Boxer/Briefs #2
They also review Wolf Parade's new album, Expo '68.
Gibson finishes counting down the top 50 Beatles' songs.
Roughtype argues for the importance of books.
All the while, Glenn Beck "has turned into a literary tastemaker".
Porcelain Raft - "I've Almost Lost My Mind" Video
Porcelain Raft is from the U.K. and according to myspace, consists only of "Mauro R. recording and playing live with guitars, sampler, loops and keyboard." The music takes cues from a variety of electronic based projects and fans of Memoryhouse will find similar winding, melodic guitar lines and aural atmosphere. Just add a strong beat and soothing male lead and you got yourself a raft made from porcelain.
Tip of your Tongue - Gone Blind EP
Gone Blind - Gone Blind EP
Cuddle Up With: Baths
But here we are listening to Baths' debut album Cerulean, our heartbeats raised by the anxiety of the music. It's the aural equivalent of watching a clown on stilts meander his way through a crowded fairground. And yet we can't turn it off because it's beautiful. In all good music there is a tension, a conflict that is at play and must be negotiated, resolved, or held up for all to hear. Most often this tension is in the music itself, the melodies or chords; other times it's the tension between the lyrics and the music. Baths creates his tension between the intimacy of his bedroom pop melodies and the cold, glitchy electronic rhythms with which he supports them. It's as if the robot is trying to become human by pursuing imperfection.
"That was where it was idealized for me—where the experimentation in electronic music was still there, but there was humanity to it. That was the perfect blend of everything for me."Does Baths succeed at this attempted "perfect blend"? The album isn't revolutionary by an means; indie electronic music was "humanized" long ago by acts like The Notwist and The Books. But isolating the album from any supposed—how does Pitchfork put it... "avant beat music that's coming out of L.A. right now"—finds us with a solid collection of electronic pop songs that should have a decent shelf life in this fast-paced digital age.
[mp3] Baths :: Hall
[mp3] Baths :: ♥
Cerulean will be available for digital download on July 6.
Boxer/Briefs #1
-Frieze magazine has a piece on bands like Animal Collective that are going beyond the album to more visual media.
-One of my new favorite blogs, smokeDONTsmoke, posts a piece from Newtown Radio/Underwaterpeoples on music blogger ethics, featuring people from pitchfork and gorrilavsbear.
-P4K has a fantastic interview with ceo, the new project from Eric Bergland of The Tough Alliance and Sincerely Yours fame.
-Telegraph reports that, since J.D. Salinger is no longer with us, Catcher in the Rye will be made into a film.
New "Music" from The Books
The new single is a perfect example of the sound-byte style the duo has pioneered over the past decade. Their early work was heavy with samples and rarely featured melodic vocals. These samples were not just thrown together, however, but were artistically organized with intention behind each placement; sounds and rhythms of conversations, old home videos, and flight attendants swirled with precision around crisp electronic beats and the soft drawl of a cello.
Over the years the band's sound shifted towards more conventional pop structures, leaving behind the more intricate sampling in favor of soft whispered vocals. With the release of "Beautiful People" a few months ago, I began to wonder if the pair had completely abandoned sound clips all together... but now we have "A Cold Freezin' Night"
The song is anchored by a repetitive sixteenth beat rhythm that is flavored with the sound of two children confessing their darkest feelings and...plans. Its pretty funny, and actually quite catchy. It will be interesting to see where the whole album goes; these first two songs bode well for the band's return to society.
Pre-order The Way Out, available July 20
See the album's track list after the jump
New Radiohead Album: THIS YEAR
Let the internet obsession begin! ateaseweb.com reports:
Radiohead are making progress in the studio. The band started recording past Winter and are currently in the studio working on the last bits. Ed O’Brien said it will be a matter of weeks till it’s finished and hopes to see the release before the end of this year. ‘It has got to. I hope so’Best record they have ever made? Bold words mate. Read more about it here.
Guitarist Ed O’Brien was a guest on Adam Buxton’s show on BBC 6 Music today, saying he thinks the new Radiohead record ‘is the best record we’ve ever made’. Ed: “We’re in the heart of the record. It’s genuinely exciting. It’s very different from what we did last time. It’s really nice to be doing this. It’s so good to be making music with the band that you feel is still as good as it’s ever been.”
Intertextuality #2
From time to time I feel as though my books and figurines were with me still. But how could they be? Are they somehow floating around me or over my head? Have the figurines and books that I lost over the years dissolved into the air of Mexico City? Have they become part of the ash that blows through the city from north to south and from east to west? Perhaps. The dark night of the soul advances through the streets of Mexico City sweeping all before it. And now it is rare to hear singing, where once everything was a song. The dust cloud reduces everything to dust. First the poets, then love, then, when it seems to be sated and about to disperse, the cloud returns to hang high over your city or your mind, with a mysterious air that means it has no intention of moving.
Roberto Bolaño, Amulet (1999)
"Say No to Love" Video - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Personal favorites, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have been relatively quiet over the last year. However, they recently released a single on their label, Slumberland Records, including the songs “Say No To Love”and “Lost Saint”. The former song, with its video above, is a perfect lazy summertime jam that fits right into the vibe of their first album. As for the video, from Stereogum:
In the clip, Peggy misses the band’s indoor/outdoor jam session because she’s too busy eating things, driving with her head and hands out the window, harassing a dog, munching nachos, checking out “Boobies Make Me Smile” t-shirts, and doing generally carefree things. Throughout, animations transforms a kid at a public fountain into an angel, give a pigeon the gift of laser eyes, transport the Loch Ness Monster to a smaller body of water, etc. Just your average sunny twee-pop afternoon.The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Say no to Love
Active Child - Yours Tru.ly Session
Yours Truly is killing it. Now and always. Remember that Morning Benders video we all obsessed about? Yours Truly. What about that Tame Impala video from a few days ago? Guess who? And now, BCB favorites, Active Child get the YT treatment. As Scott wrote last month, Active Child seems to have a wide variety of influences: "at one moment you're convinced this is just another Bon Iver side project, at the next some b-side from LCD Soundsystem." This video, featuring a stripped down version of the song "When Your Love is Safe", is much closer to the Bon Iver side project sort of things. After a couple of mic checks (including the adorable "Chivalrous-Syphilis"), its all harp plucks and harmonies. A steady bass line fills the track out but the gorgeous vocals really take center stage here. The harmonies are mesmerizing. You truly writes of the video:
I’m too grateful and too smitten, crushing like a fifth grader with a balled up love-note absorbing sweat from my palm, jealous of whoever this song is actually about.Thats about right. See the rest of the session here.
Active Child - When Your Love is Safe
New (Old) Department Of Eagles
Department Of Eagles assumes we care about their practice sessions and throwaway b-sides, and they are right. On July 20th the Grizzly Bear side project will be releasing Archive 2003-2006, a recording session that was originally intended to produce their sophomore full-length album, but was scrapped for whatever reason. So in truth these aren't really b-sides, they are more A-/B+ sides.
The album plays like an old jewelry box in the attic; there are treasures to be had and each listener can grab a different ring from the box, so to speak. The songs range from short incomplete ideas to fully realized pop tunes, and the tension between the two is at play throughout (a la White Album).Recordings of practice sessions are significant because its one of the few instances an artist is not performing but thinking, and I'm convinced you can actually hear the difference. The most haunting and beautiful songs on the album are the five "Practice Room Sketches"; old pianos creak, acoustic guitars crawl up and down franksinatra scales, and Rossen's voice occasionally emerges to softly croon-- it's equal parts chilling and comforting. I highly recommend this album, especially for fans of In Ear Park, but it's not one of those b-sides that only die-hards can enjoy; there's plenty here for everyone.
