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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Album Fly Moon Royalty - Dimensions EP
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:25 AM
Seattle electro/R&B duo Fly Moon Royalty today release a new EP, Dimensions, available for free downloading. Vocalist AdraBoo's robust diva emoting glides over producer/MC Action Jackson's crisp, immaculate funk and soul tableaux. The whole enterprise reflects traditional, melodically deft songwriterly values, and it oozes class. Based on this evidence and previous releases, the prolific Fly Moon Royalty sound poised to open the next Gossip tour.
Press release after the cut.
Album / Classic / RIP RIP, Robin Gibb; Also, Recognize Bee Gees' 1st as an All-Time Classic
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, May 22, 2012 at 8:02 AM
Most Robin Gibb obits/tributes start with the Bee Gees’ soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever, and, yeah, it’s an important cultural touchstone, but if Gibb—who died Sunday May 20 at age 62—deserves canonization, it’s for his contributions to Bee Gees’ 1st. Recorded in 1967, it was the Australian group’s third album (that’s how they did it Down Under), and it stands as one of the greatest rock LPs from that hot, hot year—right behind Love’s Forever Changes, 13th Floor Elevators’ Easter Everywhere, Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold as Love.
1st is a sublime psychedelic-pop opus, dominated by Robin and brother Barry’s composing and singing skills. It’s one of those rare records that’s excellent from front to back in which you have a different favorite tune every time you listen to it. The album’s topped by the baroquely bizarre hit “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You,” a regal, glorious tune punctuated by monks chanting in Latin and eerie, swirling Mellotron fugues. Other chart-scrapers included "Holiday," “New York Mining Disaster 1941” and “To Love Somebody,” the latter of which is a devastating, string-laden soul ballad that's been covered by hundreds, including Otis Redding, Nina Simone, and Leonard Cohen. “I Can’t See Nobody” is just as good as “To Love Somebody,” if not as popular.
Elsewhere, “In My Own Time,” which the Three O’Clock faithfully executed on their Sixteen Tambourines LP, is a rousing garage-psych nugget. “Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy of Arts” and “Close Another Door” hark back, respectively, to the Kinks and Beatles’ more innocent pop times. “Cucumber Castle” is a subtly orchestral ballad of melancholy beauty. The trippy twosome of “Red Chair, Fade Away” and “I Close My Eyes” contain some of the most endearing melodies ever conceived.
Loads of baby boomers and Jann Wenner’s minions may violently disagree, but 1st is a more consistently enjoyable listening experience than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band; for one thing, there's nothing as excruciating as "When I'm Sixty-Four" or "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" on 1st. It behooves you to get the double-disc expanded CD reissue with stereo and mono mixes and a bonus disc of previously unreleased tracks. (I assume you already have the vinyl, playa.)
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Friday, May 18, 2012
New Releases / Album / #1 Fan El-P's Cancer For Cure Out Tuesday, Streaming Now
Posted by Mike Ramos on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 1:46 PM
- COURTESY OF FAT POSSUM RECORDS
Thanks to the good people at Fat Possum, El Producto is releasing his fifth solo album (and his first in five years) this Tuesday. After a few listens I can definitely say that his pummeling, post-apocalyptic production style has evolved and aged well, and he can still weave a cryptic, paranoid narrative (see the eerily open-ended "For My Upstairs Neighbor") or flex some classic NY spit-flecked lyrical stuff with the best of em. Cancer For Cure shows El still in top form after fighting the good fight—that is, trying to release quality rap in a climate that continually promotes disposable wackness over good music—for all these years. Turn this one up, but use caution when listening to tracks like "Oh Hail No" (especially if you are a rapper), as the guest verses from Mr. Muthafuckin Exquire and Danny Brown might make you rethink your life.
Stream it here via Rolling Stone, cop it on Def Jux's otherwise abandoned website, and be sure to snatch up your tickets for El-P's July 1 show at Neumos with Killer Mike and Mr. Muthafuckin' Exquire soon, missing that kinda bill in Seattle would be a huge mistake on your part.
