HELICOPTER DOES NOT EXIST

Brandon Biondo of Coolrunnings is involved in a number of traceable projects, and also drops solo gems on occasion. This is a case of the latter. It may be a basic instrumental, but this track invades jam status quickly. Behold, a sinister midnight attack:

BRANDON | HELICOPTER DOES NOT EXIST

(via Coolrunnings' tumblr)

Tuesday Love | Moonlighting

"There's no earthly way of knowing / Which direction we are going"

Maximum energy flowing throughout the blogosphere today. Let's just have one big blissed-out pillow fight meltdown for the love of it all.

Navajo Bixby | Moonlighting

More happy tracks are coming from Navajo Bixby this summer.

ps - just watched that boat scene over the weekend. So random//scary//revolutionary.

Puddles

I must say, watching Ben Wagner's music grow in the last half year so has been a vicarious pleasure. Since he first sent over that little Snow Day EP from a snowed-in dorm in Normal, Illinois, the guy seemingly hasn't left the bedroom. This new EP takes that sound-searching journey and presents it as a whole. From the cast of ambient flashbacks, here's what could be the long lost little brother of Memoryhouse's "Lately":

Hooray! | Long Distance

Puddles is free at bandcamp. And not surprisingly, Ben also brings news of a side project called Teen Spirits – a place for beats:

Teen Spirits | Silent Rooms

Kiitos Sara

Waiting directly in the heart of yesterday's Watching TV was the soothing harp of Kiitos Sara. Walking the halls of this entire compilation has been rewarding, but there was certainly nothing more divine than the surprise behind door number 7. "Butterfly" stood out for obvious reasons; it's a track formed around porcelain vocals and rippling strings (and what could be an actual triangle).

Kiitos Sara | Butterfly
Kiitos Sara | Velvet Beach
Kiitos Sara | Trees Are Growing

Sara lives in Chicago, but I'd like to think in some cloud formation above the city. She's also into photography (above image taken from her tumblr). A debut LP may arrive by the end of the summer.

Quilt

It's not often that a song hits this instantly. "Quilt" goes for it. That 5 minute capture and release of your soul. It's a missed train flying by your fuck-it moment of acceptance, a montage of family vacations on fast forward, a sprint from the cops – high on fear and smirking adrenaline.

Weed | Quilt

Brooklyn's William Anderson is Weed. His fuzzy guitar meets fuzzy vocals approach may not be that inventive, but his songwriting appears to be. "Quilt" will be on the upcoming DC Hope EP, and it's at his bandcamp along with previous digital cassette, To The North.

(via)

Watching TV

Telly from Organized Creations, a Chicago based wizard of weird on tumblr, just passed along his compilation called Watching TV, which organizes some mighty fresh creations.

"14 tracks by friends, acquaintances, future enemies, all-up and coming (you know, like 1000 plays on myspace and shit) and all super-talented. electronic experimentation, house, analog electro, harp-pop, ambient, noise. just a little eclectic pocket of a scene going on here on our Northside. Just like flipping through the TV, each new channel brings a new vibe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together."

The download and tracklist with links to artist pages are here. I've already DVR-ed a few.

Thanks Telly!

H A P P I E R / T H A N IVE/NEVER/B E E N

A growing heap of polluted surf pop's been washing in from LA's Ghost Animal. The blog-shore is now covered in these beasts. New scavengers are happy, us friends are happy, and Ghost Animal, is happy. Micheal shared that feeling on his tumblr last night, along with the above image which links a garageband screengrab, all hinting to completion of what will be his debut LP and first release with newly formed Summertime In Hell. Looks like more details will show up there this weekend. The title track already has in howling fashion:

Ghost Animal | Summertime in Heaven

To this point, your heap should include a small EP from bandcamp, and a few others Delicious Scopitone is conveniently rehosting today.

HEAVY POP

WU LYF | Heavy Pop

(via//via)

Pandit

"Spending time together before my father left for Vietnam"

A solo project called Pandit quietly left Lance Smith's home studio in Texas last year. While it is unassuming, I'm surprised Pandit hasn't seeped into more homes yet. Smith's debut EP is easy to like, traveling from simplistic folk to bedroom electronic (dude rides a few chillwaves too). All anchored by a nice airy voice. Grab it for free here. Also take the newer single which seems to indicate he's moving further in that parenthetical direction:

Pandit | Artichoke

An LP arrives this fall on Lefse.

