It was hard enough for me to narrow down a list to 10 albums, and even harder to choose an order. Alas, with much contemplation, here are my final choices for 2010.
#10. Belle and Sebastian- Write About Love
They’re back! And still killin’ it with those same poppy tunes we know and love, I sort of want to go skip through a field of daisies with them…
#9. Noveller- Desert Fires
Noveller, AKA Sarah Lipstate, is a phenomenal guitarist (she was a part of Glenn Branca’s 100 guitars!) who loops and pedals her way through a dreamy, delightful album.
#8. Women- Public Strain
A collage of sounds non-traditionally creating catchy tunes.
#7. Deerhunter- Halcyon Digest
I’m all about the shoe-gazey fuzz, and these guys really know how to layer it on. Halcyon Digest is pure dark, catchy, fuzzy goodness.
#6. The Fall- Your Future Our Clutter
Their 28th album, and they still take us back to the mid-80′s…meaning they hung on to their original sounds of single-chords, lo-fi, and yells, and they still sound fantastic. I was tremendously impressed.
#5. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti- Before Today
I’m liking the addition of a full band…and still full of pop dreams!
#4. Phantogram- Eyelid Movies
Not only can I relate to the title, this album just calls for a good mood. Listening to “Eyelid Movies” puts me in a place somewhere between slipping down playground slides and dazing out on the floor of a tiki hut opium den.
#3. Thee Oh Sees- Warm Slime
Jagged yips and yaws, psychedelic garage style guitars, messy lo-fi…I’m in love.
#2. Cocorosie- Grey Oceans
These two sisters will never cease to amaze me. This album is similar to their others, but they have added a whole new array of beats that truly compliment their crazy style.
#1. Gonjasufi- A Sufi and a Killer
World music influence, intricate, booming rhythms, soothing yet powerful vocals, and a hidden track! The first time I heard “A Sufi and a Killer” I played it 3 more times that day, and haven’t stopped playing it since. With mind blowing sound, this album is positively my favorite album of 2010!
So if you’re into avant-garde-post-punk-lo-fi-shoe-gaze-fantastic-dream-fuzz…do your self a favor and pick up these albums!
Who was the man, J Dilla? Influential Los Angeles hip-hop producer via Detroit who died in 2006 from a rare blood disease only three days after releasing what many consider his masterpiece: Donuts. Famous last words, to say the absolute least. The album is a hip-hop art collage of classic R&B and soul, and feels like a 43 minute personal account of one man’s musical past and present.
If you do any small amount of research on Dilla you’ll realize right away what a huge impact he had on the underground hip-hop community, especially in his later years when he was apart of the Stones Throw collective (MF Doom, Madlib). Artists in the hip-hop community are still mourning his death and paying tribute by making use of every last measure he ever produced. Ghostface Killah doesn’t really go a release without a posthumous Dilla production, for instance. Dilla was featured on Raekwon’s most recent release, Only Built For Cuban Linx II—same goes for Mos Def’s 2009 The Ecstatic. He’s still everywhere, as it should be, but Dilla’s influence as a producer is severely understated as a part of wider electronic music. Pitchfork stated in a retrospective on Dilla’s evolution,
“…artists on L.A. labels like Brainfeeder, Alpha Pup, and Proximal Records have hit creative paydirt by siphoning Dilla’s ear for rhythmic suppleness through electro, dubstep, and ambient funk.”
Take note of that first label in there: Brainfeeder. Brainfeeder is synonymous with one Los Angeles producer, Flying Lotus. In the same Dilla retrospective Pitchfork noted,
“Flying Lotus picked up on elements of Dilla’s style for his 2006 debut album 1983– underwater basslines, stripped-down snare-tap percussion, bristling synths, textural hiss– and has been boldly mutating them into a new strain of b-boy IDM ever since, culminating with this year’s expansive Cosmogramma.”
That’s really only the beginning of what Flying Lotus has managed to do with J Dilla’s legacy. FlyLo himself marks a tangible, yet transcendent step past what Dilla managed to accomplish, culminating into a citywide beat scene, if not a sub-genre of its own. In terms of electronic music, Los Angeles has become Flying Lotus’s and the proving grounds of his influence, which makes sense since his 2008 album, named for the city, is almost single-handedly responsible.
Los Angeles is a milestone in the sense that it helped bring about a new generation of beat makers, esoteric as that group still is in 2010. FlyLo acted as a focus for a myriad of influences (the heart of which was Dilla) and became a beacon for his home city. Los Angeles as a record remains a triumph of atmosphere as much as classic post-Dilla hip-hop tinged production. From start to finish the album flows as a grounded nighttime panorama of the city for which it was named. FlyLo’s sample and synth-work combine into shiny sparkling reflections and seek to delve into something deeper and unseen, or seen only through the individual’s eyes. The record wasn’t made as an anthem for the city as a whole. It’s too small and contained for that. It functions as a personal chronicle for FlyLo’s own perspective and mindset regarding his surroundings, which makes the record such a thrilling and charismatically unique ride.
On the producer’s side of the table, Los Angeles’ aesthetics became instantly recognizable: the use of reverb and spacey synths, offbeat drum programming, and a healthy amount of sidechain compression thrown onto everything. The drum programming especially has become FlyLo’s mainstay. The aggressive and heavy use of kick and an organic style approach to snare sounds. It’s probably the most immediate influence the record gave to the world, from dubstep to hip-hop.
But while Flying Lotus’s collage approach and production aesthetics obviously paid tribute to J Dilla he brought something deeper to the table. The easiest description to give would be “atmosphere,” (as I just did) something rarely associated with hip-hip production, with perhaps the exceptions of El-P and Edan. It was responsible for FlyLo’s association to dubstep and IDM, even perhaps before hip-hop in some cases. FlyLo however goes beyond atmosphere. There seems to be a wordless subtext to Los Angeles that would suffer from anyone trying to put the feelings spinning off of the record into words. If this aspect of Flying Lotus’s music was only alluded to on his second LP, it became truly immediate on his third, Cosmogramma.
A lot seemed to happen in the wake of Los Angeles. “Copycats” would be a way sum things up. FlyLo has been vocal regarding the resentment of the immediacy of his own influence. But the record opened something up, which was almost immediately seen after it’s release in ’08. FlyLo started his own label, named for the first track on his second record, “Brainfeeder.” It seems to have sparked a blanket aesthetic, albeit subtly abstract, and maintains a masthead for the Los Angeles post-Dilla, post-Los Angeles scene. Or perhaps one could argue it’s just a place to collect artists FlyLo digs. We’ll see.
In Part Two of this feature I’ll be exploring the recipients of Los Angeles’ influence, notable Brainfeeder artists, as well as Flying Lotus’s most recent music-transcending record, Cosmogramma and where it fits in J-Dilla’s legacy and the current Los Angeles electronic scene.
1.Of Montreal-False Priest
Only a couple days more to take advantage of our first week low price of $9.99. Vinyl is $19.97.
Favorite tracks: Enemy Game , Like a Tourist, You Do Mutilate?
2.Black Angels-Phosphene Dream
Also, have special first week price of $9.99. Vinyl is $19.97. I have listened to this 3 or 4 times, very good.
Free lithograph of image above with purchase.
Favorite tracks: Haunting at 1300 McKinley, River of Blood, True Believers
3.The Sword-Warp Riders cd $10.99 lp $19.97.
One of the foundations of the metal revival of the past ten years. Austin TX’s The Sword have released two flawless slabs of vintage heaviness on Kemado Records. Warp Riders, their 3rd full-length and their most ambitious to date is a the band’s first concept album. It is fittingly grand in scope both lyrically and in terms of musical craftsmanship.
Favorite tracks:
Tres Brujas, The Chronomancer 1: Hubris, Night City
4.The Weepies-Be My Thrill cd $8.99.
After some time off after the birth of their son. The indie duo are back with Be My Thrill, which is a great showcase for their powerhouse songwriting and unique harmonies, ranging from the Cole Porter-esque “They’re in Love” to the Dusty Springfield-like “When You Go Away”. Check this out in our CIMS Homegrown listening station.
Title track: Be My Thrill
New Releases:
Arcade Fire – Suburbs $26.97
Best Coast – Crazy for You $16.97
Books – The Way Out $19.97
Budos Band – III $16.97
Crowded House – Intriguer $19.97
Cut Chemist – Sound of the Police $18.97
Department of Eagles – Archive 03-06 $17.97
El-P – Weareallgoingtoburninhellmixxx3 $24.97
Endless Boogie – Full House Head $19.97
Brandon Flowers(Killers) – Crossfire(picture 10″) $6.97
Four Tet – Angel Echoes Remix $9.97
Herbie Hancock – Imagine Project $27.97
Jaill – That’s How We Know $15.97
Seu Jorge – Almaz $18.97
Lady Gaga – Remix $17.97
Lost in the Trees – All Alone in an Empty House $16.97
Love Language – Libraries $17.97
The McGarrigle Hour $18.97
Menomena – Mines $19.97
School of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire $24.97
Stars - Five Ghosts $19.97
Torche/Boris – Chapter Ahead $15.97
Next Stop Soweto Vol 3 – 24.97
Versus – On the Ones & Threes $24.97
Wolf Parade – Expo 86 $19.97
Recent Releases that finally got issued or we finally got in:
Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot $15.97
Devo – Something For Everybody $22.97
Eminem – Recovery $15.97
Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle $21.97
Indian Jewelry – Totaled $15.97
JJ – N 2 $16.97
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening $19.97
Meshuggah – Alive $24.97
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More $15.97
Matt Pond PA – Dark Leaves $17.97
Punch Brothers – Antifogmatic $24.97
Robert Randolph – We Walk This Road $26.97
Sleigh Bells – Treats $19.97
Surfer Blood – Astro Coast $14.97
Rokia Traore – Tchamatche $28.97
Reggae Gold 2010 $17.97
Reissues:
Hawkwind – Hawkwind $17.97
Michael Hurley – First Songs $17.97
Metallica – Reload $29.97
National – Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers $18.97
Radio Birdman – Radios Appear $17.97
Santana/John McLaughlin – Love Devotion Surrender $24.97
Robin Trower – Bridge of Sighs $24.97
Tom Waits/Crystal Gayle – One From the Heart Sdtk. $19.97
So the links send you to our download site, thinkindie.com, so you can sample and/or download.
Contact us if you would like to purchase vinyl online , our standard charge for shipping vinyl is $3.
It’s world cup time… and if you’re reading this post from somewhere in the United States, their is a good chance you don’t give a shit. But for the rest of us, and the world – this is a big deal. Like the Olympics, but with more swagger and focused excitement. And like any proper world class event, sporting or otherwise, it comes with assortment of officially recognized merchandise, memorabilia, product tie-ins, and of course songs.
This year’s Official offering is from Shakira (and ostensibly, Fozzie Bear.) “Waka Waka” A colorful and frankly goofy song that bounces around to a tribally 2-step rhyme while Shakira does what she does best; shake her ass and belt out asinine lyrics like…
You’re a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
And back in the saddle
(If i didn’t know better, I’d say she was positioning this track to be the official song of the US Occupation of Afghanistan… too soon?)
Ok. All things considered, not too bad… not to good, but lets see what else we can find…
Get on your Boots – U2.
The only nice thing i can say about this one is that the remix they did for the world cup featuring the Soweto Gospel Choir mercifully pulls out much of the original tracks elements and replaces them with Africany sounding stuff. You know what i mean, you’ve all listened to Graceland. It’s like that, but guileless and with 100% more Bono. Ewwww…
Oh so we need a “Good” entry now in order to make this post true to the title… Why don’t you, dear readers, post your favorite World Cup Songs. I’ve exhausted my good will from repeated viewings of World in Motion…
Let me start off by saying that every time we’ve played this number in the store, someone immediately wants to purchase it. You just can’t beat that kind of market research. Now for my bit:
This compilation of “Pure Ghetto Disco, Funk and African Boogie” from Brooklyn is the third offering in Kon & Amir’s series of city themed adventures in rare 45′s. Once described by Lord Finesse as “two of the most extraordinary but underrated beat diggers in the game,” the duo split up over two discs to share choice cuts from their expansive collecti0n. Kon takes the first disc, laying out a continuous mix of tracks, layering a bit here and there to stitch together funk and soul. Highlights include the soaring bass groove of slamming opening track “From the Heart” (Kon’s Multi Remix) by Donny McCollough, the temperature raising “Burnin’ Up” (Kon’s Edit) by S.F.B., and self titled track “E.O.D.” by prison band Edge of Darkness. In fact, the Edge of Darkness sums up the unfortunate situation that made most of the artists on this compilation underexposed. Bands with raw and unique talent from the ghetto were underfunded and under-appreciated, while bands with a more marketable sound soared on labels like Motown.
Amir’s disc guides the focus to Fela influenced African boogie and disco. This side represents the global ghetto underground melting pot of the album’s dedicated burrough. As a youngster with a fantastical vision of the sparkling 70′s, these jams make me envision a period of nightclubs blasting off into outer space to party in the funkosphere to the likes of “Galaxy” by Galaxy. “Saturday Night Raps” by Dizzy K is a dance floor stomper that would work just as well as a block party thumper. Picture yourself in the prime of your youth, doing the bump with a hot dog in one hand and a 40oz . in the other, that’s what this sounds like. My only complaint about this release is the severely shortened content of the LP version, but a full vinyl release would probably be out of the average browser’s price range anyway. Make it your summer soundtrack.
