Glow Marrow

These guys hail from LA (woot!) and they are really darn good.  Their name might have "Glow" in it, but don't let that bias you into thinking they are just some more lo-fi/fuzzy Washed Out wannnabes.  They really do have a unique, fun, interesting sound.  They key is that they blend their deep electronic layerings with excellent vocals in a way so that you never feel like the vocals were just an after thought, mumbled to complete a track; they actually perfectly come in and take center stage when they should, and then fade into the background to let the synths do the work, and on some songs the guitars as well ("Build the Floor" is a great example of the vocal balance).  "Lights and Other Types" is the standout in my opinion, building up from some echo-y reverbed vocals and beat into an almost anthemic chorus.

The EP is long for four songs, clocking in at 25 minutes, but it moves at a brisk pace and the dense songs leave you always finding something new to pick out.  There is a certain laid-back exuberance to it all if that makes any sense - poppy enough to feel really happy but not cheesy or ever in your face about it.  They sound like guys you'd want to hang out with, if you can tell that from a song.  It sounds real, which is what ends up separating them from the pack, if you will.  They don't keep it all one sound though, mixing in some great acoustic guitar in "The Last Century."  I really did enjoy all four of these songs - check 'em out below or head over to their site to download them in various qualities.  

I look forward to hearing more from them!

mp3: Build the Floor

mp3: The Last Century

mp3: Lights and Other Types

mp3: Broadheart

Let's all hope they can make it - so share them with your friends, like 'em on facebook, etc.

-- I

Hot Off The Press: Memory Tapes Remixes Phoenix

Hot Off the Press :: 1901(Memory Tapes Remix)

Earlier today, Memory Tapes released on his blog this remix of one of the most popular/best/catchy songs of last year and certainly one of the biggest "crossover" songs (it was in a Cadillac car commercial...).  This remix is a beat dreamier if you will, featuring many more synth sounds.  All that it really retains from the original is the vocals; otherwise, it feels like a completely re-worked and separate song, which I like because it feels like it has its own identity.  It definitely feels slower, in part due to the fact that for much of the song it is just the vocals with the synths in the background, with the only one being featured prominently a sort of arpeggiated sound and a slow tambourine for the drums.  My favorite part though is around 1:40 when it speeds up.  Probably my favorite of the many remixes that Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has spawned (I like to call them "Wolfgang Amadeus Remixes... I'm just too good I know).

mp3: 1901 (Memory Tapes Remix)


In Other News:

Beach House' much anticipated (is it just me or does it seem like everything has been really anticipated this year?) Teen Dream was just released.  I have yet to listen to it enough times to review it, but I will say it is very enjoyable.  Here's the first song that was released from it.

mp3: Norway

-- A Teenage Elephant (SW)

New Videos/New Vampire Weekend Review

I'm going to start a segment that I will try to do weekly/at least I will have a bunch of videos right now because I have just recently started my blog so there is some stuff I need to catch up on but here we go anyways.  The Vampire Weekend review is really late.. but I had to review it anyways.

Small Black :: Despicable Dogs
This is really interesting video by Small Black (who I wrote about in an earlier post).  I don't really know what to say about it/if there is anything to say about it... I think you should just watch it.  It reminds me a little of the Wrestler...  Tell me what you think.  I really love this band and their sound.


Grizzly Bear :: Ready, Able
Veckatimest had to be one of if not my favorite album of 2009.  Everybody about it is awesome, from the album artwork to everything about the songs.  The album flows really well and is truly a full album... both in terms of the sound and the fact that there isn't a single dud on it.  Here is the new video to possible my favorite song on the album, "Ready, Able."  It's a really cool, beautiful, and fun music video to watch.  It must have taken forever with the stop-motion animation, but it looks incredible.

