Dark Night Of The Soul

It seems Danger Mouse‘s best work is destined to be illegal, and this teamup with Sparklehorse and a vast cast of music superpowers is going to give the other “dark night” record a run for its money as best compilation of 2009:

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Revenge
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Little Girl
Dark Night Of The Soul website

Bibio

Bibio takes his ’60s folky electronica into a J Dilla direction creating maybe the best summery album of the year:

Bibio : Fire Ant
Bibio : Lovers’ Carvings
Buy Ambivalence Avenue
Bibio myspace

Sonic Youth

The greatest band of the last three decades drops yet another gem that holds up to their cornucopia of a discography, this time showcasing their mastery of extended guitar jams:

Sonic Youth : Antenna
Sonic Youth : Walkin Blue
Buy The Eternal
Sonic Youth website

DD/MM/YYYY

Canadians get mathy with this intricate record that surprisingly sprawls into a lot of different territory in 35 minutes:

DD/MM/YYYY : Bronzage
DD/MM/YYYY : Sirius b
Buy Black Square
DD/MM/YYYY myspace

Woods

Folksy, psychedelic rockers that are too good for their lo-fi branding, and this album allows them to display their proclivity for writing great, succinct pop songs and occasionally letting lose a long meandering jam.

Woods : The Number
Woods : Military Madness
Buy Songs Of Shame
Woods myspace

Sunset Rubdown

Spencer Krug’s most consistent outlet produces yet another “grower” album that I love more and more with each listen.

Sunset Rubdown : Black Swan
Buy Dragonslayer
Sunset Rubdown myspace

The Mars Volta

TMV take a left turn from the velocity of their career so far, and it turns out they do soft, down-tempo and nuanced just a good as they do everything else.

The Mars Volta : With Twilight As My Guide
Buy Octahedron
The Mars Votla myspace

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Post tags: Bibio, Danger Mouse, DD/MM/YYYY, Sonic Youth, Sparklehorse, Sunset Rubdown, The Mars Volta, Woods

Octahedron, The Mars Volta‘s 5th full-length album, drops June 23rd and already a handful of tracks from it are floating around the web. Where Bedlam in Goliath was a successful continuation of their winning formula, this new album might see TMV take a new turn. Here is what Cedric Bixler-Zavala said about it:

“We always threatened we’d make a pop record. We wanted to make the opposite of all the other records we’d done. Sometimes it’s good to get rid of an old audience…because they know what to expect. And I’m sure whatever audience we get from this album, we’ll disappoint them with the next.”

I’m guessing there is a little sarcasm in that statement, although a few of the tracks I’ve heard certainly sound a little different. But I doubt too many TMV fans are going to be disappointed with the first single from Octahedron:

The Mars Volta : Cotopaxi

The Mars Volta myspace

Islands @ SXSW 2008

Another classic Beck album just got an expanded reissue. This time it was the 1994 K Records release One Foot In The Grave, which was recorded in Calvin Johnson‘s basement and features appearances from him as well as members of Lync, Built To Spill, and Presidents Of The United States of America. I absolutely love this Beck record, so I have been really enjoying listening to the reissue. It seems Islands are excited about it also because they recently posted a great cover of one of my favourite tunes from it on their myspace:

Islands : Cyanide Breath Mint (Beck cover)

Buy One Foot In The Grave Expanded Reissue

Buy Arm’s Way

Islands myspace

Beck myspace

Sunset Rubdown @ The Earl (9/24/08)

Sunset Rubdown‘s newest album, Dragonslayer, hits stores June 23rd, and from my first listen to it, it is going to be another amazing edition from Spencer Krug and company. But before I throw it in my heavy rotation and talk more about it, I still haven’t gotten over my obsession with their first record. I have been listening to it endlessly for months now after finally discovering it 3 years late, so here is the last epic track from it for you:

Sunset Rubdown : Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings

Pre-order Dragonslayer

Sunset Rubdown website

Don’t forget Sunset Rubdown will be at the Drunken Unicorn June 16th.

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Post tags: Beck, Islands, Sunset Rubdown, The Mars Volta

Sunset Rubdown

Photo by David Horvitz

Earlier this week I picked up a copy of Sunset Rubdown‘s 2006 album, Shut Up I Am Dreaming. I had never listened to it before, but now I am totally obsessed with it. Then yesterday the Interwebs surprised me with a ton of Sunset Rubdown news including a tour, a new album called Dragonslayer coming out June 23, and even a single from it got released. From the sounds of it, I think this new album is going to be yet another winner from my favourite Spencer Krug band:

Sunset Rubdown : Idiot Heart

Sunset Rubdown website

Swan Lake

Spencer Krug’s supergroup team-up with Dan Bejar (New Pornographers, Destroyer) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach) seems to have fallen victim to the sophomore slump. Where Beast Moans found their individual talent’s amplifying one another into something greater than the sum of its parts, Enemy Mine feels more like a collection of b-sides. The Bejar songs are particularly off the mark. But that’s not to say that there isn’t still some really great parts on this album, because even a mediocre release from artists of such overwhelming aptitude has its moments. One of which is the jam at the end of this short Krug piece:

Swan Lake : Settle On Your Skin

Buy Enemy Mine

Swan Lake Myspace

Handsome Furs

Handsome Furs is a duo comprised of husband Dan Boeckner and wife Alexei Perry. Their second album, Face Control, is my first entry point into this project and the more I listen to it the more I dig it. Combining indie rock with synthetic dance beats can lead to extremely varied results, but here it seems to work rather nicely. Fellow Wolf Parader Arlen Thompson recorded and mixed the album at Mount Zoomer. Here’s a taste:

Handsome Furs : I’m Confused

Buy Face Control

Handsome Furs myspace

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Post tags: Handsome Furs, Spencer Krug, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Wolf Parade

The new TV On The Radio album sees the band taking their sound in a more pop direction, but the departure is nowhere near as large as say, Modest Mouse‘s Good News For People Who Love Bad News. While the album is certainly a good one, it doesn’t seem as interesting as their previous work, and even the “hit” songs aren’t quite as good as the ones from Return To Cookie Mountain. Now don’t get me wrong, Dear Science is very enjoyable and I do recommend it, but in a year as great in music as 2008, it doesn’t quite measure up to the best and brightest of the year so far.

TV On The Radio : Love Dog

After catching Sunset Rubdown last week, Random Spirit Lover is back in my listening rotation. The true test of an album is being able to return to it later on and become re-obsessed. Considering they were trying out new material on tour, a new album can’t be far away. Also, an album from the other Spencer Krug project I heart, Swan Lake, is already done and awaitng release early next year, so I’m excited. Get on the bandwagon:

Sunset Rubdown : Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot!

Finally, I realized I hadn’t posted anything about Air France yet, and i couldn’t let this great EP fall through the cracks. This band does post-rave sort of chillout stuff that doesn’t fall into the cliches you would expect. No Way Down takes 23 minutes and makes them epic, again proving the capacity for the EP format to be truly great. Enjoy:

Air France : No Way Down

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Post tags: Air France, Spencer Krug, Sunset Rubdown, TV On The Radio

Last Wednesday I made it just in time to catch the beginning of this phenomenal set. I may not be able to really get into Wolf Parade, but I love this Spencer Krug project. They tried out some new ones and even played a “cover” from an upcoming Swan Lake album (although I didn’t get a video of that). Check out some of the set:

CONTINUE READING Live Videos: Sunset Rubdown (9/24/2008) The Earl (0 words)

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Post tags: Sunset Rubdown, The Earl

I plan on getting to the Tabernacle early to set up for The Mars Volta show starting at 8pm and then a few hours later heading to The Earl to catch Sunset Rubdown (and Nomen Novum is opening!). I am extremely excited about both of these shows, so it’s gonna be a helluva night. Also, Indian Jewelry is playing with Atlanta avant-garde artists Tenth To The Moon and Tree Creature at Eyedrum. You really need to go to one of these:

The Mars Volta : Agadez

Sunset Rubdown : The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life

Indian Jewelry : Dirty Hands

Tree Creature : Nautilus Now Silver Implodes

Tree Creature

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Post tags: Indian Jewelry, Sunset Rubdown, The Mars Volta, Tree Creature

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 31 Knots, 65Daysofstatic, Akron/Family, Animal Collective, Baroness, Bat For Lashes, Battles, Behold The Arctopus, Best of 2007, Between The Buried And Me, Blonde Redhead, Caribou, Cloud Cult, CocoRosie, Cyann & Ben, Dan Deacon, Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Do Make Say Think, Earlimart, Explosions In The Sky, Fiery Furnaces, Gazpacho, Ghost, Iron & Wine, Justice, Kevin Drew, Liars, Marnie Stern, Menomena, Minus The Bear, Modest Mouse, No Age, Of Montreal, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Panda Bear, Phosphorescent, PJ Harvey, Porcupine Tree, Queens Of The Stone Age, Radiohead, Sea Wolf, Smashing Pumpkins, St. Vincent, Sunset Rubdown, The Cinematic Orchestra, The Nels Cline Singers, Thurston Moore, Wilco, Yeasayer

For me, this is gonna be a killer week. Wednesday I’m heading up to Asheville to catch Porcupine Tree. Thursday I come back and head a little OTP for Echo Project. Then on Monday I’m heading to Birmingham to catch Earlimart. A few Echo Project details I forgot to cover is that Common got added and that Dubconscious will be playing at the campgrounds Thursday night. As excited as I am about the festival, there happens to be a ridiculous amount of great shows in the Atlanta area this weekend, so if you can’t go to Echo, there’s still plenty of great tunes to be absorbed:

Tuesday night The Brunettes and The Preakness will be at The Earl.

Wednesday night Ghostface Killah will be at Georgia Tech.

Thursday night Octopus Project and Morning State will be at the Drunken Unicorn.

Friday night offers many great options: Caribou at the Earl, Minus The Bear at the Variety Playhouse, and Portugal. The Man at The Loft.

Subtle and Sunset Rubdown at the Drunken Unicorn Saturday night is pretty sweet.

Sunday is packed out too with Ryan Adams at the Fox, Band of Horses at Park Tavern, and my pick for best show of the week, Earlimart at the Earl.

Minus The Bear : Menos El Oso : Drilling

Portugal. The Man : Church Mouth : Shade

Earlimart : Mentor Tormentor : Happy Alone

The Octopus Project : Hello, Avalanche : I Saw The Bright Shinies

Caribou : Andorra : Eli

Sunset Rubdown : Random Spirit Lover : For The Pier (And Dead Shimmering)

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Caribou, Earlimart, Minus The Bear, Portugal. The Man, Sunset Rubdown, The Octopus Project