Me to the rescue

Deerhoof vs. Evil is really quite good.

I'm not a common tart

I apologize that it has taken me so long to let all 4 of you know about Ost & Kjex's Cajun Lunch, one of my favorite albums of the year, and a treat for those of us who were close to giving up on the possibility of "quirky" as an adjective without a negative connotation. It's basically a house record with white-boy falsetto singing and lyrics mostly about (and sometimes from the point of view of) cheese, but it's well produced enough for all that to work. "The Yellow Man" is like the fifth different favorite song I've had on here, but it's the current one so it's the one I'ma use here. The drum programming is kind of bonkers, I think, in the way the hi-hats and sparely-used snares manage to hypnotize while not upstaging the (endearing, I think) vocals and then go kind of kitchen-sink interesting with a minute and a half to go. Cop this shit.

YMD Summer Jams 2010 #5

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Bottled in Cork"

Who said we don't summer with guitars anymore? Ted Leo, who I've seen live more times as all but 2 or 3 other bands, put out a very good record earlier this year, and the most suitable song for summer jamming is this, his newest travelogue. Something about the acoustic guitar actually reminds me of frisbee-rock also-rans Guster, but I promise that I mean that in the least insulting way possible. The closing repetition of "tell the bartender I'm falling in love" doesn't seem like it could be any more perfect for summer daydrinking at bars that have backyards (and especially for those Saturdays on which you realize there's not gonna be a break between the daydrinking and the nightdrinking, is there?).

New Caribou album, people rejoice

I finally listened to the new Caribou album (finally in 2010 parlance = less than a week after it was released, obviously) the other day and I'll be damned if it hasn't been haunting the stereo at YMD headquarters pretty much non-stop ever since. After five or six listens, it's pretty solidly my favorite record of the year (with only the Yelawolf tape in striking distance, really). I'm not sure what I was expecting from Mr. Snaith after the sunny psych-pop of Andorra but a House record wasn't really it.

Lead single "Odessa" shows the most obvious traces of Snaith's collaboration with the Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan, sounding more or less like a good Junior Boys track done with Snaith's textural preoccupations. It's great, but the second track, "Sun", is where things really start to open up for me, as warm as it's title implies and building on a familiar drum pattern to build something I would love to dance to outdoors this summer. On the next track Snaith starts getting crazy with the stereo panning and I love every second of it. It's exactly what a Caribou dance album would sound like, now that you think about it, and full of surprises at the same time.

Snaith talks in this Pitchfork interview about how both the structure and compositional tools of modern House opened up all kinds of possibilities for him and, while I'm cynical enough to think about how this won't stop Swim from influencing some terrible "it's like dance music, but by a real artist" writing (why do I Google things*) the more people on the dance floor the better, right? Best Caribou/Manitoba yet? Too early to tell, but maybe.

* Okay, I know, what's the point of getting upset about a site I only stumbled upon by googling "Caribou swim Jeremy Greenspan" but they gets advertising so it must be something, right? And I'm too old to be surprised by people having condescending attitudes towards dance music, but god damn, "a reputation for rigid structures" my balls. And the bit about Kelley Polar and Junior Boys (both of whom I love) "often ditching cliched components of electronica like auto-tuning and forced flanging for more structurally daring feats" is even dumber, right? Because what could "structurally" even mean that Auto-tune and "forced flanging" would have anything to do with it? And they're being structurally daring by applying pop structures to, respectively, disco and, err, electro-pop?

I am 100% for exploring and writing about music from genres and scenes you don't know shit about. But you have to be humble enough to admit that you don't know shit about them. I'm certainly guilty of not doing this once in a while too, but I promise, I'm trying.

We're more than horses

101. the Unicorns - "I Was Born (A Unicorn)" (from the Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? album, Alien8 Recordings, 2003)

In the year 2003 the Unicorns came and perfected the Quirky Indie-Rock Song and then they were gone and it wasn't really a worthwhile genre anymore.

