u n c o o l s h o e s

The Metal Box packaging designed by Dennis Morris was innovative and inexpensive, costing little more to the label than the cost of standard printed sleeves for equivalent 12” releases (although Virgin did ask for a refund of 1/3 of the band’s advance due to the cost). Before the metal tin was finalized, there was discussion of the album being released in a sandpaper package that would effectively ruin the sleeve art of any records shelved next to it.

Atlas Sound - Flagstaff

The slow-drip of new material coming pre-record release from Atlas Sound’s (also known as Deerhunter frontman; Bradford Cox) new album, Parallax, has been impressive, being the perfect fuel for hype for fans of the project and newcomers alike. The latest of this content is Flagstaff. A meditated, mental trip through acoustic guitar bindings and calculated swirls of ticks and hisses.

Atlas Sound as a whole is an grand example that music need not volume, nor enormous cacophony to be captivating. Parallax drops November 8, preorder on Amazon.

Black Twig - “Lake Song”

My first taste of Black Twig comes from their debut album, Paper Trees. Subtle use of guitar-fueled haze surround driving, airy vocals make “Lake Song” sound as if Jason Pierce fronted Sonic Youth. For me, this track yields the capacity to incite positive, emotional retrospection.

Paper Trees drops January 2012 on Soliti Music.

Lower Dens - Deer Knives (purchase the 7” at Discogs)

Of the numerous qualities I enjoyed in Lower Dens’ 2010 full length release, Twin Hand Movement, the band’s ability to create a guitar-fueled, Jana Hunter-voiced ambiance, really stuck out to me.

Beginning like a tide, slowly waving in and dreamily backsliding out, Deer Knives uses a similar ambiance to what is found in Twin Hand Movement, but one that rises into a vast harmonic crescendo before lapsing back into the surf. This is a song that I could definitely set on repeat and simply drift into.

James Blake - Not Long Now (BBC 1 Radio Rip)

Not Long Now is the second track (be sure to hear the first) that has been exposed from James Blake’s forthcoming EP, Enough Thunder. It’ll be out October 10th via Atlas Records.

Blake is a busy man. After 3 EPs last year, a full-length this year, and a range of 7”s in between; he lives as an example to other artists in how prolific one can be. In Not Long Now, Blake shows less auto-tune (my least favorite part of his s/t), leaving room for his deeply emotive vocal talent to shine through the track’s different movements.

Whatever he seems to croon through the “dub step” signatures and rising synth swells, it sounds along the lines of Blake questioning someone’s opinions of himself. And what feelings he may be struggling with, I feel them fully translated through this track.

Mood Rings - Promise Me Eternity 

Stepping off of February’s stellar Sweater Weather Forever EP, Mood Rings form of dreamy shoe-gaze returns with a new track, Promise Me Eternity, courtesy of a forthcoming 7” with Double Phantom. 

What I noticed in this band earlier this year, is that Mood Rings had expelled a mystery and moodiness into every track they had fit onto the EP. Promise Me Eternity goes along with my previous assessment. The track begins with a warm guitar into a bass-heavy with a tight surge of pop energy. Following this blissful rush, the 0:44 second mark begins to break where said energy is instead focused on rocking a booming slow-jam with Mood Rings-signature soft, almost ghostly vocals. Promise Me Eternity is an intrinsic treat from a band on an intense ascent in quality.

Saturday Throwback - The Magnetic Fields - My Only Friend (69 Love Songs Vol. 2)

The feeling that comes with immediate landing of the subtle pairing of the melancholic piano and heavy-hearted balladry of Stephen Merritt into my ears with My Only Friend is musically welcomed, yet emotionally unwanted. My Only Friend is Stephen Merritt at his most bare, with a booming piano and his dejective baritone swinging out a heartbroken tale of a person of whom he was rife with affection for. This track is a prime example of Merritt’s unparalleled ability to display uncanny amounts of affection within quick song structures.