We've always had a slightly strained releationship with CFTPA's music. It alternates between being brilliantly minimalist and personal, and incredibly self indulgent and poorly constructed. This song definitely lives in the land of the former and has a Shins-ish quality that drew us to it.
Rumor has it that Burbank has an upcomming EP in the works. The title is "Predator Primer" and we're proud to have an advance cut to brandish around like a shiny peice of stolen treasure. Easily their best cut since their powerful ode to the SF's gritty Tenderloin (same titled), this is a fine example of H. A. Eugene's rich story telling talent. The charachter dreams of his own future as though it were actually the past and fact, and talks dancing at the end of war between man eating robots: pure genius. The subtle horns in the backgroung also add a novel dirge quality to the song, giving it a haunting mix of melancholy and hope.
Dan Deacon is a strange, carnivorous monster created by a highly advanced but now extinct civilization of regal lizard people. He has come to earth to sip the juices from our pineals gland out of a crystal goblet as he sits upon a gigantic throne of gilded skulls and broken circuitry. Hopefully he will come to San Francisco soon.
Meursault might be the coolest thing we've heard this calendar year. These Scotch madmen broadcast what has been clumsily described as electro-folk. In our opinion, they're picking up where Throw Me The Statue and the Handsome Furs left off. Guaranteed to send a thrill down your spine.
We found this by accident one day and it turned our heads so fast we nearly got whiplash. Brooklyn's Alina Simone hits hard with PJHarvery(crush, blush)-esque smart agonized wailing, minimal spooky guitars and drums that would make Maureen Tucker grin like a schoolgirl. Raising the hackle's on the back of our neck is usually all we need to know that something is powerful, but this one really holds up lyrically as a white-knuckled testimony of the deeply troubling/religious/idiosyncratic aspects of performing.
Seattle's Trespassers William practically ooze ether out of our headphones everytime we put this on. It has the same dreamy qualities that Mazzy Star had, but Anna-Lynne Williams sounds as if she traded some of Hope Sandoval's painful sexyness for something stronger and more direct. It was a little hard to choose from the cuts on their freshman effort, 'Anchor', but we felt that "Lie In The Sound" was really an excellent example of how beautiful their music is.
There's two kinds of people in this world: The people that like better the stuff John Darnielle recorded on his boom-box, and the people that like better the studio work. We are firmly in the boom-box camp and were delighted when we found this demo of "Up The Wolves". It isn't quite as raw as, say, his work on 'Zopilote Machine' or 'All Hail West Texas', but it's still nice and feral. Thanks for all your amazing work, John. You've made us all better people.
It's kind of funny: We put this on the list because 1) its a really solid song and 2) we wanted to make you feel like you were suddenly in a Wes Anderson movie. Ironically, after doing a little research, we found out that Coconut Records () is Jason Schwartzman from "Rushmore" and "The Darjeeling Express" among other films.
We really like Nashville's Superdrag! They make rock and roll credible again. They're angsty, drunken, melodic, hard hitting; pretty much the reason we got into music in the first place. "Filthy And Afraid" from Superdrag'supcoming 'Industry Giants' LP is is almost a perfect equation: excellent vocal hooks, a cynical, misanthropic topic [Everybody thinks they know what the deal is, Nothing'sirreversiblecuz we are free], loud guitars. We can almost smell the tubes in their amplifiers heating up.
We see a new age dawning for artists! An age where we self publish and self promote and all of the bullshit that goes along with entertainment law and large corporate interests become largely irrelevant. This is happening and its fucking awesome but it, like any interesting happening requires audience participation.
Go to see their shows! If they're not playing in your area, go on their page and write them and tell them that you want them to come to your town. Many people think that artists support themselves off of record sales. This is actually complete bullshit. If they're signed to a major label, it's a sure bet that the label is taking most of the profits from the record sales. Its the shows that actually make them money.
Buy their stuff! The previous, said, buying their records affirms the band is worthwhile to the bean-counting elements of the industry and does earn them some small coin. Even better if they're self published, since the coins are actually going directly to them.
Turn your friends on! And while youre doing that, let them listen to music that you think is cool. Culture is completely viral, so be a good little vector!
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