Everybody Taste

Mixtape #25: Don't Let This Summer Be A Bummer

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:41:00 +0000

Side A

Hello

Chairlift - "I Belong In Your Arms [Japanese Version]"

Dirk Diggler & Reed Rothchild - "Feel The Heat"

Generationals - "Durga II"

Don Covay - "You're Good For Me"

Woods - "Impossible Sky"

Dusty Springfield - "When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes"

Richard Swift - "Drakula (Hey Man!)"

Warm Soda - "Jeanie Loves Pop"

Martha Wainwright - "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole"

Side B

Radiation City - "Foreign Bodies"

Benjy Ferree - "Fear"

Arthur Lee - "Everybody's Gotta Live"

Tangiers - "I Wanna Go Out"

Miyazaki - "Sequence"

Those Darlins - "Let You Down"
Heron - "Goodbye"

Karen Dalton - "Something On Your Mind"

Download:

Don't Let This Summer Be A Bummer.zip

Stream on 8 Tracks

I Don't Like Radiohead: The Problem with Consensus & Independent Taste

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:31:00 +0000

If you're a true music fan, someone who cares and really gets it, you love Radiohead; you think Deerhunter and everything Bradford Cox touches is gold; and you worship at the altar of indie heavyweights like Sonic Youth, Pavement, and My Bloody Valentine. For music nerds and the most respected music journalists, these bands are typically treated with an almost religious-like respect and sometimes even worshipped. I, of course, have a deep respect and admiration for all those groups. But do I consider myself a fan or personally enjoy their music? No, not really. Sure, I've probably put a Pavement song on a playlist once or twice. When I was younger, I'm sure I played Radiohead in the car a few times to establish my music credibility to a new friend (probably a girl). But do I ever actively seek out these band's music? Do I—a music-obsessed, band t-shirt wearing, vinyl hoarder—own a single one of their records? Do I ever listen to their music for fun or enjoyment? No, no, and nope.

So, now you're thinking, "This guy has shitty taste. He wouldn't know a good song if it hit him in the fucking face." Well, please read on.

In music, especially the world of music blogs and music superfans (like myself), there's this idea that certain groups are untouchable: that like Mt. Rushmore, they've been permanently chiseled and built into the landscape. That to like and admire great innovative music, means to listen to Radiohead. And if you don't like Radiohead, you obviously don't appreciate difficult or forward-thinking art. Now, I wholeheartedly agree Radiohead is an interesting and innovative band, but why do I have to like them?

There's really few things more personal and subjective in life than art and taste. While it might seem like everyone loves The Beatles—and I'm sure most everyone does—there's also plenty of us who prefer The Rolling Stones. Abbey Road and Rubber Soul are great and all, but personally, I've heard those records enough times in this lifetime. Now December's Children, Let It Bleed, and Exile on Main Street? That music puts air in my lungs. When those records play, I swear I can feel it in my bones, rushing up my spine, and tingling every hair follicle—it's my musical lifeblood.

It's wonderful when massively appealing songs and artists come along so that we can enjoy their music as a community: whether that community itself is a concert, a group of close friends, or even online on Twitter or in a comments section. But it's equally wonderful when a song can elicit two vastly different reactions from two seemingly similar people—it's almost magical. To one person, a James Blake song may sound like pure ecstasy, soft honey, and Jesus. But to another it could either be a snore-fest or unbearably physically acrid, like a surprise gulp of lumpy forgotten back-of-the-fridge milk.

Disagreements are what make discussing art so fun and interesting. I've written here before about my love for lists and list making: it's an opportunity to completely immerse yourself in another person's taste, and listen to artists you might never have uncovered on your own. But there's a down side to that practice: the peer-pressure of consensus building. To appear hip or informed, you might obligingly smudge your own list to fit in with a respected taste maker. When people continually put the same songs and albums up on pedestals it creates an almost historical hierarchy of what's important, which can be both useful and just a little bit dangerous. If everyone's in agreement about what the best ten records are in any given year, then that creates an exclusive environment that potentially leaves out 10 unaccounted for records that might be equally as fantastic. According to just about every major publication, Bon Iver released the best album of 2011; Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was unquestionably the best record of 2010; and Radiohead's Kid A was the best album released in the 2000's. According to Pitchfork, Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights was the best album of 2002 over Beck's Sea Change and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. If every important critic agrees on something, does that make it true? What about a majority of music fans?

