New Music Tuesday
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
One sign of a great album is an ending that makes you want to start listening all over again. Santogold, the debut album from genre chameleon Santi White, takes you through rock, reggae, dub and new wave before ending on a chilly electro remix of "You'll Find A Way," the album's brilliant second track. For a record with several tracks strong enough to be mega-singles (you may have already heard "Creator" on the Bud Light Lime commercials), Santogold is bursting with enough variety to keep it on constant repeat. Called "both a scrappy underdog and a girlish cheerleader for everyone who feels like one" by the New York Times, Santogold made her network television debut with a performance on last night's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves
There's no question that Eli "Paperboy" Reed is an artist to watch. The young soul-singer's "(Am I) Just Fooling Myself" was recently featured as NPR's "Song Of The Day" and Rolling Stone recognized him as a "Breaking Artist." On his newest album, Roll With You, Reed channels soul legends like Sam Cooke and James Brown for a smokin' performance that's sure to earn him a place next to Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse at the front of the retro-soul revival.
South is a British band through and through, oozing influences like Cream, The Beatles, and The Verve. Their introduction to most US audiences came when The O.C. featured "Paint The Silence," and their fifth album You Are Here has the same vibe: jangly, warmly nostalgic, and above all dreamy. Drummer Brett Shaw's production covers their bouncy Britpop in "a sublime gauze of sound, blurring the aural edges and smoothing over sharp genre corners" (All Music Guide), that gives the band a personality all its own. This one's best enjoyed with a strong cup of tea.
The Formula is the second album featuring Buckshot rapping over 9th Wonder's beats, and after the underground success of their first collaboration (Chemistry), it arrives today to confirm all the hype. After leaving the NC-based hip hop group Little Brother, 9th Wonder went on to produce for huge names like Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige and Destiny's Child, and his soulful production style has earned him comparisons to J Dilla and Kanye West. The album's title comes from a simple quote from Buckshot, a member of Black Moon and the Boot Camp Clik: "I found the formula with 9th Wonder."
From April 16, 2006 to April 15, 2007, David Strackany (aka Paleo), wrote and recorded a song a day (seriously!) as part of The Song Diary. On April 16, 2008, Amie Street began releasing each of the 365 songs exactly two years after their creation. The task that Paleo set for himself was understandably challenging and, considering the circumstances, the project results in a collection which Daytrotter calls "profound in a way that you've never heard." Make sure to add yourself as a fan and you'll get a message each time a new song drops!
Devendra Banhart's music encompasses a wide range of musical styles, languages and instrumentations. On his 2005 album Cripple Crow he incorporates folk, psychedelia, pop, rock, and tropicalia with multilingual lyrics and instruments from all over the world. Inspired by 1960s bohemian attitudes, Banhart creates his music with a group of close friends, resulting in an intoxicating, communal experience for the listener. It's this free-spirited approach that has The Boston Globe calling Banhart "freak-folk's phantasmagorical godfather." Also be sure to check out 2007's critically acclaimed Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon.
The Doughboys are garage-rock legends in New Jersey. Forming in the mid-60s, the band shared bills with The Beach Boys, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel and Grand Funk Railroad. Fronted by Myke Scavone (singer on Ram Jam's hit single, "Black Betty"), The Doughboys reunited in 2008 and recorded Is It Now?. Shortly thereafter, the first track on the album, "Black Sheep," was picked as the "Coolest Song In The World" by Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band) on his radio show, proving that the band hasn't lost a step.
German duo Felix Neumann and Christian Winklhofer are A Hundred Times Beloved, a shoegaze band whose music is ideally described in their album title: Arctic Sunrise. Glacial electronic beats, warm vocals, and fuzzy, distorted guitars crash together in these carefully textured songs. The indie music magazine Losing Today says "they've hit upon the idea of messing up a song until its original form is almost unrecognisable... the sonic equivalent of overlaying a Pollock on a Picasso." Trust us, that's a compliment, and a well deserved one for this young, ambitious band.
