Yeay! We have a new pop crush on our hands. Arthur & Yu come from the Pacific Northwest and offer up some delicious and classy timeless tunes that are so perfect and summery. Arthur & Yu is actually the work of Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott. Together they follow in the footsteps of such luminous duos as Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra, making beautiful music both breezy and subtle. Like the more twee and dreamy early moments of Belle & Sebastian or the smart sweetness of Camera Obscura covering a Vetiver song, Arthur & Yu have found themselves a perfect place alongside pop's elite with this debut. We'll be sitting on the porch sipping fresh lemonade for the rest of summer with this one spinning on the stereo. So nice!
If David Axelrod produced an Alice Coltrane record, the results might sound something like Dorothy Ashby's 1968 breakout recording, Afro-Harpin'. Of course that's not giving credit where credit is surely due. Dorothy Ashby was on the scene way before Alice Coltrane and she was the first artist to front a jazz combo with the harp in the early fifties inspiring Alice Coltrane to take it up after moving on from the vibraphone. And though David Axelrod is better known nowadays, Richard Evans isn't some nobody producer, having created, along with fellow producer Charles Stepney, the richly textured soulful sound of Chicago's Cadet Records. A sound that relied more heavily on strings, flutes, and vibes rather than horns, and that along with some tribal percussion and hypnotic beats underscored some of the most diverse and underrated soul recordings of the late sixties (Rotary Connection, Ramsey Lewis, Fugi, Marlena Shaw and Soulful Strings). Eccentric Soul indeed!
From the opening off-kilter Theremin and drum breaks on "Soul Vibrations", you know we're in for a truly different kind of soul-jazz record. By the time the flutes and harp kick in, we're well under Ashby and Evans spell. A cool summery cocktail of majestic funkiness that will satisfy every groovy nerve in your body. Comprised mostly of original compositions with the exception of a couple of then-contemporary standards like "The Look of Love" and Theme From Valley Of The Dolls", there are some tracks that settle into a nice soft lounge vibe without ever getting cheesy. In fact the Hammond organ solo on "The Look of Love" finishes the album quite nicely. Having recorded three amazing break-filled and heavily sampled records for the Cadet label, we hope we will be hearing more of Miss Ashby's harp grooves again real soon. Recommended!
We've been enjoying quite a nice run of summer fever here in SF. Lots of outdoor adventures, picnics in the park, trips to the beach, fresh fruit to eat, naps with the windows open. So we thought while we've been indulging in all of summer's glory we would take the time to actually list one of our all time favorite Beach Boys records, even though its not a new reissue or anything. In fact it's two albums on one cd. While of course Pet Sounds always gets lauded as the Beach Boys' masterpiece, we think that Friends might be a contender for one of their greatest records as well. Every single track on Friends is pure pop perfection! You can hear the next several decades of smart pop music foreshadowed in the songs on Friends. "Busy Doin' Nothin" is like the sweet and quirky song Beck is still trying to make, "Little Bird" sounds like one of Yo La Tengo's most bittersweet numbers and the amazing instrumental "Diamond Head" with its reverb and ocean wave sounds provides the sonic blueprint for one of our favorite records of the last year, Panda Bear's Person Pitch. Not one clunker in the batch, Friends is truly one of the greatest pop records of all time!
While it would be worth it just for Friends, this two-for-one cd also contains 20/20, the Beach Boys' last album of the '60s. It's got a couple misses but wow are there some amazing musical moments to be found. You can definitely hear some bits and pieces that would end up as part of the soon-to-come masterpiece Smile, as well as some of the best songs Dennis Wilson wrote and sang for the band. It's also the album that features an uncredited (for obvious reasons) contribution from Charles Manson. He and Dennis Wilson had become friends before the Tate / LaBianca killings and as a gift he gave Dennis a song "Never Learn Not To Love" which was simply credited to Dennis after the Mason murders went down. The collection also includes 5 bonus tracks and really nice track by track commentaries in the liner notes.
The perfect music to make this an endless summer (as is, umm, well, probably the BB's Endless Summer too). If you don't have these Beach Boys albums we can't recommend these enough. Pop perfection!
Wow! We haven't been this smitten with a debut release in quite a while. Didn't know much about this Baltimore duo but we do know, the second this record we laid ears on this the first time, we were immediately seduced by the glorious sounds within. Hazy, daydreaming pop with equal parts magic, mystery and dreamy darkness, all drenched in beautiful melodies and sincere sensuality. Kind of made us think of Broadcast taking a warm bubble bath with Coco Rosie. Lights out, candles burning, bubbles floating, reverb dripping. There is a timelessness in these songs that is so evocative, Warhol's factory, a summer twilight in Southern California in the '70s, an abandoned art studio in the UK. You can never quite put your finger on exactly where these songs are drawn from but in the end it's music truly unique and wonderful. A mysterious voice, a haunting presence and songs carry you off, eyes closed, to somewhere much more enchanting then wherever you really are. So nice!
It's finally here, the debut from Cali sunshine retro poppers Best Coast, and as much as all the internet hype might make you want to think otherwise, it's just as good as they all say. The seven inches we've heard definitely already had us hankering for a full length, and as much as we dug those singles, the band has benefited big time from some serious production upgrade, the sound on Crazy For you finally realizes their potential. All the comparisons to Spector's wall of sound and sixties girl groups, now totally make even more sense, the sound here is totally timeless, fuzzy and reverby, like a treasure trove of rare sixties 7"s, but at the same time lush and lustrous and subtly modern, the guitars warm and liquid, and the vocals, wow, Bethany Cosentino manages to channel every torch singer and chanteuse that she was ever inspired by, her voice rich and smokey and passionate, every line sung with such conviction, the songs melancholic and wistful, a heartbroken longing infusing the sad songs, a pure unfettered joy, and enthusiasm for all the little things, sunshine, love, friendship, oozing from the happy ones, the drums simple and propulsive, the background vocals soft focus clouds of oooohs and aaaahs, Bobb Bruno's understated guitar parts sealing the deal, mirroring the vocal melodies but occasionally spiralling off into soft psychedelic swirls, and the songs, the songs are so good, catchy and fun, and dreamy and heartfelt, and like the sound, totally timeless, opener "Boyfriend" is an instant classic, the melody utterly beguiling, the perfect encapsulation of what Best Coast do so well, right down to Bruno's minimal leads, which perfectly compliment Cosentino's harmonies, the soaring chorus, and the simple propulsive rhythm that drives the song. "The title track is another practically perfect summer pop gem, more jangly and driving, like a sixties girl group jam as interpreted by vintage Unrest, more oooh and ahhhs, and plenty more hooks. The whole record is overflowing with perfect pop, with summery vibes, everything you could possibly want from a feel good pop record. And while they last, we have the version that tacks on the bonus track "When I'm With You", the closest thing the band has to a 'hit', a woozy, soporific intro, quickly exploding into a gloriously infectious pound, the main melody so awesome, and the chorus, a stone cold killer, the harmonies, the arrangement, the fuzzy guitars, the drums, everything. Perfect. Yeah okay, we totally love this record. Like crazy, and we're pretty sure you will too.
Even dating back to the days when he was known as Manitoba, Dan Snaith's music has always been constantly evolving, changing and growing. He's never made the same record twice, and with the latest outing under his Caribou moniker he's probably made the most drastic stylistic change yet, and with the absolute greatest results!
Swim is a much more dance minded record then his last fine outing, Andorra, which was all about psych pop bliss. He's switched things up, using the same rich coloration that always marks his sound but bringing in new and different influences. This time out it sounds like he's been spending a great deal of time with many of the wonderful Arthur Russell releases, and with as we suspect Russell as his guide, has truly understood how to merge the worlds of avant pop and dance floor freedom. With an almost house-like sound done so totally right, he's made one of the most urgent, immediate and enjoyable records of the year. Think Arthur Russell reconstructed by Four Tet, Hot Chip, Junior Boys, and The Whitest Boy Alive and you start to get an idea of the overall sound of Swim. But what has always put Snaith ahead of the pack is that even though he tends to explore different sounds and styles, he always has a knack for writing great songs. It's never style over substance. What makes Caribou so awesome is that he's equally invested in his continual reinvention and explorations of different sounds as much as he is in crafting fucking great tunes. Record of the year contender for sure!
