Normal Bias Time Machine

This gorgeous dinosaur miraculously popped up in my wife's glove compartment a few weeks back. I'd written it off years ago, though it is always in the back of my head when I am MP3 trolling for eighties stuff. It was complied by my dear friend Jefferson, the first person I knew with an accent (excluding my father) and the first person I knew who purchased music based on reading N.M.E. as opposed to CREEM. College, natch, and by the mid 80's he had finished and was in Pilsen while I was still slacking in Bloomington. The man has always had a way with the bins, and being in the big city busted it wide open.

First exposure to JAMC, Screaming Jay (back in vogue that year courtesy of Jim Jarmusch), and I think even The Fall for chrissakes, if you don't realize the importance of all that than you shouldn't be reading a music blog. Lots of great tracks from long lost bands, a few things haven't aged that well but over all really listenable. It makes you think that a bunch of what you're getting a unicorn over at Pitchfork was invented by British people in 1986.

For your consideration I have lovingly recreated it here as a mp3 mix complete with fab tape scan artwork. If interested send me your proper email and I will shoot you a few zip files, divided as side A and B of course.

Diplo "Chasing the Dragon"

Before he became a world renown DJ and CEO of a hot shit label as well as “a curator amongst the worldʼs most cutting edge DJs, producers, and musical movements” (his words from Mad Decent website), I got hip to Diplo via the Turntablelab.com website that put out his earliest 7"s... now long gone, sold on eBay to fund my record buying habit.

I haven’t been as into him lately (don’t really check out Mad Decent podcasts anymore, I skipped out on Major Lazer). However, I just came across this on my e-travels… he put out a dj mix more in the vein of his AEIOU 2 mix, lots of psych and garage and no Baile Funk or Bastardized DanceHall in sight. In the words of TurntableLab: “No tropical bass, dubstep, dancehall, or beats here - just straight up rare psych rock for days! Diplo goes deep with all manner of fuzzed-out, freaky psychedelic sounds that are much different from what you're used to him playing these days - and it sounds AWESOME.” Some obscure, some not so much, with flare and flavor thrown in to mix it up. Worth downloading fo sho. And here it is.

If you haven’t listened in a while, or missed him altogether, here are some other top shelf releases from the man:

-First full length "Florida" is still a top notch banger that has really aged well.

-The DJ Shadow Mega Mix he put out as a promo for, uh, The Private Press, I believe? So good… he mixes DJ Shadow tracks with the source material, plus blends of Shadow beats with crunk rappers, etc. Great disc.

-The “Piracy Funds Terrorism” mix tape that basically broke MIA onto the scene, a little played out by now but truly impressive disc and a good listen.

-I actually like his “Live in Montreal” disc a lot, good jams, blends TV on the Radio with Outkast, shit like that. Plus a long “grime” section that’s good crash course on the genre.

If you need any of that holla at me and i'll yousendit it to you. File this under thoughts on an old classic.

dc

Boy & Bear: Moonfire

This is in heavy rotation in Spotify for me. The chorus of this track reminds me of Seals & Crofts! The band calls themselves indie-folk with choral harmonies. Check it out!

Balam Acab

I really dig him, big fan. His "See Birds" EP was one of the best things I've gotten hip to in the last 12 months...

He has a new one coming out shortly, "Wander/Wonder", which I'm pretty stoked about. I was trolling the internet looking for a leaked copy and found this B-side off the "See Birds" single... "Heavy Lifting Things", its pretty killer. Enjoy.

dc

Spotify Invites

I have a few if anyone wants one. Email me directly at clarkstarr@gmail.com (first come first served).

John Cage Meets Sun Ra

Found this on Mediafire.

Pretty bugged out, as you may imagine. This is like a $100 record, so even if it is not the most awesome LP in the world, it's still noteworthy and nice to check it out for free.

dc

Free Download of that New Jay Z - Kanye Joint!

Just kidding, I just wanted to see if the Web Sheriff is out and about.

Dear Web Sheriff, keep up the good work.

