I was reading my buddy Nathaniel’s recent blog entry on a rad fan-made video for the Atlas Sound / Stereolab collab (rhymes lol) “Quick Canal,” featuring lots of retro kitsch stock footage. Broadcast, you need to find the dude who made this video. Anyway, seeing the video reminded me of something Lana discovered not too long ago called The Prelinger Archives. As Regis Philbin used to say in the Mr. Phipps Tater Crisps commercials: “I LOVE ‘EM!”

The Prelinger Archives is a mindblowingly expansive collection of public domain films from pre and post-WWII America – most of which could be categorized within educational videos, infomericals before there were infomericials, instructional videos, and public service announcements. All of which are could be categorized as “relatively campy and amazing.”

Go to the Internet Archive splash page and browse around. You cannot go wrong with any of these ephemeral films of the atomic age. I tend to gravitate toward the Coronet Instructional Films, which provide the fatherly guidance that made our parents better people I suppose, and the Jam Handy Archive, which is just a grab-bag of awesome. The emphatic narration and general mores displayed are, in many ways, so far removed from how the world is today that you can’t help be feel compelled. The Prelinger Archives is one of my absolute favorite offerings of the Internet right now.

Below are some of the Prelinger videos that made it to YouTube. The last video is the classic “Duck and Cover” classroom film that you’re probably already familiar with but may not have actually seen. The videos from the collection itself are too big to embed on this blog, so you’ll really want to go to the IA portal to explore for yourself! Go here, mach schnell!

After the somewhat recent departure of Caralee McElroy, they’ve enlisted the full-time help of previously part-time collaborator Angela Seo on piano, synth, and programming. Production was co-headed by Stewart and Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, who plays on most of the album as well. On “This To Shall Pass Away (for Freddy)”, a possible ode to the late Queen front man, the group will joined by the Immaculata Catholic School Orchestra. Word is that this new release will be heavy on the goth pop side of things (comin’ for you, Cold Cave), with four songs composed heavily on a Nintendo DS. But however they reincarnate themselves, you can be sure to expect the usual ingredients of superb art-damaged pop, scattershot rhythms, atonal explosions, and embarrassing details. Xiu to the muthafuckin Xiu, 2k10.

Dear God, I Hate Myself will be available February 23rd on Kill Rock Stars.

Track list:
1. Gray Death
2. Chocolate Makes You Happy
3. Apple for a Brain
4. House Sparrow
5. Hyunhye’s Theme
6. Dear God, I Hate Myself
7. Secret Motel
8. Falkland Rd.
9. The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation
10. Cumberland Gap
11. This Too Shall Pass Away (for Freddy)
12. Impossible Feeling

MP3:::
Xiu Xiu – I am Hated for Loving (Moz cover)

Haven’t done a real time review in a while, and hey, Fall Be Kind just leaked. Let’s see what’s up. Here’s a live blogging of my thoughts, revisited only for editorial clarity or to fix grammatical errors…

Graze (5:22) - Dang, kinda sounds like a Disney film. Like, this fits in well in Aladdin specifically. A ballad sung by Jafar. Dreamy piano drops in at the 2-minute mark. Kinda John Tesh-y. The synth swells and whispy vocals a minute later is similar to Mercury Rev, but like, kinda bad Mercury Rev (via All is Dream). The song’s climax picks up where “Brothersport” left off… safari music. Reminds me of this big exhibit they had at King’s Island when I was a kid, where they’d blast fun Afrobeat while you ride the tram through the various habitats of savannah creatures. The hippos were my favorite. They liked to chill.

What Would I Want? Sky (6:46) - Heavy, trippy, multi-layered percussion and driving rhythm with an almost trip-hop/psych-hop flavor. I like having Avey Tare back in the foreground on throat duty, though the aforementioned visceral Disney tones prevents him from unleashing his vocal chords via “People” or “Grass.” Chorus melody is a little corny, though, and kinda sounds like Metric. The vibe, though, is unlike anything they’ve done before. Wish the shiny production was taken down a notch. It doesn’t suit them. Good track for the most part, though.

Bleeding (3:28) – Space rock backdrop and Noah/Dave vocal interplay that doesn’t really head anywhere after…. what, about three minutes. But if “Bleeding” was a minute and a half long jam… this would’ve been a cut. Almost reminiscent of “Banshee Beat,” but sans some of the mysticism.

On a Highway (4:36) - The creepy voice and drones sound promising. Turns into a relaxed song about smokin’ hash, road trippin’, and not wazzin’ your trousers. Kinda forgot about it playing because I was reading this article on insane, abandoned Cold War projects. Ended up being boring all in all. The song, not the article.

