I'm just posting a few things from 2012 that I've picked up from the Year-End community and other people's lists.
This time, it's for rock.
"No Future / No Past" by Cloud Nothings, from Attack on Memory (2012)
I kept hearing about some of these bands over the past year - or before - but y'know... This album title was supposed to mean something given the retro-alt stylings going into it. So, are we already through with '80s nostalgia and into the '90s?
"The Nights of Wine and Roses" by Japandroids, from Celebration Rock (2012)
I guess people are starved for anything rock-ish? Or maybe I'm too old - or old enough to have live through the first go 'round? I can absolutely accept that. Here's another seemingly popular song from Japandroids.
Not that it's the ultimate in critical faculties, but that was SPIN's #3 album of 2012. Okay, moving on...
"Open Your Heart" [live] by The Men, from Open Your Heart (2012)
Those first two were the obvious (to me) rock darlings of the year, but the final act wasn't as easy to pick. So I just went with the less-obvious option that sounded the best to me on first listen. I guess that goes to the blown-up rock-outs from The Men. Here's the studio version of that title track, and a rollicking unofficial video.
This slot could have just as easily been filled by: Divine Fits (too much ringer?), Ty Segall Band (not acclaimed enough?), or even Death Grips (maybe not really rock?). Whatever...
I'm-a do a few posts on some 2012 releases that you might see cluttering up other Year-End lists (but not mine) - thematically linked. These will be about records I don't know, but might hold some interest for someone out there.
According to Pitchfork, Julia Holter has a new Fleetwood Mac cover out, on some Mojo (UK mag) free mix-CD. This comes not too long after Just Tell Me That You Want Me, a tribute album with: MGMT, J & Lee, Best Coast, 'Bonnie' Billy and Billy Gibbons, The Entrance Band, and others...
"Gold Dust Woman" by Julia Holter, from Rumours Revisited: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Classic 1977 Album (Mojo, 2012)
A little bit ago, her album Tragedy was Boomkat's overall #1 of 2011. Which confused me somewhat when there was just recently a new official video for "Goddess Eyes..."
"Goddess Eyes I" by Julia Holter, from Ekstasis (2012)
That's because she's got a bigger, newer album out this year. Still, that song - or near enough - also appeared on Vol. 7 of the blog's comps (***new download link***).
All of which, for some reason, just made me think of Grimes...
"Oblivion" by Grimes, from Visions (2012)
Now I don't group all the electronic ladies together, and even I really don't see enough similarities to link these two specifically. Someone explain it to me!
Where Holter is influenced by an array of experimental and eccentric music from the 1960s and 1970s – her voice sometimes sound uncannily like a young, less maternal Vashti Bunyan – Boucher seems primarily predisposed towards 1980s and 1990s pop (in addition to being one of the few Western artists to have absorbed the influence of contemporary Korean pop music), filtering her pop star fascinations (Madonna and Mariah Carey) through the same experimental impulse that guides Holter.
Ah, okay.
"Genesis" by Grimes, from Visions (2012)
Or maybe because that video came out around the same time as the "Goddess Eyes I" one?
"The Drummer" by Niki & The Dove, from Instinct (2012)
Besides... when you're talking electro-Fleetwood, I think it's almost mandatory to include Niki & The Dove. I think I also mentioned MGMT there at the beginning too, right?
Did you hear all about the recent results of BFI's decadennial Sight & Sound poll? Vertigo is finally better than Citizen Kane!! So I'll be watching 1+ film per day throughout September - and blogging it...
Not the first film from the Nouvelle Vague, but the directorial debut of Jean-Luc Godard - the new waviest of the French New Wave.
I've only seen a handful of Godard films, as few as three total. Wait, I'm counting Jules and Jim (1962), which was Truffaut - so I think it was just two. Breathless being the first for me, and it's probably been around 20 years since. Again, kinda why we're here...
JAZZCRIMEYOUTHWAVEJUMPCUT
Michel Poiccard: Informers inform, burglars burgle, murderers murder, lovers love.
Regardez, what a difference a couple of decades can make. Back in my early-20s, I think I found these characters pretty cool. Don't get me wrong - the film is extra cool, Paris 1960 is definitely cool, Jean-Luc Godard was the king of cool. But in the flush of youth, I must have seen another young rebel romancing the city, living fast, burning bright. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a Parisian car thief. Jean Seburg plays his American sociopathic pixie dreamgirl. They each have several screws loose.
Michel fancies himself a tough guy, boasting a false identity (László Kovács!), chain-smoking ill-rolled cigarettes. Cracking wise in some rhyming slang, like "Maintenant je fonce, Alphonse!" ("Gotta make tracks, Max!") Although right upfront, he admits he's just an asshole. Really he's just naïve and juvenile, accidentally getting deeper & deeper in trouble than he ever intends. Patricia carries the unearned superiority of Americans abroad, or else she wears that mask to hide her mental and ethical hollowness. Or is she just a pathological liar? Her interactions with other people are odd, to say the least.
Lots of great little moments of cool occur throughout. "Not much of a looker, but I'm quite a boxer" is perfect self-deprecation. Everyone constantly throwing lit matches and cigarettes on the floor. "That scooter just passed you!" made me laugh out loud. Maybe the first ever high-five in movie history? And also lots of weird uneasiness, like Michel's desperate anti-suave begging for sex, or Patricia's boss telling the story about forgetting to sleep with the girl he'd meant to.
But I think this is a loveletter to art - mostly the movies. Godard was a film critic for Cahiers du Cinema, and right near the beginning a young girl tries to sell Michel an issue on the street. The credits are a Who's Who of French/New Wave: story by François Truffaut, supervised by Claude Chabrol, Parvulesco by Jean-Pierre Melville (we'll get to him later this month), and Godard as the informer (the one in the quote above). There are movie posters everywhere: Ten Seconds to Hell ("Live dangerously until the end!"), The Harder They Fall (I finally figured out that Michel dresses like a '40s Bogie character), Westbound (the French Western film?)... I liked how during the American film noir, Patricia hides in the DAMES restroom. Oh, and the film is dedicated to Monogram Pictures. There's talk of the great artist Renoir, Maurice Chevalier, and Romeo & Juliet - which certainly foreshadows the unintended consequences of young love oustside the bounds.
Yesterday being a Saturday, I went for a double-feature. Picking the 2nd film was quite difficult - given the critical reverence for a wide range of Godard films, plus any of the other French/New Wave auteurs: Truffaut, Rohmer, Resnais, even Roger Vadim or Jean-Pierre Melville. But in the end, it was always Godard's only experimental film noir sci-fi headtrip...
Turned out to be the perfect complement to Breathless. Stylistically could not be more different... and the French-American slots are reversed for the lead actors. Maybe not as good a film, but I think I actually enjoyed it more.
"I'm fine, thanks. Don't mention it."
The noir-style score is relentless & ridiculous. Everyone's always walking around through various doorways, repeating the same lines of dialogue. Mathematics Park. Lemmy Caution always taking photos with his Retro camera. Dick Tracy and Flash Gordon have gone missing. Natacha von Braun has "the voice of a pretty sphinx." Mr. Nosferatu is α-#1? Seems like maybe we're heading for a black-and-white Oz reveal, but the film changes track. Computer monologues, flashing of negative print images... The triumph of poetry over logic? Maybe.
Woods are a Brooklyn folk-psych-pop band of recent vintage. I haven't delved too far into their back catalogue... until now. Next Woods post should be the #7 of 2011 write-up, for Sun and Shade.
So I discovered Woods opening for Dungen (#4 Live Show, 2009) - by which I don't mean that they were unknowns and I signed them to a record contract. And much more recently they played a great set at this year's Austin Psych Fest.
"Kids Got Heart" from How To Survive In / In The Woods (2005)
I believe I have this album on back order from Rough Trade. One of those deals where they had it on their webstore, but not actually in stock. Ugh... I'm calling it 2005 (2xC20 cassette), but there seems to have been a 2006 CD release, and then the big one in 2007...
Visuals from Jean-Luc Godard's Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (All the Boys Are Called Patrick, 1959). "Holes" is a good Woods tune. I would normally be turned off by "Make Time for Kitty" as an introduction, so maybe just skip it.
"Blood on the Sand" from Ram single (2006)
First 7"! Hip!! The background vocals are a little different than usual.
