Author Archive

The Wallpaper’s Peeling

Friday Bridge “It Girl” – The music could easily pass for an early Madonna track, but the vocals are the radical opposite of just about anything Ms. Ciccone has ever recorded. The superhuman confidence is totally obliterated, replaced by a tiny, timid voice singing entirely in French, but the language barely matters because the singing is so soft the annunciation blurs into a vague purr. It’s a startling and surprisingly attractive contrast, yielding a final product that is cute and vulnerable like a tiny, wounded baby animal. (Click here to buy it from Friendly Noise.)

Of Montreal “Psychotic Feeling” – Of Montreal must be feeling very confident if they are willing to toss off a track as solid as this to a limited edition EP rather than make it the centerpiece for an entire album. Without seeming self-conciously retro, “Psychotic Feeling” has a lovely out-of-time quality, sounding more like the kind of late 70s/early 80s lost classic that you’d find on a Hyped2Death compilation than something from the mid-aughts. (Click here to buy it from Polyvinyl Records.)

Another Sky

Differnet (featuring Action Biker) “Albuquerque” – It wasn’t so long ago that these sort of distorted electronic tones simply did not exist in music. There’s something so wonderful about having these synthetic tones that don’t quite resemble anything in the natural world, and are generally still too new to be tied in with the sort of cultural expectations that we have for guitars, pianos, horns, and strings. This track is a thing of ethereal beauty, floating along with a gorgeous vocal melody while the performers wring quite a bit of emotion out of abstracted sound waves. It feels so frigid and fragile, like a frozen lake surrounded by trees with icicles dangling from the branches like gaudy jewelry. Of course, that’s a very strange thing to say about a song named after a city in New Mexico. (Click here to buy it from Friendly Noise.)

They Won’t Get What They Deserve

Tiga “Far From Home” – Thanks to a confluence of various economic misfortunes, I haven’t been feeling lucky at all lately, but it’s still good to hear a song as confident and optimistic as this buoyant Tiga track. There are some songs about good luck that can seem horribly grating when your own life is at a low ebb, but this track manages to avoid that mainly because Tiga’s lyrics and music are enthusiastic but low key, making the bliss he’s feeling seem like something that is easily attainable. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Bunky “Monkey Song” – Following through on the promise of the best songs from their debut album, Bunky continue to strike an appealing balance between tweeness and mature sexuality on this track from the new Asthmatic Kitty label compilation. In the context of that record, which as you can probably imagine is almost entirely comprised of austere indie folk, this song seems like it dropped down from out of nowhere with its loping groove, sultry horns, and seductive vocals. (Click here to buy it from Asthmatic Kitty.)

You’ve Always Gotta Come Up With New Hits

Don Lennon “My Routine” – Comedy is a topic very seldom explored in music, but Don Lennon managed to write several songs on the subject for his album Routine, ranging from an unironic song about Saturday Night Live to this gentle tune sung from the perspective of a small time stand up comedian earnestly attempting to understand and hone his craft. The lyrics are unassuming and matter of fact, written as though they were the answers to questions from an interview. It’s a lovely character study, capturing a particular blend of condifence and insecurity that is common among comedic performers without too much sentiment or overdramatization. (Click here to buy it from Don Lennon.)

Rihanna “S.O.S. (Rescue Me)” – Jacking a sample from Soft Cell’s cover of “Tainted Love” seems like an easy way to grab some attention for a crucial follow-up single, but it must have been a nightmare for the lawyers who had to sort out the royalties for this track, which no doubt has a list of songwriter credits half a mile long. It’s no “Tainted Love,” but “S.O.S.” is a charming bit of modern pop, strangely owing a lot more to contemporary UK hits by Rachel Stevens and Girls Aloud than the sort of dancehall/R&B hybrid pop that made Rihanna a minor star. (Click here for a Rihanna fansite.)

A List Of Secrets That I’ve Been Keeping

Spank Rock “Rick Rubin” – One might reasonably expect a song named after Rick Rubin to sound something like the work of its namesake, but any resemblence to music from that man’s discography in this track is tangental at best. Spank Rock raps like a nerdier version of Q Tip over an impressive composition mixing the stark video game synth style of The Neptunes with busy, syncopated percussion and odd touches of electronic psychedelia. (Click here to buy it from Big Dada.)

