Like the Jesus Lizard before them (in spirit, not sound), Cardiff band Future of the Left are excellently brash punks unhappy with everything your new age ass “feels” and drunk enough to fight about it. Punched square in the face, over and over, lips swell and noses bleed. They’re the biggest assholes ever, right? But after getting your ass kicked you realize they were kind of sarcastic the whole time and just having a blast at your expense — everyone might actually see eye to eye during daylight hours. Then the humiliation really sets in.

“You Need Satan More Than Satan Needs You”:

Hey! Come on in.

Seriously, Bitte Orca is the most accessible thing Dirty Projectors have ever done.  Like it’s really really accessible.  Take that hit single Stillness is the Move skyrocketing up the billboard Hot 100. It sounds like a slightly more uptempo Desree jam.

Stillness is the Move

No Intention

And the only people to go to the funeral were T-Pain and Brett Baxter.

Sure I’ve been kept up at nights wondering if the new Kanye West produced Jay-Z album would have any auto-tune on it so I’m glad we’ve got it out of the way but did the first street-ready song off what’s already been hyped as one of the greatest rap albums of all-time have to be this boring.

Not a good start to the Blueprint III era.

D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)

This past week, I put down Appetite for Self-Destruction and logged on to eMusic to see if there were any new releases worth checking out.  Lo and behold, I was greeted with a big announcement.  ”Important - In July, we’ll be rolling out a major expansion to our music catalog.”  Great.  Finding my 65 song downloads a month was sometimes difficult.  As a sort of early adopter, I was grandfathered in at a great deal, and probably would never discontinue at the rate of 20 cents a song.

Clicking through I see that they are going to be adding the entire Sony back catalog.  Probably not the newest releases, but so many heavy hitters nonetheless.  Ah, but there is of course a major catch…  they’re cutting my montly downloads in half, or put more appropriately, doubling the cost. Doomsayers in the eMusic following said it was turning into everything it swore it never wanted to be, and feared it would be close to iTunes in pricing before too long.  If that’s the case, it’s a minor crime.  I’ve spent too much time with eMusic to quit cold turkey - I’ll probably stick it out and see how it goes.  Nothing wrong with a discount store combining indie goodness along with those used-CD-store staples… right?  right?

Oh hi, there’s going to be a new Circulatory System record coming out in three months (and maybe a new Olivia Tremor Control record after that!). While they’re not a singles band, from this tiny snippet I’ll make the assumption that it will best most records this year, particularly those made by stoners with GarageBand and a handful of chords or boring folkies living in Brooklyn. The South will rise again. (It’s in high fidelity, by the way, so feel safe.)

Circulatory System, “Overjoyed”:

Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. I’m Dancing!

Circlesquare - Dancers (Russ Chimes vs. Anoraak Remix)

I wasn’t sure there was a lot more buffing and shining to be done after Chunk of Change, Passion Pit’s debut EP.  22-yr-old Michael Angelakos is surely a perfectionist, and I appreciate that.  At the same time, there was something about it that felt dated almost on arrival.  ”Sleepyhead” never really grew on me, and highlight “Live to Tell the Tale” was uncomfortably close to Postal Service. Angelakos’ high, feminine voice is certainly not for everybody, and the EP as a whole felt, well, a bit pre-pubescent.

Manners is at the very least Passion Pit’s pupa stage.  For me, one more tick up on the “all growed up” stage would make me a real fan.  ”Little Secrets” embraces 90s synth-hits with that child-yelling thing that continues to pervade indie rock.  Still, a fun song.  ”Moth’s Wings” is the real prize here, a sure single and contender for a few year-end best lists.  I’m anxious to see how this translates at Sasquatch this weekend.

“Little Secrets”

“Moth’s Wings”

I should be embarrassed to admit that when I first heard Phoenix earlier this year I thought they sounded like the next Maroon 5 (not much of an insult really), but then recently I found out they were French, decided to give them another shot and now am all like “J’aime ce chanson!”

1901

Lisztomania

Wilco are now streaming their new record Wilco (the Album) here. After a cursory listen: it’s more immediate than Sky Blue Sky, “Bull Black Nova” is going to be a corker live, and it’s much less experimental than Yankee or Ghost. We’ll see…