The Kabbs / Down This Road

The Kabbs are a band from San Diego that make country-garage rock tunes. It kind of sounds like cowboy punk, maybe if punks invaded mining towns in the gold rush era.

Trailer Trash Tracys / Turkish Heights

Okay, let’s be real, Trailer Trash Tracys might be one of the worst band names of 2k12, or possibly one of the worst band names ever. They popped into the music world with one of the most banging debut singles of any dreamy synth pop blog band. Their new LP, Ester, throws down more hits and continues to expand the superstar legacy of this fresh UK act. At the tail-end of Ester, the Tracys throw down a slow one that will definitely melt your heart. Turkish Heights oozes with dreamy shoe-gazey synth notes bleeding into drowsy vocals, making sense with a bass line so damn simple, yet mind-blowing with every note. #ooze

Pokey LaFarge / Pack It Up

For the last year or so, Third Man has been pouring out brilliant 7” singles from an incredibly diverse range of artists. Jack White deserves a hell of a lot more praise from finding artists from so many different locations, genres, and levels of success. Anyway, recently I’ve been really excited by Pokey LaFarge’s addition to the Third Man singles collection. LaFarge, hailing from St. Louis, sounds like the celebration of traditional America as we know it from movies and stories from American history textbooks circa high school. It’s so distant and almost confusing in a time where music has become something temporary, something that has to defy everything else happening at the moment, something that creates a new sound with an influx of trendy bands to follow. LaFarge has a sound that is timeless and almost isolated from a music industry that feasts on the wires of the world wide web. Even his biography reads like the tale of a hero from some film based on a younger America. LaFarge doesn’t simply settle for being incredibly unique at a time when everyone else is trying so hard; he is also exceptionally talented, carrying terrific effortless vocals and an immaculate talent for song writing. His old school traditional American blue grass that carries imagery of lazy rivers and folks swing dancing late at night in the town pub is probably the punkest, most bad ass thing I’ve heard from any musician in the last decade. The upbeat B-side of LaFarge’s new single, Pack it Up, opens with a sweet little guitar rhythm that gets swept up with LaFarge’s modest vocals met by wonderful harmonies during the chorus. It’s all carried by the rhythm of a stand up base and becomes perfect with LaFarge’s epic guitar solo towards the end. Pokey LaFarge; the punkest thing in America.

Davila 666 / Diablo

Tan Bajo is full of fuzzy raunchy bad ass rock numbers, but there are some warm heart melting gems hidden beneath the fuzz. I have no idea what they’re saying, but it feels sweet and the guitar hooks coated in sugary vocal melodies will tickle you in all the right places. Check them out in NYC this week!

Family Portrait / Wait

For the last few years, I’ve been sucking the life out of my limited collection of Family Portrait tracks stripped away from compilations and singles. Those few tracks in themselves were enough to credit the band with, but nothing feels as perfect as their debut record. I’ve been anticipating this explosion of sound of my entire life. I was born into this beautiful world searching for this LP and I’ve finally found it. The final result, the gift we’ve all been searching for, is finally here and it’s fucking incredible. Warm sounds bloom into crystal psychedelic melodies that melt and swell and bleed into each other like puddles. Puddles of rainbow liquid. It’s like Alex Mac took acid and went for a puddle-adventure from Munckin Land to the land of Oz, referencing decades of music along the way. Aside from the brilliant song writing, the production is fucking fantastic. It consumes the world around you and sweeps through every crevice of your body, the fullest, most wonderful sound you could possibly imagine. Everything about the record is perfect and it was totally 100% worth the life-long wait. The brilliance manifests itself in every second, every sound, every melodic swell, every munchkin you pass along the way. One of the most mind-blowing records I’ve ever experienced in my long reign as music director. How can you expect anything less from the royal court of the Underwater Peoples Kingdom? YOU CAN’T. It’s the incestuous family affair that Jerry Springer never showed you. Get it via Underwater Peoples here.

Top Records

1 DIRTBOMBS Party Store In The Red
2 RINGO DEATHSTARR Colour Trip Sonic Unyon
3 COMPUTER MAGIC Electronic Fences [EP] White Iris
4 PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS Essential Sony Legacy
5 SONIC YOUTH SYR 9 Simon Werner A Disparu SYR
6 DELICATE STEVE Wondervisions Luaka Bop
7 WAGON CHRIST Toomorrow Ninja Tune
8 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Belong Slumberland
9 LYKKE LI Wounded Rhymes Atlantic/LL
10 CUT COPY Zonoscope Modular
11 PJ HARVEY Let England Shake Vagrant-Island
12 PETER ROWAN Legacy Self-Released
13 DAVILA 666 Tan Bajo In The Red
14 DEATH SET Michel Poiccard Counter
15 HUNX AND HIS PUNX Too Young To Be In Love Hardly Art
16 CRYSTAL STILTS In Love With Oblivion Slumberland
17 RAINBOW ARABIA Boys And Diamonds Kompakt
18 PONYTAIL Do Whatever You Want All The Time We Are Free
19 TRENT FOX & THE TENANTS Mess Around [EP] Kind Turkey
20 XRAY EYEBALLS [EP] Hozac
21 DEVOTCHKA 100 Lovers Anti
22 IS/IS This Happening [EP] Guilt Ridden Pop
23 OBN III'S [EP] Tic Tac Totally
24 KURT VILE Smoke Ring For My Halo Matador
25 DUM DUM GIRLS He Gets Me High [EP] SUB POP
26 SILK FLOWERS Ltd. Form Post Present Medium
27 KILLS Blood Pressures Domino
28 GIL SCOTT-HERON AND JAMIE XX We're New Here XL
29 PETER BJORN AND JOHN Gimme Some Star Time
30 GO! TEAM Rolling Blackouts Memphis Industries

ADDS

1 ASHANTI Broken Dreams In The Red
2 KE$HA Lost Virgin Sub Pop
3. JUSTIN BIEBER Eating Raw Potatoes Hardly Art
4. GREG ALLMAN The Day I Loved Ke$ha Slumberland
5. MICHAEL JACKSON Wish Bieber Came to Neverland Ninja Tune

Acid Baby Jesus / Losing It

How can I express the excitement one experiences when they realize that Acid Baby Jesus can now be played from a music circle? It’s like the time they turned a scoop of ice cream into a thousand tiny balls. You just can’t explain that shit. Acid Baby Jesus is a Linkin Park inspired filthy garage act hailing from the great land of Athens, GR. A while back, they released a tape that made the good folks of WUSB pee themselves with joy and here they are again, but on a music circle! The b-side explores a side of Acid Baby Jesus that we’ve never experienced before, a sludgier, darker slow jam that sounds like it was born in some musty deserted bar in a desolate ghost town down south. I think I just described a scene from Scooby-Doo, so maybe just ignore the strange visual reference and click the play button.

You can get the music circle here from the good folks at Slovenly.

Shannon & The Clams / Old Man Winter

Why haven’t you listened to this record yet?! Shannon Shaw has the voice of a god. Ranging from deep sultry roughness to smooth buttery melodic sweetness and back to an angrier deeper rawness, all glued together with warm guitar work that screams 60’s beach rock vibes. Old Man Winter is one of the weirder tracks on the record, a sugary pop number where Shaw really displays the incredible versatility of her vocals. Sleep Talk is full of quirky funky garage pop confection that will leave you falling in love with The Clams. It’s so good, it might be one of the best records that 2011 has offered thus far. Shannon Shaw, I love you.

Top 30 Records / Potatoes

1 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Belong Slumberland
2 BEACH FOSSILS What A Pleasure [EP] Captured Tracks
3 STROKES Angles RCA
4 RINGO DEATHSTARR Colour Trip Sonic Unyon
5 HUNX AND HIS PUNX Too Young To Be In Love Hardly Art
6 CHAIN AND THE GANG Music Is Not For Everyone K
7 CRYSTAL STILTS In Love With Oblivion Slumberland
8 RAINBOW ARABIA Boys And Diamonds Kompakt
9 IS/IS This Happening [EP] Guilt Ridden Pop
10 CUT COPY Zonoscope Modular
11 BIBIO Mind Bokeh Warp
12 DEATH SET Michel Poiccard Counter
13 FEDERICO AUBELE Berlin 13 ESL
14 DUM DUM GIRLS He Gets Me High [EP] SUB POP
15 GIL SCOTT-HERON AND JAMIE XX We're New Here XL
16 DELICATE STEVE Wondervisions Luaka Bop
17 JOY FORMIDABLE The Big Roar Atlantic
18 PONYTAIL Do Whatever You Want All The Time We Are Free
19 RAVEONETTES Raven In The Grave Vice
20 STARFUCKER Reptilians Polyvinyl
21 BROWN RECLUSE Evening Tapestry Slumberland
22 TELEKINESIS 12 Desperate Straight Lines Merge
23 DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? Don't Say We Didn't Warn You Cooking Vinyl
24 LYKKE LI Wounded Rhymes Atlantic/LL
25 MARITIME Human Hearts Dangerbird
26 MICROSCOPIC SEPTET Friday The 13th: The Micros Play Monk Cuneiform
27 FEMI KUTI Africa For Africa KF
28 MOVITS! Out Of My Head SLIMSTYLE
29 MOUNTAIN GOATS All Eternals Deck Merge
30 TORO Y MOI Underneath The Pine Carpark

Jib Kidder / Epiphany 1

For the last year or so, WUSB has been turned onto the really incredible experimental projects released by Asthmatic Kitty via the Library Catalog Music Series. The most recent fixation has been the result of California’s Jib Kidder. The mastermind behind the project, Sean Schuster-Craig, used the effects of recho, reverb, EQ and splicing to manipulate the existing sounds of the Asthmatic Kitty catalog. Music For Hypnotized Minds is a combination of hip hop and experimental noise psychedelia that results in layers of moody mellow trippy sonic adventures. Epiphany 1 has a playful warped nostalgia vibe that erupts towards the end with eclectic percussion and quicker bursts of the looped melody and it’s all pretty fantastic.

Colleen Green / Y Do U Call Me

This video kinda made me hungry. Time for a spaghetti party & some Colleen Green jams. Check out the new 7” via Hardly Art.

K-Holes / The Gutter

Is it cool to post two videos from the same artist back to back? K-Holes just released the most disturbing inappropriate full length I’ve ever heard via the one and only, Hozac Records. Think haunted houses, witches with young boys caged up, strange spiritual rituals or a scene from SAW. Aside from the brilliance of K-holes, this video was created by the very amazing Alice Cohen who also created videos for Talbot Tagora and Fergus and Geronimo, just two of my favorites from her brilliant collection. All of them are really incredible and Gutters is just another awesome piece to add to the list.

Two Tears / Senso Unico

Senso Unico is the filthy b-side from Kerry Davis’ one woman band, Two Tears. The intensity and rawness of Davis’ vocals feels like acid eating your flesh, melting with brilliantly stripped down instrumentals. The track is beautifully exposed with Davis’ vocals and guitar work stinging like you were dragged across a highway. A side is killer, too, but not nearly as dirty. Get it via Kind Turkey Records.

Video: White Fence / Baxter Corner

Rainbow Arabia / Nothin' Gunna Be Undone

Other people have already said it. There’s not even a point in trying to describe the wildly unique sound of California’s monstrous “fourth-world” power duo, Rainbow Arabia. The more I listen to their newest record, Boys and Diamonds, the more “globe-trekking, kaleidoscopic dance music” makes perfect sense. Their tracks have a playfulness that hints at Matt & Kim with deep rooted synth and guitar melodies that scream Rainbow Arabia tied together with an insanely wide array of worldly percussion topped off reggae inspired vocals. Matt & Kim seems totally far fetched, especially if you’re familiar with both artists, but when you jam the second track on this record; it’s like Matt & Kim went around the world in 80 days and wrote good a song. Or maybe they made a baby with MIA?

Video: Fergus & Geronimo / Girls With English Accents

Mind Spiders / Going Away Tonite

I really don’t want to write about music, but luckily you can just hit the play button above and ignore the rest. Mind Spiders make addictive feel good garage pop out of the great state of Texas. Their new LP is full of brilliant rock jams smothered in a smokey cloud of pop pollution. Going Away Tonite is kind of a perfect jam and the perfect gateway jam to send you away into your long awaited musical journey with Mind Spiders.

A Classic Education / Devilish Coast Sway

A Classic Education make wonderful pop jams straight out of the great European motherland. Devilish Coast Sway is a delicately woven pop number that will leave you feeling warm with breezy guitar melodies and sweet charming vocals. The band will be hitting up the US with British Sea Power following some SXSW shows. Check them out in NYC on March 22nd and April 21st!

Ringo Deathstarr / You Don't Listen

When I first listened to Colour Trip, I was kind of expecting the worst, but instead I was wonderfully surprised by brilliant fuzzy guitar driven power anthems with hazy vocals that make me feel overwhelmingly happy inside. There’s something about this time of year when I push away the genius singer song writers that write dark depressing lyrics and break out the sugary upbeat pop anthems that make me feel all warm inside and Colour Trip is totally perfect for that.

RIP WINTER 2010-2011. Too anxious.

Top Records

1 DECEMBERISTS The King Is Dead Capitol
2 SOVIET LEAGUE Soviet League Angel Oven
3 MOGWAI Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will SUB POP
4 WANDA JACKSON The Party Ain’t Over Nonesuch
5 IS/IS This Happening [EP]
6 WHITE FENCE Is Growing Faith Woodsist
7 GO! TEAM Rolling Blackouts Memphis Industries
8 FERGUS AND GERONIMO Unlearn Hardly Art
9 BEETS Stay Home Captured Tracks
10 DEVOTCHKA 100 Lovers Anti
11 NOW, NOW Neighbors No Sleep
12 BLANK DOGS Land And Fixed Captured Tracks
13 DELICATE STEVE Wondervisions Luaka Bop
14 DEERHOOF Deerhoof Vs. Evil Polyvinyl
15 ROOMFUL OF BLUES Hook Line And Sinker
16 CLOUD NOTHINGS Cloud Nothings Carpark
17 CAGE THE ELEPHANT Thank You Happy Birthday Jive
18 TWILIGHT SINGERS Dynamite Steps SUB POP
19 MODERN SKIRTS Gramahawk Self-Released
20 TAPES ‘N TAPES Outside Ibid
21 TENNIS Cape Dory Fat Possum
22 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Heart In Your Heartbreak Slumberland
23 FUJIYA AND MIYAGI Ventriloquizzing Yep Roc
24 BRITISH SEA POWER Valhalla Dancehall Rough Trade
25 PURO INSTINCT Headbangers In Ecstasy Mexican Summer
26 SHEDDING Tear In The Sun Hometapes
27 SEEFEEL Seefeel Warp
28 MUSIC FROM THE FILM How The West Was Once Self-Released
29 TELEKINESIS 12 Desperate Straight Lines Merge
30 RABBI STEIN Spirits Uplifted Self-Released