A Random MP3 Trilogy


Photo by Adriano Fegundes

Lately I have been going through a serious Animal Collective kick. They have always been a band that I really liked, but now something has sort of clicked for me and I just can’t get enough. I’m starting to really lean towards considering them the best band to come out of this decade. Their entire discography is in my heaviest of rotations right now, but today’s obsession is Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. Here’s a track from it to help you jump on the bandwagon:

Animal Collective : April And The Phantom

I’ve also been warming up more to The Dodos‘ Visiter lately. At first it struck me as too much of an Animal Collective ripoff, but now that I have been getting to know the language of that sort of music better, I can appreciate what The Dodos are doing. They are surely AC influenced, but they do some interesting stuff with those inclinations:

The Dodos : Jody

Final Fantasy dropped two tracks on the Internet today from two forthcoming EPs. If you are unfamiliar with FF, he is violinist/singer Owen Pallett, best known for his affiliations with Arcade Fire, and you should snatch a copy of his 2006 He Poos Clouds. One of the EPs will be reinterpretations of music by fellow Toronto musician Alex Lukashevsky and the other is a collaboration with Beruit. More info here, but jam a track from the latter:

Final Fantasy : The Butcher

Humpday Randomnimity

I’m going to finish my tour coverage up tonight, but for now you can listen to Kebert Xela‘s Athfest performance at Southern Shelter. He also has a Mastodon show up from 2003.

Grizzly Bear are debuting a new song on Letterman tonight, so set your DVR.

Sunset Rubdown will be at The Earl September 24th. That is the same night as The Mars Volta, so I think I am going to try and catch some of both of those shows. Gogol Bordello will be playing at The Variety Playhouse that night too.

Of Montreal will be at The Tabernacle November 8th.

Magnetic Fields will be at the Symphony Hall at Woodruff Arts Center October 17th.

A Place To Bury Strangers and Sian Alice Group will be at The Drunken Unicorn October 18th.

Ben Kweller will be at The Earl October 24th.

Pinback will be at The 40 Watt in Athens, Ga September 23rd, but no Atlanta date.

Nas is taking on Fox News.

David Gilmour is releasing a live show from 2006 on CD and DVD in September.

Dr. Dre‘s Detox album will supposedly be out by Christmas and feature guest appearances from Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Nas.

Deerhoof have leaked a new song as sheet music.

Bon Iver did Daytrotter.

New TV On The Radio album out September 23rd.

Russia is trying to ban Goth and Emo kids.

China has banned Bjork and other “dangerous” artists from playing there.

Built To Spill and Modest Mouse are working on doing a jam session together.

Karen O has a side project.

Willie Nelson will be at Chastain July 27th.

Jay Reatard/Deerhunter split 7″ sounds cool.

Get the new Vera Fang 7″.

And them vids:

New Animal Collective:

“Comfy In Nautica”:

Beck “Orphans”:

Zach Hill “Dark Art”:

What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

While I have been gallivanting around for the last month, hott new albums just keep on dropping. I’m abridging an already succinct segment to keep up. Here’s three episodes of What The Hell shrink wrapped together. Since I am a big fan of the run-on sentence, I give you micro-reviews of my summer soundtrack so far:

First up, some artists whose sounds characterize the best and brightest of this decade:

Animal Collective (Baltimore, MD)

One of the greatest bands of this generation offer up 25 more minutes of bliss.

(BUY Water Curses)(Myspace) Animal Collective : Water Curses

No Age (Los Angeles, CA)

2008 hypelicious duo that lives up to its praises, so don’t miss out on one of the best albums of the year so far.

(BUY Nouns)(Myspace) No Age : Teen Creeps

Excepter (Brooklyn, NY)

Electronic noise stuff that is as fun as it is creative and weird.

(BUY Debt Dept.)(Myspace) Excepter : Kill People

Pyramids (Denton, TX)

Post-rock that actually lives up to that genre’s ethic of breaking down conventional song structures rather than sounding like everything else, so pick up a favourite album of mine so far this year and blast it.

(BUY Pyraminds)(Myspace) Pyramids : This House Is Like Any Other World

Russian Circles (Chicago, IL)

Think Pelican except tighter, more epic, and in power-trio form.

