Posts by Jakub

In my opinion Kurt Vile is all over the place, I picked up one album and love almost everything and then others the one gem hits after multiple listens. Freak Train popped up and set such a good tone to my afternoon, I needed that boost, I love when music does that.

A great surprise for me at least is this Sufjan Steven glitch addition, I want to shake his hand, he could of gotten lost in my book and went into the bland well known folk world but instead he threw a high speed curve at me, much respect.

This Mark E and Matthew Dear marriage couldn’t make me smile any bigger, that synth line, the untouchable groove of 2010. Way to make that vocal work Mark, I feel like i’m stuck in a New Order break down and I love it.

I grabbed this Toro Y Moi track from the latest Daytrotter Newsletter, this talent is here to stay, you could put this song into any decade after the 50’s and it would of felt right.

I’ve just started tour managing School Of Seven Bells this week, its long stretch over a short period of time w/ Active Child. I was hoping that maybe if you live in one of these cities in the US maybe we’d run into each other and also you can hear these 2 great bands. I will keep you guys updated and let me know if you have any questions that you’d like me ask the band.

Photo credit: Justin Hollar

Tour Dates:
WED SEP 15 Mod Club Toronto, ON
THU SEP 16 Blind Pig Ann Arbor, MI
FRI SEP 17 Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL
SAT SEP 18 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI
SUN SEP 19 7th St. Entry Minneapolis, MN
MON SEP 20 Blue Moose Tap House Iowa City, IA
TUE SEP 21 Waiting Room Omaha, NE
THU SEP 23 Record Bar Kansas City, MO
FRI SEP 24 Larimer Lounge Denver, CO
SAT SEP 25 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
MON SEP 27 Neumos Seattle, WA
TUE SEP 28 Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, BC
WED SEP 29 Doug Fir Lounge Portland, OR
THU SEP 30 Independent San Francisco, CA
FRI OCT 1 Echoplex Los Angeles, CA
SAT OCT 2 Detroit Bar Costa Mesa, CA
SUN OCT 3 The Loft San Diego, CA
TUE OCT 5 Plush Tucson, AZ
WED OCT 6 Launchpad Albuquerque, NM
FRI OCT 8 Hailey’s Denton, TX
SAT OCT 9 Mohawk Austin, TX
SUN OCT 10 Warehouse Live Houston, TX
MON OCT 11 Spanish Moon Baton Rouge, LA
TUE OCT 12 Club Downunder Tallahassee, FL
THU OCT 14 Crowbar Tampa, FL
FRI OCT 15 The Social Orlando, FL
SAT OCT 16 Grand Central Miami, FL
MON OCT 18 The Earl Atlanta, GA
TUE OCT 19 Local 506 Chapel Hill, NC
WED OCT 20 Ottobar Baltimore, MD
THU OCT 21 Rock and Roll Hotel Washington, DC
FRI OCT 22 Johnny Brendas Philadelphia, PA
SAT OCT 23 Santo’s Party House New York City, NY

Emeralds head man Mark McGuire *insert baseball reference here* is on the right track to grabbing up a Best Of 2010 song on my end of the year list. Not only is this song a bubbly lush piece of work but there’s dynamics, it blooms when the distorted guitars hit, I want more.

I have no info on this collab besides posting plenty of Teen Daze on the blog. Part of me hesitates to say this but stripped down there is some Selected Ambient Works or early Ninja Tunes love on the instrumental that makes me smile.

This pulsating haze from Toujours grabbed my ear, very airy and DIY sounding, i’m not too fond of the vox it not gonna kill me listening to it.

The new Superpitcher LP is sublime, i’m posting Moon Fever, its kind of the lone wolf of the bunch but the mood is right, should of debuted on Pop Ambient.

Lately it doesn’t get any better than the feeling I get after hearing Shades by Emeralds, it’s dizzying like my vertigo i’ve been having. Anyone else have vertigo? anyways, listen to how this track grows, its like watching thousands of ferns growing infront of you in time lapse film. iTunes

Vanilla Minus is off Gold Panda’s new LP, its classic Superpitcher in my eyes, beautiful loops and an explosive vibe. iTunes

If you read the blog you know I love what Ducktails is doing, he makes music that I couldn’t even dream up making, he has a new self titled LP out, pick it up if you get a chance. iTunes

Salem is uncanny, mashing together a haunted ghetto rap with stomach churning heroine induced electronics, its an addictive listen. Preorder LP

I was just digging in deeper into the Wierd Records[its not spelled Weird, I triple checked] catalog and this song by Frank grabbed me over and over, the guitar line reminds me of some huge 80s hit, is it Dire Straits? no, I don’t know what it is but its buggin’ me, either way its pretty poppy for a cold wave label and thats what makes me keep going back to them.

I wanted to include Alice Cohen in my playlist I did for Olde English Spelling Bee but somehow she slipped thru the cracks, what a great spacey track, the magic here is that she made it so short, it makes you want to play it over and over, smart and talented this Alice girl is.

I’m not going to pretend I know world music, its something I wanted to get into but its a slippery slope, I could end up listening to alot of stuff I don’t want to hear for hours and be disappointed and hate that I spent the time but this song by Diakari Dia Diakite dit Dia almost puts me in a daze. The rhythm keeps me wanting more while his intensity keeps me interested on what the song is about and i’m going to quote Anchorman to end this post: Ron Burgundy: “I’m sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don’t know what it means. I’ll be honest, I don’t think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.”

So maybe some of you want to know what the label 4AD is up to, well the last mailer I got this song by Broken Records, i’m on the fence about it, is it too alternative radio rock for the label? part of it grabs me but a good portion of the song pushes me away and worries about 4AD’s future BUT I trust them so I keep checking back.

In 2005, I started putting together a compilation of my friends music, my roommate at the time was Danny [The Reflecting Skin aka PhilistineDSGN] who did the cover art and also did a song with me under the name The Hexx which is still to this day the only song i’ve ever put out officially. I met a few others via the internet like Mux Mool, Wisp, Dafluke, and Ghosthunt on myspace or WATMM (an Aphex Twin/BoC forum) and the rest are mostly guys from Ann Arbor, MI my hometown. The compilation came out for under $10 and had 20 songs on it and still to this day its that much, sometimes we drop it down to $5. I remember when it went up on digital retailers, since iTunes doesn’t tell you what will be featured its always a surprise on Tuesday mornings for record labels, its nice that you can’t buy your way into a banner on the iTunes page. When I saw it up it was back when iTunes had 3 big banners up horizontally at the top and The Rorschach Suite at the time was just all fresh faces 95% all new names and we were sitting inbetween Junior Boys and Imogean Heap, it felt like a David and Goliath story. I hope you enjoyed this preview I grabbed a few tracks of some fan favorites.

If you don’t want a song stuck in your head than don’t check out this song that J. Dilla produced for Steve Spacek, i’ve been humming it since the middle of last week everywhere I go, in alleys and by the river or in my bedroom, “let the dollar circulateeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I ran into one of the friendly guys from Small Black a few weeks ago in Greenpoint, he was walking home after just finishing recording their new album, I promise to have more up but here’s a taste with a remix by Star Slinger of their recent single.

Osborne gives Hot Chip a taste of Yacht Rock meets aaaaa….. refreshing slower dance medley? hmmm I can’ put my finger on it, whatever it is I love it and you will too if you have a beating heart.

I want more Sam Prekop, this is just not enough, what a great teaser, quick everyone into their bubble were gonna race to find a new color for the rainbow.

The art above was picked from Amobea84’s flickr

Minimal Wave has its own passionate community, one that has a forum with involved fans, pretty much the perfect label culture you’d like to see. I picked up this Das Ding vinyl over the weekend after passing by it too many times at the record stores. Its a great LP all the way thru with minimal synths with a hazy goth/punk attitude, makes me want to dive back into more of these records that I use to love so much.

One of the best minimal synths bands i’ve ever seen live was Xeno and Oaklander, a seriously cared for project put out by Wierd Records, what I love about them is that when you see them on stage you have a feeling that they live this music, its not an act, those two don’t step out of their dark mood much or I could be wrong but the dedication shows.

Automelodi is a bit more french dark pop compared to the last 2 songs in my opinion, almost touches on a 80’s hit, great youthful lead synth work.

Lets space it out with Klaus Schulze to add some diversity.

We’ve all seen the famous Double Rainbow video, it’s a favorite of ours here at the blog but when you combine that with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, now that’s taking it to the next level of greatness.

The other day I went to see Oneohtrix Point Never and Gatekeeper perform at Glasslands, it was some sort of label showcase i’m guessing. I picked up this Games 7 inch, super dreamy vox with chimes and flute under fatty compression, its like the background music for a daydream scene on Blossom.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow has done it, they nailed their sound but on a ethereal level, maximum lushness, the girls sound great plus the they make every second count, can’t for this EP.

Oh Mexican Summer, how great of a label you are. Seeing Weekend play last week and now having Tamaryn put me in an almost drugged up state, I want to thank you.

If you wanted Pogo to ever edit a Washed Out track it would probably sound something like this ETHEREA song, adoring this whole EP!