*Van Leersen, Michael, the Encyclopedia of Pop Genres; Volume VII (Austin, Univ. of Texas Press, 2023) 224

Alcoholics Unanimous

Video for the first single from the very good new Art Brut album, Art Brut vs. Satan. It's about getting really drunk and blacking out, so that's sweet. Eddie Argos still hasn't really missed as far as I'm concerned.

(Also, hey, look, I wrote about Ciara's new blacking out song at Music For Perfect People)

No Foolin'

It's a new month, and YMD comes through with a new grip of songs for yall to spend the month to. Just hit play to your right and bang your head. On the menu this month:

- Some grilled avocado courtesy of Mr. Black Boy Swag, White Boy Tags himself, Young Dro. This beat comes courtesy of 2 Band Geeks, and Dro slays it. He knows how to turn bread into dressing, apparently, which is a trick that only Dro would really brag about.

- Some early summer squash from the soon(ish) to be released LP from Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas. The record is as luxurious and epic as you'd expect from these balearic/space disco kingpins, and my fav track on it so far is "Skal Vi Prove Naa" (I don't know Norwegian at all, but let's pretend that means "Forest Dance Holiday").

- A blood orange indie salad with chili vinaigrette from Phoenix and Jeremy Jay. The former comes back strong with their new Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix LP, represented here by the fairly huge sounding "1901", and the latter invents the genre of Lone Ranger Disco with the very aptly titled "Gallop".

- Delicious creole soup, via Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann aka Moody's reworking of jazzy crooner Jose James' "Desire" into a beautiful 4am housey groove. This is out now on KDJ's label on the Anotha Black Sunday LP and is absolutely top notch.

- For the fish course, some fresh striped bass (bass) from, and I'm as surprised as you are, the Black Eyed Peas. "Boom Boom Pow" is a monster, and you may as well learn to love it now cuz there's no reason it won't be huge this summer. The beat thumps, the sound design is great, and the raps are perfectly fine. Extra points for Fergie's "I'm so 3008, you're so two thousand and late".

- Some wild game next, as we proceed to dance to Quarion's remix of Christian Vance's "Tiger Snake". The original is a fun, propulsive techno track, but Quarion lightens it up a bit to great effect. This is some shit I really hope to dance to outside this summer. Breezy and bouncy in the right way. We also bring to you, straight out of South Africa, Culoe De Song. Early this morning we repped for his RA Podcast, and now we bring you the b-side to "The Bright Forest", the track that closes that mix. While that A-side is indeed killer, I think I like the drum workout on "African Subway" even better. Kid has a way with percussion.

- Still hungry? Surf'n'turf from the new album by Texas legends UGK, and it's called "Still On the Grind". UKG 4 Life, with the spectre of Pimp C droppin' some of the illest rhymes and beats of his career on it, is one of the records of the year so far. This beat just moves and moves.

- A dessert trio of Keri Hilson ft. Ne-yo and Kanye West to finish off this most delicious of meals. Miss Keri baby's album is finally out, and this is some good shit. Everyone brings their A-game and, as I've tweeted about like 3 times already, Kanye rhymes "OMG" with "woe is me".

- We ease into the night and look forward to tomorrow with Martin Stimming, whose new LP Reflections is a clean but madly interesting journey through dance music. His tracks have hella groove, but they also actually go places, which is nice. The opener, "Sunday Morning", goes along like a sweet tech-house joint for five minutes and then breaks down and builds back up with huge, dramatic strings that both come out of nowhere and work perfectly.

Holler holler holler.

Up to 11: It's March!

