Houston’s Most Hated | Everything you hate. And, one thing you love. |
If you haven’t already seen the video, here’s a heads up for this cat. You’ll never get this song out of your head. This year’s summer banger: Rob Roy – Fur in my Cap.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Here we go. The biggest event this summer I promise you. Lets do it. Line up to be announced.
I have another little something special for you, our lovely readers: Wavves’ Wavvves [Fat Possum, March 2009]. This one comes a bit early, official release date is March 17th.
Wavves is an LA DIY band. They too, toy with the noise-pop formula. However, they have reduced the ‘recording quality’ on Wavvves to a new low. The end result of all that goes beyond traditional aesthetics, in so far as that its being used like an instrument itself. For proof, you can consult a live performance in your free time, its quite different than the record.
What’s also interesting, is the surf rock influence omnipresent on Wavvves. It simultaneously recalls Brian Wilson and Dick Dale, all be it through different, and perhaps a-typical, devices. Though I’m sure it exists, I can’t recall another act that has blended these two so successfully.
I have one fear, though. I fear most people are going to give this a listen, not care for it immediately, and pass it over as though it were another disposable noise-pop record. Its really in a category of its own. It will grow on you in a short period of time; I recommend a few a listens.
Tiger. Eagle. Wolf.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Wavves – Killr Punx, Scary Demons
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I skated into work ten minutes late and sat down after the requisite “wuddup” to the appropriate coworkers, flipped on the monitor and was about to go into my headphones. Before I got that far the other tech writer asked if I’d heard of this band, Fol Chen.
Two youtube videos and ten minutes later, with 20 minutes of documented slack time behind me, I popped over to amazon to pick up this album. Good stuff here, good stuff I think. The sound ranges from light poppy tracks like Wedding Cake to the melancholy drum machine driven You and Your Sister in Jericho. All of it, though, is washed in space and blends acoustic recording techniques and direct line synth work. Its adorned with slide guitar melodies and hard-cut edits for a mind numbingly grand musical experience.
What’s really tight: the band is so friggity-fresh there’s no wikipedia article about them yet. [Someone book them, please.] They’re even signed to Sufjan’s label. Sweet, no? Well, here you are, some selections from Fol Chen’s Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made. [Asthmatic Kitty February, 2009]
Big thanks to M. for pointing them out.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Fol Chen – Please, John, You’re Killing Me
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Its time to cull the classic rock junkies (or at least parts of their record collections). I’m not going to say bands like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles don’t have a lot to offer or weren’t absolutely pivotal acts in the history. How could I possibly defend such a position? However, I am tired of hearing them or hearing about them several times everyday for the last 15 years. Please, stop.
The same goes for any of the following for those of us older than 22:
The Doors, Janis Joplin [questionable...], Pink Floyd, Queen, The Rolling Stones.
I will slap your face off of your face for the egregious acts:
AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd
The rest I can deal with. They tend to be less ubiquitous than the acts listed above in this opinion. Allow me to suggest a three alternatives.
CAN – Little Star of Bethlehem
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I know, you know them. Go listen again – they’re really good. But now to my personal favorite:
The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Modern Lovers – I’m Straight
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I picked this album up in January. It haunts me; I dream in its colors. I’m not going to review it or even talk about it. Buy it or we’re not friends anymore.
Blackout Beach – Cloud of Evil
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Blackout Beach – Nineteen, One God, One Dull Star
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This post is for lost angels in an L.A. airport – bad traffic and nice weather. Welcome, welcome.
The dood: Flying Lotus.
The album: Los Angeles (Warp records, June 2008)
The Tracks:
Flying Lotus – Breathe Something / Stellar Star
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Flying Lotus – Beginners Falafel
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
L.A,
J. to the A.
I’m back with a meager offering. I’ve been busy [working on music] — plus there’s not a lot of brand new music I’m really into right now. The releases are just starting to trickle in for the year; I’m sure we’ll be back at full throttle in a fortnight. Yesterday, without doubt, warrants a post. It was a day of the most exquisite inconvenience; an elegant and methodical butchering reserved for those of us with no particular moral character — save for one event.
