Swans: White Light From the Mouth of Infinity

If you know anything about Swans, you know how crazy their career has been. They started as this slowed down hardcore metal band with brutally violent lyrics that inspired none other than the likes of Kurt Cobain (see his journal of 50 favorite albums and you'll find "Young God" at #50...On a side note, I think he got the idea for "Rape Me" from that album).... But more than that... they have changed more as a band over the course of their career than almost any band I've ever heard. This album is a great example. They ditched the deep growling chanting, screaming, and heavy metal for acoustic guitars, melody, world music elements and ACTUAL SINGING. It's almost an entirely different band... but still really really great. This is probably the album that best blends both worlds of their style. Heavy handed lyrics, guitar noise, pop, folk, and acoustic elements mix together better than I could have ever imagined. It's always fun to see what a band does when they get bored with their style and HAVE THE BALLS to actually change it to what they want. It makes you wonder what some other bands would sound like if they weren't so afraid of losing all their fans. This is a personal favorite of mine although most of their discography is incredible. This album is actually out of print... so don't feel bad about downloading, because it's the only way you can have it! Check it.




White Light From the Mouth of Infinity

The Sleeping Sea - Sun Drips EP

I don't get a lot of requests for uploading unsigned bands stuff, but I will gladly do so if someone wants me to. It's not guaranteed that I will enjoy it or say glowing things about it... but it will at least get out there. This has the happy coincidence of actually being pretty damn good. It kind of sounds like Vampire Weekend and Islands meets Panda Bear. Think tropical with a bit of indie folk. I wish I had bands like this playing around here. If you are in Cincinnati you should at the very least purchase this at one of their shows. Or if you own a venue, you should let these guys play. But for now... be the cool kid who knows about a good band that no one else really knows about. Download this sucka. Oh...and drop by their myspace and say hi HERE.




The Sun Drips EP

OMG YES! NICE MUSCLE!

I want them to release this in the U.S. SOOOOOOOOO bad. What the hell is this game!!!!????

Sin Fang Bous: Clangour

Here is one that totally slipped under my radar a few months ago. But wow... I'm glad I found it. This may be my newest favorite album. ( I know I have a lot of those) SOOOOOO tight though. The dude is from Iceland (why do they get all the good eclectic musicians?) and is a part of another band called Seabear. Some tracks are so crazy... glitched out 8 bit sounds, galloping drum machine parts and melodic vocals... kind of reminds me a bit of Apostle of Hustle, or Andrew Bird with a little bit more flair for blissed out production. It feels a bit repetitive on first listen... but I thought the same thing about a lot of my favorite albums before they became my favorite albums. It's hard NOT to like it though... try it. Try not to like it. You will fail.

Clangour

Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains

Here is another great new band making a splash lately. I was kind of angry that these kids are younger than me yet are making such cool music. WTF man. I mean... they aren't breaking any new ground creatively. They are just writing really great songs. Think Black Mountain jams (only interesting) mixed with a bit of Pavement shenanigans and a touch of Built to Spill enthusiasm. It's pretty great, especially coming from a band so young and new. Now if only I could keep my jealousy from hating them so much. Grrrrrrr no no no.. it's okay. I enjoy my life as a waiter. THANKS COLLEGE. *sigh* I should have kept rocking.





Why There Are Mountains

Shhhhh... don't tell anyone.

Hey... it's Wilco's new album, "Wilco" (genius!). These guys are MAJOR major label so I didn't want to draw too much attention to this post. All I have to say about this one is... THANK GOD they didn't make another "Sky Blue Sky" because I almost swore them off as shit after that "dad rock" album. So Wilco will never make another "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" ... I've come to terms with that. I am fairly sure, even though he is probably a dick, Jay Bennett was the driving creative force in Wilco when that album was made. And now that he is gone they won't be able to make anything like that album ever again. Honestly I'm just glad that this album definitely takes a step in the right direction. They dropped the pretentous "we're not pretentious, so we are gonna make uncomplicated straightforward soul folk rock songs" attitude and actually TRIED to make a layered, complex album. The result: IT WORKS!



