Dent May

Music sounds better in the summer.  Or maybe I feel better in the summer.  Regardless, there’s something that get’s me smiling like a nutcase when I hear a bright and shimmering song while its this hot out.  It’s just the satisfying sound of cool.

Dent May‘s album Do Things is out now on Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks imprint.  Strung together on this album are indie-rock songs with drum machine rhythms and reverb filled vocals and guitars.  The way I hear it, it sounds a great deal like a band discovered unreleased Beach Boys songs, and decided to cover them in their own style. This is a very good thing.  Every bit of this album makes me smile.  The lead singer, strangely named Dent May, has a delightful falsetto that he exploits perfectly.  Also, he does a wonderful deep vibrato on some of his sustained noises that pleases the ear much in the way that chocolate pleases the tongue.

The standout tracks on this album for me are “Rent Money”, “Do Things”, and “Wedding Day”.

Check them out below.

“Rent Money”

“Do Things”

“Wedding Day”

or stream it on Spotify here

Thanks and enjoy and Thanks

Brain Salad – March

Brain Salad – March 2012

Despite being relatively absent from the blogosphere for the past few months, I have been listening to a fair bit of music.  So here I am picking it back up with a brand new Brain Salad release.  March’s mix continues the trend of eclectic compilations with everything from Shigeto’s exciting glitchy remix of Sufjan Steven’s “Futile Devices”, to the light folky soul tune in Michael Kiwanuka’s “I’m Getting Ready”.  Highlights from this month’s include a quality track titled “Lonesome” from another quality release from Dr. Dog off Be the Void.  The new track from one of my personal favorites Yellow Ostrich, “Shakedown” is a driving rock tune that starts off strong and ends with a crescendo that is as fulfilling as it is hectic.  Blood Orange has been ringing its smooth R&B Rock through my head for the past few months, so I figured I’d share “Forget it” with all y’all.  By the way, Blood Orange is the project of one Lightspeed Champion, who I found out about through Emmy The Great, won me over with his excellent name and even better music, so check him out, please.  Pepper Rabbit comes through with a nice catchy tune that is just plain nice.  Michael Kiwanuka and Ben Howard wins the best folk tunes so far this year.  Polica and Rhye and Grimes all came out of nowhere this year with some awesome female dance/electronic tunes.  Conner Youngblood continues to crank out tunes that I can’t help but love, and even better, “Will You Be There”, came on a free EP called Sketches Pt.1.  Last of all comes A$AP Rocky’s “Peso” which if you aren’t already aware of, fix it, because A$AP Rocky is doin his own thang like none other, and gettin paid for it.  As always, thanks and enjoy and thanks.

Tracklist after the Jump.

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Delicate Steve

Delicate Steve just might be an enigma wrapped in a mystery enshrouded within the cloaks of secrecy that protect the deepest meanings of existence.  Similarly, Delicate Steve is a instrumental rock group that’s been exploring the origins of music by way of NYC, creating waves of sensation in the ears of many and confusion in the heads of all that are perplexed by what they have encountered.  Having been paired by nothing less than fate with the wonderfully talented Yellow Ostrich, the most Delicate of Steves recently, were on tour supporting Ra Ra Riot.

Delicate Steve’s story is one that’s been flooded with what our ancestor’s called “Tall Tales”.  In a bit of a publicity stunt, a publicist for the band sought out acclaimed music writer Chuck Klosterman to write a press release, without really knowing what the band was about.  Chuck did just what he knew he had to do, write a such a ludicrous fabrication that it could easily be taken for the truth by someone who has little time to let it sink in, or at the very least check some facts.  So it became a parody of music journalism, and the sad reality of what a press release is, which is merely a cheat sheet for journalists to shirk their duties of investigating and reporting the facts.  So by feeding the hungry eyes of bloggers and music journalists with false facts and outrageous (and imaginary) descriptions, Klosterman managed to “Pull a quick one”.  This trickery did not go unappreciated by those who recognized, most notably NPR, who’s Ann Powers wrote an excellent article about this situation and the portrait it paints of the music journalism scene.

So the way I will choose to describe the wizardry that Steve Marion, the mastermind behind the luscious compositions that make up the debut album Wondervisions, is with this:

In the hot summer sun, some time ago, I spent a handful of moments to stop and observe/ponder the remains of a squirrel.  His time must’ve came, in one panicked moment, a day or two before.  The rot had started.  Definitely.  The flies, seemed to gain vigor from the promise of something to occupy their seconds of flight for many minutes to come.  As I took it all in, I thought I heard something.  I know I heard something.  In the distance, but obviously within earshot, was the soft singing of tree birds, with the accompaniment of the breeze.  What seemed like a celebration cantata was occurring just a stones-throw from this location of sudden or slow lonely demise.  My feelings were mixed.  No not mixed like blended, but more like alternating, or see-sawing.  I couldn’t help but to be saddened by the fate of the adorable rodent.  I couldn’t help to be delighted by the performances of the natural choir perched above.  So I decided to try my best to combine these emotions that I had always felt separately before.  And quite naturally, I found myself at a funeral.  Celebrating the life of the critter.  Rejoicing for the all the smiles that he had caused as he scrambled around a trunk trying to catch a fellow nut-stasher.  Accepting the fate that world has brought to this thing.  And really, really, really enjoying the music.

“The Ballad of the Speck and the Pebble”

Download:

“Butterfly”

Download:

“Sugar Splash”

Download:

Check out these videos, if you so desire.

“Butterfly”  Music Video

“Wondervisions” Official Video

“Sugar Splash”  Live video

Thanks and enjoy and thanks.

Brain Salad – November

Brain Salad – November

**Click to Download**

“Whenever the first leaves would fall, back when I was a child, I would began to count down the moments until there were enough to gather.  The amount wasn’t anything specific, more like an estimation of how big the pile would have to be to break my fall.  Just beyond the worn away patch of dirt in the lawn, I would corral the leaves.  Always careful to try and filter out any twigs or other debris that could later become dangerous.  The old rope swing stayed up year round, but some seasons were favorable.  You never knew for sure if it was a good cushion until you tried it.  So once I felt I had an adequate collection I would back up as far as I could go.  Running and leaping with a mighty push, I would launch into the brisk air.”

-Danny Glover

**Tracklist**

1. Pillow Talk – Wild Child
2. One Thing – Peter and Kerry
3. The Ballad of Speck and Pebble – Delicate Steve
4. Up Up Up – Givers
5. Settle Down – Kimbra
6. Australia – Conner Youngblood
7. Time Spent in Los Angeles – Dawes
8. Cannons – Youth Lagoon
9. Money – The Drums
10. Champagne Coast – Blood Orange
11. Death by Accident – Halloween, Alaska
12. Call it Off – Washed Out
13. DIY – Keep Shelly in Athens
14. Colours (Remix) – DJ21azy
15. Ohio – Justice

Brain Salad – October

Brain Salad – October

**CLICK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD**

http://www.mediafire.com/?3b4aewrqgowyjx8

Last night I had a dream that my friends and I were being pulled around a lake (in which one end was a shallow indoor pool) by a rope that had some sort of strange throttle mechanism on it.  Hanging on to this rope, my friends and I zipped around the lake just enjoying the ride.  All of this was fine and grand until we were pulled back into the pool area and we discovered something written on the floor of the pool.  I remember getting just close enough to read it, feeling scared because of the way that my friend had shouted about it, and then I woke up.

Enjoy this months Brain Salad.

**Tracklist**

1. The Bad in Each Other – Feist
2. Love & Light – Sandro Perri
3. Virus – Bjork
4. Cruel – St. Vincent
5. On Your Side – Icarus Himself
6. Carried Away – The Kooks
7. Honey Bunny – Girls
8. Post War Blues – Dan Mangam
9. My KZ Ur BF – Everything Everything
10. Murder Room – Pepper Rabbit
11. Lemonade – Braids
12. Fading Colors (Bloomington) – Canon Blue
13. Bonfire – Childish Gambino
14. Kelly (Schlomo Remix) – When Saints Go Machine
15. Family Affair – Hugo Frederick