Friday, May 31, 2019

Friday Horror Trailer - Street Trash



Daily Jam (Mike Patton Week) - Something for the Girl with Everything

In 1997, LA pop duo Sparks release their album "Plagiarism," a kind of tribute album to themselves, reworking many of their old songs.  And on two of those tracks, "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" and "Something for the Girl with Everything," they enlisted Faith No More to add a little oomph to the proceedings.  Both tracks slap, but today, we're focusing on the latter, and remembering that time my brother and i listened to it 100 times in a row driving to Louisiana for a wedding.  Check it out below, your Daily Jam.


Thursday, May 30, 2019

Purple Pilgrims

New Zealand sister duo Purple Pilgrims have a new album of synth folk headed our way later this summer.  Check out the video for the swelling and soaring "Two Worlds Apart" below and look for the upcoming "Perfumed Earth" LP in August from Flying Nun.


Cross Record

We're getting a new record from Central Texas duo Cross Record later this summer, full of dreampop and folk hybrids that sound like floating away forever.  Watch the video for new single "PYSOL My Castle" below and pre-order the upcoming self-titled record here from Grapefruit Record Club.


Lower Dens - Young Republicans

September brings us a new album from Baltimore act Lower Dens, their first if four years.  The band's Jana Hunter is calling "The Competition" LP a pop record, and judging from the darkened synth pop groove of first single "Young Republicans," i'd say he's correct.  Check out the video for the song below and get the record from Ribbon Music.

Daily Jam (Mike Patton Week) - When Good Dogs Do Bad Things

For your listening pleasure this Thursday, "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things," the chaotic and shifting song from The Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton, your Daily Jam.


Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Cold Showers

LA post punk band Cold Showers have a new album of dark and moody gems out now via Dais Records.  Check out the synth, shoegaze, and goth tinged "Faith" below, download the record here, and snag a physical copy here.


Daily Jam (Mike Patton Week) - Der Golem

"The Director's Cut" from the Mike Patton fronted supergroup Fantomas is a perfect album, a string of film score themes morphed and mutated into bursts of progressive metal and weirdness.  I could easily pick and hype any track from the record for today's Daily Jam, but i've settled on "Der Golem," a heavy slab of horror originally penned by Karl Ernst Sasse for the silent German expressionist film.  Check it out below.


Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Daily Jam (Mike Patton Week) - Retrovertigo

The fact that Mr. Bungle was on a major label will never cease to amaze me.  Ever.  I guess that's the power of Faith No More's "Epic."  Anyway, here's one of Bungle's more accessible songs, "Retrovertigo," our Daily Jam...


Scythe

UK label Blackest Ever Black, purveyors of dark sounds, noise, drone, and ambient electronics, will occasionally release a compilation album for our listening pleasure.  And they're always top notch.  The latest, "A Short Illness from Which He Never Recovered," is out in July and features artists like Carla dal Forno, Brainman, and more.  Check out the slow creeping opener "Flower, Drop" from Scythe below.  It sounds like floating in space.  Then pre-order the record here.


Monday, May 27, 2019

Sierra

France sure likes to churn out the electronic/synth/techno/industrial pop jams these days, and one of the latest comes from Sierra.  The artist's latest EP, "Gone," is out now.  Listen to the industrial tinged "Unbroken" below and get the EP here from Lazerdiscs Records.


Daily Jam (Mike Patton Week) - I Am the Dead

I've been a Mike Patton devotee approaching almost 30 years now, oh he of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and a hundred other projects fame.  So, this week, i figured i pick out seven different songs from projects either led by Patton or on which he guested to supply us a week's worth of Daily Jams.  First up is "I Am the Dead," a track from neo-classical composer and violist Eyvind Kang's 2004 album "Virginal Coordinates."  It's a somber and moving piece of music.  Check it out below.


Sunday, May 26, 2019

Daily Jam - Cathedrals

I randomly caught a performance by North Carolina band Jump, Little Children 20+ years ago in College Station, TX of all places.  They opened for David Garza, and as good as a performer as he could be, Jump, Little Children completely stole the show.  And then we met them the next morning, hungover and eating breakfast tacos...as one does in Texas.  Anyway, here's their somber and beautiful track "Cathedrals," our Daily Jam.


Saturday, May 25, 2019

Cate Le Bon

At the record store yesterday and looking around and noticing how much stuff came out this week.  Far too much to procure in one afternoon, but "Reward," the latest from Cate Le Bon should be on everybody's radar.  I'm not overly familiar with her catalog, but everything i've ever heard from the artist is pretty darn good, and her work with the duo Drinks is stellar.  Anyway, listen to the odd, jazzy alt-rock opener "Miami" below and get the record here from Mexican Summer.


