Bohemian Cuddle Box: May 2010

New Songs from Wavves

I have had a rather ambivalent relationship towards the scuzzy, bedroom punk music promulgated by San Diego band Wavves. Their first album, Wavvves, was a simple yet strangely inaccessible rumination on distortion in every sense of the word, bordering at times on early Animal Collective type mayhem. However (like much of Animal Collective's music), buried beneath all the fuzz was a brilliant gem of a pop song. So I decided to stay tuned.

A couple years, a couple added members and one meltdown later, Wavves is planning to release their follow up album. When I first heard the demo track for "Mickey Mouse" about a year ago I started to get my hopes up. The song features a repetitive structure (much like more recent AC...) and features several brilliant (AC-like) hooks and harmonies. Another song, entitled "Cool Jumper," is also making (ahem) waves around the internetz recently and features several catchy "oo-oo-ooos" and harmonies. Should be a great summer record. The finished album, which is entitled "King of the Beach," will indeed include these tracks as well as that "tubular" album art up top. It is due out in August via Fat Possum and Bella Union.

Wavves - "Cool Jumper"

Wavves - "Mickey Mouse"

Coma Cinema - "Only" Video

Coma Cinema are from South Carolina and have a myspace with only a few thousand hits (listen now for hipster cred!). They write intimate, delicate pop songs with simple melodies that get stuck in your head for days. A little bit Cymbals Eat Guitars and a little bit Girls or Coconut Records and mostly something you swear you have heard before and know that you haven't.

The video itself is certainly refreshing. With all the blissed out stock footage videos we have been getting lately, I certainly did not expect to see anything in crystal clear, high def quality. The song has a warm organ warbling in the background and grisly distorted guitar chug. The whole song exudes yearning in the face of despair. Recommended!

They have done this sort of video production before for the beautiful downer of a song "Flower Pills" here. Also, get more of their music here.

Coma Cinema - "Only"

Xtina + M.I.A. = The Blow?

So apparently when you mix M.I.A.'s songwriting and collaborative skill with Christina Aguilera's stylistic whimsy and raw vocal talent, you get something a lot like The Blow (think "Parenthesis"). Good electronic textures, layered together seamlessly. Good pop sensibilities in the songwriting. Harmonies, hooks and a strong beat. Listen here.

The Buzz Box #5

This week we have a fairly short Buzz Box, due more to the lack of new (good) music this week than my own laziness. The five songs here more than make up for the brevity of the list.

Arcade Fire :: The Suburbs
Toro Y Moi :: Leave Everywhere
Archie Bronson Outfit :: Shark's Tooth
Travels :: Swimming

Shoutout to Kendall for leading me to that video.

Ramallah Underground

Video still from film Collapse by B. Abbas and R. Abou-Rahme

From Myspace:

Ramallah Underground, based in Ramallah, Palestine, was born from the immediacy of musical experimentation and the need to give voice to a generation of Palestinians and Arabs who face a turbulent and uncertain political landscape.

The collective was founded by artists Boikutt, Stormtrap, and Aswatt and has always held a commitment to both the honesty of their work and the need to creatively rejuvenate Arabic culture. To this end they combine music ranging from Arabic electronic music, hip-hop, trip hop to downtempo with a deep sense of their local culture and imposing presence of Palestine in their lives. The outcome is a new specific distinct sound....

Their lyrics and music are an expression of anguish and defiance, ultimately remaining a defiant voice of the colonized against the colonizer. They continue to play a big role in the Arab Underground cultural scene while slowly gaining wide global and local popularity.

~~It is very difficult to find music from the group online~~ [Edit: LastFM has a ton of tracks for free download] (which makes sense considering the economic/political complications of their homeland). The best source is their myspace, which I highly recommend checking out.

Ramallah Underground :: Sijen ib Sijen
Ramallah Underground :: Aswatt il Zaman
Ramallah Underground :: Dameer Mustater 73

Also the prolific Kronos Quartet performed one of their songs on their album Floodplain from 2009:

Kronos Quartet :: Tashweesh (Interference)

There is a darkness/rebellion to this music that holds the power of resistance.

Memoryhouse: Minor White

Memory House - Minor white from quatuorlindsay on Vimeo.

Nice to get a change from the moving-polaroids they call music videos these days. Here we have a short clip from Memoryhouse via Delicious Scopitone that was apparently created by a fan. There's nothing like us kids watching kids watch movies about kids.

Kerouac Reading Kerouac

For the most part this blog likes to keep pace with the manic speed of the blogosphere by only writing on new music, but occasionally we are going to point back to some lesser known tracks/artists. Jack Kerouac is obviously not under the "lesser known" list, but his collection of recorded spoken-word poetry set to jazz improvisation may yet to grace your ipod.

