As promised we have a special array of delights, but first the news! Our jovial, glacial paced elfin friends Sigur Ros have dropped unintelligible information about a new album. What is concretely known (and in english) is that the album is titled "takk...", Icelandic for "thanks", will be 11 tracks long, and is slated to be release September 12. According to their website, the track listing, accents and goofy letters intact, goes a little something like this:
1. takk...
2. glósóli
3. hoppípolla
4. með blóðnasir
5. sé lest
6. sæglópur
7. mílanó
8. gong
9. andvari
10. svo hljótt
11. heysátan
So that's the Icelandic news, what of our glorious US of A? What musical happenings abound here? WELL, there are plenty of things. The newest breed of Pitchfork lapdog, scientific name Reviewus Influentius, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! will be touring this fall with The National, who we will become acquainted with later in this post. I'll drop those dates on you when I have a full list/include cities I know my limited readership cares about. Otherwise...I'm too lazy to research, so take what you can get, which is now some more FREE MUSIC!!!
Today we have my favorite Fela Kuti album, Expensive Shit. Comprised of two long tracks, there is honestly no fat on this entire album. Amazingly the two tracks, averaging around 12 minutes each, go buy extremely fast. The instrumental are up-tempo and flawless while the vocal parts are endlessly funky. It's amazing that his legacy isn't bigger than it is. His music can be equally respected in so many genres but tends to get bulldozed by his wild-man attitude and political standings. I don't know a whole lot about Afrobeat beyond Fela and his son Femi (playing at the 930 club on Saturday, by the way, for all of my DC readers) but I know that Fela had an output that was trancsendent of his genre. Takin' it to the streets and keepin' it funky, enjoy Expensive Shit.
Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa '70 - Expensive Shit
Next up is an album which I stumbled across recently but have actually owned for quite some time. At the rate at which I procure music it is very easy for things to fall by the wayside. I'll download or buy something and it may sit unlistened until I begin slowly stumbling across tracks on my iPod or just searching around my computer. Today's second album is one of those cases, and I'm pleased to bring you The National's Alligator. It's easy to compare this album to one band or another, there have been comparisons to everyone from Echo and the Bunnymen to The Jayhawks, but this album is pretty damn good standing all by it's lonesome. The first track "Secret Meeting" kicks off with glittering piano and guitar leading into the "Did he just say that?" lyrics and downbeat melodies of "Karen." Frankly, this album is pretty stellar all the way through. "Lit Up" and "Abel" are a couple of the biggest songs I've heard in a while, which is a pleasing idea. So please download this and enjoy it quicker than I did.
The National - Alligator | Two
So, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed yourself, I'm really trying to get the hang of all this and am gonna try and get my name out a little more (hence putting my files up onto a more unlimited usage sharing site). Hopefully I can get some readership on this and get this shit really poppin' yo'.
Love,
John
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