STATE CHAMPION: STALE CHAMPAGNE
Southern, garage-folk act out of Louisville, KY.
Stream their most recent album Stale Champagne HERE , peep their myspace or check out a vid below.
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: FALL BE KIND
Animal Collective has just released another album this year to follow up one of my favorite albums of the year Merriweather Post Pavilion. The new EP “Fall be Kind” is a darker album, only five tracks long and you can stream it for free right now Here
YEASAYER: AMBLING ALP
Discosalt album of the week 30/11/09: New Video for Yeasayer’s new single Ambling Alp.
UPCOMING ALBUM RELEASES: DECEMBER 2009
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- Discosalt- bravery-Stir-the-blood album art
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- Discosalt- Animal-Collective-Fall-Be-Kind-EP
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- Discosalt- 30 seconds to mars- this-is-war album art
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- Discosalt-Kissogram_rubbermeat_album art
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- Discosalt-Lou reed velvet underground album art
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- Discosalt-xray spex album art
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- Discosalt- pearljam-backspacer album art
December 1:
Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground- Live 1969/1972
The Bravery: Stir The Blood
Deer Tick: More Fuel For the Fire
X-Ray Specs: Live at the Roundhouse London
Pearl Jam: Got Some/Just Breathe (single)
December 8:
30 Seconds to Mars: This Is War
Kissogram: Rubber & Meat
December 15:
Animal Collective: Fall Be Kind
CALIFONE: ALL MY FRIENDS ARE FUNERAL SINGERS
Califone has released a new video for “Funeral Singers” off their most recent album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. “Funeral Singers” is just one track from another uniquely cinematic album from the Chicago based sonic atmospheric rock band. The album is actually a companion piece to lead singer Tim Rutili’s feature film of the same name, which I have only heard described as a Lynchian story about a lonely psychic woman, whose house spirits try to escape. The album is familiar territory for Califone, atmospheric alt-country, layered guitars, violin and banjo weaved by steel drums and tape loops. Its almost as if Califone keeps recording the same album, just improving on the last. They are performing a live, interactive soundtrack to the movie at most of their shows and the movie will be submitted to film festivals in 2010.You can check out the new video below or the movie trailer on their MySpace page.
NEW GRIZZLY BEAR VIDEO: READY, ABLE
I first saw Allison Schulnik’s Claymation short “Hobo Clown”, this past summer as part of the Dark Toons Rooftop film festival in New York and it absolutely floored me. Now Allison has lent her happy fool/sad misfit clown character to a new music video to one of my favorite tracks from the summer, Grizzly Bear’s ‘Ready, Able’ off their album Veckitimest. Check out the Grizzly Bear video and Hobo Clown below.
GIRLS: ALBUM
[rating:4]
Girls : Album
Label: True Panther Sounds
Release Date: September 22, 2009
When Girls’ Christopher Owens sings “Man I felt like I could lay down and die, then I found myself in a song” on “Darling,” there’s a palpable sense that rock and roll is salvation, and when he sings “Man I’m just crazy and fucked in the head,” it’s pretty easy to believe Owens was raised in a cult (!) and that salvation was a hard fought one. It helps that these messages of salvation are dropped on top of a reverb soaked sound plate, and a jangled guitar driving them forward. Separation and space really define the songs on Album, as even the straightforward psycho-billy rocker “Big Bad Mean Motherfucker” sounds like it was recorded in a massive echo chamber, with Owens singing through a transistor radio. This space gives each song a very laid back, 2nd bottle of red wine coolness that is especially evident on Album’s standouts “Lust for Life,” “Hellhole Ratrace” and “Ghostmouth.” Owens’s vocal delivery, which is a weird mix between Elvis Costello and Axl Rose as front man for a 40’s big band, really puts the heart into these alternating melodic pleas and moments of rejoice.
