I’ve been listening a bunch recently to the Long Beach based band Avi Buffalo. They have a great indie/folk sound and for being a young band, they have unbelievable potential. I love their charming vocals, guitar riffs, and little subtitles on every track.
The band is currently in one of those funky pre-label stages where they have a recorded album, but it’s not quite ready to see daylight yet. In the weeks to come they will likely make an official announcement about a record deal, and set a release date for their debut soon after that (UPDATE: Avi Buffalo has officially signed to Sub Pop). In the meantime, to help raise some gas money, they are independently selling 5 tracks via Bandcamp that you should check out. I’ve been playing “Distaste and Interest” non-stop.
Avi Buffalo is Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, Sheridan Riley, Arin Fazio, and Rebecca Coleman. Avi started writing songs his sophomore year in high school, and after being asked to play a show by Bill Cutts of Outsider Folk, Avi got together some friends to play an acoustic set at the Zephyr Cafe in Long Beach. “With the summer time and a local fall music festival approaching, a full electric band was in order. The band was asked to play in Los Angeles, and did, and kept doing it! A year later, Avi and Aaron Embry(Amnion) began recording the songs that would become the band’s first record.”
Fans of Jens Lekman, The Magnetic Fields, and My Morning Jacket should check out the L.A. band Princeton. I’m really been digging their debut album, Cocoon of Love. It just released yesterday on Kanine records, and is a really solid folk/indie album. My favorite tracks off the album include “Shout It Out,” “Calypso Gold,” “Sadie and Andy,” “Sylvie,” and “Stunner Shades in Heaven.”
Princeton is twin brothers Jesse & Matt Kivel, Ben Usen and David Kitz. In support of the new album the band is wrapping up a tour with Ra Ra Riot and will head out this fall with Art Brut and later with OK GO (dates after jump).
If you are a fan of Bishop Allen, Clem Snide, John Vanderslice, or the Mountain Goats, I highly recommend checking out the Brooklyn based band Falcatross. Their debut album, Sprung, is one of my favorites of the year, and the mastermind behind the project, Pete Fitzpatrick, creatively incorporates a wide range of folk instruments to make for one fun listening experience. Expect banjos, omnichords, violin, and most importantly hand claps, among other awesome instruments!
In addition to Sprung being an overall great album, I really appreciate the confidence this debut exhibits. In a world where instant gratification is increasingly expected, Fitzpatrick presents us with an eleven track album that contains only two tracks under four minutes long (and eight of them are above five minutes). Fitzpatrick is a professionally trained multi-instrumentalist, and fully utilizes his talents by not rushing songs. He allows things to build, and go in different directions, and playfully experiment in a mastered way where the listener can tell he is still in complete control.
Some of my favorite tracks on the album include “Momentum,””Simba Goes Down,””Ransom Smile,” and “Turn of the Season.” “Momentum” is one of the catchiest songs that I’ve heard in a while, and will definitely be on my top tracks of the year list.
Most of the instruments on Sprung are played by Fitzpatrick, who has played in a variety of bands, including Clem Snide (guitar/banjo/euphonium), The Pee Wee Fist, the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra (banjo), Naftule’s Dream (guitar), and Green 4 (drums). If that doesn’t make you a little jealous that he is such a well-versed musician, just keep in mind that those are only a few of the instruments he knows how to play.
Yellow House never really did it for me. The first three songs, ending with “Knife,” were beautiful and accessible. They drew me in and built a graceful momentum. But the remainder of the album, the other 8 songs, broke off, choosing to meander through sometimes aimless soundscapes with no discernible resolution. It was Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen’s side project, that restored, or initially placed, my faith in Grizzly Bear. I had a bunch to say about that here. Anyway, like the good lil’ music blogger that I am, on to Veckatimest.
Veckatimest finds Grizzly Bear at a point of self-realization. They have power – magic maybe – and they’ve chosen to wield it. With “Two Weeks,” a hook-fraught, stand-up chamber pop epic, Ed Droste finds a Frank Sinatara-swagger to his vocals. He waltzes across a staccato keyboard and through disembodied harmonies; he finds his stance and sets hold, confident, charming, nearly ebullient with pop-righteousness. But the power of Veckatimest is in it’s adaptability and emotive range. “Two Weeks” descends into “All We Ask”, a brooding, reverb-soaked ballad marked by Rossen’s trademark stomping baritone guitar. Instantly all that serotonin has vanished. The verse swells into the chorus, which wavers behind Rossen’s bop before gently eroding to the underlying current. The boys harmonize in a near whisper: “I can’t get out of what I’m into with you.” If “Two Weeks” is a sunny summer’s day on a hillside, then “All We Ask” is the corresponding insomnia at two A.M. (Oh, is that what time it is? huh.)
