unpiano: music

Furthering my hypothesis that Sweden is the world’s finest purveyor of pop music, Umeå’s Komeda crafts some of the most instantly-likable songs around. Not to be confused with the composer (whom they are named after), the band released a bunch of albums throughout the nineties and ending with a final full length in 2003. I forget if they are still together or not, but I do remember that I played their songs so much when I was younger that I had to put them away for a while. Below are some selections from one of their best albums, 1998’s What Makes It Go?

Komeda - A Simple Formality
Komeda - Binario
Komeda - It’s Alright, Baby

Brooklyn’s own Telepathe totally bowled me over with their song ‘I Can’t Stand It’. I love the way the song sounds like it’s in no hurry to get anywhere (as evidenced by the one minute long intro) and is just having fun hanging around and being played. I got a little let down when I went looking for more (think the rest of The Knife’s album) but maybe I’m jumping the gun. Keep and eye on them and let me know if you find the song ‘Islands’.

Oh yeah.. Happy New Year!

Telepathe - I Can’t Stand It

Playing squeeky clean, suburban teen power-pop in 1970’s Long Island, Milk N’ Cookies pretty much went nowhere despite sharing a manager with Sparks & glam act The Jook, a bass player with Roxy Music, and producer Muff Winwood (yeah, Steve’s brother who produced all the good Sparks records). Oh well, they still put together one good record in ‘77 that walks a thin, sugar-coated line between the New York Dolls and the Archies.

Milk N’ Cookies - Tinkertoy Tomorrow
Milk N’ Cookies - (Dee Dee You’re) Stuck On A Star
Milk N’ Cookies - Not Enough Girls (In The World)

Did another podcast with Adam from Hammer Head Shark Attack where we trade off songs. These mixes just keep getting better and better, so stoked. You can click here to download it or click here to load the xml and subscribe. Thanks again to Fecal Face Dot Com for hosting this special holiday edition.

Happy Holidays.. This is all I want to listen to during Decemeber. It cancels out all that crappy Christmas music and sounds like a crackling fireplace. Hope you’re somewhere warm tonight.

Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting - Baby It’s Cold Outside

I’ve never given Vetiver much thought. Despite the band’s pedigree, I sort of shrugged them off, never feeling they produced anything worth getting excited about (or even remotely interested in). This new E.P. is a little different, and besides the fact that the rest of the songs are a dead-ringer for Grateful Dead out-takes, this little Byrd’s sounding jam has been on repeat for the last couple of weeks. Sure, the Elephant 6 clan and their ilk kind of did this to death in the later 90’s, this would have been a standout track for that era. Better late than never.

Vetiver - See You Tonight

//photo by Nicki - Dead Herring

This sunshiney New York band released one of my favorite singles last year. Dreamy, jangly pop drowned in fuzz, just like I like it. Draws a lot from the Primitives/C-86/late-80’s vibe, kinda hard to imagine this record not involving Archie Moore in some way (from Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine - not the boxer). Perfect fit on the Slumberland label.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Stay Alive

Mike Simonetti of Troubleman Unlimited has been keeping busy with his new disco-inspired Italians Do It Better label, releasing that Glass Candy EP I posted about a ways back, and this downtempo disco for the Jazzercise-set LP by Portland’s Chromatics. A nice slab of mellow, Moroder/Mancuso inspired dance music that’s perfect for long drives. Ian Svenonius put up a good argument for disco being one of America’s only true D.I.Y. movements, with the whole “Disco Sucks” rhetoric from the dying days of punk as nothing more than racist backlash to its success and historical revisionism in music, so don’t dodge these records on the account of punk-points.

Chromatics - Night Drive
Chromatics - Running Up That Hill

Here is the second installment of the December Tuff Town. Man, I had so much fun last time. It’s so cold outside and so warm in there all the time. Here is the thing I wrote last time..

I hate the holidays but I love drinking so things sort of work out in my favor on this one. I love drinking (and playing records) so much in fact that I’ll be djing twice with Jay this month. Two Tuff Towns. Two dudes. Two much fun..

Thursday  - December the 11th

Thursday  - December the 18th <– Tonight!

Seriously though. I love you and it’s the holidays and it would be great to see you and try to play your favorite song. Come get a drink and say hi.

TUFF TOWN
at the Attic Bar
24/Mission Street
10pm-2am FREE

After Raphael Saadiq’s new album The Way I See It dropped a little while ago, I held out on posting it until I could be sure which songs I liked the best. In actuality they are all amazing songs but good editing is key to any blog as I have found out on many occasions. I’m not sure why no one had this idea (or did it correctly) before now. Throwback soul with drum machines and loops combined with contemporary R&B lyricism.. and it works liked peanut butter and jelly. In a day where every R&B singer wants to use a pitch shifter and sound like a fucking robot, my man Raphael goes the opposite direction, puts on some 50’s suits and starts sounding like Al Green. I don’t want to gush too much, but I’ve been following him since I heard his previous album Instant Vintage (shit, actually since Tony! Toni! Tone!) and I’m excited to see him take more of a center stage in R&B. I wish D’Angelo was there with him too, but last I heard he was getting clean of cocaine and trying to to fly out of moving cars. Below is a little retrospective from the last couple of albums. “Let’s Get Down” may seem a little dated, but that shit was produced by DJ Quik and is guaranteed to make your girl dance her ass off.

Raphael Saadiq - Big Easy
Raphael Saadiq - Staying In Love
Raphael Saadiq - Keep Marchin’
Raphael Saadiq - Kelly Ray (Bonus Track)
Raphael Saadiq - 100 Yard Dash

Bonus:
Raphael Saadiq - Doing What I Can
Raphael Saadiq - Be Here
Raphael Saadiq - Faithful

Throwback Bonus:
Tony! Toni! Tone! - Let’s Get Down