The life of a rock and roll revivalist is a tough one, I’d think. For every notable band that reveres the spirit of 50s & early 60s rock and roll (we’ll call them the Fonzies, i.e. The Ramones, Galaxie 500, just to name a couple), there are the Ralph Malphs of the world, trotting out the leather jacket & dropping pop culture references from the era without really getting it. Girls ply in the world of Rock & Roll revivalism on their exceptional debut album without sounding like homage. Instead, they create a set of songs that are as essential to the form, evoking themes of youth without sounding immature, and revering the true spirit of the form, with songs about girls (have to love the girl’s name as the song title in both “Laura” and “Lauren Marie”), youthful isolation and the desire to figure out what’s next. And, in this, the record is able to balance both reverence for the form and a total disregard for whatever conventions rock might have.
-John Whitaker
FREE STREAM: JULIAN CASABLANCAS: PHRAZES FOR THE YOUNG
Julian Casablancas‘ debut solo album, Phrazes For The Young, is officially out today but you can stream some of the tracks on the web for free. Check them out below:
“11th Dimension” – Julian Casablancas from Phrazes For The Young
“Glass” – Julian Casablancas from Phrazes For The Young
UPCOMING ALBUM RELEASES: NOVEMBER 2009
November 3:
Morrissey: Swords
Weezer: Raditude
Vagina Panther:Vagina Panther
Shwayze: Let it Beat
Julian Casablancas: Phrazes for the Young
November 17:
Real Estate: Real Estate
Leona Lewis: Echo
John Mayer: Battle Studies
Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City (Live)
Rush: Working Man (Live)
Them Crooked Vultures: Them Crooked Vultures
November 24:
Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom (live)
COMPILATION: DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
The much anticipated and mysterious multi-media project/album involving Danger Mouse , Mark Linkous , and David Lynch entitled “Dark Night of the Soul ” featuring Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse along with the Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Frank Black, the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Jason Lytle, and James Mercer of the Shins, has apparently been canned.
Teaser below:
Dark Night of the Soul is a treatise written by Spanish poet and Roman Catholic Mystic Saint John of the Cross. It has since become an expression used to describe a phase in a person’s spiritual life, a metaphor for a certain loneliness and desolation. The Lynch Project has proven just as cryptic and while the Dark Night of the Soul book has been released along with an art installation at L.A.’s Michael Kohn Gallery this summer, the album official release “has been either scrapped altogether or put on indefinite hiatus” according to Billboard magazine, “due to unspecified legal issues with EMI”. Whether or not the installation has plans to reach New York, is still shrouded in mystery but luckily the album is out there if you snoop around. I picked up a copy at a record shop on East 3rd Street and you can stream the entire album HERE.
VOLCANO CHOIR: UNMAP
[rating:4]
Volcano Choir: Unmap
Label: Jagjaguwar.
Release Date: September 22
For singer/songwriter Justin Vernon, a member of the Discosalt Artist Collective and founder of Bon Iver, the project “wasn’t planned. The goal was to hibernate.” Vernon had moved to a remote cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin where all of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt were suddenly purged into the form of song. The end result was “For Emma, Forever Ago”, a nine-song guitar-driven album of pain, love and loss that topped my favorite album of last year and in a low mood can almost drive you to tears.
Now, Vernon has put the folk based Bon Iver project on hiatus and teamed up with fellow Wisconsin band and minimalist experimental post-rockers, Collections of Colonies of Bees. The resulting collaboration is “Volcano Choir” and their first album released last month is “Unmap”; a beautifully haunting album written over the past three years….and not entirely by design. Guitarist Chris Rosenau thinks “it is by definition a record by accident because there was no idea to ever make a record.” Just a bunch of friends having fun and somehow an album was born out of the sessions. Similar to the Bon Iver project, Volcano Choir is riddled with lush choral walls and Vernon’s unmistakably piercing falsetto croon which marks the album. Vernon’s voice certainly brings some familiar sounding territory here to the album which will please Bon Iver fans, but this is a far less lyrical album than his previous projects, more spooky than sad, and more experimental along the lines of COCOB.