Not one but TWO repeat Record Of The Week honorees, elsewhere, the latest from French alchemical post rockers Aluk Todolo, and this, the latest from Cave, whose recent instore performance totally blew us away. It says a lot about a band that can put together a totally improvised set, with limited gear and various members changing up instruments, and still sound better and tighter and catchier and more rocking than most bands playing their own songs on their proper gear NOT in a record store.
Born from the space drone psych outfit Warhammer 48K, these guys left Missouri, ended up in Chicago, added a whole bunch of new members and became Cave, a kick ass spaced out kraut-drone hypno rock collective, equal parts Circle, Can, Lightning Bolt, Wooden Shjips, and Hawkwind, but so much more. Their first record, Hunt Like Devil, was a glorious cacophony of circular riffage, frenetic drumming, woozy basslines, wild synths, and killer hooks, groovy, hypnotic, space-y, and while this record is more of the same, it's somehow transcends, taking everything we loved about the first record, and making it, well, MORE. We'd have probably loved it even if it was Hunt Like Devil part 2, but thankfully, Psychic Summer finds the band exploring some new territory, but dragging that old sound with them.
The opener begins with just a stripped down guitar, and some subtly noodly synth, before exploding in a sun dappled burst of super distorted, in-the-red psychedelia, before shifting again into a muted sunshiney krautrock groove, laced with some cool synths, and electronic filigree. The song locks into the groove and slowly builds to a triumphant climax, eventually slowing down to a sort of chiming jangly groove, which leads right into "Made In Malaysia" which might be the jam of the disc. Stuttering synths, stop start dynamics, chugging guitars, which gives way to a wild woozy twisted riffy bridge, with shouted vocals, and warble bended guitar notes, and an irresistable staccato groove, first just the synth, but then the drums, motorik and relentless, live it's not hard to imagine this track being stretched into a whole set. A single song, so hooky and loopy and mesmerizing. But it's Cave, so two seconds later, they're locked into a different kind of groove, a tribal rhythm, warm organ chords, underneath blooping effects, buried vocals, it's almost danceable, definitely groovy, like they just took one measure from some classic old school dance track and looped it into some space aged kraut disco space jam.
The other three tracks are just as mesmerizing, the muted space-y throb of "High, I Am", wrapped in a slithery bit of warped synthage, to the dense drum heavy "Requiem For John Sex", with some grinding mathy guitar and a bit of indie jangle all wound up in the tracks summery drift, before a wild super sped up free for all psych out finish, and "Machines And Muscles", which was originally released on the now out of print Butthash single, this seems to be a slightly different version, and is definitely another of the record's highlights, total hynorock bliss, little bits of keyboard pepper the stuttery rhythm, the main riff staying solid and unwavering, while all around it various other sounds swoop and shimmer, a Circle-like guitar groove, shuffling drums, very tribal and looped sounding, suspended in a field of space streakings, warm organ whir and smears of soft effects in the background, that main riff stays LOCKED in, until it begins to get a bit more tripped out, a little distorted, more effects, the synths skitter and stutter, and then finally, the song fades out in a blinding kaleidoscopic burst of warm sunshine-y synth.
And that's really the magic of Cave, we're all so partial to the dark and doomy, the buzzy and droney, that it's so exciting for a record to sound so heavy and tripped out and hypnotic, but at the same time so sunshiney, so Summery, so FUN. These guys totally rule, this record is fantastic, and if you can believe it, live they might be even better.
