Surfacing In Style Instrumentally

We welcome you to three "surfacing" bands who, in the finest tradition of Surface to Air subjects, have lifted clean-off their terrestrial moorings and produced a new record which sees each of them tear-arse to the front of an otherwise meandering pack of 2011 recording artists and signal that the race for album of the year is gonna go down the very last minute of 2011.  And to have achieved this with records which are largely instrumental in content , design and intent is a testament of to their makers' inherent awesomeness.


First off - From Rare Forms to Mystic Places... WOODSMAN

Having already turned out a rock solid long player in 2011, the lopsidedly underrated Rare Forms, Woodsman insisted on carving their considerable signature one more time into the trunk-like face of 2011.

Where Rare Forms may have looked and sounded a little like an imagined Ozrick Tentacles reformation, the swift and deft Mystic Places showcases a band at the pinnacle of its instrumental and compositional powers.


Woodsman have the rare quality found only occasionally in largely instrumental recordists wherein they produce entire long-players worth of material without ever sounding as though they're jamming and/or looping their way to the end of side two.  The difference between genuine player-composers and self-regarding noodly tweakers it must be said.  Hear Woodsman swing.

Woodsman: Mystic Places by alteredzones


Second off - From Psychic Psummer to Neverendless... CAVE

Chicago's very own wig-out merchants Cave have delivered their first studio record as a four-piece and with the opener, W U J, have catapulted the rythmic clamberings of most other alleged instrumental psych-rockers into outerspace.  


The concept of musical telepathy is taken to a new level with Neverendless and the listener is treated to a suite of interweaving canvass-like works in sonic sublimation.


Step into the cave-neverendless.

CAVE - MUJ by Fuse Group Australia


Third off - From Dos to West via Vol.2 ... WOODEN SHJIPS 

Wooden Shjips of San Francisco have happily indulged their love of warm valves and heavy gauge guitar strings for a number of years now with a modest but potent array of early releases which seem now to serve as forensic forays toward the more substative undertaking that is West.


Ripley Johnson's vocals are so sedatively restrained and pitched so far back in the mix as to allow West/Wooden Shjips to qualify for instant intrumental status.  Indeed, the vocals play an instrument-like role in a glorious, plunging, rock avalanche that always enjoys a soft landing.  Set sail aboard Wooden Shjips.

Wooden Shjips: "Crossing" by alteredzones

LOW-EARTH ORBIT: Spatial Musings in the Ambio-Sphere

A fortuitous splurge in the outpourings of this planet's best musical space-farers demands a pre-launch briefing for would-be audio outlanders everywhere.  So cast aside for a moment your anthemic chorus lines, middle eights, and repeat-to-fade verse threes (with interweaving chorus harmonies) and strap yourself in for the ride of an inner-lifetime.  For here are the very best post-ambient solar-stewards to guide your own personal listening shuttle through the outer-reaches of song and sound.

When Cameron Stallones says his music is "pretty committed to the true psychadelic ethos of mantric ideals", you tend to wish the 26 year-old safe passage to next dimension - because if there's anything about this world of which you can be certain at the moment, it's that it is not going to be gentle on our under-valued dreamers. Thankfully, Stallones' fourth long-player issued under the Sun Araw monicker is a veritable force-field generating spectral refuge fo the ears and mind. With the record's sparsley placed pockets of density, it genuinely feels like you're island hopping in a sparkling ocean of tuneful drone between luscious outcrops of trans-musical terrain.
Sun Araw: Ancient Romans by alteredzones

Julianna Barwick's The Magic Place is a respirator for the mind.  The intersection between place and time, technology and nature, is the setting for this modest yet astutely ambitious post-ambient recording.  The intimacy of Barwick's vocals are perfectly counterbalanced with a cathedral-scale grandness and a deft reinvention of the echoing musical landscape, which is replete with present-day characters and experiences - rather than some swooning period cliche in flowing white full-length doilies.  The careful placement of interweaving refrains at either end of a long and resonant hallway delivers the listener to a place you'll instantly fondly remember and long to return to again and again. 
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place by Mistletone

Get Lost, Mark McGuire's follow-up to 2010's Living With Yourself, is a full-length album of shimmering guitar-synth motifs, assembled (and then disassembled) into song-like structures which rise up in the middle of an ocean of sound then gently slip back beneath the blueness to reveal an unbroken horizon. You almost need to ask yourself, "did you just see that?" McGuire's ability to develop authentic and unforseen textures from an instrumental array which can sometimes lead to, in lesser hands, a one-dimensional guitar-loop drone assault on the listener, is astounding. Our chosen selection below represents an early "incantation" of Another Dead End from Get Lost and gives precious glimpses into the early inner-workings of a true resonance craftsman who invites us to "get lost" in sound.


