Archive for June, 2010

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Videos for the Veekend // 6|4 – 6|6

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Haven’t put together one of these round-ups in a while, so let’s ease back into things with this mini-collection of my favorite video finds of the past week or so.

I’ve long been a fan of the sweet a cappella tunes of the Vermont trio Mountain Man, and this video, recorded by Vincent Galgano in NYC, just reaffirms my love for the group:

Jimmy over at the great tumblr blog Head Underwater recently unearthed this killer video for Marissa Nadler’s “Thinking Of You” from two years ago. Amazing!

Speaking of amazing music vids, check this one for His Clancyness’s latest single “Summer Majestic”, as first premiered on Delicious Scopitone:

I always love the ingenuity of creative music listeners and the stuff they’re able to come up with. Take this weather channel heavy fan vid for Ariel Pink’s track “Reminiscences” for example:

Another cool archival video snipped together, this time for Baths’ track “Maximalist” [via: yvynyl]

Lastly, here is a great stripped-down version of the Norwegian electro-pop group Casiokids performing in Austria, recorded by the folks over at They Shoot Music:

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Mixtapes for Haiti

Friday, June 4th, 2010

The Mixtapes for Haiti kickstarter project Lou over at Salad Fork put together is long and over with, but you still have two days to purchase the tape outright for a measly $10 before it disappears forever. Based on the track list below, there aren’t too many things better to do with a Hamilton, so be sure to grab a copy before it’s too late:

  • Speculator // Stay Cool
  • Rene // Pet Cemetary
  • Cloud Nothings // Even In The Summer
  • Mount McKinley // Backslide
  • Weekend // All-American
  • Prince Rama // Thunderdrums
  • Sunnybrook // Swedish Kids
  • Craft Spells // From The Morning Heat
  • PPALM // All I Need
  • Memory Tapes // Peter
  • Tan Dollar // Fell Out
  • Nate Grace // DWLDWD (demo)
  • RxRy // Prestina Mewloh
  • Twin Sister // Ginger (JAB)
  • Woodsman // I Can’t Move
  • Memoryhouse // Lately (Troisieme)

You can steam Cloud Nothings’ unreleased track “Even in the Summertime” — the one featured on the cassette — below as well as an mp3 of Dylan Baldi’s group’s similarly titled track “Even If It Worked Out”:

Cloud Nothings: Even In The Summer by SaladFork

Cloud Nothings // Even If It Worked Out

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Cosmetics // Black Leather Gloves (Premier Rang Remix)

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Knew it was only a matter of time before some producer/DJ put his own personal touch on one of The Cosmetics dark dance tracks. Taken from one of my favorite 7”s of the year, “Black Leather Glove” is the B-side to the group’s Captured Tracks debut and London beatmaker Premier Rang keeps most of the haunting vibe of the original intact.

Rearranging the essential elements (pulsating bass beat, fluttering synth lines) and nearly doubling the track’s length, Rang gives more time for the song to evolve on this remake while only adding on a minimum amount of instrumentation. Better than the original? It’s up for you to decide:

Cosmetics // Black Leather Gloves (Premier Rang Remix) [via: p4k]

Cosmetics // Black Leather Gloves

EDIT: So it’s not really a Premier Rang remix, but rather a remake of the track by the Cosmetics themselves with some input from Premier Rang. Here’s what Nic had to say about it:

Our friend Premier Rang came up with a new arrangement of our song using samples – and then we replayed all the samples on analogue synths, and added a few new elements, did new vocals and produced the final mix.

Apologies for my shoddy fact-checking. Anyways, if you’re a fellow Portlander, I highly recommend checking them out at East End on the 17th of this month. Trust me, it’ll be awesome!

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Incubator // Chapels

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

A while back I posted about LA-native Adam Anderson and his “one man fuzz band” Rraaiillss. During my correspondence with him, he sent me word of another drastically different project of his called Incubator. Less fuzz and more melody, Incubator’s two tracks posted on their bandcamp page are certainly going to be more agreeable with the casual music listener, however, that isn’t to imply that they aren’t high quality tunes.

My favorite of the two songs posted is the ecclesiastically inspired “Chapels”. Opening with a 15 second sustained organ chord (eat your heart out Arcade Fire) followed by some flutterings of an electro-flute, right off the bat you know you are in for something different. The song swells to an early climax with the abrupt entrance of a stadium-ready electric guitar and drums before Anderson enters with his softly spoken vocals of “I crash / into…” that quietly steals your attention away from the grandiose soundscapes happening in the background. With most notes being in the half to whole range, “Chapels” shows how simplicity, when layered, can create some beautifully moving phrases.

