About four years ago I was sitting in the All Star Sandwich Bar in Cambridge, MA eating an Atomic Meatloaf Meltdown and drinking a Harpoon Ale. I was alone so I picked up a local music trade paper and was leafing through it when I stumbled upon a review for the album “i” by MMOSS a psychedelic jam band from New Hampshire. I was intrigued. After finishing my meal I went out an bought the CD somewhere near Harvard Square and I’ve been a fan ever since.
I’m pretty sure they have only recently been available on Spotify and it looks like a re-issue of “i” is available. My pick for the week is “Hedge Creeper”. It’s a short fun jam full of late 60s AM radio tropes. I think Ron Burgundy is playing lead jazz flute on this one. Enjoy this track while driving with the top down.
Black Moth Super Rainbow member, Tobacco dropped a new album “Ultima II Massage” a few weeks ago and my pick for the week is “Eruption (Gonna Get My Hair Cut at the End of The Summer)”. I really like BMSR and Tobacco seems like he’s a major component of their sound. I especially dig some of the more throbbing-spacy-wavy tracks. The video for “Streaker”, directed by Eric Wareheim, is NSFW and pretty disturbing. Watch it with the lights on.
I’m just getting around to listening to Woods April release “With Light and With Love”. I like what I hear. My pick for the week is the title track. It kicks off with a McGuinn-esque guitar riff that weaves it’s way through the various structures the band has erected in this song. I’ll ask for forgiveness in advance. It’s a bit long but it is complex enough to hold my interest through the full 9:07. Another less lengthy track which I also dig is “Moving to the Left”. I can’t wait to hear more from the band. I’ve been a fan since their 2011 release “Sun and Shade”. Enjoy!
New Parquet Courts just hit Spotify this week. “Sunbathing Animal” is a rollicking punk punch in the nose. It’s also the title track from their new release due soon. Can’t wait. These guys are one of my favorite new bands of 2013. “Master Of My Craft” into “Borrowed Time” on Light Up Gold is my new “Scarlet-Fire” and it’s only 5 minutes 32 seconds!
I’ve been going on a bit of a Pavement tear lately but broke out of it long enough to visit some other lesser known artists in my messy Spotify playlists. (Spotify really needs to fix this.) Anyway, one artist I dabbled with was Dan Deacon. Deacon is an electronic composer/musician currently based in Baltimore. The track I’m selecting this week is “Prettyboy” from the album “America”. I love this track. It’s a combination of rich circular sythns, injected with what sounds like analog percussion, sprinkled with bubbling oboes. It’s one of those soundtrack pieces you imagine being used in the movie of your life.
I didn’t go to a ton of shows in 2013 but it’s no question that the highlight was the Halloween Blood Bath in San Francisco with the Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, and White Denim. Since it was Halloween, I donned my “Oldest Geezer at the Rock Show” costume and boogied with all the youngsters on the floor. What an amazing show. The bands did not disappoint.
The Flaming Lips are not shy about breaking out a great cover now and again. When I saw them earlier in 2013 they produced a superb straight version of “Heroes”. I gave me goose bumps. Halloween they managed to deliver a surprise cover of Devo’s “Gates of Steel”. Wayne Coyne dedicated it to Alan Meyers (who passed away that summer) and all the other freaks in the audience. It was a great tribute. The original is my pick for this week.
Mogwai have just dropped a new sythn soaked album “Rave Tapes”. Quite a departure for the Scottish post-rock band. I like it a lot. “Simon Ferocious” is one of my favorite tracks. It pushes the syths right up front but supports them with some great electric guitar work more typical of the bands signature sound.
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