Good old bandcamp! I've found some gems recently through this great website, and have, for the most part, been able to gradually shift away from feeling guilty about simply typing "mediafire" into a google search while looking for music from new bands that i've read about. One band that I've been pretty up on recently is Mean Wind. About here I'd try to say something about the group, but there's really no biographical information available about them (him?) anywhere to be found online. What I can say, however, is that they are very giving! All of their music, which to date is 2 EPs and 2 recent tracks posted in January, are up for free on their bandcamp site. Of course, you can pay $5 for the albums, but they kindly provide mediafire links for those who would simply like to peruse.
About the music, the tags they list are: "experimental nobody nowhere pop" I'd say this is experimental to the degree that it's not 100% pop jams, but it could be found on some early Elephant 6 records. In fact "Kingdom Come," their most straightforwardly accessible, and in my opinion successful, song would fit well on any of The Gerbils' albums. Higher pitched vocals, a bit of delay to create somewhat of a psychedelic environment, but overall just a very, very catchy, well-made song. It is, however, a bit more folksy and reminiscent of Fleet Foxes or other indie-folk acts, but not as clean, not as straightforward, and the harmonies are a little more crude. In a GOOD way! I've thoroughly enjoyed them.
Listen to "Kingdom Come" off of their The The Guests Guests Are Are Gone Gone Gone Gone EP.
Check them out here. Download all of their music for free. Put some of their songs on mixes! Maybe give them $5! Buy a musical instrument and write a song! Take a modern dance class! Treat yourself and others with love and respect!
TV on the Radio just released a brand new song in the same breath that announced their new album, Nine Types of Light, will be coming out April 12th. I just listened to it, and I think it's pretty good. Not their catchiest or most electric, but it definitely still has that dense, heavy, solid, I almost want to say manly production that makes TV on the Radio's music such a visceral pleasure to hear. Their music is like a steak dinner washed down with a frosty pint or two of ale: it always leaves you feeling well-fed, slightly intoxicated, and with a little extra iron in your blood. I hope there's more where that came from.
So Sweet Bulbs is pretty much perfect in my book. They just released a self-titled album on Blackburn Recordings.
For me, it's like listening to songs about the time that I put "Sweet Avenue" by Jets to Brazil on a Valentine's mix for my girlfriend. Really mellow, distant, but oh so pure in intentions and emotion. Plus it's pretty catchy. In all of the interviews and articles that I've read about them, a slurry of obscure 90s punk and shoegaze bands came up, but this is simpler and better. At the heart it's a really skinny Jawbreaker, trying real hard to stay warm in one of My Bloody Valentine's old sweaters.
ANDREW: The eighth studio album from the peerless Radiohead is here. The King of Limbs was released yesterday, a day early, to be quickly gobbled up by the cultish hordes of devotees on the intarwebs. I have long considered myself one of these obsessive cult members, perhaps to be ridiculed by Raj and others, but in my travels, I've simply never heard anyone on their level. They don't have an equal. They don't have an analog. They just consistently make music that rewards repeat listening, varying widely in influences and stylistic choices. But enough hero worship of all things Radiohead. You don't have the time.
The album is a concise 8 track, 38 minute affair, but the tracks are finessed and finely layered, giving surprising depth to an album so brief. An unbelievable opener, introducing not only the album but effectively creating a vast soundscape, "Bloom" starts the album with hypnotic piano loops, a pulsating snare drum beat, and positively jazzy bass accents. Then comes Yorke, with a slow sprawling vocal line, smoothly and slowly gliding over the restrained drums. On this album many of the tracks sound as though they would be amazing live, with space to expand, and "Bloom" is no exception. "Morning Mr. Magpie" starts with much the same rhythmic structure, although this time more attention is given to Yorke's vocals, perhaps revealing a political narrative, with "You stole it all, give it back" as a populist rallying cry in these days of economic collapse. Maybe that's a stretch, but given Yorke's activism, I wouldn't put it past them.