We’re a little over a week away from Record Store Day 2010. The last two were a lot of fun, so we’re pretty excited. There are a ton of titles this year on all formats, including exclusives, reissues, live material and all sorts of other neat stuff. In addition to all the Record Store Day releases, we’re going to be running some cool sales and putting out a ton of cheap used cd’s and lp’s.
This year we have an extra-special treat. We will proudly be hosting Grace Potter and some of her band-mates from The Nocturnals. They are going to come in to sign albums and meet fans. As if that wasn’t enough, Grace will also be DJing at the store for the final hours of the event. One can imagine a high-calibar songstress like herself having great taste! They should be arriving around 7pm.
Feel free to call the store with any questions you may have. Please take note of a few details before you do:
-Store Hours on Record Store Day will be 10am-9pm
-All of our orders for Record Store Day titles are in. We tried to get just about everything. Given the limited nature of these releases, we’re not sure exactly how much we’ll be getting of anything.
-We will not be reserving any of the event’s exclusive titles for customers. No exceptions. All items are first come first serve. If you really want that Magnetic Fields “69 Love Songs” Vinyl box set, come at ten o’clock.
-More information can be found at the event’s official website.
-Here is a fairly comprehensive list of Record Store Day releases: Read the rest of this entry »
So we’ve diversified our portfolio. Pure Pop now carries a small selection of books; some novels, some comics and a few non-fiction gems. If you’re interested in ordering anything through the store, we’ll happily do that for you. The best part? Special ordering a book at Pure Pop will get you 20% off the retail price. We’re sort of feeling it out as far as selection goes. Feel free to stop by and berate us for our pitiful selection, or commend us for a job well done. (Preferably the latter.)
Some of my favorites among the titles we’re offering include Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Charles Burns’ Black Hole and Irvine Welsh’s The Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs.
…but there’s plenty more. Come on down and check it out.
I hate year end lists because I always spend way too much time on them and then scratch them in the end. I had this crazy long list of crap that I couldn’t even get through reading without losing interest and opening a new tab to watch You Tube. Then I realized what I was missing. You Tube is my favorite pop cultural development of this entire past decade. In honor of this glorious website, I will use it to show you my favorite music videos of the year.
#5 KE$HA – Tik Tok & LMFAO – I’m In Miami Bitch
Another one of my favorite things about the millenium decade was guiltily following the hipster phenomenon. I was still in High School when that scene exploded and I partied to Dim Mak, DFA, and Ed Banger all the time. Not to mention the presence of thecobrasnake.com, and last night’s party and pwnsites latfh.com and hipsterrunoff.com. Anyway, what I like about these videos is that KE$HA and LMFAO were the mainstream’s late tweenpop response (role modelz). The You Tube videos of tweens lip synching to these songs are good too, and the hater comments. I wish the LMFAO one had profanity.
#4 Tobacco – Hawker Boat
This came out in 2008, but whatever, I watched these this year. All the music videos for the album Fucked Up Friends which this track is from were tripped out collages made with out of context clips of old tv. This one is my favorite overall combo.If you have a bubble gum bubble fetish, watch the one for Street Trash.
#3 Method Man & Redman – Ayo
2009 was a great year for members of the Wu. Raekwon, Ghostface, U God and Method Man put this year’s auto tuned candy rappers to utter shame. While Raekwon’s album Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 received more critical acclaim than Black Out! 2, I played BO2 more and ended up seeing Mef and Red at Higher Ground. I like this video mostly because I have huge crush on Method Man.
#2 Kid Cudi – Day N’ Night (the vs Crookers version too)
This was the only track off Cudi’s album that I really got into. As a chronic daydreamer, these videos are kind of what my mind is like. If you’re only going to watch one, go with the Crookers version because there are lots of boobies.
#1 MSTRKRFT – Heartbreaker
I’m a sucker for Summer Lovin’. I’m also a sucker for Dance Pop and cute boys. After working at a stationery store for some time, I learned that stickers are a great way to pick up dudes, glad to see this lady representing the technique. In my imagination, she gets fired and doesn’t care so she runs after the dudes and calls her girls and they have an epic night of mayhem on the boardwalk and pass out on the beach Snookie style.
