Tribulations (Lindstrom Mix) - LCD Soundsystem - DFA - 2005

Tribulations has been a staple of my running mix for quite some time (like I could last 45:33) but I'd never heard Lindstrom's excellent B-side edit until yesterday. The remix is great itself, but Lindstrom is deftly aware of DFA's particular sound making this one sound like Murphy & Goldsworthy stretched it out themselves.

Listen to Tribulations (Lindstrom Mix) (zshare) by LCD Soundsystem.

Friday Jams

A couple of tunes to get you in the Friday night spear-it. Today's tunes are Bell & James Livin It Up (Friday Night) and Peter Brown's Dance With Me, both straight from 1978.

Listen to Livin' It Up (Friday Night) 12" mix by Bell & James.
Listen to Dance With Me by Peter Brown.

Two Albums Just In Time To Hibernate To

It’s finally gotten cold enough to see yourself exhale smog here in L.A., and New York has been kind enough to get the earmuffs ready and blanket the early cool nights with some fire-side pop.
The Department of Eagles are Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus, two friends who met in an NYU dorm (natch.) It took The Department of Eagles four years to build In Ear Park, an album title that references a childhood L.A. destination of Rossen’s who dedicated the album to his late father. The duo channels the acoustic-bent tenderness of McCartney during, Golden Slumbers or Blackbird at its best and sounds like, well, Grizzly Bear at it its worst. The pace of the LP is often tectonic, but ultimately rewarding, giving Rossen’s ghostly double-tracked voice to take hold over sweeping tactically placed movements. Take Phantom Other which treads along quietly for three minutes before giving way to a 90-second cantor to the tape. The Department doesn’t quite have the same knack for singles the way McCartney did, but In Ear Park is a satisfying, hearty listen that’s worth repeating.
In contrast, the School of Seven Bell’s debut Ghostly release, Alpinisms, leads off with iamundernodisguise which has already proven its cache as a single after getting edit treatment from Prefuse 73 in last year's Class of 73 Bells. The School has been aptly named, because Alpinisms is a record that hums with the glow of Alejandra and Claudia Dehaza’s siren-calm vocals and Benjamin Curtis’ shoegaze drone. Imagine what would happen if the Brazilian Girls and Talkie Walkie Air got together and smoked opium in Kashmir (not precluding that that hasn’t happened yet) and you’re approaching the School’s frequency. They'll also draw some comparisons to Department of Eagles label-mate Blonde Redhead; School of Seven Bells and Blonde Redhead toured together in the fall of last year.

Listen to Department of Eagles, School of Seven Bells, and the other bands I name-checked below.

Listen to Phantom Other (zshare) by Department of Eagles.
Listen to iamundernodisguise (zshare) by School of Seven Bells.
Listen to The Class of 73 Bells (zshare) by Prefuse 73

Other links:
School of Seven Bells Myspace
Department of Eagles Official Website
4ad Official Website
Ghostly International Official Website

Guitar World Tour feat. Kobe & the American Idol Rejects

I think I'll still prefer Rock Band, but this is pretty wild. Keep a close eye on Michael Phelps channeling Mr. Magoo. Crazy to think that this commercial features probably the best baseball player, basketball player and swimmer in the world as well as a guy that made skateboarding big.

Laughing Lights of Plenty - Whatever We Want - 2008

I've been loving the new release from Whatever We Want records, the label that boasts Map of Africa and Quiet Village on their roster. Their latest is the debut 12" single for Laughing Lights of Plenty who are Thomas Bullock (Rub n Tug, Map of Africa) and Eddie Ruscha.

Check it out at their Myspace page.

cd - T2 - Early 70's Psyche & Prog

T2 were an early British psychedelic prog-rock band that really would have benefitted from the internet. The story goes that T2 opened for EVERYONE between 1969-1970 and was destined to be the next Cream, or at the very least the next Deep Purple. But, alas, there was a problem printing the album and it wasn't released on wax until six months after it's schedule release date. The moment had passed for T2 and nobody paid attention to their eponymous effort.

It's too bad, because T2 is great psyche album that sounds like what would have happened if all the good parts of the Moody Blues went and got baked with Traffic and Cream. I don't name-check these bands lightly. They pull off every trick in the psyche book, from a mix so atrocious it must have been deliberate to unintelligible high-chanting vocals that trail into the guitar's tremelo.

I first heard T2 on a CD... here is the track cd from T2.

Listen to cd (zshare) by T2.

Kids - MGMT (Soulwax Remix) - 2008

Soulwax remixes MGMT in an incredibly generic effort. It's a shame because I enjoyed the Soulwax remixes of both Gossip and Gorillaz. I wish there was more to say about this one, but I think once you listen to the track you'll understand why I could take it or leave it.

Listen to Kids (zshare) by MGMT (Soulwax Remix.)

Restiform Bodies - TV Loves You Back - Anticon - 2008

Finally got to the new Restiform Bodies full-length TV Loves You Back and I'm pleasantly surprised to enjoy it. To borrow a baseball term, Tv Loves You Back is effectively wild: all over the place, but still close enough to the strike zone to draw some wild cuts. It's breakcore & grime, chopped and stewed with pop hooks and a barrage of hip-hop. There's a ton of tracks I'd like to post off the album, but I'll just post a couple that are already available on the web.

A Pimp-like God has college radio anthem written all over it, straddling deliberate verse with the most danceable refrain on the album. It's followed up with Consumer Culture Wave a jam that answers the question of what Hot Chip would sound like if they were glitched up in dub. I highly reccommend the rest of this album... if you like it, buy it!

Listen to A Pimp-Like God (zshare) by Restiform Bodies.
Listen to Consumer Culture Wave (zshare) by Restiform Bodies.

Also:
Anticon Records
Restiform Bodies on Myspace

House Jam - Gang Gang Dance - The Social Registry - 2008

Whoa. If you have any psychedelics lying around, go ahead and take them now. This is a track Syd Barret would be proud of, replete with steel drums, glitched-up synths, and, of course, the creepy Gang Gang lady screaming something about revolution. I was a huge fan of Gang Gang Dance's last EP, Rawwar, and can't wait for what's next.

Listen to House Jam (Single Version) (zshare) by Gang Gang Dance
Listen to Oxygen Demo Riddum (zshare; from Rawwar) by Gang Gang Dance

Disco Symphony - Bohannon - 1977 - Mercury

Just a quick post today...

This is one of my favorite 12" records since it's universally badass.

I always thought a great comedy sketch would be Tracy Morgan as Hamilton Bohannon since their mutual resemblance is pretty uncanny. Basically the sketch would be Morgan dressed in a ridiculous tux with a conductor's baton repeating "I'm Hamilton Bohannon!" while some other dude made ridiculous sounds with his bass. I don't know, that's funny to me.

No MP3, just an embedded YouTube link...



Hamilton Bohannon on Wikipedia
Hamilton Bohannon on Discogs