I have lover Oberhofer since the first time I heard them. Their first release “oO0OoO0Oo” was amazing, and I’m very pumped for the follow up. Here is a song from the upcoming album “Time Capsule II.”
20120127: Song of the Week
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Category Archives: Talking Robots
20120120: Song of the Week
NEW FLASH: Unveiling a new regular post on the site here… get ready.
My favorite song of the week.
Kicking it off is the newest song from Lower Dens. I loved their first album “Twin-Hand Movement,” and if you haven’t heard that, I recommend the entire album highly. I can’t wait for their new album to be released, it will be titled “Nootropics.” So, in excitement, let’s enjoy this track.
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom will be on Austin City Limits this Saturday!!
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Super cool video from UMO. Check it out!
Daniel Rossen: Saint Nothing
Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear is releasing a solo record. Here’s a cool track from it.
2011: The Best of The Rest
Don’t skip over this list too fast. Yes, these didn’t make the top 10, but there are some really great albums in this list. Some of these have been talked about either on this blog or on my old tumblrs, and some of them haven’t. But these are all worth listening to and some of these just barely missed the top 10 albums of the year and some just missed the top five new bands and some just missed the list of surprises.
Twin Sister: In Heaven
Young Man: Ideas of Distance
Gauntlet Hair: Gauntlet Hair
Headless Horseman: HDLSS
Ducktails: III: Arcade Dynamics
Korallreven: An Album By Korallreven
Tyler, the Creator: Goblin
Cant: Dreams Come True
John Vanderslice: White Wilderness
Peaking Lights: 936
Quilt: Quilt
M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
The Weeknd: House of Balloons
Björk: Biophilia
Jape: Ocean of Frequency
Wise Blood: These Wings
Atlas Sound: Parallax
Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring For My Halo
Youth Lagoon: July
2011: My Top 5 Favorite New Bands
I love to discover new bands, it’s honestly one of my favorite hobbies. I really enjoy scouring the “blogosphere” and multiple music websites, in hopes of discovering a cool new band. These are some that I found this year. Some I had to work very hard to find, some I didn’t. These albums could all easily have made my Top 10, I’m bad at making really good rankings, so I wanted to include these in some ways. I’ve included videos from every band… but you should also check out the rest of the album!
Mina Tindle: Mina Tindle
This is such a fun EP. I wish it were a full album of this great music. I don’t know how anyone would not love this fun pop music. I think there may be a little Feist inspiration here, but also tons of other things.
Tennis: Cape Dory
I’ve listened to this album a ton. It’s hard to believe it actually came out in 2011. I truly love it. Perfectly crafted, light-hearted summertime pop songs.
Big Deal: Lights Out
Yet another boy/girl duo that create amazing music. I may not always love this concept, but as of late, it has been done very well by many bands. Add Big Deal to that list. These guys are amazing. With only guitars and vocals, this album could feel bare, but it doesn’t. It’s classic. Like many under produced albums, your mind seems to fill in the blanks… I’m not sure how people create that on an album. I think you’ll love it.
Caveman: CoCo Beware
Caveman’s album CoCo Beware is amazing. Kind of trippy, kind of laid back, all fun. It has many elements that I loved about indie rock about ten years ago. It’s perfectly recorded and just a solid album.
Wye Oak: Civilian
This album is so great. I love rock bands with female singers, there just aren’t enough of them. The lead singer from Wye Oak has such a spectacular voice. This album has a little bit of Bon Iver, and a little bit of Land of Talk, and probobally something else in there I can’t recognize. Of my favorite new bands, Wye Oak, is without a doubt my favorite.
2011: Top 10 Albums
As the year winds down, each year, I tend to want to sum up the events of that year as much as possible, and I love lists. I love reading lists and analyzing them. One of my favorite lists is album of the year lists.
It’s so interesting to me how two people who have very similar music taste can come up with very different lists. Though two people may like the same album, they may be connecting with totally different aspects of that album. There are albums that I absolutely love, but I don’t know more than five lyrics on the whole thing, yet I sing along in some foreign language to each song. While many of my friends have meaningful song lyrics tattooed on their bodies or post them as something that’s meaningful on their facebook or twitter feeds. Many times I read those lyrics, and they sound familiar to me, but I have no idea what song they are from, all the while, it’s a song I really like! Am I weird? I don’t think so (maybe a little), I think I just am drawn to different parts of music than those people.
So this list of my favorite music from the year reflects what I am drawn to most in music, and it may not be what you are into, but I think that anyone could find something that they like.
The other thing that I have to address is the EP fad that is currently the popular trend. Many bands and artists are now putting their best works onto EPs instead of saving those for full albums. Because of this, I feel forced to consider EPs in this list, however, EPs are lower than they would be if they were a full album of music at the same quality of the EP, just because I like full length albums. So, after all of that nonsense, here’s the list.
2011, in my opinion, was not a particularly strong year for great music. There were actually a lot of good albums released, but I’m really not sure how many of these will really stand up over time as great albums. So here’s my top ten.
10 Dirty Beaches: Badlands
I really love this album, and it probably deserves to be higher on the list. The only reason it isn’t is because I just haven’t listened to it enough to really put it up there. Since this list is subjective, I must take that into consideration. This record has an old sound, but at the same time something sounds very inventive and new within. Badlands is dark and creepy, but also exciting with it’s inventiveness.
09 Cults: Cults
I love Cults! This album is so fun. Cults self-titled album could easily have been released in the 50′s. Cults have perfected 50′s pop, but with a darker, 21st century sensibility. A few years ago Grizzly Bear brought The Crystals “He Hit Me, But it Felt Like a Kiss” to the forefront of the indie rock world. Cults have carried on this style in form on their album.
08 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.: It’s A Corporate World
The worst named band of all time has released a phenomenal album. “It’s a Corporate World” is the perfect follow up to their “Horse Power EP.” This is the perfect light hearted Pop/Rock album to listen to on a pretty day when you have a long drive. Turn it up loud and smile.
07 Real Estate: Days
Real Estate’s “Days” has really grown on me. I was not impressed at first. Like the music snob I am, I love when bands challenge me. At first this album didn’t feel very challenging, and definitely didn’t feel as challenging as their first album. However, this album has grown on me, to the point that I may actually enjoy “Days” more than Real Estate’s Self Titled album. Another great album for a beautiful day. Wonderful laid back fall day music.
06 Smith Westerns: Dye it Blonde
So, this album is an album that I would have loved to release. I understand that, that is a really arrogant thing to say, but please don’t take it that way. I just really connect with the style of it. So why is it #6? There are albums that were better, but if I could release the perfect album, based on who I am and what I love about rock and roll, this would be it. I don’t know how such young guys did it, but the Smith Westerns seamlessly bring together multiple decades of rock and roll on one beautiful album. The guy can’t sing, and that may bother some, but I love it. His voice is so perfect for this record.
05 Orchard Thief: Coin Purse
I had never heard of Orchard Thief before I found this album, and I can’t even remember how I found it. All of that said, I love this EP so much that it has over run my despise of EPs and made it into my top albums. Very creative and odd, it reminds me of Panda Bear’s
“Person Pitch,” not in style or sound, but in inventiveness and vision.
04 James Blake: James Blake
I didn’t want to like this album. I get tired of auto-tune. But I can’t deny the large levels of cool inside of here. I love this album from beginning to end. James Blake can sing, very well. This album sounds like the heart broken recordings of a robot, but a really cool robot, that all other robots want to imitate and understand.
03 Bon Iver: Bon Iver
It’s only appropriate that Bon Iver’s self-titled album falls right before James Blake’s self-titled album. There is something similar about these guys, though their styles are very different. If you some how missed Bon Iver’s For Emma, For Ever Ago, you must stop what you’re doing right now and listen to it. This album is an interesting follow up, that goes in a totally new, bigger, direction. It seems like the direct response to playing an intimate acoustic album in front of large crowds every night.
02 Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation
Every year there is an album that somebody recorded in their bedroom that is really good, Youth Lagoon’s “The Year of Hibernation” is 2011′s version of this. It’s quiet, but big. It’s intimate, but vague. It’s sad, but poppy. In other words, it’s very difficult to describe, and I love it. This album challenges many different types of convention in music and I can’t get enough.
01 Panda Bear: Tomboy
It really seems lazy to just put Panda Bear at #1, but the problem is that there is no better album. Should I have tried harder and looked for more obscure music? I just love Panda Bear, and I don’t know if I am capable of disliking his music! I was concerned I wouldn’t like this album when I heard some of the leaked tracks before it came out, but I love it. Like most of Panda Bear’s work, I cannot begin to describe the sound, but it is somehow the total opposite of “Person Pitch,” which was his last release.
There will be more great albums from 2011 to come in posts about the best new bands of 2011 and 2011′s “The Others” which are just albums I liked but couldn’t fit on a list.
MIDI CHÖPIN
My friend, Nick has released a new album and it’s super cool. Leave it to Nick to come up with yet another really great idea! He has taken many of the works of Frédéric Chopin and produced them digitally all with Midi. I don’t know how he finds time to do stuff like this, but I’m so glad he does, it’s great work and I hope you all enjoy it as well. Listen below or go here to buy the album.
