New Jam from My Gold Mask

mygoldmaskI feel like Monday’s always a good day for me to chime in with something upbeat to get your ears and dance shoes ready for some hump day happy hour action, or maybe just a nice jog.  This latest single from My Gold Mask is sure to do the trick for you; it’s got a driving rhythm to provide some excellent energy, not to mention a vocal that would make Kevin Bacon run around doing gymnastics in an old warehouse.  It’s meant for good times, and sometimes those are the tracks that make our day; I hope this song makes your day.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/battles-FINAL.mp3]

Download: My Gold Mask – Battles [MP3]

Catchy New Jam from Kingsley Flood

20121220-kingsley-flood-600x-1356032432It’s good to diversify your tastes, so I have no qualms with posting this new jam from Kingsley Flood, one of the hottest acts around Boston at the moment.  There sound blends elements of raucous bar tunes with punk rock stomps, touched off nicely with bits of horns/violins/keyboard.  It’s an eclectic sound for sure, but one that’s definitely captured my attention.  You can hear this track, along with other equally mesmerizing tunes (like “The Fire Inside”) on the band’s new album, Battles. If they’re making songs as good as these, it won’t be long before they break out of Boston and move on to greener pastures.

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ACL Battles: M83 vs. M. Ward

Well it’s time ladies and gents, time for everyone to start mapping out that ACL schedule and deciding who is really going to be worth your time in the sun.  While skimming through the schedule, the first major conflict I see for a lot of people has to be on Friday with M. Ward and M83 both going on at 7:30.  Now I also see Thievery Corporation going on around the same time, but I’m going to leave them out of the mix since they aren’t really my thing.  

So who you gonna pick?  The atmospheric electronic jams of M83?  Or would you rather go with the songwriting style of the legendary M. Ward?  I think I know who I’d pick…. I think.  

Let’s hear your thoughts.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/02-never-had-nobody-like-you.mp3]

Download: M Ward – Never Had Nobody Like You [MP3]

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Download: M83 – Midnight City [MP3]

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

EMBRYONIC TRAYRating: ★★★☆☆

I’ll be the first to admit that after listening to At War with the Mystics a few years back, I fully expected Embryonic, the new album from The Flaming Lips to be one of the worst albums I would come across this year.  Yea, I lost the faith, and like others, I was pleasantly suprised when I got my hands on the album.  A few spins in, and I dug it.

For the first few moments, you can tell that the shift of the group has gone towards a less pop-centric approach to writing.  Gone from the opening moments are the anthemic pop songs one would expect to hear coming from Wayne’s mouth as he walked across a crowd in a bubble.  Still, the one thing that makes me reluctant to go full on into this conglomerate of sounds, which is really what the first few tracks are, is that I heard this all before.  Sure, the Lips can pull it off, but it reminds me an awful lot like that Battles album from a few years back.

Then comes “Evil,” which starts out as mere noise samples, then goes into traditional song structure, and then fades back into the samples once again. Unfortunately, it’s not really a classic song approach for the band, and you won’t get a chance to really hear them pull off in that direction again until “I Can Be a Frog,” but you really don’t get too far into the song itself, due to the fact that you’re spending most of your time trying to catch the noises that correlate to Wayne’s lyrics.  Even “Silver Trembling Hands” isn’t a straight-forward song, and it was the single.  Take out the vocals, and you have the rest of the album in your hands.  No lie.

So what makes up the majority of this album you might ask?  Well, if I were The Flaming Lips, and I were constructing this album, or explaining away its secret recipe, I would do it as such:  2 Parts Flaming Lips, 1 Parts M83, 1 Parts Battles, 1 Part Liars/Deerhunter, 2 Pandering to Noise Fans, 1 Part Throwaways.  You probably bake it in the studio for several years just to make it come out the way you want.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the lack of originality on this album, as far as where my ears hear the sounds coming from, is that very few people could execute an album precisely the way this group did.  Their fusion of sampling, pop, psychedelia, jazz, noise, etc comes off successfully, without really exhibiting  a lull in the album.  If anyone could construct such a concept in their mind, and then pull if off, it had to be the guys that put together Zaireeka.

Sure, there aren’t any classic gems, like most of us really wanted to get the band to toss our way, but there is no denying that beneath the sinister construction of this noise, something beautiful will come to fruition.  Will I be the one to see that beauty?  Maybe so.  As of now, I’m still trying to figure out who on Warner Brothers tried to explain Embryonic to the bosses on behalf of The Flaming Lips because I’m having trouble enough explaing it to myself, let alone anyone who reads this.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/03-silver-trembling-hands-1.mp3]

Download: Flaming Lips – Silver Trembling Hands [MP3]