In the March edition of #BestNewMusic we are featuring tracks from the latest releases by Quilt, Autolux, Primal Scream, Bob Mould, Big Ups and The Veldt: "Roller" is taken from Quilt's third album "Plaza", one of our favorite records of the month, "Soft Scene" is the new single off "Pussy’s Dead", the first LP by Autolux since 2010 which is expected on April 1st, "Where The Light Gets In" marks the return of Primal Scream with their eleventh studio album "Chaosmosis", "Voices in My Head" heralds the arrival of the latest solo work by the legendary Bob Mould, "National Parks" introduces us to Big Ups' sophomore album "Before a Million Universes", while "Sanctified" is the opening track from The Veldt's mixtape EP "The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur: The Drake Equation", a must-hear for fans of bands like A.R. Kane or Slowdive. Have a listen:
Quilt - Roller
Autolux - Soft Scene
Primal Scream feat. Sky Ferreira - Where The Light Gets In
We’re expecting quite a few highly anticipated new releases between now and September (from Factory Floor, Julia Holter, Julie Ruin, Sebadoh, to name a few names), but before we start dealing with the exciting proposals of early fall, let’s have a look and another listen to the best albums and songs that made the summer months just a bit cooler.
"More Light", Primal Scream’s tenth studio album, comes five years after their last effort (2008’s "Beautiful Future") and it is undoubtedly their most accomplished work since the early '00s period, when the band hit a creative peak with "XTRMNTR" and "Evil Heat". The long gestation period gave Primal Scream the chance to regroup and replenish their creative energy, giving "More Light" an urgency and passion that is truly remarkable. Three decades down the road, this Primal Scream sounds louder and more necessary than ever - a voice of dissent for all of us, the 21st century slaves!
"Trouble Will Find Me", The National’s follow up to "High Violet", their top work in my opinion, might lack the highs of their previous effort (no new song has the immediate punch of "Bloodbuzz Ohio", for example), but, given time, it proves to be just as addictive, creating a melancholic atmosphere that slowly but surely draws you in and keeps you under its spell. I’m expecting it to be an even better listen for the autumn months ahead.
Our summer Top 5 also includes "Cerulean Salt", Katie Crutchfield’s sophomore work as Waxahatchee, a lo-fi gem that follows in the footsteps of '90s songwriters like Liz Phair or Cat Power, "Personal Record", the excellent second solo effort by Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces, who goes even further back, to her '70s pop idols, to find inspiration, and "Wakin' On A Pretty Daze", the melodic guitar epic by Kurt Vile. Here are the lists with all of our favorites for this summer:
Top 16 Albums
1. More Light - PRIMAL SCREAM
2. Trouble Will Find Me - THE NATIONAL
3. Cerulean Salt - WAXAHATCHEE
4. Personal Record - ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER
5. Wakin On A Pretty Daze - KURT VILE
6. Ghost On Ghost - IRON AND WINE
7. Strange Pleasures - STILL CORNERS
8. Desire Lines - CAMERA OBSCURA
9. …Like Clockwork - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
10. Modern Vampires Of The City - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
11. Vanishing Point - MUDHONEY
12. Run The Jewels - RUN THE JEWELS
13. Yeezus - KANYE WEST
14. Olympia - AUSTRA
15. Monomania - DEERHUNTER
16. Hard Coming Down - GUN OUTFIT
Top 20 Tracks
1. Culturecide - PRIMAL SCREAM
2. Stare at the Sun - ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER
3. Coast to Coast - WAXAHATCHEE
4. Tiger Tank - SPEEDY ORTIZ
5. Don’t Swallow the Cap - THE NATIONAL
6. The Trip - STILL CORNERS
7. Do It Again - CAMERA OBSCURA
8. Diane Young - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
9. My God Is the Sun - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
10. Black Skinhead - KANYE WEST
11. Home - AUSTRA
12. Low Light Buddy of Mine - IRON AND WINE
13. Wakin On a Pretty Day - KURT VILE
14. The Missing - DEERHUNTER
15. Family - HANNI EL KHATIB
16. I Like It Small - MUDHONEY
17. Flyin Low, Maria - GUN OUTFIT
18. Dreambuilding - GOAT
19. DDFH - RUN THE JEWELS
20. Astral Projection - LAWRENCE LINDELL
Primal Scream - Culturecide (studio session)
mp3 links via KEXP blog, Stereogum and Sub Pop (right click to download). You can get a free download of the Run The Jewels album, a collaboration between EL-P and Killer Mike, via the Fool's Gold site.
Second part of our February hit parade (click here for part 1) featuring some of our current favorite tracks and videos, with less text and more music this time. To ease your way into our playlist, we’ll start with a few bands you already know and then proceed to some of our new discoveries:
Primal Scream - 2013
5 years is nothing compared to 22, but it is certainly a significant
amount of time. By the way, this is exactly how long Cool Music Central
has been on Blogger and we'll be having one or two posts on the subject at
the beginning of March to celebrate. Anyway, this is also how long we had to wait for a new Primal Scream record and now the wait is over. Here is "2013", their new 9-minute epic single in full - their new album "More Light" will be released on May 13th:
Foals - My Number
"Holy Fire", the third album by Foals, is certainly a hit and the infectious "My Number" is their latest single which reached number 23 in the official UK chart. It'll certainly be way higher in our upcoming "Listening Habits" playlist for January-February:
DIIV - Wait
New, spicy and certainly NSFW video for "Wait", one of the highlights off DIIV's fine debut "Oshin":
Widowspeak - Locusts
Widowspeak's second album "Almanac" is another excellent addition to Captured Tracks' fine catalogue. Great video as well:
California X - Spider X
I've posted this video to our facebook page a while back and since I still can't get enough of it, here it is again. California X are not from California at all - in fact, they are from Amherst, Massachusetts, Dinosaur Jr.'s home town, and guess who they remind us of:
G A L P A L S - For Our Sake
It seems that more and more females are getting into the two-member, guitar & drums minimal garage rock sound lately. Here is G A L P A L S, a duo from Austin, Texas, who has shared a stage with the likes of Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Crocodiles, and The Babies, and their awesome single "For Our Sake" - I also recommend visiting Howling Owl's soundcloud page (their UK record label) for more ace neo-garage ditties:
Mozart's Sister - Mozart's Sister
Mozart's Sister is the solo project of Montreal's Caila Thompson-Hannant. The eponymous track comes from the "Hello" EP released February 25th on Merok Records and its '80s pop inspired sound is a perfect fit for fans of Grimes and tUnE-yArDs:
LAw - The Noise met Sound EP
Highly prolific Los Angeles electronic artist LAw (pronounced L-A-Double U) has just released the free three-track "The Noise met Sound" EP, the inaugural release of his DIY music label Noise Met Sound. Many more sounds are coming our way soon, including his third full album "ODDyssey" coming out March 15th. Check out the new EP (drum & bass meets John Carpenter's soundtracks) here:
Wolf Alice - Fluffy
It's not cool to break stuff kids, these things cost money, you know. OK, I'll admit it, it looks pretty fun though. Here's Wolf Alice from London, UK, and the video for their debut single "Fluffy" which is about boredom, misspent youth and a neutered cat:
Time for the final installment of our '90s Singles project - I hope you had as much fun listening to our playlists as we did compiling them!
Once a month since February we've been revisiting a year from the '90s and choosing our 50 favorite singles of that year, the majority of which you can stream through our Grooveshark playlists . The complete Top 50 lists can be found in Cool Music Database, the central hub for all our year-end lists, while you can easily find all our '90s related Top 10 posts by clicking here.
Our 1999 Top 50 Singles list is actually an updated version of the first ever year-end singles list that we published in the first incarnation of Cool Music Central which was launched in the summer of 1999 as a DIY webpage hosted by Netscape. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, but I still consider Sleater-Kinney's "Get Up" to be not only one of the band's finest moments but also one of the most moving songs I've ever had the pleasure of listening. The fact that the same year The Flaming Lips also released the greatest single of their amazing (and, of course, ongoing) career, while Primal Scream reinvented dance-punk with the venomous "Swastika Eyes" only helps to make 1999 one of the strongest years for music in the second half of the '90s, preparing the ground for an even better 2000.
Here's our Top 10 Singles of 1999 with accompanying videos (official or unofficial) - go here for the complete Top 50:
"XTRMNTR", the last album to be released on the legendary Creation Records, was a suitable ending to the influential label's glorious history. And it came from a band that it was there from the beginning ("All Fall Down", Primal Scream's 1985 debut single was among the first Creation releases). Here's where Primal Scream stop partying and start protesting with vengeance in mind, offering the best album of their career. Read more about it in AllMusic and in our 2000 reviewhere.
Not much to go for the end of the decade and various "best of" lists are already starting to appear. Our own album list for the '00s is going to be finalized early next year because we feel that we should concentrate on 2009's music for now. However, starting this month, we shall dedicate two or three of our monthly posts to the presentation of our 30 favorite albums and singles for each year of the '00s (detailed lists for these years are going to be posted on Cool Music Database as soon as we finish with the '90s).
Starting our countdown of the '00s, we have today the best of 2000, a year dominated by some of our favorite artists of the past two decades. It didn't take much thought to give P.J. Harvey's "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea" the "Album of the Year" title and I don't think it is much of a spoiler to say that this timeless rock record is also a strong candidate for "Album of the Decade". To quote myself when I was ranting and raving about it at the time: "...This is her best work since the 1993 classic "Rid of Me", a more mellow and mature effort that sounds just as captivating and powerful. The 50ft Queenie is growing up in style. "Good fortune", one of the many highlights of this record, is also one of Y2K’s greatest singles. Definitely the most uplifting album of the year".
Similar raves were in store for the next two records on the list, Primal Scream's "XTRMNTR" (their best work ever, for my money) and The Fall's "The Unutterable" (their best for the '00s along with "Fall Heads Roll"). Quoting from the old Cool Music Central site (before its reincarnation here on Blogger): "..."XTRMNTR" is truly the first 21st century-sounding album. A chaotic, mind blowing head-on disco-punk collision that can make you dance ’til your ears bleed...The best ever Primal Scream record and also the perfect ending to the Creation legacy". As for "TheUnutterable", this is what I had to say at the time: "...The Fall phenomenon continues. It is truly amazing that after 24 years and thirty-something albums, Mark E Smith can still marshal his latest recruits so masterfully and deliver an album as astonishing as this. "Two Librans" and "Serum" are just two of the instant Fall classics included here. The sound of a rejuvenated band that is determined to remain a force to be reckoned with in the new century".
Other notable releases of 2000 included the second Queens Of The Stone Age album (Josh Homme taking his work with cult '90s desert-rockers Kyuss to the next level), the last one for At The Drive-In (one of the greatest punk records of the '00s) and the fifth for Sleater-Kinney (as I wrote in Blast From The Past Vol.5, they were perhaps the best new band of the late '90s and continued being amazing in the '00s). Sleater-Kinnney also had some involvement in the album that proved to be the most important comeback of the year and, perhaps, of the '00s (which says a lot, in a decade that was full of comebacks and reunions). Robert Forster and Grant McLennan rejoined powers for the first Go-Betweens record since the '80s (with Janet Weiss providing the beats) with the end result being among their finest moments. Modest Mouse released "The Moon and Antarctica", the record that made me realize just how great Isaac Brock's band really is, while Grandaddy and Idlewild reached their pick with their 2000 releases. The best debut of the year was the electroclash classic "The Teaches of Peaches", Peaches' naughty introduction to the world, equally shocking and exhilarating - just like great sex. Here's what the Top 30 albums and singles of the year look like:
Top 30 Albums of 2000
1. Stories from the city, stories from the sea - P.J. HARVEY 2. Exterminator - PRIMAL SCREAM 3. The unutterable - THE FALL 4. R - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE 5. Relationship of command - AT THE DRIVE-IN 6. All hands on the bad one - SLEATER-KINNEY 7. The friends of Rachel Worth - THE GO-BETWEENS 8. The moon and Antarctica - MODEST MOUSE 9. The sophtware slump - GRANDADDY 10. 100 broken windows - IDLEWILD 11. The teaches of Peaches - PEACHES 12. Automatic midnight - HOT SNAKES 13. More light - J MASCIS + THE FOG 14. Good news for modern man - GRANT HART 15. God says no - MONSTER MAGNET 16. Thirteen tales from urban bohemia - THE DANDY WARHOLS 17. Golden lies - MEAT PUPPETS 18. The W - WU-TANG CLAN 19. Got it made - BRASSY 20. Will save us all! - CHICKS ON SPEED 21. Melody of certain damaged lemons - BLONDE REDHEAD 22. Dongs of sevotion - SMOG 23. And then nothing turned itself inside-out - YO LA TENGO 24. NYC ghosts and flowers - SONIC YOUTH 25. 1000 hurts - SHELLAC 26. Pound for pound - ROYAL TRUX 27. Whiteout - BOSS HOG 28. Stankonia - OUTKAST 29. Good looking blues - LAIKA 30. Chore of enchantment - GIANT SAND
Top 30 Singles of 2000
1. Good fortune - P.J. HARVEY 2. Going blind - THE GO-BETWEENS 3. Kill all hippies - PRIMAL SCREAM
4. Little discourage - IDLEWILD 5. Mistakes and regrets - …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
6. One armed scissor - AT THE DRIVE-IN
7. The lost art of keeping a secret - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
8. You’re no rock'n'roll fun - SLEATER-KINNEY
9. Bohemian like you - THE DANDY WARHOLS 10. Whiteout - BOSS HOG 11. Work it out - BRASSY 12. Kaltes klares wasser - CHICKS ON SPEED 13. Hip hop - DEAD PREZ 14. Lovertits - PEACHES 15. Uneasy - LAIKA 16. The crystal lake - GRANDADDY 17. Up with people - LAMBCHOP 18. Son of Sam - ELLIOTT SMITH 19. Melodie citronique EP - BLONDE REDHEAD 20. Radio video EP - ROYAL TRUX 21. B.O.B. - OUTKAST 22. Gravel pit - WU-TANG CLAN 23. A song for the lovers - RICHARD ASHCROFT 24. Ballad of Cable Hogue - CALEXICO 25. Disillusion - BADLY DRAWN BOY 26. You can have it all - YO LA TENGO 27. Forbidden love EP - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE 28. Mr. E’s beautiful blues - EELS 29. Music is my radar - BLUR 30. The Coney Island of your mind - THE WISDOM OF HARRY
Last week I was saying how great June had been for live music in Athens, but it seems that by giving praise too soon I may have inadvertently put a jinx on future events! A sudden hailstorm last Sunday (28/6) led to the cancellation of the second day of Rockwave Festival where The Killers, Tricky and Dinosaur Jr. (among others) were supposed to play. Unfortunately, the organizers were not prepared to deal with bad weather so, instead of attending what could have been the biggest concert of the summer, the Cool Music Central team went for a swim to a nearby beach instead! No, we don't have any photos from that occasion, but I have to tell you that it was a pretty nice swim as the bad weather only affected the area of the festival. What we do have for you, though, are some cool live shots and videos from Ejekt Festival '09 that took place between June 18 and 19, starring Pixies, Editors, Klaxons, Echo & The Bunnymen and Jarvis Cocker, and from Coca Cola Soundwave Vol.3 with Bloc Party and Primal Scream (July 1).
Ejekt Festival 2009 (June 18 - 19)
Pixies - Live@Ejekt 2009 (June 18, Athens)
The first day of the Ejekt festival, with Pixies as the headliners and with Editors, Starsailor and White Lies completing the line up, drew the biggest crowd. Editors presented us some of their new material, giving us a taste of their forthcoming third LP. The sound of the new songs relies on synthesizers and is heavily influenced by '80s electropop, a fact that some of their fans didn't seem to appreciate, responding much better to the guitar-based old material. Personally, I thought that after the very promising first album, the band seemed to repeat itself on its sophomore effort. So, this change in direction is more than welcome and tracks like the closing "Papillon" (a video of which you can see below) give the promise of a more exciting next step.
Editors - Live@Ejekt 2009 (June 18, Athens)
On the other hand, our beloved heroes, the Pixies, don't give any such promises. Although the band has reunited more than 5 years ago, they seem to be happy going around the world, playing more or less the same set and cashing in their cheques without showing any intention of taking the risk to write new material. It was really exciting seeing them again in the summer of 2004, but now the thrill is gone and no box-set, no matter how well packaged and presented, is going to change that.