"Don't Pass on Me / Keep It On" from At Rear House (2007)
But overall, what am I gonna say? It doesn't sound like they went through various stylistic phases, or significant growth from crappy new act to later greatness. They seem to have always done kinda noisy, sorta lo-fi, catchy tuneful acoustic folky songs, with high-pitched and divisive vocals. I like it, but I'm comfortable with others not. Rear House is a real place, Woods' home studio. Couple more from here: the dirgier "Be Still" and the mellow "Ring Me to Sleep."
Kooky album cover, though...
"End to End" from Woods Family Creeps (2008)
Official video! Getting closer to the known universe... Someone made some YouTube found-film vids for "Creeps Collage" and "Howling on Howling" too. Album sounds a little more ghostly and disembodied.
"To Clean" from Songs of Shame (2009)
More official!! And here's where I enter the picture, or Woods enters my picture... I can support anything from Songs of Shame to nowadays as a good starting or continuing point for the Woods. Here's a cool video of "Rain On [live]" that I think I might have posted before. Big loose jam called "September with Pete!"
"The Dark" - B-side of "Sunlit" single (2009)
Someone did a video art project with this song. I couldn't find the A-side to see if it was significantly better - a mystery for later!
Although last year's full-length was my #7, I did miss a couple of things. Apparently, there was a Kurt Vile Summer Tour split (with "Skull" and "Cold Blue") and the "Find Them Empty" single (which I might have bought & forgot). It will be on the upcoming record out later next month though!
A few people of note could use your (financial) help. Perfect transition on the Top 10, as we start with Grails. What, you thought we were done with them already?
According to the front page at Grails' own Pamlico Sound Mailorder, they are holding a "Donation drive to save corrupted hard drive containing up to 5 records of material!" They'll take whatever you can spare, but...
You can get a SIGNED LP (for $30 donation), or some unreleased early-ish LIVE TRACKS (for $15). These are: "Burden of Hope" (Paris 2006), "Back To The Monastery" (Boston 2006 - below), "Word Made Flesh" (Amsterdam 2006), "The March" (Paris 2004), and finally "Dargai" (Geneva 2006). Bas Ass, right?! I might donate twice for that.
Donate here. I even made you an exclusive crappy MS Paint "album" cover! [above]
Also, I found a few items on Woodsman's Facebook. Smooth transition on the Top 10 sliding scale, huh?
"Insects" [live 11/09/2010], from Rare Forms (2011)
To help fund their upcoming U.S. tour, they'd like to sell you some stuff! On the vinyl tip, a special collection of recent stuff - specifically, copies of the #2 of 2011 LP & EP, plus a 7" single of "Insects." All for $20!!, but only 20 total packages available...
They've also put up 2 early self-releases for sale on their Bandcamp site. That would be the Indoor Days cassette and the Humdrum CDr (both 2008). Stream and buy directly from those links - thanks!
And I just now found an older free Woodsman digital single from 2010, on BEKO-DSL: "Manual Control / Chants." Had never even heard about that one. You can also check out their Daytrotter Session, for Free D/L... (well, with free 7-day trial.)
Finally, there's a Kickstarter for Ad Hoc zine (ends March 5th), a new project by people from the dearly departed Altered Zones. You may remember AZ from such features as "half the MP3's on Astral compilations" or something like that.
"Miarches" by Forest Swords, from Dagger Paths (2011)
For $15, you can get a download comp of unreleased tracks by... Woodsman (#2, 2011)! The Caretaker (#10, 2011)! Forest Swords (#21, 2010)! Rene Hell and Dan Lopatin/Games (from Oneohtrix), also Ducktails, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Rhys Chatham (from #20, 2011), people from Austin Psych Fest (Amen Dunes, Pure X, Sleep ∞ Over, Sun Araw, Beach Fossils & Young Prisms), dronesters & noiseniks (Brad Rose, FORMA, Hubble, Matthewdavid, Stellar Om Source, Pete Swanson), new styles (Balam Acab, James Ferraro, Laurel Halo, Julia Holter, Julian Lynch), and several more!
Earlier this year, I got the Record Store Day vinyl re-issue of Arthur Russell's World of Echo (1986). A "classic" that I knew very little about - ltd. ed. of 300 though, so I took a chance.
