Ohmpark Mixtape #15: Forever Summer


All photos by Adrienne Claire Darnell. Check out her awesome blog here.

Emeralds : “Candy Shoppe”
Tame Impala : “Alter Ego”
Here We Go Magic : “Casual”
Local Natives : “Wide Eyes”
Beach House : “10 Mile Stereo”
Crystal Castles : “Celestica”
Broken Social Scene : “All To All”
Wolf Parade : “Ghost Pressure”
This Piano Plays Itself : “Where We Lived”
Best Coast : “Boyfriend”
Phantogram : “Mouthful Of Diamonds”
Of Montreal : “Coquet Coquette”
CocoRosie : “Lemonade”

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.