Another day, another boring article complaining about the ‘state’ of music
As you’re taking suggestions… a dozen of new bands (well new to me anyway) of 2012
Melody’s Echo Chamber – S/T (Fat Possum)
Guitars dissolve in smudged razors, pushpins hidden in your lipstick. There may or may not be a horror show lurking within your candyfloss.
Matt & Kim – Lightning (Fader)
Say what you want to about the quality of the music, it makes an excellent litmus test for weeding out fluff-eating imbeciles.
Song of the day – 508: Dexys
Like washing a woman’s feet with champagne. It’s the anti-Adele.
Song of the day – 507: U.S. Girls
‘Slim Baby (long distance dub)’ is the song to go after, before it goes after you.
Grizzly Bear – Shields (Warp)
Shields is a city album. It functions as a nice urban version of Fleet Foxes — a sound born out of concrete rather than forests, glass instead of rivers, subways instead of trails.
The Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth (Merge)
Darnielle fashions Hallmark epiphanies out of his Wal-Mart realism.
Song of the day – 506: Lee Ranaldo
This is beautiful.
SWN Festival, 2007 – ‘I woke up one morning to discover that my girlfriend had changed into Courtney Love…’
There was absolute fucking silence in the venue. No one was talking. No one was applauding
The Go-Betweens – Quiet Heart (EMI Australia)
In my 20s, I liked the Go-Betweens. In my 30s I loved them. As I prepare to enter my 40s, I am in awe of them. By the time I reach my 60s, they might be all I listen to.
