XPN2 Playlist, 7/30/12

6:00

The Rosebuds, "Woods"

Loud Planes Fly Low

Burning Hearts, "Into the Wilderness"

Extinctions

.

DIIV, "Sometime"

Oshin

Faces on Film, "Knot in the Vine"

Some Weather

Massive Attack, "Karmacoma"

Protection

Fear of Music, "Actor/Actress"

Actor/Actress

Metric, "Synthetica"

Synthetica

.

Purity Ring, "Lofticries"

Shrines

The Raveonettes, "She Owns the Streets"

Observator

Toro Y Moi, "New Beat"

Underneath the Pine

A Flock of Seagulls, "I Ran (So Far Away)"

A Flock of Seagulls 

Eternal Summers, "Girls in the City"

Correct Behavior

.

Royal Shoals, "Started Dancing"

Dirty Water

Guided by Voices, "On the Tundra"

Propeller

Bridge Underwater, "So What"

So What (Single)

 Google image result #22 for "So What." So I threw a half-

decomposing corpse in the trash in the middle of a zombie 

apocalypse. No biggie, right?

7:00

Two Door Cinema Club, "Sleep Alone"

Beacon

.

I Monster, "Lust for a Vampyr"

A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars

Gold Fields, "Treehouse (Gloves Remix)"

Gold Fields

Twin Shadow, "Run My Heart"

Confess

Dengue Fever, "Family Business"

Cannibal Courtship

Rachael Yamagata, "Starlight"

Chesapeake

.

Band of Horses, "Knock Knock"

Mirage Rock

Dum Dum Girls, "Bedroom Eyes"

Only in Dreams

The Soft Boys, "Underwater Moonlight"

Underwater Moonlight

A Band of Bees, "(This is for the) Better Days"

Octopus

.

Tiger Waves, "From the Start"

Don't Be Yourself

TV Girl, "Benny and the Jetts"

Benny and the Jetts

Best Coast, "Last Year"

The Only Place

Camera Obscura, "French Navy"

My Maudlin Career

.

Tennis, "Take Me Somewhere"

Cape Dory

Tune in again next week for more summer jamz, freshly-picked by yours truly.

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Music Video Mondays: Band of Horses are cool again maybe? + Django Django weirdness

Band of Horses are one of those groups who in recent years, I feel, have skated that thin line between indie rock vets and the next The Killers -- and this tune (from the band's forthcoming LP, Mirage Rock) doesn't do much towards asserting the former. (I feel like the band from Degrassi has a similar aesthetic.) Still, the video is pretty sweet, especially if you full-screen it and allow yourself to be sucked it:

"Knock Knock" appears on the record Mirage Rock, out September 17.

And if that wasn't trippy enough for you, Django Django get futuristic in this appropriately weird new vid for "Hail Bop."

"Hail Bop" appears on the record Django Django, out now.

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Best New Music: Purity Ring

Listening to Purity Ring makes me feel like I'm in another world -- a sparkling, hazy dream world, where melodies ricochet off mountaintops, and bodies flow into rivers of emotion.

...And photos flow into rivers of blurriness

On debut record Shrines, these feelings combine to form something lovely and transportive. Check out my full review at Phrequency, then get ready to spend your weekend swaddled in float-y layers.

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XPN2 Playlist, 7/23/12

6:00

Eternal Summers, "You Kill"

Correct Behavior

Comet Gain, "She Never Understood"

Réalistes

.

Mannequin Men, "What's Your Favorite Color?"

What's Your Favorite Color? (Single)

Call the Doctor, "Take It Out"

Hands Will Shake

Gentleman Jesse, "I'm Only Lonely"

Leaving Atlanta

Sleeping Bag, "Slime"

Sleeping Bag

Point Juncture, WA, "Violin Case"

Handsome Orders

.

Arc in Round, "One-Sided"

Arc in Round

Animal Kingdom, "Strange Attractor"

The Looking Away

Miike Snow, "Animal"

Miike Snow

Alt-J, "Breezeblocks"

An Awesome Wave

Railbird, feat. Sean Rowe & Sarah Barthel, "Jump Ship"

Jump Ship (Single)

.

MNDR, "Faster Horses"

Feed Me Diamonds

Work Drugs, "Pluto"

Absolute Bearing

Mark Adams, "Starlight Dancing"

Starlight Dancing (Single)

Phoenix, "1901"

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

 Google image result #1 for "1901." Seems about right.

7:00

Sweet Valley, "Total Carnage"

Stay Calm

 .

Freelance Whales, "Locked Out"

Diluvia

The Dust Engineers, "Jake Spoon"

Bail

Los Campesinos, "Straight in at 101"

Romance Is Boring

Arctic Monkeys, "Florescent Adolescent"

Favourite Worst Nightmare

La Sera, "Break My Heart"

Sees the Light

.

The xx, "Angels"

Coexist

Animal Collective, "Honeycomb"

Honeycomb / Gotham

Modern Rivals, "Defenestrate You"

Sea Legs

The Very Best, feat. Seye Adelekan, "Kondaine"

MTMTMK

Y La Bamba, "Squawk"

Court the Storm

.

Nomen Novum, "Millenials" 

If You Look for It, It's There

Yeasayer, "Ambling Alp"

Odd Blood

Local Natives, "Wide Eyes"

Gorilla Manor

The Kooks, "Eskimo Kiss"

Junk of the Heart

.

Kennedy, feat. Yelle, "John & Yoko"

Life Is a Party

Tune in again next week for more sweet summer jamz.

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Instagram Round-Up: These live bands rule, yo

I'm constantly posting my Instagram photos to Twitter -- but for those of you who perhaps don't check it as obsessively as I do, here are some of my fave "live action" shots from the past month.

 

Lee Ranaldo Band at XPoNential Music Fest, 7/21.
He regaled us with tales of youthful debauchery + life in
 Manhattan. Lee Ranaldo will always be cool.

Lower Dens at XPoNential Music Fest, 7/21.
The fuzzy photo quality mimics the band's fuzzed-out sound
(/I was far away from the stage. Whatevs.)

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Morgan's Pier, 7/14.
Can you feel the teen angst?

The Bastards of Fate at Teri (S. Philly), 7/13.
Front man Doug Cheatwood is a maniac-genius.

Tanlines at Bamboo Bar, 7/3.
I was drunk, which is why this photo is so out-of-focus.
Rad-B-Q!!!

Japandroids at Johnny Brenda's, 6/29.
It was about 100000 degrees in here, and everyone was
dripping with sweat. Did that stop the raging? HELL NO!

Whoops, this isn't a band; it's a picture of my kitten, Isabelle.
How did that get in there?

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Best New Music: Eternal Summers

Roanoke, VA's Eternal Summers are one of those bands I feel like I could totally be friends with, even though we've never met. Rather, I make this statement based only on the band's social media presence (droid attack anyone?), and kick-ass tunes, which seem perfectly crafted for a generation weaned on teen angst + basement ragers, but with a soft spot for pop.

other soft spots: butterfly masks, necklaces made from teeth

On sophomore record Correct Behavior the band combines all these forces (angst, raging + pppppop) into a venerable collection of tunes -- that reels you in with its energy, then forces you to get introspective. Check out my full review over at Phrequency, and learn how you can stream the entire record now for free. Sleeper hit of 2012!

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XPN2 Playlist, 7/16/12

6:00

The Soft Pack, "Saratoga"

Strapped

Vintage Kicks, "Bad News Broski"

Math + Science

.

Ty Segall Band, "I Bought My Eyes"

Slaughterhouse

Echo Orbiter, "Popping Pills to Keep the Night Alive"

Aerosol Power

King Tuff, "Hit & Run"

King Tuff

Bare Wires, "Cheap Perfume"

Cheap Perfume

Wax Idols, "Gold Sneakers"

No Future

.

The Dogs, "A Decent Warning"

Camping

Jaill, "Perfect Ten"

Traps

JEFF the Brotherhood, "Sixpack"

Hypnotic Nights

Crocodiles, "Endless Flowers"

Endless Flowers

Tame Impala, "Apocalypse Dreams"

Lonerism

.

Dirty Projectors, "About to Die"

Swing Lo Magellan

The Bastards of Fate, "Huge Magic"

Who's a Fuzzy Buddy?

Dinosaur Feathers, "Young Bucks"

Whistle Tips

Dom, "Family of Love"

Dom

 Google image result #4 for "Family of Love." Not sure what's going on

 here, but pretty sure this isn't your typical "family of love."  Perhaps

 "family of Big Love" is more approp. Or maybe they're just cousins.

7:00

Django Django, "Hail Bop"

Django Django

.    

Sun Airway, "Close"

Soft Fall

JJAMZ, "Suicide Pact"

Suicide Pact

Blur, "Under the Westway"

Under the Westway (Single)

Duke Special, "Flesh and Blood Dance"

I Never Thought This Day Would Come

.

