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• 

  Deerhooves Addendum

  Posted: May 23rd, 2006, 6:01pm PDT by ian

  Tags:    [edit]

  In a move calculated to prove, once and for all, their status as an "awesome band", Deerhoof has gone and released a free EP of covers and live songs on their website. All this on the same day that their bassist is amicably leaving the band to pursue other things, no less! But, while band members leaving is always a sad thing, let's not let it get us down. We still have the songs, and they are so very, very good.
  
  
  
  Deerhoof - The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Beatles Cover)
  
  
  
  Deerhoof - There's A Kind Of Hush All Over The World (Herman's Hermits Cover)
  
  
  
  I chose to post these two particular covers because they highlight exactly what it is that Deerhoof do so well: play experimental pop music that manages to be both things at once (ie, experimental and pop). Each of these covers are particularly good in part because they're true to the spirit of their originals. They faithfully recreate the aspects of the songs that were good in the first place while, at the same time, framing the songs totally differently, making them their own. For precisely these reasons, the Beatles cover, for instance, is infinitely better than most of the songs on last years' mediocre tribute to Rubber Soul . Most of the songs were either far too faithful to their originals to be interesting (Low) or had completely eviscerated everything that made the songs good in the first place (Fiery Furnaces).
  
  
  
  Anyway, the live songs from the free EP are perhaps even better than the originals, but I don't need to post them. You can go download them yourself, along with the whole EP, here. (Although be warned that it comes as a single MP3). Other covers include My Bloody Valentine and Canned Heat songs, while most of the live cuts are from the Runners Four album. Enjoy! Long live Deerhoof!
• 

  Summer Soundtrack: Volume 5

  Posted: May 18th, 2006, 9:38am PDT by ian

  Tags:    [edit]

  Sure, it's not actually summer yet, but it's close enough. Consider this an invocation of sun and blue sky and swimming and a hundred smog free days. This first song is something that we've posted before in a different version, but it demands to be heard again. Hopefully you'll be humming it the next time you're riding your bike through a meadow or an abandoned brick factory. And be sure to buy the Little Wings album Light Green Leaves because it's an ideal summer soundtrack in its own right.
  
  Little Wings - The Way I Deux
  For the past few weeks this song has been playing in my head pretty much constantly. The problem with this is that the song demands to be sung out loud, even at the most inappropriate moments: in the rotting fruit market down the street from my house, at that moderately expensive restaurant on the corner, at another band's show during the quiet moments. Luckily my lady-friend has the same problem, so at least it's always a duet.
  [buy]
  
  Zooey - Endless Summer on the Beaver Island
  Summer vacation for Nintendo game school children. Floating down pixelated rivers on rafts and overturned orcs. Drinking from bright yellow chalices. Humming the music from Castlevania.
  [website/mp3s/great photos]
  
  Beat Happening - Indian Summer
  A friend of mine often recites the first verse from this song in a very serious voice so as to get across the genius of Beat Happening, and to very great effect. Please read aloud before listening: "Breakfast in cemetery/boy tasting wild cherry/touch girl, apple blossom/just a boy playing possum." Now proceed with listening to your new favourite song.
  [buy]
• 

  Deerhooves

  Posted: May 15th, 2006, 5:46pm PDT by ian

  Tags:    [edit]

  Intrigued by the non-stop goodness of last years' The Runners' Four (which I wrote about back in January and Jay wrote about in October), I decided to go on a journey through the Deerhoof back catalogue. What I found was my new favourite band.
  
  These three songs are from the albums Milkman, Reveille, and Apple O' (in that order). They would make me cry with happiness if I was into doing that sort of thing, so feel free to weep as you listen. You can buy all three albums here. You can also legally download twenty-three MP3s from most of the band's albums at the Puzzling Music Archive.
  
  Deerhoof - Milkman
  
  I think this might qualify as a perfect song. I'm not sure what to say except that this is exactly what guitars are supposed to sound like. The same goes for the drums, bass, keyboards and especially the vocals. Listen closely: it's straight up rock and roll, but without all the boringness and clichés; it's indie music without all the fake emotion, ironic posturing, and cookie cutter instrumentation. And for the sake of this song, I'll admit something else: sometimes I'll post a song that I think is kind of mediocre overall because I think that the band is doing at least one really interesting thing. This song is here because I love every second of it.
  
