What's New(s)?

Unreleased Sky Ferreira track surfaces

"Leaks usually bother me but I actually like "Rancid Girl" so that's cool?" Sky Ferreira tweeted earlier today, and why shouldn't she?? Besides the impressive collaborators list featuring: Jon Brion, Cass McCombs, and Blake Mills, the sparse acoustic number is absolutely gorgeous. A skeletal guitar figure glides around a sawing sound while Ferriera whispers about sole survivors and intimate "ownership". Musically it's a far-cry from the austere indie pop-rock she unleashed on Night Time, My Time, but the themes are all-too-familiar. 

Night Time, My Time is out now via Capitol and Ferreira is currently opening for Miley Cyrus on the massive Bangerz Tour.







Bradford Cox scoring Teenage documentary

Considering Deerhunter/Atlas Sound artist Bradford Cox' continual entrenchment into "warped nostalgia" it's only appropriate he's authored the soundtrack to Matt Wolf's upcoming doc Teenage. The film, an exploration of how teenage culture was created around the turn of the last century, will feature 17 new tracks from Cox out on soundtrack March 11 through Cinereach Music. The film itself will be out in select theaters March 14 and features narration from Jena Malone of Catching Fire/Donnie Darko fame and Ben Whishaw (Skyfall/Cloud Atlas) among others.

Wolf has prior experience "working" with musicians. In 2008 he directed Wild Combination which examined the career of avant-garde cello player/disco artist Arthur Russell.


Tracklist:
1. "Natural Harp Monitor"
2. "Skeleton Disk Loop"
3. "Snow on Cape"
4. "New Prairie Blackout Pattern"
5. "Canopy
6. "Daphne Duck"
7. "Harlem Crepescular"
8. "Paprika Expose"
9. "Pastel Ruins"
10. "Milk Glass Metronome"
11. "Planetarium"
12. "Doctor October"
13. "Kate"
14. "Wireless Fantasy No. 1"
15. "Dream Logic"
16. "Spanish Plastic"
17. "VHS Dream (Teenage)"

 

Pains of Being Pure at Heart announce new album

It's been nearly three years since Brooklyn indie-pop band Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but today's announcement of a follow-up to 2011's shoegazing Belong ends that wait. The new record is entitled Days of Abandon and according to frontman Kip Berman the band has gone in "a different direction." "I didn’t want to make Belonger. This album was a chance to step back from that universal style of songwriting to something that was far more personal, more in keeping with my original ideals," Berman says in a press release. 

First single "Simple and Sure" is certainly in keeping with those ideals. Gone is any sense of shoegazing and in its stead: giddy, hand-clapping idealistic indie rock. Berman's simple desire "I just wanna be yours" is relatable whether you're 15 or 55, and the sparkling guitars coupled with driving drums hit every possible pleasure center. It's the type of track to light up a room no matter where you are.

Days of Abandon is out April 22 through Yebo Music. The band will be hitting the road March 7 with Eternal Summers and Fear of Men, who were reviewed earlier today.

Tracklist:
1. "Art Smock"
2. "Simple and Sure"
3. "Kelly
4. "Beautiful You"
5. Coral and Gold
6. Eurydice
7. Masokissed
8. Until The Sun Explodes
9. Life After Life
10. The Asp at My Chest