Given his influence on electronic and club music, I expected it to be more synthesized and beat-y. But in reality, it's more experimental and cello-based. I won't go over his whole biography, but he worked with Allen Ginsberg and other freaks in the early '70s, hit the disco clubs in the late '70s, and kept evolving through the '80s and on.
"Soon-to-be Innocent Fun / Let's See" [live] by Arthur Russell, from World of Echo (1986)
Pretty cool 1985 archival footage of Russell playing & singing this song.
"Lucky Cloud" by Arthur Russell, from World of Echo (1986)
This album is really more a collection of solo works and versions. One of his projects in the '80s was to work on a singing style that would obscure the actual lyrics. Also tripped-out gated textures for his cello, apparently.
"Place I Know / Kid Like You" by Arthur Russell, from World of Echo (1986)
Several of the tracks on the album are mashed up like that. I don't know why. Despite mostly using the same components, there's a surprising diversity across the 2xLP. But it's also pretty consistent quality for a patched-together collection of experimental workouts.
"All-Boy All-Girl" by Arthur Russell, from World of Echo (1986)
You get the idea... There are also a couple of other true compilations, since Russell didn't put out many real albums. But this is more than enough for me at this point.
I think I've counted 4 or 5 different cover versions for this album. I believe the one here at the bottom is the original / official cover. The one at the top is definitely the Record Store Day one. And there are a few more, fairly similar.
"Let's Go Swimming" by Arthur Russell, from World of Echo (1986)
The cover reminded me of something else. Some of these songs are different versions of more famous versions. Where it was an Arthur Russell song, and either it's a separate interpretation of a hit or an early demo of something re-done differently. Here's the more popular club mix of "Let's Go Swimming."
"Let's Go Swimming (Coastal Dub)" remixed by Walter Gibbons, from Logarhythm 12" (1986)
[Posted 11/25/2011] It's true. 1991 was a banner year for great music. And not just because I was 21, with unrestricted access to rock clubs - oh, no! On the serious tip. Can't wait to do the Top 10, 20, or 50 albums for this one!
Two years later, Sebadoh would be #7 of 1993. An often-amazingly great band...
"The Freed Pig" by Sebadoh, from Sebadoh III (1991)
[9/26/2011] It was twenty years ago this month... Wow! 1991, right? Gonna throw a few out here for awhile. First up, first off Sebadoh III:
"Gimme Indie Rock" by Sebadoh, from Gimme Indie Rock 7" (1991)
This great single was also put out the same year - banner!! Not on III, it just about says it ALL.
The new style(s) is birthed!
"Good Morning, Captain" by Slint, from Spiderland (1991)
[9/27/2011] How long since you listened to the entirety of Spiderland? Welp, that's too long... It's 1991! it's Slint!
"Breadcrumb Trail" by Slint, from Spiderland (1991)
"New Grass" by Talk Talk, from Laughing Stock (1991)
[9/28/2011] Another 20th re-issue coming soon: 1st US vinyl release of Talk Talk's jazzy, edgy, off-kilter avant-pop meisterwerk Laughing Stock. Videos blocked America-wise, but embedded in this recent Quietus reappraisal...
"Ascension Day" by Talk Talk, from Laughing Stock (1991)
Well, my iPad couldn't access any of these videos, but my super-powered computer can. So you get 2 tunes and the original article - bonus(es)!!
Now that my year-end albums list is pretty much set, and I won't be buying any more until too late, I went ahead and looked at all the other places' round-ups. Right around this time last year, I did this before. And we have a bunch of the usual suspects / repeat offenders...
So here's the Top 10 "year-end lists from other internet sites" of 2010, ranked mostly based on their #1 picks - plus various other significant factors!
