May 8, 2008
Extra Life's Secular Works arrived unknown in our mailbox and quickly found its way into regular rotation. The New York group is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Charlie Looker, who spent six years in ZS, has played with Mick Barr, was a one-time member of Dirty Projectors (he performs on Rise Above), and has worked with Anthony Braxton, Glenn Branca, William Parker, Tyondai Braxton, Daniel Carter, etc. In Extra Life, he taps into a mesmerizing form of avant-rock raga, repeating words, and shifting into a windswept, entrancing post-punk throat singing. The sounds are fleshed out with drums, bass, saxophone, keyboard, violin. The first song to catch our attenton is opener "Blackmail Blues," which hit us like a darker, heavier take on Dirty Projectors (backed by Torch Of The Mystics Sun City Girls).
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH: EXTRA LIFE...
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latest by ryan
April 10, 2008
For anyone who's enjoyed Dominique Leone's writing at Pitchfork over the years, it's pretty fascinating to listen to the San Francisco-based Texan's self-titled debut full-length, which follows his self-titled Feedelity EP. You can hear his beloved Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson in the harmonies (for Nilsson, think of "Without You" and check out the first section of "Blist," parts of "Claire," or gorgeous album closer "Conversational"), his prog, elecrtro, disco, ABBA fixations elsewhere. (We tried forcing in a Scott Walker mention because his review of the The Drift was so supreme, but no dice.)
The 11-track collection starts with "Kaine," which opens like an Animal Collective magic-wand explosion, before settling into a spacier overlap of plucked strings, audience claps, backward tones, and some death metal guitar growling, and then relocating to some sort of foreign soap opera dialog samples, etc. That's just part of it. No song follows an easy path, but earlier this week we posted the most straightforward piece, "Duyen," and its telephones, shakers, and walkie talkies. To get a broader sense of the album's ornate constructions, take a listen to the up-tempo, Beach Boys-and-the-kitchen-sink standout "Nous Tombons Dans Elle."
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH: DOMINIQUE LEONE...
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Tags: Dominique Leone
latest by John B
April 4, 2008
Assured-beyond-their-years San Diego quartet the Muslims will definitely get a lot of attention for their name, but we're much more interested in the band's catchy, sorta sloppy and stark post-punk-infused rock 'n' roll. They mix a kind of Strokes-y, and therefore VU, detachment and something that bumps in the night like Hell and his Voidoids (or, better yet, Hell and the Heartbreakers doing "Love Comes In Spurts"). You can also hear a bit of the Stooges -- not just because the band cites 'em, along with the Replacements, as an inspiration -- and early Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers (see "Future Rock," "On My Time," etc). Whatever the mix of forerunners, the Muslims find a way to make it their own -- it's kinda uncanny. We've been listening to their new 7-song 12" (and the 10-song CD) on repeat (thanks Robots for the heads up), so we wanted to share a couple favorites with you...
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH: THE MUSLIMS...
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latest by Brendyn
April 3, 2008
At some point last summer, after hearing the amazing job Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor did producing Dirty Projector's Rise Above -- we've been impressed, variously, with the way he's producing around the strengths and attributes of his artists -- we asked him what else he had coming up. Of course and as we know, there's the forthcoming Dept. of Eagles record that Dan and Fred are working on. But he seemed equally excited, if not more so, about Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. He was right.
We subsequently caught the last notes of MBAR's set opening for TV On The Radio during that rainy day at McCarren. It wasn't enough to form a solid opinion, but enough to remain intrigued. The 24-year-old Brooklyn-via-Oregon singer-songwriter's been working on his album since 2006 with the assistance of Taylor, of course, as well as fellow Grizzlies Chris Bear (drums) and Daniel Rosen (other overdubs) as well as TVOTR's Kyp Malone (who plans to produce his sophomore album, already set for an '09 release date). Sure, such associations add a certain level of "star" power. Bio details about MBAR's early days traveling with his comedian father, or the time spent as an addict sleeping on benches in Coney Island, add dramatic color. But we were waiting a long time to sink our teeth into his songs, and if the guy didn't have the chops, none of this back story would matter. Well -- and we don't get to say this often enough -- he's better than we anticipated.
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH: MILES BENJAMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON...
Posted at 3:28 PM in ,
Tags: Chris Taylor | Dan Rossen | Grizzly Bear | Kyp Malone | Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson | TV On The Radio
latest by dudethisrocks
March 25, 2008
Bell is New York-based Olga Bell and friends. Bell does the singing, some of the samples, clapping, keyboards, and wields a laptop. She's joined by a three-piece band, consisting of drummer Jason Nazary, bassist Mike Chiavaro, and guitarist Grey McMurray. That said, the project uses her last name as its moniker for a reason: The main focus is her strong, assured, at times Björkian voice and the often quirky ways she uses it. To date she's been best known for her montage of Radiohead's "Videotape" and Tom Yorke's "Eraser" (listen, here) but with her six song EP about to see the shift from the hand-decorated CD-R she sent us to an official, more widely available pressing, that should change.
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH: BELL...
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Tags: Bell | Olga Bell
latest by lisa
March 15, 2008
This week we're revisiting and reflecting upon the original write-ups for some of our favorite Bands To Watch playing SXSW '08...
So far, the Brooklyn duo High Places has seemingly made all the right choices as they step further into the hype machine. For instance, instead of rushing out a debut album, they decided to be one of the first two bands featured in its eMusic Selects series. As Mary and Rob mention at their MySpace:
Our merch. table has been a little skimpy (empty) lately, as we await the release of a split 7" with Xiu Xiu and the release of a single 7" that is due out on Upset the Rhythm in the UK. And yes, we are also working on our first full-length record, and we hope to have it available for purchase in Europe, Australia, and the States sometime this summer. Until that time, the rad people of eMusic (what's up to Yancey, the nicest nice guy ever) have created this thing called eMusic Selects to feature and support unsigned musicians like ourselves ... We've put together an "album" of 10 songs from 2007 that were released on 7", compilations, and various other obscure projects.
They also haven't entirely quit their day jobs. And they have a fun, mellow blog. Way to keep your heads about yourselves, High Places.
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH - SXSW EDITION: HIGH PLACES...
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latest by Sebastian
March 14, 2008
This week we're revisiting and reflecting upon the original write-ups for some of our favorite Bands To Watch playing SXSW '08...
We're writing this from our day party during Liam Finn's set, making the shaggy New Zealander a Band To Watch and reflect upon in more ways than one. He's doing a great job. Letterman liked him, too.
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH: SXSW EDITION - LIAM FINN...
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latest by msigur
March 13, 2008
This week we're revisiting and reflecting upon the original write-ups for some of our favorite Bands To Watch playing SXSW '08...
We were immediately hooked by Bjorn-championed Lykke Li, aka Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, more or less on the basis of the irresistible "Little Bit" and its kooky video, where Li dances unabashedly and in a way you're not used to seeing an indie rocker move. Unless their name is Feist. The Swedish chanteuse's first EP Youth Novels was released on (her own) LL Recordings in February, but she's since signed with Dolores (I'm from Barcelona, Loney, Dear, etc.). She heads out on tour with El Perro del Mar in April. Here were our first impressions from when we decided we'd be keeping an eye out for her.
CONTINUE READING BAND TO WATCH - SXSW EDITION: LYKKE LI...
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latest by FlatGreg
