Sorry for not having the Graboid up last week, but I’ve included those releases (Spoon, Surfer Blood, Editors) in with the already incredibly amount of great releases that are available this week. So much good amazing stuff to choose from, that one would be hard-pressed to decide where to spend their hard-earned cash.
Two albums that I’m extremely excited about and will surely be picking up at some point this week are Beach House’s awe-inspiring third album Teen Dream and The Magnetic Fields’Realism. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of Realism yet (which many have dubbed the yin to Distortion’s (2008) yang, but Teen Dream is so good it hurts. Early candidate for album of the year? Too early for that kind of talk, but it is sure to be in the discussion when that time comes. It is definitely that good, people.
Also worth mentioning are a number of great releases, too numerous to single out any one in particular, from the likes of Basia Bulat, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Boy Genius, and Four Tet.
As always, feel free to recommend anything I may have missed. What releases are you most excited about?
I’m late on this by a day or two, but despite not having time to blog, I can’t completely ignore such splendid news in regards to new material from Beach House. I haven’t heard any of the previous incarnations of “Norway” so I came upon this one with fresh ears. About 10 or 12 continuous listens later, there’s no doubt that the track is absolutely stunning. It’s easily up there as some of their best work to date.
Compared to almost everything that has come before it, the song actually plays a bit more upbeat and has a pulse. I just absolutely love the short breaths that open the track from Victoria as they seamlessly flutter over Alex’s ringing guitar melody. There’s so much to love in this four-minute song, but I can’t imagine how the entire album sounds like. If this is any indication, it’s possible that they’ve taken something very familiar to the fans and kicked it up a notch or two.
Teen Dream is set to be released on January 26th. Let’s not forget that this will also be their Sub Pop debut.
Here’s a little something to kick off your weekend in fashion, as this Animal Collective remix of Phoenix’s “Love Like A Sunset” made its debut via Discobelle.
As we all know, remixes are a dime a dozen nowadays, especially as of recently in regards to Phoenix-related remixes. In fact, around the time I found this one in particular, my inbox had about four other Phoenix remixes from some people I’ve never even heard of.
It’s just nice to actually hear a remix with some substance without it trying so desperately to be club worthy.
Here’s a little snippet from Deakin of Animal Collective in regards to this Phoenix remix:
“This spring i was in Panama with Brian. We were cramped into a van on a bumpy, winding Central American road going a little too fast. Feeling a little edgy, I put on my headphones and listened to United and Alphabetical back to back. I watched passing fruit stands, a sweet central american dusk and memories of the massive schools of jelly fish, snapper, and trevally; the few dolphin and even the few bluefin tuna (too few) that Brian and i had just had the joy of diving with. The blend of all of these things put me at ease. Phoenix has been a staple for all four of us since Dave and Noah brought home United from the record store they used to work at. One of the records that would get us through some of those long cross country tour drives, we’ve listened to Phoenix’s jams many many times. We were all totally psyched to get asked to do this and it was super fun to work on it. All the best to those dudes.”
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To keep the goods coming, You Ain’t No Picasso recently posted a full video of Grizzly Bear and Victoria Legrand of Beach House performing the song “Slow Life” together in Columbia, Missouri.
If you hadn’t heard already, this is one of the many tracks from some well-known musicians making its way onto the New Moon (along with Thom Yorke, Death Cab For Cutie, Bon Iver/St. Vincent, etc.) soundtrack.
Definitely cringe-worthy, but just think of some thirteen-year-old picking this up and receiving a proper musical education. I think with that in mind, I’m perfectly okay with it.
If some of you decided to hold off on downloading that horrid quality leak of Grizzly Bear’sVeckatimest, than you may be interested in snagging a free download of “Cheerleader,” which was made available last week courtesy of Warp. Listening to it only bums me out even more that I wasn’t able to get into any of their performances at SXSW last week. Which leads me to this video recording that has been floating around of the band being joined on stage by Victoria Legrand of Beach Houseto sing backup vocals for the stellar “Two Weeks,” at the Cedar Street Courtyard.
Val and I were actually in line for this, as I had been looking forward to this since arriving in Austin. I think we were there for all of ten minutes before finding out the line had not moved for nearly two hours, or something ridiculous like that. Of course, we didn’t hang around much longer after that. This, my friends, is why YouTube is such a wonderful thing.
Sorry for not having the Graboid up last week, but I’ve included those releases (Spoon, Surfer Blood, Editors) in with the already incredibly amount of great releases that are available this week. So much good amazing stuff to choose from, that one would be hard-pressed to decide where to spend their hard-earned cash.
If some of you decided to hold off on downloading that horrid quality leak of 
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