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Two for Tuesday // Covers Edition II

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Came across two cover songs today that are amazingly good and are worthy of some Two for Tuesday coverage. The first is a cover of The Magnetic Fields song “Yeah! Oh Yeah!” by UK chanteuse Tracey Thorn and Swedish oddball singer/songwriter Jens Lekman. It seems like the two are diving head first into a musical relationship, as Jens is slated to be featured on a couple of tracks on Tracey’s upcoming album, while Thorn is returning the favor by writing lyrics about Lekman. Though a lot more melodic that the original 69 Love Songs-featured song, it is quite surprising how similar Tracey/Jens voices are to that of Claudia Gonson and Stephin Merritt.

The second song is an out-of-nowhere cover of Justin Timberlake’s wildly popular hit “My Love” by Portland native White Hinterland (née Casey Dienel). Stripping the overly-produced track of all its bells & whistles, Dienel takes Timberland out of the equation and replaces it with only a minimalist tribal drum beat and her soft, beautiful voice. What a great rendition! And if you like this, be sure to cop White Hinterland’s latest album Kairos from Dead Oceans today!

Tracey Thorn & Jens Lekman // Yeah! Oh Yeah! (Magnetic Fields Cover)

White Hinterland // My Love (Justin Timberlake Cover) [via: Dipped in Dollars]

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Allah Las // “Long Journey”

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

It seems like the folks at Adult Acid are slowly becoming my de facto source when it comes to finding out about new lo-fi garage rock acts. Take the LA tapedeck-recorded surf-rock jams by the LA group Allah Las which AA posted about a couple weeks back: AMAZING!

How “glo-fi” was the critic’s pick for genre of the year in ‘09, it seems that lately there has been a resurgence in feel-good surf-inspired music which is having people trade in their laptops for tangible instruments — and I couldn’t be happier! Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy plenty of these electro-nostalgic groups, but after getting saturated by them for most of last year, it’s refreshing to hear catchy beach jams featuring twangy guitar recalling the 50s and 60s rather than the 80s vibe that “chillwave” groups use extensively.

Regardless how you feel of the different genre du jours, everybody can get behind the psychedelic tinged pop-gems that the Allah Las produce. Setting up the track nicely, “Long Journey” intros with a boogying bass line before transitioning to the easy-listening technicolor melody which I could see being used in the opening intro for some of Quentin Tarantino’s latest films. After a handful of “AaahhhhHHHHs” (appropriate for a group called the Allah Las), the first verse begins with “It’s been a long, long ride / I don’t know where I’ll stay tonight / under the stars / or maybe in the bed alright” — which, if the band was around for the Woodstock-era, would have resonated well with the nomadic hippy lifestyle. In fact, most of the track has a time-capsule feel to it, with its guitar-featuring bridges and drawn-out syllables of the vocals; transporting you back to your parents’ generation when people were spinning vinyl out of necessary rather than for appearance.

Below are a couple of handheld tape-recorded tracks the Allah Las sent my way that I’ve been digging. These are mostly in demo form (the band is planning on going to the studio the next couple of weeks to thrown down “Long Journey” and “Catamaran” for an upcoming 7” release), so no doubt they are a bit rough around the edges, however, they still make for a GREAT listen. There are also a bunch more “forgotten tracks, ideas, demos, etc…” on their muxtape page, so if you like what you hear below, check it out!

Allah Las // Long Journey

Allah Las // High Places

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Gobble Gobble // “Lawn Knives”

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Cecil from the self-proclaimed “flu pop” outfit Gobble Gobble sent over a handful of new tracks to me yesterday which I’ve really been digging. Among them was the Delicious Scopitone and Get Off the Coast-approved “Lawn Knives”, which is one hell of a sonic ride.

The track intros with a five second snippet of fuzzy guitar, much like The Numerators’s “City of Gold”, followed by a flood of static-y electro elements making me feel like I’m helplessly trapped underwater. Finally getting pushed to the surface by a wave of suspended cymbal rolls, the track clears up a bit with crisp vocals of “We all cut close / snip snip snip” sung over the choppy background electronic bloops & bleeps. Once the song reaches this point, the remaining 90 seconds blow past you with a whirlwind of digital instrumentation floating in-and-out of focus — making you instantly press repeat to make sense of it all. It’s a pretty crazy and pretty awesome trip!

