Lord Huron is from Michigan and is pretty indie. He has also created a fantastic summer tune that is delightfully ramshackle and folky. Its pretty great and reminds me of shimmering water on a hot afternoon. Enjoy the track and the summer Sunday. Check out his bandcamp if you want more.
Lord Huron - Into the Sun (YSI) (filesavr)
Some chillwave-y songs these days are creepy and dark, but this track from Dream Boat is downright frightening. The only connection with summer I can see is that this is the song that would be playing in a movie as a group of vengeful ghosts descend upon a group of hapless campers in a remote cabin on a lake. So very eerie, but it also gets trapped in your head - in a good way.
Dream Boat - Your Beaches (YSI) (filesavr)
The Roots have been making tons of good music recently, and we've been largely ignoring it. Time for that to change! Philly's legendary Roots crew, who of course serve as the house band on Late Night Jimmy Fallon, haven't stopped recording now that they've found a permanent gig. If anything, they're dropping more tunes than ever - their 11th studio album How I Got Over came out in June, earlier this year they released a free album of Roots renditions of J. Dilla beats called Dilla Joints, and they're set to release an album with John Legend called Wake Up in September. Busy bees, those kids.
Its August and its hot, but sadly the end of summer is beginning to come into view and that twinge of end of the season sadness could come up at any minute. Fortunately though A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill is the best song for summer in the history of the world. The horns and hand claps are catchy as hell and it perfectly evokes hanging out with a bunch of friends during the summer (just as the title says). The chorus is very fun to sing along to as well. Despite being a generally upbeat and happy track, it is not without a slight undertone of melancholy - just like the tail end of summer.
Just for kicks, here's Jens Lekman's track that made it on Pitchfork's best of 2007 list a few years back.
Jens Lekman - A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill (YSI) (filesavr)
Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina (YSI) (filesavr)
I recently heard a catchy song on the radio that I couldn't identify, and I went to hunt it down. To my surprise, it was by We Are Scientists - the band that was briefly hailed as the next big thing in indie rock. That was back in the heat of the Franz Ferdinand era, shortly before We Are Scientists were eclipsed by the Arctic Monkeys as the band of the moment. Well, they're back. Well, they're sort of back.
There has been a ton of debate about M.I.A.'s latest album, /\/\ /\ Y /\. Some people really like it, lots more really hate it. I happen to think that the album got a bad rap (not least of all because most early reviews were coming only after hearing a terrible quality version of the album) - I think the album is actually a lot better than people have been giving it credit for being.
Excuse the pun, but there have been a couple big hip hop releases recently that have been getting a lot of spins from me - specifically Big Boi and Big K.R.I.T., with Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty and K.R.I.T. Wuz Here respectively. Both albums capture the feel of Southern rap without pandering too much to the traditions of that genre. Where K.R.I.T. is a young gun reflecting back on dirty South roots, Big Boi is a legend continuing to push the bounds of hip hop. Both albums are completely great.
One track off of each album has particularly wormed its way into my ears. From Big Boi's Sir Lucious Leftfoot, that track is "Tangerine." I don't think it's the best track on the album - that's probably "Shutterbug" or "Shine Blockas" - but it certainly is the one I've found myself playing on repeat the most. It's a bit darker, bass-ier than most of the album, and it has a swagger that I just can't ignore.
Big Boi - Tangerine (YSI) (filesavr)
From K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, that track is "Viktorious," a dope jam spun around a sampled that sounds like the piano riff from Army of the Pharaohs (the Philly hip hop supergroup featuring a few dudes from Jedi Mind Tricks). Krit makes and produces all of his own beats and materials, which makes this song all the more impressive. It's full of signifying, but it's also completely sick sick sick.
Big K.R.I.T. - Viktorious (YSI) (filesavr)
As a bonus, here's the Army of the Pharaohs track that shares the flavor for "Viktorious."
Army of the Pharaohs - Bloody Tears (YSI) (filesavr)
