Too much of the animal disfigures the civilized human being, too much culture makes a sick animal. - Carl Jung
We’re on a sinking ship and Shaw is somewhere underneath, trying to patch up the cracks – a merman swimming through a sea of heavy reverb, drum machine claps, and harmonic animal noises. Pretending We’re Not Animals - soon to be the first of two five-song EP’s – lyrically traverses the world through the eyes of various creatures, only to unearth a bit about our nature as beat-making beasts. Lyrics aside, this dude’s voice packs a sweet, edgy punch, and we can’t wait to hear what he and his gal have planned for our first-ever Bay Area Thank You, Come Again next weekend.
Check out his site, go to his space, or grab his album here.
The fly honeys from the Splinters had their new album drop yesterday and we here at FMLY are puuuuumped. These new tunes still make you wanna boogie down, jump around, and chant along à la Splintered Bridges – but Kick has also got some songs up it’s sleeve that’ll give you a serious dose of gooseflesh. I’d recommend grabbing a convertible, some sunshine, and some sweet shades before putting this on your car stereo. I’d then recommend driving that convertible to Austin and singing along with them at our very own Thank You, Come Again.
In the meantime, director Natalie Tsui’s deadly adorable music video for “Mysterious” does a super job of curbing our Splinters cravings. It’s kinda like Hitchcock on speed, but waaaay cuter.
It comes around every so often, just one of those artists that hits you like heartache and squeezes the breath from your body. So it is with Zola Jesus. You may remember the last shoutout we gave her, and I’m probably safe in saying that you’ll be as stoked as I am to hear that her new EP, Stridulum, is coming up March 9th. All I can say is don’t miss it; this EP speaks for itself like a whisper at the nape your neck.
Jamie Stewart has been both the source of the creative energy and the deep-seeded angst of goth-pop band Xiu Xiu for nearly a decade. With the release of a new album, Dear God, I Hate Myself, which drops on Kill Rock Stars on Feb 23rd, FMLY got the chance to speak with him about the creative process, his Nintendo DS, hog calls, and everything in-between. Jamie seems both sophisticated and quirky at the same time, but sends out an affable and welcoming vibe even through the telephone; if that alone wouldn’t command your admiration, his music definitely will.
You can listen to the whole album streaming live here.
FMLY: So Xiu Xiu’s been around for almost a decade now.
Read almost any piece about Xiu Xiu and you’ll see words like ‘harsh’ or ‘brutal’ — the same words that appear before ‘truth’ when an unwavering eye is turned on any intimate detail of our lives. Fair descriptions of the themes central to the music, they sit incongruous to the refined, intricate, and beautiful approach taken in crafting the twelve tracks on Xiu Xiu’s new album Dear God, I Hate Myself. -via CASH Music
The madness that is Xiu Xiu still reigns supreme. Dear God, I Hate Myself retains all the characteristic crunchy beats and wailin’ on pots and pans. This time around, however, the tone is upbeat and sunny day appropriate, fitting for a winter melting into spring. More melodic and instrumental than their older stuff, they seem to have taken the best of 80s dance music and smashed it with a sledgehammer to produce a more age-apropriate sound. This album is icy but crystallized, with shiny tones, manipulated and alien-like vocal sounds, and 8-bit experimenting to break through the ice. The album drops from Kill Rock Stars on February 23rd.
I caught Max Alper twice in the same backyard show, the first doing some of his solo jams and the second with supergroup Psychedelic Family. Band name aside, psychedelic family is precisely what Max Alper succeeds in, he connects at a root level through the use of psychedelic and seemingly organic rhythms; handclaps, respiratory play, and the most innocent of relations. toneclusterfuck is Max’s fourth release and third with Sordo music. When the word raw is used, it should be used relative to Max’s frame of mind for these compositions are the shavings of the exterior of your chest. They carve, knife, pierce their way into your body. Sometimes they can reach the most fetishized pain and other moments may offer varying valuables which are just unacceptable at the moment. There is something so honest, true, and genuine about this record that yearns to lay in bed in peace for another hour. While letting these pieces sink in, it’s sure that this free release just changed the way I’m looking at jams over the aughts. We have come so far to progress to such beauty.
Max is out of the surrounding Boston area (Newton to be precise) and attends SUNY Purchase in New York. To put his education in context, other minds that have passed through those walls are Jeff Lewis, Dan Deacon, Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw, Moby, Langhorne Slim, O’Death, and the list goes on for decades. The first four tracks of this tape take the listener to a realm of a Steve Reich one-man vocal ensemble (“boitoisk8destroi”) to a land of clap and voice for the purpose of being drowned in drone (“boxfanblues”) to the minimal soul ballad of “dero.” However, Max makes these work brilliantly and seamlessly creating a twenty track masterpiece that is completely immersible both physically and psychically. I can’t even begin to dive into praising the rest of this release, you’re going to have to just check it out for yourself. Head over here for a free download. Thank you Max for sharing this with us, I can’t wait to see you again.
Somewhere between chilling alone in his bedroom, excavating forgotten memories, and hypnotic deep sleeping, FMLY’s own Philip Seymour Hoffman has taken an adventure into a realm of experimental folky goodness. While listening to this New York based artist’s debut cassette release the lighthouse itself is the rocket (Breakfast of Champs 2009) it becomes unclear whether you are awake or asleep.
Side A begins with a terrifying lullaby, cooing the listener into a dream-like state whose nightmares are drenched in psychedelia, pot smoke, and pure love, while side B holds lazy beats and puffed out half grooves that make it impossible not to nod your head. Lyrically the album reads as half-baked poetry, and while sometimes he may sound like a motivational speaker, the clearer message is that this weirdo folkster is merely offering a shoulder to rest our heads on when times get tough. Without love from friends and family this record would not be possible, and don’t think PSH doesn’t know this. Signing off at the end of the record almost places him in your room with an acoustic guitar, a pitch shifter, and an old goosebumps mask, performing an intimate show just for you. From west to east and from all around the world, everyone is a part of THE FMLY and Philip Seymour Hoffman has opened his heart and soul to reveal just how haunting and beautiful this life can be.
What this PSH record lacks in dense layering and intricate melody is gained in intimacy and honesty, each song an impressionable vignette of post-teenage sentience. Starting today, you can pick up this 30-minute cassette release from Boston’s own Breakfast of Champs Records for just $4 plus shipping. Also, keep an eye out for the Mirror Universe Tapes compilation out December 5th, featuring a new original track by PSH, and music from Toro Y Moi, Easyboy, and a dozen other equally fantastic artists!
, deliver us! Fall is the warmest season in the bay area, which means that outside my window it looks and smells like leaves and sunshine and there’s this electricity in the wind that made even my Babe-raham Lincoln costume kind of clingy. Maybe it’s raining where you are, in which case I’ve got some radical remixes to warm you up, brought to you by the bay area based duo James and Evander.
Songs We Wish We Wrote You Vol. 1 contains five simple but perfect remixes that basically sound like a DJ making sweet sweet love to his favorite tunes. Each song is like its own little dance-y, lovingly crafted homage. They even remixed our Davis frnds from the sadly retired Buildings Breeding – without marring any of its original surf rock beauty! I’m also gonna throw in one of their equally lovely instrumental tracks off of their first ever full length album This Isn’t The Beginning Of Anything for your lucky ears. You can scope their full album here.
Brad P turns tunes like a hooker turns tricks – and a good hooker at that. With Brad P and The Celebrities only a short ways behind him, it would appear that this guy is racking up albums like Scrooge collects schillings, minus the greed. All two of Brad P’s albums are available for free, including his most recent release under the new moniker Brad P and The Son of Sam.
Brad’s brainchildren are ridiculously upbeat and infectious, with some indie-pop influences (i.e. Beach Boys meet Adam Green) that stick out like cotton candy at a carnival and lyrics that tow the line between adorable and insane. His voice rings monochromatic and tongue-in-cheek, whether he’s singing about trapping girls in boxes or some dude’s cray-cray escape from island life. Don’t miss the boat on this charmer’s newest grab bag of shiny song-gems…
Bradford Cox, you’ve done it again. The new Atlas Sound album, Logos, drops October 20th on 4AD, despite the 2008 beatdown with a pirate. Thank your lucky stars Bradford isn’t one to hold a grudge, because we all need a little bit of the thought-provoking, dreamy ambiance that is Atlas Sound.
Logos is a candy album, full of hollow-yet-fufilling songs that drift along and pull you back into that very odd dream you had a few nights ago, all the while provoking the deepest parts of your mind to question your interpretation of reality. While at times reminiscent of Brian Wilson or Panda Bear (Noah Lennox is actually featured on the song Walkabout), the album does not neglect the electronic lo-fi bits that we all know and love. This album would be most fitting while riding upon a winged horse. Remember that for next time, you know?
If you’re looking for some new electro music, I highly suggest the latest Boys Noize album, Power.Boyz Noize transcends your sense of hearing and begs you to physically let it touch you.No lie.
I picked up Power last week and have been listening to it these past two days.Power is anything you wish it to be.Boys Noize leaves room for your imagination to wander throughout 12 tracks.All the sounds are perfect, and Power inspires you to manipulate and fully submerse yourself in electric sounds.
If you aren’t a fan of minimal/electronic/house music, you soon will be.It’s just a matter of giving it a chance, and allowing your electrical impulses to act freely. Boys Noize is making a scene, and you better believe the hype.Ha. He will perform in Los Angeles for Hard NYE.Here are some tracks to get you started…
Thank You Come Again
Lady Bird Lake Trail
March 20, 3PM
w/ dead gaze, easyboy, mistlefinger, big whup + pizza!, white fang, jonesin', tempo no tempo, dream panther
FMLY Group Hug
Dominican Joe, 515 South Congress
March 20, 8pm
w/ MillionYoung, Truman Peyote, Michael Parallax, Wampire, Idiot Glee, I Am The Dot, Magic Man, Philip Seymour Hoffman fbook event
Los Angeles
Kria Brekkan & Drawlings
McWorld
March 24th fbook event
Evan Voytas, WAMPIRE, Battlehooch, Pizza! + Afterparty for Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow) and The Hood Internet
McWorld
March 25th Fbook event
FMLY RIDE
April 3rd 2010
Dinowalrus, Tempo No Tempo
May 1
Santa Cruz
FMLY RIDE
April 3rd 2010
Pacific and Water
Boston
FMLY / Breakfast of Champs Fest
PPALMM's Chinatown Loft
April 16
New York
FMLY / Breakfast of Champs Fest
April 18
Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow) & Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Knitting Factory
April 24 fbook event
IcyDemons, Truman Peyote, Trouble Books
Glasslands
May 2
San Francisco
Thank you Come Again
The Neighbors, Wes Leslie, Shaw, Maus Haus, Mistlefinger, Goliath the Giver
March 21st
Dolores Park f book event
Questions? Comments? Want to play a FMLY event? Want to learn how you can play an integral role in your FMLY? Shoot us an email anytime, we're usually around. We also accept demos, songs you're into, songs you've made and bribes.
