Saturday, March 22, 2014

What You Should Be Listening to RIGHT NOW!

New (and newish) Stuff from Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard, The Hold Steady, Sun Kil Moon, Stephen Malkmus, Mikal Cronin, Black Lips, Spiritualized, Bruce Springsteen, Arctic Monkeys, Christopher Owens, Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones, Babyshambles (Pete Doherty), Conor Oberst, Cage The Elephant, Pharrell Williams...

and classics by The Everly Brothers, Hindu Love Gods (feat Warren Zevon), Pussy Riot, Pavement, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Pink Floyd, MGMT, Damon Albarn....

This was a playlist for my iPod I've been tweaking for a week or so... and it turns out to be absolutely perfect - a blend of the coolest songs out now, along with a few classics....

Listen and weep...

Perhaps the best album this year that no one's heard, One Fast Move or I'm Gone, Jay Farrar's soundtrack for the film of Jack Kerouac's novel "Big Sur"... Ben Gibbard, of Death Cab and The Postal Service, helps out on a few tracks, but it is mostly a Jay Farrar affair.

The Hold Steady have a new album coming out, as well as a new covers EP... and I also threw on their cover of the Game of Thrones song The Bear and The Maiden Fair from last season.

Sun Kil Moon is a vehicle for singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek (ex-Red House Painters). I may be late to the party that declared him a genius, but I will forever grateful to Yousef Hanlati, of the excellent Portland-based blog/podcast Faces on the Radio, which you can find here: http://facesontheradio.com/
for turning me on to the brilliance of the new album Benji. Myself being of the same (Lost) Generation as Mr. Kozelek, I "get" his references only too well. He is a fucking genius. Check him out (see below).

Everyone who knows anything about indie rock already knows Stephen Malkmus (ex-Pavement) is a guitar genius. I put his new album with The Jicks Wigout at Jagbags on the playlist, along with a few select tracks by Pavement.

Oh shit, this playlist is full of geniuses (and I didn't even use iTunes Genius program to make it!)... and I'm gonna havta say that Mikal Cronin, best known as Ty Segall's bass player, but also the author of two excellent solo albums where he sings and plays guitar.

The new Black Lips album got a so-so review on Pitchfork, but I checked it out anyway, and it's pretty good! Sometimes I feel like Pitchfork makes their reviews way too personal and seem to savor tearing down golden calves (after having been involved extensively in the primary building-up of said calves) - their "thing" with M.I.A. has been particularly ridiculous... It's funny, it took me a listen or two to get into the new albums by Hold Steady, Jay Farrar, and Sun Kil Moon... but I liked the new Black Lips album right away... Decidedly garage-y and retro in sound, occasionally slipping into (delightful) bubble-garage, the songs are catchy and fun. a departure from the post-rock world music feel of their last album, and very listenable to-able do-able.



Here's The Hold Steady's The Bear & The Maiden Fair as used in Game of Thrones (spoilers if you're dumb enough to have not yet seen Season 3):



Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes from the new Sun Kil Moon album Benji....



Stephen Malkmus' new single Lariat...


and Malkmus doing Pavement's Harness Your Heart, Stairway To Heaven, and Beginning to See The Light....



Damon Albarn doing his Gorillaz classic Clint Eastwood at this year's SXSW Festival...


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