Across the Continent to Benin
April 27, 2011
After a couple of days of Nigerian classics we move to Benin in West Africa with some great groove based funk from T.p. Orchestre Poly-rythmo – a band that ruled the dance floor in Porto-Novo and beyond throughout the 70′s.
T.p. Orchestre rose to prominence during the oppressive Marxist-Leninist regime that ruled the country from ’71-’90 with an iron fist. While no one would consider T.p. Orchestre’s music overtly political - it was rebellious and their music went relatively unnoticed outside of Benin, in great part thanks to the government, until Soundway put out a compilation of their music several years ago. Needless to say the complete LP is well worth your time.
There is no victory
March 30, 2011
Free Music Weekend
March 11, 2011
There is a ton of places on to find Free LEGAL music provided by tons of generous bands for your consumption. Here are four of my favorite places to download music on the web:
FMA (Free Music Archive): An extremely large database of free music that is very easy to navigate and browse – well worth wasting a few hour on the FMA. (Quick tip: Holy Coast’s s/t LP)
Candy Dinner: A wonderful curated digital ‘record label’ – although there isn’t a lot of music there – it features very diverse albums all worth sampling (Quick tip: a good place to start – Tiger Bones ‘Go over here’ ep)
Bandcamp: Over the last few months Band Camp has become my go to site for new music on the web – Band Camp and Tumblr are slowing replacing Myspace as the website every new bands needs. Admittedly most stuff on Bandcamp isn’t free but there are enough free EPs to keep you going for a long time. (Quick tip: verBS ‘Progress EP’ – absurdly good Funk/Hip-Hop)
Archive.org: The old standby – there is so much free stuff on here its impossible to navigate it all. For music fans there are a ton of free EPs and tracks from throughout the 20th & 21st century worth listening to but I tend to spend most of my time on the Live Music Archive which features a tremendous amount of free shows from hundreds of bands. Its hard to go wrong at the archive. (Quick tip: hard to know where to start here: if you like beautiful pop – Elliott Smith 6-2-98, Stockholm fits the bill – if you prefer jam check out Disco Biscuits 12-26-02, Tammany Hall)
There are obviously many other places to find free LEGALLY downloadable music on the internet – but these sites are a good place to start. I hope everyone has a nice weekend.
Hiatus
February 28, 2011
Interest in the blog has really died down over the last few weeks – given this I have decided to go on hiatus until we can figure out what Night in Los Angeles is going to be going forward
I will still try to post a new song or two everyday – but commentary will be pretty much be non existant
Thanks for your support – and please visit SD’s Come on Calvary blog – he’s doing some really great stuff over there
“Life is a wretched gray saturday, but it has to be lived through”
February 25, 2011
Okay that’s enough horrific music for one day – here are a couple of decent tracks for the weekend. First ‘One by Words’ from Catwalk – a combination of early 80′s American disco beats (as opposed to the usual Italian disco), New Order style new wave, pop shoegaze and 60′s style vocals. There’s a sunny California underneath the NY club vibe that really makes this a keeper.
The second track is some pretty straight forward Rock and Roll from Beaches, the incredibly awesome all girl psychedelic outfit from Australia’. ‘In a while’ mixes the dark sludge of modern depression rock with ethereal shoegaze style vocals – its part of there all around spectacular Eternal Sphere 12″ you can find on Mexican Summer.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
“…an exchange of ignorance”
February 23, 2011
Baltimore’s Arbouretum released their new album The Gathering this week to most middling reviews. Pitchfork in particular ravaged the record. Now I usually don’t make it to point to call out other much better music sites however this review really irked simply because it was based on a faulty premise – i.e. Arbouretum was once a really great folk rock band that is trying to embrace something they are not – Queens of the Stone Age inspired Desert-Rock.
First of all – I don’t know what the they have been listening to but Arbouretum was never a folk rock band – they have always been a Depression Jam/Post Jam outfit. Their sound is a mixture of the psychedelic dark late 60′s Dead and jammy ‘Everyone know this is no where’ – era Neil Young. Now I admit The Gathering has a significantly darker edge than Song of the Pearl and to be fair Mr. Greene’s main problem with the record seems to be Dave Heumann’s lyrics which I have no issue with – lyrics have never been Arbouretum strong suit. Furthermore, Greene’s assessment that the opener ‘The White Bird’ is the strongest overall strongest song on the record is probably accurate. However, The Gathering is a natural progression from what Arbouretum has been doing for their last few albums – increasingly apocalyptic post jam – to say Arbouretum needs to return to the folk rock roots doesn’t make a lot of sense since they don’t really have folk rock roots. The closest Arbouretum ever got to folk rock was their debut album Long Live the Well-Doer which while deeply rooted in Southern rock is a bit too dischordant to be considered folk. Let’s put it this way there is not a lot of Damien Jurado on that record. Anyway for those who like fuzzy noodlely guitars and dark acid tinged crunch The Gathering is a pretty safe bet – for those repelled by this type of music move on – there is nothing to see here.
‘Sands and Sands’ – Arbouretum (fr. Long Live the Well-Doer 2004)
‘Pale Rider Blues’ – Arbouretum (fr. Rites of Uncovering 2007)
‘False Spring’ – Arbouretum (fr. Song of the Pearl 2009)
‘The White Bird’ – Arbouretum (fr. The Gathering 2011)
The Short-Winded Elations of Men
February 18, 2011
Some random tracks for a slow Friday – first a new Waaves song ‘TV Luv Song’ which happily features the same drugged out jangly pop you have to come to expect from the Waaves – wait the Waaves love drugs? I never would have guessed.
Second ‘Stamp’ a fiery piece of depression pop from the Rural Alberta Advantage. ‘Stamp’ is a heady mix of Jeff Magnum influenced desperation with New Pornographer/Beulah perfectly shaped pop. For whatever reason this track has been largely ignored – which is a shame considering how much ink is split on far less catchy tunes.
‘Stamp’ – Rural Alberta Advantage
Finally as everyone knows Radiohead releases their 8th studio album digitally tomorrow King of Limbs - in commemoration of this good news we decided it was time to post two of Night in Los Angeles favorite Radiohead songs – the relatively recent ‘These are my twisted word’ featuring the boys at their most jammy (if King of Limbs ends up being a discordant jam masterpiece would you really be surprised?) and the sadly still unreleased ‘Lift’ a thick slab of perfect depression pop that Radiohead has basically ignored since its debut fifteen years ago. Hope everyone has a good weekend – enjoy the tracks and King of Limbs and we will see you Monday.
‘These Are My Twisted Words’ – Radiohead
See Also:
*Slight Correction: Radiohead released King of Limbs today so you can download it now – there also is a video for what I assume is the first single ‘Lotus Flower’ – check it out
Breakfast 4 Track
February 15, 2011
A little Breakfast EP – from your friends at Night in Los Angeles to kick off your Tuesday. Admittedly these four tracks have little in common, in fact one could argue they hold up better on their on:
‘New Nathan Detroits’ because Math pop has never sounded so effortless.
‘You’re A Wolf ‘ has an obnoxiously sinister riff.
‘Ungawa’ is a dumbshit masterpiece.
‘Misty Eyes’ because it’s girlie.
However when listened to as a playlist the songs form a (somewhat?) cohesive musical statement. There is a grimy texture and quiet violence that seems to bind these songs together. So while you can pick and choose the post rock of Braid, the garage pop of Chow Nasty, the dark depression pop of Sea Wolf, or the quiet desperation of Ohbijou at your leisure – if you have 15 minutes its worth listening to them together as a mix at least once.
