Kria Brekkan “Bee Xlaura”

Iceland’s Kria Brekkan — formerly with Múm, currently wife to Avey Tare — has a series of 2x A-Side 7″ Singles on the way.

“Bee Xlaura” is the first free-MP3 from the forthcoming 7inch series, and was premiered today at Gorilla vs Bear.  The song has existed in an unreleased state for a few years, and its lovely minimalistic composition deserves to finally meet vinyl.

Mp3: Kria Brekkan “Bee Xlaura” (192kbps)

It’s a good sign that “Bee Xlaura” wasn’t released in reverse.

[via]

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Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan performing Animal Collective’s “Purple Bottle”, which is one of my favorite Animal Collective songs (previously-posted).

LaCinta is pretending 2 be @ SXSW

Instead of actually attending SXSW I am pretending to attend SXSW.  I can vicariously experience the extravaganza via Twitter/Pitchfork/other blogs, and then pass my experiences on to you.

Apparently Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear & Department of Eagles) met Robin Pecknold’s (Fleet Foxes) sister today… it’s totally crazy at SXSW; anything can happen.

The Golden Filter set today was bumping.  They’re scheduled to play 8! sets @ SXSW this year, and we’ll totally check them all out.  I think they played “Solid Gold” + the other tracks off their MySpace page.

[Pic via Gorilla vs Bear]

MP3: The Golden Filer “Solid Gold” (Extended Version) (198kbps)

Beach House also had a pretty neat set.  When they played “Gila” I started to cry.

[Pic via Gorilla vs Bear]

MP3: Beach House “Gila” (252kbps)

And finally we saw Anni Rossi’s set.

[Pic via Gorilla vs Bear]

MP3: Anni Rossi “Artic Swing” (263kbps)

What a day!  What a fantastic bunch of singing girls!

Stay tuned for more SXSW coverage via LaCinta via people who are actually there… like Amy Phillips at Pitchfork.

is Lo-Fi Indie Noise Rock the Soundtrack to this Depression?!

America, and the rest of the world, is in the midst of one of the most significant economic recessions of modern times, and I believe the hard times, unemployment, uncertainty, anger, and frustration that is plaguing average citizens of the world, is going to result in a continued growth of lo-fi indie noise rock.  Much like early punk rock represented an anti-establishment DIY aesthetic, lo-fi indie noise rock has the potential to define a currently frustrated indie-youth subculture.

The timing seems perfect, the metaphorical electro bubble, while not necessarily burst, has certainly been deflating.  The vast quantities of DIY electro acts and music blogs to emerge between the release of Justice’s Cross (2007) and Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colors (2008) is impressive, but while a lot of enjoyable dance/party music has came out of the recent electro wave, it has gotten to the point where enough is enough, and a lot of music critics and music fans have found themselves SCREAMING FOR SOMETHING MORE ABRASIVE.

I know I’m not alone in this feeling.  Two easy examples of music publications who clearly share this attitude are Pitchfork Media, and Gorilla vs Bear.  Neither will dismiss great indie-pop/indie-electro/indie-disco (for the most part), but both have been pushing less accessible noise rock over the last 12 months.

Similar to how indie-pop (see Postal Service, The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Super Furry Animals, Stars, The Pipettes, etc.) started loosing its dominance post-2005, electro/disco is starting to become a little less market dominant now (although for me dark-disco – ie. Glass Candy/Chromatics – still feels appropriate).

The bands that I currently have picked out for the “soundtrack to this depression” include No Age, Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Wavves, and Times New Viking.  These bands are not necessarily my personal favorites – although I love the Wavvves LP (2009) –  but I believe they constitute a genre, a time, and a place in music that we’ll be able to look back at, and say “oh yah, I listened to indie-noise-rock when my Bachelor’s Degree couldn’t even get me a job as a burista, and I couldn’t fucking handle listening to another indie-pop/electro-bloghouse hit on the fucking Hype Machine.”

While the aforementioned noise-rock bands are the type of music that I’m really looking at here, I feel it would be selling this era of music short if I were not to mention indie-popular music from other genres that possess some of the lo-fi, harder to digest, less accessible aesthetics of noise-rock.  Just to note, when I say lo-fi I’m referring more to an audio aesthetic than a recording technique.

Lower-fidelity rock acts like The Dutchess and the Duke gained popularity in 2008 (via Pitchfork’s Best New Music, surprise surprise), and indie-metal acts like Harvey Milk received a little more attention from not-so-metal music publications (but I still can’t relate to any metal, and I have a feeling a lot of indie-nerds feel the same).

Recently garage rock bands like The Strange Boys (a LaCinta favorite), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (early-Sloan meets Exploding Hearts), and Cymbals Eat Guitars (Built To Spill meets early-Modest Mouse) have been received with excellent reviews.

The Black Lips are set to release their grimy new album 200 Million Thousand (2009), and they kicked off the online media frenzy with a series of bad ass stories from the band’s attempted India tour (which is probably being edited for VBS.tv as you read this).