Album The Cheebacabra – Pass the Information
Posted by Dave Segal on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 11:47 AM
Seattle multi-instrumentalist/producer Cheebacabra’s new album, Pass the Information (Mackrosoft Records), packs a lot of pimp-struttin’, silken-shafted funk into its 17 tracks. It sounds as if a large crew of super-slick veteran musos not unlike those who played on ’70s CTI Records sessions gathered in a state-of-the-art studio ca. 1974, got stoned immaculate, and laid down grooves destined to boost population numbers. 21 names grace the credits, including bassist Mike Porcaro (Toto), keyboardist Steve Moore (Eyvind Kang, Bill Frisell, Sufjan Stevens), and percussionist Johnny Conga (Jackson 5, Sergio Mendes). Pros, all.
The bulbous, quirkily articulate keyboard motifs recall George Duke at his most mischievous and the fluid guitar glints and glimmers evoke expensive-suited badasses George Benson and Earl Klugh; strategically placed chikka-wahs trigger flashbacks to blaxploitation-film soundtracks and porn-flick scores. Cheeba's clavinet and Rhodes piano—two of the greatest instruments ever—flex flamboyant muscles throughout; he also messes with an array of ARPs, Moogs, Wurlitzers, and myriad percussion toys. Pass the Information is some grown-ass-folks funk that could grow on you.
If you're strapped for time, the video after the cut provides a quick medley of the album's tunes.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Album / Song Listen to Jherek Bischoff's David Byrne Collaboration, "Eyes"
Posted by Dave Segal on Wed, May 16, 2012 at 12:31 PM
Seattle avant-pop bassist/composer Jherek Bischoff (ex-Dead Science, Parenthetical Girls) has collaborated with David Byrne on the track “Eyes.” It comes from his album Composed, a heady orch-pop opus coming out June 5 on the Brassland label that's loaded with impressive guest musicians: Caetano Veloso, Deerhoof's Greg Saunier, Craig Wedren, Carla Bozulich, and Wilco's Nels Cline. “Eyes” is a lush, stately processional song featuring serpentine string motifs and tender glockenspiel, and Byrne singing in his late-era heartfelt-balladeer mode.
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Monday, May 14, 2012
Album Stream the New Mount Eerie Album, Clear Moon
Posted by Megan Seling on Mon, May 14, 2012 at 3:44 PM
Clear Moon is the first of two albums Mount Eerie will be releasing this year—Ocean's Roar will be out sometime in the fall.
I'm less than two minutes into the first track, "Through the Trees, Pt. 2," and it's already tugging at my heartstrings in a way I'm not prepared for on an especially sunny Monday afternoon. Prepare thyselves! Emotions will happen!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Album / Upcoming / 206 Nacho Picasso & Blue Sky Black Death's Exalted Out 5/28
Posted by Mike Ramos on Fri, May 11, 2012 at 2:13 PM
A related note: For all the historical bitching local heads do about Seattle rappers never blowing up nationally, the level which the city has been sleeping on these guys, who have plenty of other sources buzzing right now, strikes me as a bit odd. Hip thyself to the albums if you haven't yet, follow Nacho's riotously inappropriate Twitter account (seriously one of the most entertaining in the city), and catch his opening set for fellow Moor Gangster Jarv Dee's Dopamine release show at Chop Suey on the 18th, or both of them at the Capitol Hill Block Party in July.
Check out the latest BSBD-directed video for LotF standout "Staring at the Sun" below.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Album / Upcoming Hear BLSPHM's Barter the Lashed Before His Debacle Fest Show May 6
Posted by Dave Segal on Fri, May 4, 2012 at 3:30 PM
BLSPHM (aka guitarist/visual artist Demian Johnston) is releasing his new album, Barter the Lashed, on Debacle Records this month. In honor of his appearance Sun. May 6 at Debacle Fest (at the Josephine), his label has made the full-length available for streaming and purchase.
