Grown Unknown by Lia Ices from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

The title track of Lia Ices’ excellent new album, of course. Filmed on a laptop — who needs a budget?

Lia Ices – “Daphne”: mp3

Note: I wrote most of the below last week, then I read the very important Tegan and Sara open letter and wrote this instead. Also, I watched Kick Ass over the weekend and it was a lot more fun.

* Tyler, the Creator, is a 20-year-old MC and producer who fronts the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future. He is very angry about not having a dad but likes getting his dick sucked.

* His favorite producers are the Neptunes. This is evident on Goblin, which at times shimmers with that group’s classic minimalism and metallic keyboard edge. None of these beats, however, are as formally interesting or as memorable as anything on Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury.

* Tyler did not make this album for you. He made it for 20-year-old male Call of Duty players with girl problems and broken homes. Offended? Maybe be offended that the Congress you elected is doing everything it possibly can to obliterate women’s reproductive rights. Maybe be more offended that we’re talking about whether or not a moderately likable rap record is “O.K.” to listen to instead of petitioning Congress to not make abortion borderline illegal. I’m just saying!  Read the rest of this entry »

It is a stone classic and you should order one on red vinyl from Foreign Leisure. They ship the first week of June; a mere $16 for delivery to your door.

Stream the band’s latest, this year’s Human Hearts, right here.

A jam-filled PSA from my day job: we have another free, rad show at the Echoplex tonight with L.A.’s own Airlines and yOya. Be ready to dance and feel really poignant emotions, respectively. Maybe both at once. See you there.

Airlines – “Burial Grounds”: mp3
yOya – “Fireworks”: mp3

Last year, Sally Seltmann announced she’d be working on a new project with fellow Australians Holly Throsby and Sarah Blasko. The trio, now dubbed Seeker Lover Keeper, has released three videos to introduce themselves — one song by each songwriter, each sung by a bandmate. It works remarkably well, though it’d be nice to hear Seltmann’s own take on the moving “Even Though I’m a Woman.” The group’s generosity goes one step further with the videos, featuring male actors offering somber lip-syncs instead of more predictable sun-drenched romps through a field with picnic baskets or whatever. Watch all three at SeekerLoverKeeper.com.

Previously: Sally Seltmann – ‘You’re Always’ | All posts

A few years back, I had a reputation for both hyperbole and waffling that would put John Kerry to shame. Friends still needle me about a particularly catastrophic flip-flop over Person Pitch, which, upon listen No. 5, turned from a princess to a pumpkin in a puff of marijuana smoke. So I’ve changed, or tried to, which is why I regret a tweet calling Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues amazing. It comes close at times, particularly on the stirring title track, but with each spin, it’s the band that sound themselves increasingly helpless — too freaked out to embrace their musical strengths, too intent on “growth” to remember why they aren’t playing lead guitar.

The (perceived) pressures of fame have neutered plenty of bands: Broken Social Scene have never returned to the flawless heights of You Forgot It In People; the National’s High Violet sounds at times like a band satire by people who hate the National; the list goes on. Fleet Foxes are pretty close to the top of the crossover ladder here, with a debut that sold an absurd 400,000 copies and gained a serious mainstream boost from a Starbucks placement. Having trouble reconciling your D.I.Y. ideals with buying the really good produce at Whole Foods is to be expected. (Amongst all these acts, perhaps only the long-running Spoon has gotten better with increasing popularity.) But let’s start this story at the beginning. Fleet Foxes, seemingly everyone has forgotten, have a prologue: the Crystal Skulls, the Seattle indie-pop group that was very nearly the second coming of the Shins and Beulah. But the songs weren’t quite there and the fanbase certainly wasn’t, so singer Christian Wargo and keyboardist Casey Wescott hitched their apple wagons to a college-age vegan named Robin Pecknold’s star.  Read the rest of this entry »

Bedroom pop? Here’s an absolutely staggering performance from L.A.’s Priscilla Ahn and Rawkblog hero Charlie Wadhams, who bring this co-written duet into an airy living room. You can practically feel David Crosby and Joni Mitchell looking in from the hallway. Wadhams is playing the Bootleg Theater on Sunday; don’t miss his excellent Little Videos session, too — or his appearance on my April mixtape. (via TwentyFourBit)

photo by David Greenwald

After a puzzling delay, the Middle East’s proper debut album, I Want That You Are Always Happy, is due stateside on July 12 on Missing Piece Records. While it includes baffling rocker “Jesus Came to My Birthday Party,” more of it sounds like “Hunger Song” — a gorgeously layered slice of country-folk driven by keening harmonies and an international perspective. The Australian act remains one of the best bands I saw at SXSW 2010 — their next trip to the U.S. can’t come soon enough. (Via Brooklyn Vegan)

The Middle East – “Hunger Song”: mp3