Records

THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT

DRIFTING IN SILENCE

CHEVEU

DRIFTING IN SILENCE

Right now, Young L’s in Super Sonic mode, zooming around the Emerald City, collecting rings, scrunching into ball form, and dashing through every enemy in sight. On

Domo-Kun

he goes nutty-banonkers with the trademark Young L synthetics, breaking out Strattera bangers you’d expect a character in

ReBoot

to make.

LIL’ AD

G-SIDE

The One… Cohesive

Slow Motion Soundz

Oh shit, a classic rap record. I’d almost forgotten what these sound like after the last two years of incessant snappin’ and trappin’. Judging by the lyrics you’d think they rebuilt the Library of Alexandria in Alabama and G-Side’s been

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

-ing it up in there for the last decade. Oh, and by the way, this is a fucking Bandcamp release.

ACKIEMAN

When you’ve already played through Ladytron’s

604,

the Human League’s

Dare

, the Gary Numan BBC sessions, and

Trans-Europe Express

, there will still be this brand-new medium-tempo synth-pop record with drifting, reverby lady vocals that no one in the packed car will vocally object to listening to on the way to New York sitting at the bottom of the pile.

CROPPER CLONE

DENIZ KURTEL

Music Watching Over Me

Crosstown Rebels

Deniz is the daughter of a Turkish mining tycoon and championship racehorse breeder, but she left the dazzling Ankara lushlife behind to build LED sculptures out of hair for the Marcy Hotel and make borderline jungle. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. It’s kind of confusing how decent these tracks are considering all of the bad-dance signifiers the disc comes packaged in. Trickster synth plays with drum programming mastered to sound like air-release valves, and even the tacky samples are dubbed out in a midnight club-eyes sort of way that sounds good. I look forward to hearing this shit on tech-whatever podcasts while I am doing nude pushups.

NUNG PLUMP

SILK FLOWERS

Ltd. Form

Post Present Medium

I don’t know where depressed people got the reputation for being great musicians. Have you ever actually been around depressed people? Their music SUCKS. It’s all off-key bedspring squeaks accompanied by Frito bites and mumbled apologies. Thank God none of the guys in Silk Flowers are depressed people, just gearheads who appreciate the rich synths and general gloom of old European cold-wave bands and who use that appreciation to make the best sadface minstrelsy since Ministry.

JEFFERSON DAVIES

DRIFTING IN SILENCE

Lifesounds

Labile

This is literally the creative director from some marketing firm’s “post-ambient project,” so as you can guess, the press release is about as great as the music is terrible. To wit: “The name ‘Lifesounds’ comes from the combination of the words ‘life’ and ‘sounds’ to create a new word meaning, the experience of stones skipping across waves of sound.” I’m just going to sit and let that one resonate with you for a few minutes.

MUCKLE SANDISON

THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT

II

No Quarter

If the world of extreme/experimental music weren’t so far up its own ass with the personae and triangles and other extraneous bullshit, Drew St. Ivany would be on the covers of the

Wire

and

Decibel

like nine months out of the year. His 90s band Laddio Bolocko was some of the most out-there shit to come from New York since the no-wave days, and in terms of pure fuckedness, the Psychic Paramount is every bit its father’s son. Only instead of Laddio’s schizoid pan-directional jazzalanche, the band now hones it into one crystal-sharp stroboscopic guitar blast that feels like someone pointing a laser (an actual science one) directly into your brain. This album is pretty much musical Adderall, and I have gotten so many emails taken care of since putting it on this morning you wouldn’t even believe.

ERIN SIMCHEZ

NEW YORK DOLLS

Dancing Backwards in High Heels

429 Records

Don’t think about the New York Dolls’ history, don’t think about the history of punk music, don’t think about the history of pop music, and don’t think about everything that has happened since the 70s. Don’t think about deaths, lineup changes, fashion changes, or Morrissey. Just listen to the lyrics, the thumping drums, the aggression, and the anger and resentment. Truly an excellent record—context, history, and most other major aesthetic criteria notwithstanding!

DIANE DRISCOLL

OBITS

Moody, Standard

and Poor

Sub Pop

Nothing I can say about this band or record will even begin to approach the one-sheet Sam McPheeters wrote for them, so why fucking bother. Seriously, it’s some of the best music writing I’ve read in the last year. It’s music

literature

. Click here to read it:

http://www.subpop.com/bio/obits

. See what I’m saying?

JORGE QUINCE

CORNERSHOP FEATURING BUBBLEY KAUR

Cornershop & the Double ‘O’ Groove Of

Ample Play

Nowadays, everyone’s kicking bhaṅgṛā jams. Whether it’s straight-from-the-source cassettes scooped up at the Indian market or some pasty DJ’s Gucci remix, the sounds of the

sarangi

and

dhol

are smeared across the forehead of the West like a sloppy

puja

from an afterhours temple of Shiva. And for those of you already fixated on this influx of music spurred by the success of

Slumdog Millionaire

as well as India’s economic growth and rising world influence, Cornershop would like to remind you that

they are Indian

. I will now close with a reference to NBC’s hit comedy

Outsourced

.

THANKYOU GOODNIGHT

EAGLE AND TALON

In Manila

Bi/akka

CHEVEU

Kill Shaman

Cheveu are kind of like the Death Set or Best Fwends except they’re French. The songs are 60s pop rock ’n’ roll with violins and then all of a sudden this hyper video-game music will come in with BONGABONGA BONGABONGA levels of intensity and noise. My roommate just walked in and asked me to turn it down because I was blasting the record “too loud” and it sounds like “some

Scooby Doo

villain’s theme song.” Then he went to bed at 7 PM because he is an old square who likes jazz. Screw you, Alex. You’re not the Boss of Music!

NICK GAZIN

I like my punk fast, sloppy, full of meat, and accompanied by shitty beer. This is also how I enjoy my burritos. The only place I know that delivers on both fronts is Boca Fiesta in Gainesville, the sole tolerable city in Florida. Know-it-all foodies may already be aware that Against Me!’s old drummer quit the band to open up this Mexican restaurant. Of course, the next logical step was to turn it into a record label and release a limited-edition, vinyl-only benefit compilation to support a local abortion clinic. I wholeheartedly endorse any business that will simultaneously sell me gator tacos and an album that encourages population control, but this one is probably my favorite.

BRAIN FAIRY

MOON DUO

Mazes

Sacred Bones

Moon Duo have been here and there, doing rad shit. This is their breakout record where they become cool guys and you never get to see them again because they are playing gigantic shows and junk. There’s some echoes and serious/sad goth singing but also the whole album is intensely danceable and a good party record for people who are angry and sad but also want to party.

TAZ “THE TASMANIAN DEVIL” DEVIL

MOTHER MOTHER

Eureka

Last Gang

Maybe it’s because I am powerless to effect any change in the continuation of our multiple ongoing wars, the Tea Party having seats in Congress, it being cold, or my own unemployment, but when I listen to clean, high-production-value “pop-rock” records like this I can’t help but wonder what kind of human can look themselves in the mirror after making said crap. Or is this just what reality sounds like when you live in a country without any real stake in the 21st-century race for global hegemony via markets/an active military? (Canada.) I guess good music still only comes from insane compulsive geniuses and places where life sucks (but not bad enough that you can’t find a shitty amp).

CX HARRIS

Hey, Alex, sorry I didn’t get a chance to write something up for the Eagle and Talon album. But to satisfy what I’m sure is a rabid personal curiosity, it is made by fully grown baby-women in Los Angeles and it sucks an awful lot.

RYAN DUFFY

TERROR BIRD

Human Culture

Night People/Adagio830

Bands walk a fine line with the electric piano. For every “Benny and the Jets,” there are literally 17 full albums of Billy Joel music. Somehow Terror Bird scoots across said tightrope with incredible grace. Two Canadians creating music that’s equal parts Human League and Carole King pushed through a distortion pedal with (thankfully) much less dramatic flourish than the current rush of new-school underground divas all up in my grill these days.

MIKE STOLTZ

THE FEELIES

Here Before

Bar/None

Ha, this new Feelies sounds exactly like the old Feelies (specifically the slightly depressive,

Only Life

-period Feelies) only a little slower—which is funny because that’s what I think getting old is like in general. Or at least the part my uncle keeps telling me about where it takes an hour every time you shit.

TAD ROFFLEMAN

NEW NUMBERS

Vacationland

Musiques Primitives

This would fit very nicely in the care package you’re preparing for that person in your life who likes bands like the Walkmen but also finds them just a wee bit too edgy. It could go right alongside the mittens and baby llama, and you could deliver it by taking a hot-air balloon to Icantbelieveyouexistville, where you would leave it at the entrance to the Enchanted Faggot Forest.

HARRIETTE BUMBALOUGH

KURT VILE

Smoke Ring for My Halo

Matador

I don’t expect to shock any domes when I say Kurt Vile’s one of the best, most consistent guy-with-a-fuzzed-out-guitar songwriters working today. The dude knows how to write a catchy little spoonful of molasses.

Smoke Ring for My Halo

is one of Vile’s best releases yet, meaning the two or three awesome jams on here are among his awesomest. “Society Is My Friend” especially warrants the 96,000 YouTube covers it will inspire in 14-year-old Squier strummers across the land.

J. JABBER

LIFEGUARDS

Waving at the Astronauts

Serious Business Records

THE CURIOUS MYSTERY

We Creeling

K

I’m not sure if combining country music with Eastern drone is “good” in an accepted musical sense, but in the same way that the Eggo and corned-beef sandwich I made last night while stoned may not conform to some snooty “foodist”’s notion of

haute cuisine

, it gets the job done regardless.

DENNY

THE PAPERHEAD

S/T

Trouble in Mind

I would highly recommend this band to anyone who is into the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Zombies, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine, the Incredible String Band, or maybe Donovan. Is that you? Of course that’s you, dickface. I just named eight of the most popular British psych acts of all time. Well, give or take an Incredible String Band. Put this record on and have a good time regretting everything.

DUDE THE DOOPER

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

All Eternals Deck

Merge

It’s the band you stopped listening to in your sophomore year in college, back with another great record. Seriously, why did you stop paying attention to these guys? Because John Darnielle stopped releasing on cassettes? Was he really supposed to keep releasing 500 tapes at a time to keep in good standing with your weird authenticity rubric? At his best—which is normally where he’s at—Darnielle writes songs with emotions so tangible you can feel them pressing into your palm.

All Eternals Deck

is neither

Tallahassee

nor

All Hail West Texas

, but it’s still a damn good record.

ALEX DUNBAR

THAT GHOST

Songs Out Here

2 Syllable

According to Schmale, these slow, generic, Conor Oberst-biting tracks were recorded on the grounds of Jack London’s estate, which makes sense given London’s reputation for plagiarism and affectation. Then again, London wrote more about the stark effect of man’s encounters with the primeval underpinnings of the civilized mind than sobby weinerboy shit, so who’s to say.

BLACK FANG

What separates Bob Pollard from most other AARP-age musicians with a thousand releases under their belts is that each of his records sounds more and more excited than the last, like this time maybe he’s going to write THE song. I hope I’m there when he finally makes it, if only so I can tell him what it sounded like when he wakes up from his 48-beer coma.

BALKIE BARTOK

THE NATURAL YOGURT BAND

Tuck In With…

Now-Again

Bagging on a group’s name is low fruit, but when you let your publicist call you “the best band with the weirdest name” you’d better be bringing some seriously heavy zane to the zanyplate. The Holy Modal Rounders’ original name was the Motherfucker Creek Babyrapers. To Live and Shave in LA’s

current

name is To Live and Shave in LA. What we’re saying is the bar’s been set a little higher than yogurt. Also, what is this shit you’re playing, trip-hop marimba jazz? Gross, dudes.

TOOTERS MCDOOT

V/A

Cult Cargo: Salsa Boricua de Chicago

Numero Group

Along with folks like Mississippi Records, Chicago’s Numero Group are top dawgs at digging up amazing, almost completely unheard-of music from artists who never quite made it and cool little local scenes across America. This go-round is a collection of Chicago-based musicians from the 1970s interpreting New York musicians interpreting Puerto Rican salsa. Like all of Numero’s best releases, it’s exactly what you hoped your grandparents listened to, instead of all those Doris Wishman 45s you found in the attic.

DOOFIE HAUSER MD

HEIDECKER & WOOD

Starting From Nowhere

Little Record Company

CHARLIE NOTHING

Outside/Inside

De Stijl

As far as dropout gonzo doo-dah records go, this one is a doozy. Charlie Nothing was kind of a crackpot Harry Partch on a beer budget. He made giant guitars he called “dingulators” out of old cars and nearly tanked John Fahey’s Takoma Records with his infamous, too-free-for-free-jazz

Psychedelic Saxophone

album. Apparently the device he plays on this record is called a “holy stick,” though it sounds suspiciously like a plain old bamboo flute. Nevertheless, the bongo-driven fury he shakes loose is enough to rattle even the mellowest Mother Earth lover from his dopèd stupor. Fried as fuck.

ISRAEL PEELS

GRAILS

Deep Politics

Temporary Residence Ltd.

Fake film music on the metal periphery remains some of the most cringey shit there is. The label is billing it as “an ongoing exploration of occult/fringe culture,” and to me, that means music by which to picture a douchey ex-crusty with a

Through Silver and Blood

poster, an untended litter box you can totally smell, and a fucking salary job to which he wears a tucked-in black t-shirt and a retarded belt buckle sliding his hand up your inner thigh. In the next scene he offers you a Budweiser (he drank three of your four 90 Minutes) and bums a bowl pack from his creepy roommate who works at PriceRite.

CLAR LAR

Tim Heidecker (of Tim & Eric) and Davin Wood (T&E’s composer) wrote and performed this wistful and melodic waterfall of clean rolling rhythms and soothing metrical mouthwork that is simultaneously confusing, neurotic, and comedically complex. The conviction in Heidecker’s voice on the bonus track, “Christmas Suite,” gave me bone tremors as it put me into a deep lover’s trance. Track 4, “Wedding Song,” makes me want to give my fiancée two big hot wet kisses square on the lipsss. Smooth as Daryl Hall, tender as Paul Simon, and psychotic as Charles Manson. Recommended for creepy crackpots and T&E fans alike.

MIKE de LEON