by: Sam Farzin, KUCI Music Director
Regal radio-ites!
Three-day weekends are the best. I have been relaxing. I bought a Polaroid camera and a copy of "White Lines" on vinyl at the OCC swapmeet. I saw Wooden Shjips at McCabe's Guitar Shop. And today, I listened to the weekly Jabba-sized bin of music. Here are the survivors of the Rancor:
The Mae Shi - HLLLYH [Team Shi]
The promo company that sent this album is called Terrorbird, after The Mae Shi's second album "Terrorbird." Terrorbird (the promo company) send consistently amazing music to us at KUCI. This is no different. Killer diy-punk-electro-spazz-pop from the city of Angels. The first time I saw this band, I had heard naught but one tune prior, and I was blown away. They also changed their clothes on stage between songs for no reason.
Cryptacize - Dig That Treasure [Asthmatic Kitty]
This band features ex-Deerhoof and current Curtain guitarist Chris Cohen. It sounds liek both of those bands. Lots of melodies against austere back drops, with a generally less-is-more aesthetic across the album. It is very pretty. It features autoharp. I played autoharp at McCabe's Guitar Shop yesterday. It ruled like a a million dinosaurs running a marathon. Check "Heaven is Human" (track 3).
Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel [kranky]
Moar deerz! This is the solo outing of Deerhunting Bradford Cox. It really should maybe be in experimental. Sorry Eric! This features a lot of synth organ and spacey antimatter weirdo guitars doing things, and there is percussion sometimes. The songs are like if you took big sprawling drone-y opuses and compressed them to reasonable lengths; a lot of the music is very heady and has a lot of really beautiful and noncheesy ethereal vocals. I like this a lot. Don't be afraid!
Beach House - Devotion [Carpark]
Lonely organ + guitar gems with beautiful and commanding vocals by Victoria Legrand. Really pretty and atmospheric yet engaging. This is lovable.
The Duke Spirit - Neptune [Shangri-La]
Punchy, soulful rocknroll from England, sung by a girl who could probably kick your ass.
Throw Me The Statue - Moonbeams [Secretly Canadian]
Popster-jams tied together with buzzy synths and drum machines and muted trumpers. Deeply sweet-voiced and well-spoken. The title track is fantastic.
Panther - 14kt God [Kill Rock Stars]
Panther wants you to be sweaty when you are listening to 14kt God" because the polyrhythms are spazz-body-grooving and the vocals are sultrelectric. Sometimes, the bass is even bumping. Worthwhile.
Blood On The Wall - Liferz [The Social Registry]
This CD is relentlessly distorted in the best way possible (e.g. early 90s indie). The kids playing the music sound like they are having a rad time doing it, which is important. I am enjoying this discccccc.
Speaker Speaker - Call It Off [Burning Building]
Do you like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists!? This band does. Well, maybe not. Maybe I should not be so presumptuous! This disc is in the vein of the Ted Leo-torched mold of ass-kicking punk-pop (because the inverse is taboo) that is fast and leaves no bitter aftertaste.
These United States - A Picture Of The Three Of Us At The Gate To The Garden Of Eden [Self-Released]
Folky orchestrated musics. Reverby vocalizations of universal themes like love and death. It is well-put together, sparse, and not cloying. Thank you, music gods!
Working For A Nuclear Free City - Businessmen & Ghosts [Deaf Dumb+Blind]
This is a sprawling two-discer. From scanning both, I cannot find any suggestion that there is a difference in sound across the two. I cannot speak on the thematics. This band is all over the place - the songs are noisy, refined, messy, meticulous, dancy, dissonant, poppy, instrumentals, lo-fi, etc. The music is pretty hard to pin down across the 29 tracks. They basically do everything. There's an underlying and inescapable feeling of the old country across the album (THE UK).
OKAY that was a lot of music. Please play these records because I genuinely think they are pretty great. Some of them at least.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!
sam
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