Culture Greyhound

Pitchfork has called him “Dilla-esque,” and that certainly is apt, but UK beat-maker Darren aka Star Slinger has more in his repertoire than just hip-hop. The influences of shoegaze, soul, funk, 80’s dream pop, and occasionally chillwave creep up in his beat-skipping tracks.  All in all, it’s hard to describe the sound of this Manchester resident, who began making music at the age of 14 after building his own computer specifically to produce beats.

Released in June, Volume 1, his first compilation, is a mix-and-match of all of the aforementioned styles – a wide, diverse serving of clipped, familiar samples, infectious melodies, and overpowering bass.  You can grab it at his Bandcamp site for free, as well as other mashups, remixes, and singles he has incessantly churned out this summer, all of which are highly recommended and pretty phenomenal.

Listen to a sampling below for a taste.  These are a few of my favorite Star Slinger tracks thus far.

Star Slinger – Minted

Star Slinger – Mornin’

Star Slinger – Longtime

Star Slinger – May I Walk With You

Coolrunnings – I Am You (Star Slinger Remix)

As the song would suggest, the boys (and Pearl) are back in town – Thrift Store Cowboys have a new website, a new tour, and a new album.  It’s been four years, but October 12 is right around the corner, when Light Fighter, the Lubbock-based crew’s fourth full-length will drop.

I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of the new effort, and, well, it sounds like Thrift Store Cowboys.  But I dare you to find a soul that thinks that’s a bad thing.  The group’s trademark sound is intact, but the result this time around is more professional, the songwriting more memorably melodic, and the lyrics more introspective leader Daniel Fluitt’s weary, yet hopeful core.  A band that has already wowed so many continues to grow, with a fresh batch of instant classics and a pristine polish – as if these folks couldn’t sound even more like the soundtrack to a post-modern spaghetti western.  The new album is sure to please old faithful followers and rally up new troops.

The band is giving away an MP3 in support – you can grab it below, and I recommend you do.  “One Gentle Inch to Nine Violent Miles” is a nice introductory single to the new era – the perfect mix of the tumbleweed cinematic Americana the Cowboys have mastered, as well as a new, punchy kick of classic rock, reminiscent of Kings of Leon with cajones. The “Thin Lizzy twin guitar” wailing solo from Colt Miller and Cory Ames best captures the spotlight midway through.

Also, here’s a pretty sweet little video for another album cut, “Morning Weekend,” filmed right here in the greater Austin area (Kyle, TX, to be exact, at the badass mansion/studio hybrid Studio 1916).

1) Go to TSC’s new site for more media, new and classic, then

2) check the tour dates – chances are they’re coming to your town, and finally

3) mark your calendars for October 12.  It’s goin’ down.

Robyn – Hang With Me

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Vampire Weekend – White Sky (Basement Jaxx remix) (Radio Rip)

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No Age – Glitter

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Coyote Cleanup – Downhill Express

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PS I Love You – 2012

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Today it was revealed that Plastic Bertrand, the Belgian proto-new wave punk rocker of the 70’s, is not really Plastic Bertrand.  A 2006 lawsuit against the singer has revealed this week (via experts in court) that the first four albums from the artist feature the voice of someone else.  This includes the 1977 hit “Ca Plane Por Moi,” which was revealed to have been sung by the producer Lou Deprijck, as admitted today by the singer himself.

This is a bit of a shock to music and punk historians, as the song is considered seminal and an important, if not quirky, footnote for the shift from punk to 80’s new-wave.  The song, while catchy, is hardly melodic, save for a Beach Boys-lifted four-note falsetto repeated endlessly throughout.  The guitar lines and horn riffs serve as rhythm backdrops more than anything, and the lyrics are nonsensical in both French and English.  Still, “Ca Plane Por Moi” remains a brilliant piece of pop, even if, starting today, we’re not completely sure of its origin anymore.

Plastic Bertrand – Ca Plane Por Moi

Nicki Minaj – Your Love

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Star Slinger – Minted

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Evan Voytas – I Took a Trip on a Plane

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Marnie Stern – For Ash

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Yuck – Daughter

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Panda Bear – Slow-Motion

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Cut Copy – Where I’m Going

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Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Fools Gold ft. Aristotle Pop a Bottle Remix)

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Josh Ritter – Folk Bloodbath

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Wavves – King of the Beach

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Last month, Epitaph reissued The Shape of Punk to Come, the seminal hardcore album from the now-defunct Swedish band Refused.  In celebration, Pitchfork hosted the documentary Refused Are Fucking Dead for one week on Pitchfork.tv.  After viewing the film, I blew the dust off my old copy of the group’s third and final album for another listen.

What can I say that hasn’t been said before?  Even today, one cannot deny the influence and importance of this appropriately-titled record, and the world has taken notice.  The disc is one of the most acclaimed of the punk genre in recent memory. Incorporating drum machines and electronic noises, Refused strayed away from the purely traditional sounds of their previous releases in order to provide what they felt was an appropriate backdrop for their anti-establishment, left-wing lyrics.  New rhetoric, new approach.  Politics aside, the sounds of The Shape are revolutionary – inevitably more than the group’s message turned out to be.

Refused – New Noise

Refused – Liberation Frequency

Refused – Worms of the Senses/Faculties of the Skull

Dent May – That-Feeling

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The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You

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Rogue Wave – Permalight

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Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Beverly Kills

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Gorillaz – Superfast Jellyfish (Ft. Gruff Rhys & De La Soul)

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I have long been a vocal supporter of M83’s Saturdays=Youth, Anthony Gonzalez’s forray away from the typical instrumentals his project had produced. Instead he made a near-flawless dream pop album inspired by his teenage years. Ken Thomas produced the album, a guy who knows a thing or two about the John Hughes-inspired 80’s sheen Gonzalez was going for, having worked with Sugarcubes, Suede, and Cocteau Twins in the past.  I adore the album, and so it seems fitting that many have recommended I listen to the last band in that list – the Scottish trio the Cocteau Twins.   A friend suggested I start where most Americans did; he told me to go find a copy of The Pink Opaque.

The group’s record label, UK-based 4AD (a label the group is historically synonymous with) struck a deal stateside with Relativity Records to distribute the emerging band’s back catalog to the US – they were growing in popularity due to increasing airplay on college radio.  However, rather than releasing the plethora of EPs the Cocteau Twins had recorded between 1982 and 1985, Relativity made the decision to instead release a compilation of highlights for newcomers to get a taste of what the Twins were all about.

The Pink Opaque is a compilation released in January 1986 featuring ten previously recorded tracks.  Also put out in the UK, it was 4AD’s first CD release ever. The album has long been out of print, but I managed to find it on iTunes.  While I can hear the similarities in the comp from M83’s 2008 effort, the Twins certainly hold to their own sound – it makes sense this group was so influential for the dream pop movement.  At times the group has new-wave tendencies, at times they have the bass thump of the Cure, at times they are scary, at times they are beautiful, but they always manage to stick to their trademark collage.

I can probably name you groups and artists that were influenced by this album, but I would have difficulty in categorizing the music of the Cocteau Twins – they sound like their own entity.  The immediate standout is Elizabeth Fraser’s mouth-music vocals, indecipherable words that she usually chose to fit with the vibe of the song rather than conform to having meaning or message.

Needless to say, thanks to the Pink Opaque, I have fallen in love with the Cocteau Twins; I just wish I had listened to them sooner.  While I delve deeper into their back catalog, get a taste of this excellent compilation for yourself – a sampling of my three favorite tracks can be found below.

Cocteau Twins – The Spangle Maker

Cocteau Twins – Wax and Wane

Cocteau Twins – Pearly-dowdrops’Drops

Once every three months I list the best of what I heard in albums/songs/remixes for the quarter. I do this to personally keep up with all the awesome music I hear, as it ultimately helps me at the end of the year when I do my overall listing for the previous twelve months. I also do it to introduce you cool cats to tunes you may have missed independently.
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