Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Album Of The Week: April 28th-May 4th, 2014


My Album Of The Week for the week off April 28th-May 4th, 2014:


MaLLy - The Colors Of Black

01. Child Of America
02. Two World
03. Innervisions
04. City Of Fear (w/Rapper Hooks)
05. Hold My Tongue (w/Slug & Rapper Hooks)
06. Machine Gun
07. Not Never...
08. All Of My Life (Part 2) (w/K.Raydio)
09. Everything Else But Me
10. One Million
11. A Long Day
12. Crimson
13. Grow This Way
14. To The Future
15. The Colors Of Black

This is the third time that I've had a MaLLy record as my Album Of The Week.  Back before I started writing up blog posts about my AOTW's I spent a week with MaLLy's breakout album The Last Great.... Then, back in November, I spent a week with Strange Rhythm, MaLLy's first collaboration with producer Last Word.  Now here we are in early spring and MaLLy's & Last Word are back with their first full-length collaboration.

The Last Great... was produced by The Sundance Kid and found MaLLy in a happier place.  He hadn't yet broke through here in the Twin Cities and, as such, that record found him enjoying the little things in life, staying upbeat among the day to day drudgery of being a hard working MC.

Strange Rhythm was only 8 songs, but it found MaLLy taking a different approach.  Whether it was his new found success or Last Word's more aggressive beats, MaLLy was an angrier man.  He spent most of that record celebrating his place in the the Twin Cities scene with a middle finger in the air.  It was a victory lap of sorts, but MaLLy seemed hellbent on letting anybody who had ever doubted him know just how far he had come.

Which brings us to The Colors Of Black.  As you can probably guess from the title, race plays a huge role in this record.  Last Word's beats remain dark & angry, which feeds MaLLy's new sense of discontent.  While he's no longer as consumed with sticking it to doubters, MaLLy's raps are now concerned with the experience of being a black man in America.  The injustices that he sees either as a third party or through his personal experience leave him both angry & exhausted.  With success, it seems, MaLLy no longer needs to find his peace of mind in the day to day successes of making songs and staying out of trouble.  With those battles squarely in the rear view mirror, he's turned his attention to the problems facing society at large, and he's none too happy with the lack of answers.

The Colors Of Black is the logical extension of MaLLy the artist, but more importantly, it's the logical extension of MaLLy the man.  It seems MaLLy's days of "windows down, radio up" songs have come to an end.  In it's place we have a man fuming at the world around him.

If you're interested in checking out the album I sincerely suggest you head over to Fifth Element and pick up a hard copy of the record.  It contains three bonus tracks ("Grow This Way," "To The Future," & "The Colors Of Black") that are unavailable on the download.  Plus, it's an excuse to take a walk & support Fifth Element.  That's a win/win.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Album Of The Week: April 21st-27th, 2014


My Album Of The Week for the week of April 21st-27th, 2014:


Oaks - Field Beat

01. All Mine
02. Dreaming Arrows
03. Field Beat
04. Clouds
05. Falls
06. Some Of Them Do

I'll be honest, I know pretty much nothing about Oaks.   I took a walk down to Extreme Noise last week to film a bit with Ryan for Newest Industry (a bit that was, sadly, lost when my memory card became full halfway through).  As I've mentioned before, I have a real weakness for checking out the "Local" section anytime I'm in a record store.  On a whim I picked up Field Beat because it was described as "shoegaze" and because it was only 6 songs long which, let's be honest, is the perfect length for a shoegaze record.

Thanks to the internet I've learned that Oaks consists of husband & wife duo Jim Kolles & Erica Krumm.  You may know Krumm as the lead singer/guitarist for the band Sharp Teeth or, if you're like me, you may not.

Field Beat is, I suppose, a shoegaze album.  There's loud, buzzsaw guitars that come in waves.  There's heavy basslines.  There's a drum machine.  All the "shoegaze" boxes are checked off.  Fortunately, Krumm's vocals elevate the whole record, coming through clear and with a minimum of effects.  If you subtracted a bit of the punk edge from BNLX or the electronics from Wiping Out Thousands you'd have Oaks.  The songs here are thorough, heavy, and consistently excellent (with the exception of "Some Of Them Do," which is just feedback).  Field Beat is just the kind of record I hope to find when I go plunging into the "Local" section.

If you're so inclined, Field Beat is available as a "Name Your Price" download over at Oaks Bandcamp page. I strongly suggest that you be inclined.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Album Of The Week: April 14th-20th, 2014


My Album Of The Week for the week of April 14th-20th, 2014:


Edison - No Three Men Make A Tiger

01. Init.
02. If You're Going To Say Nothing, Say Yo A Few Times First
03. A Fortune Gone To Hashed Kids
04. I Don't Know Tim, I'm Not The Loudest Guy At The Fuck You Contest
05. Reporting Live From The Wellspring Of Opinions And Lost Buttons
06. The True Story Of Baron Vonfeedreader (w/Shannon Harney)
07. Think Occasionally Of The Uploading, Of Which You Spare Yourself The Sight
08. All The Starving Artists, Eating Their Own Hands
09. Waiting In Line To Meet Steve At The Crossroads, At Midnight
10. Make Noise Not Marketing
11. Pander Junkies
12. Don't Tell Us What We're Doing, We Don't Want To Know
13. The Disgusted Briefcase (w/Babel Fishh)
14. Alexander The Great Genre Switching Soulsuck
15. Eye Teeth And Egos

If you've been following the blog for a while you should already be pretty familiar with Edison.  I've written about him several times here and played him several times on the Flatbasset Radio podcast.  I wrote about his last album, No Sun No Food, last July when it was also an Album Of The Week.  The album was so great that it eventually took the crows as my most played album of 2013.

If you haven't been following along, here's the bullet points.  Edison is a beatmaker out of the Bay Area.  Up until No Sun No Food he was known for making beats that were dense, manic, and yet still melodic.  He switched up the game last year on No Sun No Food, making an exquisitely laid back album that was still clearly the work of the same artists.

So here we have No Three Men Make A Tiger.  I've only listened to it a couple of times, but I think it's safe to say that this is a middle ground between his manic earlier work and his new found sense of pacing.  It's a much harder, busier album than No Sun No Food, yet it no longer feels quite as busy.  Where his early albums felt like you were riding around in a taxi who's driver was mixing adderall & vodka, No Three Men Make A Tiger is a great strolling record.  No Sun No Food was a great strolling album as well, but that album felt like a summer stroll through the park.  No Three Men... has a darker edge to it.  Like strolling through that same park at 3 AM as a storm's blowing in to town.  Obviously I highly recommend it.

If you'd like to check it out it's available as a "Name Your Price" download on Edison's Bandcamp page.  Seriously, pick it up. Pick up No Sun No Food while you're at it.  And then, once you've grabbed those, follow this link to 900 Bats and pick up the Free Willy beat tape.  Then you'll be set for summer.

Songs Of The Week #86 & #87: TCDroogsma


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

No, Lost In The Trees, Trust, Gardens & Villa, Howler, The Drive-By Truckers, Tycho, Stone Jack Jones, Stepdad, & And The Professors...


Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #86 & #87!
 

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.


Unfortunately, MinneSarah is continuing her sabbatical this week. Without his co-reviewer, TCDroogsma got lazy and took a week off.  Fortunately, taking a week off from reviewing songs didn't mean taking a week off from listening to the songs. He's back this week & making up for lost time with a double-dose of reviews.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?


01. No - Leave The Door Wide Open (from the album El Prado)


 
TCDroogsma:

     Back in SOTW #15 MinneSarah & I reviewed No's single "What's Your Name?"  Both of us came to the conclusion that, while it was an OK song, it was basically a case of the sum of a bunch of other indie band's traits not adding up to an especially compelling whole.

     "Leave The Door Wide Open" still sounds like it's aping somebody else's sound, but fortunately the sound that it's aping is The Killers circa Sam's Town.  Singer Bradley Hanan Carter & Co. aim for a sweeping, epic sound and, for the most part, succeed.  Carter's lyrics, particularly, strike the tongue-in-cheek-tone that Brandon Flowers used to be able to nail in his sleep.  "We make some noise inside a room and call it art..." is, at different times in the song, delivered with nonchalance & passion, leaving the listener to wonder whether he's serious, super-serious, making a commentary on his band's commercial ambitions, or mocking the concept of pop music as art altogether.  No may or may not be finding their own sound (it's legitimately difficult to say), but until they do they'd be wise to keep crafting songs with hooks like this.