Sigh, "Feral". Fucking awesome. This is the track where Radiohead proves it can play this post-dubstep game with the best of them. James Blake's vocal atmospherics, or those of Will Bevan, aka Burial, come to mind to be sure. But here Yorke's vocal effects, coming in spatially from all corners of the song, are paired with that relentess pulsating beat of the album's openers, fluctuating nicely in intensity and volume, providing necessary variety. I was thinking I haven't heard variations in drumming this satisfying since Caribou's track "Brahminy Kite".
"Lotus Flower" with its accompanying video, proves to be an oddly dance-friendly track with great bass (and hand claps!), and Yorke flaunting his trademark falsetto while crooning about the empty space in his heart. Radiohead at their best.
"Codex", the sparse and melancholy track with simple piano licks against Yorke's inimitable vocals, is a glorious slow burn, reminiscent perhaps of tracks like OK Computer's "Exit Music (For A Film)". The track is a necessary respite as well from all the fast paced frenetic beats of earlier tracks on the album.
Out of nowhere, a wild acoustic guitar appears! On "Give Up The Ghost" Radiohead decides to eat Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket's lunches too, turning in an almost folksy track. The vocals aren't unaltered though, and some of the looping and atmospherics sound more like Bibio's lo-fi electronic jams. Anything your band can do, Radiohead can do better.
At the end of the day, I'm not ready to evaluate this album against the Radiohead canon, and I recognize the album is not perfect (too short, where are the guitars, etc.) but this album is a well-crafted gem. Radiohead's music has such an intentional feel, for lack of a better description. These guys know exactly how they want their music to sound, how they want it to be distributed, and how they want it to be performed, and I can really respect that. Please chime in, BZNZmen.
PLEASE LET THERE BE A TOUR.
JESSE: In 8th grade I basically only listened to Blur, the Foo Fighters, and OK Computer. Foo Fighters died out pretty soon thereafter, but OK Computer and Blur carried over into high school. Then OK Computer died out too, though I still appreciate it as an incredible album. I’ll throw it on every once and awhile. But that’s it. I don’t listen to Radiohead, ever, even though I have more or less all of their music. And I feel the same about most of their music, that it’s all very, very good. It’s original, it’s deep, well layered, not too straightforward, but accessible enough to appeal to millions. And they’re deserving of their praise, as always. But that doesn’t make me ever want to listen to it. In this zero sum game of life, listening to Radiohead means I’m not listening to something else. And that’s how I feel when I listen to them most of the time, be it Kid A, In Rainbows, or yesterday’s The King of Limbs. Really, OK Computer and some of their Neil Young covers are basically all I ever listen to, and that’s a rarity. Perhaps it’s their ill-fated positioning on my iPod, sandwiched between Raccoo-oo-oon and Raekwon. My tastes are just such that I’d really rather listen to Is Night People or Only Built 4 Cuban Linx at really any given time. Oh well.
But about this album specifically…it’s really an extension of how I feel about Radiohead. It’s good, but nothing’s really standing out as something that I want to listen to very much. For as much as Andrew has said that it does so many things so much better than everyone else, to me it sounds like, well, Radiohead. Actually, the part of this that sounds least like Radiohead to me is the guitar in "Morning Mr. Magpie", because it sounds like U2. And just because a song has acoustic guitar doesn’t mean it sounds anything like indie folk-rock. “Give Up the Ghost” seems less focused on the fact that there’s an acoustic guitar in there then on the vocal layering and peaking of the song via electronic effects, which works very well. But to say that they’re really doing anything on the same level as Fleet Foxes or My Morning Jacket is sort of unfounded, isn’t it? Totally different goals here, I’d say. Also, did Radiohead fire Phil Selway? I like drum samples as much as the next guy, but sheesh. I could use a little variation in my percussion. I appreciate that it’s short enough to not really have any dull moments, though. 8 average-lengthed tracks, you don’t get tired of anything (which could happen, considering the use of more repetitive beats throughout each song), and there enough turns to keep you happy within the songs, sort of. But at the same time, I sort of just wish I were listening to Boredoms instead of this.
So overall, I’ve listened through this about 2.5 times. It’s good! And it’s Radiohead. I guess it’s overall like, no matter how many new things they try to incorporate into their music, it’s still surprisingly predictable. That probably has something to do with Thom’s vocals. Because they sound pretty much the same on everything they do matter what. I think I’ll try to listen through some more of their other albums more just in attempts to like Radiohead more than I do, but I won’t count on it. Call me the Radiohead grouch to Andrew's Kanye grouch.