Kelley Stoltz “Birdies Singing” – If Belle & Sebastian are like a clever fashionista skilled in emphasizing their identity with carefully selected vintage items from the wardrobe of pop history, Kelley Stoltz is more like a hobbyist obsessed with building reverential customized miniatures in his basement. Stoltz does not appear to be interested in pushing a cult of personality so much as he is invested in the craft of old school pop songwriting. His records often seem as though he took Belle & Sebastian’s famous lyric “no one writes them like they used to, so it may as well be me” as a mission statement, even if there is no shortage of people out there writing their own Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson tunes. Though his most obvious pastiches tend to work by virtue of his gift for melody, it is unsuprising that some of his best moments come when it’s harder to pin down a direct stylistic antecedent. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

I Ain’t Even Half Done

Eagles of Death Metal “The Ballad Of Queen Bee And Baby Duck” – This track would be fine enough as a dizzy, snakey rock tune, but the addition of spoken vocals from an adorable girl and some droll gentleman straight out of a mid-period Beatles song serve to boost the song’s levels of cuteness, quirk, and delirium. (Click here for the official Eagles of Death Metal site.)

Magik Markers “I Construct Dolls Like You In My Sleep” – About a year and a half ago, I first encounted Magik Markers as the opening act for a Sonic Youth show. This is what I had to say about them back then:

Magik Markers were the first of the two opening acts, and they were just unbelievably great. They played some high quality art-punk noise that sounded quite a bit like SY on Confusion Is Sex and Bad Moon Rising. The lead singer was intensely charismatic and loveable, and “shouted the poetic truths of high school journal keepers” like the singer from “Skip Tracer.”

My memories of that show are still very fond, and I’ve been hoping to find a Magik Markers song that comes even close to the brilliance of that performance ever since. It hasn’t happened yet, but this excerpt from their latest record will have to do. In fairness, it probably would be very hard to capture the band’s appeal with a recording since so much of what they do is based in the physical nature of their improvisation, and guitarist/vocalist Elisa Ambrogio’s raw charisma and nontraditional sex appeal. Even still, apparently refusing to record in a proper studio and releasing somewhat shoddy live documents that span about twenty minutes per side isn’t doing them many favors. These final minutes of a performance in Paris are scattershot, but there are a fair few moments of shambling brilliance that take me back to that one show in the summer of 2004. (Click here to buy it from Gulcher Records.)

Neck Deep In It And Starting To Drown

Girls Aloud “Swinging London Town” – I think that a lot of people have been trying to write this song over the past decade, this sort of precisely calibrated techno rock thing, and in retrospect it now seems as though there are entire discographies that are like rough drafts for this one perfect composition.

“Swinging London Town” is sung from the perspective of a spoiled young socialite who is all too aware of the toxic nature of her lifestyle. She is already seduced by the excess and decadence, but can barely mask her contempt for virtually everyone and everything in her life. Status symbols are alternately desired and derided for being ridiculous cliches, evidence of nonexistent imaginations and mindless trend-hopping. The character is on the outermost limits of our sympathy, but she earns some small measure of it in the context of the arrangement. As the track intensifies, the vocals initially recede into the mix, making her seem overwhelmed and tiny as she is consumed by her world. When the bridge hits, the bottom drops out and it suddenly seems like happy hour at a trendy nightclub on the ocean floor. When the song comes back up for air, the vocals grow more confident, though the lyrical tone is more defensive than anything else. It’s the sound of pride swallowing a person whole, and desperation being trumped by aimless ambition. Think of this as being like the “kicking squealing Gucci little piggy” section of Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” fleshed out into a proper character study. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Celebration “China” – I saw Celebration perform last night, and I’m left with one big question: How is it that the indie world is not losing their shit over these people? Is it just that the record is still fairly new and not a lot of people have seen them live just yet? If we’re at the point when the Animal Collective can be indie stars, there’s no excuse for this band not to find its audience. The performances on the album certainly did little to prepare me for the brilliance of their live act, with the hyperkinetic percussion and minimal keyboard parts providing a surprisingly powerful backdrop for charismatic frontwoman Katrina Ford, who is rather like an interesting, more imaginative version of Karen O. The band was at their best with the addition of a two-man horn section, which allowed them to approximate moves from old James Brown live performances as shot through the prism of art rock in the style of Siouxie and the Slits. The name suits them – everything in their performance felt cathartic and celebratory, vivid, vibrant and alive. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Elsewhere: The Knife’s One Session version of “Heartbeats” is a must-have. Said The Gramophone has it. Go get it.

