BOMB TRACK THURSDAY! (Episode - The Revenge)

Bomb track Thursday! BOMB TRACK THURSDAY! It's like regular Thurusdaassssy! Only with traaaaaaacks! *music fades out* Ah, yes I have missed thee. For those who are new to the game, I go around on the internet scouring for fresh downloads and put them all on here as a virtual sound menu of sorts. Go on, take a bite. You won't get fat I promise. And for everyone else who's been missing these, I'm hoping that now that I finally got my Albums You Might Have Missed edition for August 12th up, I can finally get caught up and get back to a regularly scheduled program around here. Thanks for being patient :) And now without further ado..B-b-BOMB TRACKS!


A$AP Ferg - "Reynolds" (fet. Danny Brown): Hailing from the A$AP Mob (known for kick starting the career of the more prolific A$AP Rocky) , Ferg proves he's no slouch when it comes to serving up his own dope lines. The lackadaisical delivery paired up with the lazy summery beat and guest verses by Danny Brown (who effects a dead ringer Cypress Hill impression), all just come together to make this feel like a perfect slice of forgotten 90's. (Hip Hop)


Body/Head - "Actress": Former Pixies bassists has returned with a brand new band a a popping new track for their upcoming debut, Coming Apart (due out September 13 on Matador). KG's voice and bass take the forefront on this minimalist experiment, sounding decidedly more avante garde then anything she's done before. Her bass plods along beneath an eerie guitar whine, with chanting and pipped in sonic dissonance. (No Wave/Nosie Rock)

Cage The Elephant - "Come A Little Closer": New track from the boys from Bowling Green from their upcoming album, Melophobia due out 10/8 through RCA. While their early album had them ridding to the top of the charts with a decidedly more "southern rock meets garage revile" sound, this song is no "Ain't No rest For The Wicked". "Come A Little Closer" is less on the heavy and more on the angst, and sounds more like a continuation of that  post-punk sound they were chasing on Thank You, Happy Birthday. It's a depressing, haunting melody held down by tight drumming under a more chaotic style of guitar. (Post Punk Revival)

Crystal Stilts - "Future Folklore": New cut from Crystal Stilts third upcoming album, Nature Noir, due out September 17th through Scared Bones. "Future Folklore" is probably the best way to describe the song, which pays equal homage to early American psychedelic folk and the Crystal Stilts minimalist approach to garage rock revival. . (Garage Rock Revival/Folk)

Drumgasam - Drumgasam: What do you get when you place Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron, Wild Flag drummer Janet Weiss, and Death Grips drummer Zach Hill on the same album? A better question would be, what would you get if you had an album that was simply NOTHING BUT those three drummers drumming. You'd get what could be described as nothing else but a Drumgasam, thus making the band name and the name of their first album, perfectly sensible. The entire albums is available for streaming on Spin.com, and suffice to say it sounds like nothing else you can imagine. Unless you're good at imaging what 3 proficient drummers would sound like if they were invited to the world's most awesome drum circle. . (Experiemntnal)

Forest Swords - Engravings: Forest Swords is the stage name of Liverpool native Matthew Barnes, who set the blogosphere alight with his relatively quite release, Dagger Paths, back in 2010. On his first full length, available for streaming through Pitchfork and due out August 26 through Tri Angle Records, he hones in those same composer skills that made his EP such a underground treasure. It's difficult to lump him in with other EDM musicians because he blends in a number of influences ranging, from post rock to film scores, complete with creative sampling, to create a very different sounding album. (Experimental/R&B/Post Rock)

Of Montreal - "She Ain't Speaking Now": New Of Montreal, sounds like the Athens outfit simply chasing their Flaming Lips influences at first. It starts off as a light psychedelic pop tune, before catching the listener by surprise with the crunch of bluesy guitar riffs. Of Montreal switch back and forth between playful psch pop and foot stampin swamp rock and somehow make it work. "Speaking Now" is off Lousy With Sylvianbrair due out 10/8 through Polyvinal. (Pyshdeilc Pop/Garage Rock)

Parquet Courts - "You Got Me Wondering Now": After being the DIY heroes of the 2012 with the surprise success of their debut album Light Up Gold, it's great to here Parquet Courts weren't merely one hit wonders. Beneath the lackadaisical chaos that is their beer soaked, fuzz drenched, lo-fi garage rampaging, lie some pretty damn crafty musicians. "You Got Me Wondering Now" is the teaser from their upcoming EP Tally All The Things That You Broke, due out 10/8 through What's Your Rapture. The song itself sounds like what would have happened if Stephen Malkmus from Pavement took over the vocal duties for The Stooges. (Gargare Punk)

