Friday Bears: New Sleigh Bells album, Reign of Terror, teaser

Hey, remember when Sleigh Bells all-of-a-sudden mysteriously dropped out of last August's Lollapalooza to record more music? Well, now we can actually confirm it without soft-hand bullshitting.

The band released this pretty awesome two and a half minute teaser for Reign of Terror, which is suspected to drop sometime around mid-2012. Watch the teaser below.


Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror from Mom+Pop on Vimeo.

Albums of the Month - November 2011

Albums of the Month - November 2011

Only one month remains before our annual (now expanded) end of the year lists. But for now, here's my three favorite albums for the month of November.

3. Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream
Parts messy punk interludes, part downtrodden midnight white boy blues, Carrion Crawler/The Dream is the most recent joyful (and mysterious) jab by Thee Oh Sees at a genre they seem to patent. There's a casual knuckle-splitting feeling throughout the album, particularly in the first half with gems like "Contraption/Soul Desert" which very often forgets to find itself, in the very best way.

Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream (Insound)

2. A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP
Really? The super-drug addled breakout New York mixtape from a guy who has a dollar sign in his name? Unfair perception. No one's jumping out saying the A$AP Rocky's LIVELOVEA$AP is the best rap album of the year, because it isn't. He doesn't match the visceral thrill of Kendrick Lamar's Section.80 or Big K.R.I.T.'s Returnof4eva, or the utter fantastic weirdness of Danny Brown's XXX, but there's always something to be made of the case of a rapper that just does the part right. No mask of fake attitude, no presumptions, damning and memorable beats (constructed by Clams Casino), and a kid who has true potential. It may come a little empty for some, but for others, this is how modern rap should be built.

A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP (Download)

1. Atlas Sound - Parallax
If Brandford Cox's second prominent project, Atlas Sound, is confusing anybody with Deerhunter, Cox's more well-known outfit, don't worry. As the years and sheer volume of Cox's work continue to pile on, the collective sounds begin to aesthetically merge: subtle strings of synthetic noise effortless in the background of his echoing (yet quiet) vocal style, letting his songwriter play the forefront. "Te Amo," one of Parallax's more stellar outputs, sounds particularly akin to the final track on Deerhunter's previous album Halcyon Digest, "He Would Have Laughed." From then on out, however, the album builds itself as a particular outlier, collectively unique to the new, crafty Bradford Cox. The album's final calls drift into a dark, ethereal sound, that is until you hear "Lightworks," the most upbeat thing in the man's endless catalog. One of which will continue to grow and perfect itself.

Atlas Sound - Parallax (Insound)

All the Bon Iver deluxe videos

As mentioned Monday, Bon Iver is planning to release the deluxe edition of last spring's self-titled mega album (mega in quality, not quantity) with new pairing videos for each of the album's ten tracks. For those not looking for any of that pricey crap, the band released all of the videos today on their Youtube page. Or, you know, watch them below.

Bon Iver - Perth



Bon Iver - Minnesota, WI



Bon Iver - Holocene



Bon Iver - Towers



Bon Iver - Michicant



Bon Iver - Hinnom, TX



Bon Iver - Wash.



Bon Iver - Calgary



Bon Iver - Lisbon, OH



Bon Iver - Beth/Rest

Wednesday Bears: Dodos (and Neko Case) play Fallon

The Dodos got some help from their friend Neko Case, who everyone just loves, last night on the band's appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It's a fairly impressive performance, especially considering I usually have a hard time getting into the Dodos. Maybe it's Neko. Man I love Neko.

The Dodos - Don't Try and Hide It (ft. Neko Case)

EDIT: Something shitty with the embedding, watch the video here.

Fucked Up - I Hate Summer

Timing aside, Fucked Up have released "I Hate Summer" through Matador Records a few months prior to the band's scheduled Bruise Cruise trek - a punk rock cruise line that I'll let you figure out for yourself. This time, the band takes a step back from the David Comes to Life message and just shits out good music.

Fucked Up - I Hate Summer by Bears and Bullets

Tuesday Bears: The Das Racist debate

Das Racist made their late-night TV premiere last night on Conan with "Michael Jackson," the lead-single off the group's first official studio album Relax (that doesn't include their first two mixtapes, which are still available for free on their website) and, well, it was terrible. No one who saw this performance just became a Das Racist fan.

The NYC trio looked too weird to be interesting or clever, and methodically out of place. Their reputation for their other live shows isn't much better, and with the release of Relax and some Youtube promotion, they've garnered there fair share of detractors. For almost every fan praising their lyrical depth and subtle creativity, there are those who see them as nothing more than a hipster-branded joke rap band that doesn't joke about the things they think are funny.

Makes sense. The mere fact that Das Racist is most people's first exposure to a rap group that isn't white or black is something incredibly rare in the states, and it spins off an unfair perception. That being said, super-intricate rapping with sole focus on lyricism never truly caught on, just like it never caught only completely with ... any genre really.

However, Das Racist (Twitter) seem to revel in it, frequently posting anytime someone says something negative about the group and just truly not trying to give a shit. In a way, they live off the aesthetic extreme of what we consider rap music: not black or white, but racially based; intricate and profound, but comical. It's to a point where you can't take them too seriously, and that's even to the point where you took them seriously in the first place.

Will it last? It's been almost two years since the release of their first mixtape Shut Up, Dude. And if there's any consent, they're more popular now than ever. Your call.

Stop dating bitches

Might as well turn a little personal side from this point.

This is my blog. It's been my blog. At this point, aside from the very, very rare self-centered rants, I've kept it strictly business style - in another essence, boring.

After after last weekend's mythological debacle of me trying to date someone that no one (and barely me) liked, I had to have learned some concerning lesson somewhere. It's completely over, and so far, what I've got is Stop Dating Bitches.

And like fun stuff.

Monday Bears: New Bon Iver video - Hinnom, TX

As part of the deluxe-edition re-release of last spring's self-titled effort, Bon Iver has accompanied each of the album's ten tracks, including this new one for "Hinnom, TX," of a snowy setting sun. Which is also the first time I've said that phrase.

Bon Iver - Hinnom, TX