Sholi - Sholi

Sholi is a band that really flies under the radar despite being signed to the relatively high profile and soon to be defunct Touch and Go / Quarterstick Records. Their style is a combination of a lot of different bands. To distill it to something concise, they sound like a lot of late 90s indie artists like Karate or Cursive but with more willingness to experiment with being more abstract in the instrumental performances as well as more conventional in their harmonic progressions. The singer / guitarist Payam sounds quite a bit like the singer from Minus the Bear, and there is definitely something shared between the two bands. This album has really impressed for with its diversity and instrumental performances. Definitely worth checking out.

Sholi [2009] - Download - Review

Dan Deacon - Bromst

Sorry for being so MIA, but I've been working hard. Dan Deacon's 2007 album Spiderman of the Rings aligned him with artists like Girl Talk for being dance / pop music favored by indie kids that didn't come from Western Europe. There was something demographically appealing in Deacon's nonstop beats and Nintendo sounds. Do yourself a favor and google "spiderman of the rings site:blogspot.com" and read some of the descriptions, "batshit bubblegum pop" being one of my favorites. It seemed like people approached that album for the sake of novelty or irony or whatever. Deacon's newest album, Bromst, does a lot to sustain that legacy and you will read countless blog posts that fixate on that. However, there's something very different about Bromst's ability to absorb and assimilate folk / world influences that makes his propulsive rhythms feel downright tribal as opposed to "bubblegum" and his melodic and textural choices eclectic rather than just layers of epileptic computer noises. Bromst uses technology as a kind of musical encyclopedia, quantizing and crunching together folk traditions that otherwise wouldn't go together, much less with contemporary indie dance music. Bromst really transcends any corners Deacon may have worked himself into with Spiderman and is my favorite album of the year so far.

Bromst [2009] - Download - Review

Dr. Who Dat? - Beyond 2morrow

Here's the aforementioned album by Jneiro Jarel, aka Dr. What Dat?, entitled Beyond 2morrow. Jneiro has always thrived on creating leftfield beats with a unique sense of flow and texture, but now his production is starting to sound more and more like Flying Lotus, which can be viewed as both a good a band thing; good because Flylo is awesome, but bad because it's sad to see Jneiro have any reduction to his own weirdness and originality. There are only a few tracks here that have vocals, and Jneiro is an able rapper. This album wasn't everything I wanted it to be, but it's definitely an interesting album and a good placeholder for anybody waiting for another fully realized blend of production and rapping.

Beyond 2morrow [2009] - Download

The Shape of Broad Minds - Craft of the Lost Art

To commemorate a new album by Dr. Who Dat, I'm actually going to post about one of Jneiro Jarel's other projects (on which the good doctor "makes an appearance"), The Shape of Broad Minds. This project is supposedly a hip hop super group, but is really just a combination of all of his different rap personas on one unified album. The beats are ridiculously inventive and off the wall, but it pays off more often than not as in the strange sluggishness of "Electric Blue." Even a flanged and mod wheeled cowbell tone sits well in the mix.

Craft of the Lost Art [2007] - Download - Blurb

Tera Melos - Idioms vol. 1

Tera Melos lost their drummer Vince in 2008 and only recently picked their replacement John Clardy (aka Dolphin Starbeam) from the drummer store. Instead of releasing a new LP, they're "getting tight" by playing a covers album. Instead of rendering all of the songs in the crazy Tera Melos style, they actually keep it pretty simple (relatively speaking) and produce a fast indie / punk album out of songs originally by The Beach Boys, The Clash, The Pixies, Weezer, and Polaris. Surprisingly enjoyable if only a palette cleanser / appetite whetter for whatever new original material these guys put together.

Idioms vol. 1 [2009] - Download


I feel like this is also a good time to mention the lunacy that is Snakeville, a film produced by Nick Reinhardt of Tera Melos and some other friends. The film is a 75-minute ensemble of characters interacting in a small, rural town (transparently based off of their hometown area in Roseville, CA). Its style is pretty similar to Kids in the Hall, with a few actors playing 3/4s of the roles, often in drag or absurd outfits. The sense of humor is even stranger than that found in similar sketch comedies (thanks to the inclusion of lactating male high school athletes and an obese (also male) guardian angel squeezed into a tutu). Snakeville is its own beast rather than a tribute to offbeat sketch comedy and definitely deserves to be checked out. Maybe the best part of it all is that there are a few moments where beautiful cinematography or surprisingly profound dialogue enters into the mix, sort of like Brad Neely's "Babycakes" series. The movie is rough around the edges and is fairly anti-climactic (really the plot is super thin), but there are moments of lucidity and lunacy alike that make this worth checking out. The trailer is embedded below.


Snakeville Trailer

Interview / Show Review With Toby Driver (Kayo Dot, Tartar Lamb, Maudlin of the Well)

Hey I just put up two articles on sputnikmusic. One is a review of / column on a live show Kayo Dot played in San Francisco on October 8, and another is an interview with Toby Driver. The interview is both given as a transcript and as a dialogue woven in with the prose of my review / column. No download links in this article, just words and pictures.

Show Review - here

Interview - here

Efterklang - The LPs

Efterklang, a studio quintet and a live nonet (which includes the newly popular Peter Broderick) from Denmark, have been labeled as post-pop, but in an effort to avoid recently fashioned genre prefixes and suffixes I'm just going to say that they're a post-rock band who have an affinity to messing around with electronic and analog musical devices (such as sampling CD skipping sounds to create the beat for "Predator and Prey"). Both of their full length albums are very nice and apparently they have an album coming out some time in early 2009 (which is now I guess - Happy New Year).

