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tendertouch · 3 years

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hello i was tagged by @perhapskismet (thank u! 🤍💌) to answer some questions about myself!!

name/nickname: kendall, but also ken and kenz

gender: girl, i use she/her/hers <3 but you can refer to me by little nicknames even if they’re predominantly masculine (cowboy, captain, chief, homie, bro, prettyboy, etc) along with any others

star sign: virgo~

height: 5’7!! ladies if i can’t reach the shelf you need, you can return me for full money back

time: 7:20pm

birthday: august 31

favorite bands/groups: the 1975, the lumineers, the neighbourhood, the strokes, haim, coin

favorite solo artists: role model, troye sivan, orville peck, phoebe bridgers, lorde, bleachers, father john misty

song stuck in my head: bike dream by rostam

last movie: pride and prejudice (2005) which i enjoyed but i’m a total sucker for unspoken love and enemies to lovers

last show: sandition (or at least i’m planning on watching it cause i can never get enough of historical dramas, one disease of many i inherit from my mother)

when did i create this blog: i wanna say mid to late 2019, so i’ve had it for a year now

what do i post: it used to be dark academia, then pink/red lovecore, but now it’s warm pastel pictures and love-based textposts (i’m sure my listography is way more comprehensive than me lol)

last thing i googled: oh nooooo it was “do worms have eyes” for one of my friends, it’s a long story, but to be clear, worms don’t have eyes, they have receptors that can sense when it’s light or dark :))

other blogs: i have one other blog @iwatcheditring for 1975 stuff

do i get asks: yeah if i reblog an ask game but for the most part it’s just me n my mutuals (but i’m always open to anons if you have something to say!! tell me something!)

why did i choose this url: wanted that angelic, lovely vibe. obvs a lot of urls are already taken but withangel is short and sweet. got a lot of angelic imagery goin on around me in 2020 too actually 🕊

following: i’m following 62 blogs

followers: 145 and i love everyone

average hours of sleep: 6-8 counting the times i pass out during the day because i’ve crawled back into bed when i get home

lucky number(s): 11, 3, 8 and possibly 7

instruments: i can figure out songs note by note on the guitar and keyboard, but don’t practice frequently enough :/ though i adore people who can play any kind of instrument

what am i wearing: cream colored turtleneck under a warm, brown, zip up jacket from my dads work years ago, plaid pajama pants, and a small pair of my mom’s costume earrings (she wore them to junior prom 🌞)

dream job: a writer or an artist or even a therapist but i’m not sure if i could pull the skills needed for any of these jobs on a professional level (also the systems fucked and i have to find a way to live)

dream trip: want to go to italy, particularly to see the italian countryside, and scotland (everybody will make fun of me but i might deeply want to see france and hear french spoken by native speakers...)

favorite food: pasta!!!! especially with alfredo sauce or if it’s ravioli

nationality: american but my last name is obviously german, and i share a lot of ancestors from germany

favorite song: all time fav is “mine” by the 1975

last book read: kids of appetite by david arnold

three fictional universes: you’d like to live in: the one where i’m farmer wives with my mutual rosa, the one where i make s’mores for my friend val and then we take a night walk around town, and the one where i fall asleep in the passengers side of my baby si’s car while we drive around listening to the 1975 (not fictional universes just daydreams 🤧)

tagging: @ikea-boy @easeupkid @boyishs @souplove @familytherapy @sapphothetic @light-eater @airsigh @areweforgiven @ivy1975 (or ur main blog) @myfavouritecolorisblue @juenereveuse @thenineteenseventyfive @mariferish @bluesargnts @moodyhouse @keiras and @lifeviamemes but no pressure at all i’m just taggin my mutuals mwah :)

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goalofthecentury · 3 years

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what is ur full list of underrated artists im intrigued

ok so like. in terms of all time favs that happen to be relatively niche; the phoenix foundation, songhoy blues, the young veins (formed by ryan ross and jon walker, of pre-split panic at the disco fame), jon walker’s solo stuff, discovery, norma tanega, eliza doolittle, rostam, z berg (& associated; phases, the like, jjamz) in terms of stuff ive found just from like digging through spotify; flyte, wasuremono, the big moon, the ACBs, kele okereke, superfood, tol-puddle martyrs, shamir, sundara karma, anjimile, chronixx, do nothing, jarell ebuka

basically all of that is indie or indie-adjacent i think, theres definitely more but i simply cannot list all of them because like. id like to keep this post relatively short lmao. also i end up finding a lot of very very niche songs through playlists (fred clark anyone) and then a lot of the time i straight up forget to look into the artist but thats a whole other post

#to the seven people who know who fred clark is........ yeah.#but anywayyy aha these are probably my favs <3 i might make a playlist at some point if thats like. easier

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company · 4 years

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have you given women in music pt. III by HAIM a listen? 🎶🎷

yes!! my top 2 are the steps and i know alone and the only song i remember i didn't like was 3 AM! i love rostam's production on the album, you should check his solo stuff is pretty good also ^_^

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teamvampireweekend · 6 years

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VAMPIRE WEEKEND: THE FOURTH AWAKENS

On May 25, 2018, Vampire Weekend posted on their official Instagram account for the first time in five years. People have been wondering about their fourth album since the end of the MVOTC era in 2014 - they are currently signed to Columbia Records for a 2-album deal and artist Nicholas Harwood is expected to be contributing his help as a creative director (other musicians he’s worked with include SOPHIE, Porches, and Dev Hynes).

Here’s a summary of the most definitive and current info so far:

November 2016 - CT does an interview with The Ringer’s Channel 33 podcast to talk about his solo music project, Dams of the West, but also talked a bit about VW LP4 saying that work was being done, but that there was also a lot to do. He also mentioned in passing that there was “some label stuff that [the band] had to figure out”.

March 2017 - Ezra makes a post on Instagram about the progress of LP4 saying, “obviously, we gotta take our time & get it right but the fans deserve some information.” He went on to mention that 2015 was spent working on a “vibey project” (which turned out to be his animated Netflix show, “Neo Yokio”), 2016 was spent on writing LP4 and “researching w/ the grad students”, and 2017 will be (was) spent “recording, trying to finish ASAP.” He also revealed that some song titles at the time were “Conversation” and “Flower Moon”, and that the working title of LP4 is “Mitsubishi Macchiato” because “it’s a helpful concept.”

September 2017 - Ezra mentions to a fan on Twitter that the album is “80% done but the last 20% is always the hardest”. Later that month, in an interview with Q Magazine, he said that he had been working on the album “constantly”: “I can say that the end is somewhat in sight. All the songs are written, most of them are recorded to some capacity, but it’s the tinkering process now.”

October 2017 - In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ezra mentions working with guitarists Steve Lacy and Greg Leisz in the process of making LP4.