I Think I Can (7:10) - A sort of trance beat anchors this song, with huge percussion dropping in and Panda-led vocal harmonies. Just like Merriweather Post Pavilion. Actually, almost exactly like MPP.

Final thoughts: Looking forward to all the flaming that will occur in the comment sections, but whatever. Maybe it’s because I was listening to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Wire’s Pink Flag this morning, two albums so perfect that it’s hard for anyone to follow it up. But maybe Animal Collective just doesn’t have it anymore. No more insane vocal yelps from Avey or destroyed song structures. Just cartoon pop with some cool sounds every now and again. I know they’re all husbands and dads now, but maybe the drugs were doing good things to their collective headspace circa 2004 (and AC was smart enough to hide their stash on tour, LOL KING KHAN!). I mean, I dunno… it is what it is. Animal Collective are a group with ample talent and an adventurous spirit, and I’m sure they will have a sort of “return to form,” even without repeating the successful forumlae found on Sung Tongs. In the interim though, I’ll probably just go back to listening to the new Tune Yards record and continue about my day. I’d like to see more “What Would I Want? Sky,” por favor. Less Sebastian from The Little Mermaid. Plz?

Fall Be Kind is out on Domino on December 15. JUST IN TYMEZ 4 CHRIMMMASSS!

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky [excerpt only - don't wanna get Web Sheriffed]

To Whichever BBQ Bro It May Concern,

Hey everybody! What’s good? Not much here. Just getting ready to fuck up a can of Campbell’s Chunky for lunch. Should rule.

Welp… heard you all got in a lil’ pickle outside of Nashville in Hopkinsville, Ky. Got nailed for having a lil’ “controlled substance” for party hard solutions. That’s a bummer, man. It’s kinda like the song “Rollin’ Dirty” with the Bone Thug bros. I probably would’ve been humming that to myself if I were in a similar situation. Anyway, good to hear you’re out of the slammer. Hope you followed protocol and bitched up to someone. I’ve not been incarcerated myself, but it’s my understanding that doing such is just good standard operating procedure. When in Rome, amirite?

Alright, let’s get to brass tacks. I read in a recent interview with Sam Hunt, your booking agent with Windish (who’s a super great guy who helped us secure a lot of awesome shows for WRFL when I hung tough there – tell him we said hello), who gave the local reporter in Hopkinsville a couple of preliminary ruminations from the band: “I’d kind of be surprised if they played again,” Hunt said. “It’s been a real drag, you know? It’s been a real shame for a lot of reasons. They’ll probably never set foot in Kentucky again.”

Ever play again? What, are you guys that wimpy? That shit’s sad, Khan. Lil’ Wayne’s getting his ass arrested all the time, but he still seems to release 500 mixtapes a year and rock a House of Blues or two. I mean, you’re following in a fine tradition of rock stars sporting the fluorescent jumpsuit – check out Rolling Stone’s Hall of Fame. Work this to your advantage. All press is good press, guys. That’s PR 101.

Secondly – “never set foot in Kentucky again”? Dude, that’s some Laguna Beach shit. Like, “She tried to hook up with Stephen, I’m never talking to that bitch again.” What’s with the pedestrian playground mentality? You guys are Pitchfork fodder with a deece record contract. Time to put on the big boy pants now.

Look… unfortunately, there’s no room in this letter to discuss the nature of the war on drugs. Sure, it totally sucks you all were arrested and jailed for a non-violent crime and drug laws in the states are kinda fucked. But the fact of the matter is, right or wrong, the law is the law, and drugs are crazy illegal (see your local statute book and The Wire). So if you’re going to do something illegal, don’t get caught. If you have drugs in the car, it should go without saying that you roll careful style. And if you don’t successfully evade Johnny Law, displacing blame for getting caught with your own stash (that you’re fully aware is not legal) is kinda immature and makes you sorta look like an asshole. Just sayin’.

I understand that you weren’t pulled over for speeding or the like, but were stopped at a random safety checkpoint. Regardless, an officer cannot search your vehicle (”illegal search and seizure” in legalese) in any case without either probable cause or your consent.

The band’s official statement said “officers located a controlled substance in the cab of the vehicle.” That begs the question – how did the officers locate your shroomage? Did you allow them to search your van?  Or did you have your paraphernalia all strewn about the vehicle, providing plain sight probable cause? If it’s the former, what the hell? I have nothing else to say to you. If it’s the latter… dude, hide your shit. Especially at checkpoints! It didn’t exactly sneak up on you, ya know! The majority of the Interstate system is comprised of long stretches of completely straight asphalt, as per the original Eisenhower plan. Especially in places like western Kentucky where it’s flat!

