Album Reviews

What do the following artists have in common? Animal Collective Paul Simon The Beatles Erasure Passion Pit Andrew Bird Of Montreal Give up? You can hear bits and pieces of their sound at random times through-out Kishi Bashi’s album 151a: The first track, Intro/Pathos Pathos, has a little of that Paul Simon African feel. The second track, Manchester, reminds me of Erasure. The third track, Bright Whites, has Paul McCartney-esque vocals The fourth track, It All Began with a Burst, has the crazy percussion and obscure harmonies that are prevalent on Animal Collective albums. I could go on an on... This description may seem completely random and hard to fathom, but while listening this potpourri of awesomeness it will all make perfect sense. Not only does Kishi Bashi manage to...

Before you even throw Thinking In Textures, the sensually delicious album by Chet Faker, I suggest you pack a change of clothes and make sure the furniture is covered in plastic; because by album's end bodily fluid and lube is gonna be EVERYWHERE. Chet Faker is a dude with a killer beard, smooth, smokey and understated pipes, and a knack for making the kind of music that makes one's loins boil over with giddiness and pride. It is darkly erotic in the same way The Weeknd is, but more organic in nature. It's the type of music that lets the ladies know you trim down there for your benefit, and theirs, and lets the fellas know not to ask you to drive their lady friend to the airport; unless they're into their gal pal having dirty rest stop sex with the modern American frontiersman....

I have been in a bit of a slump in 2012 with my music. I’m not sure if it is just a matter of me not finding the right stuff to listen to or if there is a lack of great albums being released. I’ve been itching for my first ten star review, but nothing has inspired me. That is, not until I heard Father John Misty’s album Fear Fun. Finally, an album that from start to finish leaves me completely satisfied. Almost like how Tim feels in the warm embrace of Brando’s cuddly arms. Most people know J. Tillman as the former Fleet Foxes drummer, but he has put out 8 solo albums. His latest is under the moniker Father John Misty and it is KILLER. Fear Fun touches me in all the right places and the beautiful melodies give me repeated and long lasting eargasms. I’ve never really...

With TV Girl signing a label deal we (read: I ) expect Trung and Brad will be taking their music to bigger and what we (I) all assume will be better places. That sounds like a knock or a neg but I mean no harm. What it means is that with added visibility it will be hard for the duo, who are now a full on fleshed out band, to continue down their sample pop path. Legal pads and douche bags can squash that kind of crafty sound. Knowing that their current mojo is about to go the way of the dodo TV Girl decided to give us all a parting gift that would make Alex Trebek cream his pants. That gift is The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle, a free “mixtape” to be had by all for all at their bandcamp. This mixtape is no mixtape mind you. It’s an album full of original TV Girl music that is...

Sometimes when you have to write about music, really incredible music, you find yourself in this situation where you have more to say about it than anyone gives a shit about reading. You come to a point where after listening to an album dozens of times in less than a week, and can't stop listening to it, that you don't even want to write about it. You ONLY want to listen. It's rare for that to happen, at least for me. The good news is... it's that much less rare when R.A.P. Music by Killer Mike and entirely produced by EL-P gets released TODAY. The bad news is that I've listened to this album 20 times or so already and have a lot to say. This one was kind of a bitch to review to be completely honest. Killer Mike sums up the entire thing on the 9th bar of the opening track better...

Tim Says: Every man needs a center, a place that you can go when you need to re-jigger everything and get back into a headspace that feels both like home, and like wearing a sleeveless terry cloth sleeping shirt. There is comfort there, it's where we go to feel connected and safe in a world that is anything but certain. I Predict A Graceful Expulsion by Cold Specks is one of those records that helps you get there. It has become my go-to album anytime I need to quiet the noise rattling around in my head. It is the album I throw on when nothing else is working. The second Al Spx's smokey vocals hit my ear holes I slip into a state of complete and total ease. I am instantly at home, wrapped in the warmth and dark comfort that lives in I Predict A Graceful Expulsion. I Predict A...

Cancer For Cure is a beast of an album. It leaves my pants covered in milk stains and left my extremities numb from the rush of blood it sent to my groin. I still have goose pimples and my gut is all in a knot, and I haven’t listened to the fucker in 3 hours. El-P has really fucking outdone himself this time. I don’t think I am telling tales out of school when I say that El-P albums traditionally aren’t the easiest listens. Packed with dense samples, jarring emotional highs and lows, and raps that are as equally damaging as they are glorious; it is the kind of shit that you need to strip down to your boxers and throw on a terry cloth robe to listen. He is a heavy motherfucker and he makes heavy music. Cancer For Cure shares these characteristics but somehow it is a very...

Salty old veterans of SYFFAL and our Track Marks mixes will recall enjoying Chromatics' slow burning cover of The Boss' I'm on Fire. The rest of you with poor memory or the even more reprehensible characteristic of never downloading my mixes might recall hearing the Chromatics Tick of the Clock as part of the stellar Drive Soundtrack. What? You still haven't seen that movie yet? You're so fucking dead to me. The movie is so badass. It's actually two movies if you really think about it. The movie switches gears (pun shamefully intended) from heart crushing romance to head stomping bloody action in a way that was kind of similar in the way that Full Metal Jacket went from bootcamp mind meltdowns to the physical shit and sucky sucky of 'Nam. Two stand alone stories with different tones and...

The Skins are hard as Fuck. Not hard in the way rappers who are 5 foot nothing pretend to be hard, but truly hard. They sound like you could throw nuclear missiles at them and they would bounce off their collective chest and cry. I’m talking hard like you see them walking your way and you move your ass out of their path and admire their strut while getting intoxicated in their musk hard. Their self titled EP just picked me up by my collar and told me that I am will be giving them my lunch money for the rest of the year and the guitars just laughed at me as I pee’d myself. These fuckers are hard bro. Seriously, in one of the more impressive debut outings, The Skinshave completely shut out all other music from my ears. They took over my skull space and hung some sweet tapestries, left...

Summer has come a bit early this year and I’m not talking about the unseasonably warm weather. Bahamas’ new album Barchords is perfect summer-time listening; if Jack Johnson and M. Ward were spooning on the couch, Bahamas would be the warm damp area between the skin on skin contact. Everything about the album makes you want to sit in the sun with a cold beer. Initially, I was tempted to find this album after hearing a perfectly pleasant song called Lost In The Light. I instantly became obsessed with the incredible backing vocals that ever so slightly beef up a sublime guitar riff. I wish songs were inhabitable because I’d fucking live in this track; it is light, warm, and uplifting. Take a moment to come back down to Earth after watching that video. Do I have you attention now?...