Wild Nothing – A Dancing Shell
This band, Wild Nothing, was formed in 2009 in Blacksburg, Virginia. I didn’t know about this band until I got their 2013 EP, which this song is on, titled Empty Estate.
Sounds very much inspired by Talking Heads, which is a good thing. I grew up hearing my father listen to Talking Heads and have vivid memories of the 1986 David Byrne film True Stories that was released alongside a Talking Heads album released with the same name.
Lana Del Ray – Blue Jeans
I heard this song a few days ago and have had it stuck in my head since then. It’s like Portishead and Nancy Sinatra collaborated to make pop music.
It’s been years since the last album from Scottish ambient duo Boards of Canada was released – eight years, in fact. I had no idea that a new album was coming out this year, nor that this song had already been released, until it was brought to my attention in the 2013 New Music thread on the Chengdu Living.
Not only was I actually listening to Boards of Canada upon realizing this (Happy Cycling, Song of the Day #98), but I have fond memories of discovering Boards of Canada.
In in the early 2000′s, I went to South Beach Miami for a week during the Winter Music Conference a handful of times with my good friend Esfand. It became a ritual for us, enjoying sunshine, like-minded crowds, and non-stop DJ related parties for a week in one of the most beautiful places in the States.
One year while in our hotel, Esfand suggested with urgency that I listen to Boards of Canada. But when I heard it, it didn’t make sense to me. It was bizarrely minimal and had a vintage sound to it, unlike anything I had heard before. I stuck with it, and like Esfand, I grew into a passionate fan of the perhaps the most understated group in electronica: Boards of Canada.
In the early days of listening to Boards, Esfand described it to me as handshake music. It doesn’t just come to you – you meet it halfway, and an exchange takes place.
I always loved using this analogy for abstract art, music, or culture that when first approached doesn’t immediately make sense to the casual observer.
When I was in San Francisco last year I spent a few days crashing with an old fried from VA named Joey. Unbeknownst to me, Joey was a Nine Inch Nails fanatic, and had seen them in concert multiple times. Although I was never fortunate enough to see them live, I began listening in 1994 with the release of The Downward Spiral. At the time Nine Inch Nails broke through rock and electronic music conventions and made industrial, with its signature synthesizer-heavy melodies and distorted vocals, a mainstream branch of rock music.
Years later Nine Inch Nails would break up and the prospect of seeing them live instantly disappeared. Last summer with Joey I lamented the lost prospect of seeing NIN live while we watched live footage that he had collected from NIN in the 1990′s. However, as of last month, Trent Reznor (the founder, nay, heart and soul of NIN) announced: NIN is returning in 2013 to tour. Not only that, but Trent Reznor’s new band, How to Destroy Angels, is also touring this year and performing at Coachella Music and Arts Festival this summer.
I am a fan of nearly every Trent Reznor project: from Nine Inch Nails, to his film scoring work (The Social Network, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), to his latest band, How to Destroy Angels. He was also among the highlights of Dave’s Grohl’s Sound City documentary.
Learn more: Trent Reznor on Wikipedia, Nine Inch Nails, How to Destroy Angels
Tame Impala, from Perth, has to be one of the best breakthrough bands of 2012. I’ve listened to their Lonerism album at least a dozen times since last fall. This track, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, features a music video that perfectly accompanies their music. In their own words, Tame Impala is ”a steady flowing psychedelic groove rock band that emphasizes dream-like melody.”
Tame Impala is playing at Coachella in Indio this summer.
Learn more: Tame Impala on Wikipedia
Great video. This band, Foals, is a UK-based one that I hadn’t heard of until recently, around the time of the release of their third album, Holy Fire. The band name, foals, means a group of young horses.
Learn more: Foals on Wikipedia
I went to Michigan for the first time in the spring of 2004 to attend a weekend-long party in downtown Detroit, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, with my Miami WMC buddy James, a Michigan-native. Although techno isn’t what I’m crazy for necessarily, the one performance that really blew me away was a live PA by Matthew Dear, Ghostly International co-founder (in case you haven’t heard of Ghostly, it is among the most respected techno labels in the United States).
The exciting thing about Matthew Dear is how prolific he’s become since 2004. Touring around the world, opening for Interpol, and releasing more albums that skirt the line between electropop and minimal techno while growing Ghostly. In 2004 I remember going to warehouse parties that just had the ghost logo spray painted on walls to indicate entrances and event locations. Cool stuff.
