PALEO: FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
[rating: 2]
Paleo: Fruit of the Spirit
Label: Partisan Records
Release date: June 21, 2011
Strackany is another in a long line of folk singers who weren’t born with the suitable means to be technically proficient singers. Such a list has too many names to list, but right there at the top is Bob Dylan, owner of one of the most cringe-inducing voices in all of popular music history. But like Dylan, Strackany gets by. His words are often a shield against the sandpaper abrasiveness of his voice and his instrumentation, though off the beaten path of traditional American folk, is regularly enough a nice distraction. “Lighthouse,” the opening track on Fruit of the Spirit, is a great example of this. This cut plasters Strackany’s strained voice over top of rugged acoustic instrumentation. You can hear his fingers against the fretboard as he switches chords, even amidst the constant fluttering percussion. There are moments almost identical to this scattered all throughout the album. But as many brilliant moments as Strackany sets up and knocks down, there are that many truly agitating ones waiting just around the bend.
“Poet (Take 1)” takes some of the most brutal instrumentation you’re likely to hear all year — the clunking, rhythm-devoid instrumentation isn’t experimental, its painful — and throws it over top of ironic lyrics about the fallacies of considering yourself a poet. In a sense, this song is like hearing Strackany rebel against himself. Taken that way it doesn’t seem like such a bad creation; artists don’t often skewer their own music and mock their songwriting so freely. But taken as simply another song amongst a collection of them, it represents a turn-off of staggering proportions. Strackany’s Kristian Matsson-meets-Jackie Greene-meets cheese grater voice isn’t intolerable (all the best singers have deficiencies, anyway) but is a challenge, so it would seem logical to make things sound as appealing as possible otherwise, not take the complete opposite course. And especially not twice — “Poet (Take 2)” is essentially the same architecture recycled.
While Fruit of the Spirit does have its charms — the aforementioned “Lighthouse,” “Over the Hill and Back Again,” and “In the Movies” are all worthy standouts — they are ultimately weighted down by its shortcomings. Its clear that Strackany doesn’t have a good voice, but what remains uncertain is whether or not he’s aware of this. Throughout the album there are moments where he strains too far, stretching out to latch onto notes that he shouldn’t even be thinking about. These instances tend to hurt. And while the instrumentation backing him up may maintain a certain level of consistency (save for those two atrocious “Poet” tracks), that simply isn’t enough to make this an album worth digging too deep into.
SLASHER? I DON’T EVEN KNOW HER: ANR’S HORROR FLICK
“It all started with the idea of shooting spear hooks through this girls back, through her boobs, into her boyfriends hands.” That’s what ANR’s singer/ drummer, Michael John Hancock, told us was the premise for the bands new slasher film project. We took the bait too. So here it is, the music video edit of ANR’s slasher film based on “Big Problem” directed by Lucas Leyva, crewed by the fine folks at Borscht Film Festival, and starring a cast of Miami heroes. It’s a 5 minute horror epic along the line of Thriller. Check back with us for the extended 12 minute unrated short film version coming soon too.
BAND RADAR: NEVEREST SONGS (FOR FANS OF OWEN PALLET/ FINAL FANTASY, INLETS)
Neverest Songs is the alias of Margate UK based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Luke Twyman. With sparse composition, Neverest Songs bleeds sentiment and simple progression is met with interesting exploration, building in ways that will reward multiple listens. Twyman’s extensive musical understanding and range has lead him to compose a recent score for an independent film based in New York, titled All That Glitters and his live set-up is open ended, with supporting members and instrumentation varying between shows, and rehearsals taking place in a boat on the Thames.
You can listen here: http://soundcloud.com/neverestsongs/sets/tracks/
Luke is travelling over from England this week and playing a one-off solo piano set on Thursday. Here’s the details:
Neverest Songs | Googie’s Lounge (above The Living Room) | Thurs May 19
Free Entry | 21+ | 7:30pm (sharp)
Later on this year, Luke is playing UK’s Green Man festival, headlined by Fleet Foxes, Explosions in the Sky and Iron & Wine.
