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Huess’ Lite-Brite Beat Factory

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Michael Hansen
on March 9, 2010
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huess_hunter_jewel_front Huess Lite-Brite Beat Factory

I made a half assed promise a while back to spotlight more left-field hip-hop on this site and never followed through (or all rap music ceased to exist during my absence of interest, you decide). So good looks to UK psych/soul producer Huess for helping me back in touch by releasing his new EP I’d Rather Be The Hunter.

His genealogy includes all the right departments: intuitive vocal stutters and stretches learnt from Dilla, pulsating new-school passages a la Bullion or Flying Lotus, and a good amount of his own Tron-tinted idiosyncrasies. The tempos fly pretty low, with druggy rhythms that constantly feel like they’re gonna nosedive but nevertheless find their way into ecstatic, fluid passages of late-night atmospheres, jazzy interludes, and hard hitting samples. Recommended. Stream and download the EP here.

For fans of:  Bullion, Flying Lotus, Onra

MP3 :::
Huess – I’d Rather Be the Hunter

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Tune In, Bliss Out With Spirit Spine

Published
by
Daniel Krow
on March 9, 2010
in MP3
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l_c927d0f07fef4cf3b8763ee54efc82fd Tune In, Bliss Out With Spirit Spine

Let’s get this out of the way: Spirit Spine, the one man laptop project of Bloomington, Indiana’s Joseph Denny, sounds a lot like Panda Bear. From the huge drums to the deep space reverb to the campfire singalong melodies, Denny has completely absorbed the template laid down on Person Pitch. But what saves him from the “Well, why don’t I just listen to Panda Bear?” tag is the fact that he jettisons so many of Noah Lennox’s more experimental tendencies (the crying babies, the owl hooting, and such) and just focuses on writing really catchy songs. This is a dude to watch out for.

“Slept Away,” off Spirit Spine’s new album Jungle Bridges, is offered below for your consideration. Jungle Bridges is available for download on Amazon and is streaming for free on Spirit Spine’s Bandcamp site.

MP3 :::
Spirit Spine – Slept Away

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Killer Comp and SXSW Party From Kill Red Rockets

Published
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Kenny Bloggins
on March 9, 2010
in MP3 and Rockshows
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l_69e047c37f494c6389b9c7ab7f54bf9f Killer Comp and SXSW Party From Kill Red Rockets

Austin-based label Kill Red Rockets is a humanitarian effort, providing a wealth of free shit. They currently host a killer (pun intended) compilation on their website available for free download called Jesus in Space made up almost entirely of good stateside shoegaze, dream pop, fucked electro, and ethereal meditations with teeth. The comp is packed with artists readers of this blog will be familiar with (Oblisk, Ceremony, Dead Leaf Echo), and many more that I’m not familiar with at all and will take measures to correct.  The nefariously titled Bloody Knives (pictured above) is one that stuck out. “Hands Around My Neck,” included below for a taste, is quality acid punk with a slight synth edge at its finest and most crafty – basically what M83 could’ve done had they not decided, on their own volition, to suck a big one after the Dead Seas set. 8-bit shoegaze hath been reared.

Quality abounds on this massive set, so no matter what else happens, go download this compilation right now and know that you’ve done at least one radical thing today.

To celebrate the compilation and generation awesomeness of the KRR community, the dudes are throwing a big SXSW party in Austin. Thursday March 18 and Friday March 19, Kill Red Rockets will welcome 21 different acts from around the nation to play at, get this, an apartment complex with a giant pool. Wall of sound noise squalls… and a pool party. That sounds like some intergalactic MTV Spring Break/Beach House action. Where Dasiy Fuentes and Pauly Shore at? Oh, looks like Pauly Shore is over here hanging out with White Rainbow. Maybe they’ll both roll through.

Details on the festivities, as well as download sampler of everyone playing, are right here. This is a Kenny Bloggins-approved event, and that should hold some weight on your itinerary, for realz.

MP3 :::
Bloody Knives – Hands Around My Neck

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Orante Psych Pop That Starts with Double U

Published
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Kenny Bloggins
on March 8, 2010
in MP3
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l_07f3621cc6154787b35384f54ef9c080 Orante Psych Pop That Starts with Double U

We’ve tended to avoid the whole beach meme (save for Real Estate) that has propagated itself across the voluminous festering pit that is the blogosphere. That doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy sunny jams, especially when done with pizzazz and that certain je ne sais quoi that makes music immediately difficult to categorize. Bedroom recording artist double U’s latest, Pineapple Dream, fits the mold for rolled down windows and vibing out in some lounge furniture. However, a visceral intensity and dark sonic space runs throughout Parisian Franck Rabeyrolles’ 14 tracks, providing some ominous clouds to obscure the rays when it seems necessary.

