MINI BOONE !! old school artlovers – gotta love that name !! – play GLASSLANDS – WED FEB 5 3/2010/8PM/$8 – it’s their ‘BIG CHANGES’ record release par-tay !!

check out: MINI BOONE – on MySpace !!
check out: MINI BOONE on YouTube !!
check out: Pet Ghost Project !!
check out: I’m Turning Into !!
check out: Shark?

The Drums – ‘Let’s Go Surfing’.

The Antlers – ‘Two’.

JJ no. 1 – ‘my life, my swag’.

JJ – ‘things will never be the same again.’

Girls – ‘Lust For Life’.

Dirty Projectors – ‘Stillness Is the Move’.

Dirty Projectors – ‘I Pity The Poor Immigrant (acoustic)’.

Your Heart Breaks – ‘The Hideout (10/25/07) Part 1 of 3′.

Kimya Dawson and Your Heart Breaks – ‘Torrey Pines’.

note: SIMON would like to add that the DRUMS and the DIRTY PROJECTORS – are Brooklyn-based.

It seems a lot of today’s great music comes in two people groups like Wavves, Beach House, and Wye Oak. Wye Oak’s JENN WASNER and ANDY STACK – out of BALTIMORE !! – have put together one of the decade’s best debut CDs – 2008′s - If Children.

Their musical goal is to combine their acoustic/folk talents with their love of electric garage sounds. They have done this seamlessly on If Children, while their second CD – The Knot – leans more on the electric, though it is awesome in its own way !! The whole of If Children is amazing to listen to all the way through. The individual masterpieces on the CD are: ‘Please Concrete’, ‘Warning’, ‘Regret’, ‘I Don’t Feel Young’, ‘Keeping Company’, and the magnificent – ‘If Children’.

Since I feel that the best way to discover new music is on YouTube, I recommend you catch Wye Oak’s great acoustic: ‘I Don’t Feel Young’ – which was videotaped in the backseat of a car. God Bless YouTube.

ARTWORK BY KATHERINE FAHEY.
COPYRIGHT 2008 MERGE RECORDS

check out: WYE OAK’S – JENN WASNER & ANDY STACK – perform ‘I DON’T FEEL YOUNG’/YouTube !!

check out: WYE OAK – ‘PLEASE CONCRETE’/YouTube !!

check out: WYE OAK – OFFICIAL WEBSITE !!

check out: WYE OAK/MySpace !!

above: WAVVES – WAVVES – the 1st CD
below: WAVVES – WAVVVES – the 2nd CD

Hey, guess what, the sonic BOOMMM is finally here – WAVVES have landed.

The first 2 CDs by this awesome duo out of San Diego are here to blow you and your mind away. The Neo-Surf music/songs that guitarist/singer NATHAN WILLIAMS and amazing drummer RYAN ULSH thrash out are a ray of sunshine in this desolate ‘PUNK’ and ‘ROLL’ landscape.

The lyrics are totally authentic. Whatever these two (of-the-moment) artist/musicians live and feel, they express clearly and with great force. This music is great “noise” coupled with such catchy melodies and straight-ahead rock that you want to Bang your head all day and night with their music.

I suggest you start at a lower volume to acclimate your ears to the intensity of the music. But to really GET IT !! PLAY IT LOUD. I would also recommend that you listen to both CDs from start to finish, because the noise parts in between the great songs are beautiful. This is music for nobodies going nowhere but Up. My fave songs are ‘California Goth’, ‘Wavves’, ‘Side Yr On’, ‘Beach Goth’, and ‘Teenage Super Party’ on the first CD – titled: WAVVES. While on the second CD – titled: WAVVVES, I like ‘To The Dregs’, ‘Gun in the Sun’, ‘So Bored’, ‘No Hope Kids’, and that monster second version of ‘Beach Goth’.

watch: WAVVES – Part 1 – by Yours Truly !!

watch: WAVVES – Part 2 – by Yours Truly !!

watch: WAVVES – Part 3 – by Yours Truly !!

watch: So Bored [Echo Curio 11-15-08] AVI !!

WAVVES, WAVVES woodisit022 C & P 2008, woodsist.com

WAVVES, WAVVVES, C & P 2009, Fat Possum Records LLC, www.fatpossum.com
(this CD comes with an insert 2 sided full color poster, detailed above – 6th image down)

definite, check out: woodsist !!

It seems that musically the area around Seattle, just keeps on giving.

First it was Nirvana, then Beck with Calvin Johnson on that great album, One Foot in the Grave, and then all those awesome Built to Spill CDs, followed lately by Joanna Newsom.
The latest addition to these music giants is the band Fleet Foxes. You should get their same titled debut full-length CD, as well as their amazing EP, Sun Giant. In my mind both discs form on amazing whole.

The music is neo-folk with a real drive to it. Great vocal harmonies and some very tender moments, totally authentic and mesmerizing. One of the best CDs of 2008. Check out the radical White Winter Hymnal video on YouTube, since it is one of their best songs. Other great songs are Ragged Wood, Your Protector, Oliver James, Meadowlarks, oh, never mind – all the songs are great. Truly a delight.

definite, check out: Fleet Foxes/White Winter Hymnal/YouTube – the definition of m-e-s-m-e-r-i-z-i-n-g !!

Fleet Foxes, Sun Giant, COPYRIGHT 2008 SUB POP RECORDS

Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes, COPYRIGHT 2008 SUB POP RECORDS
note: this CD has an amazing black on black – raised imprint pattern on the CD – which cannot be seen on the above scan. it also has an insert black and white poster, a really nice hand rendered drawing.
ya, gotta buy the CD !! to see it & the disc label artwork.
drop by OTHER MUSIC – and put your eyeballs – on it, at source.
White Winter Hymnal is on this CD.

see: SUB POP RECORDS

SINCE Panda Bear’s CD – Personal Pitch – of 2007, proved that great, beautiful and
important music can be made using all those exotic electronic musical toys, I wholeheartedly
recommend the High Places’ debut self-titled CD – HIGH PLACES.

This girl-boy team make really lyrical electronic noise that’s original, majestic and emotive.
And, guess what !! – you can also dance to it.

There is also buzz circulating about the THRILL JOCKEY EP of earlier 7 in. vinyls – the band had put out, before this full-length CD.

Listen to it LOUD, so that it’s lush seductive sound envelopes and dominates you.
The one music video on “Yours is the only Tube” – is not to be missed.
Bells, whistles and shakers forever, so Rock on Girls and Boys.

DEFINITE, check out: High Places – Shared Islands – LIVE at the FADER SIDESHOW !! NYC, Oct 17, 2007

watch the whole concert: c/o BAEBLE MUSIC !!

High Places, HIGH PLACES, Recorded at home by High Places in 2008, THRILL JOCKEY
see: THRILL JOCKEY

Since I feel that The Mountain Goats’ new CD, Heretic Pride, (see my review below), is one of the best CDs of the decade, it is my duty to mention another Mountain Goats masterpiece, ALL HAIL WEST TEXAS. This 2001 CD is a great example of John Darnielle’s signature ‘low-fi’ style of that time.

If one goes through a list of CDs that The Mountain Goats have issued, one will be amazed. This ‘guy with a guitar’ played and wrote faster and deeper than he breathed. A lot of the material went to very independent compilations.

I was introduced to his music, when I happened upon Zopilote Machine in 1994.
By the time ALL HAIL WEST TEXAS came out, I had searched and digested most of his output.

Mr. John Darnielle was also an intelligent and vocal advocate for underground music then. I will not get into details about the songs, except to mention the fact that The Mountain Goats have ‘great heart’ – as seen in the songs: “Color In Your Cheeks”, “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton” and “The Mess Inside”.

Get this CD, and see . . . if you have a great heart.

The Mountain Goats, ALL HAIL WEST TEXAS, copyright 2001, EMPEROR JONES (EJ41CD)

P.S. “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton” has become a cult classic – here are 5 live versions. All are great.

1. The Mountain Goats/YouTube !!

2. The Mountain Goats/YouTube !!

3. The Mountain Goats/YouTube !!

4. The Mountain Goats/YouTube !!

5. The Mountain Goats/YouTube !!

and check out:

- The Mountain Goats/”One Fine Day”YouTube !!

- The Mountain Goats/”Going To Georgia”/YouTube !!

– The Mountain Goats/”Sax Rohmer #1″/YouTube !!

see: The Mountain Goats/official website !!

(Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, 2007/Christopher Wilson/COURTESY: Band of Horses

The second CDs of both Beirut (The Flying Club Cup) and Band of Horses (Cease To Begin) expand on the musical pleasures enjoyed in their debuts – see reviews below.

Since I am always on a quest for that thrill that comes with discovering a “New” great sound, I sometimes miss the follow-up CDs of a great band.

On Beirut’s new CD, Zach Condon’s melodic voice is t stretched to great effect, while the music gets a little tighter in all the right places. On the Band of Horses’ new CD – the sound is more relaxed and not as etched as on their debut. Both groups’ second CD releases flesh out the promise of authenticity that was clearly declared in their first “gems”. It is so refreshing to hear music made by musicians who are enjoying themselves so much. VIVA LA INDEPENDENCE !!

Beirut, The Flying Club Cup, copyright 2007, reproduced by permission of EMI Music Publishing Ltd. London, BA DA BING
Album Photos found in Paris, France (chez Chryde)
Layout and design by KRISTIANNA SMITH & ALEXANDRA KLASINSKI

check out: In The Mausoleum/The Flying Club Cup

check out: The Penalty/The Flying Club Cup

check out: BEIRUT/official website !!

Band of Horses, CEASE To BEGIN, copyright 2007 SUB POP
All photography by CHRISTOPHER WILSON
Designed by DUSTY SUMMERS

check out: The Funeral/LETTERMAN (from 1st CD)

check out: Is There A Ghost (CEASE To BEGIN)/LETTERMAN

check out: BAND OF HORSES/official website !!

John Darnielle a.k.a. The Mountain Goats can be called the last “man with guitar standing”. For me, The Mountain Goats represent along with Cat Power, the Palace Brothers, Built to Spill, and the Elephant Six collective of groups, one of the pillars of 90s independent music.

At one point (mid 90s) I made a 90 min. tape of only Mountain Goats songs, that I still blissfully listen to today on a newly purchased antique Walkman. When the Goats signed with 4AD – I pulled back a few years, while Mr. Darnielle relentlessly plowed forward with 5 more CDs.

The sound on his latest CD Heretic Pride has been pumped up a notch without sacrificing any of the authenticity that he is so well known for. The title song, “Heretic Pride” is a masterpiece that highlights the many talents of Mr. “All Hail West Texas”.

One of the things that impressed me regarding his comments on his early CDs was that he was a “reader” – and proud of it. Being an audiophile, I also agree with his view that one’s playback system is a must for rich interior life. Don’t think twice about getting Heretic Pride – and if so inclined, go back and listen to the previous 11 CDs. Check out The Mountain Goats on YouTube and die happy.

ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN: VAUGHAN OLIVER / V23
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARC ATKINS / PANOPTIKA.NET

The Mountain Goats, Heretic Pride, P & C 2008 4AD LTD

check out: YouTube/”The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton”

check out: YouTube/”Woke Up New”

check out: YouTube/”No Children”

check out: YouTube/”Sax Rohmer”/HERETIC PRIDE

see: The Mountain Goats/official website

Here comes another great CD, OPEN FIELD, in English by a group from Sweden. This time it’s Victoria Bergsman and her solo project band, TAKEN BY TREES.

From 1995 to 2006 she was a founding member and lead singer of that well-established pop collective – the Concretes. She was also the female vocalist on the Peter Bjorn and John hit, “Young Folks”.

The vocals on this CD remind me of the Brazilian singer and bassist Isabel Monteiro of the cool 90’s British group, Drugstore, and also Mazzy Star – while the music has its own unique relaxed tempo as a result of the many (19) different musicians, and their instruments.

There is also a Chinese music influence in “Cedar Trees” which is really interesting. This lovely, and deceptively simply, and quiet, music made by this new collective – will make even the hard-hearted swoon.

GRAPHIC DESIGN BY OLOV SUNDSTROM

TAKEN BY TREES, OPEN FIELDS, copyright 2007 ROUGH TRADE RECORDS LTD

watch !!: VICTORIA BERGSMAN sing “Chosen One” – with the Concretes

sample the music: TAKEN BY TREES/myspace

visit: ‘HAVE YOU BEEN TAKEN’ – their official website