Ohmpark Mixtape #8: May Daze

Technically summer doesn’t start until next month, but my long tenure in college and regular association with students leads me to consider May as the beginning of the summer. To celebrate the coming of the season, I’m about to take a nice little week vacation at the beach, so I figured I would leave you readers with a summery mixtape to jam while I’m gone. Here at Ohmpark we have some exciting things coming soon. Bonnaroo is now less than a month away and we will have total coverage for you. Then Corndogorama is right around the corner. And after that I’ll be blogging on the road for all of July. So keep it here and we’ll keep bringing you the best music from the ATL and beyond. Thanks for reading and enjoy some hott tunage:

Harlem Shakes : Nothing But Change Part II
Buy Technicolor Health
Still Flyin’ : Good Thing It’s A Ghost Town Around Here
Buy Never Gonna Touch The Ground
Wavves : Beach Demon
Buy Wavvves
Crystal Antlers : Andrew
Buy Tentacles
Animal Collective : Summertime Clothes
Buy Merriweather Post Pavilion
St. Vincent : Laughing With a Mouth Of Blood
Buy Actor
Camera Obscura : French Navy
Buy My Maudlin Career
Jeffrey Lewis & The Jackals : Bugs & Flowers
Buy ‘Em Are I
Akron/Family : Sun Will Shine (Warmth Of The Sunship Verison)
Buy Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
Sufjan Stevens : You Are The Blood (Castanets cover)
Buy Dark Was The Night

I Heart Crystal Antlers


Crystal Antlers @ SXSW ’09

One of my favourite debut releases from last year was Crystal Antlers‘ EP, about half an hour of psychedelic blasting jams. They are one of those rare sort of bands that can go backwards to borrow some pretty old sounds and make them feel fresh. They recently released their first full-length, Tentacles, and it is beautifully crafted record of relentless intensity. The Pink Floyd/Doors keyboards take center stage, but the heavy ’60s/prog roots are channeled through a hip, L.A. punk attitude, and it works perfectly. Here are the first two tracks from Tentacles:

Crystal Antlers : Painless Sleep

Crystal Antlers : Dust

Buy Tentacles

Crystal Antlers myspace

They did a They Shoot Music Session recently and did an unplugged version of “Andrew” that is really cool (check out all the videos and photos bere):

Here are a couple great videos that demonstrate how amazing they are live:

If you are only going to listen to one band with the word “crystal” in it, this is the one.

SXSW Day 4 (Saturday): One Last Night To Get Dirty

Clint got a little earlier start on the final day than me, and went to see Still Flyin’:

After I awoke from a too short slumber I headed out to the 40 Watt showcase at Side Bar. Our gracious host Larry dropped me off and I went inside to catch a proper Still Flyin’ set, something I wanted to do since I caught their acoustic set the other night at the Todd P. party. To my surprise D.J. from Still Flyin’ did a short hilarious rap set as his alter ego Excalibrah. It was a nice change from the serious rock shows I had been catching during SXSW. After that Still Flyin’ came on stage with too many members to count. I really enjoy the beach music meets big family band thing that they do. The stand out song was “Rope Burn” which shows they have the power to craft incredibly catchy indie pop songs similar to their sister band Je Suis France. As soon as the set ended I hoofed it to Waterloo Park to meet up with the rest of the Ohmpark crew.

Excalibrah:

Still Flyin’:

After that we met back up at the Mess With Texas free mini-festival in Waterloo Park. This event features two big stages and showcases bands that have been playing SXSW shows all week.


Click here to read the entire post…

Ohmpark’s Top 20 Best EPs/Short-Length Albums Of 2008

I decided to do something a little experimental this year with my best EP list. When I was comparing very short “full-length” albums to longer albums on my best LP list, I kept wanting to hold the time duration against the shorter album. Also, it seems the difference between EPs and LPs can be a bit arbitrary sometimes, so I decided to just draw a line completely based on album length to split up my best album lists. This list, then, is the best of all albums less than 35 minutes, regardless of what the record is labeled. I’m happy with the end result, as I’m able to really highlight some extremely worthwhile briefer albums and it made the competition on this list a lot tighter. When you really think about it, any classic album this short feels like it is in a different weight class. I want to give an honorable mention to Cynic‘s Traced In Air, Parade‘s Ghosts, and Mount Eerie with Julie Dorion and Fred Squire‘s Lost Wisdom because all three were awesome, but here are the 20 best albums under 35 minutes:

Click here to read the entire post…

A Random Mp3 Trilogy (Crystal Antlers, School Of Seven Bells, Cut Copy)

It seems “Crystal” has become the new “Wolf” as far as band names go, but the one band of that namesake that you can’t afford to miss is Crystal Antlers. I have been simply blown away by their recent release, EP. The album is produced by The Mars Volta keyboardist Ikey Owens, and he does a stellar job making this total psych-freakout rock record sound amazing. This is one of the best short-length albums to come out all year, so do not miss it:

Crystal Antlers : A Thousand Eyes

Buy EP: [MP3] [CD] [LP]


The M83 show tonight is bolstered by a great opener in School Of Seven Bells. Their debut album, Alpinisms, presents a soft, accessible, dance-groove brand of shoegaze that I think anyone can enjoy. You might remember that Ben Curtis left the Secret Machines last year to concentrate fully on this project, and considering that I listened to the new SM album last night and was not impressed, I think he made the right decision.

School Of Seven Bells : Half Asleep

Buy Alpinism: [MP3] [CD]


Finally, Cut Copy have announced a spring tour and will be at The Maquerade here in Atlanta March 26 with Matt & Kim. I have sort of overlooked these guys this year, but they’re newest album In Ghost Colours is really good, so if you haven’t taken a look into these Australian dance-punkers, it is time:

Cut Copy : Feel The Love

Buy In Ghost Colours: [MP3] [CD]