Michael Jackson RIP

Weird day. I miss getting up for my alarm, a thunderstorm of Biblical proportions hits the city, and while buying records, I notice a girl buying a stack of Michael Jackson CDs and books, near tears at the register. When I go to pay the girl behind the counter asks me if I heard about Michael Jackson yet. I think he's done some outlandish stunt again, but instead find out that MJ died. Yep, the legendary musician, at one time delegated with the title of the King of Pop passed away at the age of 50 after going into cardiac arrest. I cannot say I am particularly sad or shocked about his death, and considering the past 15 to 20 years of his career its not exactly a loss the contemporary musical landscape. Yet there is still something odd about hearing someone so famous and influential passed away. Perhaps underground rapper DOOM said it best: "A little bit of everyone died today, I can tell you a piece of me just did. Let's just say this is the first time I've watched MTV in a long time." Word is born.

Album of the Week: Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

Call it art rock or experimental pop, but Dragonslayer certainly has weirdness to it. Sunset Rubdown have created an album that tenses and flexes as if about to strike, yet then recedes into placidity. This may seem like an odd description, but a listen to the album relays a series of these push and pull moments in which the bombastic melts into the calm, where anxiety churns into puppy-eyed affection. All of this can be heard in the album’s opener, “Silver Moons”, in which a baroque pop orchestration builds upon itself, ending up as a glam-rock anthem. The rest of the album plays a similar game and push-and-pull, though jumping amongst jittery new wave (“Idiot Heart”), the indie-pop of fellow Montréal groups Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade (“Paper Lace”), and complex punk-prog arrangements (“Dragon’s Lair”). If one tried to pin a mood down on the whole affair, one could see the album as mournful. Though Sunset Rubdown main songwriter Spencer Kurg has never shied away from the themes of death and loss, these have never formulated their selves so principally in the group’s previous catalog. The lyrics read like suicide poetry as Kurg belts out about empty rooms, departed(deceased?) lovers, and confetti floating away “like dead leaves”. Thankfully the album does not lose itself to any maudlin tendencies, and the record’s heavy subject matter is counter-balanced by buoyant choruses and Kurg’s bombastic vocals, which sound eerily more like Bowie than ever before. Much like Bowie’s Berlin trilogy of albums, the Arcade Fire, or the recent Dirty Projectors, Dragonslayer revels in the oppressive and darker aspects of life in such a celebratory fashion its as if Kurg and co. recorded the sounds of fending off the demons of human doubt and desperation. Always walking a fine line between indulgence and opacity, Sunset Rubdown have got the balance completely right, and in the process have created their first real masterpiece.

Listen To: Paper Lace, Idiot Heart, Silver Moons

RIYL: David Bowie, Wolf Parade, the Dirty Projectors

Play List: June 23, 2009

Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
The Peace Leaches – Surfin in the Soil (ROYGBIV)
The Dirty Projectors – Useful Chamber (Bitte Orca)
David Bowie – Aladin Sane (1913-1938-197?) (Aladin Sane)

Sunset Rubdown – Paper Lace (Dragonslayer)
Sunset Rubdown – Silver Moons (Dragon Slayer)

Vieux Farka Toure – Fafa (Fondo)
Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada – Tu Fin, Mi Gomienze (Coconut Rock)
Johnny West – Croutons of Your Mind (If I Had a Quarter…)
Fever Ray – Seven (Fever Ray)
Bonnie Pope and Micah – Sometimes Words (My Name is Caleb and I Like to Dance)

Mastodon – Ghost of Karelia (Crack the Skye)
sunn 0))) – Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia) (Monoliths & Dimensions)
Dinosaur Jr. – Your Weather (Farm)

Mos Def - Supermagic (The Ecstatic)

Play List: June 16, 2009

30th Anniversary of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division - Disorder
The Cure - A Short Term Affect
OMD - Gravity Never Failed
Shihoko Hirata - Heaven
Joy Division - Day of the Lords
Joy Division - Candidate
Joy Division - Insight
U2 - A Day Without Me
New Order - This Time of Night
Joy Division - New Dawn Fades
Joy Division - She's Lost Control
Joy Division - Shadowplay
Joy Division - Wilderness
Joy Division - Interzone
The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
Nine Inch Nails - Dead Souls
Joy Division - I Remember Nothing

Unknown Pleasure's Tribute Show on June 16

June 16 will feature a special edition of Fear of Music in which the 30th anniversary of Joy Division's seminal 1979 album Unknown Pleasures will be commemorated.

This debut album for the Manchester quartet utilized a distinct angular and atmospheric sound that many claim to have catalysed the genre known as 'Goth-rock' and crystallized the sound of post-punk music for years to come. This program will examine the history of the album's origin, highlight its influence on a number of musicians, and explore its contemporary legacy in music, film, and other media. Tune in this Tuesday from 1-2:30pm to celebrate the release of this important work, and to listen to the classic album in its entirety.