Another Dead End EP by Mark McGuire

Julian Lynch's Terra, the follow-up to last year's weirdly compelling yet wholly laid-back Mare, arrives with the warming full-body embrace of a deep yawn, wiping sleep and other sounds from its eyes, and embarks on what can only be described as the kind of noise-jam you would make if you awoke in a strange and remote mansion and started playing drums and piano in your pajamas. Even Lynch's surprisingly up-in-the-mix nasally falsetto is perfectly cast alongside a veritable playroom full of other toys - all of them high performing state of the art musical instruments played almost entirely by Lynch himself.  Who'd have thought that harmonising saxophones and a banjo had such right of place in an ambient soundscape such as this? Wake up to the music and majesty of a new day.

Julian Lynch: Terra by alteredzones


Now to launch this ambio-listening-pod truly out to the furthermost outer reaches, we ask you please to step aboard this daringly collaborative, genuinely universal, musical mission accepted by one artist and his namesake telescope to render a singular soundscape for the vision of our cosmos. Ben Greenberg, aka Hubble, delivers a carefully crafted ambient sound-space set to deeply resonating fret work as part of his new long player, Hubble Drums'.  This cut, "Hubble's Hubble", dares spawn a soundtrack to the almost unbelievable cosmic imagery captured by The Hubble Space Telescope.

MOMENTS IN SOUND: Belle and Sebastian - Sydney Opera House, March 10 2011

Back in the olden days, early settlers The Go-Betweens sailed from Brisbane to Glasgow and explored the watery territory of nostalgia pop, drawing the map for a Scottish tradition that continued with Orange Juice and Camera Obscura, and is presently embodied in Belle and Sebastian. The common thread being economic well built pop songs with a vague longing for something past - (well percolated now in the Go-Betweens case because they really are in the past - but even when they were current, The Go-Betweens still pined for a better more innocent past.)

Charting a course through the waters of this sort of music can be treacherous. There you are, skimming across the water like a stone, your sails filled with wistful longing, your library bag flapping in the breeze, when suddenly you realise you are too close to the rocks and before you know it the listener is floundering and left stranded on a maudlin shore.

Such is the line Belle and Sebastian must navigate, and at their March 10 show at the Sydney Opera House they more often than not managed to stay on the cheerful side of it. Their distinctive organ and trumpet sound and impeccably placed guitar licks keeps everything cheerful. But Stuart Murdoch's thin high voice sometimes takes on a whiny and precious note and having enjoyed their music for years without seeing them live, Murdoch's rock star strutting was unexpected and sat incongruously with Belle and Sebastian's jam sandwiches and lashings of ginger beer vibe. What saves it from the murk is the deadpan delivery of often caustic and hilarious lyrics. A first listen will sound mournful, a second listen will sound funny.

Maintaining the more expected nervous chat and self deprecatory humour was left up to guitarist and other singer Stevie Jackson, but his contribution far exceeded between song banter. His layered, reverby noodlings are easy to take for granted on CD but are impossible to ignore live and were reason enough to turn up on a school night. Jackson's work and self-effacing demeanour more truly carries on the Go-Betweens legacy than Murdoch's posturings and he is - not to belittle Murdoch's inward looking songs - responsible for some of the more cheerful songs.

If the show drifted occasionally close to the deadening rocks of murk, it was not the fault of the band: alongside Jackson, Richard Colburn's unexpectedly solid drumming, Chris Geddes' well placed keyboards, Sarah Martin's distinctive vocals n violin, plus a rung-in string section created a densely woven wall of wistful. No, the chink in the armour is the man tied to the mast: Murdoch has had according to my friend, an "irony bypass" and "Fox in the Snow" and "Get Me Out of Here I'm Dying" did seem unnecessarily sooky. 

But this is harsh because the reward for sitting through the odd squirmy moment is hearing early movie-theme evocative songs like "Expectations" and the latest album's "I Want the World to Stop” from the current holders of the title of most nostalgic band in the world.

- Lindsay Dunbar 2011 -

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic

So how should we interpret this decision by Stephen Malkmus to enlist Beck (Hansen, no less) to render the sonic scribblings of his new-look Jicks outfit?  Should we even seek to imagine the in-studio rapport between two of indie rock's most influential figures over the last two decades?  Why would we?  Is it even important?  When they say objects in the mirror are closer that they appear - what the heck are we expected to do with that information? Speed up? Slow down? Freak out?!!

The very idea of Beck producing Malkmus was enough to lead even the most ardent solo-Malkmus fan to muse aloud whether this was, at last, the moment where Stephen Malkmus would finally be set free from his self-sanctioned artistic event-horizon - where the artist is found recreating then finessing the very same album every few years - visibly not aging, but also not dramatically or drastically progressing, in any direction?  

Could there indeed be a Dorian Gray-style portrait of Stephen Malkmus in some Stockton loft somewhere, dutifully gathering dust and years in equal measure?  And why not Beck? - as the sometimes vacant-eyed, but wholly off-world, indie mystic called upon to meticulously (perhaps even ponderously) slash away at this carefully composed self-portrait and spark Stephen Malkmus into trying something new and different?  Seriously, for example - were we about to witness the former Pavement frontman's very own millennial Odelay?

From the opening few seconds of Mirror Traffic the listener is confronted with a strangely conspicuous, yet somehow furtive, undeniably mournful, yet indisputably joyous, realisation that such a deliberate conspiracy to transform Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks is not the intention behind this record and never was it likely, really, to have ever been on the cards.

So now we've got that question out of the way - what of the record?  In keeping with Beck's past production efforts, the album is an exercise in recording mastery, with luscious mixes and near-perfect guitar-takes.  This is not to say Stephen Malkmus, the defiantly anti-technical, self-taught anti-guitarist, has suddenly hit the textbooks with Professor Hansen peering over his shoulder.  Malkmus continues to radiate his unique, mistakes-and-all, guitar brilliance (all produced without him having the faintest idea what the technical term may be for any one of his licks).  It's just that the placement of these chiming six-string indie motifs in the Jicks mix is perfectly cast.  And the Jicks as an outfit seem, partly as a result, more assured in the hands of an undisputed indie high-priest such as Beck.  Less fearful perhaps of cramping the Malkmus mystique.

For many, the departure of Janet Wiess as drummer brought to an end a fitting gender balance within the Jicks which seemed to complement Malkmus' anti cock-rock defiance.  Indeed Wiess, especially live, was the modern embodiment of a happily strident chick-rocker who could punch holes in the face of Jicks' wig-outs while hollering into the ever-present blasting fan which accompanied her kit.  Wiess certainly will be missed from the live renderings but, on vinyl, the Jicks have retained all of the swish and sway of the very best of past recordings, largely owing to the symbiotic relationship between Malkmus' guitar riffage and the ride cymbal - indeed, they are one.  Ex-Joggers drummer Jake Morris has made a fine fist of the funky foundations especially with his curling, purring snare work, not lost for one minute on Dr Beck behind the glass.  Joanna Bolme and Mike Clark are both superb cohorts giving the Jicks a softness and assuredness of touch that, without either, "the Jicks" would simply have to fold.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Tigers by artsandcraftsmx

So just how close is this to past efforts and should we give a hoot anyway as to its linear lineage?  Well, from the get-go, tracks such as Brain Gallop and Tigers are so distinctively Malkmus/Jicks as to lead one to think that, if heard in a live setting, you'd be certain that you adored this song from the very first time you heard it "way back when" - which would be today.  Not so much confusing as it is endearing.  Blissful recreations of a unique sound which is yet to wear out its welcome - not by a long shot.  It's when you encounter tracks such as Stick Figures in Love, Asking Price and the rather Pavement-esque Spazz do you begin to hear new elements and vocal treatments which reveal Beck's admiring influence, benevolently prodding SM and the Jicks into producing their best sounding recorded effort to date.

Apart from his superb little mouth-harp insertions, the extent to which Beck orchestrated this aural achievement remains unclear - and that's just how you want it.  The producer is in the booth, and not on the studio floor, for a reason - he/she ain't in the band.  But, only by the time you are up to your eardrums in this album of such discreet and unassuming pleasures, do you even begin to detect new twists in the tail of one of indie rock's most beloved dinosaurs.  Long Hard Book for example serves up everything from a flash of the Stones' tuneful acoustic-laden harmonies through to echoing guitar-growl and over-driven staccato chops heralding the arrival of an overly prompt outro.  Tune Grief on the other hand comes across as a slightly manufactured opportunity to give Malkmus the chance to spiral up and down on one (of a number) of his trademark vocal gibber-bursts.  The tune itself, however, is treated to a less precocious mix than would otherwise be the case, saving it from becoming a near-certain caricature of the archetypal Malkmus vocal-fit.

Songs such as All Over Gently (an oldie from '08), and Forever 28 before it, certainly reward the Malkmus fan for keeping the faith - more so in guitar lines and contorted arrangements than in lyrics however.  In fact, it is the lyrical content of this album which raises questions over Malkmus' habitual Gen-Xer-style slackness.  Are these words taking us anywhere?  Are they meant to?  Would it be pretentious to be anything other than haphazard and throw-away in our attitude to song words?  Needless to say, this is one area where Beck's influence could not probe or venture.  Malkmus' lyrical witticisms are just that - idiosyncratic remarks designed to amuse as much as to inform.  Ask Malkmus to write a song about climate change and it could, as likely as anything else, wind up being about warm watery mist appearing on the insides of communal coin-op laundromats.  It's not bereft of meaning - just not readily decipherable to anyone other than Stephen Malkmus and maybe Jethro (or whoever his latest hapless lyrical wanderer happens to be).  If we were ever to look for a David Foster Wallace in the new century's indie squadron of seriously influential artists, SM would probably thank us courteously for the complement and cheekily invite us to keep looking.

However you interpret it - the vision in the mirror brought by this album is one of serene glimpses of human traffic moving within impressionistic surroundings; accompanied by the constant churn of regular and irregular people, together, leading varied and at times comical lives - all to the tune of Pavement's non-committal slacker-genius - sprinkled, as always, with a beguiling dash of false-modesty and intellectual front-guy angst.  The words themselves are artfully chosen, but never are they able to settle on a singular subject for long - like a lyrical butterfly resisting capture for fear of having its frail wings torn off by an adoring but fumbling child-like admirer.

This is arguably the album Stephen Malkmus has been trying to complete for the past decade.  And both the Jicks line-up and the production personnel have played a role in achieving this outstanding and, it must be said, sublime piece of music making.  Whether Mirror Traffic finally releases Stephen Malkmus from a ten-year orbit around the same, albeit humbly glorious, long-player is another matter.  And one which we'll have no problem waiting for - given the sumptuous and intoxicating play-list with which we've been supplied until the next chapter unfolds.  For the record: the next installment?  I'm predicting an almighty departure by the now untethered Malkmus.  But maybe that's what we were assuming might happen last time?   Either way, it doesn't really seem to matter.  As long as the listening is this good, the life-traffic in the mirror, however close, will never reach us.  These are simply artful ideas and colourful impressions, of both people and places, for us to revel in while listening to some of this life's most consummate indie tunage.

Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks - Brain Gallop by artsandcraftsmx

The nice peeps over at NPR have snuck in another of their enviable "first listens".  Check the traffic in your mirror...Mr Jethro ?!!

Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest

Judging by the excited postings of fans on her website, this new album by American roots/folk songwriter Gillian Welch, her first since 2003’s Soul Journey, has been keenly anticipated.  And they have been rewarded by a soulful, dark, lyrical album that touches on familiar themes – temptation, tragedy and loss.

With songwriting partner David Rawlings, Welch presents ten tracks that are stripped down instrumentally, most relying solely on their acoustic guitars ornamented by Rawlings’ sublime fingerpicking.  Rawlings also provides the vocal harmonies, his voice just sitting under Welch’s, and together they sinuously weave themselves around the guitar melodies.  Recorded on analogue tape, these numbers offer an intimate and cohesive experience for the listener. 


But there’s a sadness that pervades this album - ten types of sadness according to Rawlings.  Nevertheless, listeners may find it strangely uplifting. On ‘Dark Turn of Mind’ Welch knowingly sings ‘Some girls are as bright as the morning, and some are blessed with a dark turn of mind’ which captures the album and Welch succinctly. For all of her tales of loss and fate, Welch regards them with an unsentimental eye. ‘I can’t say your name without a crow flying by’ she sings on ‘The Way it Will Be’, and on the last track “The Way the Whole Thing Ends’ she coolly regards her ex-lover: ‘here you come alone and cryin’/once you used to be my friend/that’s the way the cornbread crumbles/that’s the way the whole thing ends’. 

The beat picks up in ‘The Way It Goes’, a backwoods tale of misery that wouldn’t be out of place on Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads.  Religion and the church are an occasional presence on the record, reflecting perhaps the times and places she writes of rather than her own convictions. Her characters spurn the conventions of church (‘I’m through with bibles, I’m through with fools’) preferring the comfort of whiskey, music and men. Welch lives and breathes these songs, and the longing in ‘Down Along the Dixie Line’ is a real heartbreaker, silent on what has led to exile of the narrator.

A fully conceived album of beautifully crafted songs, and a real treat for fans and newcomers alike.

- Craig Howe 2011 -

Last Summer: Eleanor Friedberger

Only a few times a year does a debut album come along which announces its own arrival with an entirely unassuming, yet wholly matter-of-fact intellect, confidence and completeness.


Albums such as these tend not to pine for attention or jostle for recognition. They sound intrinsically fulfilled and  seem, rather superbly, to enjoy their own company. Noting the above, you'd be forgiven for thinking this might all be a pointless exercise in intellectualism - in which the whole 'pop-rock record as art' contrivance is taken up by a daring new novelist with a flair for self-gratification, eschewing commercial viability, and goading the listener into actually going away. And it could be - were it not so damn good sounding.

Eleanor Friedberger - Scenes from Bensonhurst by MergeRecords

Indeed, it is the music rather than the sprawling, engaging, lyricism which underscores this record's true value to the 2011 soundscape. Friedberger's regular outfit, The Fiery Furnaces, have always held out the promise of an exciting new blend of musical adventurism combined with lyrical prowess. Yet, somehow, for the most part, they have managed to under-deliver on the majority of outings - possibly through the practice of trying a little too hard to unearth a new idea or giving that good idea a modicum too much munificence when it finally makes it onto the page/vinyl.


'Last Summer' on the other hand provides a musical sound-space in which the lyrics find a natural home - probably, in some cases, after a long lost journey. More than just a canvass, the tunes and arrangements give the stories a pumping, surging, circulatory system which brings the characters and scenarios to full life. The Russian bike repairer on Coney Island, the giggler on the F train out of Brooklyn, the nervous twosome scoring on "the corner" and the narrator posing in front of a somebody else's expensive car, are all scenes that are animated by the musical arrangements which accompany them. When it comes to influences, the sources are dazzlingly varied and the stakes (of getting it wrong) are daringly high. The echoing eeriness of Inn of the Seventh Ray and the 'so it goes' groove-shuffle of Roosevelt Island propel the listener from territory somewhere near David Bowie's Sound and Vision (from his '77 masterwork 'Low') out to the present-day 'Instant Vintage' of modern artists such as the brilliant Raphael Saadiq and then back again. And, somewhere along the way, Friedberger managers to re-establish (if not completely revive) the relevance and essentialness of a quality sax solo and simple piano flourish in modern rock music. But I'll let you discover the myriad other treasures for yourself.

Eleanor Friedberger - My Mistakes by The Wounded Jukebox

If Eleanor Friedberger continues in the practice of documenting her mistakes (which is an undeniably rich lyrical seam for the rest of us to enjoy) - then 'Last Summer', undoubtedly, will never feature among them.

Marvin Gaye - What's Goin On (40th Anniversary Edition)

"It’s difficult to overestimate the quality and impact of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 masterpiece, What’s Going On. It was voted as best album of all time by the NME and British newspaper The Guardian, and it rests at number 6 on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list. The album was not only a departure for Gaye himself, but for Motown and for soul music in general. It received instant critical and commercial success, breaking records upon its release.

The album was recorded on the back of a period of depression for Gaye, who lost close friend and recording partner Tammi Terrell in March 1970. During this period Gaye remained shrouded in obscurity, refusing to record or perform for some time. The breakthrough point came shortly after he met Al Cleveland and Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson (of the Four Tops), who had begun work on a song entitled What’s Going On, which took on political and social issues as its subject matter. The composition of the song was completed with the help of Gaye and, after some persuasion, Gaye himself recorded the song.

Motown owner Berry Gordy Jr. initially branded the song too political, certain it wouldn’t appeal to commercial audiences but, upon its release in January 1971, the song became Motown’s fastest selling single to date, prompting Gordy to demand an accompanying album. That album, of course, was to become What’s Going On. Upon completion of the album Gordy again protested, claiming the album was too political and its commercial potential rendered impotent by its song-cycle format. Once again, of course, Gaye stood his ground and got the album released. Once again, of course, Gordy was proved wrong.

A popular soul musician, especially on the Motown label, standing up to record executives was virtually unheard of at the time, and it’s a credit to Gaye that he followed his vision through so determinedly. It’s also fortunate for us as listeners, because with What’s Going On, Gaye created something both timeless and deeply relevant to the period in which it was released. Gaye approaches subjects as diverse as political corruption, the Vietnam War, environmentalism, and social inequality, but the real coup of the album is that these subjects are never broached with the heavy-handed swipe of an activist. Rather, Gaye’s deftness of touch leaves questions unanswered, sentences unfinished and problems unsolved. What’s Going On, then, is political without being a manifesto; a maze of pleas and confusion that don’t so much hold a mirror up to society as ask people in general to hold that mirror up themselves.

What’s Going On also heralded a new period in soul music. The elements of jazz and classical instrumentation that are weaved throughout the album lend it a weight beyond its political focus and the unique use of a song-cycle was revolutionary for a soul artist. On top of all this, Gaye’s vocal performance demonstrated a maturity and skill few knew he had, despite his obvious talent in previous recordings. What stands out about Gaye’s vocals is the genuine sense of exacerbation he manages to transmit throughout each song, adding firm punctuation to the atmosophere created by the lyrics. As a contrast to his later album, Let’s Get It On, wherein Gaye’s emotional and sexual tensions often boil into yelps and screams, with What’s Going On Gaye is calmer, more reflective and at times even conversational, making the "brother" he often appeals to feel like it could be the listener themselves.

As for the rerelease at hand, bettering an album that’s already close to perfect is almost impossible. Production has been tweaked by modern hands and the second CD comprises a slew of extras (including unreleased instrumental outtakes and non-album tracks). It’s interesting to hear some of the alternate versions, especially a revealing early mix of What’s Going On. The lack of instrumental adornment gives the song an increased amount of intimacy and, given the lack of extra production, you can almost imagine you're hearing Gaye directly in the recording studio. Being able to seperate a song so ingrained in our culture from its normal presentation is both eye-opening and liberating.

The package also comes with 2 essays and a vinyl copy of the ‘Detroit Mixes’ (an early draft of the album that was dropped by Gaye so he could oversee the production process). Considering the price, it’s a box-set that will probably only interest die-hard fans and collectors, but for those to whom these things appeal (and for those who have never heard the ‘Detroit Mixes’) it’s undoubtedly worthwhile.

Following the release of What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye went on to become one of the biggest stars in the world and to this day his image and his songs loom large over the musical landscape. His is an undeniable, raw talent that transcends the time in which he was alive and will last for centuries to come. What’s Going On is not only a remarkable album, but an opportunity to discover a seminal artist at the peak of his powers; an insight into a true modern genius of pop music."

1 July, 2011 — Paul Fowler

Courtesy of Mr Fowler and the corduroy boys and girls at NoRipCord.

Thanks Paul.  And now, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, check out this timeless, effortlessly superb, classic performance from an unbelievably suave, gracious and be-suited Marvin from 1972 ...

A near-genuine Surface to Air almost-Exclusive!! New Wilco album "The Whole Love" - Cover art and tracklist

Wilco have a brand spankin new single 'I Might' that was just released at the Solid Sound Festival. The new single was released on Wilco's own dBpm Records label and was distributed directly at the Festival. The very limited 7 inch single also includes the B-Side 'I Love My Label' which is a Nick Lowes cover song. Wilco will make the 7" available July 19th to all others not able to attend Solid Sound.

As far as any additional information on Wilco's new album there is a lot of speculation. The title of the new album is still a little unclear but when Tweedy visited WRSI he hinted the title to be The Whole Love. The new album is due out in September.  There is an abundance of new material as the group has recorded over 20 songs in their north side loft. Tweedy had this to say about the songs...

"There are two strong threads of material, one being a little weirder - snot-nosed obnoxious pop songs - and the other more languid, atmospheric-country music."

Wilco played five new songs at Solid Sound according to Stereogum - I Might, Whole Love, Born Alone, Dawned On Me, Standing O? Check out 'Dawned On Me' and 'Born Alone' below, it is a good possibility that these songs along with 'I Might' will be featured on Wilco's 8th studio album.

The Whole Love will be released on September 27. The album will consist of 12 songs. The recent single 'I Might' will be part of the 12 along with 'Dawned On Me' 'Born Alone' 'Standing O' and 'Whole Love' that were featured at Solid Sound. Also they have announced a full tour schedule as well with 29 stops, and sure to be more added.

The Whole Love Tracklisting:

01. Art of Almost

02. I Might

03. Sunloathe

04. Dawned On Me

05. Black Moon

06. Born Alone

07. Open Mind

08. Capitol City

09. Standing O

10. Rising Red Lung

11. Whole Love

12. One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)

The return of the B-side?

Wilco’s new single “I Might” went on sale last at weekend’s Solid Sound Fest (AKA Wilcopalooza) in North Adams, MA. The song’s a tight, fuzzed-up, riff-ollah, with John Stirratt's bass and Jeff Tweedy's acoustic guitar trading licks from the get-go.  Add to that Mikael Jorgensen's chiming xylophone peeking it's shiny colourful teeth through a gloriously off-colour chorus, “It’s alright/ You won’t set the kids on fire/ But I might”, and you've got an outfit who aren't quite yet ready to climb back down from the peak of their powers.  The track is Wilco’s first for their own label dBpm, which they already love so much they covered Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label” on the b-side. As a special treat for Surface to Air fans, we have the new b-side right here. Take a listen to “I Might” and the follow it up with nicely squirreled away return-to-form b-side.  The outro won't let you down.

Wilco - I Might by ListenBeforeYouBuy

Remember, the outro...

Wilco - I Love My Label by The Line Of Best Fit

You can thank me later.

Atoms For Peace (feat Thom Yorke & Flea) w/Flying Lotus at Roseland NYC

Question is...where were you? "Glasto"? Bad luck.

Thought Ballune - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Portland trio Unknown Mortal Orchestra stopped by the Fuel TV studios to deliver this locked-in performance of "Thought Ballune", a cut from their excellent self-titled debut LP, on shelves last week thanks to Fat Possum.

Collections of Colonies of Bees - GIVING

The very brilliant experimental rock con-flab Collections of Colonies of Bees are set to release their new LP GIVING on 2 August 2011 via the Hometapes lable.

Enjoy a scintillating live rendition of the opening track Lawn unleashed on a very grateful audience at Tokyo's Shibuya O-West.

Collections of Colonies of Bees - Lawn from Hometapes on Vimeo.

Wilco - I Might

This past weekend, Wilco's second annual Solid Sound Festival went down in North Adams, Massachusetts. One of the special treats for attendees of the festival was first dibs on copies of Wilco's new 7" single, "I Might", the first single on Wilco's new, self-owned record label, dBpm Records. (It's backed by a cover of Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label", appropriately enough.) The single, which you can stream below, hits shops July 19. (via Stereogum).

The Unthanks - Last

And now for some superlative wordsmanship on the newish Unthanks LP, Last, from our favourite Hunter-gatherer, Craig "the rural sophisticate" Howe(?). Take it away Craigus.

"Every now and then you come across an album that is not just an excellent listen, but that opens the door on a facet of the music world previously unknown to you. 

The Unthanks ‘Last’ is one such record, and I’ll certainly be giving their back catalogue a thorough going-over.  Rachel and Becky Unthanks, sisters from England’s North East, were raised amongst a rich folk tradition and are musically classified as ‘contemporary folk’ which would normally have me heading in the other direction. 

While it is a very English record and a lot of the subject matter is based around local tales and traditions, the unique vocal performances ensure that this record transcends any genre classification.

The title track is a seven minute gem underpinned by a lilting piano refrain and a snare nestling just behind the beat. The respective voices of the sisters are highlighted beautifully; Rachel’s purer tones against the smokier tones of Becky, as they share verses then join in a gorgeous, swelling harmony.   

The sisters regional dialect comes through clearly, particularly in the ‘Queen of Hearts’, a three/four number featuring autoharp and cornet, and the Geordie accent has never sounded more appealing or wistful. Their regional roots are evident in songs such as ‘Gan to the Kye’,  and ‘Close the Coalhouse Door’ (about a coalmining disaster), and The Gallowgate Lad, while  they choose some interesting covers, namely King Crimson’s ‘Starless’ and Tom Waits’ ‘No-one Knows I’m Gone’.

Find yourself a cold wintry afternoon, stoke the fire, pour yourself a glass of red and let the majesty of this record reveal itself to you."

01 The Unthanks - Last (Live 6 Music Session) by drakeygirl

And check out this awesome, oh-so brief, live performance by the Unthanks at the Imagine Festival in Waterford, Ireland. Quite superb.

The Unthanks from John Loftus | Creative* on Vimeo.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Truly magestical new song from Portland indie-rock mysterios, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. "Ffunny Ffriends" is lifted from their self-titled debut long-player released just last week. 

Just you try to cut it short. Simply impossible. 

Hence the lengthy fade-out we guess. Should go even longer. 

But just look at that luscious fade-out in the sound-wave file view. A thing of beauty.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Ffunny Ffrends by chaught02

Unknown Mortal Orchestra filmed this performance of "How Can You Luv Me" while in the Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, as part of a recent Yours Truly shoot. The track is from their self-titled debut LP, out June 21 on Fat Possum.

Yourstru.ly Presents: UMO "How Can You Luv Me" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Jay Reatard's original garage-punk outfit: REATARDS

And for those who need a punch in the face to get going this weekend, here's a 15 year-old Jay Reatard punching a guitar-shaped hole in the face of tomorrow with a scorchingly low-fi, full-throttle DIY, splash-splotter version of Chuck Taylor's All Star Blues.

Take it away Jay!

And don't dare miss Reatards brand new re-issue out now on Goner Records, "Teenage Hate". "Guitar, screaming, and pounding." That's how Jimmy "Jay" Lindsey credited himself in the liner notes of his first proper LP, 1998's Teenage Hate. He also billed himself as Jay Reatard, the pseudonym he would use on a staggering number of recordings until his death early last year. According to a transcript included with this deluxe reissue of Teenage Hate, Reatard was a name taken on one night not long before the material was recorded, during a live set comprised of Bay City Rollers covers. "After our first song some guy with a big green mohawk yelled out 'you guys are fucking reatarded [sic],'" he said. "So at the next garage party we played, I announced us as the Reatards kinda as a joke but the name fit so we kept it."

King Khan and the Shrines

Explode your sunny weekend into full shine-tastic splendour with none other than King Khan and the Shrines singing from a rooftop near you..

Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Lyrical snapshot from the highly anticipated sophomore release of Justin Vernon and his band Bon Iver:

"Iʼm tearing up, acrost your face
move dust through the light
to fide your name
it’s something fane
this is not a place
not yet awake, I’m raised of make


still alive who you love
still alive who you love
still alive who you love


in a mother, out a moth
furling forests for the soft
gotta know been lead aloft
so I’m ridding all your stories
what I know, what it is, is pouring – wire it up!


you’re breaking your ground."

Some pretty far-flung abstracted symbology going on there, you'd be forgiven thinking. But in its sonic context it works perfectly. It works so well in fact, I think I'm about ready to forgive him for that final track on the album - the wholly ironic-less smelly piece of 80s cheese - Beth/Rest.

Written by Justin Vernon with Andre Durand and Dan Huiting
Directed by Andre Durand and Dan Huiting
Produced by Daniel Cummings and Picture Machine Productions

Making Eye Contact...

Here's a few choice words about the new Gang Gang Dance effort from none other than the CEO of Flying Lobster himself, Pierce "Duder" Brown.

"The new album from New York’s Gang Gang Dance, their first for 4AD, begins with the words "I can hear everything, it's everything time”. This ushers in the sound of the remarkable 11 minute electronic apocalypse of Glass Jar, a magnificent, spiraling, sprawling album opener, which proves an early climax on this, their category-defying 5th outing. Unlike their recent output, 2005’s dark-ambient masterpiece God's Money or the grime world beat of 2008’s Saint Dymphna, Gang Gang Dance chose to undertake a more fully realized writing and recording process for Eye Contact to produce their highly original and distinctively percussive Eastern groove. Recorded with new drummer Jesse Lee, who replaces founding member Tim DeWit, the album was written in the peaceful Californian desert and recorded in a spacious converted-church studio in upstate New York. The result is an album that plays like a voyage or single composition, taking twists and turns within gloriously maze-like arrangements.

Although New Yorker's may talk about this band in the same breath as their good friends and spiritual brothers in the shadows of Animal Collective and Black Dice, that doesn't truly describe their sound. Wielding gigantically layered primal kaleidoscopic atmospherics, Gang Gang Dance are simply a little bit scary and a lot bit good. The electronic soul of key track Chinese High opens with a stuttering piece of spoken word sampling reminiscent of a ghost talking to themselves underneath a refrain, but once it kicks off it’s well-structured, visionary stuff.

The band’s secret weapon is the ethereal alien vocals of Lizzi Bougastos. Like another instrument, her voice is the arc around which the melodies are intertwined, weaving in and out and over their propulsive genre-splattering jazz percussion. Songs gradually build celestial wonder and cosmic euphoria and the album flies by in a seductive mélange of non-specific non-Western influences, tribal drums, and Frippertronic guitars. There are free-improvisational aspects (which Gang Gang Dance have become renowned for in the live setting) and unpredictability remains within their soundscapes, yet there is also a sense of well-defined structure throughout. While no commercial crossover will be gained from Eye Contact, Gang Gang Dance have released one of the most captivating albums of the year, each song different yet cohesive, challenging and ultimately highly rewarding."

Gang Gang Dance - Vacuum by stock-71

Meat Puppets - Lollipop

The Meat Puppets remain one of the most significant and vibrant American original acts. The band’s reputation is linch pinned because of their incomparable abilities in blending punk/d.i.y. attitude with country and psychedelic rock feel. The esteemed Kirkwood brothers were widely exposed to the MTV generation when Nirvana’s Cobain pursued them to join as guest musicians on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance in 1993. The band’s subsequent album Too High to Die went gold, selling over 500,000 albums, and became their most successful commercial release. After various trials and tribulations that have been well documented, the band reunited in 2006. With the new Lollipop, the band has now delivered three consecutive bat-right-on-the-ball studio efforts.

Meat Puppets - Damn Thing by All Tomorrows Parties

New Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

On August 22, 2011, Domino will be releasing ‘Mirror Traffic‘, the 5th post-Pavement album from Stephen Malkmus and the 3rd or 4th to bear the Jicks name (depending on whether you’re looking at spines, sleeves or labels).

Produced by Beck Hansen, ‘Mirror Traffic’ makes a compelling case that after some 22 years in the public eye, Stephen Malkmus’ full range of musical and lyrical capabilities had yet to be previously explored.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Senator by DominoRecordCo

Gang Gang Dance's mind-killin' jam in 4AD Studios

These guys are a little bit scary - but a lot bit good.  See for your self....

New Gang Gang Dance

Get lost somewhere this weekend in a gloriously maze-like arrangement...

Special thanks 4AD and Pitchfork