Magic Wands, "Black Magic"

Aloha Moon

John Maus, "Head for the Country"

We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

Hot as Sun, "Come Come"

Hot as Sun

Pictureplane, "Post Physical"

Thee Physical

Passion Pit, "Constant Conversations"

Gossamer

.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, "Only in my Dreams"

Mature Themes

Girls, "Honey Bunny"

Father, Son, Holy Ghost

The School, "Never Thought I'd See the Day"

Reading Too Much Into Things, Like Everything

Romans, "Mystery Girl"

Mystery Girl (Single)

Japandroids, "The House That Heaven Built"

Celebration Rock

.

Cloud Nothings, "Stay Useless"

Attack on Memory

Tune in again next week for more cool jamz for hot weather.

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Music Video Mondays: Creepy Consciousness

Summer heat making you cray-cray? (Oh god, even I hate how I sound when I say that.) Last week's best vids were all about twisted realities, from the creepy to the campy. First up: West coast rockers Crocodiles, whose new vid for "Endless Flowers" asks the burning question: what if AFTER everyone forgot Molly Ringwald's birthday, she got really, really high and ripped out her crush's face?

Next up: Purity Ring discover a portal bed, which leads to a mystical world. I too have a portal bed, which leads me to the mystical world of Dreams.

And finally: Laser Background get trippy, in this Stepford-esque vision of "Weird Conscience:"

"Endless Flowers" appears on the record of the same name, out now. "Fineshrine" appears on the record Shrines, out July 24. "Weird Conscience" appears on the Laser Background EP, available as a free download at Bandcamp.

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Local Radar: Echo Orbiter

Philly band Echo Orbiter has been kicking around for over a decade now, and boasts more than 30 releases of poppy, jangly lo-fi -- a trait I can't help but associate with another famously prolific band. 

EO, totes nonchalant

Yes, much like the great master Pollard himself, E.O. display a penchant for wordy lyrics + feel-good, Beatles-esque melodies, as their new, 12-song EP Aerosol Power (practically a full-length, i.m.h.o.) makes clear. From the pumping, life-affirming chorus of opener "Stars from A to Z" to the cheery energy and harmonies of "Popping Pills to Keep the Night Alive" -- and the yearning and smart counterpoint of closer "Boom Goes the Barnstormer Bandit" (did I mention the GBV-ishness of the song titles?), Power manages to pack a punch, while still feeling effortless. This is how every garage rock band WISHES they could sound, but rarely achieves. Add to your list of "Essential Summer Listening."

Aerosol Power is out now; download the entire thing for free via Bandcamp, then catch the band live during their record release party this Saturday, July 14, at Kung Fu Necktie.

Previously on Local Radar: Vintage Kicks. (See all "Local Radar" posts here.)

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Best New Music: The Dirty Projectors

What a wild ride it's been for Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors -- the capricious basement rockers-turned P'fork sweethearts-turned -- on their glorious 6th LP -- the type of band that that basement rockers AND P'fork writers (and the greater music world in general) can agree upon.

something else we can all agree on: ear-flap hats. Man

 are those awesome

On Swing Lo Magellan, the 5-piece hits its stride, with a stunning collective of tunes bursting with creativity and emotion. From the indulgent, '60s soul grooves on "Gun Has No Trigger" to the sweeping strings (and romanticism) of "Dance With Me," this is a record that draws you, then makes you feel -- something DP hasn't done in a long time. Check out my full review over at Phrequency.com, and get ready to revel in the new Projectors.

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XPN2 Playlist, 7/9/12

6:00

Lightning Love, "Deadbeat"

Girls Who Look Like Me

Divine Fits, "My Love Is Real"

A Thing Called Divine Fits

.

DIIV, "Doused"

Oshin

Holy Ghost!, "Wait and See"

Holy Ghost!

Hot Chip, "How Do You Do?"

In Our Heads

Lykke Li, "Get Some"

Wounded Rhymes

The Naked and Famous, "Young Blood"

Passive You, Aggressive Me

.

CocoRosie, "We Are on Fire"

We Are on Fire / Tearz for Animals (7")

School of Seven Bells, "Scavenger"

Ghostory

Bonde do Rolê, "Kilo (Turbotito Reggae Party Remix)"

Kilo (Single)

The Very Best, feat. Ezra Koenig, "Warm Heart of Africa"

Warm Heart of Africa

The Dirty Projectors, "Dance for You"

Swing Lo Magellan

.

Solid Space, "Radio France"

Space Museum

Jamestown Massacre, "Summer Sun"

Summer Sun (Single)

Spectrals, "Doing Time"

Bad Penny

 Google image result #1 for "Bad Penny." 

