Let's Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's (Stolen, 2009)

continuing the lo-fi legacy in the modern era

Who doesn't love a good lo-fi pop band? We all have our favorite Guided By Voices albums and our favorite Pavement releases. There are few things in life more gratifying to the soul than a perfectly constructed pop song buried in tape hiss. However, with all of the technological advancements in recent times that have completely revolutionized the way we look at recordings, lo-fi pop has somewhat been shelved in the annals of music history as something of a fleeting fancy. While bands like Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and Best Coast are bringing the lo-fi heat in the new era, the "British Goofball" angle is grossly underplayed. That is where Let's Wrestle comes in with all their charm and sad bastard appeal. But not all is lost in their world and while lines like "they said if you want to help / just kill yourself" may seem incredibly bleak, they immediately reassure us that they "won't do that".

Let's Wrestle seem like the kind of band that have definitely done their homework. Their impressively eclectic style is sure to turn more heads than an Exorcist-marathon. The name of the album alone is a not so oblique reference to the maddeningly genius 1969 prog-rock odessy, In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. Their sound is a delightful mix of their lo-fi forebears and many other bands. They have the controlled intensity of Dinosaur Jr, the pop sensibilities of Robert Pollard and the all of the endearing qualities that have kept people coming back to Pavement for years. Let's Wrestle, who have recently signed to Merge (WOO HOO!), are definitely a band you will be hearing a lot about in the near future.

Download

Buy It!

Anamanaguchi - Power Supply EP (8bitpeoples, 2006)

Modern composition is finding itself a new home in the world of video games. With events like Video Games Live and franchises like Final Fantasy making heavy use of orchestral music, classically composed music has found a niche where it can continue to thrive and be appreciated by a mass audience.

However, Anamanaguchi has very little to do with that. Their chiptune-based brand of punk rock hearkens back to a time when music in video games had to be well-composed and catchy by necessity. An NES cartridge could only hold so many megabytes of information, thus music had to be composed using a finite number of tones. In addition, short pieces were created with the intention to be looped, so as to save system memory. This created a challenge for early video game composers, to create pieces of music that would never get trite or annoying, even after countless repeated listenings. This challenge produced some of the most iconic pieces of music of our technologic generation; themes from Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Mega Man are all easily recognizable by the children of the 80s and 90s. If you've ever heard The Advantage, sideproject of Spencer Seim of Hella, you already know how well many of these stage level tunes translate to a math rock set-up because of their sheer complexity. Tunes like these were very ahead of their time.

While not strictly math rock, Anamanaguchi's Power Supply is a highly-addicting, 20-minute EP written in the style of those pioneering video game composers. It's fast, upbeat, and delightfully well written. Chiptune is living proof that creativity thrives through limitation.

Download - Legally free!

Support this artist by purchasing their new release, Dawn Metropolis, on CD or Vinyl.

Bonus! Check out their cover of Wavves' So Bored!

Noveller - Red Rainbows (No Fun, 2009)

making everyone rethink LA's position of drone supremacy

In the age of Robedoor, P-Haunt and Gowns (oh my), little is said about the New York drone scene. While the "blissed-out" and "easy-going" vibes of Los Angeles' drone bands are groundbreaking, incredibly relevant and ultimately amazing to listen to, they seem to overshadow the rest of the country's noise and drone bands. I don't know, it could be the fact that I live in LA and I only hear about our drone bands and how great they are (and they most definitely are). New York is obviously no newcomer when it comes to drone and noise. In fact, most developments within the genre (no wave etc.) have come from New York and it's endless supply of talented bands. It seems that lately, after what could be observed as some what of a stagnant period, New York is having something of a noise renaissance. With bands like Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance and Excepter breaking through to larger audiences, it's no surprise that more people are coming around to the noise-party.

Noveller, however, is no newcomer to the scene. Sound artist / filmmaker Sarah Lipstate got her start playing in famously avant-garde troupes with revered composers: she's played in Glenn Branca's guitar ensemble and was a part of the infamous Rhys Chatham Guitar Army. She lives every noise musician's dream! She has also played in bands both legendary and obscure such as: Cold Cave, Parts & Labor, One Umbrella and Sands. Lipstate's newest record reminds us of what all good drone music should be: masterful, meditative and awe-inspiring. Red Rainbows is so cleverly constructed that it pulsates with impressive and what is ultimately going to be deemed classic, vibes. The track lengths on Red Rainbows get longer as you go along, but you'd never know that. Lipstate ensures that the listener never has second thoughts about where she is taking them and creates an entire aural plane based on those good feelings.

Download

Buy It!

I am Joaquin the Cow, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Blog About Other People's Music

I am Joaquin the Cow


This music blog will be like many other music blogs in the never ending sea of music blogs. We will do our best to maintain a level of sincerity about music and we'll try not to get caught up in the prosaicism and listlessness that so plague the internet-musicblog-community.

We are determined to give valuable insight on the music we love and to create a positive environment for everyone.

In short, no negative Nancys allowed

If you want to contribute to this blog, let me know.

All that is required is that you have a passion for music. You impart some wisdom about how you feel about the record you are posting about and some history.

The world is your oyster!