December 2017 - In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ezra confirms that Rostam Batmanglij will be contributing to a few tracks on LP4 (the first album without Rostam as a member of VW) and that Ariel Rechtshaid has returned as well and is “a huge part of this album”.

January 2018 - End of the Road festival announces their lineup, featuring Vampire Weekend as headliners. The festival takes place from 30 August - 2 September at Larmer Tree Gardens, UK, and will be Vampire weekend’s ONLY UK festival date for summer 2018.

February 2018 - The very next day after it was announced that Vampire Weekend would be headlining End of the Road festival, their website, vampireweekend.com, is revamped to only show the band’s name against a plain white background. The Fuji Rock Festival in Japan also announces that Vampire Weekend will be part of their 2018 lineup (July 27 - 29, Naeba Ski Resort, Yuzawa-cho, Niigata Prefecture, Japan).

March 2018 - Lollapalooza announces that Vampire Weekend will be a part of their 2018 lineup (August 2 - 5, Grant Park, Chicago).

April 2018 - Splendour in the Grass festival announces that Vampire Weekend will be a part of their 2018 lineup (July 20 - 22, North Byron Parklands, New South Wales, Australia) and it will be an Australian exclusive show. On April 23rd, Vampire Weekend made a surprise appearance at Running Late with Scott Rogowsky at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. They performed an 8-minute version of ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ which segued into a cover of ‘Here Comes the Sun’. Joining Vampire Weekend on stage were several additional musicians, thought to be potential new touring members of the band.

May 2018 - On the 19th, Vampire Weekend make a second surprise appearance performing at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles.

On May 25th, Vampire Weekend posted on their official Instagram account for the first time in 5 years. The first two new photos are of a broken SONY television and a COLUMBIA fleece. They also post several Instagram stories featuring CT playing ‘Oxford Comma’ on drums, Baio playing ‘Don’t Lie’ on bass, and Vampire Weekend’s original guitar tech playing CCKK. They also have a “bucket hat reveal” of songs for potential upcoming festival setlists (which include ‘I Think Ur A Contra’, ‘Diane Young’, ‘Campus’, ‘Ottoman’, ‘M79’, ‘Unbelievers’, ‘Giving Up The Gun’, and ‘The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance’, among others).

On May 30th, Vampire Weekend announce that they’ll be performing two shows on June 16 and 17 at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, CA. Tickets went on sale June 1st and sold out in one minute.

June 2018 - On the 15th, one of the additional musicians who joined Vampire Weekend on stage at their surprise appearance at Largo at the Coronet, Brian Robert Jones, is confirmed to be joining Vampire Weekend as a touring member on guitar. Musician Greta Morgan is also confirmed to be joining Vampire Weekend as a touring member on keys, vocals, and guitar.

On the 16th, Vampire Weekend perform their first live show in four years at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, CA. They play their entire self-titled album front to back, several songs from ‘Contra’ and ‘MVOTC’, ‘New Dorp, New York’, a cover of ‘Right Down the Line’, ‘Down 4 So Long’ (where they were joined by Makonnen and Despot), and ‘Tuesday’ (performed with Makonnen). They are joined by additional touring musicians Garrett Ray (drums, percussion, vocals) and Will “Bucket Hat” Canzoneri (keys, vocals). (The show also included the live debut of ‘Worship You’.

On June 17th, Vampire Weekend play their second show at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, CA. Their setlist includes songs from their first three albums, covers of ‘Sunday Morning’ (Velvet Underground) and ‘Son of a Preacher Man’, and performances of ‘Sister of Pearl’ by Baio, a remix of ‘Step’ featuring Despot, and a version of ‘I Think UR A Contra’ with Richard Pictures and Amandla Stenberg on violin. The band also plays a live preview of a snippet of a new song called ‘Flower Moon’, from their upcoming fourth album.

#vampire weekend #ezra koenig #chris baio #Chris Tomson #LP4 diaries #vampire weekend lp4

