Not to be confused with the latest joint by Thai Elephant Orchestra (yes, exactly what the name suggests), Elephonic are four humans from LA who provide some quirky, orchestral chillout music of their own.
Dooley-O
If his medium of choice were finger-picking or field hollering, hip-hop pioneer and graffiti advocate Dooley-O would have long since been immortalized by NPR or the Smithsonian as an influential folk artist obscured by the wrong time, place, and people. Instead, he’s quietly amassed a hype discography of one night stands with various shoestring labels. Well, here’s to one night stands…of the audio variety, of course.
Hot Hot Heat
For those who like your heat hot hot — and you know who you are — help yourself to a couple MP3s from the forthcoming Elevator. For those who like your heat canned…ahem, well, here’s to you.
Lorna
Leslie (last name protected to prevent stalking) is one of those angels sent from heaven masquerading as IT support. She floats through the hallways with a skip in her step and a song on her lips. Her first question is always, “When do you need this?” And, while her office looks like an ER for abused laptops and fried hard drives, she’s as good at chill conversation as she is at virus removal. Now that I’m in our decidedly more DIY Detroit office, I count new ways to miss her each day… Anyway, I discovered Lorna a while back when I left my laptop with Leslie for some kind of unscheduled maintenance and it came back with a couple “bonus” tracks on it (see what I mean?). Appropriately enough, the Nottingham-based Lorna have an angelic quality to them as well: wistful and utterly gorgeous boy/girl harmonies strung carefully over rich, heady, and often surprising orchestration. There are even more MP3s on the band’s website (requires free registration), but if you want to hear the two tracks that started this whole train of thought — “2AM Beach Story” and “Glow Worm” — you’ll need to buy their 2004 album This Time, Each Year. While you’re at it, pick up their latest, Static Patterns and Souvenirs. Heck, spring for a t-shirt, you tightwad!
Scientific American
It’s good to see Andrew Rohrmann (formerly of Hush Harbor) take on The Establishment by opting for the proper, if copyrighted, spelling of Scientific American. (Those who know him from his bedroom-beats-turned-commercial-beds on Slabco, know he used to drop the first “c” in Scientific, presumably to keep the lawyers at bay.) Those who don’t know the score can get caught up real quick. Simply set aside 109MB of hard drive space and bask in the generosity of Slabco’s free music policy.
EzeeTiger
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.
The One A.M. Radio
“Why, this singer/songwriter has the proud bearing and glossy coat of a Yale man.” Sorry, couldn’t resist. Yes, Hrishikesh Hirway (you’d change your name to The One A.M. Radio, too) is a Yalie, but far more important to this crowd, I reckon, are his whisper-quiet ballads which fingerpluck their way to your heart — not unlike those of Iron and Wine. If you find yourself wishing for just a bit more glitch to go with that guitar, check out On the Shore of the Wide World, which features The One A.M. Radio remixed by offbeat maestros Daedelus, Alias, and Caural, and holds weight on its own. (Thanks, Jeff, for dropping this in the suggestion box.)
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?
Mad Awkward
Mad Awkward. Story of my life. I guess I shouldn’t hate the guy for taking what would have been an awesome stage name for me, considering my skills never progressed far enough to warrant a stage name. Not only is it a great name, it somehow describes my man’s off-kilter yet entrancing production.
Matt Pond PA
I feel weird not letting Clay post this one, as he’d be able to tell you exactly what plot point warranted Matt Pond PA’s “New Hampshire” in a recent episode of “The O.C.” All I can tell you is recent plot points in my chaotic life have warranted the tender, string-buoyed comfort of Matt Pond PA’s “Fairlee.” And “A List of Sound.” And “Closer.” Not every track here is as cheerful as the above. But your personal plot points may warrant just that, so who am I to deny you?