open request line
19Mar08
So, ironically, after SXSW where I saw about 100 bands in four days, I’m not really sure what to listen to, and I’d love some help. I’m really liking the Ponytail record, but that’s so mood-specific; the She & Him is strong, but I think I’ve already listened to it too much; and I really like that Willits + Sakamoto, but again, only at specific moments. What’s your current obsession, and what’s the one record (this week) that you love that everyone else should, too? Please share below!
I just downloaded this today and I can’t stop listening to it:
Giuseppe Ielasi & Nicola Ratti - Bellows
it’s kind of along the same lines as the Willitts Sakamoto…
I’m also really enjoying:
Why? - Alopecia
I have a strong history of really liking Why?, cLOUDDEAD and Greenthink though.
Oh, high school…
Does it have to be something from this year? If not, here’s what I’ve been listening to:
[url=http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Florida-Funk-MP3-Download/11095320.html]Florida Funk: 1968 — 1975[/url]
The label this disc is on — Jazzman Records — is awesome.
Gah. That didn’t work. The URL is as follows:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Florida-Funk-MP3-Download/11095320.html
Yhä hämärää, by Paavoharju, recently featured in the “nordic folk” dozen on emusic. I checked out the samples because I liked the cover and the review, then I had to have it. One of the coolest weirdest things I’ve heard recently.
Also Parson Sound; cool psych music from Sweden from the 60’s-70’s. (not sure why I’m so into Nordic things lately) This one’s over two hours long, so it helps to get through those indecisive periods.
I also really like the Earth album recently added to emusic (Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars) which hasn’t received much comment.
I’ve arranged a live version of Arm’s Way and it’s just great to listen to, I drove to Memphis and then to Dallas the next day to see them live twice and they are so fun and amazing live, so I just imagine them playing the songs while I listen.
hey seth what’s arm’s way? not showing up on search.
great recs so far. downloaded every one of them.
I’ve been listening to the live Lykke Li tracks from Hot Freaks.
http://www.lullabyes.net/blog/2008/03/lykke-li-031508.html
okay adamm you are already a certified bro, cuz that paavoharju record is so great. thanks so much!
I’m going to recommend at least one more: “Good News For Modern Man,” by Grant Hart, a founding member of the great Husker Du. An overlooked gem. This is where Husker Du should have gone if they hadn’t split after “Warehouse: Songs and Stories.”
http://www.emusic.com/album/Grant-Hart-Good-News-For-Modern-Man-MP3-Download/10859024.html
That Willits Sakamoto record Ocean Fire is brilliant!
Willits is incredible. Always tons of new stuff coming from that guy.
Thanks for the tips on the other ones.
After seeing the RnR Hall of fame inductions, I was raving to my wife about the Jennifer Warnes album Famous Blue Raincoat, which is all Leonard Cohen covers. Having not heard it since the late eighties, I was excited when I popped the search into emusic and up it came. Once you get over the “Jennifer Warnes? Really?” reaction it is a good album from start to finish. Not too reverential, it is as solid a cohen interpretation as you are going to get.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Jennifer-Warnes-Famous-Blue-Raincoat-20th-Anniversary-Edition-MP3-Download/11075863.html
Awww… come on, Yancey. I only have 18 tracks left this month. Don’t do this to me…
OK… two things I downloaded recently and really really like are the new Plants and Animals (much discussed at 17dots) and Basinski’s Disintegration Loops I-IV, which I had planned to acquire for years when suddenly they popped up at eMu. What surprised me about The Disintegration Loops in particular was their listenability… I had always held the impression they would be a one-shot deal — a basic novelty record — but they turned out to be both fascinating and excellent, especially as background music while working.
^^^^ This is totally true about TDL. An amazing — and amazingly listenable — set of discs.
Hey Yancey, it’s the new album due in May from Islands (new here so don’t know how to make a link), but get their album Return To The Sea, it is excellent. If you don’t know, they were formed after the breakup of the excellent yet short-lived band The Unicorns.
I’m going to have to do it song by song, rather than just one disk. Here are my obsessive songs this week:
Buttersprites - LuvLuvLuv
Bush Tetras - Rituals
The Nigerian Police Force Band ‘The Force 7′ - Asiko Mi Ni (Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife 1970-76)
Joyside - Dang (Look Directly Into the Sun: China Pop 2007)
Colin Newman - Alone
That Florida Funk album sounds great. Straight to Save for Later.
Also, obsessing over Crystal Castles and HEALTH right now, and although I can’t get Crystal Castles debut on eMu, I can get both of them together on Crimewave, which is pretty sweet.
I’ve been listening to Fugazi’s In On The Killtaker this week. I so love that band. Everything they do is gold, or near enough to.
A recent fave is Elvis Perkins’ Ash Wednesday. Saw a great clip of him playing the first track from the album, While You Were Sleeping, on http://www.TakeAwayShows.com and it blew me away. He’s sort of Neutral Milk Hotel meets Dylan.
The Fuck Buttons is turning me on I gotta say. Beats, drones, metal vocals, ambience, brid noises, syths, drumming. Somehow one cohesive piece. It worked for me. Ohm!
& Bad Brains first album. SOOOOOOOO good. Hardcore started here and I love how they through in a reggae track to clam things down.
Finally Cadence Weapon, his album Breaking Kayfabe. I heard the track 30 seconds and was blown away (twice in one posting hey?). Conscious rapping about branding/advertising. All good.
seth the crystal castles full length will be available on emu, maybe as soon as tomorrow.
Funny - I was listening to this album this morning, trying to figure out how to let everyone else know about it. Along comes this entry.
Jacob Golden - Revenge Songs
http://www.emusic.com/album/Jacob-Golden-Revenge-Songs-MP3-Download/11117254.html
“On a Saturday” is one of the few 5-Star songs on my iPod. “Zero Integrity” and “Out Come the Wolves” are also highly recommended.
“Pretend” is my least favorite. I just can’t figure out how it fits with the rest of the album, and being someone who likes to listen to entire albums (not just singles), that bothers me and keeps me from absolutely loving this album.
I’ve read reviews calling this one of the best divorce albums ever. I don’t have enough comparisons to verify that. I do know that this album has grown on me over the last two months. I also read that “On a Saturday” was featured on The OC, but I still like the song anyway.
Sorry - one more.
Ezra Furman & the Harpoons - Banging Down the Doors
I don’t like the review on emu. People see the Dylan and Clap Your Hands comparisons and probably move on. I think this album is what the Violent Femmes would sound like today if they kept releasing other albums like their debut*. Listen to the first track, “Mother’s Day.” Then skip to the last track, “Lydia Sherman.” “How Long, Diana?,” also. Downfall of this album: too long. I think it could have been one or two songs shorter. I won’t mention songs to drop, but I definitely have my opinions.
================
*I personally like several of the later Femmes CDs, especially Why Do Birds Sing?, but don’t think they’ve ever matched their debut.
Forgot the link for the Ezra Furman album:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Ezra-Furman-The-Harpoons-Banging-Down-The-Doors-MP3-Download/11092194.html
I have not been able to stop listening to Rafter. Sex Death Cassette has been hard core rocking my world
Sex Death Cassette
Also, I’ve listened to Ponytail, checked them out rather thoroughly, and listened to the album on emusic. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s got to be a live show things, because I just don’t get it.
promoting my own country’s band who performed at the Habana Annex on March 15th: White Shoes & the Couples Company. their album is released stateside by Minty Fresh: http://www.emusic.com/album/White-Shoes-the-Couples-Company-White-Shoes-the-Couples-Company-MP3-Download/11092272.html
you can say it’s ’60’s influenced indie pop with a southeast asian twist (well, most of the songs are in Indonesian)
i’d heartily recommend either of the Tenniscoats records. eMusic has both discs released last year ‘Totemo Aimasho’ and ‘Tan-Tan Therapy’:
http://www.emusic.com/artist/Tenniscoats-MP3-Download/11696714.html
Cheers,
John.
The Crystal Castles is up, it’s just not linked in for a search. (go to Crystal Castles v. Health, it’s there under compilations).
And Yancey, call it even for the recomendation because I’ve been really into the Make Up lately, who I never heard if until your post about them a couple of weeks ago.
Yonan, I’m definitely going to check out White Shoes & the Couples Company. I always like a good international recomendation.
As far as the new record labels go, any chance of emusic getting Domino? It seems lately they have a lot of things I’d love to get. (Robert Wyatt’s Comicopera and back catalog especially)
Really been liking the album Little Tea by Two Tears. She’s been in my SFL for a couple years now and finally downloaded a few weeks ago. Really love he lo-fi, punky chick and guitar vibe.
Two Gallants’ The Throes Remastered has been my y’alternative kink of late. Throw Me The Statue’s Moonbeams is pretty fun. The new These United States isn’t bad either.
For non eMu, can’t get enough the Born Ruffians release. MGMT is totally helping me with my spring cleaning. Both completely worth getting in… you know… real life.
(sorry, too lazy today for links)
You probably know all of these already, but hey why not.
This week I’ve been listening to J Dilla a lot, especially the first disc of The Deelicious Vinyl Years and the first disc of The Ruff Draft. Old, of course, but it’s some of the satisfying stuff I’ve got right now.
Otherwise, those Kate Simko songs from the Spectral Sound Death is Nothing to Fear EPs (here and here are two of the most emotional robots I’ve heard in awhile, and I thought I had no room left in my heart for (slightly) minimal techno!
I got the LP used from Other Music a week ago, but eMusic also carries Faust vs. Dalek’s Derbe Respect, Alder. A truly strange album, but good if you feel the need for something really bizarre and inventive. I think it presses the same pleasure buttons as Gang Gang Dance.
Unfortunately eMusic does NOT have this one, but I’ll mention it for those people loving the Basinski: Pop by Gas. Really incredible.
I’m on week three of an obsession with Samamidon’s “All is Well.” Skerzo turned me on to them/him and it’s my current front runner for album of the year.
we used to have pop by gas, alex. one of my favorite records ever.
and adamm is two for two. i love the parson sound even more than the other nordic record. first thing i listened to this morning.
fun fact for you, flamgirlant: cary, who is two tears, lives in dubai!
also adamm, are you into hawkwind or early faust? parsons sound srsly reminds me of that stuff.
love the first Faust record, that was one of my first month’s downloads when i first subscribed. Also a big Neu! and Kraftwerk fan.
Never got around to hearing any Hawkwind; what’s a good starting point?
If you like Parson Sound, Träd Gräs Och Stenar, also on emusic, is pretty much the same people, a couple years later. I haven’t downloaded it yet, but it might be good.
In the same vein, although a lot noisier, is Les Rallizes Denudes, from Japan; emusic has only one song, on the Sub Rosa Noise Compilation Vol. 4, as “Ralizes Denudes.” But if you like it you can find other stuff out there with some dilligent searching.
Träd Gräs Och Stenar is indeed awesome. Too bad emusic doesn’t have Djungelns Lag, the best album I’ve heard by them (NB: I haven’t heard the live disc on the site, but on the strength of DL alone I’m willing to bet it’s good). I also have that Parson Sound 2xCD but haven’t heard anything by International Harvester, the other (maybe the same?) band that evolved from PS and TGOS. You know anything by them, Adamm?
Yancey, you actually recommended Pop to me a long time ago, maybe as far back as DVDTalk days (I was “fallow” on that board, BTW; we also met during CMJ 2004, I think).
International Harvester is also the same people, but they’re on a different label, (Silence Records according to a Parson Sound reviewer), not available on emusic, but they are at itunes. There was an article about all 3 bands and the scene generally in the 2007 Wire Rewind issue.
Pop is one of those albums I kept putting off getting until it was too late.
oh alex i totally have always known who you are!
adamm the hawkwind i love is called space ritual vol. 2. we don’t have it, but check out some samples elsewhere. not exactly the same by any means, but a similar feel.
Well, a bit late and much more traditional than all these Nordic rarities, but I’ve been enjoying the new record from Tulsa - I Was Submerged. First heard “Breath Thin” on The Current here in MSP, and kept having that “who is this?” reaction. Also like “Mass” and “There Goes A Man.” Not the most out-there stuff - kinda My Morning Jacket-ish, I suppose, w/ plenty of reverb - but good songs good singer is still an effective combo.
I’ve just downloaded and am enjoying the new album by 13ghosts, “The Strangest Colored Lights”. Kinda reminded me of Grandaddy at first, but not so much after a few more times through. Very nice. After 4 votes, its at 2.5 stars, so somebody must hate it. I love it.
I thought you knew who I was, Yancey, but also thought I’d go ahead and make it explicit just in case!
Two more, one that I got last month but have been hitting hard, and another that I got just tonight. The first, Dexplicit’s Dexplicit Dubz 2 EP, is an English bassline house producer who I first heard about in February through Dj /Rupture’s WFMU show, “Mudd Up!” I wish I had been aware of him before that show’s broadcast, cos I would’ve loved to see him perform in NYC. The other came to my attention thanks to Todd’s post about the Border Community label - Petter’s Some Polyphony 12″. Petter’s tracks were some of my favorite on James Holden’s At the Controls and Balance 005 mixes.
New week, new obsession: The Xanadu Original Movie Soundtrack. Set aside Track Nos. 3 — 5 leaves one heck of a pop disc (Xanadu, Magic, Suddenly, I’m Alive, All Over The World, Don’t Walk Away, The Fall).