I recently started following lone female Odd Future member Syd on Twitter (@sydOFWGKTA) and hey it started paying off - a zSHARE download of a track by her and someone named Lux called "Flashlight." No idea when it's from or if it will be from any sort of release but it's a totally smooth jam, reminds me of something from Drake's So Far Gone mixtape - minimal and slow, dark and sensual. Thing is, there's a lot of auto-tune to wade through. I wish I could hear her voice alone without the syrupy effect, but either way it's a serious jam so download it and wait for more.
OSR Tapes/Night People dudes Blanche Blanche Blanche recently dropped a couple new videos, for their two-minute pop-reggae jam "Fireworks" and the bubbly "Results," both on Blanche Blanche Blanche's new album Wink With Both Eyes. The Brattleboro, Vermont duo's new videos follow the same aesthetic/fidelity of previously posted videos "Talk Out Loud" and "Tragic Bios," this time minding more of the color spectrum while diving into a more chaotic pace. These two videos draw more on copied/pasted collaging with both self-sourced and found footage, still super inventive and super creepy. I prefer the "Fireworks" song and video, really into the play between the two voices, melting into and out of each other much like the visual aspect of the piece.
Saw DC electronic/house/disco duo Protect-U tear up Shea Stadium a couple weeks back. Protect-U is Aaron Leitko + Mike Petillo. Petillo helps run the Future Times label, whose press email regarding the new Aurora Halal-directed video for Protect-U's "U-Uno" ravaged my inbox the other day. The song is fantastic, more of a Beautiful Swimmers vibe, dig it more than the other Protect-U track I'm familiar with, "Double Rainbow." It's a bit more concise, a bit less restrained, simply comes off as more fun
The video track can be found on the b-side of new "total mutant house/techno" Protect-U 12" single "World Music," a-side streaming below. Stream some other Soundcloud jams below and download "U-Uno" from 20 Jazz Funk Greats.
Silk Flowers' killer LTD. Form LP was released earlier this month on PPM. I liked it so much I asked Avi if the band would make a guest mix for the ongoing Friendship Bracelet Friendship Club series. They did, and as expected it's a solid, nearly hour-long mix of dissonant rhythms, new age discos, casual dance music and darker shades of synth-pop. The band also let me post whatever song from the LP I wanted. I went with "Frozen Moments," which was recently remixed by Nite Jewel. I dig the original a bit more - it's darker and certainly weirder, no vocals for the music to shrink behind. Check out "Frozen Moments," then the mix, then the other tracks under the tracklist as well.
CHRIS CLARK - THE CHASE SUN PALACE - RUDE MOVEMENTS BLAKK SOCIETY - JUST ANOTHER LONELY DAY (INSTRUMENTAL) AUTOMELODI - RAYONS DE RIEN CHANGE - HOLD TIGHT 52NDSTREET - TWICE AS NICE CALL BACK THE GIANTS - CALL BACK THE GIANTS RYUICHI SAKAMOTO - GARDEN OF POPPIES HARALD GROSSKOPF - EMPHASIS GROUPER - [UNTITLED] MOEBIUS & BEERBOHM - FORTSCHFITT TOTEM TEST - EYE CONTACT HIGH ROY HARPER - MR. STATION MASTER
My parents listened to a lot of horrible shit while I was growing up. I mean, I appreciate it all, don't get me wrong. But our six disc player was usually filled with Yanni, Eric Clapton Unplugged, Alan Jackson and like, Whitney Houston. It was desolate, aside from each having their one silver lining. My father was really into the Beatles and Floyd, and my mother was suuuppperrr into the B-52's. Most of my early childhood memories are soundtracked by the early B-52's. My mom would blast them from the surround-sound on our patio while watering, my sister and myself choreographing dance moves on the deck. She'd come home from their concerts with big pins and earrings of their logos, which I am now cursing myself for losing amidst the moves and transitions that have led me into adulthood.
Saturday night, Nick Ray [Speculator] was over with whoever he performed with that night -- Ryan something or other, such a super nice and talented dude. Anyway, he was fiddling around on my iTunes and he put on the B-52's. This was the first time anyone besides my sister had put on the B-52's. It made me so fucking happy. Usually, I reserve my B-52 parties for myself, while I'm getting pumped up for the evening, doing my makeup in the bathroom before hitting the town, but today, today I share my love with the blogosphere.
Marissa A. Ross is a Los Angeles based blogger who enjoys music, potato salad and jerking off all day because she works from home. Check out her personal blog, Tangents & The Times, and follow her on Twitter @MarissaARoss.
Couple weeks ago I posted an update on Squadda B and his mixtape I Smoke Because I Don't Care About Death. For the past week or so I've been digging into The Shady Bambino Project, Squadda's new ten-track mixtape with rapidfire MC Shady Blaze under the Green Ova DJ family/label.
Let me start by saying yes, these dudes are still way weeded out - the atmosphere is thick and syrupy with chopped vocal angellics and ominous keys, lashed together by stuttering drum rumbles, claps and snaps. Squadda's spacious production makes room for Shady's fast-paced spitting, huge chunks of syllables pumped out for unreal lengths of time considering how much purp these dudes allegedly blow. This might be my favorite overall collection of songs I've heard from this camp, certainly the most cohesive, getting better and better over time.
My favorite tracks are the most urgent-sounding, namely "Green Ova Takin Ova" and "The Beginning." The former is a warning, making sure you know that Green Ova is the shit, making sure that in the future when Green Ova has actually taken over, you don't blame them for not telling you how ill they were way back when. They've got a point, and now you can't say I ain't told you neither. The second of the two is the most crisp track on the mixtape production-wise, coming off inspiring and hopeful, the sentiment that as long as you stand by your friends and family everything will be okay until the day you die.
San Francisco's Melted Toys made the trek from the west coast with Los Angeles dude Speculator for some shows in Brooklyn a couple weeks ago, including shows at Glasslands and Silent Barn. Speculator I had seen a couple times last year and while his set was sick, Melted Toys were great guys (the two i met, at least) and really had their dark three-piece pop jams down. I'm talking sunny and savory, yet bleak and echoing post-punk tunes, composed of two guitars, bass, vocals, drum machines and just enough Little Caesar's to really kick it.
The trio's first vinyl record, the Washed & Dried EP, is out today on Underwater Peoples, and UP has let us post the title track for all to enjoy. This plus the other three Melted Toys downloads you've had the opportunity to rock over the past couple months should be reason enough to pick up a record. Also, for all you wax lusters out there, the vinyl's got a nice black marble swirl. Download all these samples, check the Silent Barn "Come On" video from the lovely Pixelhorse (featuring a couplehooligans) and 'grip' a record before they're all gone.
Ssaliva (Pause.) is the same Belgian dude who did/does Kingfisherg (appeared on Wigflip End of Summer 2010 comp) and Cupp Cave (recently did a split 7" with Dem Hunger on Vlek Records). I'm also lead to believe he is connected to Munch Room. There are a couple Ssaliva albums: Mercury Coast, available on bandcamp, and Thought Has Wings, which might be released February 28 on Leaving Records. The tunes on the older album are mighty pleasant, like dark and slow Rangers instrumentals, which is very much unlike some of his other more beat-driven projects. However, there are moments where his beat mastery shines through, almost makes me wish there were some huge drum kicks in there somewhere.
The new one has more of this disintegrating cassette tape/VHS tape quality to it, again sort of like a jazzier Rangers ("Best Lose The Dream") or word-free Melted Toys ("Teenage Brain"), sometimes even more immediately groovy, like lower-fi Nite Jewel beats ("Crayola"). The best moments might be when he gets into some totally thrown back pop loops, seriously warped mixtures of his two styles - kaleidoscopic tape pop with outer space hip hop tendencies. For this, check "West End," "Moth to the Flame" and "Moonblood."
Check out a couple downloads from the new album (plus video), stream samples from the first album and hey look, there's some Munch Room thrown in for good measure.
Before the CH-Rom/Twins collaborative tape I mentioned in that massive Twins post earlier this month, CH-Rom released a new tape into the world in January called Rider's Choice. The tape still hasn't seen a proper Paypal button for purchasing (uhhh so you email him teenagecop at gmail dot com), but I've been tweaking out to the sides that CH sent over and I suggest you keep an eye on the SKY MALL for details on gripping one.
I'd like to point you in the direction of the first two tracks on Side W (the first side), showing off CH-Rom's range from crystal-clean drum machine/synthesizer workout to shout-along chorus to whacked-out groove from the Funk Orient. Much of the tape brings to mind the jerky mechanisms of no-guitars Kraut, a more patient and calculated form of CH than I first posted about back at the end of 2009, but this nine-plus minute ordeal reminds me of his live show's bread and butter - the ability to switch it up, never challenging your attention span, never losing you over the entire set all due to excellent pacing.
