Neon Indian/Washed Out

I was recently reading Pitchfork's summary of the last decade in music, and stumbled upon a curious new trend/scene I had never heard about (scroll to "Summer"). I checked out two of the artists mentioned (Neon Indian and Washed Out) and one month later am still pretty stoked about the discovery: lo-fi, hazy, warm, melodic, nostalgic, electronic. Kind of reminds me of the feeling of sunshine on a crisp winter morning.

Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors can be confusing on first listen, the guitar melodies and yelping vocals seem almost haphazard, tripping over each other. But after a couple listens it totally gels and in my case became serious earworm material. "Temecula Sunrise" has some great lines about suburban lifestyle which I can totally relate to growing up in Southeast FL:

"I live on a strip beyond the dealership, yeah!"

"And what hits the spot, yeah, like gatorade? You and me baby"

Has anyone else had a gatorade recently that totally hit the spot? Sometimes it is absolutely the perfect relief. I started keeping a stash handy just for that reason -- it happens a lot here out in the desert air.

Sleigh Bells

Apparently this band, Sleigh Bells, got a lot of hype at CMJ. If you're listening, don't try to adjust the speakers, that's actually how they sound. The blown levels are an offense to the ears but also kind of endearing. I feel like this really captures a lo-fi ethic for the late aughts: Proudly emulating the way most of us hear music these days -- overcompressed mp3s blasting through tinny laptop speakers at max vol. The 90s had Malkmus' unpolished slacker slur and guitar noodling. Is this DIY in '09?

Uptown Baby

This blog hasn't happened in a while but no lame excuses, just gonna jump right in here.

I love these videos because they show what impossible perfectionists Steely Dan must have been to work with in a band/studio -- but damn did they make some amazing songs! One of my best New York moments this summer was finding a used vinyl copy of Aja (the album "Black Cow" is from) left on the street. I played it pretty much continuously when I first moved to Arizona and only had a turntable set up.

Steely Dan: making of The Black Cow