Bohemian Cuddle Box: mp3

Showing posts with label mp3. Show all posts

Showing posts with label mp3. Show all posts

Owen Pallett: A Swedish Love Story

Owen Pallett, previously performing and recording under his moniker Final Fantasy, has had quite an eventful year. Releasing his fantastic album Heartland to critical acclaim (including a healthy dose from us), Pallett doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon. Enter: A Swedish Love Story.

The four song EP is set to be released September 28. Stylistically, the album follows directly in the footsteps of Heartland. Pallett layers orchestral whimsy atop driving pop rhythms, his voice soaring on top of it all. The first track, "A Man With No Ankles" would have fit perfectly on Heartland. The other three, however, tone down the rhythm in favor of Andrew Bird-ish plucking and slow gorgeous melodies. The tracks taken as a whole are certainly some of Pallet's most accessible and melodic songs to date.

The drama-student angst that characterized much of Final Fantasy's catalog has been abandoned in favor of confident and mature songwriting. The shift marks a recent musical trend in which young, creative and rather ambitious artists are abandoning the weird and directing their genius towards the complex craft of pop music (Animal Collective, Beach House and Deerhunter being the most notable examples). Some of the greatest musical acts of the 20th century (Gershwin, Miles Davis, Beatles, Beach Boys) were motivated by a similar desire to blend high and low art. Owen Pallet is certainly pushing his way into the spotlight.

[mp3]: Owen Pallett :: A Man With No Ankles

Pre-Order the EP at Domino
Myspace

Sufjan Stevens: I Walked

On the heels of yesterday's announcement about Sufjan's new full-length album, this morning we wake to the first single off said album: "I Walked". Just as the press-release (see below) mentioned, the style is much more electronic/dubby/danceable than any of Sufjan's older work. Does he pull it off? Yeah.

2010 is being hijacked by Sufjan Stevens.

[mp3] Sufjan Stevens :: I Walked

Wild Beasts 10"

Domino is releasing a new 10" from Mercury Music Prize nominated Wild Beasts for the single "We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues" from their absolutely marvelous 2009 full length, Two Dancers. The EP features a few remixes and a rare Japanese b-side called "Through The Iron Gate" which you can hear below.

[mp3] Wild Beasts :: Through the Iron Gate

Download the EP for free this week from Domino and don't forget to pick up Two Dancers - I can't recommend the album enough.

[via Stereogum]

Gem Club - Acid and Everything

Piano, violins, and slow melodies from a lazy voice. Gem Club are masters of gorgeous melancholy. They released their Acid and Everything EP yesterday on bandcamp. All of these songs are on it.

Acid and Everything

New Ceo Video and Song

ceo - Everything is Gonna be Alright

Beat Connection - Free EP

When I first heard Seattle's own Beat Connection, I had a hard time believing they weren't from Sweden (listen up Sincerely Yours). They recently sent me a copy of their debut EP, Surf Noir, which they are self-releasing for free and it does impress. I had heard the closer, "Same Damn Time" previously and a couple mixes and mash-ups (including the stellar Washed Out/Biggie Smalls "It Was All a Dream"), but Beat Connection truly know how to link songs together.

The Eps eight tracks flow together effortlessly, alternating moods between overjoyed and reflective. The album begins with "Sunburn," a foot-tapper that pivots around a jangly guitar surf rock hook. The song serves to set the scene and is almost pure tension, the melody never granting a sufficient release. This gives way to sounds of seagulls announcing the album's best track "In the Water". The song is everything you want for summer. It exudes the balearic nostalgia of Air France and displays the patience of LCD Soundsystem. Beat Connection don't need to force anything and because of that, their timing is impeccable. When "In the Water" explodes again just before the two minute mark, I am caught off guard every time and yet find myself smiling ear to ear. The song demands movement and dancing. And not absentmindedly. It implores you to really mean it.

The shortest track, "Wildheart," is the perfect breather after the ecstasy of "In the Water," sounding like some music from an old Books demo. From this point the EP takes a turn for the pensive, though without forsaking a strong backbeat. The spiking-and-falling melodies of "Theme from Yours Truly" or the slow beat of "Fresh Touch," which gives way seamlessly to "Silver Screen" (a close second best), give you the sense that Beat Connection have done their homework. They have a definite grasp of the electronic music's history as a genre, supporting this knowledge with contemporary indie/pop/chillwave soundscapes. Unlike a lot of more recent acts, they are far more than a one trick pony. They can write one minutes songs or seven minute ones. They can make you dance or make you sit back and dream. All this goes to say, keep your eyes out for Beat Connection in the future. Pick up their free EP and enjoy.

You can get the full EP here.

In the Water - Surf Noir EP

It Was All a Dream - Soft Focus

Eternal Summers

The immortal GvB just reminded me about a band I have been meaning to write about, Eternal Summers. They hail from Roanoke, Va. and their myspace says they play "dream punk," which is about right. Think Best Coast, Vivian Girls-type girl-led rock music. Eternal Summers also have the capacity for heartbreaking melodies and light harmonies in short, two minute bursts. With an Ep and a (free) single under their belt, look out for their full length "Silver" in mid to late September. For now enjoy the new song, "Pure Affection".

Fall Straight Back - Highly Recommended!

Hear here.

Modern Skirts - Rebecca St. Claire

Modern Skirts are from Athens, Georgia. They used to play one kind of music. Now they play another. They will release Happy 81 EP tomorrow. [via]

Rebecca St. Claire - Happy 81

New Ólöf Arnalds

Ólöf Arnalds is a folk-singer from Iceland, so we already know she is going to make thought-provoking, slow, and just-experimental-enough-to-not-garner-mainstream-success-and-save-her-nation-from-bankrupcy music. In September she will be releasing a new album titled Innundir Skinni, and above is the video for the wonderful title track.

