What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

Ok, this episode of "What The Hell" is gonna be large on tunes. There seems to be so many worthwhile albums dropping right now, it is hard to keep up. A great problem to have. Here are the many bands I'm crushing on right now like a little music slut:

Russian Spy Camera (Athens, Ga)



I know Ichuda already did a review of this album, but I've really gotten into this one hard, so I'm going to continue to hype it. Let me stress that you can download their entire album for free from their website. If you like good music, you will be wronging yourself if you do not go pick that up.

Cryptology


Cults


Download Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives here!!!

Russian Spy Camera Myspace


The Raveonettes (Copenhagen, Denmark)



One major trend from bands this year is albums produced with heavy distortion a la The Jesus And Mary Chain. Bands like The Magnetic Fields and Times New Viking are great examples. So far, though, I think The Raveonettes' new album Lust Lust Lust is my favourite to employ those sorts of techniques.

Dead Sound


Blush


Buy Lust Lust Lust here

Raveonettes Myspace


The Ruby Suns (Auckland, New Zealand)



The other popular trend in music this year is the Animal Collective influence. I'm surprised it took this long for AC to become so influential to new artists, but it was certainly inevitable. While The Dodos and El Guincho are fine acts, something about them feels like they are stealing the Collective's sound a little too much. Sort of like when I listen to Black Mountain or The Sword and their absorption of the '70s sounds. Sure they are fun and enjoyable to listen to, but I could never get totally obsessed with someone who is bascially copy-catting someone else. But, The Ruby Suns' new album, Sea Lion, seems to me to be the perfect blend of AC love and originality. They will be at The Drunken Unicorn Monday night.

There Are Birds


Kenya Dig It?


Buy Sea Lion here

The Ruby Suns Myspace


Hot Chip (London, UK)



The new Hot Chip joint didn't seem to get its fair fill of the Internet hype, but I've really been enjoying it. There are certainly some songs that are better than others, but the many great ones are really incredible. If you like dance music with a soul like I do, check this one:

Ready For The Floor


One Pure Thought


Buy Made In The Dark here

Hot Chip Myspace


Destroyer (Vancouver, BC, Canada)



Mostly because of Daniel Bejar's vocal style, Destroyer seems to be an act that you either love or can't really get into. Being on the love side of it myself, I'll make my plea to those who listened to it and thought "This sounds just like the last album". On the surface, sure, but if you dig into it, you'll find a much more epic experience and I think this may be his best yet. Destroyer will be in Atlanta later this month.

My Favourite Year


Shooting Rockets (From The Deck Of Night's Ape)


Buy Trouble In Dreams here

Destroyer Myspace

Friday Free-Style

Yes are doing a 40th anniversary tour and will be in Atlanta at the new Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park on August 4th. Tickets go on sale today at 10am so go get them.

La Blogotheque is really cool in case you didn't know, and here's the Black Lips sessions:

SPLIT BLACK LIPS #1 3 SONGS TIED
by lablogotheque

SPLIT BLACK LIPS #2 EVERYBODY'S DOING IT
by lablogotheque

Outkast's tour manager died of a drug overdose. Here's that new new Outkast:

Big Boi featuring Andre 3000 & Raewkon : Royal Flush


Atlas Sound has another hott track at his blog.

Apple is talking about offering unlimited access to the itunes library for a fee.

Lollapalooza early bird tickets are on sale now, but there is still no official line-up.

This year's installment of Camp Bisco July 17th-19th includes Disco Biscuits (3 nights), Snoop Dogg, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, MSTRKRFT, !!!, Lotus, DB, Amplive, and more.

Outside Lands Fest in San Francisco, Ca August 22nd-24th will include Radiohead, Tom Petty, Beck, Wilco, Primus, Regina Spektor, Devendra Banhart, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Black Mountain, Bon Iver, and more.

Chris Strawn of Atlanta's Brass Castle has a solo album, I Left My Hat In Hades, out now.

Andrew Bird is blogging for the New York Times.

Listen to Dirty Projectors cover Bjork's "Hyperballad" here.

The Flight Of The Conchords self-titled LP comes out April 22nd and you can see the tracklist here. Jam a track:

Flight Of The Conchords : Ladies Of The World


Stream the new Black Keys album here.

Fleetwood Mac plans to join the reunion club next year, possibly with Sheryl Crow. (?)

Emo kids are getting attacked in Mexico.

You can get the Die! Die! Die! show at The Earl last week from Have You Heard.

Girl Talk has a new album out very soon and will be in Athens, Ga at the Georgia Theater tonight.

Read about the new Of Montreal album here.

I didn't get any recordings of Bon Iver at SXSW, but others did, so go listen.

Nine Inch Nails will be at the Gwinnett Arena August 13th.

Southern Shelter has a show from Hardy Morris and Brantley Senn of Dead Confederate.

Pearl Jam is finally touring around the south a bit this summer, but not Atlanta.

Creative Loafing has a piece about Silent Kids.

Be Your Own Pet will be at the Variety Playhouse May 23rd. Universal cut three songs from their new album, Get Akward, because they were too violent. This is the same label that has released albums from Eminem, 50 Cent, Marilyn Manson, and Nine inch Nails. Obviously, Jemina Pearl could kick all of their asses. Check their new vid:




More new videos:

Phosphorescent:



WHY?:



Raveonettes:

Humpday Randomnimity

So first, let's break down the Bonnaroo line-up:



First, I think it's hilarious that NME and the AP totally got punked and reported that Led Zeppelin is headlining. Since they deleted their mistake, here it is immortalized:



The weirdest thing is that NME had announced earlier in the day that they would be announcing a "surprise headliner" at midnight, so the conspiracy theorists out there are going to believe there is a chance that they will add Led Zeppelin late after tickets go on sale (because LZ would instantly sell out the fest), to give the 'roo loyalists a easy shot at tickets first. Considering everyone denied Metallica was playing when that rumour broke earlier, it is certainly possible but doubtful.

So, Metallica. Hmmmm. I'm just going to say that i think they are being a little risky with some of their line-up choices for a rare fest with an almost completely non-violent history. It will be an interesting experiment to see how that crowd does, but I'm a bit pessimistic on that front. Although, there have only been a handful of 'roo headliners over the years that have been really awesome in my opinion, so it's not the worst thing to me (plus now i can get a nap Friday night between the day acts and the late-night acts). It's the smaller acts that I always like best anyways. Plus, Pearl Jam is really great live. Also, I'm just gonna say, Jack Johnson isn't necessarily bad, but I can think of like 100 better headliners off the top of my head, and he has to headline both Coachellas and Bonnaroo? Coooooooooooome ooooooon.

Regardless of all that junk at the top of the list, there is a lot to be excited about. Sigur Ros is probably the biggest for me since I love them and have yet to see them. The other names I'm going to be excited to see include Iron & Wine, Broken Social Scene, Mastodon (ATL represent!), !!!, The Fiery Furnaces, Jose Gonzalez, Minus The Bear, Battles, and The Sword. Things I've seen a million times that are still pretty cool to catch again: Phil Lesh, My Morning Jacket, The Allman Brothers, Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Folds, and Dark Star Orchestra. Others I'll probably check out if nothing great is going on include Kanye, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Talib Kweli, Gogol Bordello, Rilo Kiley, Tegan & Sara, Vampire Weekend, and Black Kids.

Overall, its decent but not their best line-up. I'm still going cuz I love this fest. A Mars Volta addition would really set it off though.

Speaking of The Mars Volta, Pitchfork finally reviewed The Bedlam in Goliath, and while they still gave it a terrible score, they finally back-tracked a tad bit from the absolute hate they have for this band and moved to a more "well we don't like them, but I can see why others do and they are awesome in certain ways we don't put much value in" position (I'm paraphrasing here). While I appreciate the sentiment, they still laid down some serious presumptuous elitism. Like when the 'fork makes claims that TMV championing prog-rock (or as i would put it, innovating a musical epistemology built on innovation) "couldn't be more averse to real progress in rock music", it just makes me realize how one-dimensional they are in their music taste and while they have been a huge driving force of this current music revolution going on, they are sometimes missing the point. In essence what is going on is about diversity, not about a singular idea or sound. When you value 3 LCD Soundsystem songs that are nice on the dancefloor surrounded by a ton of boringness and repetition over an album where they make every single second on it count, well, I'm just not gonna ever jump on that bandwagon.

Ok, now I am gonna get all pitchforky on you and serve up a glass of haterade. I bought the new The Selmanaires, Anna Kramer, and The Whigs albums a couple of weeks ago. I'm a cheerleader for the local acts as much as the next person, but while I think these are all fine albums in their own right and I know the rest of the Jo-Ja big dawgs are touting them endlessly, these are far from the best acts or albums that Georgia has to offer. They are all copycatting played out styles, and bringing nothing new to the table. There are sure to be plenty of people who will genuinely love these, but I like a bit of innovation, a touch of avant-garde, an artist who takes chances, I like something unique and different, and I hear none of that on these albums. The Selmanaires seem to be only one of these three that I believe have real potential to be something special, but I always find myself thinking about 25% of what they do is amazing, and the other 75% is totally uninteresting. I understand that they are like a library of styles and that they are making very deep musical references, but they don't bring a new perspective to their reference points except sometimes they water them down. They sound like a history book to me. I think they just lay too safe sometimes, and if they really went for it they could be great. Again, The Air Salesman is not a bad album, but if I were to compare it to other ATL albums I consider great, like, I don't know, an Untied States album (or the new Slushco EP that is getting absolutely no press except here), I don't think it stands up.

Ok, enough digression, here's some news:

Iron & Wine and Califone will be at the Variety Playhouse on April 14th.

The Breeders will be at The Loft on June 13th.

Modest Mouse are working on an EP.

Go get the Atlas Sound Orange Ohms Glow EP from his blog. Damn, he just don't stop.

Tickley Feather, who opened for Animal Collective in Atlanta last year, has her debut album coming out April 29th.

Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords is about to star in a movie.

It seems the Stone Temple Pilots reunion is on like Donkey Kong.

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks and John Vanderslice will be at The Variety Playhouse on March 26th.

Feist will be at The Tabernacle on March 18th.

Cloud Cult have a new album coming out soon.

Austin City Limits Fest, slated for September 26th-28th, already has tickets on sale way before they announce a line-up. Lookout Ticketmaster, the groundsquirrel is coming to get you:



Feist live:



Cat Power:



Caribou:



Les Savy Fav:



The Raveonettes:



A Place To Bury Strangers: