This week's pick is something I've been unable to get out of my head for the last few weeks: a song by Flying Lotus. Mr. Lotus is the great nephew of Alice Coltrane, the wife of John Coltrane, who was a musician in her own right. Instead of jazz, however, Flying Lotus does electronica / laptop music from his base in Los Angeles. His album Cosmogramma (2010, Warp Records) is a real ride through all sorts of genres. You can hear some jazz, some ambient, some hip-hop, although there are never really any lyrics. The song that's been stuck in my head is "Do the Astral Plane," and it's reminiscent of disco and of a favorite of mine from ten years ago, Fantastic Plastic Machine. The bass line is specifically what's been riding around as my personal soundtrack. Normally I feel like I can tell you that if you like the track that I'm sending out then you'll like the whole album. I can't tell you that on this one. However, I can say that it's a great album. Well worth your time and exploration.

See you soon,

Brian

This week's pick has a back story that sounds ridiculous. A very young husband and wife (early 20s) decide to sell their stuff, buy a boat, and sail up and down the eastern seaboard for eight months. Neither of them has much experience sailing and one of them can't swim. They spend part of the time writing songs about their experience. 

So yeah, how could this not get picked up by blogs and people like me. Tennis is the band, and the album Cape Dory (2011, Fat Possum). The sound is 1950s girl group. It's a little lo-fi, and definitely sweet. It's something that I tend to like, but it's wormed its way into my listening habits more than perhaps any other album so far this year. Perhaps that's because it's light and innocuous. But it's probably because it's really very good.

I'm sending you my favorite track from the whole album, "Seafarer." If you like this, you'll probably like the whole thing.

Be good. Listen well.

Brian

In the next few days/weeks, I'll be sending along tracks that I had meant to send earlier. As in some of these have been drafts in my "send" folder for close to a year. It's been busy. 

As we're getting close to five years of my sending out tracks (in a none-too-faithful schedule, I'll admit), it's been interesting to track how the sounds that interest me have shifted. It's no secret that I love pop and twee. But I've become increasingly drawn to electronica. Some of this probably goes back to the Depeche Mode and Erasure I was consuming in junior high. One of the first things I did when I got into a real music lab in college was to start figuring out exactly how hard it is to make music on a synthesizer and sequencer. Even putting the notes into a computer didn't allow me to just press "go." So when I hear something that is clearly machine-made but complex, I want to hear more. And I've been wanting to hear more of this stuff.

This week's pick comes from Four Tet, the nom de stage of Kieran Hebden, an English producer and laptop artist. I really loved last year's There is Love In You (Domino Records), which was a mellow but motoric mesh of samples and beats. I came back to it over and over again. And the first time I heard the album, I was pretty sure that I would be sending you the fifth track, "Sing." It's got an opening riff that sounds like a Steve Reich piece, but glitched out in a beautiful and weird way. 

Hope you like it.

Brian

As we near the end of 2010, I think I can at least say that I've done better with these emails than I did in 2009. Although to tell you the truth, I haven't actually tallied things up. So I could be way off base. But I don't want to know.

In any case, today's pick probably should have wended its way to you back in March when I bought Fang Island's self-titled debut (2010, Sargent House). An album of tracks that are largely instrumentals except for some chanting here and there to up the energy, the album sounds like something that could be in the background of a mid-1990s skate video and simultaneously evokes waves of nostalgia (unconnected to the mid-1990s reference, by the way). The Brooklyn (by way of Rhode Island School of Design) five-piece earned some pretty rave reviews for the album, especially lead single "Daisy." But I'm going to skip that track (which powered many a long commute to Clemson [RIP]) and instead give you "Sideswiper." The track starts off in pretty aggro mode. You may not like it especially. But you've got to hang on for the lyrics around 1:45 and then when it gets into full-on sepia-colored longing with the guitar line that starts at 2:21. It's beautiful. And a good track/feeling to have in mind as we start closing out a year.

Be good. Santa's watching.

Brian

You may or may not recall that last summer I was looking for some more noise in my normal listening patterns (see mp3 of the week #99). One of the band's that I came across at that moment was Ponytail. I think I was turned on to them by NPR's All Songs Considered podcast, which I love. In any case, this is exactly what I was looking for: interesting, delicious noise.

Ponytail is a four-piece from Baltimore. There are drums, two guitars, and one Molly Siegel. She provides the wild assortment of sounds that lies on top of the rest of the sonic mishmash on their second album Ice Cream Spiritual (2008, We are Free Records). There aren't really words in there so much as...yelps? shrieks? chants? I believe Bob Boilen on NPR described it as sounding like a dolphin singing or trilling on top of noise-pop-punk. (I can totally tell I'm whetting your appetites.) 

I actually don't think many of you will love the album opener, "Beg Waves." But if you can't stand the beginning, make sure you stick around for 2:26 into the track to hear the shift; it seriously gets sublime. And if you hate this, don't worry. I'm sure to give you something easier on the ears very soon.

Seriously. This is good stuff.

Brian

A short time after sending out my choice from Sleigh Bells (mp3 of the week #116), I was accosted by a friend/colleague who pointed out that I was obviously losing my edge since he had heard the song well before I had passed it on. I didn't have much to say on that 3-month lag. I have even less to say here. 

As I mentioned last time, I recently had the chance to see Surfer Blood along with The Drums (mp3 of the week #117). Based on the hype from a few friends who had heard their album Astro Surf (2010, Kanine Records), I grabbed the album right in the beginning of January when it was released. It's one more album of beach music reimagined by indie kids. It's a little bit Beach Boys, but even more a mash of The Pixies, Weezer, and Vampire Weekend. Good stuff.

I've decided to give you the longest track on the album, "Anchorage." It's got a slow build on it, but it's remarkably gorgeous. The whole album is worth your time if you haven't yet heard it. If you have, I don't want want to hear about it.

Be good. Listen well.

Brian

If you've been paying attention to indie music--or at least the corner of it where I tend to play--for the last year or so, you know that we're in full-on beach mode. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Especially if you're me. This week's pick comes from The Drums: a band that somehow manages to channel the seashore in a way that doesn't scream "surf" so much as "summertime." Their self-titled, debut album (2010, Moshi Moshi Records) is the perfect summer record (good thing I'm getting it to you in October, huh?).

But it's not just the beach and 1960s pop that they channel. Somehow they've managed to combine those influences with 1980s jangle. As one perceptive review that I read put it, the album "sounds exactly like THE SMITHS turned into a lady and gave birth to THE BEACH BOYS’ sons." That puts it pretty well. And you can obviously understand how excited that combination might make me. 

I don't know how often I've listened to this album since I first heard it at the end of July. (iTunes says it's been 11 times, but that doesn't keep track of other listening pathways.) But I can tell you that by the time I'd heard the first two tracks on the album I'd already decided that I would see them the first chance I got. That happened about a month ago when they were in town with Surfer Blood (more on them soon).

This album will absolutely be on my top 10 for the year and almost certainly in the top 5. The track that I've chosen for you is "Me and the Moon." Each time I hear its opening drum kicks, I find myself thinking, "How can this not be a song from the Footloose soundtrack." And I don't care if that makes you not want to listen to it. 

Brian