Monday, December 29, 2008

Smog 'I Break Horses'

I can't extol the virtues of Bill Callahan/Smog anymore than I already do. So here is a youtube clip that will stream for you what I believe to be the best song of all time.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Jens Lekman "Happy Birthday, My Dear Friend Lisa"

A friend's band (really awesome electroacoustic indie rock from Phila... http://www.myspace.com/eatyourbirthday cake ) recently covered this song at their show and it revived my love for it. Here is a live version of Jens singing it..... it's wonderful



or hit me up via the regular avenues if you want me to send it to you!!!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Phosphorescent is playing at the Church...and I am STOKED

I hate that word 'stoked' but love it at the same time. Because it's so out of character. It's so something corny enough that I would never say, yet find myself saying it all the time. It will run itself out of my vocabulary in due time.

Anyway, Phosphorescent. Info from R5productions.com:

Phosphorescent - SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22nd, 8:00 PM
Matthew Houck, the Brooklynite behind Phosphorescent, is a rootsy singer-songwriter with a gothic sensibility and a way with a tune. But he also demonstrates an interest in pure sound. Stately countrified weepers dominated his 2005 album Aw Come Aw Wry, as dry production emphasized the Will Oldhamesque cracks in his voice. But then there were tracks like "Endless Pt. 2", which added Beach Boys-style harmonies and toyed with the structural conventions of song. These latter inclinations move to the fore on his forthcoming Pride, his third full-length and first for the Dead Oceans / Secretlly Canadian label.

At The First Unitarian Church's Chapel
Small Intimate Seated Space That Only Holds 50 People !
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 advance / All Ages

Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Also, do not forget that M83 is playing the Starlight Ballroom. If you miss it, you are completely crazy. That hot sweaty awesome mess that was the Church Sanctuary show will be tough to top, but I know they can try!!!!!!!

Info also from r5productions.com:

M83 - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15th 8:00 PM
We hosted these guys first show ever in America and we are thrilled to have them back after their sold out, amazing Sanctuary show a few months back! Hailing from France - We've been listening to them nonstop for the past few years. Imagine the post rave swirl of the Orb, mix in the muted warmth of Boards Of Canada, the lalala Neu-worship of Stereolab, the catchy new wave of New Order, then wrap the whole thing in a thick shimmery distorted haze a la My Bloody Valentine and you'll be close. Now imagine that concoction as the soundtrack to the love scene in some super bizarre Anime. You know, the part where the girl is going into space because she can't live on earth because her tentacles keep killing cute little pandas, and her boyfriend is a giant panda, but they love each other so much her tears turn into jewels that the pandas can eat to make them invincible. It's that heartbreakingly good. This will totally hit the spot for electro geeks, shoegazers, pop kids, and everyone in between. An absolute masterpiece. Kim & Jesse is the definite best song of 2008 - BEST BAND !!!!!!
Sound Clips :
1) Kim & Jessie | 2) Teen Agnst | 3) Graveyard Girl | 4) Don't Save Us From The Flames | 5) Dark Moves Of Love


School Of Seven Bells
Named for the infamous, clandestine, possibly nonexistent South American pickpocket academy, deserter's supergroup School of Seven Bells released was fbormed by ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and former On! Air! Library! twin-set Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, as well as James Elliott (who you may or may not know as Ateleia) and sometime Rhys Chatham drummer Joe Stickney.
Sound Clips :
1) Face To Face On High Places | 2) Limb By Limb

At The Starlight Ballroom
460 North 9th Street (Just Below 9th & Spring Garden)
Philadelphia, PA
$14 / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Vetiver "A Thing of the Past" ... an album I picked up on a whim last week

The cover looked cool, it looked new. There was a cute girl on the front looking old-fashioned and poring over an old record collection. I was like, hey, that could be me!

So I threw it on the table when I got home and it was pretty nice, ho-hum until I got to Side B. Holy Crap "Lon Chaney" and "Hurry On Sundown" are two of my favorite songs of 2008.

"Lon Chaney" is a quiet, meandering, piano-folk track, kind of plaintive and yearning and wonderful which then segues into the rollicking goodness of "Hurry On Sundown." I have put that track on repeat so much in the past week. I wish I could come up with a preview for you, unfortunately they do not have it streaming on their myspace. POOR SHOWING.

"Hook & Ladder" on Side A was one of my favorites on the album. Sway to the music, sing along, clap along, so sunny and great. You can't resist it, it's in your marrow.

Fun fact, Devendra Banhart has been known to join Vetiver from time-to-time. Pretty cool!




Vetiver's Myspace


Monday, August 25, 2008

Forest Fire "Survival" ... my very trite but honest thoughts -- A+ album! Must purchase!

There’s a part on Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s “4 Way Street” live double album, where I guess Graham Nash says (well I guess it might be David Crosby or Stephen Stills) “And now we’re gonna do a song that you have not heard!” and the way he says it, in his 1970s precious unassuming voice, it is this exciting secret invitation to experience something no one else has ever experienced, CSNY performing this little ditty for the first time ever. The song was “Right Between the Eyes” and when I first heard it, even though it’d probably been at least 25 years since that ‘first time’--- to me it was brand new. This ‘newness’ is exactly what I love about so many albums that I practically trip over in my musical life, Forest Fire’s “Survival” being one such gem.

The first time I heard the opening track “I Make Windows,” I loved the fresh, stumbling through-an-open-field-soft-yet-plunging-to-the-depths-of-you-style that makes me love it! The guitars are sunny, there’s a nostalgia for ‘I don’t know what’ in the sound. I love how an album can ‘REMIND’ me of a past event yet be released in 2008. The album is quick and enveloping. I sunk so easily into its breezy simple melodies and quickly lodged the words into my brain and was unable to resist singing along with its pleasant harmonies.

“Sunshine City” made my summer and I can’t even fathom exactly why. “Iiiiiii haaaavveee sunnnnshiiinnneeeeee… in my life,” is repeated so many times, broken up only to say “I don’t care if what you say is true…” There’s such a strong statement in its sneaking quiet, crawling guitar sounds, blazing dissonant atmospheric angel voices ‘ooohing’ in the background. In “Sunshine City,” I am so resolute in my happiness despite the completely NOT SUNSHINE CITY that is the world. There’s so much good here, WHO CARES about the bad???

Call me naive, but that’s the cool part about songs like this one… for three minutes I believe something that is entirely untrue. Rock n’ roll can save the world?!!? I sound like a DICK!

It’s odd how the whole album kind of gives the same vibe, yet none of the songs really sound alike. There’s a texture on each one that is completely palpable. I can actually hear the sun warming me on a summer afternoon as the sky turns orange on “Echoes Coming” with its slow procession of vocals and building buzzing guitars. And by the time I get to “Steer Me,” Forest Fire is singing “I don’t like what I’ve become” and it is reality, but it’s still so freshfaced and great. The whole album kind of rings of a slower, drudging, more blissed-out Sparklehorse.

The title track “Survival” is one of the best on the album, but doesn’t phone it in until Track 8. “What do you know about survival?” the song is needling me to answer this question and how the hell am I supposed to answer when you’re playing these sycophantic flutes and country road guitars?

The last track is entitled “Slow Motion” which is an accurate description of the entire album. It is slow motion slices of life, like how you feel when you’re really tired and the sun’s coming up and you’re staring at that big orange ball contemplating being the only person alive.

Oh wait, I’m not! Thanks Forest Fire, for reminding me other people are out there! What’s up!?!?!?!!?

Anyway, actually grabbed the LP at www.betamonline.com if you can believe it! Or! If you like mp3s, they are offering the whole album in 320 here: Forest Fire - Survival = Available to stream or download

Friday, May 09, 2008

"Craft of the Lost Art" by Shape of Broad Minds

With an ever-shifting roster of main players, guest stars, and dual personalities, Shape of Broad Minds is a difficult collective to pin down. Their debut full-length "Craft of the Lost Art" touts Jneiro Jarel, Panama Black, Jawwaad, Rocque Wun and the mysterious Dr. Who Dat? as its main contributors while featuring the likes of MF DOOM, Count Bass D, Stacy Epps, and Lil Sci aka John Robinson.

Jneiro Jarel says this is "real, it come from the depths" on what could be the album's shiny little gem, "Buddafly Away," and it seems to be the feeling that pervades the album. Mixing up atmospheric vibes and space-age-y rhythms with a traditional hip-hop flow to the lyrics, "Craft of the Lost Art" is a journey to the outer limits of hip-hop and back. The futuristic, off-the-beaten path vibe on a lot of the songs is reminiscent of Dr. Who Dat?'s 2006 album "Beat Journey" and fans of that album will probably welcome the addition of more lyrics to these ultramodern sounds.

"OPR8R" brings an Outkast-like harmony to the table and "Buddafly Away" presents a gritty tribute to the true artists across the hip-hop spectrum. "Let's Go" featuring MF Doom is hyped as the dance-floor track of the record but comes off more cacophonous than anything but in an incredibly pleasing way. The rich textures of the songs on Shape of Broad Minds "Craft of the Lost Art" seem appropriate for 2007, 2107 and beyond. If you happen to be time-traveling in the near future, chances are you'll hear this album on planets across the galaxy.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

PSSST-- HEY! I'm going to start writing again...

... STAY TUNED
... AND STAY VELVET, PEOPLE!!