Twin Sister recently blew into my life like a cool breeze and they continue to knock me over. The Long Island five-piece recently released Color Your Life, which topped my half-time favorites of 2010. They craft dreamy whirlwinds spun from soft beats and breathy vocals that make for a steamy summer seduction. I can't wait to catch them at Emo's on August 23rd with Memoryhouse.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Twin Sister
Twin Sister recently blew into my life like a cool breeze and they continue to knock me over. The Long Island five-piece recently released Color Your Life, which topped my half-time favorites of 2010. They craft dreamy whirlwinds spun from soft beats and breathy vocals that make for a steamy summer seduction. I can't wait to catch them at Emo's on August 23rd with Memoryhouse.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Watch: Caribou - 'Sun'
"Sun" is the latest video from Caribou's new album, Swim. Directed by Simon Owens (who has helmed videos for LCD Soundsystem and Dizzee Rascal), and produced by Rachel Dargavel at Steel Mill Pictures. How awesome are the dudes that pop in at 2:08?
...a little more info here
Milieu - Colortone
Milieu is Brian Grainger, an electronic producer from Columbia, South Carolina. He is also co-owner/operator of Second Sun Recordings and Install. Since 2001 he has been creating ambient downtempo/IDM with subtle psychedelic overtones, described as a cross between Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.
Milieu also sounds, at times, something like a bare-bones Octopus Project or a Caribou with smooth horns. Looking at a discography this guy appears to have released about 1.5 million albums, but the one that caught my attention is titled Colortone, released in 2008. The album is simply filled with ten tracks of warm, cascading electronic sounds that are perfect for late night listening.
- Milieu - "Pillow Whiter"
- Milieu - "Summer Friends"
- http://www.myspace.com/milieu
- http://slowlid.blogspot.com/
Monday, July 26, 2010
TV Torso
Somewhere in my mind, I had long ago blogged about TV Torso. But after looking through my archives today it appears I must have been dreaming. Better late than never...
After changing band names once or twice, TV Torso was formed in 2008 by former Sound Team members Matt Oliver and Jordan Johns. Thus far the band has released two pretty damn good seven inches, both offering promising cuts of guitar-and-keys-driven indie rock. The sounds trend toward early Spoon and What Made Milwaukee Famous, but it is TV Torso's ability to infuse their music with subtle elements of folk, Americana, and classic rock that really gets your attention.
The band's next offering is a 6-song, vinyl-only LP titled Status Quo Vadis. The songs were produced and recorded by Matt Oliver and Stuart Sikes (White Stripes, Cat Power, Loretta Lynn) and mixed at Jim Eno’s Public Hi-Fi studios. While waiting to hear that, I'd recommend you take both of the 7'' singles for a spin. Check out their Daytrotter session too. And their song on this Flux-Rad mixtape.
TV Torso will be touring all over the US throughout August. They will also be performing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Sunday, October 10.
- TV Torso - "I Can See Your Face"
- TV Torso - "The Black Mask"
- http://www.tvtorso.com/
- http://tvtorso.tumblr.com/
*drawing of TV Torso live in concert by Austin Kleon
Friday, July 23, 2010
Jens Lekman: Summer in 3/4 Time
Swedish crooner Jens Lekman has weaved together another fanciful summer mix mingling modern and classic tunes with snips of dialogue from old timey films. Frankly, I'm smitten. With Lekman's quirky knack for channeling theatrics, it comes as no surprise that the common denominator throughout the mix is the persistence of a waltzy time measurement.
On his Smalltalk blog Jens says, "While making the remix, my mind started working in 3/4 and 6/8 time. I started looking around for tracks in that time signature to make a mix, I wasn't intending to but I couldn't help it. It was all a big swirl. After a while I heard it everywhere. In soul ballads, in poly rhythmical African pop, in old movies. In the ocean waves tumbling in against the shore, in the beat of a lovers heart. One two three, one two three..."
This waltzy whirlwind kicks off with Lekman's remix of Au Revior Simone's "Shadows," and invites you to step into a into a summery dreamworld. The whispered vocals appropriately emphasize, "I hope you're coming with me," and I can't see any reason to deny yourself the innocent escapism of this delightful 28-minute mix. Consider it a mini-vacay easily at your disposal during these dog days of summer.
