Meursault

I don’t know too much about this band, nor can I dig up much information on them, but they are from Edinburg and they’re heavy on the instrumentation including the accordian, banjo, ukuele, and cajon drums. And there are only three of them. I feel like they are one of those gems, those real magical bands that just don’t seem to have the properly executed campaign, or any viable platform to get their name out there- but they seem to be relying on the idea of success finding them. And you know, it may very well happen. Their sound is very Frightened Rabbit with extra layers and elements making it an ethereal experience, a quick tempo, hasty, you know? I have been listening to their song, The Furnace- literally on repeat since I found it. I just know you’ll enjoy their brand of strange and chaotic folk. Check out their Toad Sessions below–

Meursault- The Dirt & The Roots

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Meursault- Nothing Broke

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Woodpigeon

Woodpigeon is what Canadian folk music should sound like. Their upcoming album ‘ Die Stadt Muzikaten’ takes cues from Neil Young, Iron and Wine, or Belle and Sebastien, with a generational sadness that passes through folk music regardless of the decade. There is a subtle crack of old fashioned recording on the first track of the same name, with more full-bodied, twinkling tracks like ‘Duck Duck Goose’. Every tracks falls into the other seamlessly, without resistance. The album, in it’s entirety, is filled with campfire jams, and house gathering songs. The 8-member group hails from Calgary, Alberta- which has become a hotbed of new independent music. Canada is carefully making a name for itself in music, taking caution, and collectively apologizing for the acts that precede them like Nickelback and Avril Lavigne (we do apologize).

Woodpigeon- Die Stadt Muzikaten

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Woodpigeon- Empty Hall Sing Along

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Julianna Barwick

The minute I heard her song, ‘Dancing With Friends’ one of my friends’ faces popped into my head smiling, because if he heard it, he would fall in love with it. What a great feeling. Julianna Barwick is eerie, she’s floating, her songs can make you fall into a deep meditative state, they’re peaceful, like you’re sitting in the golden church pews of heaven. She creates a dreamlike state for each listener, taking them to realms previously untouched, unprovoked.

She eases you into this place with great joy, a soft face. It’s cyclical and loopy. She had once said that most of her songs begin as a warm up, a work in progresses, bits of harmonies, heating and vibrating the vocal chords. They then take shape and become these gorgeous pieces. 

Her latest album ‘Florine’ is a serene bunch of sonic experimentation that lulls you and makes your heartbeat quiet and steady. I think she is just radiant.

Julianna Barwick- Dancing With Friends

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Julianna Barwick- Bode

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Life Partners

Their first track, ‘The Only Living Goy in Jew York’ is hugely offensive, funny, and threatening- you really just question your own integrity if you’re into these dudes. Several of their songs are about AIDS, along with another track called ‘Wha Happened’ which is a really funny soundbite commonly heard on the Dean Blundell show in Toronto, does anyone listen to those dudes in the morning? This band is the soundtrack of their lives.. I bet you’re wondering why I would end this post with a god-awful screeching, garage punk band, but I sincerely think they are too ridiculous not to include. They’re so perverted and out of their GD minds, but sometimes we need those kinds of bands to make us appreciate the narratives in music, right? I mean.. rapists whose victims are too willing? I feel offensive just describing that. So weird.

Ross Corder- this band is for you. 

Life Partners- The Only Living Goy in Jew York

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illustration: Johnnie Cluney 

I’ve been listening to Bad Veins quite a lot today as I get some work out of the way before the real challenge makes it’s way onto my to-do list: PACKING. Ugh I hate packing. I skim on everything, I leave everything behind and I never do it well. I realized I’ve never really mentioned this band to anyone, but I have been consistently impressed with them. Mostly by the fact that they are a duo- Benjamin Davis and Sebastian Schultz, that kind of big orchestral sound comes from two bodies. It amazes me much like The Dodos do.

But they sound very Phantom Planet, a little thicker vocals, a bit more distorted- but the same idea. Their full length came out sometime this year, and it is exquisite. I love their song, ‘Gold and Warm’, as it goes, “’cause we go, where sun lies gold and warm’ which is precisely what I’ll be doing after this week. They recently did a Daytrotter tour with The Subjects, while Benjamin kept a tour diary that you can read here. It’s adorable, clever, self-depracating and humble. I can’t wait to here more from these guys. 

