The Hottness: Earlimart

Earlimart is a band that I’ve heard about and listened to a little but never really knew and every chance I had to see them just hadn’t worked out yet. But since getting Mentor Tormentor, their new album, it is all I have been listening to. I have a feeling this is going to sit high atop my best of 2007 albums. The sound is very heavily Elliot Smith influenced (who was a friend and mentor to the band) but i also hear alot of the Yo La Tengo and Autolux vibe. Check it out for your self:

Earlimart : Mentor Tormentor : Everybody Knows Everybody

Earlimart : Mentor Tormentor : Bloody Nose

Buy Mentor Tormentor Here

Earlimart Myspace

Here’s a live show they did for KEXP:

EARLIMART (1disc-Uncompressed Stream)
2007-08-25
USA-Seattle, WA-KEXP In Studio Performance and Interview

SOURCE: Uncompressed Stream 44.1KHz PCM Webcast (WMA lossless at 1411.2 kb/s) -> Total Recorder -> WAV

TRANSFER: WAV -> Normalized with Adobe Audition 2.0 -> Cut on CD sector boundaries with CD Wave -> Converted to FLAC (8) with FLAC Frontend

SETLIST:
01 KEXP Intro
02 Answers & Questions (*)
03 Never Mind The Phone Calls
04 Interview
05 700>100
06 Gonna Break Into Your Heart
07 KEXP Outro

LENGTH: 19:10
DATE: Saturday, August 25, 2007 | 12:01 p.m.

(*) NOTE: There is a drop out at the 3:10 mark. Tried 3 recordings and ALL dropped at the same point so it seems to be a KEXP issue.

Download Lossless Torrent Here

Earlimart will be at The Earl on October 14th. I’ll be going to Birmingham, AL the next night to catch them there because of Echo Project.

The New Hottness: Battles

“Math rock” is a genre that I always kind of understood, but could never really explain until I read up on wikipedia after hearing this album. Whatever you call it, this avant-garde supergroup is amazing. I had been listening to some really great albums lately, but this is such a standout. Listen to these tracks and then go buy their album, Mirrored.

Here’s the bonus tack from the Japanese version:

Now here is video of their entire show at the Empty Bottle in Chicago earlier this year:

Buy Mirrored Here

Battles Myspace Page

The New Hottness: The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes : The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse

This Montreal six-piece centers around husband and wife Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas. Lesak has produced albums for acts such as Wolf Parade and Islands. This second album as The Besnard Lakes contains pieces and parts of countless genres and styles while managing to create a unique sound which is difficult for a band that spans so much. There’s a lot of bands that you could reference their sound to, but I’ll go ahead and go with a nice mix of the Beach Boys, My Bloody Valentine, Grizzly Bear, Sigur Ros and a little Pink Floyd. Guest appearances on the record include members of The Dears, Stars, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Listen for yourself:

Buy The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse Here

The Besnard Lakes Myspace

The New Hottness: Marnie Stern

2007 has been slinging us some great records. So far, i think there has been two standouts: Of Montreal‘s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? and Deerhunter‘s Cryptograms. But last night I stumbled across what is now my favourite album of 2007 so far: Marnie Stern‘s In Advance Of The Broken Arm:

Ok, think Sleater Kinney meets The Mars Volta with a little Sonic Youth. Marnie Stern is a badass chick who can shred like a mofo. Keep in mind when listening to this that every part on this record is recorded by Stern with the exception of drums done by Hella‘s Zach Hill, who also produces this record. Unfortunetly I discovered this album a few days late because she was in Atlanta last weekend. Here’s a few tracks to listen to, but i highly recommend picking up this album because it is incredible from front to back. When she blows up, remember where you heard this first:

Buy In Advance Of The Broken Arm

Marnie Stern Myspace

Seriously, go listen to those tracks!

Artist Spotlight: Grizzly Bear

Since first hearing Grizzly Bear‘s Yellow House I just can’t stop listening to it. I’m starting to feel that ranking it as 9th on my top 50 albums of 2006 way underrated it. So, first, check out this video that J Pizzle tipped me off to: The best music video I’ve seen in years.

Ok, wanna hear more? Check out this show they did on KEXP last week:

Grizzly Bear KEXP Seattle,WA February 16, 2007

Uncompressed stream 44.1KHz PCM webcast(WMA lossless at 1411.2 kb/s)>Total Recorder>Audition>CD Wave>Flac

(Click to listen)

* Crystals cover

Grizzly Bear are:

Edward Droste
Christopher Bear
Chris Taylor
Daniel Rossen

To find more info on them, check out:

http://www.myspace.com/grizzlybear
http://www.grizzly-bear.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Bear_%28band%29

Make sure to get Yellow House:


Click here to listen and purchase

Click Here to listen to the Girl Talk remix of ‘Knife’

Grizzly Bear will be at the Drunken Unicorn next friday night, March 2nd.

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