Stereogum
Crystal Castles – “Baptism (No Age Remix)”
This No Age remix of “Baptism” from Crystal Castles’ second self-titled album sounds like the version of “Baptism” you’d find on Dean and Randy’s forthcoming Everything In Between. If you’ve heard “Glitter,” “Inflorescence,” or “Life Prowler” you’ll know what I mean. If not, think about a fuzzy, ambient, propulsive, dark-side-of-the-boom-box moment on some past No Age track. Then add Alice Glass.
Dirty Projectors – “Temecula Sunrise” (Live At Other Music)
This stripped down “Temecula Sunrise” comes from the forthcoming Bitte Orca Expanded Edition, a double CD collection that includes additional “Live At Other Music” acoustic tracks, B-Sides, and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “As I Went Out One Morning” (not a cover of this Dylan … or this Dylan … or …). We’ve heard “Temecula” acoustic-style elsewhere, but the opportunity to really focus on all those voices is something that never gets old.
Class Actress – “Terminally Chill” (Neon Indian Cover)
Class Actress’s take on “Terminally Chill” is less chill, though a lot icier than the original. Add this one to your Neon Indian cover mixtape, next to Here We Go Magic’s “Deadbeat Summer” and White Hinterland’s “6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know).”
Browse Weezer’s Hurley Clothing Line
As mentioned, PacSun and Hurley (the clothing company) are teaming up to sell Hurley (the Weezer album) ahead of its September 13 release. According to PacSun, you and your best friends can buy the album inside PacSun starting this Friday. Also on sale? Limited edition Weezer clothing, as part of their partnership with Hurley (the clothing company). All the pieces come in shades of green, grey, and white, thought not all are explicitly “Weezer” items (as the press release says they’re “Weezer-inspired”). Take, for example, the puffy vest below, which doesn’t advertise your Weezer fandom as much as make you look like Rivers Cuomo:
Summer Camp – “Veronica Sawyer”
Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey are Summer Camp. They released their Young EP yesterday. As you might suspect by the combo of their and their collection’s name, the UK duo’s sweet, mildly shadowy sound ought to go over well with fans of ’90s twee pop and its modern day torch bearers. Get nostalgic via “Veronica Sawyer.”
Surfer Blood – “Floating Vibes” Video
Surfer Blood act out late night/early morning TV favorites, like local newscasts, home improvement shows, accident lawyer commercials, cooking shows, home shopping networks, etc. in this lo-fi video for the first track on Astro Coast. The video was directed by G. Warner and Ralphael Blanco.
Marnie Stern – “Transparency Is The New Mystery
Up at ATP this weekend I found myself DJing for friends and staff in the ‘Gum Suite, spinning this song more than once and answering more than one question about it. And now it is free, for your ad hoc friends and family DJ sets. Marnie Stern, the eponymous, third full-length from one of the Stereogum tag set’s most creative guitarists, is another step toward the directly emotional, inventively song-oriented fare Marnie’s been working out since her debut a few years back. The relatively balladic, heart-wrenching “Transparency Is The New Mystery,” though, is the jam of jams on her third album, which is also her best album. It also highlights the particular dimension Zach Hill’s playing takes when he works with Stern, his beastly, busy kit work sawing off few of its edges, yet entirely at home underpinning this vulnerable confessional of self-doubt, and self-awareness, and self. Take three minutes with it, and repeat:
Crocodiles – “Hearts Of Love” Video
When she posted “Sleep Forever,” Jessica noted the more optimistic tones in BTW Crocodiles’ followup to their Summer Of Hate debut. Initially you get that feeling in this sunny, sandy “Hearts Of Love” video, but the guys refuse to remove their leather and things grow darker, bloodier, more psychoanalytical. Summer Of Hate 2010:
OMD – “If You Want It (Black Light Odyssey Remix)” (Stereogum Premiere)
I’m listening to the new OMD more than I imagined I’d be listening to the new OMD. I won’t pretend to like every song on History Of Modern the British synth-pop group’s first album in 14 years (and the classic early ’80s lineup’s first in 24 years), but the percentage of good to bad is well in their favor. The first four tracks are a sorta perfect return to their various forms. And considering current explorations in electronic music — from Cold Cave to chillwave to Wierd Records to Crystal Castles to the Mercury Prize winning XX to newbies and plenty of bigger pop acts — it’s also the perfect time for them to resurface. As far as favorites, take a listen to this Black Light Odyssey remix of the stadium-sized second track “If You Want It.” Then take a step back to the fuzzy opener, “New Babies: New Toys.” Longtime collaborator/Factory Records in-house designer Peter Saville did the cover art.
