It’s about time. Autolux have been hiding in a black hole for the past few years, occasionally resurfacing into the realm of space and time just to let us know they’re still alive. They’ve presumably been tweaking the follow-up to their exceptional debut, Future Perfect, but excepting the rare show and a couple recorded collaborations, the band has kept out of sight, and the details of the new album Transit Transit have largely been a mystery until very recently, with the release of “Audience No.2.”
Autolux have always commanded respect, not for their technical prowess–which all three members possess in spades–but, rather, their tasteful restraint, which makes their visceral, more bombastic moments all the more profound. “Audience No.2” is a perfect example. Greg Edwards’ simple guitar riff rides Carla Azar’s stuttering drums while bassist Eugene Goreshter delivers his androgynous whisper with measured assuredness (and with lines like “I have always been your vegetable/And you my Swedenborg,” Goreshter’s lyrics remain as obtuse as ever). As is typical of Autolux’s sound, a constant ebb and flow of shrieking guitar atmospherics swirls at the margins of the melody. The song’s somnambulant narcosis spikes at the brief choruses before yielding to the same three-chord cycle again and again, but by the end, the riff has taken on an air of inevitability, and as the band sings in three-part harmony at the song’s coda, the guitar refrain becomes a soothing mantra. Always the most understated member of the band and certainly the most stationary–be it on stage or during interviews–Edwards’ playing here is an act of quiet heroism, the subtlest of coups.
“Audience No.2” sounds rawer than anything on Future Perfect, recalling, instead, their self-recorded demos. This probably has to do with the fact that the band no longer has the backing of Epic–or any other label–to fund production. Even so, the song doesn’t sound lacking. It’s a gentle taste of what’s to come, and it’s enough to tide us over until Transit Transit.
Don’t have time to search out this week’s essential new music? That’s why we’re here.
Spiritualized “Soul on Fire”
Not quite finished messing with our heads, Jason Pierce returns more determined than ever on Spiritualized’s sixth album, Songs in A&E. Ease into it with this gently rocking psychedelic epic in which he sings, “I’ve got a hurricane inside my veins.”
MP3: Soul on Fire
I Love Math “Josephine Street”
Did picking up the Juno soundtrack make you long for old school indie-pop with jangly guitars, frail male voices and starry-eyed lyrics? Then get on board with I Love Math, a group that features members of Apples In Stereo and the Old 97s and on this track from its debut album, Getting To The Point Is Beside It, sounds like the cardigan clad lovechild of Belle & Sebastian, the Clientele and Yo La Tengo.
MP3: Josephine Street
Sigur Ros “Gobbledigook”
The Icelandic band most famous for singing songs in its own invented language doesn’t disappoint with this taster from its forthcoming fifth full length, With a Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly. They sound more upbeat than ever thanks to the scratchy acoustic guitars and hasty rhythmic changes, but no less delirious.
MP3: Gobbledigook
MGMT “Time To Pretend”
Is this grinding, impossibly catchy electronic tune a mindless celebration of hedonism or a jaded look at the fast life? We’re not sure but we sure like the part where the vocoded voice goes, “I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars/ You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.”
MP3: Time to Pretend
Coldplay “Songbird” (Oasis Cover)
With anticipation for the new Brian Eno-produced album now at a fever pitch thanks to that omnipresent iTunes commercial, maybe it’s best if we all just step back and take a breather with this understated cover of this Liam Gallagher penned ballad.
MP3: Songbird
The Tallest Man on Earth “I Won’t Be Found”
Our editor Jose Ramirez says, “It’s the best American folk since Devendra Banhart stopped being poor (and he’s Swedish).” Who are we to argue?
MP3: I Won’t Be Found
Icelandic pop etherealists Sigur Rós have made available a free download of the song “Goobledigook,” the first track from their new record Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, which translates as, “with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly.” The new release will be available in its entirety on June 23rd.
A Not Safe For Work video of waify naked types frolicking in the woods is also available for viewing. The way these youngsters recklessly expose themselves to the Icelandic foliage makes a viewer truly hope that chiggers and poison oak are unknown to the geyser-glacier wonderland, or wherever they shot the thing.
This is the fifth full-length studio release from Sigur Rós (Icelandic for “victory rose” and named in honor of the birth of the singer Jonsi Birgisson’s little sister) in their fourteen-year history. Their second album was textured by palindromic string arrangements composed by keyboardist Kjarri Sveinsson, the only band member with any formal musical training. Which begs the question: if the music is the same backward as forward, how does the devil get his message across?
Distinguished by Birgisson’s girly falsetto and his cello bow guitar technique, Sigur Rós have summer touring plans that will take them from Mexico to Melbourne and on to Moscow between now and the end of August.
Shoegaze fans, rejoice: My Bloody Valentine are coming back to the U.S. for what may be the most proper concert fest: All Tomorrow’s Parties, September 19th-21st, in lovely Monticello, New York, on the grounds of Kutshers Country Club. Can you think of a better place to roll around freaking out listening to looped feedback than a golf course?
If My Bloody Valentine alone aren’t enough to lure you to a weekend in the country (imagine the foliage!), read the rest of lineup, designed to make any indie rock fan who cut their teeth in the ’90s cream their figurative jeans: Shellac (Steve Albini), Mogwai, Polvo, Fuck Buttons, Autolux, the Drones, Low, Wooden Shjips, Edan, and Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra are slated to perform sets.
And how many times have you wished you could hear your favorite band play your favorite album in sequence, live? There will be plenty of that, too. Built to Spill will perform Perfect From Now On; Tortoise will re-enact Millions Now Living Will Never Die; the Meat Puppets will thrash out Meat Puppets II; and Thurston Moore will break Psychic Hearts.
Tickets go sale today (April 25) at atpfestival.com.
“Never judge a book by its cover” is an adage so beaten into our collective consciousness that it’s hardly up for debate any more, but if Saturday=Youth is any indication, it clearly has no bearing on album covers. An immaculately tailored Brat Pack of models poses sullenly in the orange glow of an autumn afternoon. It’s no accident that front-and-center sits a young Molly Ringwald look-alike, but the shot’s polish belies the carefully crafted throwback aesthetic. Instead of a 1986 John Hughes set, it comes across as a self-consciously nostalgic 2008 Vogue shoot, and the music follows suit.
The word “cinematic” has all but defined Anthony Gonzalez’s work as M83 and Saturday=Youth is perhaps his most literally film-inspired album to date. Instead of the layered synth-driven soundscapes of Before the Dawn Heals Us, Gonzales presents a more pop-inspired approach on his latest effort that comes across more “soundtrack” than “score.” Fittingly so; Gonzales is candid with his intention to pay homage to ’80s teen movies. “The soundtracks were perfect and the characters were so optimistic,” he tells XLR8R magazine, and unsurprisingly, the album’s sound palette leans heavily on sounds not heard since he was in high school. With Ewan Pearson (of Cocteau Twins fame) on board to assist with production duties, the warped electric drums and echoing keyboards on tracks like “Skin of the Night” are spot-on. However, the perfectionist, halcyon-sounding studio polish keeps the whole effort grounded in the present, leaving the VHS blur of its inspirational material conspicuously neglected.
Admittedly, it’s refreshing to hear a contemporary tribute to the ’80s without the smug and witless “irony” prevalent in today’s music and culture. The wistful buildup of the opener, “You, Appearing,” and even the thick shoegaze of “Dark Moves of Love” are beautifully crafted songs, but the highlight remains the underwater bass-kicks smothered in waves of synths near the end of “Couleurs”–a track that stands out like a sore thumb against the throwback pop that pervades the rest of the album. Ultimately M83 isn’t riding the crest of any cultural breakthrough here; an ’80s-inspired concept album in 2008 is hardly an original idea, ironic or not. If a slickly produced and idealistically nostalgic tribute to Breakfast Club-inspired teenage melodramas of yesteryear is what you’ve been pining for, then you’re in for a treat; otherwise you might just want to keep your head in the present and cherry-pick your favorite tracks from iTunes.
