The War on Drugs//Best Night

An album I've been really loving lately is the new one by The War on Drugs. Although it sounds more like a Kurt Vile album than any previous release from the band (despite the absence of actual Kurt Vile from the band). I've still found a different, amorous spot in my heart for it. Half Dylan, half Springsteen: the vocal sound and lyrical themes are familiar, set against music that's more modern.

There are a lot of standout tracks on Slave Ambient, but the first one continues to pull at me extra hard. It's so sad and lonely, outcast and downtrodden. I imagine Adam Granduciel singing the song directly to his own feet. At this moment, there's something I can really identify with about that.

I drive by the behemoth factories and oil rigs on the beaches of Southern California, and there's something not so different from that old "New Jersey Turnpike/riding on a wet night/'neath the refinery's glow" vibe. It's all America after all, isn't it?



Best Night.mp3 [Thanks]

I believe that I've been cursed,
Been drowned and reimbursed,
Got the feeling I can't move without sliding.

Best Coast//When I'm With You

I've been hearing the buzz about Best Coast for a while now, but kept writing them off as the newest indie fuzz it-band. I've said it before and I'll say it again, throwing layers and layers of overdrive on something doesn't actually make it good. On the other hand, if it's already good, well, that's another story.

While we're on the subject of the fuzz, I was contemplating the great fuzz trend of two thousand and ? on the train today. I wonder if all this forced overdrive is some kind of response to the never-ending supply of clean digital sound thanks to advances/mass distribution (thanks, Apple) in recording technology. Anyone can press a button and very easily record something that sounds very crisp and clean. What's the fun in that? Where's the soul? While I don't think that fuzz is an answer to the question, it might be a welcome distraction or a quick fix. What do you think?

Back to the song, Best Coast has written a simple little gem here. Actually the lyrics are downright retarded sometimes--"The world is lazy, but you and me, we're just crazy." After you finish wondering whether Bethany Cosentino is a 7-year-old who just finished a lesson in basic rhyme schemes, take a moment to appreciate when that simplicity turns brilliant (ie. "When I'm with you I have fun"). Listen, there's no better way to say this. It's perfect. There are also requisite lyrical nods to 60s girl group/soul songs ("Ever since I was a little girl, my mama always told me there'd be boys like you"). Can anyone say, "my mama told me you better shop around"? Touches like these are seemingly lifted verbatim and inserted into the modern context of fuzzy, sun-kissed indie pop.

I also wanted to get this song up ASAP because it's one of those songs that sticks so hard in your head, that you wake up singing, that you love so much...but only for a week. And after that week, you want to die every time you hear it because it will never give you the feeling of that first high, the initial obsession. Hearing it reminds you of that, so it becomes annoying. Let's savor it while we can. We can look back on this post and skip over it after if makes it into The Gap's muzak system, which it inevitably will. But right now, it's beautiful and hazy and lovely, just like the beginning of a summer filled with the promise of twin cherry popsicles, empty beaches, polaroid pictures and mixtapes. Oh, and Ronald McDonald.



When I'm With You.mp3

I hate sleeping alone.

Kurt Vile//Freeway

Kurt Vile, besides being recently signed to Matador and being really good at playing in awesomely named bands (when he plays with his backing band he becomes Kurt Vile and the Violators and he also plays in The War on Drugs), sounds something like one part lofi Springsteen circa Nebraska, one part Dylan and one part post-modern noisetime. Constant Hitmaker, which I've been listening to on repeat for a few weeks now, is a delightfully gritty compendium of songs, true the album's title.

Angelina gave me this to me on vinyl for my birthday this summer. Sadly, I only just got a working record player back in my life about a month ago, so I just got to start listening to it and it is a bit of an instant classic.

This morning I put it on while A. and I had breakfast (does it count as breakfast if you're eating it at 12:45pm?). It was delightful. I also have been walking around with the lines of this in my head for weeks now.

Unrelated: Kurt Vile is also from Philly, which is also where my parents are from. Though I care little for baseball, I am rooting for the team of my ancestral home to kick the ass of the team of my current home, because it just feels right. Y'all feel me?



Freeway.mp3

Got a freeway in mind.
Let go of my head.
Walk down my line.
Better be sure you'll be dead.
I got a trumpet,
I know where to dump it.
I'm glad that you came
If the sound is the same.

Atlas Sound//Walkabout

What did you want to be when you grew up? Coincidentally, this is a question I recently pondered while biking around Prospect Park on a gorgeous fall day last week. My early childhood answer alternated between “a fireman” and “a saxophone player.” I actually think this says a lot about me, but I’m not going to go into that right now.

