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Heavy Rotation
These are some of the songs that I’ve had in heavy rotation lately. What have you been listening to?
Belong – “Perfect Life”
from Common Era
A track off of the excellent sophomore release from this New Orleans shoegaze duo. Their last album was more free form and likely of greater interest to fans of more free form ambient/drone than shoegaze. Common Era takes what was great about the first one and applies it to more structured songs with vocals and more distinctive chord changes. If you are into dreamy, fuzzy, heavily layered shoegaze with a slight krautrock influence and echoey Joy Division drums, this one should sit well with you.
DJ Shadow – “What Does Your Soul Look Like? (pt. 4)”
from Endtroducing . . .
One of the best tracks from this cut-and-paste, dreamy, crate digger classic. Unlike so much electronic and hip-hop music, Endtroducing . . . still sounds fresh after 15 years.
Steven Wright
I’ve always been a big fan of stand-up comedy, but I’m currently taking a stand-up course so I’ve been really immersing myself. My favorite is Steven Wright. His writing is the smartest that I know of in that field (along with Mitch Hedberg, who came a little bit later and clearly did his Steven Wright homework). This is the first of five Youtube videos that feature most of his best stuff. For more, try out his albums I Have A Pony and I Still Have A Pony.
Mitch Hedberg
See above. And check out Strategic Grill Locations, Mitch All Together, and Do You Believe In Gosh?.
Craft Spells – “After the Moment”
from Idle Labor.
Really loving this debut album, out now on Captured Tracks. If you like Wild Nothing and similar artists and their influences, I’d venture to guess that you’ll also like this.
TV On the Radio – “Will Do”
from Nine Types of Light.
I’ve only had a chance to listen to the new one from TVOtR a couple times so far (except for lead single, “Will Do”, which I think is great). My initial impression is that it is better than the last album, but still not on a level with the amazing Return To Cookie Mountain or the very good Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes.
Ulrich Schnauss – “Suddenly The Trees Are Giving Way”
from Far Away Trains Passing By (expanded version).
Melodic, downtempo, electronica that makes for a pleasing/soothing listen.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – “My Terrible Friend”
from Belong.
The new Pains album will certainly be amongst my favorites this year. And having just seen them live on Thursday night, I can highly recommend their show as well. This is one of my favorite tracks off of Belong.
The Joy Formidable – “9669 > Whirring”
from The Big Roar.
“Whirring” is always a live highlight at a Joy Formidable show, but this is the best version I’ve ever seen. Nobody can touch them live. If I were a hip-hopper, I believe I’d say that this band is on that next level shit.
Ride – “Dreams Burn Down”
from Nowhere.
One of my great regrets in life is that I never got a chance to see Ride live. Just listen to the explosion of guitars! Pure bliss!