STREAM THE NEW WILDERNESS OF MANITOBA RECORD
The Wilderness of Manitoba’s U.S. debut When You Left The Fire is streaming in full below. Give a listen:
OFFICIAL VIDEO + MP3 FROM PALEO’S NEW RECORD
BRAVESTATION “WHITE WOLVES” REMIX BY YOUTH AND TEEN DAZE
Toronto’s Bravestation just released remixes of their new single “White Wolves” by Youth and Teen Daze. The band will be heading across the Atlantic for their first ever UK tour, which includes a main-stage play alongside Iggy and The Stooges, Caribou, Two Door Cinema Club, The Kills & more at the Evolution Festival. “If Foals moved to Canada and joined Wolf Parade, they might sound something like Bravestation”(Flavorpill)
Download “White Wolves (Youth Remix)” MP3
Download “White Wolves (Teen Daze Remix)” MP3
MUSIC RADAR: BARBIE HATCH (FOR FANS OF BEST COAST/ SHE & HIM)
Fans of Best Coast and She & Him should check out Venice, CA artist Barbie Hatch. She’s an indie/electro/pop singer, signed by Squeak E. Clean of N.A.S.A to his own Spectrophonic Sound label who just popped up on the discosalt radar. She’s making some really sweet music, collaborating with Canadian Hip Hop artists Swollen Members and appearing alongside RZA and John Frusciante. You might also recognize her voice from the N.A.S.A. track “I Wanna be Your Lover” on the remix album The Big Bang alongside the artist Maximum Hedrum.
She has a new single called “Stars”.
Check it out below:
MP3: Barbie Hatch – “Stars”
STREAM GANG GANG DANCE’S NEW RECORD: EYE CONTACT
Check out the new Gang Gang Dance record, Eye Contact in its entirety below and grab a free track:
mp3:
NEW TRACK FROM WASHED OUT: EYES BE CLOSED
Grab Washed Out’s new track “Eyes Be Closed” off their forthcoming LP Within and Without, out July 12 on Sub Pop:
mp3:
Washed Out :: Eyes Be Closed
ANGLOPHILIA’S LATEST, GREATEST AND WHITEST HOPE: THE VACCINES
You’ve heard this song before.
You’ve heard this album before.
You’ve seen this band live before, but it’s been so long – do you really care anymore?
The Vaccines are a UK band who, in the UK music press (read: NME) have been hailed as the new brit-pop darlings you must worship and adore lest you face the harsh ridicule of anyone claiming to be cooler than you.
Anglophiles both casual and fanatical will agree on this to a certain degree.
Anglophillia or the severe interest/obsession with UK bands (or as a Greek goddess once put it “lad rock”) has been going in and out of style since the very first British Invasion. For every Guided By Voices geek, there’s a Manic Street Preachers nutter just like there’s a Strokes devotee for every Libertines junkie.
Some years are better for anglophiles than others. American Indie Rock has been kicking serious limey ass for a while now that the British Hype Machine hasn’t successfully reached our radars since Tony Blair left office and Arctic Monkeys were still culturally viable.
Enter The Vaccines, a really young London foursome with a scrappy pub rock yet anthemic retro pop sound.
The Vaccine’s singer, Justin Young, has a strong, clear and distinctive yet still familiar voice (you might recall and compare to Doves, Embrace, Kaiser Chiefs, etc).
Most of their debut, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is comprised of short one-two-punch numbers that concentrate more on the release and less on the build. It’s the aural equivalent of several satisfying quickies ( If You Wanna, Blow It Up, Post Break-Up Sex, Norgaard) and at least one incident of premature ejaculation (Wreckin’ Bar). Like I said, they’re still young.
The Vaccines found their man with the megaphone in Zane Lowe, who is no Tony Wilson by any stretch, but he is a BBC radio dj. Add to this, Tom Cowan of The Horrors is your older brother (Freddie, guitar) and multiply that by the fact that it’s one of the driest times in British music history for guitar bands and you start to see the stars align for The Vaccines.