RAJ: "Anything your band can do, Radiohead can do better"? More like, "Radiohead can do better", am I right?
But SRSly, a few brief thoughts, since Andy and Jesse have already covered this pretty thoroughly: I'm closer to Andy than Jesse on the love-of-Radiohead spectrum (although, yes, I would generally rather listen to Raekwon), but I will say that this is the first Radiohead release since Pablo Honey that hasn't felt to me like an out-of-the-gate first-listen revelation. That has a lot to do with the very intentional decision to make this album a thoroughly mellow, low-key affair, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but certainly limits Radiohead from engaging in the kind of grand gestures that mark the very best of their work.
If there's one common thread throughout all the past Radiohead albums, it's a kind of apocalyptic bombast, a tendency towards drama and full-throated emotion - the operatic sweep of "Paranoid Android", the suffocating paranoia of "Idioteque", etc, etc, ad infinitum. The King of Limbs feels a lot more muted in that sense - "Bloom", "Codex", and "Give Up The Ghost" are gorgeous and haunting, and "Lotus Flower" has the great almost-R&B vibe that you saw on past tracks like "House of Cards", but this is masterfully-crafted prettiness in place of the soaring ambition we saw on past Radiohead efforts.
I'm not going to trash this album because there's obvious skill, care, and inspiration present in these tracks, but kind of like Jesse, I don't feel particularly compelled to revisit anything off this album except for "Lotus Flower" and maybe "Bloom" (for the record, I think "Feral" is a total misfire - an amalgam of various electronic influences that never cohere into a song or structure that's particularly interesting, kind of like "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors" from Amnesiac). Now I'm going to go listen to the new PJ Harvey album some more.
In addition:
- Andy was totally just baiting everyone with his band references, but I will forgive him because of his deft Pokemon reference.
- What the hell kind of U2 song does "Morning Mr. Magpie" sound like, Jesse?
I guess that if you pay the money for rights to a given rap beat, it's only fair that you get listed as the main artist on the track. But that doesn't change the fact that Chris Brown is so hilariously out of place on "his" latest single "Look At Me Now", which "features" Busta Rhymes, Twista, and Lil Wayne. The beat, a minimalist Neptunes-esque stomper by Afrojack and Diplo, is high-quality enough that Brown's limp contribution, a complete nothing of an verse and a half-hearted attempt at double time that almost immediately falls apart (not to mention an irritating intro), doesn't sink the entire enterprise. Instead, Busta Rhymes takes over (starting off with a hilariously condescending lecture to Brown) and kicks off one of the most solid fast-rap showcases in years. Busta takes the crown for endurance here, stretching out a single breath into way many more bars of jackhammer-flow rap than you'd think was possible. Twista, on the other hand, wins for agility, with his hairpin transitions from 0 to 60 in the speed of his flow. And while Weezy may be in the wrong weight class against these double-time heavyweights, his verse contains plenty of typically Wayne oddities (there's a pretty disarming pleasantness to a diss like "n***** is sweet as pumpkin pie").
Thankfully, internet justice has been bestowed upon the track with noble remixers stepping in to lop off the Brown verse entirely (although the only version I could find is a clean edit, unfortunately). A more ambitious remix comes from Israeli DJ Sabbo, who seizes upon the rhythmic clatter of the voices in the original and reproduces the effect with a skittering array of handclaps and synthetic snares, ending up with one of the best Baltimore-club-esque tracks I've heard in a while. In any case, Chris Brown deserves thanks, if not for his talent then for his advocacy, since his star profile helped the plenty-weird-on-its-own original sneak into the Billboard Top 20 somehow. I would like to see more acts signing up as collaborators on awesome material that is far beyond their level of competence - I think Katy Perry could probably do wonders with Melt Banana.