Final Score: 4/5

02. Lost In The Trees - Past Life (from the album Past Life)


 
TCDroogsma:

     Their must be something in the water in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Lost In The Trees is yet another band to come out of the college town to somehow strike the delicate balance between epic & personal, aiming for big ideas while providing just enough little flourishes to make it feel like you're hearing something in the song that nobody else hears.

     "Past Life" provides enough "indie rock 2014" signposts to leave the song sounding very much of the moment.  There's echoing vocals, keyboard pulses, and some nonsense about staircases, lover's eyes, and nature.  The real star of "Past Life," however, is the guitar work.  The band aims for hooks in just about every manner possible, but the lead guitar work provides the most memorable wrinkle.  The bouncing guitar figure that opens the song (and returns halfway through each verse) is light & catchy in a song that threatens to be bogged down by ideas.  When the riff is finally spun into a full-on solo at the end of the song it feels like everything that was holding the song together comes unraveled brilliantly.  There's a lot of very good ideas at work here and Lost In The Trees deserves credit for balancing them well.

Final Score: 3.5/5

03. Trust - Capitol (from the album Joyland)


 
TCDroogsma:

     "Capitol" is a peculiar track that grew on me over the course of the week.  The song opens with some garbled noise before giving way to a clear, catchy keyboard line.  That, however, gives way to Robert Alfons' mumbling, which then gives way to a clear, catchy chorus that somehow thrives on Alfrons' nasal delivery.  You see the pattern here?

     While "Capitol" is a frustrating song due to it's essentially non-existent verses, at its core it's a lesson in pop song structure.  The song ebbs & flows brilliantly (if predictably).  By letting the pieces fall apart during the verses, Alfons is able to make the chorus sound like a glorious payoff even if, in a vacuum, it wouldn't amount to much.  Alfons deserves a ton of credit for playing to his strengths to turn "Capitol" from a struggle to a single.

Final Score: 4/5

04. Gardens & Villa - Colony Glen (from the album Dunes)


 
TCDroogsma:

     Going over the lyrics to "Colony Glen," Gardens & Villa seem to paint a picture of a mutually-maintained secret that involves the murder at Colony Glen.  It's a curious subject, but they manage to pull it off reasonably well.

     Unfortunately, the lyrics are matched with a very "2014-by-the-numbers" synthesizer bounce that actively detracts from the devious lyrics.  The song is aching to breath, to give more weight to the lyrics, but in the end the can't (or won't) concede aiming for the instant pleasure of dance-pop to take the chance on something darker, more memorable, and potentially terrible.  It's a risk/reward proposition and Gardens & Villa played it safe.

Final Score: 2.5/5

05. Howler - Indictment (from the album World Of Joy)


 
TCDroogsma:

     I don't own a Howler album, and yet they just might be my favorite local band.  Everybody jumped on Jordan Gatesmith when he (justifiably) called on the Twin Cities music scene as insular, narcissistic, & thin-skinned.  He was right on all accounts and the fact that he was deemed a pariah by the local music "press" essentially proved his point.

     However, none of that would matter much if he & his bands didn't have the tunes to back up their smartass remarks.  With "Indictment" as the lead single off their World Of Joy LP, it's pretty clear that they do.  The band works up a pretty straight-forward rave up while Gatesmith (who sounds like he spent his time between albums smoking filter-less Lucky Strikes) spits some early-20's lessons about not wasting your time on fading youth, pitching fits... really giving a shit about of the trivialities of young manhood.  It's hardly groundbreaking stuff, but the band bring enough snotty conviction to the track to remind you that there's no gimmick in rock music quite like youth.

Final Score: 4/5

06. The Drive-By Truckers - Pauline Hawkins (from the album English Oceans)


 
TCDroogsma:

     Despite the fact that I own three of their albums and have seen them live, I've never totally bought into what The Drive-By Truckers are selling.  I realize that it's ridiculous for a guy who's a huge fan of The Hold Steady to criticize a band for writing fictional narratives as songs, something about their old-timey Southern tales just fails to get me too enthused.

     "Pauline Hawkins" is a fine, harmless number that is unlikely to make believers of the non-believers.  Patterson Hood (who sounds more & more like Wayne Coyne everyday) fires some mean-spirited shots at a lover while the band works up their typical southern rock racket.  Frankly, the most telling description of "Pauline Hawkins" is also the most basic.  "Pauline Hawkins" is a new single from The Drive-By Truckers.  You don't really need any more information than that to have a good idea of what it sounds like.

Final Score: 2.5/5

07. Tycho - Awake (from the album Awake)


 
TCDroogsma:

     Tycho is the working name of Scott Hansen, a musician & photographer out of San Francisco.  He's also an artist who frequently turns up on my "suggested artists" list on Last.fm and is being played frequently by my Last.fm friends.  I was kind of excited to see what all the fuss is about.

     "Awake" is a a fine instrumental song that is difficult to place.  It's built mainly on some smooth electric guitar work with a canvas of ambient keyboards underneath.  Hansen works up a pleasant, inconsequential sound that's less club-friendly and more Volkswagen commercial.  It's sunny sound provides pleasant background noise but not much else.  Hansen seems to understand that it's hard to make a grand statement in a song without lyrics and, as such, just aims for something pleasant and harmless.

Final Score: 3.5/5

08. Stone Jack Jones - Jackson (from the album Ancestor)


 
TCDroogsma:

     I don't know much of anything about Stone Jack Jones and it seems neither does the rest of the internet.  He's from West Virginia.  He was unable to serve during the Vietnam War due to bouts with epilepsy.  He released an album back in the 2006, relocated to Nashville, and returned in 2014 with Ancestor.  Also, he can ride a horse.

     "Jackson" is a delightfully off-kilter song that, while owing something to the old Nashville country sound, remains rough around the edges.  Jones recounts a searching Jackson for a lost love, but meanders into descriptions of the townfolk, the sky, & the corn along the way.  He sounds like a man who knows what he wants (or, rather, knows what he doesn't, which is to "lose you"), but he also sounds like a man who's spent enough time in his life looking that he's not going to waste his time.  By the end of the song Jones has found a glass of whiskey rather than his lost love. The cycle begins again.

Final Score: 2.5/5

09. Stepdad - Running (Does That Mean You Care?) (from the EP Strange Tonight)


 
TCDroogsma:

     One of the most difficult things a musician can accomplish in 2014 is writing a synth-based song that stands out from the crowd.  Stepdad accepted that challenge and very nearly pulls it off.

     "Running (Does That Mean You Care?" pulses along predictably, but becomes memorable thanks to a good old-fashioned sped-up sample that sounds like Kanye West remixing an old Cut/Copy track.  Singer Ultramark fashions a world-beating hook out of the chorus, giving the song more personality than a sample every could.  Stepdad's aiming to be the kind of a the well-populated synth-pop hill and with "Running" they've staked their claim.

Final Score: 3.5/5

10. And The Professors - Turn-Of-The-Century Recycling Blues (from the album Our Postmortem)


 
TCDroogsma:

     I spent a whole week with "Turn-Of-The-Century Recycling Blues" before realizing Adam Levy of The Honeydogs was the man behind the song.  Suddenly, this well-crafted, expertly executed pop song made a lot more sense.

     I'm sure Levy has no desire to read about his full-time band in relation to this one, but it's difficult to make the distinction.  Frankly, he should probably consider it a compliment that he's been crafting pop songs with such consistency that it doesn't matter what he calls the band he's fronting.  "Turn-Of-The-Century Recycling Blues" finds levy & company going full McCartney, bouncing along on percussive piano, swooping strings, & group harmonies.  The song's texture is rich & pleasant while it's lyrics, which recount the World's Fair, appeasing Hitler, & the Dust Bowl.  I barely understand what Levy's getting at, but it doesn't really matter.  If you like pop music you'll love this one.

Final Score: 4/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Two week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.





For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio






For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Yeah, I called you fat, look at me I'm skinny...


Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35!
 
