Vanaprasta – Something Better

   Listen to new track from Vanaprasta, off their debut album “Healthy Geometry,” due out early next year.

Whew, it’s summer and here in LA the June gloom has finally faded.  Here’s the soundtrack to my crazy ass season:

20. Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)

       The only thing sexier than Emily Haines singing “hold my arms down, I’ve been bad” is her singing it in front of a danceable beat.

19. Casxio – Boiling Point

     Another one of my local favorites, Casxio are on the rise and about to enjoy success with their funky/soulful/playful/sexual tunes.  Boiling Point may not be their immediate single like “seventeen”, but its more actually stronger, takes it’s time and builds in a fashion that many mainstream acts couldn’t wrap their heads around.  Check out the video as well…amazing.

18. Rumspringa – Birds of Paradise

    While I’m on the local kick, here’s a great 2 piece blowing up in the Silver Lake/ Echo Park region who whip up a good old garage White Stripes sound complete with solid thick drums and front-man Joey Steven’s multi-layered guitar struts.  Their album is in the process of being mixed and will hopefully surface later this year or early next.

17. Math the Band – Tour de Friends

    Couldn’t really tell ya why, this song just really does it for me….like a strong ass cup of coffee…makes me miss Atom and His Package though

16. The Antlers – Kettering

   Oh sweet jesus The Antlers….where do I start?  This is a recent discovery for me, and “Hospice” has almost entirely took over my life at this point.  An unfair yet intriguing comparison would be to say the Antlers sound like Okkervil River meets My Bloody Valentine.  Intrigued? good.  But that’s still doesn’t convey how strong “Hospice” is lyrically, atmospherically, or dynamically.  ”Kettering” is the second track and the delicate, mopey piano serves as a confessional for Peter Silberman’s delicate summary of basically what’s to be explained throughout the rest of this brilliant album.

15. Sonic Youth – Anti-Orgasm

   New Sonic Youth album = Hells Yes.  All the songs are good and have that usual enjoyable Sonic Youth quality to them, so I just grab bagged one and threw it up here.  Great tune though.

14. Harlem Shakes – Strictly Game

  These fun New Yorkers album “Technicolor Health” has a positive, healthy vibe to it that I just find quite enjoyable.  This song in particular is relevant for its uplifting lyrics in a era where we are all “Making a little money, taking a lotta shit.”

13. Portugual. The Man – People Say

  This Alaskan/Portland project that come out of the ashes of Anatomy Of A Ghost are dropping “The Satanic Satanist” next month and People Say is a great taste of it.  Upbeat, folkey (also country), and perfectly narrated, Portugual. the Man are sure to gain some serious buzz after this album.

12. Passion Pit – I’ve Got Your Number

   Oh god here we go.  Passion Pit.  The hype sensation…the blow out act! The “can’t live up to their bullshit hype” act.  Really the best part about “Manners” for me was finding out about their “Chunk of Change” EP which had their best tracks on it.  I’ve Got Your Number is too damn catchy to deny and electronically original, very lo-fi and grating yet somehow charming…

11. Phoenix – Lasso

   Phoenix phoenix phoenix pheonix.  ”Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” is the fuckin’ shit, and I think everyone knows that now.  Lasso has all the best examples of a single – under 3 minutes, to-the-fuckin-point-catchy, heavy and soft dynamics that play like chess moves.  Fuckin’ killer.

10. Modest Mouse – Satellite Skin

    Ok, so Modest Mouse is back.  Sweeeeeeeet!  So we all saw this go down on Conan or some shit months back.  Isaac gained some band members and some weight, and dismissed Johnny Marr.  The good news is his lyrics are as strong as ever in Satellite Skin, and the country twang really actually works for MM.  I like to call it the country version of Fly Trapped In A Jar.

9. White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

   ummm…..Cold War Kids + The Walkmen x Spoon = White Rabbits

8.  Harlem Shakes – Sunlight

    This song will easily transcend into next season and probably should have been a summer release ala Phoenix.  The steel drums and kick pulse give the chorus its single worthy spirit and vocalist Lexy Benaim has an interesting timbre that is enjoyable to listen to.

7. Phoenix – Countdown (Sick For the Big Sun)

    The back-half of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is for lovers.  Is that too much for a t-shirt?  Regardless, “Countdown” doesn’t necessarily hit you in the face like “1901″, but it’s a true grower, building formally with Thomas Mars delivering at his vocal prime.  The dynamics (though compressed to modern standards) hush and yell, transitioning from tasteful, wet percussion to full band tone nirvana.