Don’t get me wrong, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is a fun album but it’s upsetting that the band with the The Horrors connection gets this much attention for doing the same thing that virtually every other band both in the UK and here stateside is doing, which is playing tried and true bar band/pub garage rock with pop sensibility (See: Airborne Toxic Event, Gaslight Anthem, Detroit Cobras, etc) and some might argue, much better.
NEW SINGLE FROM BLACK LIPS: MODERN ART
Black Lips just released the first single from the Mark Ronson produced LP,Arabia Mountain, “Modern Art”. The track premiered over at Spin but you can grab it below. It’s a much more structured sound than 2009’s 200 Million Thousand, with more kink-like riffs and 13th Floor Elevator tweak-outs condoning drug use.
MP3 Black Lips “Modern Art” [Download Mirror]
NEW NUMBERS: VACATIONLAND
Those first moments of “Death and Dying” don’t only jar, but they kind of deceive too. From just those few seconds it’d be easy to expect something of the lo-fi, Times New Viking-meets-punk-rock concatenation. Rather, New Numbers are actually quite the rubbery outfit. There’s an unmistakable 1980’s aura on many of the songs (the vocals on “Verbal” are prime 80’s real estate), glimpses of standard issue, modern day indie rock, and even synthesizers blended in amongst the otherwise guitar and drum driven tunes. This may just be a debut — and a self-financed one at that — but its nice to hear that the band isn’t overly pushy with immediately establishing their own definitive sound. There’s a cohesion to it all, but the boundaries of such uniformity are pretty liberal.
Perhaps more than anything else, Vacationland is an album that makes you wonder — and much of that goes back to the whole self-financed thing. On this release, New Numbers seem poised and ready to make an impact. Hell, on tracks like “Islands” and “Creature Comforts,” they not only leave such an impact, but they do it better than a lot of label-supported artists. So the question then becomes: what if these guys had some backing? By no means is this the kind of record you’d easily fawn over, but its pretty easy to hear that the ingredients for such a thing. Just imagine if they had the resources afforded to many of the groups we switch in and out of our listening rotations. New Numbers could be a big thing.
Above all, Vacationland is exactly what the title suggests: an album chock full of fun cuts. There’s no overbearing pretentiousness or forced gimmicks. Its just a nice little do-it-yourselfer that deserves a spot somewhere on your summer soundtrack.
YUCK + TAME IMPALA: LIVE AT WEBSTER HALL
Yuck and Tame Impala played a sold out show at Webster Hall on Monday 25.4.11.
For a band that formed only a little over a year ago, the London/Hiroshima/ New Jersey foursome, Yuck are quickly becoming one of the best new bands out there. They might sound like they belong in the early 90’s but they are one of the more technically gifted guitar acts to tour in a long time, and prove themselves to be more than mere “Nineties revivalists” in concert. Drawing obvious inspiration from grunge and shoegaze bands from over a decade ago, they somehow manage to sound all their own, frontman Daniel Bloomburg channeling a bit of a young Dylan-esc stage swagger on a raw version of “Georgia”, and the band showing a more melancholy dreamlike side on “Suicide Policeman”. Substance o
If you haven’t seen Yuck live yet, there are still Tickets available for their Headline show at Bowery Ballroom on May 27th or you can head over and catch them play a free in-store at Other Music TONIGHT.
Aussie musical ensemble Tame Impala took the stage last and is a beast. Their 70 minute psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock performance was packed with enough emotion and atmosphere to keep your head swirling around like the light show they project behind them. With 9 flat screen monitors featuring a psychedelic light show rigged up to their guitars, the band tightly ripped through the entire Innerspeaker album, some lesser known tracks off their debut EP and even covered “Angel” by Massive Attack! Check out the full setlist and some pictures from the whole show, below:
VIDEO PREMIERE: NEW NUMBERS: TALK ABOUT YOURSELF
Brooklyn musical duo New Numbers have a new Midnight Cowboy inspired music video, directed by Matt Collison for “Talk About Yourself”, which is premiering right here on Discosalt! The track comes off their self-released debut full length album Vacationland, released on their own label Musiques Primitives. As an added treat… to go along with the release of the video, the band is giving their album away FREE all month. Just click HERE for a direct download.