[mp3] Department of Eagles :: While We're Young
[mp3] Department of Eagles :: Practice Room Sketch 5
Pre-order the album
DoE Myspace
Buy In Ear Park
[Video] Tame Impala
Bohemian favorite Tame Impala play a song off of their debut full length in a yellowish grassy polaroid field of dreams that may or may not be (isn't) in their native Australia.
The Buzz Box #8
This week on the buzz box we hear from up and coming pop group Magic Kids, a new (and best so far) Arcade Fire single, and a random assortment of weird lo-fi shit that has been making waves, including a fantastic new Washed Out track. We end with a slow+beautiful track from not-so-aptly-named Yuck.
Magic Kids :: Summer
Twin Shadow :: I Can't Wait
Washed Out :: You and I
Tennis :: Marathon
Yuck :: Automatic
P.S. If you like that last song as much as I do, try out some more Yuck at their website.
Intertextuality #1
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He strained and strained, his vocal chords ached with the effort, but nothing came out. Then he heard music from the radio beside the bed. He turned up the volume until the walls and bed shook. His parents stared with fixed pupils. They danced on the bed. Their arms and legs kicked wildly, until their fingers locked, and they pulled each other back and forth, back and forth.
Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues (1995)
Cuddle Up WIth: Oberhofer
Oberhofer's melodies and guitar riffs are beautiful, raw and deeply American. His free EP o0Oo0Oo (yep) is a sloppy seven track endeavor full of catchy and rather surprisingly creative tunes. Comparisons have been made with The Dodos, Wavves, Real Estate, Animal Collective, etc.
Though the entire EP is great, "Away FRM U" stands out above the rest. The song is a highway anthem of the highest quality. The opening guitar line will send chills down your spine and as the deep percussive rhythms emerge you will probably feel the urge to run into the filming of a sudo-hipster Levi's commercial where the sun sets on buff youthful models who have been forced into skinny jeans. Its like the feeling you would have nannying the immaculately conceived children of Kerouac and Whitman.
Oberhofer is the denim jeans of indie rock.
Oberhofer :: Away FRM U
Oberhofer :: I Could Go
Myspace
Download the free EP HERE
The Buzz Box #7
This week's buzz box sees some lesser known acts that are quickly rising to popularity throughout the blogosphere. Pay close attention especially to the two fantastic lo-fi ditties from The Sandwitches and Sleep Over. Also trending is new material from Candy Claw, a summery shoegazy act that is capitalizing on the "I think it sounds like Beach Boys but I can't really hear the vocals through the fuzz" genre.
Golden Ages :: It Doesn't Mean Shit
The Sandwitches :: Song of Songs
Sleep ∞ Over :: Outer Limits
Mountain Man's Mouthwings
I don't really have much to say about this video, but it explains everything about Mountain Man.Mountain Man :: Mouthwings
Pomegranates
Pomegranates is a collection of Iranian psychedelic pop from the 1960's and 1970's before the revolution in 1979 that ushered in a conservative theocratic regime that most likely didn't take too kindly to the neighbor kid's dilated pupils and "devil music".
The songs collected here reveal a thriving music scene that was able to tap into the trends coming from the West without sacrificing the traditional sounds of Persian music.
I picture a sudo-seedy underground club hazy with the plumes of hookah and cigarette smoke. Young, stubborn students writing poetry in the dark corners; a stage basked in red light barely visible across the room. Maybe some dancing, but mostly just the subtle nodding of heads. A generation full of hope for the future--a future that would shortly be stolen right out from under their tapping feet.
Purchase the compilation here.
Video "Bright Lit Blue Skies" - Ariel Pink
If you haven't checked out Ariel Pink's new album Before Today I definitely recommend doing so. Perhaps many people, like myself, formerly found the man's music too lo-fi, too saturated in tape fuzz. Or found his songwriting too...well...strange. If this was the case then don't worry! Before Today, while certainly still an Ariel Pink album, is infinitely more approachable than a lot of his previous offerings.
