Stussy/Stones Throw got together to do a really thorough and informative documentary about Jay Dee. They interviewed a bunch of dudes, including Peanut Butter Wolf, Egon, and J. Rocc. Check out all three parts of the documentary below.
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Category: Videos
The irony within the title of this record is quite tangible even after one listen. There is nothing hidden about These New Puritans, or this record. Everything is out in the open; it’s loud, epic, and really fucking good. Hidden is an evolution on a larger scale. Beat Pyramid was good, but this record is so much more. After the unnecessary “Time Xone” fades in and out, the aptly titled “We Want War” strongly enters. The track sounds as if it’s marching into battle, with the tribal drums accompanying a lurking synth and pitched down vocals. As the track progresses, the drums get more intense, and the vocals become more clear. This song’s intensity seems like an insane marker to base an entire record on, but These New Puritans somehow manage to maintain this level throughout the record. “We Want War” gracefully weaves in and out of its different sections, ebbing and flowing at just the right times. The next track, “Three – Thousand” starts off with a hip-hop sounding beat and a sampled knife noise. A piano enters the track, playing a creepy line that sounds like it was recorded on one of those tiny pianos. The vocals on this track are almost rapped, giving the song a really interesting feel.
The album progresses with “Hologram”, opening with an almost jazzy piano line. The track seems ridiculously out of place, but it’s such a nice track it really isn’t an important issue. “Hologram” never quite reaches the level of “We Want War”, but it flirts with us quite a few times. The restraint is an important part of this track because it really sets up the next one, “Attack Music.” “Attack Music” starts with some gun shot-esque sounding bass drum hits, before it gets into a bit of a dance-y feel accented by a bassoon or an oboe. Skip a track and we arrive at “Orion”, the record’s first single. The track seems to drag along, before the choir section hits and the drums start serving as an accent. “Orion” has a few too many parts for its own good, taking away from the track’s core idea, until the choir re-emerges. The choir parts are so well placed and accented with such perfect instruments, it’s hard to complain about the rest of the track. The album’s final track “5″, features some more wind instruments, with some percussive bells thrown in there for good measure. “5″ serves as the perfect closing track, cleaning up the ruckus created by the previous 10 tracks, while still keeping the listener engaged.
Hidden is the obvious next step for These New Puritans, because I don’t know if I would have been able to handle another Beat Pyramid. Hidden is loud at all the right times, but more importantly, it knows when to not be. A very good piece of work, These New Puritans have something to be very proud of with Hidden.
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Category: Albums,New Music,Reviews
In anticipation for his new record, Josiah Wolf is giving us another track from Jet Lag. “Master Cleanse (California)” is the second track on the record, following the already available “The Trailer And The Truck.” Master Cleanse floats along with hand claps, acoustic guitar, and sparse percussion, making room for Josiah’s delicate voice. The chorus features a couple of voices, singing what seems to be his reasoning for leaving California. The entire record comes out this Tuesday, courtesy of Anticon. The album is a wonderfully pleasant surprise, emerging as a beautiful collection of creative psych-folk tunes. Pre-order the record right here (LP or CD), and make sure to download the two tracks below.
Jet Lag
1. The Trailer And The Truck
2. Master Cleanse (California)
3. The Opposite Of Breathing
4. The New Car
5. Skull In The Ice
6. The Apart Meant
7. That Kind Of Man
8. Ohioho
9. Is The Body Hung
10. In The Seam
11. Gravity Defied
12. The One Sign
Josiah Wolf- The Trailer and the Truck
Josiah Wolf- Master Cleanse (California)
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To call Have One On Me a colossal achievement would be an equally colossal understatement. In magnitude, content, structural complexity, and tonal eccentricity, Joanna has transgressed the bounds of what we have come to expect in an album. But then, what should we have expected from such a relentlessly ambitious and challenging artist. Indeed, her compelling previous work, plethora of accolades, and variety of associates and muses including the revolutionary composer Van Dyke Parks and beau Andy Samberg point to nothing but a brilliantly honed capacity for producing some of the most unique music around.
Joanna’s debut, The Milk Eyed Mender, is comprised of 12 songs, most of which utilize a more generic pop structure than her latest release, and none which exceed 6 minutes in length. Her sophmore venture halves the number of tracks present on the debut, yet without sacrificing any time or substance. With Ys, Joanna chooses meticulously arranged orchestral formats in lieu of the aforementioned pop structure, yielding five of the most esoteric songs to date, reminiscent of archaic middle aged minstrel music. Ys defied accessibility and got away with it, becoming one of the most beloved and eccentric albums of the past decade. Yet to me, it always lacked the excitement of its predecessor. I appreciated it for the boldness of its statement, and its pristine string arrangements, yet I found I couldn’t connect with its epic narrative as well as I could the strongly defined compositions of its predecessor. The brilliance of HOOM is that it can embody the melodic accuracy of Milk-Eyed and the ambiguous narrative quality of Ys inside the easily misused triple album format. In this way, HOOM showcases every quality of Joanna’s person without deterring her increasingly forward-thinking and ambitious career path. It seamlessly integrates new instrumentation without distracting us from the integral vocal/harp pairing that characterizes Joanna’s music and this sonic variety yields a very listenable and relatable album. With this gargantuan release, she sustains a completely precarious balance between every element that has and will define her as an artist. Thus, HOOM leaves no room for the tried and true “I liked her old stuff better” interpretation for it is as much her debut as her debut it self: a fully integrated masterpiece as collaged, miscellaneous, and all-encompassing as the album’s jumbled cover(above).
For Your Listening Pleasure…a cut from each of HOOM’s 3 sides:
Side 1: Joanna Newsom-Good Intentions Paving Company
Side 2: Joanna Newsom-You And Me, Bess
Side 3: Joanna Newsom-Soft As Chalk
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Category: Albums,New Music,Reviews
Spencer Krug’s Sunset Rubdown is known for songs full of arcane imagery and complex story-narratives, and their new video for 2009′s Dragonslayer closer “Dragon’s Lair” perfectly visualizes Sunset Rubdown’s music. Except for the absence of any kind dragon, the video is an epic journey, part Lord of the Rings, part Legend of Zelda (Shadow of the Colossus, if I may), and 100% Spencer all the way, full of unexplained symbolisms that I’ve come to love as a Krug fan. Turn out the lights, turn up the volume, hit fullscreen and enjoy.
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Category: Videos
New York Is Killing Me. These are not my words, but the words of spoken word/hip-hop founder/innovator/pioneer Gil Scott-Heron. Heron’s latest release, I’m New Here is easily one of my favorite records of this new year, and a truly wonderful surprise. The record came out February 9th, and is his first record in over 15 years. The album starts out with a spoken word intro, backed by Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights.” The smooth delivery in Heron’s voice is so soothing and easy to listen to. The record’s second single, “New York Is Killing Me” is a favorite of mine. Featuring hand claps and some tribal/dub drum sounds Heron skat/sings with sheer raw emotion. Heron’s voice has so much character within it, each word is essential listening. Loud cymbal crashes accent the track once in a while, giving the listener a wake up call from the mesmerizing nature of Heron’s delivery. Heron’s voice is later accompanied by some back up vocals, with more instruments looming in the background. The track slowly comes to a decline, climaxing at just the right time, and understanding when the music hit its peak. Make sure to download the track below, and be sure to buy the record.
P.S. Mr. Heron will be gracing us with his presence at Coachella, so make sure to check that out if you’re trekking to the desert this April!
Gil Scott-Heron- New York Is Killing Me
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Club 8 are from Sweden and make some really rad music. On May 18th, they’ll be returning with The People’s Record. Club 8 is vocalist Karolina Komstedt and songwriter Johan Angergård. The People’s Record will be their first record with an outside producer, with Jari Haapalainen (The Concretes, Camera Obscura, Ed Harcourt) taking the reigns. The band traveled to Brazil and immersed themselves in 70s Western African records before recording the new album. The result is a “unique mix of Swedish pop melodies and African rhythms.” For your listening pleasure, we have the first single, “Western Hospitality” available below.
“Western Hospitality” reminds me of so many things, but if I were to relate it to any band, I’d probably call them a jj/Foreign Born hybrid, with hints of Dirty Projector style guitars. The vocals are sweet and infectious, and the melodies and rhythm parts remind me of some Foreign Born tunes. Download the single below, and check out the tracklisting as well.
The People’s Record
1. Western hospitality
2. Isn’t that great?
3. Shape up!
4. Dancing with the mentally ill
5. My pessimistic heart
6. Back to A
7. Like me
8. Be mad, get ill, be still
9. We’re all going to die
10. The people speak
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Another one of our favorite north of the border groups have recently released “World Sick”, the first single for their new record. Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Sam Goldberg, and Lisa Lobsinger are the core group for the new record, which is coming our way May 4th. Forgiveness Rock Record is shaping up to be fantastic, based solely on the epic nature of “World Sick.” Dramatic and slow to build, “World Sick” recalls some of their earlier work, with a crisper, poppier attitude this time around. Harmonies swirl around the vocals, with a guitar line fading in and out of the verse, accompanied by some pretty cool effects. The drums keep this song moving, with layers upon layers of toms keeping the low end steady while cymbal crashes pierce through the high end. The track calms back down into a verse about half way through this seven minute track, but not before one or two more epic choruses come speeding our way.
BSS is set to embark on a US tour beginning in May, which is something you don’t want to miss. Check out the dates below, and make sure to download “World Sick” as well.
Tour Dates
3/14 – Elkton, FL @ Harvest of Hope
3/18 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s BBQ
3/19 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
5/01 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
5/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
5/07 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
5/13 – London, England @ Brixton Academy
5/14 – Minehead, England @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
5/17 – London, England @ Heaven
5/18 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
5/19 – Cologne, Germany @ Burgerhaus Stollwerck
5/21 – Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
5/23 – Linz, Austria @ LinzFest
5/24 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus
5/27 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Festival
5/29 – George, WA @ Sasquatch
6/19 – Toronto, Ontario @ Toronto Island
Broken Social Scene- World Sick
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The Black Moth Super Rainbow front man has recently announced a follow up to the great Fucked Up Friends. Along with being the brains behind BMSR, Tobacco still finds time to create some awesome solo music. The first record featured Aesop Rock, and this new one features a couple of tracks with Beck, which should be awesome. The new record is called Maniac Meat and is coming May 25th, courtesy of Anticon. Maniac Meat is said to be grimier than anything BMSR has ever done, and features bass and drums as the only two “live” instruments on the record. Tobacco will be hitting the road before the record’s release, revealing tracks along the way. Download a track from his first record, and check out the tracklisting too.
Maniac Meat>
01. Constellation Dirtbike Head
02. Fresh Hex (Featuring Beck)
03. Mexican Icecream
04. Lick The Witch
05. Sweatmother
06. Motorlicker
07. Unholy Demon Rhythms
08. Heavy Makeup
09. Grape Aerosmith (Featuring Beck)
10. New Juices From The Hot Tub Freaks
11. Six Royal Vipers
12. Overheater
13. Creepy Phone Calls
14. TV All Greasy
15. Stretch Your Face
16. Nuclear Waste Aerobics
Tobacco- Dirt (Feat. Aesop Rock)
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A.C. Newman and co. are back. Their first album in two or three years will be coming our way May 4th, courtesy of Matador Records. The record features A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar, Kathryn Calder, Neko Case, John Collins, Kurt Dahle, Todd Fancey and Blaine Thurier. The record is called Together, and the first single is now available for download, thanks to the Matablog. “Your Hands (Together)” sounds pretty similar to past New Pornographers music, but that isn’t much of a surprise. They do what they do so well, it’d be foolish to change things up. Download the single below, and check out the tracklist as well.
Together
1. Moves
2. The Crash Years
3. Your Hands (Together)
4. Silver Jenny Dollar
5. Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk
6. My Shepherd
7. If You Can’t See My Mirrors
8. Up In The Dark
9. Valkyrie In The Roller Disco
10. A Bite Out Of My Bed
11. Daughters Of Sorrow
12. We End Up Together
The New Pornographers- Your Hands (Together)
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The Tape is...
Willie Schube - willshoob (blogrunner)
Henry Kwapis - hKWAP (contributor)
Asher Kaplan - ashkap (contributor)
Gabriel Gutierrez - gzabriel (contributor)
Tristan Rodman - pistachionut (contributor)
Macklin Casnoff - caz4mack
All songs featured on this blog are for promotional use only. If your song is featured on this blog and you would like it taken down, or if you would like to have your song featured, just click the contact form below.
