Listening Habits 08-09.14

It's certainly no small feat: 8 albums into an 18-year recording career, Spoon remain at the top of their game and deliver once again one of the best rock records of the year.

The ten tracks (9 originals and one cover) on "They Want My Soul" create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, complementing each other and making for a pleasurable listening experience from start to finish that will have you hitting the repeat button again and again.

Our August - September top albums list also includes Interpol's "Elpintor", their first album as a trio, which several reviews have hailed as a return to form. Personally, I don't think they have ever lost it, but if you have a record as awesome as "Turn On The Bright Lights" for your debut, you should prepare for the fact that people's expectations for your band will tend to be rather unrealistic. Thankfully Interpol don't seem to mind and get on with the business of making fine records, with "Elpintor" certainly not far from that early career high mark.

Our Top 5 is rounded up by the melodic California garage-pop of "Worship The Sun", Allah-Lahs' sophomore effort, the grunge-punk aggression of Canada's White Lung who have justly seen their profile rise with the explosive "Deep Fantasy", their third LP, and the experimental, laid-back hip hop sounds of Shabazz Palaces's "Lesse Majesty". 

Here's the complete Top 15 Albums list for August - September 2014:

Top 15 Albums

1.   They Want My Soul - SPOON
2.   Elpintor - INTERPOL
3.   Worship The Sun - ALLAH-LAS
4.   Deep Fantasy - WHITE LUNG
5.   Lese Majesty - SHABAZZ PALACES
6.   Pe'ahi - THE RAVEONETTES
7.   Initiation - HAUNTED HEARTS
8.   Hour Of The Dawn - LA SERA
9.   Beauty & Ruin - BOB MOULD
10. Revelation - THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
11. Luminous - THE HORRORS
12. World Peace Is None Of Your Business - MORRISSEY
13.  The Voyager - JENNY LEWIS
14. Upside Down Mountain - CONOR OBERST
15. Clear Lake Forest - THE BLACK ANGELS

Top 15 Tracks

1.   Food For Clouds - THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
2.   Do You - SPOON
3.   All The Rage Back Home - INTERPOL
4.   Drown With The Monster - WHITE LUNG
5.   501-415 - ALLAH-LAS
6.   Killer In The Streets - THE RAVEONETTES
7.   Johnny Jupiter - HAUNTED HEARTS
8.   Losing To The Dark (mp3 via Stereogum) - LA SERA
9.   I Don't Know You Anymore - BOB MOULD
10. Kiss Me A Lot - MORRISSEY
11. Head Underwater - JENNY LEWIS
12. Hundreds Of Ways - CONOR OBERST
13. Hot And Cold - EX HEX
14. I See You - THE HORRORS
15. They Come In Gold - SHABAZZ PALACES

Spoon - Do You

Listen to our latest favorites on Spotify:

Moon Duo, live @ An Club (Athens. September 11, 2014)

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Start of the autumn live music season at An Club with a fine performance by San Francisco's Moon Duo. The band may have started its journey as a duo comprised by Wooden Ships' leader Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada but now, at least on stage, they have been transformed to a trio with the addition of drummer John Jeffrey whose powerful, metronomic pounding has replaced the drum machine beat.

The drums may have increased the dynamism of Moon Duo's live sound, but the heart of their music remains the interplay between the repetitive, trance-inducing sounds coming from Yamada's  keyboards and the buzzing riffs, delivered with surgical precision from Johnson's guitar.

The splendid mix of hazy psychedelic melodies, krautrock repetition and Suicide intensity has become the trademark sound of Ripley Johnson, whether he is playing with Wooden Shjips or Moon Duo.

With Moon Duo the less is more approach is applied and by sticking to the bare essentials of this heady recipe, the song may seem to remain the same from start to finish of the 70-minute set, but the intensity is multiplied and the appreciative applause at the end proves that their trance-mission has been accomplished once again.

Sample Moon Duo's An Club trance-mission below and click here for a taste of Wooden Shjips in action three months before at Plissken Festival:

Moon Duo's Ripley Johnson

New Releases: July - August 2014

Round up of the most interesting albums and singles released in the second half of the summer - here's what you might have missed while you were away on vacation:

