Watch Dirty Projectors drop the soaring, off-kilter "Cannibal Resource" from this year's excellent Bitte Orca on last night's unsuspecting Letterman audience up above. Equal parts transcendent harmony, relentless guitar intricacy, and bizarro Longstreth-drawl, they keep the song impressively tight - as they do with all their songs live. Be sure to check them out on their upcoming fall tour (dates after the jump), it's a pretty breathtaking experience. Also keep an eye out for the Temecula Sunrise EP, which will be released via Domino on September [...]
Don't call it a side project. Eric Frederic may have started Wallpaper as a spontaneous novelty while recording the debut full-length of his band Facing New York , but now - with many of FNY's original members gone and a continuously rising interest in Frederic's infectious and often hilarious pop-satire - his focus seems to be increasingly centered on Wallpaper. And why not? This has been one hell of a summer for the project. Garnering attention from MTV, Pitchfork, The Village Voice, Idolator, and Perez Hilton (!?), it seems to be straight blowin' [...]
HEALTH , gritty affiliates of L.A.'s The Smell , make music that sounds like the soundtrack to an apocalypse. Their new record no doubt plunges deep into the darker elements of their sound, but also finds HEALTH employing stronger melodies, ghostly layers of vocal harmonies, and more dynamic songwriting. Buzzsaw guitars rip across dense drum gallops and piercing noisescapes. Hooks seem to come only in the form of screeching feedback and fractured glitched-out electronic loops. Abrasive waves of sound become so crushing in moments that you can almost see the earth opening up to swallow cities, rivers [...]
Well, I'm glad to see that Wavves ain't goin' anywhere. Sure, the dude had a meltdown and then broke his wrist skateboarding, not to mention that he seems to be making some of the most divisive music out there right now. But, come what may, Nathan Williams keeps droppin' tunes. On top of the killer demo he posted to his blog last month (the oddly Animal Collective -like "Mickey Mouse"), Williams put up another new track early this morning. Even better, "Cool Jumper" is the first song from his [...]
The lady bloggers and heavy Underwater Peoples Records pushers over at BUTTERxFACE are set to release a decidedly lo-fi tribute to Michael Jackson within the next couple days. CHUM ONAH will feature a whole slew of rising fuzzy bedroom-pop purveyors, including Toro y Moi , Dem Hunger , Family Portrait , Julian Lynch , plus more from Underwater Peoples and elsewhere. For now, listen to a couple different takes on "Human Nature" from Thriller [...]
As San Diego duo MRR-ADM (formerly known as MHE) continue to prep their full-length debut for Now-Again Records , they've been funding the home stretch by selling off the last remaining vinyl copies of their stellar 2008 103 EP over at the Stones Throw webstore . And though the vinyl is now sold out, Stones Throw is still offering the previously difficult-to-obtain EP as a digital download. This untitled 103, one of my favorite releases from last year , is unmistakably built around, and centered on, the [...]
Guitar wizard Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos and the ever-prolific Zach Hill are bygones . A small supergroup perhaps, but nonetheless an exciting collaboration for just about anyone who's paying attention to tech-rock of any form. Their debut record, by- , is a collection of fairly accessible, blistering math jams featuring vocal work from both members. It's strange pop bent is probably best captured on "Click on That (Smash the Plastic Death)", which really does sound like some kind of middle ground between Tera Melos' Complex [...]
Wow, talk about instant gratification. It was just last week that Bradford Cox announced the details for his next Atlas Sound record, Logos , and dropped a sweet gem of info about the record: I toured for a period in Europe with Animal Collective , whose band dynamic was very inspirational to be around. On the bus, we often played improvised iPod games. We would take turns formulating a theme or unifying concept and then play three songs. The goal would be for everyone to try [...]
Today Matador Records reveals the first song from Childish Prodigy , the upcoming record from recent signee Kurt Vile . With washed-out lyrical ramblings, hypnotic guitar drones and repetitive strums, subdued percussion, and a healthy amount of reverb, Vile shows you why he's nicknamed Philly's Constant Hitmaker. All ironies aside, I might genuinely concur with that sentiment. Be sure to check him out on his current tour, dates after the jump. According to Matador, he'll be touring again soon after the record comes out. Download: [...]
Yoni Wolf has said that the upcoming WHY? record, Eskimo Snow , is the "least hip-hop thing" he's ever been involved with. However, if you're familiar with Yoni's body of work - from his time with avant-hop group cLOUDDEAD , to his lo-fi folk-rap solo meanderings , to the eventual full-band version of WHY? - you'll know that he never quite adhered to the conventions of hip-hop. And yet, "This Blackest Purse" decisively falls into the hushed indie pop half of WHY?'s musical canon. Warm and resigned, this kind [...]
