Leif Fairfield- The Infamous Sun Drips Extended Play Disc Written by The Sleeping Sea (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?bj1716o1mh71jow

Cincinnati-based Leif Fairfield plays as a member of the band The Sleeping Sea. When he joined, he was given an EP of songs that were to be recorded "in the future," but being impatient, he created his own versions of these songs before the whole band could do it.

Sun Drips EP sounds like a cross between his solo recordings and his alias I Do. The disc features the usual violin and layers of voice, but with plenty of internet found sound, dub music leanings, and video game references. In true Fairfield fashion, it goes from ridiculous to pretty in a matter of minutes, and his covers range from respectful to complete re-interpretations (including his "cover" of "Rain Drips" that posits David Bowie-like vocals over the opening theme for the Nintendo game The Adventure of Link). It flows together as a single disc, and songs have multiple versions.

Check out the band photo!

Also a graphic designer, he created the album artwork. Yay!

Slowdive- Pygmalion (1995) and Pygmalon Demos (1994)

http://www.mediafire.com/?gzyknf2nmjy

While i listened to a lot of embarrassingly bad music in high school (inevitable, but especially so growing up in an isolated small town), i managed to make friends with a gal in--ironically--east Ohio who turned me on to brit pop, shoegazer, and noise rock.

One of my favorite high school bands, believe it or not, was Slowdive. I heard their UK-only final release Pygmaleon early on in college. I paid $18 for it on a whim  and it was one of the best musical finds of the year. Their signature album "Souvlaki" is pretty cool and it has that seminal shoegazer sound--dreamy, reverby, epic, melancholic. But Pygmaleon was different--sparse, uncomfortable, disjointed, and eerily pretty.

This is the kind of album that happens as a band breaks up. Some members want to go in a new direction, the others don't like it, so you get an incomplete band making a record in pieces without the same commercial enthusiasm or backing of the label. Sometimes great things happen in that space (see Big Star: 3rd).

Fifteen years later, and it still stands out as an interesting listen. Might i also add that i would take this CD over any Mojave 3 record. 

If you find yourself especially smitten, or a bigger-than-average Slowdive fan, listen to the Pygmalion Demos:
http://www.mediafire.com/?um1ms1lcuri

Aaron Martin- Worried About the Fire (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?lwqyrhy8nzt3bbr

Aaron Martin made one of those records that i wish i had made. It's moody, airy, deep, creepy, breathy, and beautiful. Very sparse instrumentation that somehow feels both ethereal and Appalachian. Think of bowed saws, looped violins, nebulous electronics, and sparseness. Or, imagine "Brian Eno: Music for Tall Forests in The Snow."

This is one of those amazing albums that can be listened to actively or passively, as background music or meditation music.

Highly recommended. I need to check out more of his stuff.

L(y)kke Li- W(o)unded Rhymes

http://www.mediafire.com/myfiles.php

*Note: Hooray! My second file removed due to copyright infringement! I'm on a roll! Notice the creative misspelling. Thanks, record execs-- keeping us all safe from pirates.

I hate it when I agree with Pitchfork.

I can't stand their ideal of "Let's-record-it-on-a-Fischer-Price-tape-Deck-and-add-a-photo-of-me-with-bad-sunglasses-with-Photoshop-lens-flare-effect" because it's so dumb that it's ironically cool. And that being hip is unhip, and that makes it cool.

And yet, crap: I love L(y)kke Li, the snaggle-toothed sorta shy Swedish pop singer. W(o)unded Rhymes doesn't feel as vulnerable as Youth Novels did, but i'll take it as a great follow up.

Wounded Rhymes is both simultaneously confident and vulnerable. I don't know how someone can make dance music that feels so confessional. When i think of popular American dance music, it seems to fall into one of two categories: either "You broke my heart and now i'm gonna dance" or "My man is so awesome and now i'm gonna dance".

By contrast, this is sort of a dance album that David Lynch would produce. And for that reason, i really love it. Don't believe me? Watch her music video for "Get Some" and tell me that you don't somehow feel totally creeped out, and perhaps a little smidge turned on. Mostly, though, just REALLY creeped out.

Also, she played on the Jimmy Fallon show in a ridiculous outfit with the most amazing tambourine display I've seen in years.

Josh T. Pearson- Last of the Country Music Gentlemen (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?mxhwsl5d6xrh04l

Some musicians achieve this cult status that will elevate anything they do to a place of legend. I wonder if Josh T. Pearson isn't approaching that place. I sense that the hype surrounding this record--not the record itself--smacks of hipsterdom. You can be sure that Josh Pearson's first record in ten years is a huge deal. MOJO and The Times already gave it 4/5 stars. Hmm.... So how is it really?