Albums

Spoon

SPOON - They Want My Soul
TY SEGALL - Manipulator
SHABAZZ PALACES - Lese Majesty
BEACH DAY - Native Echoes
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - Brill Bruisers
MORRISSEY - World Peace Is None of Your Business
JENNY LEWIS - The Voyager
THE RAVEONETTES - Pe'ahi
THE BLACK ANGELS - Clear Lake Forest
MERCHANDISE - After the End
WHITE FENCE - For the Recently Found Innocent
J MASCIS - Tied to a Star
BECK - Song Reader
ALVVAYS - Alvvays
AMANDA X - Amnesia
THE ROSEBUDS - Sand And Silence
COLD SPECKS - Neuroplasticity
CYMBALS EAT GUITARS - Lose
CELEBRATION - Albumin
THE BUG - Angels & Devils
SHIT AND SHINE - Powder Horn
JUNGLE - Jungle
FKA TWIGS - LP1
JJ - V
MOZART'S SISTER - Being
CHILDHOOD - Lacuna
TWIN PEAKS - Wild Onion
NAOMI PUNK - Television Man
PS I LOVE YOU - For Those Who Stay
COMET GAIN - Paperback Ghosts
THE MUFFS - Whoop Dee Doo
HONEYBLOOD - Honeyblood
ROYAL BLOOD - Royal Blood
THE WYTCHES - Annabel Dream Reader
DZ DEATHRAYS - Black Rat
THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Alias
ROBYN HITCHCOCK - The Man Upstairs
TUATARA - Underworld
DAVID KILGOUR AND THE HEAVY 8’s - End Times Undone
DAN MICHAELSON AND THE COASTGUARDS - Distance
JAMES YORKSTON - The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society
GRUMBLING FUR - Preternaturals
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - Get Hurt
ERLAND AND THE CARNIVAL - Closing Time
BATHS - Ocean Death
BEAR IN HEAVEN - Time is Over One Day Old
LAWRENCE LINDELL - A Nomad Story

Singles & EPs

Allah-Lahs

ALLAH-LAS - 501-415 / No Werewolf
MARK LANEGAN BAND - No Bells on Sunday EP 
THE CHILLS - Molten Gold

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - Revolution Number Zero

2:54 - Orion

JULIA HOLTER - Don't Make Me Over / Hello Stranger

MARISSA NADLER / FATHER JOHN MISTY - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sing / Drive

ALAN VEGA / THE VACANT LOTS - Split Single Number 4

CLOSE LOBSTERS - Kunstwerk in Spacetime EP

JOANNA GRUESOME / TYRANNOSAURUS DEAD - Post Holiday Dead Song / Anti Parent Cowboy Killers

TOY - As We Turn

THE WYTCHES - Wire Frame Mattress

RYAN ADAMS - Gimme Something Good

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND - None More Than You EP

TWIN PEAKS - Flavor EP

CHAIN AND THE GANG - Never Been Properly Loved

VIET CONG - Cassette EP

CEREBRAL BALLZY - Better In Leather

ROYAL BLOOD - Figure It Out

OBLITERATIONS - The Hole

SUNSHINE - Two Hundred Grand

COMET GAIN - Sad Love And Other Short Stories

THE STEVENS - EP

GIRL ONE AND THE GREASE GUNS - Bashed, Beaten and Broken (Trip the Switch)

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE - More Fears

AEROPLANE FLIES HIGH - Honey EP

Allah-Las - 501-415

Live from the West Coast: The Coathangers / The Helio Sequence / Amanda X

After an extended sabbatical from blogging and quite a bit of traveling, time to reboot C.M.C. by sharing some live photos from three gigs we've attended while checking out the sights of California this August.

First stop: San Francisco's Rickshaw Stop on August 12th, for a show by female punk trio The Coathanges with White Fang and Twin Steps:

The Coathangers, live @ Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (August 12, 2014)

White Fang, live @ Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (August 12, 2014)

Twin Steps, live @ Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (August 12, 2014)

The Coathangers have released earlier this year their highly recommended third LP "Suck My Shirt" and below you can check out album highlight "Adderall", from their San Francisco gig:

The Coathangers - Adderall (live @ Rickshaw Stop) 

Next stop, a few days later, the famous Roxy Theater on LA's Sunset Strip for a show by The Helio Sequence and Liam Finn:

The Helio Sequence, live @ The Roxy, Los Angeles (August 16)

Liam Finn, live @ The Roxy, Los Angeles (August 16)

Here's an old favorite from The Helio Sequence's set at the Roxy, "Can't Say No" off the 2008 LP "Keep Your Eyes Ahead" (unfortunately, by this point of the trip, our camera had given up the spirit and we had to rely on our phones for photos and videos):

 The Helio Sequence - Can't Say No (live @ The Roxy)

Last, but not least, a new band we came across by lucky coincidence: Amanda X from Philadelphia - one of the many bands performing at The Echo during the Echo Park Rising weekend (August 17):

Amanda X, live @ The Echo, Los Angeles (August 17)

Click here to listen to "Amnesia", the distortion pop debut LP by Amanda X, while below you can check out the new video for the album's opening track "Guatemala", where the trio share with us their experiences from life on the road:

Amanda X - Guatemala