Elvis Costello: “The Crooked Line”
It’s hard to tell what’s more shocking here: the twangy vibe, or the fact that Elvis Costello is singing about love without sounding poisonous and bitter. “The Crooked Line,” snatched from his upcoming record Secret, Profane, & Sucarcane, finds Costello going full-on country for the first time since King of America (that album’s producer, T-Bone Burnett, is again at work here) and it’s a welcome return. Strangely enough, those big glasses do sit pretty well alongside a cowboy hat.

Lindstrom + Prins Thomas: “Rothaus (Groove Edit)”
Norwegian disco producers Lindstrom and Prins Thomas have always looked to the past for inspiration, but this time they’re looking further back than usual. Where they were once content to tune the way-back machine into the ’80s, to better feel the pulse of italo-disco, their second collaborative record, Lindstrom + Prins Thomas II, knocks off another ten years, going all the way back to the krautrock-era. “Rothaus” is more than a little jammy, with a handful of keyboards randomly gurgling over a steady rhythm, recalling the more transcendent moments of fusion-era Miles Davis or Ash Ra Tempel.

Animal Collective: “Summertime Clothes (Dam Funk Remix)”
Animal Collective’s much loved Merriweather Post Pavilion proved once and for all that the Baltimore-bred trio could make decent use of bottom end. But getting all of those newfound bass frequencies into the pocket? Well, they aren’t quite there yet. Perhaps that’s why the band commissioned smooth-sounds maven Dam Funk for this remix of “Summertime Clothes.” The Los Angeles-based producer scrapes off the atmospheric gook and rolls in the analog synths, re-shaping the song into something tight and slinky enough to fit comfortably on Prince’s 1999.

The Dead Weather: “Treat Me Like Your Mother”
Speaking of Prince, since when did Jack White become alterna-rock’s answer to The Purple One, jumping from instrument to instrument, and from band to band? “Treat Me Like Your Mother,” by Dead Weather–White’s new super-group with Kills singer Alison Mosshart–finds him serving two roles, drummer and hype man.
Doing both simultaneously must be a bit of a task, given the song’s jagged and bombastic rhythms. But White nails it here with impressive dexterity or, possibly, just a few overdubs. Never the less, for a guy who’s on his second side project, this isn’t too bad.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: “Zero (Animal Collective Remix)”
Animal Collective takes a whack at Yeah Yeah Yeah’s latest single and, surprise, it’s out with the synthesizer and in with the rainstick. Strangely enough, it works: The remix strays so far from Yeah Yeah Yeah’s original vision that it takes on a new, Discovery Store-approved, life of its own.

Jane’s Addiction: “Ocean Size (Demo)”
Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell never had to resign himself to just one image—he was pasty-faced goth, stoner beach hippie, and Robert Plant all wrapped up in one emaciated package. On this demo for the song “Ocean Size,” taken from the forthcoming rarities set A Cabinet of Curiosities, he gets a chance to try on just about every one of those masks. Farrell sings, he hollers, and he yodels, and, even though it’s a pretty sloppy demo, if you close your eyes you’ll feel like you’re standing in a weird, boundless, Anton Corbijn landscape.

Chrisette Michele: “What You Do (ft. Ne-Yo)”
Judging by the sound of Chrisette Michele’s latest single, “What You Do”, the Def Jam-signed R&B singer might be the only person to ever actually buy and listen to a Macy Gray album. But it’s a good thing she did—the song’s smooth, neo-soul vibe makes for pretty good springtime listening.

Bjork: “Nattura (Switch Remix)”
Switch, producer of MIA masterpiece Kala, flips the knobs around on Bjork’s benefit single “Nattura,” wiping out Brian Chippendale’s gonzo drumming and Thom Yorke’s creepy moans in favor of grimy synths. But this is a Bjork song, so there’s a good chance that the tapes were brought to his door by an Icelandic pixie riding on the back of a whale-human hybrid. Try as he might, he just can’t get the weird out of it.

DCist rightfully snarked on Gawker’s snarking about how D.C. is not cool. The Gawker rant, “Cheer Up, DC Will Never Bo Cool,” just isn’t serious enough to merit much attention.

But this point was sorta dead on:

“Sure, 30 years ago DC had Bad Brains and Minor Threat, and today it still has, uh, Ian Svenonius (the Sassiest Boy in America!), but the intervening years have gentrified the hell out of a quarter of the city proper and kept the rest in abject urban poverty, more or less. Not a great recipe for ‘cool’!”

Except, last time I checked New York was gentrifying the hell out of its grid. The last time I checked, the most influential band in Brooklyn doesn’t reside there. No, that band’s early albums were put out by a guy who lives in D.C. and its members grew up around here. That band is called Animal Collective. We really like Animal Collective.

I dig the writer’s interest in fighting economic inequality. But if the writer really cared about “abject urban poverty,” what the hell is he doing blogging for Gawker? It’s not like that job really sticks it to the Man. I might be wrong, but Gawker hasn’t exactly turned into Human Rights Watch or hired a renowned sociologist to write engaging narratives about urban poverty.

Read More “Gawker: You’re Not That Cool” »

Baltimore City Paper recently (well, a week ago) posted this Q&A with Ben Allen, the Atlanta-based engineer who worked on Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion (which we reviewed in this week’s Washington City Paper). Allen—who spent most of his career working in hiphop and R&B—can probably be credited with bringing most of the low-end definition that makes MPP so resoundingly huge. He’s also quoted at length in this NY Times profile, but the Baltimore City Paper Q&A gets a little deeper into the recording process and whatnot, so I’m going to shamelessly aggregate it here.

In a good way, indie rock got smaller in 2008.

D.C. rediscovered its love for vinyl (the story of the year is the resurgence of the mom-and-pop record store). A neighborhood—Mount Pleasant—stood up against anti-live-music NIMBYs. Even a local band or two seemed to surprise all of us (Deleted Scenes).

There’s a new underground, a real underground, working overtime in a group house in the District, and Iowa City, and every place in between. This new underground doesn’t have much of an Internet presence (no standard wiki page, packages sold via checks-in-the-mail). This underground has started releasing hand-made tapes (again). Its fuzzy folky CD-Rs were this year’s mix tapes.

Some of the year’s best music couldn’t be labeled. Some of the year’s best music couldn’t be found on Pitchfork. I wish I could have digested all of it. I wish I could have given a deeper listen to Wet Hair, Children’s Hospital, Kria Brekkan, Ducktails, Mark McGuire, and so on. But here’s my favorite indie releases of the year so far:

1. Ruby Suns: Sea Lion (Sub Pop)

In a year where everyone copied a bit from the New Zealand sound all over again—kiwi pop was almost as big as afropop as a selling point this year—the Ruby Suns are one of the few who didn’t fall for either the tribute to Paul Simon (Vampire Weekend) or plunder the Flying Nun catalog. Leader Ryan McPhun, a Californian who has made New Zealand his home for years, combines Afropop congas, ‘80s dance beats, and even a tribute to the Mojave Desert (now, well, a tribute to Mojave, some new Microsoft thing). It’s what Neutral Milk Hotel would sound like now. I wrote about the band’s live show at the Black Cat a while ago and filmed a bit of its performance.

Listen to “Tane Mahuta”

2. The Woods: Some Shame [Tour-Only Cassette]

Here is a band that scores zero mentions on Metacritic, has gotten no reviews on Pitchfork. They release cassettes, CD-Rs and limited runs of vinyl. They put so much stuff out, they seem like an empire. They are a band for message boards and word-of-mouth. None of this means anything except that these Brooklyn DIY tapeheads aspire to real-not-virtual audiences, not hegemony or to be heard on a Gossip Girls episode. The Woods produce music that actually feels personal, and maybe even truly free sounding. Listening to Some Shame is like what it felt like to discover Weed Forestin’: ­woozy psych, bursts of noise, secret knowledge. It’s a feel-good weirdness you decode only when you can’t sleep. (For me, that’s a lot of the time.)

Listen to “Military Madness”

3. Yoro Sidibe: Yoro Sidibe (Yaala Yaala)

A Towson professor, Jack Carneal, finds himself mesmerized by the plunky, preachy sounds of ancient Malian hunters music. So he seeks out the master. What he brings back is trance music, story songs for the dance floor whether centuries ago or right now. You’ll want to crank this up. I wrote about the record for the Post.

Listen to “Track 3″

Read More “Music 2008: Indie Rock Rediscovers The Joys Of Tape Hiss” »

Paw Tracks has released its first holiday seven-inch. One side is Reverend Green featuring Kria Brekkan (the tweest voice from tweest-band Mum) and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons (again, very distinctive voice). The flip side is Abby Portner’s (of Rings) new solo project Drawlings. You want child-like wonder wrapped up in avant X-Mas cheer? This is it.

The Drawlings’ track is quite charming, even beautiful. I think it features a sample of a horse.

You can listen to the Reverend Green track, “Be Good To Earth This Season,” at Gorilla vs. Bear.

Panda Bear designed this t-shirt. It’s a tribute to Maryland. I’d almost buy it.

If you’re feeling some Maryland Pride, you can purchase it here.

Via Gorilla vs. Bear.