Posts Tagged ‘Kurt VIle’

300th Post // Vinyl Giveaway

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

It’s been quite the journey. I started Part-Time Music about two and a half years ago while I was an engineering grad student in Denmark. Although a lot has changed geographically with me (Denmark -> Germany -> Texas -> Oregon -> Utah), the site has remained mostly the same since its inception — opting to stay with the “default” wordpress template throughout chieftly due to my ever-shrinking free time and my lack of web design skills. For me, the blog has never been about readership, or page hits, or ad $$ (the only one up is for an iPhone app my bro made), it’s been about the music. It’s always been about the music. I have nothing but the utmost respect for all the creative minds out there in the world doing things I know I could never do. With the site, all I ever wanted to do is piece together a few kind words to say about all the artists I’ve grown to love over the years and give a little praise (albeit a relatively small amount in this giant blog-o-world we live in) and maybe provide some motivation for them to keep going.

Anyways, enough sentimental stuff — let’s get on to the freebies! To celebrate this 300th post achievement as well as my recent move to Utah, I put together a collection of vinyl that I think best represents what my blog is about (starting upper left, moving clockwise):

  • Grouper // He Knows, He Knows, He Knows 7” // Incredibly super limited self-made vinyl by Portland’s dark experimentalist Liz Harris
  • Woods // I Was Gone 7” // Limited, one-time pressing (out of 1,500) of this Brooklyn psych-folk group
  • Sleater-Kinney // The Hot Rock LP // Sleater-Kinney is one of my favorite bands of all-time. This is one of my favorite albums of theirs (released in 1999, pretty sure this is a repress as it’s brand new in package).
  • Kurt Vile // He’s Alright 7” // First release on Matador Records by Philly lo-fi rocker Kurt Vile. A must have for any KV fan.
  • Dirty Projectors & Castanets // Unusual Animals Vol. 2 // A split 10” celebrating the Maned Three-Toed Sloth by experimental rockers The Dirty Projectors and alt country-ers Castanets. Released in 2006 on Sufjan Steven’s Asthmatic Kitty Records. Probably the most random release I’ve seen.
  • Hanoi Janes // Young & Dumb 7” // This five-song 7” (!!) is the second they’ve released for Captured/Tracks. Love this band so much…
  • Big Boi // Sir Lucious Left Foot… // Who wouldn’t want the best rap record released this year? (Alternate cover, limited edition!)

So yeah, that’s it! A lot of limited releases, a lot of my favorite bands, a lot of random (yet cool) stuff. Mad props to Slowtrain here in Salt Lake City for having a lot of these releases in stock.

To win, just retweet this here message and/or leave an inspiring comment below (US residents are only eligible to win, if you leave a comment be sure to include a valid e-mail addy so I can get back to you). Thanks again to all my long-time readers and cheers to my new fans! Hope you find something you like!

Kurt Vile // Freeway

Woods // I Was Gone

Grouper // Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping

Represses // Real Estate, Pearl Harbor, Kurt Vile

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Got some good news to share with fans of the high-cost, high-quality Mexican Summer imprint. As reported on Salad Fork yesterday, the label has decided to repress a handful of some of their long sold-out vinyls including Real Estate’s Reality EP, half of which will be on splattered wax (seen above), Pearl Harbor’s Something About the Chaparrals EP on turquoise vinyl, and Kurt Vile’s 5-year-in-the-making God Is Saying This to You… LP. The supplies aren’t especially limited (2k for the first two; no info on the KV quantity but I’d imagine it’s the same), but nevertheless, the aesthetics alone make me want to shell out the $15-$20 for another copy. So head on over to their store if you weren’t one of the few early adopters to snag a copy.

Pearl Harbor // Luv Goon

Kurt Vile // Beach On the Moon (Recycled Lyrics) XXX

Real Estate // Younger Than Yesterday (Live on WMUA)

Videos for the Veekend // 4|16 – 4|18

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Let’s jump head-first into yet another installment of my favorite video finds of the past week:

No doubt, one of the most buzzed about thing in the blog-o-sphere the past couple of days has been Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno’s (aka Best Coast) fast-food inspired video for “When I’m With You”:

Don’t have too many details from the Boston/NYC band Hooray for Earth other than they are set to open for crowd-favorites Surfer Blood and Pains of Being Pure at Heart on most of their East Coast tour dates. The following is a self-proclaimed “muppet-friendly, 80s public access channel-inspired video” for their track “Surrounded By Your Friends”:

This next music video is for arguably my favorite track from my favorite album of 2009: The Flaming Lips‘s Powerless:

Producing one of my favorite albums of 2010, I was shocked to find that I haven’t done a single Toro y Moi post yet. Here is an audio recording posted on youtube of Mr. Bundick covering Beach House’s “Master of None” that I found intriguing:

Another video I’ve been late to post is Kurt Vile‘s three song set he performed for Q-TV back in March:

I’ll end with an old-y but good-y, the karaoke music video for the Swedish sugary-sweet pop group Acid House Kings‘s track “This Heart is a Stone”. Yes, it’s three minutes of them playing ping-pong, but the song is soooo good!

