Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Julia Holter - Tragedy (Leaving 2011)

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"At long-last, Leaving Records is proud to present the debut long-player from Los Angeles’ Julia Holter: Tragedy. An epic that merges neo-classical composition and instrumentation with foot-tapping moments of movement, grace." - Leaving

Good Amount/Waytansea Point Split (Holy Page 2011)

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Radicaledward


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Blind Blake (1926-1927)

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Wavepool Abortion - S/T (DZ Tapes 2011)

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This the first release from DZ Tapes (Dayvanzom Bear) and it rippling across the blogsphere like a hurricane.

"Wavepool Abortion (ЖЕРТВА АБОРТА) is a new and exciting proto-pop-punk band featuring Pyotr Reznikov (guitar/vocals) and Matvei Solovyov (guitar/vocals/drums), based in Moscow, Russia. While listeners will surely enjoy Wavepool Abortion's ear for classic pop melody, you may have to dig through some filth to get there. The reward is a half-hour blissful regression to punk's dirty roots--a joyride of almost-on vocal harmonies, guitar solos that swell in and out of feedback, sludgy drum machines, and enough tambourine to fill a cesspool.


"When I heard The Ramones and things, I was like, wow," says Solovyov, 17. "I take my guitar and Pyotr and we made this song so fast." Reznikov, also 17, attributes his interest in punk to popular Russian band Ногу свело! "We sing in English because we like the Beatles," Reznikov says. "Wavepool Abortion is the heaviest thing! It's like maybe The Ramones and The Beatles taking a big shit."


Wavepool Abortion has been making waves in their native city since their live debut last winter. As the leaders of a growing scene of like-minded teenagers, calling themselves "Искусство боли" (The Art of Pain), Wavepool Abortion are the most exciting thing from Russia since the space race. Matvei and Pyotr will finish high school first, but expect their U.S. live debut to follow. In the meantime, this first album of visceral dirt-pop will kick your ass to the gulags." - DZ Tapes


Amen Dunes - Through Donkey Jaw (Sacred Bones 2011)

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"Amen Dunes, the solo project of Damon McMahon, began with recordings made in the fall of 2006 in upstate New York. Those tapes were initially put on the shelf as personal recordings he never intended for release, and the following summer, McMahon moved to China and all but stopped making music. He would live in Beijing for the next few years, writing and recording only occasionally. With the release of DIA on Locust Music in 2009, however, he decided to move back to the States and form a band around Amen Dunes.

After playing in New York and touring the US and Europe from 2009–2010, in the summer of 2010 McMahon released the Murder Dull Mind EP, a collection of the apartment recordings made while in Beijing, on Sacred Bones. This past January, he began recording for his second full length, Through Donkey Jaw, his first proper recordings in almost five years. Where Murder Dull Mind was sparse, mostly acoustic and almost all first-take improvisation, this new work contains many more fully-realized sounds and songs; it is very much the winter to Murder Dull Mind’s summer." -Sacred Bones

Monday, August 29, 2011

MTV Tries Getting Weird Again


Wow.... I don't Know what to say about this.

Napolian / Computer Dream (Beer on the Rug 2011)


The Drunken Draculas


Wanda Group - Bass Urine (NNA 2011)

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"Wanda and the girls, under the direction of puzzling collagist DEM HUNGER, dive deep into a pool of dirty milk on "Bass Urine." Hand-woven fragments of sound are smudged together and tossed into a dubbed-out ocean of strange electronics and abstract depression." -NNA

Trailblazer - Successor (Night People 2011)

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"Trailblazer is the solo project of Lexington KY resident Coleman Guyon who did a prior 7inch on Chicago label Moniker Records. Trailblazer creates blasted anthem drum machine driven walls of dreamy sound from voice, synth and guitar that pour out melodic repetition that would fit right at home with late Spacemen early Spectrum, Kraut punks La Dusseldorf, and the best of the Creation records jams. The motorik back beat present in these tracks makes these tunes perfect for long drives, summer nights, and general getting blissed out." -Night People

The You Are Minez/Pour Bruno - You Just Watched Crossroads Split (Meow Posse 2011)

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Friday, August 26, 2011

Stacey Adams



Review: Speculator - Nice



Speculator: Nice by altered zones

New Speculator LP Is Hypnagogic Pop Bliss

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term “hypnagogic”, Speculator’s new LP Nice is a good starting point to aid you in your understanding. It is also a welcome breath of fresh air if your not digging the new wave of 90’s style techno that is choking the life out L.A. and New York. Speculator encourages all of his listeners to keep their Hammer Time parachute pants locked away until after 2012; when they will be much more useful. All of that aside, this record knocks my socks off. It is a sleepy time journey through a diamond-encrusted plain. Fans of ducktails, Casino Gardens, Rangers are welcome on this trip, but they should not be disappointed by the lack of 20 minute songs and slowed down Oasis jingles on this album. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of experimentation going on in this record especially found in (Its on) Every Channel and F.E.R.G.I.E. However, what Speculator really does well is blend experimentation with pop, in the most non-offensive way possible. Speculator’s Nice drops via Underwater Peoples on August 30th.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Monster Rally - Crystal Ball (S/R 2011)



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Blues Control - Riverboat Styx (Not Not Fun 2011)

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Roving groove crew Blues Control have been ranging around the eastern seaboard slanging their rarefied strain of jazz keys and roadburn riffs since at least ’06, but it wasn’t till last year that life/art took them to Tokyo, where Ryo Kuramoto played roadie and driver for their week-long tour of Japan. Via that hangout/hookup, plans were made to reissue BC’s dope half-decade-old OOP tape on Fuck It Tapes (remember that label?), Riverboat Styx, which has sat high in our personal cassette hall of fame ever since it first dropped.- Not Not Fun Records

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Grrrl Friend


Look for an upcoming tape release from Grrrl Friend on Gnar Tapes


Siddhi - Dark Leaves (Sweat Lodge Guru 2011)

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"Lonesome reveries for darkened desert wanderers, a motion picture soundtrack for tracing paths between the stars in the evening skies. The patterns shine more vividly when your eye trips across them – the melodies become more lucid once they fall from the sky and light the earth with their spiraling arcs of phosphorescence." -Sweat Lodge Guru

Cellophane Spill - S/T (Night People 2011)

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"Cellophane Spill coming out of Austin TX has ties to Switched On, Mutating Meltdown, Low Red Center, Answering Machine Records, and represents a new voice in the quickly growing vintage synth obsessed underground. Cellophane Spill not only represents a progression but a full evolution towards something truly strange and exciting. One of the most original and exciting statements ever issued on Night-People Cellophane Spill must be heard, because it defies expectation and description. Was this music even created by humans?" - Night People Records

Monday, August 15, 2011

Art Post - Kaput




Artist Website

Art Post - Jen Stark




Artist Website

Cankun - Ethiopian Dreams (Hands In the Dark 2011)

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"Cankun will honour Hands in the Dark Records of its very first album release with its "Ethiopian Dreams" full length. The beach, idle, psychedelic melodies, piña coladas, burning hot sand, exotic rhythms, a blazing sun, an enchanting voice..." -Hands In The Dark




Sun Araw - Ancient Romans (Sun Ark 2011)

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"Heartfelt and marbled, this album is documentation of the slow exit (the triumphal entry): moving the camera back 8 stages along the circumference of the circle to the point where the obverse is reverse, in order to celebrate the building of an edifice and then walk away from it in wisdom, gaining freedom from it. "-Sun Ark Records