When we highlighted those Graham Nash records a while back, some of us were hoping we would soon get other records from the Crosby, Stills Nash and Young camp, especially this one, David Crosby's only solo album of the period, If I Could Only Remember My Name. It took some cajoling to bring this record in as about half the store loves this record to death while the other half, er....well, let's just say they aren't quite as enthusiastic about it. But for those of us who love it, we are glad to finally share it. When you hear people talking about the "West Coast sound", we can't think of a more archetypical record than this. Mellow, shambolic, and laid back with that Laurel Canyon sun-tripped hippie vibe, this is the most sublime and transcendental recording to come out of the vast CSN&Y catalog, and that's including the member's mother bands, The Byrds, The Hollies and Buffalo Springfield. With loose song structures, soaring and often-wordless vocal harmonies, and Dead-ish guitar meanderings (a point of contention with the haters), this record's hippie earnestness may not be for everyone. But it stands as a musical pinnacle for the contemporary folk scene, freak or otherwise, and you can hear its influence clearly on bands like Skygreen Leopards, Bright Black Morning Light and Feathers. Hands down, it's the best wake-and-bake album ever!
Wonderful! One of our favorite rocksteady vocalists who just might become one of yours. This posthumously released tribute album compiles a whopping twenty nine songs from Phyllis Dillon's early years spanning 1966 through 1971. The productions blend the traditional reggae and rocksteady sounds with the decade's smooth bright girl group pop. A perfect summertime album to be cherished. Absolutely recommended.
Wow. Imagine Captain & Tennille, Shuggie Otis, and Broadcast making a record together. Or even Gary Wilson and United States of America making some skewed electronic but totally weird and catchy seventies yacht rock (ok, we realize that may sound terrible to some folks, but it really works awesomely here!). The Dragon brothers, Doug and Dennis (of Surf Punks fame!), sometimes joined by their other brother Darryl (aka "The Captain" of Captain and Tennille!) and sister Carmen on harp, recorded BFI (short for Blue Forces Intelligence?!) in Malibu during the early seventies inspired by surfing and the explosive late sixties west coast music scene of The Doors, Byrds, CSN, etc. Unfortunately, all the connections they had as a popular musical family in Los Angeles (their father was a well known conductor and symphony arranger in Hollywood) gave them great studio access but didn't yield the recording contract they were looking for. Most of the labels they shopped it to liked the record but didn't see any single potential. So the masters were shelved and the brothers went their separate ways. It wasn't until DJ Food from Ninja Tune contacted Dennis Dragon to ask permission to use a Dragons' track ("Food For My Soul") from an obscure surf movie soundtrack for a mix tape he was making, that it was discovered that a whole Dragons album was recorded. Thankfully Ninja Tune resurrected BFI from the musical graveyard because it's fast becoming one of our favorite "buried treasures". Full of Moog grooves, break beats, jazz inflected piano, and high and low male voices, BFI is one of the most surprising and eccentrically sunny LA records we've heard in these parts in awhile that sounds completely timeless. Highly recommended! Oh, and if you loved the reissue by hippy surf psych band The Farm on EM Records, these are some of the same guys responsible for that album!
Experimental electronica (particularly the glitch techno and collage work on the Mille Plateaux label) is getting dangerously close to self parody, with the definitions of very specific electronic music forming ever increasing legions of devoted followers
Fennesz' third album -- the aptly titled "Endless Summer" -- picks up where his ep of Rolling Stones / Beach Boys covers left off with a digital dispersion of "fun in the sun" rock mythologies. While there are no obviously discernable pop culture references, Fennesz builds a sound that really is quite summery from odd duets between disintegrating acoustic guitar strums and the coalescence of digital errata. Thus, this album has the feeling of the classic Beach Boys sound, but very little of that structure. These are NOT Beach Boys covers; but if he said they were, we'd have no basis to call him a liar. Regardless, Fennesz's "Endless Summer" is just fucking great.