After the first serveal listens my memory of the album felt like a sin graph; it peaked with certain hooks every few songs and descended into oblivion with others. The sequencing speaks to a calculated foresight, where each of their most accesible songs is spaced by several more brooding ones. It nearly follows the High Fidelity rules for making a mixtape. “Cheerleader” bumps between reverbed guitars and marching-beat drums while Droste ghosts over everything. “While You Wait For the Others”, basically a Department of Eagles song, follows Rossen’s heartbreak, reinforced by the most prominent harmonies on the album. I’ve fallen in love with the expanse of Veckatimest, the overwhelming density of sound, the swelling harmonies, the way each track tends to morph several times before resolving in a definite form. I Guess I’m Floating compared the Veckatimest anticipation to Srgt. Peppers. Then I thought it was hype, now I can only agree. This might be an album for the ages.
The Shivers, who are one of the best kept secrets in today’s indie scene, just released a new album called In The Morning. It’s a fantastic follow-up to their 2008 album, Beaks to The Moon (which made my Top 10 list last year). The entire album was recorded on a 4-track cassette deck in their rehearsal space under Queensboro Bridge, giving their music a pure, lo-fi sound.
Like other Shivers albums, In the Morning jumps around a lot from track to track, but the band is able to pull off their diverse sound in a way most bands could only dream. My favorite track on the album is the opening song “Just Didn’t Need To Know,” which brings to mind the Velvet Underground (in particular Lou Reed’s “Heroine”). Other favorites include “Only in It For The $$$,” “Insane,” “Sad Excuse,” and, of course, “Inside Job” (a silent track that lasts for 9 minutes and 11 seconds; Keith is a supporter of 9/11 Truth).
Keith Zarriello has been the only consistent member of the band since forming in Brooklyn back in 2001, but the band has now evolved into a duo, with the talented Jo Schornikow on piano, organ, and occasional vocals. You can look for The Shiver’s song “Feather” in the new Noah Baumbach produced movie Alexander the Last. Jo also scored acted in the film alongside Justin Rice from Bishop Allen.
You know that catchy Passion Pit song “Sleepyhead” that we all know and love so much? Well, if not, it’s below. But here is a pretty awesome video cover of the song by the band Run Toto Run. I love weird shit like this.
While I don’t consider myself an active listener of “World” music, one of my new favorite musicians has made me realize that I really need to explore this genre more. His name is Mamer and he is from Xinjiang, China.
Mamer’s reinterprets ancient Kazak folk songs with a modernized alt-country aesthetic, using instruments such as an open-tuned acoustic guitar, dombra, sherter (plucked lute), Jew’s harp, and dabel drum. He searches for inspiration from the old and new, saying “I always stay awhile with the old people in the mountains, learning their songs and traditions. Without this a whole way of life will be lost to the young generation. I want to breathe new life into the poems and songs I grew up with.”
Some contributing musicians on his debut release, Eagle, include French composer Hector Zazou, a throat singer named Ilichi, Bela Fleck, and Mamer’s former band IZ. Fleck and Mamer play dual banjos on “Celebration,” and it’s pretty amazing.
I can’t recommend this album enough. It’s soothing to the ears, original, and overall, just one of the most enjoyable albums I’ve listened to recently. Mamer sings in the Kazakh language, so there is absolutely no way one who doesn’t speak the Kazakh language will know what he is saying (unless you hire a costly translator, which I strongly considered doing, but ultimately decided against).
If you are a fan of Jens Lekman, Ron Sexsmith, or Xiu Xiu, I highly recommend you check out the music of Sleeping States, which is the brainchild of musician Markland Starkie. Recently, I’ve been turning to his 2007 debut, There The Open Spaces, when looking for good music to chill out to. If you enjoy lo-fi, dreamy music, or music that has been influenced by knitting (see Myspace), this album has some fantastic songs for you to add to your rotation.
My favorite tracks off the album include “Rivers,” which has been one of my mix songs welcoming summer, as well as “Sleeping States, Or Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat?,” “I Wonder,” and the ten minute track “Memory Games.”
Starkie is in his late twenties, and based in Bristol. Although There The Open Spaces is his main release, he started Sleeping States in 2004 and has released EP’s before and after the 2007 release.
I’ve recently been obsessing over a delightful album called Silent Shout, the 2006 album by Swedish brother/sister duo The Knife. First, a little background on The Knife: Composed of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, The Knife released their debut self-titled LP in 2001 on their own label, Rabid Records. Since then, they have released two more LPs, Deep Cuts in 2003 and Silent Shout in 2006, before announcing a three year hiatus after the release of Silent Shout. Karin Dreijer Andersson has already turned heads in 2009 with her self-titled debut Fever Ray. Silent Shout is truly one of the best pieces of music I’ve heard in a while. The sound of the album could fall loosely into the genre of minimalist techno, but yet there is so much more.
