Fireworks after Midnight is one of my favorites from Summer House (2010), but – ALERT ALERT, Gold Motel fans – they just released a WHOLE NEW RECORD just yesterday.
It’s called Gold Motel and you can listen to it at Spinner and (if/when that link dies) at their Facebook. And then (most importantly!) you can buy it here.
They’re headed out on tour later this month as well, so also be sure to check the tour dates and see if they are stopping near you!
Sometimes waiting for new music is like a summer science experiment, the kind where you catch a caterpillar in late spring, put it in your cut-out milk jug terrarium, let it make a cocoon, and then spend several months waiting to see what kind of butterfly (if any) will come out.
I have several of these imaginary terrariums perched on my kitchen window. Early this morning I found a beautiful butterfly with sea and sand wings waiting for me: Beach Bones, by More Amor feat. Ryan Ross. It’s from More Amor’s new EP to be called In Spanish, evidently due in late July.
Retiring the butterfly metaphor: I like this song / video a whole lot. I’m especially fond of the extended cameo by the inflatable Stanley Cup.
Anyway, here it is, watch and enjoy:
This has been a fever-dream summer, in which I have been occasionally sleepless and sometimes adrift in a sea-fog of bleepy-bloopy fuzzy distorted electronic tones.
White Arrows are sometimes fuzzy and distorted too, but they also bring a certain amount of vibrant clarity to the proceedings – the sun burning off the fog, if you will.
They are the promises of wave-jumping, beach-lounging, Ferris Wheel riding, and eating terrible food on the boards at Coney Island that hover on my distant horizons.
A sampling of their sound, starting with Get Gone, from Dry Land is Not a Myth.
NOTE: This video uses strobe-y effects! Alternate visuals here.
NTSIBers, please meet Bethany Weimers, of Oxford, England. Harpischord Row is her first record; on it, she balances folk and pop in interesting ways, and weaves complex stories through delicate melodies. Every time one of her songs floats up on shuffle I pause for a moment to greet her characters properly, as they are compelling people.
Here is a video for the title track:
And one for 30,000 Days, wherein the video picture is somewhat unusual – filmed by Improbable Blue, the YouTube notes indicate it was originally recorded both in silhouette and in darkness, so what you see here is a “salvage job” – but I like it, as an unintended special effect:
Receiver is the debut album by Ian Curtis Wishlist, also known as Aaron Struble, of Springfield, Missouri. I found it while noodling around the internets looking for things to make my brain stop spinning while I made bar review flashcards (this will be a recurring theme in my life/posts until the end of July, just fyi) and I am here to tell you this is 1) deeply weird but also 2) really good.
I realize “he had me at hello” is a terrible cliche, but, well, he kind of did, or at least he had me at the first 30 seconds or so of Flutters, which you can watch the video for below. That beat is blunt. It’s arresting. It demands attention. I have sat through his record twice now, and the rest of it is equally compelling.
This video is less blunt, but I find that even though I’m kind of wondering what in the world is going on here, I don’t really need an explanation. I can enjoy it as a brief foray into WTAFville, which, much like Vitamin C, is something I feel one should have every day.
Another favorite from the record: emerald park i: awash in you
If you like it, Receiver is a free download at bandcamp, and there’s much more to be had at ICW’s Soundcloud. For example, this one which is called Flights, and is the work of both ICW and VΞRACOM:
VΞRACOM & ian curtis wishlist – FLIGHTS by ian curtis wishlist
And this one, which is called HWMY<3BHVS0.9 which I’m pretty sure translates to “How My Heart Behaves 0.9”:
HWMY<3BHVS0.9 by ian curtis wishlist
Or Late Night Viewing, I guess. Viewing and listening. This is the video for her new single, Every Single Night, from her new record The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, which will be out June 19.
All I’m going to tell you is she briefly wears an octopus as a hat, there are giant snails, and the power of her voice remains undimmed by time. Also, be sure to hang on to the end. The last frame is the best part.
Kebu is from Finland, and To Jupiter and Back is his debut record. All of the songs on the record were made with vintage analog synthesizers and recorded using only sequencers, tape machines and analog mixers.
The results, while mechanical – it is all made on synthesizers – and somewhat bleepy-bloopy, nonetheless transcends or possibly expands the possibilities of what I had previously come to expect from non-industrial instrumental synthesizer music.
Kebu lists Vangelis as an influence – and I can hear the echoes – but his style is fresh and distinctive: conscious of form, but also shimmery, light, and playful.
This is the video for Samba Saturn, the first single:
And finally, Le Carnaval des Étoiles, another one of my favorites:
07. Le Carnaval des Étoiles by Kebu
Right now, as I am writing this, it about nine million degrees in my apartment – hello, early summer heatwave, how are ya? – and Blind Pilot are like a cool refreshing glass of lemonade.
There are six of them – Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar), Ryan Dobrowski (drums), Luke Ydstie (upright bass, backing vocals), Kati Claborn (banjo, dulcimer, backing vocals), Ian Krist (vibraphones) and Dave Jorgensen (keyboards, trumpet) – and they come from Portland, Oregon, bearing delicious harmonies and lush, complex lyrics.
(Which they provide in PDF format on their website, thus endearing themselves to me even further. GO TEAM LINER NOTES!)
This is Half Moon, the first song on their new record, We Are The Tide:
And this is New York, the last song on the record, which I am posting partially because it is lovely and partially because they are playing here, in New York, at Webster Hall, on June 5:
After that the tour winds around quite a bit. And finally, for those of you squinting at festival line-ups and trying to decide which acts you’d like to catch: they’ll be at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, the Newport Folk Festival and Firefly.
Late Night Listening: This is what I’m putting on at the end of long days in a summer that is going to be chock full of long days. It’s also what I’m listening to while I’m making flash cards for bar review.
Some of it will be soothing, some of it will be weird. Some of it may be soothing and weird, since I’m into that kind of thing. In any case, I’m listening to it and I like it, so I’m going to share it with y’all.
Today in the category of soothing and also delightful: some new(ish) tracks from Danny Fujikawa, formerly of Chief, which represent one of his many on-going projects. These are rough mixes, but I’m fond of them anyway.
The newest one; one of the lyrics is True love is a lie, a sentiment which warms the cockles of my blackened heart:
True Love 2.1 by DannyFujikawa
This one is actually my favorite, shhhh, don’t tell any of the other songs. Also, I kind of wish I had a car so I could drive around with the windows rolled down and this tune turned up really loud:
Ballad of Prince Harry by DannyFujikawa
This one is heavier on the guitar, and, actually, just heavier in general. Don’t let the bouncy tune fool you, this is a sad song. (Click on the song title to get to the lyrics.) (GO TEAM LINER NOTES!)
The Gods Must Be Crazy by DannyFujikawa
Because tiny blackened heart or not, I’m also always on Team Nerds In Love:
Science Girl by DannyFujikawa
And finally, have some reverb-dusted choppy synths:
We Aren’t We In Love by DannyFujikawa
Album art by Micah Nelson
Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real are: Lukas Nelson (vocals/guitar), Anthony LoGerfo (drums), Tato Melgar (percussion), and Corey McCormick (bass).
If I had to find a place in the canon for them, I’d put them in next to Dan Baird and Homemade Sin and/or the Kentucky Headhunters. They have the same kind of fusion of country, blues and pure rock and roll swagger.
For example, here they are performing Wasted, the first single from this record, on Letterman. Be sure to turn it up, and then get out of your chair, because you will want to clap your hands and shake your booty around.