Sincerely,

The WWALT Blog Community Brotherhood

R U READY?

The enthusiasm over the last SB joint was palatable. So hold on to your horses, because here's the second release off of "The Greatest Hits of... The Scoobie Brothers".

This was the lead off single off of "IT'S THE NEW SCOOB" (also known as the MySpace Album).

Who knew that all those times you bumped this on MySpace it wasn't "R U Ready (to party)?", it was "R U Ready (for post-apocolyptic Mad Max world)"?

Spotify

Anyone else messing with Spotify yet? I like it... it's like a huge free iTunes.

Only thing you have to do is listen to commercials (i think you can pay $4.99 a month to make that go away). In listening to "BadMotorFinger" start to end (inspired by S.O.S.'s post) there were like three or four commercials, half "editorial" commercials talking about diff features of Spotify, and half an actual song with the artist saying "Hey this is Gary Stevenson, check out my new record on Spotify!". If you mute your computer it "pauses" the commercial, so they got you there. There are banner ads promoting music you can listen to on Spotify as well. I actually like that functionality, I saw a few banners for something i was vaguely interested in... click, and you are checking out the full album for free.

If the commercials and banners were tailored to music I was interested in based on my searches or playlists, or even based on my own personal library, I wouldn't mind at all, but it sucks when my BadMotorFinger vibe is suddenly interrupted by a "Drake" song that I'm forced to listen to for 30 seconds. Assuming some if not most of you don't even know who that is, but it's worse than Ke$$$ha. Playing some totally unrelated track is not going to make me buy, or even listen to, that artist and it just fills me with rage towards Spotify.

There is a ton of music there, I'll give it like a 7 out of 10 on obsurity scale: searches for Black Dice and Lightning Bolt were fruitful, for example. A search for Emeralds had hits, but "Imaginary Softwoods" did not. Jesus LIzard and Naked Raygun came up big, but Big Black and Rapeman were absent. Kurt Vile actually had a banner and a voice over commercial thing.

I don't understand the business model... I'm sure that info is out there but frankly, I don't care. In any case, artists are getting a cut, so it is an interesting new alternative and I think that's one reason it is blowing up.

All-in-all, I give Spotify 5 stars, it's nice to have, not a life changer, although I absolutely have been using it all week at work. If they add a Pandora-like functionality so it knows what I like, even better. And I'm assuming content will just continue to grow exponentially.

Carry on.

dc

Soundgarden@ The Forum in L.A.

They went on right at 9:00 as we walked in (missed Mars Volta) and proceeded to blow it up for 2.5 hours! I never know what to expect from bands who break up, and claim they will never reunite and play again. This show exceeded my expectations. Matt Cameron is a fine drummer. They have a ton of drum heavy songs, but I didn't appreciate it until hearing him live, and he sings backup! Cornell can still hit most if not all the high notes, which is madness. Kim Thayil played all the dropped d sludge riffs you'd ever need and blazed through all the solos in fine form. Can't say much about the bass playing, I could barely hear it on most songs. Maybe it was the acoustics, my location, or the mix. A 25 song set including encore, not too much chatter between songs,Mike Mcready played guitar on Superunknown, and a long bass/guitar feedback extravaganza to end the night. I'd really like to hear them at Nokia or some newer venue.

Anybody see this before? Internet cops are out!

I got this when I logged in to the dashboard:
We have received a DMCA complaint for your blog, What We Are Listening To.... An e-mail with the details of the complaint was sent to you on Jun 24, 2011 , and we reset the post status to "Draft"; you can edit it here. You may republish the post with the offending content and/or link(s) removed. If you believe you have the rights to post this content, you can file a counter-claim with us. For more on our DMCA policy, please click here. Thank you for your prompt attention.

