January 2009
Not too much need for context with this: Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” is quite simply one of the best songs that’ll ever grace your fickle lifespan; one of those tracks that once heard could never have not existed.
Another amazing week here at RCRD LBL has come to a close. In case you missed any of the great tracks we released this week, here’s the RND UP. This is your chance to catch up on all the new music.
January 30
Richard Swift - Lady Luck
Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
Ben Benjamin - Calorie Committee
HECUBA - Sir
HECUBA - Sir (Lucky Dragons Remix)
Old Blood - I Win
Old Blood - CANNIBAL...
Geography makes for great sonic reference. Gun Outfit are a bass-less rock ‘n roll trio from Olympia. KABLAAM. So even though they signed to Dean Spunt’s Post Present Medium label instead of hometown K, they still sound just as bored and no-fi as you might expect or even hope. This, is a wonderful thing. “Troubles Like Mine” is an exclusive snippet from their forthcoming...
Here we go - the perfect soulful jam to close out the week swaying pretty. This track slides right in next to Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson. What? Yup, multi-instrumental experimentalist Richard Swift is at it again - reinventing his musical style with his new album “The Atlantic Ocean” (out on Secretly Canadian on April 7). This track in particular was apparently inspired by the...
The most immediately arresting element in a Tindersticks’ song is lead singer Stuart Staples’ voice, a bottomless, velvety purr that is one of the most unmistakeable sounds in modern music. The lush orchestral arrangements that surround it transform an erstwhile snapshot into a still life. Tindersticks have perfected their jazzy exotica since way back in the last century, and...
Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to HECUBA, one of the stranger groups I’ve had the pleasure to write about. The Los Angeles-based duo thoroughly smash up pop songs and string together remaining shards with wide-eyed glee. Their latest single for Manimal Vinyl, “Sir,” is a shambolic tune whose chorus deconstructs 60’s pop songs and is...
Our pals over at Ghostly hooked us up with some new jams from producer, composer, and former Midwest Product/PostPrior dude Ben Mullins, a.k.a. Ben Benjamin, who just released a second volume of instrumentals in his The Many Moods Of Ben Benjamin series. “Calorie Committee” is brisk, digitized pop, the sound of what we always wanted to come out of that flute thing in Mario. As...
Geography makes for great sonic reference. Gun Outfit are a bass-less rock ‘n roll trio from Olympia. KABLAAM. So even lthough they signed to Dean Spunt’s Post Present Medium label instead of hometown K, they still sound just as bored and no-fi as you might expect or even hope. This, is a wonderful thing. “Trouble Like Mine” is an exclusive snippet from their forthcoming...
Musical moments of the year so far #13: when the drums come crashing down on top of Old Blood’s ‘I Win’. The brother-sister duo of Caleb and Jael Steinmeyer live in Las Vegas after relocating there from Los Angeles some years back. You can hear the spare space of a town it takes an hour to cross in Old Blood; in the raw, melting guitar work and the base rhythm of the drums. Too...
Brooklyn’s cultural diversity speaks for itself, but now it’s got an (admittedly limited) soundtrack with BKLYN, the compilation of nascent grooves from the borough compiled and curated by Aaron Schultz—a.k.a. DJ DRM and founder of Bastard Jazz Recordings—and Dan Martino—a.k.a. DJ Soulstatic and founder and program direction of Brooklyn Radio. Essentially glossing...
There was once a time when bands were so bad ass they could cuddle with chicks (the fluffy kind, not the booty kind) and puppies in their pastel music video while still making you fully aware they would run head first into a bar fight. There was once a time when bands wrote songs this catchy and used horns without irony or desire to skank, but with the intention of just being loud and...
