mp3: Beach Fossils "Vacation", "Daydream"

"Leave The City Behind"
Waking up all foggy on a hazy morning with peanut butter on my breath, espresso penetrating my nasal passage, and Beach Fossils "Vacation" radiating through my ear drums felt like a moment of semi-cosmic clarity. My senses were a buzz, yet, despite the undeniable strength of Stumptown's Hairbender, I still felt like I was drifting through Maya Lin's Wave Field at Storm King, the landscape undulating like an ancient oscillating synthesizer– a rippled world. Beach Fossils, a dreamy bliss pop act from Brooklyn, whose associations with Woodsist, Captured Tracks and Underwater People's places him as part of the neo-Urban sylvan-beach psyche community (Woods, Ganglians, Real Estate, Ducktails), is the sound of escaping into a sun washed Polaroid from Rockaway Beach– the Atlantic to your east, Queens to the west. Beach Fossils have a number of upcoming shows in NYC, including one, appropriately, this Sunday at Fort Tilden in Rockaway Beach. That show, aka Todd P's annual Unamplified BBQ, also features Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent, Shilpa Ray, Real Estate (& Ducktails), Teengirl Fantasy, and, literally, like a hundred more bands. Oh yeah, and it's free. So yeah, you should probably get there if you can. If you can't make it Sunday, do your best to catch Beach Fossils with Real Estate and San Francisco's Girls at the Monster Island Basement on Friday June 26th, which is sure to be one for the ages.

Beach Fossils- Vacation
Beach Fossils- Daydream

live: Holiday Shores @ Spin; Tonight at Shea Stadium

"Put Your Toes In Now"
Playing in a large, cleared office with full length, open windows while posuer-artiste's mingle, drink Michelob Ultra and discuss some seriously hein-dog high school abstracts might not sound like an ideal place to play, but I guess no one told Holiday Shores. The Tallahassee band, whose been in town all week and has been receiving some nice press, played an incredibly effervescent set of refined bedroom jams better suited for backyard BBQ's, where playing washers and drinking really cold, really cheap beer is one's only pre-occupation. That said, the band made the best of their surroundings, aka the Spin Magazine office, by harnessing pure, unadulteratd fun and succesfully flipping any self-important NYC bullshit on its bum. In short, they were great, and their songs sound as good, possibly even better, live– and yes, they were playing with a minimalist drum set, were down a keyboard and some other magic gadgets. Holiday Shores finish their week in NYC tonight with a show at the new Shea Stadium. Originally, this was going to be Holiday Shores and a few others, but with rain putting a damper on Hillstock, the band will be joined by the likes of Michael Jordan, and the Screaming Females, amongst many other Hillstock acts, whose outdoor festival has been moved, you guessed it, indoors.

Holiday Shores will release Columbus'd the Whim on two syllable records on August 4th.

Holiday Shores-Phones Don't Feud (via Fader)

live: WAVVES at Primavera Sound

"I Won't Make It To 25"
(photos: craig loschmann)
By now you've probably heard a bevy of remarks about Wavves show on the Pitchfork Stage at Primavera Sound. As one who was at the show, up close, and was really enjoying myself, I was sort of shocked to hear about the supposed "meltdown", et all. I may have gotten to the stage right after the awkward sound check/ intro, so maybe I missed the bizarre tone that was set, but I actually thought that Nathan Williams put on the best show I've seen him play so far, which include an early day show at a bar on 110th St and a party in a smokey warehouse in Greenpoint. Photographer Craig Loschmann, who hadn't seen nor heard Wavves before, actually thought it was one of the funnest, best sets of the festival. Maybe we completely missed something, but isn't this exactly what a Wavves show is supposed to be like– drug fueled, failing, teetering on the edge of insanity, a breakdown, barely, if at all, holding it together, and sort of letting it all unravel over the course of, I don't know, say, twenty minutes. After all, it's what makes it a Wavves show. Skate dick punk snarl, too many drugs, a bandmate stuck in the "WTF?!", a crowd who, seemingly, was having equal fun cheering and jeering, and a prominent, often pretentious music magazine using their built-up hype to drive hits– sorta sounds like a weak version of some Rolling Stone exploited Guns N' Roses tour doc. Whatever it was, I think its safe to say that I now like Wavves about 100x more than I did before, which is rather significant considering I wasn't all too excited to hear/see him play after the Top Shop show at the Shank.