Daily Jam - Missing the War

Every now and then i find myself on a Ben Folds kick.  And i guess i'm there again today.  Here's "Missing the War," our Daily Jam.


Friday, May 24, 2019

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Cherubs

I was not expecting to hear about a new Cherubs album today.  When the the noisy '90s Austin band reunited a couple years ago, i figured we'd just get some shows and reissues and maybe a new song or two, but now in July, we're getting a brand new LP, "Immaculada High."  Check out the fried and psych-tinged "Sooey Pig" below and order the record here from Relapse.


LINGUA IGNOTA

Experimental noise artist LINGUA IGNOTA has a real talent in making music that's equal parts jarring, terrifying, and mesmerizing.  And she's got a new album headed our way in July, that if the first single is any indication, is going to be an absolute beast of a record.  Check out "Butcher of the World," an intense and creeping mix of noise, metal, opera, and classical music.  The artist screams and wails into the abyss alongside bits of crusty drone and tape loop and segments of Henry Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary" (also known as the theme from "A Clockwork Orange"), before fading away into haunting sung vocals, an eerie reprieve from what's to come.  Listen below and pre-order the "Caligula" LP here from Profound Lore.


Russian Circles

Russian Circles have a new album of proggy instrumental metal headed our way in August.  Check out "Arluck" before, a track that's starts out on a frenetic and punchy groove before descending into something that feels like an intense horror score.  It's awesome.  Listen below and get the upcoming "Blood Year" LP here from Sargent House.


Daily Jam - Voiture en Rouge

The Black Heart Procession were one of my favorite bands throughout the '00s, their particular brand of moody, spaghetti western tinged pop forever soothing and haunting my soul.  In 2004, they contributed to the "In the Fishtank" series, a collection of EPs featuring various collaborations of indie and underground artists, theirs paired with Norwegian prog band Solbakken.  The results were great...though it pretty much just sounded like a new Black Heart album, which was more than good enough for me.  Anyway, here's that record's opener, the kind of psychedelic French pop leaning "Voiture en Rouge," our Daily Jam.


Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Daily Jam - Dead in Love

I've always liked Queens of The Stone Age, but there's just something about Josh Homme's Desert Sessions that grabs me even more.  Maybe it's the collaborative spirit of the whole thing, or the rawness and immediacy, as the tunes are generally written and recorded quickly in as few takes as possible.  Whatever it is, they're great.  So, let's listen to "Dead in Love" from Vol. 9, our Daily Jam...


Glassing

Austin trio Glassing create dense pieces of sound combining elements of black metal and post hardcore bombast.  The result is heavy and immense.  New album "Spotted Horse" came out last week.  Get it here via Brutal Panda and listen to the album opening "When You Stare" below.


Zetra

London duo Zetra make dark, gloomy, and noisy mix of black metal, shogaze, darkwave, goth, and synth pop.  I love all five of those things!  Anyway, rumor has it they may be working on a release with Mondo/Death Waltz sometime in the future, but for the time being, check out their work on the "Demo One" EP.  Cool stuff.  Watch the video for "Satellite" below and get the limited cassette or download from the band here.  (PRO TIP: Click on the track to bring up a "pay what you want" option rather than dropping the £666 they're jokingly asking for.)

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Daily Jam - The Seed 2.0

There was a time when The Roots were the most exciting thing in hip-hop, a kind of funk and soul and hip-hop collective full of amazing musicians making boundary breaking music.  It wasn't to last, the industry moving in different directions for better or worse, but those first few albums from the group still kick ass, so much so, that i can almost get over them being on Fallon's show.  Anyway, from 2002's "Phrenology," here's the Cody ChesnuTT assisted "The Seed 2.0," a sexy soul jammer that's worked its way into many a playlist.  Your Daily Jam...


Plastic Dance Vol. 2


There's that saying about death and taxes, though i might go ahead and add another thing to our list of inevitability, and that is the absolute wonderful and obscure music that Finders Keepers compiles, reissues, and releases every single year. Their streak is absurd, with nary a missed cue or bad record in the batch. The latest compilation from the label and Andy Votel and Doug Shipton is "Plastic Dance Vol. 2," a collection of random synth and electronic pop, stabs of freaky punk rock, warped funk disco, and jazz noise experiments. It's a hell of a mix. Check out the album opening "Meat Grinder" from composer George Atwell, an artist maybe most notable for providing some music for those old NFL films. Anyway, it's a banger, and it sets the stage for the rest of the album. Check it below and get the record here.


Monday, May 20, 2019

акульи слёзы

I have no idea what акульи слёзы means, or even how to pronounce it, but i will say that the ladies who make up Russian band акульи слёзы craft lovely, hazy bits of shoegaze and dreampop.  Listen to "Идеальный обман" which translates to "Perfect Deception" below and get the "Опыт очарования" EP which translates to "Experience of the Charm" here.

Daily Jam - Droppin' Em

In elementary school, the albums that never left my Walkman were some combination of Def Leppard's "Hysteria," Warrant's "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich," the entire discography of Weird Al Yankovic, and "Walking with a Panther" by LL Cool J.  Warrant record aside, the rest still hold up, and i still think LL's record bangs.  So, make 5th Grade Tommy happy and listen to "Droppin' Em" below, our Daily Jam.


Sunday, May 19, 2019

Daily Jam - Glósóli

There was a time when i would have argued that Sigur Rós was probably the best band in the world.  Probably after i saw them live.  Granted this was about 15 years ago and my subject sample was smaller, but the ethereal post rock band's often intense and emotional compositions could make my heart break or soar with nary a word of English (or sometimes even a discernible language at all) to be found.  While my opinion of the band may not be quite as hyperbolic as it was in the past, i still think they're great, and that live performance i saw was one of the most fantastic i've ever had the pleasure of witnessing.  Anyway, here's "Glósóli" from 2005's "Takk," a song that builds and builds until it swells and crescendos at its absolute breaking point, gorgeous and heart wrenching.  And it's our Daily Jam.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Disasterpiece - Under the Silver Lake

If you haven't seen David Robert Mitchell's "Under the Silver Lake" yet, you really should go remedy that as soon as possible.  It's a messy, horny, voyeuristic neo-noir full of nods to old films, shades of Hitchcock, De Palma, and Lynch layered all over it, a critique of male entitlement awash in mystery and surrealism.  It's probably my favorite film of the year so far.  And it also features a score from Disasterpiece, the artist most known for his Carpenter-esqe score for Mitchell's previous film "It Follows."  This score feels way more classic Hollywood in scope, but is equally as excellent as his previous soundtrack work.  Listen to the whole thing below, download it here, and get the record here from Milan.


Daily Jam - Spaniard

Here's a beautiful shoegaze track from The Boo Radleys for our Daily Jam.  Listen to "Spaniard" below.


Friday, May 17, 2019

Corpse Flower

Holy shit!  Mike Patton is making a record with French composer Jean Claude Vannier.  The project is called Corpse Flower and it's due in September on Ipecac.  By all accounts, these two should create something quite weird and amazing.  Check out the first single, "On Top of the World," below.  And much thanks to my brother for throwing this information my way.


Modern Nature

Former Mazes and Ultimate Painting member Jack Cooper has a new project in the works called Modern Nature.  The debut album, "How to Live," is due in August.  Watch and listen to light groove of the psych, folk, jazz, and krautrock fusing "Peradam" below and pre-order the record here from Bella Union.


DJINN

Featuring members of Goat and Hills, Swedish band DJINN takes the psychedelia of the artists' past work and fuses it into a grooving, pulsing, bleeding kind of spiritual, experimental jazz.  Reaching through the ether and the cosmos to clutch the far out sounds of Sun Ra or Alice Coltrane, the new self-titled album is a mind bomb, exploding the folds and senses and opening exotic new worlds.  Watch the trippy video to the cheekily titled "Djinn and Djuice" below and get the album here from Rocket Recordings.


Friday Horror Trailer - Wes Craven's New Nightmare



Daily Jam - Heaven

There are so many bands and artists that i never got the chance to see, either by death or departure, or simply the fact that they were defunct before i was old enough to pay any attention.  And through the years, we've seen many a reunion tour or album, sometimes for nostalgia, sometimes for a buck, or sometimes just because they missed making music with each other.  I've got a long list of bands i never got to see, divided into two parts: those i will never see (Velvet Underground, Nirvana, etc.), and those that there is still a chance, no matter how marginal or unlikely.  I'm talking about the Talking Heads here.  If i could reunite anyone, it'd be them.  And they're one of the few acts that if they were just going to play one show somewhere, i would probably buy the plane ticket to go.  So, all of you promoters and bookers out there, somebody...anybody...Make this happen.  In the meantime, here's "Heaven" from 1979's "Fear of Music."


Thursday, May 16, 2019

Holy Wave

Austin garage-psych band Holy Wave released their latest album, "Adult Fear," back in March, but have now put out a video for their single "Crys."  It's hazy and daydreamy, wistful psych pop that feels like a summer day in Central Texas.  Watch it below and get the record here from Reverberation Appreciation Society.


Daily Jam - Invisible

Pretty much for all of my adult life, i have hunted and scoured the earth for all the wonderful music i could find.  Blogs and websites and music magazines and playlists do most of the heavy work these days, but years and years ago, many of my discoveries came from label samplers, those stacks of often free CDs that are now probably taking up space in a landfill somewhere.  But man, sometimes those samplers were things to behold, veritable treasure chests of obscure artists to choose from.  In 2002, one of the sample discs clued me on to the Georgian psych-tinged, reverby, alt-country band The Possibilities.  They were more pop then anything else, but the single and lead track from the band's swan song "Way Out" still gets me singing along every time i hear it.  So, here's "Invisible," our Daily Jam.


Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Orville Peck

There's something magical to me about pairing an echoed, reverby shoegaze aesthetic with folk, country, and Americana jams.  You can almost see the dust floating in the air, life through over exposed Super-8 film.  It's haunting and it's beautiful and it's wonderful, and i am here for it.  Anyway, Nevada's Orville Peck (oh how i hope that's someone's real name) makes this kind of psychedelic country and western dreampop, and i need it in my ears now.  The "Pony" LP came out back in March on Sub Pop, so i'm just a little behind here, but better late than never.  Check out "Kansas (Remembers Me Now)" below and order the record here.


Actual Magic

Experimental New York band Actual Magic has a new 7" of quirky, warped blues/soul mutations for our listening pleasure.  Check out "Money Trouble" below and pick up the record here.


Jarvis Cocker

Holy shit, we've got a new single from Jarvis Cocker out today!  I've long been a fan of Cocker, going back to his days in Pulp, and then grooving along with his two solo records and all of the odds and ends and appearances and collaborations ever since.  Anyway, it's been a decade since his last proper solo outing, and it appears that be changing really soon.  Currently, he's been performing new material under the moniker Jarv Is, and now we get a studio recording of one of those new tunes, the psychedelic and pulsing "Must I Evolve?"  It's great, and if it's a harbinger of things to come, i am stoked.  Listen below.


Lucie Thorne

So, work is super boring today, as is probably obvious if you pay attention to this blog at all, since i've been posting rather relentlessly for the last couple of hours.  Anyway, hooray i guess?  I am coming across a slew of great tunes though, so i've got that going for me.  Check out this smooth and sultry synth pop gem from Australia's Lucie Thorne.  "Wheogo Hill" sounds like a hazy, sweaty dream, smoke and neon and skin.  Listen to the single edit below and pre-order the upcoming "Kitty & Frank" LP here.


Tycho

Summer's right around the bend, and that used to mean plenty of blissed out electronica playing pool parties late club nights...or at least that's what i assume it used to mean.  Maybe?  I don't know.  What i do know is that the blissed out music of Tycho could certainly play right into that setting.  And he's got a new album out in July, so i guess it all makes sense.  Anyway, check out the wistful "Pink & Blue," featuring vocals from Saint Sinner below and pre-order the upcoming "Weather" LP here from Mom + Pop.


Holly Herndon

Berlin's Holly Herndon just released a new album of weird, frenetic, electro-pop to rattle your brains to.  Listen to "Eternal" below and grab the new "PROTO" LP here via 4AD.


Caterina Barbieri

Here's some experimental electronic music from Milan, Italy's Caterina Barbieri.  New album "Ecstatic Computation" is equal parts futuristic soundtrack and psychedelic hallucination.  Listen to the album opening "Fantas" below and get the record here from the artist.


Carmen Villain

US born, half Mexican, half Norwegian artist Carmen Villain has a new EP of music heading our way in July.  "Observable Future" is a blend of ambient, electronic, and neo-classical sound, something for your meditative headspace, but also melancholy.  Listen below, stare out the window, observe the world, and get the "Both Lines Will Be Blue" 12" here via Smalltown Supersound.


Ulver

Norwegian experimental band (they do everything from metal to synth pop) Ulver has a new album of unsettling drone out for our listening nightmares, called adequately enough "Drone Activity."  Listen to "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" below, an enormous piece of sound that manages to feel like you're being compressed by millions of gallons of water.  Nice.  Now get the download here.


tristen

Here's a little throwback pop from Nashville artist tristen.  "Dream Within a Dream" is a blend of garage rock, folk, doo-wop, and fuzzy girl group buzz.  Listen below and grab the 7" here.


Greys

Toronto post punk band Greys are back with a new album of paranoid, disillusioned slices of noise.  "Age Hasn't Spoiled You" mines elements from punk, grunge, jazz, no wave, and more to craft a breathing and heaving slab of sound, something more moody and expansive than previous output.  Listen to "Arc Light" below and order the album here from Carpark Records.


Daily Jam - Some Velvet Morning

In some regards, i think i should just pick a different Lee Hazlewood song to play everyday on this Daily Jam thing.  It'd be great, and the quality would never suffer as the man was responsible for so much cool shit.  And for whatever reason, whenever he was paired with Nancy Sinatra, that cool shit became transcendent.  So here's "Some Velvet Morning" from 1968's "Nancy & Lee," your Daily Jam...