Ohmpark Mixtape #11: An Autumn Mix

Myasoedov_Autumn_Morning

Yo La Tengo : Here To Fall
No Age : Losing Feeling
Sian Alice Group : Through Air Over Water
Health : We Are Water
Neon Indian : Terminally Chill
Bear In Heaven : Dust Cloud
Sea Wolf : White Water, White Bloom
Baroness : Swollen And Halo
Porcupine Tree : Time Flies
Karen O and The Kids : All Is Love

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…

Humpday Randomnimity

Athens Popfest is going on in our little sister city all this week and it looks awesome, so check it out.

Times New Viking is playing with Deerhunter on their tour including the Variety Playhouse stop Halloween. I’ll be there.

Minus The Bear and Annuals will be at the Variety Playhouse November 1st.

Ted Leo and Against Me! will be at The Masquerade October 1st.

Weezer and Tokyo Police Club will be at Gwinnett Center Arena October 25th.

The Reverend Horton Heat will be at The Variety Playhouse November 2nd.

Tegan And Sara will be at The Tabernacle September 30th.

Check out some Snowden tour footage.

Stop what you are doing and go watch the 31 minute film Portishead In Portishead here.

MF Douche strikes again. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, MF Doom keeps having lip syncing fake MF Doom‘s do his over-priced live shows for him.

Issac Hayes died.

The Rosebuds have a new album coming out in October.

The new Mastodon album is looking like it comes out January 2009.

Be Your Own Pet have broken up.

Jason Lytle of Grandaddy has a solo album called Sew Low Owl Bum out this winter. I’m excited!

The Stooges got robbed.

Jesu keep releasing EPs.

Burial has revealed his identity.

Beach House have a new a new single 7″ coming out.

Wolfmother is having some drama.

Jay-Z and Oasis are in a cat fight.

CD Baby just got sold.

Criminal Records is about to do some expanding.

The East Atlanta Icehouse (formerly Echo Lounge) should be having shows now, but they’d do themselves a service to have a show listing somewhere online.

There is never enough Grizzly Bear coverage.

Yo La Tengo are releasing a compilation of soundtracks they have done.

The finest vids on the ‘net:

New Grizzly Bear song played at All Points West “Fine For Now”:

No Age “Keechie”:

Mogwai “BatCat”:

Bowerbirds “In Our Talons”:

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.

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…

Live Review: Deerhunter, No Age, Fag Static (9/27/2007) Drunken Unicorn

I had no idea who Fag Static was before seeing them at this show, but apparently they are sort of supergroup of Atlanta bands, most notably Blame Game. They setup their equipment in front of the Drunken Unicorn stage on the ground and the crowd circled around them. If i were to look up the term “post-rock power trio” in a music dictionary, i imagine that this band would be the definition. They were very impressive and I would highly suggest checking these guys out when they return from the mini tour they are currently on.

No Age played next on the stage. The dynamic duo put down a good show, but i wasn’t super impressed. i’ve been having a bunch of issues with two-pieces this year, and i understand its cool to see so few people put together so much sound and all, but it still didn’t engage me enough. I do plan to look into these guys more though because i’ve really enjoyed the studio work I’ve heard from them and i would still recommend seeing them live.

After some hipster comedian told abortion jokes, Deerhunter took the stage as a five-piece, including former member Colin Mee. According to Pitchfork, Colin has atleast played a few shows with them after this but is not officially back in the band yet. Before playing, they got every light inside the venue turned off except the front cans doing some strobe action. This lighting effect was really cool becasue at times it was completely dark and it felt like you were in a cave or something. The set was a straight balls-to-the-wall noise blast that offered little of Bradford’s stage antics. I loved this set because it was so loud and powerful and very different then the previous times i have seen them. Unfortunetly technical difficulties have lost all of the pics I took of the night(and the Animal Collective show the night before >:( ) except a couple from my camera phone.

Deerhunter Homecoming Week


This year’s Homecoming Queen

Between their massive touring schedule, Atlanta’s children of the hype will be in town this week. Monday night at the Drunken Unicorn you can catch Bradford’s solo project, Atlas Sound, opening up for The Dirty Projectors. I’ve just started jamming The Dirty Projector‘s new album, Rise Above, and it is really cool. The album is a weird attempt to cover Black Flag‘s Damaged. I don’t know much Black Flag (although I’m about to educate myself) so I can’t judge how cool their take on them is, but the music itself is really good stuff. Thursday night Deerhunter, now a 4-piece, will also be performing at the Drunken Unicorn with No Age, a band David has been really into, so I’m excited to check them out. Make sure to have your homecoming ribbons ready.

Atlas Sound : So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) [Everly Brothers Cover]

The Dirty Projectors : Rise Above : What I See

Deerhunter : Deerhunter/Alphabets Split 7″ : Adorno

No Age : Weirdo Rippers : Every Artist Needs A Tragedy

Check out the Deerhunter Blog

O….. What a Monday!

There’s been a plethora of albums crossing my radar these days, but two recent standouts have been Okkervil River‘s The Stage Names and O’Death‘s Head Home. Both albums come from similar roots with Okkervil River, continuing on the path they were pushing with 2005′s Black Sheep Boy, dishing out some more of their well orcheastrated, literate, narrative-driven, alt-country while O’Death has grabbed ahold of a sound reminiscent of Bonnie “Prince” Billy in their lighter moments while having a Tom Waits-style, southern-gothic approach to the harder stuff. Here’s a couple of tracks from both:

Okkervil River – Unless It’s Kicks
Okkervil River – Title Track

O’Death – Nathaniel
O’Death – Gas Can Row

Another band, deserving of all the buzz surrounding them these days, No Age have created 5 Vinyl-Only, hard to track down, EPs spread out on various labels from around the globe. But don’t fret, their LP Weirdo Rippers, which compiles 11 of their favorites from these releases hits the US soon. In the meantime, here’s their Get Bent EP, so you can get your teeth wet. (Sorry for the lack of track names, even those are hard to track down, but this is too good to not share!)

No Age – Get Bent EP – Track 1
No Age – Get Bent EP – Track 2
No Age – Get Bent EP – Track 3
No Age – Get Bent EP – Track 4
No Age – Get Bent EP – Track 5
No Age – Get Bent EP – Track 6

No Age are also headed to the Drunken Unicorn on September 27 opening a show with Atlanta’s very own Deerhunter!

To bid you adieu, I ask that we reflect on this old Michael Vick fiasco, and ask yourself the question… “Really?”