Bad Veins- Gold and Warm

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Bad Veins- This Ending

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Any chance for me to drop the name, ‘Mountains‘…

Out Jan 26th- Los Campesinos‘ Romance is Boring is a flustered, angry,  infatuated collection of songs that grow and stretch making way for a full blown celebration about love and hating it. Ripe with super catchy hooks and rhythmic guitars, along with a choir of vocals shouting in nearly every song.

This album is fun and energetic, it’s got that youthful sweat pouring out of it- you know when you’re just so pissed on something, and it becomes so dramatic, and relationship magnify out of boredom. A lot of the songs, like ‘I just sighed…’, ‘Romance is Boring’ and ‘This is a Flag..’ have a pulsing beat, heavy percussion rivaled only by guitar solos and a rising mess of noise to build the momentum. It’s like an angry ‘Slow Club’, or Frightened Rabbit at a party with chicks. ‘We’ve Got Your Back’ is one of my favorites, it’s such an anthem of solidarity and the vocal roundabouts are quite beautiful. It’s a little new wave, a lot awesome and mostly a really rad album worthy of some time at your NYE party. 

Los Campesinos- Romance is Boring

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Los Campesinos- Heart Swells/100-1

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The Flaming Lips are hosting a NYE bash in Oklahoma and it’d be the only appropriate time to say I wish I lived there. Just a few days ago they released ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ paying homage to Pink Floyd by reinventing some of their psych rock with ample distortion, sound effects and guests like Henry Rollins, Peaches, along with Stardeath and White Dwarfs.

I love how weird these dudes are, and that their LP from this year landed them on nearly every ‘best  of’ list possible, hovering in the top ten regions, quite obviously. Does anyone else recognize how terribly cool it is to loove Embryonic, or The Flaming Lips for that matter? For some reason, their name immediately garners you sufficient credibility, and why wouldn’t it- songs about animals are sooo cool right now. They’ll be performing all of Dark Side on NYE, so if you are anywhere near Oklahoma City, just.. do the cool thing and go. 

The Flaming Lips- Eclipse

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The Flaming Lips- Any Colour You Like

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The Shape of the Earth is singer songwriter- Gavin Boscom, who is putting out a full length just as equally epic called, “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?” whatever that means.. From what I’ve heard, I really love it. He’s got the kind of voice that sounds like he’s almost always about to cry, and sings softly just like those Dashboard Confessional songs we memorized in high school.

He drags out his vocals, like ‘must I finish this sentence? I’m… so tired.. from all this introspection’. I’m kidding, mostly. I really do enjoy some of these songs and have been throwing the track ‘Alone In This’ on a few mixes. He says the name for the band came out of the idea that the shape of the earth can be all things, it can be both flat and round, there is an ambiguity to it- much like the project itself. That’s a good thing too, because indie music is running a serious deficit on ambiguity! He does manage to poke fun at himself as a ‘typical rockstar wannabe’ which I thought was cute, and silly. 

The Shape of the Earth- Alone in This

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The Shape of the Earth- My Defects

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The Shape of the Earth- An Audio Scribble (Rock Star Wannabe)

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My friend Andrea Nakhla is awesome. Andrea sent me an album that could totally pass for the soundtrack of her life. I would imagine it playing it in the background while she rode her bike in a dress to buy some lemonade and take polaroids of trees, but in a totally non-cliche kind of way, because she’d just as quickly say ‘fuck’ or something and you’d laugh because she’s so adorable anyway. I hungout with Andrea when I was in San Diego, and we managed to have the laziest two weeks of our life, every morning found itself in the PM, we ate the same shitty pancakes everyday, and we lazily decided whether we wanted to walk Hillcrest in circles because we had no money to get anywhere, or go to Balboa and listen to stand-up on our iPods. It was the best time ever. This time of rest was more than needed, we had both endured the busiest year of our lives, and forgot what it felt like to function without the assistance of caffeine and tears. 

So the band is called ‘When I Was 12‘ and it sounds like young girls (and boys)  romanticizing their youth with costume dresses, cake, overgrown bangs, and soft acoustic harmonies. They strum on about love and awkward things that girls in Urban changeroom lineups talk about. You’d do good to listen, rather that peruse through their photos, because all the teddy bears, quilts, forests and the like will make your eyes sore. THANKS ANDREA!

When I Was 12- You, Me & Symmetry

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When I Was 12- Knick Knacks and Heart Attacks

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When I  Was 12- Kitten, I’m Smitten

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News of Vic Chesnutt’s death yesterday was something of an event prophesized through his eerie folk songs of his own final relief. He would sing slowly and sadly to death as if it were constant presence, something tangible, counting a clock and speaking to it as if it had it’s own ears. ‘Flirted With You All My Life’ is the sobering awareness of one’s impermanence, something always looming on the other side of the night’s sleep. A brush he has felt at least once before, after surviving an accident at 18 leaving him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. 

Knowing that your days are numbered can serve as a great reminder for the things that you can do should God allow for it. Your own mortality could be your greatest tool, the humility to understand your own smallness, and the joy to create within your fleeting journey. Without it, we’d all be sleeping through this life anyway, right? What a great testament to the strenght of the human spirit, despite one’s physical limitations and heavy thoughts. Death has always been the motive for creativity, and in doing so, conquers it. What a great artist to have lost. He will be missed.

Vic Chesnutt- Warm

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Vic Chesnutt- Flirted with You All My Life

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Vic Chesnutt- Stupid Preoccupations

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Our friend Ross has finally decided to share his vegan knowledge with the world, and has a really rad blog called ‘Vegan Eats Blog‘ that we’d really love for you to check out. Even if you continue to ignorantly and primitively consume animal products, (kiddinggg) you can still learn a thing or two about making an unreal meal! Veganism isn’t some kind of elitist society of malnurished purists that ride their fixies to yoga class- it’s a super friendly community that’s growing faster than you’d think, with vegan restaurants in nearly every metropolitan city and about as many food blogs as music blogs. People really love food, and increasingly, they want to know where their food comes from, whether it’s meat or not. How far did it travel? Who made it? And hey- why don’t I make it myself! I just started cooking later this year, and it’s a really rewarding thing to know how to cook for yourself. It’s like in gradeschool when you make shitty looking art, but you still want to brag to everyone about it. 

Ross is awesome at what he does, and he has an appreciation for food that we should all have. Food is a friggen pleasure people, and we should all learn how to respect it, and love it, and share it with others. Check out his blurg and write him if you have any questions, he’d be happy to help a ‘pal out. Vegan Eats Blog, yo!

 photo- Jason Nocito

Time is running on a serious deficit up here. I know that’s probably the most cliche thing anyone can say about the Christmas season, but my time crunch has almost nothing to do with that! I’ve been meaning to post more regularly and I have A TON of stuff to share with you all.. but my schedule is insane, unfair, and really.. inhumane. Our beloved friend Andrea Dyer has now return home, so you’ll be seeing her regularly up here… or else I’ll take the ‘s’ off friends, and it’ll take too much work for me to figure out how to do that. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I do apologize, and more stuff is on the way, I’m in the middle of two jobs, moving, and fitting in some nights of sleep. Forgive me, will you? Alright, for today here are some Christmas tracks. Enjoy!

I’m headed to the city  with Ross to meet our sweet friend Billy Hamilton, then I’m going to force Ross to buy a non vegan clothing item. I know you all love Ross, really.. the fanmail, it’s too much. I’ve got some BIG NEWS to share with you about Ross very very very soon!

Carol of the Bells- Phantom Planet

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Hey Parker, Its Christmas- Ryan Adams

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Holy Holy Holy- Sufjan Stevens

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Drummer, Jason Boesel most notably has played under bands like Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, The Elected etc. But his time with the Mystic Valley Band must have ignited something within him, like just the right amount of exploration and encouragement you got when you were just a kid that got you to where you were now. Someone liked your drawings. Someone told you, you know- you’re real good at that. I would imagine that was all it took for Boesel to pick up a guitar and eventually record a solo album- coming out Jan 12th called ‘Hustler’s Son’. Among the impressive lineup of collaborators and studio pals was one Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, which immediately led me to take notice of the project. His voice sounds a little like Mason Jennings. He recently recorded a Daytrotter Session which nowadays means you’ve made it in some capacity, however his previous resume would’ve affirmed that anyway. 

Jason Boesel- New World Mama

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Jason Boesel- Black Waves

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