Thankfully, taste isn't democratic—it's individual. What if you didn't like or weren't interested in those records? My favorite record from 2012 was The Tough Shits self-titled debut on Burger Records. It was popular enough to sell out it's first vinyl pressing, but outside of a small niche of fans, there's not a whole lot of folks that heard it. My proclamation that The Tough Shits released the best record of 2012 wasn't made to offer an alternative to the norm, it was just honestly the most fun and rewarding experience I had listening to music all year. Recently, I've had on Taylor Swift's Red and Parquet Court's Light Up Gold. I'm picky with my taste, but at the end of the day, I just like a great pop hook and a sharp sense of humor. By not limiting our collective listening to what's solely been celebrated both in the past and present, we're opening ourselves up to new, different, and unexpected discoveries. Sometimes I miss out on bands because they're too celebrated and over-saturated, and that's just as shitty. If everyone likes a song, it's probably worth checking out: just decide for yourself whether or not you like it.

Some music fans prefer humor and crunchy power chords, while others immerse themselves in harps and synth pads. Obviously, there's no one right or wrong answer in music. There is no equation for success. The problem with consensus is it suggests that there is an answer, and that's when the everyday fan or nerd becomes the snob. If a large enough chunk of people like an album, it's for a good reason. That's inarguable. But what's unnecessary is to look down on those that don't agree with you.

This is me: I learned what a verse, chorus, and bridge are from Tom Petty and Joe Strummer; Chuck Berry taught me how to play the guitar; I can't stand REM nor Death Cab For Cutie; I worship The Walkmen, Prince, Nina Simone, and New Order; The Replacements are my favorite band of all time; Kurt Cobain seemed like an interesting guy, but I can't stand Nirvana; I don't ever listen to soft jazz, post 1990s hip-hop, or heavy metal; I love old country and poppy punk; the top three most played songs on my iTunes are Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi," Garland Jeffrey's "Wild In The Streets," and Thee Oh Sees' "I Was Denied."

I'm obsessed with music. It soundtracks my every waking moment, and when it's not, I miss it. I'm writing this surrounded by guitars and a beat-to-shit drum kit. I've read and own music industry books like Mansion On The Hill; biographies on The Stones, Petty, Miles Davis, and Duke Ellington; one of my favorite books is the oral history of The Replacements, It's All Over But The Shouting. And yes, I really don't like Radiohead. I tried to like it, I promise, but it just didn't stick.

If we're talking about indie, independent, or underground music, here's the deal: we all don't have to like the same records and bands. Independent means you can listen to whatever the fuck you want to. You decide what records are classic, and you crown your own heroes. Difficult or simplistic, analog or computer generated, melodic or dissonant, soft or loud, it doesn't matter—it's up to you.

The Tough Shits - "She's A Loner"

Cool Ghouls :: Crusty Euphoric Rock 'n' Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:38:00 +0000

San Francisco four-piece Cool Ghouls dish out bursts of charmingly crusty rock 'n' roll in a timelessly recorded fashion. Like that batch of funky home-brewed beer your friend made in a cooler last summer, the flavors here aren't developed into any sort of crisp or refined massively appealing product—this shit is raw. But it's all the better for it, because you can hear every success, mistake, and personally delivered nuance in its honest and imperfect original shape: you can almost smell the stale bong water and musty carpetting; see the tangled mess of wires and piles of beer cans; and hear the strained-to-the-point-of-breaking hard-earned rasp of vocals and hot skipping mess of instruments trying desperately to produce something truly meaningful—and maybe even—great. And great it often is. When those horns first hit in "Spring Break Blues," which at first sounds like an Easy Beat-era Dr. Dog number, there's a sudden shift into a The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle-caliber bullet of sweat, steam, and honest-to-goodness rock 'n' roll euphoria. And "Grace," the first single off the band's forthcoming Tim Cohen-recorded debut LP, takes off right where "Spring Break Blues" left: horns, desperation, and bursts of sun-scorched vocals and sun-burnt guitars that will bust your gut, weaken your knees, and tickle your soul.