live: Bat for Lashes at Primavera Sound

"I Will Rise"
(photos: craig loschmann)
Like a cobra rising from an earn, Natashia Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, slivers around stage with a presence so captivating one may forget to blink. Fur and Gold was a truly wondrous record, creeping with neo-psychedelia and soul noir, like the soundtrack to a speakeasy murder mystery, best exemplified by "Trophy" and "What's A Girl To Do?", whose video is a beast in and of itself. But "Glass", the first single from Two Suns and the opener of her main stage set at Primavera, finds Khan channeling ancient Mysticism, which Wiki defines as, the "pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight." Basically, see her soon while she's still playing relatively small rooms. It won't be like that for long.

live: Justin Townes Earle

"Black-eyed Suzy she's still losing ground to the heat"

Justin Townes Earle took a break from his 6-month-long tour on Sunday to play a solo acoustic performance to an energetic crowd of about 50 at Drew's in Ringwood, NJ. After opening for his father the night before, JTE's set slowly morphed into a 90-minute storytellers performance covering everything from his water soaked apartment in Crown Heights to picking up chicks outside methadone clinics. He treated the audience to album standards, new songs, covers, and a few ditties he said he was scared to play until now. Justin's knack for storytelling was heightened by his charisma and overall likability. He'll be touring through August in support of his new album, Midnight at the Movies, including two sets at Bonnaroo next weekend.

Justin Townes Earle - Can't Hardly Wait [Replacements cover from 2009's Midnight at the Movies]

live: Girls at Primavera Sound

"I Don't Wanna Die"
(photos: craig loschmann)
Barcelona's Primavera Sound sort of played like a list of bands who have literally been in Brooklyn in the past month. For many acts, including Wavves, Vivian Girls, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Vaselines, Bat For Lashes, and Crystal Stilts, this couldn't have been truer, and as fellow Brooklynite and Vice photographer said to me, "we're really spoiled." Sure, it's NYC and all, but there are still acts that we don't get to see very often, and one band, Girls, made it well worth the trip across the pond. San Francisco's Girls played one of the earliest sets on the P4K stage, coming on right after Women, coincidence...I think not. Humble, visibly anxious, and noting that "This is just the beginning", the psych-revival/drug pop band blasted through a set of new material from their now complete, yes complete, debut full length, which will see the light of day by the end of the year via True Panther. While their biggest show ever, by far, was plagued with some technical difficulties (bad cables), they managed to set aside early problems and showcase mostly unheard new songs in front of the dense Mediterranean crowd. The highlight of their set was the first Girls song I ever heard, "Hellhole Ratrace", which will soon be released on seven inch b/w of "Solitude", a new song the band has yet to play live. With all this Girls output set for the rest of 2009, I think its safe to say that the rest of 2009 is going to be, ahum, "totally rad."

Interview: Crocodiles

"I Wanna Kill Tonight"
(photo by Abbey Braden)
Bobka will be on vacation for the next week or so, in order to head to, prepare for, and cover Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, Spain. I mean, Aphex Twin is gonna be there. Anyway, while there may be a post here or there, in my absence, check out this interview I did with the Crocodile's for 'Sup Magazine.

new: Holiday Shores

"Days Drag"

A few weeks ago I noticed that two syllable records had a new act by the name of Holiday Shores on their lineup. Curious, and sort of thinking 'how did I not know this?', I realized that Holiday Shores press shot was a exactly the same as two syllable signee's Continental Divide's photo. After putting two and two together, and getting confirmation from the two syllable CEO's, I came to the conclusion that, yes, Holiday Shores are indeed Continental Divide.