I am slightly anti-CMJ, but still SO EXCITED to see Atlas Sound and Broadcast tonight at Le Poisson Rouge (sadly sold out). I’ve been quite into Deerhunter for a little while now, but decided to beef up on my Atlas Sound in preparation for tonight. Been listening to logos (which features Panda Bear on this track and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier on another) on repeat now all morning. It’s so good!

Bradford Cox might be one of the only true geniuses that I can see in music today. He’s got this incredible sense of melody and finds ways to recontextualize often simple lyrics, forcing the listener to re-examine meaning. Combining these major skills with a killer aesthetic for sound and a clawing, desperate, haunting, emotive and honest voice, well, each tune seems to emerge an instant classic. I actually hear real songwriting skill here, complete with hooks that beg you to return over and over again, like the best REM or JV albums.



Walkabout.mp3

What did you want to see?
What did you want to be when you grew up?

Feel free to answer. I’m curious. I’d like to know.

Little Girls//Heinz

Take cover. It’s Monday. It’s Monday Mail
What is Monday Mail?

Brooke from Big Hassle writes:

Toronto-based group Little Girls (Josh McIntyre and co.) are preparing for an extensive North American tour performing with Japandroids, Monotonix, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Wavves and Nurses among others. This fall tour will be in support of their forthcoming debut album, Concepts, an eleven-track album that spans from the very first Little Girls track ever written to brand new material…

It all started when McIntyre recorded a few songs in his home studio as a side project in early 2009. Seeking the unbiased opinions from friends and musical peers he anonymously posted the music on the internet under the name "Little Girls," a name he believed least likely to reveal his identity. His influences come from the 80's no-wave post-punk scene, and the early 80's golden era of hip-hop. Equally influential are the late hip-hop artist J. Dilla, as well as Can, Joy Division, Wire, and The Clean.

I am not surprised that Little Girls is playing some shows with Wavves. If Wavves is THE definitive saturated fuzzed-out surf band, Little Girls sounds poised to become THE saturated fuzzed-out garage+goth/post-punk revival thing(?). I hear a little Ian Curtis in the vocals over that wall of overdrive.

As for this particular track, it’s a cover of a song by a little-known 70s British post-punk band called Artery.



Heinz (Artery Cover).mp3

Catch them at the Cake Shop on 10/20 (although that’s the same day as this show, which is where I’ll be for sure).

Wavves//No Hope Kids

Everybody’s surfin’ now, Monday Mail.
What is Monday Mail?

How was your weekend? Did you spend some time at the beach? I did—at Rockaway Beach. Know what all this means? Hell, yeah…you know. I declare SURF WEEK!

This week, Jill Weiskopf of New York Magazine writes:

In this week’s New York magazine, we asked four hot bands—Vivian Girls, the Fiery Furnaces, Diane Birch, and Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers—to pick their summer playlists based on a photograph.

The inclusion of the Furnaces piqued my curiosity and I clicked through to what was actually a very nice little piece that made me remember that I keep forgetting to check out the much-hyped Wavves (on Vivian Girls list).

My friends have described Wavves as peppy surf-punk, which is pretty apt. It’s not too deep, but still highly enjoyable. And of course, they’re from California. It’s summer, guys—the time is ripe for this stuff.

Sadly, the story behind the band ain’t so sunny and carefree. From Wikipedia:

Singer Nathan Williams suffered a very public breakdown as the band was unable to complete their set at the 2009 Barcelona Primavera Sound Festival.Williams, who admitted he'd taken a cocktail of ecstasy and valium, fought with drummer Ryan Ulsh and insulted the Spanish crowd - who pelted him with bottles and a shoe. Apologising for their performance the next day, Williams admitted he is also suffering from alcohol addiction. As a result, the band have cancelled the remainder of their European tour. On June 30th a confirmed gig at Roskilde Festival was cancelled, reportedly because drummer Ryan Ulsh had left the band.

Yeek.



No Hope Kids.mp3

Got no car,
Got no money,
I got nothing, nothing, nothing,
Not at all.

Surf Week Fact #1: Surfing is the act of a person (or a boat) riding down a breaking wave, gathering speed from the downward and forward movement. Most commonly, the term is used for a surface water sport in which the person surfing moves along the face of a breaking ocean wave (the "surf"). Surfing was a central part of ancient Polynesian culture, and the chief was the most skilled wave rider in the community with the best board made from the best tree.