Panda Bear- Tomboy (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?91eg2vds6mqxx3d

I'd like to suggest that you know you have made it as a one man band when you are able to have an awful screen printed t shirt as your cover art, and hundreds of thousands of wide-eyed hipsters will buy your cd.

Congratulations, Noah.

Miho Hatori- My First Time (mixtape) 2011

http://mihohatori.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-first-time-mix-tape-vol1-on-dossier_15.html

Miho Hatori is one of my first musical crushes, from the glory days of Cibo Matto, through Smokey and Miho, to her solo stuff. It's a weird collision of naivety and badass tendencies, though it's waaaaay closer to the former. She is interested in hip hop but is a total outsider, and her experimental nature always comes through.

This mix tape was created with the theme "My First Time," and is supposed to have a mixture of excitement and confusion. I love when people have themes that sound absolutely NOTHING like the way they probably hear them. It made me think of my latest request for people to send me recommendations for what they thought were the saddest songs ever. It's interesting to hear what people think of as sad... emotions are tricky!

Hear it before it's gone on Miho's blog.

Blue Hawaii- Blue Gowns

http://www.mediafire.com/?wjsbe4fbnmjldww

The downside of having an awful band name (besides having an awful band name) is having would-be fans slew through dead-end internet searches to find information on your band. Let that be a lesson to you, future bands "Total Recall," "Barak Obama," and "Santorum."

For now, it's best to focus on just how nice this cassette is (CASSETTE!!!). You can think of it as a dreamy, blippy, poppy beach record, but it still has that shimmery sound to it that i associate with Scandinavian sonics, or 4AD records from the late 80s. It's Raphaelle Standell-Preston (Braids' vocalist, who is quickly becoming one of my new favorites) plus a boy playing instruments, and it has all the great aspects of a folk guitar duo without any of the painfulness. Does anyone else notice this great and weird keyboards/effects-becoming-the-new-guitar-of-folk phenomenon? I like guitar and all, but it's nice hearing the same aesthetic with a different sonic palette.

The lyrics get confessional/awkward ("when i picture you thrusting into her"), but they always come across as being comfortable and inviting. This whole cassette is start-to-finish very solid. Warm, spacey, bright, faraway, and just nice. 


Maybe it is more like the beach after all.

Juana Molina- Un Dia

http://www.mediafire.com/?an515logjlf6l2v

The whole "single artist making a huge sound by using a looping pedal" phenomenon is pretty big, made popular by Andrew Bird, Zoe Keating, and Imogene Heap. And they're all pretty good at it in different ways. But one of my favorites is Juana Molina.

Her first two albums often get described as sounding somewhere between soft Brazillian bossa nova and Brian Eno, which is intriguing enough of a description to make me want to listen to a record. But Un Dia, her third, pulls out all the hush and slaps you in the face with weirdness: layers and layers of noises, vocal ticks, instruments, keyboards, and horns. It's just great, dense, weird, and beautiful. And most importantly, it really kicks-- all solid driving beats, so you don't have to sit and sip yerba matte in your yoga wear with your pretentious yuppie friends while you listen to it on your fair-trade hand-woven area rug. It's acid trip approved, crazy kids!

I was able to see Molina live at the Southgate House in Kentucky. She played loops with a live bassist and drummer, and of course, it was incredible. Her live set actually blew this recording out of the water, because I was able to see that all these loops on the CD were happening live-- I wouldn't be surprised if this CD had no overdubs.

I heard through the grapevine that Molina is Argentinian and had a previous career as a comedian?! Even if this is untrue, I love that idea.