Brookly based duo, Warm Ghost, has been blowing up the interwebs for the last 24 hours with the release of the "Open the Wormhole in your Heart" MP3 and corresponding video yesterday. Paul Duncan and Oliver Chapoy have worked with a few of our favorite musicians, including Joe Stickney of Bear in Heaven, among others. This track essentially blends the popular modes of 80's inspired electronic haze and vocal delivery. It's hard to argue how catchy and ambient this track is, and the positive bonus is that it remains accessible and gritty at the same time. Uncut Diamond, the forthcoming EP that includes this track, is out on February 15th via Partisan Records. Stay tuned for more on this outfit.
Warm Ghost – Open The Wormhole In Your Heart
I have to move into at least one remix this week because it's killer. Stereolab comes back and has put together this rendition of White Lies' "Is Love" with pulsing beats that gently sear into the brain. It's six-and-a-half minutes of goodness. Most of this week, I've been diving into the rock arena, but this track has reminded me how great Stereolab is/was. Check out the White Lies website to sign up for their email list. Pick up Ritual while you are hanging around. I've done just that, as well.
White Lies – Is Love (Stereolab Remix)
Yuck is a huge part of Fat Possum's early 2011 dominance and hype avalanche. The self-titled debut hits the shelves on February 15th, and there are plenty of tracks floating around the interwebs to enjoy. To begin, the album artwork is knocking my socks off in a really creepy way. Go team. Next, the tracks are fabulous, top to bottom, on the upcoming LP. This particular track, "Coconut Bible" I caught over at Listen Before You Buy. I quickly scrambled to see if I had missed something on my initial spin of the album. This track is only available on a UK-released B-side of their other single, "Holing Out." Wow. There's nothing tricky with Yuck's style, but it's just good music. I hear a My Bloody Valentine/Japandroids lovechild at play here. Catchy. Pop/rock hooks with an avalanche of reverb holding the fort down. The choruses are big enough to power a steamboat. Glam. Glitz. I can dig it.
I think it was two years ago during the Pitchfork Festival that we were curiously invited to a warehouse rave in an abandoned building somewhere in Chicago. "Times New Viking will be throwing it down," they said. We didn't really believe them, nor did we attend that shindig that night. It's entirely possible that I have that all wrong. I was several electric lemonade's deep by the time that night ended. Sure enough, though, after a quick download or two, I was listening the band pretty regularly, sort of regretting not rolling over to the debauchery filled after party (if indeed it even existed). All of this to lead up to the big news from this previous week. Times New Viking has jumped ship and has signed with Merge. They've got an upcoming LP, Dancer Enquired on April 25th. That's a ways off, but "No Room To Live" will be on the album (it's previously been bounced around on a tour-only 7"…feel like I've heard it before). Good news. It's an excellent tune.
Times New Viking – No Room to Live
Brown Recluse is releasing Evening Tapestry via Slumberland on March 15th and this track is the first released song. This one's only been quietly on my radar and I had not heard a song until this one. We caught The Soft Skin EP a couple of years ago and I plan on paying a bit more attention as the release date nears for the LP. I see a maturing, and perhaps an inclination toward music that will sell records here. Expect to see this one rise in popularity as the days tick off the calendar. Once again, good news. This track will fuel your Sunday cleaning if you have a repeat button.
Brown Recluse – Impression of a City Morning
Ponderosa feels like an old pair of gloves to us (the photo above is actually from the early EP from two years ago that got this band rolling), and to boot, we are loving their newest release Moonlight Revival over here. This one has been a long time coming. Here's our post from Feb. 20, 2009 discussing this upcoming record. Good things come to those who wait, because this (Jan. 18 via New West Records) release has been mastered beautifully. The Atlanta-based southern rock band is straightforward and fills the speakers with riffs to the rafters as any good souther-rock band should. There's swagger and infectious energy in every track. Moonlight Revival was searching for some smoothing way back in 2009 and it found it in the ears of Joe Chiccarelli, who also helped The White Stripes and My Morning Jacket. That thumbprint is all over this thing, as well. I fall for this kind of sound each and every time.
This EMA track is completely off-kilter and will raise the eyebrows of our big cavernous late-90's angry-woman vocalist afficianadoes. This track is one that needs to be listened to in its entirety because the last two minutes are well worth the wait. This is a big song with synths melted together with dreamy vocals and dark and brooding lyricism (all underneath a big umbrella of sound). This is the new project by ex-Gowns singer, Erika Anderson, if that helps with any frame of reference. "The Grey Ship" is as hard hitting as it is ambitious. It jolts with broad strokes of horns, keys, and erratic drum patters. Take my word for it. Hit play and check your email. Watch how your focus gets taken away from the task once this thing gets moving. The full-length, Past Life Martyred Saints is set to be released sometime this Spring via Souterrain Transmissions. Stay tuned on this one.
Rounding out our short MP3 wrap-up this week, we have a band that has been pushed to me in a roundabout way. Our writer, Brian, picked this up via You Ain't No Picasso, and he then emailed it to me. I've listened to the entire album twice via their bandcamp site and have also "named my own price" on the album. The Leadership released Frontiers out into the world wide web last month and for the money, "Cocaine" is worth a few bucks and a download on its own. However, preview the rest of the album and you'll be buying it like I did.
