Poolside – Seasons Change mix

The last band I expected to hear from this fall/winter was Poolside. Their Pacific Standard Time album was so perfectly suited for the sunshine that it would seem perverse for them to go wintry, but that’s just what they’ve done with their Seasons Change mix, which the LA-based duo said they put together while driving through the Northeast in October. Listen below. On initial scan, it actually sounds pretty similar in spirit to their other album’s moody electronics, making you realize the power of suggestion. Also it sounds great no matter when you put it on.

 

The Fresh & Onlys Film “What’s In My Bag?”

SF garage-pop greats The Fresh & Onlys filmed a “What’s in My Bag?” feature with Amoeba, and we have it up to stream now. Check out their album Long Slow Dance if you haven’t yet, one of my favorite rock ’n’ roll records released this year.

The Discovering Columbus (aka The Columbus Circle Living Room) public art installation (pictured above), MellowHype bringing that LA Odd Future flava to New Yawk, Wyclef Jean's new New York restaurant, the CCW convention, a nod to Brooklyn including some of entertaining bygone era Bensonhurst nicknames, Fear's classic's "New York's Alright," and the musical Annie returning to Broadway are among the items covered in this eight installment in the New York State of Mind Amoeblog series on music and other entertainment and happenings in the Big Apple. 

The wonderful group that is the Public Art Fund, who have been responsible for some truly inspired creative art installations around NYC parks and other public spaces, have outdone themselves with their latest presentation: Tatzu Nishi's Discovering Columbus exhibition which is simply amazing!. Also known as The Columbus Circle Living Room and located at Columbus Circle on the South West corner of Central Park, near 59th Street, this exhibit is surreal. It is a temporary living room that the Japanese artist carefully constructed around the iconic monument of Christopher Columbus.  When you go it not only feels like you are in someone's furnished living room with windows - albeit with the 13 foot high, 120 year old marble statue in the middle of it, but it also offers an amazing view of Central Park - from six flights of stairs up to the exhibit.

1) MellowHype Numbers (Columbia/3 Ent)

2) Far East Movement Dirty Bass (Interscope)

3) Kanye West Good Music Cruel Summer (Def Jam)

4) JJ DOOM Key to the Kuffs (Lex Records)

5) Xzibit Napalm (Caroline)

Odd Future continue their dominating streak at the Hollywood Amoeba with another number one with a bullet release on this week's chart in the form of MellowHype (the OFWGKTA duo of Hodgy Beats and Left Brain) whose sophomore album Numbers shot straight to number one since its release on Tuesday of this week. Although many are saying (and I agree) that this release is not as strong or as in-your-face adventurous as the MellowHype debut  BlackenedWhite, it is still a real good album with standout songs like "Monster," "Break," "GNC," "Monster," and the album's lead single "La Bonita. See that video below along with others from releases in the new Amoeba Top Five Hip-Hop chart including the heavy metal tinged title track from Xzibit's new album  Napalm that arrived in Amoeba this week.  Note that the Far East Movement album Dirty Bass is a chart re-entry of the album that dropped earlier in the summer.

Album Picks:

Tame Impala – Lonerism

LP $19.98

DL $9.98

CD $11.98

Whereas Tame Impala’s awesome first album, Innerspeaker, was all about muscle, on Lonerism the Australian band tends to build its psych-rock songs more deliberately, more delicately. But they still kick ass, and hard. “Be Above It’s” titular refrain is whispered over a tumbling drumbeat until Kevin Parker takes off with a simple, Beatlesesque melody and he and his cohorts supply fuzzed out psychedelic flourishes. Thanks to Parker’s high, nasal voice, those comparisons to John Lennon keep coming, on songs like “Apocalypse Dreams,” where Parker’s vocals and melodies certainly are reminiscent of the Fab Four, but musically they’re no mere worshippers at the psych throne, more interested in squeezing strange, new sounds out of familiar territory and taking their arrangements through multiple tempo changes, broiling them through effects, laying moogs and synths over them and then looping back to the original melody like deja vu. Tame Impala also prove adept and producing the straightforward rock single on “Elephant,” which may draw comparisons to The White Stripes for more than just its title, but whose bass-heavy sound really pulls more from psych originators like Blue Cheer — just hookier. Parker, who produced the first Tame Impala record, as well as the recent, excellent release by Melody’s Echo Chamber, finds perfect sonic kinship in David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev), who can be known for helping to dramatically change a band’s sound (Sleater-Kinney’s mindblowing The Woods, for instance) but who mostly seems to help Tame Impala sound even fuller, allowing the band’s punchiness to come through in tracks like the pop psychedelic wonder of “Music to Walk Home By,” but thickening it with layers of space-rock sound. The end result is that Lonerism hits hard but leaves a lasting impression, leaving the listener to wrap his or her head around all the wondrous sounds of the record and immediately wanting to track back and listen again.

MellowHype – “Grill”

Here’s the next song from Odd Future’s MellowHype, which will be on their album Numbers, out Oct. 9. The duo’s warped hip-hop is on fine display on “Grill,” as their doubled vocals spell out their name and rap smoke circles around everyone else. Out next week, you can preorder Numbers here.

 

Trash Talk – “Exile on Broadway”

Speaking of Odd Future, sounds like OFWGKTA associates Trash Talk are trying to become the hardcore Rolling Stones with “Exile on Broadway” and the Exile on Main St. referencing album art for 119, which is out Oct. 9. Lofty goals, but you can’t argue with the quality and ferocity of a track like this. Stream “Exile on Broadway” here, and preorder 119 here.