{"id":4099,"date":"2015-06-01T17:08:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T21:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=4099"},"modified":"2015-06-01T17:08:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T21:08:46","slug":"may-2015-music-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/01\/may-2015-music-update\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2015 music update."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I think this is my longest music update yet, 21 songs and 73 minutes total. Also, my final ranking of the top 100 prospects for this year&#8217;s draft will be up tomorrow for Insiders.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.spotify.com\/?uri=spotify%3Auser%3Akeithlaw1%3Aplaylist%3A7DqBKtT33csg28xEaYc5YN\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Chemical Brothers \u2013 Go<\/strong>. Ten years after their first collaboration on \u201cGalvanize,\u201d the Chemical Brothers reunite with Q-Tip for this new track, with better lyrics this time from the brother Abstract and an equally catchy bit of electronic music that has Rowlands and Simons seeming in an almost poppy mood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Metric \u2013 The Shade<\/strong>. I&#8217;ve never been a big Metric fan, finding their lyrics superficial yet pretentious, as if they felt like they had Really Big Themes to discuss but didn&#8217;t have the creative chops to do it. (It&#8217;s odd, since the lead singer&#8217;s father is a noted poet.) Here the Canadian quartet downshift slightly in their topic, and the song&#8217;s imagery, while predictable, works with the whinging chorus to create a deep sense of yearning and an emotional connection I haven&#8217;t heard from them before.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Wombats \u2013 This Is Not A Party<\/strong>. The British act&#8217;s third album <i>Glitterbug<\/i> is one of my favorite spins of the year, and this is the third track from that record I&#8217;ve put on a playlist in the last four months. Matthew Murphy is a modern-day Morrissey with his wry humor and latent cynicism, but everything&#8217;s couched in these infectious musical packages that make this their best work yet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cayucas \u2013 Moony Eyed Walrus<\/strong>. It&#8217;s not quite \u201cHigh School Lover,\u201d their modest hit from 2013, but the Yudin brothers&#8217; new single has some silly lyrics and a surfer\/low-fi pop vibe. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Tame Impala \u2013 Disciples<\/strong>. I&#8217;m just stunned Kevin Parker could put out a song this short \u2013 it clocks in at under two minutes. It&#8217;s admirable restraint.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Torres \u2013 Cowboy Guilt<\/strong>. I&#8217;m not a big Torres fan (although I understand the boardgame is pretty good), but this song is an exception with the lilting riff that backs up the initial verses leading up to a heavier, denser chorus. I can&#8217;t quite explain what happens at the two-minute mark, though.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Django Django \u2013 4000 Years<\/strong>. My second-favorite track from their latest album, <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00WUOEKL4\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B00WUOEKL4&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=meadowpartyco-20\">Born Under Saturn<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=meadowpartyco-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=B00WUOEKL4\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/><\/i>, which is solid all the way through but doesn&#8217;t have the huge breakout hits that their debut had in \u201cDefault\u201d and \u201cHail Bop.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>White Reaper \u2013 I Don&#8217;t Think She Cares<\/strong>. Punk-pop with a little hint of early Vines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Desaparecidos \u2013 Backsell<\/strong>. The first album from this side project of Conor Oberst (leader of Bright Eyes) since 2002 features this song, originally released in 2012 (along with \u201cMariKKKopa,\u201d about Arizona tyrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio). I&#8217;ve seen them described as emo and punk, but it&#8217;s really just loud alternative, not that dissimilar in style from the Foo Fighters but a good bit smarter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tei Shi \u2013 Bassically<\/strong>. A recommendation from reader Courtney, who accurately pegs this as something fans of Grimes would enjoy. The <a href=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=A17rVbNTtrg>video<\/a> is a fashion nightmare \u2013 is she wearing a giant red diaper? \u2013 with some highly stoned dance moves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joy Williams \u2013 Until the Levee<\/strong>. Williams, formerly half of the country duo The Civil Wars, keeps dropping new singles from her upcoming album <i>Venus<\/i>, each of which shows off her powerful voice in a different motif.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tanlines \u2013 Slipping Away<\/strong>. I miss the darker note from their 2012 song \u201cAll of Me,\u201d but this has the sort of effortless sunny tone of a summer hit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Horsebeach \u2013 Disappear<\/strong>. Mancunian, ethereal, jangly indie-pop that sounds like an Inspiral Carpets song covered by Wild Nothing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Vaccines \u2013 Minimal Affection<\/strong>. I have no idea what to make of the Vaccines at this point; their punk-pop hit \u201cTeenage Icon\u201d was one of my favorite tunes of 2012, while their latest album, <i>English Graffiti<\/i>, is moodier and draws just as heavily on British new wave and two-tone ska revivalist music as on the punk and post-punk movements that informed their earlier work. Maybe the Vaccines are coming of age an album later than promised.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Total Babes \u2013 Blurred Time<\/strong>. I keep reading how these guys are a spinoff or offshoot of Cloud Nothings, but the only direction connection is a shared drummer, and even that is tenuous since Cloud Nothings is really a one-man project. Regardless of their relationship to that other Cleveland act, Total Babes put out music that&#8217;s somewhat similar to Dylan Baldi&#8217;s output but more focused and less overproduced, noisy punk-pop with a sunnier overtone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mourn \u2013 Gertrudis, Get Through This!<\/strong> A quartet of teens, three of them girls, from Barcelona, Mourn put out a debut album last fall and just followed it up with a three-song EP, boasting a more melodic but still rough-edged rock sound. There&#8217;s definitely a familiar note here that reminded me of Hinds (ex-Deers), another female-led rock act from Spain, but Mourn&#8217;s music is far more advanced and they probably deserve some of Hinds&#8217; hype.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Destroyer \u2013 Dream Lover<\/strong>. Destroyer is Dan Bejar of New Pornographers fame, and if you liked his \u201cWar on the East Coast\u201d on <i>Brill Bruisers<\/i> you&#8217;ll like \u201cDream Lover\u201d as well. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Neon Indian \u2013 Annie<\/strong>. Alan Palomo&#8217;s first full-length album since 2011 is due later this year, and this first single reminds me of St. Lucia&#8217;s debut record, but where the latter&#8217;s Jean-Philippe Grobler brings his South African roots to his music, Palomo&#8217;s instrumentation (especially the percussion) here sounds more Mexican or Native American.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown Mortal Orchestra \u2013 Can\u2019t Keep Checking My Phone<\/strong>. This song is all about Riley Geare&#8217;s percussion lines, which sound like they were lifted from a salsa record and used to create this psychedelic soul-tinged track instead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seoul \u2013 The Line<\/strong>. Another song that reminds me of Wild Nothing \u2013 a band I discovered through a few reader suggestions in 2012 \u2013 in its dreampop stylings and hard-to-make-out vocals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Creepoid \u2013 American Smile<\/strong>. The first single from this Philadelphia quartet&#8217;s latest album, <i>Cemetery Highrise Slum<\/i>, calls to mind Titus Andronicus, Mudhoney, and early Nirvana, with a sludgy guitar line and the general feeling of slowly tumbling down the side of a mountain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think this is my longest music update yet, 21 songs and 73 minutes total. Also, my final ranking of the top 100 prospects for this year&#8217;s draft will be up tomorrow for Insiders. The Chemical Brothers \u2013 Go. Ten years after their first collaboration on \u201cGalvanize,\u201d the Chemical Brothers reunite with Q-Tip for this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[803,852],"class_list":["post-4099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2015-in-music","tag-music","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4100,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions\/4100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}