I was and remain an enormous fan of Lift to Experience, but was less than convinced by Pearson's acoustic output following the band. I know the legend, the stories of the bassist's wife dying while on tour, the drummer getting mailed an actual boot as a way of being kicked out of the band, the singer's dad being a preacher who refused to work since God would give him the means to live as a test of his faith. Et cetera, et cetera.

But when I first saw the album art for Last of the Country Music Gentlemen, i realized just how at risk Pearson is of becoming a media pawn. Why does he need to be seated with a shotgun next to hot models who contrast greatly with his "authentic" image? For someone who has notoriously shirked from fame, this is either a good omen or a bad one...

As for the music, it's all acoustic finger picked guitar and a voice. The lack of instrumentation works in his favor and makes it sound huge and powerful, even at its quietest. It goes from being as beautiful and transcendental as Jeff Buckley to reaching the dirtiness and unforgivingness of Vincent Gallo. I can't decide if it's beautiful or repulsive, which I guess is a good thing. It's definitely an uncomfortable listen-- I keep imagining Mark Kozelek listening to it, sulking, feeling out-emo-ed.

"I'm Josh, and this is my band."

The first song, "Thou Art Loosed," is an intensely beautiful song that sets the rest of the album up deceptively, so that when i listen to it start-to-finish, I feel this immediate rush followed by a long letdown (comedown?).In a way, LotCMG doesn't feel that out of the ordinary, and it's not anything that any old washed-out, unrecognized country singer couldn't have made. And then in a way, when you listen closely, you wonder how someone could make you feel so beautiful and filthy at once.

* * * *
This interview excerpt is from My Old Kentucky Blog:

My Old Kentucky Blog: Are we hearing mostly first takes?

Josh T Pearson: The first three are on Last Of The Country Gentleman are. You know, the songs are so goddamned long. Once you get up over ten minutes, I wasn’t about to do it again. But if you get to minute five and it’s not working, just do it again. I agonized over the takes, rather than the recording process or the mic setups. Being such a personal record, I’m not going to lie, it was tough. Sometimes it would take ten minutes just to recover from a take, sometimes a few hours. I hope I don’t have to go through that again. I actually went gray overnight.

MOKB: Now that it’s done, and it met your standards, how do you feel about the record?

JTP: I don’t know, man. It seems like a terrible thing to do…to be happy about such a sad record. This record is definitely for other people. I can’t listen to it. I think it’s a good work, but I hope I don’t have to look at it for a very long time. It’s just too personal. If I was outside of myself and heard it, I’d think the guy was a real dick for doing it because it’s just too bare and honest.

Lift to Experience- Falling From Cloud Nine E.P. (1997)

http://www.mediafire.com/?zlwfd76p3r3727c

I first saw Lift to Experience at the Cocodrie in San Francisco. They played after Pedro the Lion and remained one of my favorite bands of the decade (while Pedro remained one of my LEAST favorite).

They sold a tour-only EP that i'm guessing is pretty hard to find now. Uploaded for all your LTE junkies.

It doesn't sound nearly as good as their debut under Bella Union, but in a way it is a nice document of what they sounded like live. Consider it an early statement before they came to the conclusion they did (aka Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads).

CD Info:

1. Falling From Cloud 9

2. With the World Behind

3. Arise and Shine

4. Liftin' On Up

Mixed By - Dave Willingham , Lift To Experience
Performer [Lift To Experience Are] - Brian (64) , Josh* , Josh*
Recorded By, Mastered By - Dave Willingham
Written-By - Lift To Experience

First printing of 500 released in 1997 with limited edition trading cards of the then current members: Josh Browning, Josh Pearson and Brian Smith.
Second Printing of 500 released in 2000.
Both presses have the same cover art but different colors and fonts.
Recorded & mastered by Dave Willingham at 70 Hertz in Argyle, Texas.

All tracks recorded live, except vocals and tambourine 9/24/97.

Latin Playboys- Dose

http://www.mediafire.com/?nrcaenr7cbwbzpz

You may have heard of Los Lobos, who hail as California's longest-lasting full rock outfit. They're good and all, but their recent Disney cd makes most people reach for one of those airplane barf bags preeeeeetty fast.

But back in 1999, they put out a second album under a side-project pseudonym Latin Playboys (which has to be one of the coolest band names ever. Do you notice that i get fetishistic about names? I can never come up with a cool name!). The legend has it that Dose was recorded entirely with instruments bought from thrift stores, and it shows. The guitars are wonky and out of tune, and the instruments sound terrible; however, since Los Lobos are practically the most talented musicians who have ever walked the face of the earth, the playing is incredibly solid and it comes across as a revelation.

