Before my annual New Year’s hedonism quest, I wanted to wish all of you, dear readers, a fine 2009, which coincidentally, will be the UN-declared year of astronomy and the Bono-declared year of Bono (both equally mystifying).  Should be a fine one, indeed.  And oh yeah, you have to wait one more second this time around for the next year… (more…)

Before we begin, do you know who this is in the photo above?  No?  Why, it’s Marjorie Merriweather Post, the founder of General Foods, Inc.  Though she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and socialite existence, the cereal magnate also subscribed to the Rockefeller school of philanthropic thought and donated tons of money to various causes, eventually getting an outdoor concert pavilion in Maryland named after her and, ergo, an album I’m getting ready to pop on the ghetto blaster.

So anyway, you know the drill.  When I grip a new and anticipated jam hive, I like to review it in “real time”… that is to say, I fuckin’ listen to that shizz and liveblog my thoughts on it, only revising for grammatical errors and editorial clarity. Today, Animal Collective’s forthcoming Merriweather Post Pavilion gets said treatment.  It comes out on Domino on January 20th in digital format, January 6th on analog (vinyl).  Unfortunately, you get no preview for yourself, as I got Web Sheriffed on Christmas.  Christmas!

I’ll try to keep this objective.  However, I’ve been a huge Animal Collective fan since I first heard “Slippi” from Here Comes the Indian roughly… I dunno, five years ago or so.  Hence, I have rather strong feelings toward this music, lots of nostalgia, and high expectations. This does, however, usually make for a better write-up.  My prediction - Strawberry Jam seemed to act as a bridge between Animal Collective’s weirdo rippin’ and the newer pop movements showcased in their recent live performances and, of course, Panda Bear’s solo outing.  I expect Merriweather to be AC’s most accessible release yet, for better or worse.  (more…)

I was able to grip a little bit of Merriweather Post Pavilion, the new slam jam from Animal Collective, earlier this evening.  Enjoy the tracks until I will (probably) receive a visit from the Web Sheriff in the next couple of days, in which case and coinciding with my better judgment, I shall remove said content…

UPDATE 12.25: OH SNAP! WEB-SHERIFFED!

Some of my holiday favorites from Kenny Bloggins to you and yours… (more…)

X-mas is one week away.  I guess that rules.  Wal-Mart employees getting pancaked for some plasma TVs, the industrial-sized carbon footprint of the copious holiday-induced traffic, a general feeling of malaise, and not to mention the cliched but nonetheless important observations of the Santa Calus’ pervasive creepiness.  Christmas is weird, and I don’t know if I like it.

So instead, I celebrate DMX-mas, which adopts traditions such as enjoying “‘X Gon’ Give It to Ya,” watching some of his excellent films, and drankin’ malt liquor.  But since most of you don’t celebrate DMX-mas like Lana and I do, I’ll put together a poignant mix fit for the most “wonderful” time of the year.  Have yourself a brain burnin’ Christmas with these whispy sleigh-worn canticles that don’t make me want to stab someone in the face with a morning star.  Speaking of sleighs, remember that part in Citizen Kane when you find out that “Rosebud” was actually the name of Kane’s beloved sled as a child?  This mix fits that mood sorta perfect…  (more…)

Sure, the best-of list is already out, but I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to admit missing a few pretty good recordings this year.  New Orleans’ Belong was one of them, and I stumbled upon said artist by way of a time machine.  I was rummaging through a stack of old magazines when I found a copy of Arthur from the summer of 2006 - the one with Brightblack Morning Light on the cover and their interview where they talked about how rad they think nature is.  I had read “Heavy Air” before, a much better title for an article on Belong than the stupid Internet meme I referenced.  However, something really struck a chord with me reading it this time around.  But more on that in a minute…

Belong’s latest is called Colorloss Record.  It dropped a while ago, actually.  But I’m slow at the punch sometimes.  Colorloss Record is a collection of covers, though you probably wouldn’t discern that from just listening.  It doesn’t sound like any of the originals.  Therein lies the power of Belong, covers or originals - Belong appropriates elements of shoegaze, ambient, minimalism, and drone without falling into or sounding like any of the aforementioned genres.  They sound like a pop band through a thick filter, like listening to a neighbor’s stereo.  Really unusual, and pretty exciting.  The volatile surges and swells of balmy, warm analog noise peppered throughout invoke the eroded and washed haze of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops by way of Kevin Shields.  Despite hailing from a warm and humid climate, I must say that Belong sounds quite majestic as the soundtrack to the silent and cold winter night we’re enjoying here in Louisville tonight.

Belong is Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones, and both gentlemen probably have a lot of love for Tim Hecker, Lichens, and the Goslings.  But on Colorloss Record, they show a love for the likes of Syd Barrett, July, and Tintern Abbey, laying to tape some obscure covers in a completely unrecognizable, sonically aquatic fashion.  Dig “Late Nite” and “My Clown,” por favor.  Yes, the music really is supposed to sound something like the transmission of an extraterrestrial and/or underwater shortwave station broadcasting distant psychedelic pop music, and it’s unabashedly balls to the wall. Totally otherworldly.  (more…)

Oh good, glad to see you like my illustration.  Yeah, I had some downtime and wasn’t feelin’ too creative or too much in my graphic design game as far as doing something special for The Decibel Tolls year-end list.  So Lana and I started talking, and it came to us that it would be hysterical to do a collage with people like Bradford Cox eating that Ezra Comma dude from Frankenstein Weekday or whoever, and Franz Ferdinand… stuff like that.  I didn’t have time to add Lil’ Wayne.  And then I had to make, like, the fuckin’ universe as the backdrop.  That’s how we roll here at the Decibel Tolls - no fun, tasteful graphic to designate this article as the accumulative best-of list.  Nope, just crude images of artists I like with their heads detached eating shitty bands.  I’m additionally thrilled that I was able to describe the image even further despite the fact that it’s already annotated.  I rule.

I put some serious thought into this list, and did a bunch of narrowin’ down.  There were other jam hives I was rather infatuated with this year, such as releases from Magik Markers, Burning Star Core, and Vivian Girls.  But I wanted to do just the standard top ten this time around.  No reason to not do things standard every now and again… (more…)

It really was accident, or at least it wasn’t my intent to provoke a fight, but I guess that’s what happens when you poke a sleeping dragon in the eye.  I did not mean to get in an online nerd fight with Anton Newcombe.  I love the Brian Jonestown Massacre.  I can prove it, just look at my Last.fm, they get mad play… just like me, HEY-OH!

Anyway, here’s the story of the infamous pissing contest between myself and Anton Newcombe by way of the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s MySpazzz that I’ve been promising for quite some time.  It’s a good one.

I realize that I have just forfeit my ability to ever interview Anton by publishing this, but this story is just too good to keep in limbo.  A caveat: I do feel kinda bad that I claimed he wasn’t doing anything before I was aware that My Bloody Underground was already in the works.  However, it was never my intent to be mean, I just felt that there was a correlation between the advent of MySpace/YouTube/et al. and the sudden dropoff of BJM’s output.  I still think that’s fair. Here’s the original write-up I did describing the conversation which happened almost one year ago today… (more…)

My MacBook took a massive doodie a couple of days ago.  The hard drive inexplicably died.  I’m all up in that warranty biz, however, so my precious has been restored on Apple’s dime.  I lost a huge portion of my music in the MACFAIL that I’m slowly rebuilding.  Good news, though - they slammed the Leopard jam on me for free, which is totally tits.  I mention this because all the aforemtioned tragedy accounted for the lack of updates last week.  But also, I’ve been lazy lately.  Sorry.

With all that said, it is with great anticipation that I announce that The Decibel Tolls year end list is coming out on Tuesday!  It’ll be a hoot.

This is my article cross-posted from Tiny Mix Tapes.  Since they’re cool about me reposting my articles on my own blog without any exclusivity clauses, you should make like a tree and visit them and click on their ads and shizz.  And speaking of trees, Caribou speaks for them…

For someone who’s named himself after majestic deer and a lush foresty Canadian province, as well as sample and title songs that greatly concern nature, it’s no surprise that Dan Snaith is stoked on saving the Earth.  In addition, as Snaith has a day job as a teacher, it should be no surprise he also likes to give back. (more…)