I don’t have much information on any sort of physical releases Gobble Gobble has in the works (other than a new repressing of an out-of-print tape called Neon Graveyard, which you can download from DS for free here), but if the “Secretly New” label the band attached to “Lawn Knives” and “End of Days” on their myspace page is any indication, then there should be a 7” somewhere on the horizon, so be on the lookout! And if you’re fortunate enough to live in the Toronto area, then you can catch their Man-Man-esque live show in mid-March.

Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

Gobble Gobble // End of Days

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Beaters // “Fishage”

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Found this gem of a song from San Diego electro-rockers Beaters off the Volar Records website. Entitled “Fishage”, the track is a three minute non-stop raucous jam that barrels through at 100mph without pausing once for a quick breath. Maintaining a driving beat and a pulsating electro-bass line throughout, the song’s energy is set from the beginning and doesn’t stop for anything until the abrupt ending. If you are looking to get sweaty on a dance floor, “Fishage” is sure to do the trick.

Looks like Volar is repressing the group’s debut 7” (and, coincidentally, the label’s first release) which includes “Fishage” as well as the topically titled track “Obamanation” on a very limited red vinyl, so hurry up and snag one of the remaining 125 124 copies (also, Single Screen Records has a few of the repressings as well)! You can also check out the group live as they are slated to open for most of The Soft Pack and Nodzzz’s US tour.

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Two for Tuesday // Jens Lekman

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

If there is anything that Swedish singer/songwriter/humorist Jens Lekman knows best, it’s how to treat fans in the 21st century. In fact, it would be good for a lot of artists to take cues from what Lekman has done, infusing his self-run website with monthly open-dialogues and an endless supply of free mp3s. When it comes to the topic of filesharing, Lekman takes a practical point of view much to the chagrin of the RIAA: “you can download my entire records with filesharing programs, I don’t mind that but if you like my music please support me – buy my records, come to my shows or make a Paypal donation”. Lekman seems to be one of the few artists who can elicit a smidgen of sympathy from the pirate going rapidshare-crazy.

Well Jens has posted a lot more free material since the last time I checked his site. The first track, which you can download below, is from a 2005 split 7” with friend and fellow Swede El Perro del Mar, entitled “I Don’t Know If She’s Worth 900 Kroner”. The 7” is long since sold-out, so going digital is your best bet of hearing the record (the B-side is del Mar’s “Shake It Off” which is from her Look It’s El Perro del Mar! debut). The second recording posted below is a half hour live set Lekman did for the Kortedala Beauty Center — which may or may not be where “Shirin” works. Also meant to be a companion to his latest Night Falls Over Kortedala LP, the recording is very beautiful, even by Jens’s standards.

Check out the songs below and, if you want more, head over to his site:

Jens Lekman // I Don’t Know If She’s Worth 900 kr.

Jens Lekman // Kalendervägen 113.D

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SXSW ‘10 Preview #4 // Reading Rainbow

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

With a vanity myspace URL of levarmotherfuckingburton, it’s obvious that Philadelphia noise-rock duo Reading Rainbow exploits its PBS namesake (hosted by a certain VISOR-wearing Star Trek alum). However, the similarities end with the moniker, because Robbie Garcia and Sarah Everton’s music is anything but kid friendly.

Lo-fi and noisy even by lo-fi and noisy established standards, every Reading Rainbow track is an auditory assault on the ear drums — it’s like I can feel my cochlea yelling at me everytime I listen to them. However, unlike pure-noise bands like AIDS Wolf and Pre, there are nuggets of melody that help keep you upright when you are being dragged through the rough. Although not used as expertly as Wavves (I can feel the backlash already), the sing-along lyrics, like the closing lines “who can direct us where to go / my mind is made up / the answer’s no” on the recently released “Underground”, are certainly more than enough to pique your interest and at least get you excited thinking about what a 30 minute SXSW set of theirs would look like!

