Saturday, January 12, 2013

Venomous Maximus: "Path of Doom"

Is Texas the new Georgia when it comes to that dank stoner rock? Austin's got The Sword and New Orleans birthed Eyehategod and Crowbar... in between you've got Houston, and now representing H-Town proper is the fairly new retro-occult act Venomous Maximus, who actually have more of a unique, old school Euro doom thing going on compared to most of the domestic stuff. Beg Upon the Light is the band's first full length, which yours truly reviewed for Metal Injection here. Check out the video for single "Path of Doom" below:

The Child of Lov: "Give Me"

Not quite cloud rap, or really even hip hop in any meaningful sense at all, "Give Me" is actually just amazing, whacked out sleaze funk of the most opaque order. I'd never heard of The Child of Lov before, but a little quick Googling gives the unlikely info that this is a 25 year old honky from the Netherlands with an affinity for pineapples. The video is equally as exhilarating, an inner city club party relocated way out into the sticks, which is actually a pretty fucking amazing idea if you ask me.

A full length album is in the works, but from what I can tell right now "Give Me" the single is available only as a digital download via iTunes.

Sky Ferreira: "Lost In My Bedroom"

As I type this the Billboard Hot 100 is topped by the likes of Rihanna's "Diamonds", Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "Scream & Shout", an art-by-committee collaboration between will.i.am and Britney Spears.

Fuck you, there's no way you can tell me those songs are better or even more accessible than "Lost In My Bedroom". There are no offputting, rough edges on this song whatsoever, so explain to me how the Gaga and Ke$ha fans can't get into this... hell, Sky Ferreira is even signed to Capitol, an admittedly past-its-prime major but still home to chart topping acts like Luke Bryan and Katy Perry. Maybe it's a matter of time: WKMR fave "Ho Hey" is shockingly on the come up so anything is possible (PS: congratulations, assholes... that song has been out for a fucking year already).

Toro Y Moi: "Say That"

Quick, one last chillwave entry before the wheels come off. Can't believe I haven't covered Toro Y Moi previously, but then again I don't tend to cover a lot of the tunes that are already canvassed by literally every other indie blog on the planet.

I'm making an exception for this one because it may, in retrospect, represent the moment where the genre merged into mainstream pop. The production lacks the syrupy filters and atavistic synth lines associated with the style, instead proffering a breezy yet accessible pop sensibility. In other words, we've reached Peak Chillwave. Shit happens.

Anything in Return is out January 22 on Carpark Records.

Purity Ring: "Lofticries"

Production values are definitely of an era: it's easy to imagine "Lofticries" coming out back in the late 90's with more of a hazy, slowed down trip hop vibe. All of which is to say that the central melody has a timeless pop quality to it, not dissimilar to what Grimes is pimping these days (both 4AD artists, none too coincidentally). The Shrines album came out last summer - and singles from it were already being released in late 2011 - so presumably this is the last of the OG shit we'll see until the sophomore material is prepped.