Pysch – folk bands are always at a risk of becoming unorganized jam bands playing with obscure instruments and too many effects, but MV & EE manages to avoid this fate by coupling their woozy sound with sparkling guitar riffs and determined lyrics. Their new album Barn Nova is definitely their best. MV & EE is one of the many projects of Matt Valentine and Erika Elder and the album is somewhat of a romantic psychedelic trip between them. The guitar duel in the track “Summer Magic” will perk you up from the muted, dreamy mood of the first few tracks and shortly after the album reaches its pinnacle with “Wandering Nomad”. In the next track MV & EE become the wanderers in a hazy musical landscape in the eleven-minute long “Bedroom Eyes”. The album ends with “Fully Tanked” and “You Feel” as they slide back down into a gentler mood similar to that of the opening tracks.
My favorite track of the album is the nostalgic “Fully Tanked”. It stands more on the folk side of the psych – folk spectrum with a harmonica and plucky guitar line, but it’s backed by electric reverb droning that becomes stronger through out the track. There are many lyrical gems throughout the album but one of my favorites is in this track where Matt Valentine lackadaisically croaks “Can you turn your back on the ocean door/ and search with me for the tides/ and never break or change your ways/ we’ll hang out in the sky.”
I recommend listening to this album late at night in the midst of a sleep deprived delirium whilst trying to do homework or just in a laid back atmosphere where you can let yourself drown in the sound.
I echo Michael's comment. Great review. It should be mentioned that MV & EE are coming to First Ave. on Nov. 18th with Dinosaur Jr.
on November 12, 2009 @ 2:38 PM says:
But that's the same day as Fuck Buttons - decisions, decisions...
Aurora on November 13, 2009 @ 4:26 AM says:
ah decisions, decisions indeed
Michael on November 13, 2009 @ 10:44 AM says:
I should be supporting the cave, but it's really awesome that MV&EE are touring with Dinosaur Jr.
dan on November 13, 2009 @ 11:06 AM says:
j mascis is on that hippie tip, he's buds w/ thurston & always books ecstatic peace bands at the front end of dino shows. i saw them with awesome color at the triple rock, couple years before that they were playing with magik markers. if you poke around the ecstatic peace website there's a bunch of videos of that tour including an awesome one of a markers set w/ both mascis & nolan on drums. also for mv/ee fans there's a video of them playing w/ samara lubelski.
coffee gift sets on August 24, 2010 @ 9:46 AM says:
Wow this was a great post.. I' m enjoying it.. good resource
coffee gift sets on August 24, 2010 @ 9:47 AM says:
Wow this was a great post.. I' m enjoying it.. good resource
coffee gift sets on August 24, 2010 @ 9:49 AM says:
Wow this was a great post.. I' m enjoying it.. good resource
coffee gift sets on August 24, 2010 @ 9:50 AM says:
Wow this was a great post.. I' m enjoying it.. good resource
Cold Cave is the phoenix that has risen from the ashes of likeminded synthpop revivalists Xiu Xiu and Prurient. The group recently released "Love Comes Close" on Matador Records, and the band's gloomy, barebones electronica captures the detached aesthetic characteristic of early Factory Records, the Manchester based label that transformed the heretofore gritty, impoverished industrial wasteland into the epicenter of the British music scene in the early eighties. Cold Cave is based in New York and perhaps this invocation of this signature sound reflects New York's current malaise in midst of America's financial crisis. As James Murphy aptly said, "New York, I love you, but you're bringing me down." (Also see the enduring relevance of this prescient Joan Didion essay:Goodbye to All That)
The album's title track evokes "Corruption, Power and Lies" era New Order, and fully ensconces the listener in a aural milieu of modern despair. Caralee McElroy (formerly of Xiu Xiu)gives the following track "Life Magazine" an infectious sweetness with her melodic, feminine vocals, which is redolent of the decidedly more upbeat Saint Etienne. In sum, Cold Cave encapsulates a sophisticated, urban world-weariness in their music that is both the perfect soundtrack to the current economic downturn, and provides a glimmer of hope that an end is indeed in sight.
Duck Hunt is one of the early 90s K records bands that have fallen through the cracks. While other bands from that period -- Beat Happening, Teenage Fanclub, etc. – are still in musical circulation, Duck Hunt is no where to be found. This 45 has that classic K Recs sound. It has been sitting in the record library for years just waiting to be played.
