Ohmpark Mixtape #21: The Dawn Of Summer

Young Again : “Skin The Arms”
Panda Bear : “Alsatian Darn”
Here We Go Magic : “Backwards Time”
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun : “Old Monster”
tUnE-YarDs : “Bizness”
Mother Mother : “Simply Simple”
Feast Of Violet featuring Featureless Ghost : “Doomsday”
Beachtapes : “Santa Maria”
Places : “Sweet Melinda”
Dark Room : “Stutter”
Easily Suede : “Movie Night”
Radiohead : “Lotus Flower”
New Animal : “Out There”

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”

Ohmpark Mixtape #13: Our Favourite Songs of 2009

ohmparktop102009_2

If you’ve been paying attention around here this year, there is no doubt you will be familiar with everything on this list, and perhaps even a little burnt out on some of these tracks. But each of these songs are strongly linked to different moments and memories I have of 2009, and they make up the ultimate soundtrack to an amazing year in music. So jam them out one last time:

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse w/ Wayne Coyne : Revenge
Animal Collective : My Girls
Atlas Sound w/ Noah Lennox : Walkabout
The Dirty Projectors : Useful Chamber
Grizzly Bear : Two Weeks
Bat For Lashes : Daniel
Andrew Bird : Anonanimal
Here We Go Magic : Fangela
Loney, Dear : Airport Surroundings
Mew : Introducing Palace Players
St. Vincent : The Strangers
Do Make Say Think : Do
Phoenix : Lisztomania
Nomen Novum : Miracles Come True

Ohmpark’s Top 10 Music Videos of 2009

ohmparktop102009

Before I begin awarding the sounds of 2009, I wanted to give a little props to the best eye-candy I’ve seen. These ten videos clearly stood out to me above the rest of this year’s offerings. They are definitely all a million times better than that garbage from Beyonce and Taylor Swift. So, enjoy:


10. Of Montreal: “An Eluardian Instance”

This video has just got a really nice, fun vibe to it. The special effects are utilized just right and the whole thing matches up with the music beautifully.




9. Untied States: “Unsilvered Mirrors”

There are so many neat little video tricks in this one and the whole thing captures the mood of the song expertly. I love when it snaps into the end section with the band playing.




8. St. Vincent: “The Strangers” Lake Fever Session

This video wins solely on the rarity of capturing St. Vincent playing an acoustic, stripped down version of one of the year’s best songs. Totally gorgeous.




7. The Flaming Lips: “Watching the Planets”

Yeasayer tried their best to up the ante on nudity with their recent experimental video, but having a clothing-less mob feeding a naked Wayne Coyne to a vagina monster pretty much trumps anything. Warning, it’s very NSFW.




6. Mastodon: “Divinations”

I loved Mastodon‘s science fiction video for “Oblivion” too, but this one got the edge due to how brutal Brent Hinds is as a caveman.




5. Clues: “You Have My Eyes Now”

This one is just simply hilarious.




4. Grizzly Bear: “Ready, Able”

Grizzly Bear have a ton of amazing videos this year, both official and fan made. But this weird claymation vid is easily my favourite.




3. Here We Go Magic: “Fangela” Black Cab Session

Taking bands and having them perform stripped down versions of their songs in various settings is all the rage these days, and one of the best in the business right now are the Black Cab Sessions. This version of “Fangela” is just pure magic.

Here we go magic from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.




2. Bibio: “Top Soil”

Bibio has such a distinct sound, and this video matches his audio style with the perfect visual enhancements.




1. Thy Mighty Contract: “Conjugal Freelance”

I laugh my ass off every time I watch this. I absolutely love everything about this video and it was an easy choice for my best of the year.

Live Videos: Here We Go Magic @ 529 (3/23/09)

For some reason this was my first chance to make it out to 529, and me likey. The sound is good for the space, and the TV video of the band in the bar room is a nice touch. Luke Temple disclaimered the show by explaining he lost his voice at SXSW, so unfortunately the vocals were not up to par. But luckily, this act isn’t so dependent on primary vocals, so it was still some great jams. They only played a small handful of songs, but each for very long. I was too exhausted from SXSW myself to stick around for Titus Andronicus, but here’s a few videos from Here We Go Magic:

What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

Two talented musicians have each contributed some of the year’s most impressive music so far:

Here We Go Magic

Brooklyn’s Luke Temple has virtually abandoned his singer/songwriter stuff and moved in a hipper direction, and the change suits him. Not that anything is wrong with his previous stuff (2007′s Snowbeast is awesome), but it just feels like he made the perfect jump here and brought his game up a level. His newest effort, Here We Go Magic, is already one of 2009′s “next big hypes”, but it most definitely lives up to the reputation it is receiving. The album starts out with 4 tracks that pretty much anyone will dig, followed by 4 noisier, dronier tracks I really dig, and finishes off with a tune that feels like a Luke Temple throwback, and all of it is excellent. There is plenty of room on this bandwagon so jump on:

Here We Go Magic : Fangela

Here We Go Magic : I Just Want To See You Underwater

Buy Here We Go Magic

Here We Go Magic myspace




Blackout Beach

Of the holy Canadian indie-demigod trinity that make up Swan Lake, Carey Mercer is the one member I hadn’t yet completely worshiped. That is until I sat down with the new Blackout Beach album, Skin Of Evil. Mercer is far from accessible, and even my thirst for weirdness in music wasn’t enough to propel me into really digging into one of his projects until now. From reading various reviews, this seems to be one of his least far-out works, and it has proved to be an enjoyable and intriguing entry point for me. It has me extremely excited about the forthcoming Swan Lake album where Mercer is joined by Daniel Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers) and Spencer Krug (Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade). Do not miss this one:

Blackout Beach : Cloud Of Evil

Blackout Beach : Astoria, Menthol Lite, Hilltop, Wave of Evil, 1982

Buy Skin Of Evil

Blackout Beach myspace

A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Santogold, Here We Go Magic, Dan Deacon

I only got hooked on the Santogold album a few weeks ago when I came back to it researching for my lists. Now I’ve been jamming it pretty hard lately. Seems like a perfect time for this track to show up all over the web, a Three 6 Mafia remix of “Shove It”. Get Krunked up:


Santogold : Shove It (Three 6 Mafia remix featuring Project Pat)

Buy Santogold

Santogold myspace




The hype floodgates has been let loose and everyone is saying that Here We go Magic is going to be the greatest band of 2009. HWGM is the new moniker of Luke Temple, who is a Brooklyn musician I have enjoyed previously to this. The huge wave of webby love this act is getting makes me want to be skeptical, but so far all I have heard is this track and it is pretty good:

Here We Go Magic : Tunnelvision

Here We Go Magic website





Dan Deacon @ Eyedrum (1/7/08)

The new upcoming Dan Deacon record coming out March 24 is entitled Bromst, an acronym for the Brooklyn Masonic Temple where he recently unveiled the new tunes. I can’t wait because I am a huge fan of him so far. Judging upon this first song from it that is sweeping across the blogosphere, it sounds like he is just getting better and better:

Dan Deacon : Get Older

Dan Deacon myspace