So go ahead and update your links. Go to: http://www.popheadwound.com/.
Check it out and let me know what you think. See you over there...
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[mp3] Dirty Beaches - "Lord Knows Best"
“Lord Knows Best” is distant, decaying soul music by way of Montreal’s Dirty Beaches, the recording project of Alex Zhang Hungtai. The song made its way around the blogs earlier this week, but tonight I’m finally falling under its haunting spell as it just repeats in my headphones over and over (and over and over). It comes from Badlands, a mini-LP to be released by Zoo Music in March that is suddenly something I desperately want to hear more of.
MP3 :: Lord Knows Best
(from Badlands. Info here)
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[video] Pandit - "Pack Your Bags"
Pandit - Pack Your Bags from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.
Here’s a new video, which made its debut today over at Stereogum, for Pandit’s heartbroken “Pack Your Bags”. The track leads off their upcoming full length debut, Eternity Spin, and this appropriately somber string of visuals was directed by Tyler T. Williams. Just in case you missed it a few weeks ago, check out the shimmering dream-pop of “Artichoke” below, also from Eternity Spin.
MP3 :: Artichoke
(from Eternity Spin. Info here)
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[mp3] Kurt Vile - "Jesus Fever"
After we got the breezy, West Coast indie-folk flavored “In My Time” last year, Matador has released another teaser mp3 from Kurt Vile’s upcoming Smoke Ring For My Halo. After the sharp sonic contrasts that marked Vile’s last full length, 2009’s excellent Childish Prodigy, I thought the next new Vile track to surface would either find him rocking out behind a wall of guitar noise or stripping things down to a back to basics lo-fi folk song – try to show another side to the man’s talent. Instead “Jesus Fever” surprises because of its similar melodic and sonic structure to “In My Time” – it’s practically a dead ringer actually. And that’s fine – Vile proves quite adept at this kind of laid back, chiming sound that would have fit right in on AM radio in the early 70’s. And by the way, that’s the updated album art up there. Neil Young anyone?
MP3 :: Jesus Fever
(from Smoke Ring For My Halo. Info here)
Previously:
MP3 :: Kurt Vile – “In My Time”
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[mp3] Tape Deck Mountain - "It Goes Down"
Lefse Records has had a handful of interesting releases over the past few months - from Love Remains, the spellbinding debut from How to Dress Well, to RIP JDS, the addictive dance/pop EP from Bikini. Add a new EP from San Diego’s Tape Deck Mountain to the list. Secret Serf will contain four new songs and drops next week. Take a listen to the surging lo-fi psyche of “It Goes Down” below, and keep an ear out for more from these guys this year.
MP3 :: It Goes Down
(from Secret Serf. Buy here)
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[mp3] Beach Fossils - "Calyer"
Happy New Year everyone. Beach Fossils will release a new EP on January 11 through Captured Tracks with the full length follow up to last year’s excellent self-titled debut coming this spring. Hear “Calyer”, the jangly, reverb-laden lead single from the EP, below.
MP3 :: Calyer
(from the What A Pleasure EP. Info here)
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PHW - The December 2010 Playlist
MP3 :: On the Inside / Britches
MP3 :: Girlfriend / Ty Segall
MP3 :: Decisions (ft. Yuksel Arslan)
MP3 :: Bow Echo / Great Elk
MP3 :: Never Follow Suit / The Radio Dept.
MP3 :: Still Sound / Toro Y Moi
MP3 :: Artichoke / Pandit
MP3 :: Stamp / The Rural Alberta Advantage
MP3 :: Swim Club / The Cave Singers
MP3 :: Eating An Ocean / Wynn Walent
MP3 :: Little Brown Haired Girls / Frankie Rose & the Outs
MP3 :: Artificial Snow (Bedroom Version) / Atlas Sound
MP3 :: I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun / Beach House
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[video] Kanye West - "Monster" (ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, & Bon Iver)
Here’s the official video for the supernatural, star-studded My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy jam.
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[Catching Up w/ 2010] Frog Eyes - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
As 2010 draws to a close, I’m still playing catch up with some of the records that I missed or slept on over the past 12 months. The fact that I’m only now getting into Frog Eyes’ Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph is one that I have no excuse for. I posted both of the songs Dead Oceans made available as free downloads back in February and March, and one of which, “Flower In A Glove”, made such an impression and stuck around enough to earn a place in my Top 20 of the Year. Their last album, 2007’s Tears of the Valedictorian, was a personal favorite that year. How I never picked up the rest of Paul’s Tomb until last week is beyond me. But am I ever glad I did.
Anyone who’s listened to Carey Mercer, either in Frog Eyes, as part of his Swan Lake side project with Dan Bejar and Spencer Krug, or in his quieter solo project Blackout Beach, is probably well aware of the intensity with which Mercer attacks each syllable he sings. He’s known to roar, howl, and yelp like a lunatic, and on Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph he holds nothing back. It’s a 45 minute vocal death charge – raw, manic, reckless, and utterly unnerving. The fact that his band plays every note with such a distinct and disarming volatility only elevates the whole thing.
I love what Coke Machine Glow had to say recently on the supposed difficulty of this record (which, in all honesty, most likely kept me away for so long), in their “Albums of the Year” list (#5, btw) - But once you’ve an ear in the door, listening—just try and turn it off. Every song. Every goddamn song. It’s a fucking miracle, the way Mercer, in the hands of Frog Eyes, takes something so raw and unattractive and executes it with such blissful, unapologetic beauty. So here it is, easily one of the year’s best rock albums, finally getting the props I should have given it months ago.
MP3 :: Flower In A Glove
MP3 :: Lear In Love
(from Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph. Buy here)
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Introducing: Britches
Hailing from St. Louis, Britches is a 3-piece act (with mad photoshopping skills) who play a screechingly loud, cacophonous brand of hard rock that I don’t usually associate with the Midwest these days. (Though that’s probably more my being under-informed than any reflection on the current Midwest scene). The songs on Demo, their new free EP available on bandcamp, draw as much, if not more, from noise/experimental bands like Liars or even This Heat as much as straight up indie-rock. “White Noise” fucks with the delicate electric guitars of Radiohead’s “No Surprises” and “---‘s Trash Can” is flat out menacing. My favorite though is “On the Inside”, which opens the record and positively soars, finding the band using their noisier tendencies and strong melodic sense in equal measure.
MP3 :: On the Inside
(from Demo. Download here)
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[Catching up w/ 2010] Ty Segall - Melted
Ty Segall’s Melted is one of the 2010 releases that I missed out on completely when it dropped back in the summer. I’ve only caught up with it recently after seeing it on various year end lists over the past few weeks. Melted has some of the most primal, ferocious rock & roll you’ve heard all year over its 30 blistering minutes. It’s almost as ugly as the cover art would suggest. Yet Segall never lets the noise overpower the hooks - Melted is full of sparkling and gritty garage-rock melodies. “Girlfriend” is the perfect place to start – walls of fuzzy guitar, handclaps, snarling vocals, and the most amazing one-note piano solo ever.
MP3 :: Girlfriend
(from Melted. Buy here)
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[Catching Up w/ 2010] How To Dress Well - Love Remains
I’ve spent the past two weeks catching up with some of the records that I either slept on this year or missed entirely. How to Dress Well’s debut Love Remains falls into the former group – it’s one I’ve had for a few months but have only recently devoted some time to. HtDW is the solo project of Tom Krell, a guy with a sick falsetto (clearly reminiscent of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon) who writes lithe R&B slow jams and records them on the cheap – full of crackling clicks and hisses. But where some bands use lo-fi recording as a gimmick, the lack of sonic clarity is perhaps the most vital component on Love Remains, allowing the music to come across, as intended, as if they were being drawn out of the deepest corners of childhood memory. The result is a ghostly, highly intimate listening experience and unquestionably one of the most unique albums I’ve heard in ages.
MP3 :: Decisions (feat. Yuksel Arslan)
(from Love Remains. Buy here)
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