Beyond the upcoming Deerhunter EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange , Bradford Cox has been quietly releasing more free music over at the Deerhunter / Atlas Sound / Lotus Plaza blog , including two new entries in his series of Atlas Sound Virtual 7-inches. These latest releases, No.'s 6 and 7, are no doubt two of his finest. "Solo, Or 'The Square'" / "Memorial Corridor" (No. 6) provides a double dose of off-kilter pop. The A-side, driven by an obtuse keyboard bounce, drones along in a subtle build up as [...]
With difficult to pronounce, difficult to forget, and ultimately silly name in hand, Glasglow's Dananananaykroyd delivered their anticipated full-length debut, Hey Everyone! , on April 6th via Best Before Records . These hectic rockers double up on guitarists, drummers, and vocalists for their brand of intensely energetic spazcore (self-described as "fight pop"), attempting to defend their reputation as a live band and capture that raucous power of the moment in the recording studio. Take a listen to this album and you'll have to agree they've probably come as close as a band [...]
Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, and the rest of Deerhunter apparently do not believe in making their fans wait. On top of the massive amount of music they've put out recently, including Deerhunter's double-disc Mircocastle / Weird Era Cont. that came out just a little over eight months ago, yesterday they announced the upcoming release of a brand new EP. Rainwater Cassette Exchange doesn't actually come out on cassette, but look for a digital release on May 18th and then CD and vinyl on June 8th. Until then, [...]
At long last, indie rock indelibles Superchunk have finally put out a new EP, their first release of new material since 2001's excellent Here's to Shutting Up . Well, "Misfits & Mistakes" was previously released as a vinyl-only single... but three brand new songs (especially three as good as these) are more than enough reason to celebrate. "Learned to Surf", the triumphant lead track, has been put on repeat a few times over the past couple weeks. With its soaring vocals and two tangled up, absurdly catchy guitar parts, Superchunk decisively [...]
Last year was a good one stateside for Japanese experimental folk-pop maestro Shugo Tokumaru . Exit , his latest full-length and one of my favorite albums of 2007 , was officially issued in the U.S. on Almost Gold Recordings and he even put together a short tour here with support from members of Beirut (which included a performance at the CMJ Festival as well as a quick East Coast run with The Magnetic Fields ). It was enough to make me forget that we could probably [...]
While we're on the cover tip, check out this never-saw-this-coming gem from rising chiptune stars Anamanaguchi. These 8-bit guitar heroes reconstruct the noisy lo-fi of Wavves' depressive slacker anthem "So Bored" through processed guitars and NES boom-blip. Once you move past that initial unexpectedness, this cover really makes perfect sense. I mean, what's more lo-fi than modifying old Nintendo systems to play music? Download: Wavves - So Bored Buy: Pick up Wavvves , one of the best records of the year so far, over at Fat Possum [...]
The Tough Alliance , one of the leaders of Sweden's impressive electropop revival, recently recorded a cover of "Hung Up on a Dream" from The Zombies' still relatively underrated masterpiece Odessey & Oracle . Eric Berglund and Henning Fürst flush out the original's fragile melancholy into a polished, ethereal, head-nodding synth jam. Surprisingly successful to say the least. Download: The Tough Alliance - Hung Up on a Dream (Zombies cover) Buy: It doesn't have this cover on it, but you should still pick up 2007's widely [...]
Casual fans who made it over to the Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza blog have probably been more likely to recognize the first two names in that title, as all Bradford Cox-affiliated projects have been swept up into the indie limelight. Lotus Plaza , the solo project of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, has long dwelled on the back burner, releasing just a handful of tracks on their shared blogspace. But this year, Pundt has finally delivered the long-awaited Lotus Plaza full-length debut (which supposedly was started back in 2007) via Kranky , home label [...]
Many of you have probably already listened to the upcoming album from Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear (posed above in a promo shot that I'm assuming was conceived as "come-hither Kraftwerk"), which leaked earlier this month in the form of painfully low-quality mp3s. If you haven't yet, try not to. The leak really doesn't do Veckatimest justice. Luckily, Grizzly Bear and Warp Records have made exercising that restraint all the easier with the release of the first official mp3 from the record. Standout "Cheerleader" features a myriad of gracefully layered [...]
I'm excited to be writing for a new publication these days, the excellent (and, coincidentally, San Diego-based) Treble . This should be an eventful year over at Treble as we embark on an overly ambitious attempt to construct a list of the best tracks and best albums of the 2000s. Beyond the decade retrospective, there are plenty of other cool features and reviews to check out. For now, take a look at my review for the painful and powerful collection A Society In Which No Tear is Shed [...]