  Deerhoof - This Magnificent Bird Will Rise
  
  Don't let the robotic intro fool you. This song is what I imagine a summer day rendered entirely in drums would sound like: the sky a giant skin being beaten on by the sun, birds hammering against the wind, scattered clouds of cymbal crashes far off on the horizon. Then the guitars! Like little ecstatic bursts amidst the chaos of cymbals, they have to fight to be heard over the drumming. And the doo and ba and la vocals playing off of the organ! Amazing!
  
  Deerhoof - Apple Bomb
  
  All this rocking needs a counterpoint. Sure, the song starts off kind of meandering and kind of off key. But as the triumphant/melancholy ba's start to come in after the 1:30 mark, it becomes something different altogether, building up towards an epic climax and denouement in the last few minutes.
• 

  All MP3 Explosion Post

  Posted: May 9th, 2006, 9:39pm PDT by ian

  Tags:    [edit]

  Coming soon: MP3 blog expose! Rock nostalgia! Songs of interest! Confusing metaphors!
  
  
  
  Shapes and Sizes - Island's Gone Bad
  
  The mournful strings, well placed handclaps, and little guitar breakdown at the beginning of the song made me expect something completely different to happen next. Sad children on an island, nowhere to go. Crying. Running around all scared. No, instead we get the second singer bouncing off of trees, picking fruit, breathing ocean air in giant gulps. Singing all crazed and raving. Horns all over the place. Cannibalism? Indeed.
  
  [website]
  
  
  
  Struggle in the Hive - Summer Nights
  
  I'm not sure that I believe anything the singer is saying in this song. Summer nights are never these nostalgic sodium streetlight orange colored memories of making-out and walking around town in slow motion that he wants us to believe. This is almost like it's made up of every good memory he can think of strung together like some kind of archetypal "night that could never possibly happen but that happens every summer night". But, then again, no on ever said a song had to be true to be good. I love how it sounds like I remember my parent's basement.
  
  [buy]
• 

  all text meta-title

  Posted: May 9th, 2006, 2:09pm PDT by david b

  Tags:    [edit]

  Final Fantasy: He Poos Clouds. Just a reminder (also: Mother's day on Sunday).
  
  Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds.
  
  The life and times of Matt Shane and his new band Think About Life. This and this but mainly this bring me to a great happening - a wonderful concoction of get together, walk about, shows/shows/shows, and friends such as the aforementioned Matt Shane. As for Think About Life, Dan of Better Than Shakespeare and everyone's favourite blog already posted some tunes but I can at least offer you this --> [] [] [] and more usefully {}. To finish things off, I really wanted to post that picture of Graham Van Pelt, the Father of the holy trinity that is Think About Life, doing sound at the Aids Wolf/Wolf Parade show that was featured so heavily in Spin Magazine - sadly archives as good as this are not available.
• 

  Herman Düne Destroys

  Posted: May 3rd, 2006, 10:42pm PDT by ian

  Tags:    [edit]

  Herman Düne - Suburbs With You (Peel Session)
  
  
  
  Right now, a Herman Düne song is playing. It's been playing on repeat for days on end but it somehow manages to get better every time I hear it. I think the person who wrote the song is some kind of evil bastard genius.
  
  
  
  Herman Düne - Seven Cities
  
  
  
  I've changed the song, but it's the same thing. Catchiness of an almost pathological variety. I've been compulsively drinking the variety of Whiskey Sours described in this song in the hopes that I'll pass out instead of dancing spastically around the living room, but it's only making it worse. If I don't make it through the night, tell them that it was worth it.
• 

  This Week in Showz

  Posted: May 1st, 2006, 11:47pm PDT by david b

  Tags:    [edit]

  The return of Arrington de Dionyso into my live life was a glorious thing! It was a most wicked dance party (heavy) in a house in Golden Hill. It came rumbling out of his throat. A new, fourth member felled burning towers with a saxophone. The bass was all feeling. The guests were all feeling it.
  
  Now I'm at home, listening to the tape. It suggests all the same things but only approaches the band asymptotically. I could see myself using it as a vehicle to recall the previous night, or maybe to encourage other to seek the same experience.
  
  Old Time Relijun - Tigers in the Temple
  
  
  Still in Golden Hill, a few days later: we all swallowed the discomfort. It was worth it - a great performance is a great performance (this idea generalizes and can always be applied in your favour). The most remarkable part was the coordination of the two man, multi-instrument onslaught. John Ringhofer (the main cloud) was fairly relaxed in his quick switches between omnichord, guitar, banjo and the occasional trombone while his tourmate and accompanist (Vollmar) recklessly yet efficiently picked up/put down/played both at once: xylophone, drums, melodica, trombone, bass guitar (upside down) and more. It was fearless determination and unrelenting dedication. Perhaps a mission from God?
  
  Half Handed Could - You've Been Faithful To Us Clouds
  
• 

  20 yrs of : ________

  Posted: May 1st, 2006, 11:00pm PDT by david b

  Tags:    [edit]

  This song is for David Lester. He's playing guitar - both of them. He's impeccably dressed. He's an author and an artist but if you met him, you would probably guess that he's an architect.
  
  
  
  Mecca Normal - 1922
  
  
  
  This song is for Jean Smith. She's singing a poem or reading an essay. She's remarkably lean. She's an interpreter and a storyteller although if you met her you would probably guess that she's fiercely everything.
  
  
  
  Mecca Normal - The Caribou and The Oil Pipeline
  
  
  
  The above lines barely manage to cover Mecca Normal's new album/present tour. The band is best described by their amazing catalogue of books, records, posters, paintings, output, output, output, output.
• 

  Sweden

  Posted: May 1st, 2006, 7:32pm PDT by ian

  Tags:    [edit]

  Um, for whatever reason, a disproportionate number of the good demos we receive are from Sweden. Either the rest of the world hates us, or something strange is going on in Scandinavia.
  
  
  
  Antennas - Adapt!
  
  Ok, this song is pretty straight-up, unapologetic power-pop. But sometimes that's alright. Sometimes you find yourself nodding along to the soundtrack to Veronica Mars wishing that your life justified driving 4/4 beats coming out of nowhere and setting the mood.
  
  [buy]
  
  
  
  Existensminimum - Changing Lines
  
  If you were to say this song sounded like a Spoon song you would be right. If you added that this song sounded like a particularly good Spoon song, you would be even more right. If you told me that you didn't like this song because it sounded too much like a Spoon song I would tell you that you hate music, but then I would apologise and we would go on a bike ride.
  
  [buy]
  
  
  
  Marching Band - Home Alone IV
  
  Sometimes I can't handle all the pretty pop music harmonizing and super-dense multi-tracking that's going around these days. But most of the time I'm a sucker for it and will find myself making a playlist containing a bunch of song like this, always with the Kinks "Waterloo Sunset" to start the set off, and will sit on my deck and watch the neighbours do whatever it is that they do.
  
  [buy/more free mp3s]
• 

  All stars/All hearts

  Posted: April 25th, 2006, 1:45am PDT by david b

  Tags:    [edit]

  Thanks to Maria (a noise/'hard' music enthusiast) for booking The Leah Quinelle All-Stars featuring Happy last week at the Che. The first song shows off the attributes of the group:
  
  1) They publish a weekly zine, even while on the road.
  
  2) They are generally unkempt in the fashion of any respectable, self sustainable person.
  
  3) They heart-circled the faces of all the boys they had kissed in Razorcake Magazine (a number greater than 5 and less than 10).
  
  4) They exhibit both regional AND familial pride.
  
  5) Rough around the edges with a penny whistle solo inside.
  
  
  
  The Leah Quinelle All-Stars - Aaron Cruz
  
  
  
  As much as I really want Leah Quinelle to make it/break/achieve conventional success, I'm certain that the hype will never wash over them. And yet The Love Song trumps any Pipettes song writing and smashes a pie in the face of any stupid self-centered dipshit of a band, press kit in hand, that 'goes into the studio' to record their 'sophomore effort'. Despite the fact that the numbers were low during their set at the Che (greater than 5 but less than 10), Leah Quinelle + friends certainly have achieved great plains of unconventional success. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that not only are they aware of this success, they are also constantly satisfied by it as they continue their forever tour, happily photocopying weekly issue of various zines along the way.
  
  
  
  The Leah Quinelle All-Stars - The Love Song