tUnE-yArDs Is The Bizness

Merrill Garbus AKA tUnE-yArDs is preparing to release her follow-up to 2009's great release BiRd BrAiNs. Its titled w h o k i l l, and the new single, 'Bizness' is off it. Its not a new track per se - it has been a live staple for almost two years now, and one of the live favourites - but its great to revisit it, and have it in physical form. Garbus is still on song here, so her new album will come with a fair bit of expectation around here on Planet Masala (see our live review from Cargo last year here).

w h o k i l l comes out April 19th on 4AD.

(NB - I only found out today that Garbus was the lead vocalist and instrumentalist of Sister Suvi, who are sadly with us no more. A bit slow on the uptake there...)

Deerhunter Halcyon Digest

Deerhunter are a bit of house favorite around these parts, in fact as far as the Sonic Masala extended family is concerned they can do really no wrong. So with Deerhunter's new L.P Halcyon Digest, out on 4AD, about to drop its a given that we're going to be rather excited about it so i thought you might like this... You can listen to the whole album here, streamed by NRP Music, and the Helicopter vid for good measure too.



Brendan previously posted the mp3 here.

Revival of cox

 I'm only posting this track 'cos other blogs have already. There you go, layed it on the line. I'm sure by now that your aware that Deerhunter have a new album coming out in September entitled Halycon Digest, out on 4AD, and you may be aware of the 'send in a photo of you with the Deerhunter post-punk style fly' style launch tactics, website here. I for one thought it was a nice touch on the part of Mr Bradford Cox, design aesthetics and music go hand in hand in my world. Any way if you took part and did send in snap of your self with the flyer then, like me, you've been receiving emails with info about the new album, Halycon Digest, over the past couple of weeks, like the track list below...

But lets face it, we that made sent in snaps just wanted a track to reward our efforts. So here it is and it doesn't matter that I'm going behind the bands back 'cos you've already made the effort your self and sent in your own photo, haven't you? And hence why you already have the digital 7" Revival and have no need to download it from the link below. Promise?

Deerhunter - Revival

Halycon Digest track list:

Earthquake
Don't Cry
Revival
Sailing
Memory Boy
Desire Lines
Basement Scene
Helicopter
Fountain Stairs
Coronado
He Would Have Laughed

p.s of course the b-side Primitive 3D is a real gem too and well worth the effort of tacking one photo, and no I wont post it.

4AD Crowns Insanity As Genius – And The World Agrees?

Ive used the term ‘cracked genius’ a few times when describing the left of left of left field meanderings of various musical entities, but none deserve the crown moreso than Ariel Pink. Conversations with Simon and Scott last Friday about some ‘live gigs’ that he has performed here in London in the past few years alluded to a hobo who sang along karaoke style to his own recorded songs – lead vocal track still intact – and the burgeoning distaste of his antics by audience members and even his own sessionists. Yet both claimed that these shows were some of the best they had ever seen, just because they were almost too crazy to be believed.

Now it seems that Ariel Pink will no longer be content at showering his insane genius to dingy hellholes, and is about to do a Daniel Johnston on us all. 4AD somehow saw a marketable enterprise, placed Pink with a band, and now Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti have released their debut album, Before Today. And everyone is saying that Pink IS a genius – that the album has garnered stellar reviews and that he is the godfather of lo-fi home recordings that has flooded the musical airwaves over the past few years. Funny ol world innit?

I will probably get in some shit here – but I don’t get it. Ive read some reviews of the album, and of Pink, and the guy sounds fucking interesting – as far as reading about him goes. Meeting him, hanging with him – that sounds like an endurance event. Listening to him though falls somewhere in between for me – a ho hum, ‘I get where he’s coming from…sort of’ mentality. Before Today holds some merit for sure - the opening track 'Hot Body Rub' has some serious funking attitude to burn - but the fanatical foaming at the mouth that hipsters are generating doesn’t seem to add up in my opinion. Hey, Im happy to be proved wrong though guys…

But even in saying that, Ariel Pink still holds that animal magnetism that only evangelists and the charismatically insane (or both) that draws you to him, and everything he says and does. 4AD have inexplicably struck gold with giving Ariel Pink the big(ger) bucks, and for better or for worse, I await to see what this warped musician will concoct next.

(NB - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are playing at Scala on Tuesday 15th June - see the madness for yourself...)

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Beverley Kills