Kurt Vile plays slow, murky, and sloppy rock. His backing band, the Violators, looks like a gang of b-listed stand-up comedians. They seem weird and awkward. But Vile is no slouch. Neither are the guys in his band, for that matter. People (well, music critics) have been paying a lot more attention to the Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter since his performances at SXSW last March, and in each profile he’s betrayed some hype-savvy above and beyond your run-of-the-mill DIY nose-picker.

Read More “Kurt Vile @ Black Cat Tonight” »

Atlas Sound/Panda Bear: “Walkabout”
If you were among those who downloaded the half-finished version of Atlas Sound’s (aka Bradford Cox) new record, Logos, after he accidentally leaked it a several months ago, well, shame on you. Luckily, Cox went back and changed a few things. Apparently “Walkabout,” a collaboration with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), didn’t even exist back then. From its burbling sampled beat (taken from The Dovers’ “What Am I Going to Do“) to its drowsy electronic interludes, it’s pretty sweet.

Kurt Vile: “Overnight Religion”
Philadelphia songwriter and mega-producer Daniel Lanois are privy to the same secret: If you take the music of the baby-boomers and run it through a ton of effects, it sounds cool again. Hey, don’t laugh, it worked for Bob Dylan on Oh, Mercy. And it works for Kurt Vile, too. A little bit of reverb and delay goes a long way here, turning the strummy “Overnight Religion,” into something spacey and meditative. And probably at only a fraction of what Peter Gabriel had to pay, too.

Beastie Boys f. Nas: “Too Many Rappers”
Yeah, the Beastie Boys are old, but at least they aren’t pretending otherwise. “Oh my god/ just look at me/ grandpa been rapping since ‘83,” raps Mike D Ad-Rock on this new track, apparently debuted at this year’s Bonnaroo festival. But where the Beastie Boys used to be bratty, here they’re just sounding cranky–about contemporary rappers, holograms, and Wolf Blitzer. Ad-Rock, again, lays out the group’s beef in articulate and unambiguous language. “All you crap rappers/ you’re rapping like crap.

Free Energy: “Free Energy”
A big curve ball from DFA, the label who, up until this point at least, mainly concentrated on producing and releasing post-punk and retro-disco records. From the sound this song, though, Free Energy’s influences predate all that club junk by at least ten years. The finger prints of Thin Lizzy, Big Star, and Shoes–bands that have never been closer than a thousand yards to a remix–are all over this. There is, however, still some cowbell going on.

And I here I was, thinking that this weekend was going to be as dead as this Rick Ross in-store. But no, turns our that the second annual DNA Test Fest will be kicking-off tonight over at Velvet Lounge. Curated by the guys who run WMUC’s DNA in the DNA radio show, the fest skews towards the the weird, the obscure, and if you’ve heard of half of the bands you’re probably spending too much money in the Fusetron distro. Or maybe you’re just following Dave Malitz’s blog posts.

At any rate, this year should be even clumsier, weirder, and better (relatively speaking) than the last, at least if the line-up below is any indication.

DNA Test Fest II @ Velvet Lounge
$10/1-Day Pass $15/2-Day Pass
915 U Street NW, Washington, DC

Friday: True Womanhood, Screen Vinyl Image, Rosemary Krust, Lampshades, Pygmy Shrews, Pfisters, Armida & Her Imaginary Band.

Saturday: Pink Reason, Kurt Vile, Drunk Driver, The New Flesh, Twin Stumps, Unholy Two, Eightyfive.

Lovitt Records Showcase: I had been looking forward to this showcase all week, since it was a chance to visit with some D.C. folks and familiars—Lovitt being a local record label, and all—in a city with better than average Mexican food. Also, I heard there was going to be free Vitamin Water, but it was pretty much all gone by the time I arrived. There were plenty of reasons to stick around, though.

Pygmy Lush played some of its quiet, non-hardcore material, from last year’s Mount Hope, sounded pretty good.

Read More “SXSW Recap: Saturday” »

Kurt Vile: God Is Saying This To You… (Mexican Summer)
Believe it or not, ambient music and classic rock have at least one thing in common. Both of these genres are capable of tapping into the vastness and romance of the American landscape–you know, the fruited plain, the templed hills, the Jersey Shore. This basically makes Kurt Vile a prime candidate to play the Superbowl halftime show. His earnest Springsteen-esque songwriting and hazy lo-fi atmospheres make him a double threat in the Americana department. God is Saying This To You–which compiles 12 tracks from a tour-only EP along with a few new songs–finds Vile plucking spare and lonely acoustic guitar ballads through a bevy of cheapo guitar pedals. He’s rocked harder in his life–both on solo debut Constant Hitmaker and as a member of similar minded Philadelphia band The War on Drugs–but songs like “My Sympathy” and “My Best Friends (Don’t Pass This Way)” are steeped in bluesy nostalgia and subtle psychedelia. It’s a tiny batch of songs, built on minimal resources, but they sound huge.

Kurt Vile: “My Sympathy”