DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED: The Radio Dept – ‘Clinging To A Scheme’
I’m about to make a statement here that might blow your minds. Radio Department > Miike Snow. There I said it. Let the angry emails come flooding in. Miike Snow has captured the American audience in a way that fellow swedes The Radio Dept never will. Miike Snow has been selling out shows left and right and filling up tents at Coachella. I’m guessing if the Radio Dept was asked to play Coachella they’d be pulling the thankless 12:30 pm set…and that’s OK. If you’ve ever hit a 12:30 set at a festival it is pretty inspiring because the band is giving it their all for the handful of people who bothered to show up and its hard to tell who appreciates the early efforts more. Let Miike Snow have the crowds. I’ll gladly go see The Radio Dept at a small venue and hear their beautifully crafted shoegazey dream pop surrounded by a small set of non-sweaty hipsters…who will instantly drop them if they’re ever able to amass any semblance of popularity. Ah the cycle of life.
For now The Radio Dept remains a hidden gem. “Clinging To a Scheme” builds off of 2006’s “Pet Grief“ in a way that makes you realize that those 12:30 sets might very well be a thing of the past sooner than expected. Delicate textures and melodies wash over the tracks in a waves of emotion that are enhanced by the lost love crooning vocals that together throw your mind into a Vicodin and Tecate like haze that you won’t want to escape from. Consider this the lead album for the soon to be created Sleep Mix #3!
Highlights: “Domestic Scene,” “Heaven’s On Fire,” “The Video Dept,” “Never Follow Suit”
DELTRON 3030′S TOP 10 OF 2009
Filter just released their top ten album list for 2009 and this is what it looks like
1. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
2. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote)
3. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest (Warp)
4. Miike Snow, Miike Snow (Downtown)
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz! (Interscope)
6. Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Elvis Perkins in Dearland (XL)
7. Cass McCombs, Catacombs (Domino)
8. Passion Pit, Manners (Frenchkiss)
9. The Antlers, Hospice (Frenchkiss)
10. White Rabbits, It’s Frightening (TBD)
While I agree with many of their selections I can’t get past two errors:
1) Not slotting The Antlers at number one. (OK it is official -They should go ahead and process that restraining order now.
2) Leaving off the XX.. The XX’s debut record is an amazing album that deserves a top ten slotting.
I don’t want to define this as a travesty against humanity because we should save that word for the abomination that is MTV’s Jersey Shore. Instead let us simply call this an oversight. Allow me to correct these mistakes now with my rushed top ten.
Del’s top ten of 2009
1 The Antlers – Hospice (more…)
Deltron 3030 Recommended: Miike Snow – Miike Snow
The Guardian spoke highly of this band, saying Miike Snow’s “coolly emotional pop suggests A-Ha meets Animal Collective.” Can you think of a better compliment than that? I certainly can’t. Amazingly enough these Swedes are the same guys who wrote Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and produced Madonna, Kelis and Jennifer Lopez.
Please don’t hold that against them…but definitely still be pissed at the way Swedish companies choose to handle instruction manuals. Sure I’m generalizing here but just about the last thing you want to see when you’ve run out of wooden dowels and your stupid Expedit bookshelf is about to collapse like a house of cards is that smug Swedish cartoon’s wavy mouth. How is that helping anyone? I wish he’d choke himself on that phone chord.
If you’re going to Lollapalooza be sure to check them out..and if not go to RCRDLBL for some free remixes.
Highlights: “Animal,” “Burial,” “Silvia”