Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti

Easily my favorite cassette of the year. Released by my favorite tape label Bathetic Records (and quickly re-released to no avail – both “pressings” are sold-out), Olsen sweetly croons about love, loss, and lost love. At the surface level, you get a series of pleasant sounding singer/songwriter tracks which you eat up like candy, but when you start attentively listening to the lyrics and storytelling (not sure how much is story and how much is real life for Olsen) you discover the haunting undertones and the darker side of the songs. A truly breathtaking recording.
Angel Olsen // Creator, Destroyer

Ducktails // Lost

Another sold-out cassette (sorry guys! not meaning to rub it in your faces…), this instrumental by Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile “combines outtakes from the new record (Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics), plus some lost gems from the past year.” Although most of it is just Mondanile dicking around playing seemingly improvised guitar licks with innumerable combinations of pedals, it’s nice to get a intimate peak at how some of these songs are constructed from the ground up.
Ducktails // Hamilton Road

The Numerators // Human Blanket

Coming at you with six tracks in a whopping 10 minutes and 52 seconds, it’s no stretch to say that this cassette released by Brooklyn (via Lubbock) acid/garage rockers The Numerators packs a punch. Although not a replacement for their live show, you do get an idea of what the band’s about (most notably the spastic 28 second “Take It Easy” that leaves you asking “what the fuck just happened”) which, when talking about The Numerators, is no easy feat!
The Numerators // That’s So Raiden

Coasting // S/T

My favorite 7’’ of the year comes from a badass duo of Brooklyn garage-rockers Madison Farmer and Fiona Campbell. These ladies have no qualms about leaving your face smeared on the dashboard, taking you into warp speed 9 with their blazing guitar licks and fast-tempo drumming. What’s great about this Group Tightener release is that it includes my two favorite tracks: the instrumental shred-fest “Coasting” and the more subdued (with vocals!) noise ballad “Hots for Teacher”.
Coasting // Coasting

Memoryhouse // Caregiver

One of two Suicide Sqeeze 7’’s I bought this past year (the other being a Coathangers/Numerators split), this bedroom-pop record by Canadian dreamers Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion keeps pace with the myriad of mp3s released by the duo in 2010. Smooth and airy, it’s easy to get lost in the melodies and vocals of any Memoryhouse song with “Caregiver” and “Heirloom” (the two tracks featured on this 7’’) is not an exception.
Memoryhouse // Caregiver

Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

I don’t know if there is a musician who is held at such high esteem in the blog world as Cecil Frena. I’m by no means a noteworthy blogger, yet every e-mail I get from him is friendly, personalized, and – as expected with Gobble Gobble – highly interesting. After coming onto the scene like a nuclear explosion, blasting out mp3-after-mp3, a pair of “proper” releases (courtesy of Royal Rhino Records) finally graced our presence at the end of the year. For those who want an introduction to the spastic concoctions Cecil & Co. produce, the 7’’ is a perfect start.
Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

Magic Kids / Smith Westers // Split 7’’

My favorite split record from the past year, this Fat Possum released 7’’ features the raucous anthem-ready jam “Imagine Pt. 3” from Chicago underage indie-rockers Smith Westerns and the bouncy, light-hearted “Superball” from Memphis’s Magic Kids. The 7’’ also gets my album cover trophy of the year, with each band parodying a previous album’s cover from the other.
Magic Kids // Superball

Cosmetics // Sleepwalker

Although not as good as their previous Captured Tracks 7’’, “Sleepwalker” is a woozy, synth-heavy dance track that you’ve come to expect from the Canadian couple. Printed on clear vinyl (a nice touch!), this recording is almost too beautiful to play! When you finally decide to take the plunge and place a needle on it, you get transported to a nameless trendy club where upstairs they’re playing the A-side and downstairs, in the dark basement, their spinning the B.
Cosmetics // Sleepwalking

Seamonster // Two Birds

This five-track (!) 7’’ gives The Numerators a run for its money when it comes to bang-for-your-buck. Seamonster is the brainchild of Virgina’s self-professed “ambient/psychedelic/folk” musician Adrian Todd Webb, and with Two Birds you get just that: ambient/psych/folk tracks pieced together perfectly. Head over to Gold Robot Records to cop the release.
Seamonster // Oh Appalachia

