Mew - Introducing Palace Players (from No More Stories...)

Mew - Introducing Palace Players

Danish art-rockers/prog-rockers Mew are finally back, and are in August set to release their first album in four years. Their pretentiousness, which they often joke about themselves, shines through in the album's absurdly long title. The next Mew album is called (*cleanses throat*):

No more stories
Are told today
I'm sorry
They washed away

No more stories
The world is grey
I'm tired
Let's wash away

Yup, that's the name of the album. The first song from No More More Stories... has leaked, and it's called Introducing Palace Players. The mp3 I posted for it is very likely to be a transcode, since the song only has been released on Mew's Myspace and on a Pitchfork stream so far, but I hope you all will be able to enjoy it nonetheless. It's a very promising sounding track, I can't wait to hear the whole album!

AFX TWN

avril 14th
4

Haven't posted in a while, I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the fact that it's summer time. I've decided to post some oldies; for some reason, I've been getting into glitch and electronica a lot, so, it seemed appropriate. The first song, avril 14th, is one of the most beautiful piano pieces I've ever heard. It's off of Aphex Twin's 2001 release, drukqs, and is a huge departure from most Aphex Twin songs. The second, 4, is typical AFX: lots of glitch drums scattered over some pretty atypical melodies. 4 is from his 1996 release, Richard D James. Both are awesome, let me know what you think of them.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective has been blowing people's minds for quite some time now, and their newest release, Merriweather Post Pavilion, is yet another exciting addition to their already extensive catalog. Like much of their more recent releases, the songs on this album definitely reflect the band's ever-changing interests and sounds very similar to the more electronica-influenced music Panda Bear's been putting out on his own. Deeply layered tracks, unique rhythms, and a certain amount of playfulness are the MO here.

from Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

My Girls

Also Frightened

The Beta Band

The Beta Band were a commercially underappreciated band from Britain.  They performed a blend of psychedelic rock, trip-hop, and electronica that critics creamed over.

Mp3's come from a collection of their early EP's.  "Dogs Got A Bone" is a personal favorite.

from The Three E.P.'s (1997)

Dry The Rain

Dogs Got A Bone

BOXSTR HATES ME

So Boxstr decided to kill my account by not allowing me access and proclaiming that they'd never heard of my email address before when I tried to reset my p-word.  So if my old links are broken, I apologize.  I'll try to re-upload them and change the links when I can.

New account is up.  Username = boxstrsucks

Chiggety-cheers, all.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's Zero (again)

Toldja I'd get it on here somehow. Either way, YYY has been pissing me off. First they shaft the blog community and then they have this song on the new Gossip Girl commercials? If Karen O's voice wasn't so badass I wouldn't even bother with this.

Cassette's Won't Listen

Freeze and Explode

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, it's been a hectic few weeks. I found this song on one of my tv guilty pleasures and thought i'd share it. It's dripping with pop, incredibly catchy, and it's a nice departure from the stuff i've been listening to.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Their sound isn't the most original, but they do it well. The video for "Young Adult Friction" makes me nostalgic for times I never had, and some of those vocals make for a heck of a Morrissey impression.

from The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (2009)
Young Adult Friction
Everything With You

XTC

XTC is one of the more interesting bands to spring from England's 80's post-punk / new wave movement.  The band was much more popular with critics than with public consumers, though XTC did see some moderate chart success later in their career.  The first two mp3's come from their 1982 album, English Settlement.  The third is a cover of one of their more popular singles, "Making Plans For Nigel", performed by Primus.  God bless you, Les Claypool.

from English Settlement (1982)

Jason and The Argonauts

English Roundabout

from Primus' Miscellaneous Debris (1992)

Making Plans For Nigel 

David E. Sugar

David E. Sugar - Although You May Laugh

David E. Sugar - I Still Like Your Clothes

David E. Sugar - To Yourself

David E. Sugar is an indie electronica artist from the UK who's released a few quality EPs, singles and standalone tracks in the past couple of years. He started out as an 8-bit chipcore artist programming songs on his Gameboy, but has since evolved to his unique sound of today, somewhere between house and chipcore, but with a dash of guitars and his own vocal work. His tracks are catchy and danceable, and I hope he'll take the step into making a full-length album soon. It's not going to happen this year, though - he has another, perhaps even bigger, project going. Sugar's ambitious project for 2009 consists of releasing 12 (!) little EPs on his own record label, one for each month. His fourth EP just came out, so it looks like the he's keeping up to his promise of hyper-productivity. One to watch out for!

The Octopus Project / Black Moth Super Rainbow

The Octopus Project is a personal favorite of mine. Their album Hello, Avalanche, is one of the most consistently fun and addictive albums I've ever heard. Their sound is a mixture of analog and electronic instrumentation, with an extremely solid rhythm section that faithfully drives every song. 

from Hello, Avalanche (2007)

Upmann

The Octopus Project Website

The video is for the song Truck.

