Ok everyone, I’ve been dying to get these songs out there. The people around me have been hearing most of this stuff for at least a week, but now they’re all in a tight package and ready for the internet.
Tracklist:
Alabama Shakes - On Your Way x Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless
Hella - The D. Elkan
Lower Dens - Brains
Mount Kimbie - Maybes
Teen Daze - Brooklyn Sunburn
SBTRKT - Atomic Peace (Hannes Fischer Edit)
Tonovi - Blinded By
Handbraekes - Callgurls
Jay-Z and Kanye West - N#ggas with a Rattle (Miami Ski Team Bootleg) (Dirty)
But I also went to see Neon and the Indians show last night with a sweet opening set (or so I hear) by my big homie Com Truise, who I got the chance to chat up for just a second. I was super stoked to hear that he had read my review of Galactic Melt in QRO Mag.
It was my third time seeing Neon Indian, the first time was in Alan Palomo’s hometown of Monterrey Mexico at a 3 day festival at an abandoned Drive-In Movie theater. It was an incredible experience that the NY Times documented here. The next time was in Atlanta at the Earl, possibly my favorite venue in ATL with it’s mid-sized room and low stage, the energy at that show topped both of the other performances that I saw, a totally sweat soaked evening. Last night was a more polished performance. The band has been touring for over two years more or less non-stop, and it’s clear that they’ve settled into a rhythm where they can pound out 60 minutes of music without breaking a sweat. I’m not complaining though as they kept the price on the low-low at $13.
They played a sleek set laced with the hits (Deadbeat Summer, Polish Girl, Fallout, Should’ve Taken Acid With You, Psychic Chasms, and my personal favorite - Mind, Drips).Hopefully it was just a Monday thing, but the show seemed kind of tame from where I was standing. No worries though, I’m still a true believer in analog synth rock. So for those of you that couldn’t be there here’s a remix heavy set of music from the chillest tour of the fall.
There’s no denying that there has been quite a bit of dead air over the PoMo Air Waves as of late. So to rectify the situation I thought that I’d go ahead and hit you all up with a brand new mix full of new music with one or two classics worked into the dough, kind of like an old strain of yeast to let that puppy rise. And if you’re into unleavened bread, just wait for my next mix with a 70s/80s goth rock theme.
But this one here is a bit more experimental. I dust of my DJ Proxy Music monicker and commence the mashing. Nothing complicated and certainly no use of acapella or song stems, jsut a little beat matching and pitch shifting. Some of it is successful, some of it less so. Take a listen and please tell me what you think.
Just a couple of things for funsies today. First being this sweet video that came out almost exactly one year ago for NYC hip-hop duo Das Racist’s “Who’d That? Brooown!” This video was clearly made by New Yorkers for New Yorkers - hmmm maybe FNYBNY is a potential brand name. It is my opinion that Das Racist are some of the most creative rappers on the scene right now, almost like a hipster Outkast.
Secondly, while I was checking out the posts of my newest follower, Asphyxophilia, I uncovered this incredible link to a series of youtube videos that can all be played and mixed together to create a customizable collaborative multimedia performance of this pretty chilled out downtempo/jazzy song. It’s fun to play around with for a minute, give it a look-sy.
NPR has become the site for official streaming links. Hypemachine also does a good job oof putting out B and C string indie and electro albums, but when it comes to the creme de la indie, which is really the nu-mainstream, NPR has been front and center with streaming versions of this years most anticipated releases well in advance of the in-store date, a date which has obviously become more and more meaningless. Fucked Up, Washed Out, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, just to name a few, all chose NPR to release their 2011 releases, and now, chillwave’s last hope, Neon Indian, has decided to follow suit with their latest,Era Extraña. Check it out here.
So far I like what I’ve heard, lead singles “Fallout” and “Polish Girl” offer two vary different looks at where Alan Palomo and company are at right now. Fallout leans towards a dark 8-bit sound that’s only a bit less agro than Crystal Castles, while Polish Girl is almost blissful with it’s dancy synth-pop leaning. I’ll have to give the album some attention in the next couple days, but for now I’m still hung up on Ritual Union by Little Dragon.
Finally, I’ve mentioned it a few times before, but if you’re looking for leaked indie and underground music, the best non-torrent site I know of is nodata.tv You’re welcome!
Do you remember the other day when I said some friends rolled through my place for a couple of days? Well I was sweeping up my floor today and when I put the broom under my bed, I pulled out what I thought was a dirty rag. I was sure that they had left it, and I found myself wondering what they had spilled that they needed to use the rag for. I then took a closer look at the now more visible object laying at my feet to relize that it was no rag at all, but instead crumpled, heavily used women’s underware. That 19 year old half filipino girl that I had never met before left/forgot her dirty panties under my bed. What could this mean?
First of all let me say that I did not flirt with this girl, I did not make eyes with her, she was cute, but 5 years younger than me and not very mature, so I wasn’t even attracted to her. Nevertheless, in contemplation of these panties, there are options:
a) They were shoved down there in the heat of the moment and forgotten about.
b) She is marking her territory by leaving her scent.
c) She did it to get under my skin.
i) She didn’t care for me, and this act was to upset me.
ii) She was crushing on me, and this is how she’s letting me know she’s interested.
iii) It is a purely “punk” act done for the idea of it alone.
I’m thinking that it’s a 99% chance that “A” is the correct answer. The other ones are just fun to think about. But yeah, I dunno, tell me what you think. Gonna have to take out the trash ASAP so my roommate doesn’t get the wrong idea.
Anyways, click above for a kind of kinky mix. I think that it started out pretty strong, I even did a bit of a mashup for the first two songs. The last few transitions are a little rough, but at the end of the day I stand by my song selection. 7.5 out of 10 overall - check it out.
The uber-creative but still fairly under the radar group, New Villager, set a very high bar with their video for “Lighthouse” earlier this year, so when the always great blog disco naivete posted a new clip for their new song “Shot Big Horizon” yesterday I eagerly watched to see where the group had decided to go with this video. The video coincided with the release of two new tracks including “Shot Big Horizon.” Listen to the song and check out the band’s website for info about the album and the various performance and visual art projects that these two NY/SF gentleman busy themselves with.
While “Lighthouse” executed elaborate costume design with Oriental motifs and a ying-yang aesthetic, this “Shot Big Horizon” employs a more natural, earthy aesthetic. The black and white costumes still signify some part for humanity to play, a natural balancing act to exist in, but not adversely affect nature perhaps?
As for the music, not a huge leap from Lighthouse, which I found a bit punchier and urgent than the minimal guitar riff that this song rests on. Perhaps this is why I’ve always enjoyed the Punches remix of Lighthouse so much.
The coolest thing I heard about today is Stroked, a tribute to the Strokes’ Is This It, a compilation commisioned by Stereogum featuring artists such as Peter Bjorn and John, Real Estate, Owen Pallett, The Morning Benders and more covering the album in its entirety. Read about it and download it here.
Though I’m over my Frank Ocean fanboy phase I thought I would go ahead and mention that some new tracks of his have made it on the web, check em out at melophobe if you care to.
The new music I’m actually most excited about has been coming from two acts who are both riding high with great posture on their sophmore releases.
The first is Zomby and his new album Dedication, who first came across my radar due to Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear aka Animal Collective’s drummer (on this tour at least). It’s electronic music that just sounds good, well thought out and just as danceable as it is listenable. I think that this record will be my next review for QRO mag.
I just did a write up for them on the latest Explosions in the Sky album, Take Care Take Care Take Care. It probably won’t go up on the site for a few days yet though, but really there’s no rush. The album came out months ago. After I wrote this review I read the Pitchfork review of the album, and they said pretty much the same thing I did, except that they added 1.0 to by 6.2 rating. My latest thing that’s up on the site is my review of Com Truise’s still excellent Galactic Melt which I handed a hefty 8.4 rating, this might have been a bit generous and if I were to redo it I’d probably hit it with a 7.9 or 8, but I’m biased. I saw him live and it was no fun.
The other act that I’ve only just started listening to over the last day or two is Unknown Moral Orchestra, a Portland outfit who recently dropped album numero deuces. Their self-titled album makes you feel OK that we’re now living in a post-White Stripes world. It’s got warm, but jerky and riffs, loose drums, and Ariel Pink-esque recording value (and vocals for that matter).
Here are some downloadable tracks, just right click:
And for just one more thing, before I forget and it becomes old news. The lead singer of Edwin Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (Alex Ebert) has a side project out called Alexander. Personally I think it’s weird for a guy whose name is featured in his band to then do a solo project with a totally different name, which is actually his real name in the first place. I might even hate on something like this, that is if the result wasn’t so compelling.
Enjoy the video for “Truth” below and the remix featuring none other than the fucking RZA right here.
I have more or less stopped posting links to leaked copies of full albums. I don’t know why I do this. I steal all the time and even get things stolen from me. It all kind of comes around and gos around. Maybe it’s just that anything that I’d post here could be easily found elsehwere - as in on a torrent site - so why should I even bother sticking my neck out there with leaked albums.
That being said, I’ve got a couple of good ones today.
The appetizer is the new three song EP of The King of Limbs remixes (download). This one boasts remixes to Feral, Morning Mr. Magpie, and Separator. I don’t feel too bad about this one though as you can just stream it from their website, or embed it into your blog, like I do here:
Good, now that that’s out of the way, I can move on to the main course. You may remember that back in March I posted a link to download the Neon Indian and Flaming Lips collaborative EP. Well the Flamers are back at it, not only did they play a co-headlining quasi-simultaneous show with Weezer last night, but they have laid down tracks with the Rhode Island Wrecking Crew known as Lightning Bolt! I haven’t even listened to it yet, just had to put it out there for the world first (download).
I’m loving all of this collaboration. I’m ready for Alan Palomo (Neon Indian) Chaz Bundik (Toro Y Moi) and Ernest Greene (Washed Out) to just start their own band that could go on tour with a Gold Panda, Star Slinger, Com Truise super group as opener. I mean isn’t that the best part of Animal Collective? The way that it’s all of these distinctive voices coming up together and then splitting apart again like atoms man, blowing up!
Here’s some footage from the show last night with Weezer and Flaming Lips doublin’ down on “She Don’t Use Jelly”