Tracklist:
- Au Revoir Simone - Shadows (Jens Lekman's remix)
- Barbara Mason - Oh How It Hurts
- Thomas Mapfumo - Madiro
- The Morning Benders - Excuses
- Dialogue from Gregory's Girl (1981)
- Chad & Jeremy - Everyone's Gone To The Moon
- Music and dialogue from Day Of The Locust (1975)
- Eggstone - Birds In Cages
- Pete Drake - Foreve
- Armando Mantovani - Around the World
- Dialogue from Puberty Blues (1981)
- Jane Morgan & the Troubadours - Fascination
- Armando Trovajoli - L'Amore Dice Ciao
- Sharon O'Neill - Puberty Blues
- Like A Sleepy Blue Ocean
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Halcyon Digest
Deerhunter will return with their fourth LP, Halcyon Digest, on September 28 via 4AD. If it comes anywhere near the level of awesomeness they achieved with Microcastle, the album will undoubtedly find its way into my favorites of the year. If not, so be it. I can listen to and enjoy just about anything Bradford Cox touches. Word has it that Deerhunter worked on the recording with Ben Allen, the guy who engineered and mixed Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion.
About the title, frontman Bradford Cox stated "The album's title is a reference to a collection of fond memories and even invented ones, like my friendship with Ricky Wilson or the fact that I live in an abandoned victorian autoharp factory. The way that we write and rewrite and edit our memories to be a digest version of what we want to remember, and how that's kind of sad."
Earlier today Deerhunter offered up a taste of the new stuff. If you go to this website and enter the password "tapereel", you'll find hidden links that will allow you to download the new single "Revival", along with the non-album B-side "Primitive 3D" and a few unused demos. You can even download the artwork and cut out your own CD covers and labels.
Halcyon Digest:
- Earthquake
- Don't Cry
- Revival
- Sailing
- Memory Boy
- Desire Lines
- Basement Scene
- Helicopter
- Fountain Stairs
- Coronado
- He Would Have Laughed
See Phosphorescent at ND
I warned you about this, and now it's happening. Phosphorescent are bringing their show to The ND tomorrow night. The band notoriously had their rental van stolen on the first night of their scheduled six-week US Tour - along with all of their equipment and merchandise - with losses totaling around $40,000. Not long after the story was published, the band posted a MySpace blog update saying the police had miraculously recovered the van, unharmed.
Matthew Houck and the band are touring in support of Here's to Taking It Easy, the fifth full-length album by Phosphorescent. Released in May, and recorded with the same band that delivered the red-headed-stranger tribute To Willie, Paste says the album "evokes lost days and lonely nights with keen observations and road-weary melodies...that’ll have you shedding a tear in your PBR."
Tickets for the show are available here, but if you're not really into paying for things, I'm offering up two pair for giveaway on Twitter. Event details and such are posted at Do512.
Phosphene Dream
The Black Angels will release their highly anticipated third album, Phosphene Dream, on September 14th via Blue Horizon. It is far more accessible than their last effort, the drone-filled Directions To See A Ghost, and a bit more turbo-charged than the Black Angels' debut album Passover.
Produced and mixed by Dave Sardy (Oasis, Wolfmother, Black Mountain), Phosphene Dream shows off both sonically and musically a bold new direction for The Black Angels. Just wait until you hear songs like "Sniper" and the high-octane psych of "Little Girl."
Starting at the end of August the Angels will be playing the Reading and Leeds music festivals in the UK, Rock en Seine in Paris, and the highly coveted Jim Jarmusch curated stage at ATP in NYC. An announcement of their full fall touring plans will be coming shortly.
White Fence
Tim Presley is the lead singer/guitarist of the garage-soul band Darker My Love. He's also a member of The Strange Boys, and apparently a very talented solo artist. Presley's solo musical efforts fall under the name White Fence, and earlier this year he released a highly praised album via Make a Mess/Woodsist.
The self-titled White Fence album is full of distorted, fairly minimal bedroom psych that also happens to show quite a few moments of brilliance. Among the many sixties influences that bleed from this record, it reminds me most of the first time I ever heard Piper at the Gates of Dawn. There's definitely some Syd Barrett in Presley's record collection. Be sure to check out some of his artwork at whitefenceartcollective.blogspot.com
"All those fakers, from Nikki Sudden to the Miracle Workers to the Warlocks, have tried and failed to really capture the psychedelic promise of the late-early-mid sixties. And suddenly, now, in 2010 no less, our man Tim Presley just NAILS it, sliding psychedelic chalk down the Syd Barrett blackboard with such identifiably original lo-fi disjangled fogginess and Ostrich Guitar. Nothing has sounded like this since bands had names like the “Laughing Soap Dish.” - L.A. RecordWhite Fence - "Who Feels Right?
White Fence - "The Love Between"
http://www.myspace.com/whitefenceband
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Watch Out For Rockets
Watch Out For Rockets is a lo-fi band from Austin who have been recording their guitar-based power pop since 2007. The band's best effort so far is their 2009 sophomore album Beasts With Hearts Of Gold, jam-packed with twenty energetic pop songs that exist somewhere between early Spoon and Guided By Voices. Click here to take it for a spin. While you're there you can also download a free EP they released earlier this Summer. For more on the inner workings of Watch Out For Rockets, hit up Austin Sound.Monday, July 19, 2010
Dead Confederate - Sugar
I am excited to hear that the fantastic Athens five-piece Dead Confederate will release their sophomord, Sugar, on August 24th via TAO Recordings/Old Flame Records. The band's debut album Wrecking Ball ranked very high on my favorites of 2008, so it goes without saying that I have been highly anticipating the follow up.
Recorded by John Agnello (Hold Steady, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.) this album explores new styles beyond the grungy psychedelia of the first record. The start to this progression was shaped by tours with legends Dinosaur Jr. and Meat Puppets, and gave DC an increased appreciation for the early underground bands of the 80s and 90s that laid the foundation on which their sound is built. Sugar features a special guest appearance by J. Mascis on the single "Giving It All Away."
TRACKLISTING:
- In The Dark
- Run From The Gun (w/ Ben Wigler)
- Father Figure
- Quiet Kid
- By Design
- Mob Scene
- Semi-Thought
- Giving It All Away (w/ J. Mascis)
- Sugar
- Shocked To Realize
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Rumble Austin
Tonight! Future Sounds, The Onion AV Club, The Austinist, Waterloo Records and Covert Curiosity present The Rumble Austin at Beerland.
The lineup for this month's installment consists of emerging local talents International Waters (feat. former Voxtrot member Mitch Calvert) and danceable indie rock rounders The Frontier Brothers. The previously loved Candi & The Strangers will kick the night off with their lush psych-dream pop. The visual aspect of their live performance is really something to see.
You know what is even cooler? This local music buffet is absolutely FREE. Which of course leaves you with some extra cap space to enjoy a cold beverage or two. Be sure to click over to Future Sounds to read more on what we have in store.
Beerland. Tonight. Doors at 9, music at 10. Here's a primer:
Friday, July 09, 2010
Broken Water - Whet
Whet is the debut LP by Olympia, Washington 3-piece Broken Water. Two of the pieces are Kanako Wynkoop and Jon Hanna of Sisters (who played our Eastside Get Down party at SXSW this year), and the other piece is Abigail Ingram of the band Congratulations. All three members contribute vocals, adding depth to their distorted, grunge-influenced rock & roll.It certainly sounds like they grew up listening to bands like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine and the Pixies. Their music almost sounds like it was plucked straight from the early 90s, enough to make you long for the days of flannel shirts. Whet is out now on Raccoo-oo-oon's label Night People.
"Dense walls of slow swirling distortion breath out into moments of cold syrupy magma and reverb drenched beauty. Droning post punk bass grooves build foundations for constantly evolving guitar riffing and somber vocal passages, a subtle psychedelic sound as heavy as it is lite, as dark as it is colorful, and as deep as it is wide. Broken Water's dreamy take on hazy pastoral sonic exploration is as unique as it is nostalgic and provides endless amounts of killer listening." -Night People
"Whet is an unapologetic blast from grunge's past. The album spills over with the distorted crunch once recognized as the Northwest's calling card. Yet nothing created by Broken Water seems disingenuous, rather Whet is perhaps the most authentic artifact of an era gone by from a new generation that couldn't give a damn about what once stood where grunge's tombstone now casts its shadow. The touchstones of Broken Water are immediate and the wave of nostalgia that initially greets the ears is soon surrendered with the band's own spin on the blue collar music of the '80s and early '90s." -Brainwashed
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Books - The Way Out
The Books was formed in New York City in 1999 by two neighbors who collaborated on what they considered pop music. In fact, Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong - perhaps by a mix of accident and design - developed a sound that over a decade later still defies categorization and mystifies critics and fans alike. Their music has been called many things: surreal, playful, transcendent, innovative, magical, heartbreaking.I've been calling The Books' music a sound rainbow, as that is about as close as I can come to describing it. The Way Out is their fourth album, set for release via Temporary Residence Limited on July 20. Five years in the making, the album is genuinely innovative, built upon samples culled from old self-help recordings and hypnotherapy cassettes.
"Over the course of three albums in nearly a decade's time, the Books have grown to become one of modern music's most genuine innovators. Creatively complex and truly unclassifiable, The Way Out continues the Books' tradition of meticulous, existential songcraft, infusing the playfully surreal elements of previous albums with a humorous, childlike excitement. Produced and recorded as always in the Books' home studios, The Way Out expands on the charm and intimacy of past endeavors with a deeper emotional resonance and an ever-impressive marriage of seemingly disparate sound worlds. With The Way Out, the Books have mastered the precarious balance of beauty, absurdity and accessibility." -TRL
- The Books - "Chain Of Missing Links"
- http://thebooksmusic.tumblr.com/
- http://www.myspace.com/thebooksmusicpage
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Beck's Record Club vs INXS
The focus of Beck's latest Record Club was the mega-popular 1987 INXS album 'Kick'. Fellow music makers joining in the fun this time were Annie Clark and Daniel Hart from St. Vincent, Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross from the band Liars, Sergio Dias from the legendary Brazilian band Os Mutantes, as well as long time Beck collaborator Brian Lebarton.
This is the 4th installment of Beck's Record Club series, previously covering The Velvet Underground and Nico, Skip Spence's Oar and Leonard Cohen's Songs of Leonard Cohen. The idea is to cover an album in a single day with no rehearsal. Kick was recorded in a little over 12 hours on March 3, 2010. For the next project, Beck has recruited Thurston Moore and Tortoise to cover Greek composer Yanni's 1994 album 'Live At The Acropolis'.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Autolux: Transit Transit
Autolux are officially back. The Los Angeles-based trio will release their sophomore album, Transit Transit, on August 3rd via TBD Records. The new release is their first since debuting in 2004, so it's been a long time coming for anyone who picked up Future Perfect and fell in love with their sonic, shoegaze-y sound. They have been compared to the likes of Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine.
TBD Records:An Autolux live show will rattle deep inside your ear drums, and their tour will make a stop in Austin at Emo's on September 9. If I'm remembering correctly, this will be the band's first visit to Austin since SXSW 2007. Tickets are $10 at the link.
"The hypnotic density of the vocals and organic futurism of the instrumentation (on Transit Transit) instantly rearranges any preconceptions about the ‘autolux sound’. “Supertoys” plays like the logical evolution and refinement of Future Perfect, delivering propulsive grooves and atmospheric chord changes. There is a notable sonic progression throughout Transit Transit: vintage synthesizers and manipulated ambience glue central song components together, several tracks are built around piano, all three members take turns with lead vocals, harmonies are abundant, and there is even a bit of trumpet."
How To Dress Well
How To Dress Well makes hazy, lo-fi R&B that sounds like it was produced through blown speakers. The man behind the music is Tom Krell, who apparently spends half of his time translating a book of “post-Kantian philosophy” in Cologne, Germany. The other half is spent making tunes as How to Dress Well, which he started posting to his blog late last year. At this point he’s got dozens of songs available for download, organized in a series of EPs.
His first official release is the "Ready for the World" 7", which will arrive July 20 via Lefse. I'm told his debut full length album will be finished in a few weeks. You can read a very interesting interview with Tim Krell over at P4K. I knew I was officially a fan when he said "Twisted by Keith Sweat is a fucking masterpiece." To explore further, check out his blog, soundcloud and myspace.
Use headphones.
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