Pre-order Cool Ghouls debut LP from Empty Cellar.

Cool Ghouls - "Spring Break Blues"

Guest Mixtape: Secret Mountains

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:47:00 +0000

Last week, Secret Mountains' guitarist Jeffrey Silverstein—who's pretty into the ole mixtape art, as you may have noticed here or here, there, well, you get it—dropped off a refreshing menagerie of cuts old and new for our collective ears to soak up. Seeing as I've had the new Phosphorescent and The Men albums on a sickly obsessive cycle of repetition, hearing the world through another trusted fan and musician is always a much welcome relief. Below, sink your teeth into the selection, and if you haven't had a chance to peep Secret Mountains' gorgeous debut, sample the goods and pick up the vinyl right here.

Secret Mountains - "High Horse" (Shaking Through)

Galaxie 500 - "Isn't It A Pity"

Seth Olinsky - "No Space In This Realm"

Happy Birthday - "Subliminal Message"

Woods - "To Have In Home"

Mark McGuire - "Clear in the Cobwebs"

The Angels of Light - "I Pity The Poor Immigrant"

Headphones - "Pink and Brown"

White Denim - "I Start To Run"

Yo La Tengo - "Ohm"

Crystal Skulls - "Baby Boy'

Matthew E. White - "I'll Be Home (Randy Newman)"

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - "What'll We Do"

Hop Along - "Cow Eyes"

Cate Le Bon - "Me Oh My"

Secret Mountains Mixtape.zip

Young Summer - "Fever Dream"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:07:00 +0000

Over humming synthesizers and a drum loop, native Washingtonian singer Bobbie Allen dishes out Victoria Legrand-quality rasp in the intimate and soulful confessional, "Fever Dream." Allen's raw vocals, all steam and humidity, drip sweat and life over the track's slinky smooth electronic production—a bright contrast that makes "Fever Dream" an intoxicating and irresistibly crafted bit of R&B-soaked pop music. Young Summer is a collaboration between Allen and the Nashville-based songwriter Trent Dabbs, whose song "Undermine" was recently featured in the television show Nashville, as performed by actors Hayden Panettiere and Charles Eston. The duo's debut three-track EP is out now and available for free for a limited time from Noisetrade.

Bleached - "Dead In Your Head"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:51:00 +0000

The Clavin sisters first three releases as Los Angeles pop-punk group Bleached were all 7"s, each with its own washed-out ("bleached") monochromatic cover art and pairing of songs each more fiercely melodic and devilishly addictive than the last. If "Dazed" recalled an afternoon in the garage picking melodies out of the dusty sunlit air, "Think of You" was The Misfits as sung by a sweet lovestruck kid, and "Searching Through The Past" a rumbling punk number with an impossibly sharp pop structure. On Ride Your Heart, the Clavin sisters deliver another related yet entirely new feeling set of wheels: sure, there's another aptly bleached album cover (this time with a turquoise hue) and another set of songs about boys, but this time the Clavins have the pop dial cranked to 10. On "Dead In Your Head," the record's second single, there's less Glenn Danzig and more straight-for-the-jugular injections of unadulterated new-wave-tinged pop: a bubbly mood-setting bass riff and a giant resonating chorus and vocal line that slices and dices through the sister's wonderful back catalogue like a knife through warm butter.

Pre-order Ride Your Heart.

