Albums I’ve been listening to recently:
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (2013)
David Byrne and St. Vincent - Love This Giant (2012)
Dirty Beaches - Badlands (2012)
Jay Reatard - Blood Visions (2009)
The Men - Open Your Heart (2012)
Merchandise - Totale Nite (2013), Children of Desire (2012)
Mikal Cronin - MCII (2013)
Milk Music - Cruise Your Illusion (2012)
St. Vincent - Krokodil b/w Grot (2012)
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
How am I only just discovering Jay Reatard? He was so awesome, super-quick garage punk songs, mmmmmmm
St. Vincent is just the hottest person in indie rock
Merchandise’s Children of Desire seemed at first to be some overmelancholic, grungey post-punk crap. But in fact, on repeated listens, it actually opens up. It’s 6 songs long, two of those are over 10 minutes and one’s below 2, and at the end of ‘Roser Park’, the 11-minute closer, the riff from this song, ‘Time’, is fuzzily reprised in one final sigh of music. At first I found that repetition narrow and repetitive, but after a few more listens I like it. It’s a cleasing process, bringing back the musical themes from earlier on and ending with a note that represents the album as a whole, not just the final track. It ain’t bad,
So this bank holiday weekend I decided I hadn’t listened to any new music in a little while, so I decided to change that. Here are the albums I devoured over the past three days:
Alex Calder - Time EP (2013)
Mac DeMarco’s Makeout Videotape buddy makes slightly more unsettling, ramshackle indie hillbilly rock.
Mikal Cronin - MCII (2013)
Ty Segall Band member’s second solo album, full of almost too catchy pop-rock fuzzfests.
Metz - Metz (2012)
Like someone crossed Nouns-era No Age with Iceage, but with louder drums.
Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin - Reverse Shark Attack (2009)
I was so pleased to find some of the few remaining classic Ty tracks on this album, super catchy and oh so short.
Dirty Beaches - Badlands (2012)
A fucking weird concept album that sounds as if Elvis got washed up on a beach at twilight, only half-remembering who he was. Yeah.
King Tuff - Was Dead (2008)
King Tuff’s dance-your-heart-out debut, ready for a reissue this month. Like King Tuff, but a little more lo-fi.
Merchandise - Children of Desire (2012)
Undefinable indie post-punk with one of the weirdest album track listings I’ve seen.
(Also I downloaded the Garage Swim complilation, I’ll be working through that this week too wahey)
And while we’re on the subject of music I’m into today, this song is very loud and very satisfying. Maybe because it’s loud. I still think there’s something missing from it though, there’s no relief…
Holy fuck.
Mikal Cronin honestly doesn’t make a bad move on this record. Honestly I used to think he was the long-haired fuzz guy in Ty Segall Band and on Reverse Shark Attack but this changes everything. MCII is classic, it’s fuzzy, it’s pop, it’s oh-so catchy…
The only thing I can flaw with it is that it isn’t a very ‘cool’ record, but if we’re talking talent then Cronin’s got it all.
Records I Own
Updated with some silly purchases and my dad’s records
12”
- Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
- Best Coast - The Only Place (ordered)
- Coachwhips - Double Death (ordered)
- Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
- Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange (EP)
- Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
- Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues/Grown Ocean (Single)
- Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
- Talking Heads - Remain in Light
- Thee Oh Sees - Help
- The Traditional Fools - s/t
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II
- White Fence - Family Perfume Vol. 1 & 2
10”
- MGMT - Metanoia
- Fish Tank - Henry EP (ordered)
7”
- Animal Collective - Honeycomb/Gotham
- Arcade Fire - Cold Wind/Brazil
- FIDLAR - Don’t Try EP
- Tame Impala - Sundown Syndrome/Remember Me
- Pond - Moth Wings/You Broke My Cool
- Real Estate - Easy/Exactly Nothing
- Ty Segall - The Hill/Mother Lemonade
- Ty Segall - I Can’t Feel It/Children of Paul
Albums I’ve been listening to recently
A short list
The Knife - Shaking the Habitual (2013)
Creepy electro Swedes, with an over-100-minute album of dark synthscapes. Some of the songs are too ambient for me, but when there’s a drumbeat to dance to, I dig.
Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)
I know, I know. It’s old, everyone loves it, what’s new. Well, I’m new to it, that’s all. I didn’t realise just how solid every single track is. At the moment I keep finding myself drawn to ‘Territorial Pissings’, just ‘cause Cobain’s refrain descends into a scream at the end. Brilliant.
Mac DeMarco - Rock and Roll Night Club (2012)
Before 2 brought Mac widespread fame, and simplified his style down to something universally accessible, there was his ‘EP’ Rock and Roll Night Club. A lot of the songs sound very similar, but there’s a few lo-fi gems in there. Especially ‘Baby’s Wearing Blue Jeans’
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours (2008)
Aussie dance group Cut Copy’s album before the wonderful Zonoscope. Still, packed with catchy dance tracks with foot-stomping 80s beats and deadpan vocals. Check out ‘Hearts on Fire’, of course, first.
Wavves - Afraid of Heights (2013)
Surf punk Nate Williams changes things up a bit on the follow-up to (one of my favourite albums) King of the Beach. With Afraid of Heights, he retreats from the beach, and his samples, and into glorious 90s alt-rock sounds like Nirvana and Eels. It’s not as fun as King of the Beach, but a well-produced record nonetheless.
King Tuff - King Tuff (2012)
Like Ty Segall’s slightly boring, slightly uncool half-brother. Kinda.
The Mallard - Yes on Blood (2012)
The Mallard are Castleface nobodies who try to hard to be Thee Oh Sees, but their debut album’s got some decent songs on it. By which I mean ‘I Listen to Lyrics Last’, mainly.
The Neighbourhood - I’m Sorry… (2012)
Classy mindie pop group who I imagine sound like Daughter, but I don’t really know, because I’ve never listened to Daughter. I should get around to doing that soon. Anywho, the Neighbourhood make great, melodramatic, sexy mindie pop songs with deep hiphop beats. They deserve a bigger audience.
Phoenix - Bankrupt! (2013)
Wolfgang Amadeus was great; Bankrupt! is boring. As far as I can tell. It has some great songs (including ‘Entertainment’, of course) but otherwise it just seems like a less accessible remake of Wolfgang Amadeus. It even has a six-minute synthy build-up track (‘Bankrupt!), like Wolfgang Amadeus had (‘Love Like a Sunset’). So they’re copying themselves?
Howler - America Give Up (2012)
Not much to say about these guys. Catchy, bratty surf/skate punk from a bunch of teenagers who sound like they talk about beaches far more than they’ve actually been to beaches. Plus their lead singer looks like a 19-year-old Bradford Cox. Or, I guess, what Cox used to look like, before he became Connie Lungpin for Monomania.
Battles - Gloss Drop (2011)
Gloss Drop is not a perfect album - far from it, really. With the departure of their douchebag lead ‘singer’ Tyondai Braxton after Mirrored, the other Battles folk visibly flail around in this mainly-instrumental album, but there are some quality songs in it. Mainly those with guest vocals, such as ‘Ice Cream’ and ‘My Machines’.
And singles:
Deerhunter - ‘Monomania’
Vampire Weekend - ‘Diane Young’/’Step’
Justin Scott - ‘Sandy’/’That Awful Sound’
Deerhunter - ‘Monomania’ (Live on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon)
Erm… wow
I can’t believe it but Bradford Cox has officially got crazier. A worrying but brilliant performance. Hello, Monomania!
