Sunday, February 26, 2017

Listening Habits 01-02.2017

In recent weeks we took a trip 30 and 40 years back, remembering  just a few of the great albums and songs released in 1987 and 1977 respectively, two years full of exceptional, groundbreaking music.

As we reach the end of February, it's time to return to the present and take stock of what's going on in the first couple of months of 2017.

The first great album of the New Year came at the tail-end of 2016 and it's the third and most potent installment of the collaboration between El-P and Killer Mike as Run The Jewels. By now you know exactly what to expect when these two come together but there is no way to resists the sheer excitement and wild joy of their aggressive beats and witty raps. "Run The Jewels 3" is the ideal battle hymn of resistance against the current insane social and political situation of America and, of course, the rest of the world.

One might expect that a similar reaction would also be forthcoming in the rock world as well, that at least a resurgence of punk rock would be on the horizon by now. No such luck so far, no new Sex Pistols or anything radical like that, but at least we got some seriously heavy riffs and some great pop hooks in the new records by Ty Segall, Japandroids and Cloud Nothings.

Segall's ninth album is his second self-titled release, perhaps his way of reintroducing himself with a record that encompasses a little bit of everything he's been doing over the ten prolific years he's been recording music. Garage rock and psych pop gems come fast and furious over the record's 36-minutes, concisely presenting what makes Ty Segall one of the best rock 'n' rollers of the current generation.

We have certainly missed Japandroids in the five years since their last record, the excellent "Celebration Rock", and we are certainly glad that they are back with "Near To The Wild Heart Of Life", their third full-length effort. The new record doesn't present any sharp turns in their trajectory, but the power and simplicity of their music is still doing a fine job in generating anthemic, memorable songs that will work just as well in the sweaty surroundings of a rock club or as the soundtrack to a drive down a motorway.

Cloud Nothings' "Life Without Sound", their most melodic offering so far, but still full of buzzing, powerful guitar sounds, Austra's "Future Politics", a fine electropop effort combining catchy tunes and thoughtful lyrics and the return of The Flaming Lips with the idiosyncratic, psychedelic pop of "Oczy Mlody" complete the top half of our first Listening Habits album chart of 2017. In the rest of the Top 12 you will find a few more releases from last year that we think deserve a place in 2016's "Best of" and two great compilations that you should definitely lend an ear to, one with selections of some of 2016's best releases according to Rough Trade Shops and one with great cuts from the UK indie scene of 1987 (see more about C87 here):

Top 12 Albums

1.  Run The Jewels 3 - RUN THE JEWELS
2.  Ty Segall - TY SEGALL
3.  Near To The Wild Heart Of Life - JAPANDROIDS
4.  Life Without Sound - CLOUD NOTHINGS
5.  Future Politics - AUSTRA
6.  Oczy Mlody - THE FLAMING LIPS
7.  Mirage - JOSEFIN ÖHRN & THE LIBERATION
8.  Puberty 2 - MITSKI
9.  I Had A Dream That You Were Mine - HAMILTON LEITHAUSER + ROSTAM
10. Preoccupations - PREOCCUPATIONS   
11. Rough Trade Counter Culture 2016 - VARIOUS ARTISTS
12. C87 - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Top 12 Tracks

1.  Sister Green Eyes - JOSEFIN ÖHRN & THE LIBERATION
2.  Country Sleaze - GOAT GIRL
3.  Legend Has It - RUN THE JEWELS
4.  Thank You Mr K - TY SEGALL
5.  Near to the Wild Heart of Life - JAPANDROIDS
6.  Things Are Right with You - CLOUD NOTHINGS
7.  Degraded - PREOCCUPATIONS
8.  Future Politics - AUSTRA
9.  One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill - THE FLAMING LIPS
10. My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars - MITSKI
11. A 1000 Times - HAMILTON LEITHAUSER + ROSTAM
12. New Ways - CC DUST

Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Sister Green Eyes

Ty Segall - Thank You Mr. K


Sunday, February 19, 2017

The 7s, part 3: US 1987

Some of our all-time favorite albums were released in years ending in 7. As we are waiting to see what 2017 has in store for us, we have already revisited the great punk rock debuts of 1977 and looked for obscure UK indie gems in Cherry Red's C87 compilation.

For the third installment of this series we are returning to 1987, but this time we are selecting tracks from 5 seminal albums that defined the '80s US alt. rock scene and greatly influenced what was to come in the next few years leading up to the grunge explosion that shook up the mainstream of the early '90s. Here is our US alternative rock Top 5 of 1987:

1. Songs About Fucking - BIG BLACK

Bad Penny

2. Sister - SONIC YOUTH


Schizophrenia

3. Warehouse: Songs and Stories - HÜSKER DÜ


Ice Cold Ice

4. Document - R.E.M.


The One I Love

5. Mirage - MEAT PUPPETS



Liquified

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Live: Einstürzende Neubauten @ Gazi Music Hall (Athens, Feb. 11th, 2017)


Einstürzende Neubauten, the pioneering German industrial group led by Blixa Bargeld, returned to Athens after seven years with an impressive, two-hour plus show, presenting the "Greatest Hits" of a unique carrier that started in West Berlin in the early '80s.


The set list of this show didn't go this far back, but started around 1988, when they recorded their fifth album "Haus der Lüge", and proceeded with some of their most memorable songs from the last three decades, including "Die Interimsliebenden", "The Garden", "Sabrina", "Silence Is Sexy" (featuring the sound of Blixa smoking his cigarette in total silence for several seconds), "Total Eclipse of the Sun", "Youme & Meyou", "Nagorny Karabach", "Susej" (a 2007 song based on a recording of Blixa playing his guitar in the flat cellar of a Hamburg recording studio in 1982, which takes the form of a dialogue with his younger self) and "Salamandrina" (their most covered song according to Blixa's introduction).



The bass of Alexander Hacke provides the backbone for all of Einstürzende Neubauten songs, from the most tender moment to the most extreme industrial clatter, but it's the impressive variety of custom-made instruments that N.U. Unruh and Rudolf Moser use for percussion, from a simple plastic barrel, to a tall construction used to gradually throw down metal scraps, that leave the strongest impression and create the unique sound signature of one of the most inventive bands of the last four decades.



Without a doubt, Einstürzende Neubauten's "Greatest Hits" show was a huge hit among all their Greek fans who filled the large Gazi Music Hall on Saturday night.

Check out below two of the highlights of the set: "Die Interimsliebenden", a song featured in 1993's "Tabula Rasa", and the more recent "Youme & Meyou" off 2004's "Perpetuum Mobile".

Einstürzende Neubauten - Die Interimsliebenden (live in Athens)


Einstürzende Neubauten - Youme & Meyou (live in Athens)

Einstürzende Neubauten, live @ Gazi Music Hall (Athens, Feb. 11th, 2017)

Sunday, February 05, 2017

New Releases: January 2017

Round-up of the most interesting new releases of January 2017:

Albums

Run The Jewels 3
RUN THE JEWELS - Run the Jewels 3
TY SEGALL - Ty Segall
JAPANDROIDS - Near to the Wild Heart of Life
CLOUD NOTHINGS - Life Without Sound
MARK EITZEL - Hey Mr Ferryman
ALLISON CRUTCHFIELD - Tourist in This Town
THE FLAMING LIPS - Oczy Mlody
AUSTRA - Future Politics
THE XX - I See You
FOXYGEN - Hang
CHERRY GLAZERR - Apocalipstick
THE PROPER ORNAMENTS - Foxhole
ROSE ELINOR DOUGALL - Stellular
JULIE BYRNE - Not Even Happiness
TIFT MERRITT - Stitch Of The World
HORSE THIEF - Trials and Truths
PRIESTS - Nothing Feels Natural
INVADERBAND - Invaderband
MENACE BEACH - Lemon Memory
THE BLUE AEROPLANES - Welcome, Stranger!
HALF JAPANESE - Hear the Lions Roar
URANIUM CLUB - All of Them Naturals
THE MOLOCHS - America’s Velvet Glory
SINAI VESSEL - Brokenlegged
FRANK CARTER AND THE RATTLESNAKES - Modern Ruin
T.S.O.L. - The Trigger Complex
BASH AND POP - Anything Could Happen
THE DESOTO CAUCUS - 4
BONOBO - Migration
MIGOS - Culture
SLEATER KINNEY - Live In Paris
GIRL ONE AND THE GREASE GUNS - The Strange Little Lines That Humans Draw In The Dust

Singles & EPs

CHAVEZ - Cockfighters EP
CARSON COX, SAM YORK AND AUSTIN BROWN - Fire Dance
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - Open Minds Now Close
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - Groove Is In The Heart
ARIEL PINK / WEYES BLOOD - Myths 002 EP
OF MONTREAL - Rune Husk EP
VEXX - Wild Hunt EP
TROPICAL SKIN BYRDS - Tropical Skin Byrds
UROCHROMES - Night Bully EP
THE CHEAP THRILLS - Glare EP
THE CREATION FACTORY - Let Me Go / You Got It
LOWTIDE - Julia / Spring
FAMILY SCRAPS - Mistakes
THE BIG MOON - Formidable
MY LIFE STORY - 24 Hour Deflowerer
JAMIE T - Tescoland

Cloud Nothings - Internal World