Currently, Reading Rainbow are prepping another album before heading towards Austin in March. They’re slated to play a hell of a lot of shows (most notably Weekly Tape Deck’s AWESOME showcase), so if you’re on 6th St. during the festival, it will be difficult to NOT see them. Here are two tracks to let you in on what Reading Rainbow is about:

Reading Rainbow // Underground

Reading Rainbow // The Sun Is Out

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Fennesz // June

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Found a copy at my local record of Austrian avante-garde extraordinaire Christian Fennesz’s post-Black Sea 12” single entitled “June” which was limitedly released on Table of Elements, and man is it a doozie! This vinyl must be pretty obscure since there is no record of it on his wikipedia page and there are only a few places online selling it, ranging in price from $20 to £17 + shipping — almost as bad as a Mexican Summer release! Showcasing an etching on the A-side of what looks like a cartoon dragon eating a banana, this slab of orange wax is more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes than to the ears.

Although some will balk at the price tag for an album which only houses a bizarrely constructed five-minute track, with “June”, Fennesz puts together a hauntingly droney piece that’s a natural fit with the mentally taxing Black Sea. In typical Fennesz-fashion, musical textures are front and center — although much sharper and coarser than anything off its LP predecessor. Somehow included as part of Table of Elements 15th anniversary Guitar Series (featuring a slew of limited edition single-sided 12” vinyls), the spidery concoction of string plucks Fennesz highlights on the song isn’t remotely near anyone’s notion of what a “guitar series” track should song like.

Well don’t take my word on it, you can check out an mp3 of the track below:

Fennesz // June

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Nurses // Daytrotter Session

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Nurses, one of my favorite local indie-pop groups and title wearer for one of the most ungoogable band names, recently took a trip down to Rock Island, Illinois to record a session with the famed Daytrotter website. Featured are two tracks from their ridiculously overlooked sophomore album Apple’s Acre as well as an unreleased track entitled “Sweet So Sleeping” which you can check out below. For the full set, head on over to the Daytrotter website.

Nurses // Sweet So Sleeping

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Fanfarlo // iTunes Session EP

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Ever since I first caught wind of the project a couple months back, I’ve been counting down the days until Fanfarlo’s iTunes session become finally available, and today is the day! Included in the EP are live recordings of five hits from their Reservoir LP as well as a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins track “We Only Come Out at Night”.

I was first introduced to the band through a post made by IGIF this past spring and was subsequently turned into a rabid fan when NPR posted an amazing Tiny Desk concert (which, with five performers, wasn’t that tiny). Although the band has been rigorously compared to Arcade Fire or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and vocalist Simon Balthazar has gotten plenty of Zach Condon-like references, they have still been able to carve out a niche for themselves, bringing in flocks of fans who appreciate their complex, smooth sounding full-band arrangements.

You can check out Fanfarlo’s version of the classic Smashing Pumpkins’s song as well as a past cover of Bonnie Prince Billy’s track “A Minor Place” below:

Fanfarlo // We Only Come Out At Night (Smashing Pumpkins Cover)

Fanfarlo // A Minor Place (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy Cover)

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SXSW ‘10 Preview #3 // Happy Birthday

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I’m going to go ahead and give the band Happy Birthday my recommendation based more on a hunch than on any built up reputation they may or may not have. Why is this? You see, this Vermont based garage pop band has only one track to their credit: the wildly infectious (and widely publicized) “Girls FM”. It’s true — scour the internets far and wide, and all that you’ll come up with is this lone mp3 that’s made a hit everywhere from Sub Pop loving it enough to sign them and put it on their Cybersex V2.0 mix as the opener to Pitchfork throwing it up on their forkcast.

So you know the track has to be pretty damn good in order for everyone to make such a fuss about it. Take the poppiness of a typical Girls track and square it while still not sounding to incredible cheesy due to the lo-fi quality of the recording, add in some witty lyrics (“see them play like the internet band / try to hear them but you couldn’t understand”) and voila!: the perfect recipe for a summertime hit. Sub Pop is going to make millions…

Happy Birthday’s debut album is dropping March 16, which coincides with the band’s SXSW debut (how convenient!). So if you’re just as excited about the potential of the group as I am, be sure to check the band out at the festival and see what they are all about! Here’s the hit single as well as an older track from frontman Kyle Thomas’s past band King Tuff:

Happy Birthday // Girls FM

King Tuff // Sun Medallion [Via: GvB]

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