August 23rd, 2009
See the photo above. HEALTH don’t need to “get color.” But both the title of the LA electro-noise cabal’s forthcoming full-length, and the decision to enlist Tobacco for remix work intimate that they want their shine blinding. Yet the frontman of Black Moth Super Rainbow never bleaches eyes, instead he angles towards chromatic distortion. Other than Joker and Caribou, no one’s got the striking synesthesia of Tom Fec, who slathers the grisaille tones of HEALTH’s original with an ice cream paint job that could make Dorrough salivate.
Ignore the bad beards, asymmetric hair-cuts, and the anvil irony of a man named Tobacco remixing a band named HEALTH. “Die Slow” is liver than a Super Bowl kickoff–ideal for watching Saved by the Bell on your dashboard.
Pre-Order: Health-Get Color
Download: (via Nialler 9)
MP3: HEALTH-”Die Slow”
MP3: HEALTH-”Die Slow (Tobacco Remix)”
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August 23rd, 2009
Bleary braille eyes, acrid tobacco tongue, and an apartment a drained swamp of beer bottles–no problem–San Francisco’s Sic Alps hit harder than caffeine. Where bubble gum meets barbed wire, channeling that anorexic aperture between harsh daylight and phantom fragments of forgotten conversations. Mike Donovan sneers “she went to seek adoption, just to see wot she had gotten for me, we bombed that mansion, its gonna be the last one, its gonna be the last fling.” All tocsins and toxicity.
Lo-fi employed as a tool, not just a crutch. Sic Alps’ new 7″ on Slumberland is teleological in its intent–only the ends matter. The idea is that they won’t meet you halfway, but they do–a slinking propulsive piano line, jangly sun-soaked guitars, and shambolic 60s garage clatter. They only need few sentences and the right tone to get their point across: “we went to see a doc then, just to see wot she had gotten for me mind searching, shes gonna get back at them, gonna gonna get back at them with violence.” Even if they telegraph their intent, escape is ineluctable.
Buy: Sic Alps-L Mansion 7″
Download:
MP3: Sic Alps-”L Mansion”
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July 31st, 2009
Even if you’re not a fan of the brothers Lindsey, it’s difficult not to respect them. Rather than damage inboxes with the umpteenth “freestyle” over “D.O.A..” they’ve laid low since dropping Remind Me in Three Days last year, opting to eschew the blog hustle for the tangible grind, building a fan base the old-fashioned way: relentless touring and an undeniable live show. They don’t do mixtapes, don’t collaborate with whoever’s hot this hour, and though they’re signed to Interscope, they’ve received a tepid corporate push in contrast to the careful calculations of the Asher Roth’s of the world. And while naysayers derided their skinny jeans and sartorial flair when they first came out 18 months ago, their style seems trend-setting after the the deluge of boa constrictor-tight jeaned rappers.
Which leaves only the music–the idea of creating value in the valueless Internet integers game. “Fuck You,” the first leak leading up to their sophomore album, is as great as the two other iconic rap songs whose title it shares. Not only does it further refine their garage-hop aesthetic, but expands its boundaries. New Orleans-raised Rah Al Milio and Krispy seem forever obsessed with finding the ideal synthesis of the Wu-Tang and Juvenile fandom of their adolescence, with the Strokes and Beatles worship of their adulthood.
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July 30th, 2009
Why post the front cover when this tape is all about the tracklisting? Murs and the L.A. Leakers deserve plaudits for this essentially flawless compilation of seminal West Coast gangsta’ rap. The other Nick Carter says it best in his introduction: “when we were younger, this is what we were listening to on the West Coast…all these songs were my shit…if you don’t know, all you young uns need to get educated on how gangsta’ rap changed the world.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, these songs were inescapable on KDAY and later Power 106 and 92.3 The Beat. Consider Damn, It Feels to Be a Gangsta, the khaki-clad sibling to my G’Z Up, Prose Down Summer Jamz from last year (link still active). What’s most striking is that both tapes only share “Nuthin’ but a G Thing,” which speaks to how deep the left coast talent pool was from 88-95.
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July 28th, 2009
I’d tried to avoid the Elbo.ws elbowing over the proprietary rights to New Jersey maharajah’s of mystery, Memory Cassette, because well, sometimes it’s more fun to run the contrarian jerkstore (see Fire, Arcade). But reading their Pitchfork interview caused me to cave, specifically when head tape, Dayve Hawk declared, “the last thing I want to do is be willfully mysterious. I mean, if I was trying to do that I wouldn’t be online. At the same time, I don’t want to blow smoke up peoples’ asses– I don’t want any bios out there about me being some kind of reclusive genius. That stuff is always embarrassing.”
Memory Cassette make that tropical-tinted conch fritter pop that’s so hot right now. Acephale Records, home of SALEM and sometimes similarly blog-buzzed, Air France, scooped them up a while back, and released the Call and Response EP in conjunction with Sincerely Yours–presumably because the Swedish label are Socialist-leaning and thus, need a government monopoly on dreamy Balearic synth-pop. If you liked Air France, JJ, or Studio, you’ll rock Memory Cassette until your tape pops. Recommended with smoking weed and bamboo and sipping on private stock.
Buy Memory Cassette-Call and Response EP
Download: (Thank Chris GVB for the artwork)
MP3: Memory Cassette-”Listen to the Vacuum”
ZIP: Memory Cassette-”Calls and Responses Remix EP” (Left-Click)
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July 20th, 2009
Fresh off three consecutive weeks in rotation on Hot 97’s Real Late with Peter Rosenberg comes Prafit’s “New York Swing, the Strong Island rapper’s latest collaboration with blog and blunt baron, Disco Vietnam. Like its antecedents, “Nice Weather” and “My Life”, “New York Swing” channels the city’s mid-90s vintage without lapsing into over-cautious rehash. The beat’s piano line lifts like a balloon, with an ascendant organ line also angling towards the heavens. Prafit anchors it back to earth, with some brick-bat, bloody-nose raps that seemingly bear out an influence from Uncontrolled Substances-era Inspectah Deck. Even if this might not match “Rec Room,” it will still make you want to wreck shop.
Download:
MP3: Prafit-”New York Swing” (produced by Disco Vietnam)
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July 17th, 2009
It’s apparently come to this. All the good band names are taken. All permutations involving Crystal, Black, and Wolves, have been exhausted. We’re down to naming ourselves after vaguely obscure Decathalon Events. It’s only a matter of time before 110 Meter Hurdle, Shot Put, and Pole Vault monopolize the Hype Machine (in fact, this may be the opening salvo).
But don’t dismiss Javelin due to a quirk of poor nomenclature, nor because they bill themselves as “Tropical/Crunk” on their Myspace. Wasn’t sincerity supposed to be the new irony? Judging from the Williamsburg pedigree, plus beards, flannels, and thrift shop irony, Javelin seem easy to discard. Yet few albums released this year are more accurately named than Jamz and Jemz. This is nothing but–a record so diverse that you might mistake it for a great mixtape, but never so jarring as to alter its breezy affability. Read the rest of this entry »
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July 15th, 2009
Occasionally, you hear a song for the first time and stop whatever is you’re doing, because said song is so awesome that it demands your complete attention. I’m not sure how I lived for so long without having heard “Assembly Line,” from The Commodores debut album. Especially considering I played Little League and High School baseball with the son of Wak King, the trumpet and synth player. I suppose I associated them with the cod-piece funk of later leisure suit years–that and the name Wak. Thanks to Ivan of Hip-Hop is Read and Dom Kennedy of Hold the Throne for including this in their Stankonia sample set, and of course, 3-Stacks and Sir Lucious Leadfoot for sampling it on “Humble Mumble.”
The other day I made some careless remark about how everyone needed to love the new Very Best song. I’m prone to doing stupid things when I’m sober. Because it’s songs like this that really deserve the full weight of endorsement. Plus, fun fact: it was co-written by the woman who wrote “Tainted Love.”
Download:
MP3: The Commodores-”Assembly Line”
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June 29th, 2009
If we’re really going to go with purple as the new catch-all appellation for the ultra-violet beats bouncing out of Bristol, let’s at least acknowledge the real reason why the tag emerged: these guys must be smoking so much purple haze as to make Cam’ron seem Mennonite (no Freaky Ezekiel).
Should he keep up this sort of prolificacy, PotW may turn into an all-Joker, all-the-time blog. If only he and Jim Jones can collaborate on a remix that includes a vocal chop of the phrase “THAT PURPLE!” my existence will be complete.
Download:
ZIP: Joker-Live @ Sonar 09
Via Pinglewood
MP3: The Heavy-”How You Like Me Now (Joker Radio Edit)”
More Videos Below the Jump
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June 29th, 2009
Britt Daniel is a musical McGyver smoker. Give him a greasy guitar line, a baby grand, a snare, and a snorkel, and watch the smoke soar. The titular single from Spoon’s new EP is wrapped with a tension tight as Asclepius’ snakes. Alfred Soto described the solo at the 1:05 minute mark, as “moving like a feather up the soles of my bare feet.” The piano line about fifteen seconds later finds that same feather floating up your spine.
Britt Daniel spits out that he’s “got nothing to lose but darkness and shadows.” His chaotic pop flickers as though it were engineered at the level of the central nervous system. The entire song seems like a gathering storm that fails to burst, but still shifts the tenor of an afternoon. Few bands know what they’re doing more than these guys. Of course, this is something.
Buy: Spoon-Got Nuffin EP
Download:
MP3: Spoon-”Got Nuffin”
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