20syl — Kodama

Until this morning, I knew nothing of 20syl. It’s now an hour into the day, and I still know very little about him. But I’ve watched the above video three times, and it’s continuing to play in the background as I type this.

I’m trying to put the pieces together. It appears that 20syl is a French DJ/producer (based on his Facebook posts being in French. Maybe he’s Canadian.) According to the notes on the video, he has an EP, Motifs, available digitally for download. And based on this song and video, I’m definitely going to check it out.

Happy Summer, y’all.

Lykke Li — Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone

This morning, as I listened to the sounds of KEXP quietly emanating from my alarm clock, the above song came on, completely enveloping me. It may have been my sleep deprived state (having a 6 year old climb into your bed at 4:30am and toss and turn for the next 1.5 hours can do that), but I now can’t shake the song: the viscosity of utter sadness that is emoted by Lykke Li’s voice; the raw sound of depression and pain, personified.

Li, from Sweden, has been building a fierce following since 2008. “Love Me Like I’m Not Made of Stone” is from her stellar third album, I Never Learn, which came out May 2 of this year. She comes to the Paramount on September 17, 2014. Bring tissues.

OK Go — The Writing’s on the Wall

New OK Go video. The viral masters have done it again. I want to have the kind of fun they seem to have, all the time.

Spoon — Rent I Pay

Exciting news, kids. Spoon, those indie-rock darlings from Austin, Texas, have a new album coming out, titled They Want My Soul. This will be their eighth full-length album, and their first since 2010’s Transference.

The first single is above. Classic Spoon, and I hope the rest of the album is this raw. The overproduction of their last couple albums have rubbed me wrong.

FIDLAR — Cocaine

NSFW — this video is probably the most NSFW video I’ve posted on here. The song isn’t perfect, by LA punk band FIDLAR, whose debut album came out last year. But the video features one of my favorites, Nick Offerman (of Offerman’s Workshop), in a complete show of vulgarity.

And I loved it.

DJ Snake & Lil Jon — Turn Down for What

I’d hoped this video / meme would go away quietly, but it just keeps spreading. So I’m posting it out of necessity more than anything else. That said, it’s a super fun and slightly NSFW accompaniment for a rather obnoxious song by DJ Snake (a producer from France) and Lil Jon (a rapper and many other things, with surprising longevity).

Turns out, that’s a perfect combination.

Plaid — Wallet

It’s been a long time since I’ve actively listened to Plaid, but whenever I stumble upon them I end up asking myself why that is. Finding this video is no different. The band makes beautiful electronic rhythms that would enliven almost anything you could be doing with your day. The song/video above, for their song “Wallet,” is off of the band’s tenth release, which came out May 19.

Flume and Chet Faker — Drop the Game

Here’s an awesome collaboration between two people I wasn’t familiar with until I saw this video. Australians Flume (electronic producer, DJ, and apparent master of the remix — check out this one; Lorde has never sounded so good) and Chet Faker (electronic musician cut in the James Blake mold) have created a song that makes you wish you could move like the dancer in the video above. At a minimum, your head is bobbing up and down slowly while listening to the song in the background as you read this.

The song is from a collaborative 3-song EP that came out last year from the two musicians, called Lockjaw. This isn’t the first time they’ve worked together; Faker appeared on Flume’s 2012 self-titled debut album. Faker’s first full-length album, Built on Glass, came out in April of this year. If you like slower trip-hop grooves, or what might be more appropriately termed “post-dubstep” (groan), then you’ll love it.

This song has been in constant rotation in my ears now for nearly 24 hours straight. Thanks to @AMatthiesen for pointing me in this direction.

The Knife — Without You My Life Would Be Boring (Shaken-Up Version)

Here’s a bit of good news: On June 20 The Knife, Sweden’s craziest brother/sister duo, are releasing an album full of remixes from 2013’s Shaking the Habitual, called Shaken-Up Versions. Habitual was #29 on last year’s Bacon Calendar. I only liked that album so-so, which is why it was at #29. But if the above video is any indication of what to expect on the remix album, then I’m excited.

Kishi Bashi — Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!

Production value is everything when it comes to Kishi Bashi. And this video demonstrates this beautifully. His new album, Lighght (pronounced “Light,” apparently), comes out May 13, and he’ll be playing the Showbox a week later, on May 20. His live show is every bit as lush as his recorded work, and he is the master of the digital sequencer. It’s impossible to describe how amazing it is to watch someone sing multiple harmonies with themself on stage, live. Go, and marvel at the results.

