Unpiano | Music Blog

During the brutal dark winters in Scandanavia all you can do to keep from losing your mind is to focus on how sweet it is to be hanging out on a beach in the sun. This particularly harsh winter in Finland, French Films wrote the soundtrack to an 80′s summer movie that I wish existed, where Robert Smith goes on a road trip to LA to try and sign his band, but his car gets stolen on the way and he has to hitch hike with a stray dog that he befriended in Idaho. Each time there’s a driving montage, which is like every 10 minutes, a French Films song plays. Then they have a big volleyball tournament and David Byrne is the referee and when Robert Smith spikes the winning point they freeze frame on a high five while “Great Wave Of Light” plays over the credits.

French Films – Great Wave Of Light
French Films – Up The Hill
French Films – Golden Sea

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These days everyone with a computer is “working on an album.”  Most of them never actuallyhappen, and the ones that do are pretty much always terrible.  Every now and then some idiot-savant finishes up his bedroom disaster, and it somehow ends up sounding super raw and bizarre and it’s completely fucking perfect.  I don’t know anything about Local Wizards except that it seems like their changed their name from “Pizza Pizzazz,” and that’s pretty great too, so they really got the whole package here.

Local Wizards – Burn It Down
Local Wizards – I Have Nothing At Stake
Local Wizards – Cold

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Wish it was Summer but it’s not. I was going to try and sit on this one until then, but I get to excited and can’t ever seem to do that. Stephen Gardner and Ben Bailes of Chessie have both been around for a minute, messing around with electronic music all through out the late nineties and finally released Manifest in 2008 on Plug Research. Combined with 2001′s Overnight, you get an amazing combination of style and beauty that makes you reference all your favorite bands from last week. Try not to fall in love too quick.

From Manifest
Chessie – Intercity
Chessie – Long Bridge
Chessie – Poughkeepsie Aflame

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From Overnight
Chessie – Daylight
Chessie – K Tower
Chessie – S to U
Chessie – Eyes and Smiles

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Happy New Year – I can’t believe that we are still doing this. And I love that.
This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite people. Stay up in 2012.

N Amesake E – The Ocean Is One Day To Give Up Its Dead

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Crystal Antlers‘ previous record, Tentacles, was pretty bad-ass in itself, but it wasn’t quite up to par with their intense live shows.  The frantic energy wasn’t adequately captured on the first LP.  A couple years later now, the band has tightened up their signature 3/4 grooves and extended psych jams both live and on the record.  The new album perfectly captures the live experience, which is heightened partially due to Ikey Owens (Mars Volta) acting as the touring keyboard player and the producer of the new record.

I miss the drum corp solos from the old incarnation of the band, but Ikey’s killer organ solos instantly conjure up the 60′s and more than make up the missing percussionist.  The new record is undeniably fun, with the right amount of freakiness and pop sensibility to be accessible and bizarre at the same time.  How heavy and intense it sounds completely depends on how loud you play the record; I personally recommend playing it very fucking loud.

Crystal Antlers – Dog Days
Crystal Antlers – Fortune Telling
Crystal Antlers – Jules’ Story

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Have you ever wondered what would happen if Billy Bragg appeared as baby-faced seventeen year old with red hair? Archy Marshall probably doesn’t wonder about it too much though. After making Pitchfork’s dick hard writing songs worthy of someone twice his age, he changed up from his Zoo Kid moniker to King Krule and has been picking out notes and crooning his little heart out. The lyrics are great, don’t get me wrong, but the real gem here is hearing how that sad Croydon accent wraps itself around the song like a big open syllable blanket.

King Krule – Out Getting Ribs
King Krule – Out Getting Ribs (Jack Deezl Remix)
King Krule/Zoo Kid – Ocean Bed

Bonus:
King Krule – The Noose of Jah City (video)

I’m not really that familiar with Grizzly Bear, and what I have heard I wasn’t impressed with. However, their bass player (and sometimes producer) Chris Taylor has this side-project CANT that kills pretty much everything right now. It’s definitely not a dance record, but the sound set is closer to Neon Indian or LCD Soundsystem than it is to Radiohead. It reminds me of Matthew Dear, a techno producer who started making electronic pop/rock. Similarly, Chris Taylor isn’t a virtuosic singer, but his earnest delivery shines through and carries the songs. The heavy drums and synth patterns are definitely groove-oriented, but the quick builds give the songs more of a pop feel than you might expect from the intro.

This is the perfect come-down album for pretty much any drug or bar-hopping session, but it could be used really well as a pre-game for mellow nights out too. Best listened to with 2 or 3 close friends in a small apartment, loud enough so that it’s difficult to make small talk over the songs; all listeners should be inebriated to the point of being amazed by something small like a flute lick but too fucked up to verbalize what it was. Teenagers or adults with a lot of free time should feel free to obsess over the lyrics.

CANT – Too Late, Too Far
CANT – Answer
CANT – The Edge

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I think it may be a hold over from Halloween, but I am really into suicide rock lately. You know, the kind of music that makes you want to slip into a warm bath and then a warm sleep. The new Pure X album is not really that sad and is actually filled with a bunch of soul lifting numbers that make the end of Summertime less severe to the heart. However I am not interested in those. I am interested in the three songs near the end of the album that sound like the night’s stillness at 4am, and the wind blowing over a frozen field. These three songs break your heart and make you exhale deeply as the shards push their way out.

Pure X – Surface
Pure X – Pleasure
Pure X – Dry Ice

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Bonus:
Pure X – Surface (video)

While every other blog is talking about how Switfumz sounds like R Stevie Moore, Ariel Pink and John Maus (are those really the only people to ever record in their bedrooms?), all I hear is Ween and maybe the Busy Signals – but with leather jackets sporting patches from The Damned. I hear a Ween record that has been elevated to a different level by vocals that were held under and drowned in sticky sweet reverb. Add some tough melodies and picky guitar that finds all the right notes at the right times and you have Chris McVicker’s newest project – released on Holy Mountain. He has managed to create a record that sounds like the crispness and excited energy of Autumn, just in time to watch the leaves change. Also, and in a somewhat unrelated fashion, he has the funniest Twitter of any musician we have ever talked about on here.

Swiftumz – Angelita

Stream the rest of these tracks by scrolling through the Flash Player below:
Swiftumz – Day We Met
Swiftumz – 4EVA
Swiftumz – Tuff Guy

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