Songs I’ve Been Listening To (Week of 8/29)
All these songs I really love and feel blessed to have discovered this week. I’d rather share you with them in video form and not use my flattering vocabulary and descriptions. Yeah, I’ve put some short captions down there, but I’m really posting these as a quick way of sharing what I’ve been really liking over the past few days (in some cases, hours) without embellishment or any other distractions to keep you from watching, listening and making opinions yourself.
Grouper–”Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping”
This is a really beautiful song, and the string arrangements and muddy depths of the recordings remind me of compositions by the Microphones. This is an ambient track by incredible solo musician Liz Harris from Portland, who’s last album Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill was praised by critics and music fanatics alike as one of the best ambient-drone or electronica works of the 2000′s. Grouper experiments with treading the thin lines of noise as pain or pleasure, and the noise’s presence in her songs is often muffled and unfocused, sparse and shaded. Her music can be very dark, orchestral, acoustic, but sometimes electronic, using instruments such as looping pedals and keyboards. It always embodies a realm of lifelike qualities, reminiscent of natural sounds and phenomenons, while emotionally covering vast territories of the human condition. San Francisco people, Grouper play for free at Aquarius Records this Sunday, September 5th. 2pm, FREE AND ALL AGES (as we wish every show would be).
Hunx and His Punx–”Gimme Gimme Your Love”
Talk about original and spicy, following in the tradition of Weird Al Yankovic, San Francisco presents to the youtube-iverse their own brand of Charlie the Unicorn, Chocolate Rain, or even the cat massage lady: Hunx and His Punx! My new favorite music video sensations. And guess what, they happen to also be a real queercore local garage band! Double kudos! Yes, I’ve known their music being in on what’s new with San Francisco. Just didn’t know they were capable of making flat out awesome music videos. And for the record, this isn’t a parody. Hunx and his Punx want to be taken seriously. We aren’t really living in Amish Paradise.
Kanye West, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, and Nicki Minaj–”Monster”; Kanye West, Raekwon, and Justin Bieber–”Runaway Love”
Kanye is back in habit. No, he isn’t “reborn” (false terminology) like Lil Wayne, or “recovered” (double air-quotes for that) like Eminem. Kanye is revamped and rejuvenated, getting back to using his ingenious production and recording skills, following the work ethics and creative persistence of those of dear departed Jay Reatard, or dear-when-will-you-be-released Lil Wayne (even though, I insist, neither of them are “Reborn”). Aside from Kanye being a superior entrepreneur, beat maker, public figure (not so much? well, we’re using this great new single to compensate), collaborator, lyricist, and just over all artistic and hip-hop leader, he’s now putting some added baggage on his heavy and ambitious agenda: to break the ever so compacted walls of the genres in our culturally segregated music industry. On “Monster”, we hear Justin Vernon of indie-folk outfit Bon Iver crooning while Rick Ross is aggressively jabbering, and on “Runaway Love” he’s weaving excellent juxtaposition and flow of the androgynous flavors of Justin Bieber directly segueing to Raekwon’s visceral and sharp gangster rap delivery and composition. Looks like Kayne is becoming closer and closer to becoming a professor. Cultural and genre-bending case studies, what’s next, Dr. West?
Nite Jewel–”What Did He Say”
Me and chillwave these days? I don’t know what’s up. Lo-fi girl bands (Grass Widow), ambient-drone (Grouper), Sufjan Stevens and chillwave (Washed Out) is pretty much my musical diet as of this past month. I discovered Nite Jewel when I heard she would be opening for Panda Bear at the Fox Theater this Monday, September 6th. I was hoping for their to be some knockout opener, maybe Pantha du Prince (hence the collaboration), Atlas Sound (hence the collaboration), Deakin (two Animal Collective members in one night), or all three? Instead we have Nite Jewel as the only opener. Nite Jewel is the moniker for solo musician Ramona Gonzalez of Los Angeles (chillwave central?). Unlike other bands in the chillwave circuit, Nite Jewel focuses more on dark 80′s synth gems, more similar to the vision of Neon Indian than Small Black. She is also more of a rarity, she hasn’t been rabidly caught by Pitchfork’s chillwave syndrome. But she has by mine. “What Did He Say” is definitely a synth gem of a song, only it’s not the 80′s. It’s hers, and it’s flavorful, soulful, groovy, and everything you could want in a slow and zoned out “chillwave” (word count for this word in this paragraph?) track. In this video, Nite Jewel collaborates with someone, who, in fact, lays on the floor, fiddling and fucking around with pedals I believe?
And, a surprise…
The She’s–”You’re Gone” (NEW)
I have another exclusive Subconscious only She’s treat for you guys: yes, another video. Only, it’s recorded live. This was my first time hearing the She’s perform electric (I heard about twenty five minutes of their hour long acoustic set at the Noe Valley Farmer’s Market in April) and their set countered just about every production quarrel I had with the new singles! The She’s are great live performers, have really really beautiful equipment, and they know their instruments. They know how to move a crowd, whether it’s little kids, moms or grannies (which was their only audience here, unfortunately). I was really blown away with their live presence, and I wish it’s sound and energy could be translated in the studio in a more raw and loose form. They even extended “Surfer Boys” with a two minute jam, and on one of their earlier songs (“No Can Do”) guitarist Eva Treadway had a mini-guitar spasm, with manual calibration and technique physically similar to that of Annie Clark. This song right here is a new song, which they literally finished writing the night before. I think it’s their best song to date, live or recorded (it hasn’t been yet). It’s got harmonies that remind me of Grass Widow, it’s got melodies that are sweet and sunny, but aren’t over-comforting. It’s everything you’d want in a She’s song, a perfect balance of grit and sunshine, and along with it’s familiarities, it shows growth and new territory.
UPDATE: 9.2.10
This is all you need to know. Go.
