While normally complaining of general boredom from the mass machines of pop media, this officially was the week in top shelf entertainment. As the Occupy Anniversary came about, we had one percenter Billy Corgan's taunts of making a “cruel” record, Kanye school project fake outs, Liam Gallagher soccer hooliganism in Madrid, Amanda Palmer's “crowd-sourcing-kerfuffle” and subsequent Steve Albini beef, and you can add Fiona Apple's name to the Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson rogues' gallery of getting busted for weed in Texas's tour bus-Bermuda Triangle; otherwise known as the dreaded Sierra Blanca. I might be able to fill this entire post with more doozies but we have a big week of future and present tense tunes to discuss-in no particular order.
The Treasure Island Music Festival is coming Saturday, October 13 and will feature Girl Talk,The Presets, Porter Robinson, Public Enemy, SBTRKT, Tycho, Araabmuzik, Matthew Dear, Toro Y Moi, Grimes, The Coup, K. Flay, Dirty Ghosts, followed by the second day lineup, Sunday, October 14 The xx, M83, Gossip, Best Coast, Joanna Newsom, Divine Fits, Youth Lagoon, Los Campesinos!, The War On Drugs, Ty Segall, Wild Belle, Hospitality, and Imperial Teen and local food, crafts, silent disco and plenty more. The best part is that no set will overlap making this one of the most manageable and enjoyable gatherings around. Go here for tickets and further info and enjoy the following preview.
I have been excited about this Boyfren remix of Seatraffic's “Put Away” since I first heard it played by the artist at their Crimes 7″ release party at Project 1. Boyfren is the nom de plume of Vincent Campillo where here he turns the atmospheres made by Mark and Brandon into what could have been a cult 80s-Camaro blasting classic that makes anytime of day feel like 10:30pm. Order Crimes 7″ via Bandcamp.
Essential listening for this and all the weeks following is Weekend's new autobahn-drone-empire single “Sirens” from their upcoming and much anticipated 2013 second LP. Catch them at the Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn Tuesday September 25 accompanied by Woodsman and Eraas along with an October 4 gig at 285 Kent with Cold Showers.
Shannon and the Clams new single “Gremlins Crawl” b/w “White Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane) 7” is out now from Volar Records and we have the single streaming here that includes Ms. Shaw's ode to Grace Slick. Where the A-side features the voice talents of the Clams/King Lollipop's Cody Blanchard; Shannon brings the SF group's roots around full circle as the Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow '67 defining nugget gets played like it was recorded in 1957 with a rawness that neither Slick or many of her fellow proto-punkers could match. Order now to get either the red or gold wax 7″ editions available here..
GANGI released the single “Gold” direct from Matt and Eric's Offices of Analogue and Digital in LA, busy readying their full length album, gesture is coming October 2. As a special for this year's May Day, GANGI sent us this pivotal video as a rallying cry for occupiers and the disenfranchised anybodies everywhere, world wide.
I Break Horses performed “Hearts” at Room 205 where designer Tamarra Younis wraps the group in muslin and director Forrest Borie observes the groups synth dream machine mechanics as a voyeur witnessing the Swedish group in their element of musical ephemra.
Kim Hiorthøy remixes Neneh Cherry & the Thing's “What Reason Could I Give” which includes a drum machine that could have been used on “Buffalo Stance” but with a piano and vocal edit in step with the now. The Cherry Thing Remixes come out November 13 from Smalltown Supersound.
Former Twin Shadow bassist Russ Manning presents news of his solo project Rush Midnight that provides nightlife with new keyboard frequencies emitting the new discovered post-sundown urgencies. The single “The Night Was Young Enough” is more than an an early night in the club but a pop work that has Manning utilizing his jazz 'know how' to keep a keyboard delay moving throughout the entire track that leaves the effect lingering while longing for further oscillations. Look for the Rush Midnight +1 EP October 30 from Cascine.
Also from Cascine, listen now to the Chad Valley deluxe remix suite for the new single “Fall 4 U (Featuring Glasser)”. Cameron Mesirow and Hugo Manuel share a commuter's confessional duet of love and lament like carpoolers expressing mutual feelings for one another “while everyone is moving somewhere new” in an 1987 Honda Accord Aerodeck on the M40 motorway. The Chad Valley full length album debut, Young Hunger comes out October 30 from Cascine/Loose Lips.
Kilo Kish dropped the video for “Navy” directed by Kish and Ben Rayner The physical 12″ single is produced by OFWGKTA illuminaries The Internet and slated for release October 8 with pre-order available now at Blue Rider Music. Catch Kilo playing with SBTRKT this October in NYC and LA.
Laura Bettinson, plus producers Nigel Godrich and Joey Waronker are Ultraísta, whose single “Smalltalk” got the Four Tet kick-flip percussion treatment on this remix video off the forthcoming Ghostly International 12″ also featuring a reworking from Matthew Dear. Keep the party going and look for it September 24 from Ghostly.
Toby Goodshank, the acoustic guitar man from The Moldy Peaches has been touring his solo album Truth Jump Fall and is re-releasing a special digital edition disc. Beyond the Peaches, Goodshank has enjoyed a lucrative and solo career and playing with the musicians like Jeffrey Lewis, Kimya Dawson, along with starting the art collective with Adam Green and none other than Macaulay-Party Monster-Culkin. His latest re-release is produced by OnlySon's Jack Dishel and is available on digital now via Bandcamp. Take a listen to Toby's singing saw (or is that a theramin we hear?) on “The Journey Back Down Jump Truth Mountain” that features the lyric “I hope your second childhood is as good as your first,” which stings like the untook advice recalled from almost a decade ago. Also get a look at the Nathan Gulick directed video for the single featuring the adventures of a leather clad Pepper Bridge crutching her way through the mean Hollywood streets.
WAVVES' Nathan Williams and his bro Kynan have been making home made Cali steeped beats and bloops as Sweet Valley. This week they dropped their mixtape Eternal Champ where things begin with the Ocarina of Time kinda chopped and sort of screwed into a series of hip-hop framed instrumentals sampled from N64, Gamecube and virtual consoles galore. Catch them on the road with GZA and Killer Mike.
Our buddy Ross Peacock from Bay Area-based band MWAHAHA remixed the title track off of Finn Riggins Benchwarmers EP” released this past April. Ross, a semi-pro basketball star (known around San Francisco to produce a sound that can only begin to be described as 10 stories tall in stature) sends “Benchwarmers” through the pedal sky saw that carves a hole into the heavens to reveals a la deux machina hiding behind the clouds.
Black Marble dropped their new single “Static” that gets the post-punk bass studded party going amid a television tube glow from the set's snowy interference reception. Black Marble's much talked and murmured about album A Different Arrangement comes out October 9 from Hardly Art.
3:33 turns on the low rumbling steam machines on a remix of Bone Thugs~n~Harmony's “E. 1999” that showcases the almost a capella strengths of this classic cut from the Cleveland hustlers. You can find this reworking and much more on the upcoming 7 Sets of 7 project that presents a cornucopia of instrumentals and remixes dropping on digital and cassette while we await In The Middle of Infinity October 30 from Parallel Thought LTD/Alpha Pup.
Mac DeMarco plays us “Freaking Out the Neighborhood” which issues the most sincere and sentimental of apologies to mothers, neighbors and friends' mothers everywhere for gettting everyone all shook up with whatever “no good” indiscretions. And as a result, we hear our main man Mac even sharpen up the fidelity to assemble the semblance of studio pop savoir faire that keeps his trademark singing guitar sound in tact but gone are the former Rock and Roll Nightclub lo-fi trappings. With the upcoming release of 2 October 16 from Captured Tracks, this will make the second Mac Demarco album in less than a year's time and we should be so lucky. Keep up the good work dudes.
MMG’s freshly signed Chi-town MC Rockie Fresh gives us a late night b/w night ride into the freeways and illuminated urban street ways on the video “You A Lie” (remix) featuring Rick Ross Driving 88 mixtape released earlier this year. Fresh has been busy out there on the tour circuit as he prepares to release his upcoming Electric Highway mixtape dropping next month.
Greg Dulli and All Tomorrow's Parties are curating I'll Be Your Mirror USA 2012 at NYC's Pier 36 and Greg brings you this playlyst featuring all the artists playing the event this September 21-23. Tickets available via ATP.
Tune in to Statik Selektah and Reks joining the ¡MAYDAY! crew with Ace Hood remixing “Highs and Lows” featuring Ryan Evans bringing you a croon with the “highs of the city skylines” in his eyes. The ¡MAYDAY! album Take Me To Your Leader is available now.
Watch the animated visual for the intro from Cars & Trains' new album We Are All Fire out now from Fake Four, Inc.
We have the audio and visuals for Flying Lotus's debut single “Putty Boy Strut” off his forthcoming Until The Quiet Comes. The video is animated by Brighton, UK animator Cyriak and involves cycloptic robots and an alternate world of living Christmas lights. FlyLo's Until The Quiet Comes will be released October 2 in the US on Warp Records with pre-order available here and now.
Get a listen to a stream of Unnatural Helpers forthcoming album Land Grab dropping this upcoming Tuesday, September 25 from your DIY friends at Hardly Art. Fronted by the strong and steady Dean Whitmore, the sound of alternative Seattle comes to you with a little mixing help from Fastbacks former frontman Kurt Bloch giving you a whole other reason to grow your hair long and keep it grungy. Listen on, put your favorite flannel on and turn the volume up.
The Pharmacy dropped their single “Baby Be” a slice of gritty and not too pristine power pop to balance the heavy weight of their preivous single, “Dig Your Grave“. The Northwest trio is made up of frontman Scottie Yoder, Brendhan Bowers on drums and Stefan Rubicz on the keys and we welcome them back to their Seattle hometown after spending a year bumming it out in New Orleans amid the national job drought. The Pharmacy's Stoned & Alone was recorded at Seattle's Soundhouse (even using the same amp Kurt used for a few songs) and a Vashon Island Methodist church and can be found September 25 on digital and on LP or CD November 6 from Old Flame Records.
WHY? dropped the cut “Strawberries” from their forthcoming album Mumps coming October 9 from Anticon. Join Yoni Wolf as he reminisces on the crazy stuff he's said to both hotel managers and high school counselors alike and plenty items more that continue to haunt him. Every WHY? song has at least one special 'moment' of lyrical genius and this one goes to the image of a mom in curlers who “smokes weed and lisens to that Garrison Keilor” prompting Yoni's following resolve in the following couplet; “That's how I'll live when I quite my rap career, let her laughter pass the rafters and out into the atmosphere.”
Sun Araw brings us the visuals for “Evening Meditations” which features just that and a whole lot of rooftop loopage and noodling from the trio to make you forget what you were supposed to remember. This is from dublab's Light From Los Angeles compilation and we invite you to peace out further with this a/v experience about how to turn your roof into a meditative hot spot and just turn on.
Frank Ocean, high on the heels of a video arcade illuminated SNL performance dropped the wild video for “Pyramids”. Discuss amongst yourselves and note that Frank's Channel Orange is out now.
Sister Crayon deliver us the eerie dark magic of “Cynic” off their forthcoming Other EP (due later this fall). Terra Lopez describes the song's beginnings along and underlying currents that run deep: “Cynic formed as more of a prayer or mantra that I ended up humming to myself at times when I needed to calm myself down.The song turned into a confessional type of thing where I address my absent father, my lover, and myself. It's just me trying to figure out how and why I do the things I do, or why I react the way that I do (emotionally, etc) and how the past inevitably fits in and fucks with you.”
Get crafty, get Kraftwerkian, and get listening to Suzanne Kraft's “No Worries” now. Kraft's new album Horoscope is available now on vinyl from Friends of Friends and on digital September 25 from Young Adults Recordings.
Bring out the tape head cleaner because Errors bring you the following trailer for the VHS version of New Relics coming October 1. So fire up the VCR and pre-order here!
Supreme Cuts & Haleek Maul saw the release of their video “M00N” off of their Mishka Chrome Lips mixtape and directed by Andy-A$AP Rocky-“Wassup”-video-fame-Capper. Here is what Haleek said on the recent video treatment: “”M00N” is more or less a reflection upon internal struggles, both ongoing and resolved which caused me to doubt a lot of things I was doing from relationships to school and music. After venting on that track a lot of those insecurities dissolved into nothing and I felt free from a lot of the turmoil which was haunting me.”
Nosaj Thing released the single “Eclipse/Blue” featuring Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino. Look for this single next month in October from Timetable as Nosaj prepares the followup to his breakthrough album Drift with his upcoming release Home to be anounced sometime soon.
Chrome Canyon reworks Universal Robot Band's “Barely Breaking Even” that brings together the bedroom made disco party out of the hallways, suburban rec rooms and into the cul de sac. Get ready to join Chrome Canyon in waking up all the neighbors as Elemental Themes comes out October 9 from Stones Throw.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra have signed to Jagjaguar with the celebratory single drop of “Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)” b/w b-“Waves of Confidence”. Rest assured that UMO is not selling out there sound or anything but rather sharpening their approach that makes the pop tones on “Swim and Sleep” hit that strange and wondrous place of willful era displacement. You can find this single exclusively available at UMO's shows with Grizzly Bear through the rest of September.
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Johaz & Exile are the unstoppable Dag Savage, and we got their cut “Cali Dreamin” featuring Fashawn & Co$$ with piano lead rhymes with the first verse favorite, “fuck the world and its politics, because life is not a movie, paint a picture on the wall trying to radiate the beauty.” Get in on the all the rolling 30s and 40s to complete your afternoon modd styles on this limited edition 7″ 45 with “Mic Jackson” courtesy from the good people at Fat Beats.
Earlimart dropped their new single “10 Years”, giving us that the slow chugging indie that got us through our morning studies and something to dream on between the dawn and night class musings. Their new album System Preferences is out now via digital and drops on CD and vinyl October 16 from The Ship.
Just in, check out the new Cold Showers' mood and brood 'hunt you down' chanting single “Violent Cries” that will keep you company as your walk along darkened corridors until they release their upcoming Love and Regret album October 9 from Dais. Catch them on tour for the rest of September with The Soft Moon.
From the Blue Moutains of Australia, the duo FISHING gives us all an advance listen to their upcoming 7″ release, “Choy Lin” dropping October 2 from Lefse imprint Waaga Records and Yes Please in Australia. What they bring you from their home, '38 nautical miles west of Sydney' is an instrumental cut that could remix and rematch some of today's best electronic music.
Tim Hecker and Oneohtrix Point Never's Daniel Lopatin are preparing Instrumental Tourist as part of the Software Studio Series. Instrumental Tourist comes out November 20 from the Software Recording Co. on CD and limited edition vinyl. Listen now to their first single, “Uptown Psychedelia” which brings their heady sound to the fancy side of town.
Chelsea Wolfe brings the string wrung track “Appalachia” to the table as we await to hear the other side of Ms. Wolfe; Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs available October 16 from Sargent House. Pre-order from Chelsea here.
ESP lives up to their extra sensory perception business in the spirit calming and transcendental video directed by Chris Coats for the song, “627”. Their self-titled and self-released EP is out now via Bandcamp.
And finally we have your early peek at the Chaos in Tejas 2013 lineup to behold because it is never too early to start planning for next year.
