A Random MP3 Tetralogy
I got four hott tracks for you:
The Raveonettes
I jumped on The Raveonettes bandwagon earlier this year after loving their newest LP Lust Lust Lust. Now they are releasing a series of 4 EPs digitally before the end of the year, starting with one that just came out this week ,The Raveonettes Remixed. You can get it for free here. A preview:
The Raveonettes : Aly, Walk With Me (Nic Endo remix)
One of the blog sensations right now is Empire Of The Sun, a pairing of two dudes from other blog sensations. Currently there is only one song available complete with a video and remixes from these guys, but I hear an album is coming soon. The song itself, though, is an all-around crowd pleaser that I think anyone should be able to enjoy:
Empire Of The Sun : Walking On A Dream
Deerhoof‘s Offend Maggie
The new Deerhoof album is dropping October 7th, and if you are one of the first 500 people to pre-order it, you get handwritten sheet music for the entire album included. Interesting first listen. If you haven’t looked into this band yet, you are seriously missing out.
Department Of Eagles
Finally, Grizzly Bear is one of the bands that I obsess about more than almost any these days, so I’m pretty intrigued by this Daniel Rossun project called Department of Eagles. Their newest LP, Ear Park, is available early next month and I can’t wait. Be amazed:
Department Of Eagles : In Ear Park
- Posted by Davy Minor on September 9, 2008 at 9:31 pm
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What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?
Ok, this episode of “What The Hell” is gonna be large on tunes. There seems to be so many worthwhile albums dropping right now, it is hard to keep up. A great problem to have. Here are the many bands I’m crushing on right now like a little music slut:
Russian Spy Camera (Athens, Ga)
I know Ichuda already did a review of this album, but I’ve really gotten into this one hard, so I’m going to continue to hype it. Let me stress that you can download their entire album for free from their website. If you like good music, you will be wronging yourself if you do not go pick that up.
Download Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives here!!!
The Raveonettes (Copenhagen, Denmark)
One major trend from bands this year is albums produced with heavy distortion a la The Jesus And Mary Chain. Bands like The Magnetic Fields and Times New Viking are great examples. So far, though, I think The Raveonettes‘ new album Lust Lust Lust is my favourite to employ those sorts of techniques.
The Ruby Suns (Auckland, New Zealand)
The other popular trend in music this year is the Animal Collective influence. I’m surprised it took this long for AC to become so influential to new artists, but it was certainly inevitable. While The Dodos and El Guincho are fine acts, something about them feels like they are stealing the Collective‘s sound a little too much. Sort of like when I listen to Black Mountain or The Sword and their absorption of the ’70s sounds. Sure they are fun and enjoyable to listen to, but I could never get totally obsessed with someone who is bascially copy-catting someone else. But, The Ruby Suns‘ new album, Sea Lion, seems to me to be the perfect blend of AC love and originality. They will be at The Drunken Unicorn Monday night.
Hot Chip (London, UK)
The new Hot Chip joint didn’t seem to get its fair fill of the Internet hype, but I’ve really been enjoying it. There are certainly some songs that are better than others, but the many great ones are really incredible. If you like dance music with a soul like I do, check this one:
Destroyer (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Mostly because of Daniel Bejar’s vocal style, Destroyer seems to be an act that you either love or can’t really get into. Being on the love side of it myself, I’ll make my plea to those who listened to it and thought “This sounds just like the last album”. On the surface, sure, but if you dig into it, you’ll find a much more epic experience and I think this may be his best yet. Destroyer will be in Atlanta later this month.
Shooting Rockets (From The Deck Of Night’s Ape)
- Posted by Davy Minor on April 9, 2008 at 6:28 pm
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Humpday Randomnimity
So first, let’s break down the Bonnaroo line-up:
First, I think it’s hilarious that NME and the AP totally got punked and reported that Led Zeppelin is headlining. Since they deleted their mistake, here it is immortalized:
The weirdest thing is that NME had announced earlier in the day that they would be announcing a “surprise headliner” at midnight, so the conspiracy theorists out there are going to believe there is a chance that they will add Led Zeppelin late after tickets go on sale (because LZ would instantly sell out the fest), to give the ‘roo loyalists a easy shot at tickets first. Considering everyone denied Metallica was playing when that rumour broke earlier, it is certainly possible but doubtful.
