Download: History at Our Disposal - "To The Spoiler the Spoils" I first heard about History at Our Disposal through a friend of mine from Denton, Texas right before I moved away from the Lone Star State. Of course, I didn't actually hear History at Our Disposal's music until I had already moved to Athens. I consider that rather unfortunate, because upon listening to Symbols in the Architecture , I instantly became fascinated with how this sound would have been re-created live. [...]
Download: Pacific UV—"50s" MP3 Former Athenians, current Portlandians (is that what they are called?), Pacific UV make a triumphant return with their new EP (appropriately titled EP ) of reverb-heavy deliciousness. Like the bastard spawn of Phil Spector and Spiritualized, Pacific UV put out a record in 2003 that, um, I played drums and keyboards on. So I guess I'm biased here. Hey! I had nothing to do with this track, which is a damned shame, really, as it might just be one of the best the band has ever [...]
Here's a brief list of things I know about You Am I 1. They are awesome. Our intern saw them when she was in Austrailia and described frontman Tim Rogers as being a maniac that she was worried "would kill someone if they got in his way" B. Sonic Youth are fans. After seeing You Am I play at Australia's Big Day Out Festival, Lee Renaldo produced a few EPs and their first record. He also braided their hair. III. Their new album, "Convicts" is landing in the states [...]
Download: Paper Airplanes—"The Fences" MP3 Wow! This is the kind of record that reminds us why I got into the whole indie rock thing in the first place. It's full of energy, inventiveness, great hooks, epic songs…it's just a killer record. It was released on a micro-indie last year and is now being re-released by a mid-level indie! Yeah! Paper Airplanes are making serious rumbles right now with their healthy, catchy Midwestern anthems. This song, "The Fences," is something else. Dare I say that it competes with a certain new track from a certain [...]
Download: The Ma'ams --"Freakout '68" Washington D.C.'s, Peter Heyneman (guitar+vox) and Long Island's, Peter Speer (drums) recorded a grand total of one EP as, The Ma'ams. And, today's tune, 'Freakout '68' comes from that EP, Time Twistin' , which was released by the greatest label of all time, Colonial Recordings, USA! . The track starts out with a riffy roughness and Heyneman's caterwalling vocals backed up by Speer's straightforward, beefy beat. It's exactly the kind of stuff that would get your band thrown out of the house and into the [...]
Download: Green Pitch--"Liverpool" MP3 Although Green Pitch released Ace of Hearts , the album is finally getting attention in the States with it's release on Funzalo Records on March 6th. The duo of Rex Garfield, the female vocalist, and Ste Rasch hail from Denmark, and have put together 13 songs imbuing a sweet, gentle naïveté. The male and female vocal trade-off, the delicate guitar lines, gentle bass all add to the dreamy landscape of Ace of Hearts . Definitely recommended for fans of Beach House, El Perro Del Mar, [...]
Go get Donna Summer's Bootybreaktranceclub-Core Mix from Berlin's Cock Rock Disco . As you'd expect, it's manic, hard-hitting, and absolutely relentless...Oh yeah, it's also free... We're diggin' it. Get it here : http://www.cockrockdisco.com/d s-mix1.html Tell'm the 'Cropper sent ya!
This is my inaugural post to The Cropper where I am not writing about how much I want a hamburger hat, so please bear with me if I suck at this. But I do like this feature. I will be bringing you two of my favorite songs each week and I am pleased as pudding to have two great bands to start with. I have been more and more fascinated with the Chicago music scene. I like to imagine Chicago as a city filled with roving St. [...]
Download: Fulton Lights—"Thank God For the Evening News" MP3 Download: Fulton Lights—"Fire in the Palm of My Hand" MP3 With the help of a number of friends (including Oktopus of dalek and Jean Cook of ASM and the Beauty Pill), Andrew Spencer Goldman (formerly of John Guilt and Maestro Echoplex ) has turned in a tumultuous tone-poem that, to me at least, sketches the feeling of being overwhelmed by today's urbanism . It's a work of beauty, but it's also a sublime work of unease, [...]
Lately, I have become obsessed with compiling the hip-hop songs of my youth, particularly those that saw success from 1989-1992. I keep finding the same artists pop up on the list: Young MC, Tone-Loc, and Kool Moe Dee always seem to find their way on whatever party playlist I put together. About two months ago I began planning a playlist for my going away party, and while perusing the internet for a few more suggestions, I started following the links that took me from Onyx to House of Pain to Black Sheep, until I stumbled across [...]
Download -- My Teenage Stride -- "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" Download -- My Teennage Stride -- "Terror Bends" I first became aware of Brooklyn's, My Teenage Stride after reading a review of their last record for Becalmed , Major Major at the now defunct Splendid . Intrigued by the sample MP3 that accompanied the review, we struck up a correspondence with the label in the hopes that we might get to work for MTS should a new record come about. [...]
Man, pretty good list for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year (REM, The Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Patti Smith, Van Halen), but the Stooges were up for it to and got overlooked. So did Joe Tex, which kind of make sense because he once wrote a song that featured the line "Ain't gonna bump no more with no big fat woman." And if Joe Tex is up for the award, when can Bill Withers be considered (see below)? [...]
Download -- Summer Hymns - "Start Swimming" Athens, GA's Summer Hymns are hitting the road in January for a winter tour behind the recently released Backward Masks. Nearly four years in the making, Backward Masks is a beautiful collection of subtly edgy songs, the strongest Summer Hymns record to date. " They're especially adept at crafting this certain undefinable sonic feeling: one that is simultaneously bright and breezy, lunar and melancholy, " Jon Meyer writes in his review for WERS. PopMatters' Jennifer Kelly similarly searches for the best [...]
Probably the first copied cassettes I ever got were in Mrs. Herbert's advanced fourth grade class (Social Studies?), the one in the trailer at Wrights Mill Road Elementary. It was a pretty cool class (the highlight was making a working Native American village and operating it for a day--it always made the papers ), and it offered a brief respite from the tyranny of Mrs. Phillips, an "old school" (as in pre-integration), teacher who made us pray in class (even in 1984 in Alabama this seemed problematic and poor Chhavi Vig, who was Hindu, I think, was always [...]
The Cropper!
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Mr Fogg - Eleven
