tunes 6/27

As part of my internship, I rummage through the interweb and attempt to find about 10-15 tracks of what has come out recently or what may have fallen under the radar and send them over to Clayton. This week is pretty disco-centric, so check it out.

tunes 6/27

and, as a bonus, from last week - tunes 6/20

2008's glass is half full

And by that I mean, with the plethora of great albums that have already come out, most year-end lists are sure to be chock full of excellent talent. Although I've been taking a prolonged detour into lots of older music (hello Sam Cooke and Arthur Russell), looking at my itunes shows that I've also been listening to oodles and oodles of great artists. So, here are my favorite albums (so-far) of 2008. Hell, everyone else is doing it! 

1 - Hercules & Love Affair - s/t

This was very obvious for me. I've been listening to this album since the beginning of January and what's more, it still sounds amazing! Andy did a great job, and having Antony on vocals gives it this complete other-worldly vibe that makes the cd all that much more enjoyable. I can safely say this is my album of the year already.

2 - Sigur Rós - Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalust

Although only officially released just earlier this week, this album has made me appreciate numerous things - the midday rays of summer, the slowing cascading light of Seattle at dusk, and the actual band itself. I really feel hard for their pop tracks, but with them came the slow, epic buildups that Sigur Rós is famous for and I fell equally as hard.

3 - Animal Collective - Water Curses [EP]

Best thing going in modern music, period. Animal Collective is an ingenious band in all respects, and this series of outtakes from last year's excellent Strawberry Jam only further cements that. And even more impressing is how they completely transform their already radical collection into the most transcending live experience. 

4 - Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Maybe not as instantly gratifying as its predecessor, I still appreciate the fact that Wolf Parade decided to hone in their collective skills and make another album. It's a holistic effort, and I still think that there are many a great moment to be had. 

5 - El Guincho - Alegranza! 

Perfect album to really not fall into any genre but remain perfectly delightful. And I love the fact that he chooses to sing in spanish. Certainly a refreshing listen. 

cd of selected songs from each album

wtf

So earlier, I was thinking of posting a summer dance mixtape type-of-thing up here (which, I still probably will do) and as I was compiling some tracks, I realized that I really liked this remix I'd got last week. The chick's name was Little Boots and she seemed to be all the place. Fittingly, her hit song that seems to be on everybody's radar is titled 'Stuck On Repeat.' Even more fittingly, I just stumbled across this crazy video of her covering a band whose fame, at least partially, comes from a ubiquitous song that deals with the pleasure of repetition. Ocular pleasure below, aural pleasure in the works. 

Video:

Little Boots - Ready for the Floor

new music - deerhunter

like my previous post about Sigur Rós, Deerhunter wasn't really my thing. I saw them play with Grizzly Bear when they came through town last fall, and I had one of those "oh ok, I get it now" moments. But, it was still hard for me to return to their recorded material. That is, until I heard Agoraphobia. It's amazing, as is the rest of the record. Sonically, the band seems to have given up on the drone-vibe that kind of turned me off initially, instead using a lot more pop melodies. Check out the track and see just how great it really is.

mp3: agoraphobia 

at mount zoomer

I did a review for Wolf Parade's solid At Mount Zoomer for my school's newspaper. I'd post it here, but I'm too lazy to re-type it.

See them at Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Festival @ Marymoor Park Sunday July 13th.

mp3: wolf parade - language city

með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

I'll be honest, I've never really been the biggest Sigur Rós fan. 

Then I saw the video for Gobbledigook. Quickly thereafter, the rest of the album became available on the internet and I've had a hard time not listening to it since. 

My initial thought was that Sigur Rós had gone pop, and as a sucker for well executed pop music, it totally struck my fancy. Yet, it's really only the opening two tracks (aforementioned 'Gobbledigook' and my personal favorite, 'Inní mér syngur vitleysingur') that fit into said genre. The latter song is the perfect song to come out at the onset of summer -- beautiful horns, strangely anthemic lyrics that are impossible to decipher, throbbing drums and a palpable sense of change and happiness made possible only by the sun's warmth and presence. 

The remaining tracks more-or-less sound more akin to what I've previous heard from the band. However, that's not to say that there are any sort of exhausted qualities. For instance, the 9 minute-epic "Festival" begins modestly with merely a falsetto and sparse accompanying electronic keys, until a bass drum kicks in and the song becomes an almost continual 4 minute build-up. 

The rest of the CD is great and well suited for a lazy afternoon listen. Oh, and the last track "All Alright" is the first song Sigur Rós has ever sung in english. I don't want to be effusive, but even for someone who never never liked these guys, this album is completely amazing and I highly recommend it to ANYone.  

mp3: inní mér syngur vitleysingur