"Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read." - Frank Krappa

Monday 28 March 2011

Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On

I first found Timber Timbre when watching Breaking Bad, in which his (or should that be "their"?) brilliant song 'Magic Arrow' was matched brilliantly with a truly brilliant scene. The music is kinda folky, kinda souly, kinda bluesy, kinda scary.

I really enjoyed his last album, Timber Timbre, or at least I really loved a few of the tracks and the rest, although samey, had a nice enough groove and an interesting enough atmosphere. Much of it sounds like The Dead Weather on heroin with an American Jack Steadman singing, which is a good thing in my book. Also, the bits and bobs I've heard from previous releases are pretty rad too.

Anyway, his (their? Wikipedia doesn't know either) new album, Creep On Creepin' On, is out on April 5th. However, luckily enough it's on the AOL Music website (HERE! HERE! HERE!) for all to listen to.

I think COCO is a definite step forward from Timber Timbre, the songs are still a bit samey, but there's some interesting, atonal instrumentals to add drama when you start to notice. The whole 60s soul aspect has been really pushed forward to great effect, with muted bass, swinging drums and piano taking a much more prominent place on this album than the last; there's even some girl group style backing vocals on 'Too Old to Die Young'.

I think Timber Timbre is (are?) fantastic. I'm not a giant fan of every song, but the music always sounds interesting and sonically unlike anything else I've heard. I think I'm gonna check out his/their gig on the 27th of April at ICA.

Anyway, enough blabber. Here's some sweet, soulful tunes:



And here are some old favourites:

Saturday 26 March 2011

Low (as promised)

I think Low are a really cool band. I found them on the Sub Pop website, which I recently realised allows you to download a few free tracks from each of their artists, and pretty much fell head over heels in love right away. I don't like all their stuff, some of the earlier output is samey, but the songs that I do like are so beautiful and interesting that I don't really mind.

Their music can be described as "Slowcore", a label that is ironically disregarded by all of the bands that it's applicable to. To me, their earlier output sounds like a mixture between Galaxie 500, Slowdive and Joy Division, and their later stuff is similar but with some of Yo La Tengo and Radiohead's more interesting sounds mixed into the production. Sounds like it'd be pretty great, right?

Here's a few songs I like:


!!!NEW MUSIC!!!

They've also got a new album out, C'Mon, on the 11th of April. It was recorded in a ex-Catholic Church (the same one as in their brilliant album Trust) and contains guest contributions from a lap steel player, violinist and banjoist, so I'm very excited to hear the result.

Yesterday, Pitchfork put up a free download of one of the new songs, 'Especially Me', which sounds fucking fantastic. You can access it HERE.

Here's some trailers they made for the album which look fucking awesome:



Friday 25 March 2011

Talking Heads

Recently all I've been listening to is Talking Heads and Low. I know it's a strange mix, but it's doing me well for now. Anyway, here is a blog post about Talking Heads, maybe soon I'll also write about Low. Then again, if I don't it doesn't matter as no one reads this.

Until very recently, I didn't really like Talking Heads very much at all. I've been vaguely aware of them for a while now and naturally checked them out, but hadn't found the capacity to really like anything other than 'Psycho Killer', which sounds close enough to my Gang of Four/Franz Ferdinand/Poppy-Post-Punk musical safety net. Everything else sounded scarily dated and synthetic and weird and a bit empty.

I still feel that way about most of their stuff, and I doubt anything will change my mind, but after watching Stop Making Sense again I finally recognised the genius flowing through their songs. Remain In Light manages to sound pretty great, but it's a real shame that most of their discography lacks the amazingness their live shows evidently contained.

Everyone should watch Stop Making Sense from start to finish (and you can on YouTube), but here's a few of my favourites:











As good as the individual videos are, nothing beats going through all of them in the proper order in one sitting. If your not smiling and clapping along by the end, you don't deserve your ears, eyes or hands.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Starfucker/STRFKR - Reptilians

Starfucker (briefly named Pyramiddd at some point and now kinda named STRFKR) have a new album out, Reptilians. They make electronic-falsetto-indie-dance-pop type music in the same vein as Passion Pit, Empire of the Sun and MGMT.

I had mixed feelings about their first album, Starfucker, as I feel a lot of their music is too happy-clappy for a miserable cunt like me and many of their synth sounds are just painful. However, they do manage to pull some spectacular songs out the bag (Check out Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second, German Love, Pop Song, Florida etc.). I was less pleased with their Jupiter EP, but their cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was fucking spot on.

Anyway, the new album is great and shows a definite musical step forward. There are still the features that I don't like (occasionally in an even more painful way than before), but there are songs on which they explore new sonic territory with a less annoying, more bass driven and/or spacey vibe. Many of the songs I don't like, but the songs that I do like I like a lot and remind me of other great psychedelicish bands like Deerhunter, Caribou and Grizzly Bear.

Here are tracks I really like:





Also, rad album cover.