Barter the Lashed has two main modes: 1) Torrents of rusty metal guitar angst and vocal bile in extremis, 2) Foreboding, early-Swans-like dirges that make you feel anxious and existential. The first offers explosive catharsis; the second plunges you into bracing despair. However, the 15-minute closer, “The Failure of Our Brothers,” drones in a keening register that recalls John Cale’s Sun Blindness Music and some of Birchville Cat Motel's work. It achieves a rare balance between abrasion and meditation.
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Thursday, May 3, 2012
News / Album The Intelligence Announce New Album, Everybody's Got It Easy But Me
Posted by Dave Segal on Thu, May 3, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Last year's Stranger Genius award winners the Intelligence have a new album, Everybody's Got It Easy But Me, coming out June 19 on In the Red Records. Band leader (and Line Out contributor) Lars Finberg used two separate lineups in Seattle and LA (his twin bases of operation these days) to record the new work. At a recent party at the top of the Space Needle, Finberg said that it's going to be both the Intelligence's most accessible and weirdest record yet.
Press release, track list, and "Males" video after the cut.
UPDATE: The Intelligence play their record-release party at the Crocodile July 19.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Album Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig: Art Vandelay, Thaddeus David, BeanOne & Ripynt
Posted by Larry Mizell, Jr. on Wed, May 2, 2012 at 8:15 AM
First off, my apologies for falling off on my tour blogs. I have a huge one with all the shit I missed, do you want to read it when it's done? Now, though, I'm home, on my couch, with my dog (he's got a big plastic cone on his head right now following some eye surgery). Traveling the country was awesome and eye-opening (no shots, Khujo), but goddamn it feels good to have lunch at Hana and get a haircut at Sal's! So now let me get back on some local sounds.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Album Naturebot - Specialty Shop EP
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, May 1, 2012 at 10:03 AM
Supremely lovable Seattle producer Naturebot (aka Ian Scot Price) normally releases music on his own Pleasure Boat label, but his latest EP, Specialty Shop, comes out on the up-and-coming local imprint Knightriders Recordings (it was officially released yesterday and is available at Beatport). And it makes sense, as the three tracks here are more in the vein of Knightriders’ dance-floor-oriented approach than in Naturebot’s more abstract, spasmodic, and melodic output for Pleasure Boat.
The title track starts as a tense, eye-narrowing thump and zoom down the highway of minimalist-techno masters like Claude Young and Jeff Mills before dilating into more expansive, early-’90s Underworld-like hands-in-the-air vibe. The sparkling “Under the Diamond Blanket” captures Naturebot’s affinity for melodies redolent of child-like, dream-weaving wonder and beats that slyly cajole rather than pummel. The EP climaxes with “Catamaran,” eight minutes of muted-euphoria techno that’s so damned endearing, bubbly, and goofily groovy, you’ll want to take it home and snuggle with it. Give this man a Decibel slot!
Naturebot’s 2012 is shaping up to be eventful. Here's a rundown of his upcoming releases.
June 2012- I'm Taking You Back EP on KRecordings
July 2012- Young Silky's debut live performance at Photosynthesis festival
July 2012- Young Silky- Father of Crub Funk EP out on Pleasure Boat (w/ remixes by Icarus Kid, Flarelight, Potatofinger, Retic, Crown Hill Repeater, etc)
August 2012- Disco/Cisco EP on KRecordings
September 2012- There Is No Marginal Land LP out on Pleasure Boat
Check the Knightriders Recordings press release after the cut.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Album Do You Like Eccentric Breaks & Beats?
Posted by Dave Segal on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 12:32 PM
If so, the magnanimous connoisseurs at the Numero Group have done you a solid with Parallel Thought: Eccentric Breaks & Beats Volume 2. Like the first volume of Eccentric Breaks & Beats, Parallel Thought is a wicked collage of obscure musical passages from Numero Group's rich catalog that you’ll want to sample or simply play like a highlight reel in the soul/funk/R&B-laced jukebox of your most sensible dreams. See how many tracks you can recognize: I couldn't identify a single one, damn it...