Bleached - "Dead In Your Head"

Mikal Cronin - "Weight"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:08:00 +0000

"I've been starting over for a long time. I'm not ready for another day," sings Mikal Cronin, balancing his breezy and bubbly pop instincts with the thoughtful worry of aging, growing up, and that "Weight" that life can occasionally smack you in the face with. On MCII, the May 7th due sequel to Cronin's instant-classic self-titled debut, the young Laguna Beach-raised songwriter ups the ante on his signature sunny-acoustic-meets-thunderous-electric-fuzz brand of rock 'n' roll. Cronin's not only jumped labels—from the medium-sized Trouble In Mind Records to heavyweight Merge—but on "Weight" it's evident he's also honing and perfecting his signature brew into its sharpest and most instantaneously appealing articulation yet. If "Shout It Out" hit home with the surface-level fun of that giant sing-along chorus, "Weight" hits somewhere a little deeper, darker, and more personally relatable: that feeling of leaving behind all the mystery and innocence of youth for the day-to-day struggles and mundanity of adulthood. Though if Cronin keeps writing and releasing tracks this good, the future just may not look so bad. Photo by Kirstie Shanley.

Teenage Burritos - "Kamikaze"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:16:00 +0000

Fantastically named San Diego band Teenage Burritos—who already have an out-of-print cassette via Burger Records—are set to put out their first 7" on Volar Records featuring A-side "Danya" and my current obsession, "Kamikaze," on the flip side. A frisky guitar line, snappy drumming, and an instantaneously addictive vocal lead dose this charismatic recorded-in-the-garage-fidelity nugget with a classic unglued from time sort of quality that has me hitting play over and over again. Dig into the tune below, and look out for the forthcoming wax from Volar as well as a future full-length due out on Burger.

Teenage Burritos - "Kamikaze"

Richard Swift :: Ambassador of Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:55:00 +0000

With all of the hullabaloo surrounding Foxygen—who, yes, released what's sure to be one of the very best records of 2013, if not the next five years or so—I've been digging into the back catalogue of Richard Swift—the man responsible for discovering the act and producing their debut full-length, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic. Foxygen principles Sam France and Jonathan Rado are not only indebted to Swift's ear for talent and the analog recording techniques he's mastered at his fabled National Freedom studio in Cottage Grove, Oregon, but also Swift's own outsider-pop music—a key inspiration for and ingredient in Foxygen's dozen or so home-recorded oddball pop albums from high school. Swift has time and again captured and repurposed the vintage sound and appeal of the 1960s soul single—as on "Lady Luck" and "The Bully"—with razor sharp melodies, warbly textural production, and a charismatic personality that at turns confidently struts in falsetto, and in refreshing un-seriousness, delivers ribbings with shrewd comical force. Like with Foxygen, Swift seems to always be talked about in reference to the many acts he's produced—Damien Jurado, The Mynabirds, Laetitia Sadier, and Pickwick, who recently covered Swift's own "Lady Luck" with Sharon Van Etten—or the band he occasionally plays in, The Shins. But if you've got a turntable and a few hours to kill, there's few more interesting and enjoyable oeuvre's to dive into than Swift's own: a deeply personal, complex, and idiosyncratic home-brewed discography filled with heavy wafts of foggy psychedelia, molten hot tambourine-skipping R&B, and grimy garage rock. First, kick things off with a favorite from Swift's most recent album, Walt Wolfman: the hilariously engaging sing-along "Drakula (Hey Man)." Then below, snag a few downloads and proceed to go buy up all of the vinyl released by this under-appreciated holy force of awesome.

Grab Richard Swift vinyl from Secretly Canadian's SC Distribution. Photos by Sarah Jurado.