(BUY Station)(Myspace) Russian Circles : Campaign

Ok, now here’s some dance music for those long summer nights:

Health (Los Angeles, CA)

Health‘s debut full-length from last year gets remixed into a perfect dance-noise album.

(BUY Disco)(Myspace) Health : Triceratops (Acid Girls Remix A)

Crystal Castles (Toronto, ON)

These controversial Canadians are making dance songs that sound fresh and interesting.

(BUY Crystal Castles)(Myspace) Crystal Castles : Crime Wave (Crystal Castles v. Health)

Femme Fatality (St. Louis, MO)

These guys are like the Eminem of the dance-rock world, and while not all of this album is top-notch, when they hit it right it’s really fun.

(BUY One’s Not Enough)(Myspace) Femme Fatality : Still Alive

Girl Talk (Pittsburgh, PA)

The king of the ridiculous ADD party-mash-up album ups the ante again.

(BUY Feed The Animals)(Myspace) Girl Talk : In Step

And then some indie-rock with an alt-country twang:

Silver Jews (Nasheville, TN)

Brilliant songwriting that makes an ancient pop genre sound new and intriguing.

(BUY Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea)(Myspace) Silver Jews : Suffering Jukebox

Bowerbirds (Raleigh, NC)

I missed this 2007 gem, but it got a recent re-release with bonus tracks, so make sure you catch it too.

(BUY Hymns For A Dark Horse)(Myspace) Bowerbirds : Hooves

Rotary Downs (New Orleans, LA)

This album is like Mellow Gold era Beck meets Kerosene Hat era Cracker meets Pavement.

(BUY Long After The Thrill)(Myspace) Rotary Downs : C’mon, Take A Hit

Ok, all new heavy rotation list coming.

Videos of The Day: Coachella 2008

Here’s some vids from Coachella over the weekend:

Prince covering Radiohead:

Animal Collective “Comfy In Nautica”:

Click here to read the entire post…

Friday Free-Style

Bonnaroo’s “Big Announcement” this week was that Widespread Panic is replacing The Allman Brothers and doing their 43rd headlining spot at the ‘roo. They also added Les Claypool, Charli 2na, Super Drag, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Adele, Grand Ole Party, and The Postelles. Other than WSP, those are some decent additions, but I’m way more excited about the acts they added to the Cafe/nightclub, including Dead Confederate, Colour Revolt, De Novo Dahl, Phonograph, Bear In Heaven, Howlin Rain, and Royal Bangs, all of which are acts that I am interested in checking out. I’ll be doing a piece on all the lesser know ‘roo acts very soon.

Pecanne Log had the extened trailer to We Fun up, so check it:

Pitchfork Fest added Spoon, The Dodos, and Les Savy Fav. That is turning out to rather sweet line-up.

You can download a reversed version of the new Gnarls Barkley album for free here.

The RIAA spent $2.8 million dollars lobbying the government in 2007. Honestly, I would have expected that to be much higher.

Click here to read the entire post…

Ohmpark’s Top 50 Best Albums Of 2007

2007 was an incredible year of music and there were so many albums I really liked that didn’t make this list. I noticed that most of the lists I pay attention to were very similar to one another this year as opposed to last year. Also, I’ve found myself in more of a disagreeance with those lists than last year. If there is any theme to be taken out of this list, I think it’s that I feel like too many great albums were underrated by the blogosphere elites, and that they were way in love with some albums I think are overrated. This list represents my personal assertions more so than the rest of the Ohmpark crew, but I worked hard to get every one’s opinions and influences in this thing. Feel free to comment on how much you hate or love it. I feel like every album on this is an essential one from last year, so go listen to some new music:

Click here to read the entire post…

Ohmpark’s Top 10 Best EPs Of 2007

An EP, or Extended Play, is the sweet spot between a full album and a single. Typically between 10 and 25 minutes, although what has come to define the difference between EPs and LPs can sometimes be blurred. Usually EPs get a bad rap, as it carries with it connotations of being “less-than” and not good enough to be a proper album, but I like seeing variations in the art medium. There are EPs like Alice In Chains’ Jar Of Flies and Radiohead‘s Airbag/How Am I Driving? that beat most full lengths. Also, EPs afford an artist the chance to showcase things that don’t fit in the context of a larger piece of work, or explore a different sound without moving fully in that direction. Anyways, I’d take an EP of nothing but the goodness over a full-length comprised mostly of filler surrounding a few good songs any day.

In 2007 I actually heard many great EPs. A few of which I’ll give honorable mentions that just missed this list that are worth-while include Joanna Newsom And The Ys Street Band, Vampire Weekend, and Black Kids‘ Wizard Of Ahhhs, of which I’ve come around a little bit on now that I’ve listened to it more. Here are the 10 most essential short-length albums of 2007:

Click here to read the entire post…

Humpday Randomnimity

Tonight:

This new Radiohead album is awesome. Go get that right now if you don’t have it. Here’s a fun little track of Radiohead and Sparklehorse covering Pink Floyd:

Wish You Were Here
If you’re smart you’ll pre-order the new Grizzly Bear EP Friend and get a free lithograph:

A track from Friend:

Alligator (Choir Version) [Featuring Beirut and Dirty Projectors]
The new Beach House album, Devotion, comes out in February.

Listen to the new Bloc Party single:

Watch Joanna Newsom perform a new, untitled song from last weekend:

Animal Collective on Conan:

RZA talking about The Beatles:

ATLien Bulletins

Jordan Jefferes of Atlanta’s Snowden is moving up to Chicago to write their next album. He’s looking for some support via their myspace:


t’s crazy what some people will do to break writer’s block. Kidding. Well, it’s partially true. The second record needs to be ace and I need to rustle my feathers. After years of trying to break the seal and try another city I’m finally going to do it, or at least try to. I have a place lined up in Logan Square. What I need from you is the following.
- a job, part time, bartending preferred but boy would I love to get out of the service industry(resume and writing samples upon request)
- someplace to park my tiny trailer (got a driveway in the burbs?)
- junk furniture, your trash is my trea….well, it will keep my clothes off the floor
- advice – what are your favorite spots? bars, coffee, diners, scenic spots, museums, massage parlors…
- drummers, if I could take Chandler with me I would. He could saute you with his skillz. However, I may need some work done here and there and I can’t afford first class plane tix every time I need a disco high hat line.

Hit me back with your contact info and I will shower you with praise and pats on the head when I arrive.

Snowden Myspace

Snowden : Anti Anti : Between The Rent And Me
Here’s my pick for local show of the week:

Lenny’s is brewing up a festival in November:

Shows worth looking into this week:

Animal Collective at Variety Playhouse Wednesday

Auditioning Alice at Vinyl Thursday

Rilo Kiley at Variety Playhouse Saturday

Animal Collective : Strawberry Jam : Peacebone
Rilo Kiley : Under The Blacklight : The Moneymaker
Auditioning Alice:

Video Of The Day: Animal Collective

The new AC video of “Peacebone” from the upcoming Strawberry Jam album (out September 11th) is really awesome and maybe one of the best videos I’ve seen all year. Remember the conglomeration of fauna will be at The Variety Playhouse on Wednesday September 26th. Enjoy:

Torrents Of The Day: Animal Collective

So first, Here’s a show from a month ago:

Animal Collective – 5.30.2007 Charlottesville, Va.

Animal Collective
5-30-2007
Satelite Ballroom
Charlottesville, VA

Source:
FOB: Nakamichi CM-701 (DIN) > Apogee mini-me > Fostex COP-1 > iHP

Transfer:
Wave > Soundforge 6.0 (normalize/fades) > CD wave (tracking) > flac

No Setlist

And then here’s a torrent of the Animal Collective show last year at the Variety Playhouse:

Animal Collective 2006-03-19 Variety Playhouse Atlanta

Animal Collective
2006-03-19
Variety Playhouse
Atlanta

SP-CMC-4(AT853s) -> SP batt box -> IRiver iHP-120 (rockbox)
Front row center balcony
Tracked with CDWave, fades and normalized with SoundForge 8.0, Flac level 7.
Taped and transferred by Ben Seibert.

01. Flesh Canoe 9:19
02. Fireworks/AMV 9:47
03. Peace Bone 5:33
04. Big Big Beat 10:05
05. Safer 11:50
06. Reverend Green 8:31
07. Cuckoo 8:09
08. Chores 9:22
09. Grass 4:31

01. Street Flash 9:06
02. Banshee Beat 11:15
03. We Tigers 3:14

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