Lo-fi psychedelic bands like Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, and Black Dice have seen increased attention over the last year, and newcomers like Pit Er Pat, Tickley Feather, and Blind Man’s Color have left strong first impressions.” The Pitchfork Twitter account (via Mark Richardson) recently tweeted, “Are my headphones in worse shape than I thought or did the new black dice come up on shuffle?” – and to me at least, that comes across as a huge compliment.

Even electro has had its share of lo-fi makeovers, with groups like Heartsrevotion and Pictureplane making danceable electro a little less accessible, and a little more noisy.

There have also been 8-bit electronic groups like Truckasauras and Dan Deacon taking the stage, and musicians like Nite Jewel have put a layer of dirty makeup over the typically polished electro/disco model.

Given the notable rise in popularity of noisy indie music, rockers like No Age becoming involved in skate culture and starting their own record label, and teenagers like Nathan from Wavves receiving unbelievable initial attention, it seems that – for the moment anyways – my prophecy of lo-fi indie noise rock becoming the soundtrack to this depression may just become reality.

“Got no car. Got no money.  I got nothing nothing nothing not at all.  Got no bike. Got no girlfriend. Got no time. Got no money. Got no friends. Got no family.” – Wavves

Just you watch, day by day you are going to become more attracted to feedback, and distortion, and emotions other than “let’s dance!”  Times New Viking may sound like a hell-of-a-racket at first, but before long you’re going to be gritting your teeth, and banging your head, while you embrace the noisy racket.  It only makes sense, because you’re probably going to be unemployed, in debt, pissed off, and totally lost any day now.

Here’s some link to MP3’s so you can start building your soundtrack to the depression (if you haven’t started already).  Go ahead, a change in musical pace might be just what you need, and I mean what else are you going to do? Listen to MSTRKRFT’s abomination of a new electro album?!

No Age “My Life’s Alright Without You”

Link To MP3

Titus Andronicus “No Future”

Link to MP3

Titus Andromicus “Arms Against Atrophy”

Link to MP3

Vivian Girls “Second Date”

Link to MP3

Vivian Girls “Where Do You Run To?”

& “Surfing Away (live)”

Link to MP3’s

Dum Dum Girls “Catholicked” ❤

Link to Mp3

Wavves “So Bored” *& “Weed Demon” ❤

Link to MP3’s

Times New Viking “Drop-Out” ❤

& Titus Andronicus “My Time Outside the Womb”

& No Age “Eraser”

Link to MP3’s

If you can think of any other bands I should include in my lo-fi-indie-noise-rock grouping, or have any other thoughts that may be of interest, please leave a comment on the article.  I’m really hoping LaCinta’s readers take more to discussing matters with one another via commenting on the site.

Raekwon (ft. Ghostface + Method Man) “Wu Ooh”

I get excited every time I hear a new hip-hop song that I enjoy (’cause it doesn’t happen all that often).  This song I definitely enjoy.

Thanks to Gorilla vs Bear for the recommendation (received via Twitter).

MP3: Raekwon (f. Ghostface Killah Method Man) – Wu Ooh

This track should appear on the forthcoming Raekwon solo album.

Ghostface also has that upcoming appearance on MSTRKRT’s forthcoming album.

Blind Man’s Colour. The Next Animal Collective!?

[Original BMC water colour painting]

Blind Man’s Colour is an unsigned band with serious potential.  I think they might still be in high school too (not sure though). And they spell “colour” like a Canadian.

Blind Man’s Colour have been posting music to their blog at a fairly prolific rate.  I found 2 LPs and an EP under the BMC name, and 2 LPs, an EP, and another collection of songs under the name Chromatic Flights (a BMC solo project), and a mixtape too. (I hope I got that all right).

Apparently Blind Man’s Colour also has an LP called Season Dreaming ready for release, and another EP called Wooden Blankets. We just have to wait until BMC sign a record deal to hear them.

It’s very much evident that Animal Collective are an influence on their music, and that’s a good thing. I also get the feeling that BMCs music is progressing quickly.

This track was posted to Gorilla vs Bear recently.  It’s the opening track off the unreleased Season Dreaming LP.  When I first heard it I caught myself thinking “I’ve never heard this Panda Bear song before…???” and then I checked my playlist and said “WTF BMC, this is awesome!”

MP3: Blind Man’s Colour – The Warm Current’s Pull

If this song is any evidence of the songs to follow, this could be an incredible LP.  I think we’re about to enter the post-Animal Collective era in DIY music, and I’m happy about it.

BMC actually contributed tracks to Collected Animals: an album of cover songs from Merriweather Post Pavilion that was recorded before the release of MPP.

This is BMCs video for “Never Hope For Treasure” – it’s an amazing song, and the arsty video compliments it nicely.

Oh, and Kanye West just endorsed them too!

Here’s the track Kanye posted to his blog with the title “SOME DOPE SHIT FOR MY APARTMENT”

MP3: Blind Man’s Colour – Jimmy Dove

So how exactly do we (the Internet) give Blind Man’s Colour the attention they deserve, without hyping them to death?

[Original BMC water colour]

Untimely News.MP3s.Videos_01/24/09

What is happening in the blogosphere today?

There’s those interesting recent newsbits over at Pitchfork about M.I.A. getting nominated for an Oscar and getting all witty with the press, Animal Collective getting “ill” and canceling a show, Kanye West denying that he’s going to shoot a bisexual porno with Blackzilla, and The Black Lips getting hit by bottles at India shows.  But that’s all already been reported on.

Nyctaper posted the Bowery Ballroom Animal Collective set, but he already had added the link to the comments on yesterday’s post (and it looks like his server has crashed again).

I was going to post the “Comfy in Nautica” live cut from the other night, but I just noticed that Gorilla vs. Bear posted it already.

Bought my tickets to Animal Collective in Vancouver early this morning.  Never really enjoy buying tickets from Ticket Master.

Laughed a bunch when I noticed the Ask Jeph section in the Questionable Content forums… man people have a lot of time to waste online (hehehe).  But honestly, I can’t much relate to being a part of the majority of forum discussions (but I’m certainly glad that other people are into it).

Had a brief moment of excitement when I realized that “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells can treat people safely”

Got a little annoyed when I heard that the Apple Store guy was trying to charge my little sister $200 to install Microsoft Word on the new MacBook she’s purchasing.

The One Week Only Kraftwerk film started streaming at Pitchfork.tv – but I never seem to get around to watching those films.

Installed iWork on my iMac just to see if there really still are word processing incompatibility issues between Windows and Mac OS… and the results are “no not really, you just have to make sure you save/export the documents properly”

There’s also that new video (that’s actually pretty awesome) over at My Animal Home, and right here:

I presume this must have been a hit over at Hype Machine, but this Animal Collective remix is pretty cool:

MP3: Ratatat – Mirando (Animal Collective Remix)

And I’ve been listening to a huge list of remixes all morning, and so far only a few are really worth posting.  I just never really enjoy remixes.  I usually download a bunch of them, and don’t listen to them for awhile, and then I end up with a folder full of remixes that I’ve never heard.  And then I dread going through the folder and separating the good from the bad.

I also have to keep in mind that what I would actually listen to on my own, and what I would play in a DJ set are often different (which is sort of weird, I think). I just only ever listen to complete albums on my own time.

FYI: Most of the MP3s in this post have been posted somewhere else in the blogosphere prior to this, so if you’re a keener you might already have them.

These two songs were in my remix playlist this morning, and I enjoy them, but neither of them are actually remixes.

Pt. I is a little cheesy with the prevalent and heavily vocoded vocals, and Pt. II is a little easier to digest (at least for me).

MP3: Damn Arms – Destination Pt. I

MP3: Damn Arms – Destination Pt. II

This Lily Allen remix is OK I guess:

MP3: Lily Allen – The Fear (Death Metal Disco Scene Remix)

UPDATE: Song removed by request.  Really?

This remix of Empire of The Sun’s “Walking on a Dream” is decent, in a drum & bassy kind of way, but the intro is sort of annoying:

MP3: Empire of The Sun – Walking On a Dream (Kaskade Club Remix)

This YouTube video of Arcade Fire covering “Born in the USA” at the Obama Staff Ball has been circulating for a few days, but it’s worth checking out if you haven’t seen it already:

This story surfaced a while ago.  I had a really good laugh back during the Embarrassing Moment Comment Contest (where the most embarrassing moment was how few people commented) when “notpietur” explained that:

“this one time i heard this really cool band. listened to it a couple times over, felt like i could really connect with the powerful male vocals, then when i read more into this new great band i realized it was actually ryan gosling singing. embarassing.

well not really i guess, so long as you picture yourself on breaker high instead of dwelling on the memory of that depressing time in your life when that girl got you to watch the notebook with her and you still didn’t get any action from her after it.”

song: http://www.mediafire.com/?nzilnjgo1zy

He’s got a good point though, Dead Man’s Bones sounds pretty decent thus far, and the fact that it is Ryan Gosling singing is, well, really weird.

MP3: Dead Mans Bones – In- The Room Where You Sleep (live version)

This DMB’s video is kind of neat:

Read the recent Pitchfork story on Dead Man’s Bones if you’re interested – it’s actually fairly entertaining.

If you haven’t heard this Arcade Fire song from their Miroir Noir documentary then here it is (the free download link from their site has been taken down):

MP3: Arcade Fire – Burning Bridges

This Weird Tapes remix is awesome, not surprisingly:

MP3: Faux Fox -Personal Best (Weird Tapes Version)

This Juan Maclean remix is good, in a “this is background remix music” kind of way. Basically, not very exciting, but still pretty decent at the same time:

MP3: The Twelves – Be My Crush (The Juan Macleans Remix)

Oh, and this new Royksopp single “Happy Up Here” is really enjoyable, but it just came out so I’m not sure if I should post it or not… so you can stream it here.

OK.  And to end this giant post off is a really bad ass story:

The suite Obama wore during the innauguration speech was bullet proof.

It was designed by “fashion forward” bullet proof designer Miguel something, and last year VBS.tv interviewed Miguel. He shoots all his employees before their first shift, and is thinking about opening bullet proof fashion boutiques all around the world.