KEEPN IT UNREAL

Thomas of Jaded Hipster Choir surprised me with this mixtape the other day, or actually, his intent to make this mixtape. He asked what kind of feeling I wanted for it, and my answer, "whatever you are feeling dude, and real is a feeling." It came out rather weird and rather rad (not a surprise). He can setup the rest:

HELLO WORLD.
KEEP'N IT UNREAL aims to bring you a mix for day-trips in your own backyard, fist-pumping like champs, pre-drinking for your niece's communion, and other dumb activities.

Jaded Hipster Choir is all about polarity. Mixing choral music with synth samples and minimal techno beats. PILL WEEKEND is Jaded Hipster Choir's FULL LENGTH, coming out in August. It'll be full of what-the-fuckery, featuring people talking about going to 7/11 to pick up apples, clarinet/flute arrangements, e.e.cummings, and syncopated bass lines, available from our BANDCAMP and on AMDISCS/OLDUGLYRECORDS on TAPE.

TRACKLIST:
YR LOVE IS MY DRUG - KE$HA
PLATH HEART - BRAIDS
IN RED (SECRET MOMMY REMIX) - AZEDA BOOTH
MOVE (METRONOMY REMIX) - CSS
THE HOLLY AND THE IVY - BENJAMIN BRITTEN
WELL (FILLED AND REFINED WITH SAND) - AZEDA BOOTH

Polarity indeed.

Sunday Love | Lalie's Game

"that's a pure jangly guitar feeling with great female choirs"

Viking Dress – another band from France that I wish to know more about. Sound and vision is working too well here, my heart could burst (in slow-motion). Play it again, please.

Inspired. Rejuvenated. Good morning.

(via)

Brothers Was Taken

Crashing tides in the moonlight, take me there Persona La Ave. I felt like doing nothing today, and your music understood that. Life is beautiful.

Recent love on SDS and NMB (and of course, Small Summits) has put this project from South Carolinian Dylan Dawkins on the mind. And now Brothers Was Taken puts it all in one splendid place, ending on the gorgeous towering swell of "D I V E" – a collaboration with Rachel of Kiss Kiss Fantastic (grab that EP too if you haven't yet).

Brothers Was Taken is here.

Audience

Audience is from St. Louis and that's all we know. Both ambient tracks in existence march on the moon, looping droplets of guitar and drum to subtle victory. Symmetrically 3:24 a piece, "Opposite or Inverse" and "Eight System" have been circling my living room for about an hour now. Looking forward to more.

Grab em from bandcamp.

Friday Send-Off | Heaven's On Fire

It seems I've been rendered frozen by an overflow of promise this week. Really, what a truly fortunate position to be in (and what an exciting time for music!). Hopefully the weekend brings some time to catch up. So this send-off is my own reminder. Playing in the new and obscure cycle is beyond fun and pretty damn addicting. But it will not keep this guy from loving the hell out of a full-scale achievement like Clinging to a Scheme.

(via // photo by Victoria)

Have fun. Be safe. Get weird.

Small Summits

It's been fun to follow the behind the scenes of our friend The Road Goes Ever On's first ever exclusive mix. A tweet here, a btw there, it was clear this was growing to be something special. He unleashed Small Summits today, and the tumblr community is obviously going off right now, as are my ears. Ever generous pals Blackbird Blackbird and Teen Daze both chipped in, and that's just the start. And somehow Cameron managed to keep it at a modest 35 minutes. Well done.

Wednesday Love | La Reproduction

I know very little about Arnaud Fleurent-Didier (France, forgive me) but I'm certainly intrigued by this song/video's catchiness/weirdness, and the man's general Gainsbourg-ness.

(via)

Airliner

"It's been a busy two years. This is the product of me."