Pixies - Live@Ejekt 2009 (June 18, Athens)
The second day of the festival had a smaller attendance and inexplicable delays in the scheduled stage times, but it turned out to be more enjoyable for me. Subways was the first band that we got to see (as I've written before, they may be dull in their recorded output but they're certainly good fun live, thanks to their amazing energy), followed by Klaxons who played the hits of their interesting but over-hyped nu rave debut "Myths Of The Near Future", as well as new tracks showing some unexpected hard-rocking tendencies. Is nu metal their next step? Only time will tell, as we've been reading in the news lately that their record label demanded the re-recording of some of their new material, deeming it "too experimental"!
Klaxons - Live@Ejekt 2009 (June 19, Athens)
Echo & The Bunnymen - Live@Ejekt 2009 (June 19, Athens)
The highlights of the second day came from our old pals Echo & The Bunnymen (who stepped in at the last moment to replace Lauryn Hill!) and Jarvis Cocker. Both acts played strong sets a week before headlining the John Peel stage at Glastonbury Festival. Echo & The Bunnymen played one or two new songs but their set was based on their '80s hits, with those from "Crocodiles" being the most enjoyable for me. Jarvis, on the other hand, overlooked completely his past and based his set on his two solo albums, offering the best performance of the festival. This has a lot to do with the strength of his rocking new material, taken from the Steve Albini recorded "Further Complications" LP, as well as his undeniably impressive showmanship. Tracks like "Angela" and "Homewrecker!" and his Monty Python-esque humor (he tried, among other things, to say in greek "My hovercraft is full of eels"!) won the day for him.
Jarvis Cocker - Live@Ejekt 2009 (June 19, Athens)
Ejekt 2009 Live: Editors - Papillon, Pixies - Gigantic, Echo & The Bunnymen - The Back Of Love, Jarvis Cocker- Angela
Bloc Party & Primal Scream @ Coca Cola Soundwave Vol.3 (July 1)
Although I'm not that comfortable in advertising, even indirectly, big corporations I have to admit that the sponsorship of this event had a positive effect for our pockets, since this was the only gig this summer with a really low ticket price.
This event was the culmination of the Soundwave competition, a type of battle-of-the-bands contest between new local acts. The two finalists, Le Page and Flakes, got to play here, along with a couple of the biggest names of the British rock scene and in front of the largest audience they've ever faced before. Among the two acts, the most impressive for me was Flakes, with a raw, aggressive punk sound and a fiery singer, Yodashe, with a style influenced by Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. The evening had started with an appearance by Let's Tea Party, a new pop band from Bristol.
Flakes - Live@Soundwave Vol.3 (July 1, Athens)
Primal Scream played a fired up 65-minute set, similar to the one we witnessed last year at Madrid'sSummercase festival, with material from almost all their albums since "Screamadelica" ("Movin' On Up" was its representative). "Can't Go Back" and "Suicide Bomb", from their latest album "Beautiful Future", were among the highlights, as well as "Miss Lucifer", "Exterminator", "Shoot Speed Kill Light" and the closing, pedal-to-the-metal, "Accelerator". Primal Scream's career had many ups and downs in the last 25 years, but they have aged well and their ups remain so spectacular that their status as living legends is well deserved.
Bloc Party is one of the bands that stand out among those responsible for the recent resurgence of British rock. They have given us one of the most impressive debut albums of this decade (2005's "Silent Alarm") and they have never stopped experimenting with their sound, taking in different influences and exploring new directions - from the angular punk of their first days, to the beat-heavy modern rock of "A Weekend In The City", to the dancefloor experiments of the more recent "Intimacy" LP. For their debut appearance in Greece they played a 65-minute set covering all three of their albums, with "Banquet", "Helicopter", "The Prayer" and "Mercury" being among the highlights. They even found the time to squeeze in a couple of non-album singles - "Flux" and the brand new, disco-influenced, "One More Chance".
It seems that after the anti-climactic ending of the otherwise action-packed June, the jinx has been lifted from the live scene and July has started with a really enjoyable gig, bringing together on the same stage two established, well-respected bands and a couple of very promising local acts.
Bloc Party - Live@Soundwave Vol.3 (July 1, Athens)
Coca Cola Soundwave Vol.3 Live: Primal Scream - Miss Lucifer, Bloc Party - Mercury
