Mastodon

Double post! Making up for all the time I haven't been posting!
I've been listening to a lot of music lately; so much music that I really didn't know what to post about.
However about 30 minutes ago, a friend of mine asked me if I heard of Mastodon. I said no. He put his iPod headphones in my ears, and let it rip. Mastodon, my friends, is METAL.
Fans of Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Iron Maiden will probably love this stuff.
The lyrics are epic, focusing mostly on ancient battles and mystical powers. Yeah!
There's also a pretty big prog influence in there a la King Crimson.
Not sure how many records they have out, but they're doing a series based on the elements: air, fire, water, earth, metal.
The record that I listened to was called Blood Mountain, representing the earth element.
Their new one, based on air, is called Crack the Skye, I believe.
Enjoy...

Tanlines

Ooh I have a Mariah Carey T-shirt, how ironic of me!

So I saw Tanlines, a duo from Brooklyn, at the Whitney Museum yesterday.
I heard their CD and even though I wasn't very impressed with it, I decided to see them live because it was a free show. They have a very specific sound - basically, if Peter Gabriel were asked to write a score for a high school prom scene in a John Hughes movie.
I don't mind when a band takes influences and somehow makes them their own, but Tanlines do their best to cop a style - '80s pseudo ethno dance pop - and plagiarize the fuck out of it. Some of the songs are catchy, but the sounds and grooves feel uber generic...and incredibly white.
I was hoping the performance would be a little more exciting as well. More and more often I am moved to yawn by bands whose whole sound relies on their laptop. In other words, you should be able to show up at a gig and rock a show, right? Well, if this guy's laptop malfunctioned for any reason, there would have been no show at all. Plus, it's just kinda boring to watch someone hit "play" on a sequencer. I left the show feeling like I didn't see or hear any creativity taking place, and for me, that's the reason why I go see live music as opposed to just throwing a record on the ol' turntable...

DC Mega Post

What's up bros. I've been meaning to post about this stuff for a while but never get around to it. OK, DC Mega Post coming atcha:



I came home to find this new Numero Group record waiting for me when I got home. That is the best part of getting a Numero Group subscription, surprise music packages. This is their second "Local Customs" release, "Lone Star Lowlands" focusing on a local recording studio out of Golden Triangle in Texas. If you are a fan of garage rock or B-List CSNY wannabes, southern fried rock, you will dig it. It also came with a ltd edition CD with additional shit so i'll rip that at a minimum and get at you.



Actually I don't think I ever blogged about their last one. Antena is a group from 80's of some teenagers from Brazil living in Sweden or some shit? Here's a link, read all about it, but in any event it sounds like 80's minimal bossa Young Marble Giants meets tropicalia. It's awesome, so i did the leg work for you: BOOM. That was kind of hard to find, not sure if those guys police it or what, Web Sheriff style.



When I first heard about Madlib's Medicine Show series, I kept my distance. "Super rare limited edition joints with silk screened covers and bonus records, every two months for a year? No thanks." I'm like a crackhead for shit like that, I would have gotten two of each.

But a few weeks ago I sold a stack of records at Academy in East Village for like $90 trade, so i got a bunch of shit but had $30 leftover, and there it was, so screw it. I got the new one.

It's amazing, of course. I feel like one reason that I passed on these was that I already have SO MUCH Madlib shit. It's all dope, don't get me wrong, but Jesus... how much Madlib product can a man handle? Well make room for one more because this is great, it's YNQ style stuff, with a million diff names but each has its own flavor. One whole side is a "Live" Yesterday's New Quintet recording with them playing hits off their first album, Angles Without Edges. It sounds a lot like the last track on Madlib Invades the Blue Note, if you feel that. Anyway, within minutes I was bidding on eBay on the last two that came out, which are currently going for like $60-$70 bucks each. I hate myself.



Also in that same trade-up mission I found this. Great comp of artists on Woodsist Records. I been on the Woodsist jock for a while now, but just to make it clear to the world, Woodsist Label is the fucking bomb: Kurt Vile, Sun Araw, Magic Lantern, Ganglilans, Woods, Wavves, Moon Duo, and my number one favorite band of all time, Real Estate! OH DAMN HE SAID IT! Real Estate is the bomb Bill Zink. Also, shout out to my cousin Lazlo Zeller for finding out about those guys like 6 months before the rest of the world.



I've really been into Mark Mcguire, he's the guitarist for Emeralds and has a million side projects, but the stuff that he puts out in his own name is just live solo guitar through a million pedals. It's great, you can find all that shit on Captain Crawl.



I got this deluxe 4 LP import thing which is a collection of the music of Daphne Oram, an early Electronic Composer/musician in the UK. http://daphneoram.org/. She's like the female Raymond Scott, so if you were into that you will like this.



I scored this awesome old Reggae record, in shrink wrap, in this old Italian guy's basement in West Orange for ten cents. DC!!! DCC!!!!!!

That's it for me. Goodnight Cleveland!



D-Chizzle

Two Year Anniversary

Oh damn, August 20th was the official 2 year anniversary of the WWALT Blog. Congrats. Go post something. I got a mega post coming as soon as i get some time...

dc

Pretty Amazing

Some guy took a Justin Bieber song and slowed it down by 800% (for those of you that are so super cool you don't even follow pop culture, Justin Bieber is like a 12 year old Disney pop phenomenon that tween girls lose their shit over).

The result is an amazing, Sigor Ros-esque ethereal jam that is pretty awesome. I listened to the whole thing:

http://soundcloud.com/shamantis/j-biebz-u-smile-800-slower

dc

Fu Manchu: The Action is Go

This is stoner rock at it's stoniest!. Hailing from Orange County, CA Fu Manchu has been crankin out fuzzed out jams for 20 years. They have a new album and are on tour now, but this is all about their 1997 release. This is one of the few records I have on vinyl. At 14 tracks it runs a bit long, 11 tracks would have been perfect. Check out the riff o'rama of laserbl'ast. Maximum bottom heavy riffs, cowbell, and phaser guitar effects. Let's rock! I think its on mediafire. Rock4liiiiiiiife!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

I've been anticipating this one for a while. Big Radiohead fan so I wanted to check it. Doesn't disappoint although I still have yet to read the comic or see the movie. This score bookends with the music from the film. A few songs aren't so great but there are a couple of really, really good ones. Has anyone seen the film?

We Are Hunted

Check out this little nugget.

While you're there, be sure to check out Autolux... perched at numero tres this morning.

Any Classical Heads Out There?

I've been listening to classical music more or less casually since I was a kid - my mom wanted me to be "cultured" so she made me listen to Handel's Water Music & Scheherezade & things like that. Not that she ever listened, mind you . . .

I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to discern between versions of my favorite pieces. So my question is this: are there any hard core classical heads out there who can give me tips on good versions of famous works? For instance, I wore out my old cassette of Verdi's Requiem, and the version I Captain Crawled isn't nearly as good. Ditto for the Brahm's German Requiem I just downloaded. I've got three versions of Faure's Requiem on vinyl, and they're all fairly different (yes, I've got a thing for Requia, stemming from a project I worked on about 20 years ago). Any help out there? Some of the things I'm looking for are Mozart's Don Giovanni, all Mahler, Shostokovich symphonies, Ravel's Daphnis & Chloe, and a few others.

Help a brother out if you can.