Tour Dates:
3/7 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar (w. Eternal Summers)
3/8 Charlottesville, VA - The Southern (w. Eternal Summers)3/9 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle (w. Eternal Summers)
3/12-16 Austin, TX - SXSW
3/18 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway (w. Eternal Summers)
3/19 Nashville, TN - Exit / In (w. Eternal Summers)
3/21 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree (w. Eternal Summers)
3/22 New Orleans, LA - The BUKU Music + Art Project
3/23 Atlanta, GA - The Earl (w. Eternal Summers)
3/28 Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade
4/24 Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall (w. Fear of Men)
4/25 Montreal, Quebec - Le Belmont (w. Fear of Men)
4/26 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern (w. Fear of Men)
4/28 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (w. Fear of Men)
4/29 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock (w. Fear of Men)
5/2 Vancouver, British Columbia - Fortune Sound Club (w. Fear of Men)
5/3 Seattle, WA - The Vera Project (w. Fear of Men)
5/4 Portland, OR - Holocene (w. Fear of Men)
5/6 San Francisco, CA - The Independent (w. Fear of Men)
5/7 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour (w. Fear of Men)
5/9 San Diego, CA - The Casbah (w. Fear of Men)
5/10 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom (w. Fear of Men)
5/11 Albuquerque, NM - Sister (w. Fear of Men)
5/13 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge (w. Fear of Men)
5/15 Kansas CIty, MO - The Record Bar (w. Fear of Men)
5/16 Louisville, KY - Zanzabar (w. Fear of Men)
5/17 Columbus, OH - Rumba Cafe (w. Fear of Men)
5/18 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe (w. Fear of Men)
5/19 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's (w. Fear of Men)
5/21 Washington, DC - Rock 'n' Roll Hotel (w. Fear of Men)
5/22 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (w. Fear of Men)






Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

Top 30 Albums of 2011 (Pt. VI)

We're cracking the top 10 as the year winds down, but before we do, let's take a look at how we got there.

30. 4- Beyonce

29. The Dreamer, The Believer- Common

28. Just Once EP- How to Dress Well

27. Alien Observer- Grouper

26. Step Brothers- Don Trip & Starlito

25. Cole World: Sideline Story- J. Cole

24. Weekend at Burnies- Curren$y

23. Suck It and See- Arctic Monkeys

22. Celestial Lineage- Wolves in the Throne Room

21. The Whole Love- Wilco

20. Bad As Me- Tom Waits

19. Live, Love, A$AP­- A$AP Rocky

18. Helplessness Blues- Fleet Foxes

17. 21- Adele

16. Wounded Rhymes- Lykke Li

15. Hilarious- Louis C.K.

14. Cults- Cults

13. Goblin- Tyler, the Creator

#12 Tomboy- Panda Bear

It’s no secret that 2011 has been a year for wistful nostalgia in music. This admiration for ages past has pervaded rap, electronica, pop, and indie from January to December. In a calendar year for reminiscing, Panda Bear was bound to succeed.

One second into the album, Panda Bear is recalling the Beach Boys more overtly than ever. “You Can Count on Me,” is the by-product of throwing a Pet Sounds record into a blender with layered vocals and industrial clanging. “Surfer’s Hymn,” meanders down a similar road before being coated in electric ash more akin to Animal Collective. “Slow Motion,” bleeds with broken beat-boxing and out-of-tune piano, singing about the childish-lie of “practice making perfect.”

Panda Bear’s homesickness for the past is palpable on “Last Night at the Jetty.” The wobbly beat leads to him singing about “dreams that we once had.” He dolefully inquires “didn’t we have a good time?” In the teenage fantasy that Tomboy hearkens back to, it’s a pitch-perfect question, and one Panda stalls in answering.

As marvelous as the malaise is, Panda Bear realizes on “Friendship Bracelet,” that he’s made “grave mistakes,” and daydreaming is never enough. A mature realization for the eternally-youthful Animal Collective drummer. Much of his past work both solo and with AC, has been about the pains of reliving the past while trying to grow up. Nowhere is that pain better felt than on Tomboy.  

"You Can Count on Me"

#11 Strange Mercy- St. Vincent

After more than a dozen listens, I still don’t understand this album. This isn’t for lack of trying. The environs of Strange Mercy are so impenetrable, that total comprehension is futile. This is an album that delights in being willfully weird, in taking the smiling face of commercial pop sending it to another planet and bloodying it up.  

“I’ll make a living out of telling people what they want to hear,” the decorous Annie Clark sings on “Champagne Year." The sentiment can’t go far for her, because who wants to hear such unfettered emotion? She lies to herself, promising a “champagne year,” that will never come, choked out by the cobwebs clinging to the unadorned walls of her life. Under the vocal manipulation of “Cheerleader,” Clark is controlled by a split she can’t comprehend. “I’ve told whole lies, with a half smile.” Her tempestuous guitar in the chorus jolts her back to life and for a time she is free. The uncertainties of “Northern Lights” are likewise put down by Clark’s guitar, a sinner in a saintly song.