Kurt Vile // Matador 7”

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Between underwhelming solo shows and mind-blowing high quality bootlegs, Kurt Vile seems to bounce between the favorable/unfavorable poles more so than any artist I listen to. Personality wise, Vile seems to be the grunge rock embodiment of Kanye West egotism: everything from his half-slurred “I’m the greatest” exclamations at his live sets to his unrepentant titling of his LPs (Childish Prodigy and Constant Hitmaker to name a few) reeks of overconfidence. However, with a catalog that Vile has and a recent contract with kind-of-like-a-big-deal label Matador Records, Vile has the M.O. to back up the talk.

This past September, Mr. Vile released a limited neon-blue 7” on Matador whose function was to be a buzz-inducing precursor for his October released Childish Prodigy LP. The A-side “He’s Alright” is a typical Vile song with lazy vibrato strumming and monotonal vocals of “I don’t care / I don’t care / I don’t care / …” creating a lethargic atmosphere similar to past songs “Deep Sea” and “White Riffs”. The B-side is a bit more interesting than it’s flipside predecessor with the duo of two-minute tracks. Complementing the drony “Farfisas in Falltime”, “Take Your Time” exhibits Vile’s sharp guitar picking (à la “Slow Takers”) and lyrical thoughtfulness. The only way I could think of the song being better is if there was a mention to the Buddy Holly track of the same name, but unfortunately we’ll have to wait for his Peggy Sue single for that.

For those looking for a brief intro of what KV is all about, I would definitely recommend purchasing the 7”. The disc gives an excellent taste of the three areas Vile likes to dabble most in (laid back lackadaisical strumming, drony instrumentals, and needlike fast-moving guitar) while not blowing all the surprises his proper LPs exhibit.

For a taste, here is a live version of “Take Your Time”:

Kurt Vile // Take Your Time (live)

PT Music Mixxx // Chillaxxx Mixx²

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

So a couple of years ago, my buddy DP made this killer dance mix which went by the appropriate title “DP’s Sex Mix” — yeah, it was that smooth. Although that mix would guarantee to get the party hoppin’, you had to unleash it at just the right time for maximum effect (too early and you run out of material when the party hits full stride, too late and people are worn out before the mix finishes). To solve the problem of premature play, my first mix (no doubt in a series), tackles the pre-party environment — you know, when guests are starting to arrive and you want music geared towards conversation rather than rump-shaking.

You can download the mix, fully entitled “Chillaxxx Mixxx²: da Houf Pre-Sexxx Mixxx” (multiple xxx for emphasis) right here. No doubt there are some weak transitions and I need to crop/fade some endings to songs, but I think every track works as good background music for a get-together of any size. Who knows, the music itself might start up some conversations of its own. Here’s the tracklisting:

1: Warm Heart of Africa // The Very Best (ft. Ezra Koenig)
2: Ecstasy // jj
3: Get ‘Em High // Kanye West (ft. Common) [A-Trak Remix]
4: POP // M.I.A. & Diplo
5: Little Dreamer // Future Islands (ft. Victoria Legrand) [Jones Remix]
6: Norway // Beach House
7: Animals Collecting Money // Animal Collective x Paper Route Gangstaz [Hood Internet Remix]
8: Idioteque // Calico Horse (Radiohead Cover)
9: Tower Grove Joint // Phaseone
10: A New Chance // The Tough Alliance (Tanlines Remix)
11: Imitosis // Andrew Bird (Four Tet Remix)
12: The xx Chicago Girls // Jams Dean
13: Never Content // Air France (Friends Tropic Thunder Edit)
14: One // Yeasayer
15: El Reloj // Jóvenes y Sexys
16: Dangers Not a Stranger // Gucci Mane (Diplo Remix)
17: Freeway // Kurt Vile
18: YGTL // Florence + The Machine (The xx Remix)