The Present-World I See





Happy Halloween! Everybody have a safe and fun werewolf bah mitzvah! Spooky, Scary!

Greg Weeks-The Hive

Best known for his work with Philadelphian psychedelic folksters Espers, Greg Weeks returns with his new album ‘The Hive’. Key to the album's sound was the acquisition of a vintage Mellotron keyboard and there’s even a cover version of Madonna’s ‘Borderline’. Recommended.

SunflowerChakraMilk












Broadcast-The Future Crayon



Dear Broadcast,

Please make a new album soon.


Thanks,

Joel














Tobacco-Fucked Up Friends







Black Moth Super Rainbow mastermind, Tobacco, has a solo album that essentially sounds like a Black Moth Super Rainbow record. The beats are a little harder, and Aesop Rock *yawn* lends his vocals a song. But at the end of the day, even slightly out of focus, it's unrecognizable from Dandelion Gum. I'm not necessarily suggesting that that's a bad thing. Just don't believe the hype about it being a departure from his main project.




Lastly, check out this puppy that boy Shannon put in my email. Have a good Halloween weekend.

The Fun Years-Baby, It's Cold Inside





















Final Fantasy-Spectrum, 14th Century EP





















Keiran Hebdan & Steve Reid-NYC



















The Shout Out Louds-Our Ill Wills

Valgeir Sigurðsson-Ekvílibríum



Has worked on virtually every Bjork album since Vespertine as well as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's 'The Letting Go'. Will Oldham guests.













Riceboy Sleeps-s/t





Ambient stuff from Jón Þór Birgisson of Sigur Rós and his boyfriend, Alex Somers.

DJ Rupture-Uproot





































Little Joy-s/t

The Notwist-The Devil, You + Me


A 4 year gap and two years in the making this is another example of a few brilliant minds that seem completely unphased by the passing of time.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Harlem-Free Drugs;-)






Maybe it's the sort of thing that you unconsciously manifest, but when I moved to Portland for the first time a few years ago and started getting involved in the gallery and Hovercraft it seemed to me the most ridiculous possibility that there would be a lo-fi/garage/indie/whatever revival. But then when it started to happen it made a lot of sense. It's about as unnecessary as the new wave/post-punk/whatever rehashing we enjoyed not too long ago or the whole mash-up/edit debacle we're still enmeshed in. And I guess that makes it pretty sensible in a cultural arena as obsessed with recontextulization. I'm not the only one who finds myself listening to an album I already know I don't like thinking that I might feel differently about it now, right?

The most frustrating thing about rock music is that there are so many cultural cues that, for the most part, end up boiled down to the same redundant 'oh, that's.. cool' moment. it's redundant. it's so redundant it's redundant to even talk about it.

All of this being said, sometimes it's so done so fucking well, it's so immaculately executed, that it doesn't matter. Such is the case with Harlem's Free Drugs;-). The sort of record that immediately induces deja vu. Which is actually a pretty useful metaphor as the music also sounds like these guys' brains have been tripping over themselves for sometime.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Notwist-Boneless 7"


You should download this mainly because it's coupled with a really great Panda Bear remix that is really more of a brand new Panda Bear song than a remix.

Max Tundra-Parallax Error Beheads You

Dreamend-The Long Forgotten Friend

Sigur Rós-Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust






Just got done reading THIS while listening to the newest Sigur Rós album... It was intense, to say the least.









On a totally unrelated note, I want to make a friendly suggestion. I know some of you have very good reasons for opting out. But if you ARE voting in the upcoming election and you ARE from Ohio, but you don't LIVE there anymore, and you AREN'T yet registered in the state where you currently LIVE, you might consider applying for an absentee voting form ASAP. Opportunities for Ohio to not appear totally retarded don't come around that often and when they do you really have to seize the moment.

Aguaturbia-Psychedelic Drugstore

Ty Segall-s/t























Mr. Oizo-Lambs Anger

Congregacion-Viene

J Tillman-Cancer & Delirium

Fucked Up-The Chemistry of Common Life





















Max Richter-24 Postcards in Full Color

Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit-Are The Very Best





















Wyld Wyzrds-We Are Everyone

Reefer-s/t

Hair Police-Certainty of Swams

Sleep-Sleep's Holy Mountain





Apparently, the idea behind this record is to start it as you're rolling the joint. It's also been said that this is the greatest album Black Sabbath never wrote.











Oudaden-s/t






Aside from this image being PRICELESS, the tape it accompanies is hot fucking shit:

'There is a road that goes from Marrakech into the Ourika valley at the foothills of the Atlas mountains and ends at the Setti Fatma waterfalls, a small tourist attraction. There are small homes, cafes, and hotels alongside the road the whole way up, and at some point I stopped at a cafe which was next to a booth filled with tapes and cds. I tried to ask the vendor for a suggestion but there was just too much and he didn't play anything that really caught my ear. Then while I was eating and watching women who lived in the valley washing carpets in the river down from the road, this tape came blasting out of the booth. Drenched in reverb and delay and accompanying the view of clouds moving across the mountains in front of me, it was a magical sound, so I bought the tape. Later I listened to it over and over driving through the Sahara with no A/C.-awesometapesfromafrica'

According to awesome tapes, an Oudad is the creature seen on the insert. No, not the ones thoughtfully stroking their chins. The goat. And Oudaden is the plural form of Oudad. So for all intents and purposes the name of this band is 'The Goats'.











Pocahaunted-Chains

Christina Carter-Original Darkness

























Tussle-Cream Cuts


























This is a photo from last Thursday at Holocene in Portland. The guy on the left is my friend Cheikh. The guy on the right is Matthew Dear. I was extremely intoxicated and my camera phone's flash has proven itself pretty much useless. But at least I have a record of it. He's extremely handsome and charming. His set was also pretty fantastic. It was the closest I will ever come to seeing Lodger performed live. By the by, Keep an eye out for Telefon Tel Aviv's new record whenever it's recorded/announced. If it's anything like their current set it's going to be totally different from everything they've done in the past and pretty great.

Jay Reatard-Matador Singles '08 *Link Fixed*


























Herman Dune-Next Year in Zion

Empire of the Sun-Walking on a Dream




















Terrorists w/ Lee Perry and Roland Alphonso

Wavves-s/t

David Byrne & Brian Eno-Everything that Happens will Happen Today

Coconot-Cosa Astral

Arthur Russell-Love is Overtaking Me (Part 1) *Link Fixed*




Arthur Russell-Love is Overtaking Me (Part 2)



Most of you who are familiar with Arthur Russell are almost certainly more aware of his work as an innovative disco producer than of the work compiled on Love is Overtaking Me. Audika's fifth installment in a series of re-issues of Arthur Russell's still under-appreciated body of work, Love is Overtaking Me is comprised of 21 demos and home recordings of unreleased pop, country, and folk. In keeping with the majority of Russell's work the songs here are intensely personal. Deeply affecting without being obtrusive, heartfelt without becoming overbearing. However, having been stripped of the more existential tendencies of much of his previous work to evolve endlessly, a testament to his near legendary penchant for constant revision (it's been stated that since his death from aids in 1992 there have been discovered over 1,000 tapes of unreleased material, 40 of which are re-workings of one piece), these songs become arguably some of his most accessible. There is familiarity coded in the dna of this record. In the dethawed chorus of 'Oh Fernanda Why' and the plinking metronomic meditation 'Love Comes Back'. In the post adolescent monotone of 'Time Away', vaguely reminiscent of Jonathan Richmann's crooning for The Modern Lovers. Coincidentally, Arthur recruited Ernie Brooks of the Modern Lovers for his band The Flying Hearts from '75 to '79. One of many cultural figures influenced by Arthur's music, including John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, John Hammond, David Byrne, and Rhys Chatham. Love is Overtaking Me's tracks were selected by Audika's Steve Knutson, Ernie Brooks, and Russell's partner/holder of estate Tom Lee. who has also provided extensive liner notes illustrating unparalleled perspective of Russell's work. Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear contributed to mixing, restoration, and editing of the album.

Love is Overtaking Me, being as a whole, a powerfully intimate portrait of a musical personality as unique and vital as Arthur Russell stands to defend a statement written about Russell at the time of his death: "his songs were so personal, that it seems as though he simply vanished into his music."


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Apologies for the recent drying up of a once robust stream of new musics. My recent re-relocation back to Portland had left me internet handicapped for a few weeks. However, Mark's triumphant return from Europe has followed through on its promise of a wireless signal decidedly less anemic than the one my unfortunate laptop airport card had occasionally absently reached for in its myriad dysfunction. I've decided to celebrate with a gorging of new music.

First off, a new link to that High Places debut:

















High Places-s/t





















Grails-Doomsdayer's Holiday
























Department of Eagles-In Ear Park





















Windy & Carl-Songs for the Broken Hearted




















Love is All-A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night






















Annuals-Such Fun
























School of Seven Bells-Alpinisms