Spoon / photo by David Greenwald

2010′s halfway done, which means it’s time to take stock of this year’s best albums. Find 20 of them after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking up might have been the best thing the Pipettes ever did. Rose Elinor Dougall’s latest, “Find Me Out,” finds the singer going unexpectedly melancholic, applying her strident voice to a Yo La Tengo-esque ballad. As with all her post-Pipettes stuff, it’s excellent — and in more good news, Becki Stephens (formerly RiotBecki) has started a new group, The Projectionists, whose MySpace tracks sound similarly promising. (Both tips via Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good)

Previously:
Rose Elinor Dougall – “Third Attempt (Version)”
Video: Rose Elinor Dougall – “Leave”
All Rose Posts

Pitchfork announced a new left-field music website today, which’ll gather Gorilla Vs. Bear and a whole bunch of blogs I don’t read in a bid for… well, I’m not sure yet. Pros, cons and speculation after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Dreamy. Still spinning/enjoying the bed-headed L.A. band’s new EP.

In case you were wondering what sad bastard twee-folkies Adam & Darcie sounded like after a few drinks with bedroom electro backing, the husband-and-wife duo’s collab with live bandmate Straight Up! offers a convenient and extremely listenable answer. (A&D’s album proper was, as you’ll remember, a Rawkblog Best of ’09 pick.)

Straight Up! – “Never Works”: mp3

(More Straight Up! on Bandcamp, where you can buy the pictured Super Midnight EP; “Never Works” is a one-off single)

More: New Music | 2010 Album Release Calendar

Wild Nothing frontman Jack Tatum turned 22 this month, making him young enough to have missed the prime listening years of the ’80s and old enough to have nevertheless discovered their manifold rewards. Hip-hop happened, as did grunge, and for any number of reasons, the chiming guitars and synth soundscapes of bands from New Order and The Cure to The Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine were abandoned and left to dusty vinyl — for a time. Groups as wide-ranging as Pains of Being Pure at Heart and The Killers have picked up where their shimmering forebears left off, realizing with 20 years of hindsight (and sweet new recording gear) that New Wave has unfinished business.

Few bands have picked up the torch with the successful fervor of Wild Nothing, a group whose debut bursts with the embryonic pleasures of early My Bloody Valentine and the attention to forthright melodicism that defines the best of Sarah Records. Songs such as “O Lilac” and “Drifter” adhere closer to the shy, treble-heavy style of the late ’80s U.K. indie-pop movement than they do to Factory Records’ Mancunian raconteurs, and the bedroom feel is bolstered by Tatum’s droopy, Ariel Pink-like vocals. Gemini swirls with intimate noise as heartfelt as the bands who first bared their synth-backed souls over two decades ago, proving that a revival doesn’t have to mean a rehash.

Wild Nothing – “Chinatown”: mp3

More: New Music | 2010 Album Release Calendar

Congratulations are due to Mr. Greg Katz, who took multiple honors at the LA Press Club‘s awards last night including Best In Show and Journalist of the Year, Print (Under 50,000 Circulation), best Investigative/Series, an honorable mention for Hard News and second place for News Feature; and also to Mr. Alfred Lee, who won Best Hard News at the ceremony. Before these two gentleman were Los Angeles journalism’s hottest rising stars, they were writers right here at Rawkblog — I’d like to think that my OCD-thorough editing and hard-nosed newsroom management pushed them to their current glories, but we should all give them a round of applause either way.

Some of their Rawkblog classics:
Alfred Lee: The Best Films of 2007
Greg Katz: Kimya Dawson and the Moldy Peaches at the Smell
Greg Katz: The Canon, Examined: Danzig I

The latest in Ryan Adams Facebook Reblogging:

* III/IV and Blackhole are on the way soon, likely within three weeks or so.
* There are six previously unheard GarageBand demos on his MySpace. They are of varying silliness. “Television Static” sounds slightly like a Kid A b-side.
* Ryan got to hang out with his hero, Glenn Danzig, and they took this awesome photo.

My complete guide on what to expect from Ryan and the Cardinals’ III/IV is here. In related news, I went to the Playboy Mansion last night and interviewed Flo Rida.