The summer may have just begun, officially, but it’s that time of the year: the late June music funk. Funk not as in George Clinton funk, but funk as in I just can’t find anything I want to listen to. The Gossip‘s That’s Not What I Heard and Slumberland Records’ podcasts have been the only things keeping me going. But what better to get me outta this funk than a bunch of noise. This Portland quartet makes a mighty racket with their screwy punk rock screaming and pounding. These tracks may be a few years old, but they work.
GROK
I hope you don’t like this song very much. Or, better put: I’d advise you not to get too attached to this song, show up at a GROK show, and expect them to recreate this recording live. See, GROK’s got a thing or two to prove, and that thing or two has plenty to do with improvisation. They have no songs (at least not in that written, structured, rehearsed, performed sense of “song”), the songs they do have are performed only once so that every GROK show is a one-of-a-kind, highly unique experience, and audience members act as collaborators by suggesting a theme for a song, playing an instrument, or spinning the Wheel of Chordal Destiny. Their music sounds just as fun and whimsical, as is the case in “Pink Shirt.” Don’t worry if you find yourself listening to “Pink Shirt” more than once. To disagree with GROK is ultimately GROK. Don’t think about it, just listen…
New Bronx MP3
Bell
Is Olga Bell a Bjork sound-a-like? Not exactly. She probably gets asked this a lot, so to combat the similarities between their grand and ethereal Scandinavian voices–she cleverly decided to answer this question by starting with tribute. covering a Bjork track! She’s firmly not-Bjork. Nor is she Bjork-lite. When I first heard Bell, I was so-so on the whole thing. As when smelling a glass of wine, I was getting over-strong notes of the aforementioned Icelandic star and Radiohead. But my friend Seth kept telling me how much he loved her, so I kept listening. Where I ended up with was this: Bell is a singer whose personality comes through in her voice, a love for the staccato beat and someone I have come to really like listening to. I also love that she is Russian born, Alaska-reared and has somehow ended up in my own beloved Brooklyn. She also calls her laptop and instrument. And while I have been a detractor re: “laptops are music!” for ages, I’m kind of willing to buy that in her case.
Sic Alps
Sic Alps is the product of Matt Hartman (the best band ever Henry’s Dress, Cat Power, The How) and Mike Donovan (Big Techno Werewolves, Ropers, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast). While the early track below is feedback overload, their newer releases are San Francisco no-fi psych-garage-rock. New LP U.S. EZ out July 15th on Siltbreeze.
Karl Hector & The Malcouns
Stones Throw’s funk imprint, Now-Again, follows up the mind-blowing Heliocentrics album with this desert continent disc from neo-afro funk collective Karl Hector & The Malcouns. First, a quick who’s who of the principals: Karl Hector (vocals & percussion) has, up to this point, only recorded his skills on one 7-inch back in ’96 with the Funk Pilots; Between Jay Whitefield (Poets of Rhythm), Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija (The Malcouns) a wide swath of instrumental ground gets covered. Six more musicians round out the collective. “Nyx” stands out as a faithful sampling of Sahara Swing as a whole. Its gritty groove breaks down into raw african percussion about a minute and a half in, after which a fog of free jazz rolls past until the guitars resume their call and response riffs. It’s like overhearing a conversation that you can’t stop listening to because you want to hear the rest of the story. And the rest of the story about Sahara Swing goes like this: it’ll be one of the hottest additions to your summertime party playlist.
Two Hours Traffic
There’s something to be said for a 4-40 a.c. song — all four windows down, driving 40 mph — especially in these eco-focused times. Sure, it’s a throw-away song, the music version of IKEA’s disposable furniture, but like those $7 end tables such songs are absolutely necessary. How else to get through humidity higher than my grandpa’s age without sunny pop-rock flowing through the mini van? Two Hours Traffic helps out with “Stuck for the Summer,” off their most recent release Little Jabs, winner of the Best Pop Album in the Canadian East Coast Music Awards. Two Hours Traffic hails from Prince Edward island, a locale in which the 4-40 a.c. plan would likely be grand: windswept maritime scenes, salty breezes, gas prices even higher than here in the States. And so, congrats to the winners and thanks for the needed function of songs like yours. One more thing, for Sean: after your job this year, I bet you and your patient ears recognize where the band gets its name from, eh?
The Notwist
Amazing it’s been six years since The Notwist’s break-through album, Neon Golden. Time flies. And in the meantime, these Bavarian boys have kept busy bloodying their fingers in a variety of pies like 13 & God, Lali Puna, and Ms. John Soda to name a few. The Devil, You + Me, their sixth album (out domestically today) in twenty, yep, twenty, years, opens with this solid, extremely listenable track, “Good Lies,” in which Ascher, in his signature casual delivery, sings this platonic refrain: “Let’s just imitate the real until we find a better one.” If you enjoy gentle melodies flavored with large dollops of electronic gadgetry and a sprinkling of orchestral arrangements, then you won’t likely find anything much better than this. The last offering here is another fruitful pairing of The Notwist with a member of Oakland’s hip-hop collective, Anticon.
Helio Sequence MP3s + Live Photos
Unicycle Loves You
Alisa makes fun of me when I tell her I wanted to be a magician when I was a boy. She praises me when I make loads of magic fun for our kids’ birthdays though. OK, so I’ve only performed for one birthday. I think it was for Cairo’s sixth birthday. I made him disappear. Sam was my lovely assistant. Back to being made fun of…Alisa also gave be a good jabbing when I showed her my juggling skills (I can’t believe she actually married me when I think about it). Can you see where this is going? Yes, I also used to be a proud owner of a unicycle. Which brings us to the songs for today by Unicycle Loves You. The playful tone of “Hawaii” brings back the simple rushes of thrilling my friends by changing nickels to dimes or bunny-hopping on my unicycle. Yes, I was a royal geek, and thankfully Unicycle Loves You lets me man up and admit it. I mean their singer Jim Carroll still dresses like my mom dressed me in grade school (note the guy in the vest), back when I would steal lunch money to buy my friends ice-cream or Wacky Packages. But that’s a completely different story, one that shares a theme with “Highway Robbery.” And no kids, stealing is not OK.