Mocky – Mickey Mouse Muthafuckas
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Fuck a centaur:
I got pulled over by a god damned horse-cop yesterday morning. There he was, sitting high atop his mighty steed ushering me over to the shoulder with hand a’flitter; as it is difficult to equip the equine with lights and sirens. On occasion, two of them sit out by George is Brown and – frankly I don’t know what they do – aside from hold up traffic. I was cited for expired vehicle registration [WTF?] and I have no idea where my insurance card is. Probably in the hands of some lunatic German woman careening around California blaring Sandstorm with the windows down, ramming everything imaginable with her orange Karmann Ghia; her hair is a mess and her driving gloves have never fit properly – and all of this is keeping my insurance premiums very high. In any case, I never got it in the mail. I hope the mail man rolled a joint with it.
Big thanks to my Co-Worker, Lee, for the pic.
I digress. He wrote the ticket and gave me an envelope in which I will mail the derivatives of my work week. [I think I’ll send it in Francs.] It was at this point it dawned on me: I have never been at the bright end of a flashlight and not been ticketed or arrested. Not a single minor offense has ever seen me leave with a warning. If there’s only one reason to be nicer to people in high school its the police… Worst part though, in considering all of this; I fucked up:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I said “Thank you.” As though I were pleased to have it…
“Thank you…” for my citation. “Thank you…” for the days I’ll waste. “Thank you…” for the hole in my pocket. “Thank you…” for providing ME, the opportunity to personally thank you for your valiant service atop that mount, sitting in the middle of an intersection with both thumbs jammed securely up your ass. SAVE THE HORSES!!!
I missed the inauguration ceremony. Well the important part. You know when BO The Great swore in as president and then gave a speech of remarkable eloquence. Totally wanted to see that, or at least hear it. I tried for nearly an hour to find a working stream online and when I finally succeeded I only heard the last 45 seconds of his speech before the applause and nausea set in. Yes, I’ll watch the rerun or you tube or whatever but we both know its not the same. Even after that, there’s a myriad of things I could go into but yesterday…
We exhaled our relief to breath an air of cautious optimism.
David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
They’ve released a number of bloody brilliant records and they’ve added another. Though, here’s the thing, the vinyl of Merriweather Post Pavilion was released today which is fantastic, however; the digital/cd releases won’t be out until January 20th. I’m not sure where my turntables are at the moment and frankly, I’m not that patient. Lo’ but after some struggle I managed to find a vinyl release online, and I’m going to share it (all of it) with you.
If you’re a big Animal Collective fan and you happened to pick up the Water Curses EP that was released last May you’ll notice a lot of similarities. The album is dominated by electronics and filled with swiftly delivered picturesque lyrics and multi-part vocal harmonizations. So far review sites lucky enough to get an advanced copy have given Merriweather Post Pavilion exceedingly high ratings. [Pitchfork: 9.6/10, No Ripcord 10/10, Tiny Mix Tapes: 4.5/5 stars, Uncut: 5/5 stars] The only reviewer not to enjoy the album so much: Rolling Stone. Imagine that, music’s most overrated jerkmag craps on Animal Collective. Well, can you trust a magazine that puts every Coldplay album in their top 100? I should hope not.
I digress…Merriweather Post Pavilion is truly another great work from Animal Collective. Their sound overall has matured and improved from the early days of thrashing, hollering, and banging in a sort of amelodic fit to something complex, structured, and very palatable.
P.S. — Too bad we didn’t have this album during our chair-pill and head-glasses-bands hours. [And in unison: "What?"]
A special treat from us at HMH for your brain wings:
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Side 1A
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Side 1B
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Side 2A
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Side 2B
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Track List:
The Box Elders, you may not have heard of them, but they’re solid. They have a dirty sound that recalls both 60s psychedelia and punk. A blend that is both unique and palatable. I believe the show will be a perfect cap for a Monday.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The show tonight also features a pair of our local bands, The Wiggins and Giant Princess. I must say, I’m digging these guys quite a bit too. The Wiggins are dirty, blending electronic, abstract post-punk, and grimy vocals for all too pleasing aesthetic. Giant Princess is a little more straight forward, but not without an unusual charm.
Before you spend another night sitting at home, head to Rudyard’s for Box Elders, The Wiggins, and Giant Princess. Peep the flier for the good news.