The Currency We’ve Spent

Marit Bergman Vs. Justus Köhncke “Rentcode” – Swedish singer-songwriter Marit Bergman singing a British dance classic by the Pet Shop Boys over German electronic producer Justus Köhncke’s biggest hit – it’s like a delicious Neopolitan of European pop! This was recorded by Bergman for the Swedish club Smet after having performed the vocals live over the music as part of her regular set. Köhncke’s track is essentially untouched — she simply sings “Rent” over the top, and it fits as though it was always meant to be there. (Click here for the Smet website.)

What Is In Her Mind?

Light Bulb Project “If I Liked Sports, I’d Be One” – From what I can tell, this appears to be an unreleased song from a recently defunct Swedish girl group. The music itself is enjoyable if not very distinct Euro pop, but the lyrics about making a futile attempt to enjoy sports put it over, especially when the girls deliver lines like “the worst thing that I tried was archery / it felt wrong” with charm and just the right measure of self-awareness. It’s also very amusing that the sports in question are not organized team sports, but rather things like figure skating, fencing, sailing, tennis and golf. What sort of effete country club guy are they trying to impress? (Click here for more songs on what seems to be their official site.) (Thanks to Jessica!)

Angel Corpus Christi “Caroline Says II” – I’d say that this is a brilliant arrangement for the song, but it’s more like excellent casting. The vocals and accompaniment are ideally suited for Lou Reed’s character – sympathetic and damaged, but strangely upbeat while lost in a self-medicated haze. Contrast this with Antony and the Johnson’s maudlin take on “Candy Says,” and you can hear the difference between a nuanced, thoughtful realization of a character and vain, ham-fisted Oscar baiting. (Click here to buy it from Gulcher.)

Elsewhere:

The Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll for 2005 is online. If you are interested in how I voted, my ballot is right here. Something that you ought to take into consideration when examining my singles ballot is that it is not intended to be understood as a list of my favorite songs from 2005. When I filled out the ballot, I was following a few self-imposed rules in order to narrow down a few hundred songs that I loved from the year to a tiny list of ten. The criteria for the list were as follows:

1) The song must have been released as a single or pushed by the label to radio and video outlets in 2005. (Without the option of album tracks, several amazing songs were disqualified.)
2) No songs from artists on the albums list.
3) Only one song per artist. (This is why Mike Jones’ “Back Then” did not make the list.)

I wanted to include R. Kelly’s “Trapped In The Closet” for the singles list, but there was a rule stipulating that each part of that song was to be counted as a discrete entity, and since I couldn’t single out a favorite chapter and had no desire to split the song’s vote, I opted to omit it from my list entirely.

Overall, I’m actually somewhat pleased with the results of this year’s poll. Several of my own picks scored very highly, with four of my top ten albums landing in the top 15. I am absolutely thrilled that Kanye West and M.I.A. beat out Sufjan Stevens, though I am still a bit aggravated by the fact that he scored so highly with an album as awful as Illinois. However, I feel a bit vindicated by the high placement of Fiona Apple. I’m also happy to see that several records that I would have voted for if my ballot could extend up to twenty or thirty did just fine without my vote – The White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem, Kanye West, and Sleater-Kinney, for example. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have assumed that lots of people were going to vote for Missy Elliott in the albums poll, since that clearly was not the case. (She hit #95, well below loads of mediocre albums by unremarkable artists.) Though I quite like “1 Thing” and “Gold Digger,” I feel that Kelly Clarkson was robbed on the singles chart. Nevertheless, #3 is pretty spectacular for the winner of a televised singing competition in a critics poll.

Make A Connection To The Connection

Lilys “A Diana’s Diana” – The signifiers of funk and disco are present in this track, but it’s not quite appropriate for actual dancing so much as a perfect song for zoning out on public transportation. As your mind and body settle into numbing routine, your thoughts can cut loose and bounce around to a groove that sounds as though it submerged in a tub of gelatin backlit with strobe lights. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

The Shorebirds “Born Undefeated” – Maxi Geil & Playcolt guitarist Mark “Hiatt Regency” Ephraim steps into the spotlight with a remarkable confidence, delivering a cryptic rock sermon name-checking M.I.A., Smog, and Maxi Geil like a strung-out hip priest in a cathedral made of surf guitar licks and reverb. (Click here for the Shorebirds’ MySpace page.)

Elsewhere: Stephen Malkmus fans ought to check out the complete Jicks BBC session from last year on Rbally. The session includes a new Jicks song as well as a rather obscure cover.

The Lights On The Ceiling Don’t Know

Sophie Rimheden (featuring Kajsa Grytt) “It’s Your Head” – Riding a gentle, bouncing beat and bassline, the vocals ponder the head and the heart, with the feelings and thoughts mixing together so that it’s hard to tell them apart, literally or musically. It’s never quite as ecstatic as I would like it to be, but the coolness of the vocals speak to a rational cautiousness that feels a little too familiar to me lately. (Click here to buy it via Sophie Rimheden’s official site.)

Young People “Dark Rainbow” – When I made mix tapes all of the time, I was always very anal retentive about making sure that my sides had perfect endings. This was not just about song selection — it was about craft and absolutely refusing to just let a track cut off because the tape ran out a few seconds before the song finished. I remember several occasions of eyeballing the leftover tape and sitting anxiously through my final song, hoping that it would fit just so and I could move on to the next thing. If things went wrong, it was time to backtrack and re-edit – songs that came previously in the sequence had to be deleted and shorter songs had to be added, etc. This song reminds me quite a bit of all that not just in how it’s a rather good ending song (more for a side a than a side b, but whatever), but in that it sounds like it’s about to end for most of its duration. It feels as though it could lose its grip and fall off the side of the planet at any moment, and it’s doing everything that it can to stay as calm as possible. (Click here for Too Pure’s Young People mini-site.)

Service Interruption

I’m currently dealing with some kind of horrible multi-front flu-like ailment, so I am going to take another day off today. Sorry. There are some days when I can keep this going even when I’m not up for it, but today is not one of them. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow morning.

The Strange Towns Where We Will Party Together

Figurines “Silver Ponds” – Somewhere in Denmark, there is a dude who sings exactly like Doug Martsch from Built To Spill and writes elegantly crafted songs of muted melancholy as though he’s mainlining the essence of the best European indie rock of the 80s. This is his band, though I suspect it might actually be the result of some advanced computer program designed by a label to yield high scores on Pitchfork. (Click here for the official Figures site.)

Pompey “I Have A Tail” – Pompey’s album is restless and deliberately scattered, abruptly shifting from Animal Collective-ish electronic textures to fragments of rhythm and melody and occasionally sounding roughly like Jandek trying to make his own Pet Sounds. This relatively straight pop-ish track comes late in the sequence, almost as though to tap the listener on the shoulder and remind them that they’ve been in total control all along. Much of the record feels like a headache, but this cut is like when the PM Tylenol kicks in and you’re about to nod off. (Click here to get the rest of the album for free from Pocketclock.)

My God, How Beautiful!

The Knife “We Share Our Mother’s Health” -The Knife’s previous LP Deep Cuts is a hard act to follow, if just because it contains a song (“Heartbeats”) which could very well be the most sublime single of this decade to date. The Knife pretty much shrug off the pressure on Silent Shout, making a lateral move away from the skewed, romantic pop of that album towards a sound that takes their distinctive production aesthetic to a much darker, creepier place. Nearly everything on the record sounds eerie and unnerving, if not outright malevolent. Imagine chopped and screwed Siouxie and the Banshees or Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady” reworked for a goth disco, and you’re about halfway to the general feel of the record. (Click here to visit the official website of The Knife.)

