The song’s title always reminded me of Richie’s falcon Mordecai from The Royal Tenenbaums, and now we’ve got this video, whipped up by the ever present BANGS crew, that sports a rather hefty Wes Anderson aesthetic itself.
“Advanced Falconry” is from Mutual Benefit’s latest release, Love’s Crushing Diamond. Grab the vinyl from Other Music »
A soulful, minimal sleeper from UK duo Adult Jazz, taken from a debut and highly limited 12″ which you should order here »
Considering my discovery of Virginia fingerstyle guitarist Daniel Bachman is the sole result of the enthusiasm of Secret Mountains‘ Jeffrey Silverstein, it makes a sort of cosmic sense that their latest venture – a music journal/record club by the name of Singles Club features Daniel Bachman as their very first artist.
“Coming Home”, Bachman’s exclusive Singles Club track, is a bit of a slow burner. Bachman’s tracks have a tendency to build off a single melodic idea, steadily developing into complex but ever tuneful bits of instrumentalism and that’s exactly what happens here. Beginning with yawny reverberations, it plods forth sure and steady like the subtle creep of dawn sunlight. Languorous without lifelessness, “Coming Home” revels in its own sounds, content to let its note ring true along its plainsy sprawl.
If you fancy yourself a Daniel Bachman fan and/or want to own a series of exclusive 7″ from Bachman, Small Sur, Wisdom Tooth, and Woodsman, consider pre-ordering a quarterly subscription to Singles Club via their Kickstarter.
You might not be totally aware of it but chances are you’ve encountered Robert Earl Thomas before. Perhaps most recently as a member of folk-influence experimental pop outfit Vensaire but maybe even more famously as one half of the guitar duo that is Widowspeak. Well, it seems like laying down shreddy riffs in two rather eclectic sounding bands wasn’t enough for him as Thomas has a solo project up his sleeve. Enter Mustang. There’s not a whole lot of hullaboo being made about the project, and I wouldn’t really have found out about t if not for the promotion of Vensaire but Mustang is here and Mustang is wonderful.
Mustang’s “Little Bighorn” features Thomas in a new role as singer/songwriter flexing his smoky vocals over the track’s dusky, folk ramble. It’s minimalist and retro without trying to access the coolness of either of those things as some acts are wont to do. There’s a paltry psychedelic sheen and a climactic amount of fuzz but other than that it’s a rather straight forward plod down the old dusty trail. “Little Bighorn” is a slow-burner, reminiscent of vaqueros at high noon without any of the camp.
Here’s hoping Robert Earl Thomas isn’t too busy with his two bands to offer up some more Mustang jams and soon.
I thought Weezer was back on the rise when Wavves and Surfer Blood were getting over, but the truth is the Weezer aping wasn’t even a twinkle in Nathan Williams’ eye then compared to what’s up now. The churning of out-of-fashion music into a seemingly new, authentic subgenre usually occurs around two-three decades after its heyday, maybe a decade after it fell completely out of fashion. I think we can all agree that Weezer never stopped being fucking awesome, but nonetheless it has been quite a while, so let’s see what the millennial kids are up to today:
Let me hop off my high horse and tuck away my visual-impaired-assisted loudspeaker with the big buttons and labels for a few minutes. Okay, Porches., even with that stupid period at the end of your name throwing off my grammar game, “Townie Blunt Guts” is a God among Weezer-copping songs (see also, Happy Diving’s “Sincere”, as the equally excellent yet meta, self-reflexive of the two). Punchy power pop guitars and color-by-number vocal melodies were a Weezer staple, and Porches. do it about as good as anyone else I’ve heard, of course wrapped in stoner anthemics. “Townie Blunt Guts” is a bit of a backwards anthem for me (having gone to a private liberal arts college in a small, backwoods MA town), but it illuminates the plight of the townie in ways I hadn’t imagined.
Progressively nostalgic, retrospectively educational. The Porches. way. . . .
“Townie Blunt Guts” is from a split of like-minded bands via Bird Tapes. Buy it on coke bottle vinyl here »
