The Helium Tapes – Ghost Wave
The Helium Tapes, a powerful rock and roll trio with extensive gigging experience in the St. Louis area, go tight-rope walking with safety net and corded harness on their second and latest release, Ghost Wave, which features heavy, multifaceted rock music coloring in and out of dirgy lines. The group, who recently downsized to a trio after the recording of the album, buzz and churn out pop-rock spins with a dare-devil vocal mistress cooing woebegones over canyons of her personal history. (more…)
This entry was written by , posted on February 8, 2010 at 6:51 pm, filed under New Music and tagged Ghost Wave, The Helium Tapes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Joanna Newsom – “Good Intentions Paving Company”
If I had to pick a mascot for indie in the oughties (note to self: pitch Indie in the Oughties to PBS as a new Ken Burns documentary), Joanna Newsom would be in the final 4. With a voice that can quickly separate the hip wheat from the lame chaff, a quirky instrument—which also happens to be the logo for a hip foreign beer—and name-dropping opportunities like Steve Albini (10 points!) and Jim O’Rourke (10 points!), the psych-folk (high score!) songstress has one hell of a stacked deck.
But forget all that. Listen to Joanna’s newest song, and make a note in your planner ten years from now (because I know you have a decade-at-a-glance). I’ll probably be saying the exact same thing about indie in the ’10s.
Listen to it at Drag City (the stream is in the top-right corner of the page).
This entry was written by , posted on February 5, 2010 at 12:33 pm, filed under New Music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
Absorbing all ocean metaphors between the 60s and the late 90s, surf rock has long been the medium of summer fun. But in the last decade of DIY spectacles splashing up an ocean-like internet arena, listeners fervently watched innumerable bands take the plunge into a larger online medium that mostly sounds like disorder. Of late it’s been either wipe-out, wash up deserted, get caught in riptides of messiah-like hype or judgmental dissent, or ride the wave long enough to finally earn high marks on their out-of-ten-scorecards and still see modest digital sustenance, see for example Animal Collective/Grizzly Bear/Vampire Weekend. Watching these bands be tested against mega waves of reception is like wondering which kid is going to go first in Lord of the Flies. But here’s Surfer Blood, a lightning rod through the cutthroat internet canonization of 00s indie. Astro Coast is a skillful and patient balancing act calmly recalling an anthology of pop, new-wave, and underground influences and then deftly rerouting it to listeners lost between Pandora and Pitchfork.
Surfer Blood – “Floating Vibes”
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This entry was written by , posted on February 1, 2010 at 5:05 pm, filed under New Music and tagged Astro Coast, Canine Records, Surfer Blood. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
“Swim (To Reach the End)” – Surfer Blood
This earnest anthem isn’t just for people that need to know how to swim. And Surfer Blood isn’t only for fun-in-the-sun pilgrims. Catapulting at the sound of the triple kick drum, the song delivers a trajectory that we all know as clean guitar jabs propel this perhaps inflated early single from Surfer Blood. Nothing to fret though, the rest of the album is how they earn a few gratuitous explosions.
Surfer Blood – Swim (To Reach the End)
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This entry was written by , posted on January 23, 2010 at 6:45 pm, filed under New Music and tagged Astro Coast, Surfer Blood, Swim. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
“Diplomat’s Son” – Vampire Weekend
Is that a M.I.A. vocal sample I hear? Vampire Weekend bury “Diplomat’s Son” late in their sophomore release, Contra, but this track is not to be passed over. Drum machine hits and sampler blips never meshed so well with Vampire Weekend’s relaxing, summer-in-the-Hamptons vibe. Listen to it at hypem.
This entry was written by , posted on January 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm, filed under New Music and tagged Contra, Diplomat's Son, Vampire Weekend. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
“The National Anthem”– Lupe Fiasco
Today, common hip-hop policy dictates that no genre or artist is free from crossover manipulation at the hands of subpar rappers–no, not even Radiohead. While most half-hearted attempts at the gloriously high bar set by Jaydiohead fall far far short, Lupe’s verses over The National Anthem nearly deserve the baseline and vocals they are set over. Having heard very little from the Chitown local in 2009–let’s not count that single for the Twilight soundtrack–the Enemy of the State mixtape was just the reassurance his fans needed. Lupe proves on this, the first track of the mixtape, that his mastery of metaphor, hyperbole, and personification are far and beyond the poetic ability of the current rap community at large. Perhaps the simple “verb like noun” line structure (e.g. kick it like judo) won’t prevail in 2010 after all.
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This entry was written by , posted on at 9:06 am, filed under New Music and tagged enemy of the state, lupe fiasco, radiohead, the national anthem. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
“Midnight Psalms” – Lanterns
San Diego’s LANTERNS. deliver with an explosive track from their recently released Apocalypse Youth EP. Driving, noisy guitars backed by pounding drums more than fill out each verse and chorus. Culminating in a toned-down, sing-songy finale, the hooks in ”Midnight Psalms” will surely take your mind off tonight’s below zero wind chill.
LANTERNS. – Midnight Psalms
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This entry was written by , posted on January 8, 2010 at 3:34 pm, filed under New Music and tagged Apocalypse Youth EP, LANTERNS., Midngiht Psalms. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Light: On the South Side
Another year, another Christmas, another shitty gift from your uncle (who knew strip clubs sold gift certificates?). Time to upgrade and get something nice for yourself to keep your mind off the cold weather outside. My suggestion – take a trip to the South Side of Chicago circa 1976 with Light: On the South Side, the new photography book and music compilation of the from the collectors at the Numero Group label. (more…)
This entry was written by , posted on January 4, 2010 at 11:00 am, filed under New Music and tagged Light: On the South Side, Numero Group. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Edison – All the Information at Hand
Released in late December of 2009, Bay Area producer Edison’s All the Information at Hand stands out as one of the more enjoyable releases of the year. Glitchy, percussive, ambient, but never too laid back to enjoy on a good set of headphones or have on the stereo as you do your day to day. (more…)
This entry was written by , posted on December 30, 2009 at 7:49 pm, filed under New Music and tagged All the Information at Hand, Edison. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Tom Waits – Glitter and Doom
Hearing Tom Waits live will never reveal the man behind the myth. In each of three live albums that span his forty-year career, Waits has always sounded near death, if not undead. Since his first live album, 1975’s Nighthawks at the Diner, Waits has drifted like a drunken ghost out of beatnik clubs to wander across the nocturnal Earth, growling out taller tales with each album. With his third, Glitter and Doom, Waits’ monstrous bellow has only grown as grotesque as the characters that haunt the vaudevillian graveyard in which he has always toiled.
This entry was written by , posted on December 29, 2009 at 1:53 am, filed under New Music and tagged Glitter and Doom, Tom Waits. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.