Phoneix - "Trying To Be Cool" (fet. R. Kelly): "Trying To Be Cool" is the track from Phoenix's Bankrupt! album from earlier this year. And by all accounts it was just perfect the way it was; a seriously cool bit of modern disco with a tight-club ready swing in the choruses. So, how to make it better? Why not add R. Kelly to contribute some of his own guest verses? Say what you will about R. Kelly, the man has cool to spare when he sings and he brings "Cool" to a whole new level of it. (Nu-Disco/R&B)

YACTH - "Party At The NSA": This new YATCH song sounds like an old forgotten relic of 80's synthrock. The choruse is practically begging to have a post-ironc music video featuring the band dancing in a wasteland from Mad Max before bumping into those other guys who had to put on shades. All the bells and whistles, synths and computer modulators, are out on full force daring you to not dance. But its fun filled melody and retro goodness hides a pretty dark message if the song title didn't give it away, and it's one that the normally fun loving YATCH are serious about. The song was not released as a teaser for an upcoming album but as a download for sale in which all proceeds will go to "to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who will defend us all from living in a total surveillance state". (Synthpop/Synthrock)

Yuck - "Middle Sea": After having such a warmly received debut back in 2011 and a successful bit of touring, fans were dealt a sudden rough blow with the leaving of band founder and front man  Daniel Bloomberg back in April of this year. It seemed to be the kind of move that would kill a band dead just as it was starting to gain momentum, but Yuck still pushed forward, announcing a new album, Glow & Behold, due out September 30th. New singer "Max Bloom" doesn't quite have Bloomberg's youthful sounding wail, but manages to bring something new with his own daydream, dead-pan delivery. And those same sun soaked, Dinosaur Jr. riffs that made their debut so nostalgic show no signs of going anywhere anytime soon. (Noise Rock/Power Pop)

Album You (And Subsequently Me) Really REALLY Might Have Missed (August 12 - August 18)

If that nifty little hint provided by my weird wording of this week's edition of "Might Have Missed" didn't tip you off, I've been dare we say it, AWOL for the past couple of weeks (since mid July if my internet history's anything to go by). After cracking my laptop screen into what has to be something like a million pieces thanks to a faulty backpack strap, wet pavement, and what some would argue, the massive amount of negligence that comes from assuming a backpack that's over 6 years old will continue to function...I've been laptop-less for what feels like almost a month.

BUT! Extra shifts of dish washing, weeks of replacing blown tires, and the selling of one box of childhood memories (vauled at $10), has returned my laptop to me! Just in time to save myself from going completely mad :) One of my only links to grabbing any kind of music and doing any kind of writing has always been my laptop. The 20 minute computer rentals at the public library don't quite cut it. And after catching up on all the gratuitous amounts of porn music that I've missed out on, it please me to bring you the albums of last week that you (and most definitely me) might have missed.


Bloc Party

The Nextwave Sessions (EP)
(Frenckiss Records)
August 12, 2013


Didn't Bloc Party JUST get of hiatus? Did I just imagine all those shows they started doing about a year back, the rumors about a follow up to their comeback album Four, and all those interviews where they said they were "really excited" to be back together making music? Imagined or not, After a brief whole year of being back together and touring North America to tease new material for their EP, The Nextwave Sessions, Bloc Party has announced yet another indefinite hiatus. Odds are pretty good that it's safe to stop holding your breath for a comeback. But before they parted ways, they did live a pretty nice going away present in the for of 5 new songs. Rerecorded as part of a completely separate recording session from Four, Nextwave's hints at a new sound the lads of Bloc Party might have been perusing before shelving the whole thing. While "Ratchet" roars right out the gate with that oh so familiar and irresistible, groovy ball-room blitz the boys are usually know for, things take a decided turn for the more "R&B" flavored on the reaming tracks. "Obscene" has an slowed down, icy beat and features Kele Okereke doing his best Prince impression on the vocals. While "Montreal" opts to go for a more experimental atmospheric feel. There's no doubt this could be anything but Bloc Party on the cusp of trying something new, and while it's certainly something different then what the fans are use to, it's an actually pretty cool turn. At the very least, it sounds like the band wasn't content with merely re-recording "Helicopter" and "Hunting For Witches" for the rest of their career. However short that career in question turned out to be.



Don Cavalii 

Temperamental
(Everloving Inc)
August 13, 2013

Don Cavalii may very well be a textbook case for why you shouldn't give up. Long after most humans would surely have found something else to do that was less soul crushing, Don Cavalii has trucked on since the 80's in a number of rockabilly outfits, slowly expanding his repertoire to include power pop, swamp rock, blues, and a little bit of soul along the way. Finally finding the success he was long since overdue with his 2007 solo album, Cryland, Cavalii went on to enjoy the fruits of success for a bit, play in what has to be every hole-in the wall club ever, before returning for a follow up 5 years later. Anything worth doing well is worth taking your time on, is apparently his ethic. But the quality shows. Keeping up with that delicious, southern fried blend of swampy, poppy, garage tunes, Cavalii manages to successful integrate different sounds across different decades. From the funky grooves of the 70's on the title track, to the lazy guitar pop of the 60's on "Garden of Love", to gospel by the way of The Beatles on, "Gonna Love You". Time is nothing but a number to a man who's been at listening to and playing with more bands than I'll ever know.



Deltron 3030 

City Rising From The Ashes
(Bulk Recording Inc.)
August 13, 2013

A sticking point that I've always had with rap is the unwillingness to peruse more fantastical concepts on their albums. I mean real concept albums, in the sense of I dunno, say "this is the story of how I became the God Osiris and declared war on an alien planet in the far flung future 3030". Something like that. But lucky for me, my man Del The Funky Homosapien (better known to most as the ghost Del, who posses the drummer Russel in the fictional band Gorillaz, featured famously on their song "Clint Eastwood"), gets me and has returned with the project Deltron 3030 to record a brand spanking new follow up to their debut back in 2000. It's 13 years overdue but all is forgiven with this leaked EP debuting 3 new tracks from their upcoming Deltron Event II (due out in October), because the concept of said album is percsisley what I just described. Did I mention the title track of this EP features guest vocals by Mike Patton? And you still haven't downloaded it yet?



Jagwar Ma 

Howlin'
(Mom + Pop Music)
Agust 13, 2013

The Tame Impala comparisons I figure are damn near unavoidable, even IF Jagwar Ma didn't also happen to come form them same continent of Australia. But what you have here is another psychedelic rock group ,hailing from Sydney as opposed to Perth, that manage to succeed in dragging out the sounds of funky British influences from decades past. But whilst Tame Impala were content to borrow the playbook from the Beatles and add their own weird noodling to it, Jagwar Ma seek the tap into the crazy "blink and you'll have missed it" decade of decadence that was Madchester on their debut album, Howlin'. Invoking the trippy dance rock sound of  Happy Mondays and the fuzzy haze of acid-house, Jagwar Ma bring something to music scene that frankly hasn't really been heard for about twenty years. And, provided you've never actually heard of Happy Mondays, it'll be new to you as well.


Moondoggies 

Adios, I'm A Ghost
(Hardly Art)
Agust 13, 2013

Seatle outfit, The Moondoggies have been enjoying their comfortable niche of paying homage to the LA band sound of the 60's; blending the harmonies of The Byrds, the country vibes of The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the swirling guitar rhythms of Buffalo Springfield, with exactly NO homages to "the fucking Eagles" (statistically speaking, you read that in the Dude's voice). Their third album, they show no signs of changing that formula too much here. Adios, I'm A Ghost finds the Moondoggies pushing themselves to have a more varied sounding, and subsequently longer album. The 6 minute long "A Lot To Give" features psych heavy swirls of guitar complete with keyboard. But "Red Eye" comes in as a jaunty, country-romp that channels the Grateful Dead at their most playful. There's even the incredibly depressing "Pride" , and "Back To The Beginning" that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Neil Young's After The Gold Rush. The mood across the album is an ever changing one, and the boys of Moondoggies manipulate it well.


Scott and Charlene's Wedding 

Any Port In A Storm
(Fire Records)

Scott and Charlene's Wedding is the awkward name of the music project by one Australasian Craig Dermody, who's since taken residence in New York City. (and by he sounds of the no less dozens of references, it's safe to say he's taken to it quite nicely) But clumsy name aside (evidently it comes from the name of an old sitcom), Dermody's Port In A Storm is a pleasantly, enjoyable slice of lo-fi garage rock goodness under the awkward band name. The album is not a thrashing one, and opts for a wall of playful guitar harmonies as opposed to fuzzy revereb drenching every note; but it's stronger for it. Rather then try to beat you over the head with overt aggressiveness, Any Port In The Storm eases you in with a pretty wall of guitars, simply drumming, and Dremody's sentimental croon. Think early garage rock meets the sonic melodies Pavement by way of Dinosaur Jr.