Chris Brown - "Look at Me Now (ft. Busta Rhymes, Twista, Lil Wayne)"
so it was announced a while ago that beck's going to be producing thurston moore's new album.
raj and i had the following conversation:
Raj: jesse where did you find this video when did thurston moore have a show me: he was guest hostin g on that show i found it on youtube Raj: also why isn't beck this cool anymore me: seriously he became a middle aged man i think Sea Change probably did it Raj: emooooooooooo also have you listened to odd future me: just a little that tyler the creator song yongers is SO good that beat yonkers* Raj: it's really great and luckily he doesn't make any rape jokes so i don't have to cringe every time i hear it ! me: yeah those are p awkward and he talks about killing B.O.B. and Bruno Mars! Raj: yeah but like is that even bad me: i know i'm totally giving him dap for that Raj: daps daps all around also pat is on the blog now fyi me: yeah i see! Raj: panda bear was so hilariously bad at pitchfork festival me: srsly? i saw him on the person pitch tour Raj: he refused to play any old material and he hadn't actually released any new material and most of it was just ambient drone me: so deep Raj: wooaoaooaa me: i think the song "drone" on the new one is probably going to be not good Raj: lol the new songs are p good tho me: drone is only successful when it's not in a pop album i think otherwise it's just like trying to state your likings too much yeah the jetty one so good! Raj: droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone me: i think my views of panda bear are shifting i used to be so in awe because he was like don't worry about being cool, skateboard and have fun! and now he's still like that and it's like oh ok panda bear Raj: dude is pretty cranky though didn't he give an interview where he was like making person pitch was agony me: yeah Raj: or something like that me: i like that so far this one isn't very sample based Raj: why you hatin on samples??????? me: no i like them do'nt get me wrong raj! but i think it would have been v easy to just make another person pitch Raj: but that would be awesome what huh me: would it Raj: who me: would it raj raj i can never think of anything to write about on the blog anymore Raj: COOLNESS IS HAVING COURAGE TO DOOO WHAT'S POOP me: COURAGE TO POOP WHILE UPRIGHT Raj: jesse just write about beck and thurston moore and how they used to be cool me: did you know beck's producing thurston's new album? Raj: i don't think i've ever listened to any solo thurston stuff is it good? me: i haven't listened to much, i got an album in 07 i think had some goodn's i like thurston moore mainly because of his massive support for the noise community even though noise is mostly really crappy Raj: lol when is the next good album coming out i feel like it's been a while since anything good me: no idea Raj: ughghghghghgh me: i think i might post this video on the blog and then just copy this conversation Raj: cccccccccchhhhhhhhhhat logs me: chogs crocs Raj: crocodile rock me: your song Raj: IT WAS ALL A DREAm HOLD ME CLOSER TINY DANCER MASHUP me: girl talk is so cool have you heard of mashups Raj: i saw him again a few weeks ago! it was basically the same! which was really fun still! me: he's a party man Raj: except now he has a confetti snake me: what does that even mean ?! Raj: it's a huge plastic tube that bends all over the place and it's filled with confetti and eventually some crazy party dudes rip it open and confetti me: lol owellse oh goodness raj i saw tron yesterday Raj: lol me: lol i loled so much Raj: i remember being very confused towards the end but also thinking it was very dumb me: why didn't creator dude just make things easy for himself the whole time Raj: i liked how when they have to get to that final teleporter thingy the journey involves just sitting on a train and then they're on the train for like 20 minutes me: a light beam train Raj: DRAMA me: it's cool when there's light beams Raj: olivia wilde is super super super attractive tho me: at the end i was kind of like i want a ducati motorcycle and to not see this movie and replace this movie with a beautiful woman on a motorcycle which i am driving at sunrise Raj: you know the part that actually was good the guy who ran the club was pretty great actually i barely remember anything other than that and the train me: daft punk dude they're so cool Raj: wooooopopppopopo me: is it ok that i really don't like daft punk Raj: NO me: or am i wrong Raj: GRAARARARARAR me: and really i do like daft punk Raj: it was a p boring score me: what if GWAR had made the soundtrack Raj: that is the best idea the best Raj: speaking of which MAKING BEATS? me: dude i need to get some audio software Raj: jesse i just downloaded reason and it's mostly just same old same old but the synthesizers are sooo soooo good you can do so much cool shit with them me: i think i also need people with whom to