November 10, 2009
Good news for lovers of cantankerous, hyperacusis-afflicted songwriters (also, just plain old good news): Stephin Merritt and his Magnetic Fields will be back with their eighth LP Realism on January 26th. This comes after a year that offered a particularly momentous Merritt milestone in the classic 69 Love Songs' 10th anniversary (alongside endorsing Puma and plotting to pen 50 successful Hollywood musicals), but the world could always use new Mag Fields songs to hear, and indie rockers could always use new Mag Fields songs to cover. We've been given precious little info aside from the album art and a tracklist, but that LP cover is pretty suggestive: It expands on the design template introduced with Love Songs and furthered by i (Magnetic strip on the side, image to the right), sure, but its notable for how it pairs with the last one. Then it was a blurred boy for an album called Distortion; here it's a straight-lined girl for an album called Realism. At the very least, I think they're telling us to expect much less Jesus & Mary Chain haze this time around.
The tracklist:
Continue reading The Magnetic Fields Return With Realism ...
Posted at 12:05 PM by amrit in
Tags: Stephin Merritt | The Magnetic Fields
latest by Mr. Hausfrau
When Dayve Hawk edited "Graphics" for UK radio he opted out of a simple abridgment, instead slicing and dicing it while also folding in new passages and a clipped futuristic (less backward looking) beat. Hence the title. On a structural level, the song's gone from 6 minutes to 3 and it's been remastered: Take a look at the prismatic artwork while you take a listen to the FM-ready face lift. (Mind the skulls.)
Continue reading New Memory Tapes - "Graphics (Sci-Fi Edit)" (Stereogum Premiere)...
Posted at 11:48 AM by brandon in ,
Tags: Memory Cassette | Memory Tapes | Weird Tapes
latest by Anonymous
November 3, 2009
When premiering Small Black's "Bad Lover," we accompanied the MP3 with the catchy J&MC-echoing pop tune "Despicable Dogs," its Washed Out remix, and plenty of background information on the duo of ex-Slowlander Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heyner and their self-titled EP. Now Transparent's releasing a "Despicable Dogs" 7" that includes a new song, "Kings Of Animals." On the b-side "Kings" picks up the tempo a bit and manages to make me think of Conor Oberst fronting Guided By Voices for an elegiac end-of-the-night anthem.
Continue reading New Small Black - "Kings Of Animals"...
Posted at 3:39 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Small Black
latest by ivegotaredbeltaroundmy…
The reissued Love Comes Close is officially out today. You might've already familiarized yourself with the album proper, but Matador's bundling the excellent collection with three B-Sides otherwise found on the hardworking Philly/NYC BTW's "Death Comes Close" 12". For instance, the pulsing love story, "Theme From Tomorrowland."
Continue reading New Cold Cave - "Theme From Tomorrowland"...
Posted at 1:16 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Cold Cave | Prurient
latest by Josef
October 27, 2009
Three years ago, Midlake released The Trials Of Van Occupanther, a sweetly harmonized, intimately rocking sophomore album that took them far away from their native Denton, TX, placing them on big tours and year-end lists and the like. This third album's taken time, by design. As they told Jessica in their Progress Report, "We didn't know exactly what we wanted, but we know we didn't want to make the same album as last time. We could have made 10 albums with the amount of time we've spent, but that doesn't mean they'd be saying anything great." Instead they committed to 40-hour work weeks in order to move away from the last record's "Fleetwood Mac-y America" with a shift toward, at least in part, "British folk scene of late '60s stuff." The set finally has a release date -- 2/2 via Bella Union in the States, and the day before in the UK -- and an official title in The Courage Of Others. That's its art above, here's a tracklist and the first few dates of a tour that will take the quintet well through 2010:
Continue reading Midlake The Courage Of Others Revealed...
Posted at 2:01 PM by amrit in ,
Tags: Midlake
latest by grayflannelsuit
October 26, 2009
Vampire Weekend's very familiar "A Punk" soundtracks a colorful (slow) trip (into the city) across Google Maps in an ad for the HP Photosmart Premium, "the world's first Internet connected printed." You'll have to watch to see how it works, but note: Now your sense of touch is also a sense of direction. As far as Contra material goes, the guys returned from Mexico with "Cousins" as the followup to "Horchata." Clearly good reason for a ticker tape parade. Watch them do it live after you watch the commercial.
Continue reading Vampire Weekend Soundtrack HP Ads, Prep "Cousins"...
Posted at 9:52 AM by brandon in , ,
Tags: Vampire Weekend
latest by ww
October 23, 2009
As mentioned when we posted "The Red Bow," 19-year-old Santa Rosa resident Ryan Schmale, who records as That Ghost, approaches low-fidelity in a different way than some of his other one-person band peers. Last time I brought up the sound of Guided By Voices in some of his tracks. That's not always there -- as "The Red Bow" suggested -- but it's that kind of atmospherically rich fragmentation I think when listening to his brief pop tracks. He has a single coming out next month. The loping A-Side "Never Have Fun," which first appeared on his Young Fridays LP, will be familiar to That Ghost stalwarts. You can also hear the downcast acoustic/whiskey-lined "Your Backs," which shows up on Side B.
Continue reading New That Ghost - "Never Have Fun" & "Your Backs"...
Posted at 1:40 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: That Ghost
latest by ChoosetoChoose
October 22, 2009
When Field Music gave us a Progress Report a few weeks into recording their third album, David Brewis noted:
I've been rediscovering my teenage love of the Black Crowes' third album. There's going to be something to offend everything on this record. That's the plan.
Who knows if they succeeded in said plan, but the brothers Brewis have returned from their post-Tones Of Town hiatus with a fury, offering up the 20-track double album Measure. Beyond the black Crowes, they also told Jessica their time apart in School Of Language (David) and The Week That Was (Peter) had honed their songwriting and playing skills. Take a listen to the lilting string-lined title track to see if you agree with any of the above.
Continue reading New Field Music - "Measure"...
Posted at 12:46 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Field Music | School Of Language | The Week That Was
latest by quartertonality