Masuda Shacho Shobaihanjo Gakudan — Drunk March

I randomly discovered the work of Japanese director Shingo Hashimoto. He appears to mainly create crazy commercials for a grocery chain in Japan called “Family Mart.” But he also had this music video, for the song “Drunk March,” (I think), by a Japanese band called Masuda Shacho Shobaihanjo Gakudan (I think). I can find no more information about the song, the band, or the video, so all information above should be taken with a grain of salt.

Either way, great video. I want to do this with my next wedding party.

Cloud Control — Moon Rabbit

After hitting the 2014 Bacon Calendar at #20, Cloud Control continue to be in constant rotation over here at The Bacon Emporium. Here’s a new video from last year’s Dream Cave. These guys are one of many awesome bands playing Sasquatch this year. They’ll be performing during the first 3-day set, on May 24, 2014.

Iska Dhaaf — Everybody Knows

Nowadays, it’s quite the coup if you get Macklemore to show up in your video. But new Seattle duo Iska Dhaaf did just that. Iska Dhaaf is Nathan Quiroga (aka Buffalo Madonna from Mad Rad) and Benjamin Verdoes (from Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band). That’s some heavy-hitting local talent, and I’m anxious to hear what comes of the band’s debut full-length, Even the Sun Will Burn, slated for release on March 11.

Guided By Voices — Planet Score

I’ve never been a Guided By Voices fan — I always felt I missed my opportunity to get into them. But that won’t stop me from posting their latest video. “Planet Score” stars Breaking Bad’s Badger (Matt Jones) as a poor shot, with the Corddry brothers and a hot dog (Will Maier) alternately yelling at and encouraging him. It’s silly but funny.

Phantogram — Fall In Love

The second release from Phantogram, Voices, came out earlier this week, and it is — as expected — phenomenal. Watch the “Fall In Love” video above, fall in love with the band, purchase the album, then catch them live at a location near you.

Elbow — Fly Boy Blue / Lunette

Great new video from longtime fave Elbow. The band’s sixth full-length, beautifully titled The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, comes out in March.

#1 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Muchacho by Phosphorescent

Some albums make you want to dance. Some make you want to laugh, or to cry. Or to blast as loudly as possible. Or wake up/fall asleep to. And then there are the albums that make you want to do all of those things. Muchacho is that kind of album. This isn’t an album — it’s a soundtrack for life.

Phosphorescent is Matthew Houck. Originally from Athens, Georgia, Houck has been making and playing music as Phosphorescent for over ten years now. Muchacho is his sixth record in that span. I didn’t discover him until his last album, 2010’s Here’s To Taking It Easy, which landed at #20 on that year’s Calendar. (Although looking back at that list now, I should have put it no lower than #11. Damn.)

You can define Houck’s music as country, acid rock, southern rock, or alt.country, but he’s somewhere in the middle of all of them. Keyboards, horns, violins and lap steel guitars play heavily throughout all of his music, and that’s no different for Muchacho. Houck’s voice is like a worn out tee, falling apart at the seams, the most comfortable thing you own. He has the perfect amount of laziness in his delivery, drug along reluctantly by the music laid out before him. Verging on a yodel but never quite getting there, he can sound like sad old dog or a wounded one, backed into a corner, depending on the story he is trying to tell.

And those stories, those yarns, are amazing. Typically about heartache and sorrow, the tales Houck tells can hit you in the deepest parts of your insides. Yet somehow the music isn’t depressing — it’s encouraging. His is a life lived hard but fruitful, a life best avoided but fantastic to vicariously live through.

As a fine capper for this year’s Calendar, you should now listen to Phosphorescent’s cover of Vampire Weekend’s “Ya Hey,” which Houck performed live on the air at KCSN (California State University, Northridge) on October 3. “Ya Hey” was the best song on Modern Vampires of the City, the #3 album of the year, and hearing it performed in Houck’s quiet drawl puts a dark, melancholy twist on the upbeat song. This could have very easily been a Houck original, it’s so different from the Vampire Weekend version.

2013 has been one hell of a year, a life-affirming, fucked up, killer of a year. For personal reasons, I can’t say I’ll miss it. But the music that’s come out of it, and the enjoyment it will bring me for many many years to come has made it much easier to bare. That music will undoubtedly remind me of the ups and downs of the year, and that will be just fine. As time goes on, the memories will smooth out, and the music will shine even brighter. Phosphorescent’s Muchacho will be with me the whole way.