Surf-inspired clean guitar tones, light percussion, an occasional unusual instrument (banjo, accordion), warm synth flourishes, distant vocals, and a shit-ton of reverb make up the entirety of Pineapple Dream. The way in which this simple formula is realized, with great effect, vastly varies the mood throughout. The album’s intro best represents the ends of double U’s spectrum, included below for your consideration. And yes, that’s Stereolab’s Laetita Sadier taking up throat duty on “Interludic.” Simple, layered psychedelic pop just in time for the warming weather, Pineapple Dream is available now from Wool.

For fans of:  City Center, Atlas Sound, Galaxie 500

MP3 :::
double U – Hey Bro
double U – Interludic [feat. Laetita Sadier]

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In Keeping with the Great Tradition of Verbs as Nouns

Published
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Kenny Bloggins
on March 8, 2010
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l_b925b39a5403455cb6091c437477e0c0 In Keeping with the Great Tradition of Verbs as Nouns

From the people who brought you Disappears (well, not people, but city), comes two additional and excellent new groups who eschew the “the” in their project name, go for the jugular, and do it up verb-style. I can usually get behind that.

First on deck is Follows –  a brand new project featuring Mia Clarke of Electrelane on spooky throat duties, Tony Lazzara of Milemarker, Colin DeKuiper of Russian Circles, and Eric Chaleff from bands that I am unfortunately not familiar with. “Black Black Rose” is an excellent primer for the dark territories in which Follows were reared, and reminds me a bit of a stripped down, mid tempo, and frightening Stereolab with a post-rock slant. The unencumbered sonic foreboding and minimal, gnarled, snakey guitar attack within this jam is perfect for a drive though nuclear winter. No full length or EP available just yet – only a demo preview, available for you to check out. The day of reckoning is neigh, so be prepared when Follows rolls up to your town in a horse drawn caravan with survival foods. Fans of Mogwai, Pram, and Indian Jewelry, listen up.

implodes In Keeping with the Great Tradition of Verbs as Nouns

Next, meet Implodes. Just as dark and scary as Follows, with silky swells of fuzz rather than doom-invoking space as their weapon of choice. Think Flying Saucer Attack, but replace the serenity with paranoia. More upbeat than, say, Bardo Pond, but just as terrifying, Implodes put a new spin on shoegaze, keeping the melodies within the Hollow Earth rather than letting them soar like many dream pop bands are wont to do.  So I guess it isn’t just a clever name, amirite? Bad vibes are the new good vibes, and Implodes is spearheading this, along with a very nice budding shoegaze movement coming out of Chicago. Perhaps the Windy City will be the next Thames Valley? Stay tuned to The Decibel Tolls to find out!

Follow Follows amongst the MySpaces here, and Implodes lurk around these parts.

MP3 :::
Follows – Black Black Rose
Implodes –  Meadowlands

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Exploring the Multiverse with Ulaan Khol

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on March 5, 2010
in MP3
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ulaankhol Exploring the Multiverse with Ulaan Khol

As regular readers of this mediocre blog (as well as our Twitter followers) are aware, both Hansen and I are obsessed with LOST. Here’s a photo of me drinking a DHARMA beer. I mention this because the last and current seasons of LOST touch on the ideas of the Multiverse and time travel (by way of the Time Loop Theory). This relates to Steven R. Smith, a.k.a. Ulaan Khol, in two ways. The first and most pedestrian point – dudes who are into shit like time travel, theoretical physics, mysticism, and the like can groove to Ulaan Khol no sweat.

Secondly (and most importantly), Ulaan Khol’s latest, III, practices what it preaches – bouncing about time with great ease like a pandemensional cosmic ball. Sacred mystic moods and Ben Chasney-esque eastern modal tonalities fraternize with apocalyptic noise and ambient bliss blasts from the future. Both sides make a compromise by settling somewhere in ’70s lo fi freak outs a la early Can.  Ulaan Khol is timeless not in the sense that he amalgamates genres from many movements or that he fails to convey what place in time his music exists, but rather, Ulaan Khol has no time. Does that make sense? I promise I’m not stoned.

