What's up, dudes. There is so much noteworthy music-related shit popping off right now I don't know where to begin. Mega post.
Last week I went out to Brooklyn to play music with Rootless. The original plan was to go see Gang Gang Dance/Sun Araw, but I had to bail on that to get home and prepare for my kids' birthday party... that will tell you where I am in my life. Anywho, I took the opportunity to hit up Academy Records and throw down on a Birthday present to myself. In addition to others I bought these two on vinyl thinking they were rare:
Sun Araw vs. Eternal Tapestry
Talk about "epic jamz (tm)". I think I posted about Eternal Tapestry before, they are just super rock jams. Sun Araw is a fave, and this actually sounds a lot like his other band Magic Lantern, who are also on the epic jam tip. Recommended for those who don't mind hearing the same awesome riff played over and over again for 15 minutes.
Plankton Wat, "Spirits".
This is the guitarist from Eternal Tapestry. His first record was really dope, but it was more on the Tascam 4-track bedroom recording tip. This is more polished, and eschews harsh sound or rocking jams. This one is droney like raga not droney like noise. Acoustic guitar soli with hand percussion and vintage drum machines? This record is fucking awesome, I've listened to this a million times already.
In a wacky twist it turns out both of these just came out on Thrill Jockey, and they are both on Spotify. It also came with download codes, because Thrill Jockey is good like that, but that doesn't mean that much anymore with the Spotify connection. Thrill Jockey, good looking out!
Digital Digging
I was going through an old Wax Poetics the other day, and came across this ad for Jazzman Records (?), a reissue series of the "holy grail beat digger classic of all times" or whatever. I snapped a pic and then looked them up on Spotify at work. Boom, they are all there, Jazzman has a deal with Spotify... or has a deal with somebody who has a deal with somebody and
they have a deal with Spotify. In any event all this stuff is there... a killer Roy Brooks live free jazz record, Bobby Jackson (?) record that is a real nice on the jazz/spiritual jazz tip, and the Marvin Peterson joint is a dynamite soul jazz / blue note groove series type vibe. The Boris Gardener joint, a mix of disco and reggae, not that happening in my opinion, but it's on there as well.
Now a days, you can read a cool interview or get hip to a new artist, and instead of digging in the crates you got to dig on the interwebs. I feel like the great free music download blog era dried up a little bit, don't you? But Spotify is definitely blowing up right now.
Woods
I like the new Woods record a lot. I know some of you probably hate on those guys but I think it's great.
Brain Feeder
Oh shit! Almost forgot about this? This is Flying Lotus' like sub-label on Warp. They put out the new one by The Gaslamp Killer. It took a few listens to grow on me, but I think it's really good. "Holy Mt. Washington" is the jam. It's worth checking out.
But the new Flying Lotus jam, which I would say is "Highly Anticipated", is out next week!
NPR has been streaming it all week. I never posted this, but meant to...
there was a 15 minute documentary on him on Pitchfork that was pretty cool. He's on the cover of Wax Poetics
and The Wire this month. He just played the Hollywood Bowl with Animal Collective. Dude is blowing up. But it's justified. I almost played that album out this week on the NPR thing, it's really good. I'm going to have to get the
DELUXE LIMITED EDITION VINYL EDITION because I'm a crack head.
Whew. DC out.
dc
