FULL STREAM: Best Coast - Fade Away (Jewel City)

Stream Best Coast's upcoming mini-album Fade Away, due October 22 on Bethany Cosentino's own Jewel City label:

FULL STREAM: Giorgio Moroder - From Here To Eternity (1977)

Looks like I'm not listening to Daft Punk for a while.

Like a lot of people, I first heard of Giorgio Moroder during the making of Daft Punk's latest album Random Access Memories. I decided to delve deeper, after a friend of mine played me snippets from Moroder's 1976 album Knights in White Satin. It's absolutely mind-blowing how influential every sound, every trance-inducing passage, on this album is; but then, to dig deeper, it's also mind-blowing how much crossover there was between the contemporary likes of Kraftwerk and Moroder's Italo-disco electronica.

At a digestible thirty minutes, I never want to stop listening to From Here To Eternity. Also, I now see where Philly rapper Spank Rock derived his "Modbroder" alter ego:

The Day of Full Highly Anticipated Album Streams

News broke early this morning that Nine Inch Nails' Hesitation Marks had started streaming in full on iTunes. Click here for the link.

Eight hours later, I came home from work and found out Fader is streaming White Poppy's debut self-titled LP, and Blind Horses, another Vancouver act, are streaming their debut LP Avail via Bandcamp.

Unfortunately, the first real chance I'll have to listen to any of these, I'll probably be hungover.

Swearin' Is Cool

Happy I could tell there was a Crutchfield in here (two, actually):



Check out Swearin's entire self-titled LP below:

FULL ADVANCE STREAM: No Age - An Object (Sub Pop Records)

Stream No Age's upcoming album An Object in full at NPR.org. The album comes out August 20 on Sub Pop Records.

Rainy Afternoon. Get Lost.

FULL STREAM: The Courtneys - The Courtneys (Hockey Dad Records, 2013)

Pop sun summer feel good happy yay. Stream the Vancouver trio's self-titled debut album for a limited time at Exclaim.ca.

Full Stream: Slim Fathers - Old Fruit LP

So G.D. hyped to see Slim Fathers on the first night of the upcoming Music Waste Festival. They'll be playing at the Anza Club along with Nam Shub (whom I'm actually more excited to see), Failing and Defektors - all quality bands. Stream Slim Fathers' debut LP Old Fruit on their Bandcamp page.

For the full Music Waste schedule, click here.

FULL STREAM: By Divine Right - Organized Accidents (Hand Drawn Dracula, 2013)

Until its release on June 4, you can stream By Divine Right's newest album Organized Accidents in full over at CBC Music.

BDR is one of Canada's most underrated but most enduring indie rock bands whose alumni include Feist, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Before Broken Social Scene became the "it" revolving door band for mostly-Toronto musicians, there was BDR. Check below for a list of upcoming tour dates possibly near you:

June 14, Toronto, St. James Park
July 5, Thunder Bay, Ont., Crocks
July 6, Winnipeg, TBA
July 9, Regina, O’Hanlons
July 12, Kelowna, B.C., Habitat
July 13, Vancouver, TBA
July 18, Calgary, The Palomino
July 19, Ness Creek, Sask., Ness Creek Festival
July 20, Saskatoon, Vangelis
August 3, Toronto, Lee’s Palace

FULL STREAM: Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador, 2013)

Philly guitar-maestro Kurt Vile's fifth full-length album comes out on April 9, but for now, it's streaming in full at NPR. God bless NPR.

FULL STREAM: Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (Pitchfork Documentary)

An hour-long documentary on Belle & Sebastian and the making of their album If You're Feeling Sinister. Remembering why I love the band and why IYFS is one of the few albums I consider perfect:

 

FULL STREAM: Blackfoot Gypsies - On the Loose

Latest great blind acquisition, Nashville duo the Blackfoot Gypsies. I wonder if they've worked with or run into Jack White yet. Listen to their album On the Loose in full below:

FULL STREAM: Jack White on Austin City Limits

Watch Jack White's Austin City Limits performance in full which includes one of the best versions of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" I've ever heard. Just can't beat that segue from "Dead Leaves" into "Missing Pieces" and briefly back into "Dead Leaves." Also, there is no bad or even mediocre version of "We Are Going To Be Friends."

Watch Jack White on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

 

Favourite Releases of 2012 - Grimes - Visions (Arbutus)

Okay, so after only six days, life got in the way, and I fell one entry behind. Luckily, though, one of those entries is Grimes' breakthrough third album Visions, and I don't have much to add (or much need to add) to the discourse regarding Visions because the album has already been talked about to death. Here's a re-post of Visions in full on YouTube:

FULL STREAM - Death Grips - NO LOVE DEEP WEB (Self-Released, 2012)

Add Sacramento's experimental hip-hop duo Death Grips to the list of musicians I never thought I'd like.

I've been a fan of drummer Zach Hill since he and L.A. art-punk duo No Age released their collaborative 2008 EP Flannel Graduate, but I like Death Grips for more than just the mere fact of his involvement: there's a certain organicness and thematic metaphysicality to Death Grips that I haven't found in any other super-aggro hip-hop group. Maybe it's Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett's internal look-to-the-self-for-inspiration vs. idolatry philosophy, the fact that Death Grips employs live drumming rather than programmed beats and their minimalist approach (see Zach's three-drum set-up) that imbues their primal performance with a certain humanness or immediacy.

Death Grips play Fortune Sound Club this Friday. Redcat Records will announce a winner of two pairs of tickets as well as a copy Death Grips' first (and only other) album The Money Store in the format of one's choice this evening. There's still time to enter the contest, which you can do by clicking over to Redcat's Facebook page.

Full Album Stream: Slint - Spiderland (Touch and Go Records, 1991)

It took me, oh, eight or so years to appreciate this album:

FULL STREAM: Swans - My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope To the Sky (Young God, 2010)

Because trying to pick only one Swans song for a Halloween playlist is absolutely impossible, here's their nightmarishly oppressive album My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope To the Sky in full:

FREE ALBUM STREAM: Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes (Warp Records, 2012)

Head over to NPR's website to listen to L.A. music producer Flying Lotus' upcoming fourth album Until the Quit Comes in full. The album drops October 1.

FULL STREAM: Nü Sensae - Sundowning LP

Click here to listen to Vancouver punk trio Nü Sensae's just-released Sundowning LP (Suicide Squeeze Records, 2012) via AOL Spinner. Also, nice to see them getting coverage from SPIN Magazine (which briefly profile's the band in its "5 Best New Artists for August '12"), Spotify, Fader and AllMusic.com, my favourite site for album reviews and musician-info. World, if you're not ready for Nü Sensae, get ready.

Second Chance: Wire

It's time I give British 70s post-punk band Wire another chance. How did I ever find them too drab? Stupid high school self. Listen to the influential debut album by one of the most influential post-punk bands in history. Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, Black Flag, R.E.M. and Guided by Voices have all taken cues from Wire, particularly GBV frontperson Robert Pollard who calls Wire his favourite band: