DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED: Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
George, Washington’s Sasquatch’s lineup was announced today and it is chock full of goodness. They’re boosting a pretty impressive lineup this year which includes the recently reunited Pavement, Massive Attack, My Morning Jacket, Ween, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Broken Social Scene, and Band of Horses. Along with those “big” bands tons of artists mentioned here in the past will also be descending on the most beautiful location not named Red Rocks to host a concert – The XX, Phantogram, Passion Pit, Neon Indian, The Middle East and today’s buzzed about band: Local Natives. The Sasquatch announcement coincidentally comes on the same day that Local Natives (who happen to be local natives of Silverlake: yep they had a month long free Mondays residency @ Spaceland last August) release their debut CD, Gorilla Manor- a great CD that is full of soaring voices. Three voices to be exact. No one ever seems to be in charge, vocally speaking. Instead, to great effect, they let the three part harmonies wash over the music and create a different sound. This approach might not work for most bands (please keep your Grizzly Bear comparisons to yourself. Thanks) but it works here for the Local Natives. In case you’re not sold on checking them out I should also mention that they cover the Talking Heads song “Warning Sign“. I’m a sucker for covers and I’m a whore for the Talking Heads…so I became an instant fan.
Yep, I’m an easy mark.
Highlights: “Airplane,” “Sun Hands,” “Warning Sign,” “Who Knows Who Cares”
For those of you who don’t feel like trekking up to George, Washington you can catch the Local Natives and their small font brethren @ SXSW, Coachella, or Bonaroo.
Mar 18 2010 8:00P - SXSW Austin, Texas
Mar 19 2010 8:00P - SXSW Austin, Texas
Mar 20 2010 8:00P - SSXW Austin, Texas
Apr 18 2010 3:00P - Coachella Indio, California
Jun 10 2010 8:00P – Bonnaroo Manchester, Tennessee
DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED: Princeton – Cocoon of Love
Princeton are playing a four week long “Free Mondays” residency @ Spaceland this month. They’re from my home away from home, Santa Monica…so I feel I should support them. Beyond the Santa Monica allegiance their album actually happens to be pretty decent. Decent enough to garner comparisons to Vampire weekend by both The NY Times and Pitchfork.com. What I found interesting about these two reviews was how interchangeable they were. The NY Times on 09/11 made reference to the fact that the twin brothers who front the band grew up on Princeton Street in Santa Monica. They used this rather benign factoid to try and drive home the Vampire Weekend comparisons. I thought it was a bit silly, but as an amateur writer I could respect the need for a speaking point that could link two separate entities. All and all it was a fairly positive review that name checked (besides Vampire Weekend) The Cure, Leonard Cohen and “shoegaze”. If you were playing hipster review BINGO you’d be feeling pretty lucky. Pitchfork took their time in posting a review for this album. They waited till December 3rd of the same year when they also mentioned: Princeton St and used it as a tool to begin a forced comparison to Vampire Weekend. They also name checked Leonard Cohen and shoegaze. It reeked of classic late minute high school report cribbing. Pitchfork pretty much pulled a Cliff Notes on their review and moved the content around to give it a different look and feel. This might get past some people, but the old Crib and Switch was a patented move of high school Del. I was on to them. As we all know, from countless message episodes from the ABC TGIF block and real life stern lectures* when eventually being caught, cheaters only cheat themselves. …and in this case, you the reader. Instead of three separate reviews of Princeton you have 1) an original review, 2) a facsimile shamfest, and 3) a Del induced shamefest. To make up for my unfocused talk of Princeton I invite you all to Spaceland tonight for cheap PBRS and free music.
Highlights: “Sadie & Andy,” “Korean War Memorial,” “Shout It Out”
real life stern lectures*: How I was caught by Mr Hilliard in nine grade English class for more or less handing in a transcribed Cliff Notes report on “Of Mice and Men” sans the yellow and black cover I’ll never know. Perhaps I aroused some suspicions when I switched book review topics the day before the report was due. Not exactly a smooth criminal.
DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED: Phantogram – Eyelid Movies
This is all about the power of the Internet. Four days ago I literally knew nothing about this band. I learned of Phantogram through a tweet by the Antlers of all people. (you see, twitter is good for something. I feel like that is a recurring theme with me) I figured if they were good enough for the Antlers it was worth delving into. Resources like the hype machine and myspace (yes it is still good for something) make it possible to experience bands before they’ve released any actual albums or EPs. I can’t stress enough how invaluable these two sources are for when I’m looking to track down band content. From there I hit Amie St looking for cheap cds. If Amie Street is a dead end I make my way to Amazon. Never do I go to iTunes. Those Apple bastards have stolen enough from consumers. Screw them and their useless iPads. Through the resources previously mentioned I came across a track by Phantogram called “Mouthful Of Diamonds“. Fifteen seconds into the track and I knew I’d be a huge fan. Their sound, which is awesome, is best described visually through this promotional photograph:
That’s a simple shot, but there’s a lot going on here. That’s exactly how I’d describe the sound of Phantogram; Two unassuming Up State New Yorkers throwing down psychedelic melodies on top of hip hop beats. Easy enough one would say..but there’s so many more layers to their sound. Unfair as it sounds but thanks to the girl/guy vocals and the moody sexiness to the.their songs I predict lazy comparisons to the XX. Mind you they are quite different. I’m a huge fan of the XX’s debut album but something has really struck a chord with me on Eyelid Movies. Today I stand before you as a huge advocate. I’ll go as far as saying this is my favorite album of 2010 so far. Sure it’s not even February yet but January had some great releases (Beach House, Spoon, Vampire Weekend) That’s saying a lot from me. I guess the fact that I was witness to zero hype for this band is making me love this album even more. You can’t put a price on zero expectations. In today’s landscape of instant information and constant spoilers ignorance truly is bliss. I realize by writing this I just spoiled your ignorance . It was bound to happen sooner or later…so it might as well come from me.
Highlights: “You Are The Ocean And I’m Good At Drowning,” “Mouthful of Diamonds,” “Futuristic Casket,” “Running From The Cops”
Deltron 3030 Recommended: Vampire Weekend – Contra
“Have you ever heard of this new band…they’re called Vampire Weekend” – Redacted (01/05/10)
This precious sentence came from a friend who just last week was seduced by the charms of 2008’s buzziest band. Her future in the A&R Department is not looking so good but to be honest there was something refreshingly beautiful about her statement. She managed to avoid the hyper cycle of buzz and backlash that the Internet generated before this band ever released an album. The Internet is both a blessing and a curse for new artists. Hipster credit is earned and burned in months. This girl however apparently couldn’t access the internet from the rock she lived under so she wasn’t swayed by any snide blogger’s Vampire hate rants. Nor was she turned off by the endless stream of bros who decided that this band would be the new heroes of their popped collar Polo set. She was oblivious to them. No she was simply moved by the music.. There’s no hype machine in her mind. She does not accept payolla.
It helps that Vampire Weekend is a really good band. I’m sure many people wrote them off as one hit wonders who could do nothing but ape the music styling of Paul Simon circa Graceland but Contra is proof against that. There is refreshing sense of newness to this release. The addition of classical strings have given the band a new layer of depth and emotion that some said was missing in their freshman effort. I’ve listened to this album pretty much non stop since I got it and I’ve grown quite fond of it , sans “Horchata”. I’d rant more but then I’d contradict every thing I said in my previous paragraph. No one likes a hypocrite.
Highlights: “Cousins,” “I Think Ur A Contra,” “Giving Up The Gun,” “Run”
DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED- Discovery – LP
As I hear countless stories of idiots hitting the internet attempting to pay obscene amounts of money to celebrate the life and times of Michael Jackson today I can’t help but question their sanity. Do you REALLY want to hang out with hardcore Michael Jackson fans? They are a scary lot. STAY AWAY from downtown LA today! I’m picturing the tailgate @ a Jimmy Buffet concert w/ less drinking, more leather and NAMBLA members, and just about the same amount of tears. I thought I couldn’t be more disgusted w/ the coverage of this nonsense till I heard Stacy Brown, Jackson’s biographer, say “This is going to be Princess Diana’s funeral times 20. Michael Jackson was Elvis and The Beatles rolled into one!”. People paying into this feeding frenzy and treating it as some sort of cultural watershed moment that needs to be ranked makes me sick. Mind you if it were somehow possible for me to go see a reunited Beatles w/ a Zombie Lennon and a Zombie Harrison ripping through Helter Skelter I’d be be hitting eBay w/ the quickness. Lucky for me I don’t live in a glass house.
The only plus about all of this nonesense is that because of the MJ hype I came across ear gold! After the news broke people began writing up countless tributes to MJ. Desperate to be heard in a sea of mourners they needed to guarantee traffic to their little sites….and what better way than to add a remix or a cover version of one of Jackson’s songs . After hitting The Hype Machine.com* and sifting through some crappy remixes I came across an amazing auto tuned enhanced cover version of “I Want You Back“. As it turned out it was done by Discovery, a side project for Vampirekeyboardist and producer Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot lead singer Wes Miles. These geniuses, whose album releases TODAY of all days, must have been in cahoots w/ MJ’s doctor for months as the cover was announced back all the way on May 20th. That can’t be a coincidence. Let the conspiracy theories begin. That’s right, I said it, MURDER. I’ll send this theory to my ex-girlfriend who doesn’t believe that astronauts landed on the moon. Plant the crazy seed in some fertile soil and let her run with it.
Weekend
Along with the autotuned cover of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back, The album features guest vocals from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Dirty Projectors’ Angel Deradoorian.
*The Hype Machine is an MP3 blog aggregator. It’s pretty much the best site for experiencing new music…once you get past the countless remixes of MGMT’s “Kids”. Enough already, people!
HIGHLIGHTS: “I Want You Back,” “Osaka Loop Line,” “So Insane”