Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
I haven't listened to a Mogwai album since Happy Songs for Happy People--which was listening to significantly less than Mogwai Young Team (but more as a result of MYT's strengths than HPFHP's weaknesses)--but an album carrying this name and this album art (look at it) is a lot tougher to ignore than something with a silly looking eagle on it.
And maybe it's not as good as Young Team. And maybe it's not as loud and brutal as the title might imply (still bring earplugs to the show), but it is a solid album. More the most part, Mogwai make music that sounds like Mogwai; it's a fine thing, that. Here and there little memorable bits emerge (it was the 'Death Rays' synth noise that make me call it the best song I've heard in 2011. Only two days into the year, but still). Overall, then, Mogwai remains a post-rock-ish band who makes post-rock-ish albums.
Lil B - Angels Exodus
It's a mystery why this things ends up being nearly as listenable as it actually is. There's more to appreciate here than the astonishing horribleness of 2010's "ambient based freestyles" collection "Rain in England". But the tracks where B might just show evidence of becoming a competent MC are probably not the ones to show your friends. It's the "Life Zombies" (some sort of Resident Evil ode) you'll play for friends in the car. "1 Time" sounds like he's getting there, and "Vampires" might be one of B's best tracks to date, until he closes by doing his best Andy Samberg-"boiled-guuse" voice while exclaiming "don't let the vompires getchoo!" a few times. Choices are
Lil B - Free Music: The Complete Myspace Collection
This is a mixtape that collects all of the tracks Lil B uploaded to his various (uh, 120+) MySpace throughout 2009/2010. So, here's a 676 track, 40 hour long, 2.5 gigabyte collection that I spent more time cleaning out hard drive space than I've so far been able to stand sitting through a fraction of the thing. It's completely triumphant. It's a 0.0 and it's a 10.0. It's a testament to B's mission to be "based for life", but a totally indigestible one. The best we can hope for is to listen to a track here and there, understand and be glad this insane, unfiltered level of proliferation is over with.
Lil B - Red Flame (Devil Music Edition)
And finally, Lil B's first mixtape of 2011. Though the distinction seems a little silly, since both feature stolen beats and original McCarthy GarageBand creations. Either way, positivity seems to be the theme of this newest "rare music" collection, picking up where "Motivation" left off. Again, this trends away from the truly bizarre, but manages to end up something Lil B really never was before: sort of forgetful. His background track skipping and his claims at Red Flame (Devil Music Edition) being the most influential and prolific mixtape of all time are what gets remembered. With some three "albums" and who knows how many mixtapes on deck for the rest of the year, there's probably not much reason to worry.\
Tennis - Cape Dory
A band that sounds like another band making music for a different season. Tennis, Headlights, summer. But the reason I like Headlights, despite them probably being, objectively, sort of kind of dull, is because they sound like fall. It's not hard to hear the sounds of summer's exit in their little pop medleys. "So Much for the Afternoon" sounded like slipping into sleep as the sun began setting earlier even before Casiotone for the Painfully Alone made it undeniable on his remix.
Maybe Cape Dory will be a really nice album to play while sleepy once this snow melts for good. it's just a matter of remembering it until then.
Beans - End It All
More weirdo rap. But in the most opposite of ways compared to, say, oh, the Based God. While the Pretty Bitch sometimes seems like he doesn't always have enough (and not only content-wise; he sometimes just sort of stops), Beans' flow is unrelenting. He talk/raps through every inch of his fourth album (his first in the good company of anticon.), over beats sent in from all over (Four Tet, Tobacco, some dude from Interpol), sounding different but sounding pretty far from B's GarageBand compositions.
Listening to the 30 odd minutes of End It All, it's not hard to draw (MF)/DOOM comparisons. Music that is so obviously rap, but so far stylistically distanced from 99% of what is going on in the rest of the genre. And not always in an accessible, easy, or likable way. The allure is difficult to explain, but the album's length makes it easy enough to sit through a few times, even if you don't end up any closer to explaining the compulsion.
Braids - Native Speaker
"Feels-era Animal Collective with a girl singer". That description works, but kind of dodges a better one: that Braids also sounds a lot like the Brooklyn-based duo High Places. It's, again, a vocal thing. Mary Pearson sounds a lot like Braids' Katie Lee. And it's a watery loop thing. And it's "not a totally outstanding yet" thing. Native Speaker's standouts are almost always surrounded by fun-limiting droney nothingness sequences that work against the outstanding momentum tracks like "Lemonade" so effortlessly build.
soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Destroyer - Kaputt
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco
James Blake - s/t
The Decemberists - The King is Dead
Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