#1.Tiny Mix Tapes gets bonus points for democratic contributor-voting and turning out a crazily unexpected #1: New Slaves by Zs... What?! Wow. "New Slaves" [live] from New Slaves (2010)
#2.FACT mag is always a contender. Forest Swords' Dagger Paths, discussed here recently, was on more lists (and higher up) than I expected - but FACT made it their #1 record. Bold statement. "Rattling Cage" from Dagger Paths (2010)
#3. Drowned In Sound's Top 10 albums (and 11-50 and 51-75) all lead up to Does It Look Like I’m Here? from Emeralds. Inarguably valid choice, although you could argue otherwise... I'm a big fan, though. "Candy Shoppe" from Does It Look Like I’m Here? (2010)
#4. Mainly for just this one list from Dusted Magazine, which selected Ufomammut's Eve - my #1 Unacquired Metal Album from 2010. That contributor's list also offers a downloadable 2010 mix, which I endorse. And as always, Dusted gave everyone a shot and ended up with a large number of lists. Good for them! "III" from Eve (2010)
#5.The Quietus made a great list! But I cannot condone their #1 bid for Sisterworld from Liars - because I don't know what that is... "Scarecrows on a Killer Slant" from Sisterworld (2010)
#7.Pop Matters topped their official list (of 70!) with Janelle Monáe's The ArchAndroid, which was a surprise. The genre and other lists in their annual blow-out of many roll-ups are better, though. "Tightrope" [feat. Big Boi] from The ArchAndroid (2010)
#8-#10. Bottoming out with Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are three separate lists: Pitchfork (of course), Prefix Mag, and The A.V. Club.
"POWER" from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
I found a great resource for live music bootlegs, authorized by the artists before the hi-grade recording equipment gets dragged in. Most importantly, part of the offerings was Maserati (#2 Live Show of 2009, #2 Album of 2007)!! Awesome...
That sent me on a search for more available live recordings from them, and I found some.
Portland, OR 10/10/09 [back-up link] The setlists for these 2009 shows are all pretty similar, and I just found them so I can't suggest one over the other. Get 'em all. This is the only one with "Inventions," which is a great song. The longest one, with the most tunes. (Each track is a separate download: make sure they all complete at ~10-20,000kb file sizes.)
Athens, GA 9/19/09 This is the shortest one, but it's the hometown gig. But not the March show famous for the many videos on YouTube.
Charlottesville, VA 5/27/07 [Fuchs pix] One .mp3 file, about 36 minutes, ~17,000kb. As you'd imagine, the versions are pretty different. Around the time the last new album was out, so the tracks were much newer and the arrangements looser. Set list: Inventions, Synchronicity IV, 12/16, The World Outside, Show Me The Season. Nice! (Main issues: 1 file, 64kbps bitrate.)
So, now to the resource I mentioned. unARTigNYC is for NYC live videos... NYC Taper is for audio, found via this Rocket Recordings blog post.
These seem to be completely authorized by the bands. Obviously lots of NYC acts - Oneida (5) and Yo La Tengo (6) and Antlers (9), plus some other regulars... Animal Collective (5), Fiery Furnaces (11), etc. They don't keep every single recording available, so you might have to e-mail for them to re-up some of the older ones.
Maserati - 9/28/2009 This is the one that started the quest, and the only NYCtaper download I've grabbed yet. Very, very nice sound! Includes only 2009 "The World Outside" that I found, and a really good version of unreleased song "We Got the System to Fight the System." Unfortunately omits set opener "No More Sages."
This is kind of companion post to the earlier on about how I spent my iTunes xMas giftcard. A day or two before Pitchfork started posting their Top 50 Albums of 2009, I bought 3 cd's as Christmas gifts. All three at the same record store, and all three ended up making the list. One was about what I'd have suspected, one was suprising in its rank (though not its inclusion), and one was a surprise to even appear.
"1901" Phoenix busking in front of La Tour Eiffel
I'd pretty much figured that Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (#8) by Phoenix would be in the top 10. They handed out an 8.5 review, and I heard a lot about Phoenix and this album for much of the year. Only the use of their song in a Cadillac commercial would surprise me. At least a little, but they do have a catchy, pop-laden non-alt rock-n-roll hook to them.
"Stillness is the Move" from Bitte Orca (2009)
I'd have staked serious money on the Dirty Projectors' more arty, "challenging" album, Bitte Orca, making the list. They were critical darlings and punching-bags this year, but #2?!?! I mean, Pitchfork loves them some weirdo music (9.2 review), but Animal Collective was already coming at #1. It's like, didn't these guys work with White Rainbow? I mean, wasn't their previous album a collection of indie-barbershop/lounge-prog Black Flag covers? Whatever, dude. This post is about The Antlers.
"Two" by The Antlers, from Hospice (2009)
Okay, so they got a 8.5 review, but it was a quiet 8.5! I still wasn't expecting Hospice at #37... an ambient-noise-folk-ballad-pop concept album about love, abortion, cancer, attempted suicide and death?? The Antlers had been one guy, but are now a band. I'd found hearty recommendations in a place with much more overlap with Pitchforkbacklash than with common purpose. So, its inclusion at not-totally-bottom-rung levels was a suprise to me. Just wait!
So, fast-forward a couple of weeks... when Pitchfork put up its 2009 Readers Poll. DP at #3 (-1), Phoenix at #4 (+4), and Hospice at #8 (+29)! Whaaa? The Yeah Yeah Yeah's It's Blitz jumped from the official #12 to #10, but otherwise the readers' matched the site's Top 10. So, it's somewhat of a minor revolution - kinda.
Anyway, the artwork kind of gives you an idea where we're headed. Since it's a concept album with a whole story and everything, lyrics start on page 3. Overall, I'd describe it as naked bludgeoning by painful vulnerability. The songwriter is unabashed by excess emotionality, no nerve to raw to sandpaper. The vocals usually mixed so low that it forces attention. Even the histrionic screaming seems whispered, and actually most of the singing is pretty well whispered. With lyrics so literal and brutally direct that it creates the weird effect of calling attention to any occasional subtlety.
The music's your basic indie-pop of the acoustic variety: guitar and piano mostly, with a rhythm section mostly. But then there's more layered on, variously effects, noise, brass section bombast, combinations of things... Field recordings, for all I know. It's overall pretty good. The singer does go on and on, but it gives it a sense of urgency. Like he desperately needs to get it all out. I've only listened to it through once (tonight, for this) - but there's definitely something going on. And I can see why people respond to it, although it's not totally in my wheelhouse style-wise.
"Kettering" from Hospice (2009)
Over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed it on a few year-end lists I wouldn't have predicted - or at levels unexpected: I Don't Care About Sleep (#3), Stereogum (#8), The A/V Club (#11), Paste Magazine (#17). And finally, some website I just found called TheBestAlbumsOf2009.com (#4). You can't get more authoritative than that URL!!
Just thought it was worth mentioning, since I'd noticed it.
Doin' more video research, finding more good music channels! unARTigNYC seems to be just a gang of people distributing great live music videos. (If it's just one, that's staggering.) Their entire collection on YouTube is super-impressive: 758 videos now, more added very regularly. Apparently, their Vimeo collection is in higher quality, occasionally with longer videos.
So many to choose from, so I just picked the 10 that jumped out as being the most Astral...
#1 "Silk Rd." by Grails (with Silver Apples), live 11/22/2008, at The Knitting Factory (NYC)
Also at The Knitting Factory, 11/6/2006 (without Silver Apples). And 11/14/2007 at Club Europa (Brooklyn). Three pretty different versions, but I'm betting they played other songs at each show...
#2 "Ahrimanic Trance" by Wolves in the Throne Room, live 5/22/2009, at Club Europa (Brooklyn)
So, I was reading at one of my regular internet music places, and all of a sudden I'm hearing about a contender for album of the year (this current one). Investigating, I discovered a strange and new-ish phenomenon. I didn't realize we'd gotten to the point where a few similar albums would trigger the immediate christening of an all-new sub-sub-genre, then the re-christening, and re-christening, and re-christening. Then an all-out critical scrum over what genre tag should triumph.
"The sound has many names, but none of them seem to fit just right. Dream-beat, chillwave, glo-fi, hypnagogic pop, even hipster-gogic pop - all are imperfect phrases for describing a psychedelic music that's generally one or all of the following: synth-based, homemade-sounding, 80s-referencing, cassette-oriented, sun-baked, laid-back, warped, hazy, emotionally distant, slightly out of focus." - Pitchfork review of Psychic Chasms (2009)
No, the place wasn't Pitchfork (although I've come to terms with its place in my music quest), and the album wasn't Neon Indian's. It was elsewhere, and they were actually talking about Washed Out's current year output. See, the gimmick here is these American guys are doing on a small scale with lo-fi recordings and "micro-labels" what British folks were doing in the '80s on a huge scale on Mtv. Darker sentiments, presented beatwise, and wrapped in sunny pop hooks.
Arguably, more than genre tags like "glo-fi" or The Wire critic David Keenan's "hypnagogic pop," but those labels can be useful, too... - Pitchfork review of Life of Leisure (2009)
From what I gather, the leading light here is Memory Tapes (or Weird Tapes or Memory Cassette). As with anything so premature and ill-defined, there's a lot of variation between acts. This/these guy(s) seem to rein it in a bit - including some guitars, not getting so lost in the wooze... I dunno, my research was pretty limited. They do offer the more experimental, UK-only 22:22-minute bonus disc/track from their latest, "Treeship," for free download.
Seems like every other day, an evocatively named band would come about and contribute to this glo-fi/dreambeat/chill-wave thing that was perfect for those unbearably humid August nights rife with possibility... - Pitchfork review of Seek Magic (2009)
So, what's wrong with just "indie-synthpop"? Hmmm... I think I'll throw in my own competing label - how about "bunnygl!tch"?
Anyway, I thought you should know what's going on. Personally, I much prefer the hauntology style they're practising over at UK's Ghost Box (downloadables on artist's release pages), influenced by previous generations of studio-work at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Especially The Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly. It's generally more restrained and polite than the noisier bunnygl!tch stuff. But that's England for ya!
Remember this? These are some discographies that I love all the way. Not necessarily best bands or albums ever (but that helps)...
You might have heard once or twice that The Velvet Underground were largely overlooked in their own time, but have since become somewhat critically acclaimed. Don't be confused - those aren't unrelated. One thing leads to another. Anyway, the acclaim is right on, and those hippy beatniks were fools.
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) 10/10 - In addition to the actual VU, this has the model Nico - invariably referred to as a Teutonic chanteuse. She sings in the most feminine Germanic baritone imaginable. Andy Warhol "produced" the album, supposedly, and did the banana thing. Perfect balance of mellow balladry, art noise, and rock 'n' roll. Plus, the best S&M song ever. The subject matter (heavy drugs and kinky sex) always gets the attention for being out of step with the times, but it's the songs that still sting. Superb album.
White Light/White Heat (1968) 9/10 - I think it's hilarious to follow up the rollicking noise-gospel of the opening title track with a Welshly goofy story from Cale on "The Gift." (Music and voice hard-panned to separate channels.) And there's more good stuff in here, but it all gets blown out by the mammoth tidal wave of "Sister Ray" [part 2]. Overall, slightly weaker on the song front, but more meaty on the experimental and jamming parts.
Then everything changed. Up until this point, the VU made a noise that didn't sound produced by musicians. It was expertly crafted to sound like random scum/freaks that just happened upon some instruments and made an awesome racket. Not coincindentally, John Cale also left the band at this time. Going forward, they would drift away from more arty pretensions and put out their most musical music.
The Velvet Underground (1969) 10/10 - Definitely my personal favorite of these albums. Lou Reed and Doug Yule (John Cale's replacement) trade vocals, but sound eerily alike. It's got some great down-tempo songs like "Candy Says" and the classic "Pale Blue Eyes." As always, excellent rave-ups in "What Goes On" and "Beginning to See the Light." Quasi-religious hymns, such as "Jesus" and "I'm Set Free." And the grand finale: Moe Tucker's touching "After Hours"... so sweet.
Loaded (1970) 9/10 - This completes the transition, “Ba ba ba-ba!” Dynamite song after song, including an all-time one-two punch: "Sweet Jane" then "Rock and Roll." Really, I'm going to just leave it there (that's plenty!) - but check out any of the clips with the great NYC-style cover art. It's quite the compendium of guitar-pop excellence.
The VU archives were raided for the next couple of decades as the legend grew. So, there's plenty of live albums, outtake collections, best-of attempts, reunion specials... The one package really worth noting is The Quine Tapes (2001, Bootleg Series Vol. 1). A mind-blowing 3xCD set of 1969 audience recordings by the future Voidoids guitarist, it is super-extra-double well worth getting. Along with any of the aforementioned albums you might be missing.
