Driving through your hometown after a long road trip with a nice mix of nostalgia and “get me the hell out of here” running through your veins.
So incredibly psyched for the upcoming Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks record. I wasn’t super head over heels with his last one (that I remember, anyways), but I think the time in between then and now I’ve become friends with some fervent Pavement fans, which has ultimately boosted my reverence for Mr. Malkmus.
Medusa is in the club and she’s ready to fuck you up.
Along with SASSY 009, Smerz was one of my favorite new groups from 2017. Their brand of dizzying, uncanny electronic pop is so unique and infectious. It makes me feel like I have a medusa-like stare, rendering anyone in my path to stone. Not that I wish that upon anyone, it’s just incredibly cool music. The ability to create something so catchy and hard-hitting while using ugly, distorted sounds is another one of my favorite things and Smerz match this in spades with this track. Cannot wait for a full-length from them.
Some more city pop coming at ya – one of my all time favorite albums in the genre.
Another great song from 2018. Disclaimer – I’m currently promoting this album to college radio stations, but I’ll be danged if I can’t say this is a good song on my own blog.
More pop from Japan, this time from Nami Shimada and the techno stylings of Soichi Terada, who is most known for his work on the Ape Escape soundtracks (in my mind, anyway). This song rips and will definitely get you moving in your step aerobics class.
Realizing that a lot of these posts for February are going to be about Japanese pop music from the 80s, primarily labeled as “city pop.” This is the intro track to one of my favorite pop albums of the era, Miharu Koshi’s Parallelisme from 1984 – most notably mixed and produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono. It’s a fantastic record overall, but this opener is by far the best track in my opinion.
Another entry to great 2018 tracks, from Holodeck Record’s Lou Rebecca. Intoxicating synth pop with serious Glass Candy feels added in there. Lou Rebecca’s new self-titled EP is solid – I’m very likely going to feature it on my albums of January post.
Another early 2018 standout track comes from CO-based electronic vibeman Lane 8, featuring Channy from Poliça. I wouldn’t say I’m always a huge fan of this type of music, but this song really hits. I’ll give most of the props to Channy’s vocals and the flickering, accelerating synth in the background of the track. Well arranged and something that would definitely go over super well live. I can see a bunch of folks in snowboarder jackets totally vibing out to this.
I’m going to try and post something every day during the month of February, usually consisting of either brand new music or folks that I’ve never posted about before. Yesterday I posted about the brand new Negative Gemini EP, so today I’m indulging in something older.
I recently rediscovered this album by The Supreme Jubilees and decided to put their 1979 album (reissued by Light In The Attic in 2015) on my phone for the week, especially since it’s a very cold Friday and I need a bit of comfort. This did the trick and warmed me up during my frigid commute to work this morning. The story of the band is heartwarming and another story to add to the collection of labels like Light In The Attic or Numero resuscitating old, forgotten records to the present day. Read the whole story below and enjoy.
First 2018-related post is a dang good one. I was a big fan of Negative Gemini’s 2016 album Body Work, so I was jazzed to find out that this new EP, Bad Baby, builds upon the sweaty rave stab into dream pop that was set up on the last record. “Infin Path” is the first track on the record and it gets things started off well, priming the listener for what’s to come. A bleary smear of electronics, drum samples (unsure what the exact name of that pattern would be – it’s not breakbeat / drum & bass right?). Either way – it’s a mess of styles coherently blended together in a satisfying package. Listen to the rest of the EP and maybe even buy it HERE.
ALSO – I’m going to try and do a post every day this month (February 2018). If I fail, flay me alive in the town square!
