My deepest apologies for the 3 people who read this on a weekly basis! We’ve slackened a bit, but that does not mean we’ve forgotten. I think instead of one off daily posts, we will bring you more interesting and nice posts a couple times a week. Quality not quantity. So as a special treat, here are three songs that have really grabbed me recently. First off, Bear Hands channels Isaac Brock, followed by a brand new New Pornographers song off their up and coming album and to finish it all off, Pattern Is Movement with an awesome math rock drum track set to sparse and dainty keyboards and powerful vocals.
-lionsteeth
I also apologize for the lack of posts as of late, but hopefully some solid tunes will be the peace offering that you need. Starting us off is one of By the End of Tonight’s more melodic tracks, followed by jj, a Swedish band that showed up on a ton of “Best of 2009″ lists but I failed to even know they existed. Finishing us off is my biggest singer/songwriter crush, Mariee Sioux, who is probably my absolute favourite female vocalist.
Hey ya’ll. It’s like 14 degrees outside my office right now, and I’m taking as many smoke breaks as possible to enjoy a sit in the sunshine. To perfectly compliment this day, here is a brand new Ruby Suns track called Cranberries. Ruby Suns are a Bluegrassish fav, particularly attributed to Slobby who may or may not have heard this dance masterpiece, so ENJOY!
Few bands stir up feelings of drunken teenage nights and subtle rebellion like Japanther. I am literally in love with these Brooklyn fuzz-punkers. So much so I can barley think of words to describe how excited I was to hear they had a new album coming out March 2nd entitled Rock n’ Roll Ice Cream. Japanther flew out to L.A to produce their new album with former Madonna and Pink Floyd producer Micheal Blum, does this make any sense to anyone? Acordding to the Village Voice Japanther rejected Blums 10,000 dollar microphones only to sing into their own home made telephone mics…rad. Also a new member has joined the name, Annita Sparrow who adds some great female vocal harmonies to what was once such a minimal band. I’ve heard one song, and it rules. So here it is.
As reported two weeks prior , Jay Retard passed away on January 13th 2010. As most people where, I was deeply saddened to discover the loss of someone bursting with so much talent and life. Today the Memphis Commercial Appeal confirmed that Jay Retards death was caused by “cocaine toxicity” and alcohol. To me this did not come as much of a shock, despite the rumors of a possible homicide, an overdose seemed to be the most logical answer to a 29 year old dying in their sleep. I’m still not quite sure if this knowledge makes me feel better or worse, at least I am now able to stop speculating. Jay, we miss you.
Wow! As a lover of all things Frog Eyes I was very very very excited to hear about an upcoming album, and now a song is making it’s way around the Internet! I have always thought that Frog Eyes have only improved with every release, and judging by this track, this album will be no different. It is unmistakably Frog Eyes, and unmistakably amazing. Even from the very first howl, you know the emotion that we all know and love is more than present, and as with Tears of the Valedictorian the production is fantastic. Oh, and its nice and long. The track is called “A Flower in A Glove” and it will be featured on the upcoming LP “Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph”, it is due out on Frog Eyes’ new label Dead Oceans on April 27th, no mention of a preorder, but we shall keep our fingers crossed. Here is a track list for all the nerds.
Besides awkward comedy and tasty green fruit, as far as I know not much comes out of New Zealand. Sure Flight Of The Concords really opened up peoples views of a strange music scene, but if your like me you see New Zealand as Australian silly little brother and pay little attention to it (if your reading this from Auckland, I’m sorry). I’m sure we’re all also terribly mistaken and Surf City is a great example of what isolation and the internet can do. Picking up some great inspiration from modern lo-fi garage rock and blending with some classic surf guitar riffing and sometimes surprising indie sensibilities that will catch you quite off guard while your being pummeled by waves of drums, distortion and sea foam. The Surf City EP was released on August 6th ‘07 (holy shit, this was 2 years ahead of it’s time) on Arch Hill Recordings and besides a few blogs and a Pitchfork nod it was under almost everyones radar. Well, not mine! Surf City jumped from below the horizon to the clouds in a matter of hours for me. Every song on this 6 song EP is incredible indie epics, rarely leaving you more than a second to catch your breath or adjust the star struck grin plastered across your face. I feel that maybe these guys started too soon, and where forgotten before this style was so prevalent. However since they’re still a fully active band playing shows all over New Zealand and Australia, a new album is hopefully in the works.If it was summer right nowand I drove, I’d be blasting this from my convertible Camero speakers ripping down the hi-way, probably drunk.
