Another record I’ve been enjoying a lot so far this year has been Lotus Plaza’s The Floodlight Collective. Lotus Plaza is the sideproject of Deerhunter’s Lockett Pundt and with The Floodlight Collective he has created a wonderful little record full of gentle, dreamy psychedelia.

While reminiscent of some of Deerhunter’s more mellow material, The Floodlight Collective flows and meanders in its own direction. As far as mood goes, the record actually reminds me a lot of Boards of Canada’s classic Music Has The Right To Children. Both records have a nostalgic feel as if recalling tiny glimpses of childhood: memories where the sun is always brighter than it actually was and the smiles are always bigger than they actually were. From the cover to some of the (often unintelligible) lyrics, The Floodlight Collective recreates the hazy liminal world between waking and sleeping.

While it may not be AOTY material, The Floodlight Collective is well worth your time. It’s out now on Kranky.

Download
Lotus Plaza – Red Oak Way (via)

File this album under WTF.

A couple of years ago, The Horrors made an awesome music video and became an NME band. From where I stood they didn’t have all that much to offer musically and they seemed to care a lot more about how they looked than how they sounded. So it was only by reviews/articles from places I trust that I even bothered with the new Horrors record, Primary Colours, when it appeared in my mailbox a few weeks ago.

And I’m very glad I did give it a listen because this record is up my alley like something that loves to go up alleys. It’s dark. It’s heavy. And I’m a sucker for those Loveless-y guitars.

Pretty much every review I’ve read mentions the album’s clear influences, krautrock, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus And Mary Chain, and Spacemen 3 (to which I’d add the vocal stylings and pace of Echo and the Bunnymen). The record clearly owes a huge debt to the sonic experimentation of the aforementioned bands/style but it still manages to sound fresh and alive.

The band show a lot of maturity with Primary Colours. The opening minute of the record is an almost Eno-esque peaceful ambient passage before the distorted, gliding guitars and vocals explode making Mirror’s Image one of the finer opening songs I’ve heard in a while.

And from there the record continues to impress. Three Decades’s haunting synths are made menacing by the propulsive instrumentation that surrounds them and the title track is beset by a tremendous beauty beneath the distortion. And perhaps the true highlight, the record’s final song, Sea Within A Sea, reaches a thrilling, unexpected cresecendo bringing the record to a superb close.

Every time it ends the shock sets in: The Horrors have made a really great album. You can stream it here or…

Download:
The Horrors – Who Can Say

I don’t think I can overstate how surprised I was/am at this record.

I don’t often just post links to things on this blog much anymore, but this was too good to not mention here as well.

From The Onion:

“They were less like us live than they were in their abysmal online demos, if that’s even possible,” Greenwood told reporters. “If that bridge in their fourth song was supposed to be an homage to the cold, esoteric sounds of Hail To The Thief, they missed the mark by a mile. We stayed for the whole thing, and I heard not one ethereal exploration of alienation and longing, no textured soundscapes or sparse, clanging percussion sequences evoking an abandoned playground in winter. Nothing.”

[…]

When asked for comment, the band Coldplay—also listed by Hitler Hairdo as an influence—told reporters they were “very flattered” and “love those guys.”

Brilliant.

Christian Bale in The Machinist. Ingres. Noam Chomsky. The Virgin Suicides. Stephen Hawking. Transgenic milk. Marlon Brando. Dysmorphia. Jackie Collins. Love, lust, sex. Neophobia. Herman the bull. Levis jeans.

Oh Richey, how we miss you.

Last November, when the Manic Street Preachers announced they were in the studio with Steve Albini recording a new record featuring the lyrics of Richey Edwards I was surprised, excited, and nervous. More of Richey’s poems, songs, and screeds was definitely welcome but would fifteen year old lyrics still have something to say today? And perhaps even more crucially, would the band be able to do the songs justice after a patchy last…err….decade? The answer is a convincing, resounding yes.

Yes.