For those of you who are unaware of the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it right here on the website for free to stream and/or download!


In this week's episode TCDroogsma is flying solo from Planet New Basset yet again.  In the process of trying to get his podcast game "back on track" he's feeling extra "saucy" because of the warm weather, celebrating the anniversary of one of independent hip-hop's great albums, buying CD's on Amazon for a penny, lamenting the 20 year anniversary of a generational icon, celebrating Rex Manning Day, anticipates a summer of Rhymesayers, finds himself coming around on a couple artists he didn't care for, (yet again) mispronounces a band's name, explains why St. Vincent is one of his "desert island" artists, vows to get MinneSarah back into the fold for next week's show, and discusses the song that best embodies old Modest Mouse & new Modest Mouse!

You can download the podcast for free by clicking the episode's title or stream the episode by clicking on the Mixcloud player below.

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35




01. Superchunk - Precision Auto
02. Madvillain - Money Folder
03. Nirvana - Lithium (Solo Demo)
04. Chance The Rapper - Acid Rain
05. Evan Dando - The Ballad Of El Goodo
06. Blueprint - Respect The Architect
07. CFCF - Lorraine
08. No - Leave The Door Wide Open
09. Straya - Chronologies
10. The Hood Internet - Digital Humpty
11. The Church - Under The Milky Way
12. Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty

There you have it, music fans!  Enjoy!




For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are archived on his Mixcloud page.  Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.    

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Album Of The Week: April 7th-13th, 2014


My Album Of The Week for the week of April 7th-13th, 2014:


Rogue Valley - Crater Lake

01. The Warming Moon
02. Red River Of The North
03. English Ivy
04. I-5 Love Affair
05. Hummingbird
06. Crater Lake
07. Rope Swing Over Rogue Valley
08. Ursa Minor
09. The Occidental Hotel
10. The Planting Moon
11. Slack Water
12. El-Ay


One of the longest and most deeply held traditions here at Flatbasset Radio is to be almost comically late to new music.  Spending the week with Rogue Valley's Crater Lake is merely the latest example of me finally getting around to something I probably should have checked out years ago.

Most of you are probably already familiar with Rogue Valley.  Back in 2010, local luminary Chris Koza decided to abandon his solo moniker for a year and create the band Rogue Valley.  They went into speed recording mode and cranked out four albums over the course of a single year.  The idea behind Rogue Valley was to put out one album for each season.  That's a lot of meticulous, pop-folk music.

(Check out "Red River Of The North" to find out just what I mean by "meticulous pop-folk.")


Well, now that yet another difficult winter seems to be finally giving way to spring (knocks on every piece of wood in apartment), I thought I'd beginning working my way through the Rogue Valley collection by listening to Crater Lake, the album they created for spring.  Much to my surprise, when I went to Rogue Valley's Bandcamp page, I found that each of these four albums is available as a "Pay What You Want" download.  As such, I intend to spend the first week of each season (roughly) with each of these four albums.  Rogue Valley is going to have a pretty dominant 2014 here at Planet New Basset.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Songs Of The Week #85: TCDroogsma


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Sylvan Esso, Tinariwen, Sally Seltmann, Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes, & K.Raydio & Psymun...


Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #85!
 

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.


Unfortunately, this week MinneSarah took the week off due to what could kindly be called "Current-based fatigue."  Trust us, her words were considerably more harsh.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?


01. Sylvan Esso - Coffee (from the single Coffee/Dress)


 
TCDroogsma:

     As mentioned up above, MinneSarah is not joining me this week.  We traded text messages earlier this week and she told me that she just didn't have the energy or the patience this week to slog through another batch of Current songs.  I could definitely understand.  If you didn't read last week's reviews, I hit a similar wall with that Yellow Ostrich song.  Spending years with these SOTD tracks has taught me that, more often than not, you're just going to get stuck with very, very average music that aligns with The Current's definition of "relevant" or "trendy."  As such, you have to sift through a lot of sound-of-the-moment bullshit to find the gems.

