It would take a pretty awesome album cover to get its own post. And the album cover for the forthcoming Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion gets that honor.
The Magic Eye company spent years releasing optical illusion picture books that didn’t fuckin’ work! And it only took AC one try to get the wavy surrealism tip right. Man, this rules. I can’t stop staring at it. I’m trying to get my reviews of Religious Knives and Hush Arbors written today, but all I can do is stare at this thing. You guys enjoying this? I’m enjoying this.
I’m a huge shortwave radio enthusiast (which is a really strange hobby for a 24 year old to have), and certainly a fan of the Conet Project. I have a rather in-depth article on hold right now that will explore the use of shorwave, CB, numbers stations, and other esoteric broadcast in music. For the time being, I wanted to share this video, which combines my fascination with numbers stations with my fascination with bizarre film from the early and mid-20th century. It’s like it was made just for me.
I should be releasing my best of 2008 list next month at this time. As a preview, you can bet that San Francisco’s Sic Alps will be firmly planted in the northern latitudes of the list. This isn’t your father’s unwashable, filthy, no-fi psychedelic rock scuz – Sic Alps twist, creak, and thump, taking you on a cosmically damaged romp through west coast good vibes and future shock trepidation.
Why I didn’t czech out the group earlier is a mystery to me. Their debut Pleasures and Treasures was released on Animal Disguise, home to my good friends Warmer Milks. The latest, U.S. Ez, has a comfy place on the Siltbreeze roster with the likes of Charlambides, The Dead C, and hey look, U.S. Girls (see below). Sic Alps certainly drink from the same goblets as the highest in psych rock royalty, but they also bring the goods to back up their seat at the table. Continue reading ‘No-Fi Psych with Sic Alps, US Girls, and The N.E.C.’
Interestingly enough, I had the pleasure of seeing both Battles and Don Caballero play within a few months of each other last year at the ol’ music venue I used to help book and promote. This is significant as guitarist Ian Williams (pictured above, courtesy of Radio Free Chicago) brought his non-soloing fingertap riffage to Don Cab for years before Battles, and conventional lore suggests that the disbanding of the original Don Caballero lineup was not pretty. So the venue’s other talent buyer and I joked that Battles might have been supremely bummed if they knew we were playing the field with two of our favorite math rockers. If they read this blog, I guess they know now. Me and my big mouth.
I love the new self-titled album by Women. It’s currently available on the near flawless Jagjaguwar label, and since it’s based in Bloomington, serves as possibly the only really awesome thing about Indiana. As you can see, Women is (presumably) four dudes. Sausage fest!
I was introduced to Women (that sounds so odd) by a fellow Tiny Mix Tapes writer who proclaimed that Women is prefect for anyone who “gets their dick up to Animal Collective.” I was certainly intrigued after that statement, especially since he said the word “dick.” And while I would concur that the Calgary band sometimes evokes the more menacing material on Here Comes the Indian and Danse Manitee, Women are by no means a knock-off. Whereas Animal Collective has always exuded a playfulness and childlike veneer, here be dragons within Women. The crescendo of the excellently titled “Lawncare” wants to pillage your village and breed with your women (pun intended, motherfucker). Continue reading ‘Women Shatter Glass Ceilings, Eardrums, Et Al.’
A while ago, I impulsively picked up this comp at the Wicker Park area Reckless Records. When I approached the counter, the clerk, temporarily abandoning the general affected demeanor of a record store employee, exclaimed “man, I was wondering when someone was finally going to pick that up!” So I figured I gripped something pretty rad that day.
Trap Door: An International Psychedelic Mystery Mix was compiled by San Francisco-based Dis-Joint Records, a label interested in all the weird freaky-deeky obscure shit that tingles my solar plexus. It’s a mixtape, in some ways, insofar as the compilation flows together seamlessly and features DJ-helmed breakbeats augmented by dub low end. In other ways, not so much, as the source material jumps between disparate sounds and genres within the psychedelic element of the ’60s and ’70s. Trap Door strikes a great balance.
I had to go through a labyrinth of amazing old school Geocities websites to find a decent photo of Lush. The mid-’90s was such a golden age for web design, ya’ll. Why don’t designers use wicked animated GIFs anymore? Man… fuckin’ Geocities… oooh weee. I had a Geocities website and it ruled so hard.
Anyway, conventional shoegazing history operates, for all intents and purposes, as follows. When the “Scene That Celebrated Itself“ collapsed on itself around the same time as grunge (roughly Q3 of 1994) your band did two things: either dismantled or went a very different direction. Lush chose the latter, and released some kinda shitty music toward the end of their career. However, Lush’s Gala compilation, which comprised of the group’s first three EPs collected on one priced-to-own record long before the Beta Band thought of doing it, is not just some of the best dream pop ever recorded – it’s just some of the best rock and roll recorded. Lush, along with Cocteau Twins, established what the 4AD sound was all about. Continue reading ‘Lush’s Gala Will Destroy You’
