Widowspeak

The fuzz and shoegaze revival continues with the newest release from Captured Tracks. Widowspeak have a real Mazzy Star meets The Jesus And Mary Chain thing going for them. It's not super original, but it's good and reverb drenched. Get the 7" here.

Kudos to Mr. Reznor

Trent Reznor: Born...Said "I want to fuck you like an animal"...Won an Oscar...Died. Nice.

Unintentionally hilarious "sexy" album covers

Random lists? I love random lists! Go look at this one. It's very funny. Big ups to Shoe!

Fun Girls

More mutant 80's disco-pop from Brooklyn's Greatest Hits from their upcoming 7" on Japanese label Sixteen Tambourines. Listen to "Fun Girls" below and shake your ass.


Greatest Hits - Fun Girls by Sixteen Tambourines Recs

Infinite Jest

Every year, i pick a big, long, heavy book to wade through. Past years have included Roberto Bolano's "2666" (which was excellent) and Thomas Pynchon's "Mason And Dixon" (which, aside from the part where the main characters smoke weed with George Washington, i absolutely hated). This year, i've chosen the late David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest." So far (a couple hundred pages in) there is some good stuff, but you've got to swallow it with a mountain of pretentious bullshit. I'm trying to stay positive and focus on said good stuff, but i hate, hate, hate footnotes and appendices and glossaries, and this novel is just filled to the brim. However, i will soldier on and reward myself with some pulpy detective trash or tripped out sci-fi next. Adieu.

Underneath The Pine

I didn't want to like this record as much as i do. It's leaps and bounds ahead of "Causers of This," and the added 70's airy groove just makes the whole thing a hell of a lot of fun. Toro Y Moi, i salute you.

Muppets dance themselves clean

I love LCD Soundsystem, and i love Muppets...so this video is a no-brainer for me. Enjoy.

Hooray! It's the final Panda Bear 7"

On March 14th, the last of Panda Bear's "Tomboy" lead-up 7" records comes out via Kompact. "Surfer's Hymn" will be limited, so it will probably sell out fast like the previous 3 records, and there's no pre-sale, so looks like you'll be scrounging the bins with me. Happy hunting.

Summer Camp

London's Summer Camp will be putting out an LP sometime in the summer. Check out the stalker anthem "I Want You" right here. Dark and dancey. Check the group out during SXSW.

Mushy

Lo-fi goth atmospherics. A feeling of overwhelming dread. Synth-wave and kraut-psychedelic soul awaiting the arrival of Cthulu and his otherworldly minions. So enter Italy's Mushy. Think Zola Jesus with more hiss. Get the LP from Mannequin Records. And sample the song "Losing Days" over at 20JFG.

Sonic Youth score a French film...go figure

Sonic Youth provide the score for the French film, "Simon Werner A Disparu." It sounds exactly like what you would think it sounds like...mellow, instrumental Sonic Youth songs that weave back and forth from melodic to just a bit noisy, and the album cover's pretty rad too. The record's good though, so if you're a Sonic Youth kind of kid, then this should be on your radar. I would like to see the film, just to see how the songs jive with the cinematic images. Vive la France!

Destroyer at Mohawk in March

Dan Bejar brings his easy, breezy, beautiful cover girl self to Austin on March 25th when Destroyer will play a set at The Mohawk. Tickets available now. "Kaputt" has been one of my favorite records of the year thus far, so some bored Bejar action post SXSW should be cool.

Somebody Give Me An Endorsement Deal Pt. 4: Maker's Mark

I need a drink. It's been a long day...hell, it's been a long week. You know what would make me feel better. A Maker's Mark. With Coke, with water, on the rocks, neat...it doesn't matter. It's always delicious. I need a drink.

Radiohead's Lotus Flower video

Here's the video for the new Radiohead tune, "Lotus Flower." Download the whole album tomorrow. Hooray!

New Sandwitches

The Sandwitches have a new LP coming out in March from Empty Cellar called Mrs. Jones' Cookies. The tracks i've heard are awesome, a perfect mix of folk, psych, pop, garage, and occasionally haunting vocals. Look for them at SXSW 2011.