And to catch the band live, come out and support them this Friday night at The Rock Shop in Park Slope with Hawk and Dove and Kleenex Girl Wonder, 10pm sharp! Check out a video flyer below and we’ll see you at the show:
UFFIE COVERS “WORDY RAPPINGHOOD” FOR EVIAN
French MC, Uffie has paired up the legendary DJ Mehdi to record a cover of the 1981Tom Tom Club hipster dance classic “Wordy Rappinghood” for evian’s new campaign.
Following up evian’s Roller Babies campaign, the evian babies are back in this new Live young campaign but this time around, the evian babies have hung up their skates and are dancing their way back into pop culture to Uffies catchy cover. You have a chance to be part of the campaign which will be released on the web at LetsBabyDance.evian.com and with just a few clicks you can become actors in the video and grab your own four frames of fame.
You can also download ‘Wordy Rappinghood’ from iTunes HERE
MOON DUO’S MAZES MOVES TOWARDS MORE POP-DRIVEN SOUND
Moon Duo, the soulfully noisy psychedelic space-rock side-project from Wooden Shjips guitarist Erik Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamad, have a new single and a new video for “Mazes”. Like so many other great artists from Bowie to Liars, the duo transplaned their recording process to Berlin for this album. But, while you might expect a more darker sound, “Mazes” surprisingly moves the band towards a more accessible pop-driven sound, which works in their favor. Watch the video for “Mazes” directed by band-mate Sanae Yamada right here:
CRYSTAL STILTS: IN LOVE WITH OBLIVION
[rating: 4.5]
Crystal Stilts: In Love With Oblivion
Label: Slumberland Records
Release Date: April 12, 2011
In Love with Oblivion is a lo-fi Brooklyn shoe-gaze garage rock album, every bit as potent as their debut, sounding less like Joy Division and more like a backyard acid trip; heavier on atmosphere, hotdogging the bands ultra-tight cohesion and aggrandizing the cult following of Brad Hargett’s tone-wary, reverb drenched bass voice. So what is the deal with that voice? Either you love it or hate it. We, obviously, love it. Take Ian Curtis of Joy Division or Paul Banks of Interpol, mix in some of The Velvet Underground and Jim Morrissey, and then lock them in a far away echo chamber drenched in reverb, and you have Brad Hargett. If you still don’t think any of that sounds like a bad combo, read on.
For a second album, Crystal Stilts succeed in stretching their noise pop schtick farther than their 2008 debut to create an even larger, darker,more atmospheric record. With leering and brash psychedelic organ swells, noisy guitars, sinister rockabilly riffs, and the echoy distance Hargett places between the instrumentation and the listener – this is sinister American pop at it’s best, from a band that has the songwriting chops to pull it off. Their song craft is a force to be reckoned with here; full of elliptical verses, scholarly pop savvy and an experimental energy that keeps the entire album fresh and effortless. From the stampeding instrumental opening track “Sycamore Tree”, to the more menacing but even more expansive “Half a Moon” , these are colossal songs occupying a vast sonic landscape for the listener to get lost in, forget who they are and fall in love with oblivion.
THE PASS: LIVE AT PIANOS/FONTANAS
Kentucky is not the first place you would expect to find a dance rock band of the caliber of The Pass, but these Louisvillians aren’t one to let their geographics tie them down. Which is lucky for us, considering we had two opportunities to see them play this past weekend in New York. Selling out venues across the country (twice selling out NY’s Pianos and even the 700 person Headliners in their hometown of Louisville), The Pass are nevertheless one of the more underrated bands of the scene. That was, perhaps, until Friday night when the line to get into Pianos stretched around the corner of the block and dozens of people that we spoke to were unable to get into see the band. For a young band still out to prove itself, there are certainly worse problems to have.
Drawing influences from Justice and LCD Soundsystem (R.I.P.), The Pass create a basement party kind of sweaty dance rock that packs crowds in and keeps even the most rigid hipsters moving. Recently featured on the CMJ and SXSW websites, big things are coming for this band who have found their music in primetime television and several CW and MTV televisions.