It has taken us awhile to list this, because we've had some difficulty getting it in (for those that don't know Jay Dee recently passed away, and you know when that happens, everyone suddenly wants to hear what the fuss was all about, so the records have been sold out everywhere). Finally we have enough to list, and here is what we say about it:
Man, we're suckers for a good sample inventively used, and this one keeps 'em coming! Chock full of soulful vocal snippets, sloppy edits and stony melodic breaks. This is like a worn mix-tape of short buttery sonic collages culled from the cream of bad thrift store records: trashy R&B, mid-70s jazz, and easy listening, and peppered with more pedigreed takes from the likes of the Three Degrees, Esther Philips and Raymond Scott. The beauty of Jay Dee's production is the unconventional way he pulls the sounds together, exposing instead of polishing the rough edits and scratchy recordings. Delicious and catchy, these "donuts" will keep you humming all day long. This sublime record of hip hop instrumentals is made sadder by Jay Dee's recent untimely death at the age of 32. For DJ's, fans of Jay Dee and Stones Throw records, purchasing this is a no-brainer: It's essential! For those of you who may not know the mad production skills of J Dilla, there is no better introduction than this. Totally Recommended!
The last week or two of our so-called "summer" here in San Francisco, has been pretty darn gray. Cold, overcast, gray, a bummer. But, getting the long-awaited new album from Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (aka Jan Anderzen and friends) has made a big difference! You know how we love love love all things Finland, and Fonal. That magic hasn't abated. Lively, lovely, colorful; woozy and wonderful, this Kemialliset is just what the doctor ordered. Have you heard 'em before? Kemialliset, and their fellow Fonal artists, have been referred to by us (and others) as "Finnish Forest Folk". Fairly accurate... as long as you're ok with folk music made using computers. From a forest that's full of brightly colored trees and plants whose pharmacological uses are probably entirely recreational and specifically hallucinatory. Populated by strange creatures like gibbering gnomes and tittering trolls. And of course, they ARE from Finland. Of course of course.
Carefully constructed by Jan in his forest laboratory, a collage of contributions from folks like Roope Eronen (Avarus, Maniacs Dream, Pylon), Kevin Regan (Fricara Pacchu, Anaksimandros, Avarus), Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord), C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core), Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club), Markus Maki (Anaksimandros, Avarus, Kiila), Pekko Kappi (Kiila), Hitoshi Kojo (Juppala Kaapio), Joshua Stevenson (Jackie-O Motherfucker) and others, this is, as you might expect, a delirious and dense tapestry of seamlessly flowing, ever-changing, psychedelic soundz. 14 tracks total to delight the ear with such teeter-tottering elements as lilting layered female vox, bleepy glitchy background electronix (track six sounds like they've wandered into an '80s video arcade to record), wheezing harmonium drones, rattling ritual percussion, cartoon SFX, snippets of synth melody seemingly snatched from a '70s Bo Hansson record, and much much more, from krauty rhythmics to lullaby babble, and hybrids thereof. It's part Incredible String Band, part Raymond Scott or Bruce Haack. Or imagine a completely dosed and demented Black Moth Super Rainbow making a cd-r for Jewelled Antler, maybe.
Truly a phantasmagorical tour-de-force, utterly what we needed to brighten these grey days and/or make 'em cosier. The compact disc version is packaged in a tri-fold digi with a thick booklet packed with beautiful full-color photographs and some very interesting text in both Finnish and English, and the vinyl is nice too.
Milton Nascimento's North American debut record from 1969 came at the end of the huge wave of the bossa nova movement that had infiltrated the American imagination since Astrud Gilberto's "Girl From Ipanema" with Stan Getz in 1963. A&M records and producer Creed Taylor were behind some of the best records of this period including albums by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Joao Gilberto, and Nascimento's Courage is no exception. Beautifully arranged and sung, this is where many of his most popular Brazilian songs were heard for the first time including "Vera Cruz", "Morro Velho" and "Bridges (Travessia)". Singing in Portuguese, English and sometimes wordlessly, this is a breathtaking record. While it doesn't have the psych flourishes and Tropicalia bent of Cluba Da Esquina, from a few years later (a unanimous store favorite!) it's still an essential record and perfect for lazy and wistful summer evenings.