Autre Ne Veut

Autre Ne Veut: S/T, Olde English Spelling Bee 2010

Yesterday I hooked up the turntable that's just been sitting here in our apartment, took the bus down to the record store, and bought the first LP I've ever walked into a store and shelled out for. This was that LP- Autre Ne Veut's debut from December of last year. It's synthesizer R&B that looks back over its shoulder at the '90s (in the British sense of '90s R&B infused dance music) whilst keeping ten fingers firmly on the control surface of a very densely layered and arranged set of wobbly electronics.




Autre Ne Veut: Body EP 2011 (yes, that's supposed to be the cover art)
This is the record that alerted me to the existence of this band in the first place. You can hear a little more Erasure in the influences on this one. The idea of typical pop song structure and forward motion seems to have found a better foothold in the guy's head by the time he started working on this record, to boot. The opening track, "Sweetheart", grabbed me right away.

Autre Ne Veut - Sweetheart by Liunatic

LATEST SCOOBIE BROS INFO!!!!

In honor of the "Darkside (of the Scoob) EP" basically being done, we are putting out videos for a new LP collecting our favorite tracks from the past ten years (!) of releases entitled "Greatest Hits Of.... The Scoobie Brothers."

First up, who can forget this #1 banger off of the "NEW SCOOB EP"? Ladies and gentlemen, please check out, "Elextrotrazz Scoob".

Sincerely,

D-Sizzle

Pearl Jam: Self Pollution Radio

In honor of my nostaglia trip to see a reformed Soundgarden on Friday night I am posting this. If you are jonesing for some mid 90's grunge check this out. Recorded live in Seattle 1995 this was a 4 hour radio broadcast with live tracks from Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mad Season, The Fastbacks, Mudhoney, Krist from Nirvana w/ Pearl Jam. Lots of phone calls, chatter and they play tracks from Descendents,Hovercraft and a whole lotta other stuff. The have a section where dudes are playing their mix tapes!
http://www.searchingforchetbaker.com/2009/12/pearl-jam-self-pollution-rare-4-hour.html

Help Me Build My Summer Playlist

Okay, crowd participation here . . . I want a nice playlist for the rest of the summer, so everybody pitch in with their favorite summer songs.  I would prefer new material, but toss in some old stuff too if you're feelin' it.

Post as many times as you wish.

Here's my first summer hit:



and just for grins:

HO-LY-CRAP.

Check this out here.

!!!

Holy shit! Led Zeppelin II!!!

Thurston Moore

I know this is going to piss some people off but I decided that I think Thurston Moore is really over-rated. I think dude's really more of a scenester than a brilliant artist. I like Sonic Youth as much as the next guy, they've never been my favorite band but I've had moments where I've loved their records, what they were all about, etc. And I guess that's the thing, half of it with Sonic Youth is what they're all about, not necessarily the music, which is actually pretty awful at least a quarter of the time. Sonic Youth embodies a NY downtown vibe and they still rule the scene, now in a kind of older-brother/punk sister kind of way. I got all excited about Thurston Moore's new solo record "Demolished Thoughts", produced by Beck, it was being compared to Beck's "Sea Change", which was a big album for me. Meh, it's okay, maybe a little better than his other solo album, "Trees Outside the Academy", but it's really nothing special and dude benefits so much from Beck turning the dials and all sorts of cool instrumentation. He's not that great a songwriter, guitarist, singer or lyricist. If I want to hear the kind of raw, hushed vocals, folk-punk thing I'll go back to early Elliott Smith, and if I want to remember some girl fucking up my heart (boohooo) I'll check out "Sea Change". I don't hate though, I'd probably be all gay and spastic if I met TM and tell him I have a Sonic Youth song as my ringtone, but I'm just saying, dude ain't all that.

Oh, if ya'll are bored at work or whatever spend time on this blog, DC got me hip to it and it's cracking me up. To keep it relevant on the music tip here's a link to dude ranting about internet rap.

ambient, scores, & doors

i give to you my friends a nice mellow playlist for a hot summer day:

*Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who can See but Cannot Feel
*Peter Gabriel - Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ
*Thomas Newman - American Beauty (score)
*The Doors - An American Prayer
*Vangelis - Blade Runner (score)
*Panda Bear - Person Pitch

....insert into music player, and press "random"

July 4th Super Post

What's happening, broheims. Happy 4th of July. Here are a few random things that have been on my mind:



This is my all time #1 summer time jam. Ras Michael and Sons of Negus "Rastafari Dub". This CD has been in my car for a few years, and once it gets played it doesn't leave the stereo for 9 or 10 listens. I actually bought this on iTunes originally, but I found it on MediaFire. Top shelf.