The band, who produces the musical equivalent of the half-half ice tea lemonade I'm drinking and the perfectly ripe banana I'm eating, is currently putting the final touches on their two syllable debut, Columbus'd the Whim, which, depending on who you ask, comes out either July 26 or August 4th. Fans of Matt Mondanile's (Real Estate, Ducktails) loopy bedroom psyche and day-drinking, will rejoice upon hearing Holiday Shores debut, which ebbs and flo's much like a hazy afternoon drinking lukewarm beer in the sun; happy, lethargic, rejuvenated and wasted, it's all here, ready to be devoured. It's the sort of record that makes you want to quit your job, move to Alabama, start a pie shop and sit out back and smoke cigarettes all day, while downing Coors Original, the banquet beer. (What can I say, this band really makes me want to drink beer.) While I anxiously await their debut, those fiending a post-work malt beverage can sip on portions of Continental Divide's EP over at RCRD LBL.

Continental Divide- Golden Throat EP

mp3: Ganglians "The Void"

"Moon Shadow Running Through Your Head"

An eye catcher in the Woodsist store window, Ganglians self titled 12" plays like a product of its album art. Here's my fictional account of the happenings:

Recorded in the dankest, darkest outcove of a Southwestern desert abode, a secret splinter group of renegade shaman's induldge in some ayahuasca, grab a few broken instruments (remnants from former settlers, long since gone after the great cliff massacre of 2009) and take a stab at pop music. The ayahuasca rolls like a venomous twister, swaying thoughts between horrifying and magical, and generating enough electricity to bring cave-paintings to life. "The Void" is the aftermath; hazy and beat-up, introspective and drained, its psycho-active balladry encompasses a thousand trips, here and fro, and a longing for the next.

(removed)

7": Kria Brekkan "Wildering"

Pickup Sleepy
While AC and Grouper were both phenomenal last night, the highlight of my evening may have come before the show when I noticed that Animal Collective was selling Kria Brekkan's Wildering 7" alongside their own merch and a bunch of Grouper vinyl. (If you are heading to upcoming shows, be sure to snag the Pumice split, I can't believe it's still available.) For a long time now I have been under the impression that this limited run single was long out of print, so finding it for 5 bucks at a former shipping terminal in the absolute middle of nowhere Manhattan was quite a pleasant surprise. Like much of Kria's work, Wildering plays like a black lullaby from a decrepit, abandoned old barn, where a young orphan girl lives with a family of mice, subsiding only on bread, water and worms. The sound of the wind in the house is like her dead parent's voices and often comes clattering in from the cold shore, shaking windows and making the floor boards creak an unsavory creak. Often horrifying, the young orphan girl takes comfort in the company of her rodent friends, who bundle crumbs for her and make sure not to naw away at her only blanket.

Kria Brekkan- Wildering (via Raven Sings the Blues)

live: Animal Collective @ Terminal 5

"A Guy On The River Really Can't Make You Change"
(photo by rezflicks)
Like clockwork, Animal Collective continues to absolutely crush. That might seem a little dry and 'bro-y", but it's true. The show started with "Chocolate Girl," a choice opener to get the ball rolling, before getting down to business. They got "My Girls" out of the way early, subsequently working the crowd into an ecstatic fervor. As expected, it was jam packed and the kids were really getting down on MPP cuts, especially "Summertime Clothes," which I've heard 4 times live and it just keeps getting better. While the band didn't reach too far into the back catalog and the set was pretty much what I expected, having seen them on MPP release day in January, I was once again blown away by how tight Geologist, Avey and Panda have become on stage, and just how far their sound has truly come. It's almost at the point where we have to start guessing what they'll do next? My guess, back to their more acoustic roots, as it'd probably be the most unexpected thing. Then again, AC always have two feet firmly planted in the future, so maybe the next record will be recorded in Space? or 20,000 leagues under the sea?

