The Tape

A standout cut from Okkervil River’s latest album The Stand-Ins, “Pop Lie” has more commercial appeal than most of their previous work, but it is still a lot more engaging and musical than most commercial music out there today. Okkervil River is releasing it as their latest single with the B-side “Millionaire,” coming out April 21st.

Here’s them performing the song on Letterman.

Okkervil River- Pop Lie

Minnesota natives, One For The Team will be releasing their latest EP, Build A Garden, on March 31st (just realized that was today). The album will be released on Afternoon Records, and was recorded in One For The Team’s Minneapolis apartment. The album was also mixed, produced, and engineered by label head/lead singer, Ian Anderson, in his bedroom. The EP is made up of 4 new songs, as well as 4 old, re-arranged and re-recorded tracks. The physical copies will be limited to 500, but you can also download the album digitally.

The album starts out with the acoustic group jam, “Questions and Panthers.” The song features a lot of harmonies and falsettos, something I really enjoy when it’s executed correctly. The band does a great job, and it makes the track a fantastic opener. Vocalist Ian Anderson has a very interesting voice, that I find nice. I can understand some people not liking the “tone” of it, but I really do enjoy it.

Another one of my favorites is “Best Supporting Actor.” This track has a more poppy feel to it than the rest of the album, and really kicks it into gear when the whole band comes in. It reminds me a bit of an Arcade Fire song, but with far less instruments, which I consider a feat.

This EP is very good, and I recommend it to everyone, but more specifically, anyone who enjoys indie pop, leaning towards acoustic instrumentation. Listen to “Best Supporting Actress” below, and order the EP right here.

One For The Team- Best Supporting Actress

Thanks to Hooves on the Turf for sending this over. Keep an eye out, because they’ll have part 2 up shortly as well.

Here’s the video (and mp3) for the Black Lips’ newest single, “I’ll Be With You.”

Black Lips- I’ll Be With You

Will Sheff of Okkervil River and A.C. Newman of Okkervil River did a lovely rendition of the Okkervil River song “Lost Coastlines.” A.C. Newman does the first part, he’s the one with blond hair. I personally enjoy his solo stuff a lot more than his work with New Pornographers. Anyways, thanks to the fantastic blog Captain Obvious, for the video.

*Disclaimer* This review is about two weeks late. Things have been pretty hectic lately, but I feel that this album definitely warrants a write up, however slightly out of date it may be. 

When I first listened to Why There Are Mountains (henceforth referred to as WTAM), the first thing that caught my attention was the bass. In an era where DIY noise-core reigns supreme, the deep, punchy sounds of the electric bass, an instrument that throughout the decades has become a rock staple, has taken a back seat to excessively distorted, and droning guitars. Bassist, Neil Berenholz conjures up walking lines reminiscent of music luminary Paul McCartney and even a refined Flea. This bass heavy sound is evident throughout the LP and adds a somewhat vintage flavor to this very unique release. This is not to say that they are the anti-noise. In fact, raucous screaming and melodic drones sneak their way into quite a few tracks including the amorphous “Share”, and my personal favorite, “And The Hazy Sea”. To me, the bands sound draws from the somewhat retro qualities of Pavement, but also exhibits the innocent, adolescent vocals which I associate with the Mae Shi. This Malkmus inspired sound is apparent on “Some Trees”, the most upbeat, but perhaps the darkest on the album. The guitars on WTAM also lend themselves to the aforementioned “vintage sound” as they are far more melodic than the distorted, textural sound that has become the indie rock standard as of late. Another standout track is the loping “Indiana”, which features some sci-fi electronic ambiance, Sufjan-like horns, and possibly most tuneful vocals on the entire album. Another highlight is “Wind Phoenix”. This raucous tune epitomizes all of the interesting qualities of Cymbals Eat Guitars and builds to a powerfully rhythmic climax. Overall WTAM is pretty special and its singularly unique blend of boystrous vocals, refined melodies, and throwback sensibility point to a very interesting future for Cymbals Eat Guitars. 

Here’s a cut off WTAM…

Cymbals Eat Guitars- Indiana

The Tallest Man On Earth isn’t very tall. In fact, he is quite short. This would have been a tad more comical, if he wasn’t super bad ass. After Emily Wells finished up her set (we really didn’t see enough to have an opinion, but what we did hear sounded tight), there was about a 20 minute wait. After those twenty minutes, Mr. Kristian Matsson strolled down the Troubadour steps looking eerily similar to Johnny Cash. As his small frame stepped onto the stage, he walked back and forth scanning the crowd with a menacing stare. His stage presence was remarkable, and it would only get better as the night progressed. He was alone onstage, besides his three guitars and a chair that he rarely sat in.

