To all the ladies who will be spending hours getting primped for Midwinter Ball tomorrow:
this mash-up is the perfect lead-in to a night you surely won't forget. Cyndi Lauper's timeless ebullience fuses perfectly with Ke$ha's unabashed party girl anthem for a universal celebration of femininity and fun!
This Austin, TX punk band has been receiving a lot of critical attention in the months leading up to their sophomore LP, "Be Brave." Below is the music video for the title track/single, which sounds a bit like Georgia's Black Lips meets early Rolling Stones. See them on tour with Spoon and Deerhunter this year!
Following the path of such rising 2009 acts as Neon Indian, Memory Tapes and fellow South Carolinian Ernest Greene (aka Washed Out), recent University of South Carolina grad Chazwick Bundick has released an album that can perhaps save us Carleton students from the dregs of winter term.
Like the aforementioned artists' work, "Causers of This" contains a warped, faded sound resembling that of a cassette tape possibly left a little too long in a warm car. The album, like Neon Indian's 2009 "Psychic Chasms", is injected with a healthy dose of A.D.D. - Bundick, on multiple occasions radically changes the pace of his songs at seemingly random points; for example, the tail end of the single "Blissa" drops out into jumbled guitar notes slowly fading away until track 2, "Minors", jumps out with oohs, aahs and the familiar colorful, blissful pop akin to this developing genre.
Despite its (potentially) pejorative connotations, there really is no better way to describe "Causes of This" than the word 'chill'. The sound is unchallenging and easy-going, the songs float in and out of each other; judging by the picture on the right, Budwick seems like a pretty chill guy. On one hand, Toro y Moi's sound is a composite of many contemporary influences from all over the spectrum: Animal Collective, the Chillwave crew, there is also an infusion of Flying Lotus-esque dubstep (check out the bass-heavy 'Fax Shadow) and neo-funk a la Stone's Throw's own Dam-Funk. However, despite the "alt-acopia" sound, the album is a promising example of what a lot of emerging artists in the next few years may sound like.
With already two rising chill stars under its belt, Columbia, SC could quite possibly become the next So-Cal. When this cold, cold winter finally passes, keep this glowing, blissful album in mind - it may be the perfect companion to a sunny walk in the arb.
Figured you could use a pick-me-upper, since you haven't seen a whole lot of action this winter break. Going to throw a few tracks from San Fran's Thee Oh Sees, who have moved around from such labels as Brooklyn's Woodsist to LA's In the Red, where they released this year's "Help". The whole album is G-R-E-A-T! Hopefully the cover (see left) is enough incentive to download these tracks. Fun, fuzzy dance music straight from their garage to your headphones!
Happy Howlidays, everyone. Don't get too stressed.
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.
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.
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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.
WOOOOOOO