Kurt Vile

By this point you’ve probably been introduced to the indie-circa-now influenced classic-radio-transmissions of one of the years many new-ish (see Night Control, Wavves, Pearl Harbour, Ducktails, Real Estate, the Smith Westerns, etc.) contemporary lo-fi-basement child-ish prodigies: Kurt Vile — and if you haven’t, you can start with the new “Overnite Religion” from his forthcoming Matador debut album Childish Prodigy.

“Overnite Religion” is as good as or better than what I’d expect from Vile after spending some time with his rather enjoyable albums Constant Hitmaker and God Is Saying This To You…

MP3: Kurt Vile “Overnite Religion” (192kbps)

And previously from Kurt Vile, the should-be-hugely-popular “Freeway” from Constant Hitmaker.

MP3: Kurt Vile “Freeway” (251kbps/VBR)

Constant Hitmaker//God Is Saying This To You…//Childish Prodigy — notice any trends?

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Javelin

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Alright, I’ve got to thank Pitchfork for this one.  Somehow I’ve managed to go X-number of days without encountering Javelin (singular, fyi).  Javelin is crazy.  I know I’m not the first person to drop this comparison, but my first thought was that Javelin makes some damn-groovy tunes that are (somewhat) in vein of the Avalanches.

“Vibrationz” seems to be the quick-n-danceable free-MP3 from the awesome, sample-heavy, self-released, Jamz n Jemz LP.  There’s a few mediocre moments on the album –  “STD Fury” (which might make Peaches blush) comes to mind — but there’s also a ton of to-die-for moments amongst the 25 tracks, like “Lindsay Brohan”, “Africadabra”, “Vibrationz”, and even the brief outro-track “The Liger”.

MP3: Javelin “Vibrationz” (192kbps)

Now get yourself to a beach-party and/or BBQ and jam to these jemz.

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Pearl Harbour

Pearl Harbour are inspired young-blond Californian-sisters that create timeless fuzzy-beach-pop.  If the current lo-fi-beach trend is your thing, you’re going to love Pearl Harbour.

Definitely not to be confused with the forgettable Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, these new Pearl’s have a good portion of the sun-bleached indie-blogosphere eating out of their hands.

The girls are offering a CD-R from their MySpace, and will have a 12″ on Mexican Summer (see Kurt Vile, Dungen, Ariel Pink, BMSR, Marissa Nadler, Valet, etc.) out in the fall.

All the Pearl Harbour songs I’ve heard so far are pretty much gorgeous, which bodes well for future material.

“Sunburn” was the first Pearl Harbour song I heard, and it’s the catchiest yet.

MP3: Pearl Harbour “Sunburn” (160kbps)

“Lost @ Sea” is a little bit more of a grower, but it’s just as strong “Sunburn”, and is (probably) more re-listenable.

MP3: Pearl Harbour “Lost @ Sea” (128kbps)

I’ve had the least amount of time with “The High Road”, but its barely audible lyrics and muffled melody (sound like the description for this entire genre?) work well together.

MP3: Pearl Harbour “High Road” (128kbps)

“Vapor Girls” is a demo, or at least it’s tagged as such, but it sounds almost complete enough to be a ‘finished’ song.

MP3: Pearl Harbour “Vapor Girls” (demo) (160kbps)

On a related note, Pearl Harbour sister Piper K makes one-off Surfside Slasher tees, and hosts a spacey online radio show.  Her last radio show — entitled Sunburnt — included a number of my personal favorite songs by the Vivian Girls, Beach Fossils, Best Coast, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Holy Fuck, and Dara Pupista; clearly Pearl Harbour preach what they practise.

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Wallpaper.

Arguably one of 2009’s greatest indie-relevant memesters, Wallpaper. are only a daily-meme away from becoming the musical equivalent of Carles.

While it seems that Wallpaper’s attention has (thus far) been limited to a relativity niche-market (judging mainly by their limited YouTube views), there’s little denying that their meme-choice has potential for mainstream crossover appeal.

Here’s the 3 vital Wallpaper. memes of the last few months.

First was the excellent (and troublesomely listenable) remix of a relatively unknown stoner-dancesmash, which brought the song from painful to playful; resulting in its being Pitchforked.

MP3: Das Racist & Wallpaper “Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell” (Wallpaper. remix) (192kbps)

Second was the impressively timely remix of Jay-Z’s “Death Of Autotune” — turning it into an excessively autotune’d mash-up with winning lines like “I got 99 problems but my pitch ain’t one.”  Not exactly a re-listenable track, but neither is “D.O.A.”.

MP3: Jay-Z “D.O.A./99 Problems” (Wallpaper. remix) (192kbps)

And most recently, is the viral-hopeful “Booty Tweet”.  Purposely cheesy — and a little mediocre perhaps — but I think they are the first to the punch.

Now, I wonder if this series of memes is going to translate into something better?