The only other scenario I can picture is that manager Kristin Klein’s expired or suspended license warranted the search. Maybe someone who had a driver license should’ve been behind the wheel. Again, good job.

So, like, all things considered, responding to your own ineptitude by saying “fuck this state, we’re never coming here again” is rather asinine, don’t you think? Saving face and manning up is a good style. Just somethin’ to chew on. If you do decide to tour these parts again though, The Decibel Tolls will be more than happy to sponsor it. Shit, I’ll even give you some pointers and show you how I hide my own stash and keep my mouth shut.

Best,
Kenny Bloggins

MP3 :::
Times New Viking – City on Drugs
The Rain Parade – Prisoners
Ariel Pink – House Arrest
Mazzy Star – Free

In what seems to be a suite of albums that namedrop the jams that Anton Newcombe loves (with the first being 2007’s My Bloody Underground), the Brian Jonestown Massacre is set to drop Who Killed Sgt. Pepper on New Year’s Day. And since Newcome is. always. on. fucking. MySpace. showing. us. the. dinner. he’s. cooking. and. other. random. and. often. stupid. shit., the tracklisting was made available for a brief time before it was retracted. Probably after a phone call from the manager. Be it as it may.

1. Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety)
2. The Heavy Knife
3. Lets Go Fucking Mental (Melodica Mix)
4. White Music
5. This Is The First Of Your Last Warnings (Icelandic Version)
6. This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen
7. The One
8. Someplace Else Unknown
9. Detka! Detka! Detka!
10. Super Fucked
11. Our Time
12. Feel It (Of Course We Fucking Do)
13. Felt Tipped-Pen Pictures Of UFOs

Before the full length drops though, the BJM will release a new teaser EP that comes out next week called One EP. You can czech it courtesy of Cargo Records. Looking forward to hearing that, for sure. However, I currently have no predictions on whether Who Killed Sgt. Pepper will rule or not. This is the best of the streaming tracks I’ve listened to thus far, and I like it quite a bit. But some of the other tracks I’ve heard sound abysmal, and some were pretty decent. I dunno, what do you think? I’m certainly hoping for the best myself. I’m on your team, Anton.

POSSIBLY RELEVANT :::
The Brian Jonestown Massacre vs. The Decibel Tolls

There’s a method to the madness, I tell ya. The blog ran a contest a couple of weeks ago, asking our readers what they’d like to see more of. A sort of suggestion box or comment card. A common theme was “shorter reviews.” Alright then, I’ll try to keep the brevity rocking hard on this one.

In a nutshell, Tune Yards (which is officially denoted as tUnE-yArDs, but since typing toggle case is kind of an ass pain, I’ll stay with MLA style) is one of the most schizophrenic and beautiful records to grace these ears this year. Bird-Brains is completely demented and angular, kinda like Xiu Xiu, but without treading the blurry line between “artistic vision” and “just fuckin’ around” that Mr. Stewart always straddled firmly. Perhaps a better description might be To Live And Shave in LA meets expressive female vocals and a folk-centric headspace. Bird-Brains, on the surface, is mostly constructed from spanish guitar, drum machines, found sounds, broken samples, and a sort of totally fucked, anything-goes “playfulness with artistic purpose” that almost evokes the ethos (though not necessarily the sound) of Captain Beefheart and Sun City Girls. And with this pallette, Tune-Yards explores the vast strata of freak folk, druggy pop, and musique concrete. As a taste, “Lions” almost resembles a sea chanty, “Sunlight” is a sort of brooding acid pop, “News” is a sunny kitchen sink sing-along with panged lyrics and general vibe of “just dropped off a song to the studio on the way to the store,” “Fiya” is a perfect stab at early psych folk, “Jamaican” builds a barely danceable beat around a recording of what I believe to be a child’s cough and a drill, and “Real Live Flesh” is sorta dubby. And that’s less than half the album represented. Oh yeah, almost forgot… there’s yodeling to be found on “Hatari.” Wowzers. So to that end, I love this record. Anything that’s challenging for me to describe always gets two thumps up and repeated listens on the ghetto blaster. I have no idea what’s happening half the time, and that keeps the intrigue level strong.

This statement might sound snobby, but whatever, it’s gotta be said. A lot of people are going to say they like the Tune-Yards album because it’s picking up a little buzz and it’s considered, ya know, arty. And these people will be goddamn liars. This album is as difficult as a Throbbing Gristle record. It just happens to have hooks and deceivingly positive vibes.

So don’t go into this listening experience expecting Dirty Projectors or Grizzly Barrrrr or whatever the fuck. Tune Yards are next level. You’ve been warned.

Anyway, Kenny Bloggins thinks 4AD should give all its St. Vincent budget to Tune-Yards to keep writing, recording, and touring. This shit is gospel. And it’s available this week, so go see about it.

For fans of:  Tickley Feather, Xiu Xiu, Holy Modal Rounders with beats

MP3 :::
Tune-Yards – Sunlight
Tune-Yards – News

We’ve been really psyched on all the love that Web 2.0 has shown us in our first year up, so we’re looking to expand our output and get a couple new people aboard. While our focus will remain on music review/commentary/etc, we could really use some people who could help us take photos at shows and/or conduct interviews. Of course, if you don’t have a camera or live in the middle of nowhere that’s okay too, just send us 2 writing samples of your stuff (these don’t have to be published articles). Also, if you’ve got ideas for some feature writing, we’d be happy to house your scene reports, essays, analysis, or anything else you can make interesting. Honestly, we’re flexible as hell with content, all we really ask is that you:

-Understand the general taste and ethos of this website. (i.e. what genres we cover, who our pin cushions are, who butters our bread)
-Have a decent grip on the English language. (if you can fake it with spellcheck, more power to you, we’ll never know)
-Be able to contribute ideally 2-4 times a week. (or as much as you want)
-Can dig that this is a labor or love and therefore compensation will come in the form of free music, dumb e-mails from Bloggins and I, and being able to gain a little bit of exposure/practice in the world of music journalism.

So, if this sounds agreeable to you, send an email to mh[at]thedecibeltolls[dot]com letting us know a little bit about yourself, what kind of music you dig, what you’d like to do for The Decibel Tolls, and a few samples of your writing and/or photography. Happy applicating!

The recent BBC Four documentary Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany, the most thorough examination of the genre since Julian Cope’s definitive Krautrocksampler, has finally made its way onto the Interwebs. And it’s as solid as you’d expect.

From the BBC: “Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard. They shared one common goal – a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany’s gruesome past – but that didn’t stop the music press in war-obsessed Britain from calling them Krautrock.”

I really dig John Weinzierl’s (of Amon Duul II) logic early in the film, when he says “we wanted to be international,we tried very hard to not be Anglophonic and not to be German. So… space is one solution.” And it’s totally worth mentioning that Werner Hertzog shows up for a bit. Action packed.

You can cop Chinoiseries here.

For fans of:  J Dilla, Madlib, Oh No

MP3:::
Onra – One Day
Onra – What Up Duyet?

Dragon Turtle, the duo of Brian Lightbody and Tom Asselin (of Lewis & Clarke), is the newest project to arise from the enigmatic La Société Expéditionnaire. Their debut full-length 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 world music.

The maiden voyage of “Causality” pushes off with warm cider acoustic picking, muffled distant bongos and various textural percussion. Mountain-enveloping swarms of foggy synths drift in and idle as quiet wails in the background provoke riffs to thaw out slowly from the mix. Other tracks like “Moon Fallout” follow suit with cloud-bursting strings and downtrodden vox that somberly consent to the ebb and flow, setting up thematic contrast for the desolate episodes that explode like glorious outbursts of cabin fever. So even when ambient side paths like the 11-minute “Hourglass” seem static, and probably run on for longer than they need to, they still manage to artfully contribute tension to the tracklist. This is definitely an album that makes more sense when listened to in one sitting.

At times, the mingling of antiquated instrumentation evokes the hermetic splendor of the Microphones opus The Glow Part 2, while the anxious kraut pace of “Island of Broken Glass” marries fireside calypso, dislocated melodies, and charred guitar work into something that could easily be mistaken for the collage work of Faust. This is exampled especially on the claustrophobic vignette “Apophis”, sporting bizarre french speak-singing, banjo twiddling, and choppy samurai licks.

What we have here is very much a studio-crafted album, with many exhaustive hours spent in the band’s personal hideout One Forest, experimenting and harnessing the perfect textures for their cause. At times, the obsession with pure sound can borrow a limb from their focus on composition. A few cuts like the oddly naked pensive noodling of “Hometime” feels like an afterthought, or a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit but was jammed in anyway. Almanac is not perfectly conceived, nor is it always spectacular, but it is consistently immersive the entire way through, culminating in some of the most intense moments of frantic beauty to come out of my speakers all year. The unique sound space that these two have carved out is worthy of your attention alone. Highly conceptual with little pretension, and passionately constructed, these ten tracks turn over enough gems along the way that I am already salivating for their next release. Not an album to miss out on.

Almanac is available now through the folks at La Société Expéditionnaire.

For Fans Of: The Microphones/Mt. Eerie, some Faust, Six Organs of Admittance

MP3 :::
Dragon Turtle – Island of Broken Glass
Dragon Turtle – Moon Fallout