Desolation Wilderness - "White Light Strobing"
This album takes cues from both the folksy guitar of MMJ and the down-tempo ambient drone of MBV, combining them into a quiet, mostly sparse soundscape. This certainly might not be everyone's cup of tea - derivative, boring, whatever - but if you're looking for something warm, complex and mellow, give it a spin. (Also, dig up some records by Low and Galaxie 500 if you like this).
RIYD: My Morning Jacket, My Bloody Valentine, Low
Play: 1 (downbeat, twangy), 2 (hypnotic, folksy beat and dreamy vocals), 3 (more droney, excellent), 7 (shorter, instrumental), 8 (beautiful little electro flourishes)
Manchester Orchestra - "Let My Pride Be What's Left Behind" EP
Andy Hull (vocals, guitar) originally wanted MO to be a solo project. He was listening to a lot Morrissey and The Smiths so the city of Manchester fascinated him. Then he also liked the idea of being a leader of an orchestra and have his friends guest. Hence, Manchester Orchestra. Sounds like alt rock with Ben Gibbard vocals.
RIYD: Silversun Pickups, The Weakerthans
Play: 1, 3 (live, acoustic)
Noah And The Whale - "Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down"
Laura Marling & Emny The Great used to be a part of this London band before they went solo. But they still perform with the band here and there - backing female vocals here are Marling's. The band name is a combination of the movie title "The Squid and The Whale" and the director of the movie, Noah Baumbach. The band often sign emails and myspace posts with "Sic Transit Gloria," a phrase frequently used in Wes Anderson's "Rushmore."
RIYD: Pete and the Pirates, Laura Marling
Play: 7, 3, 2
Love Is All - "A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night"
Spaztastic avant-pop from Sweden - nice contrast between snarling female vocal delivery and dancey pop guitar lines/drumming. Sometimes anthemic, sometimes saxophone-fueled dance freakout, always a lot of fun.
RIYD: Shout Out Louds, CSS, Arctic Monkeys
Play: 1 (upbeat, dig the horns. spazzy), 2 (more sax, more spaz), 3 (rippin' guitar line), 5 (standout track, fucking rocks but watch the disclaim), 9 (another standout, catchy and anthemic), 10 (folk-ish, awesome female/male call-response)
CHARTS CHARTS CHARTS
Rank Artist Recording Label User Supplied Version
1 OF MONTREAL Skeletal Lamping Polyvinyl
2 CRYSTAL STILTS Alight Of Night Slumberland
3 VIVIAN GIRLS Vivian Girls In The Red
4 WOMEN Women Jagjaguwar
5 PARTS AND LABOR Receivers Jagjaguwar
6 ETTES Look At Life Again Soon Take Root
7 EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Heart On Downtown
8 RA RA RIOT The Rhumb Line Barsuk
9 SUBMARINES Honeysuckle Weeks Nettwerk
10 BEN FOLDS Way To Normal Epic
11 LOVE IS ALL A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night What's Your Rupture?
12 LENKA Lenka Epic
13 GANG GANG DANCE Saint Dymphna The Social Registry
14 GIANT SAND ProVISIONS Yep Roc
15 SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel Science Of Sound
16 ARMY NAVY Army Navy The Fever Zone
17 NOAH AND THE WHALE Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down Cherry Tree-Interscope
18 BOO AND BOO TOO No Tempo Ironpaw
19 MENAHAN STREET BAND Make The Road By Walking Daptone-Dunham
20 JAY REATARD Matador Singles '08 Matador
21 MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA Let My Pride Be [EP] Sony
22 PINK SPIDERS Sweat It Out Mean Buzz
23 CHAD VANGAALEN Soft Airplane SUB POP
24 TOBACCO Fucked Up Friends Anticon
25 GRAMPALL JOOKABOX Ropechain Asthmatic Kitty
26 ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS Another World [EP] Secretly Canadian
27 BEARS Simple Machinery Self-Released
28 BROKEN WEST Now Or Heaven Merge
29 WIRE Object 47 Pink Flag
30 UPCHUCK Gone But Not Forgiven Dadastic
And, as promised, (part of) the Sample 1996 interview with Neutral Milk Hotel:
Sample: How did you get together for the tour?
Jeff Mangum: Julian called me in New York and said, "Well, if you want to do a tour for the record, I can do it."
Julian Koster: [to Jeff] Why don't you start with Scott and how you guys grew up together and stuff?
Jeff: Well, you started the whole mess.
Julian: I said start with you two... chronologically.
Scott Spillane: I wasn't included in the band until the day before he left.
Julian: I thought she was more interested in where you came from... they used to be in a band called The Clay Bears together.
Jeff: I wasn't really planning on touring at all. I mean I hadn't really thought about it. It just seemed like getting a band together would be hard. I'm not really good at taking responsibility for everybody and calling up a bunch of people and saying "Hey, come on, come fuck up your life for me." But Julian sort of gave me the incentive to have the guts to do that. I knew Scott for six years in Louisiana. So I was on my way from Denver to New York, because his grandmother lives out there, and we were going to practice in her basement. Scott was living in his van in Austin, TX. He was sleeping in front of Gumby's Pizza Parlor, where he worked. And the night before I left it dawned on me that...
Scott: The night before he left he came in and it was 2:00 in the morning and he said "I just stopped by to say goodbye." Then we got hit by this big rush and I asked him to come help me make pizzas and he said "I don't know what to do." So he was slinging pizza juice around and then right before he left he said "Hey man, I just realized something. This job really sucks. So why don't you come with us," and I said okay.
Jeff: Yeah that would be it. And all he had was...
Scott: All I had was my guitar and my amp.
Jeff: I didn't even know that he could play horn or anything.
Sample: What exactly is the Elephant Six Recording Collective?
Jeff: It started out as a label and then now it's sort of a symbol for our friendship. I don't really have a definition for it. Everybody has their own little definition.
Julian: A family crest for a group of friends.
Sample: Does it involve other projects outside of music?
Julian: It does.
Jeff: We're probably going to end up living in a farmhouse somewhere.
Sample: Like a commune?
Jeff: Sort of, yeah. We all kind of want to just disappear.
::check back in the following weeks for further installments of the interview::
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