One Fine Selection No. 36 (With Bonus Vid!!!)

This week is a long overdue selection from Zach Hill: "Face Tat".  The video is posted along with the studio version in case you can't tell just from listening that the drums in this track are &#$^!@* incredible.  Enjoy.

One Fine Selection No. 35

This week's fine selection is bit of compare and contrast.  It's a different approach to noise rock from Jesu.  The track is "Lifeline".  The ingredients in "Lifeline" are mostly the same as what you'll find on Sunkissed (shared here). There's heavy gain and distorted guitars, droning, elementally simple song structure, some lyrics, and the airy wall of sound typical of the genre.  The result, though, is a different one.  It's a prime example of the power of nuance.  Enjoy. 

Sunkissed. Guitar

Guitar's Sunkissed remains a mystery to me.  Every time I go into my research about it, I lose interest. But this album begs for that; for its mystery to remain intact.  Reading through some of the reviews of the album, ones that trace its lineage and point out its influences, I become even less interested in knowing about it.  To be swept away by its lightness and mystery is enough.  To resign myself to the unknown is enough.  The songs are enough.  In fact, the songs are very good.  Enjoy.

One Fine Selection No. 34

One day I promise I will get back to regular Townhouse posts.  But until that day, One Fine Selection will have to do.  On the bright side, this week is two tracks from a super wicked band that I've never shared here at the Townhouse!  Here's "Ice Black Sand" and "Thank You Gliese 370b" from Reptar. Get ready to dance.

Wolves. Traindodge

This week instead of One Fine Selection, I'm sharing a whole album.  I intended to share just one track from Traindodge's, Wolves, but it's too hard to choose just one, and it wouldn't do the album justice.  So since I've been slacking here once again at the Townhouse, and since this album kicks @$$, here's Wolves in its entirety.  Enjoy.

One Fine Selection No. 33

This week is "These Secret Things I Know" from And So I Watch You From Afar's new album, Heirs.  I've been listening this album on repeat just about the whole time it's been out. Heirs is a really fresh take on the easily cliche post-rock/instrumental genre.  It's not overly dramatic, doesn't take itself too seriously, and embraces all the right things about the genre; primarily big riffs, a touch of quirk, and anthems that you can't help but throw your hands up and be swept away by.  When it's done right, the feeling you get from this type of music is transcendent.  And I don't even like that word.  ASIWYFA does it right. Enjoy.

One Fine Selection No. 32

Let's kick summer off right with an old school selection from indie rockers, Mock Orange. The track, "We Work", comes from their 1998 debut LP, Nines & Sixes.  Enjoy.

Like Father Like Son

Taylor Mcferrin, son of Bobby Mcferrin (i.e. "Don't Worry Be Happy") makes killer music. His debut LP, Early Riser, is a prime example of electronic music done right.  Featuring an all-star lineup of cameos including Thundercat and Bobby McFerrin himself, the younger McFerrin's LP is a calm, cool, and collected journey through contemporary electronic music influenced enough by jazz and smooth jams, and with enough original flare to make it a really enjoyable experience.  Here's a few tracks to get acquainted:

Kaputt. Destroyer

To make up for the lack of blog posts recently, here's an album for you fine Townhouse readers.  I don't think I've shared anything from Destroyer here yet, and it's long overdue. Destroyer's Kaputt is a beautiful nine track album that doesn't take itself too seriously, but's full of seriously good songwriting.  It also has a really beautiful album cover.  Take some time and take in Kaputt, you won't be disappointed.  Enjoy.

The Townhouse Asks Kenichi Hoshine: What Is Art?

Untitled (56), Oil on Wood, 36 x 24 inches

"I don't know what art is. I think the less defined that term is, the better. I like things murky and vague."

Kenichi Hoshine is a painter based in Brooklyn, NYC.  Hoshine teaches at PRATT and exhibits with Maxwell Alexander Gallery, has had solo exhibitions with R Wells Gallery and Johnathan Levine Gallery in New York, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions.  His paintings can be viewed on his website kenichihoshine.com, his instagram, or facebook.

One Fine Selection No. 31

This week's selection is a brand new track from Tame Impala.  It's rad.  So enjoy.

The Townhouse Asks Alex Kanevsky: What Is Art?

Breathing Room, oil on linen, 66 x 66 inches

"I don’t know what it is. Something academics like to define for us.  I find these definitions stifling.  I am not an artist. I am a painter."

Alex Kanevsky is a painter based in Philadelphia.  He teaches an advanced painting course for undergads at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and exhibits with Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco.   His paintings can be viewed at his website www.somepaintings.net, instagram, or facebook. 

The Republic. Sam Prekop

The Republic, The Sea and Cake frontman Sam Prekop's fourth LP is brilliant.  His first two efforts, a self-titled, and Who's Your New Professor, were what I imagine The Sea and Cake might sound like if Prekop had full control of the band.  They were slick, jazzy, a bit quirky, and super cool.  His third LP, Old Punch Card, was radically different and was less about music than it was about making sounds.  It's hard to call the things on the record songs, because it doesn't do them justice.  The Republic is the direct evolution of Old Punch Card, but it's more traditionally electronic/ambient music.  "Weather Vane" actually even sounds like a dance tune.  I say The Republic is brilliant because 15 tracks go by way too fast, and all you want to do at the end is start it all over.  It puts life in a context that only a record like this can.  So grab a cold beverage, take a long ride, or go sit in a field somewhere.  Put this album on and be taken somewhere else. You won't be disappointed.

One Fine Selection No. 30

For the 30th edition of One Fine Selection, here's three (get it) fine selections!  The first is a beautiful track by Plus/Minus, a relatively unknown band here in the States, but worth checking out.  "What Lies Ahead" is a cool way to welcome these first warm days of Spring.

The second selection is "Flat Lay the Water" from a band I frequently share, The Sea and Cake. Also perfect for the warm days.

Third is another from The Sea and Cake, a groovy closer "The Fawn".  Enjoy.

Frank Proffitt's "Ruben Train"

Oh, Reuben's coming down the track,

And he's got his throttle back,

And the rails are a-carrying him from home.

If the boiler don't bust

'Cause it's eat up with rust,

I'll soon be a long ways from home.

If you don't believe I'm gone,

Look at the train I'm on;

You can hear the whistle blow a thousand miles.

I'm a-going down the track;

I ain't never coming back,

And I'll never get no letter from my home.

Well, the train run so fast

Till I knowed it couldn't last,

For the wheels was a-burning up the rail.

Old Reuben had a wreck

And it broke old Reuben's neck,

And it never hurt a hair on my head.

Now I'm walking up the track,

Hoping I'll get back;

I'm a thousand miles away from home.

If I ever get back to you,

You can beat me black and blue,

For I'll never leave my shanty home.