Setlist
Chocolate Girl
My Girls
Also Frightened
Summertime Clothes
Slippi
Why Would I Want The Sky (new)
Guys Eyes
Comfy In Nautica->
Essplode->
Fireworks->
Leaf House

Encore
Bleed
Lion In A Coma
Brothersport

Animal Collective- Why Would I Want The Sky (Live on BBC's Rob Da Bank sessions)

mp3: Pocahaunted "Dusk"

Travel Down Peyote Road

I hate throwing the term drone around because it tends to turn a lot of people off, but I've noticed there is something about Pocahaunted which enthralls even people completely opposed to avant-noise, etc. I've been following the cavernous Angelino's for a while now, snagging their Gold Miner's Daughter tape, as well as the phenomenal Chains LP, but Passage is really where its at. Maybe that's because it is the first time on record (I think) that the Pocahaunted sisters have recorded with Sun Araw axe-mastermind Cameron Stallone and LA weirdo scene maker Bobb Bruno, whose appeared on other Pocahaunted recordings, as well as records by Abe Vigoda, Mika Miko, Silver Dagger and countless other "Smell" acts. While Chains is truly a force to be reckon with, the strength of the Passage lies in its subtlety. It creeps up from behind you, shrouding the room (or the park or wherever the hell you are) in an incredibly dense haze of melodic smog. Breathing in too much of this smog will surely choke one to death, however, if prepared (with swine-flu doctor's mask and a good pair of goggles) one can see the light beeming through the smokey fog, making the Passage the perfect modern representation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

Pocahaunted- Dusk

mp3: So Cow "Shackleton"

"I Made A Rough Mix"
(photo by maeversification)
Encompassing all your fed-up suburban emotions and the dilemma's of young life in three minutes and thirty eight seconds, So Cow's "Shackleton" is the 2k9 equivalent of a real-time, stream of consciousness lyric poem, made famous by fellow Irishman James Joyce. While Dubliners seems to have influenced So Cow's (aka Brian Kelly) writing style, it is hard to deny Stephen Malkmus's influence on Kelly, who delivers "tragic irony and neon punchlines too" like Woody Allen's pre-occupied court jester in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But We're Afraid to Ask, every little word spilling from his mouth, a mere spout for emotional hangups to pour from. While the pouring is important, its Kelly's knack for cleaning up the spillage in a few comforting words ("And one day I'll write the song you require, until then La La La") , that really makes one question the concept of paying hundreds of dollars on therapy sessions, when one could simply purchase a $15 LP from Tic Tac Totally and get the same results.

So Cow has one last show in New York, this coming Friday at Cake Shop.

So Cow- Shackleton (via Soundbites)

new: White Antelope "Silver Dagger"

"I Can Be Your Bride"
As if you needed another reason, this is why Twitter is great. Robin Pecknold tweets "Silver Dagger / Wild Mountain Thyme http://is.gd/inf2" and we get two new songs from the Fleet Foxes/White Antelope. "Silver Dagger" is a fine example of Pecknold channeling Dylan the storyteller, the Blood on the Tracks/Desire-era Dylan, where stories were the center of the song, rather than just a mere aspect of them. Pecknold really hits this one on the money. The other new treat is "Wild Mountain Thyme", which is basically a Jackson Browne-CSNY-Laurel Canyon dream come true. Hit the MySpace asap.

White Antelope- Silver Dagger & Wild Mountain Thyme

mix: Sleep

"When You Sleep"

A little over a year ago, as per request by a few readers, I published a second sleep mix. In retrospect, the mix isn't as much as ambient, as it is ethereal, although it does contain incredibly still moments of crystalline wonder. The goal with this mix was to provide a foray into dreams, a sort of Alice in Wonderland/The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe/Coraline portal into a sea of dreams, beginning with Vera November's transcendent cover of Arthur Russell's "Our Last Night Together" and ending in a wash of sea sounds and lilting forest voices, care of White Rainbow's "Awakening." While I don't consider this to be an incredibly well mixed mix, after recently rediscovering it, I truly felt like it accomplished its goal of leading the listener from the drowsy conscious world into the luminous world of dreams.

