Thursday, April 30, 2009

new: Julianna Barwick Florine EP

"Cloudbank"
Brooklyn based avant-chanteuse Julianna Barwick, whose Sanguine LP and Daytrotter session are consistently on heavy rotation in my bedroom, just released a new EP available on eMusic. Entitled Florine, the 24 minute mini-album is a continuation of the breathy soundscapes and hypnotizing loops Barwick has been experimenting with for years, helping dough eyed boys and girls get lost in the ether, as if transcending space & time were an every day occurrence. Florine suggests that purgatorial visits, spirit reunions and time-traveling might actually be daily activities for Ms. Barwick, who has the uncanny ability to lull listeners into a semi-conscious daze, making one feel that even at our most hyper-aware we are still half asleep.

Purchase Florine.

Julianna Barwick- Cloudbank

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

mix: Gino Soccio's Dance Exercise Music

"It's Alright"
Mort just stumbled upon this banging mix of retro-disco on Beat Electric, which is most the spot if you're into obscure disco and other crazy ass old-school dance ish. As may you be able to guess from his name, producer Gino Soccio, who is actually Canadian, could be described as Giorgio Moroder's "less robotic" brother. The A-side of Dance Exercise Music, which was actually released as a workout comp, features three of Soccio's biggest hits, including "Dancer", which could rage a sorority slumber party as hard as it would a K-fueled warehouse party in Bushwick. My only complaint about this mix is that its thirteen minutes go by way too quickly. Recommened for anyone with an urge to get busy on the dancefloor.

Gino Soccio- Dance Exercise Music

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

bobkast #26: Another Day in the Park

"Dreaming, Dreaming"
With the thermometer hitting upwards of 85 in Greenpoint the past two weekends, it's safe to say that Summer is almost here. It's also safe to say that you can find me in the park, chilling with friends, soaking up sun and drinking Margarita's in styrofoam cups from the Turkey's Nest. My advice with this mix; burn a copy to CD, then transfer that CD to Maxell XL-II, pop it into your Radio Raheem-esque boom box, pick up a blanket and go lay out in your neighborhood park. Bring booze. Smokes. Buy an ice cream. (or Italian ice.) Stop being so pale.

Bobkast #26: Another Day in the Park

Julie Doiron- The Life of Dreams
Atlas Sound- Springtime Instrumental
Suda Chuenbarn- Jong Wai Korn
Lola Arias & Ulises Conti - Te Voy A Vencer Por Knock-Out
High Places- The Tree With Lights In It
Savath et Savalas- La Llama
Amadou et Mariam - Je Te Kiffe
One Blood- Be Thankful For What You Got
Jackie Paris- Make Me Smile
The Coasters- Down In Mexico
Annette Denvil- Oh So Nice
Animal Collective- No More Running
Yo La Tengo- Dreaming
Ducktails- Backyard

Download Bobkast #26: Another Day in the Park

(PC: right click+save; MAC: Mac Users: hold down control+click the above link and select "Download Linked File")

Monday, April 27, 2009

video: Ducktails "Landrunner"

"Let's Rock the Beach"


From the forthcoming Ducktails release on Olde English Spelling Bee. Is it summer yet?

Friday, April 24, 2009

Burial & Four Tet are Moth/Wolf Club

Details on this are incredibly scarce, but BLEEP has page in its catalog for Moth/Wolf Club, a collaboration between mega-producers Four Tet (aka Kieren Hebden) and British dub-step luminary Burial. According to BLEEP, the vinyl was available for pre-order beginning 4/5/09 and is already "out of stock." A Google search didn't yield much, except for an equally as info-less catalog post on htfr.com. Here is all the info we've got so far on what is sure to be one of the year's most enlightening collabo's.
A split release shrouded in darkness (hence the artwork, no sales notes, no audio, no promos). Just a solitary twelve, two sides crafted by two of the most innovative producers of the last twenty years, Burial and Four Tet... Essential Purchase never sounded so right.
(via BLEEP)

[ED Note: Apparently this is not "out of stock", as once listed, on BLEEP. Click here to order.]

mp3: Ólöf Arnalds "Klara"

Lullaby
One of my favorite shows of 2008 was the Kria Brekkan-Ólöf Arnalds performance at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint. While Kria's improvisational, tape-centric piano ambiance was absolutely gorgeous, Arnalds, who, up until that point, I'd only known through her work with Mum, treated the seated audience to a beautiful set of Icelandic lullaby's and hushed ballads. The gig was so intimate that Arnalds actually breastfed her son, who had been crying all night, on stage in order to get him to calm down. Surely one of the cutest, albeit most bizarre moments I've ever witnessed at a concert, the real highlight, one which I repeatedly come back to, was "Klara", a lullaby that Arnalds wrote for her sister.