He fucked around for a bit strumming random chords, before he broke into “I Won’t Be Found.” This was a fantastic set starter as it is one of his most well known and well liked tracks. He walked across the stage like a rock star, and sung like one too. His growling voice filled up the packed Troubadour and really sounded fantastic. His demeanor portrayed him to be a bit of an asshole, but he walked the fine line of being funny verses being said asshole. As the night progressed he opened up a little bit, interacting with the drunken crowd members, who wouldn’t have been heard if it was at a venue any bigger. He had a thick Swedish accent which made him a little bit hard to understand, but he did say something about how it was nice to play his songs for fans, so he could get out of the dark, freezing, Swedish winter. It got a nice chuckle from the crowd.

As the night progressed, the show only got better. He was walking around as if he owned the place, and it was fantastic. His voice sounded better with wear, and he played through most of his music. His personality grew on me as he interacted more and more with the crowd. It became clearer and clearer that he wasn’t an asshole, just a shy Swedish man with a great sense of humor. A song that really stood out to me was “King of Spain.” This song isn’t on the album, and I could only grab a live version of it, but it really took the show to a new level. It was one of his last songs of the night, and it shocked the whole crowd… It was absolutely brilliant. Towards the end of the song, he dramatically stomped his foot and went into a seizure inducing guitar strum, that made the entire crowd give him a standing ovation. He then played the last song before his encore, “The Wild Hunt”, which he described as a “goodbye song.”

He left the stage shaking hands with everyone, bowing and blowing kisses. He almost immediately re-entered the stage area to a still lasting ovation. He played two more songs before he left for good. The entire crowd had been moved by this performance, and it seemed like the crowd had moved him as well. As he finished his last song, he said “I love you all, thank you so so much.” He then left the stage, the tallest man on earth. His 5 foot 7 frame may have disagreed with his name, but he truly was the tallest man on earth. As Tristan put it, Mr. Matsson is the next great folk hero.

Setlist:
I Won’t Be Found
Honey, Won’t You Let Me In
Shallow Grave
Pistol Dreams
Over the Hills
Into the Stream
The Gardener
A Lion’s Heart
Where Do My Bluebird Fly
Steal Tomorrow
King of Spain
The Wild Hunt
—
A Thousand Ways
Death Letter (Son House)

The Tallest Man On Earth- I Won’t Be Found

The Tallest Man On Earth- Where Do My Bluebird Fly

The 8-bit mad men that are Anamanaguchi recently updated their twitter mentioning the cover of the fantastic Wavves song, “So Bored.” Anamanaguchi turned the song into an up-tempo, 8-bit beauty, that is absolutely fantastic. The FMLY are on top of their game, and posted this shit super quick. The song kicks it into a new gear at about two minutes in, and it’s incredible. Please download this track and make sure to buy both Anamanaguchi’s and Wavves’ newest releases, they are both joyous. Enjoy.

Anamanaguchi- So Bored (Wavves Cover)

The great psyche/folk band from Brooklyn (I think) just leaked the first single to their new album, Songs of Shame, which comes out April 14th. Many Woodsist artists have gained a lot of popularity recently, while Woods have sort of stayed under the radar. Bands like Vivian Girls and Wavves have taken off and this new track might propel Woods as well. “Rain On” is nothing extravagant, but it’s simplicity is what makes the song great. The guitar and drums take a backseat to the vocals, which subtly take over the song, when lead singer Jeremy Earl starts singing in his high pitched voice, “Oh how the days will rain on you, and it feels like it should today.” When the album comes out, make sure to pick it up over at Woodist, and check the band out on Myspace. Enjoy the first single, below.

Woods- Rain On

One of my favorite bands, Celebration, have just recently made a very exciting announcement. The Baltimore natives have decided to release a couple of songs a month (for free) from their website. Their website is currently down (probably too much traffic), so I uploaded the first couple of tracks for you guys to download. The news was originally leaked by another one of my favorite bands, the chilled out duo, Beach House. Here’s what Celebration said through their website, regarding the new plan:

From their Manifesto:
Our plan and experiment is to post new songs monthly, as we create and record them. Under the creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license, all of our new music will be free to download on our website for non-commercial use. When we have enough music for an album, we will release it on vinyl for those who want to have something to hold.
…
We will post stems in the near future for remixing. If we like your remix, we will post it on our site. This experiment is funded solely by us and those of you who choose to be a part of making the music available. We’ve added a donation box to the site in hopes that you, our audience, can help support the artist’s right to autonomy.

I highly recommend both of the tracks. They’re wonderful.

Celebration- I Will Not Fall

Celebration- What’s This Magical