Richard Swift - "A Song For Milton Feher"
Richard Swift - "Whitman"
Richard Swift & Damien Jurado - "Crazy Like A Fox"

The Men :: New Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:52:00 +0000

If the Grateful Dead recorded a ramshackle punk rock version of American Beauty, it might sound something like New Moon, the fourth offering from Brooklyn band The Men. Though The Men's arsenal may seem a bit savage alongside the blissful tunefulness of "Box of Rain" and "Friend Of The Devil," there's a very loose and jolting live electricity to New Moon that recalls the Dead at their brightest and most appealing studio moments. Whether it's the, dare I say, jammy harmonica breaks in "Without A Face" or the rugged outlaw country vocals and harmonies on "The Seeds"—which sound as if they were laid down in the midst of a bender that's bled into the early morning—the record provides a charmingly raw and consistently sublime antithesis to all that is over-produced and tirelessly brushed clean. The Grateful Dead, even on their most polished studio offerings, were always a band that lived purely in the moment. And that's exactly what New Moon offers: a five-piece band with exceptional tour-earned interplay that doesn't bother to sand down any of the grit or roughness from its creative process for consumption, and instead pulls back the curtains to reveal a record that feels both warmly familiar and excitingly new.

Buy the record from Sacred Bones.

Youtube: The Men - "The Seeds"
Youtube: The Men - "Open The Door"

Video: Hundred Visions - "Where Do I Sign"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:54:00 +0000

2012 barnburner "Where Do I Sign" by Austin's Hundred Visions now has top-of-the-line visuals courtesy of a couple of awesome older gentleman lip synching and rocking out—including Sonny Carl Davis of Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Bernie fame—and two long-haired headband-decked heroes that traverse a wonderfully low-budget video game universe with their arsenal of pizza and onion ring spewing guns. Spoiler alert: the bad guy—the floating head of a hungry bearded dude in space—eats it in the tense climax with a corn dog to the face.

Make sure to nab Hundred Visions' excellent debut LP Permanent Basement.

Hundred Visions - "Where Do I Sign?"

Twin Peaks - "Stand In The Sand"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:52:00 +0000

After guiding The Orwells away from high school fandom in the Chicago suburbs and into a deservedly buzz-drawing national touring act, the Aquarium Drunkard's Los Angeles-based imprint Autumn Tone Records all of the sudden seems like the premiere planting ground for raucous and grimy garage-rock up-and-comers. Next up is David Lynch fans Twin Peaks: another obscenely young group of Chicago punks that exhale bong smoke and spit fire, brimstone, and wickedly enjoyable fits of manically-paced rock 'n' roll. Peep "Stand In The Sand," a just over two-minute long hurricane-caliber force of teenage rebellion that elevates the everyday utterance "oh yeah" into swampy and soulful gold.

Twin Peaks - "Stand In The Sand"

The Real Kids - "All Kindsa Girls" / "Common At Noon"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:23:00 +0000

This week, a great new blog I've been following Why Pick On Me turned me on to Boston's The Real Kids. Formed in the early 1970s by John Felice—a childhood friend and former bandmate of Jonathan Richman in the first incarnation of The Modern Lovers—The Real Kids put out their first release in 1977 on French label, Sponge, with a 7" consisting of pop-punk A-side scorcher "All Kindsa Girls" and softer B-side number "Common At Noon." The latter track, which somehow has me simultaneously picturing early Velvet Underground and Troggs' bootlegs, is best summed up in Felice's own words: "This song is about Boston Common, which is this park in the middle of Boston where people go to hang out and look at girls in the summertime." Below, dig into both sides of this gorgeous artifact, "dedicated to real kids everywhere."

Snag the singles on iTunes, or grab the vinyl from Discogs.

The Real Kids - "Common At Noon"

The Real Kids - "All Kindsa Girls"

Dune Rats - "Wooo!"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:51:00 +0000

Scrappy Australian outfit Dune Rats have amassed an impressive following in a short period of time, thanks to their undeniably catchy spin on outsider garage rock. Though there's a constant slacker veneer surrounding henchmen Danny Beusa and BC Michaels, these two Brisbane natives are also clearly working their asses off as they travel back and forth from Australia to the States for month-long tours. Even their February-released "Red Light, Green Light" video—an absurd two-and-a-half minute long bong race—showcases serious ingenuity, as the band developed the concept directly with their fan base. Now after just 25 days, it has over 120,000 views. But it's this duo's music that has me writing, and in particular, it's the strummy "Wooo!" There really isn't a standout hook or moment here, but rather an overall inescapable feeling of being young, hopelessly excited, and charmingly directionless.