Don’t have time to search out this week’s essential MP3s, streams and viral videos? That’s why we’re here.
M83 “Graveyard Girl”
Like a John Hughes movie put to music, the latest from former My Bloody Valentine soundalikes M83–aka French producer Anthony Gonzalez–is a brilliant throwback to high school life in the early Eighties. In other words it sounds like the precise intersection of New Order and The Psychedelic Furs.
Frank Black “I Sent Away”
The Pixies frontman resumes his low-key solo career with an appropriately lo-fi solo track that lurches forward on rapid fire punk riffs, spit-out verses and a manic harmonica solo. Nice but still not as good as “Monkey Gone To Heaven.”
(via The Yellow Stereo)
She & Him “Why Stay Here”
Ever wondered who exactly goes on eBay to buy those old K-Tel compilations from the ’70s filled with songs by the Carpenters and Olivia Newton-John? The most likely culprits are Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward.
MP3: whystayhere.mp3
Does It Offend You, Yeah “We Are Rockstars”
The next pack of young British punks certain to salvage the music industry this week, according to the NME. To our ears, this is fairly standard industrial noise on just a touch of ecstasy.
(via KEXP)
MGMT “Destrokk”
“You are soft/ We are hard,” the Brooklyn duo contends on this track. That’s kind of rich considering they wear women’s sunglasses and play the kind of retro synth-pop last heard when people with aerodynamic hair and pirate shirts ruled the charts.
(via Yukon Promotions)
Lykke Li “Dance Dance Dance”
A Swedish singer with just the right combination to break millions of indie-boy hearts: Big eyes, little voice, crazy ass song.
(via Control Group Co)
Weezer “Pork and Beans”
The latest single from the Los Angeles quartet features topical lyrics that sound like they were written by that dude in Train that always sings about soy mocha lattes. But the music, a riveting blast of guitars, more than makes up for it.
(via Consequence of Sound)
The boozy sophomore release from Baltimore duo Beach House refuses to hurry up. Instead, Devotion lives in a world suggestive of the band’s moniker: one marked by languid easing, lounging around, and the sweet taking of time. On “You Came to Me,” the melody inches along, growing incrementally on ticks, echoes and la-la-las—occasionally shining with an off-kilter, haunting brightness. But Devotion’s best characteristic is that it greets you with a hazy sort of sunshine. Gloomy isn’t the right word, it’s more ethereal. Notes emerge from ghostly electronic twitters; sweeping keyboards sound like otherworldly church organs; buzzing guitars solemnly march and bend in minor keys. The voice of singer Victoria Legrand—gossamer yet gravitational, sometimes even majestic—echoes against the space created by instrumentalist and co-conspirator Alex Scally. Each song is delicate in its meditations, but in the end, the content matters less than the form and the experience. Devotion is an album that sweeps in with all the natural inevitability of weather or a wave. Give in to its pace and energy—there’s no other choice.
Seattle’s Voyager One have found what works, and they’re sticking to it. The duo’s modus operandi is a stripped-down, post-millenium take on shoegaze. If their fourth full-length is less memorable than Spiritualized’s first, Lazer Guided Melodies—to name one possible influence—they share the same sonic space.
Peter Marchese even sings as if he were born in Britain, although that isn’t to suggest an affectation on his part; shoegaze vocalists often evoke England no matter their country of origin. It’s one of the qualities that distinguishes the subgenre from post-rock, which isn’t as closely associated with the UK.
Marchese and Jeramy Koepping both handle guitars, keys, and programming. Aside from vocals, the multi-talented Marchese adds bass and drums to the mix. Guest musicians supply the rest of the sounds. Afterhours in the Afterlife is recommended to fans of Spiritualized, the Dandy Warhols, and tour mates Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, whose influence can be felt most keenly on “The Future Is Obsolete,” which rocks harder than the rest.