Slow and steady wins the race for this Black Animal.  The mysterious MH’s latest release, recorded in Chicago and New York, is a mix of hazy, dark folk reminiscent of Leonard Cohen and ambient Beach House-style tunes.

Independently released, this record falls heavy on your ears, driving the message home with a resounding, mournful tempo that ticks through the whole album.  Black Animal begins and ends slow and mellow, keeping a consistent mood but exploring variations within its sullen sound.  Black Animal is designed for lying on the floor, purring, and wallowing in thoughtful moments. Read the rest of this entry »

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Who are Gomez? Another great, esoteric band from a small town in England? Perhaps a truly great band from a small town in England? They haven’t made much of an impact in the US, just a small splash at the end of the 90s around the time of their debut Bring it On, and the follow up Liquid Skin. Since then, they have produced consistently and have a back catalogue of all sorts of wonderful and interesting music behind them. And here they are with their seventh album, Whatever’s On Your Mind which I picked up on a recent trip home. Another out of genre mix of this and that, diverse lyrics, tunes and melodies.

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In preparation for their sixth album, their first real-live studio record, San Francisco psych-rockers Wooden Shjips have released a video for their new song, “Black Smoke Rise.”

The band’s new album, West, sounds like a journey not only through the desert, but through the mind.  Backed by more than the traditional guitar, the Shjips include Nash Whalen on organ, who adds a ghoulish tremble to “Black Smoke Rise.”  Out of the layered feedback and distortion, singer Ripley Johnson’s voice barely makes it through, echoing from a distance in an extremely inviting and mystical manner.  Check out the black-and-white video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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Today would have been Buddy Holly’s 75th birthday, and the music industry hasn’t forgotten.  Instead, the second Buddy Holly tribute album released this year, Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, dropped yesterday, competing with June’s Rave On Buddy Holly with a far more demanding title and a whole new cast of stars.

These are very kind birthday presents, and a nice way to commemorate one of rock’s first icons, whose tunes are flexible enough to morph into many genres.  But the question remains: Which tribute wins?  Let the competition begin! Read the rest of this entry »

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UPDATE: According to Pitchfork, BlakRoc 2 is not actually in the works.  The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney claims the trailer is unauthorized and said there are “no plans” for another BlackRoc. The Black Keys know how to keep busy.  Even though they’ve only recently completed the follow-up to 2010′s Grammy-winning Brothers (release date yet to be announced), Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are already taunting us once again with a teaser trailer for their upcoming hip-hop collaboration album, BlakRoc 2.

The new album is a sequel of sorts to the first BlakRoc collab, released in 2009.  That project featured Raekwon, Damon Dash, Jim Jones, RZA, Mos Def and more rapping over the Black Keys’ signature blues riffs and rhythms.  BlakRoc 2 promises lyrics from Talib Kweli, Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, the Cool Kids, Jay Electronica and more.  In the trailer for the new project, one thing is certain: these boys can work together to pass the dutch. Read the rest of this entry »

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Culture critic Chuck Klosterman once wrote, “The most wretched people in the world are those who tell you they like every kind of music ‘except country.’”  I hate to count myself amongst the wretched, but I had almost given up on country music.  Lately, it seems the only thing coming out of the country camp borders on pop, not the air-guitar-worthy country-rock of legends like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young.

Fortunately, it seems I’m not the only one thirsting for more thick beats behind country music’s modern twang. Blitzen Trapper‘s new album, American Goldwing, puts the rock back into country’s roll, sounding out a solid release for the Portland hillbillies. Read the rest of this entry »

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Hide your bottles, The Wine Thieves are crashing your party with their Hot Hor D’oeuvres EP, now available on YouTube.  Heavy on the confidence and slick in its production, Hot Hor D’oeuvres is sample-ridden stoner hip-hop interspersed with audio clips reminiscent of Wu-Tang’s 36 Chambers.  Its unusual layered beats sometimes sound like a chopped and screwed bongo player going crazy at a poetry reading, and each track draws your attention with its humor, flow, and unexpected sonic pairings.  With The Wine Thieves, it’s impossible to anticipate where the next three minutes will take you.

Producer/beat master Party.picasso and rapper Emcee Hype met at William Paterson University in 2003.  “There seemed to be an instant musical connection between the two of us,” Party.picasso told emcBlue in a recent interview.  “The minute we found out we both freestyled and had a love for hip-hop, that was the end of it.” Emcee Hype adds, “I don’t think we spoke in prose for years. Everything was a freestyled rhyme. Read the rest of this entry »

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The camera pans across the unyielding desert.  Nothing stirs.  The wind barely blows as every grain of sand seems glued to the earth’s floor.  Majestic shapes of impossible rock rise above the landscape, cutting into the bleached sky with unimaginable silhouettes.  As the scene begins, the hint of a song kicks up, a song that could only exist here.  But what is it?

