A Music Blog For People Who Like Music, Blogs & Music Blogs
Too much new music for the working week, here’s all the good stuff we’re putting in overtime to get to you. New music from James Levy, Monokino, Badlands, Lydia Hol, Grass Shadows, Parlour Magic, Eriel Indigo, The F-use, Palm Ghosts and Bobobot.
Today we have new music from Total Rubbish, The Shackups, Mister Goblin, Beige Banquet and Dan Potter Sings.
It’s quite the trick how “Here’s What I Know Now” invokes all the same warm feelings of effortless beauty and intimate wisdom of a classic Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) tune. And the secret is in the effortlessness. So many artists influenced by Stevens focus on recreating the sonic details of those songs, but not the soul residing within them. They confuse gentle vocals with genuine heart and come off sounding hollow and trite. But not Yaron Kaver. “Here’s What I Know Now” feels as natural and true as the sun rising on a new day.
Larry Heard, aka Mr. Fingers (among other monikers), is a legendary Chicago house DJ, producer, and musician. He’s been steadily making music for decades, and he just released the first of a series of EPs of unreleased music spanning his entire career. This first release has Ron Wilson singing over a deep house track that gets wildly meditative the more you listen. The entire EP is a testament to Heard’s numerous musical contributions – the tracks are all clean, unfold beautifully, and hold both joy and darkness as resonant and complementary forces.
Welcome to The B-Side, our column where we bring you a bonus song to check out, fall in love and live happily ever after with.
We just had our first real snowfall of the year here at Postcard Elba HQ, so how timely is this little piece of audio sunshine? “you” by sock jock is a perfect jangle pop tune that takes us back to the days of carefree, sundress with combat boots wearing 90’s. sock jock’s voice and approach to melody harken back to Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays, which is a sound always welcome at PE, regardless of the weather.
Lullabies calming our dread ridden minds as we lay in bed of synthesizers. The electronic duo from North Carolina, Sylvan Esso, have crafted ten of them on their third, and most recent record, Free Love. The ambient minimalism of soft chords, simple melodies created with cool sounds of sci-fi, and beats hiding around the corner of every good build-up, are the dynamics of an excellent album for those techno fans who don’t necessarily want to be blasted by chaos. Amelia Meath’s soothing, breathy voice rides atop all of it, keeping the lyrics simple, but the ideas big. Scattered throughout those are universal truths about how we love others, a folktale about a dreamer, specific reflections on the fear of crowds in the wake of tragic events, and even a personal laugh at dealing with tinnitus. On the surface it seems like neon lights and sugary pop, but if you look deeper Free Love is also sunshine and fresh fruit.
Well, well, well – looks like those Kali Masi boys have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. Not only is the new single “Trophy Deer” a more melodic and reflective indie rock song ala Weakerthans than the more pedal to the metal post punk barn burner of the first single “The Stray” (see below), but the video was also animated by bassist Anthony Elliott (aka Royal Dog aka Capital T). Ugh. Talented people, amiright? Both songs rip and have us excited for the upcoming album [laughs], dropping March 26th and available for pre-order now.
“My Hype” by Sadizzy takes us back to the glorious boom bap days of 90’s era hip hop with a perfectly minimalist beat, a simple twinkling keyboard melody and just the right amount of tasteful turntablism. Sadizzy has a flow that is reminiscent of a less gravelly Sticky Fingaz of Onyx, and in an era where trap still dominates most playlists it hits like a breath of fresh air. If hip hop is starting to look back to it’s finest decade for influence (which we truly hope it is), than Sadizzy is poised for big things.
The late great Etta James was born on January 25, 1938. Randy Newman wrote and Lowell George plays the slide guitar on this gem from her 1974 Chess Records release, Come A Little Closer.