The High Violets “Cool Green” – I was walking down an unfamiliar street in Astoria last night listening to this song, and just after the 120 Minutes-in-1988 intro, right when Kaitlyn ni Donavan says “My God, how beautiful!,” a gorgeous, unobstructed shot of midtown Manhattan came into view in the space between two buildings. It’s fairly easy to walk around here and not see the skyline, so when it pops out of nowhere like this, it can seem even more magnificent than usual. Everything about this moment of synchronicity was ideal, right down to the level of light in the sky. Set against a deep, starless navy blue backdrop bracketed by two mundane lowrises in the foreground, the white lights of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings appeared to burn with an unreal intensity. (Click here to buy it from Reverb Records.)

When We Were Twelve or Twenty-Two

Miranda! “Don” – I don’t understand much Spanish, but I do get the gist of “es un
soooolo / es un guitara de Lolo!,” or at at least I do when it’s followed by a sweet little guitar solo. Lyrics are almost entirely besides the point with a melody bomb like this – if anything, not knowing the words is only a detriment in that it makes it a little harder to sing along. But only a little bit! (Click here to buy it from Ce Musica Latina.)

Enon “Conjugate The Verbs” – When this song was released, I was 20 and in the middle of the worst period of depression that I’ve ever experienced. The specific reasons are very embarassing and I’m going to avoid bringing them up if you don’t mind, but the lyrics of this song had a strong resonance for me at the time, which is very strange if you take into account that these words are, to put the positive spin on it, extremely cryptic. I remember what I was feeling, but I’m not sure what I was thinking. There is almost no connection between what the words are actually saying and what I forced them to mean to me. (Well, except for “she’s on an unconscious mission to destroy you,” I guess.) It’s pretty clear now that I was mostly just responding to the arrangement and the way the song’s dynamic structure feels like falling through a series of trap doors, plunging to new low with each chorus. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

It Makes Me Smile And It Keeps My Teeth Clean

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Fluxblog/Stereogum event last night. I realize that it was a work/school night and that DJ sets by a bunch of bloggers doesn’t quite match up to the entertainment value of a brand new (and very key!) episode of Lost, so I’m very grateful for everyone who showed up, and especially for the people who were still around by the time I started. I went on a little late. Sorry!

Spektrum “May Day” / Cristina “Mamma Mia” / Ludus “Breaking The Rules” / Dolly Parton “Baby, I’m Burning” / ABBA “You Owe Me One” / Girls Aloud “Biology” / Art Brut “Good Weekend” / Maxi Geil! & Playcolt “Makin’ Love in the Sunshine” / Beyonce with Slim Thug and Bun B “Check On It” / Fox “SSSingle Bed” / Hey Willpower & Annie “Chewing Gum” / Los Super Elegantes “Dance” / Rachel Stevens “I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)” / Hollertronix “Tippin’ Toxic” / Hank “Ferox” / Love Is All “Motorboat”

Hey Willpower with Annie “Chewing Gum” – Not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary story a homemade mash-up: Will (Imperial Teen) Schwartz’s pop group have teamed up with Annie for a duet version of “Chewing Gum,” resulting in a track that seems almost strategically designed to appeal to me. At this rate, we can expect a Stephen Malkmus/Eleanor Friedberger duet before the end of the year. (Click here for the official Hey Willpower site.)

Fox “SSSingle Bed” – Here’s another old family favorite for the newer readers. This brilliant glam-funk track is just a little over thirty years old right now, but it still feels a little bit ahead of its time. Unfortunately, this track is entirely out of print at the moment as far as I know, though the first two Fox albums were recently reissued in the UK. A reader just informed me that this song is indeed in print as part of a compilation titled Guilty Pleasures Rides Again. I kinda resent the implication that anyone should feel like this song is a “guilty pleasure,” but whatever. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Look Out, Argentina Just Score Another Goal!

Last night I played a DJ set at an invite-only party along with the band Los Super Elegantes and Senior from Junior Senior. This should give you some indication of what to expect for tonight’s Fluxblog Vs. Stereogum event at Luke & Leroy, though I am planning on playing a fairly different group of songs.