Also check out this rough demo of a song that will probably be on the new album. Its got some Beirut vibes going on.
[mp3] Ólöf Arnalds :: Vinur Minn

[via Stereogum]

(p.s. also check out the track "Surrender" here, which features fellow icelander, Bjork).

Wavves Talks about King of the Beach

Nathan Williams has put a lot of thought into this new record and it shows. There is actually a variety of moods and textures on this album! From the upbeat jam "Post-Acid" to the nearly Panda Bear "Baseball Cards," this album delivers almost constant and welcome surprises. I already posted a couple songs a bit ago but I still havent got enough. If you lived through the '90s on early Green Day, Weezer or the like, this will be a familiar and nostalgic update on similar themes.

Post Acid - King of the Beach

"Baseball Cards" on yt.

Cuddle Up With: Sonny and the Sunsets

There are a number of artists that I have been meaning to write about but there are none that I am more excited about than Sonny and the Sunsets.

They make music perfect for a lazy summertime afternoon bbq. Like you can't imagine anything could be all that bad even though you know there are bad things but because you know about all the bad things you know that they are not so bad that you cant sing these songs. Naturally they are from San Francisco, which has consistently turned out non-electronic chill music (for a doo-wop feel, check the video below for "Strange Love"). They have the harmonies down for sure. They exude the same sort of playfulness that made moldy peaches so fun a few years back, only without the self-hating irony. Apparently they put on a good show too.

They released their debut album Tomorrow is Alright on Soft Abuse but it was recently picked up by Fat Possum (home to the likes of Wavves and Andrew Bird). They will re-release the album on August 17 with a wider distribution. Stay tuned.

Too Young to Burn - Tomorrow is Alright

Stranded - Tomorrow is Alright

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

Hear more music here or head to the website where there are two EPs via bandcamp.

"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

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 Songs from Wavves

I have had a rather ambivalent relationship towards the scuzzy, bedroom punk music promulgated by San Diego band Wavves. Their first album, Wavvves, was a simple yet strangely inaccessible rumination on distortion in every sense of the word, bordering at times on early Animal Collective type mayhem. However (like much of Animal Collective's music), buried beneath all the fuzz was a brilliant gem of a pop song. So I decided to stay tuned.

A couple years, a couple added members and one meltdown later, Wavves is planning to release their follow up album. When I first heard the demo track for "Mickey Mouse" about a year ago I started to get my hopes up. The song features a repetitive structure (much like more recent AC...) and features several brilliant (AC-like) hooks and harmonies. Another song, entitled "Cool Jumper," is also making (ahem) waves around the internetz recently and features several catchy "oo-oo-ooos" and harmonies. Should be a great summer record. The finished album, which is entitled "King of the Beach," will indeed include these tracks as well as that "tubular" album art up top. It is due out in August via Fat Possum and Bella Union.

Wavves - "Cool Jumper"

Wavves - "Mickey Mouse"

Twin Sister Video - Lady Daydream

Twin Sister Lady Daydream from Imaginary Animal

We here at BCB are patiently waiting for new favorites, Twin Sister, to drop an album on us. For now, our collection consists of a the new Color Your Life EP, the old Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP from last year, a cover or two and now, a new video.

Lady Daydream is an intimate, pulsing jam with a weird synthy (dare I say) "chillwave" hook. It is most certainly in the vein of (other BCB favs) Memoryhouse and the video uses aesthetics similar to Memoryhouse's Bonfire video. Which is to say there is a lot of hazy super 8 filming and slo-mo shots of people walking about. On top of that, of course, is the gorgeous female vocals and twangy guitar picking. We also get stock footage of surfing, a carnival type gathering shot from a roller coaster, vintage skateboarding and random beach scenes. If you aren't feeling the lazy-chill summer vibes after this one...uh...your tie might be too tight...(?).

New Mountain Man

Mountain Man, the aptly named trio of ghost-voiced females, will be releasing their debut full length, Made the Harbor, on July 20.
We praised the band's last release, which came in at number 11 on my top albums list of 2009.

We now have our first taste (and it is just a taste) of the new album with the beautiful+brief "Soft Skin"
The track somehow manages to break itself into two distinct sections (they do realize the song is 2 minutes long right?) and, as usual, it adds a haunting element to the song that not easy to describe.

"I got soft skin. Are you gonna let me in?"

In my review I wrote that the Mountain Man listener feels as if she is intruding on the three singers rehearsing in the forest. That distance is dissolved a bit with this new track. It is a warm song that feels as if it was written just for you.

Mountain Man :: Soft Skin

Sleigh Bells

Sleigh Bells is only a duo. Two people. And somehow, even though my speakers are turned all the way down to the lowest setting, they sound LOUD. And this is ok because they make amazing in your face hip-pop music, part MIA, part Lily Allen, part awesome guitar tone. Also they are LOUD. Like, if you dont have a sub, your speakers will rattle. If you are tired, the treble will destroy you. If you wonder if their live show is awesome, it looks like it. If you wonder if there is a lil' Wayne Mashup, of course (see below). If you want to dance/ feel great, you will absolutely love them. Definitely new favorites.

You can get a lot of their music here. Album Treats drops May 11th on Mom + Pop/N.E.E.T.

Crown on the Ground

Fireman on the Groun (Lil' Wayne Mashup)

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