It's a new month somehow, and I'm gonna go put up 11 new songs on the sidebar to your right for your listening pleasure. New hotness. Real Talk. (If you want one last sweet listen [or several] to the Winter edition of Up to 11, it's right here)

- We start off with my favorite jam from the Juan Maclean's long-awaited the Future Will Come LP, out on DFA next month. The album is super fun and bookended by his two awesome singles from last year, but the (non-"Happy House") highlight is "One Day", which is an awesome, poppy boy-girl house song that explodes into an awesome euphoric climax in the last of its four minutes. The only thing wrong with it is that the climax doesn't last like 4 more minutes. Gimme remixes.

- Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back and messing around with all kinds of new wave electronic textures, which I kind of thought was a bad idea. But what do I know, cuz while I don't love this as much as their rawk debut, it's eons better than the last one so far. I give you the lead single, "Zero", which just goes off into the stratosphere.

- Three rap songs in a row next, with some nice surprises. Ya boy Souljaboytellem first, and this ain't gonna start no dance craze. It's some ultra-minimal grime-y shit with the kid spitting fast and out of breath. Fun. Then the highlight of Weezy's Hottest Nigga Under the Sun mixtape, the Pharell duet "Yes". Pharell's Weezy impression is suspect, but the beat is absolute fire, I think, def one of my best things Pharell's done in a long time. Finally, Cam'ron is back with, of all things, an ode to the Midwest. The beat is by RI's AraabMuzik and is some real widescreen yet grimy shit. Cam still got nonsense charisma, this is heat.

- Back to Brooklyn for These Are Powers and "Little Birds", a booming ride through what I can only assume is some kind of Guillermo Del Toro filmed carnival. I have to remember to bring this CD back next time I go to Chicago, I wanna hear it in the car with the bass up.

- The lone R&B song this week is already a huge hit, but I've been playing it so much I might as well. Of course, it's the Ron Howard approved "Blame It", from Jamie Foxx and T-Pain. I haven't really thrown/been to a big party since I started jamming this, but I'm sure it will be glorious.

- Some dance music towards the end. Still catching up to 2008 of course, here with Matias Aguayo's "Walter Neff" on Kompakt, fun, sexy pop-techno as the Chilean tends to offer. Super catchy non-verbal vocal hook at 2:15. I'm always in favor of that. Then some new New York house, courtesy of Terre Thaemlitz aka DJ Sprinkles. It comes from Midtown 120 Blues, a house album that takes great care to explicitly place itself in a specific historical context and explore what that means, through the music but also through spoken word bits and titles, such as "House Music is Controllable Desire You Can Own". Then some Italo by way of sometimes disco, sometimes prog group Zombi. This is definitely their disco side, and it's as hard hitting, dramatic, and expansive as you'd expect form a disco outfit who love Dario Argento soundtrackers Goblin as much as Zombi do.

- We close with a track that you simply must hear. Even if "deep house" isn't exactly a phrase that makes you teem with anticipation, this is definitely going to be one of the truly special tracks of 2009. It's "Rushing to Paradise" by House of House and it's absolutely epic, over-the-top, maximalist, and spectacular. It's about six minutes of deep, piano-laced build until a sweet break down and a peak (complete with vocals) that should have the kids going crazy. Must hear out.

Thoughts? Ideas? What new shit are yall pumping in March?(/commentbait)

Look right

So a new feature here at YMD, given how we mostly post about old songs but there is a bunch of new music I'm mad excited about, I'ma try to install this imeem playlist of new hot shit, on the sidebar. It'll be updated every month or two with new hotness and hopefully some folks will find enjoyable new-ish jams to jam to.

This first playlist is basically my favorite stuff of late 2008/2009 so far, and it starts with the previously mentioned Fever Ray, aka Karin from the Knife. It's a wonderful dirge, and the production on the vocals (both the typically Knifey parts and the parts on which you can here her mouth clicking) puts it over the top.

Next we have my new fave Taylor Swift, who is apparently playing NYC in August. Lord willing, I will be there. "Forever & Always" is one of my favorite songs from her 2008 album Fearless and is apparently about Taylor's breakup with Joe Jonas. Her and Miley are performing together at the Grammys this weekend, and if they do this song I can see the Jonas Brothers exploding, which, though I have nothing against them, would be hilarious.

