Here it is. The single I was clamoring for last week.
Forget what I said about seemingly superfluous album trailers. About too much affected buzz or too many snippets of fuzz or too buzzy too fuzzy streaming services. I admit: I’m a hype junkie.
The new album, V, releases August 19th on Secretly Canadian/Sincerely Yours. More information on the record, including tracklisting, is available here.
In October, French producer YoggyOne will release his second album, a follow-up to the “chunky, crunchy soul… layered with organic percussive beats and pulses” of Canopée.
This first single, a collaboration with D.C. singer Muhsinah, is set to release on June 9th.
Domino Records announced the signing of Brookyln-via-Canada duo Bob Moses earlier today, and previewed the lead single “I Ain’t Gonna Be The First To Cry.”
It’s good. Real good. And made me think twice about other Domino-related offerings that I may have dismissed a little too hastily in my life. Continue reading Bob Moses – I Ain’t Gonna Be The First To Cry
Enough with the album trailers already. I love getting news of an upcoming release as much as the next guy, but, you know… just drop the first single.
Admittedly, the trailer for three stops on Spoon’s upcoming tour was pretty cool (be cooler if I was going to be in Berlin next week), but their “Hi” clip posted back in March was like being handed a slice of pepperoni fifteen minutes before my pizza comes out of the oven. Guys. I can wait.
My summer nights wouldn’t be the same without a dreamy slice of Swedish pop courtesy of jj. And as luck would have it, their new album is set for August.
So you produced the hell out of this little trailer. I want to believe that you’ve produced the hell out of a single, too, and I’ll be hearing it real soon. Don’t make me wait until August.
It’s almost June… Continue reading jj – Album Trailers, Summer Songs, and Ditching Ne-Yo
I live a few blocks from the finish line. Every year, on Bay to Breakers weekend, the City swells to an incalculable size and my neighborhood is tacked with road closure signs and traffic warnings. It’s this town’s oldest and biggest party, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the chaos.
But in the two days before the race, I ran along Great Highway, watching crewmen and technicians deliberately and systematically transform Ocean Beach into the terminus of all this costumed debauchery: stages, lights, flags, and a neverending row of port-a-potties. Meanwhile the Pacific was the calmest I’d seen it in months. Lapping quietly against the shore while the last of the gulls headed north for the rocks below the Cliff House. And with Karl the Fog absent this past week, the horizon was a blurred bright line between sea and sky.
We Are Catchers released their debut album earlier this year, and “Isabella” is the second single. Peter Jackson is from Liverpool, but the soul of his music seems to hover around a California beach commune from the 60’s.
The view of the ocean this week immediately called to mind this album cover. The songs, once queued up, were an immediate reminder of how beautiful it is to afterparty on the edge of the world.
At 9:00 last night I was eating a sandwich on the sidewalk parklet outside DNA Lounge when DH texted me: “Dude come up here you are missing something weird.”
Coming from DH, that meant something.
The “something weird” was the last entrant in the open mic portion of the 8BitSF evening. A weathered Tina Yothers meets Michael McKean from Spinal Tap in a flowy pirate shirt dropping a David Byrne staccato over aggressive video game beats. Not just weird, but also awesome.
Glad I swallowed my sandwich in two bites and ran upstairs to see the tail end of this guy’s set, but I was also happily marveling at the crowd assembling street level for the show in the main auditorium. Continue reading True Sons Of Chiptune
Earlier this year I did my part to push “How’s That” by FKA twigs past the half-million views threshold. The song is beautiful, but the video is just captivating.
A few months ago, she released a video collaboration with inc. titled, simply, FKA x inc.
aaaaand I’ve been watching the shit out of this as well.
Yes, I moved into a smaller place. A smaller, more awesome place. And I purged a substantial portion of my belongings in the process. But how devilishly easy it is to fill one’s life and dwelling up with lovely things when this seven-inch single comes wrapped up in an eight-page full color zine.
I choose to look at it this way: in the same way one donates or otherwise disposes of old clothes that one doesn’t want to wear anymore… and slowly rebuilds a new wardrobe…
my consumer efforts in The Turnaround are to slowly rebuild a collection of vinyl, comics, prints, and other artifacts of delight to symbolize this new era.
Besides, I still have practically no furniture. So there’s room…
Where It’s At Is Where You Are debuted its 7-inch singles series this year with “Monsters,” a new tune by Freschard. The B-side is a version of “And the Rain” from her recent Boom Biddy Boom album, this one also recorded with the Wave Pictures.
I’ve always been a big fan of the seven-inch record. As a kid, I used to spin my dad’s 45s on my fingers when he wasn’t looking. One of my first grade-school notebook superhero creations was a Hawkeye-like marksman who spun little vinyl frisbees with deadly accuracy. Culture Club singles could blind an enemy with bursts of color. I bought a lot of cassettes and 45s, primarily because they could be concealed in my backpack, stealthily avoiding my parents requests to “save money” and “come straight home after school.”
wiaiwya loves the seven inch too. 7777777 is the name of the series, and each release is limited to 77 copies. This record came out on the 7th of April, and future releases (including the recent “Doll” by Trick Mammoth) are all slated for various seventh days.
Continue reading Freschard with the Wave Pictures – Monsters
I stood in that damn line, and nothing. That sea of people swept through the aisles in a mad rush, grabbing anything and everything that had the RSD label. Despite being maybe 50-people deep, I still missed out on all the LCD boxsets. I left Amoeba without spending a dime, on principle.
At one point, I just stood on the upper level, staring down at the chaos in the aisles below. One girl, couldn’t have been more than sixteen, stood in the eye of the hurricane with tears streaming down her face. Happy Record Store Day.
Within minutes, eBay was full of those boxsets. Upwards of 200 bucks. My disdain grows.
Continue reading Record Store Day Sucks
This week, NPR Music’s First Listen is featuring the self-titled debut by North Carolina duo Sylvan Esso. The album comes out May 13 on Partisan Records.
“Coffee” is already far and away my favorite track this year, and, despite recent attempts to temper my best-thing-ever enthusiasm, I’m already giddy about this new record.
Earlier this year, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn played Bottom of the Hill, and all I could think, at the time, was that I need to see these guys again, as soon as possible, and I need to bring everyone I know. It’s been sold out for some time (curse you, Fillmore scalpers), but if you can score tickets to the June 6 tUnE-yArDs show, Sylvan Esso will be opening. And I’ll see you there.
Every Dragging Handclap 