Garage rock retro Best Coast “Be My Little Baby” Dum Dum Girls SXSW lo-fi Beck 2.0 Bandcamp Altered Zones Hype Machine blogosphere CMJ guitar tones Brooklyn sunglasses Twitter cute lead singer Time magazine Gorilla Vs. Bear
Telenovelas – “One and Only”: mp3
Photo by David Greenwald
Dirty Projectors are in that glorious mid-career period of being able to do no wrong. “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” is the latest turn on their victory lap — less dissonant than their Bjork team-up EP from earlier this year, more strummy than 2009′s Bitte Orca. It’s a Bob Dylan cover, so the band’s forgiven for making it sound like one. Would’ve been a nice fit on the I’m Not There soundtrack right next to Wilco, but it’s for Levi’s Pioneer Sessions: My 511s endorse this.
Dirty Projectors – “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” (Bob Dylan cover): mp3
Another lost classic from Aussie Anthony Rochester’s Canon-quality Music For In The Spaceship. Keep an ear out for your favorite Christmas song toward the end.
A frosty new one from electro-man-about-town Baths, who joins the five other artists on this free, fresh EP for an L.A. show on Tuesday. As we’ve discussed, dude can play live. More details here.
Pals, for the last week or so I’ve been getting my feet wet at the Los Angeles Times’ Brand X, where I’m the brand-new blog editor. I’ve been blogging (of course — last week, I talked to Division Day about the band’s new singles series) and writing for the weekly magazine as well, which you can find on stands across our fair city every Wednesday. “But what does this mean for Rawkblog?!” you may already be asking, your Google Reader’s spine shuddering with a sudden shiver. Probably not much: I’ll still be writing about the best music ever right here on a daily basis. Hopefully you’ll keep reading, and join me over at the new gig as well. Huuuuuuuugs!
Here’s what the Arcade Fire’s chart-topping 156,000 in first-week sales tells us:
I think it’s logical to make a correlation between obscurity of taste and volume of music piracy; in 2003 or so, I would’ve made a link to intelligence/nerdiness as well, but those days are over. Which is not to say that indie kids don’t buy albums, but here’s the thing: record sales, at least on the chart level, tell us about the mainstream. The Arcade Fire, more so than any quote-unquote indie band of the last half-decade, resonate with that mainstream. When Funeral came out, they got what turned out to be the most important Pitchfork review of all time and regular airplay on KROQ. That was unprecedented. They’ve only gone upwards in popularity from there.
By contrast, look at the sales for Wavves. Or Ariel Pink. Or any number of weirdo noiseniks who received the same level of blog buzz and P4k propulsion. The Arcade Fire, whatever one might think of them, write accessible rock anthems; so do most of the indie bands who’ve really crossed over. (Or dance anthems, etc.) The majority of people still interested in paying for music (or who don’t know any better, frankly) want something that speaks simply and broadly on at least one level to them, even if it speaks to the underground in more difficult, innovative ways. (Or even if it doesn’t, as in the case of the just-pretty-good Suburbs.)
My point here is that it all matters: touring (mostly, this), marketing, radio, videos, blog buzz, social networking, Amazon $3.99 sales (also, seriously, this — make every album $4 all the time and I guarantee profits would go up across the board), word of mouth and, of course, the music itself. Us writers would do well to remember the limits of our influence as we gluttonously beg for concert tickets and vinyl promos and claim we can lead a horse to water and make it drink. (Cross-posted from RawkTumblr)
Few things feel better than being able to really love a band wholeheartedly. From their excellent debut, Why There Are Mountains, to the “Tunguska” single and now to this newly released cover of a track by my favorite artist ever, Cymbals Eat Guitars have given me no reason yet to have reservations. The Anthony Bourdains of indie rock’s respectful take on “Ballad of Big Nothing” burns louder and hotter than Smith’s Either/Or classic rocker, adding just enough spark to make it a worthwhile addition to their own discography. There’s no lack of Smith covers out there, including the ho-hum tribute collection To: Elliott, From: Portland, but this is one of the few essentials. (Others? The first that comes to mind is Petra Haden and Bill Frisell’s version of “Satellite,” linked below.) (Photo by Yenna.)
Cymbals Eat Guitars – “Ballad of Big Nothing” (Elliott Smith cover): mp3
Petra Haden and Bill Frisell – “Satellite” (Elliott Smith cover): mp3
More: New Music | 2010 Album Release Calendar | Elliott Smith Archives
