Heres some cool stuff I've found over the past few weeks. Enjoy!
MidPoints Top 5: Start of Summer Songs
If you don't like 'em, comment with your own!
5. "Summer Girls" - LFO
4. "Summer of '69" - Bryan Adams
3. "Deadbeat Summer" - Neon Indian
2. "Summer Babe (Winter Version) - Pavement
1. "Constructive Summer" - The Hold Steady
TRACKS
So my friend Kristie has been telling me about Miniature Tigers for a while but I was foolish and never really gave them a chance until I saw that Neon Indian has started producing their stuff. They have a new album, F O R T R E S S, dropping later this summer and you can download the Neon Indian produced first single "Gold Skull" right here.
Wolf Parade - Expo 86 preview
A pair of new tracks from the band's forthcoming third album were recently released and fans of the bands previous material won't be dissapointed with either. You can download them both for free right here:
VIDEO
"Afraid of Everyone" - The National w/Sufjan Stevens on Letterman
"Higher Than The Stars" - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
"Next Girl" - The Black Keys
"Zebra" - Beach House
ONE-SENTENCE REVIEWS
Note: This has easily been the best month of new music releases that has happened since I started this blog. This stuff is really good, I'm just sayin'.
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Rating: 90/100
By drawing heavily from many of the most innovative artists of the past half-century, James Murphy aka LCD Soundsystem has once again synthesized countless familiar sounds and textures together with his own dance-production prowess to create a profoundly emotive, ridiculously danceable and brilliantly constructed album experience.
High Point Tracks: "Dance Yerself Clean", "All I Want", "I Can Change"
The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever
Rating: 72/100
With out any of the urgency, heart, nostalgia or drunken poetics of their previous releases, The Hold Steady have disappointed me for the first time with a very average and unfortunately forgettable record.
High Point Tracks: "Hurricane J", "The Weekenders", "We Can Get Together"
The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
Rating: 87/100
Everything I said about their debut album holds true with their sophomore effort but more so; its grittier, scarier, bluesier, more distorted and it flat out rocks harder.
High Point Tracks: "The Difference Between Us", "Die By The Drop", "Gasoline"
MIDPOINT OF INTEREST
The National - High Violet
Rating: 98/100
With four consecutive nearly flawless albums under their belt, The National continue to take strides towards being one of the greatest bands of this generation and High Violet proves that they can remain true to their core sound while wildly expanding their scope with a batch of 11 songs that dig deeper and soar higher than just about anything the band has previously released. This album delivers their loudest, most distorted guitar-rock anthems as well as their softest most desperate, heartbroken orchestral ballads; the crazy thing is that they are often the same song. Frontman and songwriter Matt Berninger isn't quite as mumbly as he was on Boxer and he doesn't yell as much as he did on Alligator or Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, but the middle ground of High Violet translates to what is probably the most direct and melodic National record yet. With each release, he seems to expand his nuanced lyrical honesty and in my opinion, this album proves that he is more than just a great modern songwriter but a great modern poet. However, the quality of a record or a band isn't determined simply by lyrics or guitars or melodies, but in their ability to weave all of these elements together to create something innovative, moving and transcendent and that, above all else, is what makes High Violet more than just a great rock record, its the closest thing to perfection I've heard in years.
High Point Tracks: "Terrible Love", "Afraid of Everyone", "Lemonworld", "England"
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