ST. VINCENT: ST. VINCENT
[rating: 4.5]
St. Vincent: St. Vincent
Label: 4ad Records
Release date: September 13, 2011
Annie Clark is a woman of almost painterly beauty who would, in all likelihood, cut a bitch if she needed to. Beneath her gracefully composed chamber pop lies a scratchy, violent underbelly. With Strange Mercy, Clark achieves the perfect balance of porcelain elegance and distorted ugliness she’s spent three albums working to hit. Serrated guitar and some seriously agitated synthesizers—the coda of “Surgeon” sounds like something off a particularly wigged-out Bernie Worrell record—rip straight through strings, woodwinds and Clark’s own crystalline voice, leaving fractures in the delicate arrangements that take on a skewed sort of loveliness themselves.
– Matt Singer
STREAM THE NEW CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH ALBUM: HYSTERICAL
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has come a long way since 2005, when the DIY group first recorded and released their debut album all out of the apartment of bassist Tyler Sargent.
The band is back now with their third album Hysterical, marking their best work to date. “Hysterical Balances the exuberance of the band’s first album with beauty and reflection, most notably in “In a Motel” and “Adams Plane.” But it wouldn’t be a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record without that bounce; that “grab your buddy and dance with unhinged joy” emotion that’s all overHysterical. It’s feeling I thought we’d lost, but that the band has once again found, just in time.” (NPR Music)
You can stream the new album in it’s entirety on NPR’s First Listen by following the link below:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=140226001&m=140227904
PETER BJORN AND JOHN TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS
A.V. Club has released another great cover song video from Swedish trio Peter Bjorn And John. This time tackling the 1966 Otis Redding American soul classic, “Try A Little Tenderness”; a song that over the years, has been re-interpreted by just about everyone from Bing Crosby to Three Dog Night. While no version really compares to the original track for me, Peter Bjorn and John take a pretty good indie stab at it, joining the tradition to support their latest album, Gimme Some. Check it out.
Peter Bjorn And John cover “Try A Little Tenderness” by Otis Redding
DISCOSALT NOW IN THE APPLE APP STORE!
DISCOSALT Magazine App is now available in the Apple App Store for your iPad!
DISCOSALT is the first interactive iPad Magazine application dedicated to independent music, film and art. The quarterly magazine features exclusive feature articles and videos, album reviews, interviews, new music, fresh art, and indie culture, with a unique editorial voice and design distinctly divergent from mainstream trends. With the iPad format, we are able to give our readers direct access to the most current and legit music art and film news without corporate oversight and all without killing any pretty trees. Readers can simulate the print magazine experience while extending beyond the traditional publication model, interacting with media content. A simple tap on certain pages connects you to video and music content, as well as relevant websites.
[ Click for Press release HERE ]
REMIX ISSUE: The very first issue of discosalt Magazine features art, music and film exclusives, New York Culture, Interviews, Album Reviews and more.
Cover Story: Miami psych-synth band ANR’s Apocalypse survival guide
Features: The Future of Radiohead, Remixing Culture-the new direction in art and music
Exclusive Interviews: Inconic music photographer Brad Elterman, Howl director Jeffrey Freidman, artist/skateboarder Viktor Timofeev, post-punk band Orange Juice, Brooklyn’s Holy Hail
Fresh work: New York based artist Sara Blake and Italian street artist CT
NYC Culture: Urban Surfers, DJ life, Chelsea Grind, Crowd Behavior
Album Reviews: Dawes, YACHT, The Horrors, Battles, Cults
NEW JUSTICE VIDEO: AUDIO, VIDEO, DISCO
Justice have just unveiled the labor-intensive video (appropriate post-Labor Day timing) directed by SO ME, for the title track of the new album Audio, Video, Disco. Good luck getting the hook out of your head.
BAND RADAR: THE MORNING CLOUDS
With lush guitars, and hushed vocals The Morning Clouds are the perfect soundtrack for a foggy drive. The Morning Clouds consists of Josh Wambeke, who’s best known for his work with a band called Fell. Wambeke’s upcoming release Wasted Youth Blues EP is self produced and recorded, showcasing one complex and lush piece of work. Although Wambeke slinks into a bedroom-pop aesthetic on The Wasted Youth Blues, there’s still enough cosmic dust left over from Fell’s travels to the edge of the universe to coat The Morning Clouds’ songs and cast an ethereal shimmer over that comfortably familiar classic pop framework. Just like the Ramones roughed it up with punk and JAMC’s C86 aesthetic yanked it into the new wave, The Wasted Youth Blues filters the sound through Wambeke’s spaced-out sensibilities. The Morning Clouds first release through Lefse Records is the gem-worthy EP.
Lefse Records will be releasing the debut EP Wasted Youth Blues on October 11th from Denver’s The Morning Clouds.
[MP3] The Morning Clouds “The Wrong Things”
http://www.lefserecords.com/tracks/TheMorningClouds-TheWrongThings.mp3
[Stream] The Morning Clouds “The Wrong Things”
http://soundcloud.com/viciousbuzz/the-wrong-things-1/s-1hgUA
BAND RADAR: ICEAGE
The first few seconds of the Danish punk rocker’s first single, “White Rune” is nothing short of exhilarating and should be downloaded asap! Their 12-song, 24-minute noise-punk call to arms debut album, New Brigade, is a sonically dense and seductive post-punk power-house that will appeal to both art rock snobs and DIY minded punks. After five weeks on the road playing rock clubs, house shows, and in-stores with only two days off in that entire stretch, Iceage have also been working on a new video for, “You’re Blessed.” Check it out and download some tracks below:
Listen to Iceage’s “Broken Bone” – http://pitchperfectpr.com/mp3/BrokenBone.mp3
Listen to Iceage’s “White Rune” – http://www.pitchperfectpr.com/mp3/Iceage_WhiteRune.mp3
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY: LAST KNOWN SURROUNDINGS
“Last Known Surroundings” Written & Performed by Explosions in the Sky.
Directed by Ptarmak
Illustration: Sissy Emmons
Animation: David Hobizal
WASHED OUT: EYES BE CLOSED
Timothy Saccenti, previously known for directing videos for the likes of Battles, Flying Lotus, Chairlift & Animal Collective, amongst others, has teamed up with Alan Bibby to create a beautiful short visual piece for ‘Eyes Be Closed’.
It’s the first single to be taken from ‘Within and Without’, the long awaited debut album from Washed Out.
BON IVER: HOLOCENE
New video from Bon Iver for “Holocene”, directed by NABIL, Edited by Isaac Hagy and produced by Jill Hammer.
BAND RADAR: LIGHT FOR FIRE
“The Huckster”, is the opening track off Light for Fire’s eponymous alcohol and depression fueled release. It’s an immediate, folk-influenced tune with nods to Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, and M. Ward that finds singer Nicholas Allard confessing, “I drank myself to bed last night. Licked my many wounds as I was getting high.” Shouldn’t every record start off this way?
Light for Fire’s first single from the album “NY (By The Hand)” is still available for download at the link below.
HOW TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT AND HAVE A GOOD TIME TOO
Impenetrable Boundaries of Steel, Glass and Concrete
Before immigrating to Europe and studying at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Algerian Driss Ouadahi studied architecture. His paintings of the ubiquitous high-rise, the legacy of Modern Architecture’s failed promise to improve the human condition, are renderings of impenetrable boundaries of steel, glass and concrete.
Ouadahi’s exploration begins with images of the enormous public housing developments in Algiers that had been modeled on France’s habitation à loyer modéré (housing at moderated rents). In North Africa, these monoliths accommodate displaced rural populations; in Europe, they house immigrants from former colonies. They are symbols of the politics of class, religion and ethnicity. Reminders of otherness.
In addition to the permutations of cityscape which Ouadahi has been exploring in the last few years, his work consists of two new types of paintings. The first are rigorously formal renderings of chain-link fencing that are both minimalist abstractions and a signifier of separation. The second are depictions of tiled passageways, akin to subway systems like the Paris Métro. Fluorescent-lit and grimy, they are labyrinthian and claustrophobic. Ostensibly their purpose is movement from one place to another. But they feel more like blocked escape routes or morgues. They speak to restricted mobility in a supposedly global culture.
IS INDIE POP FORMULAIC? 6 KEYS TO CLASSIC SUMMER SOUND
Is indie pop formulaic?
Last summer, discosalt writer Casey Bowers pinned down 6 Keys to a Classic Summer Sound:
1. 60’s girl group pop melodies
2. Big, bright surf guitars
3. Vocals drenched (or drowned) in reverb
4. Any sound resembling The Beach Boys or Jan and Dean
5. Lyrics with the words: beach, summer, sun or waves
6. 80’s dream pop influence
This year, with the onslaught of 90s indie rock influence, garage rock leanings and psychedelic or chill vibes, 2011 has been about deviation. Here are some tracks that stayed true and got stuck in our heads and a few others that broke away, blurred the lines and just flat out floored us.
1. Bedroom Eyes - Dum Dum Girls
2. Summer Hits Or J Plus J Don't Like - Mazes
3. Hold On - Yellow Ostrich
4. Speaking In Tongues (featuring David Byrne) - Arcade Fire
5. Bone Orchard - Turrks
6. Where I'm Going - Cut Copy
7. Come to the City - The War on Drugs
8. Georgia - Yuck
You can check out Casey's article " Radiohead: Echoes of the Past, Glimpses of the Future" in the REMIX ISSUE of DISCOSALT Magazine, on sale now.
GIRLS: VOMIT
Promo video for Girls – ‘Vomit’ taken from the forthcoming album ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’ released September 12th in the UK on Turnstile and September 13th in the US on True Panther.
DON’T MISS THE FINAL SCENE OF CHROMEO’S NEW VIDEO
Careful, Chromeo’s latest video might impregnate you- or so the directors, Daniels, want you to think. Featuring Solange Knowles, “When The Night Falls,” is entertaining until the way end, (seriously, you don’t want to miss the final scene).
LISTEN NOW: NEW ALBUM FROM TEAM GENIUS
LISTEN NOW: DANNY BROWN’S NEW XXX MIXTAPE
I think the Fader put it best this morning re: Danny Brown’s new XXX mixtape: “It’s like if Louis CK was younger and slightly, slightly less cynical and rapped”.
Get it at Fools Gold Records now.
DAS RACIST IMPREGNATE EAST VILLAGE RADIO
Das Racist have a new residency on East Village Radio- “Chillin’ Island”, on EVR every Friday from 2pm – 4pm EST starting August 12th until the release of their debut LP, “Relax”, on September 13th. The guys will be holding it down, playing favorite tracks, kicking it with drop-in guests and (best of all) premiering cuts from the new record dropping on Heems’ own label, Greedhead Music.
Tune in at the link below.
http://www.eastvillageradio.com/