Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
the streets : cyberspace and reds (album download)
if you head here, you can stream/download cyberspace and reds, the "companion" album to the streets' final album computers and blues. it's not that great. but i sort of expected that. seemed like it was going to be more of a personal project. it also contains mike skinner's "last ever rap." sad face.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
grouper has two separate, but thematically connected, albums that are being prepped for simultaneous release. color me excited. more info at p4k.
if you're unfamiliar with grouper's work, have a listen to "heavy water / i'd rather be sleeping" from her phenomenal dragging a dead deer up a hill.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
keep shelly in athens : hauntin' me (mp3)
have really enjoyed everything this greek duo has put out. really looking forward to the full-length, whenever that may be.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
mister heavely : mister heavenly + pineapple girl (mp3s)
islands + man man + george michael bluth. sounds like the start of a fun album. grab the mp3s here.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
okkervil river : wake and be fine (fallon)
new jam off of the bands forthcoming i am very far (5.10.11). i really like it, and i think the polished up album version will be even better. also, i really like the superhomeless looking bassist.
darkstar : under one roof (north) (stream)
great. just really really great. thanks for the tip, l.e.
Monday, January 10, 2011
tolkien drank here
salon has a great slideshow of the bars and public houses frequented by some of the planet's most important literary figures. check it here.
smith westerns : dye it blonde (album stream)
sure to be a favorite album of 2011. highly recommended for anyone that likes classic rock and pop/david bowie. stream it here.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
songs of 10
can't believe it. another year down. so much has changed, so much has stayed the same. new music still comes out swiftly in waves. and much of it recedes into obscurity almost as quickly as it came. it's for this reason that these year-end lists that just about every magazine and site and blog in the world put out are objectively ridiculous. i went into some detail last year as to why titling something as "the best" is a treacherous exercise to begin with. on top of that, i have a sneaking suspicion that at least half of the music that makes the lists are a result of mob mentality ("if x and y put it on their lists, i guess it should be on mine too, lest i look unhip"), a quarter for the sake of being unique ("gotta have something underground, lest i look unhip"), leaving only a quarter of the list (at best) to be made up of music the listmaker genuinely enjoys. but even then, who knows how long they will be favorites for. BUT, as the western suburb's premier blogger personality, i would be foolish not to join in on the ridiculousness. besides, making these lists, while objectively lame, are subjectively fun. so here is a list of songs that i liked from the year 2010. click on a song to get taken to a video/stream/download. hope you enjoy.
- the album as a whole didn't grab me like the band's first two, but this song is a doozie. lushly arranged strings and hushed, ethereal vocals make this one of the strongest album openers of 2010.
- again, another album that as a whole didn't live up to the band's otherwise impeccable discography (much to my disappointment), this song is one of bss's best. both epic and intimate, ramshackle and clean.
- feels like being drunk. and in love. in the summer. in the sun.
- 9 and a half minutes long and it's still too short.
- although simple plan would have you believe otherwise, this is where punk music and pop music are supposed to have met all along.
- bon iver percussionist/vocalist sean carey takes just about every trick he learned from justin vernon and puts his own restrained, hushed spin on it, making something altogether new and beautiful.
- sounds like when you're driving in the summer at dusk and the light catches you in the corner of the eye and you have to squint really hard just to see the road. but in a good way.
- if the ronettes were depressed and stoned.
- i'm not going to decry the state of american radio music right now, because a) i don't wanna be a negative nelly and b) "we r who r". but i will say that i don't understand why songs like this don't make it to the airwaves. someone please explain this to me. a straightforward and achingly romantic love song (about harry houdini and his wife bess) with a deceptively sugary hook. why are so many people deprived of this?
- this song is such the jam. period. makes me want to dance myself clean. just don't listen to it and try and sit still. you might explode.
- with one foot still firmly planted in the blues-rock that earned them their well-deserved following and the other stepping towards a more radio friendly sound, the boys from akron whistled their way into the public's hearts with this one. and it's not a bad one to do it with.
- stabbing synths that cut right through you, tempered by almost angelic vocals.
- a really great and dark tropical summer jam.
- i don't know what it is about this song. i mean, it's the vocal melody in the chorus. that's what it is about this song. but i don't know why it's so perfect. but it's perfect.
- this is the song that probably caught me most off guard this year. big drums and bigs vocals. feels like walking into a mesoamerican temple in the middle of a ritual. or something.
- a painfully underappreciated and misunderstood album, this is the one song that could have worked it's way into the mainstream, had the band made that amazing jackson 5-esque outro into a chorus or something. but i like it just the way it is.
- i was not at all surprised by just how great big echo was, but i was surprised by how many people hopped on the train with this album (including reese's). on this song the band just piles on the instruments and vocals, and while "less is more" is usually a good rule of thumb, this song definitely benefits from the moreness.
- i know "little lion boy" was the song that won over most of this band's fans on their half-excellent debut, but "winter winds" was the one that won me over. i think it's the horns.
- while high violet inevitably became one of my favorite albums of 2010, it didn't get there without garnering a few criticisms. the biggest one being that the album felt just a wee bit too dark. and i realize that the national are pretty much always a little macabre. but i just didn't feel as many light spots on high violet as i did on boxer. but this song is full of that perfect balance of light and dark that the national do so well.
- after a phenomenal debut, the orchard (the album) was sort of a flop for me. but "the orchard" (the song) embodied everything i love about this band. interweaving strings and a tip toeing bassline set the stage for wes' signature coo, and a brilliant ra ra riot song is inevitably born.
- one of those songs that just makes you ache. an r. kelly cover, no less.
- sounds like cumulus clouds.
- wolf parade's expo 86 came out this year, and there wasn't one song on it that i heard that i wanted to listen to a second time. it's not that it was full of bad songs. most of the songs were good songs. they just weren't good wolf parade songs. who knew ape wolf parade's sound heavily. almost offensively. but when they do it so well, it's hard not to love 'em anyway.
brains like music and sex
if this isn't in line with your own experiences, you're either having bad sex or you're listening to the wrong music.
if you're reading this site, it's probably the former.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
smith westerns : all die young (stream)
go to p4k to stream another unbelievably good track from smith westerns' upcoming lp2, dye it blonde.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
alex winston : the basement covers ep (album download)
go here to download a lovely ep of impish covers, ranging from the stones to mumford & sons.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
mgmt do daytrotter
head over here to listen to the entire set, including a nice cover of the cleaners from venus track "only a shadow."
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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