Here's another reason I love collecting records. I have like three full shelves of random bullshit, like stuff i drag out and sell for $1.00 a record when i have a Garage Sale (which i probably bought for $1.00 at a Garage Sale). There is some good stuff in there, i guess, but lots and lots of trash. Anyway, i was going through it looking for samples and came up on this Milton Nascimiento record. The cover is gayer than chopped salad, but then i threw it on the turntable, and it's actually really, really good! Just slipped through the net somehow. The record was recorded in 1973, but cover is from 1988. Looks can be deceiving, grasshopper. Below is a stand out cut that i really dig for some reason... the YouTube clip has some crazy video footage I'll use for a Scoobie Brothers video:



I guess i said Super Post but I mainly just wanted to comment on those 2 things. Trouble Books & Mark McGuire is a super duper album, should be able to find it on the internet. The new Beastie Boys is actually getting a fair amount of play on my commute and what not. I listened to that Dirty Beaches record a few times this week, its good.

All right, have a great holiday my friends.



dc

Dirty Beaches

Just found Dirty Beaches's Badlands, & I'm listening to it right now. Pretty swell. I liked this album back in 1977 when Suicide released it too.

Seriously, though, Badlands is good.

Foster the People: Torches

I first heard a track off of an Itunes SXSW sampler. A fellow WWALTer posted the link awhile back. The story of the band is here. Alternative, synthpop, with a dash of electronica thrown in. They are from L.A. so I'm sure the hype machine is in full effect. This is one of those,"No way I'm gonna dig this" releases, but I do. There are 4-5 tracks that are, "pure pop sugar". Check out the track "Houdini".

Boris

Sometimes Boris is wacky, sometimes Boris is predictable. The 24th of May, they managed to be both at once, releasing one album of fairly standard big-ass Boris rockers

called Heavy Rocks 2011 (not to be confused with Heavy Rocks 2002); and an album of dream-pop

called Attention Please.

Heavy Rocks 2011 is non-essential if you have the first Heavy Rocks, Pink, or Smile (none of which live up to the godliness of such titles as Amplifier Worship, Absolutego, or Akuma No Uta), but if you just can't get enough, you won't be disappointed.

Attention Please, on the other hand, is a weird one. It's essentially a wistful dream-pop album with A BIG FREAKING BEAST UNDER THE HOOD! On first listen, I pretty much wrote it off as a nice little experiment (and lord knows, Boris aren't afraid of trying different things), but it actually grew on me by about the third time I listened to it.

I'm not big on the dream-pop stuff (I did listen to a bit of Opal and Mazzy Star back in the day, but I never joined the Bjork legions), so I'm not the best judge of how this works, but I like it quite a bit. And, though the description may have you thinking "Pixies" almost immediately, it doesn't sound at all like that either, which is fine by me, not being the world's greatest Pixies fan either.

This isn't a great album, but it is a good one, and very listenable. And, as an added bonus, it's one album that both the wife and I can enjoy.

Sam Prekop

What's up, dudes (are there are any women on this blog?). I've been checking out some albums by Sam Prekop that I didn't have and going through his work with the Sea & Cake. Such good stuff, and it can kind of slide by under the radar because it's mellow and slightly elusive, not super-hook laden, though an easy listen. I like the way the reviewer at Pitchfork put it about how his solo album, which came out just in time for summer in 2005, "there's no better use for this music than getting massively chilled out in your suddenly sunny apartment". That pretty much sums up the vibe in my apartment lately as I listen to his stuff. I also didn't know about his latest solo album, Old Punch Card, which came out in 2010. This is a total wild card if you're into his stuff. It is way closer to Aphex Twin than the Sea & Cake. Really surprising and cool if you're into that kind of electronic/ambient stuff, though his tendancy to bleed cacophanous sounds into more melodic soundscapes is I think a bit overdone and takes away from the overall listening experience.

