The Best Albums of 2014 so far - Part 4

Last but not least... The final ten albums in the list of our 40 favorite records of 2014 so far, featuring Temples, The Afghan Whigs, The Black Keys, The Hold Steady, The Men, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The War On Drugs, Tune-Yards and Warpaint. Have a listen below and also check out our Top 20 Tracks of the last six months - just a small sample of a quite long list:

The A-Z of the first half of 2014 (pt.4):

• TEMPLES - Sun Structure 

• THE AFGHAN WHIGS - Do To The Beast

• THE BLACK KEYS - Turn Blue

• THE HOLD STEADY - Teeth Dreams

• THE MEN - Tomorrow's Hits

• THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - Days Of Abandon

• THE WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream

• TUNE-YARDS - Nikki Nack

• WARPAINT - Warpaint

• WOODS - With Light And With Love

Here's the rest of our Top 40:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Top 20 Tracks (January - June 2014) 

 

• Disco//Very - WARPAINT
• Satellites - EMA
• Digital Witness - ST. VINCENT
• Rimbaud Eyes - DUM DUM GIRLS
• Mesmerise - TEMPLES
• Ben's My Friend - SUN KIL MOON
• Talking Backwards - REAL ESTATE
• Water Fountain - TUNE-YARDS
• Taking Chances - SHARON VAN ETTEN
• Hi-Five - ANGEL OLSEN
• Lariat - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
• We Are Floating - ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT
• Sunbathing Animal - PARQUET COURTS
• Tied Up In Nottz - SLEAFORD MODS
• Pro Anti Anti- LIARS
• Scum, Rise! - PROTOMARTYR
• Falling Down The Stairs - BLANK REALM
• I'm Not Part Of Me - CLOUD NOTHINGS
• Don't Mess With Me - BRODY DALLE
• Algiers - THE AFGHAN WHIGS

Sleeper Hits 2014, Vol.1

The videos we've collected here have been around for some time now but unless you're already a fan of these bands, there's a strong chance you might have missed them. Hit play below and sample some excellent tracks, handpicked from some of the best rock records we've listened to in the first five months of the year:

Cloud Nothings - I'm Not Part Of Me (from "Here And Nowhere Else" LP)

The Men - Different Days (from "Tomorrow's Hits" LP)

Protomartyr - Come & See (live @ Viva Radio - from "Under Color of Official Right" LP)

Blank Realm - Reach You On The Phone (from "Grassed Inn" LP)

Hospitality - Going Out (from "Trouble" LP)

Marissa Nadler - Dead City Emily (from "July" LP)

Finale with the brand new video for "Blackt Out", the epic track that closed last year's "Last Night On Earth" album by Lee Ranaldo and the Dust - "a movie of a song in a dream of a movie":

The Men, live @ An Club (Athens, March 31, 2013)

These Men are really working and playing hard. In the 13 months since the last time we've seen them live in Athens, The Men have released two albums that showcase a restless spirit and an ever evolving sound. The anarchic noise punk of 2011's "Leave Home" gave way to the more structured assault of "Open Your Heart", last year's release which showed them opening up their sound to include a wider range of influences, from krautrock to country rock. This year's "New Moon", the band's fourth LP in as many years, focuses more on their inner Neil Young without losing touch with their punk rock roots.

Sunday's highly charged set drew mainly from The Men's last two albums, featuring several of the band's more folk rocking tunes. In the live environment though, even the "ballads" raised the decibel levels to dangerous limits, while their all-out punk rocking tunes were even louder, faster and dirtier.

Based on what we've witnessed here, any fears that The Men might start growing their beards and do a reverse-Dylan by switching to acoustic guitars have been put to rest, at least for the time being. It's still anybody's guess, though, what will they be up to next. My guess would be something very loud and extremely noisy!

Check out below "I Saw Her Face", one of the highlights from The Men's performance at An Club:

The Men -  Saw Her Face (live @ An Club, Athens, March 31, 2013)

Support came from the 60's influenced garage rockers Social End Products and the back-to-basics noise rockers Rita Mosss who did their best to warm up our ears for The Men's onslaught.

Listening Habits 03-04.12

Our favorite spring albums express a confusing mix of contrasting, extreme emotions, from ecstasy to horror, but the one sitting at the top of our list states a clear, bright vision about the present and future of pop music.

"Visions", Grimes’ debut album for 4AD and third overall, bristles with inspirational melodies and playful beats. Claire Boucher, the Montreal-based musician and producer behind the name Grimes (see also here), has the admirable ability to take in all sorts of disparate influences, from Cocteau Twins to Aphex Twin, and use them as ingredients for her unique, inventive dance-pop hybrid. Her ethereal falsetto soars over a troubled ocean of electronic pulses, digital beats and harmonies that come together to create a euphoric, transcendent sound. Grimes’ vision for a perfect electropop future takes shape and form in the glorious 13 tracks of "Visions", an early candidate for "Album of the Year".

Other notable releases that kept our hi-fi busy in the last couple of months included the self-titled psychedelic electro-pop debut of Edinburgh art school graduates Django Django, the ecstatic bedroom pop of  L.A.-based experimental composer Julia Holter whose magnificent "Ekstasis" sounds like a Greek tragedy scored by Laurie Anderson, and the brutal sounds of two of Sacred Bones Records finest signings, our recent visitors The Men and horror-mongers Pop. 1280. The Men exercise greater control over their adventurous noise creations in "Open Your Heart", while also trying their hand successfully at more traditional rock songwriting, while Pop. 1280 go the way of The Birthday Party in a mission to create pure, post-punk sonic terror - a mission that we can declare accomplished.

Top 12 Albums

1.   Visions - GRIMES
2.   Django Django - DJANGO DJANGO
3.   Ekstasis - JULIA HOLTER
4.   Open Your Heart - THE MEN
5.   The Horror - POP. 1280
6.   Ghostory - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
7.   Port Of Morrow - THE SHINS
8.   Animal Joy - SHEARWATER
9.   Clay Class - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
10. In Time To Voices - BLOOD RED SHOES
11. Last Words: The Final Recordings - SCREAMING TREES
12. Some Easy Magic - FUNGI GIRLS

Top 20 Tracks

1.   Oblivion - GRIMES
2.   Lazuli - BEACH HOUSE
3.   In The Same Room - JULIA HOLTER
4.   White Wind - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
5.   Default - DJANGO DJANGO
6.   The Full Retard - EL-P
7.   V∆! (Nightmare Fortress Remix) - BRUXA
8.   You Are The One - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
9.   Open Your Heart - THE MEN
10. Burn The Worm - POP. 1280
11. R U Mine? - ARCTIC MONKEYS
12. No Way Down - THE SHINS
13. Forever And A Day - GIANT GIANT SAND
14. Breaking The Yearlings - SHEARWATER
15. Brains - LOWER DENS
16. Jack the Ripper - JAPANDROIDS
17. Lost Boys - DEATH GRIPS
18. Sing Orderly - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
19. Cold - BLOOD RED SHOES
20. Doldrums - FUNGI GIRLS

Grimes - Oblivion

And here's one in tribute to the late, great Adam Yauch, The Beastie Boys' MCA:

Beastie Boys - Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun

(mp3s via stereogum, magnet magazine, kexp blog and hozac)

 

The Men, live @ An Club (Athens, February 11, 2012)

They are called The Men, but they are actually (at least on stage) three men and one woman. They have named their latest album "Leave Home" in tribute to the Ramones but they don’t sound too much like them (not to me, anyway). They do, however, make one hell of a noise that would make Mudhoney or Dinosaur Jr. proud and their psych-rock jams sound even more appealing live than on record.

This was the first Athens show of the rising Brooklyn noise rockers that came at a time that we really needed a hard-hitting, ear-splitting rock show to get our minds off our troubles for a little while. And, truly, for at least an hour or so nothing could be further from my mind than the crumbling state of our national economy. 

The Men played a wall-shaking, intense set that sounded more focused than the exhilaratingly loud but wildly chaotic "Leave Home" and were at their best when delivering their shorter, faster noise punk bombs like the excellent "Bataille" or the new "Open Your Heart" from the forthcoming, same-titled album. With more tracks like this one (and perhaps a bit improved production) something tells me that the new LP which drops in March on Sacred Bones could see this band rising to new heights. We’ll find out soon enough. Meanwhile, check out one of the surprises of their set - their lean, mean cover of The Boys Next Door track "Somebody’s Watching Me":

The Men - Somebody's watching me, live @ An Club

The gig opened by the equally loud local hardcore punk act Ruined Families (we could use a hardcore revival right now, methinks) who delivered an explosive half-hour set at breakneck speed and by psychedelic garage rockers Acid Baby Jesus. The latter’s recent self-titled LP which got an international release by Slovenly Recordings, has raised the popularity of the band and I think they could easily have filled the club by themselves. In the year and a half since the last time I saw them, Acid Baby Jesus have grown into a fully-fledged garage-rocking machine that not only performs at the highest levels of adrenaline but is also able to put on a veritable rock’n’roll show, with impressive guitar theatrics that can sweep the fans off their feet and send them crowd-surfing in no time. A very fine, noisy rock’n’roll night indeed.

Acid Baby Jesus, live @ An Club

Ruined Families, live @ An Club