Royal Rhino Flying One – New Year Mixtape

In the spirit of acting on ideas I think might be good, I decided it’d be fun to post up some kind of mixtape-thingy to further celebrate all the music I thought good enough to post here and you condescended to listen to. Do they necessarily cohere as a set? I doubt it very much. Nevertheless, it’s a great way to find some new music you’ll like and find out what the hell I’ve been talking about all this time without having to plod your way through my writing. The former’s probably a bigger draw, so focus on that one.

Ideally, this’ll be the first of a new tradition, so expect a “royalrhinoflyingtwo” at some point, and so on, ad infinitum. Having said that, thanks to Vera Vodak for letting me use one of her photographs to make the above cover image. She’s a very talented German who writes wonderful English and takes beautiful photos. Vielen schoenen Dank!

Download the entire mix here or individual tracks below:

1. Idiot Glee – All Packed Up
From the b-side of a 7″ due out on Hop Hop Records this February.

2. Mikal Cronin – Tethered
Mikal Cronin’s contribution to Royal Rhino’s first Build Your Army With Potatoes compilation.

3. The Mendoza Line – Aspect of an Old Maid (Demo Version)
Outtake from the band’s final album, 30 Year Low.

4. Land of Blood and Sunshine – Incident
An enigmatic song from the enigmatic band’s enigmatic debut Magick Carcass Ride on their enigmatic label Very Nice Dementia Records. Very enigmatic.

5. pə-’rād – Travel Song
From the self-titled pə-’rād cassette on Leftist Nautical Antiques.

6. Cloud Nothings – Hey Cool Kid
The first track to grace the ears of Cloud Nothings’ now burgeoning audience and a star track on the Turning On CD/Cassette from Bridgetown Records.

7. Pure Ecstasy – Easy
From Pure Ecstasy’s 7″ on Light Lodge.

8. Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin – I Wear Black
From Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin’s collaborative 12″ Reverse Shark Attack on Kill Shaman Records.

9. Canopy – Narrow Bones
From Canopy’s debut EP Canopy//Anopy on Autobus Records.

10. Phil and the Osophers – We Have All Summer
From Phil and the Osophers’ latest LP Parallelo on Factual Fabrications, also featured on the Underwater Peoples Summer Showcase.

11. Visions of Trees – Cult of Cobras (Demo Version)
An early cut of a track that will be appearing on the Visions of Trees EP Sometimes it Kills via this very label early in the year of our lord two thousand and ten.

12. Fox Hands – Listen to the Walls
A groovy track that appeared on the self-titled Fox Hands EP in 2009, in the digital from Gold Robot Records and the physical from Royal Rhino.

13. Panda Beach – Gravity
One of many cellphone recorded songs from Panda Beach, as of now unreleased. A Panda Beach post was supposed to go up today, but despite the delay I wanted to include one of the tracks that would be appearing with it.

14. The Spookfish – Up and Down
First track off of The Spookfish’s free EP, available here.

15. Coco Rico Derby – So Long 4 Now
An early recording from Michigan’s Coco Rico Derby, as of now unreleased.

16. Boylant – Orange Dream
One of Boylant’s earliest recordings and as of now unreleased.

17. Nude Beach – Nude Beach
From the Nude Beach cassette Slut Club on Bathetic Records.

Happy New Years chappies!

Dwight

Pure Ecstasy – Easy 7″

So, I may have gotten carried away the other day when I said Canopy was “undoubtedly” my favorite thing in Texas. I’d forgotten that they share Austin with Pure Ecstasy, a lo-fi beach-rock reverb-assault troupe that’s been featured on Pitchfork’s Forkcast twice, most recently for the title track “Easy” from their first 7″, on local label Light Lodge. The Easy 7″ is true to that description; the band moves slowly in and out of reverb peaks, crashing guitars, echoey vocals, while a light drumbeat accompanies throughout. It’s one of the year’s most compelling singles and definitely one of the prettiest, as the bright photograph and clever lettering on the cover bear out.

Pure Ecstasy – Easy

Pure Ecstasy will shortly have a cassette appearing on Bristol’s Bumtapes and a 7″ on Acephale. Incidentally, they’re also responsible for one of the best covers of 2009, taking on Pressure Drop by Toots & the Maytals for their contribution to Friendship Bracelet Two, which is available to download for free right here.

Cheers,

Dwight

Ecliptics Odious One

Delicious Scopitone is a French music blog regularly updated by a small crew of writers who try with great success to have something new posted up every day. The quality of their posts is always well above par, so I’ve come to credit them with pretty impecable taste. Their addition to the heap of winter freebies given out by all and sundry blogosites of this or that persuasion was the unusually titled Ecliptics Odious One, a compilation of songs they’ve featured on the site. It’s a strong bunch of tracks and well worth a perusal, if only on the force of that awesome cover art’s recommendation. Download here.

Toodle-pop,

Dwight

Canopy – Canopy//Anopy

Canopy is undoubtedly my favorite thing in Texas – not to put the state down, but it’s lucky to have this project in attendance. Canopy is the project of Praveen Ayyagari, an Austin-based filmmaker and musician who runs a very likable production company called Banana City and collected a rotating cast of cohorts to help put his debut EP Canopy//Anopy together. I missed its release on Autobus Records in July of 2008, but it and the rest of Autobus’ pretty stellar catalog have been spending some serious quality time blasting out of my laptop speakers.

