Recent Videos of Interest

Wavves - No Hope Kids


Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)


Crocodiles - Summer Of Hate


Girls - Wild Eyes (Live @ the Cake Shop)


St. Vincent - Marrow (Live on Letterman)


Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity Of Huge

Harlem Signs to Matador

Matador is very quickly becoming my favorite label out there. After recently adding Kurt Vile to their roster they have now also signed Austin, TX natives Harlem in their quest for world domination. Expect Harlem's second full-length to drop sometime in early 2010.

The Warm Heart of Africa

Esau Mwamwaya + Radioclit, aka The Very Best, made one of the best mixtapes of last year, and this year they're following it up with what promises to be one of the best albums of this year. The Warm Heart of Africa comes out this fall on Green Owl, and you can get the title track featuring Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig now. Also be sure to check out some more new tracks on the duo's myspace.

MP3 :: The Very Best - The Warm Heart of Africa (Featuring Ezra Koenig)

It's Sunday Morning

It's not actually Sunday, so put the calendar away. Beck has this new thing going on called the Record Club, in which he covers an album from a band that I'm assuming he likes and asks lots of friends in the music world, including Nigel Godrich, to help him out. He'll be premiering a new song every week. Right now he is doing The Velvet Underground and Nico, and the first track is "Sunday Morning". I am staggered not only by how awesome this sounds, but by the fact that even Giovani Ribissi is involved with this. Watch the footage in all it's grainy glory above. Here is what Beck had to say about this track:

For this first edition, after lengthy deliberation and coming close to covering Digital Underground's Sex Packets, all present voted in favor of the 'other' Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico. Participants included this time around are Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronker, Brian Lebarton, Bram Inscore, Yo, Giovanni Ribisi, Chris Holmes, and from Iceland, special guest Thorunn Magnusdottir, and myself. Thanks to everyone who helped put this together, and to all of you for indulging in this experiment. More soon.

Green River

Real Estate's "Green River" appears as the UK only b-side to the upcoming "Fake Blues" 7". The song clocks in at just under two minutes, but it doesn't matter since you'll be playing it over and over again anyway. Pre-order the single from Half Machine and jam to this until it arrives.

MP3 :: Real Estate - Green River

Bicycle

I love to go bicycling. So a song called "Bicycle" is gonna catch my attention, and even more so when it comes from Memory Tapes. That's right, the Weird Tapes camp that includes Memory Cassette now also has Memory Tapes. Pretty soon I'm not gonna be able to keep up with this guy's projects, but they are all so wonderful. Usually WT/MC have incredible pop hooks recorded in a lo-fi manner that makes you think they want to hide the fact that it's so catchy. This is not the case with Memory Tapes. This song grabs you from the start and forces you to dance. The album comes out later this year, and you can already pre-order the "Bicycle" 12" single.

MP3 :: Memory Tapes - Bicycle

Video :: Woods - To Clean

[H/T: Pitchfork]

I'm good...

Clipse has released the new single off their upcoming album, Til The Casket Drops. The single puts Clipse back together with the Neptunes over a dizzyingly beautiful beat, and even features Pharrell on the track. KAWS did the art for the single and is also working on the art for the album, due out this September.

MP3 :: Clipse - I'm Good (Featuring Pharrell)

Video :: Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes

The 12" single comes out July 7, featuring three stellar remixes.

Breathe in the salt...

Despite sharing a name with one of the worst beers I've ever tasted, HIGHLIFE has given us one of the best summer jams I've heard so far this year, and maybe ever. "F Kenya Rip" brings you to any beautiful beach you've ever been to, and sets you in some of the best memories you have. The song is just fucking wonderful. [H/T: GvB]

MP3 :: HIGHLIFE - F Kenya Rip

A Boardwalk Theme

Admittedly the Fader rarely gets credit for helping me discover new stuff. They are so far down on my feed reader that by the time I get to them most of what I'm interested in has been covered by someone else. This time, however, it seems they've caught on to something great that no one else has. I spent my first summer in Wilmington on the boardwalk at Carolina Beach, and I look back fondly on that summer as the best summer of my life. I loved just hanging out at the beach, or going to the arcade, or grabbing a slice of pizza; and all with just a few really good friends. So naturally when I saw a song titled "Boardwalk Theme" I had to check it out. All I can say is that Desolation Wilderness definitely hit the nail on the head.

MP3 :: Desolation Wilderness - Boardwalk Theme

Video :: Basement Jaxx - Raindrops

All I will say is I wish I'd had a kaleidoscope like this as a kid.

Toro Y Moi

So GvB, BxF, and NPIP have all blogged about this fellow, who lives one state away from me, and I really need to get on my A-game so I can catch this shit earlier. Toro Y Moi is one of the prettiest things I've heard to not come out of Austin or off the west coast in quite some time. Chaz Bundick hails from Columbia, SC, and is coincidentally also one of the best photographers I've ever seen. Some people just have it all.

MP3 ::
Toro Y Moi - 109
Toro Y Moi - Blessa
Toro Y Moi - Sad Sams
Toro Y Moi - Talamak

Phaseone Remixes Animal Collective

MP3 :: Animal Collective - Daily Routine (Phaseone Remix)

[H/T :: MAD DECENT]

Call & Response

Memory Cassette has a limited edition (500 copies), debut 7" EP coming out through Acephale this month. You can order it here. Not entirely sure if this remix made it's way onto the vinyl or if they just felt like giving it away on the blog, but either way Friend did a great job with "Last One Awake". Check it out below and make sure to grab that 7" before it sells out.

MP3 :: Memory Cassette - Last One Awake (Friend Remix)

Holy shit: Beatles Rock Band

Phones Don't Feud

If you pay any amount of attention to this blog it should be obvious that lo-fi tropical summer jams make me weak in the knees. Dodge over at MOKB has given me another band that does just that, and damn this song is catchy! Holiday Shores just signed to 2syllable records, and this is the first line from their profile on the 2syllable website:

Summer is no myth. It exists year round on Holiday Shores Ct, a two-block stretch on the Florida panhandle where twenty-one year old Nathan Pemberton grew up.

"Phones Don't Feud" comes from the bands' first full length album, Columbus’d The Whim, which drops August 4. Read more on the band here.

MP3 :: Holiday Shores - Phones Don't Feud

CS&N Demos

Rhino Records is releasing an album titled Demos - that will feature demos of mostly solo things from Crosby, Stills & Nash - tomorrow, but you can already listen to it over at NPR. It is a wonderful set of tunes by one of the greatest groups to ever exist. The beauty in their voices and they way they blend so perfectly is an obvious influence to so many of the artists we hail as amazing today. Head over to NPR and listen now, and make sure to grab the album tomorrow.