I forgot to bring my iPod with me to work today, so I spent my first quality time with Muxtape. They’ve cleaned it up a bit since I last visited (and since nearly all the songs were wiped out). Looking through random mixes and fans-of-fans’ playlists, it becomes pretty clear which songs are currently en vogue. I saw “Time to Pretend” literally a billion times. My own tape had run its course, so I’ve updated:
The Walkmen’s You & Me, which I urged you to preorder on vinyl, is available this very moment for download. Weeks early, and for five dollars. Amie Street is offering the low-price album with this info:
“All donations go to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in honor of Luca Vasallo, a friend to the band and a current patient who is seven months old and doing a great job fighting a very difficult disease”
There’s also a little interview with Pete Bauer, and three steaming songs on that page. As Chris said, “You’re sort of a jerk if you don’t do this.”
My fellow Berkeleyans (I think), the Morning Benders, have given away a free covers album; hopefully you were aware. It’s exactly as advertised– the Bedroom Covers– and it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve heard lately. The joy is palpable in these recordings of true favorites: Roy and Paul, Dreams and Lovefool, Marie and Caroline. If the Benders are new to you, now’s the time; this is a little like being introduced by a mutual friend.
Try:
Get the whole album from the Morning Benders’ blog, and be sure to thank them. If you like it, check out Talking Through Tin Cans, their latest record, which proves them to be no stranger to a sweet tune.
Since you’re buying vinyl now, and Insound knows it, go ahead and pre-orderYou & Me on wax. It’s the only way to get the LP, and it’s RED, so I guess it’s not much of a decision. Also, I understand that many of you were turned off by A Hundred Miles Off’s much-too-drunk holler (or Pussy Cats‘ insular weirdness)– but consider that album’s undeniable, confrontational strength and marry it to the classic Walkmen sound, and you begin to approximate You & Me’s excellence.
Our first look at Entanglements is insistent and uneasy; what should be a sparkling slice of 60s pop delivers just enough dissonance as to make things uncomfortable. Strings keen with a little too much urgency– is this Bacharach or Body Snatchers?– and the brass skitters a little too quickly.
But the real pleasure here is listening to Zac Pennington so capably keeping up: a more confident, more clever wordplay is on display here, and with a delivery to match. In summation, the band has stretched its already-solid command of the vivid, weird, and affecting into something altogether more grand with their newly imposing sound and Pennington’s (somehow) even wider-eyed delivery.
While the Pacific Northwest has your attention, be sure to stop by Hush to observe the Portland mainstay’s 10th anniversary. The label’s released the lovable likes of Casey Dienel, Shelley Short, Norfolk & Western and the Decemberists, and they’re offering a special double-comp in celebration. It’s the pay-what-you-will type of deal, and, yes, free is an option:
ALBUM I
“Hollow Notes” - Novi Split
“Refining” - Peter Broderick
“Come By Storm” - Laura Gibson
“The Afterlife Pt. I” - Run On Sentence
“Winding Sheet” - Nick Jaina “Coo Coo Bird” - Shelley Short
“Hiding Home” - Norfolk & Western
“Spring Bird” - Rauelsson
“Space And All Dead Things” - Corrina Repp
“Elephants & Little Girls” - Loch Lomond
“Sharra” - Kaitlyn Ni Donovan
“Wii Oui” - Podington Bear
“Broke Down” - Amy Annelle
“The Wagoner’s Lad” - Colin Meloy
ALBUM II
“Song # 4″ - Fun With Friends
“Petting Zoo” - Graves
“Your Smile” - Fancie
“Ridin’ For A Fall” (Young Dub) - Bobby Birdman
“These Blues” - Super XX Man
“Egg Hunt” - Reclinerland “Asleep At The Wheel” - Casey Dienel
“The Bane Of Progress” - Jeff London
“Flight Cub” - Velella Velella
“Oh Darlin” - Blanket Music
“Big Eye City” - Operacycle
“Elysian Fields (We’re Dead, We’re Dead)” - Parks & Recreation
“Humm-na” - Dat’r
“Sleep At Last!” (Live) - Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble
PLUS 36-PAGE LINER NOTES PDF
How generous! And really, that’s no surprise. Hush has been integral to the success of many Portland artists and their scene, and has done it in a small, gracious and humble manner which deserves much reward. Here’s to Hush!
Transfiguration of Vincent is M. Ward’s finest album, a heartfelt ode to a lost friend and a beautifully written collection of warm folk songs. Sometime soon Merge will be reissuing the record on vinyl, complete with the bonus tracks now available from their website.
More recently, as Him to Zooey Deschanel’s Her, Ward has released a video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” It features cutesy, crappy animation and an unshakably awkward Deschanel– an unfortunately accurate representation of the music.
Information on Kirsten Ketsjer is tough to come by, and the Danish doesn’t make it any easier, but I’m not complaining. This song– this one song– is descended from heaven, I am convinced.
There are few albums that actually make me want to use the term space rock. The new Spiritualized record, Songs in A&E, is one of few that actually sends me spiraling weightless through the heavens. From moving melodies that lift you skyward, to chaotic soundscapes bursting like a picture from the Hubble Telescope, it’s music that just makes me think of starry skies and cloudy galaxies.
But I mean that’s just me responding to what I’d heard about Spiritualized, before I’d actually heard Spiritualized. It’s a pretentious way of saying, this is a beautiful album.Songs in A&E is graceful, gorgeous, and epic. These are melodies that will stick with you from the moment you hear them. These are very earnest, very human songs, not movements from a rock opera for the far future.
“Soul on Fire” is a soaring gospel anthem, a song about a love that’s gonna last as long as the stars themselves. J. Spaceman (real name Jason Pierce) sings of holding on for dear life to a lover who “set my soul on fire” and stirs “a hurricane inside my veins.”
“You Lie You Cheat” is one of the better rockers, all scorching guitar feedback and distorted drums with gospel harmonies on top, while J. Spaceman takes vows against someone who’s burned all their bridges.
My only real problem with this album is, it’s more a record of melodies than songs. Huge, huge, melodies, squeezed for every last drop of emotion, raised to the loftiest heights; it gets exhausting pretty quick! But it’s this straight approach that makes the album so instantly loveable, makes it feel so familiar, brings it down to earth.
* * *
Aretha Franklin makes great “playing Evil Mummy with your 9-year old sister” music. I’m back home in California and busy again and stoked about it and going to be writing a bit more. The people have spoken, long epic reviews are out, short lunch break entries are sweet. Two entries in three weeks is weak. I’m shooting for three entries in two weeks. Cheers!