First off, Richey’s lyrics are incredibly thought-provoking and intelligent…even all these years later. They are timeless (and frighteneing and funny and witty). And they illuminate the fact that no lyricist working over the past ten or fifteen years has even bothered to attempt to fill that Plath/Miller/Mailer/Pinter shaped hole he left in pop music.

Alright, that’s the baggage. The record…

On Journal For Plague Lovers the band sounds more vital than they have since 1996. From the opening piece of dialogue (taken from The Machinist) and the Albini-deadened drums of Peeled Apples it is clear that this record was made with intent. The Manics’ passion, which has certainly lacked at times in recent memory, is evident all over the place.

Not everything hits with the ferocity of Peeled Apples though. In fact, on This Joke Sport Severed and Facing Page: Top Left, James Dean Bradfield manages to turn Richey’s words into two of the prettiest most graceful songs in the Manics’ catalogue. In between words about neophobia and skin cancer, James finds space and the songs elegantly inflate to fill the void.

One song that has stood out for me since my very first listen is Marlon JD. Sonically it’s a bit different for the band. Featuring a heavy drum machine and cutting guitars, the song splices in pieces of Marlon Brando’s dialogue from the film Reflections In A Golden Eye. It also features one of my favourite lyrics from the record:

Learn to live without clutter
To live without luxury

It’s an ambitious little song that probably comes closest to Richey’s dream of a record sounding like Pantera meets Screamadelica (not that the Manics set out to try to create that record).

And if everything that came before it wasn’t enough, the album ends with William’s Last Words. A delicate lullaby and farewell sung by Nicky Wire, the words, given Richey’s state of mind before his disappearance/suicide, are absolutely crushing. Yet the song doesn’t wallow in misery but is instead an incredibly fitting conclusion to Richey Edwards’ final declarations, questions and passions.

There is so much I love about this record. The way Doors Closing Slowly segues into All Is Vanity. The final thirty seconds of Jackie Collins Existential Question Time. “It’s the facts of life, sunshine.” And the blazing rage of hidden track Bag Lady. Journal For Plague Lovers is a testament to the genius of Richey Edwards but, perhaps just as importantly, it’s an amazing record in its own right. While it may not quite reach the near-perfection of The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go, it’s not that far off.

Watch: Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

And yesterday it was announced that the whole record will also be released as a remix record in the coming weeks. I’m not a huge fan of remixes but it includes Underworld’s first remix in over a decade.

Oh yeah, and thanks to Mona in the comments for reminding me…NME has a couple Manic-y things up for download, a Horrors remix of Doors Closing Slowly (which is terrible) and this Manics cover of a Horrors song.

Download:
Manic Street Preachers – Vision Blurred (Horrors cover)

More on The Horrors soonish…

I recently had the chance to interview The Drones’ Dan Luscombe via email as they travelled around Australia with the Groovin’ The Moo Festival and their own headlining shows. Since Havilah came out a while ago now I figured I’d avoid questions about the record and instead focus on The Drones’ touring life and what lay ahead in 2009. Read on for thieves in Noosa and Estonian composers.

Sean: Past Drones tours have been known to be a little calamitous at times. How has the Havilah campaign played out so far? Any near death experiences or massive equipment failure?

Dan: Amazingly, we’ve seemed to learn from past mistakes, and have avoided any (unnecessary) fatalities lately. Though having said that, I was recently robbed in the middle of me sleep, in Noosa of all places! I thought I was supposed to be careful in Detroit. Nobody warned me about Noosa.

S: The Drones have been busy touring since just before Havilah came out. Gareth has said the most (all?) of the songs were written acoustically and then fleshed out with the band. Did that pose a challenge when you guys had to take them on the road? Have the new songs have evolved over the course of the tour?

D: No real problems, as such. In Australia we can afford to carry the acoustic guitars around, but overseas we usually have to travel a little lighter, so they tend to get the more calamitous side of the group.