While the album still maintains Vernon’s sincerity and passion, the collaboration with the equally talented Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Dan Spack, Jim Schoenecker, and Thomas Wincek has created a much more strange but also more upbeat album, pulling bits of Mueller’s Experimental noise and percussive talents, Rosenau’s chopped up guitar style and Wincek and Schoenecker’s soaring electronic keys sound to match Vernon’s voice.The result is an album with a much stronger pop sensibility than anything COCOB or Bon Iver previously released, equal parts strange and beautiful and on the whole stunning. The single “Islands IS” (video featured below) is by far the most accessible track on the album, while tracks like “Sleepymouth” is a much more minimalist composed song, with Vernon’s haunting voice echoes and Rosenau’s sparse guitar riffs driving the song along until it builds into a soaring melody reminiscent of Bon Iver. “Cool Knowledge” might leave you puzzled when the driving song suddenly comes to a halt at 67 seconds and “Mbira in the Morass” has some definite jazz influences. Those familiar with Bon Iver B-sides will recognize “Still”, the previously released auto-tuned song with it’s synthesizer based structure that sounds more like noise-pop where “And Gather” is a soft new acoustic guitar song with steady handclaps, perfect for a campfire sing-a-long.
The album is at times abstract, subtle, mysterious, experimental, and poppy but it holds together by the interesting mix of songs and the talented musicians involved.
-JAV
DEER TICK: BORN ON FLAG DAY
[rating:4]
Deer Tick : Born on Flag Day
Label: Partisan Records
Release Date: June 23, 2009
When listening to Born on Flag Day, it’s ex-tremely difficult to tell that Deer Tick front man John McCauley is from Rhode Island. No, seems like the casual listener would take one quick listen to the Red Dirt songscapes and McCauley’s predilection for taking his songs out onto the vast, open Midwestern skies and bellowing a big ol’ howl at the moon, and said listener would guess Mr. McCauley is from T-E-X-A-S. This version of Red Dirt or Americana (a distinction I’d guess the band wanted folks to take from the record, based on it’s Mellencamp-esque album title) is what the kids in Dillon, Texas listen to when they’re driving their beat to shit pickup trucks down a dirt road, looking for direction, and a party to boot.
Born on Flag Day sounds a little like it was recorded to have a bit of studio polish and a lot like it was recorded in a bar. This kind of controlled looseness constitutes an overarching homespun charm that all of the songs have. Some of these songs drip with a (previously decried) “beery wisdom,” but mostly these songs exude a sometimes joyous, sometimes somber & always contemplative feeling about love & loss. You don’t walk away from this record with pearls of wisdom, per se, it’s much more built to be about mood & feel. This mood is one of a classic country lament and the celebration of the bad times & failures, and sometimes celebration of the form in & of itself. The June & Johnny inflected “Friday XIII” is a classic he said/she said, with Tennessee Three quality guitar work giving the song it’s edge; while “Smith Hill” waltzes it’s way from the back room of the bar out onto the prairie sky, with it’s bellowed chorus and it’s sorrowful fiddle backbone. “Little White Lies,” a song built on that classic country lament (but always turning the ALT in alt-country up to 11, as when McCauley turns up the volume on his Jim Beam tarnished voice, he evokes alt progenitors Corgan & Cobain much more than Cash or Van Zandt) changes course midway from a slow jam pleading “let me be lonely tonight” to a Tex-Mex jamboree, complete with a Mendocino flavored electric guitar worthy of Freddy Fender himself.
Red Dirt homespun wisdom sometimes comes out sounding like it’s half the result of an unflinching sincerity and half the result of that 3rd shot from the whiskey bottle, but either way, being part of that conversation is kind of vital sometimes. Deer Tick’s contribution to the conversation is sometimes directly from “the label on the bottle that I read” (from the jubilant “The Ghost”), and this contribution really represents this little genre of music. Let the guitars do the crying sometimes, they pull the heartstrings just as well as overt pleas, and let the cracked and handsome voice of McCauley be the reason to crack another bottle.
