Good evening universe, and welcome to another edition (albeit, a LATE edition), of Looks Like Coffee, Tastes Like Juice. As you may be able to tell from the title of this post, of perhaps from the very date, tomorrow is Halloween. Now, those of you who know me, which is hopefully all of you by now, know that Halloween is my second favorite holiday. Therefore, you may be wondering why there has NOT been a massive amount of build up to this wonderful celebration on this blog. The reason is rather simple; I attend an establishment called school. It's a bittersweet place of learning, that leaves a sour taste in your mouth, in the form of homework. For those of you who don't know, homework is a revolutionary torture mechanism, designed to take up ALL of one's time and effort. So, I apologize sincerely for the lack of post-age. I won't let it happen again. Anyway, today's post will feature some news/music from
Deerhunter, Beirut and the last half of our famed Halloween
Mixtape.
Deerhunter! : Microcastle/ Weird Era Cont.Deerhunter, oh
Deerhunter, you have definitely stolen my heart. I promised myself before I wrote this that I would not take up an entire novel talking about
Deerhunter, and I intend on keeping that promise. With that in mind, let me say this:\
Deerhunter are a fantastic band. Their blend of lo-
fi, psychedelic pop, mixed with pure awesome, never becomes tiring, in my opinion. So, I hope you can go on my vague praise, and listen to these songs, from their new album
Microcastle/Weird Era Cont..
You won't regret it.
Never Stops - Deerhunter
Nothing Ever Happened - Deerhunter
VHS Dream - DeerhunterHere's an excerpt from Pitchfork's review of the album, because they tend to steal the way I feel about many things:
"Here, the band comes into their own by applying their own
inspiringly distinctive, bleakly appealing sensibility to whatever ideas happen to move them. Fist-pumping first single "Nothing Ever Happened" shares most of a title with a Pavement deluxe-edition bonus track while sounding a lot like Magazine's more straightforward, hard-charging side. Another standout, "Saved by Old Times", pipes in the Black Lips' Cole Alexander for a dual-channel monologue
disorientingly reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's "The Murder Mystery". (If you play it backwards, Cole
namedrops Johnny Cash.)
"I take what I can/ I give what I have left," Cox sings softly, as if explaining his musical approach, on "Green Jacket", a piano-based track at the center of the album. It's part of the languid song suite that ends the first side of the album's vinyl edition and breaks the disc up much the way ambient interludes divided Cryptograms. Only this time, the lull lasts just 10 minutes, not 20, and even at its least structured it's always more accessible. "Microcastle" applies the quiet-quiet-loud structure of the Breeders' "No Aloha" to a slack, laconic rumination on starting anew. With treated mbiras, "Activa" turns the dream-pop of Cox's Atlas Sound solo work into a nightmare vision of wasted lives.
If you thought the bonus disc would just be crappy outtakes, then you don't know Cox. Weird Era Cont. is surprisingly great in its own right, allowing Deerhunter to join Los Campesinos! in the two-good-albums-in-2008 club. This record sparkles right from the ghostly noise-pop of "Backspace Century" and the jerky dance-punk of "Operation". The girl-group bounce of "Vox Humana" puts Cox's underrated lyrical skills on full display, while "Vox Celeste" throws the neo-shoegaze gauntlet down in the face of the reunited My Bloody Valentine. Reverb drenches Pundt's voice on the luminous "Dot Gain". Instrumentals make a fine return, too, ranging from Faust-meets-Animal Collective loops to noise-music drones. "Focus Group" is a sweetly chiming Smashing Pumpkins-esque guitar anthem that nearly rivals "Nothing Ever Happened" for skewed pop immediacy.
The only song that appears on both discs is "Calvary Scars", which recounts a boy's willing, public crucifixion. It's a dual theme Deerhunter also explored on their self-titled first album's scrawly post-punk barb "Adorno", which mashes up crucifixion and suicide. On Microcastle, "Calvary Scars" is an ambient lullaby with mouthlike percussion; Weird Era Cont.'s "Calvary Scars II / Aux." is the track's heavier-sounding apotheosis, with an extended coda that's a bit like the live version of "You Made Me Realise", followed by a meditative electronic hum that's a bit like... the ringing in your ears after the live version of "You Made Me Realise". Or the calm after a cataclysm. There's a clear parallel with Radiohead's "Morning Bell", which appeared, in different versions, on both Kid A and Amnesiac."
Did I say excerpt? I meant, a majority of the review.
A New Beirut Album? I Think So!
Zach Condon, the genius behind Beirut, has recently revealed a slew of information to the general public. After the shocking (for the people of Europe, not myself) news that he was cancelling the entire European tour, Mr.Condon revealed the information that there would be a couple new Beirut releases. The information he DIDN'T reveal, was that this "couple of new Beirut releases" would be TWO albums. He has now revealed the name, tracklisting, and all other useful things you'd like to know about these new albums.
The first one, which will be released under his Beirut moniker, will be entitled March of the Zapotec. The tracklisting is as follows;
01 El Zocalo
02 La Llorna
03 My Wife
04 The Akara
05 On a Bayonet
06 The Shrew
The second album, which will be credited to his first musical enterprise, Realpeople, will be entitled Holland. The tracklisting is as follows;
01 My Night With a Prostitute From Marseille
02 My Wife, Lost in the Wild
03 Venice
04 The Concubine
05 No Dice
These two albums will be released together, February 17th to be exact, on Condon's own Pompeii Record. You can look forward to an excited review of the album, as SOON as it is released.
For now, I have 1 track from Holland for you, which was released on Natalie Portman's Big Change compilation.
My Night With a Prostitute From Marseille - Realpeople (Beirut)
The Official Looks Like Coffee, Tastes Like Juice Halloween Mixtape Part 2 :
Looks Like Zombies, Tastes Like Brains!
1. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh! - Sufjan Stevens
2. Zombie Boy - The Magnetic Fields
3. Danse Infernale - Atlas Sound
4. Danse Macabre - Atlas Sound
5. Is There A Ghost? (Band of Horses Cover) - Denison Witmer
6. What's He Building? (Tom Waits) - Hexnut
So, have yourself a Happy Halloween!
Remember, you're never too old to go Trick or Treating!
Unless you have a mustache,
then you're just creepy.