Play List: June 09, 2009

"In Dave's absence I will continue his hatred of the Mac"

Nomo – Bumbo (Invisible Cities)

Japandroids – Sovereignty (Post-Nothing)
Sonic Youth – No Way (The Eternal)
Thee Oh Seas – Ruby Go Home (Help)
Tortoise – Prepare Your Coffin (Beacons of Ancestorship)

The Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the Move (Bitte Orca)

Bike for Three! – All There is to Say About Love (More Heart Than Brains)

Nosaj Thing - IOIO (Drift)
Busdriver – Least Favourite Rapper (Jhelli Beam)
The New Law – Hell’s Gates (High Noon)

The Prince Brothers - Dorothy (From this Place)
Lee Harvey Osmond – Cuckoo’s Nest (A Quiet Evil)
Luxury Pond – Boulders (Luxury Pond)
Grizzly Bear – Foreground (Veckatmest)

Jeff Hanson - The Last Thing I’ll Do (Madame Owl)
Iggy Pop – Spanish Coast (Preliminaires)
Lou Reed – Last Great American Whale (New York)
Field Assemby - Alkali (Broadsides & Ephemera)

Tiga – Shoes (Ciao!)

Album of the Week: The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

What springs to mind immediately when discussing Bitte Orca, the newest release from Brooklyn indie rock group the Dirty Projectors? Goddamn hipsters! Arg! Critically adored, cult like adoration, and have you seen those haircuts? I bet they recorded Bitte Orca on a Mac! I bet group founder/ songwriter Dave Longstreth edited it on his Mac while sitting in a Starbucks. I bet singers Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian went into the studio (which is probably Longstreth’s house outfitted to record on his Mac) after coming back from shopping for over priced t-shirts at American Eagle. Even scenester taste setters Pitchfork.com and Tinymixtapes gave the thing rave reviews, the ultimate recognition of hipster-aimed music! Gah, I really want to hate this album…so why do I love it so much?
Ever since I first heard “Stillness is the Move” I haven’t been able to get its chiming synth lines and slinking rhythm out of my head. It perfectly melds Remain in Light era Talking Heads and Dirty Mind era Prince into a futurist stomp, it’s robotic chilliness imbuing the love spoken of in the song with more than a tinge of irony. No doubt about it, this catchy thing is one of the best tracks of the year. The remainder of the album fares incredibly well too. The deconstructionist elements of the compositions no longer seem tacky or like showing off as they had on previous Dirty Projectors releases, but somehow integral to the works (such as the repetitious guitar line in “Remade Horizon” and the fractured chords of “Two Doves”). Though I still find Longstreth’s vocals somewhat annoying and pompous, he has made vast improvements in his vocal delivery since 2007’s Black Flag tribute Rise Above, and incidentally made has allowed for some emotional residence and vulnerability this time around. Perhaps the greatest addition to the Dirty Projectors’ sound is the subtle evocations of African music in the poly-rhythmic arrangements of both percussion and string instruments and the off-kilter vocal harmonies. This is sure to delight fans of the aforementioned Talking Heads as well as those who enjoy Vampire Weekend, Graceland, or Peter Gabriel’s early solo material. I would not quite nail this as a perfect release, but hopefully my hate-love relationship with the group will pass and I’ll end up enjoying Bitte Orca more than I already do…even if it was recorded by a bunch a Mac using hipsters.

Listen To: Stillness is the Move, Remade Horizon, Useful Chamber
RIYL: Talking Heads, Bjork, Prince

Play List: June 02, 2009

"If it doesn't destroy the ozone, then its not working."

The Kinks – The Village Green Preservation Society (The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society)

Ofo & the Black Company – Allah Wakbarr (Nigeria 70: Definitive Story)
Demon Fuzz – Disillusioned Man (Afreaka)
Branford Marsalis Quartet – Jabberwocky (Metamorphosen)

Sunn O))) – Big Church (Monoliths & Dimensions)

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise (Eating Us)
Field Assembly – Old Spell (Broadsides & Ephemera)
Pony Up! – Charles (Stay Gold)
Quiet Parade – Only Bones (Labour Day)

(wh)y.m.e.(??) – All That Remains (AEIOU)
Passion Pit – Folds in Your Hands (Manners)
Patrick Wolf – Oblivion (The Bachelor)
High Contrast – Remember When (True Colors)

T. Nile – Reverie (The Cabin Song EP)
Buddy & Julie Miller – Gasoline and Matches (Written in Chalk)

Manic Street Preachers – Me and Stephen Hawking (Journal for Plague Lovers)
Au Revoir Simone – All or Nothing (Still Night, Still Light)

Def3& Factor – Leaders vs. Followers (Drumbo)

Album Pick of the Week: Sunn 0))) - Monoliths & Dimensions

In a decade where so much of the musical climate has consisted of revisionist plagiarism and rehashing past sounds, it’s a godsend to be able to hear something truly new and unprecedented. This godsend comes from the revered drone doom duo sunn 0))) who have finally released their seventh and mightiest studio album, Monoliths & Dimensions. This four track, 53 minute album sees the group moving their farthest away from their “drone metal” critic-pigeonhole to something closer to the avant-garde compositions of John Cage or Arvo Part. The epic choral arrangements of “Big Church” and the jazz-laden ballad “Alice” are evidence enough of this growth, while the surging opener “Aghartha” and the near battle anthem of “Hunting & Gathering” should appeal to fans of the group’s previous experiments with tone and time. This record also features the largest number of guests on a sunn 0))) release yet: Hungarian singer Attila Csihar, Earth’s Dylan Carlson, Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi, violinist Eyvind Kang, and even a Viennese choir are featured. Nothing the band has done before sounds as neither captivating nor as original as Monoliths & Dimensions. Perhaps the band best summed up this album in their own words: “the most musical piece we’ve done, and also the heaviest, powerful and most abstract set of chords we’ve laid to tape.” It is also their best.

Listen To: Big Church, Aghartha, Alice

RIYL: Earth, Catacombs, Arvo Part