B.o.B. & Rivers Cuomo – “Magic” Video
Rivers Cuomo is one of the many guests on B.o.B.’s debut album (Lupe Fiasco, Janelle Monae, Hayley Williams, and Eminem also show up). His appearance could be the weirdest, next to the Vampire Weekend sample on “The Kids.” Cuomo sounds chirpy but forced on the chorus. It seems like he’s having fun in the video, where, honestly, he doesn’t look 40 years old (wearing the same vest and glasses for the last decade or so also helps you look ageless). Not sounding his age? A bit of a problem for Cuomo when it comes to Hurley. Watch his B.o.B. spot below:
Broken Social Scene – “All To All (Spirit If Remix By Kevin Drew & Ohad Benchetrit)”
Kevin Drew and Do Make Say Think multi-instrumentalist/BSS collaborator Ohad Benchetrit named this “All To All” remix after Drew’s 2007 solo collection Spirit If…. Not just to sell more copies of Spirit If…. This version empties out the Forgiveness Rock Record anthem, transforming it into a ambient exploration of space that would fit well on Drew’s earlier, sparer, weirder outing. And much like that older collection, it’s “solo” only in spirit.
Teengirl Fantasy – “Cheaters” Video
Hazed sample recontextualization/nostalgic beat duo Teengirl Fantasy, who are graduating Oberlin College just in time to join our Freshman Class of 2010, here enlist IASOS to give the lead single from their forthcoming LP some high-def iTunes Visualizer treatment. To recap: a video simulating a computer program for music created by computers being watched on a computer. Pretty hypnotic:
Kings Of Leon – “Radioactive” Video
The lead single from their upcoming album Come Around Sundown has a gospel feel to its chorus. So its video shows the Tennessee band hanging out, barbecuing, and singing with a group of school-age black children. Depending on your mood this’ll feel either totally heartwarming or totally contrived. Watch:
ATP NY 2010: Sleep, Sunn, Skinny Dipping
At this point people know what to expect from Kutscher’s: The faded Catskills resort’s crumbling walls held together by mold, broken everything (we were forced to do our own DIY toilet plumbing, heard about another one that flushed boiling water), that lost-in-time Tammy Faye Makeup Counter. What we didn’t expect was the persistent skinny dipping from a paunchy and pasty middle-aged man armed with a Budweiser and nothing else. It happened Friday night while we were resting (not raging) in the Down Under Bar: We weren’t the only ones to notice; he was in no hurry to cover up after exiting the pool. When he finally did get dressed — after reclining on a lounger and slowly chugging that beer — he put on his shirt, surveyed the other swimmers, let it hang out for another minute or so, and finally put those trunks where they should’ve been all along.
That moment — along with the fact that the only porn star to show up was Ron Jeremy — is a good metaphor for the ATP NY experience as a whole: The crowd’s older than at your average indie-rock get together, but they remain shameless in their enthusiasm and hedonism. Sometimes this works (Sonic Youth sounded great) sometimes it makes you want to bury your head in your hands (forever). Certain people shouldn’t stage dive, especially when the majority of the audience is too week from a lifetime of sedentary jobs to hold you aloft for more than a second. That, and as the comedian Hannibal Buress put it before Hope Sandoval’s set: Once you’re balding/have a mortgage, you should not be throwing up from alcohol.
All that said, like the previous two years, ATP NY 2010 was a blast: Jim Jarmusch and Thurston Moore did a Q+A, there was a whiskey tasting, tasty Asia Dogs, goose-shit-avoidance walks through the deconstructing park on the other side of the chair-eating pond. There’s too much to recount — and often the smallest moments are what stand out the most — but here are some highlights….
The ageless Iggy & his Stooges offered one of the weekend’s most entertaining sets. The music’s no longer dangerous — it’s more a communal nostalgic act — but whatever: When Pop welcomed folks on stage for “Shake Appeal,” the feel was truly celebratory. I liked Mudhoney OK in the ’90s and I liked them OK Friday night. The real stars of the opening evening, though, were Sleep (Al + Matt joined by Neurosis’s Jason Roeder), who sounded great in the Starlight Ballroom. In general, the sound in the space was, again, impeccable, the perfect spot to host both Sleep — such great guitar tones — and Altar (you could feel the vibrations).
Otherwise, gems included Fuck Buttons (now with better light show), the Breeders’ charmingly shambling jaunt through their catalog, Sonic Youth’s enthusiastic mostly oldies set, Fucked Up making good use of chocolate and crowd interaction (Damian’s excited he’s no longer straightedge, still loves Brotherhood), Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions’ admirably lush/downcast non-smiles, Kurt Vile (bad drum sound and all), Girls’ nuanced and deep-sounding take on their Album and other tracks (with extra guitar oomph via Ryan Dominant Legs), and perhaps most of all, Sunn O))) and Boris’ Altar, which found the two entities recreating the project/album of the same name with the help of vocalist Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston on synth/vocoder, Rex Ritter’s moogs, Bill Herzog on bass/backing vocals, Steve Moore on Rhodes/trombone, and Phil Wandscher on backing vocals. It was like a restrained Boris show, an unrestrained Sunn happening — and it worked beautifully.
Speaking of which: It’s interesting to consider the difference between last year’s balloon dropping Flaming Lips finale and this year’s smokey Sunn + Altar dreamy drone war as some sort of statement on the darkening of music as a whole in 2010, something I welcome with open arms (or devil horns, if you want).
If you weren’t there, we have Abbey Braden’s photos and Stephen Crocker’s videos to make you feel like you were.
Hope Sandoval – “Trouble”
Iggy & The Stooges – “Death Trip”
Breeders – “Cannonball”
Sleep – “Aquarian”
Altar – “Blood Swamp”
Altar – “The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)” (Feat. Jesse Sykes)
The xx Win The Mercury Prize 2010
This year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize, awarded annually by a panel of industry insiders to the UK and Ireland’s most excellent LP (or Roni Size/Reprazent’s New Forms), goes this year to the xx for their makeout masterpiece xx, and someone owes me a case of Dos Equis. Romy, Oliver, and Jamie will take home £20,000 for denying Mumford & Sons and Corinne Bailey Rae the honor, a pot to which I too would contribute on those grounds. (Others the xx kept at bay with this win include Wild Beasts, Dizzee Rascal, Foals, Villagers, and Paul Weller.) Congrats kids, if you’re looking for a night not to wear the pangs of young love and existential burden on your faces, this might just be it. You did it!
Matthew Dear – “Slowdance (Bear In Heaven Remix)”
This remix cuts out a bit of what was awesome about the original — the slow syrup of Matthew Dear’s vocal samples. But Bear In Heaven add other vocals to puzzle over, and while their version has a lot more energy, there are a couple times where it also felt like it was drifting out of time or melting away, much like Dear’s original. And it sounds like a lot of the layers on this remix are Dear’s vocals, sliced into half-syllables. Have a listen:
Diamond Rings – “Gentleman Who Fell” (Milla Jovovich Cover) (Stereogum Premiere)
Toronto’s John O’Regan is the 24-year-old behind Diamond Rings, a project pairing visual verve and theatricality with poised, glam synth pop, and a fairly open door for contributions from some of his similarly ascendant Canadian friends: Damien from Fucked Up turned up in the video for “Show Me Your Stuff,” and then there’s this track which features piano and string arrangements from Owen Pallett. (Owen stopped by with a song his own earlier today.)
What makes this song better is its source: a cover of Milla Jovovich’s “Gentlemen Who Fell,” the spare, catchy 1994 orchestral pop song the actress/model/everything put out when Diamond Rings was like 9. It’s a bit more electronic and danceable now, and is the b-side to a 7″ Diamond Rings is putting out in anticipation of an October full-length. Hear it:
Black Mountain – “The Hair Song” Video
“The Hair Song” features one of the best Stephen McBean and Amber Webber duets on the album. They’re in this clip, along with the rest of Black Mountain and a small cast of fresh-faced fans. The video was directed by Zoe Bower and Simon Chan.
The Tallest Man On Earth – “Like The Wheel”
The Tallest Man On Earth, aka Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson, is quickly following his The Wild Hunt full-length with the wordier five-song Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird. The guy gets compared to Dylan a lot, but the EP’s pretty, quiet third song “Like The Wheel” has something in its vocal line that reminds me of Magnetic Fields’ “Papa Was A Rodeo.” It’s a small, subtle thing — the drag of word or two at the end of certain lines — but it’s there and I can’t stop hearing it. Which is not a bad thing.