Justin Vernon, better known as Bon Iver , has been riding the wave of his fantastic debut, self-released in 2007 and subsequently reissued on Jagjaguwar (U.S.) and 4AD (U.K.) last year, for a while now. And why not? For Emma, Forever Ago , conceived and recorded by Vernon during a winter of solitude at a cabin located somewhere in northwestern Wisconsin, was a work of sincere emotional depth and one of the best albums of 2007 ( and 2008 ). Well, last month, Bon Iver returned with [...]
On February 17th, indie rock powerhouse 4AD released Dark Was the Night , a double-disc (triple LP) compilation benefiting AIDS/HIV non-profit The Red Hot Organization . With production from The National 's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, its lengthy tracklist is packed full of big indie names, exciting collaborations, and some interesting covers. There's a number of standouts here, but opening track "Knotty Pine" might be my favorite. Featuring the most satisfying collaboration on the record, Dirty Projectors and David Byrne team [...]
Last week Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear finally revealed the cover art, tracklist, and release date for their upcoming, highly anticipated album, Veckatimest . No studio cuts have surfaced as of yet, but live recordings of four tracks are currently floating around the blogosphere. The soaring sun-soaked pop of "Two Weeks", which was unveiled on The Late Show with David Letterman back in July of last year, might still be my favorite, but all are excellent. And Ed Droste claims that the album versions of both "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others" [...]
The upcoming album from San Diego beach-punker Wavves (Nathan Williams), titled Wavvves just to confuse you (note the three v's), was originally due out in February on De Stijl , but ended up getting pushed back to March when it was announced that Fat Possum Records would be handling the release. Lucky for us they decided to drop an early digital release today. With songs that are at once supremely grating and unbelievably infectious, Williams continues to perfectly unite breezy California pop and feedback-drenched noise on this [...]
Zach Condon, still only in his early twenties, has been reimagining the pure and powerful sounds of gypsy brass bands in an ever evolving set of contexts as Beirut . On 2006's Gulag Orkestar he constructed what was a pretty convincing imitation with just himself (and enough instruments for a small orchestra), while 2007 saw him expand to a full band line-up on the Lon Gisland EP and later blend his take on Balkan music with additional influence from early 20th century France on The Flying Club Cup . And [...]
Ahhh, finally! It feels good to finish up my year-end lists while we're still in January! I can see I started a little too late again, or maybe I added one too many last minute list ideas, but it's certainly far more on time than the year before last . Anyhow, there was certainly a plethora of good albums released last year, so many that I could never hope to include them all in this list, but also not a whole of great ones (luckily, 2009 seems to be setting itself up for a serious [...]
While I put the finishing touches on my list of favorite albums from 2008 (look for that soon), I'm going to take a brief step into the world of 2009 which I may as well just deem the year of Animal Collective here and now. As we near the official release date for the monumental Merriweather Post Pavilion in all non-vinyl formats, we've been hit with a flood of even more music from the A.C. camp. First up, the much-discussed remix of Ratatat's "Mirando", which was spun during the band's DJ sets [...]
Well, the year is over, but I've still got a bit of reflection left. Whether they were leftover collections from established favorites or stunning debuts, lush baroque-pop or lo-fi trip-hop, noisy drone or melody-driven math rock, 2008 was littered with a range of excellent EPs. I managed to compile a short list of favorites (and some honorable mentions). Enjoy and feel free to leave your own lists, or perhaps some EPs you think I may have missed or should have been included, in the comments section. Next up... my favorite albums from 2008. ------------------------- [...]
Here's part two of my odds and ends list, which focuses mostly on 7-inches, but also sneaks in a purely digital single and one entry that is a bit more difficult to categorize. Coming up soon: my five favorite EPs and twenty five favorite albums of 2008. Until then, have a happy new year! ------------------------- Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Can't Hear My Eyes" / "Evolution's a Lie" This single from lo-fi pop wizard Ariel Pink came as [...]
Ah yes, I love this time of year. You know, when we all look back on the music we've listened to over the past twelve months, attempt to define and evaluate pieces of art in relation to one another, hoping to construct a hierarchy of albums or songs that represents a year in summation. Alright, so only some of us engage in this somewhat masochistic act. Before I constructed such a list, it always seemed particularly daunting, but I've found that it's also an extremely rewarding process... listening to albums comparatively can help reveal what elements really make a record [...]
Chickens Don't Clap!
Avicii – Two Million
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
