Apologies for the belated posting of all the music and music-related things of the past week! In my defense, it was my birthday this week and I was having login issues for posting! Anyway, this time last year, I already had an album that I fell in love with on first listen and that was in heavy rotation for the rest of 2012 (Cloud Nothings’ Attack On Memory). I’m getting a little impatient for 2013, by which I mean I’m being ridiculous and have unrealistic expectations! That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any cool stuff you should listen to this week though! Here are a few of my fave releases from this week, click through the albums to listen to on Spotify.
Listen:
Ex Cops’ True Hallucinations is my favorite album this week. The three song punch of “Ken,” “James,” and “You Are A Lion, I Am A Lamb” definitely has something to do with it.
I first heard of Esben and the Witch from a Matador sampler a few years ago, I still find their gothic sound pretty enchanting.
“Minnewaska” is probably going to be one of my favorite songs of 2013. I wouldn’t doubt it if all of Widowspeak’s Almanac became a favorite too.
I really, really wanted to love Hilly Eye’s Reasons to Live. I mean, that is a pretty cool album title, and band leader and singer Amy Klein is one of the coolest musicians out there. Something about it just didn’t really catch. You should definitely check out “Animal” though.
This isn’t an album, but WNYC’s Soundcheck show has a cool feature on Mary Wells (AKA the Queen of Motown) and an interview with author Peter Benjaminson, the author of Mary Wells: The Tumultous Life of Motown’s First Superstar. Listen to it here.
Watch:
Iceage’s video for “Ectasy” is as dark and brooding as the song.
Did you know there’s a band called The Cast of Cheers? Now you do!
Read:
The Flaming Lips have a new album out in April.
The Thermals are reissuing their first three albums (which are all AMAZING) and are set for a new album later this year!
MTV Hive has an intriguing essay on race and music by Martin Douglas called “The Only Black Guy at the Indie Rock Show”. My favorite sentence is, “Couldn’t we safely assume the vast majority of people who regularly read this website have Screaming Females (or at least Screaming Trees) listed after Schoolboy Q in their iTunes libraries?”, and I’ll fully admit it’s because I love both Screaming Females and Schoolboy Q.
Random Nostalgia:
Let Lady Miss Kier and the boys of Deee-Lite entrance you with this classic earworm. You’re going to dance!