musicleech » Atlas Sound

My Top Albums 2009

Rad Parker — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:40:41 +0000

I realize I am putting this out really late. I always put this off until winter break, thinking I'll have tons of time to listen to the albums, but always underestimate how much I actually need to listen to. But honestly, that isn't a bad thing. I think we are living in a time where there is a lot more new and interesting stuff coming out than ever before. Last year, I probably listened to about 75 albums for my top albums article. Some of them only half way through (because I could tell they wouldn't make the cut) and some in excess of 20 times. I don't feel like doing the math on that, but it takes an incredible amount of time. This year I stepped my game up and literally wrote down every album that made it on at least a few top lists from around the music blog, newspaper, magazine community, including the big wigs: pitchfork, sterogum, prefix, spin, etc.

I think most top lists aren't really substantial if they don't talk about what makes albums 'top albums'. I want to let you know what helped me decide. Basically, I listened to albums all the way through and gave each song a rating (1-5). A 3 being a song that is good, but nothing special. A 4 being a song that is something special, but you can get tired of it. 5s are songs that never get old and never get skipped. I once heard someone say that if you could only keep 1000 songs from your library, they would be all of the 4s and 5s. Then I check out what each album averages, giving extra points for originality, interesting overall themes, track cohesion, genre mixing, or basically anything that makes it more of an album than a bunch of songs.

Now, once I have a list of albums that are generally agreed upon to be good by the blog community, I go through and weed out bands with sounds that I know I won't find appealing. Albums that are automatically omitted include basically anyone who doesn't make their own music or write their own lyrics, anything considered pop punk, alternative metal, or anything termed just rock or pop, because frankly, I'm not interested. Does that make me seem like a music snob? Kinda. Do I try to be unbiased when the headphones are on? You bet.

This year I at least tried out about 100 albums. If you have any comments, questions, or albums you think should have been considered, drop me a line below.

1. Phoenix -

Wolfgang

Amadeus

Phoenix

Phoenix - "1901"

2. Grizzly

Bear -

Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"

3. The

xx -

xx

The xx - "Crystalised"

4. Animal Collective -

Merriweather

Post

Pavilion

Animal Collective - "Summertime Clothes"

5. Real

Estate -

Real

Estate

Real Estate - "Beach Comber"

6. The

Flaming

Lips -

Embryonic

The Flaming Lips - "Watching the Planets"

7. Girls -

Album

Girls - "Laura"

8. The Smith Westerns -

The

Smith

Westerns

The Smith Westerns - "Tonight"

9. Neon

Indian -

Psychic

Chasms

Neon Indian - "Deadbeat Summer"

10. Cymbals Eat Guitars -

Why There

Are

Mountains

Cymbals Eat Guitars - "And the Hazy Sea"

2009 Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

Mos Def - The Ecstatic
Passion Pit – Manners
Drummer - Feel Good Together
Atlas Sound – Logos
The Antlers – Hospice
Blakroc – Blakroc
Woods - Songs of Shame
10 ft. Ganja Plant - Bushrock
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue
The Strange Boys – The Strange Boys and Girls Club
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
Miike Snow - Miike Snow
Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

EP, Mixtape, Compilation, and other non-album Mentions:
Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
Kid Cudi - Dat Kid From Cleveland Mixtape
Drake - So Far Gone Mixtape
Wale - Back to the Feature Mixtape
Toro Y Moi - My Touch EP
The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches - The Dark Side of the Moon (Cover Album)
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night Compilation
Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP
Modest Mouse - No Ones First and Your Next EP
Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP
Deerhunter - Rainwater Casette Exchange EP
Various Artists – Underwater Peoples Summertime Showcase 2009

For comparison's sake, here is my list from 2008:

deerhunter - microcastle
little joy - little joy
plants and animals - parc avenue
mgmt - oracular spectacular
los campesinos! - hold on now, youngster
vampire weekend - vampire weekend
the dodos - visiter
bon iver - for emma, forever ago
the sea and cake - car alarm
starfucker - starfucker

2008 honorable mentions (in no particular order):

lil' wayne - tha carter III
white denim - white denim
atlas sound - let the blind lead those who can see but cannot feel
the ruby suns - sea lion
women - women
beach house - devotion
q-tip - renaissance
albert hammond, jr. - ¿como te llama?
dr dog - fate
girl talk - feed the animals
hot chip - made in the dark
french kicks - swimming
passion pit - chunk of change ep
cut copy - in ghost colours
black keys - attack & release

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Video: Atlas Sound – “Quick Canal” (feat. Lætitia Sadier)

Mark Jackson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:19:52 +0000

I guess you can call it Atlas Sound day on musicleech. Been posting slowly lately because of school work, but I do have one other thing I want to share today. Will post it right after this.

Anyway, this is the video for Atlas Sound's epic 8-minute crescendo "Quick Canal" featuring Stereolab's Lætitia Sadier on vocals. It mostly follows around an American family through daily activities like cooking toast (exciting, right), and it's relaxing if not nostalgic.

The leaked version of Logos (which I confess to having heard) had the instrumental of this track which I actually prefer, but this version is cool too.

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Interview: Atlas Sound

Mark Jackson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:20:51 +0000

If you're curious about the man behind the music (Deerhunter/Atlas Sound), Pitchfork just did a really comprehensive interview. He said he wasn't planning on doing that many interviews so that he would just go ahead and open himself up to a lot of questions.

Check it out here.

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Atlas Sound – Virtual 7″ No. 7

Mark Jackson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:30:27 +0000

Only a few weeks after the release of Logos, Bradford Cox is back with another couple tracks to help hold you over until the next Deerhunter album. The first track is something different from Bradford, a cover of the doo-wop band Five Discs' "Doctor". The second is a new slow one called "The Screens".

Grab it here or at the Deerhunter blog.

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Rumor Slash: Deerhunter Hiatus

Mark Jackson — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:06:04 +0000

One of my friends spoke to Bradford Cox (aka Atlas Sound) during that Kia Soul Collective weekend (pics here), and the hiatus Cox spoke of at ATP shouldn't be too frustrating if you're a Deerhunter fan. Yes, they are taking a break right now, but he said you could compare it to a "winter vacation". No word on when they plan on getting new material together or heading to the studio, but at least we know it shouldn't be too long till we get some more amazing jams from these guys.

p.s. Logos is out officially in one hour!

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Narrows / Mixleech 0 Tracklist

Mark Jackson — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 06:20:45 +0000

So I'm going to start promoting a lot more lesser known bands. Major labels are just pissing me off. I was ready to post the first musicleech playlist like two weeks ago (tracklist below), but a bunch of the songs on there were from major label bands and I'm not trying to get sued so I asked them if I could include their songs on my mix and like none of them responded (it's been two weeks)...

So... I'm not going to waste my time. I'm going to start posting mixes on here, with bands that actually need promotion, and that want it. Give me a week or so to put another one together, but here's the tracklist to what was going to be the first mixleech (with links to the bands that actually took the two seconds it takes to respond):

1. Here We Go Magic - Ghost List
2. Mount Kimbie - Maybes
3. Organ Morgan - Broken Heart
4. Flying Lotus - Breathe Something/Stellar Star
5. Four Tet - And Then Patterns
6. Nine Inch Nails - 21 Ghosts III (live from Another Version of the Truth [Las Vegas])
7. Cut Copy - Glittering Clouds
8. Brightblack Morning Light - Hologram Buffalo
9. Boards Of Canada - Dandelion
10. Amon Tobin - Get Your Snack On
11. tiny feathers - happy hands
12. Deerhunter - Red Ink
13. Atlas Sound - Winter Vacation
14. The Present - Shapeshifter
15. Pterodactyl - Rising & Shining

I spent a decent amount of time on this mix, so as is implied I highly recommend it. So if you have the time/money to download/buy the tracks and play them in order, do it! Shit is off the hook imo.

On a more relaxed note, check out this band Narrows I came across interestingly from one of the band member's Flickr. They have four songs up on their MySpace, and they're all pretty good. Rag on me for saying this, but they are pretty standard indie rock-- I don't know how else to quickly describe it!

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Atlas Sound – Live @ Ambient Plus Studio, Atlanta (PICS UPLOADED)

Mark Jackson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:52:18 +0000

Bradford Cox of Deerhunter played an hour long set yesterday evening to a small crowd of about 30-40, and I was lucky enough to be there! It was free (thanks to a sponsorship by the Kia Soul) so I'm surprised it wasn't crowded... I found out about it through Atlanta's Tight Bros. network, which apparently is pretty small.

Here are some pictures from the show (click to enlarge):

And a video of my favorite song of the night, an alternate version of "Quarantined":

Logos is out 10/19 on Kranky.

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Music Video: HEALTH – “Die Slow”

Mark Jackson — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:16:14 +0000

I know I need to stop posting about this band. You get the point already. This music video just fits the song so well.

Random bonus! Atlas Sound just posted Micromix 22 on the Deerhunter blog. Happy Labor Day!

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Download New Atlas Sound feat. Panda Bear

Rad Parker — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:19:22 +0000

So, Logos, the 2nd LP from Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox, is coming out on October 20th. There was a big deal last year when an unfinished version of Logos was accidentally leaked at the Deerhunter blog. Here we have the download for what seems to be the first leaked song that is in actual finished form, "Walkabout". Head on over to Prefix to check out the origins of the song. Head over to Stereogum to read Bradford's thoughts on the upcoming release. As always, you can download the song below:

Atlas Sound - Walkabout feat. Panda Bear

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Atlas Sound Posts Virtual 7″ No. 6

Mark Jackson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:02:07 +0000

Bradford Cox loves releasing free music via the Deerhunter blog (unless it's a project he's been working on that got leaked way in advance), and even with all that touring and Logos finalizing, he's still managed to record and release some new stuff. "Solo, or 'The Square'" and "Memorial Corridor" are the two songs on the EP and both are quality tunes, although the first is more immediately pleasing considering "Corridor"'s super long intro. A poppy keyboard-driven melody drives "Solo", and with a douse of hazy layered singing it holds similar vocal experimentation to his 2008 album Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel. The lyrics are vague and dreamy as usual, even more so on the balanced "Memorial Corridor". I've yet to hear a bad album from this kid..

Download: Atlas Sound Virtual 7" No. 6: Solo, or 'The Square' (.zip)

Lyrics:

"Solo, Or 'The Square'"
trials and tribulations
trials and tribulations
i got tired of the good life
i got tired of the good life
i would spend
two hours singing
but when i said
two a hours a day
paves the way
i paved
i got two hours on board
to the day
show me your cock on the square
on my way
dark living rooms on sunday afternoon
shit, shit

just say it right
sugar white
and gave me sugar with it
my face was white
i had nothing with it
give me the right stuff
give me the right stuff
i got nothing with it
i had the right stuff
i got nothing with it
give me the right

Instruments used: keyboard, drum box, acoustic snare and hi-hat, percussion

"Memorial Corridor"
come now lay your burden down
no one ever leaves this town
dip my body in the creek
come now brother baptize me
lay your burden on the ground
no one ever leaves this town
come now lay me in the creek
brother won't you baptize me

Instruments used: sampler, drum box, synth, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion

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