Passion Pit • Take a Walk

Reader, if you’ve kept your eye on this space over the past four years (I KNOW—four years is a crazy long time to have been writing a blog…potentially too long), you likely are well-aware of our massive love for the band, Passion Pit.

We first heard Passion Pit when it was still a solo effort, sparked by the songs now-frontman, Michael Angelakos recorded for his then girlfriend as a Valentine’s Day gift. Cute, right? Well, they broke up. But the songs fucking rocked—at the time, in 2008, it was unlike anything we had heard before. The closest comparison we could ever draw was a future-rock version of the Jackson Five. Which, yes, is undeniably winning. After releasing the songs as part of an EP—Chunk of Change—in 2008 on French Kiss Records, Angelakos built his out line-up and then, after tireless touring, settled down to record their debut full-length, 2009’s Manners, which rocked our socks off. Since then though, things have been pretty quiet on the Boston-based indie disco-rock scene.

Cut to last month, when Passion Pit announced their sophomore release, Gossamer, on July 24. As you would guess, Reader, we were excited, but, you never know—ever hear of the sophomore slump? Well we have, and, depending on the day, we oft trend negative with our predictive imagination.

But today, the PP, as they’re understandably never called, gave us a first listen of the new album with their brand new song, “Take a Walk.” Judge for yourself, but it’s clearly dashed away any pessimistic clouds of musical forecasting for us. Tinged with a slightly more mature sound in the music and in Angelakos’ tone, we think it bodes well for the new work.

And if there’s even a small chance at all that the P.S. 22 Chorus makes a repeat appearance on this album, you can go ahead and sign us up for some premature adoration. Below, Michael walks the kids through their recordings for Manners. Oh, and, for you, Reader, we have an added bonus born of our intense crush Passion Pit and their music—a cover of their hit, “Sleepyhead,” by british songstress, Ellie Goulding. And if you’re REALLY in the mood for dialing it back, check out our super-old review of Passion Pit paired with…a mango-jicama salad on the Discerning Brute.

Note: Songs posted to this site are kept online for a limited period of time out of fairness to the artists and, you know, our server. So if this is now an older post, the links may well be dead. Buy music!

Reader, if you know us, you know we like our time in the kitchen. All those culinary types we see on the Today Show talking about how no one has time to cook anymore and one can only be expected to make food at home if it takes a maximum of five minutes and it can be done while watching The Voice annoy the crap out of us. That said, we’re only human, and there are times that—despite our acute desire to hand-craft an exceptional vegan meal—it ain’t always in the cards.

Which is one of many reason we’re psyched that The Regal Vegan—New-York-based purveyors of the über-awesome lentil-walnut based spread and vegan-friendly ‘foie gras,’ Faux Gras (get it?)—has just debuted a brand new product—Basilicotta—which is, as you might have guessed, a ricotta-like basil cashew spread “designed to blow your mind.” It’s superb on crackers, lovely on some sliced baguette or daikon, or, as you can see from our photo above, made into a pretty primo pesto-like sauce.

We picked up a container of the stuff at the Brooklyn Flea at its 2012 outdoor re-opening in Fort Green a few weeks back and—as suggested by the regal vegan herself, Ella Nemcova—just added the spread with a little warm water to our cooked pasta. Add a few ‘dress-me-ups’ like some fresh basil leaves and crushed pistachios and you’ve got a quick, delectable, totally animal-friendly meal. That, I guess, you can make while watching The Voice.

Or maybe Girls. We’re really more of a Girls household.

Bright Moments • Travelers
We all need bright moments in our lives, be them tiny diversions from an otherwise mundane or stress-filled day or small reminders of what really matters in life. Which makes me doubly thankful for the music of one Mr. Kelly Pratt, also now known in the musical world as Bright Moments.

Pratt—primarily a very skilled trumpet player—played most of the instruments himself  on his debut album, Natives, which he recorded in his New York apartment during the wee hours of the night when most of us were supposed to be asleep. Employing additional horns, traditional instrumentation, odd found sounds like sampled bats (vampire, not baseball), and pulling lyrics from everything from Scandinavian poetry to the story of the first person to be cured of rabies, the resulting songs sound intimate and unique, ebbing and flowing between sweetly tender and and simply jubilant.

