We here at Music For Robots are pretty big fans of Titus Andronicus, if only for the crazy amount of enthusiasm with which they attack everything. Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union. Their new record The Monitor has a Civil War theme, but it's rooted in everyday life - which is a funny comparison, but one that makes perfect sense in context. "A More Perfect Union" is the first track from this album, and it's a great introduction. This album is as epic as they come, but it somehow feels intimate, too. I don't know how they pulled...
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Anxiety. The funniest thing about the Eddy Current Suppression Ring is that they spent six hours and two hundred dollars to record their new album, and spent 800 dollars and just as much time flying their name on a banner behind an airplane for their album cover. It never occurred to them that they could just photoshop it in. And that tells us everything we need to know about Brendan and the rest of the guys. Without a doubt one of my favorite bands, I couldn't be more excited about this new record, Rush...
I don't know why I'm writing about Minneapolis so much these days. I think a lot of Twin Cities music has just come my way, for some reason. Dosh - Subtractions. When I lived in Minneapolis, I never fully looked into Mr. Martin Dosh and his amazing drumming, sampling, and looping abilities. I knew he was around, working with Andrew Bird and playing the Triple Rock, but I never listened as closely as I should have. Time to remedy that. "Subtractions" is from Dosh's new record Tommy. (I can't be the only one hoping this was a concept cover...
Anyone else going to see Free Energy at Spaceland tonight? I hear their set at the Echo last night was the jam... Album drops digitally on the 6th, and physically in May. It's definitely worth the wait....
Efterklang - Modern Drift. "Modern Drift" is the first song from Efterklang's new record Magic Chairs, out today in Europe and tomorrow in the US. As opening statements go, it's a good one - the piano starts quietly, then more piano, then those thumping drums, then it all breaks open. This track makes the record sound like a gradual incline, which it is. The album is an increasingly ornate piece of pop music that uses its bells and whistles wisely and sparingly. Efterklang hails from Copenhagen, and Magic Chairs is their third full-length. There's a lot to be said...
I first heard singer Maggie Morrison in the late, lamented Minneapolis band Digitata. (Well, they maybe broke up? This July interview with Digitata drummer Drew Christopher makes it unclear. But it's funny.) Morrison's new band Lookbook keeps some of Digitata's essential elements: bloops, bleeps, synthdrama. Lookbook - Yesterday's Company. This track comes from Lookbook's first full-length, Wild At Heart. It's a good record, and as much as I love Digitata, it's interesting to hear Morrison front a band more interested in keeping things on steady ground. (Digitata simply isn't designed for that, in my opinion, which is one reason...
One For The Team - Every Little Thing. I've been a fan of One For The Team for a while now, and it's been really interesting watching them change over the years. Their sound has deepened and darkened, and on Ghosts, their third full-length, an instrument that sounds like a Mates of States distorted electric piano adds some murkiness to the mix. It all still pops, of course, underneath Ian Anderson's lighter-than-air vocals, and it all clicks along as if no one can stop it. This band is from Minneapolis, and even though I moved from that scene about...
S. Piliso & His Super Seven - Kuya Hanjwa. Look, I'm not the guy to sort out all the political, social, sociopolitical, and other implications of the indie fascination with South African, and specifically Sowetan, music. There's a lot to say about it, especially when it comes to the long American history of appropriation, and there are no easy answers. I will say this: I love that first Vampire Weekend record, but I think the band's characterization of their music as "Upper West Side Soweto" was pretty obnoxious. And when I saw Tune-Yards in Boston last fall, their bassist...
Bobby Charles - I Must Be in a Good Place Now. And so we lose another one....
This is a great recording of one of the many Jay Reatard shows I was lucky enough to see. Even from the back of the room it was a bloodbath. We're gonna miss him like crazy....
Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose - Younger. Like many songs I post on here, this is a song for the in-between times. It's not triumphant. It's not a celebration of success. It's not a shoulder to cry on or a call to move on. It's not about the boys being back in town or the girls having a night out. It's not about love or hope or rock 'n roll. It's about breathing, in and out, as we move along in our day. It's about deciding to make another cup of coffee because it's raining, or deciding to eschew...