S: Last night in Sydney you guys played two songs off The Miller’s Daughter which pleasantly surprised me. It got me wondering, with such an extensive back catalogue is it difficult deciding what gets played at a given gig? Do you guys have a bunch of songs rehearsed and ready to go?

D: We do, but once we get a good flow happening in the set list, we tend to milk it until somebody gets itchy to do something different. Nailing a good set list is a bit of a trial and error process, and one that nobody wants to go through that often!

S: Is there one song in particular that you look forward to more than others when you see it on the setlist?

D: The last one, whatever that is, because we’re usually pretty pooped by the end of a show. Not because we’re lazy or unfit or anything. Mostly because we throw our all into the show. As far as an actual favourite goes, I’ve been enjoying strapping on the acoustic for “Acting’s like the End of the World”. It makes me feel refined!

S: The Drones seem to be one of a relatively small bunch of Australian bands that has managed to find success overseas. What’s been the most integral part of this? Regular touring of Europe and North America? Really supportive overseas labels? Or maybe just four stellar albums?

D: All of these factors combined, and then flogged within an inch of their life!

S: You guys are heading over to Europe soon to play a bunch of shows including some with Snowman, another favourite of mine. They’ve currently relocated themselves to the UK which seems to be a growing trend amongst Australian bands. Has there every been any discussion/temptation/pressure for you to do the same?

D: It’s always an idea, but we seem to spend so much time abroad that it’s almost become unnecessary. Plus everybody starts to miss friends and family after a while. We figure we’ve got a fairly decent balance happening these days.

S: I’m always keen to hear what musicians are listening to. Are there a few records (new or old) that you’re currently really into?

D: I’ve been listening to lots of Arvo Part. He’s an Estonian composer. Very minimal, generally soothing stuff. He’s a perfect antidote to the ringing in my ears at the end of a night’s work.

S: Other than the upcoming European tour, do The Drones have any other plans for the rest of the year?

D: More U.S, more Europe, and Gaz and I are touring here with Augie March in a couple of months. Next year, we take some time off to establish some semblance of normality.

S: Thanks for the time! Hope to see you guys again soon.

D: No wukkin’ furries.

Photo courtesy Daniel at Baker Street Photography. He’s got a great gallery of shots he took during the recording process of Havilah.

And how about a live cover of Neil Young?

Download:
The Drones – Cortez the Killer (live)

A couple weeks back I had a great mail day: when I opened up the mailbox I received my $900 RuddBucks and the new Grizzly Bear record, Veckatimest. I had already spent the cash but I had yet to hear Veckatimest as I hadn’t downloaded the poor quality leak that had been floating around. As I mentioned before, Yellow House took ages to grow on me. During my first few listens I found it difficult to find something to hold onto in Grizzly Bear’s music but its charms eventually found their way into my head. Still, I wouldn’t have called myself a huge fan of the band. So why was I so excited for the record? The Griz Hype, I suppose.

Over the past year or so Grizzly Bear have made all the right moves in the leadup to becoming “fucking huge” (not as though it was all part of some nefarious plan, mind you): they palled around with Feist, worked with Final Fantasy, had the balls to go on Letterman to perform Two Weeks last August (when the song was totally new), had a couple songs appear on Dark Was The Night and, perhaps most crucially, supported Radiohead on the east coast leg of their North American tour. During their final gig with Grizzly Bear, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood stated that Grizzly Bear were his favourite band in the world.

In addition to all that, every time I read something about Grizzly Bear and the upcoming record there seemed to be this unwavering belief that the album that would become Veckatimest would be nothing short of brilliant. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Veckatimest is going to be on every Best of 2009 list when the time comes. It’s been a remarkable couple years for Grizzly Bear but what’s even more remarkable is that Veckatimest turned out to be exceptionally brilliant and it will be appearing on those end of year lists. The album is a beautiful, intelligent, perfectly constructed piece of work that never missteps. Hell, even the artwork is sensational.

