Albums of the Month - February 2012

Albums of the Month - February 2012

There's an ounce of guilt here, never completing what I considered to be the best albums of January. Part apathy, part neglect, and part of no albums really capturing my attention, January 2012 is forgotten. But rather than tread on the mistakes, I'd rather just get back to normal and act like it never happened. So, it never did. And here are my three favorite albums from February.

3. Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting
There's no sense in cuing in on the Islands sound anymore. Every album since the 2006 debut Return to the Sea is an offshoot of Nick Thorburn's most memorable experiment with The Unicorns in the early 2000s, in some distorted way. Yet collectively, A Sleep & A Forgetting stands out as Thorburn's most cohesive output in the past six years, stringing charmingly underscored songs - all of which could be theoretically packaged as singles. There's nothing cognitively outlandish here, unlike the aforementioned Unicorns' single LP Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?, but there doesn't have to be to admire the solid consistency of it all.

The Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting (Insound)

2. Frankie Rose - Interstellar
Something about Frankie Rose always screamed bigger. Yet, Interstellar doesn't lampoon her name forward as one of pop's up-and-coming stars, but something more comfortable on its own. Her history is well-documented, being a former member of Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, and Dum Dum Girls, but with her excellent solo output, somehow completely separating herself from her past groupings.

She does sound bigger, still, without launching herself too far out, often finding herself more comfortable in Cure-like synths and splitting echoing harmonies. What results is something that ends up being far more personable than those aforementioned groups, especially on tracks like "Pair of Wings," where we think of Rose more as person than a girl-band character. And in the end, we wind up wanting to know more about her.

Frankie Rose - Interstellar (Insound)

1. Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It
Truth behind it, Perfume Genius' Put Your Back N 2 It, despite the otherwise stupid album title, is the only record to truly stand out for me last month. The soft piano interludes, cosmic wherewithal, and folk renaissance vocal styles of Mike Hadreas make the listener forget the wholly tragic inspiration behind the album, touching on domestic abuse, death, drugs, and the every day love loss that human intervention seems to inspire. It endears as well, without strangling itself with the heavy subjects, because Handreas has figured out how to make those common tragic elements beautiful, if not subtle.

Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It (Insound)

New Tanlines - All of Me

About a month away from the release of their newest LP Mixed Emotions, Tanlines have released the second single from the album "All of Me," which you can listen to below.

Grab the album from True Panther March 20. You can also download an MP3 version of the single and view the duo's tour dates here.

Thursday Bears: New videos from Santigold and I'm From Barcelona

Here's a couple new videos today from the latest Santigold single and ultra mega-sized band I'm From Barcelona, both of which you can watch below.

I'm From Barcelona's latest album Forever Today is available now, and Santi White's upcoming sophomore release, Master of My Make Believe, will be out May 1.

Santigold - Disparate Youth

I'm From Barcelona - Battleships

Wednesday Bears: New Gorillaz video - DoYaThing (ft. James Murphy and Andre 3000)

That was quick. Nearly a week after the premiere of both versions of "DoYaThing," the Converse-promoted single from the Gorillaz, James Murphy, and Andre 3000. Like most of what the Gorillaz have converted to music video, "DoYaThing" is pretty top-notch and memorable, filled with Plastic Beach easter eggs and very well-crafted artwork. Watch below.

Tuesday Bears: Pitchfork Music Festival lineup released

No other music festival bares influence on Lollapalooza more than the Pitchfork Music Festival. Both are held in Chicago, less than a month apart from one another. And because of this, the festival organizers have inacted a "radius clause" which I've mentioned on here time and time again, that states that musical acts that play within a certain mile radius in a certain time span before and after Lollapalooza's scheduled dates cannot play there. All this usually means is that any act playing Pitchfork cannot play Lolla and vice versa.

So, who won't be at Lollapalooza this year? Feist, Vampire Weekend, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, lead out the initial headlining list, alongside Hot Chip, A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Tim Hecker and a handful of other notable acts, all of which you can see here.

The pre-Pitchfork predictions seemed to be strong for Bon Iver, PJ Harvey, and Jeff Magnum headlining, but now that that seems to be out of the question, that all but guarantees a spot for Justin Vernon and the band at Lolla in August. This, however, is not the entire Pitchfork Music Festival lineup. More than 30 other acts will also be added, so nothing is certain.

Again, nothing is confirmed yet, but this is reason enough to be suspicious. Tickets for the July 13-15 fest go on sale Friday, March 9 at noon. Single-day passes are $45 and a three-day pass are a reasonably priced at $110.

New Gold Panda - Thailand Chord Droner

There isn't a lot of new information regarding where Gold Panda's "Thailand Chord Droner" came from, just a new free stream from his Soundcloud page. Listen below.

Thailand Chord Droner by Gold Panda

Monday Bears: New videos from Girls, Bon Iver, and Summer Camp

A lot of videos made their way around today - too many for separate posts. Check out Girls' new video for "My Ma," Bon Iver's newest version of "Towers," and Summer Camp's lame photo opportunities with "Losing My Mind," all below.

Girls - My Ma



Bon Iver - Towers



Summer Camp - Losing My Mind