November 20, 2009
When we meditated on Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally's gorgeous sophomore album Devotion we had the following to say:
[Y]ou can't fall back on Mazzy Star or Galaxie 500 references because they've pushed themselves into their own, unique solar system. Victoria's voice and woozy after-hours organ tones are more assured, Alex has lost the beard but gained more inventive, atmospheric guitar lines. For just one instance, listen to "You Came To Me," the way each part of it builds. We don't think they could've wrote that song a year ago. Throughout Devotion, they've pushed their template in all the right directions. They haven't changed ... it's more that they've deepened.
Here we are, not quite a year later, and they've gone even deeper. As a commenter noted when we posted "Norway," this is one lush Teen Dream: They've upped the ante enough to be, basically, a different band than we first saw at the Cake Shop during CMJ '06. They've made great use of time.
Continue reading Premature Evaluation: Beach House - Teen Dream...
Posted at 5:50 PM in
Tags: Beach House
latest by JS (DON'T LISTEN TO TH…
This dude's the latest signing to Australia's Modular label, landing with a tidy package of promotional offerings: a catchy, moistly breezy indie-pop debut single that couldn't be better titled for a meet-the-artist track; a subtly arresting/marginally tricked-out video; and a slightly more ambient take-away remix by long-time post-rocker the Album Leaf. Here's to good starts. We're told Boulet is 21 and a Sydney skate rat. Which means skate rat music in Sydney is a far cry from the shit-encrusted lo-fi tracks coming from skaters on our own west coast, or Boulet is an outlier wielding his board with a softer heel. Irrelevant -- the point is it's better produced and warmer edged, perfectly calibrated as a respite from the approaching cold here, or a reminder of how temperate things in the Aussie hemisphere most of the time. "A Community Service Announcement" practically drips with humidity, a honeyed guitar bit pushed along by tropical toms, a pop song's forward movement that's fit for cruise boat line-dancing. If that sounds fit for the OST to a Disney film set in some sunny climes well... it sort of is. But then there's this Special Problems-directed video where someone gets offed and dumped into a lake, suggesting their might be some menace beneath the mellifluousness we'll need more than one Boulet track to fully suss. Until then, here's a community service announcement:
Continue reading New Jonathan Boulet Video - "A Community Service Announcement"...
Posted at 5:09 PM by amrit in
Tags: Jonathan Boulet
When we first heard onetime BTW Pablo Díaz-Reixa, aka El Guincho, we were drawn in by "Antillas," a song we described as "a five-minute bundle of clattering loops and sunny harmonies." It was from the self-released Alegranza!, before he'd signed to XL, who reissued the collection. Almost two years after being hooked we have an "Antillas" remix by XXXchange. It shows up on one of two double 12"s that feature remixes of the track by the likes of Architecture In Helsinki, Prins Thomas, Banana Clipz, etc. (Mad Decent's releasing one, Young Turks the other.) It's nice being reintroduced to the song, especially as we inch closer to winter. In this take, you'll here the original's loops buried beneath, and weaving through, a slew of new sounds.
Continue reading New El Guincho - "Antillas (XXXchange Remix)"...
Posted at 4:31 PM by brandon in
Tags: El Guincho | XXXchange
latest by cheesy-blaster
Muse To Headline Coachella 2010? • According to Consequence Of Sound, a previously reliable source pins Muse to the coming year's desert fest headlining slot. Glenn Beck just bought a ticket. The dates are April 16-18. Oh and these Coachella headliner rumors? Needs more Pavement.
latest by Anonymous
Parents Just Don't Understand Horrorcore • From hardcore to heavy metal to gangsta rap, local TV news teams have long warned parents about the terrifying new sounds rotting teenage brains. This week it's San Fran's KPIX on the horrorcore scene. Not all juggalos are murderers, dad! Probably.
Unearthed Neutral Milk Hotel Live Footage • Watch well-recorded videos of NMH doing "Two-Headed Boy" and "April 8th" at the old Knitting Factory on March 7, 1998 via Merge, the label that just released On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over The Sea on 180 gram vinyl.
latest by megaindiedouche
Stooges, Sleep Set For ATPNY 2010 • Over Labor Day weekend (9/3-9/5) Iggy and his Stooges do Raw Power, Sleep climb Holy Mountain (!), and you'll spot Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff at good ol' Kutsher's. More at ATP.
The little-documentary-that-could The Story Of Anvil, about the band that was like a "real life Spinal Tap" right down to having a drummer named Robb Reiner, stole everyone's heart this past year. Except for people whose hearts are made of stone. Or metal. Well if your heart was made of \m/ metal then it probably stole your heart, too. But if your heart is made of Oscar-material precious metal, then it didn't steal your heart, it made your heart snub it from its rightful place on the 15-film Best Documentary Academy Award shortlist (via RS). Granted I've never seen most (i.e. any) of the docs that made the cut, but from what I can gather none boast quite the combination of pathos and punny album titles that Anvil does, and that's just heartbreaking. Also not winning favor with the Oscars' doc department: It Might Get Loud, the documentary which tackled the history of the electric guitar via the guitar-geek wet dream ménage à trois scenario of a Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White jam session.
But while the Edge's documentary got shafted, his band is positioning themselves for a run at a Best Song Oscar by penning a track called "Winter" (sample lyric: "summer sings in me no more") for the Jim Sheridan film Brothers. (Apparently it's also slated for the next U2 studio album, apparently titled Songs Of Ascent). To paraphrase Bono, U2 are reapplying for the most award-hungry band in the world. You can hear that track below, along with some songs from the possibly-Oscar-worthy The Road OST by Warren Ellis and Nick Cave.
Continue reading U2, Nick Cave (But Not Anvil) Among Oscar Hopefuls...
Posted at 12:56 PM by amrit
Tags: Academy Awards | Anvil | It Might Get Loud | Nick Cave | The Road | U2 | Warren Ellis
latest by Nick
