DIIV appears to be cleaning up the production a bit for their next album, but the songwriting stays twinkly.
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How do you know you’re on a artistic hot streak? When you can release an entire album of cat samples and still be considered a critical darling. Run the Jewels took their victory lap to Colbert’s Late Show last week, with a little help from their friends in TV on the Radio.
It’s Sunday, so you know the drill by now: the radio show is on tonight, 9PM til midnight. Stream it live over at www.wrct.org.
I’m having a lazy Friday off of work, so it seems like a perfect time to catch up on what everybody in Real Estate has been up to. Right? Right. Up above is “Northern Highway”, the first single off of Estater Martin Courtney’s solo debut Many Moons. It’s not far off from the music he’s making in his day job, maybe even more laid back, though. If that’s even possible.
Not to be outdone, resident Real Estate low-ender and professed Dead Head Alex Bleeker has a band of his own, the Freaks, and they’re preparing to release an LP of their own. Country Agenda will be out 10/16 on Sinderlyn Records, and “Sealong Hair” is a preview of what you can expect from it. Again, nothing too shocking from the perpetually chilled bassist. “Hair” carries a bit of a pastoral 70’s folk vibe, like something that was written around a campfire.
Still haven’t had enough Real Estate? Then I’d remind you that Courtney’s and Bleeker’s bandmate Matt Mondanile’s Ducktails put out another full length recently, which I wrote about right over here.
I’m putting this up a bit late today, but I’m making up for my lack of punctuality with an excess of noise. If you’ve ever heard Coliseum and thought “Gee, this is great, but I wish it was even more loud and nihilistic”, I’ve got great news for you. Yautja counts Coliseum members among its numbers, but this beast reminds me more of Trap Them or the dirgier sounding bands on Deathwish than the typical Louisville hardcore scrape one might expect.
Right on time after I posted a live video of the band on Sunday, the Black Lips share their side of a new split 7″ with The Coathangers, due out in November on Suicide Squeeze.
I’ve enjoyed a few Bat for Lashes songs here and there, but I’m especially excited to see Natasha Khan going all in on weirdness with her new Sexwitch project, which is a collaboration with psych nutjobs TOY.
Mark McGuire definitely has an identifiable sound, that’s for sure. But nobody could accuse him of phoning in any of his innumerable releases. On “Earth: 2015” he runs his smooth synth processed guitar tones through an apocalyptic wringer. It’s a song I could imagine soundtracking a futuristic car chase in some low budget sci-fi movie. And if the song piques your interest but you’re on the fence about actually buying the record, just know that packaging for the Beyond Belief LP is absolutely beautiful:
Been meaning to post this one for a while, even though it features questionable rationing of pizza slices. I’m out of town this week, but Jim will be on the show per usual, playing jams from 9pm til midnight. Streamt it at www.WRCT.org.
Everything I’ve heard from the upcoming Deerhunter album has been fantastic. They seem to be retreating a bit from the 8-track roughness present on Monomania and the result reminds me of a mix of the bedroom experimentation of frontman Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound solo project and grayscale indie sheen of guitarist Lockett Pundt’s Lotus Plaza. There’s still a weirdness to these songs though, even if I can’t quite put my finger on where it’s coming from. Coming from somebody who revisits Cryptograms more often than Halcyon Digest, that’s meant as a compliment. In the woozy video for “Breaker” above, you can watch Cox and Pundt share vocals on a track I feel comfortable in describing as damn near poppy.
Perfect! Another excuse to remind you to check out Viet Cong’s fantastic self-titled LP that came out earlier this year. Do it now before they make everybody’s year-end lists and you feel like you missed out.