The Notes

• Artist:
  Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo /// “Avalon Or Someone Very Similar” /// Popular SongsYo La Tengo are the alpha and omega of pretty.  From “Autumn Sweater” to “Black Flowers,” to this, the hands-down most gorgeous track off sonically inclusive new album Popular Songs, these guys know how to tickle your cozy bone before diving into a woolly dozen-minute jam on whatever jazz groove they’ve discovered thi

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Washed Out /// “You’ll See It” /// UnreleasedDon’t even try to fight this Balearic (no, nobody knows what that means) beach thing anymore.

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Jay-Z (ft. Rihanna & Kanye West) /// “Run This Town” /// The Blueprint 3Quick!  Listen to this track before you hear it a million more times this summer! It’s got that super-dramatic lower octave grand piano thing that happens in hip-hop sometimes!  And sultry, jaded Rihanna!  And belligerent Kanye!  Fuck all y’all haters!  

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• Artist:
  Atlas Sound

Atlas Sound (w/Panda Bear) /// “Walkabout” /// LogosOh hello gloriously French-sounding pop that alone is so much better than everything on Atlas Sounds’ overrated first album.

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• Artist:
  Why?

Why? /// Eskimo Snow /// Eskimo SnowThe unnerving beauty of cLOUDDEAD's best stuff—and Why?'s—is less an argument about what intelligent hip-hop should do and more an innocent tumble into its undiscovered catacombs. There was always a dankness, aided by opaque and subconsciously associative lyrics, that suggested you had come upon a delicate eyeless cave-dwelling species untouched by surface-

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• Artist:
  The Twilight Sad

The Twilight Sad /// “Reflection Of The Television” /// Forget The Night AheadPerks of having a music blog/why I suggest you all start one: people send you free music.  Sometimes those people are from FatCat Records, and they’re sending you a kickass sampler of their touring-all-together stable of Scottish bombardiers—Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Brakesbrakesbrakes, and

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Polychromatic! /// “Diamonds Are For Never And For Always” /// (Unreleased)Chiptune and 8-bit compositions have a bad habit of getting hammered and breaking shit.  Ugly distortion, unfriendly beats and bleach-gargling vocals prevail.  And, like any punchy drunk, their aggression is largely a screen. You’d act out, too, if your scene was disparaged as a bunch of nerds with toys. Polychrom

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• Artist:
  A Place to Bury Strangers

fuckyeahshoegaze:New Album! Oct 6.EXPLODING HEADOf course that's what it's called.Yes.

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Thank you for your submission but the story is not quite right.  it kept me engaged until the end but I would have like a more plot focused story that kept me excited.  I highly recommend that you submit again.J*** B***Editor-in-ChiefThe Magazine of B****** FictionI love this one.  In the space of three sentences, it manages to contradict its own criticism, lay bare its own lazy construction, s

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• Artist:
  Beat Happening
• Album:
  You Turn Me On
• Track:
  • PLAY
  Sleepy Head

Beat Happening /// “Sleepy Head” /// You Turn Me OnAnd now for something charmingly primitive.

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• Artist:
  Pantha du Prince

Somehow I missed out on Pantha du Prince.  Correcting now.

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Siren Music Festival — 7/18/09Coney Island was frying.  I won’t forgive the D train for making me miss Japandroids’ set.  I rode the Cyclone but forgot to puke on the audience below. Frightened Rabbit played “The Twist” better than ever.  I won’t forgive the long line at Nathan’s for making me miss A Place To Bury Strangers.  The Raveonettes were fake-cool in a really cool way. �

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Pictureplane /// “Goth Star” /// Dark RiftSources less ignorant than I report that this track samples a nearly unrecognizable Fleetwood Mac.  And some guy on a forum somewhere who’s heard Dark Rift in its entirety tells us the album is “some next-level shit.” Those two sentences pretty much cover it. 

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4ADSincerely YoursFactoryCreation RecordsKrankyJagjaguwar

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• Artist:
  Modest Mouse
• Album:
  No One's First and You're Next

Modest Mouse /// “The Whale Song” /// No One’s First And You’re Next EPEach fresh release from Modest Mouse reminds us that Isaac Brock has perhaps the highest batting average of any active songwriter.  It’s just too bad internet memery has drained so much force from the word “epic,” because this track has got it in spades, replete with a wasteland flavor straight out of his formida

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• Artist:
  JJ

jj /// "From Africa To Málaga" /// jj n° 2With the current glut of cosmic beach 2k9 summerjams, do yourself a favor: buy this album and throw the rest of that filler away. We've got it all right here—the misty Swedish warmth of Air France, only better; a single ("Ecstasy") of sleepy dub that sounds like some super-relaxed Santigold; spacey ambience with prickly beats and come on, trust me.

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This Saturday is going to rule.  Thank god some festival bookers out there are making up for the All Points West dilution.

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My most eagerly anticipated.

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• Artist:
  Japandroids
• Album:
  Post-Nothing
• Track:
  • PLAY
  • QUEUE
  Wet Hair

Japandroids /// “Wet Hair” /// Post-NothingEssential man argument of the moment, though debaters of any gender are welcome to join the fray: which gleeful, testosterone-dripping fuzzbomb off Japandroids’ not at all overrated Post-Nothing is best?  Ben says “Young Hearts Sparks Fire.”  Spike says “Heart Sweats.”  I say this.   

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