Wilco

Ducktails- ST

Ducktails 2009 selt titled. Psyched out surf drone rock. DUCKTAILS, WOO-OOO! (remember that show?) I don't really get why they only sing on one song... because it kind of detracts from the feel of the album. These guys are the new cool style of music to like along with Wavves and other drone fuzz bands... not exactly my thing, but interesting enough. Good music to chill to.



Ducktails

EDIT***
This version is the Vinyl version of the release. The CD version has an extra track. I can't seem to find the CD version floating around so if someone has it let me know where it's at... otherwise I think this is a complete album as they intended it to be heard.

Woods x 2

If you can describe something as "freak folk"... it's almost a guarantee I will like it. Woods most recent album is garnering attention from critics.. because well... it's freakin great. These guys share a label with Wavves, Crystal Stilts and Vivian Girls... and those are some tough acts to stand up to. But they do more than that.. they stand apart.. because instead of drowning in fuzzed out distortion you can clearly hear every little sincere moan, twinged guitar chord and haunting melody. It's the music I would want to make if was in a folk band. I wanted to include their last album in this post too because it's near impossible to find (at least not in MP3 format). For that album they became a trio and called themselves "Woods Family Creeps". Apparently they change their name a lot with some variation of "Woods" in the title. It IS folk in a way... but it's folk with a drop of haunting, droning, crooning, clackity clanging amazing-ness. Great lyrics too. It's beautiful. I think I'm in love.

Woods Family Creeps

Songs of Shame

Starts with DEER ends with HOOF x 4

I've been in a pissy mood over getting a few of my posts pulled. Record companies are bitches sometimes... if someone actually requested removal of an album I would gladly oblige... but no, it's automatic deletion for me apparently. So now that I've figured out how to avoid most detection (by disguising the title, so no general search turns up my blog) I'm going to post some stuff I was fairly sure I would never post. Once when "Offend Maggie" came out someone asked for more Deerhoof... and I said no because I was sure it would be taken down within minutes of me posting. Well dude... if you're still there then it's your lucky day.. cause here is a bunch of shit. My personal favorite is "Friend Opportunity" followed by "Milk Man" .. but honestly every album has some amazingly good songs. Unfortunately all of em are in 128kbps... that's all I have. If someone has better quality let me know... I think they still sound pretty good. Besides... they are free samples really. If you like any particular one a lot... go buy it. Unless you want to join me in saying bollocks to the MAN! (I know you do).... Take THIS status quo!




Apple O'






Milk Man





Runners Four





Friend Opportunity

Prefuse 73- Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian

Here is the new Prefuse album. It's an interesting trip to say the least. If you know his earlier stuff you realize that his style for glitch-like hip hop beats is minimal on his latest releases. Now his focus is more on composition and harmony. This album in particular strings together tracks that rarely break the 2 minute mark in a fashion that requires the listener to not skip around at all. The point is to experience the album as a whole. The end of one track bleeds into the beginning of the next track and so on (in this case sometimes ad nauseum). I personally prefer when he was jazzing it up with static vinyl beats... but at the very least I commend him for trying to make a concept album where it's virtually impossible to like just one track... it's either all or nothing for this one. That being said... I feel like you can accomplish that in a different fashion. Look at the new Fields album... he does the same thing but has tracks that break the 8 minute mark and longer. Instead of throwing a bunch of mediocre tracks together in an inconsistent vision in order to further the concept of the album, he opted for a very few tracks that were complex and expansive yet when strung together make one clear vision. The journey is clearly more enjoyable and less scattered than on ESTTA while at the same time the album retains the same ideology... I dunno. To each his own. I still enjoy this... just not nearly as much. Cheers.





Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian

DNOTS

DNOTS stands for Dark Night of the Soul... which as far as I knew was a famous treatise written by a Spanish poet now used as a metaphor to describe the phase of person's spiritual life that is filled with desolation and loneliness (okay so maybe I didn't really know all that).... But more recently it has been used to describe this crazy unknown side project of really great artists. It also sounds a lot like Dark Was the Night, and it actually IS a lot like that in sense it's a compilation of kick ass artists (plus the artwork is done by the uncanny David Lynch... how cool is that shit?). It's production was shrouded in mystery... all people knew about this thing was that it was some weird side project between Dangermouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. Some of the artists on board are: Flaming Lips, Black Francis (The Pixies), Jason Lyte (former singer of Grandaddy), Iggy Pop, Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals, and Julian Casablancas from The Strokes.... just to name a few. Okay okay okay.. get ready.... THIS IS FREAKIN AMAZING... this shit seriously blew my mind... it's so damn good. Jason Lyte totally redeems himself of his mediocre solo album with his songs on this. I mean, you can only expect so much from compilation albums as far as consistency and innovation, but this is seriously the BEST compilation of artists I've ever heard. I can't even talk about it anymore because I'm just gonna keep on repeating how good it is. Just download it and listen already. What are you waiting for? DO IT NOW!

Dark Night of the Soul

Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exhange EP

HEYYYY.. look at what leaked! And man it's pretty damn delicious to my ear organs. I have only listened to it once through so I can't really give a review or anything... but as far as EPs go, I dig it big time.





Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP

The National: So Far Around the Bend (Live)

Dutch Rudder

Bands that start with Japan

This post is for Japandroids and Japanther... both cunningly creative names... if you're ten. The real reason I lumped these two together is I wanted to disguise this post a little because both bands probably don't want their stuff posted... but neener neener bitches I'm doing it anyway, STEALTH style. It's kind of funny these bands have such similar names because they have the same kind of mentality to their music. They are both a little punk/post pop-punk. Japanther are a little more of a whatever/fun loving kind of band... whereas Japandroids have more moments of sincerity and complexity to their music and lyrics.

Japanther's new album is the kind of music you want to put on when you don't have to focus... background music for a party or while you are chilling with some friends.. or while you are playing some games or something.. i dunno. They share the same attitude as their partners in crime Ninjasonik.. and if you know how crazy they are.. you can figure out why these guys would be friends with and make music with them. The music is like some new age electropunk with quirky lyrics and fuzzed out vocals. It's fun that's for sure.

Japandroid's new album "Post-Nothing" has been garnering a lot buzz from reviewers like pitchfork... and rightfully so. At first glance I thought these guys were just some plain old pop punk / alternative band. The opener sounds almost like a golden b-side from one of the old Dropkick Mrphey's records. It was kind of jarring in a oi oi punk rock sort of way... I just wasn't expecting it... but when I really listened to the rest of the record I kind of got what they were doing. It's sooooo catchy man... I can't even describe it. I would have overlooked it at first glance... but give it a few spins because now I can't stop playing this thing. By far the best lyric on the whole cd is on the second song "Young Hearts Spark Fire" .. it goes, "Oh we used to dream, but now we only worry about dying!" It signifies perfectly the departure from the innocence of adolescense and the arrival at the cold hard reality of adult life. It's a line I can very much relate to as of late. "Heart Sweats" is probably my favorite track though... I just like the progression and the beat. SOOOO freakin catchy. Damn. Oh and both of these bands could make the dynamic duo's list for sure. Check em.




Japanther- Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt





Japandroids- Post-Nothing


P.S. I just realized this was my 100th post. Oh snap... happy birthday to me.

Clues- ST

I kind of happened upon this band by accident...and boy am I glad I did. This band was formed by the OTHER front man behind The Unicorns and a former drummer for Arcade Fire. Sound like it's going to be good? It is! Interesting kooky lyrics, melodic progressions... crescendos and falls... soft whispers and glowing explosions...fuzzed out production... sincere clean sounding vocals... it all ends up being pretty impressive, especially on headphones. The best part is... it's not even OUT yet... so get it while it's hot motha effas! Real release date for this self titled album is may 19th I think. Let me know what you guys think of this one. I'm curious to see how this gets reviewed.




Clues- Clues

Rap Chop

Ohhhh snap. This shit is genius. hahaha.