This guy Anthony Petrovic is soaking in irony: 1) He goes by EzeeTiger, yet he wears a bear suit on this cover of his latest album; b) he has song titles such as “White Castle Gestapo” and “How to Rock…for Red Bennies”; and, thirdly, he cops overdub trickery from the likes of Spiritualized and MBV, then kicks the crap out of it in a death-metal stylee. By the way, these two tracks are just lo-fi teasers of the wild smorgasbord his self-titled album has to offer.
Man Man
If you’ve ever been hitchhiking along a muddy country road in the middle of nowhere and been picked up by a beater Econoline van filled with career carnival professionals (and their children) who entertain you the remainder of your journey with their song and lore, Man Man should sound pretty familiar. If you haven’t…well, you haven’t really lived, have you?
Pepito
I was in New York, briefly, over the weekend with just enough time to buy a cheesecake from Carnegie Deli for my valentine (oh, she loved me for it), and to stroll through Central Park under Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Gates. Piped into my head through the trusty iPod, Pepito’s playful, stuttering pop was a wonderful audio accompanyment.
David Sylvian
I have a couple confessions to make. First, I feel asleep during a U2 concert. I’ve never been a big fan. I respect the band tremendously, but their music, and that concert in particular, just don’t do it for me. My second confession: I cried at a David Sylvian concert. Not that I wept out loud or anything, but his voice, its rich timbre, literally brought tears to my eyes. He has a long musical history, beginning with the band Japan, then his solo work. The first track, “Mothlight,” is an ambient piece composed as an accompanyment to a group of photographs. The remaining tracks include vocals and give a better sense of David Sylvian’s well-honed craft.
Perry Weismann 3
Let’s get the new year off to a good start! You may remember that last year 3hive brought you two projects of members of the Apples in Stereo, those being The High Water Marks and Ulysses. The Perry Weismann 3 features another member of the Apples, this time my fellow Tennessean Eric Allen (discovered when he saw my Tennessee license plate while getting into my car many years ago in Utah), along with ex-Neutral Milk Hotel and others. The PW3 drift from fuzzed out instrumentals to free style jazz and back again, two styles that don’t usually go together. Kind of like the title of this song from their last release. “Alaskan Jihad,” anyone?
StafrÊnn H·kon
The moment I mention StafrÊnn H·kon resides and records in Iceland, one or more of the following artists will come to mind: Bj–rk, Sigur RÛs, M™m. Once you hear his music, references to the former artists would be redundant, however the music itself is anything but: drum loops and percussion awash in introspective guitars and the tempo, just above the speed at which ice melts in Iceland.
DJ Riko
Our friend Jacob sent my wife a link with the following note: “Heard this tonight on KCRW and immediately thought that Sam would dig it…” I’m not sure if he thought I’d dig it because it comes from an album called Latter Day Taints (a knowing nod to my Mormon peeps) or because I’m a closet whistler. Either way, he’s right, I dig it real good. DJ Riko is a plundering masher-upper cat from Columbus, Ohio who either doesn’t have a day job or doesn’t sleep ’cause he’s mad prolific. For “Whistler’s Delight” he pulls a crateful of whistled “riffs” from various songs, beginning with Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers,” and takes us on a spotter’s field trip. By the way, if you can name all 22 songs used herein by year’s end, email Riko and he might award you with one of his fancy bootleg CDs. See his site for more details, and many more downloads — including a nice 55MB holiday mix.
Spaghetti Western
Sometimes melancholic, sometimes dimly hopeful compositions perfect for drives through the Mojave at dusk. The suggestion comes with a warning: Spaghetti Western may induce hallucinations of a Parisian circus circa 1890, slow-mo, black and white, flashbacks to a dizzy meal at La Mela in Little Italy, or of rainy Sunday mornings in a dark bedroom, illuminated by a PowerBook G4, eating Hershey’s Kisses, keying MP3 reviews into Movable Type.
Air King Sound
San Francisco experimental sound posse who create very brilliant haunted soundscapes, perfect for moody film scores and a certain sense of isolation. Owing a lot to Brian Eno, but still managing to claim their own sound. Favorite track: “Gomez Gomez.”
Love of Everything
Here’s some off-the-cuff, discordant pop, indebted to the likes of Daniel Johnston. Bobby Burg, recording as Love of Everything, writes and records music with the same healthy disrespect for the songwriting and recording process. Instead of striving for perfection, getting lost in the details, he seemingly gets his ideas and emotions out quick, without much thought. You may be tempted to write Burg off with just an obligatory listen, but with time you discover this boy’s got soul.