Washed Out feat. Caroline Polachek

I haven’t written anything about music on here for almost a year. That mostly had to do with just not hearing much that really grabbed me in a while, until today when I was checking out the Adult Swim “8 Tracks, 8 Weeks” singles program. I’ve been really into, what’s been now termed as Chillwave or No-fi, for a while now. I’ve been digging bands like Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, Wavves, and have fallen in love with Best Coast and Washed Out.

The droney lo-fi sounds of stoned surf rock (which is not the same as “surfer rock”) are perfect for this time of year. Listening to this song I feel like I’m on a beach at sunset, time frozen in a perfect warm moment, in love with a beautiful woman, in my arms, which will soon be reproduced for an add for jeans.

Also the graphic design for this singles program is pretty sweet, no?

This is Washed Out’s contribution to the Adult Swim Singles Program.

Washed Out feat. Caroline Polachek (of Chairlift)

Since I have much more free time now I am looking forward to getting back to blogging on a more regular basis. Also look for a new blog redesign coming… eventually. I keep this site as a continual work in progress and have been working on a new design for some time now.

Also upcoming for 2010:

• If you liked the FutureMBTA then you will love the FutureMTA. Since moving to NYC 4+ years ago I’ve been playing around with creating an expanded version of the NYC subway. I doubt I will create a whole new website for it but who knows at this point.
• Robert Moses Google Maps for the entire city. This was a project I had been close to finishing earlier this year but a hard drive failure set me back a bit and I lost heart afterwards.
• New photography. If you follow my Flickr you probably have noticed that I haven’t updated that in a long time as well. The reason being is I’ve spent the last few months shooting only with my father’s 30 year old 35mm camera. I spent the time trying to find a new voice since I’ve gotten tired of shooting architecture/urban. While exploring the camera I really pushed myself to try things I wasn’t used to, like shooting people and shooting self portraits. Out of this came what I hope is my next great project, something that will actually take years to complete. More about this further into the year when I get some stuff set up.
• Music. I have to admit I was a little let down with music in 2009. There just wasn’t a whole lot out there that really inspired me. That isn’t to say there wasn’t a lot of good music but rather there wasn’t a lot of music that really pushed the envelope. I’m really hoping that 2010, the new year and the new decade, will bring some really exciting new sounds. I will do my best to bring to you what I find. This is a challenge to myself.

I wish you all a happy new year and I am happy to be back sharing my thoughts and cool findings with you all.

I normally don’t like to write about well established bands but after the 5th listen through the new Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career I felt like I just couldn’t NOT write about this album. It’s been 3 years since Let’s Get Out Of This Country which, once the opening notes of “Llyod, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken” burst forth from my speakers and embedded itself in my soul, became my soundtrack for the year… and most of the next (yes that was a ridiculous sentence but, whatever, it’s true). So I’ve been anticipating this new album with cautious optimism. CO has, with each new album, working it’s way away from the Belle & Sebastian-esque sound that seems to plague so many half-decent indie-pop-twee bands. Let’s Get Out Of This Country was a good step by adding some power to the heart wrenching pop CO does so well but B&S just happened to then release their popiest album yet that same year (The Life Pursuit).

But if there was any question about CO being a wanna be B&S, I’m pretty sure all but the most pretentious haters will fall silent after hearing My Maudlin Career. What has CO done in 3 years? Apparently they invented a time machine which they then used to go back to the late 1950s and pick off some producers and orchestras. You like strings that bring you to the brink of tears? Check. You want more horns than Manhattan gridlock at rush hour? Done. Wonder what happened to Phil Spector? Apparently he was abducted by the band using their time machine (which via some crazy LOST logic would cause him to go crazy later in life.) Oh, and can we talk about Tracyanne Campbell’s voice? I mean, she’s always been pretty good at sounding like a scorned teenager (circa 1967) but with MMC she is showing that in the last 3 years she has gained some serious power and maturity in her voice (like, holy-crap-where-did-that-come-from, power).

The thing about me is that I like things that are big; gigantically huge even. I like to feel something so much larger than me stand over me and make me feel small. I usually refer to architecture this way but it equally apply to music and MMC certainly creates such a sound, one that arches up like a tsunami of sound and breaks over me in a wash of heartbreak and angst.

Finally, would you look at that cover? I mean… daaaaaamn, I’m speechless. Best album art of the year? If it ain’t in the top 5 by December there is gonna be hell to pay.

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

Snow in Mexico is a shoegaze, dream-pop band out of Rome with a chill, laid back drone to it. They have a free EP of 4 songs to download on their website/MySpace. It’s really good but it sounds like they need to clean up a few choppy edits. Definitely a band to watch.

The Radio Dept., the Swedish electro-dream-pop band just put out a new song called “Freddi and the Trojan Horse”. It has a dancier and darker sound than most of their other stuff which I really like (don’t get me wrong, I like their old stuff too!)

Tesla Boy came to me by way of the VALERIE collective and really knocked my socks off. Coming out of Moscow, this is some bad ass 80s style electro-pop. Listening to it so many times I’ve realized that there isn’t much ground breaking here (it’s like the 80s didn’t happen in Europe so they are do it now to catch up) but when it’s done so clean and well, who cares?

Snow in Mexico – Velvet

The Radio Dept. – Freddie and the Trojan Horse

Tesla Boy – Spirit of the Night

Two new artists I’ve come to really dig recently are Montreal’s CFCF and Computer Perfection from Michigan.

