Sunday, April 27, 2014

Listening Habits 03-04.14

Hope you all had a great time during the Easter and Record Store Day weekend. After a brief spring break, we’re back to the business of celebrating our favorite music by bringing you the lists of the albums and songs we’ve enjoyed the most during March and April 2014 in the latest installment of Listening Habits.

The top of our album list belongs to St. Vincent’s excellent self-titled LP, her fourth and best effort so far. Annie Clark continues to evolve and shape her individual sound, inventing a unique voice that transcends her influences. Her economic guitar playing never tries to steal the show, yet never seizes to offer subtle surprises and throw curve balls that catch you off-guard. The melodies are as strong as ever throughout the record while anxious synth-funk lines keep erupting here and there, keeping you on your toes. "St. Vincent" takes Annie Clark’s music to another level, one that very few will reach this year!

Of course Annie Clark was also in the news this month when she performed "Lithium" with the surviving members of Nirvana at the band’s induction ceremony to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was certainly a great idea to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain and what Nirvana stood for by having female singers to perform with them and I’m certainly jealous of the handful of people who got to see the band performing afterwards at a small club with some fine guests. Maybe they should do this again, but next time for more people, perhaps at a festival? Just a thought…

One of the bands that follow in the footsteps of Nirvana and all the other great '80s and '90s indie rockers is Cloud Nothings. Dylan Baldi’s group keeps the guitar rock fires burning with "Here and Nowhere Else", two years on after the amazing "Attack on Memory". Their furious sound doesn’t draw outside the lines of indie-rock’s past, but their passion and conviction is certainly impressive and their songs can hold their own next to those of their heroes.

The same can be said for Protomartyr who with their sophomore album "Under Color Of Official Right" do not reinvent the post-punk genre but offer plenty of evidence that this sound remains just as vital in the second decade of the 21st century as it was about 35 years ago. 

Real Estate also know the value of the underground musical treasures of the '80s but keep digging deeper, going all the way back to the '60s to find melodic inspiration. "Atlas" is another sure-fire hit for those who crave gentle indie-rock with a dreamer’s heart.

The Top 5 of our Spring 2014 album collection is completed with the highly anticipated return of EMA, a.k.a Erika M. Anderson, with her second solo album "The Future's Void". Not as raw sounding as her 2011 astonishing debut "Past Life Martyred Saints", but still an intense listening experience that draws inspiration from cyber-punk. The opening "Satellites" is an overpowering digital assault to the senses, without a doubt one of the finest tracks of the year, a song that opens up intriguing possibilities that EMA needs to explore further in the future.

Here are our 20 favorite albums and tracks for March - April 2014:

Top 20 Albums

1.   St. Vincent - ST. VINCENT
2.   Here And Nowhere Else - CLOUD NOTHINGS
3.   Under Color Of Official Right - PROTOMARTYR
4.   Atlas - REAL ESTATE
5.   The Future's Void - EMA
6.   Burn Your Fire For No Witness - ANGEL OLSEN
7.   Grassed Inn - BLANK REALM
8.   Tomorrow's Hits - THE MEN
9.   Motivational Jumpsuit - GUIDED BY VOICES
10. July - MARISSA NADLER
11. Big Inner: Outer Face Edition - MATTHEW E. WHITE
12. After The Disco - BROKEN BELLS
13. Old - DANNY BROWN
14. Corsicana Lemonade - WHITE DENIM
15. Drenge - DRENGE
16. Marginalia - BABY GURU
17. Once Part Of A Whole Ship - EGG HELL
18. March - FÜR IMMER
19. Zebratronic - POSTCODE
20. Punk 45. Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! The American Nation Destroys Its Young. Underground Punk In The United States Of America, Vol.1 1973-1980 - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Top 20 Tracks

1.   Satellites - EMA
2.   Disco//Very - WARPAINT
3.   Digital Witness - ST. VINCENT
4.   Pattern Walks - CLOUD NOTHINGS
5.   Scum, Rise! - PROTOMARTYR
6.   Talking Backwards - REAL ESTATE
7.   Falling Down The Stairs - BLANK REALM
8.   Hi-Five - ANGEL OLSEN
9.   Dead City Emily- MARISSA NADLER
10. The Littlest League Possible - GUIDED BY VOICES
11. Big Love - MATTHEW E. WHITE
12. 25 Bucks feat. PURITY RING - DANNY BROWN
13. After The Disco - BROKEN BELLS
14. At Night In Dreams - WHITE DENIM
15. Pearly Gates - THE MEN
16. Face Like A Skull - DRENGE
17. Especially When - BABY GURU
18. Concrete - WITCHING WAVES
19. Losing The Battle - POSTCODE
20. Wrapped In Plastic - FÜR IMMER


EMA - Satellites

Have a listen to our favorite tracks on Soundcloud:



Monday, April 14, 2014

Killer Tracks: Disco//Very by Warpaint

Warpaint, live @ Optimus Alive 2012, Lisbon
Warpaint's self-titled sophomore LP is one of our favorite albums of the first quarter of the year and the source of several killer tracks, on constant rotation in our various playlists.

