This is the stuff I've been listening to. Do you like it? You do?! OMG what r u listening to?!1
Okay –
Low Road/High RoadMarty Anderson’s thematically split double-album features some of the catchiest psychedelic pop ever driven by a kazoo. His eerie, compelling pop aesthetic, at varying intervals, also makes use of keyboards, the acoustic guitar, handclaps, a drum machine, and a handsaw. Laid over all of this is Anderson’s voice, which is best described as the result of gargling helium and radio static. His pure, visceral vocals, which are at once pointed and fragile, mind numbingly beautiful and grating, are the real star of his music. They are so pure, unsullied by any attempt at anything but sincerity, lending an air of honesty even to lyrics as textually eyebrow raising as “I consume all the sadness.” Listen to it. Then listen again. And if you still haven’t gotten it, listen again. You won’t regret it.
Samples? Uh,
this was the best I could do.
The Skygreen Leopards –
Life and Love in Sparrow's Meadow The Skygreen Leopard’s latest is as good as anything they’ve ever done. I can’t put into words how much that means coming from me. Each song feels like an opiatic journey through the treetops of Wonderland’s rejected cousin. You’re shoved dreamily along by a deep layer of acoustic folk riffs, encouraged by the wave of maracas and harmonica whose origin you can’t seem to find, weaving around banjos, popping springs, and the occasional sound of someone blowing on a coke bottle, all in desperate search of trance-inducing voice that made you float in the first place.
Or, you know, it’s, uh, a good album. And such.
Samples:
Mother The Sun Makes Me CryBelle of the Woodsman's Autumn BallMovietone -
The Sand and the StarsA friend had made a sweeping declaration that “women can’t succeed in indie music without a weird ass voice” (noting Bjork, Joanna Newsom, and Regina Spektor as examples) when this album came to mind as a notable exception. Kate Wright’s purely, objectively
gorgeous soprano is backed by acoustic instrumentals so beautifully melancholy you’ll wonder where this idea that people had to sound odd to sound good came from.
I wouldn’t have mentioned it, if it weren’t so sorely missed off the hero-worship list here. If you haven’t heard it, do. Or else.*
*Bitches.
Have a listenSam Prekop –
Who’s Your New Professor?Sam Prekop’s takes liberal doses of an upright bass, maracas, often subtle guitar, and nearly absent percussion, mixing them in a commemorative-edition Miles Davis sippy-cup and pouring them over his soulful, gentle voice with expert precision. Have a family get together and want something to keep others from trying to put in their own tasteless shite? Grab this album; it’s impossible not to like.
Yeah, yeah, Sam Goody again.
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Topic: I... I have something very important to tell you. (Read 7872 times)