Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: Yours to Shake

October 29, 2014

Filmstrip – Don’t You Know (Stream)

filmstrip

A lot of great material came crawling out of the woodwork today on all three major fronts. On the music video side of things, two more woods-set music videos continued this week’s increasingly eerie visuals, courtesy of The Afghan Whigs’ “Lost in the Woods” and Greylag’s “Yours to Shake“. Over in the territory occupied by full streams, there was Smack The Brick, a characteristically insane new EP from fearless art-punkers Guerilla Toss, a gloriously punishing psych-indebted punk stomper from Aj Davila Y Terror Amor called Beibi, and Farewell Foolish Objects a sprawling post-punk masterpiece from The Gary which very nearly took today’s feature spot- and may very well see more coverage here in the near future. For single streams there was a fascinating collaboration between PC Worship and Parquet Courts, a new tune for the deluxe version of one of this year’s best records- Burn Your Fire for No Witness– carrying the tongue-in-cheek title of “May As Well“, and “Kid“- a heart-on-sleeve blue collar punk anthem from Standards. Additionally, there was a typically spiky new demo to surface from another one of the year’s best efforts- Lost Boy ?’s Canned– called “Boring Jr” and Communions’ giddy indie-pop grandeur came to light in the form of “Love Stands Still“.

One of the strongest songs to come to light, though, was one that avoided detection when it first came into being a few months back: Filmstrip‘s “Don’t You Know”. Taking cues from bands that pioneered the merging of noise, post-punk, and early emo (a la Sunny Day Real Estate, Shellac, and The Wrens) and bringing in a fair bit of early 90’s slacker revivalism (along with a few nods to Canadian powerpop), Filmstrip have managed to craft an identity that feels as familiar as it does unique. As aggressive as the song feels, it’s also surprisingly accessible and will play well to the sensibilities of genre specialists across a very wide spread. There’s a real sense of both history and craftsmanship that accompanies “Don’t You Know”, rendering it a compulsively fascinating listen. Well-informed, well-tailored, and brimming with a raucous energy, it’s a very tantalizing first look at the band’s upcoming record- Moments of Matter- which is due out via Exit Stencil Recordings next week. Tightly-knit and aggressively kinetic, “Don’t You Know” cements Filmstrip’s status as a band that’s not worth overlooking.

Listen to “Don’t You Know” below and pre-order Moments of Matter here.

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September 10, 2014

LVL UP – Ski Vacation (Stream)

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It’s been an insane past few days. Full streams, videos, and songs worth writing about have been emerging at a breakneck pace and making deciding what to feature a near-herculean task of decisiveness. There was a monumentally important music video from Mean Creek‘s Chris Keene for his upcoming solo record as Dream Generation, an interactive piece of unbridled fun from Ty Segall for the title track off of Manipulator, characteristically cinematic videos from both Beverly and Fucked Up– who have each been doing wonders with the visual medium, a video that practically defines Bob Mould’s workmanlike nature, and a Jane Forsyth & Ian Pollard-helmed video for Parquet Courts’ “Bodies Made Of“- which proved to be an astoundingly sensible creative pairing. There were full streams of the gently gnarled She Keeps Bees full-length, the psych-trip of the White Fence and Jack Name split, and a new Greylag song, “Yours to Shake“, that showed some serious teeth. Picking between all of those seemed as if it might be impossible until, once again, LVL UP made the decision fairly easy.

At this point, noting that LVL UP’s upcoming Hoodwink’d is this site’s front-runner for Album of the Year seems redundant. It’s a 15-song masterpiece that sees the band perfecting their best aspects and surpassing an arsenal of lofty expectations in the process. This is something that this site’s touched on in reviews for the first three songs to be teased from the record: “Soft Power“, “I Feel Ok“, and “DBTS“. Now, the band’s released the fourth look at the now-imminent Hoodwink’d with “Ski Vacation” which shows the band expanding their sonic palette yet again. Boasting a tranquil atmosphere and no shortage of jangly guitar tones, the song integrates some subtle-yet-effective surf tendencies into the band’s outsider pop aesthetic- and the end result is spectacular. What jumps out about all of the songs that the band’s been previewing is that they stand on their own extraordinarily well and would warrant serious consideration for pushes as Hoodwink’d singles- but as a collective piece they’re extraordinary and complement each other better than just about anything that even bothers to casually flirt with genre-hopping tendencies. In that respect, Hoodwink’d might be the first record 2014 produces that would be deserving of a title no smaller than masterpiece. “Ski Vacation” is just the fourth of 15 dimensions.

For some essential reading on Hoodwink’d, please go to Sasha Geffen’s Interview piece– where the track premiered- to scroll through a can’t-miss interview that sheds some light on what went into making the record.

Stream “Ski Vacation” below and pre-order Hoodwink’d from Double Double Whammy (which has played host to several of 2014’s best releases and is in the midst of an absurd winning streak)- who will be co-releasing it with Exploding in Sound (see: last parenthesis)-  here.

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