make music good old synths Raj: i should actually finish something in reason mainly i've just been making really cool instruments and then patting myself on the back and then quitting me: what do you use for a midi controller? Raj: i have a tiny little midi keyboard from wal-mart it gets the job done you can actually set up maschine to do a lot of external midi controlling functions but i haven't bothered me: i don't have time to figure this all out right now but hopefully this summer i'll experiment a bit more Raj: woop woop woop wobwobwobwobwobwobwobwobwobwobwob (dubstep) me: remember that girl who got the h1n1 shot then couldn't walk normally? Raj: i heard that it was all in her head me: yeh it was fake so let me show you this video Raj: lollll i remember laughing really really hard at that video and feeling p bad me: this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lLqqR2pcws WOBBLEGIRL - This is how you dance to dubstep only because she got over it and that it was psychological did i feel ok laughing out this and i laughed so hard Raj: aaaaaa this is so good honestly when i saw rusko this isn't that far from how people were dancing me: how do you feel about dubstep these days Raj: i dunno certain acts are pretty great a lot of it is boring basically the less it depends on the wobble, the better you know what i mean? me: yeah i mean that's definitely fun sometimes but i feel like that's the only reason it's big here Raj: probably have you ever heard joker i like his stuff a lot me: mhm a bit Raj: stupid kid is also like 17 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPmW58Bv7kg Gorillaz - Doncamatic (feat. Daley) Joker Remix this is probably my favorite dubstep song if this even is dubstep like people say the new james blake is dubstep so i basically have no idea what the term means now me: no, i'm p sure he and mount kimbie are now like that faces of post-dubstep right? Raj: that sounds better me: i think cuz it's leaving the traditional high-pitched voice low end drop stuff mostly just like getting all minimalist and whatnot Raj: i'm confused about what it takes from dubstep, period me: true Raj: like the meter, i guess? i don't know me: probably because they're from london Raj: DUBBY me: post rub a dub dub bubbrub Raj: bubsy
And you can be sure that people will be listening to it A LOT on the trains to work, but won't admit it. However, the telltale sign that someone is listening to it will be the characteristic smushing-of-face-against-the-window-with-a-drooly-open-mouthed-grin posture. That'll be me too, most likely, also enjoying when springtime finally wakes the fuck up in Brooklyn. (YOU HEAR ME SPRING? WAKE THE FUCK UP!)
The new album is called Tomboy and will be out on April 12. In the meantime, Panda Bear has been releasing a series of vinyl-only singles featuring songs from the new album.
Where much of 2007's Person Pitch sounded like being at a house party with a Beach Boys record playing in two rooms away, the singles--particularly "Last Night at the Jetty" and title track "Tomboy"--hint that Tomboy will be at the same party, but one room closer to the record player, and the record is probably not the Beach Boys but still might be, and sometimes the noise coming from the aquarium in the background is also getting louder. Other times, it's kinda like the noise emitted from a radio jammed on a public address station overlaid with Noah Lennox's vocals overlaid with Noah Lennox's vocals.
Maybe you heard that "Born This Way," the title track and lead single of Gaga's upcoming album, came out today. Maybe you care. I do; if you don't that's okay too.
After listening to it I thought Hmm...not so good. Sure, the message is nice enough, but like many "message" songs it has little or no actual emotional content. The lyrics are too busy sloganeering to actually express anything. It has none of the dark edge that make "Bad Romance" and "Paparazzi" such a sick thrill to listen to. And the production is WAY too busy. And what is that weird cello sample at the beginning? Is it from Tron: Legacy? Whatever it is, it doesn't work. Worst of all, the song isn't even that catchy! The tune just kind of goes through the motions all the way through without ever really firming up into a decent hook. All in all: not horrible, but definitely Gaga's weakest song since her songs started to get good, maybe her weakest single yet.
Then I listened to it again, and this time I thought about all the drama geeks and chubby gay kids and weirdos in all the high schools in America all pogoing ecstatically to it at their respective junior proms, and I thought Hmm...who gives a shit about my opinion? Nobody, and especially not them. Fact is, this song is not meant as music. It is meant as a rallying cry for the outcasts, and in that I'm sure it will succeed splendidly. And for the rest of us listening at home on our headphones, I'm sure her next single will be plenty better.