Check the Riders Choice opening (broken into two distinct parts), then the opening for Side X (second side) via CH himself, then help yourself to previously posted samples from Call Me Rom, then take a moment to recall that CH-Rom is one third of Shrur and you should check them out too.
Leeds duo Hype Williams have a new album out March 15 on Hippos In Tanks, available for pre-order soon. The record, One Nation, boasts a uniformly dark and syrupy tone, though never drifts into the played-out dark vibes of "witch house" or other screwed genres. Instead, the duo decided on a rather weird take on lo-fidelity home-recorded dance and pop music. "Businessline" wafts like dank blown smoke, dubbed-out like instrumental Sun Araw but with no guitars, just warbled synthesizers and sizzling drum machines.
Today I am requesting Gang Of Four's "Damaged Goods". This song is so awesome! There is no way you can not throw back a couple hard cocktails & throw your hips around to this shit, maybe even get in a really sloppy makeout sesh with some rando you met outside the bathroom. This was actually Gang of Four's first single, which I think is pretty dope. On Wiki it says it needs citation, but I believe it was an "indie #1 hit" 4 SURE. No citation needed, I'm working off blind faith, people. Blind faith and unbridled enthusiasm! If Times New Viking or some other fuzz-power band covered this & released it next week, I am willing to bet that at least eight people who didn't know it was a cover, would shit their pants thinking it was the best song of 2011.
TOO BAD IT'S FROM '78 BITCHES! That's what my GChat status would say.
In fact, that's what my GChat status is going to say anyway.
Dem Hunger returns as the bandleader of Wanda and Her Group. An unnamed source confirms he just inserts the sonic ideas in their skulls with a big spike, breads em deep in a pool of seasoned Panko, roasts the skulls whole convection oven style and records the process. Jam this Soundcloud stream into one ear or both and if you're not tender enough to fry up on the spot, order the whole cassette from NNA Tapes and repeat.
So this post is gonna blurt out a whole bunch of bottled up posts revolving around one guy, Matt Weiner, a.k.a. Twins. If you haven't noticed me raging about him before, he treads on a darker side of synthesizer-based pop music (at times leading me to believe something like 'industrial funk' might work as a description. See "About Us"). He's from Atlanta, found out about him though the Peace Age crew and various permutations of him and CH-Rom and Luke Perry and C Powers. That's what this post is about. He remixed How To Dress Well and Pink Priest and released a couple albums, Doubles and The Other Side Of..., the second of which is available on vinyl from Ruralfaune's Synth Series.
Shrur, Twins' project with CH-Rom and C Powers, recently saw their 4Shrur cassette released by Triple You Tapes. I hear there's some more Shrur-like material on the way lineup-wise, but I haven't heard much so I can't say where they're going. Download a couple bugged-out bangjobs from the tape and then STREAM THE WHOLE THING ON BANDCAMP and then BUY A TAPE.
One of the other first projects of Twins that I caught wind of was the now defunct duo Best Hits. While Matt and fellow Best Hit Elise Tippins don't do that name anymore (they were great - check "Skinny Cloud" and "Born Sloppy"), they're back with a new project called Featureless Ghost. So far they've just released a two-song single, available for download from bandcamp for a price of your choosing, and promise "Lots More Coming Soon." Both songs feature both members taking turns on supreme vocal performances, both bathed in mad paranoid robotic-future vibes ("You Never Know Who Wants Your Mind" , "I Lie Awake Delirious, Afraid To Close My Eyes"). Both are very, very well put together pop songs, seriously stream those, download em and stay tuned.
Last, but not least, is Twins' project with CH-Rom, wo. Posted their track "Toning the Sun" almost a year ago, so I'm glad to see their self-released R U Dreamy tape finally available for purchase. Stream the whole album on bandcamp and/or watch the R U Dreamy preview video below. THEN BUY A TAPE.
Alright, look. I know some of you guys may not have been here since the beginning. I used to just request songs every week just because I loved Friendship Bracelet and Ian's radio programming. Then Ian gave me a column and when that happened, he introduced me here on FBUS and was like, "Oh, she puts so much time into her requests." Sometimes, that is totally true. Sometimes, I can't wait to request a song. I think about it constantly and can't wait to hear it over the radio because like, let's be real, hearing a song you want to on the radio is awesome. It was awesome when you were twelve in the back of your mom's pseudo-SUV thing, and it is awesome now.
But sometimes, I'm just like, stoned, and like, "LOL, THIS VIDEO IS GREAT. I LOVE SUMMER. CAN'T WAIT FOR SXSW. GUHHHHDAYYYUUUMMM, SOMEONE GET ME A COCKTAIL. WITH LIME. AND COCONUT. OR JUST WINE. WHATEVER, I'M GREAT AT PLAYING PRETEND WHEN I'M DRUNK."