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timespakistan · 3 years

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Fire in the soil | Art & Culture | thenews.com.pk Untitled 1. Like Robert Louise Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, fire is both virtuous and wicked, helpful and harmful. It burns some to death, but also preserves living beings in harsh conditions. This duplicity, like two sides of every coin, is mentioned in myths, represented in arts, and experienced in real life. Fire is significant in many religions and rituals, too. In the three Abrahamic faiths, fire embodies evil and imbibes holy; i.e., demons consist of fire, and angels are made of light (an attribute of fire). In traditional miniature painting, angels are portrayed with wings of noor (light), while flames of fire erupt from demons’ tongues. All that can be observed in the illustrations of Shahnameh, the tenth-century Persian epic by Ferdowsi. In miniatures, made to accompany this poem, winged figures and monsters often appear in picture plain. Khadim Ali, heir to this tradition – of illustrating a text in miniature painting, and familiar with Persian language and poetry – has been incorporating symbols derived from Shahnameh in his work. Artists, like Ali, who have learnt traditional miniature painting, particularly at the National College of Arts, Lahore, start their training by copying examples of historic paintings. This segment of formal instruction inculcates a post-modernistic approach in their later works, as they are inclined to assimilate old forms, past imagery and forgotten techniques. However, Khadim Ali has opted for something big and beyond a pictorial adjustment. Being part of the persecuted Hazara community (both in Afghanistan and Pakistan), he identifies strands of ethnic/sectarian hatred, and addressees it in a language related to historical accounts and contemporary realities. His solo exhibition, What Now My Friend?, curated by Salima Hashmi at Aicon Gallery, New York (December 17–January 23) denotes the perpetual saga of strife between the oppressors and the oppressed. Employing the metaphor of Rustom and Sohrab from the illustrations of Shahnameh Ali narrates the current political, racial and religious contradictions. In the exhibition, his large-scale tapestries portray the presence of power and map the conflict between countries, besides describing the latest calamities, such as Covid-19. As Ali draws inspiration from a historic text (Book of Kings), the format of his large-scale tapestry What Now My Friend? (786×243 cm) reminds one of a small page of the Persian text. The change of size, from a manageable sheet of paper, to a piece of fabric installed on a gallery wall and coming down to floor, conveys the shifts/and possibilities of miniature painting. Here, a reader is not holding a book-page, but is directed/dominated by the enlarged image. The story unfolding in traditional miniature revolves around the heroic protagonist, Rostam and his fights; but Khadim Ali translates initial content to match the contemporary crisis. In the tapestry, the past and the present blend strangely (actually they hardly mix). Inside the picture you come across medieval warriors on horseback, advancing in a mountainous landscape, to confront modern-day soldiers in fatigues and with their guns behind the sandbag barriers. At places army-men ride on stallions (of historic miniature paintings), or tents of Persian entourage are covered in the pattern of the US flag. The tale, like the Chines script, is told from top to bottom, including figures from our surroundings stalled next to their ancient ancestors, while some “people are burning American and European flags outside the court of Baysunghur Mirza in Herat”. The complexity of political situation of Khadim Ali’s native land (his family, belonging to the Hazara minority, fled Afghanistan “to escape Taliban persecution”) is apparent through how Ali composes a snakes and ladders game (It Was Not Like This Ever) in the context of Afghan politics. Past breathes into present in other tapestries, too. In This Is How It Was, Khadim Ali constructs a binary scenario between good and evil in the background of the pandemic. Fearsome spiky spheres on entangled threads are held by a many headed (clown) character wearing an English suit. Two angels are clasping oxygen cylinders, along with stuff to combat Covid-19 (disinfectant sprays, bottles of hand sanitisers, tissue paper rolls and medicines) spread under them. The orange backdrop of the entire image and intertwined whitish lines (like necklaces carrying beads of Covid-19) suggest the turmoil that all of us have faced in the solitude of our soul. The outer oppression is also rendered in his other tapestries. Like in Tell Us, You Tell Us, a winged figure is holding two bearded heads of archaic soldiers spitting fire from their mouths, above the Taliban fighters raising arms amid poppy flowers. Next to them there are a number of protestors in jeans and T-shirts, and one of them is putting the American flag to flames. The complexity of political situation of Khadim Ali’s native land (his family, belonging to the Hazara minority, fled Afghanistan “to escape Taliban persecution”) is apparent through how Ali composes a snakes and ladders game (It Was Not Like This Ever) in the context of Afghan politics. Flags of countries (interested, involved, abhorred) occupy the border of the board game. The chequered area is laid with the face of Osama Bin Laden, an aeroplane (alluding to 9/11), a US military man in helmet, hands casting votes as well as offering banknotes, and the hammer of law. You also notice a demon, an octopus like creature, a roaring lion, and chess pieces – and flames at the lower parts of the frame. The work communicates the current political content with all usable references and symbols. And that is the problem because a viewer feels that the artist is employing a vocabulary not only too direct, but almost flowing to the brim. Like a recipe of delicious dish, you get all ingredients – to savour your views on the Al Qaeda and Taliban, the US invasion, international interference, and the feeble state of political and social structures in the newly-restored Republic of Afghanistan. Here one must check one’s habit of interacting with art; because a message that is remote, indirect, layered and diffused may appeal to the sensibility of a person, who is detached – artistically and emotionally. He/she prefers a hint, a clue, a suggestion, because it empowers him/her to decode the narrative and to become its master. In the conventional art of miniature painting, details of a court, an expedition, a hunt, an intimate space were depicted. However, today when we see them, we forgo the immediate content and find something else to connect within these miniatures. In the same lieu, one looks at Ali’s tapestries, and while appreciating their ‘message’, still looks for some hidden meaning. Khadim Ali, however, has created a number of digital drawings, in which demons and fire-emitting figures are drawn next to layers of intestine like forms. Similar monsters and sections of human organs are surrounded by Buddha statues. Probably, this is a reference to the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddha in 2001. In these works, though executed mechanically, one cherishes a painterly quality. A label not about putting amount of colour on a surface, but an attempt to embellish reality under a load of artistic material/technique/excellence. These digital pieces are kosher for the art audience, but one feels that the tapestries from the Aicon exhibition are as complex and problematic as the issues Khadim Ali is negotiating with in his art. What is happening or is about to take place in Afghanistan, can be measured in his work, because it is a war between locals and invaders; between the pious and infidels; and between the past and the present. It is a war without a winner. The writer is an art critic based in Lahore https://timespakistan.com/fire-in-the-soil-art-culture-thenews-com-pk/9088/

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catdotjpeg · 6 years

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RULES: answer 30 questions and tag 10 blogs you are contractually obligated to know

@torbeag tagged me!!! thanks tor. it’s 2am but im awake, clearly, so,

Nicknames: nico is a nickname. some people call me shnico (mostly bev) and tigo calls me kuya, which is sort of a nickname

Gender/pronouns: male-esque // he/him

Star sign: scorpio sun / aquarius moon / sagittarius rising

Height: 5′

Time: 2:15am

Birthday: 10 nov

Favorite bands & Favorite solo artist: it’s hard to say my favorites because i like a wide variety of music but my five most recently played bands are lcd soundsystem, electric guest, the cure, yo la tengo, and scissor sisters; my five most recently played artists are st. vincent, rostam, sza, mitski, and christina rosenvinge so that’s definitely something

Song stuck in your head: i don’t have one right now but earlier my sister kept trying to sing “yiken” by priceless da roc so that was definitely in there

Last movie you watched?: i saw i, tonya the other day and it was soooo good

Last show?: maybe when i was watching the office with my sister

Why did you create your blog?: a guy i had reconnected with from middle school told me it was the cool thing to do

What do you post?: umm fandom art shit.. music? memes. politics

Last thing you googled?: “the met on fifth avenue map”

Other blogs: inactive personal blog, cat blog, kin blog

AO3: i don’t have one actually. LOL

Do you get asks?: sometimes but i think most people just dm me these days

How did you get the idea for your URL?: i needed to change my url for my twitter for some reason and nico dot jpg was taken so i went with this and changed my tumblr to the same url for brand consistency

I follow: uhhh too many people honestly but i love it. some design/art blogs, some aesthetic blogs, couple of cat blogs, couple of jewish-related blogs, a bunch of friends both from meatspace and the internet

Followers: i’m mostly in mutuals with my followers but there’s a couple of you who follow me for the content i’m assuming. is this asking how many i have? it’s a small number but it’s a good one

Average hours of sleep: uhhhhh like 10+ and it’s still not enough lmao. im depressed

Lucky number: i don’t really have one but i’ll usually go with 3 or 13 if i have to pick something

Instruments: i used to play piano when i was a kid and then i didn’t want to anymore so i forgot everything. i was in choir for a really long time so i can definitely read sheet music with like, 75% accuracy. i want to learn electric bass because i think it’d be hot

What are you wearing?: this pinkish knit sweater i took from bev and black skinny jeans because i’m a fuck

Dream job: oh my god i have like, so many. right now i have my goals set on being an art professor and teaching maybe design history or something like that while also being an experimental artist but i also would be down to be like, a cantor if i had the time/opportunity/money. i’ve also been tossing around the idea of going into design criticism? i had wanted to be a freelance illustrator for a long time but as it turns out it’s really hard to get started so, i’m out here

Dream trip: so many.. i want to go to like japan and taiwan right now. last month i really wanted to go to the uk.. i still want to go to mexico and the philippines, and i would love to go to like, italy and poland and stuff

Favorite food: ever since i moved to new york i’ve been eating a ton of whitefish which i love. i love fish in general.. hamachi is like, amazing.

