WOMEN: Sock Hop

MEN: Bean Bag

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• 01/06/08

  Animal Collective—Merriweather Post Pavilion Considering that the two songs that leaked from this album last month are some of the greatest pop music we have ever heard, the rest of the album could have been equally life-changing or a huge disappointment. We're happy to report that the rest of it is great as well. In fact, we have been listening to the album constantly for about a week straight. Armed with unforgettable pop hooks and mind-expanding electronic beats, Animal Collective deliver their most complete album to date.
  
  Wavves—Wavves As huge 90's nostalgists, we actually love that so many young bands are coming out with lo-fi tiny pop masterpieces. Wavves makes classic California rock music, filtered through punk rock and a whole  lot of distortion. The suburban slacker ennui is abundant, with songs like "So Bored," but who doesn't enjoy a little teenage angst from time to time?
  
  Here We Go Magic—Here We Go Magic Singer-songwriter Luke Temple's new home-recorded project is made up of his lovely voice, some great rhythms, and outdated synthesizers. The result is a fairly hypnotic mix that is somewhat reminiscent of Afro-pop. For such an off-the-cuff recording, the whole thing comes off as very polished and sure is fun to listen to.
  
  

• 12/11/08

  Mount Eerie—Lost Wisdom This is the first in a series of perfect winter albums during this Music update. We just got around to checking this album out and we have to say that we were very impressed. There's no use in waiting for Phil Elverum to release another album like The Glow, Pt. 2. Instead he continues to amass a growing body of work that is touching, lyrically complex, and unique in its combination of bleakness and warmth. It's a rare album that can pack in this much emotional impact in under 24 minutes.
  
  Fennesz—Black Sea Fennesz is perfect winter music because it can fade into the background or make you obsess over the smallest noises found in the mix. What has always set Fennesz apart from the mass of noisy laptop-wielders is that while most drone-based artists can be fully understood by listening to them for 5 seconds, Fennesz is an artist whose albums need to be heard in their entirety to be truly appreciated. Underneath all the buzzing and popping there are some of the most gorgeous melodies you'll ever hear.
  
  Neil Young—Sugar Mountain Live at Canterbury House 1968 We're not sure we'll ever get tired of the archival releases of Neil Young concerts that have come out the past few years. This one was recorded shortly after Young left Buffalo Springfield and the music is solo renditions of his songs with that group alongside some of his earliest solo compositions. It's hard to believe that the world-weary voice on this recording comes from a twenty-three year old Canadian. His career had barely begun and he already sounded like he'd seen it all.
  

• 11/25/08

  Nisennenmondai—Neji/Tori Nisennenmondai, whose name means Y2K virus in Japanese, is all-girl instrumental trio whose make hypnotic and propulsive rock music. Neji Tori is a repackaging of two of their EPs and marks their introduction to the American market. The group wears their post-punk influences on their sleeves—literally: their songs have names like Sonic Youth, Pop Group, and This Heat. We're not quite ready to put them in the pantheon of those artists but we will say that this is as auspicious a debut as any of those groups released.
  
  Kanye West—808s and Heartbreak We're predicting that this will be one of the most divisive records of the year. If you find yourself screaming every time you hear another pop song overusing the Autotune machine, this album is a sign that the End Times are nigh. If you like self-indulgent and possibly ill-advised artistic experiments, this might be the album for you. We find ourselves in the latter group, but still wondering if we love or hate this album half the time we listen to it. By the fifth listen we're convinced we love it, or at the very least that "Love Lockdown" is the best song of the year.
  
  Luomo—Convivial After the promise of his album Vocalcity, Luomo's subsequent releases have been somewhat underwhelming. For that reason our expectations were low for this album but we have to admit that this is a true return to form for Luomo. Collaborating with different vocalists on each track, this is great house music that never sounds repetitive or stagnant. With each listen, new subtle touches emerge, reminding us that when Luomo is on, he's really on.
  

• 11/10/08

  Deerhunter—Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. File this one under bands with an unfair amount of brilliance. Deerhunter's yet-to-be-released new album "Microcastle" leaked last year. Rather than fall into despair, the band just made all new material and released the results as an odd double album. The original album has dreamy, catchy pop songs that sound absolutely effortless. The second disc sounds like sketches of songs not yet fully formed—just enough to let you hear the idea but not enough to be considered "finished." Sometimes a sketch can say more than the completed portrait but here you get both and can decide for yourself which suits you best.
  
  Moggs—Amulat EP This limited edition record and digital download is the second release from Petaluma, CA's Moggs. Moggs are a husband/wife, guitar/drums duo that make dark rock songs that can either be aggressive or restrained, but always meticulous. You'll notice right away that each element of each song seems absolutely necessary and perfectly constructed. For this release they collaborate with different musicians on each track (including members of great little known bands such as Slug and the For Carnation) yet the outside input only enhances the sound without sounding like a detour from Moggs personal vision.
  
  DJ /Rupture—Uproot DJ/Rupture is the type of DJ that can change your perception of music with each of his mixtapes. With his latest release, /rupture creates a post-everything polyglot sound that jumps continents and genres continuously without disrupting his own idiosyncratic narrative. Great DJs take records that are available to everyone else and make them their own merely by putting them next to another record. /rupture draws lines across the globe by pointing out that there are weirdos and experimentalists everywhere. This latest album makes the world seem much smaller, yet completely filled with promising artistic expression.
  

• 10/27/09

  Gang Gang Dance—Saint Dymphna When Gang Gang Dance locked into one of their characteristic future-ethnic grooves at their recent CMJ show, we started to understand why they would name their latest album after the patron saint of mental illnesses—almost everyone in the crowd looked like they were losing their minds. The band's unique chemistry can sound like the Bollywood version of Miami Vice or a pastiche of cut and pasted field recordings of indigenous music. Saint Dymphna is the album where this strange combination, evident on earlier albums, finally coalesces into a coherent whole that completely works as popular music and not just an interesting experiment. Everyone at the show seemed to get it and once you listen to this record, you will too.
  
  TV on the Radio—Dear Science At this point it's hard to deny that TV on the Radio is one of this decade's unquestionably great bands.  When their first EP surfaced only a few years ago, they arrived as a band fully formed, with a sound entirely their own. That sound has remained remarkably consistent, augmented only by increasing ambition but never extending itself so far that the formula comes completely unravelled. The marriage of doo-wop vocals, electronic beats, and dreamy, droning guitar is back on this latest album. This time the songs are probably as catchy a batch as they have ever written but the music still sounds as fresh and exciting as the first time you heard them.
  
  Morgan Geist—Double Night Time Double Night Time is a solo album from one half of the dance music powerhouse Metro Area. Instead of the future primitive disco workouts on which he has made his name, his newest album focuses on dancey electro-pop that utilizes Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan's soft vocals. The result is something that works just as well on the dancefloor as it does a pure pop album. There a couple songs that don't quite work but the strongest songs more than make this album worth buying. If anything, it's always interesting to listen to a great musician trying out something completely new.
  

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