Also: "God makes no mistakes" is not such a bad theological argument against homophobia.
PS As happy as I'm sure she is for the Egyptian people, I'll bet Gaga is a little pissed that Mubarak chose today to leave office. After six months of buildup, her new single is still only the second biggest news item of the day.
In the beginning, The Strokes were vastly overrated. Is This It wasn't the era-defining savior of rock and roll, as some of its most rabid supporters suggested - it was just a solid collection of rock tunes heavy on the nostalgia and appealingly light in its manner. And, of course, the backlash came, and for a time, it was good. And then, as backlashes have a habit of doing, it went too far and people started dismissing The Strokes entirely - look, maybe Is This It wasn't exactly the era-defining savior of rock and roll, but it was still a really solid collection of nostalgia-heavy light-mannered rock tunes! But the damage was done, and people were subsequently unable to admit that Room on Fire was a pretty worthy sophomore effort, and that First Impressions of Earth had some pretty great moments (Julian Casablancas' solo album is better than people gave it credit for, too). Now, finally, the dipshits of Rolling Stone have declared the new Strokes single to be a return to form, finding hills and valleys in a career that is mostly plateau.
My point with all this: I like the new Strokes single! Not that it's super great! But it's pretty good, again largely in part because it reminds you of other stuff that was great. The way the two lead guitar lines sort of squeal and fight against each other kind of reminds me of the end of "Layla"! That riff that comes in under the verses is pretty Thin Lizzy! The title is basically the same as "Undercover of the Night" by the Rolling Stones! I can't pin down a referent for the tempo change during the solo, but that's pretty wicked, too. So it's really pretty satisfying work - but just chill about it, everybody, before you start the stupid cycle above going again.
Tangent: do you guys remember The Hives? And, like, The Vines? Weren't they hilarious?
So chillwave has come up as a source of some contention in this space before. I hopped on that bandwagon real hard back in the summer of 2009, but with the full realization that it was likely little more than a fad that would end quickly. Indeed, after a time Neon Indian began to chafe the ears, even if I did roll out to a Washed Out show in Philly with fellow BZNZman TK. All along, Toro Y Moi was probably the cream of the chillwave crop, with tracks like "Blessa" making the Muddog Millionaire's top tracks of 2011.
Toro Y Moi is back with another LP, the well-crafted and multi-dimensional Underneath The Pine, giving surprising longevity to a fad subgenre. The oddly charismatic Chazwick Bundick is the man behind these tunes, a dude from Columbia, South Carolina. For this second LP, Toro Y Moi restrains some of the crazy synths and super echoed vocals on archetypal chillwave tracks like "Low Shoulder", in favor of more straightforward songwriting and lyricism, with a much more "natural" sound, for lack of a better description.
At times Chaz's falsetto starts to nearly evoke The Beach Boys, and at others, some sort of alternate world lounge jams. "Still Sound" is just a great track, with a funky bassline, great keyboard lines, and just enough echoey vocals without getting carried away. "New Beat" as well would be at home on any disco dancefloor, a true rump shaker. The instrumental "Divina" has a proggy sound that almost sounds like a distant cousin of a track off Dark Side of the Moon. The (gasp) acoustic guitars on "Before I'm Done" make for a smooth little track, indeed.
In this interview with At The Sinema, in which Chaz mentions his influences include Weezer (wtf?) he had this to say about the almost accidental evolution of chillwave:
"I’ve kinda gotten past that sound. All that stuff is really good music, like Ernest Green (Washed Out) and Neon Indian. I’m a big fan of all of that, but I think that was just a small little period where we all were, coincidentally."
With Underneath The Pine, has the term chillwave outlasted it's utility? Not sure. Maybe as Chaz branches out with his house and Italo disco side project Les Sins and gets past the chillwave stigma, we can see where this shit is goin', but for now Underneath the Pine is a pleasant album, with sounds of spring just around the corner.
