I'd intended this as a complement to my albums rundown from last week but was waylaid in getting it together. As I hope to do every month, here is a mix of my favorite individual tracks, old and new, I came across in the last month (or, in this case, going back to mid-December). The majority of these tracks came from a handful of other people's mixes—namely The Decibel Tolls and Swan Fungus , as well the Mindbending Motorway Mix created by Broadcast's Trish Keenan, which went around the internet after news of [...]
Just dropping a quick note to say I started a Facebook page for this blog , if you prefer to get your dose that way.
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky Fleet Foxes: s/t Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean Andrew Bird: & the Mysterious Production of Eggs Low: Trust John Vanderslice: White Wilderness (5) Tim Hecker: An Imaginary Country Continuing on from last week's soundtrack , much of this week was spent listening to old favorites and a kind of musical comfort food—I think partially as a palate cleanser after I spent more time than was necessary listening to music [...]
A confluence of Low references on various message boards, twitter feeds, blogs, and actual conversations has got me thinking about the band again. After going back and re-reading what I wrote about all their albums and EPs released between 1994 and 2001, I started to feel winsome—the way you feel when you start thinking about someone who used to be your best friend but for some reason, no real reason, you lost touch. So I've been attempting to get back in touch with the band. I downloaded Trust , which is the first Low album [...]
Maybe I blame Feist. Her first album, 2004's Let It Die , featured a couple of tracks that tested my tolerance levels: "One Evening" and "Leisure Suite" They were cheesy, quote-unquote sexy wink wink—"One Evening" especially. Feist even seemed to acknowledge this in her video for that song, in which she and her partner do a silly synchronized dance that underlines how dumb the whole thing is. I recall an interview between Leslie Feist and Nic Harcourt on KCRW a few years ago in which she [...]
I'm trying something new with these My Listening Hours posts in 2011: rather than a week of posts every three months—far too daunting to compose anymore—I'll trot out a much more abbreviated monthly post. Ideally I'll have written at length about most of these records already. At the three month mark I may still do a quarterly report of some sort... who knows. I've ordered these by when I acquired them. This "month" actually stretches back to about mid-December—everything I've acquired since doing my year-end wrap-up. Without further ado... Sam Prekop: Old [...]
Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs Low: Trust (2) Scud Mountain Boys: Massachusetts Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha The Beatles: Help! Iron & Wine: The Creek Drank the Cradle , Our Endless Numbered Days , The Shepherd's Dog , and Kiss Each Other Clean (2) Bjork: Vespertine Dillard & Clark: The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark (2) This was sort of a whatever week for me, listening-wise. [...]
I've been a fan of the Radio Dept. since 2003, when I heard their debut, Lesser Matters , by chance. That album ranks among my favorites of the last ten years (if it doesn't top the list altogether), so I'm glad to see, seven years later, that the band seems to have finally gained the notoriety they deserve with last year's acclaimed Clinging to a Scheme . Scheme is the band's third full-length in all ( Pet Grief , from 2006, being the one in between), and the rap on that record was that it took [...]
The Radio Dept.: Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002–2010 (2) Tennis: Cape Dory (7) LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean (4) Disappears: Lux Harry Nilsson, Nilsson Schmilsson and Pandemonium Shadow Show After a week spent listening almost nonstop to new (or new-to-me) releases, I reached a point of needing a pallette cleanser—hence mini marathon of Harry Nilsson, who never gets old. Harry Nilsson: Cuddly Toy
I must have listened to Cape Dory eight times in one or two days. Not because it was totally engrossing, but because it kept ending just as it got going. At ten songs, Cape Dory might be considered a full-length but its slight twenty-eight minutes registers more as a simple snapshot. In a lot of ways, that's exactly what the album is: it's based around the married duo's sailing trip up the East Coast. With titles like "Bimini Bay," "South Carolina" and "Baltimore," Cape Dory is like the audio equivalent of a vacation photo [...]
