Things I Like/Midly Enjoy

THINGS I LIKE

Memoryhouse.


Despite their terrible name (they are named after the Richter piece, but still, it's pretty bad and way too similar to Beach House) these guys are amazing. They are a duo, composer/ambient musician Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion, and make beautiful, shimmery, sleep dream-pop. The background music is great by itself, but it is Nouvion's vocals that really make it great. They were lumped in with chillwave for some reason, but I think they're gonna make something of themselves. Check out the videos below as well as their tumblr, where they post cool vids as well as songs and older pieces by Abeele.

Memoryhouse - Bonfire from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

Lately (Troisieme) - Memoryhouse Music Video from Malcolm Klock on Vimeo.

In My Room: Memoryhouse "When You Sleep" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

THINGS I MIDLY ENJOY

The new Avey Tare (Down There). Avey's my fave of Animal Collective and I never really listened to Panda Bear's solo stuff until pretty recently (although I'm really liking it), and I really liked his older solo stuff (like "Abyss Song") and the album he did with ex-wife Kria Brekkan, so I had super high hopes for this. I've listened to it several times but I can't really make up my mind about it. None of the songs really stand out or are particularly great, but it really does flow well as an album. You should give it a listen, but don't expect to be blown away. I feel like a lot of people like it just because it's by Avey.

-Alec

XO Kid / Emily Reo

hey there





First up is XO KID. I am maybe a little biased because I am actually friends withe this guy in real life, but hawt dang his music is good and underrated. He makes some good ol-lo fi pop filled with distored keyboards, sampler stuuuf, and even a lil' bit of guitar here and there. Some of his stuff is more "beat-like" (and it's good too) but his songs with singing are better than his instrumentals. Best of all, his music is free!!! FREE!! download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?c4h192ieijgwjzp


Make sure to check out "Bleach" and "The Air Was Cold but the Sun Was Hot" (my personal faves.

Next up on the agenda for today is Emily Reo

She is some gal from Orlando, Florida who (i assume alongside with that fellow playing the drums) makes some absolutely great, lo-fi, hazy, synth-filled, dreamy-dream-dream pop songs. Her music sounds a lot what a super-stripped down, "poorly recorded" Beach House would sound like. There are synth-y organs, soothing reverb lady voice, and some interesting drums and guitar too. Similar to XO Kid, her music if FREEFREE! (well sort of, her newest realease (Witch Mtn requires payment). You can download her album Minha Gatinha here on her bandcamp: http://emilyreo.bandcamp.com/album/minha-gatinha As well as a pretty awesome cover of Built to Spill's "Car".

- Alec

Oh my, two bands! Ringo Deathstarr + Gliss

First up in this post is a lil' band named Ringo Deathstarr. I say little because, they are, pretty small and unknown. They're a 4 piece band from Austin, Texas, and at the moment they've only realeased a self-titled EP, and several 7"s. They'll soon be releasing a split with The Depreciation Guild, another rather excellent band, who mixes shoegaze with the blips and bloops of an NES. They rule, excellent live as well, check 'em out. Anyway, back to Ringo.

Ringo Deathstarr's a shoegaze/"nu-gaze"/chillgaze (as described on their myspace) band. They, like many of their contemporaries, heavily borrow from older bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. While their sound might be less than completely original, it's hard to call this a fault, because they pull it off really well. Their music's really swirly and atmospheric, with walls of sound at times. The singer definitely emulates Jim Reid more than Kevin Shields and others, and I think it matches their sound really well. The highlights from their EP are probably the songs "Starrsha" (my personal fave) and "Some Kind of Sad" (very, very JAMC like). Are they a completely new sound? No. Are they enjoyable? Very. One of the best new shoegaze bands around in my opinion, and I think they've got a bright future ahead of them. For fans of The Depreciation Guild, JAMC, MBV, Skywave, A Place to Bury Strangers.

On to Gliss! Gliss is a self described "hazy experimental fucked up pop" band from "los angeles/copenhagen". While I'm not sure about their location (all the info I find points to them currently being in LA, so I assume they are just of Danish nationality), they have a fairly accurate description of their sound. They blend elements of shoegaze and noise pop to create a fairly unique sound. Their closest match would be fellow Danish band, The Raveonettes, largely due to the female vocals they have over most of their songs. On a few songs there is a guy singing (and he sounds quite similar to the guy from Phoenix I think), and he's just as good as the gal'.

They have a few albums out I belive, but all I've heard is their most recent effort Devotion Implosion. It's a pretty solid album, and it succeeds in at least sounding like an album, with all the songs in a similar vein, blending into one another. The highlights, I think, are "Morning Light" (the opening track, which begins with the heavily, heavily, heavily copied boom, boom, cha drumbeat (from "Be my baby" by the Ronettes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzhbGaCwBzs) but thankfully soon transitions out of it) and "Lovers in the Bathroom" (a good ol' dreamy, swirly track). They also have a blog (which unfortunately hasn't been updated since March, but is still worth a read) http://www.gliss.tv/.

Anyway, to sum it up. Two great swirly, dreamy, atmospheric, nosie popp-y, shoegaze-y bands.

- Alec

Desolation Wilderness

Desolation Wilderness is a stretch of wilderness along the Sierra Nevada in California. After hearing their music, it's pretty obvious why they chose it as their name. Their music is dreamy and reverb-drenched, almost delving into "chillwave", much like Pure Ecstasy. It's very introspective, and perfect for listening to outside, on late summer nights. Unfortunately, they've recently broken up, but they've put out enough music (2 Full lengths, an EP, and some 7"s) to last you for a while. Since the breakup, singer Nic Zwart has started a new, quite similar band, Electric Sunset, if you really, really, want something more.

My favorite songs of theirs are probably Boardwalk Theme, and San Francisco 2 AM. Lala shut down a while ago, so I no longer have a way to stream songs, but you can on RCD LBL

enjoy - Alec

Banjo or Freakout

Banjo or Freakout is Alessio Natalizia, a guy who makes super-dreamy tunes, that sound sort of like a mix between shoegaze, dream pop, and "chillwave". It's really great to relax to, or sleep to, or really do anything to. He doesn't tour much at all (yet), which is really unfortunate, but he recently finished recording his first full-length, which is pretty exciting (to me at least).

He's done a looot of covers, from a really wide variety of artists, including Kanye "the voice of our generation" West, LCD Soundsystem, and Burial. You can find and download a lot of these on his blog: WWW.BANJOORFREAKOUT.BLOGSPOT.COM. There are also several mixes he's put together, and his Christmas album, which is really good, although extremely-unchristmas-y.

While his covers are good, his originals are a lot better I think. Unfortunately, there aren't too many of them out right now, but I'm hoping that his album will fix that. My favorite of his is a song called Upside Down, which I think I put on one of my mixes. I really like how it seems kinda faded and far away, so it's really easy to just let wash over you, but it's also really excellent for more active listening. It also has a pretty enjoyable video, and I really am not much of a music video fan, so that is sort of high praise.

Alessio also makes some tunes with Sam Willis under the name of WALLS.

Banjo or Freakout - Upside Down (Official Video) from Blake Salzman on Vimeo.

- Alec