Seeds | Heartbreaking Bravery

December 19, 2016

Six Weeks of Music Videos (Video Mixtape)

Six weeks is a long time to go without posting an individual feature piece on a music video (discounting premieres). With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s not surprising that many of the clips that have come out in the time this site’s been on a relative hiatus, there have been a handful of the format’s best entries for the 2016 crop. PUP maintained their unrelenting stranglehold on an obscene level of excellence with the most emotionally affecting clip of a ridiculously impressive filmography, Vagabon emerged with a galvanizing sense of renewed purpose, Emilyn Brodsky continued to do wonders with stop motion, Tenement continued to further their own distinct identity in the visual arts department, The Seams offered up a double dose of refined hyper-editing, and everyone else found a way to rise above their contemporaries to create indelible pieces of art worth celebrating. So, below, dive in and get comfortable with the best 25 clips of the past six weeks.

Additional note: Trace Mountains’ excellent clip for “Bring the Mountain to Me” wasn’t available on YouTube and couldn’t be included in the below mix. Make sure to give that one a watch as well.

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1. PUP – Sleep in the Heat
2. Meat Wave – The Incessant
3. Stove – Blank
4. The Seams – Remembrance Day
5. Holy Tunics – Forget Your Love
6. Julia Jacklin – Don’t Let the Kids Win
7. Vagabon – The Embers
8. Hellrazor – Raise Your Rifle
9. Lazertits – Boss Bitch
10. Slothrust – Rotten Pumpkin
11. Vacation – Every Direction
12. The Raveonettes – Fast Food
13. Poppies – Told
14. WHOOP-Szo – Another Show
15. Bruising – I Don’t Mind
16. Sløtface – Bright Lights
17. Tim Darcy – Tall Glass of Water
18. Self Talk – Untitled
19. Petal – Chandelier
20. Tenement – Hive of Hives
21. Stef Chura – Spotted Gold
22. Fred Thomas – Voiceover
23. Emilyn Brodsky – Hands Off the Stove
24. The Seams – Seeds
25. MOURN – Irrational Friend

December 20, 2014

Male Bonding – A Kick to the Face (Stream)

In the last batch of posts, there were recaps built around some of last week’s finest musical moments. There was a brief delay in regularly-scheduled content that necessitated an outpouring of material to keep this site’s regular coverage humming along. Similarly, this post will concentrate on the music moments worth celebrating to have emerged from the Monday-Thursday range. Following this post will be two more entries dedicated to some of the stronger musical content that emerged on Friday. With all of that out of the way, it’s time to dive on into the three major categories: single streams, full streams, and music videos.

As is wont to happen over a period of time, there were some fairly extraordinary songs that surfaced in this week’s first stretch. Some of the more favorable ones included the following: Gal Pals’ zippy throwback basement pop stomper “Ex-Marionette“, Evans The Death’s absolutely monumental “Don’t Laugh At My Angry Face” (a legitimate song of the year candidate), Los Angeles Police Dept.’s severely bummed out holiday tune “Oh Lonely Night“, Menace Beach‘s latest stunning Ratworld teaser “Tastes Like Medicine“, No Monster Club’s defiantly vibrant (and tantalizingly weird) bedroom pop earworm “Arms Across America“, The Julie Ruin’s mesmerizing “Blueberry Island“, Kind of Like Spitting’s revitalizing “Bullied By A Bee“, the best remix from Perfect Pussy’s Shaun Sutkus to date (this time of Rubblebucket’s “Carousel Ride”), and an absolute monster cover of Wipers’ “Mystery” from site favorites Meat Wave.

Music videos fared just as well, with a few very resonant clips. There was Small Houses’ engaging visual journey for “Staggers and Rise“, Cave People’s wearily homespun “Brace“, and Literature’s woozily kaleidoscopic “New Jacket“. Additionally, there was Anti Pony’s seductively colorful “I Go Places“, WRAY’s effortlessly propulsive “Bad Heart“, Laura Marling’s autumnal and slow-galloping “Short Movie“. Rounding things out were Breakfast In Fur’s jaunty graphics experiment “Shape“, Erase Errata’s near-static stunner “My Life In Shadows“, and a resoundingly powerful reminder that TV On the Radio got where they were by virtue of making excellent decisions; “Lazerray” is yet another towering culmination of several wise moves.

Full streams were, comparatively, a little shorter in supply- but there were still a few gems that were unearthed and brought to life. Lazy threw caution and fear out of the window with their Soft Sheets 7″, Trauma Harness unveiled a severely damaged basement punk triumph with their discography-spanning Advent Calendar, and TIT (a collaborative effort between Digital Leather and The Hussy) offered up a stream of their psych-drenched self-titled 12″. Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle provided a quietly intense and arresting live recording of one of his extremely intimate house shows (and appropriately titled the recording House Show). There was also a very personal release from Jarad Charles Lee Francis Olson that tethers a wide-reaching array of genre influences into something unwaveringly hypnotic and, ultimately, tragic (while still managing to subtly incorporate a devious streak of dark humor) in the My Cats Are My Dogs EP.

Even with all of that to consider, today’s feature fell to an anomaly of a track- Male Bonding’s standalone single, “A Kick to the Face”. The title’s an immediate eyebrow-raiser and the accompanying title track lives up to its promise. All scorched-earth and fury, it’s an exploration of an abusive relationship that simultaneously rails against the fact that they’re a common occurrence and empathizes with the abused. Structurally, it’s constantly shifting and punctuated by brief bursts of searing intensity before sharply settling back into its normal pace, providing a near-perfect reflection of the song’s central topic. It’s a brave track that suggests Male Bonding’s ambitions may be higher than they initially let on- and it’s one hell of an appetizer for whatever the band’s cooking up next.

Listen to “A Kick to the Face” below and keep an eye on this site for any notable future items from the band.

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November 23, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 56

Part two of today’s three-part Watch This marathon once again returns to a few familiar faces and two new ones that should have been featured all along. It’s another installment that covers the acoustic single take session to full electric set gamut and contains one of the most unique KEXP sessions to have come out of 2014. A few big names and a few emerging ones provide a pretty balanced spread- and all of them provide great performances. These are five clips from the past two weeks that are worth time investment. So, as always, grab a snack, crack a drink, sit back, turn the volume up, and Watch This.

1. TV On The Radio – Happy Idiot (KCRW)

TV On The Radio delivered one of the all-time great late night performances on Letterman years back with a positively fierce version of “Wolf Like Me” that put them on the map. Ever since then, the band’s been subject to extraordinarily high expectations and has rarely disappointed. This year’s Seeds was an undeniably intriguing release, with lead-off single “Happy Idiot” serving as a strong highlight. Live, the song takes on new life and becomes a reminder of some of the things that make TV On The Radio one of this generation’s more fascinating acts. Bonus points for Kyp Malone’s beard, always-incredible falsetto, and Thurston Moore signature jazzmaster.

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2. Sorority Noise – Blonde Hair, Black Lungs (Space Jam Sessions)

A few bands quietly emerged over the course of the past eleven months and Sorority Noise were certainly among that group. With a great album and a great split under their belt, a lot of people have started granting them the attention they deserve. Here, they deliver an engaging acoustic performance of the lilting “Blonde Hair, Black Lungs” for Space Jam Sessions that more than lives up to their growing acclaim.

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3. Restorations – Wales (Little Elephant)

Every once in a while Little Elephant will deliver on consistently great sessions from incredible live bands and Restorations are currently in the middle of one of their gradual session roll-outs. Having already earned a previous Watch This feature spot, they return with a vengeance. “Wales” is a menacing slow-builder that showcases the band’s penchant for dynamics and tension. For “Wales”, Restorations’ claws come out and dig into every tendon they can find. It’s a ferocious performance from a band that excels in a live setting, making this unmissable.

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4. Shilpa Ray – Johnny Thunders’ Fantasy Space Camp (TCGS)

It’s been a while since a performance from The Chris Gethard Show has made an appearance in this feature- and who better to revive it than former Grinderman touring partner Shilpa Ray. Laying waste to a harmonium and a microphone, Ray leads her band through the driving “Johnny Thunders’ Fantasy Space Camp”. The band puts seemingly everything they’ve got on the line and the audience responds in kind. It’s a strong enough performance to make converts out of anyone who wasn’t previously familiar with Shilpa Ray- and it’s more than strong enough to earn a spot in this installment of Watch This.

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5. Courtney Barnett (KEXP)

It’s unlikely that there’s been an artist to have more full set Watch This appearances than Courtney Barnett. There’s a reason Barnett and her band keep cracking their way into these lists; there’s a palpable vibrancy and sense of pure enjoyment to their live show that’s more clear-cut than just about anyone else currently playing music. That said, they’ve never been more entertaining than they are here- appropriately decked out and fully costumed for a Halloween performance that doubles as one of the most memorable sessions the reliably excellent KEXP’s hosted all year.