Animal Collective-Today's Supernatural

I was prepared, at least I thought I was, for whatever Animal Collective were going to through at me with Centipede Hz. I had heard their (excellent) prequel in the form of the "Honeycomb/Gotham" single and that style (along with naming an album Centipede Hz) should have been clear enough clues as to the new album's direction. But "Today's Supernatural" still manages to surprise.

It might be the way the band manages to slip into their old style so easily, as if the beauty they made on Merrieweather Post Pavilion was a one time occurrence. More so I think it is due to how "Today's Supernatural" is a "return-to-form" (if that is an actual quality you could attach to Animal Collective), but it's that old sound in hyper drive. "Today's Supernatural is the band's manic tendencies on to even more twisted extremes; right from the first few seconds a you are hit with about eight different sounds at once, from twisted synth lines to Avey Tare's contorted lyrics to a stock pile of different whirls and effects that pop in and out seeming at random to give that feel to that song as a whole. Tare's vocals are definitely something to behold, with all the desperation and anger just gushing out. By the time his final lyrics come he's howling them, over the din of rising noise, but that just heightens their intensity rather than muddling it. "Today's Surprises" presents Centipede Hz as a more than likely crazy world, filled with dark strangeness and painful emotions encased in bizarre and difficult songs. Meaning that Centipede Hz is going to be one hell of an album.



Links:

Animal Collective's Website
Pre-order Centipede Hz here, from Domino Records

EP Review: Amida-My Life as a Trashcan

Amida are crude. At least, more so than other English guitar pop bands. Rather than romanticize the world or disguise their true feelings of it in a twee fashion, Amida cut quickly and directly, not necessarily discarding lyrical wit or creativity (which the band actually has in large quantities), but at the same time they don’t mince words either. That’s clear from the title track, the speedy earworm that opens the band’s fourth EP My Life as a Trashcan. As the chicken wire riff cuts into the brain, lead singer John Ammirati recounts the horrors of the world he has experienced so far, feeling reduced to the equivalent of human trash. The song also happens to be one of the best indie pop songs of the year, confirming that Amida have quite excellently honed their craft over their four years together.

The rest of the E.P. continues and diverges from the opening starting point. The rest of the songs showcase the fact that the opening cut was in no way a fluke, blasting out more equally catchy, treble guitar gems that I’m surprised haven’t appeared on an underappreciated Slumberland seven inch yet. At the same time the band takes a breather and steps out into other musical directions such as the slow jam of “Thank Constantine” or the country-esque waltz of “Let Me Do This For You”. While they definitely feel different, it’s a small testament to the band that they manage to make them work along the rest of the songs. “Let Me Do This for You” especially has a feel to it not unlike Pavement’s “Father of a Sister of a Thought” in seeming initially mildly absurd before eventually making sense upon repeated listens.

The lyrical content shifts as well over the seven songs as well, from personal to everyone else. This in turn showcases how snotty the band is, or at least how deeply they are putting their tongues in their cheeks. The band almost seems to be mocking the coyness/sweetness usually found in indie-pop lyrics. No band in recent memory has had a line as outlandish as “The party led to drinks/Which led to sex/Which led to AIDS/Which led to death”. Elsewhere there are songs whose chorus are mostly made of repeating lines like “I really never liked you anyway” (“A New Low”) or making just flat out direct in the title such as with the post-punky “They Breathe Gas for Airs so We Lit a Match”.

While this all seems like a bunch of immaturity, the band never feels like kids trying to grab attention. They fully know what they are doing. Just look at the closing track “Reversal of Fortune” and its inherent (if slightly gore filled) sweetness, which proves that Amida can make kind and shimmering songs with the rest of them. However, what makes My Life as a Trashcan so appealing is that it isn’t a case of growing up, but adults embracing childish antics to say something a little different.



Links:

Amida’s Tumblr
Buy the My Life as a Trashcan EP here, from Jigsaw Records

The Music Tapes-The Dark is Singing Songs (Sleepy Time Down South)

Recently I got caught up and finally saw Midnight in Paris. A superb film, it managed to show the glory and greatness of the past while at the same time understanding that one has to work in the present to create anything worth while. If there is any band that truly understands this concept, it is The Music Tapes.