Tyler The Creator on Fallon

The internet is abuzz about Odd Future's Tyler The Creator and Hodgy Beats performing the shit out of their song "Sandwitches" on Jimmy Fallon the other night. And, i'll admit, it's pretty damn good. Check it out.

Hatchet II

We're about to watch "Hatchet II." If it's even anywhere close as awesome and gory as the first one, then i will be a very happy panda. Victor Crowley Lives!!!

Let England Shake

Polly Jean releases her newest LP today via Vagrant. "Let England Shake" is basically a war album, and it's a little weird. It's haunting, but strangely uplifting and kind of patriotic at the same time. Hard to pin down, but Ms. Harvey is excellent here as always. Listen to "Written On The Forehead" below.

Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

Free Press Summer Fest 2011

The Houston Free Press Summer Fest is back this year with a pretty good line up. MF Doom! Fucked Up! Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings! The Black Angels! Lower Dens! Ween! Weezer (15 year old Tommy is so excited)! Go here for info and tickets ($30 general admission...it is Houston in the summer after all).

And i can't wait to hear the band called Anni Difranco's Dick.

Ravedeath, 1972

Tim Hecker's new LP, "Ravedeath, 1972," which will be in contention for best album title and best album art at the end of the year, comes out tomorrow via Kranky. If musical abstraction and sprawling, ambient tunes are your cup of tea, or you think an album recorded in a church in Iceland using a pipe organ as the foundation for the whole composition, then you should check this one out. Relax and meditate.

The King of Limbs

Holy shit. A new Radiohead album to be released digitally this Saturday, and then in a bunch of other formats later in March (?). Check the details here. I'm not sure what a "newspaper album" is either. Pre-order the thing here. Hazaa!

Congratulations?

So, i guess in an attempt to seem more legit, the Grammy for album of the year goes to Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs." So...congratulations? I guess that's great and all, but really, i think a 3rd place ribbon at an elementary school field day has more prestige. Look at the nominees. Eminem. Katy Perry. Lady Gaga. Lady Antebellum. You've got a guy who hasn't been relevant in 5 years, a girl who won't be relevant in 2, some mutant that the gays have in place to usurp Madonna's throne, and some people i've never heard of before. Congratulations indeed. So, way to go Arcade Fire. You do actually deserve the acclaim, and "The Suburbs" was one of my favorite albums of 2010, but for the Grammys, it's just too little too late.

What? No Jethro Tull?

Dragon Wings and Wizard Tales

Coming straight outta Connecticut, 1979, Emerald Web unleashed this rare, private press record and was all the rage at the planetariums of the early 1980's, a perfect soundtrack for a mediocre laser light show, and more moog and flute than you can shake a stick at. I first heard these guys on the Mind-Bending Motorway Mix, courtesy of Trish Keenan. The first track on the mix is a really trippy number off of this record.

And, i want it. I want it badly. But alas, my $100 bid on ebay was not enough, so sucks to the ass-mar of the dude who outbid me.

Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang

Sweet.

My last link be all bad and shit

Still want to listen to some new Prefuse 73, but my last link got you nowhere? Of course you do. Why don't you try here instead? Hooray!

Prefuse 73

Prefuse 73 has a new record coming out in April from Warp. All the vocals on the album are performed by a variety of female singers, including Zola Jesus, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, and the late, great Trish Keenan from Broadcast. Go here to listen to some samples.

Candyman

Re-watched "Candyman" for the first time in like 15 years the other night. I had no idea that Phillip Glass composed the score. Sweet.

The Party Ain't Over

A few years ago, Jack White produced a record for county legend Loretta Lynn. The two had kind of Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash thing going. It was awesome. For 2011, Mr. White is teaming with 1950's rockabilly artist Wanda Jackson to create another awesome rock & roll record. With classic production, a really original voice, and a bitchin' cover of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm Know Good," Wanda Jackson is back baby! Get it from Third Man Records.

Console

The Notwist's Martin Gretschmann and vocalist Miriam Osterrieder are back with a new album from their Console project entitled "Herself." A mix of minimalism, Krautrock, and coldwave, Console are a German electro-pop-fusion dream. Mellow, pretty headphone music for gray days and cold nights. Your laptop is drooling.

Belong

Straight from the booze-soaked underbelly of New Orleans comes swampy shoegaze duo Belong. Their debut LP will be out in March from Kranky. Until then, download the track, "Perfect Life" right here.

Superbowl today

The Superbowl's today. Not quite as exciting this year without my Saints there, but i love football, so let's go...Packers. And let's go overeating and drinking too much. Hooray!

(And yes, that is a picture of the Puppy Bowl. Hazaa!)

Baths and Braids at The Mohawk

LA's Baths and Montreal's Braids put on a great show last night. Star Slinger had to cancel (wa-wah). Here's what i learned:

Braids play a really pretty combination of electronic and shoegaze, awesome sleepy time music.

Baths is a gay guy who talks like McLovin and dances like a freak while manning his sampler. Very fun to watch.

Here's some pics:

Braids

Baths

Baths

Suuns

At once off putting and inviting, methodical beeps and boops pulsing like circuitry until the drone and underwater beats kick in, and the vocals swirl around you, like birdies or stars after a head injury. Timed. Even. Controlled. You'd swear it was a result of German tinkering, but then all at once you explode.

So enter Suuns. Their debut LP, "Zeroes QC," is an interesting listen, able to entice and repel simultaneously, they're really hard to pigeon hole. At times, they sound like part of new wave of analog synth-enthusiasts, and at the next a shoegazey wall of sound, but the throbbing pulse continues to beat and pulls everything back in to a quite beautiful, cohesive whole. Definitely worth checking out. I've been jamming it for days.

Buy the album from Secretly Canadian, or just grab a couple of mp3s while you're there.

As mayoral as he wants to be

Former 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell (aka Uncle Luke, aka Luke Skyywalker) is running for mayor of Miami. After you let that sink in for a minute, read the full article here.

Ice, Ice Baby or How I Still Had to Go to Work Even Though It Took Me an Hour to Drive Through This Shit to Get There

This beautiful picture (i wish i had taken it) is only the start of what i had to go through to get to my stupid job this morning. I should have listened to my wife and stayed home. I should have played in the snow with my dog. I should have streamed a bunch of movies through Netflix. But alas, i am a sucker. So, a big middle finger to whomever played hookie from work today. I hope an anvil falls on your head.

Peaking Lights

Peaking Lights have a brand spankin new record out on Not Not Fun Records. We first heard them on a split 7" from the NNF Bored Fortress series late last year. Call it trance. Call it "post-reggae hypno-pop." Call it drone. It doesn't really matter, it's fucking cool. Listen and put yourself into a groovy, drug-induced free fall, or cruise the icy roads across the country with your sunglasses on, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, getting lost in the vast openness of the midwest. It's something like that.

Listen to and download "Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)" right here, courtesy of GvsB.

Baths this Saturday at Mohawk

This Saturday, Feb. 5, Baths (one of our favs from 2010) comes to town. Chilled beats and pretty piano lines to sip our beers to while we huddle together and nod to keep warm. Should be a good time. Come on out to The Mohawk to see them along with Braids and Star Slinger. It's only $10. Hooray!

My Trunk Is Boomin'

This just makes me happy. Reminds me of grade school. Oh, and i totally know this guy.

Free Gucci 2

British DJ Sinden has compiled a new compilation of Gucci Mane remixes (including one from These New Puritans) called "Free Gucci 2," a sequel to Diplo's "Free Gucci" mix. Get the whole thing for free right here, ice cream face tats and all. Hooray!

So long Jack and Meg

The White Stripes have called it quits. I never got to see them perform live. Suck. More info here.

P90X round 2

So, after taking a couple of months off, we're starting over with the P90X workout, much to my everlasting chagrin. No holidays to get in the way this time around, and this time, we're going the full 13 weeks. Yeah! To get us all motivated, here's a pic of Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a doobie. Yeah!

Starting weight: 228 lbs.

John Barry RIP

Film composer John Barry died yesterday at the age of 77. He was most known for his James Bond scores, so as you can guess, he was a pimp. That's him above with Nancy Sinatra recording the theme for "You Only Live Twice." His work, especially those Connery Bond films, are great, kind of a groovier Mancini. Check all of them out if you're not already familiar with them.