The Silures “21 Ghosts” / Ce’cile “Hot Like We” / M.I.A. “10 Dollar” / Vanesshina & Allesandra “Gira” / Edu K “Popozuda Rock and Roll” / Wir Sind Helden “Guten Tag” / Girls Aloud “Models” / ABBA “You Owe Me One” / Cristina “Mamma Mia” / Ludus “Breaking The Rules” / Maxi Geil! & Playcolt “Makin’ Love in the Sunshine” / Beyonce with Slim Thug and Bun B “Check On It” / Fox “S-s-single Bed” / Goldfrapp “Ride A White Horse” / Robyn “Konichiwa Bitches” / Junior Senior “Take My Time” / Out Hud “It’s For You” / Gene Serene and John Downfall “U Want Me” / Ladytron “Destroy Everything You Touch” / Celestial Choir “Stand On The Word (Larry Levan Mix)” / The Meters “Cabbage Cosby Alley” / Zalatnay Sarolta “Hadd Mondjam El” / Prince “Controversy” / The Slits “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” / The Make Up “Pow! to the People” / Mia. “Heroes” / David Wrench “World War IV” / Hank “Defreeze and Top Gal” / Fox and Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / Johnny Boy “15 Minutes”

Many longtime readers will notice that I pulled out a lot of old Fluxblog classics from ’03 and ’04 for this set. For newer readers, here are two of those golden oldies:

Mia “Heroes” – Not to be confused with M.I.A.! This Mia is a German pop band, and this is their cover of the David Bowie song, though it’s probably more accurate to call it a “reimagining” or somesuch since they take some rather drastic liberties with the song and sing the entire thing in German. I recently rediscovered this song after about not hearing for about a year or so, and I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. This track was originally posted here on February 18, 2004. (Click here to buy it from Amazon Germany.)

The Silures “21 Ghosts” – Though I do enjoy sharing music with you all, I ultimately do this site for fairly selfish reasons – if I didn’t work within this artificial structure, I would probably get lazy about seeking out new songs and then I wouldn’t have amazing obscure gems like this in my life. This is undoubtedly one of the best songs that I’ve ever featured on the site and probably my favorite way to open a DJ set, but since I’ve written about this song at least twice before, here’s a bit of testimonial from James at Green Pea-Ness:

“21 Ghosts” may well be the most stupefying jump-around-like-an-idiot hammer-of-the-gods not-actually-a-rock song I’ve ever heard in my life, with the possible exception of a certain song dedicated to determining the placement of bitches on one’s 99-strong list of problems. Honestly, I feel a little funny even giving credit to Pascal “Vitalic” Arbenz (one-half of the Silures along with Linda Lamb) for this one simply because it out-rocks everything he’s ever done, no small feat considering we’re talking about motherfucking VITALIC here. I’m thinking that this must have just been a lightning-in-a-bottle moment; all I can say is thank Jebus someone had a bottle handy.

This track was originally posted here on March 11, 2004.
(Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Elsewhere: Eppy begs God to explain the existence of the new television series Love Monkey.

Now That’s What I Call Holy Writ

Sugababes “Push The Button (Acoustic Mix)” – If you were wondering what this song would be like if the Sugababes were to perform it at your local open mic night, your curiosity should be relieved by this alternate mix. The arrangement is cut down to a spare acoustic guitar, piano, and some subtle percussion and keyboard effects, though the vocals seem to be entirely unchanged. Though this doesn’t quite match up to the sublime electropop of the original studio version, the song holds up very well to reinterpretation and should serve to encourage others to cover the tune in the future. (Click here for the official Sugababes site.)

Loose Fur “Thou Shalt Wilt” – Strangely, I never noticed that the name of this Wilco side project was a play on name Lucifer until I had to say it out loud this morning. They are pushing for irony pretty hard, given that the name of the new album is Born Again In The USA and this song is basically the Ten Commandments set to a jaunty Steely Dan-ish classic rock tune. (Click here for the Drag City Loose Fur mini-site.)

The Weekend Stretches Out Infinitely

I’m Chareth, and John Cei Douglas is the Maximalist.

James Rabbit “United States Cooldown” –

Just another West Coast maximalist: this James Rabbit song is so manic
Just another West Coast maximalist: it sounds like kids who have ADD taking speed
Chareth, The Flirt: what kind of images are you getting?
Just another West Coast maximalist: jelly and ice cream
Just another West Coast maximalist: balloons and streamers
Chareth, The Flirt: James Rabbit is a strange band. There’s always something just a little off about their music, like it would seem sort of normal if other people played the same thing.
Just another West Coast maximalist: yeah, i get that!
Just another West Coast maximalist: it sounds sort of skewed
Chareth, The Flirt: He always sounds like he can’t wait to get to the next lyric, he has this impatient excitement in his voice.
Just another West Coast maximalist: like they were given the wrong drugs
Chareth, The Flirt: actually I think it sounds like music by people who never ever take drugs
Just another West Coast maximalist: i meant medicine
Chareth, The Flirt: same thing!
Just another West Coast maximalist: sort of
Chareth, The Flirt: it sounds like their main motivation is interminable boredom
Just another West Coast maximalist: it definitely has a sort of manic childish enthusiasm, that almost doesnt make sense with what he’s singing about
Just another West Coast maximalist: and like he wants to play everything at once
Chareth, The Flirt: I really like the keyboard solo
Just another West Coast maximalist: i can’t for the… and then the – oh and then we – BUT THEN – KEYBOARD SOLO – OH GOD
Just another West Coast maximalist: that’s James Rabbit’s mind, right there

(Click here for Tyler from James Rabbit’s blog. He’ll send you a free copy of the album if you email him!)

Seth Kauffman “Get Your Love Stole” –

Just another West Coast maximalist: this Seth Kauffman song sounds really odd to me
Chareth, The Flirt: really?
Just another West Coast maximalist: i keep expecting it to sound like something else
Chareth, The Flirt: how would you draw this song?
Just another West Coast maximalist: on an open road, in a bar
Chareth, The Flirt: would Earl be in it?
Just another West Coast maximalist: no, hes not swinging enough
Just another West Coast maximalist: it would romanticise drinking alone
Chareth, The Flirt: and how would Earl be bad for that?
Just another West Coast maximalist: he’s not romantic enough
Just another West Coast maximalist: he’s too cheeky
Chareth, The Flirt: it’s weird, this song feels so right and yet it’s really difficult to write about
Just another West Coast maximalist: it sounds really old
Chareth, The Flirt: it’s not old, it’s brand new! that’s the magic of lo-fi, son
Chareth, The Flirt: I was just walking around Astoria, and it’s really cold and there’s bits of ice and snow all over, and the song sounded perfect for that moment, but I really couldn’t form any coherant thoughts about it
Just another West Coast maximalist: ha! it makes me think of hot, summer nights
Just another West Coast maximalist: really stifling
Chareth, The Flirt: I guess it could work that way too
Just another West Coast maximalist: it reminds me of the Stones
Just another West Coast maximalist: end of the night songs
Just another West Coast maximalist: like 3am
Chareth, The Flirt: this sort of lo-fi always says “winter” to me, especially the high end of the percussion and the low end of the bass
Just another West Coast maximalist: i think this is possibly because one summer i listened to “let it bleed” all the time
Chareth, The Flirt: that would do it

(Click here for Kauffman’s empty website.)

Imagine This Post As Being “Fun Size,” Like A Miniature Milky Way

Edu K (featuring Deize Tigrona) “Sex-O-Matic (Original Mix)” – This song makes sexuality seem almost entirely inextricable from combat, with every beat sounding like a shot aimed at the hips and every come-in in the vocals annunciated more like a taunt. (Click here to buy it from Soul Seduction.)

Stereo Total “Bad News From The Stars” – This glitchy cover of a Serge Gainsbourg reggae song could very well be the weirdest thing in the Stereo Total discography, but in a roundabout sort of way, it’s almost the most obvious thing they could do given their general aesthetic. (Click here to buy it from Disko B.)