Cannibal Resource-Dirty Projectors
As far as annoying hipster baggage goes, these guys have it all. East Coast, Ivy League, classically trained, quirky vocal strangulations, afropop guitar, Brooklyn. But as much as the DP's are omnivorous and scattered in their influences, they're obsessively coherent in their sound. You want your auteur, I've got him right here. Dave Longstreth is crazy obsessed with his music, clocking in twelve hour rehearsals and touring like crazy. It pays off, nothing they've done sounds lazy or phoned in. Like it or not, you have to respect what they've pulled off.
This is Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah fame, playing here with some dudes from Man Man and the Walkmen in a one-- off balls to the wall rock album. Even amongst all the "lofi/shitgaze" albums this year, nothing has sounded as raw and loose as this album. If you thought CYHSY was too twee, here's an antidote.
Oh Girls, it's so hard to love you. This is pretty straight up nostalgia right here, but done incredibly well. It's the bassline that finally won me over. Also, I like this dude's voice, hiccups and all.
Bradford Cox of Deerhunter + Panda Bear = Indiebro love in awesomeness. Also, this song could just be that one sample and I'd still love it. Did you ever listen to Deerhunter? Cryptograms is one of my favorite albums of the decade, as is Person Pitch by Mr. Lenox. Both of those albums restored my faith in music when they came out. Both of these guys are pretty fascinating people as well. I would probably most like to be friends with these guys.
My hero for the year, and by far my favorite new artist. KV is refreshingly free of shtick or pretense. He can hang with the lofi acts, but is too subtle to really be tagged as a one of those faux punx. He played a fantastic set at the Empty Bottle, and I think he played every request, and there we quite a few, dude has three albums and an ep out, just in the last 18 months or so.
Oh my god I love this song. This is what I wanted the Fiery Furnaces to sound like when I heard about them, and hyperactive mixture of musical heroics except in this case, with a trajectory. Favorite nonsensical refrain of the year, every time it comes on my body goes into spams of unadulterated joy.
The other great pop hit from Veckatemist. Like the last track, not afraid to lean heavily on the vocalese for a great build up. Admittedly some of the album is on the boring side. But it's neither lazy nor unoriginal. I guess this is my argument for most of these bands, that they're hard working people who make engaging and interesting work. And that still stands in contrast to the bulk of pop radio these days (as exciting as it can be, especially compared to say, the late 90s), specifically the set-it-and-forget-it trend of auto-tuned to death vocals over recycled beats and increasingly boring sampled material. On a side note, "Two Weeks" features Victoria LeGrand as well (she's ooing in the background) so maybe your love of Beach House is the real culprit here.
These guys are like 19 years old or something, and they're from Chicago. It's like Girls without all the melodrama and like any halfway decent Chicago band, I'd like them to blow the fuck up and get all the attention. We'll see.
Ok, so as far as indie as fuck goes, this is a stretch. But the rock press is all a tizzy about The Flaming Lips not sucking. And, this song makes a strong point for that.
It's a fucking party! No seriously. If you take nothing else away from this, I hope you appreciate the sheer and total joy of this song. Play it on the loudest sound system you can find.
Alright Piontek, I tried my best, it's your move.
Alright Piontek, I tried my best, it's your move.
Posts
Hey Nigel!
ReplyDeleteYou beat me to it. I am still working on this here playlist. But at least you gave me a lot to respond to! See you later today in the blogosphere....
Then I'll listen to these tracks.
How do we determine who's won this showdown? Is there supposed to be a panel of disinterested experts in sound? Will one of you simply admit to defeat impartially after being pulverized by the others' sounds? We've got some specific songs here (good work, Nigel) but now we need some rules.
ReplyDeleteI think you just nominated yourself there Andrew. Either way I guess the competition was a total ruse (unless of course, Anna blows me out of the water), more a false pretense of comparing what going on in the two spheres, and really, just to pick someone else's brain about music.
ReplyDeleteAlso, most importantly, it was meant to give us some fodder for some booze fueled arguments in the near future. You in?
He should be in.
ReplyDeleteNIGE, my playlist is posted! I ran out of steam when describing some of the songs, so I apologize in advance for shitty descriptions. It took me forever because I spilled water on my laptop last week and it appears to be dead. RIP macbook. I had to write this at work, and believe me, it was no small feat to pretend I was working while I was going into raptures while listening to the-Dream.
Oh man Anna, that's hard core. I've written a large bulk of my posts at work, so I know what you're saying.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I'm game for your party, so I'll see you then?