Though this is Bright Moments’ first record, Pratt himself has provided backing for bands like the Arcade Fire, War on Drugs, and Beirut, the last of whom provides the strongest parallel in terms of overall sound.

Give Bright Moments’ “Travelers” a listen and see what you think. Then you can head over to Pratt’s site to stream the whole album(click Music at the top of the page).

Below, Pratt performs another album highlight, “Behind the Gun,” with a full band on WNYC’s Soundcheck. You can hear last week’s entire performance and interview on Soundcheck’s site. And you can purchase Natives over at Luaka Bop or download it from the iTunes.

Note: Songs posted to this site are kept online for a limited period of time out of fairness to the artists and, you know, our server. So if this is now an older post, the links may well be dead. Buy music!

Madi Diaz • Gimme a Kiss

Okay, I’ve been avoiding this for a while now, Reader. I’ve tried—I’ve REALLY TRIED—to NOT write this song up. Honestly, we pride ourselves on being rather cutting edge with our musical tastes, especially given the fact that we’re—honestly—kinda old and not as in-the-loop as, say, the twenty-something versions of us are or would be. Man. I bet the twenty-something version of me wouldn’t even listen to music. He’d listen to, like, dripping water that’s been recorded and then slightly syncopated and then run over a beat that’s been created by turning every other consonant in the Gettysburg Address into one’s and zero’s, respectively, and then run through some sort of high-end computer that’s been built to replicate an original 8-bit Commodore 64. So cool.

Lucky for you, we’re not that cool. But we do tend to bend our ears, more often than not, in the direction of the less-than-mainstream and sometimes even odd. Stuff our moms wouldn’t necessarily like. Which is why we feel a bit like we’re letting you down with this post, Reader—our moms will all totally love this song.

BUT I CANNOT GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD! And that’s not in a “I went to the Met supermarket and now I seriously cannot get that fucking Sheena Easton song out of my head” kinda way. It’s in a “Damn, this is a gooooood song, even if my mom would totally love it” kinda way.

Nashville-based, Pennsylvania-born, mom-pandering signer-songwriter Madi Diaz, it turns out, has a long and well-documented history growing up with the arts. Her Peruvian mother home-schooled her with an emphasis on development in the visual arts; her Danish father was a keyboardist for Frank Zappa; and she attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and, before that, the Paul Green School of Rock in Philly, where she was featured in the documentary, Rock School. And all that skill certainly comes through in her music. This week’s Song, the blissfully poppy “Gimme a Kiss” shines at times with—yes— a little country twang, which is usually not our bag, but the sweetly crafted hooks of the music and beautifully sung lyrics reel you in in an undeniable way. There’s something about this song and a few others on her 2012 album, Plastic Moon, that remind us of early solo Aimee Mann, especially in the simple, sliding little guitar guitar break of “Gimme a Kiss.” And there can’t be anything wrong with that. Even if our moms would totally agree…but think we should “tone down the potty talk.”

You can listen to “Gimme a Kiss” here and visit Diaz’s site for a couple other free downloads, including a non-album track and the superb, “Let’s Go.” Video for that one below.  Photo by Elizabeth Weinberg.

Note: Songs posted to this site are kept online for a limited period of time out of fairness to the artists and, you know, our server. So if this is now an older post, the links may well be dead. Buy music!

Yellow Ostrich • Marathon Runner

We first caught Brooklyn’s Yellow Ostrich at the end of last summer when they opened for Mates of State at a Barsuk Records label showcase. They had recently signed to the Seattle label—former home of Death Cab for Cutie in their pre-Warner Music days—and they definitely impressed us live, with their unique instrumentation, an emotive performance from frontman, Alex Schaaf, and skillfully looped live vocals.

A few months later, having caught them again, and with a sophomore full-length, Strange Land, now out, the band seems to be relying less on memorable ‘schticks’ or digital tricks and building more off of Schaaf and company’s commendable song-writing and pop sensibilities. The first album, Mistress, seems to have been much more of a solo effort from Schaaf, drawing from an understandably limited depth of field. Now, with seemingly non-stop touring as a full band, both the live performance and new album strike us more of a collaborative effort, resulting in simpler, sweeter songs that have stripped away some of the layers that stood in the way of a more fulfilling listing experience.

Don’t get us wrong though—the band’s very much still cut form a different cloth. Last time we saw them live, multi-instrumentalist, Jon Natchez, alternated from squeekingly glitchy saxophone to a bass guitar being run through an armada  of processing pedals and drummer, Michael Tapper, who plays sans foot pedal bass drum, went back and forth between providing a solid base for the other instruments and acting as more of bright, riffing percussive melody woven throughout the other sounds.

You can download “Marathon Runner,” from Strange Land as this week’s Song and hear another track via their Soundcloud page. The album can be downloaded or ordered on CD or vinyl from Barsuk.

Oh, and did we mention they seem to love to do covers? Below, their version of the Replacements classic, “Androgynous.” Photo by Kyle Dean Reinford.

Youth Lagoon • Bobby

As Youth Lagoon, Trevor Powers (right, above) writes lonely, introspective bedroom pop that somehow makes you want to simultaneously hug him and dance with him. We caught Powers and Logan Hyde (left), who plays some excellent guitar with Powers live, at South by Southwest a few weeks ago and were surprised to find that they were one of our favorite live actsthat week. Surprised not because we hadn’t already heard great things—the polar opposite was true as his debut album, The Year of Hibernation, had been recommended to us over and over again. We were more surprised that someone who could easily be described as writing bedroom pop or even the overly coined chillwave could elicit such an emotional connection with his stage show.

Most of Powers’ songs follow a pretty predictable progression, starting out with soft, slow keys and then adding in his distinct, endearingly strained vocals to which guitars and pre-programmed beats then begin to layer up on until you’ve got a fairly driving piece of music, Powers’ voice having grown from pensive bleating to a clear-yet-still-restrained screech. Then the songs quickly tumble apart and show their vulnerable core just long enough to remind you that this is—still—a sad song. Formulaic, maybe, but why mess with Original Coke?

You can download his full-length or purchase the vinyl, CD,…or cassette (?) via Fat Possum Records. …if you end up going the cassette route, let us know how that ends up. For anyone else in the NYC area, Youth Lagoon will be opening for Death Cab for Cutie at the Beacon Theatre April 27, 28, and 29. So, that’ll probably be an intimate setting. More intimate—you listening to this week’s Song, “Bobby.”

Photo by Charles Bergquist. Below, YL’s video for their song, “Montana.”

Today’s Find features a lovely letter-pressed bookmark our friend Kristen bought us while in Austin. The bookmark depicts something likely familiar to many who have ever visited Austin—the iconic, kinda bizarre Moonlight Towers, which are essentially gigantic turn-of-the-century street lights that light blocks at a time.

The bookmark was created by Austin’s Presse Dufour—a one-person design and letterpress studio that hand-mixes inks, prints on fully recycled stock, and employs a 1965 Vandercook press. Kristen picked it up when we were in Bows + Arrows, which we always try to hit up when we’re in town.

Illuminating public streets with electric lamps became common during the latter part of the 19th century. During this time, many U.S. cities were lit by tall towers that were able to illuminate large areas efficiently. The Moonlight Towers of Austin, Texas, are the last remaining of their kind in the U.S. Standing 165-feet tall, they once illuminated the entire city, giving off enough light for a person to be able to read a pocket watch 1500 feet away from a tower. Work began on the first tower at the corner of Speedway and West 41st Street in Hyde Park in 1894. All 31 towers were erected by 1895. The towers were assembled onsite and powered by generators at what is now the Tom Miller Dam. Austin’s Moonlight Towers switched on for the first time on May 6, 1895. Shortly after Austin became known as “The City of Eternal Moonlight.” From the original 31 towers, 17 still remain and can be found in the historic areas of the city. The remaining towers were listed on The National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 1976. In 1995, the towers were restored, down to every bolt, guy wire and turnbuckle, as part of a $1.3 million dollar renovation. These unique structures hold a special place in the hearts of Austinites.