Sunday, May 29, 2011

Gil Scott Heron RIP



This song may be a little cheezy but it has always been a favorite of mine, off of Winter in America (Strata East Records), and seems appropriate.

R.I.P. I wanted to do a Gil Scott mega post but i'ma leave it at this.



dc

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Prefuse 73


Been really enjoying The Only She Chapters, pretty different than what I was expecting, way closer to Savath y Savalas than what GSH puts out under Prefuse 73.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Shoegaze Megapost

As it turns out, I recently realized that I like Shoegaze. In the interest of full disclosure, I can only say, how about that?

Here's some stuff I've been listening to the past couple of months.
Flying Saucer Attack


Sally Free and Easy EP

I picked this up used on one of my first exploratory outings into Seattle. I only knew of these guys because of a record that had been posted up at Glowing Raw. They had put up the 1995 record Chorus. I liked that, so when I saw Further (also 1995) and the Sally Free and Easy EP at Easy Street Records, I grabbed them. It's like Slowdive without all that music.

Further


Tears Run Rings
Why would a Shoegaze band name themselves after a Marc Almond song? I don't know, but these two records are good. This San Francisco band is more musical than FSA, and they also have the addition of pretty, airy ladyvox.

Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never (2008)


Distance (2010)


Tears Run Rings - Divided from Tears Run Rings on Vimeo.



Air Formation
A friend of mine hooked me up with a copy of Daylight Storms (2007!), which has that whole e-bow on the atmospheric guitar + dzhunn-dzhunn-dzhunn-dzhunn rhythm guitar thing you'd expect it to have, but the lead singer sounds kind of like Morrissey- or the guy from Gene. Oh, holy shit. Do any of you guys listen to Gene?

Daylight Storms (2007)


This is a cleaner sounding sonic mud, in that I think they are just playing enough atmospheric instruments loudly enough to wind up with a wash of that stupefy-your-third-eye, stare-at-your-toes kind of sound, as opposed to adding a lot of processing to the mix.
Out of their surprisingly long (and lately issued) catalog, I have listened to Daylight Storms and Ends in Light (2002) the most.


Belong
Another Glowing Raw find that I only discovered yesterday but that I have been listening to on repeat since then is Belong. They're on Kranky, which is the magical box that shat out Deerhunter and made the universe safe for awesome again. Belong is from New Orleans. A combination of bands like those listed above, they play their instruments (like Air Formation), but behind a thick veil of static and effects (Like Flying Saucer Attack), and, in addition, it sounds like they have keyboards in there somewhere (like Tears Run Rings). I feel pretty good saying this is booby-tits.

Common Era (2011)


belong 'perfect life' by kranky

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Belong (2011)


Last, but certainly not least, have you guys listened to the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart? Someone told the twee kids how to use their distortion pedals and rock. The whole new Pains of Being Pure at Heart record, oddly enough entitled Belong (how's that for running rings around this post?) is everything loud and distorted about the nineties and early oughts with symmetry, energy, and pop sensibility. It's like the second coming of Smashing Pumpkins, Seam, and My Bloody Valentine all wrapped up in one disgustingly fresh and precious package. It's almost unstoppably addictive.
You can listen to the whole record on Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/thepainsofbeingpure/sets/belong

That's all I got.

Thanks, Fox News . . .

. . . we almost forgot Common was a rapper.



Given the flatness of some of his more recent work, he's probably better suited to his new career as GQ clotheshorse and silver screen eye candy, but he's certainly not as milquetoast as all the hip hop commentators reacting to Faux News attackers make him out to be. Positive, yes.  Inoffensive, yes.  Milquetoast, no.

Like Water for Chocolate  (2000) is one of my favorites, and is perhaps more notable for being J Dilla's coming out party.  If memory serves, DJ Premier shows up here as well.

Most of you here are probably already hip to this, but if you haven't heard it, give it a listen.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Another score




So, in the ongoing documentation of my recent record binge, here's the latest chapter...

My main man (and total coincidental neighbor), WWALT Blog member CS tipped me off to this Craig's List post: "Unbelievable Vinyl Collection. Estate Sale. $1.00" Well friends, right then I got, as the French say, "a boner".

From previous experiences like this in Brooklyn, I was expecting wall to wall record addicts literally getting into fights over who saw that sealed copy of blah blah blah first. So to my surprise I roll up, not a car or sign in sight. Some guy answers the door, didn't even seem aware that the estate sale was happening. Anyway, I went through all his shit for like 2 hours and came up with 100 records for $100.00.

Hahaha, I love doing that! Giant influx and now its like, stacks of records everywhere, "oh shit! what was this one again?", etc. In that situation I always buy some random stuff on a hunch, records with gaaaay covers from the 80's with the hope that there is at least a sound or sample or drum break or something. So I got some really terrible stuff, but I scored some gems as well.

I'm going to pass these on to the Scoobie Brothers and let them get busy with them.

