Top Tunes Thursday: Will Butler — Policy

December 3, 2015

As the year comes to a close, all us music geeks can finally start openly discussing the “best of” lists that have been taking up valuable storage in our brains. Best EP’s, best albums, best singles, best artists; From the months of October to January, the inside of your average music junkie’s brain is a tiny imaginary Grammy’s, rewarding and unrewarding as new albums put their name on the ballot. This week on TTT, I take a look back at one of my favorite records of the year, one which almost definitely appear on my own year end list (the official laminated one that I show people). The record is Policy, by Will Butler.

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Top Tunes Thursday: Khruangbin — The Universe Smiles Upon You

November 19, 2015

While I find the majority of instrumentals have a regional style, not always glaring, but almost always present. L.A. jazz, Delta Blues, the sample heavy style of production prevalent in the East coast, generally speaking there’s something you can grab on to. Khruangbin plays like a musical atlas, sending fiery frets to Japan, then Brazil, and back over to Africa. The eighth track, cheekily titled “The Man Who Took My Sunglasses,” almost creates the illusion of needing them. Blinding sun beams reflect off polished surfboards and sparkling fret boards, cutting through swirling cigarette smoke on its way. Four tracks earlier, guitarist Mark Speer cools the jets to a low roar, infusing in its exhaust at first a wiff of the Far East, then an utterly American crashing collapse of guitar, amp, and kit.

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Top Tunes Thursday: Coldplay — Adventure Of A Lifetime

November 12, 2015

The track is joyful in a resurgent kind of way. Driving leads and a surprisingly groovy rhythm for a pop band (let alone a pop band of such drear and atmosphere) cloud your mind like the smoke from a caterpillar’s hookah. It’s relentless and irresistibly toe tapping. Jam packed into their wooing, if not predictable, brand of pop are notes of Earth Wind & Fire, Phoenix, and fretwork from U2’s The Edge as well as modern pop titans, like Pharell, Justin Timberlake, and Daft Punk, especially the latter, considering their recent poppy-funky love affair. I feel the song chip away at winter’s frost, and as frontman Chris Martin heralds chorus after chorus of “I feel alive again!” I can’t help but agree.

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Top Tunes Thursday: Alabama Shakes — Joe

November 5, 2015

Stylistically, the track actually falls nicely between the two records, meshing cozy Southern hospitality with smoldering soul. The tune kicks off slow, enchant us with us a gated chrous across shiny pickups. Not long thereafter, the incomparable Brittany Howard welcomes herself to the track. At this point, it borders on the clichéd to talk about the thundering soul machine that are the pipes of Brittany Howard, but the vocal, as is typical for most Alabama Shakes content, truly is the star of the show. Murphy works the crowd like melted ropes of taffy, jumping from croon to croan at the pluck of a string. It’s a joy to listen to her work, and the crowd feels the same.

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Top Tunes Thursday: Fuzz — II

October 29, 2015

Ty Segal’s Fuzz looks to dustier paragons of noise like Sabbath, Wolfmother, The Hives and The Eagles of Death Metal and says “we’ll take it from here.” The sounds born within the mildewed and crawling horror swamp that is Segal’s musical brain can only be truly appreciated in the context of honestly curious rock exploration. When you’re talking about pushing the guitar to its structural and audial limits, about reaching to the very corners of our musical expectations and poking a finger over the line, Ty Segall is the only one we millennials can claim for our own. Like the artful goofballs of old (Bowie, Reed) Segall is relentlessly catapulting himself from project to project, with no love lost in between.

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Top Tunes Thursday: Edge of Daybreak — Eyes of Love

October 22, 2015

In 1979, a group of musicians bound by circumstance gathered in earnest to craft their first album. Calling themselves Edge of Daybreak, the album that was recorded, while finding little commercial success and almost no financial returns for its creators, was (is) absolutely laden with the sounds of the day from which it came. The players behind this record, a record brimming with vitality and an urgency for life, were all inmates serving out sentences at the Powhatan Correctional Center in Richmond Virginia. Reaping the benefits of a liberal prison music program, band mates Jamal Jahal Nubi (drums, vocal) Harry Coleman (adt. vocal) James Carrington (keys), Cornelius Cade (guitar), McEvoy Robinson (bass), and Willie Williams (percussion) crafted Eyes of Love on a budget of $3,000 and a little less than five hours studio time. Now, almost 40 years later, the Numero Group has re-released the record for our listening pleasure. Lucky for us.

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Top Tunes Thursday: The Garden — haha

October 15, 2015

This week, I stumbled across Orange, California duo, The Garden. Founded by twin brothers Fletcher and Wyatt Shears, The first couple of vexing seconds told me I had found a winner. I wouldn’t describe the clattered natterings of The Garden weird (though you wouldn’t be wrong to do so), so much as unexpected. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing or listening to at the time, The Garden is a non sequitur.

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Top Tunes Thursday: Denzel Curry — 32 Zel / Planet Shrooms

October 8, 2015

Two weeks ago, while I was researching the newest Little Simz record (review here) I came across a list of “rappers to watch for.” Little Simz was featured for her E.D.G.E EP and AGE 101 series, while a young Miami Rapper, Denzel Curry was featured for his debut album, Nostalgic 64. After inhaling the hallucinogenic trap flavorings of his debut, I was happy to find his new effort (which had not been released at the time of the record) had been out since June! Normally, on TTT I like to bring you my favorite release from the week, but this week, we’re taking some time for an excellent record that I missed. This article is an effort to make sure you don’t make the same mistake. The record, or “double-EP,” is 32 Zel / Planet Shrooms.

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