Posted on 02 July 2009
You guys. America is so great! It’s basically The Very Best (Featuring Ezra Koenig). Can you name another country that has a holiday where the sole intention is to celebrate the contribution independent record labels have made on the shape of pop music? Pretty much only the USA. These colors don’t run too much.
“Don’t tread on me” - James Hetfield.
To help with your civic duty of taking stock of the past year in MP3s, we’ve assembled a mix of the sunnier side of 2009’s highlights. As always, these tracks are totally free, just like America. This weekend isn’t just about celebrating music, though. It is also about celebrating the right to drink on roofs with good friends in good weather. So this mix isn’t a mood-spanner. It’s upbeat! And sequenced for consumption on a cloudless day, with a crew, buddies, BBQ, and booze. Or a patriotic jog. A perfectly timed soundtrack, really, since it never rains these days.
Continue reading Stereogum’s Independents Day Party Mix…
Posted on 02 July 2009
All of that is true. Also true: With the current expansive fawning over Grizzly Bear it could be easy to temporarily forget about Dan Rossen’s Department Of Eagles. It gets more difficult, though, when In Ear Park’s title track is soundtracking Soft Bank commercials featuring Brad Pitt and a sensitive sumo wrestler. It gets slightly easier again when you find out the commercial’s only airing in Japan, but more people watch YouTube than television (unsubstantiated claim), so that’s not a legit hurdle. Anyone care to interpret?
Continue reading Department Of Eagles Sell Us Brad Pitt’s Strength In Japan…
Posted on 02 July 2009
“In Peoples’ Homes” is a somewhat misleading introduction to To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie’s second album Marlone, but as we mentioned when we called the Minneapolis duo a BTW, Jehna Wilheim and Mark McGee are good at smashing expectations. So, no, you shouldn’t leave thinking all of Marlone’s 10 tracks are sweet, upbeat 2-minute pop songs, because most are five-plus minute icy, shimmering, ambient, distorted, clanging, and haunted Portisheaded excursions that have a different way of locating their hooks. The group recently toured with dark folk labelmates Boduf Songs and are currently finalizing some Marlon videos. It’s hard to tell what’s happening in the cover art, but this is what’s happening here:
Continue reading New To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie - “In Peoples’ Homes”…
Posted on 02 July 2009
Girls’ pretty up-all-night video for “Hellhole Ratrace” captured the song’s romantic somnambulance perfectly. The harmonica-lined “Solitude,” which shows up as the “Hellhole Ratrace” 10″ B-Side, conjures an after-hours feel, but with a prom-y two-step (a la Modest Mouse’s appropriately titled “Sleepwalking”) and a half-awake, much older Bright Eyes-enunciation. The track’s called “Solitude,” but Christopher Owens and Chet “JR” White are anything but lonely in the above pic. Their 12-song Album is forthcoming, which should find them even more friends.
Continue reading New Girls - “Solitude”…
Posted on 02 July 2009
Longstanding San Diego crew the Black Heart Procession have a new album out in October. It’s called Six because it’s their sixth album (i.e. don’t forget 1998’s 1, 1999’s 2, or 2000’s Three). The band’s “number” albums have been my favorite collections, so hopefully this new one, the followup to 2006’s Spell, finds the guys in some sort of return to form. The first single “Rats” is dark and slinky. No surprise there. Maybe a surprise? Three Mile Pilot — Black Heart’s Tobias Nathanial and Pall Jenkins’ earlier (and pretty super) band with Pinback’s Zach Smith — are releasing a new record and have a July tour set up. Until then, Tobias, Pall, and other Co.
Continue reading New Black Heart Procession - “Rats”…
Posted on 02 July 2009
When John Vanderslice did “Too Much Time” with the Magik*Magik Orchestra, we suggested that, actually, perhaps he wasn’t spending enough time with the so-called “official house orchestra” of his Tiny Telephone studio. Case in point: Check out this lush take on Romanian Names‘ “Forest Knolls,” which features a strumming/crooning Vanderslice backed by four extremely focused operatic vocalists, a steady booming drum, a pianist, and a flautist. (It’s like he’s becoming the Decemberists in this moment.) Like last time, it was shot by Nate Chan and Yours Truly at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Continue reading John Vanderslice Explores His “Forest Knolls” With The Magik*Magik Orchestra…
Posted on 02 July 2009
Bon Iver’s Bonnaroo backers and proven Mark Mulcahy fans Elvis Perkins In Dearland are doing their own music in this clip for “Chains, Chains, Chains,” the first from their self-titled collection. There was a live video for fellow Elvis Perkins In Dearland track “Shampoo,” but that was a live video: This shadowy, foggy, cavernous, winged, captivating footage is clearly something else entirely. The spelunking was directed by Sean Pecknold, who’s done aesthetically similar work for his brother’s band Fleet Foxes.
Continue reading New Elvis Perkins In Dearland Video - “Chains, Chains, Chains”…
Posted on 02 July 2009
The “I Became A Prostitute” B-Side opens with a sludgy heaviness before exploding into a smeary, soaring anthem that one-ups its very good Forget The Night Ahead neighbor. (Thanks for the tip, d33r.) The single’s out 8/3 via FatCat, which is where you can listen.
Posted on 01 July 2009
When posting Ross Ching’s “Little Bribes” video we mentioned he was unemployed and that we rarely post fan-made videos. Update! DCFC made it official and Atlantic hired him to work on a future video project. See the video again at its new home. (Sticklers: He didn’t fixed the “exceptionally red/read” thing.)
Posted on 29 June 2009
In February, before Nathan Williams’ drug-fueled onstage breakdown, apology and canceled European tour, Pete Ohs shot this video of Wavves trekking around Europe, smoking pot (+ regular cigarettes), chugging vodka, rocking out next to some kid in a Velvet Underground shirt, eating tasty breakfast foods, and generally having a good time. Let it be a lesson to those of you who want to avoid drug-fueled onstage breakdowns. Just kidding, we all know that was overhyped/blown out of proportion. Right, Psychedelic Horsehit?
Continue reading New Wavves Video - “No Hope Kids”…
