Whether emotionally or physically, Pure X's Crawling Up The Stairs is a record about being crippled. Their debut Pleasure, all fog, mystery and summery escapism, was like a nice spritzer compared to this new one's multi-bottle emotional severity.
Using the studio as more of an instrument, the Austin group shows great range throughout Crawling. "I Come From Nowhere" is a frozen-heart torch song. "Things In My Head" is about that fantasy relationship that eventually crushes you under its inherent intellectual stupidity. "Never Alone" is a bleary-eyed ode to having a friend in loneliness that brings to mind masters-of-sadcraft like Red House Painters.
It's a big step forward – the kind that I wish more bands would make on a second or third album. With such a readymade, enjoyable formula already set, Pure X could have just knocked another one out and collected some new summer babes. They took a risk, though, opening their wounds and letting the blood seep into a unique psychedelic puddle.
I got the band (Nate Grace, Jesse Jenkins and Austin Youngblood) to go On the RCRD and tell us more.
Life changing record for you was…
JJ- rain and tears by aphrodites child (mp3)
NG- TVZ live at the old quarter (cd)
Matty Tommy- Lefty Frizzell self titled (Lp)
AY- Willie nelson- yesterdays wine (LP)
What people, outside of music, have influenced you over the last year?
NG- Carl Jung
What did you learn about yourself and/or the world at large the last time you made a record?
On Clash The Truth, their second album, Beach Fossils ditch some of the youthful escapism for a more clear-eyed, socially-conscious worldview. Those jangly, heavenly guitars? They're still there, but this go-around there's more immediacy and a fuller organic sound. It feels like there's something on the line, so we got frontman Dustin Payseur to go On The RCRD and tell us about the joys of Miles Davis, his meditation aspirations and why the best artists sound lost in their own heads.
Life changing record for you was…
Miles Davis – The Blue Note And Capitol Recordings. I first heard this on CD when I was a teen and strictly only listened to 80's punk. It blew my mind and changed everything about the way I looked at music.
What people, outside of music, have influenced you over the last year?
Gilbert & George, Roy Andersson, Carl Sagan.
What did you learn about yourself and/or the world at large the last time you made a record?
It was a huge learning experience, and always is. Putting yourself out there, exactly how you were and where your head was at during a specific time in your life, it's totally bizarre. You learn a lot about yourself when you look back at what you've done and who you were. Every time I finish a record I step away for a bit and when I come back I feel like I'm a total stranger to who I was at that point.
What gift would you most like to possess?
Enlightenment through meditation. My mind wanders so much, I wish I could sit down long enough to see the beauty in how none of this matters. Complete universal neutrality.
What quality do you admire most in a song?
Power, passion, honesty. I like to feel that the artist was completely lost inside of their head.
What's your take on the music business in 2013?
The music business is a joke for the most part, but a small percentage of it is genuine. The musicians themselves are great. There are a lot of amazing records coming out this year.
Best instrument ever invented was...
I'd narrow it down to sitar, harpsichord, clarinet, cello, piano, harp, saxophone. I realized after saying that, I basically described "Journey in Satchidananda" by Alice Coltrane.
We're continuing to unleash amazing feats of NOT NORMALcy upon the world at its most mundane moments. Morning commutes, lunch breaks and normal everyday venues are getting crashed by next-level shows from RCRD LBL. It's the MINI Normal Crashing Tour!
Today: Join araabMUZIK and MINI USA in Austin, TX as we bring an epic performance to a very Not Normal place. RSVP to get the details on where and when this event will take place, check out our On The RCRD interview with araabMUZIK and experience exclusive photos and video from past events with Twin Shadow and Real Estate.
We're anxiously awaiting the new slab of jangly goodness from Real Estate. Their last album, Days, holds-up near perfectly, so we wanted to feature them in the second show in our MINI Normal Crashing Tour. Taking place December 7 in New York this intimate pop-up show will be in a surprising, Not Normal location, so check out the details, RSVP and get ready to party!
In the meantime, we got Real Estate's defacto leader Martin Courtney to answer our fabled On The RCRD questionnaire.
Life changing record for you was…
A CD of Blind Melon's self titled album.
What people, outside of music, have influenced you over the last year?
Whoever invented Instagram.
What did you learn about yourself and/or the world at large the last time you made a record?
I find writing lyrics to be like pulling teeth, but it becomes way easier under pressure. And sometimes it doesn't matter anyway because the most popular song ends up being the one with two words in the chorus.
What gift would you most like to possess?
I'd like to wake up one day and be incredible at the drums.
What quality do you admire most in a song?
I'm a fan of a really well thought out, melodic instrumental arrangement.
What's your take on the music business in 2012?
It's a jungle out there.
Best instrument ever invented was...
The electric clavichord, or percussive wood blocks, or the guitar.
On the success of Confess, which is certainly one of the most swoon-worthy LPs released this year, Twin Shadow is the featured artist in the first event of our MINI Normal Crashing Tour. Taking place December 3 in Chicago, this intimate pop-up show will be in a surprising, Not Normal location, so check out the details, RSVP and get ready to party!
In the meantime, we got Twin Shadow mastermind George Lewis Jr. to answer our On The RCRD questionnaire.
Life changing record for you was…
Stevie Wonders talking book, my dad had it on vinyl and CD
What people, outside of music, have influenced you over the last year?
