now playing
This is my monthly mix of new music, stuff that was released this year that I checked out and liked over the month. I make one every month. It appears that my 2011 has begun with a lot of beautiful female songwriters. I’m a sucker for them! Also here are some great rock bands, a saucy Bob Dylan cover by a legend (and Jack White), and one of my top-10 all-time favorite musicians. Not a bad month!
Enjoy
- almostaghostA few months back, I made a mix of all soul music on 8tracks. It was pretty well-received, as that is a genre of music I love and know decently. But it got me thinking: I should make more one-genre mixes. But there’s so many genres I do not know anything about. So where to turn? Wikipedia, of course. I found a massive list of musical genres and picked one: right near the top, Acid House. Then I started reading, surfing, and downloading.
Acid House grew out of the club scene in Chicago, in the mid-’80s. It seems to have been fairly self-contained to the midwest (maybe Detroit a bit), and only lasted a couple of years. But then a few years later in the late-’80s, it showed up somehow in London. It became a bit more commercial there. The Acid House sound was simple: a repetitive beat with the “squelchy” sound of the Roland TB-303 synthesizer.
There’s a lot of controversy over who created the first Acid House track, as there were quite a few pioneers back then, all around the same time. I made a mix of some of my favorites by some of them below. A few famous and important tracks couldn’t be used, because they were too long for 8tracks file limits. But I think it is fairly representative of what acid house was in the ’80s. I tried to keep it pure, in later years, producers would mix in different sounds like rap or strings or whatnot. The main consistency in the songs is that squelchy synthesizer and the repetitiveness.
Here is the mix (the smiley face logo was used in the acid house scene):
- almostaghostSo after forcing myself to watch the Golden Globes, solely because Ricky Gervais was hosting, I started to remember his songs from The Office UK: “Free Love Freeway”!
It always cracks me up when Gareth and Tim start to join in, harmonizing. Here’s a version Ricky did on Inside The Actor’s Studio:
But I also came upon the most amazing thing! There’s TONS of covers of the song on Youtube! Just like how there’s millions of ukulele covers of “Paper Planes,” or of Neutral Milk Hotel! This makes me happy. It should become a campfire song, that everyone sings and knows how to play. Most of the videos are simple, homemade recordings, done in the person’s living room on a webcam.
Just look how much fun this family has doing it:
A ukulele/guitar version by Nobe & Ben:
by Sunny Williams:
A fast noisy live version by The Sun Lee Sunbeam:
And finally… Ricky Gervais recorded the song properly, with Noel Gallagher from Oasis singing back-up:
If you actually watched all those, I’m sure you’ll be hooked on the song too!
But to future coverers, I say, take some risks! There should be weird electronic versions, accordions, drums, anything. They don’t all need to be done on acoustic guitar!
- almostaghostI have been an avid fan of Asobi Seksu ever since I was introduced to them via a 2005 blog post in which David (or was it Chandler?) of Snowden outlined some bands he was listening to at the moment (Snowden had played Gothamist’s Movable Hype show with them the previous November in NYC). In 2006, after having jammed their 2003 self titled debut full length probably tens of dozens of times, I was really excited to hear about a forthcoming follow-up, Citrus.
Citrus lived up to my every expectation, including a crushing combination of face-melting walls of distortion and Yuki’s super-catchy vocal and keyboard harmonies I fell in love with on their first. Going one step further, the album featured a much improved audio quality, no doubt due to its being recorded at Gigantic Studios and featuring production by Chris Zane (by the way, it’s worth mentioning that despite being a minor label release, the s/t features excellent production and sounds teriffic). Citrus still blows me away, and I placed it at #31 on my Best Albums of 2000-2009 list.
I was a bit worried when the band’s next move was signing with Polyvinyl. While I generally think it’s got a great lineup of bands, I feel there’s been a “Polyvinyl Curse” on many bands I like. The curse was – after signing with the label, the band would put out something way less impressive than previous records. Just one week prior to the Asobi Seksu announcement, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin released their Polyvinyl debut, Pershing, a disappointing follow-up to their self-released Broom, which is an epic record (I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t heard it). My only comfort was in the fact that label mates of Montreal were putting out some of their best records one after another on Polyvinyl, namely a trilogy consisting of Satanic Panic in the Attic, The Sunlandic Twins, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? The last of which, by the way, is my #2 record of the last decade.
Anyway, Hush was released in 2009 and my reaction was mixed. I definitely felt the familiar Asobi vibe and was digging it, but the noticeable difference was the missing wall of sound. While the name Hush suggests something like an acoustic record or stripped down / intimate set, this wasn’t quite “quiet,” at least not in a traditional sense. Compared to their previous records, though, Hush definitely missed the mark in terms of the layers of distortion I had come to know and love (and expect). Still, with a batch of excellent songs and the solid production of Zane, the record left on me a favorable impression.
