I haven't felt this way about a band on hearing them the first time since Deerhunter. Bottomless Pit is two of the guys from Silkworm, the drummer from Seam (another band I've been listening to a lot of recently) and the bassist from a band called .22. These are Chicago peeps. It all has that Electrical Audio sound to the drums and the tonefreaky purity of the guitar tones, along with that close vocal- loud, but butting right up against everything else in the mix vying for attention- the thing that Sea and Cake do so well. Sometimes I think that all I'm missing in music is '90s Chicago. You can stream their two albums and one EP from their site.
Album came out last summer. "Psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock music" from Australia. Great recommendation to gear up for Coachella and the extra hour of sun we currently have in California.
Peaking Lights is the band. "936" is the album. "+ mediafire" works.
Maybe too "Chill Wave" for some of you (first time i've ever used that term, really...) Lo-fi, synth bedroom dub pop made by a couple (expecting a baby) who are bay area transplants living in Madison, Wisconsin, using guitars, vocals, old analog cast away equipment, handmade synths and drum machines.
That last Scoobie Brothers joint was admittedly pretty dark, so we went with something a little more uplifting on this joint, tapping into the Iasos power.
The Black Ryder - "Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride".
Random LP I bought on a whim based on packaging and record store blurb. Really good music, on the My Bloody Valentine or Brian Jonestown Massacre tip. Three chords through tons of delay and reverb. Just good tunes to rock out to while doing the dishes, occasionally taking a break to play air guitar along to a solo. Also you can add this to your all "black" playlist along with The Black Keys, the Black Lips, Black Flag, Black Dice and, uh... Melvin van Peebles.
Bardo Pond, s/t
What's up with these guys? No idea. A few of the tunes are on the Sonic Youth, early 90's grunge/rock tip, so I thought some of you would like it. But it also has a few like 20 minute epic jams. It's a good disc, definitely worth a mediafire download for zero dollars. Think I found this at "Glowing Raw", if you know that blog.
Peace to Ke$$$ha.
d-$hizzle
I've been on an electro/early 80's kick lately. Here are a few recent scores. Shannon, as mentioned in my Ke$ha post (haha, don't care what anyone says, that shit is dope - suck it, haters) was a buck, same with Duck Rock. The David Astri, which is probably worth about $50, was $0.50. If you like this kind of music and know what you're looking for, bargains abound.
I'm surprised but I love Ke$ha. Catchy bubblegum pop. Love it. Guess I'm a sucker for slick production and poppy shit. And I'm serious!! Reminds me of old B96. And I love B96 too. Product of my environment, I guess, growing up around Chicago. Echos of 80's freestyle and electro circa 1984 after Let the Music Play by Shannon was released. Even deeper shit than that too. Anybody else feeling this?
Just an FYI. There's a 22 song free sampler on iTunes with people playing SXSW this year (it skews a little famous, but hey, it's free. (http://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/sxsw-featured-artists/id423878050?wm=1)
I posted about Balam Acab maybe a month ago, his EP "See Birds" has many many plays in my iTunes. Things are kind of slow at work so I was googling him and came up on this info:
-He has another project called ETHEREA that is kind of Balam Acab-y but more beat-driven a la J Dilla or something. Couldn't find any albums but good stuff up at his Myspace page.
I felt like this was noteworthy in that record labels and mainstream artists are trying to figure out the new paradigm, how can we make money in the post "+ mediafire" world? Hustling to make something happen. Meanwhile here is a kid who just makes really good music and got recognized for it and defintely got paid for usage in that commercial.
Lastly, I don't even know how to process this image:
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 _________________ = :)
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.
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.