Can Numero Group do no wrong? T.L. Barrett & Youth For Christ Choir - Like A Ship. The newest release from the archival label is Good God! Born Again Funk, out January 30. It's the 30th record from Numero, and the third in their Good God! series, which collects rare religious music from small labels. I've been a fan of Numero since their amazing Yellow Pills power pop release back in 2005, and I've tried to check in with their output since then. Their CDs and LPs are immaculately presented, with slipcases and extensive liner notes, and the music...
Clogs - Three Two. Up here on the second floor with a windless view through palm trees to the hills of the park, the only sound is the faint hiss and woosh of the carwash on the backside of the building. Over on this side it's an idyllic portrait of southern california life. Pink flowers hover over tiled rooftops as the lush scrubs of the desert slowly surround everything. And into this mix we bring Clogs, the long-standing project of Padma Newsome and Bryce Dessner from the National. They have always worked more in the realm of musical ideas...
We'd like to take a second and welcome our new friends Because Sound Matters to our tiny little blogroll over there on the right. They're a new vinyl-only venture from the Warner Bros. family, offering reissues from all kinds of sick catalog titles. Their catalog is slowly growing, but it already includes solid entries from old favorites like Metallica, Wilco, Dire Straits, etc. Anyway, just wanted to give you the heads up....
Yarn Owl - Bicycle. It isn't until the refrain in the back third of the song that it really wins you over. The beginning, begging to be sound in a round, or at least with some harmonies, is the kind of mossy, woodsy thing we expect and love from the Pacific Northwest. It reminds you of hitting sticks against trees in the woods behind your house, all damp, all covered in rich soil. But the final part, where the harmony kicks in and they sing about the girl coming home from her library is the what makes you really...
Family Band - Hatred. Staring down the barrel of a move on a rainy day, why not throw on some Family Band. It's cold, it's wet, there's a mountain of crap in the room that needs sorting, filing, boxing, tossing, remembering. Each object is given a piece of my time as I try to remember why I had it in the first place, and whose memory it was keeping. The steady stream of holiday traffic on the boulevard outside reminds me that I'm still in Los Angeles, and that I'm just moving upstairs. Not far at all. One flight....
Real Estate - Beach Comber. I'll be honest - I wanted to post a different track. Real Estate's song "Snow Days" has burrowed itself in my brain, and I've been listening to it a few times a day, marveling at how it's like a little narrative, with characters, plot arcs. But the band's self-titled record is awesome overall, and I am happy to post anything I can, including this song. Real Estate has been rattling around the internet for a while now, both under the Real Estate name and the related Ducktails project, so I'm not telling you anything...
Having spent the morning making a series of totally unwanted phonecalls and dealing with math of all things, it's amazing to sit down to a fresh new video from Menomena. Look at that stance, at the swagger! These are not the little boys who were once coughing coughing, puffing up their chests to be the strongest in the world. After a year or so of near silence, they've returned as men, and as fathers, and here we have the stunning, confident results. There is not a moment's hesitation, and the fragility of their previous performances has been replace with...
Air Waves - Knockout. Today, on what's likely the clearest day we've had in Los Angeles in months, seems like a good a day as any to pull out the tenderly crafted box set from 1928 Recordings, the Golden Hour. With a straight-shot view of the denuded, snowy San Gabriels, I can't help but think about hopping in the car and driving out to the mountains. As my friend said this morning "Close down the bell desk. Guests can carry their own bags on a day like today." And what better way to carry you there than the earnest...
So I'm going to this......
![She & Him - In The Sun [Music Video]](http://cache.elbo.ws/youtube/W18_OO8TD78_130.jpg)
[Best Electro Remix Of] La Roux – Bulletproof (HYPER CRUSH Remix )
Première écoute pour le nouvel album de MGMT
Kavinsky
On Rotation March 8th, 2010