Ready, Able


Vampire Weekend :: Cousins, Horchata
Vampire Weekend is one of my favorite bands - their first album blew my away when I first heard it... I love their multi-instrumental sound and I really feel like all their songs have a lot of emotion/are really fun.  "I Stand Corrected" has got to be my favorite song by them.  They have a second album coming out January 12th on XL Records called Contra.  I've been getting the feeling that it is going to be a sophomore slump... I feel that the first album had a unique sound that duplicating would be pointless and even trying to duplicate wouldn't be very good... It was just a complete album that doesn't need anything else.  They have already released two singles from the new album, the first of which, "Horchata" is pretty stereotypical VW: preppy lyrics (especially the rhyming in the beginning), african sounding drums, preppy sound... but I don't think it's very good.  I don't like the xylophone (is that what it is) in the beginning, the sound of the vocals in the beginning... I feel like they are taking the "We're Preppy, Deal With It" too far, even if they are trying to make a joke out of it.  I do like the part with the violins in the song a bit more, but still as a whole I don't love it.  It has grown on me (it is worth listening to a bunch... I promise your opinions will change) but I don't think it's great.  You can download it for free over at their website.
I like "Cousins" a bit more, but again I feel like it's not as great as the first album, and even if it was...It's been done already!  My theory though is that Vampire Weekend should just not put out any albums.  The first album should be all we have to remember them by...Greatness.  Maybe what I'm saying is crazy and call me an idiot... but that's just what I feel.  If the new album comes out and I love it...I PROMISE I WILL COME BACK AND ISSUE AN APOLOGY.  Plenty of bands have had great first albums and then great second albums, so I understand.  I really love the video for "Cousins" though... It really captures the upbeat-ness and peppy-ness of the song, and is visually awesome.  I'm sure it took loads of time to make, what with the countless arrangements of location, wardrobe etc.

Cousins



mp3: Horchata


Also check out this awesome video for Ambling Alp by Yeasayer in an earlier post.

The Best of/History of Chillwave/Lo-fi

During 2009, and especially during the summer, there has been a huge explosion of artists who are characterized by lo-fi- buzzed- fuzzy- summery- washed out- synthpop- chilled- beach-y- whatever-you-want-to-call-it sounds.  Pretty much everybody who has any sort of music blog has made some sort of comment about it (a lot of them are pretty stupid), and since I am a big fan of it I got to take my go at it.  This style has come to be known as 'chillwave' (half-jokingly and half-seriously) after being dubbed that at the start of the summer in an epic post on HRO, or lo-fi/glo-fi.  Of course there were plenty of artists who had this sound before the summer and helped inspire the genre (like Memory Tapes/Casettes), but the summer is when it really exploded.  The biggest summer breakouts were Neon Indian (AKA Alan Polomo, also of VEGA) and Washed Out (AKA Ernest Greene).

Chillwave has most of its roots in shoegaze music.  Although it is generally slightly more upbeat, it is still for the most part meant to just sit back and relax to, and if you're going to dance at all you're pretty much just going to sway with your eyes closed...

With names like Washed Out, Beach House, Wavves, Best Coast, Future Islands, Reading Rainbows...etc it really comes through the idea of trying to capture that summer aesthetic and relaxed beach feel.  Another aspect of the music is that almost all of these artists are bedroom artists- they pretty much started out just recording their stuff in a their bedroom with just a laptop (guess...Correct! Macbook! how'd u no?) and sometimes a synthesizer, gaining recognition just by circulated their stuff on the inter-web-net-blog-world (as I like to call it).  So for some of these artists, even though they originally did not create their music to be performed, they have transformed their act for their sudden fame.

This genre, chill though it may seem, has created some angry and heated (although pretty comedic) arguments on blogs all over the web.  Some people (well, a lot) feel that this chillwave music is too 'repetitve' and that nothing happens in it and the music itself is 'shitty' but I feel that that is okay and that is a part of it that you should embrace.  Chillwave isn't trying to be Mozart and it's not trying to be Radiohead and it's not trying to be Arcade Fire (musically perfect artists...IMHO) - it's just trying to be something that you can close your eyes to and drift away.

-- A Teenage Elephant

Here are a few of my favorites

Neon Indian
mp3: Deadbeat Summer [via]
This has got to be the epitome of chillwave.  Even its title is extremely chillwave.  It is also one of the best.  It sounds as if it has been run through a washing machine, but is still upbeat and fun.  I love it.  Neon Indian is the solo project of Alan Palomo, who has multiple solo projects.   This years album Psychic Chasms is out and pretty all around awesome.

Washed Out
mp3: Feel It All Around [via]
mp3: Feel It All Around (Toro y Moi Remix)  [via]
Ernest Greene was a librarian/stay out home guy from South Carolina until his sudden popularity over the summer.  A real bedroom artist, he had never performed anything he had made or been signed to a lable until this summer.  Because his stuff was not made to be performed, at first he said he would not be doing any live shows, but eventually he had his first performance in August in NYC.  The videos are worth checking out.  The new album (just released) is called High Times, and is definitely getting if you like chillwave.  Washed Out is sort of the breakout artist of chillwave, responsible popularizing the genre over summer, and Feel It All Around is his biggest hit.  It's a song that really captures that vacationing, relaxed feel.


Toro y Moi
mp3: Talamak [via]
mp3: Blessa (Extended Version) [via]
Definitely my favorite chillwave artist without a doubt.  I had never heard of him until a concert I went to at the Troubadour, where he was the first opening act of 2.  The Troubadour is a pretty small venue and he went on pretty early.  There were only around 10-15 people there when he went on.  He walked up to the front of the small, cramped stage and set up his laptop and synthesizer.  I thought he was just a techie/roadie or whatever w/ good style at first so I went to get some water, but then I heard the first seconds of his music and was instantly mesmerized.  IMHO he is incredible.  Talamak might be favorite song of 2009.  He is definitely the most musically complex.  He is less fuzzy and faded as more dreamy, dancy and pop-y.  He is set to release two albums on Carpark Records this coming year, the first of which being Causers of This, out at the start of 2010.  You can download a bunch of his stuff over at RCRDLBL, but this is the best stuff.  Also, I forgot to mention, Toro y Moi is the solo project Chaz Bundick (also a South Carolinian who is actually good friends with Ernest Greene), member of other bands from the early 2000's.  I could listen to Talamak a million times.

Small Black
mp3: Despicable Dogs [via]
mp3: Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix) [via]
mp3: Pleasant Experience [via]
Small Black is a Long Island Duo, with some really nice electronic songs.  Don't know what else to say about them, but really love these three.


Paralyze Humanity Sequence
Hammock
This is a guy from Chicago I believe.  Don't know much about him just that he has unsigned, pretty much just does parites, and that's about it.  I happened to stumble across his myspace, where you can download his EP, which is actually pretty good aside from the shitty band name.  Pretty typical chillwave stuff, nothing special but I like it.

Atlas Sound ft. Panda Bear (AKA Noah Lennox of AnCo)
mp3: Walkabout [via]
This is a pretty great piece of music off of  Bradley Cox (of Deerhunter)'s solo album (as Atlas Sound) Logos.  It is a really diverse album with lots of guest appearances, this song falling under the chillwave banner in my opinion.  It features Noah Lennox (AKA Panda Bear) of Animal Collective, so you know it has to be good.

Trailer Trash Tracys
mp3: Candy Girl (Demo) [via]
Don't know much about TTT's but this song I think really captures the shoegaze feel of chillwave.  If you like this you should definitely check Beach House, who are more just standard indie/shoegaze.  They just released a new single, and you can download some of their great stuff at RCRDLBL.

-- A Teenage Elephant

P.S.  Something I think is kind of cool that you might not know...We'll call it the fun fact of the day...
The name for the genre shoegaze comes from the idea that at a shoegaze band's concerts when you listen to the music you just sway with your head down and gaze at your shoes.

Grizzly Bear-Neon Indian

Summer chillwave breakout Neon Indian just put out two warm and fuzzy remixes of Grizzly Bear's 'Cheerleader' off of this year's Veckatimest.  He brings his 80's/synthpop/washed sound to the track really effectively (especially in the first remix).  The two remixes though are really just continuations of each other.  Check out both the remixes at P4k until I can get the other one up.

-- A Teenage Elephant

mp3: Cheerleader   [via]
mp3: Cheerleader (Neon Indian's Sega Genesis P-Orridge RMX)

New Yeasayer

Here is the video for the new Yeasayer song Ambling Alp.  It's a pretty crazy trippy video directed by duo Radical Friend.  If you don't know them they are a psychedelic, electronic and overall sweet Brooklyn band.  They have a new album coming Odd Blood.  Out in February on Secretly Canadian it should be a great follow up to All Hour Cymbals if it holds up to the first single.  You can download the new single over at Yeasayer's website for free. There are also a couple of great remixes, the best of which by Memory Tapes.  Check it all out after the jump.

--A Teenage Elephant

"Ambling Alp"
mp3: Ambling Alp

Ambling Alp - Yeasayer

[via]

Memory Tapes Remix
mp3: Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes Remix)

Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes remi...

[via]



[via]