johnzinder says:
New Music
First:
I’d like to some music by other people. Portishead is working on a new album - I’m confident it will be awesome - and released this video single for amnesty international that can be found here (thanks to pitchfork for the heads up):
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=11755
Great song, simple yet brilliant video concept. These guys just do things right.
Albums I’m listening to:
Johnny Dowd - The Drunkard’s Masterpiece: twisted poetry croaked over haunting organ and driving bass-n-drums sung by a man who could be anywhere between 50 and 80 years old and a woman whose nonchalant delivery is equal parts alienating and endearing. And they’re from Ithaca.
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: after seeing them live in Denver I must say, these guys are probably the most hard working band in indie music today. They live up to the hype. And the album is amazing.
The Black Keys - Blakroc: if you get this album, get the physical CD because it’s got an extra track with ODB on it (RIP). This is the Black Keys’ hip hop album, and it was very poorly publicized (I blame the mediocre pitchfork review) despite its awesomeness. The RZA, Mos Def, and Raekwon are featured among others.
Animal Collective - Fall be Kind EP: I guess it’s finally cool to dislike these guys, but I’ve never claimed to be cool. I love this EP. It’s thoughtful and engaging while maintinging a unique sound. Great compositions, melodies, and production have kept this album on heavy rotation in my itunes.
Second:
WE’RE putting out new music. Soon. There’s an albumsworth of songs that we recorded and mixed over the month of August and they are scheduled to be mastered by the end of this month. Soon after that we’re going to release a bundle of these tracks FOR FREE on our website. Consider it our belated contribution to the stimulus effort. We’re extremely proud of this new material, and want it to be heard. Sometime later (vaguer and vaguer I get) we’ll release the rest of the tracks as a full album that you can spend money on. This is the plan, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of men and mice. Good day.
JZ