The album’s sparse drum loops, simple arpeggios and thick reverb layered sound calls to mind Thom Yorke’s 2006 solo effort The Eraser. But tracks like “Silent Shout”, “The Captain”, and “Forest Families” create an aura something closer to psychedelic trance inducing vibes of Brightblack Morning Light, Black Moth Super Rainbow or Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion. The vocals are unique and varied; some songs feature Olof Dreijer moaning at a distorted evil low pitch while others find their energy in the sheer power of Karin’s voice. Whether she’s spitting rhythmically, in songs like “Neverland” or the brilliantly catchy “We Share Our Mother’s Health”, or emotionally proclaiming her love over brooding synths during “Marble House”, Karin Dreijer Andersson is what gives The Knife their cutting edge. Upon doing more research on the group, I quickly became acquainted with their oddities. Wearing strange masks onstage and in photo shoots, sending people to accept awards for them, etc. For me, their mysterious personas only made the album even cooler, because Silent Shout is one of those albums whose rich textures makes you feel like you’re in another world. The album comes paired with Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience, which is a recording of a show during the Silent Shout tour. From the looks of photo’s like this:
It’s becoming increasingly difficult in today’s music industry to see artists initiating connections with their fans. With the instant gratification both bands and fans have demanded with innovations in technology, I sometimes feel that less emphasis is put on the culture of music, and more is put on the business aspect. Both sides are obviously important, but as a species bound by incentives, I really appreciate when people find as much reward in connections and the sharing of ideas, as they do in monetary value.
This is one of the reasons why I feel so attached to Ben Cooper’s music. He is in the duo Electric President and also has a great side project called Radical Face. Both are signed to Morr music, and while Cooper understands the importance of having to make money just as much as the next guy, he also understands the need to go beyond that. Unlike many artists, who turn into businessmen and quickly forget about the art, Cooper has upheld his love for music to the fullest.
Cooper recently started a project called “Patients,” which is more or less a compilation of recorded songs that never had a good home. The project consisted of him personally producing 100 CDs and decorating it and its package with spray paint and markers. To receive one of the CDs, you had to trade something, anything, with Cooper, as long as it wasn’t money.
To get a full appreciation for how much time Cooper put into this project, you have to check out his site. Not only did he invest money—in producing the CDs, opening a P.O box, and paying postage– he also thoughtfully wrote about the entire project by listing the 100 trades that he received and the explanations behind each track on the album. It’s easy to tell how meaningful this project was to him. From his blog:
I feel odd using this phrase, but multiple times I found myself moved by the things someone traded or said — moved to sentiment, or laughter, or surprise. Some even left me scratching my head, or made me blush.
I love that many of you included letters with your packages, explaining your trades, and sometimes even sharing a little slice of your life with me. In many ways, that was my favorite part — getting little glimpses into what motivated you to do this, why you chose what you did, what it meant to you. I love stories, and genuinely appreciate that I got so many of them. And more than once I was pretty shocked that someone traded me something of such obvious sentiment to them. As strange as it may sound, this project was kind of reaffirming. It changed my outlook on people as a whole to something more optimistic. And the best thing is I didn’t see it coming. To be blindsided in a positive way is a wonderful thing.
This project also moved me, and I’m thrilled I was able to take part in it (can you guess which number I am?). It too left me with a feeling of optimism knowing we can still triumph our capitalist ways. I would have gladly paid to receive this album from Cooper, but it wouldn’t have held nearly the same value that it does this way. This is an album that I am never going to forget.
You can still participate in the project via email! Check here for details.
“This was the last song I wrote on my former piano before the hammers got completely stuck and it had to be thrown out [read Dec 27th, 2007 post to read story, see piano.] It was originally just a scratch demo for a general sound I wanted to use on my next Radical Face record, but I kept running with it and liked how it came out. And since that piano died on my the next night, it wound up being the last song to ever come out of it.”
“This is basically a country song. I wrote this song about 3 years ago, and recorded the drums for it while working on Astronautalis’s record “The Mighty Ocean …” down in Orlando. I tracked the guitars, banjo and bass when I returned home, but didn’t put any vocals or extra instruments on it due to getting sick. Then I forgot about it. So it sat on a hard drive for about a year and a half until I was making back-ups and stumbled upon the files. I still had the notebook with the lyrics, so I went ahead and finished it over the course of a night.”