"Bright Lit Blue Skies" is the second track from the album and is a flurry of upbeat hooks and luscious harmonies. The song is a cover of cover the Rockin Ramrods' 1966 jam of the same name and makes perfect sense as the gateway to an album brimming with sunshiny 60's affectation. The video follows its frantic passion opening with images of a couple going-at-it in a field and waves crashing down. The unsteady manual camerawork adds to the chaos following dudes breaking in to an all girls school (by way of a cardboard trojan horse). They of course then have a fully clothed orgy, which is broken up by the troublesome campus police who is eventually out witted.
The album as a whole explores these adult themes in a consistently childish, which is not to say entirely giddy, way. Be it exuberance or melancholy, Before Today draws from such unbelievably disparate musical influences and takes such dramatic structural turns that these states of mind are invoked in a way somehow both familiar and yet unpredictable. Highly Recommended.
Ariel Pink - Bright Lit Blue Skies - Here Before
Ariel Pink - Round and Round - Here Before
New ARCADE FIRE Songs (Live)
Arcade fire debuted a few new songs at a recent show in Quebec. Someone took videos of a lot of them including this anthemic acoustic rendition of wake up. See the videos and hear the songs here.
Arcade Fire The Month of May - The Suburbs (Single)
New Max Richter
Max Richter will be releasing an album of new material this summer called Infra. From his website:
Max's new record on FatCat will be released on July 22nd. Based on his collaboration with Wayne Macgregor and Julian Opie for The Royal Ballet last year, the record expands on and develops the original material, reconfiguring it as an immersive listening experience in it's own right.I don't really know what that means, but I do now that Mr. Richter is a fantastic and accomplished composer who never fails to produce compelling, beautiful, and endlessly accessible (though not watered down) classical pieces.
His magnum opus, Blue Notebooks, delicately blended dark elongated melodic lines with electronics and spoken word poetry. In 2008 he released an album of ringtones, which is so...snobby, but he pulled it off despite. You may also have heard his work in the fantastic animated documentary Waltz With Bashir, which I blogged about last year.
With Infra, Richter is in his comfortable form. The songs are contemplative and intimate; piano lines roll over in dark repetitive scales. The electronics are subtle as usual and lend a soft rhythm to the songs that propel them forward. It's not driving music per se, but certainly bus-riding music. And if you're anything like me, you may experience hallucinations of post-war eastern Europe. But thats okay, because thats what you want from Richter, and he delivers.
Max Richter :: Infra 3
Pre-order Infra HERE
The Buzz Box #6
The Buzz Box #6 features the new single from Kanye West, plus some new (fantastic) music from rising acts Bodies of Water, Suckers, and recently P4K approved Wild Nothing. Also included is a Paul Simon cover from The Tallest Man On Earth, who at least impressed my (musically picky) roommates at this past weekend's Sasquatch Music Festival. Enjoy:
The Tallest Man On Earth :: Graceland (Paul Simon Cover)
Kanye West :: Power
Bodies of Water :: Rise Up, Careful
Suckers :: A Mind I Knew
Wild Nothing :: Chinatown
Kathryn Calder :: Slip Away
Sean Carey :: In The Dirt
Destroyer Reissues
Its clear in these three albums that Bejar had a huge influence on the folk resurgence of the 00's. Destroyer was formed in 1995, but his ever evolving work has continued to remain relevant to this day. His nonchalant, bowie-esque approach has been seen in the work of Spencer Krug, TV on the Radio, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Danielson, etc. Not to mention the importance of his collaborative work over the years with The New Pornographers and Swan Lake.
The best of these early records is Streethawk: A Seduction. Bejar first starts to really explore the bowie folk-glam-rock sound with the album, and with his weird-as-hell voice he pulls it off quite well:
Destroyer :: The Sublimation Hour
Destroyer :: Virgin With a Memory
Destroyer :: The Very Modern Dance
You can listen to more of this album and order it from Merge.
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