Its a beautiful collection. The Beat poets of the fifties and sixties are often held responsible for the hippy generation, but even more importantly their spoken-poetry had a huge influence on later hip hop that would arise during the eighties. Kerouac reads his poetry with intentional rhythm and melody. His voice, which occasionally breaks into song, is nearly identical to Frank Sinatra's. Take a listen to the slow, graceful narrative he spins on "October in the Railroad Earth":

Jack Kerouac :: October in the Railroad Earth
Jack Kerouac :: The Beat Generation

Cuddle Up With: Cloud Control

Cloud Control is good. Really good. They play pop songs. Good pop songs. Debut album (the properly titled) Bliss Release is out now, and I would highly recommend directing your ears in its general direction.

The band draws from quite a few influences in the rock world, including New Pornographers, Vampire Weekend, Paul Simon, The Smiths, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; its all present here, but they are all swallowed by the band's incredibly mature and self-aware song writing. Not one detail is overlooked, every song is intentional and confident; there isn't one track that could even be considered mediocre.

I try not to beam too bright for a particular artist, but this band is going places, and going quickly. You can't hide music like this. If you are the type to purchase music, don't hesitate to drop some digital dough on Bliss Release.

Cloud Control :: Ghost Story
Cloud Control :: Gold Canary

Purchase via Itunes
Myspace

The Buzz Box #4

This week we hear from PNW artist, Pearly Gate Music (brother of Tillman from Fleet Foxes), new demo from Ganglians, lo-fi P4k loved Julian Lynch and a dreamy remix of our favorite Twin Sister.

Pearly Gate Music :: Big Escape
Ganglians :: My House
Julian Lynch :: In New Jersey
Blue Hawaii :: Belize
Twin Sister :: All Around and Away We Go (Teen Daze Remix)
Menomena :: Five Little Rooms

Kurt Vile: Square Shells EP

Kurt Vile sort of burst out of no where in 2009 with Childish Prodigy, an album of blissfully grungy folk songs that squeezed on to my favorite albums of the year. He is at it again in 2010 with his band The Violators (awesome). May 25 sees the release of Vile's Square Shells EP and according to Matador, the band is currently working on a full length follow up set to hit stores in the fall.

Square Shells finds Vile in the same stylistic territory as Childish Prodigy, which means lots of distorted, lo-fi folk sounds and rambling not-quite-sober vocals. Its a pretty long EP considering the fact that its sandwiched between two full-lengths. Opener "Ocean City" is one of Vile's more immediate, anthemic folk ballads and is followed by the fantastic "Invisibility: Nonexistent", a long track that floats for seven minutes and seems to fall in and out of consciousness, one minute a catchy pop tune, the next a tripped out elongated psychedelic gem. I highly recommend this EP as well as last year's full length.

Kurt Vile :: Invisibility: Nonexistent (From Square Shells EP [2010])

Kurt Vile :: Overnite Religion (From Childish Prodigy [2009])

Junip: Rope and Summit EP

Junip is a band headed by Jose Gonzalez and sounds just about what you would expect a band headed by Jose Gonzalez to sound like. Which is to say Junip's new EP is essentially four Jose Gonzalez songs complimented quite nicely with drums and a rhodes piano.

Its a simple, repetitive record that bares its soul from the very beginning. The first three tracks glide with driving jazz rhythms that recall early Nick Drake and Gonzalez's voice does little to quell the comparison. The strongest track is probably the last: "Loops" slows the tempo down and gently meanders through textures of thick finger picking, drums, and vocal harmonies.

Its hard for Gonzalez to escape his one-hit-wonder-cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats". His original work has been rather underwhelming, to say the least. With Junip, however, Gonzalez's song-craft has found some life that was grossly lacking before. Its a pretty good listen (especially with a good set of headphones).

Junip :: Rope and a Summit

You can download the EP for FREE here for the price of an email.
Expect a full-length sometime this year.
myspace

Baths "Maximalist' Video

Great jam for a sunny day.

The Buzz Box #3

This week on The Buzz Box we hear from Peter (sans Bjorn and John), as well as some newer tunes from Damien Jurado and School of Seven Bells. Also present are some beautiful songs from newbies Villagers and (new to me) Travels. Making the Buzz Box for the third straight week is Memoryhouse with a brilliant recomposition of "Lately", a song off their The Years EP

Peter Moren :: Esther
The Coral :: Butterfly House
Damien Jurado :: Cloudy Shoes
Villagers :: Becoming a Jackal
Memoryhouse :: Lately (Troisieme)
Travels :: What You Haven't Seen
School Of Seven Bells :: Babelonia

Also, there is this:

Active Child

Two-thousand and ten has been the year of dream-pop-shit-gaze or whatever you want to call it. New acts seem to be dropping like jaws at a Beach House concert: Memoryhouse, Twin Sister, Wild Nothing, and now Active Child.
The band, as their name suggests, is the black-sheep of the family. Pat Grossi, the man behind the sounds, layers choral vocals, new-wave synths, and harp in cyclical pulsing rhythms. At one moment you're convinced this is just another Bon Iver side project, at the next some b-side from LCD Soundsystem. Its a strange mix, and when it works it really works.