It may be the plaintive whistle of a classic Ennio Morricone tune or a thick, dark beat from The Doors, musicians who drew inspiration from and came to define the West.  Or it could be one of Spindrift’s scores.  Inspired by the likes of Morricone and Morrison, Spindrift has emerged from the LA scene as the psychedelic spaghetti western pioneers of the modern age, crafting soundtrack music that skews the rules of time, sending new pictures back into the desert depths of westerns gone by.  Their latest release, Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1, compiles the band’s best soundtrack work, a unique collection that celebrates Spindrift’s colorful collaborations.

I recently got the chance to chat with Kirpatrick Thomas, the man behind Spindrift’s sound and scoring, about Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1, the legend of the West, and the origins of Spindrift. Read the rest of this entry »

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Cowboy and Indian at SXSW, Plemons far right

Jesse Plemons may have killed a man on NBC as Landry Clarke, the nerdy comic relief-turned-murderer in Friday Night Lights‘ worst plot twist, but he’s since risen from his roots on the now-defunct (though excellent) TV show to play a different role: folk singer.  Plemons is part of a folk crew, called Cowboy and Indian, whose outfits are something to shake an eyebrow at and whose gorgeous vocal harmonies and down-south fever are enough to start you square dancing.

And no, Friday Night Lights fans, Cowboy and Indian don’t sound anything like Landry’s fictional Christian thrash band, Crucifictorious. Read the rest of this entry »

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Lykke Li, at first wash, is our generation’s Nico.  Both came to us from Europe (Sweden and Germany, respectively) with beautiful faces, cold stares, and unusual accents.  And both embody that same mystery, a cool air of unspoken depth and inner darkness.  Perhaps the greatest difference is that Lykke Li grew into her shadowy success.

She began as a light-hearted, light-footed Swedish pop singer, drawing attention with her stripped-down, kinda-techno, dance-happy single, “Little Bit,” off of 2008′s Youth Novels.  Now, Lykke Li’s translated her penchant for shoulder-shaking into the desperate, drunk and defiant dancing of this year’s “Sadness is A Blessing,” adding tension, subtracting softness, and reaching for a mystical, tribal essence in her latest release, Wounded Rhymes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Hair Rocket's Punishment Cookie and The Great Afternoon's Self-Titled EP

Now on consignment at the Princeton Record Exchange are two exciting new projects from local bands, Hair Rocket and The Great Afternoon.  Hair Rocket, from Lumberville, Pennsylvania, recently released their first full-length album, the upbeat, edgy Punishment Cookie, and Lambertville’s The Great Afternoon just released their first official, and extremely folksy, self-titled EP.

First, let’s start off with Hair Rocket, whose Punishment Cookie is surprisingly rewarding.  Pop-punk in the best possible way, Hair Rocket shoot through their first full-length with a witty, high-energy, yet irreverent sound, playing rough and fast while managing to pull off the polish. Read the rest of this entry »

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Members of Peter Kernel

Swiss-Canadian noise pop trio Peter Kernel recently released the first single off of their upcoming sophomore album, White Death & Black Heart.  With a video to match, the single marches along with an anti-this, anti-that, pro-easy living punk attitude.

A mix of sunshine, anarchy, and edgy vocals, “Anthem of Hearts” starts off with a shock to the system care of singer and bass player Barbara Lehnhoff, but soon melts into a lovey-dovey soothing vocal, reaching for “a place to live and dream.”  Check out the new song by these misanthropic romantics after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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Less than a month after Buddy Holly got the celebrity cover compilation treatment, it’s been announced that Hank Williams is due for the same.  But this time, a cast of music’s finest lovers of hillbilly tunes won’t be simply re-doing what Hank already did best.  Instead, they’ll be lending their skills to a collection of Williams’ tunes that have never been heard before.

The upcoming compilation, called The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, will feature songs straight out of Hank’s dusty diaries.  According to Rolling Stone, the pages of Hank’s unperformed songs were found in a leather briefcase after his early death at the age of 29 in 1953. Read the rest of this entry »

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Black Milk and Jack White: Together, White Milk

Third Man Records recently proved that you should never say never with the release of their latest project: a 7″ single from Detroit rapper Black Milk.  The first hip-hop music Jack White’s label has ever released, Black Milk’s single is, not surprisingly, more than your average rap track.  Laced with touches of funk, soul, and sax, both songs rock retro while rapping righteously.

