While we’re on the subject of clearing the electronica haze out of my head (albeit briefly) there’s this awesome little piece of rock n’ roll ephemera, which I was reminded of this weekend via the magic of Soundcloud.
Also, while there seem to be a lot of Danny The Streets out there, this particular one is Gerard Way, formerly of My Chemical Romance.
Le Trouble are from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Their debut EP, Reality Strikes, will be released into the wild this coming Tuesday (November 5), and if you like punk rock dance parties, you should pick it up.
Here are two songs from it, to serve an enticements.
I’ve been an a weird electronica haze lately. Mission Bell was the perfect high energy palate-cleanser. The burst of bracing guitar at the beginning is especially refreshing.
Real Talk (Part 2) for when you need to break up with your significant other right now. It is probably the bounciest kiss-off I’ve heard for a while.
I am not going to lie, this record – Let It Be Told, by SWF (Stevie Weinstein Foner) – really made me cranky at first.
Then after a couple of listens, it grew on me. No, not like a fungus. More like moss. Psychedelic moss.
Now I find myself queueing it up with the express purpose of wrapping it around myself like a (slightly fuzzy, perhaps faintly horse-and-patchouli-scented) aural blanket.
There are songs like Turtle Brain that have lyrics like hey turtle brain, sparrow eyes, purple haze which is both a puzzle and someone I feel like I’ve met, all at the same time:
And Warrior, for rallying the internal troops / providing a late-afternoon jolt of energy:
And also Automobile Blues, which I like because sometimes I do miss driving around listening to the radio. But it does just as well with the rumble of the uptown train as with the roar of the highway.
Every once in a while, I get emails from artists, review their work, and then sit at my desk blinking rapidly and thinking What the actual hell did I just watch?
Sometimes I dig deeper and it doesn’t go well; other times I’m seduced by raw charisma and want to share my joyful bafflement with everyone I know.
Willie Dick, of Glasgow, Scotland, falls firmly into the latter category. His work will turn your brain sidewise and you will like it.
This is Deeper Darker, a truly unsettling tale from his Halloween special album Halloween Horror (download it for free at bandcamp!):
WILLIE DICK – I Will Be Your Juliet from Billy Campbell on Vimeo.
Merry Gothic Christmas, y’all. Have fun, be safe, we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
Okay so this video for Nicotine by The Dirty Nil isn’t scary, but it does explore extraterrestrial themes.
To properly enjoy it, first consider the following:
What if –
1) We made contact with aliens
2) Some of them were human-shaped
3) They would consent to get romantically involved with humans
4) One of those alien-human relationships went horrendously wrong
5) What would it look like if they ended up on a future equivalent of the Jerry Springer show?
Ok. Ready? Turn your speakers up and press play.
Nicotine is from Smite, due in January 2014.
I’m posting this video for All My Things by Swiiim (Danny Fujikawa, formerly of Chief) during Halloween week because I have to watch it through my fingers because it mashes on not one but TWO of my greatest-fear buttons: being trapped in an enclosed space and drowning.
That said, the song, which is from his new record, Cellophane Castle, is full of echo-booming wub-wub synths and lines like I have been reduced to using the Internet to communicate and is awesome.
Earlier this week, Ryan Ross‘ chrysalis opened and two demos emerged. Tonight the chrysalis has opened a little further, and let two more songs out.
Here they are in the order I listened to them:
Lonely Moonlight: the electronics shimmer rather than grind, as in the two demos, though there is some static-y hum at the end, and the vocals are denser, more layered, with just a hair of an echo. Poetry nerd alert: the lyrics suggests he might be sticking to the metaphor scheme he used in Pretty. Odd., but I’ll have to wait for more songs to surface to be sure. In any case, it’s a sweet song.
I Get Down: Another bouncy tune; I think this is a song about an inconstant lover, but all I can think of is maddeningly frustrating missed connections involving public transportation. Though I suppose those things are not mutually exclusive.
A couple of years ago I had the chance to hear Lou Reed’s epic Metal Machine Music performed live by an orchestra.
I realize the ideas of “Metal Machine Music” and “orchestra” may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but the result, the Fireworks Ensemble playing a score transcribed by Ulrich Krieger, is among the best concert experiences I have ever had.
The orchestral version was, like the original, challenging. Brutal, even, at times; some people walked out. There were moments when I was clenching my teeth and clutching my armrests at the same time, just trying to anchor myself and stay above water. For a while it felt a bit like I had stuck my entire head inside the Gom Jabbar.
Then I got used to it, and relaxed, and was able to appreciate the stark, spiky cathedral of sound they were building for us. Below is an excerpt from the show.
And for today, a tune that echoes the Hammond-organ soundtracks of classic horror movies: Creepin’ Up on You, by Grave Lanterns, from Cork, Ireland.
Another (kind of) new one from STRANGERS, feat. Charli Rouse. The tune is solid, and the video gets super-creepy towards the end. I can’t say more or it will ruin the surprise:
http://youtu.be/AId2uf2EqHA
