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Singles

08.02.08

Politely Face Melting - Free Mogwai Single Singles (0)

It’s been nearly 2 years since Scottish post rock masters Mogwai have released a proper album. Mr. Beast came out in early ‘06 and except for that wicked riff in the middle of ‘Glasgow Mega-Snake’, was honestly a pretty wobbly affair. The following years saw the band doing the soundtracks for football doc Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and the vaguely metaphysical Aronofsky film The Fountain.

September 23rd of this year will see the release of The Hawk Is Howling, a new album released via Wall of Sound. In honor of the impeding release, a single has been set free on the internet…like an eagle or hawk. Get it?

Mogwai - Sun Smells Too Loud

The overall dynamic remains the same, but the consistency of the atmosphere has shifted somewhat. A distinctly electronic texture sits atop the usual Mogwai formula. It’s a slight twist, something that counterbalances the inherent same-ness that made Mr. Beast disappointing. While there’s nothing wrong with the Mogwai structure, but there’s something to be said for a band subtly adding to the usual to create “new”.

Look for the new release on September and check out the track listing below.

1 I’m Jim Morrison, I’m dead
2 Batcat
3 Danphe and The Brain
4 Local Authority
5 The Sun Smells Too Loud
6 Kings Meadow
7 I Love you, I’m Going To Blow Up Your School
8 Scotland’s Shame
9 Thank You Space Expert
07.08.08

Spazzy Joyfull Something-core - The Death Set Singles (0)

Stumbling around the internet in search of music is a pastime of mine. There’s a lot of methods to scrape out the strange & new nuggets from around the web. A ton of sites offer free downloads, contained within mailers or in the nooks and crannies of their websites. A few of my favorites do come from a email lists: Oh My Rockness deals out a handful & Filter gives you one each Monday when they send out their email list.

A lot of times, I’ll just grab whatever freebies the web has to offer, shove them in my iTunes and let random work its magic. Via this method a lot of weird and interesting things that I probably wouldn’t have give the proper time to have gotten my ear. This week I’ve assaulted several times by The Death Set and their song ‘Negative Thinking’. From the Kraftwerk-by-way-of-an-Iowa-methlab drum programming to the earnestly fuzzy vocals, the song drips with a minimalist intensity that, once adjusted to, is inescapably charming. Each time the song would pop on, the chopped up samples scattered over the intro would always make me think that early 90’s industrial mp3’s had found their way into my library*. Once the buzzsaw guitars appear the whole affair propels itself forward, propped up on the chanting vocals and an almost calming layer of keyboard. Maybe they’re something like Atari Teenage Riot for the modern days, who knows, but like most of the other bands from Baltimore that have popped up on the radar lately…the key is the jittery, infectious fun.

The Death Set follows that unspoken citywide manifesto to a T.

The Death Set - Negative Thinking

* As a result of this post, I will now devote my free time to writing a virus that forcibly downloads Front 242 & really early Thrill Kill Kult onto your computer. Look for it 4th quarter ‘08.
06.23.08

60 Belgian Women Sing Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ - Scala & Kolacny Brothers Singles (60)

Now, I’m a fairly sizable Radiohead fan. I picked up tickets for their upcoming stop at the Hollywood Bowl. I used to scour the net for b-sides and the rare acoustic stuff. I used to shell out cash for a variety of import disks in the pre-MP3 days. Who’s got the Japanese only Itch EP…I do. That said, it’s been a long time since I’ve actually listened to any early-era Radiohead, but I recently discovered this fantastic live recording of Scala & Kolacny Brothers doing a beautifully sullen piano and voice rendition of Radiohead’s ubiquitous 1993 single. The cluster of sixty something Belgian women focus primarily on minimalist reworkings of pop tunes: Kraftwerk, The Knife, Placebo, Bjork, Coldplay, Air & (regrettably) The Cure…yeah, I still don’t like The Cure.

Now, this is a fine example of a cover bringing a new dynamic to a well established song. There’s nothing quite like the sound of multiple voices stacked together (in a more freewheeling light, see also: Arcade Fire live). I’m not 100% behind the straight piano accompaniment, but on the other hand, it does feel like a slight stylistic nod to the ballad-y version of ‘Like Spinning Plates’ off 2001’s I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. Either way, the track’s slow build manages to become more and more atmospheric as it progresses. The half whispering of the line ‘I wish I was special’ towards the end, in combination with the slight glimmers of accents throughout the whole song just make it for me. A delightful take on a well established classic.

Scala & Kloancy Brothers - Creep (Live)
06.11.08

Atmosphere - The Waitress (mp3 and bonus KEXP live set) Singles (1)

I’ll be honest. I’d given up on Slug and Ant long ago. Between Seven’s Travels and You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having, I started to tune them out. Not to sound like one of those guys, I just liked their older shit better. I caught him at The Vic Theater back in ‘06 (full review here and you could tell then that he was in a transition period. The half-MC, half-band frontman layout of the set let you see visibly the dichotomy of his mindset.

With When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, he’s kinda pulled his head of his own ass and begun to examine the world around him. Instead of digging into his own issues, for this song he’s focusing, as the title implies on a lonely waitress at a dead end diner. The somber loping piano intro gives way to a convincingly funky loop with a light flute riff, nothing ultimately mindblowing, but it settles into a nice groove for the narrative to be wove around. I’m still not sold on how the production feels a little canned, but it’s a solid head nodding beat. The song made it onto a mix I made so that’s gotta stand for something…

Atmosphere - The Waitress

BONUS MP3 - ATMOSPHERE’S ACOUSTIC SET LIVE ON KEXP

This set features 2 tracks from When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold and a new song from their forthcoming EP Sad Clown Bad Spring #12. Recorded live on 5/13/08.

1. Guarantees
2. You
3. Not Another Day

Atmosphere Live On KEXP
06.09.08

Islands - The Arm (mp3 & tour dates) Singles (0)

Just about a week ago, Islands released Arm’s Way, the follow up to their 2005 debut Return To The Sea. What we have here is the title track from the album, as expected it’s a sprawling affair. Initially, it didn’t really appeal to me. I was turned off by the lack of sugary polish that coated the whole of Return To The Sea. This song is a little more distant and calculating, but like all things by Islands, they take time to grow on you. I forgot that initially I despised Return To The Sea as trashy and self indulgent. It took a handful of focused listens in order learn how to process the glory of Islands.

The same could be said for ‘Arm’s Way’, after a few times through the main melody seeped into my brain and I became a fan. I’ve yet to crack the rest of the album, but give it some time…

Islands - The Arm

HIT THE JUMP FOR ISLANDS UPCOMING TOUR DATES