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Search Results for 'woods'

Woods – At Echo Lake

Published
by
Daniel Krow
on April 19, 2010
in Praise and Malaise
. Comments

woods-at-echo-lake-cover-art Woods - At Echo Lake

The new Woods album, At Echo Lake, is an easy contender for best album of 2010. Tuneful, shaggy, and a little pysch-damaged, it’s exactly the album fans of last year’s Songs of Shame hoped for. Buoyed by the overwhelmingly positive reception of their last album, the band sounds comfortable and confident, polishing their homey, lo-fi sound just enough to make it sound like the most vital thing you’ll hear this year.

The most anthemic tracks on At Echo Lake (“Blood Dries Darker,” “Suffering Season,” and “Get Back”) are so instantly catchy and charming that it’s kind of unreal. While Songs of Shame had quite a few effortlessly great songs (“Rain On” especially), it also had “September with Pete,” an almost ten minute guitar freakout that reminded everyone of the band’s connection to the scene revolving around the late The Tower Recordings (MV and EE, Magik Markers, Wooden Wand), a scene that’s basically rooted in older rock and folk forms but full of experimentation and completely at home with dissonance and clatter. With the exception of the fiery Can-like jam “From the Horn,” At Echo Lake is a pretty straightforward record.

Production wise, the album sticks mostly to the slightly muffled sound of Songs of Shame, with only “Blood Dries Darker,” “Suffering Season,” and “Time Fading Lines” sounding like they’ve been truly produced. Weird sounds, like a fuzzed out oscillator on “Pick Up,” bird song on “Death Rattles,” and a muffled drone on “Deep,” are so subtle that you don’t notice them until the fourth or fifth listen. At Echo Lake is one of those rare records that you just want to hear over and over. To call it a classic would be premature, but it’s further proof that Woods are becoming one of America’s best indie rock bands.

At Echo Lake drops May 11 courtesy of the mighty Woodsist.

MP3 :::
File removed per request

Blank Dogs – Phrases

Published
by
Daniel Krow
on April 9, 2010
in Praise and Malaise
. Comments

blankdogsphrases Blank Dogs - Phrases

On his new 4-song EP Phrases, Blank Dogs (AKA Mike Sniper) has cleaned up his sound. His vocals are no longer buried under layers of distortion and his guitars and synths sound crisper and clearer. Previously, Blank Dogs songs lived and died based on their hooks; this wasn’t a huge problem because Sniper has an easy way with both dour, deceptively melodic Joy Division-sounding hooks and bouncy, B-52s sounding melodies, but it often felt like he was hiding some of his personality behind a cheap microphone, content to write lo-fi post punk songs powered by catchy three chord choruses and his baritone, Ian Curtis-in-a-Brooklyn-basement voice.

Expanding on the roughed-up synth pop sound of Under and Under’s “Setting Fire To Your House” and “The New Things,” Phrases‘ “Heat and Depression” and “End of Summer” are sequencer driven anthems about the kind of summer where extreme heat exacerbates an emotional breakdown. “Blurred Tonight,” with its circular guitar lines and sparkling synth wash, is maybe one of the catchiest songs Blank Dogs have ever written. “Racing Backwards” is the only song on the EP that feels like a throwback to an older sound and, while it’s by no means bad, it suffers from comparison to the other three.

With this EP and ownership of a buzz label, there’s no reason Blank Dogs shouldn’t be able to ascend to the same heights of popularity as the Dum Dum Girls or Woods. While Under and Under showed a tremendous amount of potential (and a depressive and paranoid streak that’s sorely missing from most indie rock these days), Phrases is the first sign that Blank Dogs is as good, if not better, than his more popular peers and labelmates.

Phrases is available from Captured Tracks.

MP3 :::
Blank Dogs – Blurred Tonight

[SXSW] Tobacco – Emo’s Annex, Austin – 3.17.10

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on March 23, 2010
in Visual Aids
. Comments

tobacco1 [SXSW] Tobacco - Emos Annex, Austin - 3.17.10
tobacco2 [SXSW] Tobacco - Emos Annex, Austin - 3.17.10

I saw Tobacco bear witness during the South By Southwest Music and Film Interactive Conference in the seat of Travis County Texas, Austin, during their free performance at the IODA Welcoming Party at Emo’s Annex. I regretfully missed the last two instances in which Black Moth Super Rainbow transported themselves to my neck of the woods, so I was very excited to, at least, catch their cult leader in action (and to see him joined with who I believe to be The Seven Fields of Aphelion). Tobacco is a brain-burnin’ sonofabitch on record, and the live show lives up to his labyrinth of funk – perhaps even more so, as the Technicolor booty bass, when propagated over a huge PA, really permeates your head space like an alien probe. Of course, some visual element to accompany the psychedelia certainly would’ve added a lot to the experience, as Mr. Tom Fec was perched squarely behind the Mac for most of the set. However, playing in broad daylight sort of makes that an impossibility, so no qualms there. All in all, the Tobacco set was 23 skidoo. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Worn Records and White Fences

Published
by
Daniel Krow
on March 15, 2010
in Praise and Malaise
. Comments

whitefence Worn Records and White Fences

White Fence, the one man project of Tim Presley (of Darker My Love fame), plays trebly psychedelic pop that sounds just as influenced by 60s bubblegum one-offs (I’m looking at you Lemon Pipers and your “Green Tambourine”) as by “serious” artists like Love and the Byrds. On his debut album for Woodsist, White Fence, Presley sounds more like a wide-eyed teenager thinking of endless metaphors for his crush’s eyes than a horny garage rocker (with a few exceptions, like “Baxter Corner” and its paranoid chorus of “Lose your number, lose your name!” and the swaggering “Destroy Everything”). Songs like “I’ll Follow You,” “Sara Snow,” and “The Gallery” (which is provided below for your consideration) sound like they’ve just been unearthed from the dusty archives of some Sunset Strip studio, remnants of a period when every band, even the “square” ones with matching suits, had to have a least one vaguely psychedelic song.

White Fence loses a little steam in its second half, but the eleven track stretch from “Mr. Adams” to “Ring Around the Square” is so effortlessly charming and inviting that it should supply you with enough goodwill to make it through the sorta half-baked experimental stuff to get the totally sweet Lennon-esque closer “Be Right Too.” Listening to White Fence, you can almost fool yourself until thinking you’re really listening to some long lost 60s band; whether that seems cool or just another example of how lame indie rock has become in 2010 is up to you, but the fact remains that White Fence is full of some pretty amazing psych pop jams.

White Fence is available on vinyl here and will be available on CD from Woodsist April 17.

For fans of:  Syd Barrett, Love, Ariel Pink

MP3 :::
White Fence – The Gallery

Rockshows to Know for 3.1.10

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on March 1, 2010
in Rockshows
. Comments

rockshows Rockshows to Know for 3.1.10

Rockshows to Know will be our attempt to regularly list shows that are of interest to us and probably you as well, mostly in and around the Louisville area, and will often be accompanied by sample MP3s. The news about Caribou/Toro Y Moi playing at the intimate Zbar last week was epic, and there’s more good jammage around the bend.

The in-fucking-comparable Josephine Foster plays the intimate Skull Alley in Louisville on May 7th. As the show was just confirmed, expect additional acts to be added to the bill in the next couple of months. Another excellent booking from Joel Hunt. (Show info)

Joel also picked up lovely power electronics noise+vocals unit and Jagjaguwar recording artists Sightings. Bring ya mams to Skull Ally on May 6th, as Mother’s Day will be just around the corner at that time. The Teeth also perform. This show will be radical and possibly upsetting, but in the right kind of way. (Show info)

Just announced, like, five minutes ago, the mighty Eluvium will chill your shit out at Louisville’s amazing 21c on May 26th. (Show info)

Black Lips will test the structural integrity of Headliners in Louisville on April 8th with the Box Elders. Hilarity might ensue. (Show info)

Acid Mothers Temple are flying on thunderbirds to Cosmic Charlie’s in Lexington on April 14th. I will probably be thinking about Dogen from LOST most of the time. (Show info)

6x01_Dogan Rockshows to Know for 3.1.10There is a darkness spreading about your bro, Jack

Beach Fossils hit up Al’s Bar in Lextown en route to SXSW on March 12. They’ll be joined by The Beets, whom I believe to be a different entity from these Beets. (Show info)

On the same day, Titus Andronicus do a free in-store at ear X-tacy in Louisville, starting at 6 p.m. sharp. The band, not the Roman. (Show info)

In typical Will Oldham fashion, the Billy Prince is playing a non-venue on Sunday, March 28th, at the Salvation Army Old Male Campus (I have no idea what this is honestly) as part of The Rudyard Kipling-sponsored Motherlodge Fest. Tickets are only $10, but $15 buys you a meal. Dinnah and a flick, dahling. His facial hair should be amazing. (Show info)

While Vetiver’s last album might’ve suck a big ‘un, they’re still an awesome band (can’t hit it out of the park every time), and they storm Newport’s Southgate House on March 7th. (Show info).

Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow swings through Cincinnati’s Northside Tavern March 13th. Vocoders! (Show info)

Woods and Real Estate are very appropriately touring together and visit The Bishop in Bloomington on March 23rd. Smoke tree. (Show info)

UPDATE: Just got word that No Age is swinging through Lexington and playing a WRFL-sponsored show at… Gumbo Ya Ya? That’s according to the official Gig List. Friday April 23rd is the date to save. Fun fact: that’s Shakespeare’s bday!

Finally, The Decibel Tolls is sponsoring a just-confirmed upcoming show at Zanzabar that I’m pretty stoked on, but I can’t announce yet, and currently working on other exciting shows. More soon….

MP3 :::
Eluvium – The Motion Makes Me Last
Acid Mothers Temple – Ange Mecanique de Saturne
No Age – Loosen This Job
Josephine Foster – She Sweeps With Many Colored Brooms
Sightings – Tar and Pine
Woods – Echo Lake
Real Estate – Snow Days
Beach Fossils – Time

The Art Museums – Rough Frame

Published
by
Michael Hansen
on February 16, 2010
in Praise and Malaise
. Comments

l_e8a7baea2d9141df933494e257cea04d The Art Museums - Rough Frame

Like we expected earlier this year, The Art Museums are all geared up to be one of the first band’s to steal some hype from the hypnagogic, beach fetish-centered state of music with their dressed-down anglophile pop jams. Sitting pretty on the keen eyed Brooklyn label Woodsist, the Bay Are duo will unveil their debut ‘mini-LP’ Rough Frame to the public today. In just under half an hour, Josh Alper and Glenn Donaldson (of Skygreen Leopards) filter 9 tracks of urgently mundane tales of cads, mods, and lovers through a crunchy Tascam 388 tape machine. Along the way, they tap into thirty-odd years of pop music, amalgamating the gentle angst of Television Personalities, the pastel-colored mannerisms of the New Wave, and the bare-boned song writing prowess of the early K Records scene. As such, the results are mixed. The paper thin drum machine is only there to carry the rhythm section, which in turn is immediately buried by duo’s harmonies, shifting all the grunt work onto the shoulders of the song’s vocal melody.

Occasionally, that strategy works out just fine, like on the lead-off singles “Sculpture Gardens” and “Paris Cafes” which burrow their catchy verses so deep inside your head that you completely overlook the fact that you’re tapping along to what sounds like Peter Gabriel fronting the Magnetic Fields. Problem is, after those immediate fixes, the other 15 minutes of this album sound comparatively uninspired. That aside, they still get points for not hiding behind an ocean of reverb, proving that whatever moments of glory they achieve are won by craftsmanship and not some cheap post-production solution. Rough Frame’s end result sounds like it was untouched from it’s original form as a demo, and it reaps the pros and cons you would expect. It’s eager, fresh, and un-calculated, but it also feels like it was peeled a little before it was ripe enough to do so.

Rough Frame is available here.

MP3 :::
Art Museums – Sculpture Gardens
Art Museums – Paris Cafes

Sun Araw Builds New HQ, Sends Us a Rad 7″ As a Post Card

Published
by
Michael Hansen
on January 19, 2010
in MP3
. Comments

SA

To christen his new batcave Sun Ark Studio, Cameron Stallones a.k.a. Sun Araw has released a new 7″ of the same name on Not Not Fun. The A-side “Bump Up (High Step)”, with it’s live lo-fi sampling feel, sounds more like Ferraro-led projects like Matrix Metals or Lamborghini Crystal than his previous dub-revisionist space voyages or romps with Vibes.  This track coasts on a surreal airspace haunted by disembodied funk loops, woodwinds, karaoke mantras, blasting organ stabs, and random FX solutions. Side B’s “Live Mind” is more traditional Stallones, with a busy high-end preference that recalls his Boat Trip 3″ from 2008 on Woodsist, and a scorched reggae line prompting impulsive cracks from the drum pad. This is a limited edition of 500, so act fast. TDT seal of approval.

Sun Ark is available now through the good folks at Not Not Fun.

MP3 :::
Sun Araw – Bump Up (High Step)

The Art Museums are Woodsist’ Newest Weapon

Published
by
Michael Hansen
on January 4, 2010
in MP3
. Comments

art museums

The Art Museums are the duo of San Francisco players Josh Alper & Glenn Donaldson (of Skygreen Leopards) who describe themselves as “Anglophile jams on a Tascam 388″. What this basically translates to is a lo-fi pop rendering of Belle and Sebastian’s through-a-keyhole high culture digest. They summon the extroverted geek musings of the Magnetic Fields minus the baritone, matching drum-machine beats and hand claps with flatly recorded guitar riffs that jangle in their Mod glory.

What I have heard so far is fay, catchy as hell, and full of possibly ironic nods to the Style Council, Wham!, and other Members Only patrons.  Perhaps our point of drilling for 80’s influences is shifting from the once fertile land of warm electro workouts to the pastel bistros of new wave hedonism. Compared to their peers, Art Museums have their reverb settings at half-mask, preferring a sharper, drier aesthetic that closely mirrors the tone of the artwork.

Recently signed with the steamrolling Woodsist, the duo are set to release their debut mini-LP Rough Frame some time this February. You can also listen to a bunch of their songs on their myspace. It’s too early to really dissect these guys, having only one single at my disposal, but feelings aside, you can expect this album to have one of the first ripple effects in the new year.

For Fans Of: The Magnetic Fields, Television Personalities, Surfer Blood

MP3 :::
Art Museums – Sculpture Garden

The Year End List 2009

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on December 18, 2009
in Year-End Action
. Comments

yearend09 The Year End List 2009

Time again for the obligatory year end list. However, ours is a bit different than others you may have seen. For example, this list is not enumerated. Empirically ranking albums rather trivializes the music, yes? Nor is the list in any particular order, save for the fact that we assembled it based loosely on aesthetics – meaning, we encourage you to mash on the little javascript media player in the bottom left-hand corner and enjoy our best-of picks as a mixtape or an uninterrupted block of music. Not only is this a fine collection of altered states laments, but each and every one of these albums is better than the Grizzly Bear borecore collection. Believe it!

>>>>> FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2009
The full length jam hives that we found the most innovative, intriguing, enjoyable, or all of the above.

Broadcast & The Focus Group – Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
INS66876 The Year End List 2009 Outside Trish Keenan’s traditional channeling of Margo Guryan and The United States of America and Julian House’s spooky samples, it’s hard to distinguish where Broadcast ends and The Focus Group begins. The collaboration is seamless and ornate, and is a strong addition to the flawless curriculum vitae for both Broadcast and The Focus Group.
The Be Colony | Review
White Rainbow – New Clouds
INS66154 The Year End List 2009 Did you know ambient music can be funky? When White Rainbow drops the tablas on his bliss outs, it’s time to hit the floor.
All the Boogies in the World [excerpt] | Review
Tickley Feather – Hors D’oeuvres
INS68331 The Year End List 2009 A more optimistic and concise effort, yet still saturated with her signature melted synths, junky keyboards, cough syrup vocals, and general underwater timbre, Hors D’oeuvres finds Tickley Feather as the compromise between Movietone and Ariel Pink.
Trashy Boys | Review
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Ashes Grammar
INS62682 The Year End List 2009 Explosive dream pop with a slight electro edge, A Sunny Day in Glasgow burn the best sounds of Flying Saucer Attack and Cocteau Twins together in the same white-washed celestial head stew.
Failure
Nothing People – Late Nite
INS55402 The Year End List 2009 A west coast sludgy summoner of stoner rock, Nothing People’s Late Nite is a less spastic and noisy sophomore effort, straddling the median tremolo-saturated, syrupy acid rock and shoegaze – another definitive post-millennial primer for more ominous trips down the rabbit hole.
It’s Not Your Speakers | Review
Woods – Songs of Shame
61N7UsOBr1L._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Songs of Shame is more extroverted and less antiquated than 08’s At Rear House, and is pushed out of the womb with such fervor that I can finally get behind the strained falsetto, Elliott Smith experiencing zipper-trouble vocals.
Gypsy Hand | Review
Amen Dunes – Dia
mzi.exveaihq.170x170-75 The Year End List 2009 More and more artists are paying homage to Thoreau lately and recording their music in the midst of a hermetic retreat. Many return with nothing more than a bruised ego and a full beard. Damon McMahon returned with Dia after his pilgrimage in 2006 to the Catskill Mountains. Both insular and cavernous, this debut LP is an uninhibited trek through McMahon’s psychedelic mindscapes.
Patagonian Domes | Review
Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective
INS54378 The Year End List 2009 The aural equivalent of an Ektachrome dusk, Lockett Pundt proves himself as Deerhunter’s understated force and the the undeniable ying to Bradford Cox’s yang, pinpointing exactly where and how the band gets its balmy, sedated atmosphere. A gorgeous second-wave shoegaze statement.
A Threaded Needle | Review
Disappears – Live Over the Rainbo
rcc047-l The Year End List 2009 Reverberated fuzzy guitars, punchy rhythm, a shoegaze aesthetic, totally damaging heaviness, and a touch of retro chic on acid – Chicago’s Disappears are everything that’s great about rock and roll. They lit a fire under my ass so severe that I still keep the Solarcaine stocked.
Hearing Things | Review
Phantom Family Halo – Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die
n105315380683_7024 The Year End List 2009 Phantom Family Halo’s sprawling 2LP post-apocalyptic lament is evil and would make you think Louisville is a scary place or something. While the entire body of work can be classified as psych garage rock or acid rock, the record’s all over the place within the parameters of brain melting. A bit of Boards of Canada style ambient explorations here, a bit of krautrock motorik rhythms by way of Faust there… and then insanely reverberated crunchy guitars ascend from the primordial ooze scary enough to make Fever Ray poo her trou. These dudes are sonic warriors.
Child of Light | Review
Real Estate – s/t
INS68473 The Year End List 2009 Phased surf guitar working and a dejected tropical attitude operate in tandem with autumnal acoustic overtones and gossamer melodies to produce something along the lines of a slacker Yo La Tengo.
Fake Blues | Review
City Center – s/t
INS57207 The Year End List 2009 City Center was probably recorded underwater. I’m not sure how Fred Thomas did this without shorting out his gear, but this record’s precise aquatic timbre and dark reverb could’ve only been achieved submerged. Another gold star for the sampsycore camp.
Bleed Blood | Review
Sun Araw – Heavy Deeds
31MizVE0sRL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009
Ever since Scratch Perry lost his goddamn mind, we’ve needed someone to don the dub crown. We nominate Sun Araw.
The Message | Review
Bachelorette – My Electric Family
61jF6xS3F%2BL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 New Zealander Annabelle Alpers’ debut for Drag City, and second proper album, has been described by a couple of writers as a sort of quirky “bedroom pop.” I wholeheartedly disagree. My Electric Family is expansive, radical, and ionospheric. Packed with reverb, sweeping moods, and surrealistic lyrical motifs, Bachelorette is way too large for any bedroom. It also has a hypnotic quality so acute and permeating that we can safely say that Alpers has invented “cult pop.”
The National Grid | Review
Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited
51HAVdsdUnL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009
The Columbus total damage trio makes Robert Pollard look like Phil Spector. Punk as fuck. And underneath all the shit – great pop songs.
Hustler, Psycho, Son
Fungi Girls – Seafaring Pyramids
seafaringpyramidscover The Year End List 2009
If there’s anyone that can remove the fashion-conscious aspect of noise-pop that creates filler and polarizes bands like Wavves, it would probably be a bunch of kids in their basement playing to no audience. Recently championed by Psychedelic Horseshit as “the greatest band in the country,” Fungi Girls are these kids, and they’re surprisingly more nihilistic and creeping than most of the recent shitgaze bands who paved the way for them.
Crystal Roads | Review
Oblisk – Weather Patterns
51HXkHvGg-L._SL160_AA160_ The Year End List 2009
True-to-cannon heavy shoegaze with a cavernous and dramatic eastern flair, all focused through the ominous looking-glass of their native Detroit.
Tiger Fighter | Review
Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
41Pm04BxRSL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Gentle fingerpicking, bright tonal sprays of analog synths, and an impeccable ear for vocal melody holds every song on Childish Prodigy. A disciple of both Neil Young and R. Stevie Moore, Vile’s amalgamation of influences is arresting in both its musical scope and bravado. All the while, Vile’s signature, a bourbon-soaked Avey Tare croon with a shot of impenetrable confidence, steers and unites this eclectic, cohesive work.
Inside Lookin’ Out | Review
Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights
INS67705 The Year End List 2009 While the Bolt hasn’t exactly gone verse-chorus-verse on us just yet, the newfound tightness Earthly Delights is much more structured and, at times, almost hummable compositions. That is not to say that LB has lost any edge, but simply that Earthly Delights throws a little Occam’s Razor into the mix. The group’s opting to keep their disposition a bit simpler and less freeform.
Transmissionary | Review
Atlas Sound – Logos
41grv%2B4FbvL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Dream folk like “Criminals” makes Logos a good album. Epic motorik anthems mixed in, a la Cox’s collaboration with Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier on “Quick Canal,” make Logos a great album.
Quick Canal | Review
Nudge – As Good As Gone
INS64400 The Year End List 2009 While the subterranean groove and minor key construction evoke a more haunting, nighttime-appropriate flavor, there’s also a visceral optimism that runs underneath the LP like groundwater. Perhaps it’s the playfulness between genres and moods, or the freewheeling construction of the songs… or perhaps not all noise/freak psych kids like to make nihilistic records. Not to be confused with The Nuge.
Two Hands | Review
Tara Jane O’Neil – A Ways Away
A-Ways-Away-by-Tara-Jane-O%27Neil_nznTOP-npjsx_120w_120h The Year End List 2009 While some of her recent work has adopted a more intimate and traditional folk approach, A Ways Away is lush, weird, and engrossing. Psych folk is the closest reference point, yet TJO is also entirely something else. In a way, A Ways Away is a return to form and a maturation. The crafty utilization of space and syrupy slow tempo is reminiscent of the Louisville scene in which she came, while at the same time, TJO is fully owning her sound. The result is a beautiful and accessible work that relishes in desolate sounds and bucolic late night wandering.
Beast, Go Along | Review
Castanets – Texas Rose, The Thaw, and The Beasts
61xeV0oorGL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009
Strongest effort from this definitive freak folk collective since Cathedral, and certainly the most ominous of his career and a textbook example of brilliant use of sonic space. Sometimes it’s the notes you don’t play.
On Beginning
Fever Ray – s/t
61AGlT5Y1TL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Scary-ass Bjork releases a spacious and minimal analog electronic creeper that’s better than The Knife, and comes equipped with the best/funniest lyrics penned in quite some time. Still can’t listen to this shit at night without getting all paranoid in my head tech.
When I Grow Up
Black to Comm – Alphabet 1968
INS68607 The Year End List 2009 Closer in spirit to experimental figures of yesterday like Moondog and Bernard Herrmann than current artists, Marc Richter seems dead set on completely disorienting our frame of reference. Richter does manage to arrive at moments of extremely cinematic avant-garde music that’s unlike much we’ve ever heard before.
Rauschen | Review
Eric Copeland – Alien in a Garbage Dump
61y3QIyaAaL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009
Even in an increasingly noise-tolerant music culture, this is an adventurous listen, and that alone should have your earbuds watering by now.
Auto Dimmer | Review
Ducktails – s/t
INS58724 The Year End List 2009 Ducktails masterfully crafted an album with a lulled but not quite hypnotizing quality, similar to the nature documentary sound that Boards of Canada achieve, with occasional lo-fi tape tinkering like on “Backyard,” with its phased bucket-toms and Robert Fripp inspired distortion shifting. Beautiful.
Dancing With the One You Love | Review
Tune Yards – Bird Brains
INS67655 The Year End List 2009 Bird-Brains is completely demented and angular, kinda like Xiu Xiu, but without treading the blurry line between “artistic vision” and “sonic bullshit” that Mr. Stewart always straddled firmly. Everything from dub to yoddeling finds itself on what I’d guess you could call a kitchen sink freak folk album. Whatever it is, this shit is gospel.
Fiya | Review
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
61JTmpziOFL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009
We’re very pleased to hear that, seemingly, the band is taking acid again.
Worm Mountain
Psychic Ills – Eyes Closed
51T5DR-yWCL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Mind altering modulating jungle boogie bogged down on purple drank and tribal bangin’ replete with sinister ragas and general skulduggery, Mirror Eye is one of the more pleasantly evil releases reared in ‘09.
Eyes Closed | Review
Dragon Turtle – Almanac
Dragon-Turtle-150x150 The Year End List 2009
Dragon Turtle’s debut, Almanac, is an expansive 45-minute trek that explores an alternating fear and awe of the natural world, and everything in between. They didn’t pack lightly either, hoarding a curious mix of folk, kraut rock, post rock, and small touches of calypso.
Belt of Venus | Review
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us
INS56614 The Year End List 2009
The massive arsenal of antique analog equipment that defined BMSR’s first three albums remains in tact – the vocoder-saturated vocals of Tobacco, the thick and swirling novatrons and mellotrons that cultivated a general feeling of sunshine and old 8mm films about nature, etc. However, Eating Us showcases a more organic band, incorporating more acoustic instrumentation and mellow moods without disregarding the group’s traditional glitchy, Technicolor timbre.
Iron Lemonade | Review
Roj – The Transactional Dharma of Roj
The Year End List 2009 The original keyboardist from Broadcast peaks out from his lair to release another fantastic testament for Ghost Box who, like Motown and Creation, created a whole new aesthetic in music. Roj has distinguished himself as the tinty, rhythmic, retro-futuristic sci fi voice in hauntology.
What I Saw
Peaking Lights – Imaginary Falcons
peakinglights The Year End List 2009
Super positive rural psychedelia best experienced with peace pipe in hand and vision quest in front. Made from warm tape excursions from them to you. Feels good to vibe this hard.
All the Good Songs Have Been Written
Wetdog – Frauhaus!
51jnuofx90L._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009
The girls’ new album Fraushaus! has one foot in the shit-gaze movement and another recalling the gleaming-amateur looseness of the Shaggs, complimented by unexpected touches of found sounds and flea-market synths.
Round Vox | Review

>>>>> FAVORITE EPs OF 2009
Though no longer than 20 minutes a piece, these nuggets of joy deserve some mention

Pigeons – Lunettes
INS66313 The Year End List 2009
There are certain sounds synonymous with the Summer of Love, but what about the winter that followed? Bronx trio Pigeons have a decent guess in mind. Their account of classic psychedelia is a much colder affair than most’. Stringing together a bizarrely addictive mix of paranoia, mystery, and seduction, their new tape-splintered 7? Lunettes is something I could only describe as psych-noir.
Tendress | Review
No Age – Losing Feeling
INS63689 The Year End List 2009
No Age demonstrates here, moreso than Nouns, a mastering of their craft in profound ways. They’re no longer trying to capture the sound of My Bloody Valentine’s early EPs. They’re becoming completely their own thing – dream punk.
Losing Feeling
Bardo Pond – Peri
tlr-067 The Year End List 2009
The Philly subterranean brooding fuzz plus flute collective does no wrong, and their contribution to the Three Lobed subscription series is no exception. Do you know what a Bardo Pond is? Me neither, but it’s probably where God kills Republicans.
The Path
Vibes – You God It
333 The Year End List 2009
We could tell the girls of Pocahaunted were getting antsy when they started injecting dub and dance hall elements into their trademark campfire drone sessions on last year’s Island Diamonds. To remedy this, they’ve teamed up with members of Sun Araw, Robedoor, Magic Lantern, and Fantastic Ego to ditch the delay pedals in favor of some wah-wah.
Honeycomb | Review
The N.E.C. / Jovantes 10″ [split]
NEC10 The Year End List 2009
Sloppy yet lush psychedelic punk that hits hard. Consider Atlanta’s The N.E.C. the southern response to No Age.
Old Medicine
Banjo or Freakout – Upside Down
upsidedown The Year End List 2009
Lush arrangements, non-grating noise walls, and oceanic melodies, Banjo or Freakout is the tech-savvy, post-millennial incarnation of Slowdive. Looking forward for the full-length!
Like You
Ganglians – Blood on the Sand
small The Year End List 2009
Super retro, super cinematic crunchy garage stomp with interstellar overtones, dramatic turns, and harshed mellows. Blood on the Sand is exactly what is sounds like – beach times gone wrong, Weekend at Bernies style.
Blood on the Sand
Bibio – Ovals & Emeralds
INS67819 The Year End List 2009
Ovals & Emeralds is full of disorienting growths of sublime field recordings, toy-chest noises, and coarse synths. Bibio’s signature creekside guitar is barely present, but here he has crafted his ambient work to equal perfection. The sun goes down on his usual idyllic pastoralism to bring out a bleaker landscape with a slightly menacing air to it like the meditations of Wolfgang Voigt.
Carosello Ellitico | Review
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Cheyenne Mize – Among the Gold
31367745 The Year End List 2009
Not to be cliche, but no other piece of music partied like it was 1879 harder than the vinyl-only issue Among the Gold.
Silver Threads | Review
Lucky Dragons – Open Power
107821_thumb The Year End List 2009 No, The Books didn’t take the bad pills. Lucky Dragons are the jovian trance music of the century after next. With woodwinds.
Power Melody

>>>>> FAVORITE REISSUES/COMPILATIONS OF ‘09
Our ten favorite that needed to be heard again

Everything on Sublime Frequencies
416QCAH6LNL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Everything you all do is amazing. Great job! Keep ‘em coming. Fans of weird field recordings and anthropologists owe you a big batch of homemade cookies at the very least.
Night Recordings From Bali – Peliatan Night Walk
V/A – Give Me Love: Songs Of The Brokenhearted, Baghdad, 1925-1929
518c7yfxLeL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Honest Jon’s compilation of 1920s Iraqi recordings is truly a gem, but it’s not for everyone. It isn’t the type of “world music” employed for NPR bumper music or in the living rooms of people who like to feel “cultured.” Documenting very otherworldly dance and, for lack of a better word, Middle Eastern blues music, these recordings were remastered from some of the earliest 78s ever pressed. This disc features ardent vocal performances over violin, hand percussion, an occasional lute, and not much else, relying more on raw performances that, at times, resemble a prophetic view of west coast folk and free jazz.
Badria Anwar – Lega Taresh Habibi
39 Clocks – Zoned
INS58584 The Year End List 2009 While their timeline coincides with New York’s no wave movement, their Deutsche no wave is something else entirely. Amalgamating the dadaist cool and nervous energy of Suicide, their homeland’s motorik rhythm, the loud and detuned psychedelics of Spacemen 3 (whom 39 Clocks actually predate), the organ-as-diving-rod experimental pop ethos of Silver Apples, and a Nuggets-ready proto-punk punch, the mensch of 39 Clocks chew up kraut and psychedelic subsets and spit them out into a ball of drug-riddled prophecy and rock and roll shenanigans.
Dom Electricity Elects the Rain | Review
Kraftwerk – The Catalogue
41LSfdJ1FTL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 A lot of people complain about Kraftwerk, saying “oh, I can do that.” Yeah, well, they did it first, and you didn’t. Everything between Autobahn and The Man Machine rules hard and sounds beautiful, so shut the fuck up. It’s worth mentioning, and perhaps is a bit ironic, that the sound of Kraftwerk is slightly more powerful with the analog recordings, if for no other reason than to provide a timeframe. How ’bout that? Regardless, it’s nice to have all their best work in one place and sounding awesome.
Antenna
Guru Guru – Kanguru
414Pr8%2BpELL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 The landmark 1972 record that should’ve included them in the same sentence as Faust, Can, and Neu, but for some reason didn’t. Perhaps it was because they sounded too much like Blue Cheer? Either way, Kanguru’s reverence is long overdue.
Oxymoron
V/A – Warp20
41AhGWEV6iL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 You put Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, and Broadcast on the same release, and it’ll end up on a best-of somewhere on this blog. Like the Movern Collar soundtrack, but without the shitty movie that accompanies it.
Boards of Canada – Amo Bishop Rodan
Red Red Meat – Bunny Gets Paid
61HS5kKkCjL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 Believe it or not, Califone was Tim Rutili’s calmer project compared with Red Red Meat’s shit-blues zenith Bunny Gets Paid.
Rosewood, Stax, Volts, and Glitt
The Beatles – Mono + Stereo Remasters
51VIwKeqjEL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 This band was awesome. You can talk about how rad [insert hawt buzzband here] is until you’re blue in the face. But guess the fuck what. The Beatles did it first. Thanks for playing. While the only difference I can tell between the Remasters and the original is the volume, MagiMystour always gets royal treatment on this blog.
Flying
The Vaselines – Enter the Vaselines
51detw0JnuL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 The Vaselines were one mighty contradiction – a massive sound crafted by only two people, double entendre lyrics sung with coyness, gritty production and sloppy instrumentation coupled with truly soaring, gorgeous melodies – this duo was a real gem.
Lovecraft | Review
Death – For the Whole World to See
51l8n8B1xGL._SL160_AA115_ The Year End List 2009 A combination of bad timing, arguments with the label over the band’s presentation (namely, well, their name), and a generally ill-prepared state of music allowed this missing-link of punk rock to fall through the cracks until Drag City intervened this year. A remarkably well-aged time capsule of hefty hooks and driving power, For the Whole World to See is a blistering proto-punk artifact.
You’re a Prisoner | Review

State of the Blog 2009

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on December 11, 2009
in General Communique
. Comments

InternetSeriousbusiness2 State of the Blog 2009

Wowzers. 2009 has been a brilliant but sad year. While we saw lots of aggressive expansion here at The Decibel Tolls, and lots of superb jammage has stormed our headspace, we also lost some of the most iconic figures of our culture, such as Tiger Woods and Jeff Goldblum. So sad. R.I.P., you guys. Yet our resolve is unwavering as we enter a new and exciting decade that, if the Lord is on our side, will be without Yeasayer. To celebrate, you’ll be seeing some changes around these parts.

First, look out for our massive, tongue-in-cheek year-end stuff on Friday, December 18. It’s gonna be some shit.

Second, we want to warmly welcome our newest contributor – Monsieur Daniel Krow. D Krow is a resident of Portland, Oregon, enjoys music that upsets the dog and his neighbors, and is an all around real son of a bitch. He’s going to write some in-depth commentaries that will sear your eyeballs and turn your brain into a cottonball. Additionally, he’ll be covering some of the excellent shows that pass through Portland that pass up my home of Louisville and Hansen’s home of Boston because we’re not as rad or somethin’ (despite the fact that our homes have respectively produced the likes of Slint and, um, Boston). Also, he has a vestigial head, which is fucking awesome and a major bonus for this blog. He can be reached at dkrow [at] thedecibeltolls(dot)com.

Finally, The Decibel Tolls v4.0 is on its way. There won’t be any major changes insofar as the types of dramatic shifts the blog has seen before. The layout will be the same, but the design and feel of the front page will be tweaked with additional features integrated. It’ll still be easy to navigate and will utilize my customized version of the K2 Wordpress theme. I’m also considering taking off the ads. But to be honest, we’re selfish bastards, so the ads might stay. Beer money doesn’t grow on trees. It grows on the various ad network affiliates that we’re very proud to be a part of (love you MOG, send us more shit).

Alright, that’s it! Look out for D Krow’s first article later this afternoon. In it, he calls Ariel Pink the artist of the year, despite the fact that he hasn’t really done shit this year. However, all of the current media darlings are ripping him off hard, despite the fact that these very same people called Ariel a joke not more than five years ago. Krow’s callin’ people out. Gauntlet thrown, ya’ll.