6. Silversun Pickups – The Royal We

    I had some high expectations for Swoon after feeling like they could go both ways post-Carnavas.  Wasn’t terribly let down nor terribly excited…they played it a little safe but the effects are satisfying.  ”The Royal We” is dark, punishing, and for a lot of us makes us think of The Big Lebowski.  But this track, seemingly about war and abandonment is the boost I wanted from these local Rock Stars.  The production is absurd yet oddly appropriate, with defining drum sounds that will no doubt be endlessly mimicked.  The intensity is focused, and all necessary vocal range Brian Aubert(Daniel Farraday) can produce is at least sampled throughout.

5. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead

   Ya, you’re gonna hear this song a lot…get over it.  I wish someone would have told me that when I overindulged in “Kids” by MGMT when it first dropped.  Goddamn this song is good.  I wish I wasn’t so into it.  But I am…and I’m coming to terms with it.  This is why this song is better than shit from Manners: This song is actually quite untraditional…there is not real consistent drum track, just occasional vocal loops, claps, and thud kicks.  The chorus is just a monophonic “million dollar winning” synth line.   The verses are just a dude screaming god knows what against washy chimes and vocal squeals….it’s fucking brilliant.  And then its over.

4. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Indiana

   Cymbals Eat Guitars were quite unexpected…and you know what, I think they stole some of my Sonic Youth craving for the year.  When The Eternal dropped I enjoyed, but already had so much noise driven, sprawled out, guitar-jangy bliss from these newcomers.  ”Indiana” is the best song on Why There Are Mountains, and proves there already solidified in there progressions, moving from one idea to the next and connecting them by lyrics that seem far too advanced for these truly gifted youngsters.

3. Modest Mouse – The Whale Song

    Being that Modest M0use was basically my way out of Punk Rock in high school, every release they have these days makes me excited and nervous.  ”The Whale Song” is more than welcomed however, containing elements from all of MM’s varied styles while simultaneously sounding like nothing they’ve ever done.  The guitar line is of course something to talk about (and its about 10db louder than anything else,) but Judy’s slinky bass line and Isaac’s muffled, multiplying vocals are what really bring this song over the edge.  

2. Phoenix – Rome

     Phoenix have gotta be cheating.  They gotta be.  The tones on this albums are too clean, too fitting, and too pure.  ”Rome” especially, you just cannot turn up that tremolo enough while Mars spouts “Rome, rome, rome, rome, rome, rome” blended perfectly within everything else, creating a musical atmosphere so lush that you can almost physically insert yourself in there….but then you’d never wanna leave. 

1. The Antlers – Two

     Rarely do songwriters write lyrics these strong anymore, and especially while keeping a steady flow and experimenting with different dynamics.  The Antlers album Hospice is unfuckwithable, and “Two” is the epicenter of this.  While it never explodes, it builds on a soft falsetto and a high end layered guitar, vocally painting a hospital scene, finding objects in the hospital hallway to set the emotion.  Drums faintly (yet somehow powerfully) emerge with soft synth and extra guitars as Peter Silberman’s vocals become more clear and directed.  After a first refrain he reflects on a troubled past with this person who now sits in that hospital bad, creating the best 2 verses I’ve heard all year before returning to the refrain that does “bear repeating.”  It’s a beautiful song that could be easily overlooked if you don’t listen closely, but once you do you can’t imagine being without it.

   So evidently Modest Mouse are gearing up for a new EP or something, but fragments are appearing every once and a while….and I love it.  No One’s First and You’re Next contains the country freak single Satellite Skin, as well as 4 other interesting tunes that have all but 1 surfaced online over the last couple weeks.  One thing I’ll always love about MM is no matter what people are gonna think of their next move, it’s always fresh and untraveled.  Issac Brock is not a songwriter known for repeating his last move.  He will never make another song that sounds anything like Jesus Christ Was An Only Child or Birds vs. Worms or Interstate 8 because he already did.  And although Satellite Skin does a great job at sounding like a whiskey drunk country poem, the real winner is 6+ minute slicer The Whale Song.  Resting somewhere between A Different City’s jagged high end jolting guitar and the lost, panicky frustrations of March Into the Sea (but all the while never sounding like either,) The Whale Song continues to highlight Modest Mouse as pioneers of a genre no one else could quite identify or mimic, eventually leading to the dumbed down tag now simply known as indie rock.