Dan Mcgee cares about three things; the mighty church of the bottle, the distant sent of a lost woman, and the twangy new country sounds of his band Spider Bags. I discussed this band of southern fried troubadours a few months ago and included a few tracks of the album “A Celebration of Hunger” which was Spider Bags first full length album, and after hours of searching I’ve finally acquired Dan McGee & Spider Bags “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World”. All of the classic elements of Spider Bags that I loved are still there, Dan McGee’s crooning raspy voice, laying out stories drenched in beer and whiskey, tales of lovers posed with the affluence of a hillbilly Poet Laureate “the longer than I stick around the more I forget, life is spent between cigarettes and regret”. Like their earlier albums Spider Bags cooks us up quite a few bangers, fast paced bar brawlers, seen and heard through their own personal beer goggles. However on “Goodbye Cruel World..” we see another side of Dan McGee not so present in just Spider Bags releases. We see his life as a Saturday news paper comic strip. Dan McGee falls for a woman, she forgets/leaves/hurts him, he drinks down his sorrows, he writes a song. Luckily for us, no where on this album do things feel hopeless or even worse, cheesy. McGee is able to keep things light enough to keep us up and alter enough to process his napkin scribblings. All in all “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World” is a chuck wagon ride through the dusty some times heart broken hills of Raleigh North Carolina where McGee and Spider Bags call home, and I’ve never been happier.
In our advanced society lines have been blurred. There is very little pressure to be a mans man, cream of the crop, all american or jack of all trades. One is able to simply slide through being who you are and it’s a real luxury. Sometimes though, in certain situations one’s masculinity is tested. Usually it comes in the form of being able to honestly enjoy something that would down play your manhood, maybe a cute puppy, a tear jerker movie, a relaxing bath, listening to a Cat Power album. All of those circumstances could be perfectly framed with the music of Twin Sister, except your half cut on wine and a pack of smokes in. The music is nice and down tempo but not boring, hazy but sweet. Lead singer Andrea Estella has a voice like milk and honey, and perfection is reached in an almost Nico moan in the song ‘Dry Hump’ (haha). Catching me completely off guard, Twin Sister feels like it must be played through headphones. There are many deeper layers then what comes up straight away, well rehearsed and planned feedback, hums, the clicking of a guitar pick on a string and so very light drumming and bass that is sure to give you goosebumps. Twin Sister is offering out the EP “Vampires With Dreaming Kids” for free right now and I highly recommend you grab yourself the digital download and dream dream dream. I don’t care what anyone says, manliness aside, I love Twin Sister a lot.
“Oh you sleepy hipsters. How can one complain? Your music is so catchy, your demeanor so lame. You play your keyboards through a tin can, your beard is that of a Neanderthal man. On the street I may confuse you with a bum, but god do I love that reverbed hum.” I would say that sums up Small Black to me. A great band with more hype then content, but can you blame them? Now Small Black is by no means bad, but once you read a little more into them I was left with a bit of an odd taste in my mouth, I’d imagine it tasted like being fed with a silver spoon, but I digress. Small Black uses toy casios, reverb, loops and a bass to get their message across (where have I heard that before) and they do it well. They’ve got a sound mapped out, except they threw out the map and bought a GPS. You cant really go wrong here, so get high put your headphones on and enjoy this little EP they recently released on CassClub. Check out this video of Small Black as they try so hard to stay awake for their song Despicable Dogs, which can also be heard below.
It feels like these days you can describe a band one of two ways, vocal harmonies or no vocal harmonies. Suckers has got the harmonies, boy do they got ‘em. A relatively buzzed band in the late summer of ‘09 Suckers have seemed to fade a bit since the release of their Suckers EP. Granted they had a huge song entitled “It Gets Your Body Movin’ ” and it’s pretty tough to follow up such a hit on a four song EP, but what they’ve done I am really into. In the least corny way possible Suckers blends 1980’s pop and rhythms with some strange and fluttering dissonant guitar and bass patterns, and again, what a voice! When you have a band in which everyone plays everything there is a lot of room for experimenting and this defiantly happens on Suckers EP, synths galore paired with some horns, some yelps and enough bleep bloops to make a believer out of any AnCo fan. Things never get to hectic which is something I’m liking more and more these days, I’m able to sit back and enjoy (see: Am I Old?) but still have a bit of a mind melt. Think of nursing your baby to sleep with Valium cut with acid. Relaxing yet still psychedelic. Here are two tracks by Suckers, one from their new Suckers EP and one from a Daytrotter session that I loved.
World”. All of the classic elements of Spider Bags that I loved are still there, Dan McGee’s crooning raspy voice, laying out stories drenched in beer and whiskey, tales of lovers posed with the affluence of a hillbilly Poet Laureate “the longer than I stick around the more I forget, life is spent between cigarettes and regret”. Like their earlier albums Spider Bags cooks us up quite a few bangers, fast paced bar brawlers, seen and heard through their own personal beer goggles. However on “Goodbye Cruel World..” we see another side of Dan McGee not so present in just Spider Bags releases. We see his life as a Saturday news paper comic strip. Dan McGee falls for a woman, she forgets/leaves/hurts him, he drinks down his sorrows, he writes a song. Luckily for us, no where on this album do things feel hopeless or even worse, cheesy. McGee is able to keep things light enough to keep us up and alter enough to process his napkin scribblings. All in all “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World” is a chuck wagon ride through the dusty some times heart broken hills of Raleigh North Carolina where McGee and Spider Bags call home, and I’ve never been happier.
