Generationals - Actor-Caster (2011)

you're in my heart

The variances strewn across Actor-Caster are subtle but welcome, highlighting, if nothing else, that this is a band that can do more than just tastefully ape the sounds of the 60s. From the Graceland-indebted bop of "I Promise" to the jerky, life-affirming thump of highlight "You Say It Too", Genrationals trade in a number of types of hooks. Even when they step outside their contort zone a little, like on the twinkling, MGMT-esque love song "Yours Forever", they do so with poise and clarity. Aside from the solid "Dirty Mister Dirty", which faithfully tips its hat to ELO with a woozy gruffness, the saccharine "Goose & Gander"-- which sounds like music made for tandem bike rides-- marks Actor-Caster's steady decline. Acting as one last giddy hurrah, the second half of Actor-Caster quickly resigns itself to bland balladry, completely pale when compared to the livelier first act. (via Pitchfork)


Certo dia estava eu a ouvir uma daquelas mixtapes fodas do The Weekender! e me deparo com eles, Generationals, que até então nunca tinha ouvido nem falar. Dentre todas as musicas daquela mixtape (que btw eram todas boas) aquela chamou muito minha atenção. Fui atrás de conhecer a banda, baixei o último album da banda e gostei muito. A banda foi formada em 2008 pelos guitarristas/compositores Ted Joyner e Grant Widmer em New Orleans, tem dois albums lançados e um EP. Algumas de suas músicas são conhecidas por estarem presentes em comerciais e seriados como o Grey's Anatomy. Você pode ouvir e ler sobre a banda pelos vários sites/redes sociais como bandcamp, myspace, twitter, facebook, etc. vai no generationals.com! Aqui você ouve a mesma faixa que chamou minha atenção, presente na mixtape do /the weekender!, "Yours Forever":

Generationals - Yours Forever by fearurself

Panda Bear - Tomboy (2011)

uma viagem alucinógena sem dorgas

"Near the end of 2010, Panda Bear (a/k/a Noah Lennox of Animal Collective) will release his fourth full-length album, Tomboy. To say the disc is highly-anticipated would be a slight understatement. After the crowning glory of his previous solo album, 2007's Person Pitch (which not only topped Pitchfork's Album of the Year charts but also ranked in the top ten of their Albums of the Decade), Panda Bear reconvened his Animal Collective brethren and followed it up with 2009's Merriweather Post Pavilion, which also found its rightful place atop innumerable magazine and blog polls come year’s end. Through it all, Lennox has remained resilient in following his singular vision and voice. "I've definitely traversed some kind of mind field the last year or so and it hasn’t always been pleasant or easy," Lennox says. "But it's been more a positive irritant than anything else." Tomboy proves, above all else, that he’s risen to the challenge and surpassed (as well as sidestepped) all expectations. And in following up Person Pitch, Panda Bear has again taken to releasing the album as a batch of separate singles first, for labels like Kompakt, Fat Cat, Paw Tracks, and Domino. "Doing the singles helps me focus on every song and also helps me move along in the process." (via Paw Tracks)

Noah Lennox foi reconhecido em Person Pitch como Panda Bear e no sucesso do Merriweather Post Pavilion como membro fundador do Animal Collective. Depois de quatro anos calado, Tomboy da continuação ao que se iniciou em 1998 mas só teve o devido reconhecimento em 2007 com o aclamado terceiro album Person Pitch. Lennox resolveu lançar o album em várias partes 7" até lançar o inteiro em Abril de 2011. Pra se ter um idéia do quanto era esperado esse album, o single "You Can Count On Me" teve as 500 copias limitadas vendidas em menos de um dia. Em uma entrevista Lennox disse que o disco anterior pede uma audição coletiva, do tipo que você bota na sala e deixa a conversa fluir. Já Tomboy da a impressão que é para audição individual e dependendo do espírito da pessoa pode ser densa ou ensolarada. Tomboy é experimental e acessível ao mesmo tanto, um album lindo e longe de parecer algo que você já ouviu. Ouça "Last Night At The Jetty" a faixa mais alegre do disco e uma das minhas favoritas:

Last Night At The Jetty by refinery29

Lovers Lane

You’ve never met him - but you love him… because you know he believes in love.  

Hunx & His Punx é um grupo de garotas liderado por um homem(ou quase) e que faz uma mistura do rock adolescente dos anos 50 e o barulho que as garotas faziam nos anos 60 com um pop grudento. Em 2009 foi lançado um album chamado Gay Singles que na verdade é uma compilação de singles "7 que a banda tinha até então, e este ano será lançado o verdadeiro debut da banda. Too Young To Be In Love tem data prevista para Março e saíra pela Hardly Art, gravado por Ivan Julian. As canções falam sobre amor e desgosto, diferente das antigas que eram mais zoadas, a voz doce e macia é a de Seth Borgat e o barulho fica por conta das vozes e intrumentos das garotas. Depois de se apresentar em turnês com o Girls, Harlem, Nobunny e Jay Reatard(rip), em Abril o Hunx terá uma só sua. Ouça a faixa "Lovers Lane" que estará neste lançamento:

Hunx And His Punx - Lovers Lane by stellarola

Villagers - Becoming a Jackal (2010)

is just Conor J. O'Brien

"...If the album has a theme, it’s change - “whether physical, emotional or and spiritual,” O’Brien ventures. “I guess a large part of it is concerned with growing up; gaining and losing friends... these things change a person and I suppose this is my way of making sure I don’t become a bitter old mess! But I only realised this in hindsight. I don’t write in a conscious way; the only thing I start with is a visual image or colour, and then it just happens. One line suggests the next, until I have a little patchwork quilt of ideas. If I stick at it long enough, it all comes together and makes narrative sense.” (domino)
 

Conor O'Brien compôs sua primeira canção logo depois de ter ganhado um violão emprestado de seu irmão mais velho. Na adolescencia Conor cresceu alimentando sua imaginação com livros de Roald Dahl e filmes de Jim Henson. Já adulto formou sua primeira banda(the immediate) com 3 amigos de faculdade, ali já se notava que o garoto tinha um grande futuro pela frente, o unico album lançado foi considerado uma das melhores estréias no estilo "homegrown". No auge dos elogios a banda chocou geral quando do nada eles romperam. Desde então Conor assume que tem pavor de bandas e faz tudo sozinho e sob o pseudônimo Villagers assim ele fez criando a arte e tocando quase todos os instrumentos. Começou lançando o EP The Hollow Kind em 2009, ainda no mesmo ano o single "On a Sunlit Stage" e agora ele reaparece com seu album Becoming a Jackal lançado pela Domino. Foi gravado no estúdio que Tommy McLaughlin(o guitarrista) tem em sua casa e o mesmo ajudou na produção. Conor explica que queria fazer algo que lembrasse um album de Neil Young, sem "vesti-lo" muito, algo parecido com um sussurro para o ouvinte mas que também fosse epico. Ouça "That Day" e se delicie com a estréia de Villagers!

That Day by musicmusicmusic

Cold Ground

people disappear, and life might be a joke

Under the pen name, East River Pipe, F.M. Cornog has recorded six extraordinary albums, all recorded and mixed entirely on a cheap multi-track mini-studio, with a bare minimum of outboard gear. These biting, ruminative micro-masterpieces have won Cornog much critical praise, but never fame and fortune. He has painted his America as a neon-lit wasteland filled with deluded losers, cheats, junkies, ultra-capitalist businessmen, freeway-roaming dreamers and the tragically fated. East River Pipe’s music has been described by the New York Times as “gentle, smart, and unspeakably sad.” Rolling Stone characterized him as “one of our generation’s great eccentric songwriters.” Sometimes harrowing, occasionally scathing, and often heartbreakingly beautiful, his songs have been covered by artists as diverse as David Byrne, Lambchop, the Mountain Goats, and Okkervil River. (Merge Recs)

2011 já está sendo "o ano". Desta vez o lançamento anunciado é o do East River Pipe. Um cara depressivo afundado nas drogas e no alcool, morando em uma estação de trem e tocando nas ruas por uns trocados para alimentar o vicio, é encontrado por uma moça que oferece um lar e ajuda para se livrar dos entorpecentes, e que futuramente seria a responsável por lança-lo no mundo da música sob o pseudônimo, East River Pipe. Basicamente essa é a história do grande compositor FM Cornog, que já lançou 6 albuns e acaba de anunciar mais um. We Live in Rented Rooms sai pela Merge Records no dia 15 de fevereiro, e aqui você ouve "Cold Ground":

East River Pipe - Cold Ground by fearurself

Take Me Over

Ctrl+X Ctrl+C

Zonoscope, the long-awaited In Ghost Colours follow-up from Australian dance-rock wizards Cut Copy, is due to arrive February 8 in North America via Modular.  (It's out February 4 in Australia and February 7 in Europe.) And right here, you can stream "Take Me Over", that album's first official single. The track's out now digitally, with a 12" due shortly. When the album drops, the group plans on doing some serious touring across the globe. They've announced the first round of tour dates, which will take them through Australia and Europe. (pitchfork)

A Modular acaba de lançar o primeiro single oficial do "Zonoscope", novo album do Cut Copy. O disco deve ser lançado no começo de fevereiro e eu mal posso esperar. Quando lançarem o disco vai ser iniciado uma turnê pelo mundo todo e eu espero que o Brasil esteja nessa listinha de shows. Quanto ao single; é fabuloso. Me lembrou "Move" do CSS e os bons tempos ouvindo Donkey.

Cut Copy - "Take Me Over" (Radio Edit) Premiere by modularpeople

Boyfriend EP

we love trees

In an industry seemingly overgrown and cradled by recent lo-fi establishments, We Are Trees have taken that lo-fi aesthetic and chosen something different – the purest definition of crisp. With production that nurtures fidelity as a living, breathing art, this Virginia Beach band’s sound lies somewhere between the plains of Middle America and the cliffs of a Western Coast. The vocals, while drawing comparisons to Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear, are a mastery all their own, with sweeping “ohs” and cradling lyrics. And the finality of We Are Trees is that when all these elements are combined—the wind and whirl of the violin, the clicks and snaps where drumsticks sound like falling trees, the sharp, sophisticated acoustic guitar, and the ebullient voice of James Nee—there is little else to know than the need to keep listening. (Collective Crowd)

01 Sunrise Sunset by we are trees

Museum of Bellas Artes

sweden = sweet

The Swedes making thoroughly infectious, guilty pleasure-like pop is like Brits loving cups of tea - it seems to be part of the national psyche. How else can you explain Abba, Ace of Base and Robyn raiding the charts in the past? They seem to know how to make everybody get down, so forgive me for offering the plaudits to another splendid Swedish act - Museum of Bellas Artes. The Stockholm (surprise, surprise!) trio provide a smorgasbord of 70s funk, 80s electro and echoing sounds in their latest EP Days Ahead. And it stays true to tradition - this reviewer certainly found himself swaying his body from side-to-side in a state of electronic bliss.(Soundblab)

Depois da maravilhosa "Who Do You Love", o Museum of Bellas Artes resurge com um novo single e o lançamento do EP "Days Ahead". Com 4 faixas o EP vai ser lançado pela Force Majeure dia 15 de novembro. Enquanto não vaza, veja a psicodelia de uma pista de dança acompanhada de um som doce e com uma melodia pop que só os suecos sabem fazer em "Watch The Glow".

London Sessions

lcd is playing at my house

“the london sessions is a unique ‘john peel session style’ 9 trk encapsulation of one of today’s most acclaimed acts in perhaps their rawest and most original recordings to date.

the session itself was recorded in one day at the pool/miloco studios in south london on june 29th 2010, in the week following this year’s triumphant glastonbury performance. it was locked in order to record tracks for dissemination across the globe through the medium of contemporary rock radio; fans of lcd soundsystem will know that radio sessions are something that have never been a staple of the band’s career thus far because of the belief in the necessity to maintain the highest quality of all sonic recordings released into the ether.

the set which spans the breadth of their career to date, perfectly captures the intuitive live evolvement of lcd as a band. here nothing is replicated with computers, everything instead is recreated in real time, tougher, looser and less clinically. It features tracks from all of their studio albums to date, as well as long lost b-side classic ‘yr city’s a sucker’ and is a must for any fan of the band. the tracks were subsequently mixed by james murphy in nyc at dfa’s plantain studio & mastered by his longtime cohort bob weston in chicago." (lcd)

LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous! (London Session) by fearurself

What Else? EP

Embassy + Studio = Crepes

"Dan Lissvik of Studio and Fredrik Lindson of Embassy have created an album of summery guitar pop songs. Completed in 8 days creating a result as pure as the idea itself.‘What Else?’ shows one extreme of Dan Lissvik and Studio’s musical spectrum. Pop instead of mysticism. Dan Lissvik has recently produced the new Taken By Trees album and has remixed Fever Ray & ‘What Else?’ features trademark production and the melodic excellence for which Dan is renowned. Limited to 300 copies only." (phonica)

The Crêpes - What Else? by fearurself

New Chain (2010)

 

chillwave lovers

Formed at the tail-end of 2008 as a bedroom recording project, Small Black first made waves with their eponymous debut EP. Recorded in the attic of singer Josh Kolenik's uncle's remote Long Island beach-house/surfboard workshop, it served as an ideal introduction to the group with its pulsing patchwork synths and addictive, stay-gold hooks that seemed to unfurl themselves gradually over repeated listens. Slightly more immediate and polished than its predecessor, Small Black's new album New Chain remains a continuation of this contrasting ethos – a delirious smudging of the lines between melancholy and nostalgia, tension and celebration, unabashed pop music and experimentation. "It's always been a question for us," explains keyboardist/songwriter Ryan Heyner, "of how much to push it, how much to reveal. I find a lot of the best music creeps up on you." (Jag Jaguwar)

Small Black - Search Party by fearurself

"Heartbreaker" (single)

 

"a carta de Christopher"

'Last year, the wounded, starry-eyed San Francisco indie-pop group Girls released their debut album Album and made our year-end top 10. Before this year is up, they'll follow Album with a brand new EP. Broken Dreams Club is out November 22 on True Panther. Broken Dreams Club includes six songs and lasts 30 minutes. JR White, Girls' instrumental guru, recorded it at the band's own home studio. And according to the music-selling site Interpunk, where you can now pre-order the EP, Broken Dreams Club features "a more massive, lusher sound with horns, pedal steel and psychedelic effects dappled throughout."' (pitchfork)

White Magic (2010)

another something special

"2010 solo project from CEO, AKA Eric Berglund, formerly one half of Swedish duo The Tough Alliance. On White Magic, Berglund continues to write vaguely optimistic lyrics that might seem to be at odds with the music, but actually enhances the listening experience. CEO mixes Electro-Pop bounce, synths, thrift-shop record samples, and many other audio accoutrements into his mix that is not far-removed from his previous outfit's sound. Features eight tracks including 'Come With Me'." (Amazon)

CEO - Love and Do What You Will by fearurself