Black Moth Super Rainbow is another band along the same lines as The 

Octopus Project, though a bit more experimental and laid back. They 

collaborated with The Octopus Project on a split album entitled The 

House of Apples and Eyeballs, but I have been unable to get a 

hold of it yet. They have a new album on the way entitled Eating Us. 

Anyway, enjoy the video and the mp3s.

from Start A People (2004)

Vietcaterpillar

I Think It Is Beautiful That You Are 256 Colors Too

Black Moth Super Rainbow Website

Shugo Tokumaru

Shugo Tokumaru's Exit was one of my most anxiously awaited releases. Critically acclaimed, multi-talented, and always surprising, Tokumaru has a gift for creating extremely inviting music that involves a very intricate interweaving of both traditional and eclectic sonic palettes.

In other words, this is some good shit.

From Exit (2008)

Green Rain

Clocca

Shugo Tokumaru's website

Fischerspooner

I found Fischerspooner while watching old Coachella footage at home a few weeks ago. This song and video, for some reason, completely blow my mind. Every video of decent quality that I found on youtube prohibits embedding, so I'll have to post a lame link to it here.

Emerge

Caribou's "Melody Day"

This song is not new, but it is to Yousuf, so all of you can enjoy it again (or for the first time if you haven't heard it either.)

from Andorra (2007)
Melody Day

and...
Melody Day (Four Tet Remix)

Jack Scolloquial: Attempt Dos

Found a temporary hosting service. It sucks, so hopefully boxstr will come back soon. Here's my second song.

Hello

State of the Site

So we use a service called boxstr.com and we don't know if its just Athens, GA that boxstr has recently decided to not work for, but we can't log in to monitor our bandwidth use or more importantly put up new mp3s. We're looking for a more reliable free service. Thanks for understanding

Wolf Vs Pig

Showmanship

All I'm saying is when you perform in a diaper, you're destined to be famous.

Jesse 79

Jesse 79

Hahaha

Papercuts

from You Can Have What You Want (2009)
A Peculiar Hallelujah
Future Primitive
You Can Have What You Want

Minus The Bear - Soundwave 2009 Promo

Minus The Bear is apparently working on a new record.  Fucking killer.

Ice Monster & Knights from Planet of Ice (2007)

Minus The Bear homepage

Why You Should Listen To Metal: Cynic

Metal is an underappreciated genre. Granted, the current trend of lyrical delivery that most contemporary metal bands employ is in many cases an aquired taste, and in many more an immediate deal-breaker. Metal still lies for the most part outside of the mainstream. But underneath all of this lies an abundance of aggressive compositions unexplored in most modern pop music and an emphasis on technical mastery seen little outside of most jazz clubs.

Cynic was one of the most influential and experimental groups to emerge from the early 90's Death Metal scene then experiencing its birth in Florida. Pioneering a complex and innovative brand of what can best be described as jazz-metal, Cynic released a groundbreaking debut, Focus, in 1993. This album explored the aggression, technical prowess, and speed typical to other death metal releases, but set Cynic apart from other bands with smooth clean breakdowns, rhythmically challenging songs, and an interesting mix of death growls and vocoders.

Cynic's most recent release, Traced In Air, takes the band in a much more mature direction, abandoning the laser speed and chug based riffs in favor of slowing down and mellowing out without pussying out, leaving them with a more balanced, and overall much more awesome sound. This band is without a doubt one of the most shining examples of what metal has the potential for. They come with a very high recommendation.

How Could I? from Focus (1993)

King of Those Who Know from Traced In Air (2008)

Like a Boss and Phoenix

from Incredibad by The Lonely Island. The following video for "Like A Boss (ft. Seth Rogen)" was shown on SNL this past weekend. Enjoy.



P.S. Phoenix was their musical act that episode. Here's "Rally" from their album It's Never Been Like That (2006).

The Walkmen

from You & Me (2008)
Dónde Está la Playa
Seven Years of Holidays

from Pussy Cats (2006)
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bob Dylan)
Don't Forget Me (Harry Nilsson)

from A Hundred Miles Off (2006)
Louisiana
Another One Goes By (Mazarin)

from Bows + Arrows (2004)
The Rat
Little House Of Savages

from Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (2002)
Wake Up
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
Revenge Wears No Wristwatch

The Walkmen have released five studio albums (the fourth, Pussy Cats, is a song for song cover of Harry Nilsson's 1974 album Pussy Cats.) I'm kinda partial to their first two albums as well as their latest. Idk, 2006 just wasn't their year in my opinion, not to diss the song "Louisiana" (the highlight of that album).

Policemen and Planes

This song is old news, but I don't think anyone ever heard the news. I remember trying to find this to download after hearing it on Pandora when I was still going to the Univ of West GA.