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Real Estate

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First introduced to me early last winter, Real Estate is amongst my favorite sun-drenched music of 2009.  The band’s “official” releases are limited to a scattering of 7inches on trusty indie-labels (see Underwater Peoples, Half Machine Records, & Woodsist), and one of the best tour-CDR’s of the year, Atlantic City Expressway.

Real Estate’s “Beach Combers” is one of the unquestionable highlights of the Underwater People’s “temporarily free” and immensely enjoyable Summertime Record Showcase.  Another one of the compilations’ strong-points is “Backyard” — an uncharacteristically brief instrumental by psych-basement-kid Ducktails aka Matt Mondanile of Real Estate; add to Real Estate-member-list member(s)(?) of Predator Vision (that band who make reeaally long lo-fi-psych songs), and it’s not too hard to see why Real Estate sells.

I’m currently aware of 12 available-in-some-manner-or-another Real Estate tracks; play them in a row and you have a masterful pool-side LP, seriously.

“Black Lake” almost makes me want to get stranded on a desert island with only my short-shorts, “Black Lake” on both sides of a 7inch (with the means to play it), and a faded Polaroid of a circa 1950’s Cali-girl (to dream about).  The song was much deservingly Pitchforked a while back, and is available on 7inch alongside “Suburban Beverage” and “Old Folks”.

Mp3: Real Estate “Black Lake” (320kbps)

A “Suburban Beverage” while trapped in suburbia on a hotter summer day? “Budweiser, Sprite, do you feel alright?”  Available on 7inches coupled with either “Black Lake” and “Old Folks” or with “Green River”.

MP3: Real Estate “Suburban Beverage” (320kbps)

“Green River” ain’t very long, but I’m still going to float my inner tube down it’s (presumably slimy) path.  This song was recently released as a B-Side to Half Machine’s Records’ new Suburban Beverage 7inch.

MP3: Real Estate “Green River” (320kbps)

the Flaming Lips ‘Songs From The Future Album Embryonic’

If you haven’t heard the first three “released” songs from the not-so-distant-future Lips’ 2xLP Embryonic, then you best track them down.  I was instantly thrilled to hear the Lips venturing into different sonic territory… I’d say we’re looking at a middle-ground between old Lips and new Lips (definitely more psychedelic and experimental than anything we’ve heard from the band in years) — and after the mediocrity of At War With the Mystics a change is certainly welcome.

After spending more than a week with these 3 songs, I’m excited as could be for the future album Embryonic.  And even Schreiber is excited.

SFTFAE Tracklist:

1. “Silver Trembling Hands”

2. “Convinced of the Hex”

3. “The Impulse”

Beck “Femme Fatale” (Velvet Underground cover)

I wasn’t particularly excited about last week’s cover of “Waiting For My Man“, but this week’s “Femme Fatal” is closer to the immediate success of the “Sunday Morning” cover.

But what I’m really waiting for is the off-chance that Beck + friends will Midnight Vulture-ize MJ’s Thriller.

gone to the beach…

..back in a few days.

If you haven’t done so yet, check out the totally free beach-relevant Underwater Peoples Summertime Showcase; it’s a well-crafted fuzzy compilation that features personal favorites like Ducktails, Julian Lynch, and Real Estate… it’ll definitely be keeping me company in the heat.

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein’s Survival Strategies In A Modern World was initially unassuming — that album title doesn’t help — until it dawned on me that I was playing the album almost everyday; it’s even been receiving more playtime then Slumberland label-mates The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.  There’s nothing particularly original about the band’s sound — imagine a polished, accessible, Swedish-version of Vivian Girls — but this grimy, straight-forward indie-girl-pop is consistent, pleasing, and catchy; thus, quite enjoyable.

“Roses In The Park” is the band’s free-MP3 from their debut-LP, and while it’s not my favorite song on the album, it does a decent enough job of introducing Liechtenstein.  If you don’t care for “Roses In The Park” you probably won’t care for the album, but if the song sounds alright to you I’d definitely recommend checking out the rest Survival Strategies In A Modern World (the album is much stronger than the single).

MP3: Liechtenstein “Roses In The Park” (192kbps)

“Stalking Skills” is another free-MP3 from the band’s 2007 Stalking Skills 7inch, and was also featured on a few compilations in 2006 & 2008. The song seems to be a little less developed, and slightly lower-fidelity than the new material, but it’s still very much Liechtenstein (or at least as Liechtenstein as Liechtenstein can be).

MP3: Liechtenstein “Stalking Skills” (192kbps)

If there’s anything I’ve learned from listening to Liechtenstein, it’s that I can hardly wait for the new Vivian Girls album, and I probably shouldn’t “leave the cat on the stove” (or at least that’s what I hear — see “Postcards“).

thanks for the pop MJ

“I’m not like other guys… I’m different” — Michael Jackson