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WVAU SOUNDTRACKS YOUR WEEK
The Weeknd
HOUSE OF BALLOONS / SELF
Is it safe to say that there
is an R&B revival going
on? The Weeknd’s mixtape
“House of Balloons” is being
heralded as one of the best
things to happen to R&B in
a long while. Riddled with
≤ SIMILAR ARTISTS ambient drug references and
drawn out synths, the songs
James Blake, Theophilus are like a slow motion tour
London, The xx through one of those parties
that you hear about in PSA
advertisements. “House of
4 BEST TRACKS Balloons” is haunting in the
1, 2, 3, 4, 9 best possible way. Fueled
by cravings for money and
fame, the vocals flush over
TV ON THE RADIO
NINE TYPES OF LIGHT / INTERSCOPE
TV On The Radio have en-
joyed the fortune of mixing
eclecticism with commercial
success through the efforts
of powerful frontmen Tunde
Adebimpe and Kyp Malone
as well an infusion of tech-
≤ SIMILAR ARTISTS nical wizardry from David
Sitek. The band has become
Yeasayer, Menomena, one of the most talked about
Brian Eno acts in the modern music
world. Their latest effort,
4 BEST TRACKS “Nine Types of Light,” comes
highly anticipated, and for
1, 4, 6 the most part meets the ex-
pectations we hope for from
such luminaries. TV On
The Radio is still willing to
experiment with a wide va-
riety of sounds on this new
album, combining sunny
Bass Drum of
Death
Gb City / FAT POSSUM
The fact that Bass Drum
of Death are from Alabama
may seem surprising at first
listen. They play stoner lo-fi
that sounds like the missing
≤ SIMILAR ARTISTS link between Wavves and
No Age — both members of
Wavves, No Age, the LA scene. The more one
Young Prisms listens to the band, however,
the more sense they make.
Songs about hooking up
4 BEST TRACKS with religious girls and talk-
2, 3, 5 ing to Elvis in your dreams
work perfectly with swag-
gering garage rock guitars.
You begin to see it less as
some Southerners imitating
Scene 13
smoked-out instrumentals.
It walks the line between
obsession and addiction like
a tightrope or a sobriety test.
It’s intimate and uncomfort-
able, but that’s also what
makes it too good to ignore.
— Kevin Kunitake
soulful vocals with Sitek’s
trademarked experimental
electronics. For a band that
has always relished the dark,
this more peppy side to the
band can seem surprising
and a little disappointing.
Nevertheless, TV On The
Radio are so comfortable in
their element that they make
it work, and the shadowy
swagger that has made sin-
gles like “Wolf Like Me” and
“DLZ” classics is evident in
lead single “Will Do,” a fan-
tastic cut that ranks as one
of the band’s best.
— Brad Barbour
their West Coast contempo-
raries and more as a Dixie
duo creating the perfect
marriage between southern
rock toughness and punk
snotty-ness. Last summer
had Wavves’ “King of the
Beach,” and this summer
belongs to their labelmates
Bass Drum of Death’s “Gb
City.”
— Allison Poramba
Generationals
Actor-Caster / PARK THE VAN
If you’re like me, you un-
derstand that life can be
difficult for those of us who
shamefully love shameless
indie-pop. But every once in
a while, a band comes along
that’s just cool enough to be
≤ SIMILAR ARTISTS deemed “mildly acceptable”
by the hip record store crowd
The Love Language, and just catchy enough that
Peter Bjorn & John, Minks your mom “really likes it”
and asks you to buy her the
CD from Barnes & Noble.
4 BEST TRACKS This week, that band is New
2, 3, 7 Orleans-based twee-pop-
pers Generationals. On their
follow-up to their acclaimed
debut, “Con Law,” the duo
continue to do what works:
channel their mid-tempo
“Casiotone-meets-Beach-
Boys” pop rock through
analog equipment and tape
machines to great success.
But while the first record of-
ten skirted dangerously close
to cheesiness, Generationals
loses the “twist and shout”
horn imitations and cliché
early Phoenix white-guy-
tr ying-to-play-a-funky-
I’m From
Barcelona
Forever Today / MUTE
If you already have an opin-
ion on Swedish pop collec-
tive I’m From Barcelona, I
promise you that their third
full-length release will not
≤ SIMILAR ARTISTS change that opinion. “For-
Architecture in Helsinki,
Peter Bjorn & John, “I Got
ever Today” is yet another
collection of innocent sing-
A Pickle” (from The Little
Rascals)
alongs about staying true to
yourself and having fun, so
you can bet your darn too-
4 BEST TRACKS
tin’ hootenanny that these
songs are chock-full of
2, 4, 6, 7 handclaps, synth hooks and
≤ CHECK OUT WVAU.ORG TO LISTEN
baseline gimmick in favor
of a more straightforward
’60s pop-rock sound. Jangly
guitars, irresistible melodies
and staccato pianos are all
drenched in sun-soaked re-
verb, making “Actor-Caster”
the perfect record for your
quickly arriving summer.
And while the record gets
slightly bogged down in
never really leaving the gen-
eral BPM range of 120-140,
these faults are easily forgiv-
en by how diverse the band’s
influences are. (At one point
in a song, you may be con-
fused as to if you’re listening
to MGMT, Cults or Chubby
Checker.) So if you’re sick of
trying to get into un-listena-
ble lo-fi music but want your
friends to think you “totally
don’t care about production
value,” definitely give this
band a listen.
— Maxwell Tani
lyrics that could have only
been dreamed up by a five-
year-old (my personal [least]
favorite: “Everybody’s got
bellies full of butterflies”). If
you are looking for shame-
lessly earnest pop music
with a can-do attitude, then
this album is highly recom-
mended. If not, then steer
clear, buckaroo!
— Peter Gill
http://eagl.us/dRZHuh