Cloudland Canyon // Mothlight Pt. 2 | In the Cold

The first vinyl release from Bathetic Records and it’s a doozy! Smooth fuzzed out jams that you can seriously vibe out to — what more could you really want?
Cloudland Canyon // Mothlight (Part 2)

For me, Twenty Ten was a stellar year in music, choke-full of inventive and highly imaginative albums, which made it incredibly difficult to narrow them down to a Top 100 yet alone a Top 35! For this year, I decided to do the list a little differently. Instead of scrupulously going through every album in my iTunes library to find the ones from this past year — a process which is a bit more time consuming than my limited free time allows — I decided to just use my memory to list out the albums which stuck with me the most.

For anyone who knows me, this process seems laughable (when it comes to names/facts, I have a terrible retention rate), however I feel like I got down almost all of my favorite albums. To correct any errors, I’m going to post a second part to the list entitled “The Best Of The Forgotten” a couple of weeks from now, so if you have any suggestions/recommendations of music which I’ve overlooked, feel free to leave a comment!

So without further ado, here are my favorite albums of 2010 which I remembered. Oh and one more thing, if you just want a bulleted list without the descriptions, scroll down to the very bottom (there is also a .zip file containing all the tracks featured). OK NOW, LET’S DO THIS:

Stalker // mp3s

This year’s recipient of the Scott Walker award — given annually to a far out-there yet interestingly enjoyable album — is not even an album at all, but more of a collection of molasses-paced mp3s by Chicago innovator Stalker. Signed to fellow forward-thinkers Tri Angle Records, Stalker’s modus operandi is chopping & screwing further than what most people like to chop & screw a track, pushing radio-friendly hits (Lindsey Lohan and These New Puritans have both been slow-moed) to uncomfortable boundaries.
Stalker // Final_1

Joanna Newsom // Have One on Me

I don’t know if it was unintentional or maybe a slight to the inevitable critics complaint that Have One on Me is a bit long-winded, but I absolutely loved how Ms. Newsom opens up her latest opus with a track entitled “Easy” – something that, for the listener, this album is definitely not. For those who still can’t get past the uniqueness of Newsom’s voice or choice of instrumentation (aka “the haters”), the 3xLP is three-times as grating, but for the lucky ones, we get two plus hours of sweetly melodic, musically intricate, and always lovely hit-after-hit.
Joanna Newsom // In California

Salad Fork // A Mixtape for Haiti

Probably more so than any other year, I’ve fallen prey to the ever expanding collections of mixtape compilations that circulate the web at roughly 3.00*10^8 m/s. In an effort to not overpopulate this list with these e-gems, I narrowed it down to a single one: Salad Fork’s Mixtape for Haiti. Although the cause was enough for a donation (relief for earthquake victims in Haiti), the album itself boasts one of the nicest blends of tracks that can fit on an artfully decorated two-sided cassette. Well done Lou!
Weekend // All-American

Woods // At Echo Lake

Like most, I was incredibly amped when Brooklyn based psych-folk outfit Woods released “Suffering Season” a mere days before At Echo Lake was scheduled to drop, instantly making it one of my most anticipated albums of the year. Unfortunately, these incredibly high expectations were ultimately too much to overcome (and placing below the number 15 ranking Songs of Shame garnered last year), but regardless, we’re left with a collection of ten well-composed palatable tracks that I’ll always like to listen to on rainy days.
Woods // Death Rattles

Pocahaunted // Make It Real

At the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have dared put money that Bethany Costentino (aka Best Coast) would have found herself below the band she had jilted. Where Costentino went “safe” with her boy-crazy debut LP, Pocahaunted vaulted deeper into the freak-out/you-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-is-about-to-happen realm (something I was hoping a little bit more of from Woods), creating one of their best efforts to date.
Pocahaunted // UFO