Check out the track below as well as the more dance-y p4k approved song “Cigarettes”:

Incubator // Chapels

Incubator // Cigarettes

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Gobble Gobble // Gobbl’d Vol. I

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Cecil from Gobble Gobble has to be one of the hardest working musicians out there these days. It seems that every two weeks I get an update from him concerning new songs or new projects that I can hardly keep up. Case in point, this remix tape appropriate entitled Gobbl’d Volume I set to be released in physical form by Scotch Tapes sometime in July (with cover art by Jheri over at GOTC).

Composed of tracks that he’s steadily been releasing the past couple of months on myspace under the heading GBL GBL RMX CABARET, the tape showcases not only Cecil’s talent of reconstructing a song from the ground-up but also his incredibly eclectic taste in music. I mean, I like to consider myself at least moderately informed when it comes to emerging groups and even then I find myself googling half the band names on the tape for the first time just to find out how the original sounds! If the whole “music thing” doesn’t work out — something that looks less and less likely as time goes by — there is certainly a spot for him in the blog world.

Below are two of my favorite tracks from the remix tape. If you like what you hear, for a limited time you can download the entire tape for free from Gobble Gobble’s tumblr page.

Diamond Rings // All Yr Songs (Gobble Gobble Remix)

Silly Kissers // Sweet Adrian (Gobble Gobble Remix)

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All Saints Day // S/T

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Gorilla vs. Bear broke the news late this afternoon that the self-titled EP from All Saints Day has become available for stream via their bandcamp page — weird that I didn’t see this when I was surfing the site earlier today. Que sera, sera. For those who don’t know, All Saints Day is Kickball Katy from the Vivian Girls (pictured above) and Gregg Foreman from Cat Power (at the keyboard on this photo). A bit more dreamy than anything Katy’s done and a bit more fuzzy than what Gregg’s used to working with alongside Ms. Chan Marshall, the duo falls into the niche of slow-tempo bedroom-noise quite nicely. The metallic-sounding endings at the end of some phrasings due to heavy feedback get to be a bit much at times, but all-in-all All Saints Day’s debut is a pleasant enough listen.

You can check out the opener “It’ll Come Around” below and if you dig it, hit up the stream here. No word yet from the group’s label, the Vivian Girls’ run Wild World Records, on the physical release date.

All Saints Day // It’ll Come Around

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Thick Shakes // Ooh Mommy

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

My friend Burgers introduced me to the cool jams of Massachusetts garage trio Thick Shakes a while back and recently I ran across a tight single of theirs on Weekly Tape Deck, so I figured it was high time to cop their debut EP Ooh Mommy for free from their website.

After a couple of repeat listens, I have to say that I’ve fallen head-over-heels for this group. First off, the band name is not only the best thing I’ve heard in a long time, but is strangely the best description of their sound: tasty pop gems oftentimes surrounded by viscous instrumentation (most evident in tracks like “Glass Mask”). Secondly, the songs absolutely kick ass all around. The tape opens with “(Baby) You’re a Starfish”, a track with a driving repetitive bass line and pulsating keyboard chords making it sound like the love child of Explode Into Colors and The Allah Las — which for me is always a winning combination.

“(Baby) You’re a Starfish” certainly sets the tone of the EP as the band blazes through “Glass Mask”, “Nobody’s Girl”, and “Julie K” in much of the same fashion. The second half of the release (presumably the flip-side to the Snuggle Hound Records cassette) features their most downtempo, chilled-out track in “Memory Foam” as well as two cover songs. The dark, slightly creepy, “Underwear” by the Magnetic Fields gets a face-lift with bassist Lindsay Crudele and guitarist Tim Scholl providing upbeat harmonizing vocals, striping the original track of any hint of back-alley seductiveness. The eight-song EP ends on a bit of a low point with a muddled rendition of Cuby & The Blizzards “Your Body Not Your Soul” that drags along a little too much making you long for the sharp guitar rifts of the original. Hey, 7 great tracks out of 8 certainly isn’t bad for a debut!

Check out two of my favorites from Ooh Mommy below and, if you like it, head to their website to download the whole thing at the cost of an e-mail address. Also, check out Thick Shakes’ muxtape page for some “baby demos and new songs.”

Thick Shakes // Nobody’s Girl

Thick Shakes // Underwear (Magnetic Fields Cover)

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Julian Lynch // Droplet on a Hot Stone 7”

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Got a sweet press release from the folks over at Underwater Peoples about an hour ago announcing an upcoming release from New Jersey native Julian Lynch. Although both tracks featured on the 7” aren’t anything new (“Droplet on a Hot Stone” and “Nen Vole” were both on the Wild Animal Kingdom Records released Born2Run cassette which you can somehow still purchase here), it’s always nice to have them in a vinyl format.

You can pre-order the 7” from UP’s store here and while you’re at it, I’d recommend snagging the re-issue of Real Estate’s Live on the Radio LP as well. It’s one of my favorite pieces of wax in my collection. For those who are unaware of what Mr. Lynch’s music sounds like, here is a track he did for the UP Winter Compilation:

Julian Lynch // Es’s

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