Significant other?: tumblr user @ratsinparadise

Last book I read: homer i dont read anymore

Top 3 fictional universes: hooergh are you for real. i guess i’ll just list three fandoms i like: twin peaks, star wars..... god i dont know!! that’s all i’ve got. i don’t engage in media the same way i used to. i’m old now

that was exciting. i’ll uhhh tag @geisterwald, @aerinmochi, @penworthy, @ivorensis, @all-truths-wait-in-all-things, @nikevi, @pacifichagfish, @quadhonks, @threateninzeppelin, and bev. because that’s who’s on my dash right now but of course u dont have to do it. anyone else who wants to do it can say i tagged them.

ok bye!!!!

#aboutnico #long post /

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hetmusic · 5 years

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TMR TALKS TO... SPEELBURG | The Most Radicalist

In this interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up and coming stars on the planet. This time we spoke with Los Angeles-based Belgian-American polymath musician Speelburg. Every so often, an artist makes their way into the hearts and minds of the TMR team and then we simply can’t bear to part ways. Noah Sacré, aka Speelburg, is one such talent. Going through our archives, you’ll find ‘Kline’, ‘Lay It Right’, ‘Gleason’, ‘Sauvage’ and ‘Pulse Of A Million’. Recently, we heard the intoxicating sounds of ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’; a vibrant alt-pop tune with surfy undertones, psychedelic sweeps, theatrical melodies and Speelburg’s unique perspective permeating the lyrics. Safe to say, ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ is another winner in our books. What’s more, this track adds to the imminent excitement for Sacré's upcoming album release, Character Actor. The record feature tracks you can go wrap your ears around right now - ‘Screener Season’, ‘Headlights’ and ‘Lizarz’. Introductions aside, have a notepad and pen at the ready because, as you’ll discover, Sacré is bursting with recommendations from tracks to films to movie soundtracks to other miscellaneous goodies for your attention.

TMR: Hey Noah, so we hear you’ve spent the last two years making “pop music for important people.” Who are these people and how have they inspired you? Hey there! At the risk of sounding too mysterious, I’m not gonna tell you who they are as a lot of it is about to come out. BUT I will say that these important people are, for the most part, excellent human beings with way too much talent. It’s been incredible learning how to write quickly. When I started writing for other people, I kinda sucked. I was way too tunnel-vision-y about songs, too much of a solo act. The artist and I would talk at great lengths and get nothing done and I was maybe too obsessed on making a good impression as someone who knows what they’re doing. About two and a half years ago, that changed and it’s been a joy ever since. I think if, like me, you’re a producer, performer and songwriter, people expect different things from you and you can get confused about what it is you actually want to contribute to the song, but now, I’m actually happy to wear all three hats and jump in. Most sessions I do now last about 4 or 5 hours - we get in, talk a little, then start writing. Normally, the singer or artist is working on vocal melodies and some lyrics. In the meantime, I basically split my brain in two whereby I’ll start producing the track, often starting with drums and, at the same time, adding vocal and lyric ideas. Ddmittedly, you’re pretty tired at the end, but you come out with a near finished track, and that’s the coolest feeling. I really can’t wait to tell you all about them. TMR: You’ve just released a new woozy number by the name of ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’. It’s full of vibrant synths and off-kilter imagery, like the movies playing backwards, for example. What’s this song about? Well, it’s about a few things. A lot of my songs tend to have two parallel themes swimming in tandem, and occasionally, I get to cross the streams. I also think it’s super important to let people interpret the track for themselves before you get too deep. Like, I can give you my version of the directions, but it’s probably more fun if you make the trip yourself. I will say this: I am proud of that title, and I find it funny that I managed to mention one of my other songs ‘Kline’. That was weird and fun. This whole song is very weird and very fun… to me anyway! TMR: It sounds like it was a fun song to make, do you enjoy the song-making process or do you hit that writer’s block from time to time? Yeah, this was such a blast to write! I often write and produce songs at the same time, but on this album, I did most of the writing on my little nylon acoustic in my living room, often in my underwear. A lot of these songs were just written kind of carelessly, just to make myself laugh. That’s not to say they’re joke songs or anything, it’s just that, because I wrote it while finishing my big shiny debut - which is actually coming out after this one - I was less precious. After I wrote it, I hit up Laurie and recorded drums in his studio, which probably took 25 minutes. We must have done like 3 or 4 takes, which I comped together later at my studio, where I then did all the guitars, bass, synths and vocals. I really like that synth sound during the solo. Kind of spacey, like same vibe as the solo in ‘Rosanna’ by Toto. That song rules. I love the chord progression in ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’. On this album, there’s a lot of weirder, jazzier delicious chord progressions, that will even change key from verse to chorus. Man, I really hope it doesn’t suck! It’s very possible I’ve made a weird pop record just for me. In terms of writer’s block, I think I may have had a stretch while writing the debut where I was having trouble writing vocals and just producing a lot of music, so even though you’re still being productive, it feels like no songs are getting done and feels like you’re going nowhere. But i’m over that now. I think writing completely different styles helps put you in that less precious frame of mind. Be it for “important people” or commercials. I’ve written for a lot of commercials now, and though it can be a competitive business, it’s also super fun to explore new sounds and production styles that you might not have thought to explore yet. You pick up a ton of new tricks. Also, and it sounds super obvious, but listening to music - really works. It’s real easy to forget there’s a whole treasure trove of recorded music at your fingertips when you’re so focused on yourself, but honestly, listening to other people really, really helps with getting motivated to make something of your own. I used to watch skate videos, get so hyped up, I’d head right out and spend all day trying to nail a new trick. I still get that feeling when I watch skate clips online, except I don’t really skate anymore. I would really hate to bust my wrists. TMR: ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ is more psychedelic than what we’ve heard from you before, have you been listening to more music of that genre lately? Yes and no. Probably. I’m constantly shazaming stuff, old or new stuff just ends up in this season’s playlist. But the record wasn’t born from trying to sound like anyone else but me. That probably sounds like a really pretentious interview answer and I don’t mean it that way. I just mean, there are songs I’ve written where I go “oh that’s this person or that person”, some songs I can trace a direct family tree of my influences, but on this one, even though that may still be possible at times, I feel like it’s exactly my voice. TMR: When you’re stuck for what to listen to, who are the bands and artists that you return to? I was just a wedding where they played four hours of Belgian happy hardstyle and one Good Charlotte song. That was wild. Also, I’ve been learning the soundtrack to West Side Story on the guitar to try and figure out cool new things to do with strings. Also, anything Blake Mills has ever touched is divine, especially his two first solo records. And Rostam too. Also, LCD Sound System and Foxygen and Andy Shauf and Unknown Mortal Orchestra and The Avalanches and BADBADNOTGOOD and Toro Y Moi and Randy Newman and Paul Simon all the time. Also, those new Julia Jacklin, Steve Lacy, bLAck pARty and Vulf albums are amazing. Also, Demis Roussos’ ‘Someday Somewhere’ is waiting to be covered. By me. Along with ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ by Glen Campbell. I also wanna give a very special mention to the new Muunjuun album that deserves the entire world’s attention. He just set a new benchmark. TMR: ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’, along with tracks ‘Headlights’ and ‘Lizarz’, are set to feature on your new album, Character Actor. Are there any themes which run through the record? Yeah I’d say that the general theme for this record and a lot of my work is based around movies and television. Especially Character Actor. Whether it’s on ‘Rabbit’, a song about two kids watching Are You Afraid Of The Dark and Clueless while someone is watching them from the attic or ‘Toucan’ in which two actors are in a love scene and one is hoping it can keep going, so the bubble never has to burst. And of course, there’s the album opener ‘Screener Season’. I was flirting with the idea of a movie-based concept album a couple years ago, and I think I accidentally made a version of that. TMR: The album also explores your love for cinema, what attracts you to this artform? I think it’s just another way of telling a story. Plus, i really love IMDB trivia. There’s something about people’s attention span that means they’ll sometimes focus on a video more than they would if you just played them the audio. And yeah, I think getting into directing myself has obviously informed a lot of my interests. I love storyboarding, I love editing, and I love acting and just being on set, and seeing it all come together in the end is as satisfying as finishing and releasing a song. There’s a real feeling of the town coming together to build the barn, and then you get to celebrate. Having directed the last bunch of videos, the release of music and visuals is a symbiotic one. I feel like I’m always learning more. I graded the video for ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ which comes out this week and I took what I learned from sitting in with my buddy Jeb on ‘Screener Season’ and rolled with it. I love just having a problem and figuring it out, even if there’s a few little kinks sometimes, who cares? You’ll just get better next time. TMR: Evidently the relationship between cinema and music is a long committed one, do you take inspiration from film soundtracks as well? Yeah, I’ve loved film soundtracks for as long as I can remember. One of my dreams is to be a music supervisor on a movie or tv show. I always really loved what David Holmes did with the Ocean movies. That kind of 60’s italian thing. So freaking coooool. I really wanna make a record with him one day. That new project he’s in ‘Unloved’, especially that track that was in the Apple commercial. Hot dang that sounded fun. Oh and recently, I thought the soundtrack to Booksmart was amazing. There’s some soundtracks where I like to be surprised by some beautiful little nuggets like The Darjeeling Limited, and there’s some where I’m like every track is a hit. Every track I was like shit! i love that song!” going from Anderson .Paak to Perfume Genius to LCD Soundsystem made an already amazing movie into an instant classic. Oh and Master Of None and Easy. I love both of those soundtracks. In terms of composition for movies, I’ve got a couple projects in the works but I’m going to be doing a lot more of that this year. Writing to picture is such a fun process. I’ve been on a sci-fi composition thing recently, some bigger budget stuff. It’s so fun. Obviously all synths are going to sound like Close Encounters now. TMR: We’re especially drawn to the pensive ‘Screener Season’, which holds the lyric “all the recognition doesn’t mean that you’ll feel better, / A good idea will keep you up.” Is this a mindset you’ve experienced or are you taking note from another? Aw thanks! I’m super proud of that song. Similarly to ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’, I wrote it in my living room, recorded drums at Laurie’s, did everything else at my studio. It was one that, when I played it to friends, I really got that reaction you look for. Like, sometimes you’ll play a song to someone and you’re trying your best to not show that you’re obviously gauging their reaction, but here it was great feelings from start to finish. It for sure informed a bunch of the production choices I made on the rest of the record. A lot of that tape vibe, a lot of the background noises, the strings and the mellotron stuff too. I can fall asleep so easily. I’m very lucky in that respect. That said, I’ve had some nights where my brain is whizzing around at 100 miles per hour thinking about video stuff, album stuff, lyric ideas - which you should ALWAYS write down when you think of them or else they will be gone by morning. Sometimes it’s good not to fight it or beat yourself up about your brain being on. Overflowing with ideas is a great feeling. TMR: While we’re waiting for the album, do you have any live dates or anything else fans should keep an eye out for? Yeah! I got this nice show I’m going to be announcing in the next week or so, so keep your eyes peeled over at @speelburg, also a few commercials and TV soundtracks in the works. Just waiting for the green light. Oh and i’ve got TWO albums coming out. Yey! The second one is Character Actor and she comes out later this summer. The first one will be out shortly after that. Also the video for ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ that I directed comes out this week. The next single will be out in early August. Oh and I’m finishing this cartoon I’ve been voicing and animating and I’ve got a monthly spotify playlist launching in a couple weeks. Oh and i’m heading out on tour in the fall! And i’m working on the next two EPs. This was fun. You guys rule!

http://www.themostradicalist.com/features/tmr-talks-to-speelburg/

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vampire-ezra · 7 years

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I'm new to the VW fandom. Is there anything that I need to know ?? Or if it isn't too much, the basics of VW and kinda everything you gotta know about the members & the band ? Thanks :)

Omg I almost forgot about this ok so VW started out when they boys were all in columbia uni together around 2006. After uni they all had individual jobs like ez was a teacher and then they released their first album in 2008. The name comes from a mini film trailer ezra made which is on youtube and super dumb. Ezra & Rostam have written p much everything together for the past 3 albums. Ezra is vocals and guitar, Baio is bass, CT is drums, & Rostam was guitar and keyboards until he left in Jan of last year to focus on producing music and solo work but he claims to still be working on future VW material. Ezra used to be super active on twitter and shitpost a lot but now he’s less 😕CT has a solo act called Dams of the West coming out with an album in Feb and he’s super sporty. Baio also has his own solo stuff and he was touring the past couple years and he’s an angel and super nice and loves coffee. Rostam also has his own solo stuff and he produces a bunch of other artists work and he’s gay! But yeah its been like 3 years since the last album and we’re all pretty pissed… I think thats a good place to start??

#ask

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disappearingground · 4 years

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Jenny Lewis Hopes to Release New Album in Spring 2014

Rolling Stone January 22, 2014

Singer-songwriter reports first solo disc since 2008 is inspired by “insomnia”

By Katie Van Syckle

Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice sit in a Park City lodge sipping spicy Bloody Marys. They partied hard last night celebrating the Sundance premiere of Kate Barker-Froyland’s Song One, starring Anne Hathaway, which the rocker couple scored. (“Many hot toddys,” Lewis says. “Plenty of powder,” Rice jokes.) In the film, Hathaway plays Franny, an anthropology grad student studying in Morocco who is called home with news her Brooklyn-based busker brother has been hit by a car and is in a coma. Distraught, she finds her brother’s journal and traces his steps, eventually befriending his favorite singer-songwriter, the fictional James Forester — played by real life musician Johnny Flynn — and becomes equally infatuated. Rolling Stone spoke with Lewis and Rice about writing an album for a fictional musician, Lewis’ latest track for Girls and her first solo album since 2008, due out this spring.

How did this project come about? Lewis: With our own music I was on a little bit of a sabbatical, which is unusual, so it was just perfectly timed that I had about a year off to work on the songs. It took a really long time, and there was a lot of back and forth and a lot of collaboration.

I know you collaborated with director Kate Barker-Froyland, did you also collaborate with Anne Hathaway? Lewis: Yes, she was listening to all the songs as they were being written and so was Jonathan Demme, and we would demo on garage band at home and send the songs out and wait for feedback. They asked us if we would try writing some of the songs for the film, and within 24 hours they had a song in their inbox. That first song, “Little Yellow Dress,” I think got us the job, and then it was like one down seven to go.

And how did you conceive of differently than last year’s Very Good Girls, where you performed the songs on the soundtrack? Lewis: It was, harder in some ways, and easier in some ways. When you remove your performance from the equation it’s easier to listen back from the song, because you’re not listening back to the tone of your voice, but in other ways you have to make the lyrics specific to the character. The thing that excited us is we could tell the back-stories of the characters, the stuff that wasn’t in the pages of the script. So we could talk about James Forester’s relationship with his parents, relationship with his ex-girlfriend, we asked all of these questions of [director Kate Barker-Froyland], so we could write about him. Before the camera started rolling the songs had to be all recorded. James Forrester, who Johnny Flynn plays, has an album.

Rice: So there is a possibility for it not to just be a conventional sound track but for it to be a found album of sorts.

So you might release a more studio style album for this fictional character. Rice: That’s out of our hands, but it could be non-conventional and interesting. Jenny and I produced the sessions in New York, but then we mixed them specifically with Rob Schnapf, who helmed the first Elliott Smith records, because we used Elliott as kind of a touchstone emotionally and sonically, and that was definitely a jumping off point for the character of Johnny Forester. Bill Fox was also a huge influence on this character, and Neutral Milk Hotel — just those records that don’t have a studio sheen, but have an intimacy and an idiosyncrasy.

Had you ever done anything like this before? Lewis: No, and there were a couple songs where I was like, shit, I’m about to record a new record, I wish I hadn’t given that song away.

You are working on a new album, did this project push you forward at all, being on a bit of a sabbatical? Lewis: It did, and I think any songwriting challenge is a good one. And sometimes it take an experience like this to get you out of your own head and to get you out of your own routine as songwriting, so I found it really inspiring, and it made me want to get back to myself and that sort of news-ticker in my head and my own inner monologue.

This is your first album since 2008, what’s the status? Lewis: I’m mixing next week and this is all I’ll say, until it’s mixed I don’t really want to talk about it, but it took a village.

And I understand you are looking to release it this year? Lewis: Yes, sometime this spring. I just had this song on Girls that my friend [Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmangli] wrote the music for, and he sent me a track to write over and I did. He wrote the music, and I wrote the melody, and the top line as it were, and I just learned what a top line was, and the music, and we spent a day with his friend Ariel at his studio in the Valley. We weren’t able to do more than one song. I originally wanted to do more songs with him but the Girls soundtrack was originally a great outlet for this one collaboration.

Will that go on your album? Lewis: I don’t know. I’m not sure. It depends on how the rest of the songs turn out, and see if it fits. It exists in it’s own right.

Any inspiration or themes for the album? Lewis: Insomnia.

Do you write the songs when you can’t sleep? Lewis: Yeah, some of them. I was awake for a while. I’m superstitious, until I start mixing, I feel like when I start it then I will be able to actually speak of it. But I’m done recording, and I’m just mixing in LA.

#publication: rolling stone #album: the voyager #year: 2014 #band: jenny and johnny #album: song one #mention: songwriting

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chpkns · 6 years

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BEST ALBUMS 2017

2017. Great year for music. Weird/terrible year for mostly everything else. You know how this works... let’s go.

Hon. Mentions: Mura Masa - Mura Masa; Everything Now - Arcade Fire; Teenage Emotions - Lil Yachty; Antisocialites - Alvvays; Ti Amo - Phoenix; Humanz - Gorillaz; Harry Styles - Harry Styles; Good for You - Amine; All American Made - Margo Price; This Old Dog - Mac Demarco’ Pleasure - Feist; Life Without Sound - Cloud Nothings; Big Fish Theory - Vince Staples; Aromanticism - Moses Sumney; Culture - Migos; More Life - Drake; Something To Tell You - HAIM; Hug of Thunder - Broken Social Scene; City of No Reply - Amber Coffman; Ctrl - SZA; Now That The Light Is Fading - Maggie Rogers; Blue Chips 7000 - Action Bronson; The Wild - Rural Alberta Advantage; American Teen - Khalid; Reputation - Taylor Swift; Run The Jewels 3 - Run The Jewels; Process - Sampha; Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life; Rainbow - Kesha

10) Half-Light - Rostam

Two things pushed the former Vampire Weekender’s debut solo album into my top ten, despite its shortcomings (that garbled dialogue section on ‘When’ almost lost it for me)... (1) I’m an all time sucker for Vampire Weekend, and this album at its best moments sounds like the very best parts of Modern Vampires, (2) BIKE DREAM. The glimmering centrepiece of a lead single might be the single best song of 2017. Although the rest of the album doesn’t quite match Bike Dream’s energy, it is airy and delightful in its own way. While Half-Light misses the boldness of a frontman like Ezra Koenig (busy with his own vanity projects at the moment) or any of the superstars that Rostam Batmanglij has worked with since parting ways with VW (Frank Ocean, Hamilton Leithauser, Carly Rae Jepsen, among others), there is an undeniable charm to the tentativeness of Rostam’s voice as he takes centre stage for the first time. A worthy solo debut.

Highlights: Bike Dream, Gwan, When, Wood, Thatch Snow

9) Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1 - Calvin Harris

Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 is the Scottish DJ’s first Post-Swift album and the closest thing 2017 had to an official summer soundtrack. Harris reinvented himself, trading in the club for the beach and teaming up with a cadre of collaborators from established hip-hop stars (Migos, Pharell, Nicki Minaj) and rising stars (Khalid, Lil Yachty and Toronto’s own Jessie Reyez). Harris displays his talents as curator on Funk Wav Bounces, matching each track to just the right combination of guest artists with often inspired combinations (Frank Ocean and Migos on Slide, Kehlani and Lil Yachty on Faking It). And despite the varied cast, it maintains a consistent sound throughout -much moreso than its chief rival and closest contemporary in the summer collaboration album field this year, DJ Khaled’s wildly inconsistent and gloriously self-indulgent Grateful. FWB sounds exactly like its title - a collection of tropical jams sure to keep any backyard BBQ bumpin’.

Highlights: Slide (ft. Frank Ocean and Migos), Rollin (ft. Future and Khalid), Prayers Up (ft. Travis Scott and A-Trak), Faking It (ft. Kehlani and Lil Yachty)

8) Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors

2017′s self-titled Dirty Projectors release could not be more different from 2012′s Swing Lo Magellan. Most notable, of course, is the absence of Amber Coffman. Not just for her vocals, but for the fact that Dave Longstreth seemingly crafted the entire album around her breakup with him and the band (although he swears it isn’t as autobiographical as it sounds). There’s almost a chutzpah to Longstreth titling the Coffman-less album “Dirty Projectors” as if to put his own stamp on the meaning of the band (as he quotes KISS’ Gene Simmons: “a band is a brand”). Listening to the album, you can hear Longstreth working through the emotions of the breakup in real time, from bitterness, to regret, to resignedness and ultimately, resolution. Longstreth seems to have evolved the Projectors’ sound in his years since Swing Lo, having spent time collaborating with more mainstream pop and hip-hop artists. Dirty Projectors the album sheds the acoustic jam band aesthetic for tightly produced, electronic beats and vocal distortions. The result is a complex and eminently enjoyable album that delivers surprises on every track.

Highlights: Keep Your Name, Up In Hudson, Little Bubble, Cool Your Heart (ft. Dawn Richard)

7) Melodrama - Lorde

It’s amazing to think Ella Yelich-O’Connor is only 21 years old. Whereas Pure Heroine, released when she was 16, was a quintessential teen pop record, Melodrama, her second album, is a testament to newfound maturity. The New Zealander has done some growing up since she sang about “getting on [her] first plane” on Heroine, and it shows through the lyrical and musical diversity of this album. Melodrama ranges from anthems (Supercut, Green Light), to bangers (the Tove Lo co-written Homemade Dynamite) to ballads (Liability) all the while retaining an authenticity and unique weirdness to its songwriting. The lead track, Green Light, stands out as a particularly ambitious piece of songwriting. In less skilled hands, it might collapse under its own weight, but Lorde makes it work. The refrain on Liability of “you’re a little much for me, you’re a liability” and the image of “one girl, swaying alone, stroking her cheek” is just so good. Melodrama is a beautiful, complex pop album that solidifies Lorde’s place well above the majority of mainstream mass produced blandness.

Highlights: Green Light, Homemade Dynamite, Liability, The Louvre

6) Freudian - Daniel Caesar

Toronto’s own Daniel Caesar’s debut album, Freudian, quickly became one of my most played records of 2017. Caesar’s mix of jazz, gospel and R&B is such easy listening I’ve often put it on while working and forgotten to change playlists before the album loops several times over. No one will accuse Freudian of being a high energy party record, but damn is it ever chill. Caesar’s silky smooth vocals, slipping effortlessly in and out of falsetto and floating effortlessly over the instrumental arrangements, are reminiscent of early Frank Ocean with a coolness harkens back to Love Below era Andre 3000. Freudian’s bucking of trap-influenced R&B trend for a more traditional sound comes out sounding modern and innovative. The obvious gospel influences make Caesar sound closer to Chance the Rapper than his fellow 6-natives Drake and the Weeknd. If Freudian is any indication, Daniel Caesar will be helping define Toronto’s sound for a long time to come.

Highlights: Get You (ft. Kali Uchis), Best Part (ft. H.E.R.), We Find Love, Transform (ft. Charlotte Day Wilson)

5) DAMN. - Kendrick Lamar

New Kung Fu Kenny! It’s even a shock to me that there ended up only being one true hip-hop record on this top ten (and we’re not really counting Calvin Harris as a rap album, are we? I didn’t think so.) But if there had to be only one, it had to be Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick is in rarefied, Kanye West type company in being able to say both that DAMN. might be his worst album, but still a bona fide classic. DAMN. embraces more of a mainstream hip-hop sound (complete with the faux mixtape DJ ad libs) than either of his last two offerings, To Pimp a Butterfly and untitled, unmastered. And while it fails to match the thematic unity of Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City, it still bangs. My first impression of DAMN. was that it sounded like if Kendrick made a Drake album (and made it look sexy)... and that ain’t a bad thing. Under the more commercially tuned exterior is the same incendiary social commentary we’ve come to expect from Kendrick. Turning his sights on Fox News critics, flexing about his friendship with Obama, and somehow making U2 seem cool in 2017 are all things that Kendrick does on DAMN. Another entry in K-dot’s epic canon.

Highlights: DNA., LOYALTY. (ft. Rihanna), HUMBLE., GOD.

4) Colter Wall - Colter Wall

My favourite country record of 2017. Speedy Creek’s own Colter Wall (the son of soon-to-be former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall) is only 22, but you wouldn’t know it listening to this album. Wall’s deep, gravelly voice, layered over a stripped-down accompaniment feels as classic country as it gets. The starkness of the songs creates a barroom feel and leaves you to focus on the storytelling in his lyrics. Thirteen Silver Dollars tells the tale of an unfortunate drunken encounter with an RCMP officer. Kate McCannon is a classic western murder/love ballad. You Look To Yours rattles off a series of rejections by women in bars (and warns the listener “don’t trust no politicians”, showing that Colter Wall isn’t just a chip off the old block). Nashville producer Dave Cobb, who also worked on recent albums from the likes of Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton - all leading disciples of the neo-traditionalist movement in alt-country - lends his talents to Wall’s debut release. The increasingly unlistenable quality of mainstream radio country may make one want to pour out a bottle of Thunderbird on music row, but Colter Wall shows us that the saving grace may come in the form of a prairie kid from up north.

Highlights: Thirteen Silver Dollars, Motorcycle, Kate McCannon, You Look To Yours

3) Turn Out The Lights - Julien Baker

The sophomore record from Tennessee singer-songwriter Julien Baker is not exactly a “feel good” album. At times, it feels downright depressing. The visceral quality and the rawness of the emotion in these songs just kept me coming back to this album. There is a realness and an intimacy that runs deep through the album. Turn Out The Lights deals with weighty stuff - addiction, mental health, loneliness, self-doubt - but with an undeniable beauty to the way Baker’s voice and lyrics layers over the piano and guitar. Woodwinds and violin accompaniments add to the richness on a few tracks but for the most part, the sparse palette of Baker’s voice, guitar and piano is enough to get the devastating point across. Baker’s voice, especially, has a haunting and beautiful quality that helps convey the gut wrenching emotion in her lyrics. There’s a hope, too, shining out behind the darkness. On Hurt Less, Baker moves from not wearing seatbelts because “I didn’t see the point in trying to save myself” to finding a reason in someone else to start buckling up. On another standout song, Appointments, Baker closes on a refrain of “Maybe it's all gonna turn out all right / Oh, I know that it's not, but I have to believe that it is.” Moments like that show that Turn Out The Lights isn’t the collection of sad songs it seems at first blush, but a celebration of the little moments of hope that help us get through the darkness.

