So Car Seat Headrest is making new music and it's pretty sweet
Showing posts with label modern music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern music. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Friday, January 08, 2016
Angus' belated 2015 music review
People I almost didn't do this at all. Work my butt off and get no page views. But then I read Pitchfork's top 50 and knew I couldn't remain silent. What a sack of crap that was.
Here are my top 10 releases from 2015
The first, by far, is Tom Carter, Long Time Underground. This is the dude from Charalambides come back from the dead with a stunning solo guitar album. This is mesmerizingly great.
My next favorite two are
Peacers self-titled album and Adult Mom's "Momentary Lapse of Happily"
Peacers is what Mike Donovan (Sic Alps) is calling himself nowadays and it's absolutely a slacker/psych/garage/retro monster of an album.
Adult Mom is Steph Knipe and her song "Survival" is my favorite pop song of the year. Little bit of Kimya Dawson, little bit of Liz Phair, and a lot of awesome.
There are actually 2 releases in Pitchfork's top 50 that are really good (type I error I guess)!
Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
This young woman is the real deal. This reminds of the Kinks! Great energy, tunes, just a great feel to this band.
Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell
My prayers were finally answered and Suffy dropped the pretense and went back to his roots. The result is stunning. All is forgiven. I'm sorry I doubted you.
My next 3 releases are in no particular order:
Speedy Ortiz, Foil Deer
Reminds me or Deerhoof or Miu Miu, great time changes, love the singer.
Royal Headache, High
They are supposed to be punky, but the singer is so damn soulful!
Car Seat Headrest, Teens of style
Look for more from CRH, but this year they gave me my second favorite pop song "The Drum".
And to round out a top 10 list, If you stuck a gun to my head and made me buy two more off Pitchfork's list I'd buy......
Kurt Vile, B'lieve I'm goin down
Joanna Newsom, Divers
Both of these records are really really good, but both of these artists are just coasting (downhill).
Looking back over this list I notice that (a) 40% of my picks are women or bands fronted by women (I really wanted Waxahatchee in here but their new record is just not so good), and (b) every single one is available as an LP (or double LP).
Here are my top 10 releases from 2015
The first, by far, is Tom Carter, Long Time Underground. This is the dude from Charalambides come back from the dead with a stunning solo guitar album. This is mesmerizingly great.
My next favorite two are
Peacers self-titled album and Adult Mom's "Momentary Lapse of Happily"
Peacers is what Mike Donovan (Sic Alps) is calling himself nowadays and it's absolutely a slacker/psych/garage/retro monster of an album.
Adult Mom is Steph Knipe and her song "Survival" is my favorite pop song of the year. Little bit of Kimya Dawson, little bit of Liz Phair, and a lot of awesome.
There are actually 2 releases in Pitchfork's top 50 that are really good (type I error I guess)!
Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
This young woman is the real deal. This reminds of the Kinks! Great energy, tunes, just a great feel to this band.
Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell
My prayers were finally answered and Suffy dropped the pretense and went back to his roots. The result is stunning. All is forgiven. I'm sorry I doubted you.
My next 3 releases are in no particular order:
Speedy Ortiz, Foil Deer
Reminds me or Deerhoof or Miu Miu, great time changes, love the singer.
Royal Headache, High
They are supposed to be punky, but the singer is so damn soulful!
Car Seat Headrest, Teens of style
Look for more from CRH, but this year they gave me my second favorite pop song "The Drum".
And to round out a top 10 list, If you stuck a gun to my head and made me buy two more off Pitchfork's list I'd buy......
Kurt Vile, B'lieve I'm goin down
Joanna Newsom, Divers
Both of these records are really really good, but both of these artists are just coasting (downhill).
Looking back over this list I notice that (a) 40% of my picks are women or bands fronted by women (I really wanted Waxahatchee in here but their new record is just not so good), and (b) every single one is available as an LP (or double LP).
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Holy Toledo!
People I am grooving on Car Seat Headrest (AKA Will Toledo).
Dude has like 10 albums up on Bandcamp! (go to the lower right to see them all)
Now he's signed to Matador and has released a sort of best of compilation from his existing work.
Highly Highly recommended.
Reminds me a bit of Jens Lekman and of White Fence. This is the kind of low fi shit that really floats my aging boat!
Here's one of my favorites:
Dude has like 10 albums up on Bandcamp! (go to the lower right to see them all)
Now he's signed to Matador and has released a sort of best of compilation from his existing work.
Highly Highly recommended.
Reminds me a bit of Jens Lekman and of White Fence. This is the kind of low fi shit that really floats my aging boat!
Here's one of my favorites:
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Re-issue of the century
People, "Torch of the Mystics" is coming out (again) on October 30th. Even in Vinyl for the hipsters (and me).
If you always wondered what the Sun City Girls were about, this is the album to go to. Quite a bit more musical and accessible than say "Midnight Cowboys from Ipanema" or "330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond the Rig Veda".
I guess it goes without saying that this is self-recommending?
I'll throw in that I also consistently enjoy the solo work of SSG member Richard (Rick) Bishop.
If you always wondered what the Sun City Girls were about, this is the album to go to. Quite a bit more musical and accessible than say "Midnight Cowboys from Ipanema" or "330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond the Rig Veda".
I guess it goes without saying that this is self-recommending?
I'll throw in that I also consistently enjoy the solo work of SSG member Richard (Rick) Bishop.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Do we have Joanna Newsom to thank for Dirty Projectors?
Well, maybe so!
Here's a quote from Dave Longstreth about how Newsom's debut, "The Milk Eyed Mender" affected him:
“I was in college, living in this weird house off-campus with some friends, and we blasted it a lot in that house," said Longstreth. "The melodies, the stories, the rhymes, the chord progressions: she was speaking our language for sure. I think it was one of the reasons I left school the next semester. I was like, "[what] am I doing here if someone is already out there making music like this, on this level??"
I'm a big fan of both and it's cool to learn about this connection/inspiration.
Here's a quote from Dave Longstreth about how Newsom's debut, "The Milk Eyed Mender" affected him:
“I was in college, living in this weird house off-campus with some friends, and we blasted it a lot in that house," said Longstreth. "The melodies, the stories, the rhymes, the chord progressions: she was speaking our language for sure. I think it was one of the reasons I left school the next semester. I was like, "[what] am I doing here if someone is already out there making music like this, on this level??"
I'm a big fan of both and it's cool to learn about this connection/inspiration.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Big Brother is Us
From KPC pal Chris A: A story on Pat Metheny. Here's the key passage from the news story. I thought it was very perceptive of Metheny:
The impact of YouTube on a touring musician
In his blog, Chris suggests: Metheny needs to go all Taylor Swift on youtube and smartphones!
Or, maybe not.
The impact of YouTube on a touring musician
"It's an unexpected turn of events for me. When you play that crappy gig in Germany in 1983, it's like, 'OK, we got through that one, and it's behind us.' Then it gets regurgitated 20 years later. The main thing is the way it limits the possibilities now. I used to love going and playing jam sessions, doing things spontaneously. I can't do that anymore. Everything you do is documented, nothing is casual anymore. You can't even have a conversation with someone after the gig, because there's somebody filming it. It turns out the Big Brother thing that was predicted, it's us."
In his blog, Chris suggests: Metheny needs to go all Taylor Swift on youtube and smartphones!
Or, maybe not.
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Music as Cultural Data
Emotional Cues in American Popular Music: Five Decades of the Top 40
Glenn Schellenberg & Christian von Scheve
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, forthcoming
Abstract: Some musical characteristics are cues to happiness (fast tempo, major mode); others are cues to sadness (slow tempo, minor mode). Listening to music with inconsistent emotional cues leads to mixed feelings and perceptions, or simultaneous happy and sad responding. We examined whether emotional cues in American popular music have changed over time, predicting that music has become progressively more sad-sounding and emotionally ambiguous. Our sample comprised over 1,000 Top 40 recordings from 25 years spanning five decades. Over the years, popular recordings became longer in duration and the proportion of female artists increased. In line with our principal hypotheses, there was also an increase in the use of minor mode and a decrease in average tempo, confirming that popular music became more sad-sounding over time. Decreases in tempo were also more pronounced for songs in major than in minor mode, highlighting a progressive increase of mixed emotional cues in popular music.
(Nod to Kevin Lewis, and thanks to LeBron, now that I think of it...)
Glenn Schellenberg & Christian von Scheve
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, forthcoming
Abstract: Some musical characteristics are cues to happiness (fast tempo, major mode); others are cues to sadness (slow tempo, minor mode). Listening to music with inconsistent emotional cues leads to mixed feelings and perceptions, or simultaneous happy and sad responding. We examined whether emotional cues in American popular music have changed over time, predicting that music has become progressively more sad-sounding and emotionally ambiguous. Our sample comprised over 1,000 Top 40 recordings from 25 years spanning five decades. Over the years, popular recordings became longer in duration and the proportion of female artists increased. In line with our principal hypotheses, there was also an increase in the use of minor mode and a decrease in average tempo, confirming that popular music became more sad-sounding over time. Decreases in tempo were also more pronounced for songs in major than in minor mode, highlighting a progressive increase of mixed emotional cues in popular music.
(Nod to Kevin Lewis, and thanks to LeBron, now that I think of it...)
Saturday, July 07, 2012
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