New Roky Erickson / Okkervil River Song!

Roky Erickson is back for the first time in years with a new album on Anti- , featuring Okkervil River as his backing band. Erickson and Okkervil River have played together before, once at the Austin Music Awards in 2008 and at SXSW in 2009. I am more than a little excited about this! I got really into Erickson last year, especially after seeing the fantastic documentary called "You're Gonna Miss Me". The album is called "True Love Cast Out All Evil" and is due out April 20, 2010 with Will Sheff of Okkervil River also producing. Here is the first track released off the album called "Goodbye Sweet Dreams." If you've already seen the doc, you'll recognize the song as he played it on his acoustic close to the end. All hail Roky, king of the beasts!

Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - Goodbye Sweet Dreams

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New Track from Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma

Here is "Computer Face//Pure Being" from Flying Lotus' upcoming album Cosmogramma. It is being released on Warp records on May 4, 2010. The album tracklist is below.

Flying Lotus - Computer Face//Pure Being

01 Clock Catcher
02 Pickled!
03 Nose Art
04 Intro//A Cosmic Drama
05 Zodiac Shit
06 Computer Face//Pure Being
07 ...And the World Laughs With You [ft. Thom Yorke]
08 Arkestry
09 Mmmhmm [ft.Thundercat]
10 Do the Astral Plane
11 Satelllliiiiiteee
12 German Haircut
13 Recoiled
14 Dance Of the Pseudo Nymph
15 Drips//Auntie's Harp
16 Table Tennis [ft. Laura Darlington]
17 Galaxy in Janaki

Edit: I had to redo this post a little because the original 4 songs were evidently taken down.

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Ryan, I see your Robocop and raise you Aliens and Commando

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New Ruins / Retribution Gospel Choir

I wish I'd have thought about posting this before, but better late than never I guess. Friends of Fikak!, New Ruins are playing with Retribution Gospel Choir tomorrow night, Feb. 18th! All the info is on the poster but in case you can't read it from there, it is at the Canopy Club in Urbana, IL. The show is $8 and starts at 10ish. Sorry for the late notice but if you're in or around Champaign/Urbana, come and check it out. This is not you dad's rock show. And I'll be there, so bring some single ladies! Rock.

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1995-2000 Rebuttal

Ok, it’s not really a rebuttal because I can’t find anything to rebut. I wanted to add this to the comment list but it’s way too long. My initial thought was that I agree, but I had to find out just how much I agreed. And upon searching for myself, I found that Ryan is absolutely right. Right enough for me to be able to come up with 100 more to further his point. It was an amazing time for music that helped shape the lives of most all my friends in one way or another. So, here are 100 more reasons to help make the point. In fact, I started this trying to come up with an additional 50 and it easily became 100. So Ryan, I’m not trying to out do you, but this is what happens when you get me in list making mode.

1995
Alice In Chains – Alice In Chains
Chavez - Gone Glimmering
Crimpshrine – Duct Tape Soup
Deftones – Adrenaline
Fugazi – Red Medicine
Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes
Hum – You’d Prefer An Astronaut
June of 44 – Engine Takes to the Water
Jawbreaker – Dear You
Morphine – Yes
Oblivion – Shoot Me A Waco
Red House Painters – Ocean Beach
Roky Erickson – All That May Do My Rhyme
Sea and Cake – Sea and Cake
TAD – Infrared Riding Hood
88 Fingers Louie – Behind Bars

1996
Archers of Loaf – All The Nation’s Airports
Avail – 4AM Friday
Beastie Boys – The In Sound From Way Out
The Crownhate Ruin – Until the Eagle Grins
Guided By Voices - Under the Bushes Under the Stars
Jawbox – Jawbox
June of 44 - Tropics & Meridians
Karate - Karate
Modest Mouse – This Is A Long Drive…
Nirvana – From The Muddy Banks of the Wishka
Propagandhi – Less Talk, More Rock
Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire
Soundgarden – Down on the Upside
Tool – Aenima
Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Trans Am – Trans Am
2 Pac – All Eyez On Me

1997
Blur – Blur
Deftones – Around the Fur
Franklin – GoKidGo
Grandaddy – Under The Western Freeway
Hot Water Music – Forever & Counting
Houseboy – Ya Right!
Joan of Arc – A Portable Model Of
June of 44 – Anatomy of Sharks
Karate – In Place of Real Insight
Modest Mouse – The Fruit That Ate Itself
Mogwai - Young Team
Shipping News – Save Everything
Ween – The Mollusk

1998
Alkaline Trio – Goddamnit!
Avail – Over The James
Bone Thugs – E. 1999 Eternal
Califone – Califone LP
Coalesce – Functioning On Impatience
Engine Down – Under the Pretense of Present Tense
Fifteen – Extra Medium Kickball Star
Four Hundred Years – Transmit Failure
Houseboy - 1465 Tamarack Street Press Room
Hum - Downward Is Heavenward
Jets to Brazil – Orange Rhyming Dictionary
Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Sleepytime Trio – Memory Minus
Tortoise – TNT

1999
American Analog Set – The Golden Band
Billy Mahonie – The Big Dig
Broken Hearts Are Blue – The Truth About Love
Buried Alive – Death of Your Perfect World
Casket Lottery – Choose Bronze
Castor – Tracking Sounds Alone
Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
Inlantic – Inlantic
June of 44 - Anahata
June of 44 – Fish 6
Mercury Program – Mercury Program
Method Man & Redman – Blackout!
Mice Parade – Ramda
Mogwai – Come On Die Young
My Morning Jacket – The Tennessee Fire
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
Pavement – Brighten The Corners
Small Brown Bike – Our Own Wars
Trans Am – Futureworld

2000
Alkaline Trio – Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio – Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
The Anniversary – Designing For A Nervous Breakdown
At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command
Cursive – Domestica
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Deftones – White Pony
Don Caballero – American Don
Elliott – False Cathedrals
Engine Down – To Bury Within The Sound
Grandaddy – The Software Slump
Hey Mercedes – Hey Mercedes Ep
Karate – Unsolved
Ludacris – Back For The First Time
Mercury Program – From The Vapor of Gasoline
The Microphones – It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water
Modest Mouse – Building Something Out of Nothing
Outkast – Stankonia
Q And Not U – No Kill No Beep Beep
Sunny Day Real Estate – The Rising Tide
Ween – White Pepper

If there was any doubt in my mind, it is gone now. I think I speak for all of us when I pose the challenge for someone to come up with a better 5 year span of music. For real, if you can do it, we want to see it!

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Is 1995-2000 the Best 5 Year Period of Music in History?

I proposed this question to a friend a couple weeks ago, and he proposed I write about it on the blog. I don't think there's any question that a strong argument can be made. The amount of great albums that were released is staggering. Countless great bands got their start during this half-decade, and several great ones released the entirety of their output (or close to it). Thing is, this question is doomed to suffer the same fate as almost every argument I've ever gotten into with my friends concerning music. No matter how good of a case I present, it's all going to be for naught because it's all subjective anyway (although I don't think I'd get much of an argument from those guys on this one). Everyone is going to have different tastes and opinions when it comes to any kind of media based on their own backgrounds and experiences. Case in point: Why is it that hearing the Jonas Brothers makes me want to torture animals, but every time I hear Ace of Base I just wanna dance? You'd be better off spending your time figuring out why McDonald's doesn't serve hotdogs. Nonetheless, I've decided to offer 50 reasons why I think the years 1995-2000 are in actuality the 5 greatest years music has ever seen. I do this fully realizing that some will see the light, and many will run from it. But that's ok. Music has seen several other runs that have produced ridiculous amounts of great music that have influenced future generations of more great music. I have tremendous respect for what the catalogue of the more distant past has to offer, so you're encouraged to leave your own thoughts behind, whether they concern the evidence or the overall proposal. The evidence itself will be presented chronologically (by year only); these are in no way ranked. Also, it does not include EPs or live albums. Just because. Those are all arguments for another day:

1995

Ben Folds Five Ben Folds Five

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters

Less Than Jake Pez Core

Radiohead The Bends

Sunny Day Real Estate Sunny Day Real Estate (The Pink Album)

1996

Beck Odelay

Braid The Age of Octeen

Jeremy Enigk Return of the Frog Queen

Hot Water Music Fuel For the Hate Game

Jawbox Jawbox

Less Than Jake Losing Streak

Texas is the Reason Do You Know Who You Are?

Weezer Pinkerton

The Wrens Secaucus

1997

Ben Folds Five Whatever & Ever Amen

Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape

Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West

The Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death

The Promise Ring Nothing Feels Good

Radiohead Ok Computer

The Sea and Cake Fawn

Elliott Smith Either/Or

1998

Braid Frame & Canvas

Elliott U.S. Songs

Fugazi End Hits

Heroic Doses Heroic Doses

Karate The Bed is in the Ocean

Mock Orange Nines & Sixes

The Notwist Shrink

Outkast Aquemini

Spoon Series of Sneaks

Sunny Day Real Estate How It Feels to Be Something On

1999

American Football American Football

Blur 13

Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret

Burning Airlines Mission: Control!

The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I

The Get Up Kids Something to Write Home About

No Knife Fire In The City of Automatons

Pinback Pinback

Sharks Keep Moving Sharks Keep Moving

Sigur Rós Ágætis Byrjun

Wheat Hope and Adams

2000

Coldplay Parachutes

Euphone Hashin' It Out

Faraquet The View From This Tower

The Firebird Band The Setting Sun and It's Satellites

Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica

Radiohead Kid A

Spoon Girls Can Tell

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Neon Indian on Jimmy Fallon

Neon Indian performing "Terminally Chill/Ephemeral Artery" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Feb. 11, 2010.

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Mimicking Birds debut album on Glacial Pace

Mimicking Birds, a 3-piece from Portland, OR, are releasing their debut album on March 9th, 2010. The self-titled album will be released on Modest Mouse front man, Isaac Brock's label, Glacial Pace Recordings. Also, check them out on Virb.com. There are about 15 other songs you can listen to and download for free.

Album Track List:
01. Home and Somewhere Else
02. The Loop
03. Burning Stars
04. New Doomsdays
05. Subsonic Words
06. Pixels
07. Remnants and Pictures
08. Them
09. Cabin Fever
10. 10 Percent
11. Under and in Rocks

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Yeasayer on Jimmy Fallon

Here is Yeasayer performing "Ambling Alp" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Feb. 10, 2010. Neon Indian is going to be on tonight, so I'll post that tomorrow assuming I don't forget.

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Woods: I'm Not Gone

There is a new Woods song up on their Myspace page, check it out here! Woods is also set to tour with Real Estate in March. Dates are on their Myspace as well. The two are playing in Bloomington, IN on March 23rd at The Bishop. I saw Califone there a couple months ago and it seemed like a really cool place. So, if you can get there I'd suggest going, meanwhile I'll be sitting at home because March 23rd is a Tuesday! Weak dude.

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Califone: Funeral Singers

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Help Me Jack Pepsi!

I just found out about these guys within the last 6 months or so and I’m so disappointed that I haven’t been listening to them for the last 22 years. TAD is the best band you may have never heard of. They were one of the first bands to come out of the Seattle “grunge” scene and one of the first to sign to Sub Pop. They toured with Nirvana as their opener, got sued a couple times, went through their fair share of band members, and probably a lot more unknown drama. The band had more problems than most and it’s really a shame because they could have been HUGE. Musically TAD is just plain mean and intense, but occasionally there are those brilliant songs, like “Plague Years”, that seem to perfectly define the generation. There’s a great documentary about them called “Tad: Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears” that is fairly in depth and really interesting. There is a link to the trailer is below. But we all need to help raise awareness of TAD, if for no other reason than to hopefully get their vinyl albums repressed.
TAD – Plague Years

TAD – Jack Pepsi

TAD - Dementia

TAD – Ictus

Tad: Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears Trailer

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Flying Dilla Changed My Life

I’ve never been much of a fan of remixes but recently that seems to be changing. I think it all stared after I posted the Adult Swim ATL Remix album. There really aren’t that many great songs on it, maybe only 3 or 4, but I’ve probably been listening to the Gucci Mane / Flying Lotus track “Photoshoot” close to 10 times a day. I’m borderline embarrassed to say this because I’m still not sure what I think of Gucci Mane as a rapper, but after hearing Big Boi’s Shine Blockas I’m about 95% sold. But, this is not about Gucci. It’s about Flying Lotus and J Dilla, but mostly Flying Lotus. The beat to Photoshoot absolutely kills me, so I had to check out some more of his stuff and it’s really, really good. The album Los Angeles is fantastic, but I really dig the remixes, and when I found the remix of Dilla’s Lightworks it was all over. It has one of the filthiest beats I’ve ever heard, it’s short, and he’s remixing probably the best hip-hop producer that ever lived. I set out to make this strictly about Flying Lotus & J Dilla but I don’t think I can pass up posting a few more songs, so I’ll post ‘em and you listen to ‘em. The system works.

Lightworks – J Dilla

Ltwxrmx - Flying Lotus

Photoshoot – Gucci Mane (Flying Lotus Remix)

A Milli – Lil’ Wayne (Flying Lotus Remix)

Beginners Falafel – Flying Lotus (from the album Los Angeles)

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I Love Movies! Feb. 5th, 2010

Here is the newest episode of Doug Benson's I Love Movies. It features comedian Graham Elwood (The High Road with Doug Benson) and actor Samm Levine (Freaks & Geeks, Inglorious Bastards), plus a special surprise guest that I'm totally going to ruin for you right now... Leonard Maltin! If you've ever listened to this before then you know about the Leonard Maltin game, which is basically a film version of Name That Tune. Awesome. Enjoy!
Download episodes here.

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Surfer Blood: Astro Coast

This is the debut album from West Palm Beach, Florida’s Surfer Blood entitled Astro Coast and was released on Kanine Records. Their sound kind of continues in the vain of the “lo-fi” that seemed to almost overtake 2009. The only difference is that they don’t use the “lo-fi” angle as a crutch to make the music seem more authentic. I guess what I mean is they use it as a tool and not to skew focus. Anyway, I’ve read some reviews that compare Surfer Blood to bands like early Weezer and The Shins and I think that is a pretty decent comparison. It’s poppy but still manages to rock out pretty consistently. Dig it.
Surfer Blood – Floating Vibes

Surfer Blood - Swim

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Midlake: The Courage of Others

Well Pitchfork has dropped the ball yet again so, being a highly respected blogger now (yeah right), I will pick it up. This is the new Album by Midlake, from Denton, TX. It’s a really solid album just like Midlake is a really solid band. Over the years, they seem to have found a groove, musically, and have created a very rich, full sound for themselves. The Courage of Others is no different. Understandably, it’s hard to follow their last album The Trials of Van Occupanther, which in my opinion is about as close as you can get to a “perfect” album. As an album, Courage is a bit more sullen than previous offers, but still completely delivers what you would expect from a great band like Midlake. There’s not a chance that it deserves a ridiculous rating like a 3.6. This is just another example of Pitchfork’s inability to look past their own foolish expectations and failure to be consistent with their random, and increasingly untrustable rating system. So, my rating is a 136 out of 10. Ok, that’s maybe a bit overboard but, in my eyes, if Van Occupanther is a 9 or 10, Courage is a firm 7. And in the future, if the next Midlake release happens to fall even slightly short of my hopes, you can be sure the review will be consistent with this one. There’s no reason to drop a great album multiple points because they don’t pander to your elitist expectations. This is how you gain and maintain credibility. Thanks for reading my ranting and enjoy the album because it deserves it. Here are a couple tracks to check out…

Midlake - Acts of Man

Midlake - Rulers, Ruling All Things

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