-John Whitaker
NIRVANA: BLEACH (DELUXE EDITION)
Bleach: Deluxe Edition
Its been 20 years since Nirvana released their debut album “Bleach”?Sursly? 20 years! Am I that old and I just didn’t get the memo? Either way, “Bleach” was/is so damn good and a defining album for the grunge era. One of the first bands/albums to really mix things up for me on the jr. high wrestling tourney bus circuit, flannel on, walkman cranked to 11. Nothing says grunge quite like a singlet and the runs. While my awkwardly pissed off 13 year old self wasn’t quite so hip to “Bleach” until Nirvana’s sophmore effort “Nevermind” blew up in ’91, this album is a staple that has made the transition in my music collection from cassette to cd to digital and now hopefully vinyl…the circle is complete. Raw, emotional and “about a girl”, may be one of my favorite Nirvana songs ever.
On November 3, Sub Pop will re-issue the Platinum Certified Bleach album in an expanded CD/double-LP with a never-before-released live performance, special packaging and the first run of the double-LP will be on….wait for it…. 180g white vinyl. Total boners.
Heres what Sub Pop has to say:
“This edition will include an unreleased live recording of a complete February 9th, 1990 show at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The show features performances of “Love Buzz,” “About a Girl” and a cover of The Vaselines’ song “Molly’s Lips” and has been re-mixed from the original tapes by Endino (complete track listing below). A 52-page CD /16-page LP booklet which includes candid photos of the band not previously released to the public will also be included in this deluxe edition.”
Both formats will be available for pre-order at subpop.com leading up to this edition’s release.
Check out the track “Scoff(live): mp3 HERE:
CYMBALS EAT GUITARS: WHY THERE ARE MOUNTAINS
[rating:3]
Record Review/Concert Review:
Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains
Label: Sisters Den Records
Release Date: January 25, 2009
Insound Anniversary Party Location: Brooklyn Bowl, August 2009
After SXSW every year I look at round ups of everyone’s favorite acts. A name that came up over and over was Cymbals Eat Guitars, but since I’m a total curmudgeon, I usually don’t see the hovering stars that everyone else see after sxsw. That’s irritating, I thought to myself, their name is hard to say…I’ll never remember that. Well, after 6 months, and many live acts and new albums, I’m still listening to their self released recording. The first time I listened to Why There Are Mountains I was reminded of Modest Mouse, but not reminded as in “lacking originality”. I just had an instant warm reaction. Perhaps it’s the lingering sensation, or the constant growth and stillness in the album, but I think the opening track, And the Hazy Sea, describes the whole album. With its building crescendos, lofty vocals and orgasmic releases the opening track captured me. I am certainly not one whole easily grasps extended noisy guitars, but that is where the strength in this album lies. It’s musically strong, both soaring and sinking. All over the place, in a neat and organized fashion. I had been on a mini-indie music hiatus post-Bonarroo, but seeing that Cymbals Eat Guitars would be headlining in Brooklyn, I couldn’t resist. I headed to Brooklyn Bowl for a beer and some live music. Sadly, I missed Real Estate (damn day job) but got there just in time for Suckers. I was having a hard time taking them seriously, because I was seriously curious about Cymbals Eat Guitars. Here is a group of young guys who recorded an album without a label, and somehow managed to become one of the most blogged about bands of 2009 (this fact is totally un-researched, but it feels that way to me). I guess I had an image of 4 awkward boys from Staten Island, with stage fright, and better recording skills than actual talent. I was wrong. So very, very wrong. I don’t know why I insist on jumping to negative conclusions, maybe I like the pleasant surprise?? Anyway, lead singer Joseph “Ferocious” D’Agostino (of grocery fame?) absolutely killed it on stage. He was dripping sweat, swaying, bending and folding to his own incredible tunes. The band played a pretty tight act, without too much improv, just a solid group of songs. For a band that released it’s debut 6 months ago, I was floored. They all focused on the music instead of trying to be good performers. The good performance flowed out of their obvious untiy. Without hesitation I would absolutely go see them again. I also look forward to the battle of the record labels…who is going to try to snatch them up? Will the take on a manager? Its almost an unheard of success story. These days gaining this level of popularity without a label is commendable, a true sign of talent and grace. Good luck boys.
See you again soon.
<3 The Elephant.
P.S Did I mention that Mr. Ferocious is only 20…thats robbing the cradle for me….i’m just sayin….youthful talent is attractive….
JOE PERNICE: IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN I STOP
[rating:3.5]
Joe Pernice : It Feels So Good When I Stop
Label: Ashmont Records
Release Date: August 4, 2009
Here’s the M.O. behind Joe Pernice’s companion piece to his first novel, “It Feels So Good When I Stop”: “Though the book is not explicitly about music, there are quite a few cover and fictional songs mentioned, so I thought it would be a cool idea for me to record some of those songs and release them, as a soundtrack album to the novel.” You know, cool is a really good adjective to describe what any Pernice Brothers fan might use to describe a record featuring Joe Pernice covering AM Gold classics “Hello It’s Me” and “Chevy Van,” not to mention indie classic “Soul and Fire” by Sebadoh. Totally unexpected and unbelievable for any fan might be another way. For the rest of you/us, this is Massachusetts’ second greatest living troubadour (Jonathan Richman is still out there crooning, at low volumes, some song in French, somewhere) piecing together a totally eclectic and interesting set of songs, set to the cool distinctive voice of Joe Pernice & his acoustic guitar. The stripped down arrangement on “Chevy Van” and “Hello It’s Me” give the songs a totally different vibe, less Harvest Gold & more Americana, but the surprises really come from the 60’s. The fun, very faithful versions of Peter & Gordon’s “I Go To Pieces” and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet” sound crisp and fresh, and Pernice’s voice, always defined by regret and falsetto, makes these heavy repeat players. The biggest surprise, however, comes with the choice cover “Chim Cheree” from Mary Poppins. Take away the dancing chimney sweeps & the hucksterism of Dick Van Dyke & replace with the whisper of Mr. Pernice and a dark, moody, stark and brooding arrangement. In an album meant to be a simple musical accompaniment, Joe Pernice once again takes us by surprise, this time not with deft phrasing & crack songwriting, but with this disparate and yet cohesive set of songs.
-John Whitaker
UPCOMING ALBUM RELEASES: OCTOBER 2009
Discosalt Upcoming Album Release Roundup for October:
6 October:
Basement Jaxx:Scars
Built To Spill:There Is No Enemy
The Cinematics:Love And Terror
The Clientele:Bonfires On The Heath
The Gossip:Music For Men
Daniel Johnston: Is And Always Was
The Mountain Goats:The Life of the World to Come
No Age: Losing Feeling [EP]
Noah And The Whale:The First day Of Spring
A Place To Bury Strangers:Exploding Head
The Raveonettes:In And Out Of Control
13 October:
Bob Dylan: Christmas In The Heart
20 October:
Julien Casablancas: Phrazes for the Young
Do Make Say Think: Other Truths
Kings Of Convenience: Declaration Of Dependence
27 October:
R.E.M.: Live At The Olympia
Tegan And Sara: Sainthood
Weezer: Raditude
CLUES: CLUES
[rating:4]
Clues: Clues
Label: Constellation Records
Release Date: May 19, 2009
In “Remember Severed Head,” Clues front fella asks the comic pair of questions “Who here wants to sleep in the dragon’s mouth? Who here wants to feel?” Comic phrasing, most definitely, I’d think those questions are usually reserved for the Dungeon Master at a midnight D&D raid, and yet those questions kind of work as a perfect dividing line for the Clues self titled debut. When we’re sleeping in the dragon’s mouth, we’re rocking out in a very obvious amalgamation of indie rock influences, but when we want to feel, the songs actually get really interesting.
So, when Clues race along, they do it rocking out, and often times there is a catchy whistled melody (“Remebered Severed Head”) or a creepy fun, Blonde Redhead-esque vibe (“Crows”), but sometimes these rockers wear their influences on their sleeves, and it’s not inspired and sometimes not really that interesting (see album opener “Haarp”). But when Clues takes the tempo down, they turn into a completely different band. If you are wearing a digital hearing aid this is the point you make sure it’s at the right volume, so you get the best experience of the music. Most songs have a distinctly Eastern European flavor, baroque and sinister and yet endearing and listenable. While album standout “Elope” maintains it’s cool demeanor with its brushed drums & slowly strummed guitars, songs like “Perfect Fit” and “Ledmonton” begin with a sparse, staccato guitar or piano and a melancholy melody, and build into a large, fist pumping resolve. “Ledmonton” in particular, begins with a somber melody, and eventually explodes into a rollicking march that I think would make Sousa proud. So when Clues asks the listener to “Give me a visual on the rockness,” and they most definitely do ask that, maybe we (the listener) back off on that request. Clues actually sounds best when not sleeping in the dragon’s mouth (and, really, don’t we all?) and when really pushing that sonic landscape of what it means to feel.
By John Whitaker
GRIZZLY BEAR: WHILE YOU WAIT FOR THE OTHERS
I KEEP FORGETTIN’…THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN…
After waiting all summer to see Grizzly Bear play at the Williamsburg waterfront yesterday, and then getting subsequently thrown out for stepping over the makeshift orange plastic fence into the measurably less crowded park area (thanks concert security!), I am at least feeling better about the whole incident after hearing the new Grizzly Bear collaboration with Michael ” I keep forgettin'” McDonald on the track “While You Wait For the Others.” A joke? Don’t say that, don’t say that, don’t say that. The Brooklyn indie animals and the husky bearded baritoned yaght rock singer from the doobs sings with the band…and its kind of amazing. The track is available on iTunes, or you can order the 7″ directly from the band. Mcdonald also just contributed vocals for the electronica outfit “Holy Ghost!” which is scheduled to be released on the duo’s upcoming album this year as well. I smell a comeback. Can we get Patti Labelle in on the mix?
NO AGE: LOSING FEELING
Seattle based Sub Pop records , who scored cred in the late 80s for signing Nirvana and continues to push amazing artists into our ears, is offering a free stream of So Cal punks No Age’s new EP Losing Feeling. The label is hip to the fact you are going to download this sh#t before its released anyway, so now you dont have to wait until October 6th and can still feel good about yourself for supporting a solid label. Pre-order the 12-inch vinyl for 8 bucks right here, and, with registration, stream the entire EP or download “You’re A Target” free from the links below.
Stream: No Age, Losing Feeling
Download: No Age, “You’re A Target”
FUCK BUTTONS: BRIGHT TOMORROW
With a name like Fuck Buttons, you are obviously going to get peoples attention. The real trick is holding it and the two piece experimental dance minded noise group from England do a pretty good job. The new single “Surf Solar” off “Bright Tomorrow”, runs over ten minutes on the album but has been condensed into a nice 3:42 vid treatment that melds a four-to-the floor pulse to stuttering samples smeared with an intense, industrial and somewhat evil sonic loop. For a noise group, Fuck Buttons are surprisingly accessible, and they drop a dreamy mix of sheen melodic undercurrents and abrasive climaxes. Kinda sounds like a girl I used to date. A style that hints less towards unwelcome noise and more towards Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine, Purient, and Black Dice. Trippy video to boot.