Oh, and I paid to see the Sea & Cake in Prague in, like, 2000, so I'm cool with downloading all his music (easy score, no lurking websherrif) for the rest of my life, I'll pay to see him when he hits Brooklyn. But my latest idea is I'm going to try to actually purchase music by new bands, in particular ones based in Brooklyn, that I like and have the album priced right. Headless Horseman is my first one, local, cool sound, $5 for the album, done.

Not to be all on the Pitchfork or Bon Iver (my last post) tip, but they have a cool interview up with him. From everything I've ready about him he sounds like a really likeable, down-to-earth dude who is really searching and growing as an artist, it's fascinating to read about his approach to his new album, which continues to impress me in terms of the songs and his evolution as a song-writer. I hesitate to call this out but his defense of that awful last track "bath/rest" included "I cried while working on that song". Hahaha, TMI, dude. Here's a link to the lyrics from his new album that I got from the interview, which I was keen to check out because it's hard to understand what he's saying, reading it is interesting, he's making up words and conjuring images, writing in a really non-linear way but nonetheless telling a story or creating visual landscapes when combined with the music.

Song of the day: Lucinda Williams "Seeing Black"

This is a rockin jam, rhythm section is really locked in. Elvis Costello is playing guitar. Check out the outro guitar solo, reminds me of CrazyHorse. This is off of her new album. Rock on WWALTers!

Favorite song of the day

dc

Glitch FM Soul For that Anachronistic Ass

One of the dudes from longtime NYC FM Soul outfit Tigercity (Part of a whole little slice of NYC scene trading in anachronism that arose about 6 years or more ago that included Chromeo, 33hz, Tigercity, LCD Soundsystem, and thousands of bands I was never cool enough to know about) and the dude who calls himself Oneohtrixpointnever, whose work I've never listened to because I hate the name but who has nevertheless been getting plenty of critical blowjobs from the bloggy press the past couple of years in spite of my royal disdain, have gotten together to form a superduo of sorts. Ford & Lopatin!

Highly, highly enjoyable, I can't recommend this strongly enough because my doctor says I won't survive another treatment for priapism.

This sounds like what would happen if Billy Ocean were to step into the chamber of mirrors from Enter the Dragon to engage in some kind of trippy soul-transfer congress with Squarepusher and Max Tundra.

The New Kool Keith Joint

Discuss.

dc

Web Sherrif

I always thought the Web Sheriff was a goof or some blog guy fooling around. With the volume of music sharing/blogs how can they monitor even a small percentage of what is out there? Side note; I was at a party rapping with a dude about music, and he said he had heard of WWALT!

Bored in Montreal/Bon Iver

I'm up in Montreal at a conference on international economics and it is so damn boring. Maybe I just haven't given it a chance, I'm interested in the subjects, I just can't be bothered right now. I fucked off most of the morning, ordered room service, went down a little while ago and bailed almost right away. All those people in suits and austere glasses hobnobbing in French, meh.

So I'm in my hotel room listening to the new Bon Iver yet again. No one has posted about it. I don't know if I have any profound insights about it, I just like a lot, though some songs a lot more than others. "Michant" is one I was feeling right away, along with "Holcene" and "Hinnom, TX", but at the moment "Minnesota, WI" is my joint, one of the best things he's done, and very unique. I wish I could understand his lyrics because when I can I think he's a really interesting lyricist. But this story in the NY Times Magazine says it doesn't really matter. A couple of the songs are clunkers, "Beth / Rest" sounding like something Sting did while he was dreaming about unicorns or some shit. Anyway, I know I'm going to burn this album out but for now it's really working for me.

I wonder if the strip clubs open before noon?