It's obligatory photo recap time! Unfortunately, I couldn't get a press pass this year, so many of the following photos prominently feature the back of people's domes. Click on the photos to see a larger, higher resolution version. After two months of flawless weather in Chicago, the climate waited until the most excellent of weekends to unleash her fury, with downpours on Saturday and oppressive, Biblical heat on Sunday. Despite that, Pitchfork Music Festival, by and large, ruled. Though we were all very privileged to see some excellent performances (sans Vampire Weekend... the [...]
Straight from my view from the cheap seats, here's the Decibel Tolls' preview for some choice artists I'm anticipating seeing at this year's festival. My prophecies for these shows have been gleaned from my experience with a couple of these artists in the past, general intuition, and my magic 8-ball. First, it should be noted that the clouds are currently graying here in Chicago, and it looks like the first day of rain we've had in, oh I dunno, two weeks or so will conveniently happen during the festival. Just our luck, right? Should be [...]
Alright heads, get your djembes out - it's time for a campfire jam. Boredoms are recreating, to a larger degree, their celebration of 7/7/7 last year with 88Boadrum . On August 8 (that's 8.8.08, you see) in both New York and Los Angeles, 88 drummers will perform an 88-minute composition written by Boredoms. The press release does not indicate whether Boredoms will actually be present at either of these performances, though. The New York performance/installation piece will be conducted by Gang Gang Dance (excellent), and the LA performance will feature [...]
Boards of Canada are sacred territory for me. In fact, I may subject you sometime to this college thesis I wrote about Geogaddi when I was a freshman. Normal people don't think this hard about ambient, immovable analog synth launches, so BoC is serious business. Only one dude can do them right, and that's the elder statesman of thick, sprawling, storm inducing psych-hop, Odd Nosdam . Pretty Swell Explode compiles all of his fairly recent remixes and collaborations, including this track from BoC's Trans Canada Highway. I [...]
I forgotten that I recently heard Nothing People, out of beautiful northern California, being viciously bumped in Permanent Records when I was there a couple of weeks ago. I was immediately hooked by the Simply Saucer meets Numbers vibe - punk ethos, but with psychedelic expanse. Thanks to an excellent post by one of my favorites, Raven Sings the Blues , I was treated to these fuzz and echo saturated canticles again. So far, they're jammin' LP only, with three introductory 73 and their recently dropped full-length Anonymous on crazy clear vinyl. [...]
The Chicago by way of Texas no wave psych fright fest Indian Jewelry recently laid down a gross set on WFMU (still the best station on the planet) who posted the entire performance up on the Beware of the Blog . They played a pretty eclectic cross section of their catalog, including grooves off of their latest, excellent and surprisingly catchy record Free Gold , their previous, more sinister Inevasive Exotics , and some choice miscellany. My favorite live shows tend to gravitate toward quite different, but not unrecognizable, performances of the recorded [...]
As you know, I'm super obsessed with Ghost Box, and just this week the collective dropped three delicious new tracks for their subscribers (it's free, so you should sign up). I can't stop, won't stop talking about the mighty Ghost Box - who, as I've mentioned before, are more or less the most prolific collectors and composers "library music." That is, all the Ghost Box artists sample, reconstruct, and rebuild the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and turn it into the springboard for their deep, spacious, glacial psychedelic electronic glitch movements. I [...]
Uh oh, it's controversy o' clock. I tend to polarize people in my friends circle with that ol' statement of mine "Bob Dylan... totally overrated." Ballsy, I know. This is not to say that Blood on the Tracks and similar jam hives are not remarkable. However, some of Dylan's accolades should have also been bestowed upon a certain premiere British electric folk collective that turn traditional folk songs and '60s psych folk into godlike rumbles. The hippies may hang their fabric Bob Dylan posters in their living rooms in messianic ritual, claiming to be [...]
I missed the live broadcast of this, unfortunately, but The Wire will have the podcast up later tonight. Ghost Box , the holy purveyors of library music and host to Belbury Poly, The Focus Group, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, and more, did a special mix for Adventures in Modern Music on Resonance FM . You know it was siiick. Just look at their playlist from last week! If you wanna know what's up, but you don't know what's up, that playlist is what's up. Not [...]
A lot has been reported, of course, on the victorious track listing for their forthcoming release The Hawk is Howling , featuring most excellent flea market-worthy artwork. Now, a new track has been released and is available for sampling with the little clicky below the photo. This photo was stealthily captured by me while they sound checked at The Dame supporting Mr. Beast . Pay usually sucks when working at a music venue, but perks like a personalized concert make up for it. Super, super nice dudes, and [...]
"In the interest of social justice, I'm going to subject your music blog to the same rigorous standards that I subject others, Mikey, and refuse to read it regularly until Enuff Z'nuff has been mentioned on at least two non-consecutive occasions." - Tom '80s Oh Tom, no worries. Though Enuff Z'nuff falls outside the "scope" of the site, I always make exceptions for Z'nuff, as they have done for me in the past (if you know what I mean, and I know you do). Evidently I also make exceptions for Night Ranger. [...]
Lulz. As reported in my previous post, Darker My Love's forthcoming album is titled 2 , and now Dungen just announced their forthcoming jam hive, out sometime in October. And wouldn't you know that it's titled 4 . Psych dudes have been watching Sesame Street as of late and are really stoked about numbers. Pitchfork released the track listing yesterday, but I won't list it here since - I dunno, does it mean anything to you? I get confused at IKEA. I had the privilege of seeing Dungen in New York during CMJ [...]
It should be noted that I don't hate the Dandy Warhols. Not in the least. I would just choose to not listen to them, if given the choice, and seeing as I often frequent coffee shops, I'm never given the choice. Regardless, I don't fervently dislike them, but Dig did made me hate Courtney Taylor and I think their music is rather borecore. I never understood why Anton Newcombe tried to start a rivalry between his band and theirs, considering that the Brian Jonestown Massacre is leaps and bounds better. It's like picking [...]
This site will shapeshift a lot in the next couple of days as I tweak the design. I'll be settling on something soon... or not. Thanks for your patience, understanding, and for you being you. ::: Kenny Bloggins
As it is summer, I'll be posting a lot of Free Design MP3s. The Free Design is such an odd group, insofar as the group's music took on a whimsical, frolicking, sweeping sunshine pop sound whilst the lyrics leaned more toward, uh, metal. Take "Kije's Ouija," a narrative about a dude with a ouija board who talks at first of angels, then of the apocalypse in the next stanza. Now many more like this the angel will send, but you could do yourself much worse / Just push a couple buttons, let [...]
The Decibel Tolls
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
Prince – Controversy (Mighty Mouse Re-Edit)
Beck - 'I Just Started Hating Some People Today' [Listen]
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