Highlights: Appointments, Turn Out The Lights, Televangelist, Hurt Less

2) A Deeper Understanding - The War On Drugs

One word to describe this album: Big. I first listened to A Deeper Understanding on a float plane ride crossing the Georgia Strait from Vancouver island to the mainland on a sunny day. I can’t think of a better soundtrack for that than this. A Deeper Understanding is all soaring guitar, wailing synths and beating drums, perfect for tearing down a highway on a summer day, windows open to the wind. The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel has perfected his 80′s rock sound from 2014′s epic Lost In The Dream, tuning it perfectly to his Dire Straits-meets-Springsteen vocals. Every part of A Deeper Understanding feels finely tuned and crafted - you can feel the obsessiveness of Granduciel’s arrangements as the songs unfold. The songs themselves, mostly dwelling on loss and longing but against an undeniably upbeat musical background, are a strange contradiction that somehow never sounds wrong. It’s impossible to get through the guitar or organ riff sections on Nothing To Find without nodding a head or tapping a foot. The sonic grandeur, the “bigness”, of A Deeper Understanding is ultimately its greatest strength. Granduciel is painting landscapes here, not portraits. The influences are clear: Springsteen, Petty, Knopfler. If you think rock and roll is dead, you’re not listening to The War on Drugs.

Highlights: Up All Night, Holding On, Nothing To Find, Clean Living

1) American Dream - LCD Soundsystem

I never understood the backlash that LCD Soundsystem faced for coming out of retirement. Sometimes, an honest intention to hang up your skates is what it takes to bring out your best work (see, for example, Jay-Z’s The Black Album). American Dream, my favourite album of 2017, should solidify LCD’s comeback as a “good thing” once and for all. It would be one thing if a band kept churning out new, increasingly mediocre material (like later seasons of The Simpsons), but with American Dream, James Murphy and co. have done something truly great. American Dream is a brilliant, electric, synth-pop odyssey from start to finish. Recurring LCD themes like commentary on the state of popular music (lamenting on tonite that ‘everybody’s singing the same songs’) are prominent, but Murphy ruminates on personal topics like his divorce, missed opportunities (Black Screen lingers on Murphy’s failed chance to work more closely with David Bowie on his final album) and friendships lost. The most stunning track on the album, how do you sleep, is a pulsating, 9 minute take down of Murphy’s former collaborator Tim Goldsworthy - essentially a diss track - and it’s savage. The ‘drop’ at around the 3:30 mark is right about where I realized this album was something special. What finally sold me on American Dream as my album of the year was seeing it played live. LCD are probably one of, if not the, best live acts we have and this album truly bangs in person. At the centre of it all is Murphy, the unlikeliest front man, unshaven and drinking expensive wine in a grubby t-shirt. A rockstar with a dad bod. A bizarro light-side-of-the-force version of Steve Bannon. The American Dream incarnate if there ever was one. James Murphy is all of us, and none of us at the same time. Normal, but exceptional at the same time. This album is all exceptional. It’s the best of 2017.

Highlights: oh baby, how do you sleep, tonite, call the police

SPECIAL RETROSPECTIVE

Now that I’ve been doing this a few years, I wanted to look back at my top albums of the decade so far...

2010: The Suburbs - Arcade Fire

2011: Take Care - Drake

2012: Channel Orange - Frank Ocean

2013: Yeezus - Kanye West

2014: Our Love - Caribou

2015: Art Angels - Grimes

2016: Coloring Book - Chance The Rapper

2017: American Dream - LCD Soundsystem

All in all a very solid and defensible selection of albums. I don’t want to second guess myself too much, and I would still ride or die for any of these choices, but if I’d change one or two, it might be to flip Yeezus for Modern Vampires in the City in 2013, or swap the Caribou for RTJ2 in 2014... which are just albums that have stuck with me more over time.

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ricardosousalemos · 7 years

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Cameron Avery: Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams

Not all albums must strive for greater meaning. Plenty attempt and fall short. A great many seek a comforting adequacy—and even those don’t always pan out. On his solo debut, Tame Impala bassist Cameron Avery veers away from psych-rock cosmic revelations in search of a pure musical greatness of times past. Upon the record’s announcement, he made clear his inspirations: Elvis, Sinatra, Etta James, “the big band stuff with less metaphorical lyrics,” as he put it. From the gentle guitar plucks of “A Time and Place,” Avery’s greatest pursuit is beauty over all else, which he achieves often throughout Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams.

Avery is best when ruminating on loves lost, found, and desired. The album’s limited musical and thematic palette, however, means the burden for excellence falls on Avery’s songwriting, which ranges from subtle, self-aware inversions of machismo to overt chauvinism, and in its worst moments, it’s just bland. Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams is a deliberately pleasant album that occasionally soars but at a relatively low ceiling.

In making an album that revels in classicalism, Avery reconciles with the old-timey mores of society. On “Disposable,” the record’s jauntiest track, he sees himself as the most ordinary bane of humanity: a dude. It’s effective in its extreme self-deprecation, as he sings happily about being “just as shit as any other brand,” and making a soaring hook out of “I’m disposable.” Avery sees the haplessness of the male pursuit, that of the bumbling fool who sings to the mountaintops about why he just can’t find the right gal. He achieves the endeavor best on “Wasted on Fidelity,” a track where he is in love, yet is unable to resign himself to the domesticity. On these songs, Avery breathes new life into the male pop figure as someone who sees his flaws but cannot help but do the wrong thing anyway.

He runs into trouble when he loses the self-awareness of it all. The subversion is absent on “Big Town Girl,” with lines like, “You know I’ve never had the time to wait around for a dame/But if I knew that we could make it, I’d wait around for Jane,” as if trying on a terrible-looking fedora. Platitudes like, “You know she’s a lady,” also highlight this lounge singer mode, but the song is far too conventional for his affectations to land with any honesty. Similarly, his take on Elvis in “Watch Me Take It Away” offers little nuance, only chintzy cock rock.

Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams finds its true comfort zone when it is simply sweet. The opening tracks “A Time and Place” and “Do You Know Me by Heart,” as well as the closing “C’est Toi (Extended)” are tried and true love songs that take their time. They fully embrace the majesty of the American songbook without jamming in any rock’n’roll, winkingly or otherwise. His smoky baritone does the songs justice, though he's still more of an imitator of the past than he is a student of the past. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam’s 2016 collaboration, for contrast, added excitement and contemporary sounds to revive bygone trends. Making an album like this, an album of ancient ballads requires subtle innovation. Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams is a focused record with several wonderful songs. It’s not novel, nor does it attempt to be, just like those old 45s it so fondly recalls.

#reviews-albums

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