White stepped in to play guitar on the A-side, “Brains,” and drums on the B-side, “Royal Mega.”  According to Black Milk, the collaboration was White’s idea.  On his website, Milk describes the encounter: Read the rest of this entry »

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A Still from Todd Cole's "Baby's Arms" Video

Last week, Kurt Vile‘s gentle love song “Baby’s Arms,” off of Smoke Ring for My Halo, got its own music video care of Todd Cole and the Windows Phone Me short film series.

Although the video has been deemed “official” by Vile’s label, Matador Records, it’s more (or possibly less) than your typical music video or film short; it’s also an advertisement for the under-used Windows Phone.  In an attempt to compete with the instantly hip iPhone, Windows has launched a unique marketing campaign, comprised of short films. Read the rest of this entry »

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JEFF the Brotherhood may awkwardly love your momma’s milk and cookies a bit too much, but their new album is short on the comforting nourishment.  Contrary to the AP’s review of the Brotherhood’s latest release, “We Have Heard the Future and It is JEFF” and despite abundant laser sound effects, We Are the Champions is yet another study in retro revivalism.  While tracks like “Hey Friend,” “Bummer,” and “Health and Strength” are truly unique and hold great promise, the boys delve into the popular punk sounds of the 70s for most of the rest of the album, ultimately shrouding their potential in the (way too familiar) guise of the past.

Who are they emulating?  If I gave you two guesses, you probably wouldn’t need them: it’s the ever-present spectre of The Ramones haunting these two Nashville brothers. Read the rest of this entry »

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Whether Ty Segall suffers from some sad-puppy lovesick syndrome or just the carb-depleted depression of the Atkins diet, the beginning of Goodbye Bread is miles from the San Francisco fuzz rocker’s high-energy 2008 self-titled debut.  Segall’s latest album, his first for Drag City, opens up with the slow title track, composed mostly of laconic strumming and a barely-there downer daydream falsetto.

Of course, Segall doesn’t let sleeping dogs lie.  The rest of the record is a mixed bag of hard-hitting rock tracks, like the punk-rock mini-song “California Commercial,” and more semi-ballads, like the slow-clap support group feel of “I Can’t Feel It.”  But unlike Segall’s previous releases, the distortion is (usually) turned down a notch, and Segall’s formerly hidden voice bleeds through his chords more clearly. Read the rest of this entry »

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Damon Albarn is on a creative high right now (notwithstanding a Blur reunion album!). Anyone who saw the Gorillaz at Madison Square Garden last year could see he was having the time of his life, and probably has to pinch himself that he managed to put together the multi talented supergroup that he did for that tour, and that even Lou Reed came out to play that night. As has been well publicised already, Albarn had a mini studio set up backstage and with the aid of his new toy iPad was able to record each night as and when the mood took him.

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You may have to wait until June 7th to get your hands on the new Black Lips album, Arabia Mountain, but at least your ears don’t have to be patient.  The album is currently streaming on Grooveshark as a special preview for die-hard Lips fans and curious newcomers.

The Black Lips have a good bad (not evil) reputation as modern punk rockers, but with their frequent hand clapping and 70s-tinged vocals, the Lips cross over to fans of vintage sounds as well.  On Arabia Mountain, the boys’ production is possibly the cleanest it has ever been, thanks in part to a first-time collaboration with producer Mark Ronson, who’s also worked with definitely not punk (yet similarly throw-back) acts like Adele and Amy Winehouse. Read the rest of this entry »

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Editor’s note: We are very pleased to welcome our newest blogger Kerri O’Malley.  She has submitted some excellent sample posts and we are eager to see what she brings to the table.  So, without further ado, here’s her first…

Not since “Lithium” has insanity been this celebratory.  Screws Get Loose, Those Darlin’s sophomore album, opens with a jangling cascade of guitar wails, piano keys and bells, creating a carnival at the edge of reason, temporarily assaulting the ears before ripping into the album’s title track.  Although Those Darlins — a vintage rock foursome that’s 3/4 female and grew up in Tennessee — are a far cry from Nirvana, the quartet echoes a similar unwashed-hair garage band vibe, breathing life and true ‘tude into the new vintage rock revivalism.

Taking a page out of The Ramones’ book, the girls of Those Darlins have all adopted the last name “Darlin.”  There’s lead singer Jessi Darlin, who sings with a nasally edge reminiscent of The Shangri-Las’ Mary Weiss, bassist Kelley Darlin, and lead guitarist Nikki Darlin.  Their new member, and the first to possess a Y chromosome, drummer Linwood Regensburg, has so far kept his not-so-cute last name, but his addition to the band marks a new stage in Those Darlins’ music. Read the rest of this entry »

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