Lily Allen's #1 UK single is called "the Fear" and is quite excellent. I'm mixed (but edging towards positive) about Lily's ultra self-aware reflections on celebrity, but the song is gorgeous.

Then there are selections off of new records from two of my freshman year faves, Franz Ferdinand and the Junior Boys. The Franz is nothing new for them, but really fun. The JBeez is a lovely, fairly minimalistic little electro-soul number, and this wonderful, gentle saxophone appears for a bit, and everyone (except the people who will hate it) is happy.

That is followed by a Lindstrom remix of Boredoms, from the excellent and unexpected new Super Roots 10. It's wondrous, maximalistic disco overload, that makes Boredoms and Lindstrom seem like a completely natural pairing.

Then comes the R&B section. The-Dream put out one of last winter's best records, and "Rockin That Thang" will hopefully launch his new record to greater commercial success. The man has a way with vocal harmonies. There are two tracks from the bangin R&B Kings 2009 Volume 2 mixtape (automatic audio watch on that link). I'm as surprised as you that my second favorite track on it is a Jagged Edge song produced by Jermaine Dupri, but it's smooth as hell and I hope it's a single. Ciara and Chris Brown's "Turntables" is the best though, an unstoppable, 200mph dance track that better be huge by the end of the year. Also in R&B land, Cassie producer Ryan Leslie's album is finally coming out and it closes with the hilarious and gorgeous "Gibberish". Listen for yourself.

We close with "I Am Speaking Through Barbara" by the Fun Years, my favorite track from Kompakt's Pop Ambient 2009 comp. We don't listen to a whole lot of ambient here at 2009, but this track is straight gorgeous.

Hope these serve yall well in the winter. Holler.

It's coming at me through the trees

233. The Futureheads - "Hounds of Love" (679 Recordings, 2005)
234. Kate Bush - "Hounds of Love" (EMI Records, 1986)
235. The Futureheads - "Le Garage" (from the self-titled LP, 679 Recordings, 2004)
236. The Futureheads - "Area" (679 Recordings, 2005)

Lest this list starts looking too much like me running away from the indie I listened to from the ages of like 17-20, let's talk about a band called the Futureheads. 2004 was an exciting time. John Kerry was about to be president. The Chicago Cubs were about to win the World Series. Life was good. It was at this wonderful time that I graduated high school and went off to study in the Bronx and started listening to all these excitable young bands from across the ocean. There was the Franz. There was the Bloc Party. There were the Libertines (yeesh). But nearest and dearest to my heart were the Futureheads. I think I saw them live five times in less than two years (oddly enough missing the tour on which they opened for Franz), starting with a weird showcase type show at the Canal Room, which me and the homeboy Edgar nervously walked into with our fake IDs. They were really great live, from the banter to the execution of the harmonies to the relentless speed and energy. I haven't seen the band since they put out their pretty ok second album and their disappointing third one, but don't worry boys, I still love ya.

What immediately set the Futureheads apart from their Brit contemporaries was their harmonies. Most of their songs give you like three different parts to sing along to, and, you know, variety is the spice of something or other, so that's awesome. Also, they're hilarious in their ability to sprinkle oddly affecting lyrics into what seems like breakneck absurdity, an ability I hold very dear (see Mclusky). "Le Garage" and "Area" are both geek out songs for me, the former probably stronger lyrically and melodically, the latter charging hard 100% to a blazing finish line somewhere on the horizon. The Futureheads' shining moment, however, was their cover of Kate Bush's indecision anthem (heh) "Hounds of Love", which they tweak by making the wordless hooks (which they add a few of) the centerpiece of the song. The "oh oh oh" part at 2:31 is the emotional high point of the song and, let's be serious, probably of my freshman year of college.