That's just kinda where I am right now. And it's still awesome to hear that shit on the radio. So, enjoy world! I know it's cold most places but just think happy, California thoughts. Sunshine, palm trees, pool sides, monkey-ass fools playing guitar.
Marissa A. Ross is a Los Angeles based blogger who enjoys music, potato salad and jerking off all day because she works from home. Check out her personal blog, Tangents & The Times, and follow her on Twitter @MarissaARoss.
Last time I mentioned Squadda B was the first time I had heard of Oakland's Main Attrakionz, got caught up in all them Mondre joints on that mixtape 808s & Dark Grapes. I must say, I was immediately taken by the name of Squadda B's new mixtape I Smoke Because I Don't Care About Death - felt a weird mix of harsh truth, hesitant pride and slight humor.
Within we find a heap of mostly monotone verses, rapping in a mostly inspirational manner mostly about living life and rapping with some struggle and swag and partying thrown in at leisure. But throughout the whole thing there exists this darkness hovering overhead, this attitude where you might as well go big and try to make a name for yourself cos otherwise you're just going to live in mediocre fashion until you die lonely and broke and a no one. So why not smoke weed and sip codeine and write rhymes about how fucked up life is and beef it up with huge Hot Boys sounding beats and chopped wisps of female vocals?
My favorite couple tracks on the mixtape happen to contain a couple different parts, entirely different but squeezed together into one song, like "2012." This one starts off cold and metallic like the Main Attrakionz song "Legion of Doom" that Delorean posted in their Altered Zones guest post last August, then all of a sudden wipes into part two, some cooled-out Summertime anthem material. Check "2012" and a couple more, then download I Smoke Because I Don't Care About Death for free.
Come check a huuuge show at Silent Barn tonite - Speculator, Melted Toys, Wet Dream, Punks On Mars (formerly Luke Perry) and Eola (Edwin from Tonstartssbandht). I'll be DJing before the show, in between sets, after the show, whenever you want. Shit starts around 9PM. $7. Be There.
Keith Rankin a.k.a. Giant Claw sent over his new album Midnight Murder, available for free download on bandcamp and physically in March on new-ish label Orange Milk Recordings.
He hooked me into reading the email by saying his music sounded like Cluster, Neu! and Emeralds. I wasn't necessarily expecting the music to sound like either of those three bands, but in ways it does: there's some weird skittering drum machine/synthesizer parts (Cluster), relentless, slow-morphing repetitions (Neu!) and arpeggiated synthesizer landscapes (Emeralds). This trifection doesn't always hit on all cylinders, but when it does the result is a dramatic geometrical guide through ordered sound layers, usually uneasy, sometimes spooky. Also of note - the album was mastered by Robert Beatty (of Hair Police, Burning Star Core, Three Legged Race).
In honor of this Groundhog saying it's spring, I'm requesting Houses' "Endless Spring." I hope for all my friends on the East Coast Spring comes soon and the snow subsides, as for my fellow Californians, I hope our weather continues to be beautiful, although, I wish these cool breezes would relax. Like for real, I'm rolling around in my cardigan and come afternoon, I am not prepared for how chilly it gets! I nearly froze my ass off the other day in a shady spot on the coffee shop's patio! Ha. I know, I know, I'm spoiled. But really, that's not the issue. The real issue is I only own an arsenal of tank tops and I'm terrible at layering.
Marissa A. Ross is a Los Angeles based blogger who enjoys music, potato salad and jerking off all day because she works from home. Check out her personal blog, Tangents & The Times, and follow her on Twitter @MarissaARoss.
Galapagos is 18-year-old Phoenix native Jacob McNaughton. His free EP Sounds Vol. 1 is a nice slice of sample-based hip hop or something resembling it, quick instrumental bits of chopped vocals, little piano flourishes over heavy-set drum beats. Not saying he's doing anything terribly new here, but it sounds so crisp and the songs go by so fast I find myself listening to the EP over and over. For a completely in-house comparison, it sounds like a healthy balance of Mane Mane and Persona La Ave rhythms and atmosphere, but decidedly less junked-out than either of them, straighter to the point, more bare bones.
If there's somethin on here you don't approve of me having here please let me know cos I don't wanna hurt nobody. Downloads are for sampling purposes and if there's anything afoot iprnelson@gmail.com is where complaints be filed.
