I can't speak for the other parts of the country (or world. hi internationals.), but man it is beautiful down south right now. Yeah, at a 95-degree-Fareinheit-avegerage Dallas might be a more than a little hot, but when there's a bit of a breeze, coupled with that endless blue sky, it's just perfect summer weather. Perfect summer weather needs a perfect summer song, and Mathieu Santos' I Can Hear The Trains Coming fits the bill quite nicely. Otherwise known as the bassist for band Ra Ra Riot, Mathieu has been preparing a debut solo album, to be released this summer on the ever-fabulous Barsuk. Download the breezy single for free below, and look for Masachusetts 2010 in the upcoming months.
Does anyone else have an ever-growing ‘bands I NEED to check out’ list? New York's Phantogram has been high on mine for quite a while. I know, by now they’re old news, but I only have so much time to stream music in a day, and unfortunately some great acts fall through the cracks. Phantogram seemed like one of those bands I was going to begrudgingly keep ignoring, if it hadn’t been for my brother (hey Colton). Convinced he has the ‘LOOSE L!PS sound’ down to a formula—for the record he doesn’t, but he is getting close—he sent me this song with the remarks that I would probably want to feature it. Goddamit, he was right. Finally, Phantogram are on my radar, their psychedelic Mouthful of Diamonds enlivened by the Toronto production team known as The Jackals. The Jackals quickened the beat, took out most of the fuzz, and made it bouncy. So now it’s a FUN song about drugs and lies. That seems more natural, anyway. Though perhaps a bit odd considering the subject matter, with the opening command of “Wake Up!” I’ve been using this song as the start of my morning playlist. Do I start my day with electronic music? Sometimes, yes. And I’d venture to guess that if you’re the type to frequent this blog, you probably do too.
Phantogram's debut LP on Barsuk Records, Eyelid Movies, was named one of the best albums of 2010 by practically everyone (I told you, I'm really late on this bandwagon). Don't get left in the dust, buy it here.
I totally understand why Eric Elbogen shortened his musical persona to Say Hi. I made sure to stay far, far away from “Say Hi to Your Mom” until someone asked me what I thought about him. I told them that I didn’t really listen to all that cheesy, packaged pop punk and that I wasn’t going to start any time soon. I’m guessing Elbogen got tired of people mislabeling and misconceiving his singer-songwriter, lo-fi sound for something more along the lines of Boys Like Girls or Cute is What We Aim For. Sometimes it’s not all in a name.
Dots on Maps is a track from Say Hi’s latest release Um, Uh Oh, and shows exactly what the one-man-band is all about. Turns out, Elbogen’s sound is more along the lines of Connor Oberst or M. Ward. It’s hard to come to terms with at first, believe me – I know. After listening to this particular track more than a few times, I just can’t help but feel that as far as current releases go, Elbogen has more than a slight edge on all the other guys. I think he's one of the few out there in the genre who actually gets it. Say Hi has succeeded once again in crafting a beautiful song - and it really doesn't matter what he calls himself.