Modest Mouse – Satellite Skin

Modest Mouse – Whale Song

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There has been some sweet album covers so far this year.  Animal Collectives,  Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the upcoming Dinosaur Jr. cover is awwwwwesome, and now Wilco’s Wilco (the album), has been tossed into the bunch.  I really never know what to expect from a Wilco album.  After their slurring art rock twist of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I can say I would have expected the overall mutil-directional noise rock of A Ghost Is Born tracks like At Least That’s What You Said, or Spiders (Kidsmoke.) I did not, however, think the Tweedster would combine his ‘ol Summer Teeth classic rock with a bundle ‘o feedback via Handshake Drugs or Wishful Thinking.  After what felt like a Jeff Tweedy volcano was about to erupt he shaked it up with Sky Blue Sky, Wilco’s softest outing yet (and arguably their worst.)

So when a band like Wilco announces their next album will essentially encompass their entire fuckin’ name I’m naturally going to have some huge expectations (I mean this band wrote Jesus Etc. for chrissake!)  Bull Black Nova is the first look I’ve gotten at Wilco (the album) and at first impressions it takes on a familiar Spiders-like staccato and guitar bite, but with a blues-ier, less pilled out melody.  The Ghost Is Born Wilco is apparent here, but Tweedy sounds more put together, more ahead of himself, which can be viewed as good or bad (I personally love the Tweedster at his worse, minus the 15 minutes of Less Than You Think of course.)

Anyway, judge for yourself:

> Wilco – Bull Black Nova

 Burial’s amazing second album Untrue cast a wave of user-friendly dubstep into the mainstream that otherwise may have always remained in the dark.  The loneliest, coldest moments in life wave in and out of burial fragile melodies and dark systematic howls.  Alongside his almost anonymous identity, his magestically black and grey tracks circle like a lost person with a paranoid high.

Burial and Four Tet have now come together for this 12″  Moth/Wolf Cub released tomorrow, 5/4/2009.  Four Tet’s more basic flowing motion rolls Burial pitched vocal snippets through Moth, a 9 minute mash of hyperdub and friendly space-electro.

Here’s the link to buy it: http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=TEXT06

….and, here’s a fresh Passion Pit track…cause all the cool kids are leakin’ it:  >Passion Pit – Folds In Your Hands

It’s been a while…I’ll sum things up.  Coachella was great, My Bloody Valentine absolutely killed.  Here some new jams:

> Passion Pit – Little Secrets

Cheeseball as it may be, it’s catchy and just in time for summer.  With Chromeo-esque synths and playful vocals that tighten and expand, Passion Pit are about to blow the fuck up.

> Passion Pit – Sleepyhead

Another equally great but completely different Passion Pit track.

>The Field – The More That I Do

Awww, The Field have another album!!??  I juuust got through From Here We Go Sublime for christsake.

> Sonic Youth – Sacred Trixter

Sonic Youth have a new album…Freak Out.  (BTW, it is called The Eternal.  They very well could have called their last 10 albums this and people could have still responded “Shit, I’ll say.”

> Phoenix – Lisztomania (classixx remix)

So the new Phoenix album officially ruled this spring, and now that I’ve adequately soaked in the album through and through, now it’s time to bring on the remixes.  This Classixx’s one is a good place to start.

Helluva start to the year.  Thank you Animal Collective for setting this shit in motion, starting the year off with a “Hey bitches, top this” sorta method.  Well there definitely should be some competition.  Between Phoenix’s pop perfection, Dan Deacon maturing sound, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs dance album, and a barrage of new local LA acts surrounding me, 2009 will closer match the achieving heights of 2007 and not the depressive, lost 2008.

20:> Cymbals Eat Guitars – And The Hazy Sea

        Fuckin’ Pitchfork.  It’s hard to hate when they come through with a band you probably otherwise wouldn’t of heard for a while.  CEG are brash, scattered, and polarizing.  At their hardest Test Icicles or angry early Modest Mouse, at their softest Foundry Field Recordings or the unsettling quiet side The Microphones sometimes unleash.  And the Hazy Sea launches right off, and really waves in and out of delicate guitar melodies, piano breakdowns, and actually quits before the ultimate return, as loud and outright at you were hoping for in the first 3 1/2 minutes.

19:> Voxhaul Broadcast – Chained Up

    I’ve gotten really into local Los Angeles bands this past season, particularly in the Silver Lake/Echo Park region.  There are some fantastic acts that float around there, and Voxhaul Broadcast is one of ‘em.  I really admire the way the lead singer/guitar David Dennis plays between odd rests and with frequent bending.  Good live act too.