As evidenced around the 1:15 mark of “Untitled Two,” included below, Ulaan Khol is a bad dude. III is available from Soft Abuse this Tuesday, March 9, and it will dislodge your dome.

For fans of:  Six Organs of Admittance, Can, Flying Saucer Attack, Sir Richard Bishop

MP3 :::
Ulaan Khol – Untitled 2

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Growing Announce Tour, Hit Up Al’s

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on March 4, 2010
in News and Rockshows
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growing Growing Announce Tour, Hit Up Als

Sheeeeeeeit, guess I know what I’m doin’ on May 13th. I saw the Growing bros open for Mogwai in 2006, so I can attest – see them! They ripped open a hole in the sky approximately six meters above the crowd’s head. It was gnarly. Wasn’t sure if it was a portal or not, but I wasn’t about to find out – kinda like the theory that the post-mortem light at the end of the tunnel is actually a trick…

04-06 Brooklyn, NY – COCO66
04-08 Winooski, VT – Monkey House
04-10 Montreal, QC – Casa del Popolo
04-11 Toronto, ON – The Garrison
04-12 London, ON – Call the Office
04-14 Detroit, MI – Contemporary Art Museum
04-15 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
04-16 Madison, WI – Project Lodge
04-17 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
04-18 Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
04-21 Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
04-22 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
04-23 Olympia, WA – Northern
04-24 Portland, OR – Berbatis Pan
04-26 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
04-28 Oakland, CA – The Parish
04-29 Santa Cruz, CA – Brookdale Lodge
05-02 Irvine, CA – UC Irvine
05-04 Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
05-07 Austin, TX – Mohawk
05-10 New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar
05-11 Atlanta, GA – E.A.R.L.
05-12 Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
05-13 Lexington, KY – Al’s
05-15 Pittsburgh, PA – Garfield Artworks
05-16 Huntington, WV – Pleasant 123
05-18 Baltimore, MD – Floristree
05-19 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie

No word on support yet, but I’m sure it shall rule as well.

MP3 :::
Growing – Hormone
Growing – Innit

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The Decibel Tolls Presents DISAPPEARS and WOVEN BONES

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on March 3, 2010
in News and Rockshows
. Comments

disappears3 The Decibel Tolls Presents DISAPPEARS and WOVEN BONES
Louisville welcomes again the garage kraut space swamp that is Disappears, this time at the intimate and rad Zanzabar. Disappears heads out on their first major headlining tour in support of their debut full length for Kranky, Lux (out April 13), and we’re all kinds of stoked to present it. Austin’s nasty damage trio Woven Bones joins in on the fun. Additional acts and ticket information are forthcoming, but for now, pen that shit down in your planner real hard.

POSSIBLY RELEVANT :::
[Photos + Video] Tortoise and Disappears – Headliners, Louisville – 2.11.10

MP3 :::
Disappears – Lux
Woven Bones – With You Alone

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The Downtrodden and Driving Mackaper

Published
by
Daniel Krow
on March 2, 2010
in MP3
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l_557d77e401b65885c449afa65c91c806 The Downtrodden and Driving Mackaper

Sweden’s Mackaper make old school psychedelic music built around the tinny drum beats and vintage tones of old Hammond B3 organs. Originally the duo of Markus Hulthen and Per Nyström from the Concretes, the band has expanded into a six piece and mastered a sound that’s equal parts funky Swedish prog, hypnotic motorik riffs, and wild bursts of free jazz.

Highlights of the group’s latest, When All Is Sad and Dawn, include pseudo-title track “Sad and Dawn,” powered by the jazzy drumming of Simon Stålhamre and a circus-esque organ melody; the pastoral “Tindra,” with its dewy mixture of organ, melodica, and french horn, and the hymn-like “December.” “Tale of Tales,” found below for your consideration, emphasizes swirling, gothic organ melody and wordless, ghostly female vocals to great effect.

When All Is Sad and Dawn can be purchased via Mackaper’s website.

For fans of:  Faust, Casino vs. Japan, Tortoise

MP3 :::
Mackaper – Tale of Tales

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Rockshows to Know for 3.1.10

Published
by
Kenny Bloggins
on March 1, 2010
in Rockshows
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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

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