Casiokids // Topp stemning på lokal bar

It’s been no secret that I’ve been following this fun-loving Norwegian electro-pop group since pretty much its I N C E P T I O N, championing anything and everything that the band has released in the past three years. After much waiting, we finally find ourselves with the debut from this collection of kids-at-heart that’s perfect for any afternoon play dates in the sandbox. As an added bonus, the remix album (featuring reimaginations of Casiokids’ songs from Familjen and Captain Credible among others) paired with the release is just as good!
Casiokids // Verdens største land

Cloud Nothings // Turning On

2010 seemed to be a year where up-and-comers overshadowed indie rock stalwarts, and Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings is one of the best examples of this. Turning On is chiefly a collection of the guitar-centric, fuzzed-out mp3 and 7’’ releases that Dylan Baldi had made through the latter parts of 2009 and early 2010 and was a staple on both my turntable and my car’s stereo.
Cloud Nothings // Hey Cool Kid

Flying Lotus // Cosmogramma

A schizophrenic assault on the ears, Fly Lo’s latest is a complicated assortment of sounds and layers that, although not as digestible as Los Angeles, shows when it comes to music producing no one is as experimental as him.
Flying Lotus // Computer Face / Pure Being

Gobble Gobble // mp3s

In a year that was deep with exciting new acts, there was nothing this year – or any year, in fact – quite like the spastic musical outpourings of the gang that call themselves Gobble Gobble. Whether it was taking a hyperactive spin to a classic favorites (The Pixies “Where Is My Mind”) or reinventions of other emerging groups (Diamond Rings, Cloud Nothings, DOM, etc…) or their very own dance-party-in-a-track concoctions, one thing is for certain with Gobble Gobble: you’re guaranteed to have a good time listening to every track!
Gobble Gobble // End of Days

Liars // Sisterworld

Got to admit, I was a bit disappointed with how Sisterworld turned out. I was hoping for a mind-altering musical experience when the needle struck the vinyl for the first time, and what I got was another album cut in almost the same weird-rock mold as its two predecessors. Although not meeting my expectations, I still thoroughly enjoyed Sisterworld. I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, eh?
Liars // Proud Evolution

Crystal Castles // Crystal Castles

Not to be confused with the S/T which wound up near the top of my ’08 list, the sophomore release by the Canadian 8-bit/electro-er…-something duo was not an instant grab like its predecessor. In fact, I was going to omit it from the list completely if it wasn’t for Jheri from Get Off the Coast campaigning for a relisten! The album’s second chance came in the form of blasting it out on some high quality home stereo equipment (a method which made Sleigh Bell’s “Treats” passable for an album), and needless to say the dance-worthy tracks appeared less flat and more energetic than I remembered while the ballads remained just as potent as ever.
Crystal Castles // Vietnam

Toro y Moi // Causers of This

Another album that was a slow grower for me, I really didn’t get a complete impression of Chaz Bundwick & Co. until after I saw them live this past autumn. Too high-brow to be considered glo-fi (or whatever the nom du jour is) yet still capturing the nostalgic feeling as his contemporaries, Toro y Moi fulfills a niche that the myriad of imitators somehow missed. And did I mention his live show is awesome?!?
Toro y Moi // Causers Of This

Twin Sister // Color Your Life

I’ve had a Twin Sister post in my queue for about seven months now which I revisit often, never quite putting to words the impression this NYC band makes on me. I’ve tried and tried rewriting it countless times but somehow it’s always deficient and incomplete. So I’ll just throw up my hands and tell you you should download this album (if you are one of the two people who haven’t done that already) and get lost in their pleasant pop sounds.
Twin Sister // All Around and a Way We Go