Dune Rats - "Wooo!" (from Sexy Beach EP)

Miyazaki - "Opportunist" / "Glory"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:07:00 +0000

DC synth-pop quartet Miyazaki take their name from legendary Japanese animator and director Hayao Miyazaki—the creative engine behind films like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. While there's no reference to a giant rabbit or freaky pig people on the band's debut full-length Color of Glass, there's certainly a transportive, far-away and fantastical feel to the their beat-driven and heavily melodic dance numbers, which playfully sprinkle Factory Records influences and gloomy Ian Curtis recalling vocal takes alongside bubbling synth riffs. Below, dig into the foggy drone of "Glory" and the pulsating "Opportunist," where deep-voiced frontman Eduardo Rodela hands over lead vocal duties to his girlfriend Marisa Grotte, whose bright beaming tone provides the perfect change of pace throughout Color of Glass.

Snag the 11-track album from Bandcamp.

Pure X - "Things In My Head" / "One Day At A Time"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:37:00 +0000

Pure X songs remind me of quicksand. Or maybe it's a soak in a warm tub of thick honey. Once a song starts and the sweet stoned nothings are whispered into your ears and buttery chunks of flanger-effected guitar slowly melt over you, all eyes glaze into fixed hypnotic stares and all movements temporarily freeze in time. Maybe I'm getting carried away, but every time I hear a new song by this great Austin band, I start thinking about the word 'viscosity,' which essentially describes the ratio of resistive force to flow in a fluid. Yes, Pure X's music flows—it moves forward in time—but there's something heavy and obstructive continually pushing back against it. For every sweet blissful melody, there's a dissonant streak of darkness; and for every snap of snare in time, there's a backlash of unhurried sludgy sighing guitar. And it's one hell of a convincingly gorgeous contrast.

Pre-order Pure X's new record from Acephale.

Pure X - "Things In My Head" (from Crawling Up The Stairs)
Pure X - "One Day At A Time" (Willie Nelson cover)

Starfucker - "Last Words " / "Beach Monster"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:33:00 +0000

Portland's Starfucker have been one of the more quietly consistent acts of the aughts, from their dreamy loop-sprinkled 2008 debut to the playful dance-centered Jupiter EP and 2011's existential Reptilians with its musings on life and death courtesy of interspersed clips from Eastern philosopher Alan Watts. Discussion of the band is often unfortunately framed by Starfucker's likeness to synth-pop oriented peers MGMT and Passion Pit. But outside of a few shallow similarities, Joshua Hodges' longtime project has little in common with those buzz bands nor the massive appeal-driven melodies of songs like "Kids" and "Carried Away." Despite the presence of the occasional booming synth riff, Starfucker's songs are really of a more introspective ilk, content to linger in surprisingly sparse and meditative combinations of hushed vocals, snappy rhythms, and splashes and loops of guitar. More along the career path of a Flaming Lips or Johnny Jewel, Starfucker seem happy to pave their own distinctive and idiosyncratic way without much interference from the outside world. Below, peep two favorites from the band's newest record, Miracle Mile, out on Polyvinyl Records.

Buy the record from Polyvinyl.

Lovely Bad Things - "Hear or Anywhere"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:49:00 +0000

La Mirada's Lovely Bad Things wooed me a few years back with the lovable handrawn art, jubilant bonfire-on-the-beach vibe, and sharp cutting melodies of their Shark Week and New Ghost / Old Waves cassettes. Now, freshly signed to Volcom Entertainment, the quartet are set to release their very first long player: The Late Great Whatever. Brimming with Star Wars and Randy Savage references, forceful driving beats, crashing fuzzed-out waves of guitars, and dynamic rotating lead vocals, the group's charming brand of garage rock is poised to commence world domination. Below, peep the sweeping and massively appealing Lauren Curtius-sung "Hear or Anywhere," which for some reason at the moment is taking me back to 1995 and Kevin Smith's excellent punk-smattered Mallrats soundtrack. As Brodie once poetically explained: "Breakfast, shmreakfast. Look at the score, for Christ's sake. It's only the second period and I'm up 12 to 2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, 'the Whale,' they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime."

