You Can Count On Me

Here's the official video for Panda Bear's "You Can Count On Me" from this year's amazing "Tomboy" LP.  It's a pretty groovy mix of psychedelic swirls and an ending that my wife is sure to enjoy.  Watch below.

New Die Antwoord

Die fucking Antwoord.  Whoa.  Like everything else this South African electro-hip-hop crew does, new album "Ten$ion," due in February, is crazy, loopy fun.  Will it make you a tad uneasy?  Sure.  Just look at the cover for the new record above and check out the video for the first single, "Fok Julle Naaiers."


FOK JULLE NAAIERS from Die Antwoord on Vimeo.

Favorite films of 2011

As 2011 draws to a close, let's take the time to reflect on the movies that made me a happy panda. Last year, i picked a regular(ish) Hollywood-kinda movie, a B-movie gore fest, and an arty film. I'm doing the same this year. Here we go:

"Drive" - One of the hippest movies i've seen in a long, long time.  A slow burner with bursts of horrific violence, an elevator scene that is pitch perfect from start to finish, a fantastic score that fits the style and mood of the film like a glove, and everything you'd want from a movie.  And the ladies love Gosling.  Hell, even i wanted to take the guy out.

"Hobo With A Shotgun" - Ever since "Grindhouse," some filmmakers (the awesome ones) have started to give their films a retro look to go along with the B-movie schlock we all grew up with and loved.  Visceral movies.  Violence, nudity, and gore.  No bullshit.  If it wasn't so jarring, it'd be refreshing.  Also, any movie that can make me cringe with a gory scene is one i'm going to keep with me forever.  Ahhhh.

"Melancholia" - A stunning, beautiful film about the end of everything as an analogy for the human condition.  Heady stuff, but perfectly scripted, perfectly acted, perfectly shot, and music by Wagner to match the anxiety, dismay, and despondency.  I couldn't take my eyes away.

Honorable mentions:
"Attack The Block," "Tree of Life," "X-Men: First Class"

And, there's probably some that i haven't seen yet that are awesome, but we'll get to that later.  Viva le cine!

New Sleigh Bells

Check out the cool new tune "Born To Lose" from Sleigh Bells.  "Reign of Terror" is due out in February.  Hooray!

Tennis covers Broadcast

Check out Tennis's awesome and sweet cover of Broadcast's "Tears In The Typing Pool."  We still miss you Trish.

Tennis - Tears In The Typing Pool by tennisinc

Lilacs & Champagne

Lilacs & Champagne, the newest project from Grails producing team Alex Hall and Emil Amos, is as crazy a mix of different styles and sounds as you can expect to hear from anyone.  The label says it best:

"Rather than sampling the funk and soul canon of traditional hip hop, they pulled from disparate sources such as Polish private press hippie records, indistinguishable radio noise or the chopped and reversed sounds of Jayne Mansfield’s head being decapitated. Layers of instruments and found sound were then painted over the original samples until entirely new directions were created and taken to their logical conclusion… creating something simultaneously alien and familiar… something like the sound of Nurse with Wound collaborating with J-Dilla."

It practically made me poop myself in excitement.  Pre-order from Mexican Summer and listen to "Everywhere, Everyone" below.

Lilacs & Champagne - Everywhere, Everyone by Mexican Summer

Favorite Album Covers of 2011

Hark and lay thine eyes upon my favorite album covers of 2011! These are the covers that either initially attracted me to the album before listening or just stayed with me. Basically, i just think they're cool. Here we go...

Hank Williams III - "Ghost to A Ghost/Guttertown" - Just a cool pic. The painting he's Christ-posing in front of is revealed in full, awesome detail in the liner notes.

Tyler The Creator - "Goblin" - This one, i can't explain. Something about it just pops to me.

Alvarius B. - "Baroque Primitiva" - It'a bunch of naked girls laying in a circle. How could this not be on the list?

Tim Hecker - "Ravedeath, 1972" - Aside from having one of the coolest titles of the year, the picture of a picture of a bunch of college kids throwing a piano off a building speaks to me on a level even i don't understand. It just barely missed the cut for albums of the year too.

Thee Oh Sees - "Carrion Crawler/The Dream" - It's like Iron Maiden's Eddie is all ready for the revolution, but he's got to wade his way through all these intestines first. And we have a winner. Sweet.

All of these albums are worth having by the way.

New Radiohead single

Look for a new Radiohead single later this month, featuring "The Daily Mail," and one of our favorite songs of the year, "Staircase." Hooray!

Radiohead - Staircase ('From the Basement' session) by mysteryfallsdown

This Will Destroy You & Holy Other

Instrumental mopers This Will Destroy You get the cold and blissful remix treatment from Holy Other on the "Black Dunes" 7" courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records. Check out the original, slow burning version of the jam and the equally excellent remix below. Get it here.

Black Dunes by This Will Destroy You

And the mix...

This Will Destroy You - Black Dunes (Holy Other's Woman In The Dunes Mix) by HOLY OTHER

Bollywood Bloodbath

This is just too awesome not to devote a little time to it. Finders Keepers manages to find some of the hippest, weirdest, and funkiest jams from all over the globe, from Turkish psychedelia to French pop to Czech film scores. The latest mix is a collection of B-movie horror soundtracks from India's Bollywood film industry. It's absolutely everything you would want it to be, a crazy mix of prog, folk, psych, funk, electro and Bollywood madness. Here's a blurb from the label:

"You've heard Italy’s most famous composers when they soundtrack unwatchable Roman slasher flicks with on their own uncompromised and underpaid terms? Well that blueprint just turned blood red with sub-shoestring, low-budget studio wizards gambling with rigamortis rock, disjointed disco and low-voltage electronics for seldom screened scenes of desi Draculas, lycanthropic lady killers and psyched-up swamp monsters. Ever wondered what the DJ would play in a 1981 luxury hotel that was built on an ancient Christian cemetery? No? Well it sounds like someone just got possessed by Jimmy Page and Nile Rogers at the same time. Help!"

Perfect. Get it here and listen to Hemant Bhole's "Sansani Khez Koi Baat" below.

HEMANT BHOLE - SANSANI KHEZ KOI BAAT by Finders Keepers Records