this album is also really chill. i don’t quite know what else to say but if the song “landrunner” doesn’t make you feel like the coolest person in the world when you listen to it then maybe you’re already cool. but i doubt it.
Dec
17
this is my favorite Ducktails album. i like the fun dot pattern cover with pan-african colors on them. i originally got into Ducktails because someone described his music as “tropical” and who doesn’t like the tropics. this is the solo project of Matt Mondanile, who plays in Real Estate and Predator Vision and Parasails and fifty other bands I’ve forgotten. i suggest you put this album on to get yourself out of bed in the morning.
Dec
17
here are two prior releases. they’re pretty good too. i think the song “old folks” on the 7″ is awesome, maybe you will too.
Dec
17
these peeps are from Jersey. they have a song called Atlantic City. i fell in love with ac this summer, it’s an awesome place to go and buy tons of m&ms and meet famous trashy people. this is some surf-pop psychy lackadaisical music that i challenge you not to enjoy. all you really need are the 7″ and atlantic city expressway, but the s/t sounds nicer all together and has a few great tracks near the end. the reality ep on mexican summer (one of my favorite labels with releases from ariel pink, kurt vile, washed out, pearl harbor, weekend, and more) is really great as well.
Sep
30
Round 3: glo-fi. Dude from Texas named Alan Palomo, calls this Neon Indian. It’s pretty appropriate. I think glo-fi is fun to say. Glo-figlo-figlo-fi. With tracks like Deadbeat Summer, Should have taken acid with you, and Laughing Gas, I’m sure some of my friends will relate to this on a lot of levels. Interestingly enough, both the full album and the EP have the same title and same cover art. Palomo also has another project/myspace profile called VEGA, which is arguably cooler than this. Think 80s synth pop with Daft Punk house flair. fun*amillion. My only criticism is that sometimes the album feels too laid back for its own good.
Best tracks: Deadbeat Summer, Should have taken acid with you, Local Joke
Sep
30
OK round 2 of those ridiculously fun subgenres I listed below. Washed Out, a “chillwave” musician from Georgia, makes the chillest and waviest music I’ve heard in a while. It’s bedroop synthpop for sure, but with a…uh, leisurely mood about it. Maybe I should move to Georgia. I like how the album begins with the lyric “gotta get up” put to a dreamy, wobbly beat which is so intriguing that you stay seated for a while. Out on the fantastic new label Mexican Summer (former home of Kurt Vile). Link includes tracks Belong and Luck which have been released separately. Pretty much every song on the EP is a winner, but Get Up, New Theory, and Lately are best to start with.
May
15
Hunting tigers in your backyard, with re-appropriated modern junk as your garb and weaponry, littered with glimpses into crazy alternate universes where these tigers might actually exist. Otherwise, you are only a madman prowling through the freshly-cut lawns of idyllic suburbia, bringing down the values of all your neighborhood’s houses. FUCKER
Apr
22
THIS IS HOT SHIT. straight up. (blog-crazy folks are like, “um welcome to three weeks ago.” whatever! exam period is rough..)
The Crocodiles are another one of these lofi fuzzed out pop/new wave bands like Dum Dum Girls, Neon Indian, Surf City (NZ represent!). You will like if you like heavier noisy bands like Wavves (beachpunk? what?), Titus Andronicus, No Age, or sweeter shoegazey pop like Vivian Girls (not that sweet) or The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (so sweet). They are a two-piece hailing from San Diego, a location which has given their Jesus and Mary Chain tendencies time to mellow out and come back sounding like a sundrenched Spacemen 3 with hints of early Deerhunter in the punkier songs. Make no mistake, a few of their faster songs still sound remarkably like JMAC, and the singer’s voice reminds me a lot of Jason Pierce’s (hence the Spacemen 3 reference), but regardless, there is a definite punky California feel strongly reverberating around the lackadaisical fuzz.
Best tracks: I Wanna Kill, Summer of Hate, Young Drugs
For fans of: No Age, Dum Dum Girls, Spacemen 3, Jesus and Mary Chain
Mar
18
YES this leaked a few days ago and while it’s not The Body, The Blood, The Machine, their last album, it doesn’t have to be, and I’m glad that it’s not. This band’s lineup constantly changes (I think only Kathy and Hutch are the original members, and correspondingly their sound changes, though the aesthetic/motive/drive behind it seems constant. I think Hutch’s lyrics (and voice) are really excellent, and he is able to crystallize a lot of the frustrations that living as a part of our vapid generation entails. It’s poppier than the driving, punk-rock last album, and it doesn’t have such stellar pulsing tracks like Here’s Your Future or Pillar of Salt, but sometimes it’s OK to mellow out (I’ve been learning), and it definitely hasn’t lost its simple, anti-profound profundity, both with lyrics and melodies. Also, it’s catchy as hell and upbeat too, so you can get energized for the revolution! (I agree with others in thinking the title is meant to be sarcastic).
Mar
17
Oh man, another top album for ‘09 (I’m pretty sure it came out this year). This is slo-fi psych synth disco from Ramona Gonzalez, a Californian who (to me) epitomizes the lush style and aesthetics of the 70s - just look at her on the cover. Everything about this album is good, it will make you rethink how the above four genres really fit together, and that’s a good thing. This has been hitting the blogwaves really big recently, so I’m not alone in thinking Ms. Gonzalez has hit something huge.
Favorite tracks: What Did He Say, Weak For Me, Suburbia, Chimera, Lover (this is one of my “best songs ever” - which I tag in last.fm - and is it any wonder it clocks in at 4.20 mins?)
