May 8, 2006

Free Range Music: Grandaddy, Matmos, Pinback, Lilys

Grandaddy>> Our favorite Grandaddy track will probably always be a live bootleg track of them doing Pavement's "Here" that we got off the Napster machine in 2000 or so. Great track. And "Summer Here Kids," man, that's also a great track. Anyway, we can't help be a little wistful listening to the Northern Cali band's swan song Just Like The Fambly Cat, which is among the most interesting records AOL is pimping this week in its latest batch of pre-release album streams at AOL Music. A single listen doesn't reveal any track that will usurp the aforementioned pair's positions in our affection, but there is a lot of pleasant acoustic strummery and distorted rock and rollery. We dig the tracks "Rear View Mirror" and "Summer... It's Gone," which offers a tidy bookend to "Summer Here Kids." There's even a nice slab of synth-pop ("Skateboarding Saves Me Twice").

Also this week the latest opus from electronic provocateurs Matmos finally hits racks. These guys blew our mind with A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure and their work on Bjork's Vespertine set. Each of the tracks on the new set The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast is a sonic portrait of someone the electronic duo admires. As such there is a track for :: clicky clicky :: fiction-writing fave Patricia Highsmith ("Snails And Lasers," which we think we read was actually composed using snails activating various sounds via lasers), another one dedicated to William S. Burroughs (which is interrupted at the two-minute mark by a dreadful gun shot), and a third devoted to long-gone Germs fronter Darby Crash, among others.

Finally, Josh Wink's Profound Sounds Vol. 3 includes a trancey recasting of Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" that you may want to spin if you've got some extra time on your hands. Catch the streams for all three records at the links below.

Grandaddy -- Just Like The Fambly Cat -- V2
Matmos -- The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast -- Matador
Josh Wink -- Profound Sounds Vol. 3 -- System

>> Bradley's Almanac has posted future-poppers Pinback's set from this past Saturday night at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Grab the files at The 'Nac here or stream the set via The Hype Machine here.

>> Lilys have posted the track "Colorful Acts" at its MySpace domicile here. The track has never had domestic U.S. release, but did appear on the eponymous U.K. set from 2004 that was pretty much just a re-jiggered version of Precollections with the aforementioned "Colorful Acts" and three other non-U.S. cuts. Incidentally, Kurt Heasley told us earlier this year there could be some neat import singles coming right about now. Keep an eye out.

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