Olof Arnalds- Klara

Thursday, April 23, 2009

mp3: Juana Molina Live on BBC

"Un Dia"
A radiant morning sun is shining through my window. My Weather Bug iPhone tells me its currently 48 degrees in Greenpoint. The high is 60, the low 44. Juana Molina's last live radio performace on the BBC's Radio 3 is filling my bedroom with a radiance that can only be described, for better or worse, as "magical." It's alluring, seductive, mezmerizing, in your face and, at the same time, incredibly simple. I picture Juana sitting Indian-style in a park in Buenos Aires, flicking dandelions and teaching lady bugs to fly. She stands up, and miraculously floats above the ground, her feet a mere inch above the tallest piece of grass in the park. She pulls a yellow balloon out of her pocket, inflates it and continues float-walking. The balloon pulls her upward, upward and away from the ground. She's smiling, a big kid smile, mud and chocolate smeared across her face. People below watch her drift away, slowly, until she is just a speck in the sky, a molecule.

[Ed note: Juana Molina was just announced, literally, as an addition to the Central Park Summer Stage series. She will perform Wednesday July 8th, 2009.]

Juana Molina - Live on Radio3

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

mp3: new Atlas Sound & Deerhunter

Time Warp
Bradford Cox just dropped another virtual 7" over on the Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza blog. The new Atlas Sound digi-release, which pairs "Springtime Instrumental b/w Time Warp", is sort of an early '60s throwback, complete with kaleidoscopic riffs, shakers of all sorts and nostalgic, pre-pubescent drum fills. "Time Warp" is sort of an anti-suburbia sketch, which, while being slightly negative, comes across in an "I feel your pain" kinda way, ala the film Suburbia, which sucks, but I sort of really like/relate to. All in all, a nice little Earth Day surprise, on top of that new Deerhunter jam "Rainwater Cassette Exchange", which the band let loose last week. Does this mean were getting the follow up to Microcastle and Let The Blind... sooner than expected? One can only hope.

Atlas Sound "Springtime Instrumental b/w Time Warp"

Monday, April 20, 2009

ambient: Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening

"The Space Is Real"

Pauline Oliveros, known for her role in the post-war electronic music scene, specifically as a member of the San Francisco Music Tape Center in the '60s, is a true innovator. Long before acts like Stars of the Lid and Windy & Carl were making lush waves of manipulated sound, Oliveros was composing lavish instrumental drone pieces and revolutionizing the concept of "sound." While her long and prolific career would be near impossible to summarize in a single post, one of her most notable pieces, Deep Listening, a suite composed with Stuart Dumpster and Panaiotis, has been on heavy late-night, early-morning rotation in my bedroom. Deep Listening, which finds the trio of collaborators composing lush ambiance with "accordion, voice, conch shell, metal pieces, trombone, didjeridu, garden hose, whistling and metal pipes," was recorded "14 feet down into a 186 foot diameter cistern that once held over 2 million gallons of water." If you have even the slightest interest in sound-tracking your dreams, the mystical quality of deep-sea drone, or an affinity for sound-scapes, I HIGHLY recommend you find yourself a copy of Deep Listening.

Purchase Deep Listening

Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dumpster, Panaiotis- Suiren

Friday, April 17, 2009

cover: Woods "Military Madness"

"Creeps Over Me"

With their vibrant kitchen-sink folk drawing as much from Laurel Canyon as it does from the phosphorescent hue and broken glass strewn back-alleys of industrial Brooklyn, it makes total sense that Woods would cover Graham Nash's political ballad "Military Madness." Sure, the Bush regime is out of office and a new day has risen in the country, albeit one filled with cancerous headlines, ass-backward economic plans and a penchant for multi-national wars, however, Woods cover of Songs for Beginner's opening cut is a supreme example of a band channeling the past in the present, and in turn, transforming what could be a long, lost relic from an underrated Graham Nash solo record into a poignant tune for lost souls searching for purity and truth amidst muckrackers, ponzi-schemers and other greedy mongers of industry. While the lyrical content is fairly obvious, what lurks in Woods' cover is a slinky, almost hypnotizing looseness that spirals and engulfs the blissful jam like a cyclone, sucking up everything in its path, shaking the shit out of it and dropping it back down to earth, a bit battered and bruised but better for the trip.