White Denim // Last Day of Summer

Maybe it’s a Texas thing, but I’m always impressed by the recordings of Austin’s White Denim and am constantly surprised by the lack of coverage of them by the blog-o-world. For the past four years, this four-piece has been consistently releasing hit “indie-rock” (I use the term loosely) record after hit record yet they somehow get lost in the shuffle. Whether it’s your first exposure to them or if you’re already a fan, Last Day of Summer is sure to be a great listen.
White Denim // Some Wild Going Outward

jj // K I L L S Mixtape

Let’s be honest, jj’s no.3, also released in 2010, should have been a collection of B-sides to no.2 rather than a fresh LP. Thankfully, the Swedish hip-hop inspired electro-pop duo of Joakim Benon and Elin Kastlander redeemed themselves in the nick of time with the release of this badass mixtape on Christmas Eve. KILLS is a collection of hip-hop samples and rap lyrics (sung sweetly by Elin) amalgamated in quasi-random fashion to surprisingly great results – an end-of-year treat to a solid year of music!
jj // STILL

Harlem // Hippies

My favorite original garage rock release of the year, Harlem’s tracks are more like short stories with their albums bounding them into a nice collection. The group finds the perfect balance between hard-driving melodies and storybook lyrics that captivate you in perfect three-minute chunks. In an album of sixteen tracks, it’s amazing that there is not a throwaway in the bunch.
Harlem // Tila and I

Various Artists // Sahel Sounds

For lovers of “world music” (like chillwave, another moniker I can’t stand), this collection of cell-phone recorded tracks from Sahara Africa is a must-have. Nothing boils my blood more than when people describe African music as nothing more than a novelty listen – pleasant enough, but uninspired. With Sahel Sounds, you get such inventiveness in a dearth of instrumentation (most tracks feature just an acoustic guitar) that it makes you wonder about the state of monochromatic singer/songwriter “coffee shop” music that inundates the Western world.
Abba Ahmedou // Ishumar Guitar

Mountain Man // Made the Harbor

Even before a proper release, the near-a capella sounds of Vermont’s Mountain Man made many Best of 2009 lists (including yours truly). 2010 was a banner year for this all-female folk trio, releasing an EP on Underwater Peoples and an LP on Partisan Records that collected their massively downloaded mp3s of the prior year along with some new gems. Although the recording doesn’t come close to capturing their captivating live performance, it serves as a good representation of the band’s talent.
Mountain Man // Animal Tracks

Oneohtrix Point Never // Returnal

One would be crazy to think that you represent the complex synth sounds of Daniel Lopatin in a few sentences without the aid of psychotropic drugs, so I won’t even try…
Oneohtrix Point Never // Stress Waves

Explode Into Colors // Quilts

Similar to Mountain Man’s full-length, this “LP” by Portland garage rock band Explode Into Colors is more of a collection of their already released works (three sold-out 7’’s) than a new record. Regardless, for the uninitiated Quilts serves as a good introduction (or I guess conclusion since the band is now-defunct) to the wild bass/drum-dominated tracks this trio of women seem to effortlessly produce.
Explode Into Colors // Coffins

ceo // White Magic

You will not find a bigger lover of Swedish music than myself. It’s impossible. Whether it’s coming from Stockholm, Malmö, or Göteborg (arguably the epicenter) it doesn’t matter. If it has umlauts, some crazy vowel/consonant combination, or a feeling of icy ethereal to the music, I’m bound to love it. I’m constantly amazed by the impact this Scandinavian country of a paltry nine-million people have on music these days. Case in point, the electro-pop dance-tunes of ceo. The only complaint I have about the album is it’s short duration – twenty-eight minutes is enough to whet, but not satiate, my appetite for the inventive tracks of Eric Berglund.
ceo // White Magic

Glasser // Ring

Can we all agree that True Panther has been knocking every release out of the park? Ah man, just thinking about this album gives me the shivers: the combination of Cameron Mesirow’s angelic voice sung over sparsely laid instrumentation is a power to behold. I always love albums/songs which seem deceptively simple but when you start attentively listening to elements you find that they are overwhelming intricate, and Ring is one of the best examples of this this year.
Glasser // Apply

Pantha du Prince // Black Noise

When I first heard this album through the incredibly inadequate speakers on my laptop, I was like “meh”, but when I blasted from a more proper sound system I was like “Whole.Lee.Shit.” A lot has been made about Pantha’s dominance when it comes to composing bass lines, but I found myself gripped more from the oddball percussive elements he sprinkles and spatters across a track much like paint on a Pollock canvas. An amazing composition and no doubt one-step forward for electronic music.
Pantha du Prince // Abglanz