Destroyer: Kaputt (2) Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower Cat Stevens: Greatest Hits Disappears: Lux Sam Prekop: s/t and Who's Your New Professor? Low: I Could Live in Hope Tennis: Cape Dory Still listening to that Destroyer album in an effort to articulate why I don't like it, beyond more ranting about saxophones. Thoughts are simmering. Most of this week was a little scattered, listening-wise. I didn't focus very much on any of these albums as I [...]
Following the end-of-year-list glut, January offers the chance to the anticipate what to expect in the coming year, music-wise. So I scanned through the list of upcoming releases dutifully compiled by Pitchfork . Below are all the albums that jumped out at me; some I'm stoked for, others I'm cautiously optimistic about, and still others I'm merely curious. Here's what's on my radar: Disappears: Guider (Kranky, 1/17) I've been hearing Disappears' name come up here and there in the last year, thanks to their 2010 album Lux , though I hadn't really sat [...]
Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (2) Disappears: Lux (2) Wire: Red Barked Tree (2) The Lovin' Spoonful: Anthology Mates of State: Bring It Back Kraftwerk: Autobahn Actress: Splazsh Destroyer: Kaputt Belong: October Language The Decemberists: The King is Dead The Byrds: Ballad of Easy Rider (2) Disappears: Little Ghost
I listened to a few new/upcoming releases this week via NPR and, uh, other sources. Here are three quick takes: Wire: Red Barked Tree I'm far from schooled in Wire's ouevre—I have Pink Flag and two compilations covering 1977–79 and 1985–90, but no other full-lengths. That said, I'm not feeling the new record. It seems to shift between sounding retro and dated, but rarely fresh. It's not a bad album, and if you're a true-blue fan you'll probably overlook its flaws. I do like "Bad Worn Thing," though [...]
I've loved Sam Prekop since his days with Shrimp Boat, though I've felt things were beginning to get stale as of the last couple of Sea & Cake records. His vocal delivery had become rote and his songs too often evoking the same relaxed mood over and over. So I was both relieved and curious to hear he'd thrown a huge curveball with his third solo album by doing an all-synth, all-instrumental record. Seeing as I'm actually more into all-synth, all-instrumental records these days than I am songwriters, I was maybe even more [...]
I've loved Sam Prekop since his days with Shrimp Boat, though I've felt things were beginning to get stale as of the last couple of Sea & Cake records. His vocal delivery had become rote and his songs too often evoking the same relaxed mood over and over. So I was both relieved and curious to hear he'd thrown a huge curveball with his third solo album by doing an all-synth, all-instrumental record. Seeing as I'm actually more into all-synth, all-instrumental records these days than I am songwriters, I was maybe even more [...]
I'm a picky eater when it comes to consuming electronica. It can't be too danceable, can't be too noisy, can't be too cheesy. It probably shouldn't have vocals and especially shouldn't have anything resembling diva vocals. That house beat, ugsh ugsh ugsh ugsh, is usually a turnoff. The quieter my electronica is, the more I probably like it. The more "intelligent" it is, the better its odds of making it into heavy rotation. Quite frankly, the closer to ambient it is, the better. There's exceptions to every rule, but nevertheless there you go. This is a preamble and/or [...]
The last time Matt Elliott released something under his Third Eye Foundation moniker it was 2001. Since then he'd abandoned both the name and the sound—a terror-filled brand of electronica—opting to do a more guitar/vocal-oriented style of music under his given name. I was a big fan of the Third Eye Foundation, not so much of Matt Elliott. So it's great news that he's resurrected his old identity for a new album, The Dark , released back in November. I wish I hadn't slept on picking this up— The Dark belongs in my upper echelon [...]
pi"> Here's a mix of eight great songs from eight great albums that were new to me in 2010. As is plain to see, this was the year I caught up with krautrock in a big way. Aside from the five German acts here, I picked up an armload of others. The [...]
Me: Hey Coop, what did you think of 2010, as far as music goes? Cooper: 2010 was rad as far as everything goes. Me: Really? Cooper: I just felt like everyone—every thing —was super innovative. I saw a lot of stuff this year I'd never seen before. Me: To be fair though, you're 11 months old. Cooper: True enough. Maybe my perspective is off. Me: Don't let [...]
Pretty Goes with Pretty
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