Jazzy opener Southern Point and first single Two Weeks open the record and it’s a hell of a one-two punch. Both songs feature such impressive instrumentation and orchestral flourishes that you can’t imagine the band can keep it up over the course of the record (but they do). Hell, even Brian Wilson would be proud of those soaring “Oooooooh” backing vocals on Two Weeks.

It really is a record that has so many high points you could easily just throw a metaphorical dart at any point in any song and find something pretty special happening. Dory is a sweet little nautical love song and While You Wait For The Others flexes the band’s guitar muscles. And just when you thought they couldn’t throw anything else at you, Grizzly Bear go and close Veckatimest with arguably it’s most gorgeous song, Foreground.

Over the next couple weeks you are going to be reading a lot of glowing reviews for this album…ignore them at your peril. Veckatimest is a dazzling and sensational record.

Download:
Grizzly Bear – Cheerleader

Veckatimest is out in Australia on May 23.

Last October I bumped into Dappled Tim at a Drones gig and he told me a new single was perhaps coming out in a matter of weeks. Well, it’s been months now but we finally have the first single from Dappled Cities’ upcoming third record entitled Zounds. The single is called The Price and it features everything I love about the band: a soaring melody, great instrumentation and a singalong chorus.

Download:
Dappled Cities – The Price

Sounds like the record should be another great one. Zounds is out in mid-August.

And based on the new website it seems that it is now 100% official: the Fly is dead. All hail Dappled Cities.

The backlog of great 2009 albums is upon me but Pink Mountaintops’ new one, Outside Love, is one I definitely wanted to make sure I wrote about here. The band is led by Stephen McBean who is also the driving force behind Black Mountain of whom I’ve always been a bigger fan. But with Outside Love, Pink Mountaintops have closed the gap big time.

Whereas other Pink Mountaintops records have sounded a bit more…solo I guess, with the new record McBean has surrounded himself with a ton of musicians and the result is a big record full of big songs. Nothing rambles on too long and many of the songs have choruses that beg to be sung along with (The Gayest of Sunbeams being my personal favourite at this point). In a year full of great records, Outside Love is one that I find myself continuing to go back to. Fantastic stuff.

Download:
Pink Mountaintops – Vampire
Pink Mountaintops – While We Were Dreaming

You can also stream the whole record at the band’s MySpace. And if you still aren’t convinced, here’s some bits and pieces from the PR release for the record:

Outside Love is ten songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steele romance novel but that would probably make for bad television. The ten songs on Outside Love are about or influenced by weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut, Christmas albums, that one Exile song and that one Echo and the Bunnymen song, the Bermuda Triangle, being depressed in the sunshine, people who haven’t made out yet but will in the future, The Everly Brothers, clowns in the ceilings, and bedrooms where skinheads used to live.

Who doesn’t love songs about clowns in the ceilings?

Constantines and The Weakerthans are currently playing nearly everywhere in Canada on their Rolling Tundra Revue tour (Best tour name ever? Yes.). The tour even has a blog which has even spawned a bookclub led by John K. Samson. And the book? The very rock ‘n’ roll Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust. I plan on one day embarking on In Search of Lost Time but I can’t commit to it just yet.

Anyway, I digress. What the tour really got me thinking about was seeing Constantines live and how it seems it’s never going to happen here in Australia. So I’ve had to satiate my Cons-related desires with this live show courtesy Baeble Music. The show was recorded last December but the setlist contains a surprisingly high number of songs from the first two Cons records. Awesome.

Download:
Constantines – Arizona
Constantines – Hard Feelings
Constantines – Soon Enough
Constantines – On To You

Seriously.

I wrote about Handsome Furs back in February just before Face Control was released and I was hoping the record would be as good as lead single I’m Confused. And you know what? It totally is. It’s smart, it’s fun, and it is probably a better album than At Mount Zoomer. OH I WENT THERE.

This record sounds like the bastard Soviet lovechild of Bruce Springsteen and New Order.

*DANCE*

Download:
Handsome Furs – I’m Confused

However, the album cover still sucks.