Live Show: Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group (3/17/09)

ORL_2009-03-17_front

The ridiculously prolific The Mars Volta mastermind is releasing yet another album next month under the Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group banner. Titled Xenophanes, it will be the first work to feature vocals from Omar himself. This show from earlier this year features the same incarnation of the Group found on the new record.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group
2009-03-17
Gebaeude 9
Cologne, Germany
Recorded by a_doubt

Track list:
01 Boiling Death Request A Body To Rest Its Head On 11:23
02 Victims Del Cielo 10:36
03 Dyna Sark Arches 9:19
04 Las Flores Con Limon 7:55
05 Ila Hysteria 7:09
06 Locomocion Capilar 4:08
07 Here The Tame Go By 10:17
08 Population Council’s Wet Dream 5:55
09 How To Bill The Bilderberg Group 14:31
10 Jacob Van Lennepkade 19:02
11 Dankeschoen 1:24
12 New York City 5:03

Lineup:
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez · guitar
Mark Aanderud · keyboards
Juan Alderete De La Peña · bass
Thomas Pridgen · drums
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez · keyboards & multiple instruments
Ximena Sariñana Rivera · vocals


Download Lossless Torrent Here

Hott Summer Traxx

During the summer great albums always drop like rain and I usually seem to have less time to talk about them, so here is a superpost full of tracks from the records I’m loving right now accompanied by a nano-review:

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

Bonnaroo 2009: Wrap-Up And Final Thoughts

Now that I’ve finally gotten over my Bonna-flu, here’s one last post to talk about what I took from this year’s shenanigans. The Bonnaroo guide book talked about the weird familiarity that Bonnaroo becomes after several years of attending, and that definitely struck me this year. The place now certainly feels “like going back to the neighborhood where you grew up as a kid”. But this installment still managed to be a unique experience from every other. Outside of the hurricanes Thursday night, I think this was the best weather this festival has ever seen, and I feel the constant cloud cover really helped the energy overall stay strong through the last night. The vibe is always fun at the ‘roo, but I felt like this year there was a little extra electricity in the air with the crowd. Having Radiohead on a lineup is pretty awesome, but I think in the end this year’s event will be most remembered for having the strongest top to bottom lineup.

I think you could find a rather large collection of music journalist/blogger types that would agree that Animal Collective‘s Merriweather Post Pavilion, Grizzly Bear‘s Veckatimest, Dirty Projectors‘ Bitte Orca, and St. Vincent‘s Actor are all legitimate contenders for album of the year and Bonnaroo showcased all four artists within a matter of hours. This lead me to ponder some things and I came up with a few observations. First, Brooklyn, New York is the undisputed new music mecca right now. Atlanta has some cool stuff going on, but Brooklyn is the center of the universe. Also, I think harmony, particularly vocal harmonies, is a musical concept that is going to be on a hott trend for the years to come. Complexity, nuance and classical notions of musicianship are also concepts that I believe to be on the upward swing right now in the direction indie pop music is taking. There are plenty of exceptions and even healthy pushback against these trends in this “any flavour you like” internet world, but there is a renaissance going on and Bonnaroo is one of the best places to get a real glimpse at it.

Click here to read the entire post…

A Random Mp3 Trilogy: The Mars Volta, Islands/Beck, Sunset Rubdown


The Mars Volta @ The Tabernacle (9/24/08)

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.

I Heart Omar Rodriguez Lopez

The latest effort from the mastermind behind The Mars Volta, Old Money, was released digitally last year and placed #35 on our Top 50 albums of 2008. The album finally got a full media release last week, and I realized that I had completely forgot to do a post on it when it originally came out. Old Money was a possible follow up to 2006′s Amputechture until Omar decided to take the band in a different direction. He opted to do it instead as a solo work, and I think the results benefited from that choice. It is more Amputechture than Amputechture, and the lack of restraint afforded to his solo moniker works to create something special brimming with over-the-top psychedelics. It works especially well because the excessive music parallels the theme of the album. Not that any of his previous solo work was lacking in far out experimentation, but this might be his most successful to date.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez : The Power Of Myth

Omar Rodriguez Lopez : Private Fortunes

Buy Old Money

Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group at Fuji Rock 2007:

Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group: “Calibration” official video by Omar:

Live Show: The Mars Volta (10/02/2008)

The Mars Volta
2008-10-02
Open Air Theatre
San Diego, CA

1. drunkship of lanterns
2. ilyena
3. wax simulacra

Click here to read the entire post…

Voodoo Music Experince 2008: Nine inch Nails, The Mars Volta, Lil Wayne

Last week we made a last minute decision to go to New Orleans and catch the Voodoo Music Experience this year. We spent most of the trip on Bourbon Street and in the casino, but we did attend Voodoo last Saturday to catch Lil Wayne, The Mars Volta, and Nine Inch Nails consecutively on the main stage, and it was a ton of fun. We arrived a bit late for Lil Wayne‘s scheduled time, but luckily he was running behind too. I will say that I did enjoy hearing the songs live, but Lil Wayne was rather unimpressive in person. He seemed like he was stoned out of his gourd, it felt like most of the vocals were pre-recorded, and the set was filled with predictable events like a prayer session and a taking off of the shirt. I rarely enjoy hip-hop live, so I’ll chalk a lot of this up to that, but to sing a song sitting down holding a guitar, and then to never actually do anything with the guitar but let it sit in your lap seems pretty lame

It appeared most of the crowd was there on Saturday to see the hometown acts, and as soon Lil Wayne finally got his mic shut off, most of the crowd took off enabling us to get very close for The Mars Volta. TMV were their typical amazing selves playing mostly newer stuff, and in long, extended jam versions. Cedric seemed angry about something and was taking on-stage lights, his mic stands, and whatever else he could find and smashing them, and even tried to mess up Nine Inch Nails‘ lighting system that hung above the stage for the entire day. While that spectacle is fun to watch, I find myself being fascinated much more by Omar’s forceful conducting through the jam sections. I keep trying to decipher what all of his hand signals denote. It’s unbelievable to me that there are still so many people out there who hate this band because I can’t get enough of them:


Click here to read the entire post…

Live Video: The Mars Volta (9/24/08) The Tabernacle

The Mars Volta finally made their triumphant return to Atlanta last Wednesday. While the shortness of their set was a disappointment to many, they packed those two hours full of their most rocking stuff. I’m a big fan of all the spacey jams, but both times I’ve seen them before this were chalked full of it, so I was glad I got to see more of a “crowd pleaser” sort of set. They opened with nearly a 30 minute version of “Goliath”. Also, thanks to Clint pinning it down to a Ghostface Killah song, I finally figured out what they are covering in their pre-”Aberinkula” jam. The song is actually “Kilo Is A Measure” by Jimmy Van and Richard Hieronymus. Here’s the set:

1. Goliath
2. Viscera Eyes
3. Jam?
4. Wax Simulacra
5. Ouroboros
6. Eunuch Provocateur
7. Ilyena
8. Cygnus….Vismund Cygnus
9. The Widow
10. Kilo Is A Measure (cover song)
11. Aberinkula

Here is the full video of them performing “Vicera Eyes”:


Click here to read the entire post…

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