The sets at Pianos and Fontanas navigated the usual hits with all of the songs for which videos have been produced (except Criminal) making their appearance, but we were fortunate to be treated to two brand new songs, “It’s Less Dangerous” and “Hologram,” both of which were written in the last few weeks with kinks still getting worked out. The first of the new records had the anthematic quality showing the promise of that truly great record the labels are always looking for and the second displayed a really interesting wah wah kind of sound showing an exploration and development of guitar leads in their sound. Perhaps the tweet from Bank Robber Music said it best when they said “Wow. Suspicions confirmed at Pianos. @ThePassTheBand can’t write a bad song.” While they didn’t have the birdmen look this time, they put on a great show as always. In their feature, CMJ said “The courageous quartet pours passionate lyrics into a whirlwind of synthesizers and upbeat rhythms, all while catering to the perfect dance party environment” and notes that “the Pass’ music draws inspiration from dance parties, relationships, making out, the power of positive thinking and whatever rests in between.” It couldn’t be clearer from this week’s performances how true those statements are.
The Pass are definitely a band to keep up with so that you can be the guy or girl who knew about them before they blow up, and we’ll definitely be at the next performance (if we can get in the door).
Setlist:
Trap of Mirrors
Hologram
It’s Less Dangerous
Girl Don’t Wait
Treatment of the Sun
Crosswalk Stereo
How to Live
Colors
Vultures
The Pass: Live at Pianos
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Cassette Kids: Live at Pianos
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The Pass: Live at Fontanas
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XYLOS: XYLOS
[rating:4]
Xylos: Xylos
Label: 1000x Records
Release date: April 5, 2011
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART: BELONG
[rating: 4]
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart: Belong
Label: Collective Sounds
Release date: March 29, 2011
Since forming in early 2007, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have become one of the most buzzed about indie pop bands in years. Their distinctive retro sounding brand of noise pop is a tidy distillation of all the great late 80s/early 90s shoegaze precedents – with obvious nods to early My Bloody Valentine, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship – but with that incredible exuberance and energy that the Pains bring to every song. The kind of song energy that leaves me wondering whether the band is knowingly as naive as they project or incredibly emotionally complex songwriters.
On their new album Belong, the band uses their bookish lyrics and fuzzed out shoegaze sound to once again conquer the fine art of innocent romanticism mixed with semi-violent instrumentation, of emotional turmoil equaled by shimmering pop.
Read a more in depth album review from Discosalt contributing writer Andrew Bailey below:
Belong paints The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in the same complimentary light as those successful releases of two years ago. The overall sound is largely the same as well. The New York foursome is still heavily indebted to — and derivative of, to be perfectly honest — many of shoegaze’s greatest acts. All those comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and modern descendants like Crocodiles and The Radio Dept. that were so prevalent around their previous releases still hold true here. But this new album reflects some growth as well. It only takes one listen to the opening track, “Belong”, to gather that these songs are a little bit heavier than their predecessors. The band utilizes more aggressive guitar riffs that seem influenced by the whole 90′s grunge movement almost across the board on Belong, emphasized on that title track as well as “Girl of 1,000 Dreams” later on. They’ve also adapted a new crystalline production, unhinging themselves from some of shoegaze’s gravelly traits, which allows their spin on the genre to feel just a little more fresh and individualistic. It also provides for some nice boundaries between albums, with the self-titled and Belong managing to feel very different despite subscribing to many of the same techniques.
Even if Kip Berman’s songwriting feels a little too soft here and there (“I wonder what it’s like to be liked”, he ponders on the otherwise wonderful “Even in Dreams”), these 10 songs are almost resoundingly sensational. That said, they’re also all very similar. The debut album actually seemed that way as well, but after repeated listens tracks like “Contender”, “This Love is Fucking Right”, and “Everything With You” — among others — really began to carve out their own unique identity. Its too early to tell whether or not Belong will develop in the same manner or not, but for now it is a little difficult to pick out the LP’s premier tracks. That’s one of life’s rare win-win dilemmas though: one or two songs might not jump out from the others, but that’s only because they all triumph equally. (Read More HERE)
