I remember the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles. At least one of the bike races snaked around my friend Donald’s neighborhood in Laguna Hills. We went. Our view was a section of straightaway; it was as exciting as watching ice melt. When I was living in Salt Lake City, a couple of real nice fellows bribed the IOC into bringing the games to town. I set 2002 as my goal to leave Utah, a chance to move home and to avoid the hoopla that was sure to follow. I met my goal three years early… All of this as a preamble to say that “Braking (Hushed)” sounds like it could be the Olympic theme song if mankind is ever transformed into robots. That, or a really great remake of the Tron arcade game soundtrack. Speaking of arcade games, I swear there’s a Marble Madness sample in “Stereofoam.” I hope Quantazelle enjoys arcade games as much as I imagine she does.
Album
Sean’s not the only one talking about South by Southwest. The New York Times — one of the hippest, most progressive indie-friendly rags out there — mentioned Album in its coverage of SXSW. What a score! On the Monterrey (Mexico) band’s website, everything they’ve ever recorded is available in MP3 form, and a lot of it is wildly fresh and inventive. The sampling below starts with a suggested listening sequence supplied by the band, as well as a few more selected tracks that aren’t half bad either. Enjoy!
Below the Sea
If you’re looking for bright, pretty, upbeat ambient sounds, choose song #1, “Let It Happen.” If you’re looking for dark, pretty, slow ambient sounds, choose song #2, “Accord Final.” If you’re looking for more of the ambient sounds mentioned above, choose from the substantial discography of Quebec trio Below the Sea.
RX
Brilliant and hilarious speech mash-ups of George W. Bush set to classic melodies. These are gonna make your day. Six more tracks are available on The Party Party site. I have DJ Longbeard to thank for turning me onto this stuff. I’m privileged to be on the air at KUCI right before his show Synchronicity. It’s chock full o’ fun like this…dig in.
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.
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.