Making a seamless transition from charming indie-rock boy in the bay area's great Call & Response to now dishing out some of the most infectious and delicious electronic jams we've heard in a long time, it won't be long until Daniel Judd (aka Sorcerer) is a name on the tips of the tongues of everyone who has been loving the recent resurgence of great dancey and disco inspired electronica. If folks like Lindstrom, Gui Borrato and Strategy have pleased your ears as much as they have ours we think this is a record you should check out for sure. We love how he's able to bring a smooth and suave feeling to what's often a clinical and robotic sound. It's almost how we imagine it would sound if Sam Prekop of The Sea & Cake made a daydream electronic dance record, as it has that same kind of endless breeze and carefree melody that he's perfected over the years. It's like sliding down milky mountain waterfalls into the freshest ocean filled with frothy waves and trays of the tastiest cocktails floating alongside always at arms reach for a delicious sip. Sorcerer have tapped into some delightfully fresh sounding electronic gold. So nice!
They sure don't make pop music like this anymore. Or so we thought. A few months back, we heard just a tiny part of a single song from this record, and ever since, we'd been dying for this to finally come out. It was "Coast Of Carolina", first sound sample below, check it out, we'll wait....
If after hearing that, you're not totally in love with Telekinesis! (exclamation point part of the name!) then your pop heart is truly black and shrivelled.
That song is pretty much the ultimate fuzz pop super catchy summer jam of the year. These guys (or actually this guy!) oozes fuzzy Elephant Six style pop genius. Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples In Stereo, that sort of thing, crunchy and jangly guitars, slightly distorted drumming that pounds and swings, the songs soaring through fields of sizzling cymbals and sheets of ebullient pop glimmer and shimmer, the vocals heartfelt and boyish and swoonsome and just a little bit Death Cab, and the sound, a perfect mix of classic power pop, sad boy lo-fi bedroom strum and nineties style jangly indie rock. And every song here is catchy as all get out, hooks everywhere, if we were a bit younger and were going a courting, you know about half of these songs would end up on mix tapes for that special someone. Actually fuck it, we're gonna go make a mix tape right now. Courting or not, this is that rare sort of record that pretty much demands its songs wind up on a crushtape...
The bands that you really end up loving and having life long relationships with are often the bands who you follow through all their incarnations, from their most primitive and noisy to when they flesh out and refine their sound, removing all the extraneous layers and creating something seemingly far removed from that first chunk of raw sound, but in reality, to you, it's just another side of that amazing artist. And it's the bands who you love in all their various sonic shadings and with all the twists and turns that become the ones who are the soundtracks to our lives. Guided By Voices, Pavement, Jawbreaker, all bands who we have loved from their sloppiest and most raw incarnations to their most poppy and catchy outings.
Wavves seem to be on the way to joining that elite crew. After unleashing two smoking records of way blown out garage pop burners, Nathan Williams has returned with a much more refined, up front and catchy gem of a pop record. As much as we loved the sound and aesthetic of the first two Wavves records we knew that the reason it struck such a chord with us was because we could tell this was a kid who had the gift of writing memorable and catchy pop songs, no matter how obscured those songs were by fuzz and crunch.
King Of The Beach ditches most of the blown out distortion and trades it in for even more colorful hooks, addictive melodies and songs that will be stuck in our heads for the rest of the summer and beyond. It's not like it's all totally slick or overproduced, in fact there is a really cool washed out sound that glides through much of the record, but instead of it being about going all into the red, it flows more freely, creating a perfect beachside vibe of an album. Williams is still singing about boredom, girls, the betrayal of friends, being a fuck up, etc., all long standing ingredients for some of the best mischievous pop of all time.
It hit us the other day why we love this record. It reminds us so much of so many of our favorite bands who injected punk spirit into such memorable pop songs. Bands like The Descendents, Screeching Weasel and Lifetime, who represented the great possibility of pop-punk. There is that same kind of impassioned, snotty, smart and spirited side to King Of The Beach that's been making us jump up and down in pure wide eyed grinning joy when we listen to it blasting as loud as it can.
