Recently, Flying Lotus has been updating his Soundcloud page with songs from his past that he has hidden away (presumably in a gold-covered walk-in vault of some kind). Today, we get this treat: the instrumental version of Jose James' "Made For Love." I'm not much of an r&b fan myself, so FlyLo's production stripped of James' croon makes it even better. Be prepared, people, this is sexy-time music.
Ever since my high school infatuation with Kim Deal, and subsequently, the Breeders, I can't resist a good chick vocalist digging into the rockier side of things. "Nightcrawlers", a quick and cool cut from Widowspeak's debut album hits all the right points. Hope to hear more of this on August 9th when their debut LP hits.
Gauntlet Hair - "Top Bunk"
One of the best bands I found last year via blogs was Gauntlet Hair. With hard edged songs like "I Was Thinking" and "Out, Don't..." this is the kind of band you can't afford to not pay attention to. Some of these bands that you hear in the blogs though, you never hear from ever again. I was pretty pumped to wake up to not only a new song, but debut album release info too. Above is the high minded "Top Bunk". Glad to hear they haven't deviated from their sound, which I feel is still pretty fresh. Is he yelling? Is he singing? Oh who cares. The self-titled debut comes out October 18th, and I, for one, am stoked.
Girls - "Vomit" (via onethirtybpm)
Missed that whole Monday restart thing by a good two days. Whatever. Was forced to come out of lazy retirement because of a new song by Girls. The first song, "Vomit" previewed by Seattle radio station KEXP, eschews the light pop sounds of their first album and attains a much harder edge. My guess would be that this is one of the many styles that will be present on the new album. Their debut had scattered influences ranging from 50's rock n' roll to shoegaze, so I wouldn't be surprised to see attempts at an even more diverse range of sounds. Father, Son, Holy Ghost is due for release on September 13th via True Panther.
Unintentionally took last week off. But it's okay, there wasn't a whole lot last week to really groove on. Anywho, been feeling a bit burnt out as of late, and with the Pitchfork Music Festival coming up, I've decided to officially (and intentionally) take this week off as well. Is this a very professional move? Absolutely not. But I'm just a 22 year old manchild who isn't getting paid for this, so I don't think I have to worry about that yet. Come back next Monday, the 17th, to continue listening to awesome new music and reading my derivative opinions.
For now, I leave you with Radiohead's Live From the Basement recording. They play all of The King of Limbs, which seeing as how they don't seem to be planning a tour any time soon, might be your only chance in the near future to see these songs performed. Also on there is new song "The Daily Mail," which sees Radiohead return to a more rocking out sound, and the previously blogged "Staircase".
See you guys next week!
Memory Tapes - "Wait in the Dark" This year Memory Tapes and other Chillwave acts have somewhat of an uphill battle when it comes to achieving the same level of acclaim that they received two years ago. The interim between releases from these artists for a year or two naturally quieted the hype for future material and made room for other trends. Now that Memory Tapes (aka Dayve Hawk), Washed Out, and Neon Indian are all putting releases out for this year, the guys who kicked off its genesis have to prove that they as artists aren’t limited by a sound or brand, and that they can subtly push Chillwave in a progressive direction, much as Portishead and Massive Attack accomplished with Trip-Hop.
I freely admit that I don't cover as much hip-hop up here as I would like to. While it may or may not surprise you, I do like hip-hop. Thing is, a song either hooks me as soon as I hear the first beat or it doesn't at all. I thrive off thoughtful samples and a certain elegance to the pacing. Requisites like these may it hard to like much of the hip-hop coming out these days, but "Coastin" has all that. Cities Aviv raps about how he's sailing to the top of hip-hop, if only just because there's no one to stand in his way, and ravishing motown strings back up the free floating imagery. While this song doesn't seem to be part of any future release for Cities Aviv, you can grab older releases at his bandcamp (all free), such as his latest album, Digital Lows.
Velcro - "One Day" (demo)
Talk about coming out of nowhere. Curtis Wakeling (Velcro) has nothing to his name. Look for him on the internet and you won't even find a bandcamp. Hopefully he has things in the pipeline because this demo he recently released is pleasant, to say the least. If "Leave Me Be" by the Zombies took a day off to ponder its life, it would probably sound like this breezy daydream of a song.
