A very Merry Christmas to us! I’ll be back with my Top Albums / 7”s & Cassettes of Oh Ten list the first week of January! See you next year!
Archive for December, 2010
jj // K I L L S
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010XO Kid // Bleach
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Going through my antediluvian bookmarks, I came across this post by Lou at Sallyforky talking about NY upstart XO Kid. Other than remembering that the he contributed a track to the Compilation Against World Hunger a couple months back, I didn’t have much in the form of music from the dude. Thankfully, Lou remedied this, so take a listen to the hazy, lo-fi, blaaaah blaaaah blaaaah, AWESOME track “Bleach” below:
Sonny & The Sandwitches // Throw My Ashes 7”
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
Man, is it just me or did 2010 suffer a major drought of good country/folk music? With only a handful of acts rising above the fold — none of which being good enough to even make my initial year end album list — Sonny Smith is here to save the day with the release of his 100 Records Box Set!
A small sliver of his massive project is available now through a 7” being released by Endless Nest. “Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die”, the opening track from the record, is a beautifully twangy track (faux circa 1950) assembled by Smith and his San Fran brethren, and PT-Music favorites, The Sandwitches. You can check out the song below and head over to the Endless Nest store to pick up the 7”:
Sonny & The Sandwitches // Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die
Stalker // Heaven’s Gate
Monday, December 6th, 2010
An old Stalker track has surfaced via, surprisingly, a mix put together by Stereogum. Don’t know how they got their hands on this one (other than a tweet after the fact, I hadn’t heard anything about the track), but it’s quite the find.
After listening to his stuff over the past year, I think it’s safe to say that “Heaven’s Gate” is the first Stalker track which is above 60 beats per minute. Although it’s not slowed down to a molasses pace, the track, with it’s warbly loops and indistinguishable vocals, is certainly very Stalker-esque. Check it out below and head over to Stereogum for the whole mix:
Twin Sister // All Around and Away We Go
Sunday, December 5th, 2010“New” video for Brooklyn’s Twin Sister’s wildly popular “All Around and Away We Go”, with the uber-talented Ian Perlman directing the photography:
On a related note, GvB posted this very dreamy cassette version of “Lady Daydream” on his Top Albums of 2010 list which I haven’t been able to get out of my head:
The Dream // Nikki (Gobble Gobble Remix)
Saturday, December 4th, 2010
With the Mobile Rave Infinitour coming to an end this past November, it didn’t take Gobble Gobble long to record a new cut and disperse it throughout the blog world. Instead of tackling the more underground acts like what GG has done in the past, Cecil & Co. has focused their attention on one Terius Youngdell Nash (aka R&B star The Dream).
Taking a more soulful approach to their freak-out jams, Gobble Gobble does a damn good job of making “Nikki” their own while still, somehow, remaining true to the original. The most surprising aspect of the cover is how spot on the vocals are — especially the background chants of affirmations of “come on” and “she loves me back” as well as the falsetto of the lead in the second verse. A bold statement for sure, but somehow I think this might be my favorite remix/cover of theirs! You can download the track below and head on over to the band’s tumblr to catch the latest news:
jj // New & Old Videos
Friday, December 3rd, 2010Nothing is getting me more excited for the holidays than waiting for jj’s Kills Mixtape to drop on Christmas Eve. In preparation for the release, Elin and Joakim have been leaking a handful of tracks and videos — most recently this pair — which may or may not make it onto the mixtape. Their latest, released two days and picked up by GorillavsBear, is a beautiful cover of The Dreams’s “Right Side of my Brain”:
The source for the video is purportedly jj’s blog where they have a handful of videos hyperlinked and hidden on the site. One such video, linked from the phrase “Go Home”, is the first recording by jj back in pre-Elin days (according to the always reliable youtube comments) when the group consisted of Joakim and another guy named Nils and went by the name Jules & Jim. You can watch the video posted in ’07 as well as download a rip of the track below:
Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
It might seem a bit premature to choose a favorite cassette since my love affair with tapes is barely in its infancy, but after listening to Angel Olsen’s release on Bathetic Records about a half-dozen times of the span of thirty-six hours I could care less what other people think: it’s just that damn good!
I didn’t know much about Olsen until Lou over at Salad Fork posted about her four months back and completely forgot about loving her until I was recently surfing Bathetic Records’ website. Thankfully, I was able to land a copy of her “repress” before it was pronounced Dead. For those who weren’t able to score a copy of the tape, below is a an mp3 and video teaser of Olsen’s beautiful, yet darkly powerful, singing/songwriting ability (much in the same vein as Marissa Nadler). Also, she has another release on Love Lion that may or may not be available, so check it out.