Barack Obama (I wanna be the first Dominican president)
Christian Bale (my favorite batman, great great man )
Javier Bardem (stupidly talented, amazing in every step)
What did you learn about yourself and/or the world at large the last time you made a record?
I learned how stubborn I am, I learned how upset I get when I acquiesce in any way outside of my vision. I relearned how important music and art still is, and I saw that my generation has some of the most beautiful minds.
What gift would you most like to possess?
I wish I was a carpenter.
What quality do you admire most in a song?
A powerful/emotional vocal performance.
What's your take on the music business in 2012?
It's a shit show, as always. It will never not be. But manipulating the way it moves with our songs is always an exciting experience.
Best instrument ever invented was....
I'd have to say the Guitar, you can't really argue that. But the computer is a close second.
Last week, U.S. Girls (the project of one Meghan Remy) released GEM on FatCat Records. It's a catchy, perplexing record that taps into nostalgia for eras in which we weren't even alive. With an pulsing industrial rockabilly bent and nods to glam rock, OG punk and the warped Americana of artists like David Lynch, Remy has crafted an original full-length that feels familiar in haunting ways.
We got her to go On The RCRD and tell us which Beatles anthology is best, what astrologist inspired her work over the last year and why the music industry is basically a lame popularity contest.
Life changing record for you was…
There have been many but the one that first came to mind after reading this question was The Beatles Anthology 2. I had this on CD, along with Anthology 1 and 3, but 2 was the one that really showed me the unstoppable power of Pop.
What people, outside of music, have influenced you over the last year?
The artist Jennifer Hazel, the actress Lulu Turnbull, the astrologist Linda Goodman, the author Janet Malcolm.
What did you learn about yourself and/or the world at large the last time you made a record?
That if you need help, you have to ask. And if you have chosen wisely, you have surrounded yourself with the type of people who hear you ask.That the world at large does not care how much time and energy you spent working on something. The world at large does not care about much, period.
What gift would you most like to possess?
An aversion to sugar.
What quality do you admire most in a song?
A sticky melody.
What's your take on the music business in 2012?
A cleverly disguised capitalist controlled popularity contest where the more you buy in to the ploy, the better you do.
The solo project of Yeasayer's Ahmed Gallab, Sinkane releases his third LP, Mars, today on the almighty DFA. Throughout the album, the multi-instrumentalist engages in an assault on genre, and what remains is a series of beat-heavy explorations that touch on soul, funk, post-rock, worldly rhythms and so much more.
We got Sinkane to go On The RCRD and he revealed a deep love of Unwound, the influence of two basketball legends and how integral self-sufficiency on the coffee front can be.
Life changing record for you was…
Unwound - Corpse Pose 7”
What people, outside of music, have influenced you over the last year?
Scottie Pippen, Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, My Mother.
What did you learn about yourself and/or the world at large the last time you made a record?
I learned that I can make a mean cup of coffee.
What gift would you most like to possess?
More gifts.
What quality do you admire most in a song?
I love it when something happens only once in a song. Like a drum fill or a melody. Quickly comes in and never repeats. So dope.
Taken By Trees, the project of one Victoria Bergsman, goes full-on tropical on her new LP Other Worlds. Described as an 'impressionist poem for the Hawaiian Islands' where the album was recorded, it's a breezy concoction of emotionally intimate collection the dips into dub, island electronics and good old fashioned indie-pop.
We got Bergsman to tackle our On The RCRD questionnaire and found out how R. Kelly influences her, how to balance being chill and sincere and how the best instrument is the human voice.
Phil Elverum, the (yes) genius behind Mount Eerie and The Microphones, has produced compelling LPs with a level of consistency rarely seen from other artists in this era. 2012 has seen Clear Moon and Ocean Roar – two dynamic releases that represent an exploration into new sonic frontiers while still retaining his trademark intimacy and uniquely insular worldview.
While the character 'Phil Elverum' is often steadfast and carries concrete interests, the variance in his song structure and production has often been staggering. From the ultra-pretty wall of noise in "Ocean Roar" to the pummeling "Pale Lights," which merges Krautrock, black metal and Stereolab and turns it all into hypnotic headphone candy, Mount Eerie can evoke Pacific Northwest provincialism ("The Place I Live"), artistic bepuzzlement ("Through The Trees Pt. 2") and a distinct wonder at everyday routines and isolation ("I Walked Home Beholding") with a careful yet naturalistic looseness.
We got Elverum to go On The RCRD and discuss the learning process inherent in making records alone, striving to be more empathetic and why the music industry is a terrifying beast.
Tame Impala crafts music for long journeys. Tame Impala sculpts psychedelic mountains out of rubble that lesser artists wouldn't know how to fashion. Tame Impala makes classic rock for the electronic age.
Whatever route you want to take, this Australian group is doing something right. Their new album, Lonerism, is a massive leap forward and it's making lots of people outside the usual hype circles freakout. From the fried, hooky space attacks of "Endors Toi" to the dreamy stomped-out strut of "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" to the sandblasted Beatles indulgences of closer "Sun's Coming Up," it's one of the best rock records of the year, because we still don't know how much of a rock record it really is. There's too much to unpack and enjoy.
To shed more light, we got band member Nick Allbrook to go On The RCRD. Find out how Eno has influenced yet another life, the influences of terrifyingly pretty women and how the best quality in a song just might be conviction.
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