Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Madagascar


Madagascars brand of instrumental rock(?) featuring accordion, ukulele, musical saw, glockenspiel, acoustic guitar, upright bass and other various instruments create a landscape of Eastern European imageries. The accordian has never sounded this good. Michael & Anthony Lambrights debut Madagascar album Forced March, is 7 tracks of a moody, drone rock that pulls you back and forth on every changing track. I can't stop thinking that maybe they came up with the album title Forced March and wrote the songs around it.

Madagascar - I Know That I'll Be Ture
Madagascar - Son of a Hunchback...
Madagascar - All That Spring You Could See Halley's Comet

Out on Western Vinyl. Also they're are going to be at SXSW 2006.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Weekend Recap & Track A Tiger

I had a 5 minute interval of decent picture from the Undertow Orchestra show from Friday.


Eitzel, Bazan, Chesnutt, Johnson


Chesnutt, Johnson


Chesnutt, Bazan, Eitzel

(see previous post below for further explanation)


Sunday Bonus:

Track a Tiger (myspace page)

Keyboards, guitars, banjo, cello, male-female harmonies and other assorted blips and bleeps.

Track A Tiger - Glad To Be Scattered
Track A Tiger - Seashaken Heart
Track A Tiger - Sound As Ever

Out Tuesday, February 28, on Future Appletree Records

Friday, February 24, 2006

Undertow Orchestra

Tonight @ Hailey's in Denton, The Undertow Orchestra will be performing.



"Catch it while you can" is a ripe slogan for the upcoming Undertow Orchestra tour. Featuring four of today’s most under the radar, yet prolific singer-songwriters: David Bazan (Pedro The Lion, Headphones), Vic Chestnutt, Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), and Will Johnson (Centro-matic), each collaborative stop finds the eclectic cast sharing the stage, rotating between each other's material, and serving as backing band on various instruments for each other's tunes. And as if that’s not enough, Scott Danbom (Centro-matic) will join the Orchestra on piano and violin.


American Music Club - If I Had A Hammer
American Music Club - Another Morning

Will Johnson - Just To Know What You've Been Dreaming
Will Johnson - Karcher's Contacts

Pedro The Lion - Transcontinental


Vic Chestnutt - Stay Inside


Centro-matic - The Mighty Midshipman



If you stop by Haileys and want to say hello, I'll be the guy with the green hat and probably a camera in hand, most likely doing the robot during the whole set.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Hip Hop Mix #5 (SXSW edition)

All artist featured in this mix will be performing at South By South West.

Atmosphere - Say Hey There
Brother Ali - Forest Whitiker
Blackalicious - Supreme People
Busdriver - Avantcore
Cadence Weapon - Black Hand
P.O.S - P.O.S Is Ruining My Life
Jean Grae - Give It Up

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

New Prefuse 73

Prefuse 73 released his latest album Security Screenings on Warp earlier this month. I went through the tracks really fast when I first got it and put it on the back burner for a later more cafeful listen and last night I had a chance to finally give it a good listen. This album has very few vocals, the only vocals featured are short samples and there is just two collaborations one with Four Tet and one featuring Tunde from TV On The Radio. In comparison with his other works, this album sounds more like his 2003 album One Word Extinguisher than anything else he released. This album is all about the production like all other Prefuse 73 releases.

Prefuse 73 - With Dirt and Two Texts-Afternoon Versio

Prefuse 73 - With Dirt And Two Texts-Later Version With Love

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Rubies

Today marks the release of a very important album, Destroyers Rubies. His previous album Your Blues is one of my favorite albums ever and still gets lots of lazy Sunday afternoon listens from me.

Pitchfork did a decent review of the album and knighted it with the title of Best New Music. Read the review.

Destroyer - European Oils
Destroyer - Painter in your pocket

Stream Destroyer's Rubies



The American Analog Set still has their complete Set Free Demos(60mb) to download, get it while its still up.

For the nerd in you:

Explorers Discover Huge Cave and New Poison Frogs
It was found in the slopes of Aprada tepui in southern Venezuela, one of the most inaccessible and unexplored regions of the world

The planet's population is projected to reach 6.5 billion at 7:16 p.m. EST Saturday, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and its World Population Clock

Spielberg confirms Indiana Jones 4 to follow Munich

Monday, February 20, 2006

Maritime

I heard the first Maritime album and wasn't too impressed but this time they upped the quality. If you didn't know Martime consists of The Promise Rings frontwoman and drummer along with bass guitarist extraordinaire scooped up from the dismembered Dismemberment Plan. The new album came out last September in Japan and April 2006 in the US. Give it a try, you might be surprised.




Maritime - Parade Of Punk Rock T-Shirts




I've been wasting my time on this game today, Blueprint



The blue brainteaser.. Guide the ball to the target by making a path for it to follow. Fourteen levels of perplexity! Plus 7 extra puzzles !

Play

They Shoot Horses Don't They

They Shoot Horses Don't They are an interesting 8 piece band from Vancouver, BC Canada, who have their debut album Boo Hoo Hoo Boo coming out tomorrow (February 21) on KRS. They have a unique sound thanks to their horn section which evokes the sound of carnival musicians leaving the big top and starting a punk band lead by a distressed frontman.

The name of the band comes from a novel written in 1935 by Hoarce McCoy which tells the story of several contestants in a Depression-era dance marathon. ...the novel essentially presents both characters and Marathon Dance as a metaphor for a world in which those without money and social status struggle for survival with the only certainty in life being death itself--and whose struggle becomes a vicarious entertainment for the more secure. (gf taylor)



Lyrical themes of desperation, betrayal and hardship are brought to interesting light in this overly joyful jittery music. (KRS)

They shoot horses don't they - Emptyhead

They shoot horses don't they - Lowlife


Speaking of Horses....I've been listening to the Band of Horses songs that I have collected from the new album and I'm most certain this will be on many peoples best of lists by the end of the year, I'm pretty sure its going to be on mine. They have some demos posted up on their site for your listening pleasure:

Demos:
Band of Horses - Wicked Gil
Band of Horses - I lost my dingle on the red line...
Band of Horses - Funeral
Band of Horses - Bass Song

I love this album cover:



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In other random news, guess who became an uncle this past weekend. This guy (points to self).

Friday, February 17, 2006

Friday mix


Picture I took of a tea plantation on a side of a mountain in South India. On the other side of that mountain is a national park where elephants, tigers, monkeys and various other animals roam wild. It wasn't open to the public so the only thing I got to see was mountain goats.

Eef Barzelay - Ballad of Bitter Honey
Clem Snide front man Eef Barzelay gives the rest of the band a small break with the release of Bitter Honey, his first solo effort. Fans of Clem Snide will find comfort in Eef's warm, familiar voice, and recognizable, yet unique songwriting. -insound

Rahim - Forever Love I found this track in the Pitchfork, Track Reviews. Its a nice poppy song with light keys, guitar and pounding kick. The funny thing is that I thought this was a hip hop track by Rakim. I need to read things more cafefully.

Elefant - Lolita
From NYC's Elfant's newest album Black Magic Show.

Fluxblog has a new track from The Streets called When You Wasn't Famous First. The album is suppose to have better production values than the previous two albums, check it out. I'm not sure if I'm diggin the track much, maybe few more listens.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Noteworthy listens

I thought I'd get of this hip-hop horse I've been riding on lately to post some good ole indie rock.

Mudhoney has a new album coming out this March on Sub Pop, Under A Billion Suns. Its news to me. They have been around since 1988 and are releasing their 9th album.



Mudhoney - Blind Spots

Few other noteworthy listens

Petra Haden - God Only Knows (cover) Another gem by Petra Haden, go to her website for a streaming cover of Thriller
Band of Horses - Funeral I've been rocking this track for a while and its giving me high hopes for the album.
Micah P Hinson - The Leading Guy From his The Baby and The Satellite EP on Jade Tree.
Dudley Perkins - Funky Dudley I just don't ever have enough funk on this blog, this track is from his new Stones Throw release.


Wednesday, February 15, 2006

P.O.S. (featuring Finn from Holdsteady)

Posts are pretty random, I soley blame that on my attention span. I do however try to post something everyday, so not to worry kids.

It was more effort than usually to get a hold of some music from P.O.S. but alas I did finally find something. P.O.S (Pissed Off Stef)'s new album released on the ever so great Rhymesayers on Januarary 31st. The production and the lyrics have a great dynamic, its part hip hop part punk. It features guest spots from Hold Steady's Craig Finn on Safety in Speed and also from underground hip hop superstar Slug.