Coda

When I write about each of these albums I tend to have them playing in the background. Tonight, as I went to flip this record over, in the middle of writing this article, I dropped it onto the top of the record stylus and put a big scratch down the middle of my favorite song, “The Quotidian Beasts.” Strangely fitting. It still plays, but with a terrible hiccup in every revolution.

I ordered a new copy immediately.

__________________________________________

2. Trouble Will Find Me by The National
3. Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend
4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

#2 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Trouble Will Find Me by The National

Upon your initial run-through of “I Should Live in Salt,” the first song on The National’s fantastic sixth studio album Trouble Will Find Me, you’re struck by how unnatural the beat is. The measures alternate between nine and eight beats (although I’m not smart enough to know if that means there’s actually a 17-beat measure encompassing both), and every time you hear that ninth beat you’re caught off guard. A few more listens and you’re able to sit comfortably with it, applauding yourself on your ability to recognize it when it’s coming, each time, predictable as the sun rise. Then, after sitting with the album for a couple months, you no longer notice that errant beat — you’ve successfully absorbed the unsettled-nature of the alternating beat, and are therefore left to contemplate the subtleties.

This is the nature of every song on the album. “Demons,” the 2nd song, has seven beats to every measure. You have to get to the third song, “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” before you’re rewarded with a more familiar 4-beat rhythm. Experimentation with rhythm is nothing new to The National. In fact, it’s something that drew me so strongly to them back in 2007, with their phenomenal song “Fake Empire” from their fourth album, Boxer. Back then, Bryce Dessner said of the rhythms in that song:

“The first song, ‘Fake Empire,’ is one that I wrote, and conceptually I said I would love to write a song that was based on a certain polyrhythm, the four-over-three pattern, which is what you hear in the piano. It’s something I, personally, have never heard in rock music. What’s interesting is the song sounds like it’s in four, but it’s in three. The harmonies and the way I’m playing the piano music are actually incredibly simple — sort of like ‘Chopsticks’ simple — with this really weird rhythm.”

This is also not the first time The National have appeared on the Calendar. In 2010, I fell hard for Matt Berninger and the brothers Dessner and Devendorf, placing their fifth album, High Violet, in the #1 spot for that year. So I was predisposed to love Trouble. There’s nothing new about the new album — if you liked them before, you’ll continue to like them, and if you disliked them up to this point, I don’t believe this album will sway your opinion. But if you’re unfamiliar with them, this is a perfect album with which to start your obsession. If High Violet was the output of a band at the top of their game (it was), then Trouble is that of a band finally free of any need to prove themselves.

This album could have been complete shit and people would have continued to buy it in droves. Imagine the freedom knowing something like that would put on your creative process. I would normally believe the pressure to succeed wildly would be a powerful motivator. This album is proof that it can be the opposite as well. We’ve got nothing left to prove, we’ve reached the pinnacle, and oh, by the way, here’s another album that’s going to knock your fucking socks off.

P.S. The band also performed the song “Sailors in Your Mouth,” which is from the cartoon Bob’s Burgers, (animated video here) after having done “Kill Your Turkey” for them last year, and having had the band’s video for “Conversation 16” from 2010’s High Violet directed by Bob’s Burgers director Scott Jacobson. How can you not love them?

P.P.S. The video above, for “Sea of Love,” is an original song by the National, with a completely ripped-off video. “A loving homage to one of our favorite punk rock videos,” as the band put it when the video was released. The original video, which you can watch here, is by a band called Zvuki Mu, a Russian punk band, for their song “Grubiy Zakat” You can view their video here.

Tomorrow: NUMERO UNO. So excited!

__________________________________________

3. Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend
4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

#3 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend

The top three. This year it was tough to put in order. It pains me to have to put this lovely album at #3, because it is SO GOOD. On the flip side, I love that three albums as good or better than this one were released this year.

Vampire Weekend have now released three studio albums in the last five years, and every single one of them has been great. But if you disagree, if you’ve tried to listen to their self-titled debut from 2008 or 2010’s Contra and decided this band isn’t for you, I urge you to try again. Modern Vampires of the City is the product of a band that has matured. You will not recognize it as you have previous Vampire Weekend albums. No longer can their sound be compared to other bands or other sounds from years past. Their sound is now their sound, and they are at the top of the mountain, shouting, victorious.

Lead singer, lyricist, guitarist and co-songwriter Ezra Koenig’s playful phrases display a mastery of history, culture and the English language that is unequaled anywhere in pop music. Koenig and the rest of the band — guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and co-songwriter Rostam Batmanglij; drummer and percussionist Chris Tomson; and bassist and backing vocalist Chris Baio — have crafted an album of twelve songs that is an absolute joy to listen to, one that is equally youthful and wise, one I will undoubtedly be reaching for ten, twenty, forty years down the road.

The band came through town as the headlining act on 107.7 The End’s Deck the Hall Ball, and I was there to take it all in. They were the capper of a full nine-hour day of music, and they proved why they earned top billing. Each song played, from all of their albums, had the crowd up and moving about, smiling happily from ear to ear. Koenig, somehow seemingly appropriate for the occasion, was dressed in a matching pants and button-down navy blue with white polka-dots pajama set. He played the whole 1+ hour set dressed that way, but never once seemed ready to hit the hay. It was brilliant.

This album is that rare beast that is universally loved. Debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 when it was released in May, it has been favorably reviewed by nearly every publication that talks about popular music. Both Rolling Stone and Pitchfork have ranked it the #1 album of 2013. Perhaps owing to the earned media it is enjoying, the band has only produced one true music video from the album: “Diane Young,” shown above. There are a couple official lyric videos out there as well, for “Step” and “Ya Hey” (my absolute favorite from the album, although really any one of these songs could be my favorite).

Modern Vampires is a tour de force, an album unequaled in loveliness. You must hear it before making judgment on this band. You will not be disappointed.

__________________________________________

4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

#4 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches

There’s been a revival over the past couple years in the sounds of the 80s, and I would pin the start of this revival to the soundtrack for the 2011 movie Drive, which was a throwback itself. The highlights of that soundtrack were “Night Call” by French DJ Kavinsky and “A Real Hero” by another Frenchman, David Grellier, an electronic musician known as College.

The Bones Of What You Believe, the fantastic debut album from Chvrches, from Glasgow, Scotland, is the culmination of this revival. Synthesizers, drum machines and echo effects provide the foundation for an album steeped in the past. There is little surprise to this album, other than it is solid from start to finish. This is no one-hit wonder. Each song on the album is a hit in its own right, one worthy of only the best kind of car karaoke.

A trio, Chvrches is made up of lead singer Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, all of whom play keyboards and drum machines throughout the album. Mayberry’s treacly vocals, dripping with emotion, fuel large swells of passionate, impossibly perfect electronic sounds. “Overly produced” doesn’t even begin to qualify when listening to this album, as it is so over the top that nothing can compare. I would normally shy away from such production, preferring the humanity in the slightly off-key vocal or guitar string, but in the hands of these three perfection is the name of the game, through and through.

Chvrches is the best new band of 2013. No band has created a debut album as powerful as this one in 2013. I got to see the band play Seattle for the first time back in September, and, concentrating on “Recover,” the song shown in the video above, I summed up their songs accordingly:

The band’s songs are amazingly catchy, and very much de riguere. Heavy keyboards driven by repetitive, synthetic drums build each song to a flurry of activity, with Mayberry’s voice imparting a sense of urgency that draws you into your headphones like a tornado. My first experience of the band was “Recover,” from the EP of the same name that was released back in March. What was most unique about the song was also what drove me most crazy. Mayberry’s droning lyric throughout the song “I’ll give you one – more – chance; to say we can change – our – old – ways; and you take – what – you – need; and you know – you – don’t – need me” is every-so-slightly off beat from the underlying synthesizers (go ahead and try to bop your head to the drum beat, rather than her lyrical beat, and the difference is painfully obvious).

While they killed the Showbox that night by playing their entire album, the highlight of their performance turned out to not be one of their songs, but a cover, which they were seemingly unprepared to play but had to for lack of any other song to play in the crowd-demanded encore:

“We only have one more song we can play. Not to be typecast as ‘the band that covers that song,’ but here it is:” a perfectly-played version of Prince and The Revolution’s “I Would Die 4 U.” (CHVRCHES has actually recorded their version of the song, which can be heard here — note the cute name change, too.) It’s almost as if the band was put together and has come so far specifically to play this song.

It’s unclear if this album will stand the test of time. It’s difficult for a band so rooted in the past to hold onto the present while avoiding the “fad” label. But for now, I’m loving it, and you will, too.

__________________________________________

5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar