Had to fit this in somewhere. Let’s call it a bonus for the Holiday. This song and video from Hospitality are just great.
http://www.npr.org/event/music/326964176/hospitality-i-miss-your-bones?ft=1&f=1039
Video
Guided by Voices is that band that I should, by all accounts, love. I recognize why they are widely liked but I typically can’t get too deeply into them. This album, I think, for the Guided by Voices fan will continue to resonate. It reminds me a bit of social distortion, not in sound, but in how it falls within a genre entirely, but also barely. And so that’s where this review is coming from since Guided by Voices’ general motif is well known.
On Cool Planet, GBV sometimes hits gold and sometimes falls into an area of the uninspired. Nothing on this album is bad. Some songs aren’t great, but depending on what you like most in your vocal guidance (dad joke!), there is plenty here to love. The label recommends tracks 12, 10, 5 and 3. Those aren’t my favorites (except maybe 5) but they might have broad appeal due to pop structures. Fortunately, GBV is good enough at what they do and they bring a broad range of it on Cool Planet. Overall, this is what makes this a good album. That and the fact that nothing on this album is too long.
Males of Wormwood Mars is probably my favorite track.
Kind of crazy to think that this band would eventually mature into an outfit patient enough to write a song like “So Now You Know”. They still might dedicate a little too much time to their haircuts, but The Horrors’ upcoming LP Luminous is absolutely great.
Naomi Yang, of Galaxie 500 fame, directs the slow-focused, introverted visuals that perfectly accompany Marissa Nadler’s “Drive”, off of her recently released July LP.
If you haven’t heard Oshwa, I highly recommend that you check them out. Some fine art herein.
If we’d only stayed in Portland 3 more weeks last September….
And yes, Alien ID makes me happy right off the bat. Even with the “recorded on an iphone” distortion.
Holy hell, Chromeo’s definitely going next-level on their upcoming LP. Watch for the A$AP Ferg cameo in this one:
On the same subject, here’s another previously released track from White Women, featuring Toro Y Moi, ICYMI:
Reverb and delay-soaked psych from Mexico.