Read about Parallel Thought's back story, as related by member Adam Calman, here.
Album Keyboard Kid's The Transition EP Now Streaming on FACT
Posted by Dave Segal on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 10:08 AM
This week’s music-section star Keyboard Kid has his new EP and first official release, The Transition, streaming on FACT magazine’s site. In addition, respected UK newspaper The Guardian just featured the local hiphop producer and wrote some glowing things about him (“The Pharrell of Based.”) Major developments!
The Transition’s five tracks sound vaguely similar to recent productions by fellow Seattleites Truckasauras and UK future-bass maximalist Rustie: glossy, high-end synth melodies contrasting with grittier bass textures and unpredictable beats that still keep heads nodding. You can sense Keyboard Kid straining at hiphop’s conventions and stretching into more abstract electronic realms. But final cut “LongLiveSwag” throws a wicked curveball/knuckler: It’s a staccato techno banger that sounds like one of Kid606’s quasi-ironic rave-anthem homages. Bit of a shocka, for sure.
The Transition comes out May 7 on Donky Pitch.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Album / Song / Classic Preview Can's "Deadly Doris" from The Lost Tapes
Posted by Dave Segal on Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 2:27 PM
Krautrock legends Can have loosed one of their previously unreleased songs, "Deadly Doris," from the forthcoming The Lost Tapes rarities collection, which comes out on Spoon/Mute June 19. "Deadly Doris"—which sounds like it could've slotted well on Monster Movie or Soundtracks—features Malcolm Mooney with his patented, barely hinged vocal attack and Can's urgent, motorik-rock thrusts. Man, even their outtakes kick the asses of most bands' masterpieces. I have the feeling that The Lost Tapes will further solidify my belief that Can were the greatest rock band ever (although I'm willing to entertain your arguments otherwise).
Read the press release—including full track listing for The Lost Tapes—after the cut.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Album / Video Rainbow Lorikeet - "Abell 2667" and Fractures
Posted by Dave Segal on Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 9:57 AM
One of a slew of recent releases by Seattle label Debacle, Rainbow Lorikeet’s Fractures stands as an anomaly even in a catalog abounding with diversity. A malevolent, beat-oriented work in the vein of world-class dark magi like Techno Animal, Scorn, and Demdike Stare, Fractures oozes unsettling atmospheres while keeping your head nodding—even as you nervously glance back in paranoia.
Rainbow Lorikeet—Italian producer Nicolò Tescari—sculpts subtle, shudder-inducing textures into powerful instrumentals that skew too bleak to bear something as mundane as vocals. The five tracks on Fractures represent a rare example of an unsolicited demo sent to a discerning indie label that not only deserves release, but also worship.
Check out the video for “Abell 2667,” a highlight from Fractures, directed by Sara Cattin. Bonus points for shooting it in a setting totally incongruous with the track’s trepidatious, nocturnal aura.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Album / Song Wolfgang (Voigt) Kill Them All: Mohn's "Saturn"
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 1:57 PM
Kompakt Records stalwarts Wolfgang Voigt and Jörg Burger have a new project called Mohn. Don’t expect the driving, monomaniacal techno or the thrumming, muted throbs of their past endeavors on the Mohn album (out May 8). This is minimal, alienating untechno redolent of forbidding atmospheres and unsettling tonalities, with the occasional starkly beautiful melody forlornly wafting in the background.
Kompakt’s made “Saturn” available for advance streaming/downloading. It’s one of Mohn’s more accessible offerings, though it’s not going to be soundtracking Ibiza bacchanals any time soon. Rather, it’s nudged along by slow-mo arpeggiating, methodical pulsations, and warped wind-chime clanking. There’s a gorgeous, mellifluous synth melody floating in the distance, too. It’s kind of staggering to contemplate, but Wolfgang Voigt has yet to do anything weak in 20 years of music production.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Album / Classic Thrill Jockey Plans Big Tortoise Reissue Campaign
Posted by Dave Segal on Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Thrill Jockey Records is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a big reissue campaign of flagship band Tortoise's back catalog. You can pre-order Tortoise's 1996 post-rock classic Millions Now Living Will Never Die on vinyl (with a download card) here. Other titles slated to be reissued include Tortoise (July 24), It's All Around You (Aug. 21), TNT (Sept. 18), and Beacons of Ancestorship (Oct. 16). Tortoise are unusual in that they put out one of their best albums (Beacons of Ancestorship) almost 20 years into their existence. As I said in a 2010 overview of the band's highlights in The Stranger, "Tortoise are probably the most important American indie band going who've never sung a word and whose members' faces you wouldn't recognize."
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Album Listen to Dog Shredder's Brass Tactics in Its Entirety
Posted by Dave Segal on Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 11:08 AM
Invisibleoranges.com is hosting an exclusive full stream of Dog Shredder's new brain-scrambling EP, Brass Tactics, over here. You can read about the Bellingham band here, and then check out the rest of The Stranger's Good to Die Records features on label head Nik Christofferson and GTD group Absolute Monarchs.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Album / Video Crazy Old Bat - Crazy Old Bat EP
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 11:56 AM
Crazy Old Bat’s self-titled EP on Ewphoria is available for listening/purchasing over here. It contains four more examples of the Bellevue producer’s tense, subtly unhinged electronic music for anti-socialites. The music for “Anna Kills the Mood” (see the video below) strikes an unnerving balance between Autechre and Coil. “Collapse” could be a hit—in a club depicted in Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void. "Just Animals" still sounds like I described it in this Line Out post. "How to Waste All Your Precious Time" sports an ill tropical vibe not unlike Black Dice in a disturbingly festive, laid-back mood. It's possibly the most radio-friendly tune COB has created, but it will still scare away most advertisers and underwriters. Let's hope somebody in that medium has the guts to air this brilliantly dark stuff.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Monster Planet Hails 2nd Anniversary With Comp and Performance Tonight @ Can Can
Posted by Dave Segal at 3:46 PM in Tonight / Album
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Also Tonight in Music: Filastine @ Chop Suey
Posted by Dave Segal at 1:50 PM in Tonight / Album
Monday, April 2, 2012
Sleep Reveal New Dopesmoker Cover Art
Posted by Dave Segal at 12:16 PM in Art / Album
Friday, March 30, 2012
Big Baby Gandhi's No 1 2 Look Up 2, A-Trak Gets Trippy
Posted by Larry Mizell, Jr. at 5:37 PM in Drugs / Album / Song
Truckasauras Announce Unconventional Album Plans, Party Tonight @ Rendezvous
Posted by Dave Segal at 12:06 PM in Tonight / Album
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Can to Issue The Lost Tapes Box Set June 19
Posted by Dave Segal at 10:01 AM in News / Album
Friday, March 23, 2012
Also Tonight in Music: The Oeuvre @ Wall of Sound
Posted by Dave Segal at 10:07 AM in Tonight / Album
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Brian Jonestown Massacre - "I Want to Hold Your Other Hand"
Posted by Dave Segal at 10:03 AM in Album / Song
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Flaming Lips' Record Store Day Release Looks Pretty Awesome
Posted by Megan Seling at 11:30 AM in Album
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Darcys Respectfully Rough Up Steely Dan's Aja
Posted by Dave Segal at 9:47 AM in Album
Monday, March 12, 2012
Stream the New Nightmare Fortress EP
Posted by Megan Seling at 4:59 PM in Band / Album
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Album Review: Pharaoh Overlord - Lunar Jetman
Posted by Brian Cook at 12:09 PM in Album
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