Ventura’s Tall Tales And The Silver Lining have a knack for capturing the sounds of the California coast. Conjuring up the soft sounds of 70s AM radio and the winding Ventura Highway, Trevor Beld-Jimenez and his rotating cast of players deliver a summertime night drive’s selection of jangly, rambling psych-tinged jams with the delivery that matches the best of Vetiver, Wilco and the like.

Tall Tales And The Silver Lining – Collar To The Wind

Download audio file (Collar_To_The_Wind.mp3)

Lazer Sword’s self-titled debut album was largely underwhelming to me.  It wasn’t bad, but it was “Glitch-by-numbers” and felt more like a re-hash of well-worn concepts that had already been extensively explored.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear a real change of pace on the second record, and the new blend of styles is pretty incredible.  Maybe it took them signing to Modeselektor’s Monkeytown label, or one of the dudes moving to Berlin, but the duo is embracing a much more minimal, atmospheric sound that sounds a lot more natural and a hell of a lot more interesting.

They still draw heavily from genres and synthesizers from the past, but the blend sounds authentic and easy.  808 and 909 drum machines give everything a classic 90′s feel, there’s hints of Acid House, some Juke rhythm, and Detroit Techno holding the whole thing down.  It’s the kind of thing that could fit into a set after a classic Carl Craig and blend perfectly into some 70′s Kraftwerk.  If that last line doesn’t sell you on this, I don’t think we can be friends!

Lazer Sword – Toldyall
Lazer Sword – Point of Return
Lazer Sword – Missed A Spot

Download audio file (toldyall.mp3)

After winning The Strangers’ poll for worst album cover last week, the new Carletta Sue Kay album finally sees it’s it’s official release tomorrow. While I can’t defend the cover any further then this sentence, the album itself more than makes up for it. It got an early release at Amoeba so perhaps you’ve heard some of the songs already and understood that this is not the raw, shrieking CSK record you may have been expecting. It’s a different feel than the video for ‘Get Along’ I posted earlier, but that hardly matters. Capturing the intensity of the live show and a voice like Randy’s on a studio recording is a tall order and these songs instead need to be appreciated on a different level. You don’t hear the “less bitter Nina Simone” in the recordings but instead get a healthy dose of Magnetic Fields style ballads, whose new album featured Carletta’s vocals on the track ‘Andrew in Drag”. Strong songwriting and glossy production is what’s going on here and with CSK release I’ll take what I can get.

Carletta Sue Kay – Joy Division
Carletta Sue Kay – Pretty Inside

Download audio file (joy_division.mp3)

Just a quick follow-up on the live Modeselektor appearance in San Francisco: the show was bonkers.  The moments leading up to the headline were tense, featuring a DJ unknown to most of the crowd (myself included) playing insanely fast and loud Juke mixed with Drum and Bass.  Anxiety bubbled up in pockets as people pushed their way into the main room, bumping beers out of hands and separating couples.

The tension came to a head, and finally Modeselektor took to the stage and opened with the slow and infectious Grillwalker.  At this point the club was too crowded to move about freely, and everyone hypnotically bobbed in time together, completely losing themselves in the gigantic sound system.  Modeselektor knows exactly how to control a crowd and they had people losing their minds all night.  The build into up-tempo classics was quick and it felt like they were enjoying themselves as much as the audience was.

These are the magic club experiences that keep people chasing the dragon, doing key bumps in the bathroom after a 20 dollar cover for Euro House night on a Wednesday.  Skip all that shit and just keep your eye on when the Monkeytown artists are coming around.  You can still do some bumps in the bathroom, but I guarantee a good time without it too.

Modeselektor – Grillwalker

Download audio file (grillwalker.mp3)

I am playing records at the Ritual Anniversary party today down in Hayes Valley. It starts pretty early and will be mostly light out, so I realized it will probably turn into a sunny day, sidewalk jams kinda thing. Come down and hang out with me and MG. Flyer says 6, but it may start closer to 5…

Do I even need to tell you about this by now? DIIV is basically writing new Cure songs, which sounds like a diss but is actually the best thing to happen in a long time. Formerly called Dive and made up of guys like Zachary Cole Smith from Beach Fossils and Colby Hewitt from Smith Westerns, DIIV is relasing their new album Oshin on Captured Tracks (who the fuck else) in June. I missed their show last month in San Francisco because I am no good and their tour just ended, but go see them wherever they pop up next and scoop any vinyl you see real fast.

DIIV – Doused

Download audio file (doused.mp3)

Man I have never wanted to reissue something so bad in my entire life. Released in 1982 on cassette only, UK synth pop band Solid Space set themselves apart from the other coldwave acts of the eighties by making sad and haunting ballads underlayed by stark drum machines. After Space Museum was released they seemed to vanish with a batch of tapes popping up every so often to be sold on Discogs for seventy bucks a pop. Message boards and old threads seem to have gone dead and pretty much the only thing that’s left to know about these guys comes from the cover image above. If anyone knows anything about the story let me know and maybe some day we can have the satisfaction of playing ‘Tenth Planet’ on warm crackling vinyl.

Solid Space – Tenth Planet
Solid Space – The Guests
Solid Space – Earthshock
Solid Space – A Darkness In My Soul

Download audio file (tenth_planet.mp3)

Download audio file (transitions.mp3)

Dear Mr. Kanye West,

You are the only rapper/producer that can get away with sampling brand new songs, so you really need to get on the ball and give this girl a million dollars so you can sample it for your next massive hit.  The song sounds like Philip Glass was hired to arrange at Motown, I promise there’s nothing out there that sounds like this!  Seriously, just give her a single milli, you will easily make back 14 million, which leaves you 13 million to spend on solid gold suits of armor to surround your pewter toilet.  Just listen to it a couple times; you can easily make at least 3 hot beats with this (intro, verse, chorus, you know how to do), you can use the chorus as your own (just repeat her lines in a gruff rap accent!) and if you get nominated for some bogus award you even can hire Ms. Andersson to sing with you at your live performance.  Don’t be a fool, sample this song before it fades into obscurity and everyone else has to wait 15 years.

Love,
Johnny

Theresa Andersson – Hold On To Me

Download audio file (Theresa_Andersson_Hold_On_To_Me.mp3)

I’ll post about their first legit release real soon, but diving into the rabbit hole that is WEDIDIT COLLECTIVE brought me this fucking gem of a video. Tim and Eric have nothing on this insanity.  I don’t even know what drug combination causes this sort of thing, I’m going to guess ketamine and bad acid.