RxRy // Omega

Speaking of steps forward for electronic music, this year was fortunate to house the breakout albums (yes, plural) of semi-anonymous producer RxRy. Where most ambient electronic music is snooze-worthy, RxRy found a way to not only keep you interested in the music but also perk up your childhood imagination a little bit. When listening to Omega (the third of three LPs released this year by RxRy) you can’t help but envision a slew of fantasy micro-climates (lush rainforest, coastal crags, unending bodies of turbulent water, etc…) making it all the more enjoyable getting lost in the sound.
RxRy // Aertgo Lapsees

Memoryhouse // mp3s

Although releasing a couple of 7’’s, we unfortunately were not graced with a full length by bedroom-pop extraordinaires Memoryhouse. I don’t care, I’m including them on the list – and high up on it — anyways. I probably played every single mp3 of Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion a hundred times, that’s how easily I drifted away alongside their sweet melodies and comforting vocals. One of my favorite emerging artists of this past year and I can’t wait for what 2011 has in store for them!
Memoryhouse // To the Lighthouse

Robyn // Body Talk

Team Sweden strikes again! If I had to describe to some alien what pop music is, I would probably slap Robyn’s Body Talk onto the turntable and give them a listen. To me, Robyn is the essence of pop and it’s unfortunate (or maybe, more appropriately, unjust) that it’s the Britney Spears of the world selling out arenas from Indonesia to Arizona rather than her.
Robyn // Hang With Me

Lower Dens // Twin-Hand Movement

Probably one of the few bands on this list that I can see both myself and a young adult version of parents listening to. Although distorted at times, Twin-Hand Movement is mostly a smooth enjoyable listen that’s fairly easy on the ears. The album is nothing particularly revolutionary but rather it’s just a great uncomplicated record done extremely well — something you don’t get too often nowadays.
Lower Dens // Completely Golden

Rraaiillss // 1098

I feel like Rraaiillss is The Sandwitches of 2010: a group (or in this case an individual) who makes unbelievably high quality music yet surprisingly doesn’t garner a shred of coverage. 1098 is an incredibly solid album that blazes through genres as diverse as shoegaze to bedroom-pop, leaving in its smoldering remnants a stunned and amazed listener whose only response is to hit replay. Equally unbelievable is the fact that the music – from drums, guitar, vocals, electronics – is produced solely by one person, Adam Anderson, who also somehow finds time to do some electronic stuff on the side.
Rraaiillss // Red String

Big Boi // Sir Lucious Left Foot

Although the masses might disagree, any diehard music fan would probably concede that Big Boi is the heart and soul of Outkast, with Andre 3000 providing the funk and funky. With Sir Lucious Left Foot, Big Boi showcases what he does best, writing fast-paced, complex rhymes over head-banging big-band beats which you can bump even in a 1996 Corolla. In a Lil Wayne-less year of music, Big Boi’s rapping provided a suitable replacement.
Big Boi (ft. Gucci Mane) // Shine Blockas

Kanye West // My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Of the stacks and stacks of positive reviews and effusing articles discussing the new Kanye album, the statement that stuck with me the most was from The New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones: “Good luck figuring out what kind of music this is, though it does contain rapping.” And that’s exactly why I love this album so much – it pushes the boundary in a genre that seems to have become overwhelmingly stagnant the past half decade. If anything, West deserves a gold medal for finally scrapping the most annoying thing about rap albums: skit interludes.
Kanye West // Power

How to Dress Well // Love Remains

I found myself coming back to this album by How to Dress Well more and more as the year ended. Maybe it’s the Bon Iver-esque falsetto vocals offset not by acoustic guitar but rather ambient R&B beats or the complexity in simplicity mantra (much like Glasser’s Ring), but whatever it is, I found myself absolutely loving this album when winter rolled around. Who knows, maybe if it was released a few months sooner it would have snuck into the top spot!
How to Dress Well // You Won’t Need Me Where I’m Goin’