From their ascetic of pop-up art albums to their sound made through 1930s recording devices, The Music Tapes are able to craft songs that are all their own, but at the same time infused with a nostalgic timelessness as well. Nowhere is this more true than on "The Dark is Singing Songs (Sleepy Time Down South)", the opening cut to their soon to be released third album Mary's Voice. A half cover of a semi obscure '30s song ( made famous by Louis Armstrong though), Julian Koster and co. manage to recreate it as something they had plucked from their own imagination. Beautiful European style horns set the stage before melding with singing saws and violin sounding banjos. Then Koster's vocals come in, soft at first, before turning into one of the most powerful displays of his vocals ever. It's this that shapes the song, guiding it along with Robbie Cucchiaro's lovely horns, which form a beautiful coda to the end of the song. Nostalgia might have a place in music, but as usual The Music Tapes have managed to morph the concept into something wholly more. "The Dark is Singing Songs (Sleepy Time Down South)" is now destined to be to a lost treasure, to be rediscovered decades from now and have its timeless magic impress itself on someone else.



Links:

The Music Tapes' Website
Pre-order Mary's Voice here, from Merge Records

PAWS-Miss American Bookworm

US style '90s indie rock is undergoing a big nostalgia trip in the UK, and I have no good explanation for this. However, that's OK because it has lead to the production of some very great bands (Yuck, Fanzine, etc.) and some very fuzzy records. Now PAWS can be added to that slowly growing list of goodness. "Miss American Bookworm" is a Sonic Youth song injected with a megaton of catchiness and energy. At the same time the band pulls from the like of Cap'n Jazz in terms of moving from speedy, blaring, fuzz riffs to shimmering bridges as well as incorporating a few cries of anguish that feel genuine rather than faked. "Miss American Bookworm" is proof not only that noise and hooks can still be presented together in interesting ways, but can still be just plain fun too.



Links:

PAWS' Website
Pre-order Cokefloat! here, from FatCat Records

Mister Lies-Dionysain

Mister Lies is a producer out of Chicago that has been kicking up a bit of buzz the past few months. He got a deal with Lefse and will be getting to release his debut next year. In the mean time he's releasing a single as part of Lefse's ongoing single series to tide people over. "Dionysain" is a lot more watery than Mister Lies previous work, with a beyond manipulated vocal sample and swampy beat being the backbone of the song. Even when the mini-drop occurs and the synths pick up in the second half of the song, the song still can't shake its dreary feel. Which is all a good thing because "Dionysain" is perfect as a sludgy electronic song, something that might have been made by Zeadron Del Gomez if he had ever written more music.

(mp3) Mister Lies-Dionysain (via Pitchfork)

Links:

Mister Lies on Facebook
Pre-order the Dionysain/Waveny 7" here, from Lefse Records

The Mountain Goats-Cry for Judas

I was a bit apprehensive to embracing the new Mountain Goats song the first time I heard it. "Cry for Judas" off their upcoming new album Transcendental Youth is almost shocking the first time you hear it. It has the band's best production to date, blaring horns, and most striking, a what appears to be happy feel to the whole song. However, cut a little deeper and you begin to realize all of that is just a cover for the darkness lurking underneath. It's a song about the mistakes one makes, and the way they can misrepresent you and engulf your life. The refrain is "I am still here/But all is lost" for crying out loud. So the horn riffs and springy bass lines aren't there to make the song joyful, but to keep the song afloat from collapsing into its own despair. And it works so well. It's a defeatist anthem, but an anthem none the less, and one that will be be shouted at John Darnielle to play for years to come.



Links:

The Mountain Goats' Website
Pre-order Transcendental Youth here, from Merge Records

Stay Calm-I Couldn't Sleep

Stay Calm have to be one of my favorite bands right now. I understand how much of a hyperbole that statement sounds like considering Stay Calm only have three songs (and one cover) to their name, but everything they have produced is so damn creative and catchy that I'm sticking with that statement. They've managed to get everything in order so that their music isn't so difficult to find and have released their first digital single into the world. You have already been exposed to the glorious tribal,art, post-punk dance freak out that was "Let Me Clear My Throat", but "I Couldn't Sleep" is a stunner in its own right.

The band completely shifts their sound, not to an unrecognizable degree, but to a "how are they making this as well" way. "I Couldn't Sleep" is a slow burner, with the band's synth work, here much more gooey and warm, very much being the vocal the focal of the song rather than the drums. Claudia Meza coos the vocals rather than applying her usual velocity to them. In some alternative universe, this song might have been written by Lower Dens, if they had become more influenced by dreamy synth bands rather than Kraftwerk. Instead it is another gem in Stay Calm's small catalogue, their most restrained but beautiful one to date.



Links:

Stay Calm's Website

Get Stay Clam's digital 7" Fall in Love/Break Up here, from their bandcamp

Dan Deacon-True Thrush

A shift from a small indie label to one of the "major" indie labels usually also signifies a shift for the artist as well. I don't think it's pressure from the label per se, but jumping to the big leagues usually manages to bring out new dimensions to the artist, a desire to strive to new heights. That's what's running through my brain while listening to Dan Deacon's "True Thrush". Not that I am at all dismissing Deacon's previous work in anyway. But the way Deacon has gone from sprawl to focus with his songs is just magnificent. I thought "Lots" was the pinnacle of this, a hyper compression of Deacon's music, but "True Thrush" just blows every expectation through the roof. It's not as explosive as some his other songs, but that's because "True Thrush" is operating on a level completely different from those other songs.  It melds all of these electronic manipulations and effects with soaring choir samples and Deacon's most directly catchy music to date. It's the lyrics through which, despite never having been at the forefront of Deacon's music, are now the greatest aspect of the song. The pairing of lyrics like "Feast on my brain/every body's the same" to the music just rises it beyond belief. It's like an electronic, apocalyptic, but joyous hymn, one that will ring out through the ages. Listen and start chanting along.



Links:

Dan Deacon´s Website
Pre-order America here, from Domino Records

Video: Marshall Trotter-(I Need To Be With) Someone Like You

I've never been big on summer nostalgia. Maybe it's because I don't like the season (heat drives me insane), but all the sentiment and love behind summer has always rubbed me the wrong way. Still, even with this disposition, those emotions started bubbling inside when I saw Marshall Trotter's video for "(I Need To Be With) Someone Like You". I think it's juxtaposition that works so well. "(I Need To Be With) Someone Like You" is a beautifully melancholy song, a simple two minutes of longing for some one not unlike how No Demons Here used to, with just a distorted guitar and a simple beat to propel it. So to hear that placed side by side old, vintage movie clips showcasing the joy of summer, the song and video hit hard. In equal measures it manages to not only show the wonder of summer, but the sadness it can bring as well.



Links:

Marshall Trotter´s Facebook
Buy the Small Trobles cassette here, from Mirror Universe Tapes

Boomgates-Whispering and Singing

I have waited too long for this news. Boomgates, the best Australia supergroup of many, will be releasing their debut album Double Natural just in time for the tail end of August. After two completely perfect seven inches of brash, entierly their own indie pop, an album's worth of the stuff might just come together to make the album of the summer. "Whispering and Singing", the first single off the album sure as hell supports this thesis anyway. Over bright, speedy, Real Estate-esque guitar riffs the band creates a bittersweet tale of a crush leaving town and wishing for death before that happens. The interplay between Brendan Huntly and Steph Hughes' vocals is just stupendous. I know a balance between the two's singing has always been a present element with the band, but here said element is just perfected, especially the blink and you'll miss it harmony between them within the chorus. This is what a garage band would sound like if they tried to be Comet Gain and they succeded. The rays of summer are shinning brightly in Australia, even if it is winter there.



Links:

Boomgates' Facebook
Pre-order Double Natural here, from Bedroom Suck Records