Producer/remixer/crunkifier Phaseone - comin' straight outta St. Louis - has already earned a fair bit of attention for his extensive remix work, including pretty stellar reimaginings of Panda Bear 's "I'm Not" and Animal Collective 's "Daily Routine". Well, just yesterday he made his Thanks But No Thanks full-length available for free via his twitter . Here Phaseone proves that even without source material he's capable of crafting towering and infectious jams. Follow the link below to get your hands on the album. Download: [...]
It's no secret that Mos Def 's last couple albums haven't been very well received, by critics and fans alike. 2004's The New Danger was largely a misguided experimental foray into fairly baffling rap-rock territory, while 2006's True Magic felt like a phoned-in contract-filler for his last required album on Geffen Records. But this year, Mos Def has returned to form with the release of The Ecstatic on Downtown Records , easily his best since his incredible debut Black on Both Sides . A tempered [...]
Here's my review for City Center 's self-titled debut, which was originally published over at Treble (where it also includes, as do all Treble reviews, a short list of similar albums). Multi-instrumentalist and compulsive band-starter Fred Thomas has been involved in a veritable laundry list of projects over the course of his still-young career, his work with the soulful twee of indie-pop band Saturday Looks Good to Me being perhaps the most notable to date. Now Thomas embarks on his first solo outing with [...]
Here's my review for City Center 's self-titled debut, which was originally published over at Treble (where it also includes, as do all Treble reviews, a short list of similar albums). Multi-instrumentalist and compulsive band-starter Fred Thomas has been involved in a veritable laundry list of projects over the course of his still-young career, his work with the soulful twee of indie-pop band Saturday Looks Good to Me being perhaps the most notable to date. Now Thomas embarks on his first solo outing with [...]
Even more tropical goodness out from The Very Best this week, as the title-track for the upcoming Warm Heart of Africa drops into the blogosphere. Featuring Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend , this upbeat, calypso-like Afro-pop gem bounces along with a joyful innocence. And if you missed it, be sure to check out the excellent "Ntende Uli" which was released on Tuesday. Look for the album in the fall, via Green Owl . Download: The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa (Feat. Ezra [...]
Exciting news from London's The Very Best ; their debut record will be coming in 2009. The group, formed by DJs/producers Radioclit and Malawi-born vocalist Esau Mwamwaya, have been sitting on the completed album since last year and had to deal with some sample clearance issues, but it seems that all is well now. Warm Heart of Africa , named for a phrase often used to describe Malawi and their hospitable countrymen and women, will feature guest spots from M.I.A. and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and comes [...]
Artwork by Ilan Schraer . With support dropping from the Wavves camp faster than you can say " Primavera meltdown ", some of you may be looking for some new pop-leaning noise-rock to wash that bad taste out of your brain. Well, if you've missed them thus far, Vancouver guitar & drum duo Japandroids just might fit the bill. Though not nearly as grating as Nathan Williams' bedroom punk - L.A. noise-rockers No Age are probably a more accurate comparison - Japandroids still know their [...]
Here We Go Magic , the latest project from experimental folk-rocker Luke Temple , is enjoying its share of love this year. Moving from the rhythmic, Paul Simon-recalling pop textures of "Only Pieces" through a swirl of top-notch ambient-pop and bedroom psych-folk, their debut record has received favorable attention from Pitchfork , Gorilla vs. Bear , Stereogum , Cokemachineglow , and elsewhere. Even Grizzly Bear 's Ed Droste blogged about his love for the album. And as we near the midpoint of 2009 and I start to reflect on the year thus [...]
Kurt Vile , perhaps best known as guitarist and co-songwriter behind the hazy, psychedelic roots rock of Philadelphia's The War On Drugs , just recently signed to Matador Records and is set to release his next album, Childish Prodigy , this fall. Past works have been mostly characterized by psych-pop filtered through hushed bedroom-folk atmospherics, but the man isn't afraid to occasionally flex his ability to write stone cold anthems. "Freeway", album opener for his noteworthy debut Constant Hitmaker , soars like the best songs from The War on Drugs. Atop a tin-can [...]
Today, more from the pages of Treble . Here's my review for the debut from Clues , the latest project of Montreal indie rock heavyweight Alden Penner (ex- Unicorns ). Originally published here (where it also includes, as do all Treble reviews, a short list of similar albums). For many, the self-titled debut from Montreal's Clues is expressly nestled in the shadow of rabidly cult-followed Canadian band The Unicorns, so let's not beat around the bush. The excellent Who Will Cut [...]
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