antlers

i'm in love with 'hospice', the latest album from the antlers. the music takes you on a bit of a journey - that at least for me, lands somewhere between broken social scene, and talk talk's 'spirit of eden,' which i only recently discovered, but highly recommend for late nights and long drives. my first impressions of the antlers came from the single 'two,' which you can hear below, or here at spinner, where you can listen to the entire album for free - at least for now. 'two' is a simple, but powerful song takes its sweet time getting there, but clearly stands out, along with 'bear,' as one of the album's few truly accessible songs. this an album to take in its entirety...beautiful, atmospheric melodies often take precedence over whispered vocals (try the haunting 'thirteen'). the songs blend together so nicely that i almost wish they hadn't bothered breaking it down into the individual tracks.

the antlers - two (via spinner)

(we're) memory tapes

a few notches more upbeat than the acoustic tunes i've been listening to lately...this popped up on we're tapes, which admittedly is somewhat low on the list of blogs i try to check out regularly, but not any more. this original track called 'bicycle' (by memory tapes, i think), along with each of the remixes i've had a chance to listen to (by weird tapes, i think), is spectacular. oddly, immediately after i heard this on we're tapes, this was the first track i came across on rcrd lbl, when i went there next on tonight's tour de blog, so i get to post with the fancy widget below. if you start this song, please stay around until it really gets going around 3:00; there's this fantastic guitar that makes me think of the cure (or is that new order), plus a little cfcf, and some air france (which rcrd lbl helped point out), and maybe some empire of the sun in there as well.

tallest man on earth

the tallest man on earth goes all 'once' in this rendition of 'these days':


his perf reminds me of another favorite vid; every time i watch this one it makes me excited about music all over again: (lykke li w/ bon iver):

this week's models

sadly, i've been off music for the past couple weeks, but here are a few new favorites that run the gamut:

1. fafa - vieux farka toure

this track has been getting some love on garth trinidad's show, in addition to itunes, npr, etc... i found it hosted at thanks captain obvious (so thanks captain obvious). vieux farka toure is touring the u.s. this summer...hopefully you can catch him outdoors somewhere.

2. the reeling (miike snow remix) - passion pit

i don't think i've written about miike snow yet here, but i'm excited about seeing them in la next week...here they give the ubiquitous passion pit what i'll call a fun-nocuous treatment. i can't get through this song without imagining an arcade.
source: neon gold beat company

3. friends were gone - wavves

this track is hosted at boomshine, which i can't read, but it always sounds good. i'm on the wavves bandwagon, perhaps even more after their publicized meltdown in barcelona last week. upon reading the article in pitchfork, i wished i had been at the show. but after watching some, it just seemed annoying. it's a shame they canceled their european tour in the aftermath though. see some for yourself:



and once that gets too painful, get bored here: