4/18 old arrivals

Today’s a light day in terms of new arrivals — hey, it happens! — so a few of us 17 Dotters decided to recommend some of our personal favorites that have been on the site for a while.

Bryan’s Pick
N.LN, Astronomy for Children: This album was one of my first great discoveries after beginning my tenure at eMusic, which I can attribute to some long since dead message board post. This album is the electronic outlet for Film School’s guitarist/vocalist Nyles Lannon, and is similar in tone to melodic IDM like Boards of Canada, Plaid or early Autechre. Fuzzy synths textures float among strands of squiggly beats and sputtery samples. It’s tasty. Check out “I Never Heard” or “Left Bubbles” — you’ll know if its your bag pretty quick.

Kendel’s Pick
The Cardigans, Super Extra Gravity: When The Cardigan’s First Band on the Moon came out in 1996, I was pretty enamored with their single “Lovefool.” It’s catchy and poppy and the perfect soundtrack for a teenage summer love (which is certainly how it ended up in the remake of Romeo + Juliet). And while for many people, the Cardigans were a one-hit-wonder band, I’m happy to say they’ve remained in my regular play list rotation. I moved to New York shortly after Gran Tourismo was released and it served as a perfect accompaniment for leaving things behind in favor of novelty and uncertain excitement. And since I count them as one of my standbys, I’m surprised to say I somehow overlooked their newest offering Super Extra Gravity when it was released in 2005. I uncovered it while browsing on eMusic recently and I’ve been replaying it ever since. “I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer” is a standout and “Losing a Friend” an honest and tender breakup song. The upbeat pop from their debut has matured and seen more than a few heartbreaks and the lyrics are decidedly darker — I’m not sure I’ve heard disappointment better sung than in “Little Black Cloud” — which is maybe why I feel such a kinship with them; it feels a little like we grew up together.

Todd’s Pick
Johanna Stahley, I’m Not Perfect: I’ve always been wary of downloading things from CD Baby due to the massive signal to noise ratio, but eMusic contributor Chuck Eddy helpfully highlighted a dozen of the gems to be found on the site from that label. My favorite is undoubtedly Johanna Stahley’s I’m Not Perfect, which features the double entendre fest “My Big O (I Can)” and perhaps the slinkiest ode to depression yet penned (“Misery”).

Yancey’s Pick
Battles EP C: So this is basically just an excuse to share a clever bit of YouTube hackery, as someone managed to upload an entire, hour-long Battles show from a few weeks ago, which is embedded below. Watch it. Seriously.

If you are unfamiliar with Battles, here’s the deal: it’s Ian Williams from Don Caballero, aka the Best Band Ever (peep American Don, philistines!), drummer John Stanier from Helmet, NYC avant-multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton (Who used to live in my old apt — we had piles of his mail. Dude, forwarding that stuff is not hard!), who is Anthony Braxton‘s son, and another dude who plays guitar and looks and acts just like Ian Williams (we call him Lil’ Ian) (his real name is Dave Konopka and he used to be in Lynx).

Basically Battles are the stone-cold baddest math-rockers we have going, this insanely tight beast who are wow times a billion when you see ‘em live, and almost as much on record. Their tightness is ridiculous, and well earned: A buddy of mine had a rough spot where he had to sleep in his band’s practice space in Brooklyn for a while, and Battles rehearsed in the room next door. According to him, the band — or at least one of the band members — practiced 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He used to describe waking up at 3am to hear Ian playing the same seven-note riff over and over for hours. And check this out: despite the fact that the lack of sleep sucked, my buddy never turned on them. He still, for the most part, liked the band! Is there any better recommendation?

Anyway, EP C is a good place to start, and I recommend the last song, “Tras 2,” as your entry point. Now, onto that show:

Edited to add: So I didn’t realize that the self-titled Battles record we have is what I know as B EP. So basically, you should also RUN NOT WALK to snag “SZ2″ which is 100,000,000,000 kinds of craziness. Link!