Cheat Sheet #7 2011

Lacrosse season has started, so the little time I had is now gone. The only real time I am getting to listen to music is driving to and from work. Thank goodness for great music blogs like the ones listed below that keep me up to date. This is a great week of new and eclectic music. Feel free to recommend this site to friends, leave comments, or join as a follower and get emailed updates. I'm thinking about making the switch to an independent site free of blogger and switching to Word Press as a format. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Remember you can right click and download tracks to listen or use the embedded player tab sticking out on the left.

Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place from Happy Days Are Here Again
The whole album is just beautiful soundscapes of vocals (and a little bit of synth) all layered on top of one another. Put in on and go to some place new. I love to turn the volume up and just let everything build!
New album The Magic Place out NOW!
Band Website

Okkervil River - Mermaid from Citizen Dick
I have been a die hard fan of this band since The Stage Names. Can't wait to see what the new album brings. I love his shaky voice, sounds so sincere. Great easy sound and interesting lyrics.
New album I Am Very Far available on May 10
Band Website
Below is the video from Fallon show performing "Weave Room Blues."

The Submarines - Birds from Stereo Pills
New band to me and this is the first track I have ever heard. Seems like lots of people have been jocking them and expecting a break out. This next album may do it. This is 100% pop. So pop you might think they were Swedish, but they are from LA. The female singer in the band is the great-grand daughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
New album Love Notes/Letter Bombs out on April 5
Band Website

The Sandwitches - Lightfoot from Tale of the Tape
The Sandwitches - Joe Says from Gorilla Vs Bear
Girl garage rock. Often times we accept lo-fi, dirty vocals from guy singers, but not the ladies. Well, I like this even though it isn't necessarily pretty.
New album Mrs. Jones' Cookies comes out March 29
Band Website
Below is an old track that made me fall in love with this band:

The Dodos - Don't Stop from Insomnia Radio
Featured the first leak Black Night back in Cheat Sheet #4. I liked that track, but I love this one.
New album No Color due on March 15
Band Website
Great live performance below via pitchfork. Must see these guys live

TV On the Radio - Will Do from Old School
Anything new from these guys is always welcome. Hoping for another great release. This track sounds like what I would expect. I like.
New album Nine Types of Light out this spring.
Band Website

Video: Walkmen + some free downloads

The Walkmen have a new video out for "While I Shovel The Snow," one of my favorite songs from 2010. The video is nice and simple with shots of the band in the snow - fitting.

Click here to go to the band website for free downloads of "While I Shovel the Snow" and "Orange Sunday," a B-side from album. They also have another new aqua themed video posted for "Orange Sunday." I also noticed that the band is selling current album Lisbon and the previous one You and Me for $7.99 a pop. Pretty good deal, but it seems to me more bands should directly sell their albums from their websites at a cheaper price and get more money directly.
I'm sure it's all a licensing and merchandising deal. However I know that I have not bought whole albums I want because I see them priced at 7.99 for an mp3 download, and the reverse of that I have bought whole albums from bands that maybe I'm unsure about or on the fence because they were priced at 5.99 or less.

Book Review: 33 1/3 Series - Low

Just finished reading the 33 1/3 series book on David Bowie's Low written by Hugo Wilcken. This is an album that has always gotten insane critical praise and props for being a defining moment in Bowie's career. I however have always found the album difficult to listen to. That is part of the reason I choose to read this book and have been listening to the album extensively while reading.
Low is considered the first in Bowie's Berlin album trilogy (the others being: Heroes and Lodger). Interesting fact that only Heroes was fully recorded in Berlin, parts of Low were and none of Lodger. These albums are grouped together because of their sound and the influence of Brian Eno who was a collaborator on all three.
The greatest influence on the album was the movie The Man Who Fell To Earth which Bowie starred in. Bowie was also going to make the soundtrack but never completed it due to his heavy drug use and failing marriage. However some of the tracks for Low were started as tracks for the soundtrack. I have never seen the film, but Bowie has also said that the themes (isolation, loneliness, and helplessness) of the movie overflowed into the making of Low.You can certainly feel thos things in the sound and lyrics.
The other big influences on Low you will see are Kraut-rock, synthesizer bands and Iggy Pop. The Iggy Pop album The Idiot was made just before Low and Bowie helped produce and make the album. It was really a dry run for the making of Low. In my opinion I'll take The Idiot over Low any day of the week. However after extensive listening I am now a fan of Low, in particular the first couple tracks (Speed of Life and Sound and Vision being the tops) They are all experimental and used tape loops and distorted instruments and vocals to create a cold electronic sound with lots of layers. With every listen I can focus on a different sound and hear something new or I just hear the blending of all the noise.
Tracks 6-10 lack vocals and slip off into the ambient sound that Eno is known for and I lose interest. Sure it sounds cool, but to me it really is just background music.
Well the book is a great little read and inspired me to listen to more Bowie and Eno and I at least understand the obsession that some critics have with the album.Below are a handful of tracks that inspired the making of Low.


Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing


Brian Eno - I'll Come Running


Neu! - Hallogallo


Kraftwerk - Autobahn


John Cage - Water Walk and 4'33

Cheat Sheet #6 2011

The Low Anthem - Ghost Women Blues from slowcoustic
I am very excited about the release of this album, because I was such a fan of Oh My God Charlie Darwin.This tracks follows the same formula from that album; slow building melodies with a folk tinge. A sweet Oboe (I think) solo to top it off.
From the album Smart Flesh due out Feb.22
Band website

The Ravonettes - Forget That You're Young from Off the Radar
A little bit of a change in sound from The Ravonettes. Still has that surf guitar but they have lost the back beat garage drums. A softer gentler Raveonettes, which hopefully translates to a great new album.
From the album Raven in the Grave due out April 2011
Band Website

The Lovely Eggs - Have You Ever Heard a Digital Accordion from Swill Merchant
Discovered these guys through NPR - All Songs Considered. They love to write a song in rounds and some people find the singers voice and their music utterly annoying, but that is what I find charming. The video below is Don't Look at Me which is from their most recent album and Digital Accordion (above) is  from their previous effort If You Were Fruit.
Most recent album Cob Dominos came out last week.
Band Website

Akron / Family - Silly Bears
Akron / Family - So It Goes both from The Dada   
Just look at the name of the album and you know these guys are stoner rock. Probable Kurt Vonnegut reference with that second track.
From the album S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT out now
Band Website

Yuck - Coconut Bible from Your Third Ear 
Yuck - Rubber  from Chromewaves
Here is one I missed. These guys are blowing up all over and I just heard about them this week. They do rock, but I'm still unsure. Rubber is sonic sludge!!!!
Self titled album out now.
Band Website


Bonus: New Radiohead album out this week - King of Limbs. Here is video number one off the album

New phone books are here!

Is there any way this album can continue the success of Radiohead? I have a hard time believing that they can hit a home run every time they step up to bat, but I know I will be in the stands to watch on every occasion. Downloading right now and I'll be listening all day. The album is $9.00 for the mp3 - looks like we are not getting to name our own price this time around.

Go here to Download King of Limbs

New cheat sheet coming later tonight!