A Canadian Hottness Returns: Clues


Photo by Yannick Grandmont

Lately I had been pondering about where the best music this decade, and especially recently, had been coming from internationally. For most of the history of pop music, the UK has been the dominant country in producing the new hits. But around the time Nirvana and Seattle blew up in the ’90s, the tide began to turn, although even that decade still saw plenty of great acts spring up from the UK (i.e. Radiohead) to compete. Now as this decade begins to close, it is hard not to agree that while the US’s dominance may be waning in terms of economic power and such, we have become the empire of new quality music. There is still plenty of good new music coming from the UK worth checking out, but I wouldn’t even put them in the #2 spot anymore. America’s hegemonic musical dominance is now being challenged right across the border to our north, as Canada has become second in the world now when it comes to producing stellar tunes.

Certainly The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene are owed a lot to helping give Canada the cred they needed to become our partners in this indie music revolution, but a little, now defunct band named The Unicorns may be the most important band in Canada’s ascension to indie greatness. Unfortunately, the flash of brilliance that was The Unicorns didn’t last very long and the band broke up shortly after releasing their instant classic Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? Nick Thorburn and Jamie Thompson (briefly) went on to start Islands and Thorburn has enjoyed success from that as well as plenty of other side projects, but there was another genius in that band that I hadn’t heard anything from until a few weeks ago. The new self-titled debut album from Clues sees Alden Penner return from obscurity again, and this time he is joined by a new cast including Brendan Reed, who happened leave his older band, The Arcade Fire, just in time to miss their meteoric rise to fame and glory with Funeral.

Whether you were a Unicorns fan or not, there is a lot to love on this new Clues album. I put it up there on the same level as the new releases from veterans like Grizzly Bear, Sonic Youth, Dirty Projectors, and St. Vincent as far as being one of the best records to come out in this Spring/Summer release season. Certainly those familiar with Penner’s previous work are going to hear obvious connections, but Clues is much more than Unicorns 2.0. It seems he has been able to mature as a songwriter without completely growing up and abandoning the magic that made him a superstar in the first place.

So I urge you to jump on the bandwagon with me now, and don’t forget that Clues will be at the Drunken Unicorn June 12th.

Clues : Perfect Fit

Clues : Cave Mouth

Buy Clues

Clues website

Video for “Haarp”:

“Remember Severed Head”:

“Perfect Fit”:

Bonus, here is some Unicorns jams:

Click here to read the entire post…

The 2009 Hottness: Cymbals Eat Guitars

While Pitchfork often plays games, hypes garbage, and panders to the crowds too much, they do sometimes nail it better than anyone and help deliver something truly special to a deserved appreciation. They weren’t exactly the first to tout Cymbals Eat Guitars‘ debut album, Why There Are Mountains, but blessing it with their “best new music” gold star has definitely put this band on the map. Since shortly after returning from SXSW, the album has not left my CD player in my vehicle. It truly is the best “indie road trip album” I’ve heard in a while, and is reminiscent of old Modest Mouse or Broken Social Scene records. And if there is any one knock on this album it is that it sounds too similar to the myriad of influences behind it. At first listen it may just come off as a complex hybrid of a lot of other people’s styles, but the more i listen to it, the more transcendental it feels. It is as if someone listened to every single one of my favourite indie rock records of the last 20 years and used that as their starting point. And, well, that is what seems to have happened here. For instance, in this interview the creative genius behind the band, Joseph D’Agostino, talks about Built To Spill. He explains how much he likes the guitar solo in “Carry The Zero”, which is pretty much my favourite guitar solo of all time, and then praises Perfect From Now On‘s lyrics, and I’ve already talked at length about how much listening to that record, primarily the lyrics, changed my life. It is not that Cymbals Eat Guitars are simply stealing other people’s styles, it is that they understand the intangibles that make all of these classic albums so amazing, and have already learned to command them with only one record under their belt. Then in addition to their boundless ability and potential, they’ve got great bloggable storylines like the fact that D’Agostino used Craigslist to put together the band or that they started off as a Weezer cover band. I’m not sure whether Why There Are Mountains will eventually be regarded as highly as the records it pays tribute to, but right now I can’t think of a band with a more promising future than Cymbals Eat Guitars. Here’s a great track from this record:

Cymbals Eat Guitars : Cold Spring

While I was researching about this band, I stumbled across this awesome website where there is a song posted from an earlier, lower budget version of the album, and it is really cool to hear how the song evolved:

Cymbals Eat Guitars : And The Hazy Sea (Elalouf Mix)

Buy Why There Are Mountains

Cymbals Eat Guitars myspace

The only live video I can find of them is this, but it does not do them justice:

The Hottness Of A Generation: Animal Collective

Animal Collective have totally sold out on the disappointing Merriweather Post Pavilion. J/K LOL. It’s weird to have what very well could be the best record I listen to all year be the very first album of the year I listen to. It has tempered my expectations of every 2009 album I have approached thus far. It is almost impossible to find a bad review on this thing, and you’ll find no exception to that here. I doubt I’ll end up liking it as much as I love Sung Tongs, but it is pretty nearly perfect.

So instead of talking about the music on the album, as everyone else on the Internet has already done that, I’m going to talk more about the cultural relevance of Animal Collective. Hipster Runoff did a really long piece on this subject that you should read, and that site is the most consistently hilarious music blog on the planet, so you should really be reading that more often anyways.

Now it has taken me a fairly long time to fully appreciate AnCo and be completely on the bandwagon. I have always liked them, but I thought of them more as a weird anomaly than the influential wizards they appear to be now. I always try to approach hype with some skepticism, but Animal Collective is worthy of the infinite Internet popularity they now possess. Not only can pretty much everyone agree their new album is great, but there is an army of new acts that are heavily influenced by the Collective. I was really put off by so many people copycatting AC‘s sounds at first, but over time I’ve come to appreciate how many different directions you can take the aesthetic in. I mean, Animal Collective are changing the course of modern music all by themselves, in ways that seem only to be eclipsed by goliaths like The Beatles and Nirvana. In a post-blog/internet music world where there are billions of artists and opinions to compete against, their universality in that sphere is mindbogglingly impressive. But AC‘s overall cultural relevance is almost entirely limited to an elite crowd of people with Internet.

Most of this decade, one question I have pondered is, “Who is the biggest and best band to come out of the Oughts?” I believe there is a strong correlation between the old school music industry monolithic voice and the ability of a band to completely blow up into an icon that transcends mainstream and underground/alternative. The Internet has fundamentally changed how this works. People now have way more choices in both the diversity available and the sources to locate those varieties, making the target market for something universally appealing shrink. No longer can a few powerful people force the masses to listen to something because they lack other options to explore. The conventional machine of the music industry has been swiftly losing its influence for the greater part of this decade as people abandon the music fascism for a democratic Internet/blog music world. A great divide has evolved between these two worlds as this happens as well, creating a much more difficult obstacle to overcome in being able to achieve a transcendental popularity/authenticity cultural relevance a band like Radiohead now enjoys.

Click here to read the entire post…

What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

Last week two artists who had an album in my top 5 from last year dropped their follow ups. These two acts exemplify the heights modern music can achieve. They are the rare sort of acts that combine virtuosity with an original, uncompromising vision. They also happen to be on the same label, Kill Rock Stars, a fact I hadn’t realized until I had pre-ordered both of their LPs. Get down with the Hottness:

Marnie Stern

I’m very glad that the bigger indie blogs are finally jumping on the Marnie Stern bandwagon, but I wish they would quit dissing her debut album as an excuse for being so late to the party. There are things I like better about Ms. Stern’s sophomore release, and things I don’t like quite as much. But those are more about preference than a discussion of quality, because so far this is two grand slams in a row from her. Maybe the most talented female musician alive:

Marnie Stern : Ruler

Marnie Stern : Roads? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Roads

Buy This Is It…

Marnie Stern myspace


Deerhoof

I didn’t get exposed to Deerhoof until about the time I started this blog, but since discovering this amazing band, I’ve fallen totally in love with them. I’ve been digging deep into their catalogue lately and finding gem after gem. I’m still not sure exactly where I would rate their newest, Offend Maggie, among their arsenal of previous albums. But, pretty much everything Deerhoof touches turns to gold, so you would be doing yourself a disservice to miss out on their latest.

Deerhoof : Snoopy Waves

Deerhoof : My Purple Blast

Buy Offend Maggie here

Deerhoof myspace

The Season’s Hottness: Summerbirds In The Cellar

If there was one band that made the biggest splash at Corndogorama this year, it was Orlando’s Summerbirds In The Cellar. They just out-of-nowhere blew it up, and we weren’t the only one’s who were impressed. Right afterwards, I bought both of their kickass LPs, With The Hands Of The Hunter It All Becomes Dead and their newest, Druids. Both became an intregal part of my summer 2008 soundtrack. So many times I was rolling around the city at night having a great time blasting this one:

Summerbirds In The Cellar : Now We Are Ugly Inside

So I have been just giddy about landing them for a show at the Ohmpark mansion, and with two brilliant Atlanta bands no less. Tonight, don’t miss a mindblowing set from one the southeast’s hottest bands, plus a lot more. Get some Summerbirds and hyped up:

Summerbirds In The Cellar : Behold The Wolf

“Trains”:

“Fake Angel Skin”:

“Wooden Lions”:

Buy WIth The Hands Of The Hunter It All Becomes Dead here

Buy Druids here

Summerbirds In The Cellar myspace

The Unhip Hotness: My Brightest Diamond


Photo by Matt Wignall

Over the last month or so, I’ve been totally obsessed with the new My Brightest Diamond album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. The attention to detail on this masterpiece is amazing. While listening to it, there are so many moments where I think to myself things like “wow, the tone and placement of that one drum hit was perfect.” And while I’ve been jamming this relentlessly, the album has had a rather quiet and uninterested reception in the blogosphere.

My Brightest Diamond is the moniker for Shara Worden, a multi-instrumental singer songwriter that is most notably known for being part of Sufjan Stevens‘ band (Remember when he was the hottness? Seems like ages ago). Her debut album, Bring Me The Workhorse, dropped back in 2006, but while she had been writing that, she was also writing Shark’s Teeth. In fact, this sophomore release as My Brightest Diamond had taken about 6 years to create, as it was originally intended to be a string quartet piece. Here’s a video where she talks about it:


Shark’s Teeth – Part I from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.

So you know I’m love with it, but why isn’t anyone else? Almost all the reviews I have read for this just don’t know what to make of it, give it their par score, and move on. There are a few reasons why this gem is sliding under the radar. First, it’s because she is a woman. Seriously, if you can think of a female artist or female fronted band that is respected in the indie music world, someone paralled them to Worden in a review somewhere on the Internet. That’s really impressive to be able to sound like every single other female musician on the planet all at the same time.

Most commonly she is compared to St. Vincent, which is extremely ridiculous considering the only thing their music has in common is they both sing and use lots of instrumentation. I went back to listen to Marry Me after reading review after review complaining that she sounded too much like her fellow Sufjan Stevens alumni, and other than both of these albums being great, there is almost no similarity. St. Vincent is light and upbeat, Shark’s Teeth is lush, serious, and downbeat. They couldn’t be any different. And anyone who would mistake their voices for the other needs to get their ears checked out.

The music journalist world is still greatly dominated by dudes, and most just don’t really “get” the female music aesthetic. There are so many terrible pop female vocalists that exist, that it can be easy to tune out anything that sounds similar. Also, the pop music world is still greatly dominated by guitars, and other than a few rare cases like Carrie Brownstein and Marnie Stern, there aren’t exactly a ton of chicks who can shred. So music created by women on the whole is regarded to be on a lower level by most. Ok, enough feminism class.

The other problem for this album to catch fire across the interwebs is that it implements too much classical artillery. Timelessness and orchestration are two concepts that just aren’t in fashion these days, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive. I’m always a fan of doing more with less, but there’s nothing wrong with using every possible resource to achieve perfection. The meticulous nature of this album is just breathtaking to me, and I can’t think of another LP to come out this year that seems so purposeful and so on the mark at the same time. Get hip to it:

My Brightest Diamond : Ice And The Storm

My Brightest Diamond : To Pluto’s Moon

Buy A Thousand Shark’s Teeth here

My Brightest Diamond myspace


Disappear (Live on City Centre Social) from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.


Apples (Live at Tonic) from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.

The Serendipitous Hottness: Royal Bangs

Long before I started doing this blog thing, I was booking bands at house parties and other disreputable venues on the westside. Even a bunch of Tech kids getting drunk in a backyard can be valuable exposure to young bands just starting out, so I’ve always done everything I can to help bands that I thought had potential. The whole point behind both this blog and those parties was to give art an audience. Connect people to good music. You know, “Those who can’t do, teach.”

So recently one of the local outfits that I’ve been rallying for reached out to me for help in booking another band. The band needing some help turned out to be Royal Bangs, and has been one of my favourite discoveries of this year. It is mind boggling to me that none of the very talented booking agents around this city didn’t nab a band of this caliber (I mean they’re playing at Bonnaroo) before me, but I hadn’t heard of them before this either, so I guess I just got really lucky. It’s so nice to have great music just dropped in your lap.

Click here to read the entire post…

The Hometown Hottness: Atlas Sound


photo by Biggie C

Last week we caught the Atlas Sound show at The Drunken Unicorn (2/19/08). For those who don’t know yet, Atlas Sound is the solo project of Deerhunter‘s Bradford Cox. He just released his first full-length album, Let The Blind Lead those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, but it is far from the first material he has put out under the Atlas Sound name. On his blog, Cox regularly puts out material he makes over a weekend, or old stuff he did when he was a kid, or all sorts of interesting music available to everyone for free. To me, his blog is a revolutionary medium for musicians. While there certainly have been plenty of extremely prolific artists before him, Bradford is able to have a much more intimate experience with his audience, regularly giving away his material to his fans directly, and so far, there is no one else who is pulling this off so successfully. As the Internet continues to steer the world of music into interesting directions, Mr. Cox has embraced these trends and utilized them to enhance his art.

What’s even better is that almost all of his material that I have listened to in this way is good. I’m still jamming out the Orange Ohms Glow EP constantly that he put on his site weeks ago. The new proper LP is stunning too, a very different beast than Cryptograms.

Click here to read the entire post…

The Decade’s Hottness: The Mars Volta

Yesterday I stopped by Criminal Records and got a copy of the new Mars Volta record, The Bedlam In Goliath. I discovered that indie record shops like Criminal are bundling the record with a bonus disc, that is actually a half CD, half vinyl disc. Behold:

Each side contains a cover of Pink Floyd‘s “Candy And A Currant Bun” and the Cd side also contains a video of “Wax Simulacra”. So if you are in the ATL, I suggest running over there if only to have this first of its kind media. They have other media release tricks up their sleeve too. You can buy the album on a 1 gig flashdrive here. The flashdrive also has the album artwork and the “Wax Simulacra” video, and, what’s really cool is, on the 29th of each month for the rest of the year, when you plug your flashdrive into your computer, it will download all sorts of TMV goodies like b-sides, webisodes, exlcusive tracks, etc. It even looks cool:

So, now let’s get to the music itself. The typical bad TMV reviews have already started rolling in from the usual suspects (we’ll wait to see if Pitchfork gives it more or less than the 3.5 they gave my 2006 Album of the Year, or maybe they’ll be too cool to even review it). So far I’ve only listened to the album twice, so this will be more my first reaction to the album than an in-depth analysis. The first thing that sticks out in my mind is that Thomas Pridgen seems to fit in perfectly. The popular sentiment among TMV fans over the last year was that he was too overbearing and “showy” but on the recording all I hear is finesse and perfectly placed badassity. I love Jon Theodore, but I think they found the best possible replacement.

I like how the album just takes off from the beginning, like you’re starting right in the middle of a song. It’s like when a movie starts off in a huge action scene. I’m not sure if I’m just over-analyzing or not, but it feels like the album musically is sort of two chapters split up in the middle, where the first one is more hard rocking and the second part it gets really crazy. I haven’t quite gotten into the lyrics yet, but with all of them printed in the CD book, I’ll be diving into that next.

Overall, my first impression is that this album is just as impressive as all the rest so far, and that I’ve yet to become too sick of their sound or what they do yet. The album is packed full of new twists and turns that are very fun to ride out. TMV is elite and probably the best band to emerge from this decade. Where they may not have the biggest influence on other artists right now and will be totally misunderstood by 90% of the indie rock journalist bourgeoisie, there’s no doubt in my mind that they have made some of this decade’s greatest albums.

Stream the bonus song:

The Mars Volta : Candy And A Currant Bun (Pink Floyd)

The Eternal Hottness: Radiohead

As I eagerly await my In Rainbows discbox, I want to talk about the way it was released. If you are slacking and haven’t got a copy of it, go get it now because the free download site closes tomorrow. Radiohead has yet to release any real numbers on how this album release experiment has gone, but all indications from the band members themselves point to it being successful on their terms. The debate that has raged since this all began is what kind of impact will this have on the music industry? There are a few dimensions to this that I want to break down. The first question to be asked is: Can this exact model work for anybody else but Radiohead?

A counter argument that Lily Allen made about this model is that what Radiohead are doing will hurt smaller artists: “They’ve got millions of pounds. It sends a weird message to younger bands who haven’t done as well…” I’m not sure Lily, who got big in the music industry because of her famous parents, can really relate to struggling bands, but let us take her point seriously. So far only Trent Reznor, who has been hating on the record industry for a while and currently not on a label, has tried this experiment with the new Saul Williams album he produced. The model is slightly different (you can choose between getting it free at 192 Kbps or pay $5 to get a higher quality format), but basically it is the same idea. Numbers have not been disclosed from that either, but even when they do, it’s unclear how much of the big picture is going to be revealed. An artist like Saul Williams, relatively obscure compared to Radiohead, may reach a larger audience through this distribution model and the publicity surrounding it and this may increase sales of his music, tickets to shows, and merchandise down the road. But even Saul Williams is backed by Trent Reznor, who is pretty famous and rich himself. Radiohead‘s response to this argument, in this great interview you should read, is:

Ed: ‘But the thing is, so much good music is now free anyway.’

Jonny: ‘Yeah, the download culture is there anyway. It’s King Canute – you can’t pretend the flood isn’t happening. This friend of mine bought the Muse album. And his 12-year-old son was just looking at it – “Wow, the real thing!” His son had the album already, he knew the songs, but he’d never held a CD. He just found it a curious object. That’s kind of how it is now.’

This is the reality of the situation, and barring an invasion of Sweden, there really isn’t much anyone can do to stop piracy altogether. It would be fairly difficult, in my opinion, to find a single album that came out this year that wasn’t available somewhere on the internet. The next question, then, is: Does this exact model even have to work for anyone else to be successful?

Another naysayer of the Radiohead model has been Gene Simmons: “That’s not a business model that works. I open a store and say ‘Come on in and pay whatever you want.’ Are you on fucking crack? Do you really believe that’s a business model that works?” Well, maybe this model can’t work for everybody, but it could change the game enough to find a better model than exists now. Two smaller bands that no one had heard of a few years ago but now have the potential to emerge as two of the greatest bands to come out of this decade, Deerhunter and Grizzly Bear, each have a blog where they release mp3s of their material for free. They’ve certainly had a ton of help from Pitchfork and the blogosphere in blowing up, but the reason they have received such a big buzz is completely about the music and performances they do, not because a record label is pushing them to play on the radio. In the current climate of the music world, anybody who makes amazing music can get that music out to the masses, and once they achieve a large fanbase, they can cash in on that success with tours, merch, and the people who still want a physical copy of the album.

Even if giving your music away doesn’t end up being a viable economical model, just showing the current model doesn’t work may be enough to get a better model together. When the music pirating site OiNK got shutdown recently, Trent Reznor had this to say about it:


“I’ll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world’s greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that’s what’s such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they’re grateful for the person that uploaded it — they’re the hero. They’re not stealing it because they’re going to make money off of it; they’re stealing it because they love the band. I’m not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.”


The music industry doesn’t know what the consumer wants. They have not adapted the way they should have to changes in the market. One music company that does get it is Emusic. I’ve recently become a subscriber to their service and I have to say I’ve been enjoying it. I pay $25 a month, and I can download 100 songs in high bitrate MP3s that are DRM free. Now the downside of Emusic is that the selection consists primarily of non-major label artists and it can be difficult to find things that aren’t obscure, but just think if someone with the money and power in the industry could create a site that combined the Emusic model with the vast selection of OiNK. It would be a great start.

The final question to ask is: What if there is no model that works? The worst case scenario is pirating cannot be stopped and everyone stops paying for albums. In terms of the quality of music, would this necessarily be a bad thing? I mean, I doubt if you read this blog regularly you would think that those that have spoken against this model like Lily Allen, Gene Simmons, and Oasis have made better music than Radiohead and Trent Reznor, right? Viewing music completely as a commodity is not having a full understanding of what music is. I think free-market capitalism is some great stuff in most arenas, but with art, it doesn’t seem to do anything but dilute the quality. If people can’t make tons of money making music, that doesn’t mean music is just going to stop getting made, it means that the people making music will do it for the love of music, not for the money. Now, I want to see the bands I love make money for their work, and I believe they can even in this worst case scenario, but at the end of the day, what matters most to me is hearing great music, and as the industry has been in a tailspin, I feel like I’ve been hearing more and more great music than ever in my life, so I’m pretty optimistic.

To sum it all up, Radiohead rules.

Here is the first test webcast, Entanglement:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Here is the complete 2 and half hour webcast of Thumbs Down in all its glory:

Now that i’ve become so familiar with the new stuff, it is cool to go back and listen to the live versions of the songs from last year. Here’s a torrent of a show you can download losslessly here, but I’ve got all the new songs for you to listen to here:

Radiohead
6/14/2006
The Theater at Madison Square Garden
New York, NY

Taper: scb
Source: DPA (B&K) 4022s > Sound Devices 722 @ 24/96
722 > Apple MacBook Pro > Spark XL 2.8.2 (normalize, resample to 44.1khz, dither to 16 bit) > xACT 1.58 > shn
Location: Dead Center, about 20 feet from the stage

Disc 1

01 Intro 02:04.14
02 The Gloaming 03:49.38
03 The National Anthem 05:07.31
04 15 Step 04:31.24
05 Arpeggi 04:33.13
06 Kid A 03:56.39
07 Dollars And Cents 05:22.70
08 Videotape 05:09.07
09 Nude 04:38.49
10 I Might Be Wrong 04:39.20
11 Paranoid Android 07:11.60
12 Bangers ‘n Mash 03:46.45
13 Pyramid Song 04:50.39

Disc 1 Total: 59:40.74

Disc 2

01 My Iron Lung 05:31.26
02 Bodysnatchers 04:40.09
03 Myxomatosis 04:24.19
04 No Surprises 04:19.28
05 Everything In Its Right Place 08:36.23
Encore 1:
06 A Wolf At The Door 03:50.30
07 Down Is The New Up 05:28.06
08 Like Spinning Plates 03:10.41
09 Spooks 01:31.27
10 Idioteque 06:41.04
Encore 2:
11 Just 04:28.12
12 The Tourist 06:01.32

What The Hell (Hottness) Am I Listening To?!?

Since rarely do I discover two albums that totally amaze me at the same time, I’ve decided to combine two of my regular segments to convince you to check these albums out:

Akron/Family

The Akron/Family show i caught at the Earl early this year blew my mind and is still one of my top 3 favourite shows of the year. Ever since catching them live, I’ve searched out as much of their material as possible. While i did find some really good stuff, none of their previous studio work felt anywhere near the intensity level their live show was at, and I had pretty much assumed that they were just a band that was much better live. Their newest release, Love Is Simple, has totally changed my mind. In addition to every song being a stand alone hit, the album takes you on a journey through every emotion and dimension this band has mastered. They are anchored in conservative musicology like The Beatles and Grateful Dead but find extremely interesting places to go with that foundation. I consider these guys the greatest jamband going right now, and i doubt most of the wooks and bro-skies have ever heard of these guys. Check them out:

Don’t Be Afraid, You’re Already Dead

Of All The Things

Buy Love Is Simple Here

Akron/Family Myspace

Thurston Moore

Thurston‘s latest solo offering might be the most accessable Sonic Youth related release ever. While the masses of SY followers are making experiment and noise more mainstream every day, Thurston and Company have spent most of this decade crafting stunning pop songs, and Trees Outside The Academy is no exception. For a huge fan like me, this album feels like a greatest hits of Moore‘s riffs and sound effects stripped down and scultped into a completely unique and original piece of work. Don’t miss this one:

Silver>Blue

Trees Outside The Academy

Buy Trees Outside The Academy Here

Sonic Youth Myspace

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