Though he's ranty and self-absorbed, P.O.S uses universal issues, and offers a delivery that mixes the timing and style of Punk, but with the avant-garde egoism of hip-hop. Holdsteady singer Craig Finn drops in on "Safety on Speed" which begins as a diatribe on the film, "Predator", before evolving to a song about disappointment in general. Things like this are hard to take seriously, which is what separates P.O.S's songs from the usual "woe-is-me" rapper.---Paine (Allhiphop.com)

This album is something different that what you would normally hear in hip hop, so give it a chance.

P.O.S. - Safety in Speed (Feat Craig Finn from Holdsteady)
P.O.S. - Bush League Psyche-Out Stuff

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Psyche Origami

I'm always looking for something new on the hip hop front because finding quality hip hop is not as easy as it should be. Psyche Origami features 4 Turntables & 1 Mic (DJs Dainja and Synthesis, and MC Wyzsztyk (wiz-stick)) and they hail from Atlanta, GA. They're mostly known for they're instrumentals that were featured as theme music on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim.

Check it fresh

Psyche Origami - Commericial Property



----

Also Check out Kofi's hats Anti-Valentines day songs mix

(update) and YANP's Anti-Valentines mix

Monday, February 13, 2006

Few things worth checking out

Yeti Don't Dance has three Elvis Perkins songs from their album Ash Wednesday, I'm hooked after hearing these three songs.

callmeMICKEY has few songs posted with a Jay Dee theme. Two from Slum Village, one Jaylib, one Jay Dee and one A Tribe Called Quest. If you download just one track, check out the Slum Village track Raise it up.

Said The Gramophone has an excellent P.O.S. track which comes highly recommended (by me).

Dreams of horses has a new Anna Oxygen track from her Kill Rock Stars debut This is an Exercise

New Yeah Yeah Yeahs B-side

I was a big fan of the last Yeah Yeah Yeahs album Fever to Tell and I didn't know what to expect from this album hearing that they were taking a change in direction. After hearing the new single from the album, Gold Lion I have high hopes. The B-side to the Gold Lion single Let Me Know has the Yeah Yeah Yeahs going further away from the sound of Fever to Tell, even more further away than the lead single. Let Me Know is a straight, vocal/acoustic guitar/drums track, more so than Gold Lion. This song features the nice girl in Karen O that everyone rarely sees.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Let Me Know


Look for the Gold Lion EP to hit stores on Feburary 21st, you can buy it from insound for $1.98.

New songs from Calexico

Calexicos newest album Garden Ruin is a less instrumental effort. When I say less, I mean there are no instrumental tracks which is something very odd for a Calexico album. It seems like all the instrumental tracks went on their 17 track tour only release, the book and the canal. The intro guitar on the very first track had me very worried, but the rest of the song took off and as soon as the drums kicked in most of the worry went away. At times the album sound less like a Calexico album but more like a Joey Burns album. They still retain that southwestern flavor but it has been downplayed considerably compared to previous albums. Although I miss the marachi flavor this was an album that Calexico needed to make, they needed to change gears and see where they could go. After couple of listens I'm really starting to enjoy the album.

Calexico - Letter to Bowie Knife

Calexico - Smash

Also noteworthy is the cover art, everytime I see the an album cover from a Calexico release I cringe and think to myself "what were they thinking". I like this album cover a lot, its a complete change in style. The 11 track Garden Ruin Garden Ruin will be available in stores April 11 from Quarterstick.

Also on the Calexico front, from the Quarterstick website:

Calexico has taken home the prize for "Americana Album Of The Year" with Iron & Wine for their collaborative effort In The Reins at the Second Annual Plug Awards. The awards ceremony, which took place February 2 in New York, celebrates the best in independent music.




At War With The Mystics


The Flaming Lips' newest album, At War With The Mystics was rocking my headphones for the majority of the weekend. I'm sure 300 blogs are writing a review for the same album on the same day so I'll be brief.

As usual with the Flaming Lips, the album starts with a bang with the track Yeah Yeah Yeah Song, which I listened to couple of times before seeing what laid beyond the first track. Along with that excellent track, the rest of the album features Steven Drozd drumming up a storm as usual which for me is one of the highlights of all Flaming Lips releases. The album as a whole has a vibe all its own, seperate from other Flaming Lips albums. Wayne Coyne said in a recent interview that this was a guitar album, although there is more guitar that the last few albums I had a whole different image in my head when I read that. I'm definately picking this album up as soon as it is released and you should too, the Flaming Lips couldn't put out a bad album if they tried.