Above is a picture of me jumping rope in Inner Mongolia. Yesterday was my birthday, and I'd like to share a nice mix with everyone as a token of gratitude for the birthday wishes I received. Below is a 23-song mix for my 23 years of life! No theme, just tuneskies again. I'm in love with all of you! The tracklisting is below, because I'm still not quite sure how to upload a playlist and maintain the order when you compress it and whatnot. Bear with me, I'm bad with technology. But if you just want to randomize it yourself that's fine too.
1. Just Once – Bardo Pond 2. Quadrichromie – Jazz Hip Trio 3. Inorganizm – DJ Krush 4. Radar 1941 – Sun City Girls 5. You’ve Got A Reputation – The Byrds 6. Even Later – Bobby Hutcherson 7. La Femme – Alain Gorageur 8. Love In Outer Space – Sun Ra 9. ‘Round Midnight – Joe Pass 10. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – Neil Young & Crazy Horse 11. Just To See You Smile (Instrumental) – Spacemen 3 12. The Right To Remain Silent – Silver Jews 13. Scapula – Sean McCann 14. Any Way The Wind Blows – Frank Zappa 15. Embers – Tubby Hayes 16. Sweetaromat – Dakim 17. Fun Dink Death – Eric Copeland 18. One More Try – Excepter 19. Green Tea Power – FLYamSAM 20. Kingdom Come – Mean Wind 21. Black Sun – Kode9 22. Battles – Celebration 23. Palava Puolukka – Kemialliset Ystävät
So we've featured Lunice before, and turns out there's a short documentary on him! That concert footage looks crazy fun. The Stacker Upper EP is also awesome, listen to that shit.
In Ghost Colours, the 2008 album from Cut Copy, is to New Order as Zonoscope, the latest album from Cut Copy, is to, like, Duran Duran. This is more or less intended as a compliment! Where the last album trafficked in the lockstep dance precision of the artists formerly known as Joy Division, Zonoscope dives hard into glorious pop cheese. It's a much more goofy, unself-conscious affair - it's not a stretch to imagine that dudes toked and pretended to sing like Billy Idol for a while (really - see "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution") then listened to the tapes later and decided it didn't sound half bad. And it doesn't! I'm not going to say exactly that the band is better off for their more shaggy-dog approach to the record, but the album has more than a few points where it's damn near irresistible - songs like "Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat" and "Need You Now" are John-Cusack-with-a-boombox-outside/The-Human-League level corny, but it feels churlish to resist them given how fun they are.
The album does deviate from my opening analogy at a few key points, in detours that do and don't work. The best left turn is "Where I'm Going", where the band decides to ditch synthesizers completely and write a straightforward guitar pop song, which ends up sounding like a superlative unearthed British Invasion b-side. Then there's the last two songs on the album, "Corner of the Sky", and the 15-minute long "Sun God", which aim at a more straightforward 4/4 homage to 90s house (I think? All you house-heads would know better than me). "Corner of the Sky" is brief and appealing, and "Sun God" isn't exactly objectionable, but it seems clear that these guys are more fun as pop maestros than as extended dance-vamp DJs. Outsize ambition doesn't particularly suit these guys* - they're never been about much more than refining nostalgic sounds until they come up with pop diamonds. That's no small feat, of course - and it's great to see a band mining the past with as much care and skill as this Australian duo.
*I seem to remember Andy having a pretty great theory about "Hearts on Fire", the first single of In Ghost Colours, as some kind of meta-commentary on the history of dance music, although the details of his interpretation escape me. Andy?
Martin Scorsese once said that "Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out." The latest music video from director Patrick Daughters delightfully does away with the second half of that dictum, as Daughters wields the edges of his frame like razor blades and wrecking balls. Daughters is one of the true visionaries working in the music video form (best known for his one-take Feist videos, but truly great because of his Depeche Mode and Department of Eagles videos), in part because he likes to merge thought-provoking cinema-theory gimmicks with a truly gleeful spirit of filmmaking. The "Fever Dreaming" video revels in its carnage, and it also comes up with the best macabre joke/jolt of an ending since Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. All that said - No Age guitarist Randy Randall needs to get over his thing about climbing on top of things to play guitar on them, which he has done at every single live show of his I've been to (which, for various circumstances, has been far more shows than I actually wanted to see) and is now dragging into his videos. It's a little played out, bro!