Be sure to pick up Woods latest release Songs of Shame and while you're at it snag Woods Family Creeps and that Captured Tracks 7". You'll be happy you did.

Woods- Military Madness (Graham Nash cover)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

liner notes: Bob Dylan's Planet Waves

"Forever Young"

From the liner notes of Bob Dylan's Planet Waves, featuring The Band:
"Back to the starting point! The kickoff, Hebrew letters on the work, Victor Hugo's house in Paris, NYC in early Autumn, leaves flying in the park, the clock strikes eight, Bong– I dropped a double brandy & tried to recall the events...beer halls & pin balls, polka bands, barbwire & thrashing clowns, objects, headwinds & snowstorms, family outings with strangers– Furious gals with garters & smeared lips on bar stools that stank from sweating pussy– doing the Hula– perfect priests in overhauls, glassy eyed, Insomnia! Space guys off duty with big ducks & ducktails all wired up & voting for Eisenhower, waving flags & jumping off fire engines, getting killed on motorcycles whatever– We sensed each other beneath the mask, pitched a tent in the street & joined the traveling circus, love at first sight! History became a lie! The sideshow took over– what a sight... the thresh-hold of the modern bomb, temples of the power, the cowboy saint, the Arapahoe, snapshots of– Apache poets searching thru the ruins for a glimpse of Buddha– I lit out for parts unknown, found Jacob's ladder up against an adobe wall & bought a serpent from a passing angel– Yeah the ole days are gone forever and the new ones ain't fair behind, the laughter is fading away, echoes of a star, of energy vampires in the gone world going WILD! Drinking the blood of innocent people, innocent lambs! The wretched of the Earth, my brothers of the flood, cities of the flesh– Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Bismarck, South Dakota, Duluth! Duluth– where Baudelaire lived & Goya cashed in his chips, where Joshua brought the house down! From there it was straight up- a little jolt of Mexico and some good luck, a little power over the Grave, some more brandy & the teeth of a lion & a compass"

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

cover: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

"Each Heart String of Mine is Broken in Time"
Last night at Union Hall The Tallest Man on Earth, a Swede who is clearly steeped in and obsessed with American folk culture, covered the traditional "Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone." While not so much a shot at the Tallest Man, it was fairly obvious that his status as a foreigner truly impeded his version of the traditional, as if something was seriously lost in translation. Upon getting home, I immediately fired up Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's heartbroken and battered version of the song. Recorded for Daytrotter nearly 3 years ago, Bonnie Billy noted that "Bernard Lamar Lunsford learned this song in 1904 from Miss Lela Ammons of Robinsville, North Carolina. I learned it from Lunsford's recording." One listen to Will Oldham's version of the Appalachian folk song, and it's clear that nothing is lost in translation.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone
(via Daytrotter)

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy "Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone" on KCMP

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

mp3: Thai Beat A Go-Go

Groovy Sounds from the Land of Smile
Two years ago, after returning from a trip to Southeast Asia, Chocolate Bobka began. While prepping for my first trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, like any good crate digger, I did some research into the lands lost and some what forgotten psych scene of the '60s and '70s. Fortunately for my western ass, over the last few years reissue labels have taken the time to discover and distribute compilations of Pan-Asian psych, funk and all sorts of other Golden Triangle gems. While the Radio Thailand and Cambodia Rocks! compilations are both mind-boggling, it's the Thai Beat A Go-Go series which truly delves into the Land of Smile's profound take on western psych. While visiting Thailand I really didn't come in contact with any of its psych past, as much of it has not been archived and the nation has been overcome with the languid sounds of a million chill-out mixes and Thievery Corporation lounge acts, but when I dream of drinking Beer Chang, puffing the strongest tobacco on earth and eating squid on Ko Bu Bu, I envision the Erawan Band and Suda Chuenbarn playing 30 ft away, rocking wah'd out psych funk and soul. While it may not be representative of the nation now, which seems to be obsessed with bad metal and modern rock acts, the Thai Beat A Go-Go series is truly the sound of Siam.

Erawan Band- Khon Muangkhan

Suda Chuenbarn-Jong Wai Korn

Monday, April 13, 2009

new: Olafur Arnalds Found Song Project

Erased Tapes
(photo by Gerald Schnaidt)
Icelandic avant-experimentalist Olafur Arnalds just released "Erla's Waltz," the first in his Found Songs experiment, in which Arnalds will write, record, and distribute a song within 24 hours of its inception. Arnalds sound project will last through the week. This being a "fun" sort of project, Arnalds will be posting the mp3's daily on the 'Found Songs' (Erased Tape) site, as well as tweeting the sessions and answering questions at @olafurarnalds.

Olafur Arnalds- Day 1 Erla's Waltz

Friday, April 10, 2009

live: Comet Gain @ MHoW

"I'm Feeling Groovy"
Admittedly I'd never heard of Comet Gain until Bill wrote this post on BV two months ago. It literally took one listen ("When I Try To Look So Bad") to fall head over heels for the UK veterans, who have been releasing 7-inches and LP's for more than half my life. (Comet Gain formed in 1992.) Like any vinyl fetishist, I immediately headed to Permanent Records and snagged a copy of the "Love Without Lies b/w Books of Californa" 7-inch, which Marjorie, Permanent's super friendly proprietor, thought was a a very good idea. Basically what this post boils down to is that if you like Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, The Buzzcocks, Shop Assistants, The Close Lobsters or any of the others acts on the C86 mixtape, and subsequently, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, then you should be spending your Easter Sunday evening with Comet Gain at Music Hall of Williamsburg. If that's not enough, Brooklyn's best noir-pop act Crystal Stilts will be opening, as well as Cold Cave. So yeah, it's worth the $13.

Comet Gain- Why I Try To Look So Bad


Comet Gain "Love Without Lies"

Thursday, April 9, 2009

live: Here We Go Magic @ Music Hall

"Everything's Clean"

Trying to recreate the subtle nuances of their debut record in a live setting could be nearly impossible for a band like Here We Go Magic, yet, for the most part, Luke Temple's crew of singing instrumentalists pulled it off. Riding a fine line between blissful ambiance and relatively straight forward, yet completely abstract pop, the group, fleshed out in full for theatrical performances, ran through most of Here We Go Magic, with standouts like "Fangela", "Only Pieces" and "Tunnelvision" receiving the most enigmatic response from the audience. "Tunnelvision", specifically, is a prime example of how Luke Temple's group is able to convey dense, bottom of the ocean ambiance capable of being lapped up by a mass audience, who actually danced to the slow-burner. While other acts attempting such a balance could easily get stuck on the droning side of the hill, Temple's knack for pop arrangements elevates mesmerizing atmospherics and drives them home. Dancing to "Tunelvision" is a compliment of the highest regard as most groups attempting to pull this off would get nothing but blank DMT stares from the crowd. While "Tunnelvision" was an undeniable highlight, the band really hit its stride on "I Just Want To See You Run Through Water", a song that could've easily been birthed on a marathon jaunt through the deepest, darkest parts of the sea, where electric eels and pulsating dragon fish are the only signs of light and life.

Here We Go Magic- Surprise (Live on WOXY) (via GvB)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

live: Ducktails on WFMU

"Extended Jam"
I've posted about this Ducktails WFMU performance before but this morning the "Extended Jam" from Matt Mondanile's Christmas Eve live set on Marty McSorley's radio show came on shuffle and literally eased any sense of ill will in my mind. Like some sort of cosmic wave, it seemed to transcend the red brick walls of my apartment, as if it were seeping from the sun dazed clouds lofting above Greenpoint. I make allusions to music soundtracking life/nature rather often, but I'm 100% convinced that Ducktails "Extended Jam" was a curious case of nature soundtracking life, as if Matt Mondanile had found his way into Professor Coldheart's Freeze Machine and rid the world of darkness by showering the planet with sun-washed acid rays and mystical pellets of ease.

Ducktails- Extended Jam

video: Crocodiles "I Wanna Kill"

"Sing Along With Me"

Last Saturday night I sat down with retro-gazers Crocodiles to discuss Saturn station wagons, Kenneth Anger and the Manson Family before their headlining gig at Piano's, where Abbey Braden shot this bad ass video of the band raging the anthemic "I Wanna Kill" in front of a sold-out LES crowd. The band, whose sold out a pair of limited 7"s, will release their debut full-length, Summer of Hate, on Fat Possum (home to RL Burnside, WAVVES) on April 28th. Until then, head to RCRD LBL and grab a preview of the record.

PS-My chat will appear shortly on 'Sup.