You can find mp3s from the album from these fine blogs:

Scatter o' Light

i guess i'm floating

The Rawking Refuses to Stop!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Built to Spill, You In Reverse Demos

Yesterday I got what I thought was the new Built to Spill album You In Reverse but when I looked at the ID tags it said they were just the demos. These demos are pretty good quality recordings, I wouldn't be surprised if these were mislabeled or sound very close to the tracks from the album.

I have 9 out of 10 tracks from the new album and it sounds very very promising. I highly recommend picking it up, You In Reverse will be released on April 11 on Warner Bros. They have a 2 month tour scheduled for April & May and are known for their great live shows so go check them out if they come near by.

Built To Spill - Liar [demo]
Built To Spill - Conventional Wisdom [demo]
(I'm trying new file hosting so if something goes wrong leave a comment and I'll upload them elsewhere.)

Listen to Goin' Against Your Mind, at BTS's Myspace page. This song is my favorite from what I heard of the album.

Tour Dates

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Jay Dee (J Dilla) dead at 32

One of my favorite hip hop producers died yesterday, Friday Feburary the 10th. James Yancey aka J Dilla aka Jay Dees new album Donuts, a collection of hip-hop, soul and electronic music instrumentals was released last Tuesday on Stones Throw Records.

J Dilla is best known for his role in A Tribe Called Quest's production team and also producing hits for Busta Rhymes, Common, De La Soul and Pharcyde.

According to Stones Throw Records, "When Pharrell Williams was asked about his favorite hip-hop producer during a BET interview in 2004 he replied, “You may not know his name, but J Dilla, Jay Dee from Detroit.” Indeed, the interviewer didn't know – J Dilla has eluded the spotlight, preferring the studio to the stage or video."

According to AllHipHop.com, In a 2004 interview with Urb Magazine, J-Dilla disclosed that he had kidney problems as a result of malnutrition.

"What happened was that the doctor told me that I'd ruptured my kidney from being too busy and being stressed out and not eating right," J-Dilla told Urb. "He told me that if I'd waited another day, I might not have made it.

"Sometimes that fixation can be a good thing and sometimes it can be bad. There'd be days when I wouldn't eat at all because I'd be in the basement working all day," said Jay Dee. "This is definitely my second chance, my wakeup call. I still love the music, but I wouldn't put it first in my life. It's family first - and then everything else."


His neweset album Donuts was partially recorded in the hospital using a portable studio, the man loved making music. There are very few hip hop producers that stand out to me and he was one of them because he was one of the best.

J Dilla - Airworks
From J Dillas new album Donuts

Download a 46 track, 3 volume J Dilla Compilation posted on Mental Combat (props to Ryan for the heads up)

RIP

J DILLA

1974 - 2006

Grandaddy finds the Fambly Cat

After 14 years together as a band, Grandaddy are going to release their final album on May 9 (May 8 in the UK) on V2. Surprisingly, after its release they have no plans on touring(!). I guess I don't have to seem them live...



The new album Just Like the Fambly Cat, sounds more like their previous material with dreamy and disconnected soundscapes. There are few songs that don't fall into that sound like the faster, more punkish 50% and the last track Shangri-La, where Jason Lytes voice in the background repeats behind a repeating piano and that trademark grandaddy synth wall, "I'll never return, to Shangri-La." Also you hear acoustic guitar picking on the end of Jeez Louis, something new on the Grandaddy plate. Grandaddy has always been one of my favorite bands and I know from past Grandaddy albums that even though this will probably be their last release, whatever Jason Lyte does next will not be a disappointment.

Download tracks from these blogs:

kofi's hat
trees lounge
a boy and his blog

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Getting things moving

I'm back but it will take a week or so to get the think tank machine going again, it all basically depends on when I get my modem in the mail. I haven't kept up with the goings on in music but I'm sure one day reading up on my favorite music blogs will help me with that (see the links on the right).

Look for a new look for Think Tank, I started working on one but I forgot where I left off more than a month ago and when I lose that momentum the ideas just don't seem as great. I shall start anew, so it will be a while.

Vacation was fun and I took a lot of pictures but not nearly enough. Towards the end I was in a hurry to get back home, I was missing the comforts and amenities that I'm so used to in the US. Being away from everything gives you a new perspective on what you have.