CFCF, like xcuse.fi!ipa, first caught my ear from a Crystal Castles remix. He just put out an EP, Panesian Nights, on the Paper Bag Digital label (which by the looks of it I need to spend more time with). Panesian Nights is really good, but the track I have up, “You Hear Colors”, was part of a 7″ he put out last year. The instrumental track has a slow dream-pop vibe to it with ribbons of electo, a good beat, and a guitar that feels like a sorrowful mourner, giving bursts of pent up emotion at points.

Computer Perfection is a band I happened upon while looking through the line up for this years NYC Popfest. I want to describe them as a psychedelic jam band but I don’t want to make them sound like Phish. They are very much pop, though you can clearly hear that they are not some throw away twee band. I love a song that really builds, has many ups and downs, and draws out the end (Life Without Buildings “Newtown” comes to mind), and their song “Sweetie Pie” does this very well (this track, along with a few others, are available for free on the bands website.) Computer Perfection is playing Saturday, May 16th at The Bell House in NYC along with Eux Autres, The Secret History, Pants Yell!, and The Radio Dept (which promises to be a truly amazing night.)

CFCF – You Hear Colors

Computer Perfection – The Fool is Hurt

CFCF MySpace

Computer Perfection MySpace

xcuse.fi!ippa

I first head about this Swedish DJ late last year when Crystal Castles released a free compilation of fan remixes. One of my favorites was by this guy, xcuse.fi!ippa with a remix of Crimewave. Well x.f just put out two free releases, one of original material and one of remixes (including said Crimewave remix). Both have a lot of gems in them but the one that I have had on repeat for the last hour this this track, Human Attitude, a remix of NWA’s Straight Outta Compton. The links to the releases are on his MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/excusefilippa

xcuse.fi!ippa – Human Attitude

http://www.myspace.com/excusefilippa

You know how when you have a MySpace account you are constantly getting friend requests from bands? And you know how most of those bands are not anything you are into, or are terrible, or most likely both? I usually check out the music before I deny a band since if they worked hard enough to find my MySpace account I should at least give them something for the effort (a click). Well for the first time… probably ever, a band sent me an invite and not only were decent, they were down right awesome. Also they were giving their EP out for free so Awesome++

I really wish I could tell you more about dead mellotron but his MySpace is quite uninformative and a Google search pulls up a song by the band Neon Blonde. All I can get is that it seems to be some dude from Monroe, Louisiana. But I guess he was thinking that the music should speak for itself, which would make him correct.

I am a sucker for dreaming, ambient, shoegaze rock/pop. I’ve been listening to this EP on repeat now and I’ve been trying to nail him down; Early 90s for sure, I can hear a little My Bloody Valentine (sans axes being thrown in my face thank-you-very-much), Mew, and even a little Blonde Redhead. I’ve put up my favorite track but you can download the entire EP for free at their MySpace page.

Edit: I took down the song since something happened to it when I uploaded it. Whatever, check out their myspace.

dead mellotron Myspace

Music Go Music, like M83′s Saturdays=Youth, has a nostalgic sound but one that is fresh and modern. Their LastFM page puts them around the sounds of mid-1970s ABBA and ELO, which is accurate, but in a more core way; the DNA of these bands live on but have evolved and progressed. There is something about harmonious pop and dreamy vocals that gets me every time. It’s why I will never hate the movie Xanadu. Music aside, would you check out that art? Warm in the Shadows is their new track and it is a wonderfully crafted epic space dream.

Music go Music – Warm in the Shadows

Music go Music – Light of Love

Music go Music Myspace

The boys in Flaming Tusk have started getting some good press recently. Their new interview at Metal Rules.com is a pretty go insight into what these guys are doing. It also features a couple pictures by yours truly, so check it out:

Interview: http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/content/view/1542/74

And they have a show lined up on January 16th at the aforementioned Market Hotel along with Human Host, Blue Leader, The Fakers, and GDFX. Show starts at 9pm

My new favorite DJ set of the moment is Aeroplane, a Belgium based DJ/Producers duo Stephen Fasano and Vito Deluca. They are currently touring Europe right now and I am just waiting for the day for them to jump the pond. They’ve put out a good number of remixes and will go into the studio in February to cut an album. These two remixes in particular I have not been able to stop listening to.

Grace Jones – Williams Blood (Aeroplane Remix)

Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane Remix)

Aeroplane Myspace

That is some serious hair.

As I was going through these I was reminded of the music I listened to on the trip. The music being Damn Yankees – High Enough over and over and over again. So to truly experience these images hit play and watch the slideshow.

Damn Yankees – High Enough

[Show as slideshow]

Some of my most recent favorite acts have been coming out of Baltimore, including Ponytail and Dan Deacon. Adventure(Benny Boeldt) also hails from Wham City and is one of the better 8bit musicians I’ve heard. Maybe you just needed to grow up playing Nintendo, Atari, and Sega (Hey kids, this old man remembers time before PlayStation) but I find this music really interesting. Any artist who can limit themselves it terms of sounds and still make something new and interesting ranks high in my book. As I write this Adventure just finished playing over at Todd P’s not-CMJ music thing over at Continental Army Plaza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn but unfortunately I didn’t make it over there.

Adventure – Battle Cat

Adventure – Adventure (2008) is available on Carpark Records.