     Why do I bring all of this up?  Because "Coffee" is just such a gem.  Sylvan Esso is a collaboration between vocalist Amelia Meath of The Mountain Men & producer Nick Sanborn aka Made Of Oak.  On "Coffee," Sanborn works up lovely, synth-heavy canvas for Meath's vocals.  His production hinges on keyboads that create a backdrop for crystal clear plinks, plunks, & percussion.  It's a brilliantly laid back production that perfectly matches Meath's matter-of-fact vocals.

     Meath, in turn, puts together a stellar performance, painting a picture of falling in love from the perspective of somebody who's probably fallen in love a few too many times.  Her vocals are weary, yet hopeful.  When she pulls out the tired hip-hop trope of , "Get up, get down.. get up, get down..." it's tellingly delivered as old news, yet, obviously, always a crowd pleaser.  "Coffee" ebbs & flows brilliantly, with both members of Sylvan Esso sounding absolutely essential. 

Final Score: 4/5

02. Tinariwen - Chaghaybou (from the album Chaghaybou)




TCDroogsma:

     This is Tinariwen's second appearance as a SOTD track.  Their first, a song called "Tenere Taqhim Tossam" was a peculiar song that found success by mixing in airy vocals and guitar work that left plenty of room to breathe.  They caught a nice groove and rode it for over 4:00.

     "Chaghaybou," unfortunately, brings none of that subtlety to the table.  The guitar work on this song is similar to "Tenere Taqhim Tossam," however it's significantly more claustrophobic than before.  Lyrically, not a word is sung in English.  While it's completely unfair to criticize a band from Mali for not singing in English, that doesn't change the fact that songs I can't understand do not appeal to me.  Were "Chaghaybou" an even mildly interesting song, I could understand its appearance as an SOTD track.  However, it's not.  Frankly, the fact that The Current is pushing a 30 year old band from Saharan Africa reeks of the kind of, "They're great, you've probably never heard of them..." music snobbery that pervades just about everything The Current does these days. 

Final Score: 1.5/5

03. Sally Seltmann - Seed Of Doubt (from the album Hey Daydreamer)




TCDroogsma:

     You may know Australian singer-songwriter-producer Sally Seltmann better by her former stage name New Buffalo.  Or, if you're like me, you may not.  No matter.  "Seed Of Doubt" is lovely, if somewhat cliche-riddled song.

     As I've mentioned many times before in these reviews, sometimes sequencing is everything.  I spent the week listening to Sally Seltmann's middle-of-the-road piano-pop immediately after that pointless Tinariwen song.  As such, it's familiarly warm hooks and lyrics of relationship confusion felt like putting on a warm, familiar sweater.  Seltmann's vocals are clear & pretty.  When she sings, simply & plaintively, "I love you, I love you, I love you-ooh..." in the last 30 seconds of the song, it's delivered with such little pretension that it's difficult not to become immediately smitten with Seltmann.  Sure, "Seed Of Doubt" sounds like it was meant for the next Cities 97 compilation, but so what?  Great pop is great pop.

Final Score: 3.5/5

04. Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes - Sun Goes Out (from the album Kid Tiger)




TCDroogsma:

     Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes is a Nashville-based band, however, Mr. Ellsworth hails from the Land Of 10,000 Lakes (many of which are great, though only one is labeled as such).

     "Sun Goes Out" actually sounds exactly like a Minnesota boy leading a Nashville band.  The hooks are sharp, but the performance is loose & open.  Lyrics like "I don't know why we fight just to get along..." sound like they're coming from a man who knows the true definition of "Minnesota Nice."  The song remains sunny as the band builds to a rock n roll chorus and finally explodes with an odd, wordless group vocal bridge.  While not a particularly memorable song, "Sun Goes Out" is a pleasantly familiar four and half minutes that takes small risks & yields small rewards.

Final Score: 2.5/5

05. K.Raydio & Psymun - Joyride (from the album LucidDreamingSkylines)




TCDroogsma:

     I was very excited to see a new single from K.Raydio & Psymun in this week's batch of songs.  If you're a frequent reader of SOTW, you should already be familiar with K.Raydio's voice from MaLLy's "Good One" & Homeless' "Get Gone."  If you're a frequent reader of my Flatbasset blog or listener of my Flatbasset Radio podcast, you may know that I spent the first week of February with Psymun's excellent Heartsick as my Album Of The Week and played their single "Jupiter" on Flatbasset Radio: Episode #24.

     So, for better or worse, I'm already exceedingly familiar with K.Raydio & Psymun's sound.  That said, "Joyride" does not disappoint.  Psymun builds one of his brilliantly off-kilter beats around percussion that drifts from speaker to speaker, a twinkling keyboard figure, and saxophone bursts.  As is typically the case with Psymun, the beat aims for the stars and hits the mark (even the inherently risky use of saxophone pays off big time).

     It should be noted, however, that for 2:50 seconds of the 3:12 song, the beat doesn't really go anywhere.  It doesn't push or pull or really have any say in the song's hook.  As such, K.Raydio (who's voice has proven so adept at selling hooks) is left to craft her own melody.  Fortunately, she's up to the task.  While she never crafts the kind of hook that will have you humming, she returns to the same melody enough times that the song maintains a structure.  While this sort of song could lend itself to vocal embellishment, she manages to keep her vocal flourishes strictly in the "tasteful" column.  Frankly, much like Sylvan Esso up above, K.Raydio & Psymun both bring their own ideas to "Joyride" and manage to compliment each other exquisitely.

Final Score: 4/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.





For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio






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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Most Played Albums: March '14


The 50 most played albums around Planet New Basset for the month of March, 2014:


(Larger picture indicates more plays)

01. The Ashtray Hearts - Old Numbers (85 plays)

02. The Miami Dolphins - Capri Sun (65 plays)

03. Mrs. - Cave (52 plays)

04. The Dust Brothers - Fight Club (49 plays)

05. MK Ultra - MK Ultra (47 plays)

06. Big Pauper - Beyond My Means (37 plays)

07. Sean Na Na - My Majesty (33 plays)

08. Medium Zach - Valued Input (33 plays)

09. Gladys Knight & The Pips - The Best Of Gladys Knight & The Pips (30 plays)

10. Flagland - Tireda Fightin (30 plays)

11. Superchunk - On The Mouth (28 plays)

12. Twin Graves - Walk In Circles (27 plays)

13. Radiohead - Pablo Honey (25 plays)

14. Damacha - Auspicious Clouds (25 plays)

15. De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising (24 plays)

16. Constantines - Shine A Light (24 plays)

17. Graham Coxon - The Sky Is Too High (23 plays)

18. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle (23 plays)

19. Marijuana Deathsquads - Oh My Sexy Lord (23 plays)

20. Sebadoh - III (22 plays)

21. The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads (22 plays)

22. Martin Devaney - Letters Never Sent (20 plays)

23. The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams (20 plays)

24. Cars & Trains - History Of The Night (20 plays)

25. Green Day - Nimrod (19 plays)

26. Metasota - Still Happy I'm Present (H.I.P. 2) (18 plays)

27. Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell, Pt. 1 (17 plays)

28. Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell, Pt. 2 (16 plays)

29. Jackpot, Tiger - Sweet & Savory (16 plays)

30. The Swell Season - Strict Joy (14 plays)

31. A-Plus - Think Tank (13 plays)

32. Lifetime - Lifetime (12 plays)

33. Heaven For Real - WANTON (12 plays)

34. Jonwayne - Cassette 3: Marion Morrison Mixtape (12 plays)

35. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (11 plays)

36. Human Kindness - You Are So Loud That I Want To Die (11 plays)

37. Lakutis - 3 Seashells (11 plays)

38. Lou Reed - Transformer (10 plays)

39. The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall (10 plays)

40. Cloud Becomes Your Hand - Doggy Paddle Tore Tape 2011 (10 plays)

41. WaMoo Papez - We Float (10 plays)

42. The Persian Leaps - Praise Elephants (10 plays)

43. Shlohmo & Jeremih - No More (10 plays)

44. Lovely Dark - Into The Roil (10 plays)

45. Blue Ruin - Demo (9 plays)

46. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (8 plays)

47. Paper Tiger - False Hopes (8 plays)

48. Damon Albarn - Live On BBC2 (7 plays)

49. Protomartyr - Under Cover Of Official Right (7 plays)

50. Tree - The @MCTree EP (7 plays)

All info via my Last.fm account
Photo via Don't Drink And Root