Crocodiles- I Wanna Kill

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

cover: Spacemen 3 "We Sell Soul"

"If Your Ever Feeling Low, You Know Who To Call On"
It took a rainy day, a deathly hangover and another bout with Spacemen 3 addiction to realize that the seminal space-rock band covered The Spades "We Sell Soul", that cryptic howling beast of an R&B rave-up featured on the latest Bobkast. According to Spacemen3.co.uk, the cover is actually a mixture of The Spades "We Sell Soul" and Thirteenth Floor Elevators, who grew out of The Spades, "Don't Fall Down." Should be no surprise that J.Spaceman and Sonic Boom take this one to Saturn, ridding the track of its bluesy confines and letting it roll like an infinite ball of string in outer space, all while the haunting "we sell soul" lyric lurks in the background, a shadowy figure in the night, looming over your shoulder, as if it could attack at any second, yet only to vanish off into the night, as if it were never there.

Spacemen 3- We Sell Soul
The Spades- We Sell Soul

Sunday, April 5, 2009

bobkast #25: How Are You?

"I Got a Free Way of Mind"
(photo by Jano De Cesare)
Is it me, or do you just want to lay around all day eating Cadbury eggs, doing crossword puzzles and flipping back and forth between Repo Man and the latest Man v Food? Slacker city.

Bobkast #25: How Are You?
Kurt Vile- Freeway
The Clean- Anything Can Happen
Woods- The Dark
Nodzzz- In The City (Contact High)
The Spades- We Sell Soul
The Box Tops- The Letter
Dusty Springfield- Twenty Four Hours to Tulsa
Harlem- Beautiful & Very Smart
The Vaselines- Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sun Beam
Comet Gain- Brothers Off the Block
The Close Lobsters- Never Seen Before
The Zombies- Hung Up On A Dream
The Millenium- It Won't Always Be The Same
Beulah- Slo-Mo for the Masses
Satwa- Amigo
Little Joy- Play the Part
WAVVES- How Are You?


Download

PC users: right-click the song and select "Save Target As..."
Mac Users: hold down control+click the song and select "Download Linked File"

Friday, April 3, 2009

new: Dirt Dress

"Go To Sleep"

Dirt Dress just dropped their second release for Papermade, the Perdido en la Suciedad cassette. The tape will actually be the first in a trio of cassettes, each titled Perdido en la Suciedad. Sludgy, uninhibited, reverb soaked blues rock from the City of Angels is the perfect way to get through this stormy spring Friday in NYC, and an equally perfect precursor to the Kurt Vile show tonight at Silent Barn.

You can download Perdido en la Suciedad for FREE here.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

tape: Arch-M "Mountain Tan"

In The Mountain
Dark, moody and loopy, Arch-M's Mountain Tan cassette is the soundtrack to R.E.M. hallucinations and fantastical nightmares. The snippets which comprise the Mountain Tan Commercial Cassette, the fore barer to Arch-M's forthcoming 12" Moon Tan, which bedroom provacatuer Corey Reid is still recording, amount to roughly 9 minutes of material, material that should be played on "repeat all" while trying to drunkenly conjure visions of the past, or simply weirding the shit out of your roommates. While the 12" release is still pending, in a recent interview with No Pain in Pop, Reid noted that this year he will be touring the States and releasing a few 7", which is nice for those of us who couldn't get our grimy little paws on the limited edition Mountain Tan cassette. Luckily for us, Reid is a cool guy and made it available a while back on Archive.org.

Download Arch-M's Mountain Tape.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

mp3: Kurt Vile & the Violators "Hunchback"

"Big As A Humpback Whale"
Kurt Vile's been making a lot of noise lately on the strength of a few solid vinyl only EP's and some CD-Rs. His Mexican Summer debut, God Is Saying This To You, is all but sold out, unless you know the right place to go, which, apparently I did, as the Academy Annex had one this afternoon. Not one to rest on his budding laurels, Vile also recently released The Hunchback EP with his in-your-face rock group Kurt Vile & the Violaters, which, like many of his collaborations and configurations, features Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs. Playing the bi-polar opposite to Vile's gauzy bedroom folk, the Violators kick out the druggy jams, as if they were the house band for a members-only bar located in the mirth of a sewage swamped basement of a warehouse in the god forsaken wasteland of South Philly. If I had known better I would've placed my order with Richie Records, the label behind the product, who, for $16 instead of the normal $13, will throw in "throw in a copy of Kurt's out of print split vinyl single w/ the Beat Jams, containing the tunes "Freeway in Mind" and "Everyone is Talkin'" from 2007."

Buy from Richie Records.

Kurt Vile will hit NY this Friday for a show with US Girls and Gary War at the Silent Barn in Ridgewood, Queens. I will be there. You should too.

Kurt Vile & the Violators- The Hunchback

art: Brian Eno 77 Million Paintings

Paintings for Life