It turned a lot of Lobos fans off since it's a) abrasive as all getout and b) not really a group of songs as much as weird sketches. It almost sounds like an early Ween record, but with a huge Mexican influence. For me, the rough aesthetics plus the Mexican sabor plus the inconsistency makes this one of my favorite early Summer records.

I first heard this at a house party in Knoxville and realized--in an exaggerated epiphany-- that the music i had been listening to was really lame, and that there was tons of incredible music i hadn't discovered yet. 

Grouper- Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill

http://www.mediafire.com/?4okmxp57rcvmxoy

Grouper is apparently the work of one woman, Liz Harris, who has made a few other albums. This is my introduction to her. The songs are disarmingly quiet, reverb-y, and slow. But they don't necessarily feel sad or disdainful as you might expect. They tend to feel warmer, maybe even indifferent, and always pretty far off. It's a great soundtrack for feeling a bit introspective or kind of "off."

Recommended for a good mid day nap with the windows open and a good breeze. 

Clogs- The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walden (2009)

http://www.mediafire.com/?7q0am23d6v78wdd

Clogs is a "new classical" group that takes a very weird approach to making music. They are a little like Rachel's, where you feel that you could show the cd to the sweet metalhead who lives down the lane, your traffic cop, or your grandma, and all would be equally enthused.

I just realized that this is actually members of The National (Bryce Dressner, at least), who tend to dip in a lot of chamber music. Also featuring Sharon Worden of My Brightest Diamond, who sounds much better here than on her own music. Sorry, Sharon.

This cd has really grown on me-- haunting, minimal, strange, quiet, and beautiful.

Especially recommended if you've ever been interested in acoustic instruments, vocal harmonies, choral music, jazz, weird pop stuff (like St. Vincent or Deerhoof), and feeling as if you're very cultured.

Definitely recommended for fans of Colleen, Bjork, your local Byzantine choir, and renaissance music.

The Golden Fleece

http://www.mediafire.com/?x3f7e7wds5eu7u4

Of all the albums I have posted so far, this is probably the most mysterious. 
The Golden Fleece is songs from two Georgian ethnic enclaves, Abkhazia and Muslim Adzharia. The music is difficult to describe, oscillating between major and minor keys, instrumentation, and vocal styling. Some of it is an all out Vocal Belt-Fest (a'la American gospel music), and then dips into harmonic and drone-based fiddling. Some of it sounds like it could be guitar tracks from Animal Collective or Devandra Barnhart songs. 

Tame Impala- Innerspeaker

http://www.mediafire.com/?iyvg4t0ejin

Whenever there is a lot of hype around an album, it certainly falls into the "Hipper-than-thou" category, and therefore makes me exercise extreme caution. This is multiplied 10x when Pitchfork gives it a raving review (which for Pitchfork, means more than 6 out of 10. Bastards).

I looked into Innerspeaker based on the recommendation of a good friend, and i have to say: Pretty-Damn-Awesome.

The thing that made me really excited was a line that eMusic used to describe it: "It sounds like what the Beatles would have sounded like if they were around long enough to hear Yes." When the cd starts up rightaway, i thought, "Holy crap, they got John Lennon to sing on it!"

Fans of either George Harrison or John Lennon might get really wistful to hear this MetaBeatles band, and Innerspeaker does sound like it could have come out of that time period. It's really weird in that way.

Highly, highly recommended. Listen with earphones!!

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions- Through the Devil Softly

http://www.mediafire.com/?hbfi43tz1z4csiq

A friend of mine from Ohio introduced me to Brit-pop, shoegazer, and noise rock at the same time, and I can safely say that I was the only kid in Tuolumne County who knew of Blur, the Catchers, Mazzy Star, the Vaselines, Belly, the Breeders, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Elastica. That was a special time when i could hear Nirvana, Mazzy Star, Green Day, and the Flaming Lips on commercial radio. Commercial radio!!!

Nothing Mazzy Star recorded ever touched the magic of "Fade Into You," which is okay, since that is still an unworldly single. But years later, when Hope Sandoval made a solo album with My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig, I paid attention. "Bavarian Fruit Bread" is still one of my favorite records, that sounds as fresh now as it did ten years ago.

Through The Devil Softly is perhaps one small step below BFB, but it's still an uncanny and eerie record. Her "Is-she-singing-on-key-or-not" delivery still makes me weak in the knees, and the reverb-y instruments (from autoharp to twangy western guitar) makes such a weird juxtaposition that somehow works perfectly. It's a perfect cd for the dead of winter when it's dark and murky out. It's an album full of doubts, questions, and hauntings. And that makes it awesome.

This album will still sound amazing ten years from now.