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Parquet Courts- “Sunbathing Animal”
Parquet Courts sounds like that drunk guy at the punk show got on stage. And not just any guy, it’s that guy who is spilling beer all over the place and starting the mosh pit while belting all the words. It’s like he somehow managed to push his way over the monitors, get on stage and grab the mic. Now he is slurring the words as fast as he can before security pulls him away. Haven’t we all wanted to be that guy? Or at least hear what it sounds like when it happens?
Listen if you like: Punk garage lo-fi stuff, Wavves, The Men, lots of energy
Parquet Courts new album, What’s Your Rapture? drops June 3 rd on Mom + Pop records.
-Justin Barney
Mac DeMarco- Let My Baby Stay
This week Mac Demarco’s album Salad Days was released, and I can’t take the needle off its grooves. On first listen, this song, Let My Baby Stay, touched me. It’s a gentle and innocent love song. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. If you put a tuxedo on him, and replaced his intimate acoustic guitar and woodblock with a piano and small band he could be a crooner, singing a song of heartbreak into the ears of the innocent. He maintains the sentiment of the crooner without the cheese. It’s personal and honest. It’s beautiful.
Listen if you like: Old crooners, love songs, beauty.
Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days is out now. Buy it.
-Justin Barney
Sharon Van Etten- Taking Chances
In late 2012 Sharon Van Etton released her album Tramp. The album was labeled as “singer-songwriter.” That term turns a lot of people off. It turns me off. But it shouldn’t. It was a beautiful album. The term “Singer-songwriter” usually denotes that there is a strong voice and minimal instrumentation (usually an acoustic guitar). There is a new way that artists are breaking the mold of “singer songwriter” while maintaining the ideals of the definition. Think Lorde, think Lana Del Rey, think Polica, think Phantogram, Our singer-songwriters have sold their acoustic guitars and bought programmable drum pads. And this is not a bad thing. It’s a revitalization. It’s empowerment. It’s hip.
Sharon Van Etten’s Taking Chances will be our Weekly Download next week on radiomilwaukee.wpengine.com/weeklydownload
Her album, Are We There, will be released by Jagjaguwar on May 27 th.
-Justin Barney
The New Royals feat. Jay Electronica- “Minutes of Moog”
In 2008, The New Royals came out with their first single featuring Jay Electronica and the results were ethereal. With Jay Electronica dropping lines like “Don’t let the green grass across the picket fence turn you into Mr. Smith without a purpose or a home/Underneath he is a Jedi on the surface, he’s a Clone” made the hype for a then soon-to-be-confirmed Act II project to grow to even greater heights. It is now 2014 and we haven’t heard from neither the New Royals nor Jay Elect in awhile. Both come back for this collaboration called “Minutes of Moog” and it is like reading the prologue of the last book in a long book series that you have invested so much time into. The track picks up where “Posers” left off, except it gives both a closure to the long wait on Jay Electronica’s debut saying “the wait is almost up” as well as reconfirming that the DJ Khalil assembled group The New Royales does indeed, exist. If you haven’t been investing your time into “the great book series” that is Jay Electronica, there is no better time than the present to start below.
-Jake Kestly
Mr Little Jeans – Oh Sailor (Ft. The Silverlake Conservatory of Music Youth Chorale)
Mr Little Jeans is Norwegian singer and song writer, Monica Birkenes. The electro-pop artist has released a couple of EPs in the past few years, and has been featured on several TV and movie soundtracks, but she just released her debut album, Pocketknife, via Sony Music Entertainment on March 25 th. The album is made up of many great hits, like lead single “Good Mistake,” and her breakout song, a cover of Arcade Fire’s “Suburbs,” which has millions of plays on YouTube and Soundcloud. Mr Little Jeans has created some other pretty amazing covers too, putting her own unique take on Paul McCartney’s “Waterfalls,” and Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” Her sweeping harmonies capture a certain moodiness that makes for a sound that is slightly chilling, but in a good way, and it’s pretty impressive that the passionate, meaningful lyrics all her own. Ms. Birkenes has mentioned that the name of her album, Pocketknife, is a metaphor that refers to the contrast of dark and lightness to her music; meaning dark, powerful synths interlacing with her sunny harmonies and breathless vocals. The featured single, “Oh Sailor,” is a truly infectious track that we can’t stop listening to. The Silverlake Conservatory of Music Youth Chorale lend their vocals to “Oh Sailor,” and a wise addition at that—making for a powerful chorus that makes you want to put the song on repeat. See what I’m talking about, and immerse yourself in this track below.
-Elise Conlin