Though some of them recently re-located from Austin to New York City, ...And You Know Us By The Trail Of Dead will always sound like a Texan band, if only because their music is as mammoth and indignant as the Lone Star State herself. Over five albums and as many EPs and singles, they've perfected a towering brand of rock music with skyscraper-huge guitars and drums that sound like they're loaded with C4. In early 2009 the band will release a yet-untitled album they've been working on for the past year, an album they recorded with producers Mike McCarthy, Frenchie Smith, and Chris Coady that will be their first for their own Richter Scale imprint. A four-track collection of songs from those sessions were released as the Festival Thyme EP in October, and "Bells Of Creation" is the first song from that EP, which sounds like The Who if they'd decided to write about epic viking battles instead of pinball wizards. The band have graciously hooked up an exclusive download of the track for the next SEVEN DAYS so make sure to grab this one right now. Also hit the break to read a chat we had with frontman Corad Keeley about the song and how it was inspired by Mormonism, School Of Seven Bells, and a hymn Keeley heard as a youngster.
Ben Nichols has a main gig fronting Southern rock's perpetual underdogs, Lucero--a Memphis group who in the past ten years have put out six consistent long-players of leathery, Mats-inspired Americana; records stuffed with diner ballads and bonfire vignettes that were great largely because of Nichols' knack for imagery and story, his ability to spin tales of soldiers, sailors, waitresses, and bikers into vivid anecdotes you could still smile and cheers to. Despite scattered solo shows and some cameos on other band's records (dude sang back-up on the Hold Steady's recent single, "Sequestered In Memphis") he's just finally put together his first solo release, a spare mini-album project called The Last Pale Light In The West that's based on the Cormac McCarthy novel Blood Meridian. We've got a download of the album's title track below, and after the break you can read a quick chat I had with him about the song and the project at large. Cop one over at Lucero's website.
Sounds like: Deer Tick, Jessica Lee Mayfield, Will Sheff
How glorious those early years must've been when a major would just hand a band a check and be like, "Just make a video, we really don't know how." I guess that probably only lasted for a handful of years (thinking '81-'83?), but it yielded incredibly ridiculous and gaudy clips like this one. The amount of stuff crammed in here borders on insane—plastic teeth, bugles, fake flying, spaghetti, nuns, ventriloquists, high-fiving Ricola dudes (!), etc.—but at least ABC managed to save enough money for matching suits and canes that would look great on Tom Wolfe at the Mad Hatter's thanksgiving. Yes, this is what unfocused excess looks like, since we've all forgotten. Thanks to Carter for initially showing me this piece of history.
Pase Rock's party-rocking flow is relentless, a mile-a-minute gush of club-ready rhymes that'll blow the roof off of any room it invades. Yes, this is the dude who brought you "Lindsay Lohan's Revenge," and his new single "Get Money Kids" (off the "Get Money Kids / So Fucking Disco" single out Dec. 2) is even more hype, bolstered by some hot breaks from producer Eli Escobar and fleshed out with all matter of samples (horns, pianos, chopped vocals, etc.) and Pase's pumped-up verses. We're offering this up exclusively in conjunction with our bros at Dim Mak, who are also hosting a make-your-own video contest for the track. The winner will get some great swag and their video will be spread out across the internets, including this space right here. Flyer for the contest after the break.
Australian band Pivot are groovemasters of the industrial; their techy, sledghammer noise-rock sounds like Throbbing Gristle if they'd lasted long enough to collaborate with Portishead, a band content on damaging ear drums with treble-heavy gusts of noise but smart enough to throw some feel behind the cacophony. The band's debut album O Soundtrack My Heart came out in August via our friends at Warp, who've kindly shot over what they think is the album's essential deep cut, "Didn't I Furious". Over a guitar riff that sounds like a drill overloading itself in tune, the boys have thrown some slo-mo disco thump and enough distorted samples to make Fuck Buttons clear out their computers. Head over to the Warp blog for their thoughts on the track, and pick up a copy of Soundtrack at their site.
London producer Rusko is probably most well known as one of the high princes of dubstep, contributing (along with his partner Caspa) the genre's only entry into Fabric's seminal mix series, Fabriclive.37. But dude isn't all about the 140bpm stuff for headbanging hoodies, he's versioned "Sing What You Want" from Brooklyn's Kotchy in the vein of skweee; a new campy, funky strain of electronica that's been emerging out of Scandinavia, specifically Sweden and Finland. Rusko's mix adds some percolating ukulele over scatty, thin drum samples and the faintest trace of toy piano, turning the original's sedated Neptunes sheen into a fun slice of playground funk. Today we've also got the original and another tune from Kotchy up (a sedate subway joint with some horn samples and falsetto rapping called "One For The Money") so get your stream on with those before you take the exclusive remix home with you.
Today our friends at Ghostly International are releasing The Sight Below's debut album Glider, an appropriately titled expanse of minimalist beats and Olympic-sized E-Bow riffs that will likely have you staring at your wall and wondering why the hell something so seemingly obscure could be so moving. In celebration of the release, the label's hooked us up with a download of "Life's Fading Light," an album track you should grab right now along with the free No Place For Us EP, which we released during Ghostly week. Head over to their blog for some more info and a great video, and grab a copy of Glider right here.
Long Beach, stand up! Following last Friday's introduction to Fidotrust's Trust Us comp we now have a track from the label's newest band (and LBC locals), The Soft Hands. Their song "Harbor" starts out on the scatterbrained surf tip before catapulting into Costello territory, the This Year's Model-era when dude was spending his time driving around LA with Bebe Buell in a convertible Cadillac listening to his own record. These cats are obviously more humble, and we love 'em for it. Cop the record over at the Fidotrust site.
Throwing some filtered French touch steez atop what is essentially a two chord pop song, this extended version of Thieves Like Us' "Drugs In My Body" might be the most blasé tune about being intoxicated that we've heard in awhile. If Calvin Johnson started making tracks with DJ Falcon, it would sound exactly like this: classy Euro bump and cutesy playvoicing over it. It's pretty awesome, hence why we signed the group to RCRD LBL, so if you dig this make sure to go cop their album at your digital retailer of choice (iTunes, Amazon, eMusic) The band's touring around beautiful Eastern Europe at the moment, DJ'ing and gigging their way through Croatia, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Over there, parties go well past dawn, so guys, this tune would be a perfect set-closer and sun-riser for you. Just saying. Dates below the tuneage.
Sounds like: DJ Falcon, Beat Happening, Le Knight Club
Tabloid fodder aside, we still have a special place in our hearts for the gutter tunes that Pete Doherty used to write with Babyshambles (the new album, not so much.) This was their biggest single and I guess Rough Trade gave them enough money here to rent a donkey and some suits, 'cause that's basically all this video is: Pete & co., dressed to the nines, playing with a donkey and a Union Jack in a dirt field. Sounds questionable but actually looks like a lot of fun.
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