon.

V/A - Dark Was The Night Compilation

A great idea for a great cause, this all-stars-of-independent-rock-get-together-for-charity album actually delivers the goods in full. The list of contributing artists is certainly stacked, but the best part is how the songs aren't disappointing recording-session throwaways or b-side filler. Just about every track is a worthy original, and the few that are not are either new arrangements of previous material or covers of traditional songs. A few highlights are posted below, but if there was ever a time to pay for the music . . .

The project was produced by Aaron and Bryce Dressner of The National in collaboration with Red Hot, an advocacy group for AIDS awareness. You can read more about their benevolent campaign and gawk the playlist over at darkwasthenight.com.

4.14.2009

HOMECOMING

Back in action! The adventures were many and unforgettable, but I'm glad to return home and dive into the music again. I made a point to leave the iPod and other modern gadgets at home for the duration of my trip, so I've had a late start on all that 2009 has offered so far.

The new Animal Collective record continues to blow my mind even after the 1,000th time I've played it. Though here are some of my other favorite leads . . .

Cotton Jones - Paranoid Cocoon

Retro-cowboy country folk at it's best. Lots of lonesome pastoral crooning, male/female duets, and twang for days. I'm a sucker for those galloping, Lambchop-inspired instrumental tracks as well. Give the excellent "By Morning Light" a shot.

Miike Snow - "Animal"

The lead single from this elusive pair of Scandanavian electro-producers has me pretty jacked for an upcoming full-length (release date???). "Animal" is the jam, and exactly what great dance-pop should be. It's fun, has a beat that's easy to keep, and stupid, stupid catchy. But that doesn't mean an exclusion of complexity and invention. The opening sequence of snowballing synth, guitar, and horn stabs instantly plant the track's looping riff in your head, and the unexpected piano breakdown during the bridge is a welcome touch of genius. Peep some serious game below.

12.30.2008

TOP 11 RECORDS OF '08/A HIATUS

Well, here we go. Some friends and I are days away from leaving for Southeast Asia on a one-way ticket, so it's likely this marks my final post for a long while. I've put off the music-lover's obligatory task of whittling down all the great 2008 releases into a 'best of' list for long enough, so what better way to go out than by writing about my favorite records from the past year?

While many similar lists might prioritize commercial success, artistic merit, or avantgarde-ism, the sole criterion for making my best of 2008 cut is how many times I've returned for another spin. Put simply: these are the records I spent the most time listening to, day after day, week after week, month after month. The records I still love and probably won't really ever get sick of.

A few housekeeping matters: First, in order to keep up uniform appearances, I've limited the length of my list at ten (plus one more because after trying for some time I couldn't excise any of these awesome records). Second, although they are given a hierarchical order, the particular "ranking" assigned to each release is not in stone, but more like plus or minus two; I don't know about you, but the way I feel about a record is often in flux.

Cue the drumroll . . .

1. The Ruby Suns - Sea Lion

The only thing that matched my fondness for these Kiwi polyglot popsters was the level of shock I felt in their absence from countless other year-end lists, so I'm especially proud to fly their flag atop my number one spot. The band's genre-itinerant Sub Pop debut amalgamates an enormous catalog of worldly influences into summery, psychedelic pop songs that arrive brimming with inspired melodies, exuberant percussion, and a restless sense of adventure. The ease with which the album sonically zig zags its globetrotting course is just as impressive, and its speaks to the depth of band leader and multi-instrumentalist Ryan McPhun's pop genius.

There's something universally appealing about Sea Lion: its incredibly fun -- and so long as the Ruby Suns keep that spirit as their amorphous music's common denominator, I've no doubt we can expect more great things to come from these guys. Trying to pick a single song as representative of the entire album is impossible with this peripatetic record, but here's one of my highlights.

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2. The Walkmen - You & Me

Dark and intense, wistful and moving, this incredible album sees the Walkmen as a band fully realized. Their signature combination of cavernous organ, twanging guitar waves, rumbling basement percussion and Hamilton Leithauser's idiosyncratic wailing sounds more developed than ever, as does the vision and command of their songcraft. Like last year's standout The Boxer, the allure of You & Me grows more compelling with each listen. A brilliant, stunning record.

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3. Hilotrons - Happymatic

Talking Heads meets surf-rock. Earlier in the year, I wrote a lengthy post on what a superlative album Happymatic is, so repeating myself here seems kinda unnecessary. But I will put up a different song.

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4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

I'll agree with those who want to sound the technicality alarm and point out that FE,FA was actually released in 2007. This is the truth. Though, in terms of publicity and record sales and impact, it's hard not to agree that 2008 was the more predestined year for Justin Vernon, which is why I'm going to include him here. His music is so lovely, so rare in its sincere conduit of raw emotion, it's no wonder so many people of different ages and tastes have gravitated towards its glow. Count me in.

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5. Pretty & Nice - Get Young

I'm going to attempt and shave some writing time off by paraphrasing another previous post: this awesome Boston dude-trio takes one part urgent falsetto pop and one part brash post-punk and combines the two with touches of electronic production to create an infectious, breakneck-speed sound that their one sheet aptly describes as 'sharp-toothed, heavily-armed, and snappish'. Their terse debut album for all-star local shingle Hardly Art is packed full of hairpin-turn melodies and tightly-coiled instrumentation. Another great record that's surprisingly still flying under most people's radars.

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6. Deerhunter - Microcastle

At the risk of indie-rock blaspheme, I confess that Cryptograms just never did it for me. I cranked it up on my loudspeakers, tried soaking it in through some headphones while laying on the floor, and listened to it with a more persuaded friend to see if they could unlock its hidden magic -- but nothing seemed to work. The record just came across as indulgent and pretentious noise every time. Thus, imagine my surprise to find Deerhunter's latest record, Microcastle, so full of sing-a-long pop hooks and (relatively) conventional song structures, albeit buried within a thick gauze of distorting lo-fi. The band's mellow-loner tone is still as present as ever, but this album is pop music -- not esoteric hipster-rock. Dreamy and fully engulfing, I can't put this record down.

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7. Jim Noir - Jim Noir

On his second full-length album, the British one-man-plays-all wunderkind merges 60's surfer harmonies and classic rock psychedelia with modern electronic flourishes, making for an incredibly buoyant, charming pop record.