18.>Ezra Furman and the Harpoons – Take Off Your Sunglasses

     Good sing-a-long from early winter.  Makes me miss Indie 103.1…tear

17>Handsome Furs – I’m Confused

     Well this is just straight bad ass.  Watch the video, its fucked up.

16>Royksopp – Happy Up Here

    Scandanavia’s finest in Electro, Junior is totally sweet.  It keeps you up in the air, and elements drop down to an almost trip hop status at points.  Wish they were playing Coachella.

15>Late Of the Pier – Broken

     These 4 from Caste Donington stole the Klaxons idea(“Hey! lets get a DJ to produce the album!”) and made a better album.  Broken was my intro to this band, and the combining speed, guitar fury, and sharp turn direction this track took blew me away.  Brownie points for the vocal climb during “Crying outttttttttaa!”

14>The Answering Machine – Lightbulbs

    Fast Paced and loaded with hooks, Lightbulbs is a great intro to this up and coming band from the UK.  The production is as modern as it gets, with biting guitars pocketed in all corners and crisp drums that steer the song through.  A true grower, the song becomes comfortable and more endearing with each listen.

13>Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes

    MPP was fuckin brilliant, and hard to choose favorites from. Summertime Clothes is just most likely the catchiest AC will ever get.  The choruses are sugary sweet and seem to naturally flow from Avery like never before.  His verses are dark, but set up for a gleeful chorus.  The song bubbles and beeps, and rolls into itself before synthesizing into another summer-sounding chorus.

12>Eastern Conference Champions – The Box

    Here’s an LA band that by all logic should be huge right now.  They fall on the same plane of under-recognized bands that Electric president, The Weakerthans, and Foundry Field Recordings fall under.  Their music is lush and emotional, and transfers from dark to grandiose.  The Box was my introduction to this ECC’s snare drivin’ melodies, their refined and methodical guitar tone, and lead vocalist Josh Ostrander’s comforting wail.

11>Late Of The Pier – Heartbeat

    I spent a lot of time high this season listening to Late Of the Pier.  I hope their Coachella appearance doesn’t suck as much as their Televised SXSW performance.

10>Local Natives – Airplanes

   Christ, another LA band.  This will be the Local Natives year, with their recent residency at Silverlake Lounge and their 9 SXSW performances (this song playing on Chuck won’t hurt either.)  The obvious influences are there, with the fullness of Arcade Fire and the playful rimshots of any modern day indie rock band, but the heart of the song is what makes it impacting, especially live.  

9 >Royksopp – Vision One

    The zipper bass is too damn ill.

8>Dan Deacon – Of The Mountains

    Dan Deacon, like neighbors Animal Collective, really has matured this year.  Bromst has takin the Progressive ADD from Spiderman Of the Rings and done something powerful with it, exceptionally highlighted on of the mountains.  The overall feeling is tribal, yet the epicenter of the song lies within the Blue Man Group-esque tube drums.  Bromst is what it sounds like when a crazy, brilliant man’s hobby turns into his 9 – 5.

7>Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll

    The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album (mixed by Spike Stent and Matty Green) is a step outwards for them into the Psuedo-Dance Rock Genre.  So it should suck right?  Yet its awesome!  Karen has never sounded sexier, and the band vibes back and forth from hot, synthy, dance rock to sensual ballady numbers.  Heads Will Roll is of the dancier formula.

6>Animal Collective – Bluish

     It slowly bubbles in…”ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-oooh!-oohh-ohh-ohh!”  Bluish is one of the superior aspects of MPP in the sense that AC has now mastered their slow, delicate, hallucinatory side.  Don’t get me wrong, I like when Panda Bear smokes to much hash or whatever and goes on a 6 minute drone with one long phrase, I do, I fuckin’ love it.  But Bluish is Avery Tare’s soft side, a side that usually falls short on previous outings (excluding Banshee Beat.)  Geologist’s moaning, driving sub chugs at the perfect pace for all the sugary bleeps that sparkle throughout the higher frequencies of the tune.  Solid stuff.

5>Empire Of The Sun – We Are The People

    MGMT did not leave they just re-energized as Empire Of the Sun (ha, like MGMT ever left anyway.)  This song is as danceable and infectious as you can achieve with an acoustic guitar and fuzzy beats.  The vocal delays, the vocal stacks, the attitude, all catchy and fun…way better than Walking On A Dream.  (fyi…you can literally sing Kids during the chorus…its kinda scary.)