The record also offers up the most varied collection yet of Williams' recordings, songs that evoke '50s girl groups, hand clapping head shaking ecstasy and stoned and whirling garage pop ravers. Start to finish this is an undeniably great pop record. Total contender for record of the year!
Finally! The full length debut from these SF jangle noisepoppers, and it's as good as their two song Mexican Summer 10" had us hoping it would be.
Fuzzy, jangly, shoegazey, reverby, a little new wavey, a little droney, super catchy and buzzy and dreamy, pretty much everything we want a new pop record to be.
The first song "Coma Summer" is a dizzying collision of sounds and styles, that displays everything we love about these guys. Jangly Unrest style guitars chime beneath distant crooned oooooh's, eventually buzzy crunchy guitar rock wraps itself around the original guitar, the bassline buzzy and Joy Division-y, the sound repetitive and trancey, then still MORE guitars come in, some seriously MBV worthy buzzsaw blur, over which vocals keen in the distance, then the vocals proper come in, all deep and dramatic and new wavey, accompanied by woozy washed out warped sounding melodies that seem to melt before our ears, and so it goes, shifting from loping brooding jangle to soaring bleary psychedelic bliss to fuzzy minimal new wave pound, and it's not just that it sounds amazing, but that the amazing sounds have been crafted into a killer song, hooky and hazy and damn near perfect.
The second song is more of the same, we heard "Youth Haunts" on that Mexican Summer 10" which we then described as something akin to "a Woodsist band doing covers of Nowhere era Ride, or a less monochromatic Crystal Stilts letting loose on Unrest covers, or The Chills crossed with early My Bloody Valentine" and that pretty much still totally applies, and not just to this track, but to the whole record. Lush yet lo-fi, broody and propulsive, but also noisy and blown out, sunshiney and poppy here and there, but just often, dark and melancholy, easily one of our new favorite records, from one of our new favorite local outfits.
This album has been slaying us! Finally available, this long-awaited expanded 2 disc deluxe reissue of Pacific Ocean Blue validates its worthy cult following. Released in 1977 by the first Beach Boy to go solo, many were surprised at how the seemingly least-talented Wilson brother created such a maturely produced and beautifully arranged statement, one on a completely separate musical wavelength than brother Brian. Yet by then he already had a solid track record going with the band. On almost every album The Beach Boys put out from 1968-1974 (their best years, in our opinion), Dennis had writing credit on at least two tracks, some of which like "Steamboat" from Holland and "Little Bird" on Friends were among the best songs on either.
Getting production and arrangement help from Glenn Jakobson and Daryl Dragon (Farm, The Dragons, Captain and Tenille), the overall feel of Pacific Ocean Blue marks the end of that vibrant sun-dappled seventies west-coast sound; a coke and whisky sunset to the sunrise wake-and-bake of David Crosby's If I Can Only Remember My Name. The production doesn't recall Brian Wilson's lost childhood fantasias from Pet Sounds or Smile, but rather the resigned weariness of someone who lived fast and came up empty. With one exception (skip track 2!), the mostly piano-led songs gravitate from mellow groovers to heavy but plaintively restrained ballads with epic swells that would sound right at home on a Wilco, Vetiver or Plush record. While it still feels of the time, like a rare classic FM radio moment where a song comes up that sounds familiar and really good but you can't place it, it's mostly free of those late seventy MOR moments (no wonky sax or guitar solos). It's not so much yacht rock as it is a warm slow sailboat ride into oblivion.
Included on this disc are bonus tracks from the POB sessions including the gorgeous cinematic instrumental, "Mexico". A second disc contains sessions from Wilson's never released follow-up, Bambu, which demonstrate that POB was not a mere one-off. It features strong songs with more Caribbean rhythms and soulfulness than POB, (like if Gary Higgins recorded a late seventies follow-up to Red Hash) but it's less a definitive statement. One of the tracks from these sessions, "Holy Man" (also included as an instrumental) has vocals added by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who remarkably sounds just like Wilson (if we weren't told, we'd never have noticed it was a different singer). Dubious as it sounds it's not a bad thing, as both versions highlight what an amazing instrumentalist and songwriter we have lost. Essential!!!!!
Available once again, this legendary doom/death classic, done up deluxe by Southern Lord. Available on vinyl for the first time in about 20 years, and again on cd...
We're always excited to sing the praises of this record, it's been one of our favorites for years, always on the iPod, and never far from the stereos of those of us into the DOOOOM. The last reissue came out way back in 1999, but wasn't always that easy to get, and so were were psyched about this new one, and Southern Lord's version makes perfect sense, especially with the ongoing interest in all things doomy and sludgy AND the fact that probably EVERY SINGLE band on SL owes a HUGE debt to these doom / sludge forefathers. We bet there's even some folks out there who don't realize there was any doom pre- Corrupted / Boris / Earth / SUNNO))). Well let's go all the way back to the very early nineties, head out to Long Island and re-discover the pummelling majesty of the mighty Winter. There's not a doom band worth its stripes who wouldn't cite Winter as an influence, and one listen proves why. Crusty, downtuned sludge metal, but unlike the current crop of ultra doomsters, Winter's roots were in much more traditional thrash and doom metal as well as crusty punk. Often described as a slowed down Celtic Frost, due in no small part to the vocal delivery, Winter managed to mix elements of Black Sabbath (obviously, what doom band doesn't), Hellhammer, diSEMBOWELMENT and UK political crust band Doom into a slithery, creeping, suffocatingly dense blast of chugging guitar, pounding drums and creepy growled vocals. On closer listening their are also strange bits of organ and found sounds and bizarre vocal snippets scattered throughout and buried here and there. There are even guitar solos!! But no normal solos, no these are all spikey and twisted and serpentine, chaotic squalls of prickly squealing freakout that fit perfectly into Winter's desolate doomscapes. The other thing worth mentioning is the lyrics, which at the time got them a lot of attention / flak, quite cryptic for sure, but they seem to focus on saving the environment, anti-pollution, anti-technology, ecological awareness (Exit-13 anyone?) displaying their crusty roots there for sure! Fans of the new crop of doom and ultra doom would do well to take a peek at a band who truly was ahead of their time, a band who helped lay the groundwork for the sonic pummelling provided to you on a daily basis by bands like Skepticism, Esoteric, Rigor Sardonicous, Moss, Bunkur, and even Electric Wizard and Sleep, who might not even exist were it not for Winter.
The vinyl is housed in a super heavy, deluxe, Stoughton style gatefold jacket, and both versions, vinyl and cd, include a big booklet full of lyrics, artwork and old flyers (the lp's booklet in the form of an oversized newsprint insert!)..
The only bummer about the Southern Lord reissue, is that for some reason, this version leaves off the bonus tracks that were included with the previous cd reissue, the equally kick ass Eternal Frost ep, but maybe/hopefully Southern Lord plan on reissuing that one later, on its own. Here's hoping!
Regardless of what style or mood they choose - this time it's very '70s soft rock influenced - Yo La Tengo always create music that reveals their deep personal and artistic bonds. Clearly they know each other very very well. It's so wonderfully evident in the ways the three interact - their voices and instruments weaving together so effortlessly. Summer Sun flows gracefully from the gentlest lullabies into more funky and playful, but still super mellow numbers much like those on their Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science soundtrack. A lovely display of this is on the sixth song "Tiny Birds". Beautiful. Ira, Georgia and James extend their warm familiarity and fondness to the listeners as well - always both welcoming and welcome. Really, what more can be said? The high quality and consistency of their last four or five albums speaks for itself. Very recommended!
MPEG Download: "Tiny Birds" [/audio/yolatengotinybirds.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Birds" [/audio/yolatengotinybirds.m3u]
