Cass McCombs – Catacombs (2009)

“Cass McCombs works quietly. Over the course of three full-lengths and five years, McCombs has quickly slipped in and out of scenes, skipping from one major American city to the next like he owed stacks of cash in every one. He’s played with folk, grafting bedroom pop flourishes to sonic skeletons just strong enough to support them. He swam through 1980s Brit jangle and deep chasms of reverb. No matter how much mileage he accrued, one constant held firm: His lyrical shell games often kept listeners at arm’s length, regardless of how well-crafted and inviting his melodies were. McCombs’ songs were addictively opaque– easy to hear, tough to digest, and even more difficult to describe to your friends over beers.

…on Catacombs, his fourth full-length and most stripped-down effort to date, the singer-songwriter steps out from behind the curtain that’s cloaked his work in the past. And despite the sparser arrangements and increased focus on direct lyricism, it’s every bit as aurally hypnotic as his previous work. It seems like he realized there was someone he really did want to sing to. ” -p4k review

The Drums – The Drums EP (2009)

“2009 beach-pop was about texture and haze, with artists like Washed Out, Best Coast, and many others spreading lo-fi gauze on otherwise upbeat pop ditties to conjure that sense of sunny abandon that comes with being at the ocean.

You could lump Brooklyn two-piece the Drums in the same category (their upcoming EP is entitled Summertime!) if their approach wasn’t so different from such acts– crystal clear by comparison– and refreshingly devoid of obscuration. With its bright, sparkling melodies, “I Felt Stupid”, a track that doesn’t appear on Summertime!, is a good example of the group’s unabashed pop. Displaying a clear love of new wave and synth-pop, the song bounces along with a giddy energy that plays off its melancholic lyrical content, which addresses the lost love of many summers ago (“Your arms around me seemed to be the only good thing that ever happened to me,” singer Jonathan Pierce laments). But the track is so danceable that it’s hard to worry much about his heartbreak. When the Drums mention the coast (“We can take a walk now, down the to beach… where we’re finally free”), it’s only in passing, more of an idea than a destination, and it seems to drive home the feeling that this music isn’t just for one season of the year.” – p4k track review

Animals As Leaders – Animals As Leaders (2009)

” The heavy metal record label Prosthetic Records saw (eight-string) gutiarist of Reflux, Tobin Abasi’s guitar work and asked him to create a solo album for them. Abasi initially declined, feeling such an endeavor would be “egotistical and unnecessary”. When Reflux disbanded, Abasi decided to take the label’s offer. The name Animals as Leaders was inspired by Daniel Quinn’s 1992 novel Ishmael, which addresses anthropocentrism. Abasi coined the name as a reminder “that we’re all essentially animals”.

The project’s first album, Animals as Leaders, was recorded in early 2008. Abasi recorded all guitar and bass tracks on the album; drums and various synthesized effects were programmed by engineer Misha Mansoor. The album was released April 28, 2009 by Prosthetic Records. ”

Lindstrom & Prins Thomas – II (2009)

“Scandinavian disco kings Hans-Peter Lindstrm and Prins Thomas are set to release the follow up to their widely acclaimed eponymous debut this year.

The duo have had quite a journey since the release of their debut three years ago, with Thomas completing countless remixes and seeing his Full Pupp stable go from strength to strength, whilst Lindstrom went on to release his solo cosmic disco opus, Where I Go You Go Too. Both of them have been busy in the studio together during their time back in Oslo, and the fruits of their labour are now finally ready for release.

Whilst Lindstrom has always been one for using live instrumentation in the studio, Thomas’ gradual shift into using more and more live elements in his solo work has meant that their second collaborative album, entitled II, has a much looser, anic feel than the first record. The original intent stands, however, as they merge their italo, Krautrock and disco influences into a lush singular whole, imbuing them with their characteristically warm production sheen. Released just in time for summer, it looks as if the Nordic duo are looking to compete for part of your personal sunshine soundtrack this year.” -pressrelease

Javelin – Jamz n Jemz (2009)

“Brooklyn-via-Providence duo Javelin, who mention being influenced by junk shops, flea markets, endless loop tapes, regional dance music, local partying, and New Edition.” -stereogum

“[Jamz n Jemz]…a CD-R they’ve been distributing at gigs, is flecked with brilliant little vignettes– almost every one a gem, many of them certifiable jams– that argue for the notion of a million little pieces coming together to make something much larger / …never letting their listener get too close to an idea or a groove for very long.” p4k

JAVELIN: A new addition to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. “Sounds range from broken dance jams to relaxed instrumental cut-ups, created with love on their MPCs. Long forgotten samples are chopped and re-assembled with drums, wooden recorders, old keyboards, handmade thumb pianos or whatever instruments are readily at hand. The result is a kind of mix tape fantasy (residing in the mythical “dollar bins of the future”), where R & B impresarios, amateur booty bass producers and Andean flautists hold equal sway.” OUR STAGE

Princeton – Cocoon Of Love (2009)

“Like Vampire Weekend, Princeton toys with nominally African and Caribbean figures in its indie rock, adding brightness and velocity. But Princeton — Jesse and Matt Kivel, soft-cheeked identical twins who trade off guitar and bass, as well as lead vocals; the keyboardist Ben Usen; and the drummer David Kitz — isn’t nearly as uppity as its reference points, or its colleagues. The band’s debut album, “Cocoon of Love” (Kanine), which will be released this month, is charming and frisky, with touches of the Cure and Leonard Cohen, and even some shoegaze pop.” -nytimes.com

“Stacks of herbal tea, a glow-in-the-dark monument, paperback writers, the Wall Street Journal, a departing Mercedes, The Metamorphosis, a series of Cambridge-commissioned paintings, video arcades, graffiti, and a cyclist on the Autobahn all figure prominently into Princeton’s musical sketches.” Princeton is now engaged in a massive tour alongside Ra Ra Riot, Maps and Atlases” -pressrelease

riyl : vampire weekend, ra ra riot, throw me the statue, chairlift
genres i made up : tweedpop, pretensh-rock, ivy league lit-pop

Allen Ginsberg – Howl and Other Poems (1959)

“…some of the strongest American poetry of the latter 20th Century. While Kaddish remains his strongest work of poetry, his much more famous poem “Howl” still carries more of a raw, exhilirating anger. Written to be read aloud, Howl is basically a cry against the conformity of 1950s America but the anger found within still reverberates almost half a century later.” -amazon reviewer

iwrestledabearonce – It’s All Happening (2009)

“… is an American avant-garde metal band from Shreveport, Louisiana, formed in 2007. Their musical style is considered experimental metal due to their use of frequent genre changes within songs, including jazz, swing, and electronica, but primarily metalcore. They have released one EP and one full-length album, and have toured with Winds of Plague, The Human Abstract, Sea of Treachery, and See You Next Tuesday.” -wikipedia

“…the spastic blending of genres maintains a cohesive sound that draws in listeners from many musical worlds. Love it or hate it – as long as they get a strong reaction to their music, the members of this band will feel that they have done their duty.”

“The IWABO overall aesthetic is all things radical. They are heading in down a trail they are blazing themselves – with twists and turns of their own creation. Due to their powerful live show and commitment to making sure every single fan knows how much they are truly appreciated, the more people who are exposed to the IWABO experience, the more new fans they will amass.” – century media records

Memory Tapes – Seek Magic (2009)

Philadelphia’s Dayve Hawk : Memory Cassette, Weird Tapes, or Memory Tapes

“… a record of achingly gorgeous dance-pop that captures both the joy of nostalgia and the melancholic sense that we’re grasping for good times increasingly out of reach…
Seek Magic is something of an inhabitable universe that proves there’s far more to Hawk’s sound than a way with reverb and passing familiarity with dance loops.” – p4k review

CFCF – Continent (2009)

hazy, nostalgic, otherworldly, unsettling

…an album that shifts effortlessly between several styles and sounds while fitting together as a diverse but cohesive package. There is common theme running through Continent’s songs even if it is not easy to pinpoint or describe.
The Montreal native has been creating tracks since his pre-teens and has only begun to present his music publicly in the last couple of years. CFCF’s career began to take off with his contest winning remix of Crystal Castles “Air War” and has followed up with a chain reaction of official remixes for talents such as Sally Shapiro, The Presets, HEALTH, The Teenagers and Hearts Revolution among many others.

“The songs range from mid-tempo nu-disco to balearic, house to ambient. Often the basis of the atmosphere was culled from films by Werner Herzog, Michael Mann, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg as well as countless musical influences including Arthur Russell, Saint Etienne, and Tangerine Dream.” -pressrelease

The Fader Magazine said in a recent interview with CFCF, “Like many people his age, Silver obsesses over childhood ephemera. But rather than sate his yearnings with late night eBay binges on Ghostbusters memorabilia, he resurrects ’80s keys and synths, modifying them into a hybrid of sturdy structure mixed with vintage minor chord melody. “There’s definitely a feeling I try to capture,’ [Silver] says. ‘This feeling of the last day of school, or it could be a decade I didn’t even live in. It doesn’t have to be specific to me.’