Bristol duo, Fuck Buttons, formed in 2004 and were signed to the rarefied All Tomorrow's Party label in 2007. In 2008 the group released "Street Horrrsing," a brilliant aural assault of a record that sounds like a noise rock group attempting to create a shoegaze album. I had the privilege of seeing the group perform at the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival and with a Fisher Price cassette player in hand the duo played a raucous, volatile set at Union Park's tiniest stage, captivating the small but steadfast audience with their dynamic, inventive looping. ( Fuck Buttons will be appearing at the Cave in November and are not to be missed. )
This year Andrew Hung and John Benjamin Power (yes those are their real names) have released "Tarot Sport" which showcases the band's maturity and seemingly limitless depth of talent. The album is considerably more focused and less abrasive than "Street Horrrsing," and the record's opener "Surf Solar" sounds like the perfect musical accompaniment to a Dario Argento horror film (sorry Goblin). "Surf Solar" is undeniably spooky yet so remarkably ordered and composed, that it achieves a sort of sonic transcendence. The album's middle track "Olympians" is gorgeously textured and reminiscent of Brian Eno's "Another Green World" album. I thought I would grow tired of an hour long record of discordant noise, but I find myself continually revisiting "Tarot Sport" and upon each listen discovering a new dimension of the group's sophisticated, hypnotic sound.
It’s been quite a year for Alan Palomo. Back in February 2009, when everyone was still reeling from Animal Collective’s pop opus Merriweather Post Pavilion and had just begun anticipating Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimst, Palomo released two very different singles onto the internet , attaching his name to only one. The first, “No Reasons”, comes from his other project Vega. The track is clean, crisp, loud, and all there; or, in other words, everything that Neon Indian isn’t.
When we received “Deadbeat Summer”, all that came with it was a funky picture of two Native Americans walking along the plains: no names, no background, no nothing. But then something special happened: While “No Reasons” merged smoothly into the blogosphere alongside all of those 80’s revivalist projects, “Deadbeat Summer” started to gather more and more attention (with good reason). I remember my first listening to this track back in February; I imagine the puzzled expression on my face must have resembled the way a dog looks when it hears it’s master’s voice on the answering machine. The opening to ‘Deadbeat Summer’ starts out sounding like somebody took all the film out of a cassette, pulled it all out of order, and then placed the cassette back in the recorder. One can only use the word ‘warped’ to describe the result.
‘Deadbeat Summer’ samples Todd Rundgren’s “Izzat Love?”, but unlike the original track the sound loops all over the place in a way that anyone after playing enough innings of Rotblatt can identify with. The sound was completely new, and before the summer hit many other artists that had been making similar music also begin collecting a lot of buzz: Washed Out, Memory Tapes, Weird Tapes, Memory Cassette, JJ, etc. Palomo managed to hold onto his anonymity until Neon Indian simply became too big to handle. By the time it was revealed that the same guy behind Vega is also Neon Indian, it was safe to say that Palomo had created a new genre of music.
All sorts of names were tossed around, from “GorillaVsBearCore” to “Glo-Fi”, until Internet music sources eventually settled on “Chillwave” (if they've settled at all, but this doesn't matter). By this point in time, two other Neon Indian singles had been released: ‘Should Have Taken Acid With You’, and ‘Terminally Chill.’ One could easily argue that within this community, the summer of 2009 belonged to Neon Indian. Everyone was talking about this new genre, and the Psychic Chasms LP still had months to be released.
Izzat Electronic? Izzat Psychedelic? “Izzat Music?” Absolutely, and fucking good music at that. Neon Indian takes the music of the Reagan period, albeit to a lesser extent then Vega, and twists it into a format that resembles a slow fade into obscurity and absurdity. At many points, Palomo’s distinctive brand of “chillwave” seems downright silly; at others, painfully detached. Perhaps this is why so many confused hipsters that are struggling to find something to hold onto after the commercialization of Indie Rock can find common ground with an album that simply floats by for about thirty minutes. As to whether the floating is through space, personal crises or just another acid trip, Palomo leaves that up to the listener. But what will make this album outlast all of those newly established Chillwave copycats is that underneath all this chillness bordering a farcical extent, there is a tortured presence presiding deep – way, way, deep – down that simply refuses to come out…at least while the acid is still going strong.