Thank you, internet

7:00

Lily Allen, "LDN"

Alright, Still...

The School, "Is It True?"

Loveless Unbeliever

.

Echo Orbiter, "Stars From A to Z"

Aerosol Power

Reading Rainbow, "Always on My Mind"

Prism Eyes

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, "Belong"

Belong

King Tuff, "Alone and Stoned"

King Tuff

.

Thee Oh Sees, "Lupine Dominus"

Putrifiers II

Lilys, "Who Is Moving"

Better Can't Make Your Life Better

Milk Maid, "Dopamine"

Mostly No

Girls Names, "When You Cry"

Dead to Me

The Hot Toddies, "Boys on Bikes"

Get Your Heart On

.

David Byrne and St. Vincent, "Who"

Love This Giant

Lovett, "Heartattack"

Highway Collection

The Go! Team, "Grip Like a Vice"

Proof of Youth

Foals, "Total Life Forever"

Total Life Forever

The Vaccines, "No Hope"

The Vaccines Come of Age

.

Yukon Blonde, "Stairway"

Tiger Talk

Tune in again next week for more fresh jamz.

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Music Video Mondays: Jaill

I've been digging the scrappy, Pollard-esque vibes of Jaill's new record, Traps -- and this vid (for single "Perfect Ten") rules because it pays tribute to and pokes fun at the long, jangle-pop legacy the band is a part of. 

"For those of a certain age, liking the kind of music Jaill make -- alternately classified as power-pop or jangle-pop -- was once a golden ticket to coolness, if you got in with the right crowd," writes P'fork's Eric Harvey, in the opening lines of his Traps review. Then again, what is coolness but an arbitrary (and often ridiculous) set of rules and clothing decisions? Exhibit:

How does the "Distinguished Citizen's Club" differ from modern hipsters? Well for one, the hipsters I know definitely prefer PBR as their pizza-dipping sauce. The neon saturation level seem right on point though.

"Perfect Ten" appears on the record Traps, out now on Sub Pop.

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XPN2 Playlist, 7/2/12

The Two-in-a-Row, All-American, Independence Day Show! 

6:00 

The Black Keys, “Lonely Boy” 

El Camino 

The Black Keys, “Gold on the Ceiling” 

El Camino 

. 

The Ramones, “Rock ‘n Roll High School” 

Road to Ruin 

The Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated” 

Road to Ruin 

Best Coast, “Crazy for You” 

Crazy for You 

Best Coast, “The Only Place” 

The Only Place” 

. 

Jaill, “There’s No Sky (Oh My My)” 

There’s No Sky (Oh My My) 

Jaill, “Waste a Lot of Things” 

Traps 

Guided by Voices, “Glad Girls” 

Isolation Drills 

Guided by Voices, “Class Clown Spots a UFO” 

Class Clown Spots a UFO 

. 

YACHT, “Utopia” 

Shangri La 

YACHT, “Dystopia” 

Shangri La 

LCD Soundsystem, “North American Scum” 

Sounds of Silver 

LCD Soundsystem, “Us v. Them” 

Sounds of Silver 

. 

Tom Tom Club, “Genius of Love” 

 Tom Tom Club 

Just in time for the 4th: your creepy bird of the week. You're welcome

7:00 

Tom Tom Club, “Under the Boardwalk” 

Tom Tom Club 

Dominant Legs, “Hoop of Love” 

Invitation 

Dominant Legs, “Take a Bow” 

Invitation 

. 

Yo La Tengo, “Periodically Double or Triple” 

Popular Songs 

Yo La Tengo, “If It’s True” 

Popular Songs 

The Velvet Underground, “Sunday Morning” 

The Velvet Underground & Nico 

The Velvet Underground, “I’m Waiting for the Man” 

The Velvet Underground & Nico 

. 

Tennis, “Marathon” 

Cape Dory 

Tennis, “Origins” 

Young and Old 

The Spinto Band, “Take It” 

Shy Pursuit 

The Spinto Band, “Summer Grof” 

Moonwink 

. 

The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” 

Do You Believe in Magic 

The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Do You Believe in Magic” 

Do You Believe in Magic 

The Four Tops, “It’s the Same Old Song” 

Four Tops’ Second Album 

The Four Tops, “Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” 

Four Tops’ Second Album 

. 

The Walkmen, “The Rat” 

Bows + Arrows 

The Walkmen, “Heaven” 

Heaven

Tune in again next week for more (non-themed) summer jamz! 

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