Skirts

Craig Smith  //  

 
Jan 28 / 10:26pm

Liam the Younger Discography.

by Craig Smith

(download)

I was hipped to Liam the Younger on Thursday by this article on Prefix written by my brother. That's an actual music review site and he actually gets paid to write for them so if you're looking for an analysis with a lot of description that's the link to check out. Here's my amateur analysis though: Liam the Younger has made some very good music here. He's Liam Betson, an off-and-on guitarist for awesome band Titus Andronicus, and over the past few years he's put out a few self-recorded CD-Rs of his acoustic folk songs. He comes off like a combo of Woody Guthrie and Jeff Mangum's sparser moments, with an unadorned and compelling style. 

Now the label Underwater Peoples is remastering the early albums and putting them out on vinyl so everyone can hear them. The first two were posted for free download by Liam for a long time but now are sorta hard to find. You can get the first one, Clear Skies Over Black River, here. The second, After the Graveyard, is here and the third, Revel Hidden Worlds, here. If you only feel like grabbing one first make it After the Graveyard.

 
Jan 28 / 9:08pm

Perfume Genius, "Put Your Back N 2 It."

by Craig Smith

(download)

Perfume Genius is one guy, Michael Hadreas, who makes warbly piano pop songs mixed in with sorta dense organ sound clouds. His first album, 2010's Learning, was great and this new one, Put Your Back N 2 It, is pretty darn good too. The songs are sort of fragile and beautiful and heartfelt, as is the video for the lead single "Hood," which features Hadreas and a burly male porn actor. 

The video itself has garnered a fair amount of attention because Youtube removed a version of it for not being 'family safe,' presumably because it features two dudes instead of a guy and a girl, which is of course complete horseshit. It's the kind of thing that can really wind you up if you think about it too much. Anyway, download the album by clicking on the art below.
 
Jan 22 / 8:24pm

Justin Blackburn, "Failure."

by Craig Smith

Comedy sketch albums as a general rule are idiotic and this one, well, this one is pretty dumb too. Track 2 "Lucky Bucky Buckilee Lucky Bucky Buck" (nsfw cuz of swears) made me laugh pretty hard though, and in general I admire the devotion to stupid comedy that Justin Blackburn's showing here. Based on context clues I've determined that he's a comic from Greenville, SC, and is probably pretty fun to see live. Listen to the album and download it at his bandcamp or below.

 
Jan 22 / 8:11pm

Tennis, "Young & Old."

by Craig Smith

(download)

Tennis is the kind of band I get sick of quickly, their catchy but precious melodies becoming treacly pretty darn quick. This new album Young & Old seems to have some promise though, as upon first listen it comes off as less twee than 2010's Cape Dory. If you're in the mood for some well-thought-out but sorta syrupy pop music, download Young & Old by clicking on the album cover below. 

 
Jan 22 / 7:34pm

Craig Finn, "Clear Heart Full Eyes."

by Craig Smith

(download)

Craig Finn, bespectacled frontman for the Hold Steady, has released his first solo album, and here it is for free download! I haven't listened to the whole thing yet but I read something on the 'net last week about how it's not about the usual cast of Hold Steady gutter punks. Instead it's about people who are getting old and not as fun and sorta stuck in a rut, which is about where I'm at :( . Anyway the few songs I just listened to quickly didn't knock me out but hey, give Clear Heart Full Eyes a shot by clicking on the art below.

 
Dec 8 / 8:33pm

Night Manager, "Ghost."

by Craig Smith
Another soundcloud gem I picked up recently is Night Manager's "Ghost." This Brooklyn trio has put together a nice fuzzy, clattering piece of rock 'n' roll which you can listen to embedded below. You can also order the 7" from Japanese label Big Love, although its 1,290¥ price tag translates to about 16 bucks before shipping. Check out Night Manager's other tracks at their facebook here.

 
Dec 8 / 8:21pm

Troller, "Troller."

by Craig Smith

I first read about Troller a couple weeks ago in an interview with Pure X at the now-defunct Altered Zones. Jesse of Pure X sang the praises of these guys (I think it's actually a guy and a girl but am not sure), saying "they are one band capable of eradicating the 1,000 saccharine, cat-doting, cutesy, white bread, husband/wife, weak-sauce blog-cloggers," so I looked them up and boy was I happy with what I found. 

I've had a Chrome tab open on their soundcloud page since, as that was the only way to listen to their four posted songs and I wanted to listen to them all the time. Today though they put up their debut album on bandcamp, available for streaming but not download, and it's nice, real nice. Lumbering and heavy and droning, the songs sound like they were recorded inside a cave or something. I don't usually like this kind of thing but it's doing it for me. 

As mentioned above, the album isn't yet available for download but you can listen to the first track below or stream the whole thing at Troller's bandcamp. Go to the site and listen to "Tiger" and "Winter," those are my faves.

 
Dec 7 / 7:33am

The Roots, "Undun."

by Craig Smith
The new Roots album leaked the other day and although I haven't yet listened to it all the way through, everybody who cares about the Roots say it's their best album in quite some time. Download the Roots Undun by clicking on the art below. Side note: this has gotta be named after the Guess Who song right? Cool.

(download)

 
Dec 6 / 10:09pm

LATE PASS: Clams Casino, "Instrumentals" mixtape.

by Craig Smith
It's that time of year friends, where I read about 8 million year-end Best of 2011 lists and catch up on all the good stuff I missed. Thus, this new Skirts series "Late Pass" where I cover notable 2011 albums that slipped past me the first time around. The posts probably won't get going until my winter break starts in a week and a half-- which, incidentally, cannot come soon enough-- but I'm digging this album enough to post it now.

Clams Casino. No not the appetizer, the hip-hop producer. I just assumed I wouldn't like this stuff because I don't really like rap music but I stumbled on this and really dig it. It features instrumental tracks of stuff rappers have rapped over, mainly Lil B, but really they don't need vocals. The tracks build nicely, buzzing around with spacey vocal samples and sharp drum kicks and in general sounding really good. The linked track "Realist Alive" features an extremely doctored Adele sample and sounds a bit like Enya, which I like. Download the Clams Casino Instrumentals mixtape by clicking on the art below.

(download)

 
Nov 30 / 10:03pm

The Black Keys, "El Camino."

by Craig Smith

(download)

The new Black Keys album El Camino leaked yesterday so step right up to download it! I haven't actually listened to the whole thing yet but I'm sure it's decent but not as good as their old stuff. Perhaps it's snobby to assume that but I bet I'm right. Which isn't to say I blame these guys for losing the directness of their early work, they had pretty much done all they could do with that sound by Rubber Factory, but I just like that stuff more. Anyway, I'm done rambling about the Black Keys, I have a Badger basketball game to focus on here. Download El Camino by clicking on the art below.