I grabbed the Drums "Summertime!" EP on a whim, and I was dang pleased with the ensuing two weeks of playing it on repeat. They have yet to release a full-length LP, but this should be enough for anyone who loves the Beach Boys, or just surf rock in general. This album swings back and forth from bleak to bright fairly quickly, painting a vivid picture of summer nights by an unspecified shore.
The three tracks I've been returning to from this album are
1) The delightfully pop-punk "Saddest Summer" - with a fast paced bass line and lyrics like "Summer's just beginning baby / I might learn to hate you maybe"
2) "Let's Go Surfing" - Fairly self-descriptive. Definitely the catchiest song off of the album; I've heard my roommates singing "oh mama / I wanna go surfing" in the shower enough to know how infectious it can be.
3) The rather mature "Submarine" - haunting lyrics and theremin sirens betray the Drums' Smiths-esque jangle-pop roots.
Frank Wright is a Mississippi-Born Free-Jazz tenor sax player, who is perhaps one of the more underground or elusive of the New York 60s jazz scene. His style is most akin to Albert Alyer although don’t dismiss this has an imitation -- this is original, fascinating music. He largely recorded for ESP and European free-jazz labels, after his move to Europe in the 70s, and was no where near as prolific as many of commentaries. His sound is characteristically powerful and intense.
Frank Wright Trio, released on ESP-Disc in 1965, features Wright on tenor, Henry Grimes on bass, and Tom Price on Drums. It’s short, explosive, and a terrific introduction to Frank Wright.
The Earth starts with a haunting Wright introduction, erupts into a middle section at the extreme high end of the tenor range, followed by an interplay between Henry Grimes’ bass and Price’s incessant crashing symbol rhythm
Jerry starts has an almost taunt to hard-boppers -- a beautiful, well-written melody which is then dismantled. Wright solo’s has an existential feel to it, a peculiar anguish. Listen to the way he ends his first solo at around 6:00
The Moon is the harshest and fastest tune on the record. Challenging, but incredible stuff. The key word here is velocity. The air doesn’t just travel through the horn, it is forced.
This an original KRLX vinyl transfer. If MP3s aren’t your thing, feel free to go down to the record library and check out the record.
Yeah, so as far as new music this week, slim pickings. Aside from a couple bonus copies of the Stone Roses reissue (up for grabs, if you want 'em), we received nothing too special in the record libe.
This, however, gave me the opportunity to give a better, more attentive listen to HEALTH's latest LP, "Get Color." Yeah, the video and album were released on September 4th and 8th, respectively, so maybe this post is a little behind the times. But this happens with a lot of albums I end up really liking: I give it a listen or two, think it's alright, and put it back on the proverbial shelf. A few days/weeks/months later, I return to it again and get hit full-force. It's a strange phenomenon. But yeah, "Get Color". Who cares if this is a month overdue; believe me, this album is definitely worth going back to. Get it in the 'New Music' section.
And the video, directed by the bassist/noisemaker John Famiglietti, reminded me why there are music videos in the first place:
This track is on the Megaseg; let's get these guys some deserving air time.
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Pysch – folk bands are always at a risk of becoming unorganized jam bands playing with obscure instruments and too many effects, but MV & EE manages to avoid this fate by coupling their woozy sound with sparkling guitar riffs and determined lyrics. Their new album Barn Nova is definitely their best. MV & EE is one of the many projects of Matt Valentine and Erika Elder and the album is somewhat of a romantic psychedelic trip between them. The guitar duel in the track “Summer Magic” will perk you up from the muted, dreamy mood of the first few tracks and shortly after the album reaches its pinnacle with “Wandering Nomad”. In the next track MV & EE become the wanderers in a hazy musical landscape in the eleven-minute long “Bedroom Eyes”. The album ends with “Fully Tanked” and “You Feel” as they slide back down into a gentler mood similar to that of the opening tracks.
Yeah, so as far as new music this week, slim pickings. Aside from a couple bonus copies of the Stone Roses reissue (up for grabs, if you want 'em), we received nothing too special in the record libe.
Great Post!