Summer Jams

After a necessary summer break, it's time to restart our engines and get back into the groove of new music. Although it's been a month since our last post here, we've been transmitting our latest findings via our Facebook page and twitter feed, but I think it's useful to collect the best of them in our first post for August. So, scroll down, hit play and enjoy eleven of Cool Music Central's favorite new jams and videos for Summer 2013:

Eleanor Friedberger - Stare at the Sun

Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces is back with her excellent second "Personal Record" and "Stare at the Sun" is a perfect pop tune for the summer, or any season really.

The Julie Ruin - Oh Come On

Great news to hear that Kathleen Hanna is in fine health and back in action with The Julie Ruin. The new album "Run Fast" is out at the beginning of September.

Sebadoh - I Will

'90s indie rock continues to strike back and finally, after 14 years, Sebadoh have a brand new record out on September 16; "Defend Yourself" is its title and "I Will" the first single.

Frankie Rose - Sorrow

A beautiful new tune from Frankie Rose and her forthcoming LP "Herein Wild", out September 24. September is looking good to me already!

Julia Holter - In The Green Wild

This one will be out much sooner, though... "Loud City Song", the new album by Julia Holter, is out next week and "In The Green Wild" is one of her best songs yet; Kate Bush meets Laurie Anderson in the Garden of Pop Delights!

Factory Floor - Turn It Up

Highly anticipated is an understatement in this case. The self-titled Factory Floor LP is finally coming out September 9 and suffice to say everything we've heard so far sounds amazing. So "Turn It Up" and just wait a few more weeks...

AlunaGeorge - You Know You Like It

"Body Music", the debut album by AlunaGeorge, delivers some of the best pop tunes of the year and "You Know You Like It" is most certainly one of them.

Yo La Tengo - Is That Enough

And here is something for music and math equation fans... 

Psychic Ills - See You There

They live among us, indeed. Here's the Psychic Ills' testimony...

Pop. 1280 - Human Probe

Frightening new stuff by Pop. 1280, available to listen and download as a free mp3. Their sophomore record "Imps of Perversion" (out now) is produced by Martin Bisi whose credits include Sonic Youth and Swans.

Major Leagues - Endless Drain



I don't know if the Brisbane, Australia, garage pop four-piece Major Leagues took its name from the excellent Pavement tune (I'd like to think so), but their very summery new single "Endless Drain" is so fine that I could certainly imagine a new band, a few years from now, naming themselves after this track. Let's just wait and see...

And finally, as a "bonus track", stream below one of the albums of the month (and, undoubtedly, the year), No Age's "An Object":

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)