Yoogli Blog

The Rural Alberta Advantage

2009-07-06T16:13:17Z

It’s been eleven years since Jeff Mangum and co (Neutral Milk Hotel) released their masterpiece In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea. Fans have been waiting for Jeff’s triumphant return ever since; yet, other than a few live guest spots, Mangum has kept completely silent. In some of the press sheets, The Rural Alberta Advantage are said to be the next Neutral Milk Hotel. Generally this sort of hyperbole squashes my interest, but I decided to give the record a shot anyways. I’m quite happy I did.

The RAA’s debut album Hometowns is thirteen songs packed full of percussion and the yelping vocals that gave RAA the Neutral Milk Hotel comparison. The driving element throughout the record are the drums. During even the slower songs like “Don’t Haunt this Place,” the percussion moves into double time - creating a striking counterpoint to the gentle guitar and vocals.

I love dance music as much as the next person, but it’s nice to hear a jamming acoustic guitar again. The band recently signed to Saddle Creek, a label that seems to have lost the limelight due to the changing tides of music. It’s a great fit though, and one that could facilitate more great albums from the Canadian trio.

Grab “Don’t Haunt This Place” here.

Dark Night of the Soul

2009-05-29T16:51:51Z

What happens when you mix the production of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse with the visual genius of David Lynch? Well, unless you’re a fan of bit torrent you’ll probably never know. An audio/visual collaboration between the three masterminds (with a host of music guests: Flaming Lips, Shins, Julian Casablancas, Jason Lytle etc…) is sitting on the shelf at EMI caught up in “licensing issues,” and will almost certainly never see the light of day.

Because the project incorporated a 100 page hardback book of photos by David Lynch, the book and a blank CD-R (to put the stolen copy of the album on) are currently being sold. Good luck hunting down the album.

Suckers EP

2009-05-19T16:29:57Z

There’s a factory in Brooklyn making great bands, and it’s latest creation is called Suckers. This four song EP gets in and out without a dull moment, and the indie-anthem “It Gets Your Body Movin” is the perfect leaving-the-listener-wanting-more exit. The sound makes sense when you look at the production credits for Anand Wilder (Yeasayer) and Chris Moore (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The influences seem to rest on their sleeves (David Byrne and Wolf Parade to name a few), but don’t get in the way due to the quality of the songwriting.

This should be a lesson to any new band - less is more. Write thirty songs and release four. The landscape of music has shifted, and the bombardment of content leaves people with little time to gain opinion. Suckers asked for 14 minutes of my time, and as “Beach Queen” reached it’s chorus I knew I was going to be there for the remaining 12 minutes.

Suckers Myspace

The News Bin

2009-04-16T18:17:15Z

Dirty Projectors played an intimate apartment show in Brooklyn in 2007, showcasing their reworking of Black Flag’s Rise Above. Above is a video from that night.

Sunset Rubdown give us a taste from their new album, Dragonslayer,with a free track on LaLa called “Idiot Heart.” You can find that and the mp3 at Pitchfork.

I Guess I’m Floating has collected all the Grizzly Bear content on Youtube. Get your fill here.

My Bloody Valentine will play the El Rey Theater tonight as a warm up for their Coachella show this weekend. Photos and review to follow.

The Thermals - Now We Can See

2009-04-07T15:58:31Z

Things felt a little shaky there for The Thermals in early 2008. They had toured on The Body, The Blood, The Machine for over a year and a half, they no longer had a drummer and were looking for a new label home. Yet, in reality all that paled in comparison to their toughest hurdle. Trying to write music that surpassed their landmark Bush-era concept record was going to be near impossible. TBTBTM combined everything great about The Thermals, political music and punk rock. By 2008 the political and social tides had begun to shift, and it looked likely a Senator named Barack Obama might be our next president. How would Hutch and Kathy translate this new landscape into an album?

Out of this situation, somewhere in a Portland studio, Now We Can See was birthed. From the lyrics of the album’s title track, (”Now that our vision is strong, we don’t need to admit we were wrong”) it’s clear Hutch still has a sharp tongue when it comes to public and political behavior. The album’s narrative comes from the POV of a newly deceased man and his journey through his new “life.” It references the TBTBTM era, and talks about how we’ve reacted to these changes. Hutch still doesn’t have much good to say about the national consciousness, but where TBTBTM was explicitly apocalyptic, Now We Can See cuts a more subtle argument.

One of the newest sounding songs, “At the Bottom of the Sea,” runs a two note bar chord that hints at the guitar line in “The End.” It’s pretty subtle but for some reason I just keep seeing Apocalypse Now playing during this song. “Now We Can See” is the standout single and combines the energy, quick delivery and interesting commentary that made me a Thermals fan in the beginning.

Grab the free track below and buy Now We Can See on Amazon.

[mp3] The Thermals - Now We Can See

New Music: Passion Pit - “The Reeling”

2009-04-06T15:44:58Z

It’s been quite the year for Michael Angelakos, mastermind behind Boston based Passion Pit. First, his belated Valentine’s Day present turns into an indie hit, then he signs a record deal with French Kiss, and now how he’s got a full band and a debut LP called Manners coming out.

The musical growth between Chunk of Change EP and Manners is pretty hard to gauge given all that’s happened. I was curious to see what would happen to the purity of Angelakos’ original mission, and whether the addition of a band would stifle him or take Passion Pit to a higher musical level. With “The Reeling” and a Fader.tv studio visit as my first peeks at the album, I’m pretty confident Passion Pit have channeled the same energy and child like approach to melody (Michael even talks about being inspired by children’s choirs during their studio profile - which includes a guest spot by a… children’s choir) as he did on the EP.

Stream the song below or on the band’s Myspace. Look for the album on May 19th.

Wavves - “So Bored”

2009-04-02T01:27:36Z

Most of Wavves sounds like a sludge fuzz blast from a blown out speaker. Its a rough first listen but the initial unpleasantness of Wavves’ no-fi pop sound is completely appropriate in defining the harsh beauty of dorm-room depression and the lonely-stoner laments that run rampant on this surf goth’s (already) second LP in the last year. Some of the album’s sprayed distortion and bummed-loner lyrics become manageable pop anthems (”So Bored”, “No Hope Kids”) for those who identify with the malaise birthed at the exit for the funeral of the American dream. This is the sound of the gritting bruxia of this up and coming generation’s ‘we-don’t-give-a-flying-trapezoid’ outlook on life. If Wavves’ general attitude is actually this boring I wonder what will happen when their swell finally comes in.

[mp3] Wavves - So Bored

Hanging out with David Bazan

2009-04-01T15:56:44Z

(photo cred: Mike McDougal)

We all have that one friend who always manages to pull out a guitar at get-togethers, as semi-circles of friends form around them for a mini performance of old cover songs, inviting sing-a-longs, or something new and unique. But not all of us are lucky enough to be able to be a part of a semi circle around someone as talented as the scruffy Mr. David Bazan. After all, it isn’t every day that the mastermind behind Pedro the Lion does a tour of solely intimate house shows, with only forty tickets sold per house. I was one of the lucky few that got a ticket after hovering over my computer mouse until the tickets went on sale, only to be sold out twenty minutes later.

He sat at the edge of a long couch in the cement-floored loft, embracing his acoustic guitar, as the city lights of downtown Los Angeles glowed through the window behind him. Bazan opened by saying that he’d mostly be playing new material from his anticipated album, Curse Your Branches, coming out August 25th. Having never seen Bazan live before, I was slightly disappointed that he only played a couple of Pedro the Lion songs, but it was refreshing to hear something fresh and new without a band behind him. With a raspy voice and a squint in his left eye, he sang in the acoustically accommodating loft, as everyone sat staring and listening, as young children would sit around an elder, gazing upward in awe and astonishment.

What really made this performance unique was the way David Bazan paused between each song to ask if anyone had any questions. At first it seemed as though he wanted people to ask about his music, but when he asked the group what their favorite movies were, it was obvious he was just a down to earth dude wanting to get to know his fans. He even told a story about paying for some program that taught him sweet dance moves, and how his wife walked in on him attempting the moves and failing miserably. The echoing laughter brought such fantastic energy that added to the already radiant loft. While playing a bit of a downer song, the host’s Dachshund interrupted the performance, and as Bazan laughed he said how difficult it was to sing about death when a cute dog is chilling next to you. His last song was the cover “Hallelujah,” initially written by Leonard Cohen, but covered by many, including Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley. Bazan’s brutal and honest songwriting makes him one of most well rounded artists of today, and being able to see him perform his trade with his overwhelming raw emotion in such a setting allowed for a truly exceptional musical experience.

Don’t Steal This Album!

2009-03-24T16:51:14Z

The legal and ethical questions around downloading music often lie in the murky gray zone between right and wrong; however, an exclusively recorded charity album for AIDS awareness is a clear cut decision.

Dark Was The Night is a collaborative music project created by members of The National and John Carlin (founder of Red Hot Organization). Instead of just curating an album of pre-existing songs, these guys approached the biggest talents in independent music and recorded an exclusive track for the compilation. The result is an astonishing 29 track exploration of the artists who will define this era of music. It sounds silly to say that in the present, but who can deny that Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Bon Iver, Conor Oberst, Feist, Sufjan Stevens, Yo La Tengo, Dirty Projectors, Kevin Drew and a host of others will be the musicians that embody the 00’s.

Go buy the compilation, support a worthy cause and enjoy some great music!

Deastro follows up Keepers with Moondagger

2009-03-19T17:46:19Z

Randolph Chabot’s career is starting to look a lot like that of Conor Oberst. There are the obvious connections with their early musical starts (Randolph is 22), and midwest background; however, it’s more their approach to the creation of music as a solitary experiment. Chabot says that by 17 he’d written hundreds of songs, trying to find his sound. Maybe one day we’ll hear those early demos like we did with Bright Eyes.

I first discovered Keepers as an eMusic exclusive, and couldn’t believe how varied and flexible Deastro was in songwriting. You can grab a couple free tracks on his label site here. I didn’t hear much chatter online, but it felt like only time before this home recording blossomed into a musical career. Deastro’s first official LP, Moondagger, might be the release that does just that.

The first single “Parallelogram” does a good job of expanding on the concepts and sounds of his home recordings. When asked about the new record, Chabot references “a dream about a prince, a kingdom, an evil King of Darkness, and a search for the mythical “Moondagger,” the bearer of which wields ultimate power.” Sounds about right. You can grab this first song here, but you’ll have to wait until June before you hear the rest of the album.