Pre-order the record from Volcom.

The First Six Classics of 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:44:00 +0000

I consume new music in rotations of 12 to 20 tracks—enough to fill a short playlist or occupy a drive. I'll research, read, and download for a few bleary-eyed late nights, and then spend the next week binging on the best tracks. It's a deeply sick habit. I'm a junky always in search of my next musical fix. New songs are always great in the beginning, but after a week when I've leeched all the excitement and freshness out of each song and more or less spoiled the contents with aggressive and repetitive listening, I'm back searching for my next feeding. There are exceptions to this rule however: the timeless and the classic. Songs that no matter how many times you press play or drop the needle down onto the turntable, appear as unrelentingly fresh and undiminished as that morning sunrise and reliable cup of hot home-brewed coffee.

A fellow fan of Oakland's Warm Soda recently wrote: "They sound like a band that doesn't use the internet." And there's really no higher compliment, as Warm Soda's songs are free of that digital abyss's endless fads, memes, hyperbole, and the absurdly quick turnover rate that we as music fans dictate in our actions as consumers. These six songs all sound remarkably free of that world's constraints: whether it's Adam Green and Binki Shapiro's "Casanova," a beautifully languid harpsichord-decorated throwback to the collaborations between Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood; the unbelievably dynamic dance-pop R&B single "Falling" by sister trio Haim, who retain Kate Bush-like eccentricities while seeming driven to become the Prince equivalent of the 2010s; Kurt Vile's hazy, unhurried, and lushly meditative nine-minute plus I-don't-give-a-fuck-about-radio-play single "Wakin On A Pretty Day"; the three-minutes of power-pop, Dead Milkmen-inspired, sing-along perfection that is Cocktails' "No Blondes (In California)"; rock classicists Dawes, who are invested in the tradition and art of songwriting and storytelling more than any other contemporary band, and the playfully reflective narration of their new single "From A Window Seat"; and of course, Warm Soda's "Jeanie Loves Pop," a track that crushes with roaring guitars and the endearing joyous simplicity of its title and chorus. Only time can truly paint these tracks as classics, but for this music addict, there's no amount of overplay that can blemish songs these spectacular.

Kurt Vile - "Wakin On A Pretty Day"

Adam Green and Binki Shapiro - "Casanova"

Warm Soda - "Jeanie Loves Pop"

Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats - "Echo"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:33:00 +0000

Baltimore's Adam Lempel, also of Weekends, is taking on a more classic vintage of rock on a new release as Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats. Standout track "Echo" features Amanda Glasser of The Silent Whys and Lempel employing a vocal canon, singing, imitating and cleverly repeating the simple phrase: "You go-go-go-go-go, I-I-I follow you around / follow you around / Like an echo-cho-cho-cho-cho, I-I-I follow you around / Follow you around." Over just a touch of organ, a clean-toned electric guitar, and a few emphatic snaps of snare, the songs builds and billows into a deeply hypnotic trance-like state that's as addictive as it is satisfyingly sweet.

A cassette release is due out on Friends Records. In the meantime, dig into Lempel's Bandcamp.

Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats - "Echo"

Premiere: Burnt Ones - "Fountain of Youth"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:51:00 +0000

A Burnt Ones song doesn't just play: it quakes, howls, and shakes its hips under the faint light of a blood-red moon. This Bay Area trio's playful penchant for excess comes in the form of thunderous booms of amplified guitar fuzz, which sound at once dizzying, assaultive, and deeply satisfying. This isn't let's sit down and contemplate life by the fire music; this is foot-stomping, thigh-slapping, celebratory, let's jump into the fire just to feel how it hot it burns music. Fresh off releasing a 7" on Oakland's Fuzz City Records and a pair of tracks for two compilations on John Dwyer's Castle Face imprint, Burnt Ones are now set to deliver their second long player, You'll Never Walk Alone. Burger Records, who co-released the band's sublime glam-smacked single "Meet The Golden One" with the band's own Gold Records, will put out You'll Never Walk Alone on April 30th. Below, dig into the raucous first taste, "Fountain of Youth"—all dark walls of guitar-chewing distortion and train-chugging rhythm flavored with an addictive candy-sweet bubblegum pop center.

Follow Burger Records on Facebook for the pre-order announcement. In the meantime, get your paws on previous Burnt Ones releases direct from the band.

The Everywheres - "Frightened Face"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:52:00 +0000

"Frightened Face" by Halifax band The Everywheres is on the surface a laid-back, sun-drenched cut of amiably wondering coastal psychedelia, but upon closer listen, there's something nefarious lurking just beneath that coat of reverb. The methodically pacing guitar lead appears more nervous, eery, and even claustrophobic with each repeated play. "I think I can see the cold calling," warns the narrator, who later reveals, "every ray of sun still hurts our eyes." Now the track might be about a race of Canadian vampires, but my money says it's on the harsh encroaching cold of a mean Nova Scotia winter. Word is The Everywheres are set to release their debut LP later this spring. In the meantime, button up.

The Everywheres - "Frightened Face"

Mikal Cronin - "Shout It Out"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:43:00 +0000

Longtime Ty Segall collaborator Mikal Cronin, who's debut on Chicago's Trouble In Mind Records was one of the very best albums of 2011, is now set to return with his sophomore effort on May 7th on indie heavyweight Merge Records. The Laguna Beach native recorded his new album, simply titled MCII, in San Francisco alongside Eric Bauer, who runs his own Bauer Mansion studio and has recorded everyone in the Bay Area from Sic Alps and Thee Oh Sees to Segall's latest, Twins. The first single from Cronin's forthcoming effort, "Shout It Out," continues along the same stylistic lines introduced on his debut: bubbly melodies and breezy sun-soaked acoustic guitars juxtaposed with a colossal hammering of amplified fuzz. Cronin's template though has never sounded so sharply honed and never felt this instantaneously satisfying.

Hunx - "I Won't Tell If You Won't Tell"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:15:00 +0000

The fifth release in the LAMC series from Brooklyn label and collective Famous Class is a split between current Babies guitar slinger Cassie Ramone and Seth 'Hunx' Bogart. Hunx occupies the A-side with the slinky and catchy-as-hell "I Won't Tell If You Won't Tell," which runs on the fumes of a snappy half-muted guitar lick that proves to be the perfect vehicle and companion for Bogart's nasally punk timbre. Dig into the single, and sneak a peak at Hunx's Hollywood Nailz video series below. The clip here features Shannon & The Clams and Grass Widow hilariously covering 1990s hits "The Power" and "Unbelievable," the latter of which is somehow transformed into an absolutely killer cut.

Hunx - "I Won't Tell If You Won't Tell"

Buy the 7" digitally from Bandcamp where 100% of the proceeds benefit the Ariel Panero Memorial Fund, or nab the vinyl from Famous Class.

Lenz - "Moody Michelle"

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Carr) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:06:00 +0000

Bay area outfit Lenz, who channel thumping 1980s-era post-punk into self-described "ice-pop," have an 8-song LP set for release on Oakland's 1-2-3-4 Go! Records this winter. Lenz frontman Andy Jordan—who released one of very favorite cuts of 2012, "Land of The Dinosaurs," via his solo project Andy Human—has a serious knack for crisp hook-laden melodies, as evidenced by the new instantaneously repeatable single "Moody Michelle." Over a thunderous rumble of drums and a few glimmering guitar riffs, Jordan's steady vocals deliver a simplistic yet overwhelmingly infectious batch of lyrics. Using only a handful of words that are constantly repeated and continually and playfully rearranged, the track produces a sublimely hypnotic and almost meditative quality.

Buy the vinyl from 1-2-3-4 Go! Records.