Although lyrically Canopy//Anopy spends a good deal of time dwelling on unhappy living circumstances and all manner of disheartening things, hope and transcendance are the more overbearing presence. Each track is captivating and the largely positive tone is kept from wearing thin by capable instrumentation and varied composition, with each projecting its load of good vibes through differing effects, song structures, and flourishes (some are given a healthy treatment with the harmonium). Musically, Canopy//Anopy is mature sunshine pop that thumbs its nose at unpleasantness, always at the jovial heights that Praveen’s lyrics only gradually ascend to. Having said that, it’s often a very spare recording. It’s a testament to Praveen’s ability as a songwriter, to say nothing of his vocals, that it remains so compelling.

As of now, the EP is available in a variety of ways, all of which involve paying only “what you want” for one or another format from one or another source. I’m sure you’d find the method very agreeable. Here’s an mp3 to tide you over until Canopy’s LP appears next year or while Canopy//Anopy downloads/ships/what-have-you:

Canopy – Narrow Bones

Cheers and much happy after-Christmas sentiment!

Dwight

Crocodiles & Dum Dum Girls – “Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don’t Die)”

Outside of a very remarkable handful of exceptions, Christmas songs rarely dodge being absolutely awful and typically those that do can only manage it by being overtly self-depricating. I don’t think I’d expect it to get much of a rise from family, but I’ll probably be listening to Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls’ song for the season on Christmas morning:

Crocodiles & Dum Dum Girls – Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don’t Die)

Tres groovy, non?

Dwight

Eternal Summers – Beko 16

Surely I don’t need to tell you that Beko DSL’s newest single from Eternal Summers is great, because Pitchfork already has. The two new songs, “Safe at Home” and “Dye” are indie-pop gems, to use a descriptor that is at once tired and entirely descriptive. Guitars that evoke The Lilys collude with unimposingly pop-punk vocals and an occasional sound suggestive of what I’ve recently heard called “insurgent country” to form, under pressure, said descriptor. The two tracks are drawn from their upcoming LP, the band calling them “…the oldest tracks from the new LP… They kind of bridge our EP with the rest of the LP if that makes sense” – the EP in question being a self-released CD, of equally outstanding quality, that will shortly be treated to an appearance on an also self-released 10″.

Beko DSL has made it their kind prerogative to share excellent music for free, so head over to their website to download the Eternal Summers single, as well as their slew of other groovy releases.

Hugs n’ bugs,

Dwight

Idiot Glee

Thanks to recent coverage on Get Off the Coast for calling my attention to Idiot Glee, the half a year old recording project of James Friley, a piano major at the University of Kentucky. Citing “doo-wop” and “Pet Sounds” as primary influences, Friley makes distinctive vocal-heavy pop tunes with subdued instrumentation and complex yet skillfully restrained orchestration. It’s a bit moodier than either “doo-wop” or “Pet Sounds” would suggest, but his recording’s light analog-drone and the consistent appearance of a mid-range organ as a companion instrument keep everything in the realm of fun.

Keep an eye on his myspace page for information on an upcoming 7″ and a split cassette with The Butchers. Here are two groovy tracks to enjoy in the meantime – surprise your friends and put them on a Christmas mix or something:

Idiot Glee – All Packed Up
Idiot Glee – It

Hooplah-nanny,

Dwight

Cool Tapes

Cool Tapes is a series of mixtapes presented by cultural figures of one kind or another, inaugerated by musician Julian Lynch and most recently added to by photographer Keffer. It was apparently intended to be updated weekly, but unfortunately it’s been a while since a new mix has been posted. Julian Lynch seems a great choice to kick something like this off… I don’t know a ton about Keffer… but they both sat well with me, outside of some totally unwelcome Michael and Janet Jackson songs on the latter’s contribution. Can’t imagine whether or not they’ll start up again, but the first two mixes are still up on the Cool Tapes website in the interim.

Cheers,
Dwight

Coco Rico Derby

Coco Rico Derby is long time Michigan musician Jacob Sitowski, architect of a relaxing haze that he says was born out of a marathon listening-session with “electronic music and underground hip-hop,” and later “psychedelic retro-house.” He also says that “rather than portraying emotions, I want to evoke them,” and his music has the kind of flexibility that makes a comment you might only have expected from a more naive musician entirely descriptive. With a thick atmosphere and a mostly unimposing beat, Coco Rico Derby picks up on wherever your mood or inclination wanted you to go. That’s not to say it’s atmosphere music or in any way weaker for being intended to “evoke” rather than “portray” an emotional state, though some musicians might suffer for having to build a less conventional psychological core into their songs. Sitowski’s music is beautiful and at home with itself, entertaining but undemanding. But, in that spirit, you can draw your own conclusions from a couple songs he was kind enough to send along:

Coco Rico Derby – Safety & Comfort
Coco Rico Derby – So Long 4 Now

Bippidy-boppidy-bye,

Dwight

The Muppets cover “Bohemian Rhapsody”

I grew up with both Queen and the Muppets, so this is a particularly happy union.

Toodles,

Dwight

PS, bet you didn’t remember that the Muppets had a handful of stoner-rock musicians that showed up now and then.