February Music Roundup
Your monthly music essentials
Pile and The New Year
I only discovered the greatness of both Pile and Bedhead in 2015, but I listened to both bands more than anything else that year and they are now two of my favorites. Pile is releasing their new album A Hairshirt of Purpose on March 31 and have shared two songs so far — “Texas” and “Dogs.” “Texas” is great, but “Dogs” is exceptional. The track builds upon Pile’s usual sound by incorporating strings and a carefully deployed restraint. As with many Pile songs, the music threatens to explode at numerous points, but here the band repeatedly pulls back to maintain the feeling of tension and emotion. To say that I’m excited for the rest of this album would be an understatement.
Matt and Bubba Kadane’s post-Bedhead project The New Year released three excellent albums following Bedhead’s demise in 1998, but Snow, due out April 28, is their first album in eight years. The first single “Recent History” doesn’t break new ground, as Pile does on “Dogs,” but it’s definitely another solid piece of work worth your time. Check it out here.
Sister Polygon Records
Priests came through Minneapolis in early February and I picked up two excellent cassettes at the merch table from their Sister Polygon label. The first is the Habit EP by Snail Mail, Priests’ opener for the previous leg of their tour. The highlight is the first track, “Thinning,” which is some super catchy, lo-fi indie rock.
The second is Hand Grenade Job’s first full-length album, Devotionals. The songs combine minimal instrumentation with gorgeous vocals and haunting lyrics. Their sound reminds me a lot of Geneviève Elverum’s music in Woelv and Ô PAON, which is high praise. Definitely make sure you check this one out.
Zina
Night People Records rarely disappoints, but I’ve been extra excited about Zina’s new six-song tape, Furniture. Definitely on the poppier side of Night People releases, the EP achieves the tricky balance of danceability and emotional weight through Zina’s powerful vocals and her beautifully layered synths.
Jazz
I picked up a couple more standout jazz records this month. After nearly every one of my coworkers special-ordered the Yussef Kamaal record Black Focus, I figured I should pay attention. The album really is something special. It’s ostensibly an experimental jazz-funk fusion record of the sort more likely to be found in the 70s than today. The music is sometimes quiet and subtle, sometimes manic, sometimes trippy, and often funky as hell.
A copy of John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University fortuitously and inexplicably managed to reach the 50% off sale bin at the Electric Fetus. The 1966 live set prominently features Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and Rashied Ali and is a compelling mix of more conventional, melodic jazz and fascinating experimentation that many listeners might find abrasive. Some of the sounds coming out of a saxophone on this record are simply unreal. Coltrane even sings a few times throughout the set. According to those in attendance, he sang while beating on his chest in order to achieve the strange and powerful vocal effects heard here.
Vanishing Twin
Vanishing Twin released their record Choose Your Own Adventure last year on Soundway Records, but I only managed to get a copy on vinyl this month. There is an obvious comparison to be made to Broadcast and Trish Keenan’s vocals, but if that were all Vanishing Twin had going for them, I would probably just prefer to listen to Broadcast. Instead, the rhythmic twists and turns driven by the drums and bass, along with some more atmospheric excursions, turn what might otherwise be more straightforward pop songs into something more freeform and exciting.
Lost Classics
There has definitely been an oversaturation of reissued “lost classics” over the past few years, but a couple that are definitely worth your time are Odion Iruoje’s Down To Earth and Shadow’s Sweet Sweet Dreams. Down To Earth is the 1983 album of Nigerian producer Irojue; it was recently reissued by Soundway Records and is an amazingly eclectic combination of styles: Afrobeat, funk, disco, jazz, and even early hip-hop. You probably haven’t heard anything quite like this before. Trinidad and Tobago’s Shadow released Sweet Sweet Dreams in 1984, but its synth-funk, Caribbean disco went unrecognized at the time. It’s finally now achieving the attention and critical acclaim it deserves through Analog Africa’s excellent reissue.
Disappointments
How about some disappointments? Although I was a fan of the Dirty Projectors’ Rise Above and Bitte Orca, for me, they reached their peak on 2012’s Swing Lo Magellan. This was probably because the album sounded a hell of a lot like Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding. So, the fact that I can’t stand the new self-titled album is extra disappointing. It is basically David Longstreth pulling from contemporary pop and R&B and singing about a breakup through vocal effects that have been appearing everywhere recently. This could potentially produce something worthwhile, but I don’t hear anything particularly interesting in this new direction.
In contrast, the new Sun Kil Moon album Common As Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood is not what I’d call “good,” especially when held up to Ghosts of the Great Highway or Mark Kozelek’s work in Red House Painters, but it’s fascinating in a way that the new Dirty Projectors’ album is not. The Sun Kil Moon album is more than two hours of stream of consciousness rambling, with Kozelek trying his hand at stand-up comedy and political commentary, sprinkled with pop culture references and straightforward descriptions of things he’s done and seen. A friend of mine described the album as a “dumpster fire,” which is accurate, but I still prefer a dumpster fire to a boring record any day.
Marfa Myths
Finally, I’ve been listening to a lot of Marfa Myths performers in preparation for my second visit to the annual festival next month. I’m particularly excited to see Lonnie Holley, Jenny Hval, Tonsstartsbandht, Pharaoh Sanders, Roky Erickson, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, and Julia Holter for the first time, along with Cate Le Bon, Weyes Blood, the Allah-Las, and others. Stay tuned for something more in-depth on the festival when I return!
Garrett Karrberg is based in Minneapolis
