local natives, LA electronic music, etc.

Local Natives debut album "Gorilla Manor" has been on the headphones quite a bit lately. I've read that people are calling them the "west coast Grizzly Bear", but I hear the Fleet Foxes a lot more clearly, some early Police, maybe a bit of their fellow Californians Pinback as well.

The new Tobacco, "Maniac Meat" is about as dope as you'd expect. I did ultimately score the new Band of Horses for free (take that We%b Sheriff!). It's cool, but like their other albums a little inconsistent, and the places that aren't that great are worse than their misses on previous albums. Can't decide if I was influenced by the review I read on Pitchfork before I ultimately got my hands on it.

Check out this story on the LA electronic music/DJ/hip hop scene. I love the way the music is defying categories and blowing minds, and I also dig how Flying Lotus is talked about as the Jimi Hendrix of electronic music.

Listened to Richard Strauss' "Four Last Songs: Death and Transfiguration" this morning, heavy but beautiful.

Metal Adams

Aren't one of you guys hot for this dude or is that just something DC teases you about? Anyway, even though I love Metal I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate this. Of course I'll still have to download to check it out.

R.B.S.

Another new Scoobies joint. Hopefully will put you in a contemplative mood. Also includes rare look into what goes on in the SB Studios.

Enjoy! Happy weekend everybody.

dc

Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker

A little Dungen. A little Beatles. Fuck yeah.

DC - I'm still game to sew up some new clothes for the site. I just haven't gotten there. I suck. I know.

I'm so fucking lame

Well I've finally purchased a CD this year. Apologies to all the starving, worthy Indie bands out there who can't even afford a beard trimmer. Regrets to all the struggling record stores in the world. Yours truly got the new "Exile On Main Street" re-master at Target. I was actually hoping to save another couple bucks by getting it at Costco, but they seem to be phasing out music. What's their problem? Anyway, just doing my part so Mick can afford his hair dye and Keith has enough man-bangles to last him another century or two.

It sounds beautiful, awesome. The re-mastering is a revelation, almost to the point of distraction. Though I'm sure there are folk who simply don't dig it, few would deny the quality of their work during this period. And I don't know about all of you, but I had a really shitty record player when I was a kid, so re-masters from this era are always a treat (that's also the reason I just can't cotton to the vinyl over CD thing).

NIce read in the NYT if you're a fan, little disappointed to discover that some of the bonus tracks are reconstituted with new vocals, but they're actually pretty good and it's interesting to discover they've been doing that for years. Here's a quote from Don Was about the alt. take of "Loving Cup" and I think their groove in general:

“There’s a sound that’s identified with ‘Exile’ that’s become part of the vocabulary for every rock ‘n’ roll musician subsequently,” he said. “And this is the ultimate track of the style that characterizes ‘Exile.’ It’s not sloppiness; it’s width, in terms of where everyone feels the beat. You’ve got five individuals feeling the beat in a different place. At some point, the centrifugal force of the rhythm no longer holds the band together. That ‘Loving Cup’ is about the widest area you can have without the song falling apart.”

Compare that to the Ramones, for example, who(bless their heart but) I'm pretty sure all felt the beat in the exact same place.

Alright, thanks for reading, back to the esoteric shit.

Real Estate, Revisited

Back in November, Bill Zink had a pretty scathing post about how wack the somewhat acclaimed (by Pitchfork) Real Estate album was. He had said there is "more depth and texture to white noise".

At the time i gave it a quick listen and wrote it off as indie bullshit, but since then i have listened to it a lot and it has actually become a fave. The songwriting has hooks and nuance, its not like technically they don't have chops, and it is just a good mellow record to throw on and enjoy without thinking too much. Whatever, maybe give it another chance.

Anywho, the Monastics had a gig in Williamsburg on Friday and i had some time to kill so i cruised by Academy Records and got some cool stuff, one of which is this Real Estate EP on Mexican Summer. It doesn't come with a download... but it does come with a cassette copy! That's pretty esoteric, granted, but i was able to listen to it in my car on the way home.



Also noteworthy, I got this Alice Coltrane record at a Garage Sale for $1.00:



Lastly, anyone want to volunteer to pimp the site with new layout/color scheme?

dc

Alison Goldfrapp is just the best.

Band of Horses--Infinite Arms

Anyone have the new Band of Horses album, "Infinite Arms"? I've gone 6 or 7 pages deep on captaincrawl and I can't find it; no luck also on soulseek as well. The damn record companies and web sheriff have done a pretty good job putting on the kabosh on the blog scene, any new album by a bigger band is now tough to get. I've paid to see BofH twice and I just spent $80 on tickets to see them and Grizzly Bear by the waterfront here in Williamsburg, I shouldn't have to pay for their album too, damnit.

This was kind of interesting

Flying Lotus - Interview Apollo Magazine from alex deforce on Vimeo.

New on the interwebs: Kurt Vile's Square Shells EP

I haven't listened to it yet, but since there has been discernable interest in Kurt Vile expressed on this here blog, I thought it fitting to mention that there seems to be a new EP floating around the tubes for intrepid souls to stumble onto.

BSS "Forgiveness Rock Record"

Just got it off emusic. It's more of the same from them--and that's, if you ask me, a good thing. This band has a great sense of melody and arrangements. Not to sound patronizing, but they're "mature" if you know what I mean. The chorus in the single "Forced to Love" has a change that is just fucking gorgeous. They have the ability to mix in electronic instruments (synths, drums) in a way that doesn't sound wankily trendy. Generally, they're ambitious within a pop context; and that's something I appreciate.

Some bands incite those of us who are musicians to get crackin' on the music making. BSS is one of those for me. They kind of toss down a friendly challenge. Sufjan Stevens, Sparklehorse, Lambchop, Dosh are other examples of those kinds of artists. On the other hand, some bands I just like/love. Radiohead, for example, don't inspire me that way (perhaps because I recognize I don't have a hope in hell in going down their path, either due to my lack of skill or my lack of sheer artistic talent!).

Anyways, lame post, but I want to start contributing a bit more to this blog.

Kevin Shea

From time to time Rootless refers to drummer Kevin Shea. Here he is:



dc

New Scoobie Brothers Video

OH DAMN! Just in time for the weekend.

dc

God Is Saying This to You…

This is note worthy. Apparently when Kurt Vile's first LP Constant Hitmaker (which you may recall was my #1 jam of 2009) came out, there was a "sister album" called God Is Saying This to You… that was released on BK record label Mexican Summer. All I know about Mexican Summer is that the most recent release from my fave band of all times, Valet, was put out by them, but looks like they also just put out a 12" by blog favorite Black Moth Super Rainbow.

Anywhosers... "God Is Saying This to You" proceeded to sell out ASAP and disappeared into eBay record collector obscurity. Thankfully, Mexican Summer just repressed it in a limited edition 2,000 LP copies with digital download included, boo yah.

Here's the blurb on the album from when it first came out, but all you really need to know is it sounds exactly like Constant Hitmaker.

"More than a mere odds-n-ends collection, Kurt Vile’s latest LP is a compilation of tracks from Overnite KV, a tour-only CDR, along with a handful of extra tracks recorded specifically for this release. Here we find Kurt solo, four-trackin’ as usual, and blowing minds with his mix of bluegrass guitar, blazed singer-songwriterisms, and the knowledge of how to balance these contexts out with laidback precision. Psychedelic to its core, these twelve tracks speak to the will of the casual perfectionist, honing his craft with effortless aplomb. You’ll be hearing plenty more from this Philadelphian wizard in the months to follow, and we’re happy to keep the ball rolling with God Is Saying This to You… "

dc

Team Ghost/Solvent

Check out Team Ghost's debut EP. It's the half of M83 that made the S/T M83 and Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts such sad and epic affairs. You Never Did Anything Wrong to Me (aforementioned debut EP) is seven tracks of that, plus fuzzed out '90s guitar a la... wait for the hackneyed rock critic comparison... My Bloody Valentine.


Also on the electronic tip, I saw yesterday that Solvent is playing at Home Sweet Home on 6/9/10 in support of a new album I didn't know he had out. "My Radio", from 2004's Apples and Synthesizers has always threatened to bring the waterworks, as the song's narrator laments the loss of a friend in commercial radio from behind a heavy vocoder effect.
"It doesn't seem so long ago/when I loved you, my radio/you promised me so much/but now you've changed/you always played my favorite songs/those red-hot disco marathons/inspired me to buy my first machines/You've changed and I don't know why/so strange you never said good-bye."
There's also a good Schneider TM reworking of this tune out there, wherein he switches the lyrics to "late night punk rock marathons/inspired me to buy my first guitar."

Steve Reid

Damn, missed this.

Steve Reid died a few weeks ago. Wax Poetics's site did a nice thing about him, check it out.

Steve Reid was a free jazz/spiritual jazz drummer who most recently was collaborateing with Kieran Hebden (Fourtet). If you haven't checked out those Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid "The Exchange Sessions" discs, I recommend them. They are probably Captain Cralwable, or else hit me up and i can put them on a CDR trade in the mail because I'm old school like that.

dc

future islands; death by audio

Future Islands, a baltimore band off Thrilljockey records, played Death by Audio last night. I was there to see them but walked in on one of the openers, Double Daggers. I checked out both bands yesterday on myspace trying to figure out what show to see and Future Islands sounded good, Double Daggers didn't.

But I'll check out any band on Thrilljockey records, the label out of Chicago that ya'll know with Tortoise, Brokeback, Isotope 217, and both bands are on that label.

Got a few beers from the spartan bar in the back and all of sudden Double Daggers started playing and it got crazy. I was not expecting stage-diving at this show and the whole place blew up into a mosh pit. Some guy had a giant Chinese peasant hat on and was constantly jumping off the stage on to the surging crowd, upside down people everywhere. The lead singer is a bald provocateur; it's essentially straight punk they play but he finished one song with shouting "IF YOUR BAND SOUNDS LIKE ANY OTHER BAND THEN BREAK UP!"Someone shouted that they sounded like Fugazi and he got all pissed off and starting yelling "you see two guitars up here?!", but okay, they sounded like Fugazi without the two guitars, but with the bassist on a distortion pedal instead. It was intense and I mostly hated it, but I'm sorta glad I saw it?

Future Islands was cool. Trio, from Baltimore, all electronic drums, same guy plays keyboards, bassist, lead singer. The lead singer is a cross between Danzig and Morrisey and he looks like Jack Black. They remind me a little bit of Wild Beasts, dramatic singers, electronic-rock. I found their new album "In Evening Air" pretty easily through the increasingly policed blogosphere, worth checking out.

I'm also into the Morning Benders, but I think I played that shit out sitting on the beach in Jamaica a few weeks ago. The new MGMT is just okay, they sound like Air a lot, but the title track of their album is great. Growing is great, and so is the new Flying Lotus, "Cosmogramma". Oh, and I bought a Guild today, 1960 T-100, and I'm pretty happy about that.

"hide brightness, nourish obscurity"