The Knife In Collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock // Tomorrow, In A Year

No doubt the most cerebral of albums I listened to this year, this score for a Charles Darwin inspired opera composed by the Swedish electronic duo The Knife twisted and warped the concept of evolution in highly imaginative ways. Although their distinct pitch-shifted vocals are noticeably absent (except on the well-received track “Colouring of Pigeons” which features the singing of Karin Dreijer Andersson), the composition itself is a 22nd century incarnation of The Knife’s sharp synths and unusual sounding melodies. Tomorrow, In A Year is certainly not for the casual listener, but for the people who take the time to attentively listen and deconstruct the album, it’s a worthwhile treat.
The Knife // Colouring of Pigeons

Deerhunter // Halcyon Digest

What more can you say about Bradford Cox that hasn’t already been said? With a Ryan Adams-like proficiency – and more critically acclaimed to boot – the guy churns out high-quality albums like its second nature to him. Halcyon Digest is the latest in his dense discography (well, at the time of printing Halcyon Digest seems to have been replaced by a hefty FOUR albums Cox recorded in his bedroom that was released at the end of the year) and is one of his best. 60s pop-rock inspired, Cox shows that he knows a thing or two about how to string together simple melodies with sing-song songwriting to produce automatic hits.
Deerhunter // Desire Lines

James Blake // CMYK

Hands down, my favorite album(s) (CMYK is one of three EPs released in ’10) from an up-and-coming artist this year came by way of twenty-two year old British producer James Blake. Although dubstep and ambient are no doubt influences, I’m not quite sure you can conveniently pigeonhole Mr. Blake’s compositions into a nice little well-packaged genre. As you’ve seen from many of the prior Best Of picks, this lack of categorization seems to be desirable not only from my perspective but also from more influential music lovers (it’s only a matter of time before “ungenre” becomes a genre). The combination of the age and the music makes me so excited to see what Blake has in store for us with his February scheduled debut LP release.
James Blake // CMYK

Beach House // Teen Dream

Hands down, the most listened to and most loved album of the year for me (and it seems for a lot of other people as well). I was a little late to jump on the Beach House bandwagon — in ’08 I famously declared to many that I just didn’t “get it”— but Teen Dream helped bridged the gap in my lack of understanding. Like most, I’ve helplessly fallen head over heels for the sweet crooning of Victoria Legrand and the delicate melodies composed by her keyboard playing and Alex Scally’s guitar plucking. In a year that saw so much complex and boundary-pushing music, it was always refreshing knowing that I had Beach House’s simple, yet beautifully constructed tracks to cleanse the palate when all was said and done. A great album that tops a great year in music!
Beach House // 10 Mile Stereo

You can download all the tracks featured in this list from the two .zip files here and here. I recommend sorting via “Date Created” to get the tracks in order. Here’s a recap of my Top 35 Albums of 2010:

1: Beach House // Teen Dream
2: James Blake // CMYK
3: Deerhunter // Halcyon Digest
4: The Knife // Tomorrow, In a Year
5: How to Dress Well // Love Remains
6; Kanye West // My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
7: Big Boi // Sir Lucious Left Foot…
8: Rraaiillss // 1098
9: Lower Dens // Twin-Hand Movement
10: Robyn // Body Talk
11: Memoryhouse // mp3s
12: RxRy // Omega
13: Pantha du Prince // Black Noise
14: Glasser // Ring
15: ceo // White Magic
16: Explode Into Colors // Quilts
17: Oneohtrix Point Never // Returnal
18: Mountain Man // Made the Harbor
19: Various Artists // Sahel Sounds
20: Harlem // Hippies
21: jj // KILLS
22: White Denim // Last Day of Summer
23: Twin Sister // Color Your Life
24: Toro y Moi // Causers Of This
25: Crystal Castles // Crystal Castles
26: Liars // Sisterworld
27: Gobble Gobble // mp3s
28: Flying Lotus // Cosmogramma
29: Cloud Nothings // Turning On
30: Casiokids // Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar
31: Pocahaunted // Make It Real
32: Woods // At Echo Lake
33: Salad Fork // Mixtape for Haiti
34: Joanna Newsom // Have One On Me
35: Stalker // mp3s

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:

The Dream // Nikki (Gobble Gobble Remix)

For those who follow me on twitter, you are probably already aware that I’ve relocated from Portland to Utah this past month. To commemorate this move to a new environment, I’ve made a one-hour mix composed of mainly new groups from the past year-or-so (with the most notable exceptions being DOOM and Big K.R.I.T. — those songs were just too tight to leave out). All these artists have, at some point in time, been on constant repeat while I’ve packed/moved/unpacked my stuff from point A to B this past month. Much love to Delicious Scopitone, YVYNYL, Get Off the Coast, Salad Fork, Beko-DSL, Widows/Watch, and of course all the stellar bands who’ve submitted mp3s to me which have shown up on this mix. Track list and download link is below. Hope you dig “New Beginnings”!

Track List:

• Balam Acab // See Birds (Moon)
• Omnivore // Take It All
• Rraaiillss // When You Feel Like…
• Teenage Reverb // Double Exposure
• DOOM // Gooey Gum Drops (Monster Rally Remix)
• Stalker // Disconnection (Disconnected)
• Coma Cinema // Stoned Alone
• Blackbird Blackbird // Dreams I Create
• Puro Instinct // California Shakedown
• Wise Blood // Mi + Amore
• The Diamond Center // Dos Fridas
• Craig Cruiser // Tubing
• Big K.R.I.T. // Country Shit
• Explode Into Colors // Sharpen the Knife
• Pigeons // Tendress
• COOLRUNNINGS // I Am You (Teams Remix)
• Gobble Gobble // Boring Horror
• Everything Everything // Schoolin (Games Remix)

Download (109Mb):
MediaFire or Direct Link (if MF is down)

Even though I’m currently on vacation (again?!), this track Cecil just passed along to me is just too great to pass up posting about immediately. As expected with any Gobble Gobble track, there is a lot going on with the song — electronic flurries, spidery bloops & bleeps, an insane xylophone line, etc… — but somehow the wheels never come off completely. The listener is bombarded with sound, but somehow remains standing (most likely sweat drenched) when all is said and done.

You can check out the track below and, while your at it, head on over to Gobble Gobble’s tumblr for more material. Also, odds are you can catch Cecil & Co. on tour at some point in time since he just scheduled 161 consecutive summer/autumn tour dates.

Gobble Gobble // Boring Horror

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)

The first is from PT-Music favorite Gobble Gobble for their track “Wrinklecarver” off an upcoming late-April release called Eskimo Taco. With intricate dancing that I haven’t seen since the lone Quinceañera I attended back in junior high, the film looks a bit like a Mexican adaptation of a Bollywood video — fitting the hyper-active music of Gobble Gobble perfectly!

The second video is for L.A.’s Pat Grossi, who goes by the name Active Child. Grossi’s track “Wilderness” has, without a doubt, generated quite the buzz on the web as of late (I first heard him through NPR), and Jheri’s video certainly adds fuel to the fire. Taking the literal interpretation of the track title, the video is composed of snippets of old footage from the Grand Canyon that match well with Grossi’s ethereal vocals.

So check out all of Jheri’s videos from his vimeo page here and also be sure to head over to his blog to find your new favorite “undiscovered” band.

Earlier this week, Cecil from the gif-loving hyperactive group Gobble Gobble passed along their complete dismantling, or “molestation” as Cecil called it, of the Pixies classic “Where Is My Mind”. Part of the awesome White Guys with Beards Friends Vol. II Cassette Compilation, the covered track keeps the “don’t care” attitude of vintage Pixies alive throughout the track (the semi-abrasive vocal flareups, for example) while bombarding it with electro-flurries that only Gobble Gobble can do.

If you like the track, you can download the group’s out-of-print cassette “Neon Graveyard” for free here, or if you just want a sample, check out the cover as well as a rad fan-created video for the original Pixies song below:

Gobble Gobble // Where Is My Mind (Pixies Cover)

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