power

Crystal Antlers’ Tentacles on Touch and Go is amazing. True, their name has hipsterism written all over and how many more “Crystal somethings” we can tolerate might be hot topic, but if you are into the new jangly, noisy, power pop/punk school coming frmo NY and LA, like No Age, Wavves, Vivian Girls, Cause-Co Motion et al, Crystal Antlers’ Tentacles is a must have from 2009.

San Diego instrumental-prog rockers Sleeping People was one of the last real finds of 2007. Released on Temporary Residence the label, which also hosts Explosions in the Sky, Tarantel and Maserati and Grails among others, “Growing” is a straight forward instrumental rock album with trailing guitar riffs and rock solid drumming.

Here’s the last part, from now on new music!!
05 A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble – Self Titled
04 High on Fire – Death Is This Communion
03 Upsilon Acrux – Galapagos Momentum
02 Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm
01 Future of the Left – Curses

15 Battles – Mirrored (Warp Records) : Everybody’s been talking about “Mirrored” this year, and they kind of deserve it for getting their oddtimed dissonant music to find strange acclaim from mainstream circles as well as mathheads.
14 Deejay OM – Reheated Naan and Curry (Galapagos4) : A fine hybrid of Indian samples mixed with beats. Somehow liked it much more than Madlib’s take. Past

An excellent return to form by the all powerful Steve Albini, producer of countless milestone albums, this time with his own band Shellac, which has been silent since 2000’s 1000 Hurts. It’s been well worth the wait as “Excellent Italian Greyhound” is aesthetically and musically sublime.

* Sir Salvatore, is playful indie with a clean pop style from SF.
* 65daysofstatic the 4 piece electropostrock band from Sheffield, UK
* Infants have chaotic Hella like beats mixed with the furiousity of Atari Teenage Riot with a messier sound.
* Beta Valentine is from Austin, TX.

I was searching for videos of the NYC avant jazz rock power trio Rashanim on the net for some time to no avail. A few days ago I saw that they announced a live video on their myspace page. Quickly checking it revealed not one but 4 complete Rashanim pieces played live at Bowery Poetry Club!!.

Sorry for the lack of posts, just havin’ a hard time with my finals for the time being. I’m through with all but two, so it’s time to feature my primary helper during this stressful week, Dead Meadow’s reissue of their self titled first album.