4>Eastern Conference Champions – Some Sorta Light

    I can’t say enough about this band.  This is the track off Ameritown as far as I’m concerned.  Filtered first verse gives a false sense of bedroom rock before the epic snare driven 2nd half that ensues, covered in vocal climbs and effects.  It’s real special.

3>Phoenix – 1901

    Electronic Pop Perfection.  From the vocals to the synths to the drum patterns, perfection.  

2>Vanaprasta – Something Better

    One of my favorite songs of the year for sure.  The guitars are everywhere, scraping back and forth amongst Steven Wilkin’s soaring vocals.  Looking forward to this LA bands debut album sometime this year.

1>Animal Collective – In The Flowers

   Easily one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.  Period.  On the kind of level tracks from Dark Side Of the Moon convey.  It’s originality is unprecedented, undeniable.  It’s explosion epic.  Like a tribal circus in the center of the earth,  Avery Tare delivers the four catchiest stanza’s he’s delivered to date.  A rolling drum sub pierces through the 3/4 waltz rolling at 4/4.  It drops back down and wraps up in just over 5 minutes but feels like a heavy 8.  And all this for an Animal Collective love dream.

Hey-O!

Goddamn the taste of this ablum is enjoyable.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Phoenix at some degree since “United,” and honestly really dug the first half of “Alphabetical” (yet not enough to really pay any attention to “Its Never Been Like That.”)  But when I first pumped “1901″ I was immediately impressed.  It sounds like a Strokes album tailored more towards the second half of the decade.  It’s perfect pop rock but the shell is electronic, with Thomas Mars full vocal capabilities finally being fully uitilized.

With the additon of “Lisztomania” and “Fences” Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix already looks like a year-end tender.  Thomas bouncy medodies seem much more comfortable and confident to waver, particularily on “Lisztomainia.”  He’s backed by a glossy rythym section and deep bass that enrich the tunes fluid jog.

> Phoenix – 1901

> Phoenix – Lisztomania

> Phoenix – Fences

And here’s a sweet little remix  for ya:

> Phoenix – 1901 (Mr. Vega Remix)

BAAAAAYY-BAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!

Panic Switch – Silversun Pickups

I am diggin’ the hell out of this new Silversun Pickups song from their upcoming album “Swoon” out April 14th.  “Panic Switch” expands on their fuzzy, jolt-bass sound that made “Carvanas” huge.  It’s catchy, and the bass breakdown into the ending is something special…lookin’ forward to the rest of the album.

> Vanaprasta – G -

Another amazing friggin’ song from my favorite band in Los Angeles.  The screams are ridiculous.

> Phoenix-1901

Straight up, this is my jam right now yo.

Hasta manana manana manana

Dear Win Butler and Wayne Coyne:

This is an open letter to end these silly differences.  C’mon you guys, you’ve both made music/life changing albums.  You both have given uncountable emotional experiences to truly devoted fans.  Your live shows are top notch and sought after.  This is the last thing the world needs….the economy sucks, nearing a depression..but wait ! WTF! Win Butler and Wayne Coyne are arguing!!???  *BOOM! shotgun blast to the fuckin face!*

First off Wayne you need to apologize.  Even if Win was a jerk or whatever, do this the right way…book a tour together and settle it out (could you fuckin imagine!?)  Don’t go poppin’ off to RollingfuckingStone!  Just you getting heated is gonna squash a little “Do you Realize?” effect off the next live show I see of you!  You’re a staple of peace and smiles to all of music – take any anger you have out on your puppet.  What’s this newfound aggression? I blame Dave Fridmann (I’ve been into doing that lately.)

Win:

And Win, c’mon, a defense necessary? yes, probably.  But stooping to his level? nooo nooo.  You were so mature about it until you turned the word “Prick” back onto him! (although it was prickish, unless you really were being a prick.)  But your set to stand tall, be the mature and serious frontman of everything you built in your cold, beautiful city.  I mean, you always look slightly angry, but I always figured you just had a lot on your mind.  I blame all this hangin’ out with The Boss.

In Conclusion, you two are better than this.  Neither of you need a Noel Gallagher style attitude to your accomplishments and highly anticipated futures.  I say we re-create this concert where the argument began and show us all how much you’ve both grown.  ….It could be the start of your double-billed world tour

On a lighter note, here’s the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tune:

> Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Statues