MP3: Weekend - "Monday Morning/Monongah, WV" Water Borders Remix

Water Bored
Until recently, I never took the time to check out the band Weekend from San Francisco. I guess I was always too busy or overwhelmed to sort out the confusion between them, Baltimore's Weekends, and the newest Smith Westerns video "Weekend". These things are all quite different. Point is, Weekend are awesome! "Just how awesome are they??" you might ask, to which I reply, "Hold on a second and let me fucking show you."

Weekend is a trio of bay area dwellers who provide you with all the post-punk noise rock jams you could possibly need. Seriously, look no further for that shit. You're done. Their full-length album Sports was released this past November on Slumberland. This album is by far and away their best release yet, starting out strong with the killer single "Coma Summer":

Weekend - "Coma Summer"

In case you missed that, you can buy it from Slumberland Records... here. Get the album. Previous releases include a split 7" on Transparent last May with amaaazing SF babies Young Prisms whom we love dearly, and a 10" put out on Mexican Summer in November of '09.

Last week, a bunch of blogs posted a version of Weekend's songs "Monday Morning/Monongah, WV" that was remixed by Water Borders. (Have to admit I seriously, seriously love that as a band name.) This led me to the video for the original track, which is actually a combination of the third and fourth tracks from the aforementioned album Sports. Download that yet??

This is just what my summers looked like, growing up in New Jersey:

Oil slip-n-side and all.

Admittedly, this video is a little too reliant on the dependably gorgeous look of DSLR footage. I think the whole saturated slow-mo high-def trip is the newest music video blog cliche that will replace the former reigning king - the appropriated nostalgia collage. (See Jamie Harley.) But for now, it's pretty nice to look at, and creepy as hell, in an enjoyable Donnie Darko sort of way.

This brings us to the actual remix of "Monday Morning/Monongah, WV" by Water Borders. An exciting, dub-stepping, witch-housey take on the original more mellow tracks.

Weekend - "Monday Morning/Monongah, WV" Water Borders Remix

Mmmm, suck on all that juicy Weekend!

VIDEO: Magick Mountain - "One for My Ego"

Almighty Portal
While the heavy-handed reference to screensaver visuals is not at all lost on me, I can't help but consider this music video a little more deeply every time I watch it, albeit against my first instincts. The almighty portal, the only true portal. The twisting and pulsating mouth of the canal; that which gives life.

This song gets lost in the video. At points when the sexy translucent words like, "Do you have a lover?" echo in, the sexiness of the video can actually climax.

This video was co-promiered by Altered Zones and Rosequartz Blog!

MP3: Smith Westerns - "Imagine, Pt. 3"

Dye It Blonde
Well, fuck. The weekend is over, and Mondays sorta make us wanna take off our glasses and jump off the ledge. But today actually ain't hurtin' so bad, cos there's still that new Smith Westerns album leak, riiight?

Dye It Blonde is so good it stings a little. Heavy on the glam rock guitar power, this album wears its red lipstick better than Marc Bolan wore his nut-huggingly tight pink leather pants. It was playing on repeat in our house this weekend, prompting a 3:00AM "twirl time" session with my roommate in our living room. Arms out, huge smiles on faces, dancing along to upbeat glitter rock-n-roll tunes until our neighbors came and yelled at us to turn it down.

Smith Westerns - "Imagine, Pt. 3"

This song starts out about 97% "Mr. Blue Sky" and ends totally, totally T. Rex. Those screaming guitar riffs in the final breakdown? Come onnnn.
We love it.

Now streaming all week over on NPR.

MP3: jj - "Kill You"

I Wanna Die...

I wanna die, so I get high...

and I don't wanna go anywhere that you been goin' to

anywhere you goin' to, so... kill you, and take your money

There's an example of a breakup sentiment I can really fucking get behind.

Having just come off of an asskicking sweetheart of a 6-day bingefest, I can vaguely recall hearing this song somewhere in there on one of those 6 days. On repeat. I believe it was one morning around 4pm when my lovely roommate woke me up blasting the new jj mixtape Kills that came out Christmas eve. Sort of sounds like a bad dream right? No. More like a glooorious nightmare. And just what one needs to get her ass outta bed and start binging on fun all over again.

jj - "Kill You"

Waking up repeatedly in a fucked-up stupor to Paper Planes 2.0 could only be made worse if it were actually the original MIA song.

It's like I always say, out with the old, in with the new.

Or more like: out with the old and fucking shitty, in with the WHATEVRRR U GOT, MAN.

BLAH BLAH

BLAH

VIDEO: Twin Sister - "All Around and Away We Go"

"I'm Smiling 4 2"
It's a THRILL to see this really polished new music video from beloved NY band Twin Sister for one of the first songs we ever loved by them. It's hard to miss the really grade A production value on this piece. The graphics, mattes, composites, choreography, soft focus and lighting - all is beautifully done in a delightfully retro girly style. With a tongue-in-cheek attitude of course. This is really one to be proud of:

ALBUM: Joseph Andreoli - Eye Candy & the Breath of Heaven Themselves

So our friend Joe is half of this totally stellar band Giraffes?Giraffes! who we love. He also likes to take part in the (inter)national album making month.

On top of these already wonderful achievements, he just made a really excellent solo EP called Eye Candy and the Breath of Heaven Themselves.

I know everyone really likes to know what they are getting into ahead of time with listening to something new and unfamiliar but, oh well. This time, trust our judgment and enjoy!

MP3: Crystal Stilts - "Shake the Shackles" New 7"

Bind Me to the Past

Crystal Stilts' Alight of Night (2008) remains one of our most listened-to albums to date. It is for this reason that we are so very excited by the most recent single to come from Crystal Stilts, from a recently released 7-inch entitled "Shake the Shackles."

Crystal Stilts - "Shake the Shackles"

This is the first thing we've heard from them since their 2009 single "Love is a Wave," another huge favorite of ours. And while we are comforted to find that Brad Hargett has retained his super sleepy, Ian-Curtis-esque melancholia, there is something lighter, peppier, and... well, more fucking fun. Not that one normally looks to a Crystal Stilts song for "fun and peppy" necessarily, but what brews under Hargett's voice here is a bubbling, unleashed energy.

Expect a full-length album to be released next year.
GAAHH!