Posted on 15 March 2010
Vermont trio Happy Birthday’s self-titled Sub Pop debut is full of catchy, off-kilter songs like the previously posted “Girls FM” and this new gem “Subliminal Message.” The distinctive vocals belong to Kyle Thomas, who you’ll also know from Feathers, King Tuff, and stoned-out J. Mascis metal crew Witch. The latter’s dual-guitar sludge offered an interesting backdrop to Thomas’ sweet, nasal intonations. You’d expect him to sound more at home in a pop setting, but it’s as interesting here because the structure seems ready to implode after each breezy hook (and warping guitar solo). That, and it sounds like he’s throat-singing through his nostrils.
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Posted on 15 March 2010
Matt & Zooey’s second set is out on Merge 3/23, but if all the winking and hula hooping has you hot and bothered, hear the whole thing right now over at NPR.
Posted on 15 March 2010
It’s fun anytime Vampire Weekend plays late night TV, if only because we know it means you guys are going to get lively in the comments. And because it’s a band we enjoy playing late night TV. But after last weekend’s killer “Giving Up The Gun” dudes had little to prove by way of late […]
Posted on 12 March 2010
Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Moby, and Henry Rollins all appear in Suck, a low-budget vampire comedy about musicians who become vampires to get famous. You might have liked it better when it was called Jennifer’s Body. And you probably loved it when it was called Date With The Night: The Nick Zinner Story. Watch the […]
Posted on 12 March 2010
They did “The High Road” for David Letterman on Tuesday, but last night’s performance on Late Night was more exciting, because you got to hear James Mercer stretch his falsetto muscles. Both “The High Road” and “The Ghost Inside” amble along at mid-tempo, but the latter has better points of interest: multiple keyboard hooks, drum […]
Posted on 12 March 2010
At ten minutes, the video for the Gaga & Beyoncé track “Telephone” is maybe too long and definitely too heavy on the referencing Tarantino, but at least they get the important business out of the way upfront with a closeup and commentary on Gaga’s disco stick.
Posted on 12 March 2010
When Paw Tracks reissued Ariel Pink’s (1999 album) Doldrums in 2004, the predominant angle on the L.A. multi-instrumentalist was his appearance as the first non-Animal Collective-related artist on their label. The music = secondary. He wasn’t written about without an AC reference. Paw Tracks went on to reissue Worn Copy and House Arrest, too, but […]
Posted on 11 March 2010
At Echo Lake will be the fifth Woods full-length. This first sample from Echo Lake stays hypnotic without lulling, due to interplay between the song’s guitars: some flit in and out of the foreground, others stay workmanlike and straightforward. Singer Jeremy Earl keeps his voice high as ever, though his words are obscured in the […]
Posted on 11 March 2010
Swedish BTW Fredrik continue making moody, bleak videos for Trilogi. It’s completely appropriate for their brand of muffled, wintery folk, “Milo” included. Like their clip for “Vinterbarn,” the band uses stop motion to create something dreamy here. The stills were taken with a broken 35mm camera, then processed with old chemicals, which accounts for the […]
Posted on 11 March 2010
Moon Duo is the San Francisco twosome of Sanae Yamada and Wooden Shjips’ Erik Johnson. It’s not surprising they mention Suicide, Silver Apples, and Royal Trux as influences. As the last name in that series hints, they’re also into soulfully noise and jazzed-out experimentation (Coltrane, Rashied Ali show up in their one-sheet). They recently released […]
