“Weekends are never fun unless you’re around here, too,” Smith Westerns singer Cullen Omori intones without irony on “Weekend,” which is to T. Rex what the Killers’ “When You Were Young” is to Bruce Springsteen. (A good thing!) The band’s sophomore album, Dye It Blonde, falls short of the teenage dreams presented so masterfully by then-oldsters the Thrills on Teenager, but it’s both a vast improvement over their roughshod debut and, on songs like this one, about as good as this stuff gets. “Weekend” is anchored by a string-bending guitar hook so fuzzy it could pass for a Tribble as electric open chords and hazy synthesizers (Beach House producer Chris Coady, who knows a thing or two about sounding dreamy, handled this one) float underneath. But Omori’s raw desire is the star here, the lyrics doing whatever they have to to get to the point: “Na, na, na, a girl like you.” Maybe it’s the synths, but “Weekend” is nevertheless a sensitive jam, a song that feels less consumed with boning than it does with holding hands really tight. Ah, youth.
I’m not quite sold on tUnE-yArDs yet — in part because blogging about her means I have to spell her name like that — but the complex beats of “Bizness” are already reminding me of a certain Album of the Year it took me a month or so to come around on. In any case, this video, all color and motion and cleverness, is charming enough even with the sound off. Best thing: handsome as it is, it totally could have been (and probably was) filmed with a Canon 5D Mark II on a zero-dollar budget. 2K11! (Related plug: I have a story about the rebirth of the music video in Brand X today. Pick it up!)
James Mercer, with Broken Bells in 2010. Photo by David Greenwald
In 2004, Garden State had just changed the Shins’ lives and the band had yet to take three years off to release an — I’ll say it — disappointing follow-up to Chutes Too Narrow. It must’ve been a heady time for frontman James Mercer, who’s uncharacteristically charismatic and frontman-y at this October 2004 solo show. (And does a killer early version of “Girl Sailor.”) For solo acoustic takes on the essential Shins catalog, the buck stops here. Read the rest of this entry »
Arguably the two best bespectacled lyricists in indie rock dueted on this Mountain Goats mega-classic at Bowery Ballroom last night. Rolling Stone was there! Craig should really just join the whole tour. Watch to the end for an A+ Hold Steady reference. The Mountain Goats’ obviously really good All Eternals Deck is out today.
The music of Demerit, Samuel harkens back to two of the best albums of 2004: On the one hand, the medium-fi folk anthems of Rogue Wave’s Out of the Shadow; on the other, the electro-acoustic dystopias of Chad VanGaalen’s Infiniheart. On “Organic Robots” and the rest of 2010′s Halfhearted Demos mini-album, the musician offers acoustic charm along with pre-chillwave bedroom beats — and despite the self-deprecating title, a collection of effort and craft in our age of nottryingveryhardcore.
A number of artists have released charity efforts for Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami disaster that pummeled the island nation, but put this one at the top of your list. The Your Tan Looks Supernatural EP is the first set of new music we’ve heard from the brilliant Chad VanGaalen since 2009′s Soft Airplane b-sides collection (aside from a fashion short film he soundtracked) and, as ever, it was worth the wait.
The beat-vivisecting title track is as mind-bending as any of Radiohead’s latest low end theorizing; “Fossilized Eye” pairs his trademark wail with a murky hip-hop beat that Tyler, the Creator would annihilate; “I’m a Witness” finds him turning once more to his brand of electric blues. The rest is as weird and warped as you might hope: there are few musicians who manage to offer both heartfelt songwriting and genuine sonic creativity with such equally impressive degrees of ability. Oh, and he’s about to drop a new album. Diaper Island is out May 19 on Sub Pop; hear/buy this one for a good cause after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this year, I wondered out loud what’d happened to SXSW 2010 stars the Middle East in the year since, aside from an enjoyable enough MySpace track; the answer is the promising folk act has been wrapping up a new record, finally. Per iTunes, the grammatically awkward full-length debut I Want That You Are Always Happy is due April 8 — in Australia. No word on a U.S. release date, but at least you can set up your Mediafire Google alerts.
In further folk news, Andrew Bird collaborator Simone White seems to be making progress on her next full-length — she says she’s tracking vocals tomorrow. More albums as we get ‘em on the 2011 album release calendar.
I’d be posting this for the obvious JAM content either way, but Waynestock rockers LA Font went ahead and made the weirdest, funniest video I’ve seen all year: there’s a rocket-powered dog, aerial photography, air guitars, ghosts, Sasquatch, knife-throwing, watermelons — the list goes on. Thoroughly satisfying stuff from the band’s debut album, which gets a follow-up 7″ in May. Bonus! Watch a killer live take on the single b-side, “Lipsmack,” after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
“Weekends are never fun unless you’re around here, too,” Smith Westerns singer Cullen Omori intones without irony on “Weekend,” which is to T. Rex what the Killers’ “When You Were Young” is to Bruce Springsteen. (A good thing!) The band’s sophomore album, Dye It Blonde, falls short of the teenage dreams presented so masterfully by then-oldsters the Thrills on Teenager, but it’s both a vast improvement over their roughshod debut and, on songs like this one, about as good as this stuff gets. “Weekend” is anchored by a string-bending guitar hook so fuzzy it could pass for a Tribble as electric open chords and hazy synthesizers (Beach House producer Chris Coady, who knows a thing or two about sounding dreamy, handled this one) float underneath. But Omori’s raw desire is the star here, the lyrics doing whatever they have to to get to the point: “Na, na, na, a girl like you.” Maybe it’s the synths, but “Weekend” is nevertheless a sensitive jam, a song that feels less consumed with boning than it does with holding hands really tight. Ah, youth. 
The music of Demerit, Samuel harkens back to two of the best albums of 2004: On the one hand, the medium-fi folk anthems of Rogue Wave’s Out of the Shadow; on the other, the electro-acoustic dystopias of Chad VanGaalen’s Infiniheart. On “Organic Robots” and the rest of 2010′s Halfhearted Demos mini-album, the musician offers acoustic charm along with pre-chillwave bedroom beats — and despite the self-deprecating title, a collection of effort and craft in our age of nottryingveryhardcore.
A number of artists have released charity efforts for Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami disaster that pummeled the island nation, but put this one at the top of your list. The Your Tan Looks Supernatural EP is the first set of new music we’ve heard from the brilliant Chad VanGaalen since 2009′s Soft Airplane b-sides collection (aside from a 
Earlier this year, I wondered out loud what’d happened to SXSW 2010 stars the Middle East in the year since, aside from an 