Asobi followed through with a tour only release of an acoustic set recorded at Olympic Studios (later reissued as Rewolf – and I would claim this would have more aptly been the release named “Hush”), and the Transparence EP whose title track was a glimmer of hope for the Asobi I was craving, but was otherwise mainly electro-leaning. While these were fantastic in their own right, I was beginning to wonder if the full sounds I had enjoyed so deeply on s/t and Citrus were gone for good. Signal 2011, and Fluorescence.
On their fourth full length, Asobi Seksu strikes a sweet balance between the supremely pleasing walls of noise found on Citrus, the evolved song-writing illustrated on Hush, and yes they have even honed that flirtation with the electro on tracks such as “Counterglow” (rounded out with a more trademark Asobi sound that leaves a more organic end result). The band also explores some new ground, including an almost Goblinesque “Deep Weird Sleep,” and “Leave The Drummer Out There,” which borders on the Pink Floyd inspired. Maybe the next record will be a full-out 70′s prog rock revival? (let’s hope its not!) :]
All of this coupled with excellent production (once again the work of Zane) and the result is: after only a few listens I am in love with this record! You can pre-order CD or 180g vinyl (two versions, one limited) here. And in the meantime, check out a preview track, “Leave The Drummer Out There.”
Asobi Seksu – Leave The Drummer Out There
I just found out that Trish Keenan of Broadcast has passed away. As I write these words I am holding back tears at my desk. I ranked Broadcast’s Haha Sound as the 18th best record of 2000-2009 and featured “Lunch Hour Pops” in my parasol mix.
You can read their label (Warp) statement here.
You will be so missed Trish. <3
dreams of nectar
Alright, I think we might get some more best-of-2010 posts up on here soon by other writers, but I’m moving forward. 2011 people! Keep up! (Thanks Btrxz, your haikus were awesome; if only I could be so beautifully concise.)
I intend to keep sharing music I’m currently checking out, whether that means a new album I like, or dislike, or the old videos I’ve watched on YouTube that entertain me, or a show I went to, or whatever strikes me each week. Breathmint named this blog Now Playing, and I take that to mean, be as current as possible.
So the last few days, since my countdown (and 2010) ended, I’ve been checking out the new album, City Of Refuge, by Abigail Washburn. She is generally known as a talented banjo player. Thus, her early albums were close to bluegrass, but I found many of her songs to be much more laidback than real true bluegrass. Chillgrass*, I call it. Here’s one song from her first album:
Abigail Washburn “Red & Blazing”
And here’s the title track from her first album:
Abigail Washburn “Song of the Traveling Daughter”
Cool huh? Now I’m sure you’re going: wait, that last one, that’s not in English! Turns out, Washburn is fluent in Chinese, having spent some time in China. So she occasionally mixes in some Chinese lyrics or sounds into her bluegrass. The whole album makes for a striking atmosphre: banjo, blues lyrics, country voice, Chinese influence.
Which brings us to her new album, City Of Refuge. Just as Song Of The Traveling Daughter could be striking, this one is almost un-striking*.
As City Of Refuge album moves forward, many of the blues and banjo leanings are pushed to the background, or are lacking entirely. No! Come back, Chinese chillgrass blues!
What is left? Unfortunately, nothing terribly unique. It sounds to me like she is joining the crowd: Neko Case, Laura Veirs, The Mynabirds, to name a few, all likable female singers with pretty voices, who borrow from country and acoustic rock and bluesy folk and don’t do too much drastically different from each other.
I hate to make unnecessary comparisons when thinking about an album. And certainly this is some pretty tunage: well-made, sounds nice, lots of instrumental flourish, appropriately moody, Washburn’s voice always excellent. There’s a few songs that can drop you: “Dreams Of Nectar,” “Bring Me My Queen.” “City Of Refuge” is an old blues song, and might be the best recording she’s ever made. Most songs borrow something from old-time American music nicely. Really, I won’t deny, City Of Refuge on its own comes off pretty solid.
But where did Abigail Washburn go?
I’m not going to share any mp3s of the new stuff this time: but you can listen to the entire album over at NPR’s First Listen website: [here!]
*Good critics make up their own words. =P
- almostaghostArtist: Sun Araw
Title: On Patrol
Label: Not Not Fun
Country: US, LA, CA
Genre: Ambient, Surrealist Sounds, Dark Dream, Drone
Date: 5-11-10
Sun Araw- On Patrol
Dead loops sing at night
Find lost things under nothing
Can you hear it now
- Btrxz
Artist: Kaly Live Dub
Title: Lightin’ the Shadows
Label: Jarring Effects / Discograph
Country: France
Genre: Neo Dub, Dub, Ruffneck
Date: 9-27-10
Kaly Live Dub- Lightin' the Shadows
Ruff forbidden music
Wear love’s dark cloak protector
How safe are we
- Btrxz
