New Music: Tangerine – Nothing Better
Back in late August we were helped into autumnal slumber by the gentle swells of “Feel This Way”. Seattle, Washington’s Tangerine are back in action this month with a new single. Lead track “Nothing Better” premiered through MTV’s Buzzworthy in late March and there’s plenty to justify that level of endorsement. That same sense of …
Video: Just Lions – Paper Cage
Today I have been enjoying the new video for “Paper Cage” by backseatmafia.com faves’ Just Lions’. You can follow an increasingly threatened lead singer Chandler Strutz being chased through Oregon City by his paper creations. Rotoscoped (or some such technique) alterna-Chandlers, brought to life by blue Bic biro, it would seem, are hunting our brave hero …
Joan As Police Woman – The Classic
Sometimes it does what it says on the tin – but elsewhere track sequencing and the mix mean that this album ultimately frustrates. Joan Wasser is not alone as an artist whose first shot at a full-length remains their best some years later. “Real Life” is an excellent LP and still easily bosses “To Survive” …
Track of the Day: Pool – Harm
Take this as an early spring shot in the arm. Your day needs Pool. Super-tight, crisp disco/funk that melds the snap and crackle of Electric Six’s camper moments, and the arty angular indie-pop of Franz Ferdinand into a beguiling, morning glory-inducing hit of energy and excitement. Plus, check the bassist’s shoes.
Video: Ratking featuring King Krule – So Sick Stories
A slower slice of troubling hip-hop, following the paranoid claustrophobia of “100”. NYC’s new rap heroes mix it up with London’s King Krule. The video for “So Sick Stories” puts Ratking and their British guest in a set of nondescript, alienating, brutalistic urban locales. Their cross to bear is one of sadness, anger, listlessness, lived …
Video: Maids – Bandits
Turns out that this is exactly what I needed this Thursday night: gentle, wistful electro-pop, and an aqua-aerobics video to boot. Midwest Disco indeed. Des Moines, Iowa is something of a celebrated town. And it isn’t just that it’s one of the insurance company capitals of the world; it’s also because it’s a town that …
Video: Le1f – Boom
Openly gay rappers are as rare as openly gay footballers and both fields are all the poorer for the forces that preserve their prejudices. New Yorker, Le1f, is one artist and producer trying to correct this imbalance, and making progress, judging from his recent appearance on Letterman two weeks ago. His most recent release (following the …
Track: Roddy Frame – Forty days of fame, plus new album news
Scottish songsmith Roddy Frame is back in the album business, with a new LP set for release in May. Three records on from Aztec Camera’s last, Frestonia in 1995, “Seven Dials” marks Frame’s first foray since 2006’s “Western Skies”. Named after the Covent Garden junction in London (it’s swanky – and fun to watch tourists …
New Music: No Bra – Candy
I find it highly unlikely that I’ll hear another album like this in 2014. I was going to say ‘you’ instead of ‘I’ but what do I know about what’s going into your ears ? You might remember Susanne Oberbeck from No Bra’s 2005 underground hit ‘munchhausen’. I don’t but then I wasn’t doing this …
Album Review: Solander – Monochromatic Memories
Beautiful, tender heart-puncturing songs of loss, desperation, and deconstruction by love. Bravo. “Monochromatic Memories” is a tight record, atmospherically and lyrically coherent and consistent. In fact the only real issue I have is with the title – it makes the album sound bland and that’s just not the case. I can see how it adds …