So, Metallica. Hmmmm. I’m just going to say that i think they are being a little risky with some of their line-up choices for a rare fest with an almost completely non-violent history. It will be an interesting experiment to see how that crowd does, but I’m a bit pessimistic on that front. Although, there have only been a handful of ‘roo headliners over the years that have been really awesome in my opinion, so it’s not the worst thing to me (plus now i can get a nap Friday night between the day acts and the late-night acts). It’s the smaller acts that I always like best anyways. Plus, Pearl Jam is really great live. Also, I’m just gonna say, Jack Johnson isn’t necessarily bad, but I can think of like 100 better headliners off the top of my head, and he has to headline both Coachellas and Bonnaroo? Coooooooooooome ooooooon.
Regardless of all that junk at the top of the list, there is a lot to be excited about. Sigur Ros is probably the biggest for me since I love them and have yet to see them. The other names I’m going to be excited to see include Iron & Wine, Broken Social Scene, Mastodon (ATL represent!), !!!, The Fiery Furnaces, Jose Gonzalez, Minus The Bear, Battles, and The Sword. Things I’ve seen a million times that are still pretty cool to catch again: Phil Lesh, My Morning Jacket, The Allman Brothers, Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Folds, and Dark Star Orchestra. Others I’ll probably check out if nothing great is going on include Kanye, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Talib Kweli, Gogol Bordello, Rilo Kiley, Tegan & Sara, Vampire Weekend, and Black Kids.
Overall, its decent but not their best line-up. I’m still going cuz I love this fest. A Mars Volta addition would really set it off though.
Speaking of The Mars Volta, Pitchfork finally reviewed The Bedlam in Goliath, and while they still gave it a terrible score, they finally back-tracked a tad bit from the absolute hate they have for this band and moved to a more “well we don’t like them, but I can see why others do and they are awesome in certain ways we don’t put much value in” position (I’m paraphrasing here). While I appreciate the sentiment, they still laid down some serious presumptuous elitism. Like when the ‘fork makes claims that TMV championing prog-rock (or as i would put it, innovating a musical epistemology built on innovation) “couldn’t be more averse to real progress in rock music”, it just makes me realize how one-dimensional they are in their music taste and while they have been a huge driving force of this current music revolution going on, they are sometimes missing the point. In essence what is going on is about diversity, not about a singular idea or sound. When you value 3 LCD Soundsystem songs that are nice on the dancefloor surrounded by a ton of boringness and repetition over an album where they make every single second on it count, well, I’m just not gonna ever jump on that bandwagon.
Ok, now I am gonna get all pitchforky on you and serve up a glass of haterade. I bought the new The Selmanaires, Anna Kramer, and The Whigs albums a couple of weeks ago. I’m a cheerleader for the local acts as much as the next person, but while I think these are all fine albums in their own right and I know the rest of the Jo-Ja big dawgs are touting them endlessly, these are far from the best acts or albums that Georgia has to offer. They are all copycatting played out styles, and bringing nothing new to the table. There are sure to be plenty of people who will genuinely love these, but I like a bit of innovation, a touch of avant-garde, an artist who takes chances, I like something unique and different, and I hear none of that on these albums. The Selmanaires seem to be only one of these three that I believe have real potential to be something special, but I always find myself thinking about 25% of what they do is amazing, and the other 75% is totally uninteresting. I understand that they are like a library of styles and that they are making very deep musical references, but they don’t bring a new perspective to their reference points except sometimes they water them down. They sound like a history book to me. I think they just lay too safe sometimes, and if they really went for it they could be great. Again, The Air Salesman is not a bad album, but if I were to compare it to other ATL albums I consider great, like, I don’t know, an Untied States album (or the new Slushco EP that is getting absolutely no press except here), I don’t think it stands up.
Ok, enough digression, here’s some news:
Iron & Wine and Califone will be at the Variety Playhouse on April 14th.
The Breeders will be at The Loft on June 13th.
Modest Mouse are working on an EP. Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Davy Minor on February 6, 2008 at 5:53 pm
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