Strange Mercy perpetually plays this game of stark contrast. The stutter-stepping of “Chloe in the Afternoon,” a tale of a high-class prostitute grown bored rests alongside the demure “Dilettante,” where Clark asks the fictional Elijah to “slow down.” The story-sketch is a call back to “Cheerleader.” She’s no longer having “good times with some bad guys,” but bad times with good guys. Even as she prepares for her champagne year in “Northern Lights,” she sings it’s “full of sober months.” There are still many mysteries I will never solve on this record, but with journalistic lines like these, I can come to understand the dichotomy of “strange mercy.”  

"Cruel"

#10 Parallax- Atlas Sound

If he wanted to, Bradford Cox could become a pop-star tonight. Professing to be a fan of Martha & the Vandellas, The Crystals, and a slew of other renowned girl-groups, he knows his history. On the cover of Parallax, he’s got “the look,” Sinatra-like in the way he clutches the giant- microphone. Most importantly, he can craft a catchy tune. The problem is, with his evasive lyrics and profound shyness, he’d be a fish far out of water.  

“You can come around, when you’re down,” he sings over the looping harmonizer of “Te Amo.” The track is pure puppy-dog love with a mysterious edge, enigmatic Ricky Nelson. Cox pays homage to the jangle-pop of The Byrds on “Mona Lisa,” and shows he has more in common with R.E.M. than their hometown. The track is a carry-over from Cox’s “Revival,” under his work with Deerhunter. Since Atlas Sound first began Cox has been using the two projects as staging-grounds for one another.

“Praying Man,” sees Cox in garage-rock mode, singing the requisite “sha la la,” chorus in an Elvis quiver drowning in gooey reverb. “Angel is Broken,” reminds me of a warped Roy Orbison with a strange sway. The pop act for Cox continues on “Lightworks.” The track sports a Dylanesque harmonica solo and whammy-heavy guitar playing. It’s a sock-hop song for the indie scene.

The record would be outright pop were it not for his tendency to coat everything with a reverberating veneer. Likewise, the lyrics of the interrogative “Modern Aquatic Nightsongs,” are too eccentric to rub elbows with the Ronettes. “Hey you got a story, would you trade with mine,” he intones on the blipping “Doldrums.” With this third Atlas Sound LP, it’s clear that Cox wants to want to take on the life of a pop icon. It’s up to him to see if the deal goes through.   

"Modern Aquatic Nightsongs"

#9 Nostalgia, Ultra- Frank Ocean

“When we were kids, we hand-painted strawberries on a swing, every moment was so precious then.” From the first line of Odd Future crooner Frank Ocean’s first mixtape we are washed in the waters of nostalgia. The innocence of “StrawberrySwing,” is soon sullied and the listener is dropped into the troublesome recollections of “Novacane.” Here the woman Ocean remembers is “paying for tuition, doing porn in the valley.” He gets too close and soon sees “cocaine for breakfast,” “yikes” being his only response.

These jarring juxtapositions cloud the view Ocean has of the past. On top of sliding guitar and in-the-pocket drumming in “We All Try,” Ocean reaffirms his faith in humanity. Such optimism is a far-cry from the 808s & Heartbreak-influenced “Swim Good,” where he envisions driving in the ocean to “swim from something bigger than me,” counting down to his own demise along the way.

Ocean succeeds because of these “walking paradoxes.” He’s at once lustful, wanting nothing more than a garden romp in the MGMT cover “Nature Feels,” but strangely loving on “Dust,” admitting to falling in love with a girl. In doing this, Ocean is more successful than any of his OF-brethren this year in creating a work that will have longevity. Our understanding of the past is often hazy, our own nostalgia regularly a contradiction. Ocean knows that full-well and has released a record that reminds of us just how often we intentionally forget our past travails, instead remembering our triumphs no matter how minuscule.

"Novacane"