The Chizzle

College


Something that I've been listening to for the past 6 months or so (in addition to all the Hum, Seam, Shellac, and Arab Strap I've comfortably retreated into) is the output of Nantes, France's Valerie Collective, the dude who goes by the nom de guerre College in particular.

The schtick of the label/collective is rehashed '80s imagery paired with repetitive monophonic synthesizers. All the bands show up on each other's records. In contrast to some of the other bands on the label, College is mostly instrumental. Their latest record, Northern Council, is a completely instrumental concept record of bright, step-sequenced tones and grim foreboding.

I was able to find their whole Secret Diary record up for streaming on Grooveshark, so I'm plugging that in here. I had a harder time finding streaming tracks off of Northern Council. You can't swing a dead cat without coming up with DL links for that record, though, and it's easy to get on iTunes, so I'll leave industrious afficionados of the finer tunes to do what they do best with a search string and a dream.

I can't get the nice embedded widget to embed, so here's the link to the songs on Secret Diary on Grooveshark:
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/College+Secret+Diary/54067540?src=5

Wednesday, May 18, 2011



I really like the Stax record company. From Sam and Dave's "Soul Man"



to The Bar-Kays' "Holy Ghost"



it's a quality label.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Okay, Here We Go . . .

1.)  Singer Saints is back.  I'm jazzed about that.  That Andrew Hill looks sweet, though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet.  And Call Me Burroughs?  Are you kidding me?


2.)  This is absolutely amazing.


3.)  Yeah, I know.  Y'all are over Tyler 'cause Pitchfork's all over him now.  And besides, you want to bump the sound loud on a hot summer day, and Gobln doesn't lend itself to that.  But I'm telling you, this is some of the best hip hop in years, and when we look back ten years hence, this stuff will be some of what has continued to define the genre.


And besides, psychodrama aside, this is one of the best tracks of the millennium:



Oh yeah, NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

4.) And finally, do you want New Wave or do you want the truth?



There's mine . . . more soon.

Friday, May 13, 2011

DC MEGA POST

What's up, WWALT Community. And by that I mean me, Gabino and Hurewitz. Does anyone else read this still or is it just us?

But who can forget my main man Bla Blazo, and I'd like to just publicly shout out my huge thanks to you for the massive reggae DVD kick down. Like 4GB of insane reggae, mainly (what I'm feeling hardcore right now) is that Jahtari shit he has blogged about a few times. THat stuff is so good. I've even grown to love Bo Marley. Reminds me of Quasimoto in that it is a band that sounds so bad on paper but so good in execution. "A rapper from Germany who raps in German over Dub made with a Commodore 64? UH, ookkaaayyyeee." It's dope, though. For music nerds check this one to see their rig. BLA BLAZO I FEEL YOU DOG THANK YOU>

This was the biggest reggae score I've gotten since JKP that one time. JKP, you still on here?

And this is all on top of Gabe posting like every Soul Jazz comp of all time? So, in light of that, I did the rationale thing and went to Deadly Dragon Sound System, reggae only record shop in Chinatown, to get more Reggae records! While I was in there some guy from Australia threw down $1,400 on reggae records (!) After my jaw hit the floor the guy that works there told me a story about when Walter Becker (?) from Steely Dan came in and dropped $5G's on reggae records like it wasn't no thang. Crazy.

Anyway, I got a Dr. Alimantado joint and "Pass I De Lazer Beam":




Then I went to Academy Records on my way to band practice and got so much shit, i won't even post it here or Rootless will ask me to rip it all for him:



THEN! THEN, true believers, after work today i hit up the local junk shop/antiques shop in my town that has records sometimes, and scored all this shit and more for $50.00:

Totally clean Promo copy of break classic Bernard Purdie LP on Flying Dutchman?!



Some good CTI stuff, including this Airto joint and a clean, nice OG copy of Bob James One:



Some cool random moog and psych records, like "A Tab in the Ocean" by Nektar:



Ravi Shankar Vs. Ali Akbar Khan on Prestige? That's my shit right there:



This really crazy, amazing jazz record, Rufus Harley who is a free jazz bag pipes player?! It's pretty out, but Side B is heat beginning to end, OG 1970 on Atlantic, great condition. Booyah.



Last but not least, a SEALED copy of Metallica "Master of Puppets"?!?? That's $30.00 on eBay material right there. DC!! DC!!! D C!!!!!!!



Later. Go post something.

dc

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Mediafire Reggae Orgy

Hey that africangospelchurch blog I posted about awhile back just uploaded 2 dozen Soul Jazz Studio One comps!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Dylan Ettinger: "Lion of Judah"

Feeling this song right now (4:09 Thursday afternoon).



Do any of you musicians find you like music that sounds like what you make? Or is that just me?

dc

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

GGD



New full Gang Gang Dance album streaming on Pitchfork:

http://pitchfork.com/news/42398-listen-to-gang-gang-dances-new-album-now/

Rootless is seeing them live tomorrow.

dc

What's going on with Mediafire?

You have to open an account now? Has anyone else seen this?