Sleep Mix
1.Vera November- Our Last Night Together (Arthur Russell Cover)
2. Stars of the Lid- Even if You're Never Awake (Deuxieme)
3. Deerhunter- Red Ink
4. Grizzly Bear- Granny Dinner
5. Japancakes- What You Want (My Bloody Valentine Cover)
6. Taylor Deupree- Untitled 1231
7. Tangerine Dream- Sequent c'
8. Efterklang- Illuminant
9. Johan Johannson- Bao
10. Jonny Greenwood- Prospectors Arrive
11. Klimex- The Ice Storm
12. White Rainbow- Awakening

Sleep Mix

video: Woods @ Market Hotel

"Don't Repeat It, Don't Ask Why"
(photo by YiiioiiiY P)
This is what I was talking about a few months ago (two days after this was recorded), when I said Woods "did some interstellar exploration, reaching for the most far out galaxies, yet managing to ground their sound in songs, which, after getting lost in space, kept calling me back to earth." The verdict, Woods is super-fucking natural.

"The Hold"


"Twisted Tongue"

bootleg: Mogwai @ MHoW 4/29/09

"Mogwai Fear Satan"
(photo by georgia.kral)
Last Wednesday I hit up the final show of Mogwai's sold-out three night run at Music Hall of Williamsburg. While I was prepared for a full on sonic explosion, I was absolutely dumbfounded by how devastating the Scottish post-rock acts live show was. A full on sensory experience, I left having to completely regroup, as if I'd been skiing Tuckerman's Ravine, hit a boulder, fell 300 yards and had to climb back up to reclaim my gear. I literally felt like I lost my shit. Luckily, NYC Taper was there to capture Mogwai in all its glory. And if that wasn't enough, for fans truly looking to experience the set again, the band was filming the show for a future DVD release.

NYC Taper Mogwai 4/29/09

video: Titus Andronicus "Upon Viewing..."

"... Brueghel's 'Landscape With the Fall of Icarus'" True to form, this new Titus Andronicus video is fucking awesome. Was just over a year ago I got The Airing of Grievances on Troubleman Unlimited and proceeded to head bash my way through three weeks of an allergic coma in New Jersey. Couldn't have done it without them.

live: Kurt Vile tomorrow @ Silent Barn

"Bigger Than A Humpback Whale"
(photo by c89)
By now there shouldn't be much need to talk up Kurt Vile from Philly, but I'll do it anyway, as he's back in Brooklyn this weekend for another show with Gary War at the Silent Barn. (Ok, technically it's Queens, but whatever.) At this point its obvious to anyone paying attention that Vile's got some Ryan Adams strength prolific-ness in his blood, as if songs ooze out of him, all sludgy and hypnotic, in some preternatural way. Considering all the mediocre, highly conceptual indie rock and breakneck fuzz, it's scary that Vile is able to consistently deliver such seemingly carefree records, blending the American bar folk of Tom Petty with the mesmerizing noize of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. While God Is Saying This To You and Constant Hitmaker have been garnering most of the buzz, his Kurt Vile & the Violator's release, The Hunchback EP, is as good, if not better than his folk leanings, proving that Vile really knows how to let loose. If Constant Hitmaker is the sound of a Sunday drive through a canyon, then The Hunchback is that same drive on PCP while being chased by amphetamine fueled Hells Angels and Cops looking to bust some heads; paranoid, intoxicating full-throttle stoner rock of the finest sort. Only question is when will Vile roundup the Violator's and take them on the road.

Kurt Vile & the Violators- The Hunchback

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

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

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")

video: Ducktails "Landrunner"

"Let's Rock the Beach"


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

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

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

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"

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

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)

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"

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

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

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

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"

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)

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

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

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"

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.

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.

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