Got a nice little reward for getting my ass out of bed this morning in the form of a rad demo from Young Adults. Recorded right under my nose here Brighton, MA, these three locals transplant the aggressive undertow of punk into a shoegaze breed. The barking vocals evoke the glory days of the DC scene and gives the spacey surf rock vibe an amphetamine pick me up. They formed last October as two brothers and a mutual friend to combat “post-college idleness”, but they’ve certainly hit on something bigger. Currently unsigned, but probably not for long, consider yourself tipped. The only problem I have with these songs is that they make me wanna skate but it’s too shitty out.
We’re about as excited for Growing’s new album PUMPS as we are for the Lost finale, the second coming of Christ, or our tax refunds. Luckily, the good kids at Vice produced a visual feast to tide us over until then, with four video “vignettes” to accompany songs from the new lp. Their trippy, seizure-worthy, archival, stop-motion madness is further proof that Growing “still want to stick their dick in your brain,” according to Bloggins, and I concur. 3D glasses not required. PUMPS is out April 6th.
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.
Last Christmas my friend got his niece the first High Places album and she gave it her coveted best new music designation. Like much of the stuff coming out around that time, it wasn’t hard to imagine it as a fitting soundtrack for playtime. Pots and pans, whimsical use of world music sampling, and saccharine vocals held the LA duo guarded from rigorous criticism in it’s naive execution. On their upcoming second full-length, High Places vs. Mankind, they haven’t abandoned this aesthetic entirely, but it is, to my pleasant surprise, a slightly different beast. The drum beats crack and shuffle with renewed confidence and guitars take a higher seat in the mix to create more complex moods. A little dissonance is a welcome addition to the percussion-heavy minimalism we’ve come to expect, and Mary Pearson explores darker textures for her voice that really pull this out of it’s niche. We know you’re already excited about this, and for good reason. Out with the cute, in with the new.
High Places vs. Mankind will be available April 6th on Thrill Jockey.
The Strange Boys are the brainchild of few stumbling kids out of Austin, TX who play hot-bed confessionals, scruffy twilight ballads, and drinking jams. With a mix of influences from Bob Dylan to the Seeds, they arrive at a pleasantly concocted hybrid of psychedelic nature and southern mannerisms that have led them to play with everyone from King Khan to Roky Erikson. For their new album Be Brave, they recruited two members of Mika Miko, and Tim Presley of Darker My Love, to be released on In The Red. Singer Ryan Sambol sounds like he’s trying to one-up Daniel Johnston at his own game (which is a bit unfair considering dude doesn’t even know what day it is), with a bit of a drunken country slur. That aside, he is a pretty masterful storyteller. The songs move along at a crawling pace, packing in garage rock crunch, wailing harmonica, and outsider folk leanings for an album full of surprises. You can catch these dudes supporting Deerhunter and Spoon this Spring.
Be Brave is available February 23rd on In the Red.
For Fans Of: Daniel Johnston, Smith Westerns, Black Lips
Chicago’s spectral psych trio Mako Sica are the newest wandering souls in camp La Societe Expeditionnaire, who secured a spot on our Best of 2009 list with Dragon Turtle’s Almanac. Their name is Sioux Lakota Native American for “land bad,” which they caught on a sign post during a trip through the Painted Desert. Containing two member’s of the late Rope, the group took to the basement last May with James Zespy and US Maple’s Todd Rittman behind the boards to jam out their debut full-length Dual Horizons.
Somehow, this sprawling three-song epic was recorded completely live with no overdubs, just a couple of wild, presumably bearded dudes turning post-rock conventions into cathartic explosions, unsettling lulls, and everything in between. Take the fluid movements of early Tortoise, add some of the occult fetishes from New Weird America bands, and you’re on the right track. Alternately primitive and cinematic, Mako Sica wrestle a hoard of influences to the floor for one 40-minute, soul-purging performance.
Dual Horizons is available in limited vinyl (only 250 pressed) on February 16th. You can pre-order here.
For a band that only put out a modest handful of singles twenty years ago, Black Tambourine’s unadulterated noise pop jams turned out to be one hell of a crystal ball. Circa 1989, I was in utero and members of twee gaze start ups Whorl and Velocity Girl had just recruited singer Pam Berry (whom I for some reason remember being much more attractive than in the above picture) to form a new project. It was an outlet to fuse together their obsessions with The Jesus & Mary Chain, the Ronettes, and efficient garage rock. Previously available as 1999’s Complete Recordings, this new anthology on their original label Slumberland contains six previously unreleased jams, including four new ones that the reunited band recorded for this specific occasion. There’s even a cover of my favorite Suicide song “Dream Baby Dream” and Buddy Holly’s “Heart Beat”. This is no carrot in the face of recession-weary completionists, it’s the perfect introduction for newcomers, and some long needed closure for fans. Also, Black Tambourine will now be available for the first time on vinyl.
Black Tambourine will be available in all it’s overdue glory March 30th on Slumberland Records.
Harlem are the newest hot button garage rock export from Austin,TX who have caught a lot of media buzz as of late for their fiery, angular revivalism. Their new up-coming full length Hippies is a collection of primitive drum spasms and jerky, elastic strumming that mangles classic rock into a child’s play thing. Scratchy sing along vocals tear across forty minutes of wire-y guitar play, with occasional slight adornments of bells and pedal steel guitar.
It’s really not bad, but then again that’s their main problem, it’s not particularly memorable, it actually feels like a step back, or at least an ill-advised consolidation of their last album Free Drugs. There are highlights, like the swagger of “Gay Human Bones” or the perfect vocal melody on “Be Your Baby”, but at 16 songs that all sound pretty similar, I had to check to see if the disc had started over already or not. It’s really just a bunch of honest, three-minute freakouts running on bravado alone, aiming to be the soundtrack to your next house party. They’ve got the spirit, and sometimes they nail the scuzzy post-grunge slacker anthem right on the head, but they could stand to stray from their comfort zone a bit more, or risk slipping through the cracks. I bet they put on a fun live act, though, and maybe that’s all these guys are trying for.
Here we go, one of the most anticipated electronica releases of the past year from veteran knob tweaker and mood sculptor Four Tet. With various stints like releasing a techno record, touring with Steve Reid, and a few months sabbatical spent DJing in London, we had no real idea where he would land next. Turns out our best indicator was the kinetic Moth/Wolf Cub split with former schoolmate Burial. The new full-length There Is Love In You, returns to the glory of that twitchy dub jam, but with all of the perennial elements of Hebdan’s work from 1999’s Dialogue to present. The pulse beat of a heart, a motif of his since early albums, is recreated by the hum of organic sounds carefully cut and expanded, orbiting around an invisible core like a mobile of samples. Voices curl and multiply, even the most obviously synthesized sounds are kneaded into an uncannily human vibe that only Four Tet can diffuse from the circuitboard. Tracks like “Circling” blend warm, blinking arpeggios into a late-night cocktail that could have sat happily next to Squarepusher’s ambient cuts used on the Lost in Translation soundtrack.
Indeed, nostalgia runs all throughout the album, for both his own body of work and in general. Love’s finale “She Just Likes to Fight”, with it’s contemplative guitar riff and toy percussion recalls the closing number “Slow Jam” off of his magnum opus Rounds. But even more than being an articulate reflection of past work, this new album has proven to be a clever predictor of what the scene would sound like upon it’s completion. With the emergence of new-school dub steppers like Joy Orbison stealing the spotlight with their organic, staccato spin on a flat-lined genre, Four Tet re-emerges with a complete vision that anticipates this trend, and expands on it in ways only a seasoned producer could. The results are lucid, immersive, and unless Boards of Canada emerge from the fog, will undoubtedly remain the crowning achievement of popular electronica this year. I’ll eat those words if necessary, but I doubt it.
There Is Love In You is available this Monday through Domino Records and comes highly recommended.
Yup, we missed the boat for New Years Resolutions (which are bullshit anyway), but regardless, fellow TDT writer Norwood Derr and myself are attempting to give up the tobacco tubes. Disaster, frustration, and replacement vices loom in the near future, but at least you guys get a sweet mix out of it. We have no interest in persuading you to quit too, mostly because A.) smoking really does make you look cooler and B.) we are doing this for shallow reasons including money, smelling better, and wanting to play with our new Bowflex. Needless to say, it will be an uphill battle for two bastards like us.
To make things worse, I consulted my spiritual advisor/occasional Columbia student Robert about the matter and instead of helping, he made me a list of reasons why I should not quit smoking. Here are some of his better points:
-”You’ll never be famous.”
-”You’ll never have the joy of realizing that you ‘accidently’ stole someone’s lighter again.”
-”If 2012 happens, it would be pretty gay if you didn’t have a cig in your mouth that gets lit by an explosion (like in the end of Heathers).”
-”New Hampshire will mean nothing to you.”
Thanks a lot, Bob. I think we’re still gonna give it a shot, though. To supplement this self-indulgent post, here is a mix of songs we believe provide an accurate soundtrack to the thought process of anyone else whose in the same position. Best of luck, you walking ashtrays.