This weekend the band delivered one of the finest sets of the Coachella 2014 festival, a performance which, fortunately for us too far away to be there, was part of the live webcast of the event, while at the beginning of the previous week we were treated to the premiere of their latest video featuring two of the highlights off their new album, the funky, ESG influenced, "Disco//Very" and the dreamy dub of "Keep It Healthy". In case you haven't checked them out yet, do your ears (and eyes!) a favor and press play below:

Warpaint - Disco//Very - Keep It Healthy (Official Video)


Warpaint live at Coachella 2014 (Full Set HD)

Coachella set-list (all killer, no filler!):
01. 00:00 "Intro"
02. 03:19 "Keep It Healthy"
03. 07:16 "Bees"
04. 12:04 "Composure"
05. 17:19 "No Way Out"
06. 24:48 "Disco//Very"
07. 29:24 "Undertow"
08. 36:25 "Love Is To Die"
09. 41:46 "Elephants"

Monday, April 07, 2014

Kurt Vile, Pall Jenkins, live @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, April 1st, 2014)

Kurt Vile, unplugged @ Gagarin 205

Photos and video from Kurt Vile’s first ever live performance in Athens, Greece, at the Gagarin 205 club. His solo, acoustic set was preceded by a solo performance by Black Heart Procession leader, Pall Jenkins.

Pall Jenkins, live @ Gagarin 205
As you can see in the photos, the intimate nature of this show demanded the transformation of the club’s stage to a cozy, small living room, where our guests relaxed with a drink and shared their songs with just the bare essentials: an electric guitar, a musical saw and occasional, skeletal electronic rhythms for Pall Jenkins’ set, acoustic guitar and banjo for Kurt Vile’s set.


The night closed with the two of them on stage together for one of Kurt’s songs where Pall added notes with his trusted musical saw.

Kurt Vile and Pall Jenkins, performing "Baby's Arms" in Athens
Given that the best recorded work of both men relies on electricity to bolster the tender melodies at the heart of their songs, the unplugged nature of this show left us missing the full sound of a rock band. Perhaps, if their on-stage collaboration had extended beyond just one song, the results would have been much more exciting. Let’s hope that the good attendance of this show will encourage promoters to call back both musicians, this time along with their regular bands, for the fully charged, electric rock experience that we didn’t get on this occasion.


Kurt Vile’s set included the following songs: Red Apples, Smoke Ring for My Halo, Ghost Town, Dead Alive, Laughing Stock, Goldtone, Don't Bite, Peeping Tomboy, He's Alright, Wakin’ on a Pretty Day, Baby's Arms, Nicotine Blues.

Up and coming, indie rock act Egg Hell provided the only electric noise of the evening with an energetic set comprising of songs from their debut album "Once Part Of A Whole Ship" (see also here), one of the best releases of 2014 so far of the local rock scene.

Kurt Vile - Ghost Town (live in Athens)

Saturday, April 05, 2014

New Releases: March 2014

Round up of the most interesting album and single releases of March 2014:

Albums

Here and Nowhere
CLOUD NOTHINGS - Here And Nowhere
REAL ESTATE - Atlas
LIARS - Mess
KEVIN DREW - Darlings
THE MEN - Tomorrow's Hits
THE WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream
THE HOLD STEADY - Teeth Dreams
BLACK LIPS - Underneath the Rainbow
PERFECT PUSSY - Say Yes To Love
EAGULLS - Eagulls
BLOOD RED SHOES - Blood Red Shoes
METRONOMY - Love Letters
TOKYO POLICE CLUB - Forcefield
DEAN WAREHAM
- Dean Wareham
NICK WATERHOUSE - Holly
FUTURE ISLANDS - Singles
BAND OF SKULLS - Himalayan
GALLON DRUNK - Soul of the Hour
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS - English Oceans
CARLA BOZULICH - Boy
MAC DEMARCO - Salad Days
SISYPHUS - Sisyphus
FOSTER THE PEOPLE - Supermodel
KAISER CHIEFS - Education, Education, Education & War
ELBOW - The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
MICAH P HINSON - Micah P Hinson And The Nothing
JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN - The Classic
THE HEAD AND THE HEART - Let's Be Still
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX - White Light Generator
HOWLER - World of Joy
PLASTIC FLOWERS - Evergreen
FÜR IMMER - March
POSTCODE - Zebratronic

Singles & EPs

Water Fountain
TUNE-YARDS - Water Fountain
EX HEX - Hot and Cold / Waterfall / Everywhere
TOY - It's Been So Long
SPECTRE FOLK - Mothership
PRIMITIVE PARTS - Open Heads / Signals
THE BOHICAS - Swarm / XXX
FA BONX - Jilto Boy
SPIRES - Candy Flip
ELLIS ISLAND SOUND - Intro, Airborne, Travelling
FRIENDLY FIRES and THE ASPHODELLS - Before Your Eyes / Velo
DEAD FADER - In Cover EP
EVIAN CHRIST - Waterfall EP
SMALL BLACK - Real People EP
SUPERFOOD - Mam EP

tUnE-yArDs - Water Fountain


Ex-Hex - Hot and Cold

Have a listen to highlights from the month's new releases in our March 2014 Spotify playlist: