Purling Hiss - "Voices"
Oh yeah, take a look at the sweet cover art for Purling Hiss' new EP Lounge Lizards. Right off the bat, you can figure out a few things about the band, most notably being that they seem to be eating and breathing early 90's lo-fi rock. And that's basically what you get. The fuzzed out guitar snarl demands deep respect as it drowns frontman Mike Polizze in an ocean of distortion. Grab the EP over at Mexican Summer.
Unlike the display frame of the video suggests, "Caroline Goodbye" is not a very risqué affair, but it is sexy. Sexy in that kind of sad, regretful way. Never experienced that? It's the best. Building to an elegant finish of old travolta movies and people getting shot in the head, it's a pretty cool watch. You can grab the song and the rest of L'Espace's debut EP by heading to their bandcamp. (It's free!)
As Black Moth Super Rainbow are getting ready to tour in the fall, they've also been busy in the studio working on a new album. This is after their last, Eating Us, and frontman Tobacco's latest solo effort, Maniac Meat. Both were solid efforts, especially the solo work, but it started to feel like that was as far as their formula of spooky-vocoder-vocals and synth riffs would take them. Fortunately for us, as they make progress on recording, they'll be posting rough demos of upcoming songs, remixes, and whatever else on their soundcloud. The song above, "Streaker" is the first brand new song from them in a while. At first it sounds like a usual Tobacco song, drowned in grime with the synths no where to find, but this is a Tobacco song, you're going to get those synth kicks. Sure enough, they're there, only this time it sounds like they have an entire power grid charging their raw sludge. This is about as intense a song that Tobacco has ever produced, and that's saying something. In the end, the song is not some crazy departure from their other material, as it still falls into the earlier formula, but with those "dont give a fuck" synths, it's really hard to care.
As the sound cloud below's waveform might indicate to you, "Next Time" from Slime's debut EP, Increases, has two halves. The first is a soothing woodwind duet building itself up amongst increasing trickles of digital craftiness. In the second half, these trickles explode into a beautiful tunnel of distorted echoes. Increases is available today via Tough Love.
Björk - "Crystalline"
There is a certain amount of expectation with Björk these days. While still makes rewarding music, fairing much better than many of her late 1990's contemporaries, at the same time she still hasn't managed to obtain the stylistic unpredictability of that other electronic-infused rock act of the era, Radiohead.
At first listen, "Crystalline", the first official song released off her upcoming album, Biophilia, that same similar feeling that only Björk can produce. Lots of vocal layering, with Björk never failing to show off her range, and basic electronic dance beats. It's your usual Björk song, and wont change any minds who have already given her music listens in the past. For those who have jumped on the Björk train a long time ago, it does offer a welcome surprise. With just 50 seconds left, the song erupts into glorious Aphex Twin-inspired IDM not heard since...well, when was the last time you heard a new Aphex Twin song? This is not a new sound, by any means, but it is one that has fallen by the wayside in recent years due to the rise of dubstep and house and I can't say I haven't missed it. Biophilia comes out September 26th, and as with any Bjork record, it will be an interesting one.
Yes, Yorke is kind of a political-douche in the beginning
This friday night, I am writing this post instead of going out and laughing it up. But don't be afraid, dear friends. I am still laughing. This 6 pack is making sure of that, but tonight I got a kick I rarely get-- Radiohead rocked out, for a fleeting moment, and it feels like who knows how long since they've done that.
Today Radiohead announced they would play glastonbury just hours before they went on stage. Honestly, their setlist was made up almost entirely of King of Limbs and In Rainbows songs. Not terrible, by any means, but not what you reaaally want them to play. I respect the new material, and I welcome it into their discography, but I still miss the old stuff, I suppose. And today "Daily Mail" filled that need. What used to be a slow churner, solo piece, is now a fully formed Radiohead song, complete with a musical climax that was last seen on Hail to the Thief. Mainly, it's obvious these guys still have the heart for this, and that's what counts, right?
Okay, now that I'm done with the Radiohead plug (honestly, they don't happen very often), hit the jump to find out some news about the blog, and a small announcement you may or may not care about.
Heems - "Womyn aka Hitch demo"
Alright, I'll admit up front. I never really gave Das Racist the time of day after "Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell". It was funny, for sure, but a one time listen--other than when I just now listened again because it's been a year since I heard it originally, and I'll admit, this time it works for me. "Womyn" is a little different. It's still funny, but even better, it's hilarious. The first time my ears heard "LAYDEESSS!" I realized I actually hear this shit in real life, every day, from real people. Bro-dudes literally say that. But there's more to this song than humor. This is an accurate account of a male's attitude on women. Our viewpoint on them can be simple, naive, stereotypical, religious, wishful, and condemning. Usually it's a combination of most of those. To back up all the jokes and meanings-within-jokes, is a charming vocal melody which is the spine of the entire song, and helps lift it up out of male wonderings. Best line:
"Yo women, they like to take showers, and when they let you take it with them, it's really awesome."
As the grainy, handpainted house comes into view, the electronic undercurrent pulsates. Then...it gets weird. A heavily synthetic, almost dance piece, belongs to a beautiful, if nonsensical video. Siriusmo, a London native who's been doing small singles and other remixes for sometime now, released a full-length earlier this year called Mosaik that somehow slipped past me. Never a better time than the present to catch up on good music though.
Heavy on the reverb, Vitamins' new song is heavy on psychedelic grunge that for a few fleeting seconds, flirts with the idea of pop. Ultimately it remains a heavy song, visualized extremely well by shots of driving turned into a hellish landscape with a few cheap camera tricks. If you look up David Lee Powell, you'll hear the story of a Texas prisoner executed last year for murder, only after becoming a model inmate and much protests to his execution, so it's fitting that the song isn't some light affair. The song is from Vitamins' No Notion of Anything Only Whatever Is What 7" available through Hot Congress Records.
Weird video, weird song. Okay, I guess the song isn't weird so much, but the nasally sounding vocals produced by U.S. Girls' Meg Remy sound as if they could invent a whole genre called Nag-Pop. But it's not naggy as much as it sounds ragged, which is a feeling conveyed in the video as Remy changes from mascara-running fits of anxiety, to...well, it kind of looks like she's taking a poop in some of these shots. What can I say, this is your go to blog for cheap immature shots of constipation faces. The song is included in a 12" split with Slim Twig, available August 16th in North America.
If you've ever grown tired of Radiohead's eight LP's, then you have no doubt probably ventured into their many b-sides. These b-sides range from elegant movements and acousticworks that would fit perfectly on any album, to hauntingambient pieces and spasticcreatures that wouldn't seem to fit comfortably on any official Radiohead release. Hell, they even have a Dick Dale-inspired surf rock jam. And it's great.
As a teaser for Drums Between the Bells, Brian Eno's streaming two new tracks from the album on his website. And "Bless This Space" is a weird one, folks. Under a recitation of Rick Holland's words, Eno creates an electronic/krautrock bed of noise that eventually (d)evolves into guitar squall and clattering drums. Maybe an acquired taste, but it's got me counting the days before the album drops (there are 21 of them).
So I'll be honest: When this track was dropped in my inbox this morning, I really only gave it a chance because of the band's name. I'm glad I did, however. The L.A. group describes themselves as "dreampop," which is not far off the mark. "Best Friends" is reminiscent of an updated Mercury Rev, with its meandering piano lines and falsetto vocals. It's out on 7" w/ "Inner City" June 28th via the Seven Inch Project.
Gross Magic - "Sweetest Touch"
I feel "Sweetest Touch" hit the internet today and immediately exploded. And it's easy to see why, when the song does some exploding of its own. Gross Magic's bandcamp lists a bevy of influences, but the clearest one (or maybe just the one I'm the most stoked on) is a strong whiff of Nirvana's punchy riffs. It's good fun, and it's just one of 5 songs off their Teen Jamz EP, set to release on August 3rd. You can preorder the EP on the aforementioned bandcamp.
Kathleen Hannah is one of those icons of indie rock that doesn't actually seem to get the credit she deserves. No one really waits in the corners with baited breath for her return, but people pay attention when she comes out with something. Luckily for her, she's returning soon with an old late-90's project of hers, The Julie Ruin. Above is footage of them playing in NYC last December. They've been very actively lately recording, a new album is due out next January. Here's hoping they can still kick it like we all know they can.
Majical Cloudz (feat. Grimes) - "Dream World"
As I just start getting into Grimes (a teeny bit late to the party but whatevs) this comes out of nowhere. Definitely has that weird off-kilter catchiness to it that Grimes does so well. It's off a tape from Majical Cloudz titled II. I'll be giving this a listen soon to see what they can do on their own, so here's hoping. You can also download the album (donations encouraged) at Arbutus Records.
Soft Powers - "A deathly lit ballroom (in her birthday-suit)"
I can't listen to this song and not immediately think of Portishead's first album, Dummy. That, my friends, is a very good thing. It's creepy, and chilled on ice. Like all of my favorite drinks. Tragically, there doesn't seem to be many more songs from Soft Powers. Their bandcamp just consists of this one song, but their myspace contains a few more. Hopefully something concrete comes of these guys soon.
Trouble Brooks and Mark McGuire - "Song for Reinier Lucassen's Sphinx"
First thing's first; if you haven't had Emeralds invade your eardrums yet, please go seek out their latest album Does it Look Like I'm Here. While you're doing that, have a listen to this song by Mark McGuire (one half of Emeralds) and husband-and-wife duo, Trouble Brooks. Note that the first 45 seconds are identical to most of Emeralds' signature sound of synth and spacey guitar instrumentations. Here, it's expanded thanks to the vocals of Trouble Brooks. It's nice to see the 80's computer vibes expanded like this, and thankfully, there's a whole LP due from these guys. You can grab it over at Bark and Hiss.
If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you've probably realized that I'm not too big into strictly electronic sounding music, but occasionally there is the rare exception. In this case it's "Lamento," off John Talabot's recently released EP, Families. It sort of bridges the gap between house music and pop, so I'm intrigued. I'm going to check out the rest of the EP, and you should too. It's already out now by way of Young Turks.
A rad, intense song with equally bewildering footage to accompany it--my favorite. Not much to be found of La Secte Du Futur. For now you can find a few other songs at their myspace. Hopefully something else pops up soon.
Thunder - "Daylight"
It's been known for a short time that Flying Lotus-protege Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) was coming out with a debut LP produced, unsurprisingly, by FlyLo himself. A first small taste came in the form of a groovy cover of a George Duke song, "For Love I Come." An excellent song, to be sure, but with it being a cover, it wasn't exactly showing off Thundercat's ability to write a completely original tune. This is no longer the case, as a new song off the album was released today. "Daylight" cuts right down to the jib of Thundercat's retro-funk vibe. With the key lyric being "open your mind," it sounds like the record will have no shortage of psychedelic charms. This is one to look forward to. The Golden Age of Apocalypse (I am in love with that album title) comes out August 30th via Brainfeeder.
Slime - "First Cape"
As I was finally coming to the end of my RSS feed for the day in the search of new music, it all came down to this one. At this point, after having gone through 50+ songs and videos, I usually give a song mere seconds to make an impression. I mean, I have other stuff to do. This is a hobby dammit. So color me surprised when the first seconds of Slime's "First Cape" were, simply put, serene. Then Will Archer's (Slime's) falsetto comes in, followed by hallways filled with ghostly voices. The song keeps the serenity, and adds a little bit haunt to it. But that's not the impressive part--a minute and a half in, a beat comes in. A strong beat. If this were any other song, I'd consider it a negative aspect, but Archer (who, being 19, makes this even more impressive) knows how to tastefully implement such a device, and aptly moves in and out of it. Slimes has a debut EP called increases coming out on June 27th via Tough Love Records, and it has instantly become something I'm looking forward to hearing. Also, props to yourstru.ly for the premiere of this song.
Twin Sister - "Bad Street"
I have to admit, I've been pretty lukewarm about Twin Sister up to this point. When they first entered the scene, I definitely took notice to their unique sound. Unfortunately, I thought that sound was a little mixed on their debut EP, as if they couldn't decide if they wanted to do dreampop, glitzy dance stuff, or just be a funky Beach House. You can never pass final judgement on a band based off one EP, however, so I've wisely waited till the come out with a proper debut LP to see if they will click further. I say wisely because the first taste of the new announced album In Heaven, is foot-tapper "Bad Street", and it definitely hits the potential I heard from them in the beginning. It's funky and concentrated. The album comes out September 27th via Domino.
Awww yeah, now we're getting into the weird stuff. First, this is a brand new song off Memory Tapes' new LP, Player Piano. So that's something right there. And the song is an interesting. It's clear with this song, and others released from the album, that Dayve Hawk is intending to move beyond the dance-chillwave nature of his last album into something a little more substantial. Not a bad move, especially since he's sort of come full circle with music made under his Memory Cassette moniker, which I always enjoyed quite a bit more. And past the song, there's the elephant in the room. This song is fucking weird. It's not really gruesome, but it definitely does some slicing and dicing with the human body. Sort of reminds me of when Dr. Manhattan first transformed into an ubermensch, only, like, reverse. Yeaaahh. Player Piano comes out July 5th via Carpark.
This band completely slipped past my radar, I will admit. But sometimes all you need to get my attention is a catchy song and a video with a...unique color palette. Videos like these are easily made, but when done right, that's part of the charm. And the song just kicks. Strong rock hooks make the whole thing. It's from Balkans' self-titled debut LP, which came out May 10th. See? Radar slippage. You can stream the rest of the album over at the fader.
As I get back into the swing of the music blog thing (sorry for the week off, lol), this one popped up out of no where and I felt compelled to post it, if only to let anyone who follows this blog know that I am still intent on writing for it. Bjork teases some new music off her new album Biophilia, while driving. Look there's even some hot wiper action! The song is apparently called "Crystalline" and it should get an official release later this month. Biophilia, on the other hand, comes out presumably sometime this year, and is a multimedia project that will be released as an album, but also an iPad app. It's already been announced that Michel Gondry will direct a music video for one of the songs, so it's very nice to see him go back to his roots. The whole thing is pretty...bjorkish, if you ask me. Nothing wrong with that, however.
