Freaky Styley!!

Shit. Found a cut out vinyl copy of this a few months ago for cheap. It is rad.

Rupa and The April Fishes at Saint Rocke

I went see them in Hermosa Beach, CA earlier this week. Their music has been described as,"global agit pop" whatever that is. The cello player had some really good moments, upright bass is fun to hear live. On one song the trumpet player alternated between trumpet, and a 5 gallon jug with some water in it, sounded like a giant cabasa! The styles were elements of Gypsy swing, Colombian cumbia, French chanson and Indian ragas. The vocals alternated between French, English and Spanish. The show had a French caberet vibe happening, I should of worn a beret and sipped coffee! I think their uptempo stuff was more interesting, and when they busted out Guns of Brixton the crowd went wild.

Fitz and The Tantrums: Pickin' Up The Pieces

They describe their sound as soul influenced indie pop. MoneyGrabber is pure soul pop with a righteous hook. Horns, keys, bass and drums, but no guitar. Winds of change is good track. I think the lead singer sounds like Daryl Hall lite, and I'd like to hear backup singer Noelle Scaggs take a lead vocal or two. I think this would be good party music!

DSE Scoob

Wow. What a huge week for music. First the new Radiohead comes out, now the Scoobie Brothers drop a new one on you.

I asked the Brothers for a quote on the new track, "DSE Scoob". Brother #1 (names removed due to legal issues - ed.) said that the new jam is "a commentary on the affects of modern day influences towards the loss of innocence of todays youth". Brother #2 simply said "That beat! That beat!!!"

DSE Scoob:



Why not waste a half hour of your life and watch all the SB videos to date again for old times sake? THE SCOOBIE BROTHERS.COM

d-nice

Torche: Meanderthal

This a 2008 release. Sludge/stoner rock with some pop hooks. If you like walls of guitar and heavy riffs you might dig this. Healer sounds reminds me of a more pop Helmet track. The closing track Meanderthal is out the slow/drone/sludge Melvins playbook. Amnesian and Sandstorm are the highlight tracks for me.

Not Animal Collective...

..but Native Speaker by Braids scratches the Animal Collective itch. Well, honestly it just rubs it a little bit.

Tim Hecker

I may be a bit late to this party, but I've really been getting into Tim Hecker lately.  The latest, Ravedeath 1972, is pretty damn dense and hypnotic.  People who seem to know what they're talking about say it's nearly as good as his masterwork, Harmony in Ultraviolet.  Also well worth a listen is a live show from Montreal earlier this month.

Hecker has talked about how this album is about "digital garbage", and there is a rough darkness in the raw materials that make up the music, so it seems strange that the final product has a depth that matches some of the best minimalist orchestral classical music: not that I'm putting him on that level, but Hecker's work at its best reminds me of Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 Op. 36 . . . which, if you haven't heard, you need to download and listen to right away.

The Faces - Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners

Went to a used book store today and got this for $5 on vinyl. Recorded live in 1973 at the Hollywood Palladium and Anaheim Convention Center. 3 Faces tracks and lots of covers. Angel by Hendrix, Jealous Guy by john Lennon, I wish it would rain by the Temptations. The production is not that great, and the playing is a little ragged, but from what I read that is how their live shows were. This video is from the same tour.

Uh, what?

The new Radiohead dropped yesterday.

Downloading it now.

Is this old news? Do all you guys have a leaked version already and i'm late to the party?

dc

The King of Limbs

Guess I get to be the first person WWLTN to proclaim the brilliance of the new Radiohead album, what an honor.

I just got it this morning and I've been listening to it basically over and over again all day. Not as groundbreaking as Kid A but maybe their best album yet? I know I need to give it a little time, and I'm also prone to hysterical hyperbole, but there's not a track that I haven't instantly liked.

You guys see the video for "Lotus Flower" with Thom Yorke dancing around? What a badass, great song.

BTW, interesting side-note, Thom Yorke's brother Andy used to work for the same firm I currently work for. Dude is a PhD in Russian history and/or politics and also a musician, though considerably less successful than his rockstar brother (which I thinks causes him no small amount of angst).

I haven't read up on what Radiohead's done this time around in terms of selling this. I participated in the mass experiment they sponsored the last time around and paid $5 for their album. But this time I couldn't find the power/instant-gratification/cheapness of King of Limbs + Mediafire _________________ = :)

Beans - End it All

I have been a fan of Beans since I saw his 2003 Warp release up there on the wall at the Wicker Park Reckless Records in Chicago. Always more concerned with electronic production and the uniqueness of his aesthetic than with the hackneyed good life tropes that cycle through their changes across the land of hip-hop as regular as the seasons, that record captured me before I heard it. The Ming the Merciless high-collared getup he was in, the purple shark fin mohawk, and the Photoshop lens flare coming off his glasses... the sci-fi nod to electronics in his image told me this was a cool cat.

Like the group he was in before, Anti-Pop Consortium, the output itself over the course of his career has been pretty hit-or-miss, but it's always so focused on electronics and originality first and foremost that when it does tip the scales into "rad" it does so in a big way.
This is all just to say that the new record, End it All, is really, really good, from 00:00:00:00 to end of tape. Every song has a different producer, but it still manages to feel cohesive. It also means that, once a producer is out of ideas the listener isn't subjected to his b-list stuff to fill out the album.
If I have managed to implement the code to play this player I found properly, you can listen to the whole record here. My favorite tracks here are "Deathsweater" and "Blue Movie", but there is work here from dudes all over sonic spectrum. Chris Clark, one of my favorite electronic artists, even does a track.

Gil Scott vs. Jamie Xx

I came up on this somehow... Jamie XX (of the band The Xx) did a remix of that new Gil Scott Heron joint from last year.

I put it on at work and then kind of forgot it was on, next thing you know I listened to the whole thing. It's pretty good. It was on this embedded player thing that I am pasting here, if it works you can check it out.



This lead me to check out The Xx... meh, it's pretty gay. I guess it could grow on me. Anyone like them?

I'm expanding my horizons. I've been messing with some "dance-y" kind of stuff that I typically don't touch with a ten foot pole: that new Caribou joint (on lots of 'best of' lists for 2010) is pretty fantastic and sounds exactly like Arthur Russell. I also checked out Actress, "Splazzsh" or whatever, mainly because The Wire gave it #1 of 2010 honors, and even though it is mad dancey I can get into it. I even gave that "Burial" joint another listen.

There you go, WWALT bros. Check me out, let's trade some DVD's of MP3's.

d-cheezy

http://alteredzones.com/

http://alteredzones.com/

Any of you guys mess with alteredzones.com? I think this is a side project/sister site of Pitchfork?!

Lots of hipster douche-baggery stuff there, but if you sift through it there are lots of gems.

dc

New Kurt

start clicking

King Khan & The Shrines

+

http://tinyurl.com/4mbqvbv

=

Intrigue?

If not, I'll have no other choice but to believe you enjoyed that Black Eyed Peas debacle yesterday.

What Am I Listening To?

Yoko fucking Ono, that's what!

Snow Day

Not even snow day... like ice slush day. It is shiiiiiity here, trains were down this morning, so working from home.

Have had a nice play list going so thought i'd share it with y'all: