Quarterlifeparty

Wye Oak came out with a new EP today titled My Neighbor/My Creator and based on this song alone it sounds pretty damned good.  Jenn Wasner’s voice is as good as ever (with a nice effect added) and i hear some new sounds on this that i hadn’t heard on previous songs.  Are those horns?  Really adds to the already nice atmosphere the band creates.

Wye Oak – I Hope You Die (MP3)

Buy the EP here.

Tags: Uncategorized, wye oak

On a recent Soundgarden recommendation i picked up DâM-FunK’s 2009 release Toeachizown. It took a while to get into the spaced out R&B/Funk instrumental jams (it’s two discs), but i am absolutely hooked now. It reminds me of how dub producers would change and remold tracks into a whole new almost psychedelic vibe, only in this case instead of reggae it’s funk and synths. He’s playing sunday at The Ottobar, and i’m sure it’ll be a show not to be missed.

BONUS:  There’s a pretty good article on Dam Funk in this weeks city paper.  Check it.

Dam Funk – Mirrors (MP3)

Tags: Uncategorized, dam funk

WOW.  now this is what i’m talking about!  I liked Boxer, but always thought it missed a little fire and tended to drag on a bit…then again i am also a big national fan, so i was able to overlook that..but THIS…THIS sounds epic and amaaaaazing:

High Violet comes out 5/11 (not soon enough)

Tags: Uncategorized, the national

Been a while since I’ve done one of these. Been listening to a lot of music just haven’t had the time to write about it, so it goes…

Beck Record Label
I’ve already done a dedicated post to it, but i’ll post a song here that I’ve been listening to the most off this excellent collection of tunes. Even though it’s a cover, this is one of my favorite songs to come out this year, a great 7 minutes.

Beck Record Label – “Grey/Afro” (cover of song off of Skip Spence’s OAR)

Gorillaz Plastic Beach
Never gotten into a Gorillaz album as much as this one. They’ve always captured the imagination, but I think the reason for this one seeping in for me is a higher appreciation of Damon Albarn over the past couple years. He is defintely an auteur and doing things differently than many other artists. The album has some songs that I skip over on a casual basis, but the album is completely worth listening to all the way through. I love this song in particular because it has Little Dragon on it and the way it starts out is completely different than the way it begins. Once those synths come in it reaches its full potential.

Gorillaz “Empire Ants” (featuring Little Dragon)

Seabear We Built A Fire
I’ve been waiting for a new Mojave 3 album now for a while, just sweet, graceful, slow, hazy, folky, super melodic music (that isn’t Beach House). Well, Seabear delivers on this note, and delivers well. Sure, this could easily be tossed aside as “too light”, “too Simon & Garfunkel”, “too Iron & Wine”, “too blah”, but I can’t stop listening to it. The songs are just heartfelt and feel genuine. “Cold Summer” was almost my first choice for posting, but I think that will give the wrong impression of the difference of this album to others of its kind. So I think “Fire in Place” might be a better choice. Watch it build, and when the girls come in it changes the song into something else.

Seabear “Fire Dies Down”

Jason Collett Rat A Tat Tat
I think I’ve recently just started to appreciate the work of Jason Collett. I listen to Broken Social Scene but they were always an anomaly to me (not unlike Yo La Tengo), I could never put a finger on what they were trying to do, not easily definable. But after these more recent Collett solo albums I’ve begun to realize just how good a singer/songwriter he is. The music is always somewhat raucous and loose, hanging together by a thread, but it always has a great melody to it.

Jason Collett ” Rave On Sad Song”

Tanlines
GM sent this to me last week and I’ve been listening to it ever since. It’s got a good mix of different kinds of music in it, like an afro-beat synth-dance fusion. Afro-synth? It’s a perfect candidate for a Memory Tapes remix. Myspace

Tanlines “Reallife”
Tanlines “Real Life” (Memory Tapes remix) (via nialler)

Singles

NadaSurf “Electrocution(byBillFox)
Pretty excited about the Nada Surf covers album coming out. This is a Bill Fox cover.. yeah I don’t know who that is, but it’s good to hear something that sounds like Nada Surf, but has a more noisy production to it. The song fits their bill perfectly, I hear they keep pretty close to the original.

Woven Bones “If it Feels Alright”
I know nothing about this band, but it appeals to my inner neanderthal. Check them out.

Foals “Spanish Sahara”
Foals are sounding great on this new song, can’t wait for the new album. (via pp) myspace.

Tags: Uncategorized, On Rotation

Attended, for the first time, Always Dope with GutterMag on Tuesday night which turned into quite an epic night.

Before Tuesday night my idea of a Rap Battle was unfortunately 8-mile, after… Always Dope @ Red Maple. On this particular night we had Midas (who was making a return after a hiatus to work on his own music) and A-Class. It’s tough for me to even be critical of either of them because what they do is something I could never do well, even if I practiced, but when it came down to it Midas just seemed more spontaneous and theatric whereas A-Class came across as somewhat scripted. However, I was pretty blown away by both, and after witnessing 2 rounds and an overtime of this, I didn’t want it to stop, I could have listened to both of them all night long.

You would think an atmosphere like this could be a little obnoxious and egotistical, but this was completely the opposite and it turned Red Maple into an entirely new scene. Despite slinging mudd at each other for 30 minutes, the contenders and the crowd were just having a good time. Plus there is a great mix of people that you probably won’t see anywhere else in bmore on a Tuesday night.

Tags: Uncategorized, always dope

Damn, if I had a choir teacher like this when I was in school… well I would probably have been in choir. These kids are getting into it.

(via WTMD, @miavandy)

PS22 Chorus

Tags: Uncategorized, phoenix , ps22

Lost Boys was great, but i was always partial to this one (Mercedes Lane…*swoon*):

Tags: Uncategorized

I’ll have my neon nerd feast with a side of epic synth.  Yuss.

Watch/download the new Tron 2 Trailer in HD here, where Daft Punk accompanies the second half with some pretty crazy synth/bass lines (i think my tv speakers almost blew)

Tags: Uncategorized, Daft Punk , tron 2

MGMT have released a new song, supposedly off their upcoming LP Congratulations due out 41/5 (pre-order here). I don’t really know what to think about this song, there is a lot going on but it feels a bit like a broadway show at times, not unlike a WHO concept album, or maybe more similar to ELO on some of their tracks. This is going to be a tough follow-up for them since Oracular Spectacular acheived so much success.

Get the track here. (via COS)

On a sidenote, is this really the cover?!

Tags: Uncategorized, mgmt