Airliner, the other side of New Jersey's one man jam factory (see: today's Com Truise post), just released the None LP. These drowsy beats echo a similar synth-hop longing but are less direct about it, landing somewhere in Bibio land. His bandcamp has it all, and I've been given the tough task of choosing one track to give away. Let's go with:

Airliner | Dienyddio

Komputer Cast Vol 2

Com Truise is one fast, happening dude, running off some Shasta buzz of productivity (and there's more coming today). Here we have a new Komputer Cast of electric boogaloos parachuting off fighter jets from space. This is non-stop JAM. View tracklist (Gil! Scott! Heron!) and download here.

Interview | Blackbird Blackbird (plus "Float On")

"Sometimes my songs are an experiment, the subject matter often being about the walls that separate what is real and unreal, but most of all they are about an experience in a particular place/situation or about an impactful moment in my life."

Blackbird Blackbird and I just had a solid chat and play.converse.com is hosting it. A video for his sparkly Modest Mouse cover also showed up this morning. Today is a good day.



Grab his latest track "Summer Heart" right here and Coolrunnings just remixed "Pure", which is over at their bandcamp.

The Social EP

'On 2 July 2010, all four of these bands will come together for a one-off show at Central London venue The Social which will feature live visuals from video artist Jamie Harley.'

I'd give anything to be at that show. The Social EP is free via The Line Of Best Fit:

"Featuring two unheard tracks – Visions Of Trees reveal the hypnotic sub-tropical world of the ‘Black River’ plus ‘Volcanic Ash’, a charming paen to the recent events in Iceland from Prizes (formerly Treasure). There’s also a stripped bare ‘acoustic’ version of the Memoryhouse classic ‘Lately’ and the haunting ‘Suicide Dream 2′ from How To Dress Well."

Porcelain Raft

London's Mauro Remiddi aka Porcelain Raft had floated outside my surveillance until the signs of "Despite Everything" arrived this morning (via). Wonderful then to find a wealth of tracks at his bandcamp, including recent Gone Blind EP, which has pretty much executed a day takeover. Vocally, Mauro flashes a Jónsi-esq tone, and atmospherically, he's in a foggy world all his own, built on feathered guitar loops and the metallic sheen of a keyboard/sampler. Opening set "Tip of Your Tongue" and "Gone Blind" stay fairly lighthearted in comparison to the darker second half, which simply crushes on "Talk To Me". Both moods suit him well.


Plenty more self-made clips at his YouTube channel. Dude is on fire.

Friday Send-Off | Born Stoked

This one goes out to lil Nate Robinson. Go Celts!



Wet Illustrated's hyper refreshing San Francisco psych garage comes from The Fresh & Only’s Tim Cohen.

(via//via)

Have fun. Be safe. Get weird.

RxRy * | * SUPERSINGLE

Caffeine slowly soaks into this Friday morning. It's drizzling here in Southern California (we never know what to do). Surely I'll snap into gear soon. But the blur is calming in its own way. And now has the aid of another dose from s&s' favorite surprise audio elixir, "recorded back in cold in February in frost in snow".

"Here is this new 'super-single.'

It is 3 tracks rolled into one big stretch
a yawn:
a morning drive.
wake up to birds
enter vehicle exit
walk into buildings
past trees
that sing.”

I am blue bolt on the agua; searching for midnight jolts. Scaring you from sleep. The guts that never gave up."

Rx. Ry.

No Pain In Pop is hosting the 15 minutes.

Com Truise | Cynanide Sisters EP

Just last week, Com Truise's Komputer Cast bumped heavily in from 1985 and now we have an equally pulsing (and equally free) EP to sit with. Like any proper release should when following a teaser mix, Cyanide Sisters pays off on the general back to the future vibe of Komputer while unleashing the full brand of original Com Truiseness. Grab it here, then take your babe to the arcade in a convertible.

(thanks for the tip, JHC)

Thursday Love | You

You. Me.

Gold Panda

(via WWWidoWWW) <<< the BUTTERxFACE girls are back!

Real Life Color

Boston's Magic Man has somewhat quietly given away one of the warmest releases of the year. They're in good company on Arcade Sound Ltd and for whatever reason, hadn't commanded as much of my personal air time as their friends until recently. Real Life Color travels, sometimes in passing clouds ("South Dakota", "Layers"), other times to places more tangible ("Monster", "Darling [Reprise]). Blurb has it, this duo wrote and recorded most of this during a summer in the French countryside. Lovely. Grab here and don't accidentally overlook it like I did.

RxRy * | * Thunder / Language

"Hello:

the wind is blowing through my window

through the fan perched on the sill

spinning the blades by themselves.

here is a new song. written and recorded during a low and rumble

thundery storm night.

cloud language.

this song won't be on "VAEIOUWLS"

an extra treat.

best

_Rx"

*Thunder / Language*

Catch Pool EP

This free EP from Knoxville, Tennessee's Sean Bowie aka Teams floated in via NMB yesterday and has since made serious laps (it's fun when we all get excited simultaneously). Catch Pool is a fairly ambient 15 minutes with a lot of range. I especially dig the shamanic chants on "dominika" and how they crash up against this bright fluttering beat about mid way through. Cue the angel battle scene. Grab it at his bandcamp.

Neon Indian @ Detroit Bar [Costa Mesa, CA; 06/03/10]

It was a real treat to see Alan Palomo and co bring Neon Indian to full color last Thursday night. Detroit Bar filled up like you'd expect. 'Special Guest' Class Actress pulled us closer within a few songs – a nice vibe to start on.

The first sight of Palomo raised room temperature significantly. At this point, his assembled touring band (synth, drums, guitar) operates in stride like they were present when all these tracks were born. It's been interesting to watch 09's glo-class take it to the road. What Neon Indian has done with Psychic Chasms should be considered a success. The album benefits from live reconstruction, and Palomo makes a smooth frontman. I was most into seeing "Local Joke" after their exceptional Daytrotter session, and sure enough they opened with it. Tie-dye projections cut with a sporadic lasers gave reason to keep our eyes open, even when terminally chill (that and a nifty flashing guitar).

He explained that the last song would be from VEGA (his other project) – quite the 'retro-futuristic' jam. He also noted how stoked he is for new material and about the video for "Sleep Paralysist" that debuted earlier that day (below).

Nate's Summer Mix 2010

Our occasional contributor, Nate LC, first mediafired up my world last summer. The heat had been forwarded over on a 'you'd dig this mix' tip. After reading Nate's positive message and hearing his labored sequence, I thought this package deserved an audience beyond those fortunate Cc'ed. Nine mixes later, we're back where it all began. His words:

"Every summer needs a soundtrack. More transportive than pictures and more visceral than diary entries, songs bring you back to those hot days at the beach long after your tan has faded. However, these songs can’t do it on their own. Right now this is just arbitrary collection of good-feelin'-summer jams, no memories included. In order for this to become The Soundtrack to Your Unforgettable Summer you need to go out and start having a summer worth remembering. Though this mix isn’t guaranteed to inspire fun, it’s at least guaranteed to enhance it. So take this mix to the beach house, the lake house, the campsite, the car ride, anywhere you go this mix should be your carry on. Then months from now you’ll hear one of these songs and think that reminds of that time, last summer, when we…"

View the hit-fest here.

And make sure to grab yvynyl's latest and NMB's loaded effort as well. You'll have it covered.

Friday Send-Off | Whirlwind

Yup. It's all in there. Death In Plains has a bandcamp, and it's all very much in there too.

(via)

Have fun. Be safe. Get weird.

Quick | o0Oo0Oo

Love is raining down on Oberhofer; some real storybook magic happening here, and fast. You gotta feel happy for this weird virtuoso (who was born in the 90s). Grab the o0Oo0Oo EP here. It's rad.

(this 6/3 post had tech difficulties, but is now back up!)

Com Truise

OK, there's an S&S soft spot for good n' weird mixes and of course, dope celeb powerplays. AMDISCS (who are also giving away that nice Pears LP I've been meaning to love) tipped to both the digital wonder of Jersey's Com Truise and this Komputer Cast 1 that hypes his forthcoming album (and fills a morning nicely). Check the wild tracklist, and grab here.

Tuesday Love | I'm Leaving Everywhere

(via gvb)

Somewhat related, I cruised to Sides of Chaz over the holiday and damn does Chazwick seem like the nicest dude around, with a real wealth of talent. He simply cannot be put in one box. "Goodbye Raven" forever.