Tripper [2004] - Download


Parades [2007] - Download

Top Albums of 2008

I made a big fat list on sputnikmusic that has a lot of write-ups and streaming music and a few other nice goodies. All of my editorializing should be read there. This blog post is going to be a lot simpler. I'm going to have the list of albums and links to their downloads. Enjoy.

1. Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness - Download Disc 1 - Download Disc 2
2. Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema - Download
3. Son Lux - At War With Walls and Mazes - Download
4. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Direct Download
5. Loma Prieta - Last City - Download
6. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound - Download
7. Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Vols. III & IV - Air & Earth - Download
8. Dela - Changes of Atmosphere - Download
9. Mesa Verde - The Old Road - Download
10. Metaform - Standing on the Shoulder of Giants - Download
11. Feral Children - Second to the Last Frontier - Download
12. The Loved Ones - Build and Burn - Download
13. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges - Download?
14. PSY/OPSogist - Suffused With Static - Download
15. Ghostlimb - Bearing and Distance - Download
16. Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday - Download
17. Extra Life - Secular Works - Download
18. Aussitot Mort - Montuenga - Download pw: SirensSong.blogspot.com
19. Blue Sky Black Death - Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius - Download
20. Venetian Snares - Detrimentalist - Download
21. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles - Download
22. ...Who Calls So Loud - ...Who Calls So Loud - Download
23. Pygmy Lush - Mount Hope - Download
24. Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward - Download
25. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life - Download

And again if you want to get fancy and do some reading / listening please go here: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/feature.php?id=5509.

Black Milk - Tronic

Though I wasn't all that blown over by Black Milk's Tronic, on the word of Jared Dillon and a few other sputnikmusic staff members, I felt compelled to post it here. Black Milk is pretty balanced as an mc and producer, never getting too weird with his beats and lyrics, while never feeling stale. Definitely a good album and it will make an appearance on more than a few year-end lists.

Tronic [2008] - Download - Review

In Pieces - Learning to Accept Silence

This post comes by request of an e-mail I received (feel free to do this - e-mail is on the right hand margin in the disclaimer). In Pieces' Lions Write History is one of my favorite albums of all time. Learning to Accept Silence, their only other album, is slightly less mature, sounding more of an obvious project of the post-hardcore of the time (2002), but it still has some amazing tracks. To this day, "A Fitting Lie" is probably their best track of all time. These guys sound a lot like old Thrice and old Hopesfall. This week is also an apt time to post this link because an ex-In Pieces member (Dan Barrett) will be making a reappearance later this month when I post my top 25 albums of 2008. Enjoy.

Learning to Accept Silence [2002] - Download - Review

PSY/OPSogist - Suffused With Static

PSY/OPSogist is a self-made producer working out of rural Virginia who makes hip hop in the vein of DJ Shadow. He has a great taste in sample material (after talking to him I found out he uses The Mars Volta and The Doors) and uses them to great effect. His songs can range from raw and lo-fi to lush and flowing. The album Suffused With Static is one track, meant to be listened to continuously and PSY does a good job of segueing between individual tracks. PSY also makes all of his music free and available online so pass this on to your friends.

Suffused With Static [2008] Download - Review

Dela - Changes of Atmosphere

Dank French hip hop that is highly jazz influenced. He makes good use of American rappers, namely Supastition and Talib Kweli. The overall sound is ridiculously smooth and chill, as if Chick Corea gave Dela lessons in sexy flute and Rhodes tones and De la Soul gave him lessons in beatmaking.

Changes of Atmosphere [2008] - Download - Review

Ganon - As Above, So Below

Ganon is a post-metal band from Michigan who essentially sound a lot like Isis. They bring nothing new to the table but write killer songs. As Above, So Below is their 2nd full length album.

As Above, So Below [2008] - Download - Review

Gospel - The Magic Volume of Dark Matter

Gospel is the most inventive band to ever be associated with emo. Though that's a lofty claim, I think I'm off the hook because of emo's inherent narrowness, and the fact that Gospel isn't really an emo group. When they broke up in 2006, apparently they were working on the follow up to The Moon Is a Dead World. The only artifact of that creative process is the bootleg The Magic Volume of Dark Matter. It was recorded on February 2nd, 2006 and shows Gospel going deeper down the psychedelic, progged out rabbit hole they were first exploring on their debut LP. The song is 23 minutes and runs through a ridiculous number of section changes, them jamming out all the while. Though it's a rough cut and there's probably a lot of improvisation, the track is absolutely awesome and serves as a pleasant if underwhelming swan song for Gospel's too short career. Thanks to Jared from Last Train to Cool for the look on this one. Included is the bootleg and a live video of the performance.

The Magic Volume of Dark Matter [2006] - Download

Part 1

Part 2

Aussitôt Mort - Montuenga

Aussitot Mort's debut EP, Six Songs flew completely under the radar of most fans of the label's particular brand of hardcore. However, with the release of their follow up, Montuenga, Aussitot Mort are poised to do a lot more with their adventurous take on the French emo sound. The delay effects are ridiculous, the production is awesome, and the song still retain enough classic emo catharsis to make this a compelling listen. My apologies on the password. That's the only copy I've found that has all 8 songs instead of the random non-encrypted ones that decided to only include 6 of the tracks.

Montuenga [2008] - Download (pw: SirensSound.blogspot.com) - Review