Take for example the first track off Active Child's new EP, Curtis Lane:

Active Child :: I'm In Your Church At Night

If you can move beyond the fact that this song (and its creepy-as-hell title) belong on a David Lynch soundtrack, there is a lot to love here. We open with a choir-boy wall of sound that carries throughout (à la Panda Bear, Julliana Barwick) and adds a haunting backdrop for the otherwise eighties-pop aesthetic. In an interview with Pitchfork Grossi discusses this element of his music:

...The choral aspect came from when I was young. I sang in the Philadelphia Boys Choir for five or six years while I lived in New Jersey, where I grew up until I was 13. That was the first real musical expression I had, [so] I think it had a big influence on the way my mind works as far as creating melodies.

The influence carries throughout the EP, but is most present on stand-out "Wilderness":

Active Child :: Wilderness

Check out more tunes on Grossi's myspace and pre-order the EP below.
Myspace
Website/Purchase

Twin Sister Video - Lady Daydream

Twin Sister Lady Daydream from Imaginary Animal

We here at BCB are patiently waiting for new favorites, Twin Sister, to drop an album on us. For now, our collection consists of a the new Color Your Life EP, the old Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP from last year, a cover or two and now, a new video.

Lady Daydream is an intimate, pulsing jam with a weird synthy (dare I say) "chillwave" hook. It is most certainly in the vein of (other BCB favs) Memoryhouse and the video uses aesthetics similar to Memoryhouse's Bonfire video. Which is to say there is a lot of hazy super 8 filming and slo-mo shots of people walking about. On top of that, of course, is the gorgeous female vocals and twangy guitar picking. We also get stock footage of surfing, a carnival type gathering shot from a roller coaster, vintage skateboarding and random beach scenes. If you aren't feeling the lazy-chill summer vibes after this one...uh...your tie might be too tight...(?).

Jay-Z plays Greatest Hits Medley on SNL

Beach House: White Moon

New Mountain Man

Mountain Man, the aptly named trio of ghost-voiced females, will be releasing their debut full length, Made the Harbor, on July 20.
We praised the band's last release, which came in at number 11 on my top albums list of 2009.

We now have our first taste (and it is just a taste) of the new album with the beautiful+brief "Soft Skin"
The track somehow manages to break itself into two distinct sections (they do realize the song is 2 minutes long right?) and, as usual, it adds a haunting element to the song that not easy to describe.

"I got soft skin. Are you gonna let me in?"

In my review I wrote that the Mountain Man listener feels as if she is intruding on the three singers rehearsing in the forest. That distance is dissolved a bit with this new track. It is a warm song that feels as if it was written just for you.

Mountain Man :: Soft Skin

The Buzz Box #2

This week on the second installment of The Buzz Box we hear a comeback from Wolf Parade who will be releasing a follow-up to their rather poorly received At Mount Zoomer. Also on the list are a few great tracks (that I will probably get in trouble for posting / grab them while you can) from Ratatat and Here We Go Magic.
And lets not forget GAUNTLET HAIR.

Gauntlet Hair :: I Was Thinking...
Wolf Parade :: Ghost Pressure
Sunglasses :: Whiplash
Here We Go Magic :: Land of Feeling
Ratatat :: Sunblocks
Memoryhouse :: Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Best Coast :: Our Deal

Sleigh Bells

Sleigh Bells is only a duo. Two people. And somehow, even though my speakers are turned all the way down to the lowest setting, they sound LOUD. And this is ok because they make amazing in your face hip-pop music, part MIA, part Lily Allen, part awesome guitar tone. Also they are LOUD. Like, if you dont have a sub, your speakers will rattle. If you are tired, the treble will destroy you. If you wonder if their live show is awesome, it looks like it. If you wonder if there is a lil' Wayne Mashup, of course (see below). If you want to dance/ feel great, you will absolutely love them. Definitely new favorites.

You can get a lot of their music here. Album Treats drops May 11th on Mom + Pop/N.E.E.T.

Crown on the Ground

Fireman on the Groun (Lil' Wayne Mashup)

New Wolf Parade

Two songs from Wolf Parade's upcoming LP Expo 86 are streaming over at P4k. Krug and the band are continuing the record-everything-live experiment that began with Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer. Results sound promising so far.

New Ratatat: LP4

Following up the fantastic LP3, Ratatat will be releasing the aptly named LP4 on June 8. If track record is any indication (and it is), this will be a great album.
According to Prefix, the songs for the album were recorded at the same time as LP3. The band, however, "insists that the two records are to be taken as distinct entities. The most obvious demarcation between the two is the prevalence of strings on LP4."

I love strings.

Wild Nothing – Chinatown

Maybe we can dance the sunshine here.

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