Paper Tiger is the second track off Beck’s record “Sea Change”, which is probably one of my favourite records despite being a monumentally sad work that I’ve struggled to push the whole way through, at times.

So.

Sad.

But it’s also a very beautiful record and whether you need to ingest it in sittings, or think you can straight out stomach it, you should listen to “Sea Change” in its entirety.

This album was produced with Beck’s longtime producer Nigel Godrich, who also works with Radiohead. All of those Radioheadisms that can be heard on Kid A and Amnesiac, are on this record – but in a slicker, cooler, alt-country kind of way. The orchestral sounds, the reverse reverbs, the messed up delays are a vacuum that sucks you into a giant pink baloon, where you float around and watch Beck sitting on a stool playing a giant acoustic guitar. He sings songs about loneliness and everybody cries.

Beck – ‘Paper Tiger’

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[nb, Tommy: I am pitching forth the most famous, and another amazing track from the record, 'Lost Cause'. If you haven't heard it before, now is your chance to live.]

Beck – ‘Lost Cause’

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What’s up readership, are your lives moving forward? Are you doing all you can to be the best you you can be? I’ll consider this next post a success should it help you to discover your spirit animal. Mine is Channing Tatum, that rugged son of a bean, and just knowing that has unlocked my inner reality and now I’m free to dream big. Think about it. Anyway, Seattle born K Ishibashi (a traditionally Seattle-esque name) performs under the moniker Kishi Bashi and I’m sure glad he does, because his music is a delight to my ear-chambers (trust me, it’s a scientific term, Encarta it). And no, I’m not saying I’m glad he’s making music under that particular title, I’m just saying it’s a good thing he’s making music in general. Maybe if you spent less time analysing my sentence structure and more time focusing on the bigger picture you would have your degree in International Studies already instead of your two subjects per semester and part-time job at the Levis Warehouse.

He is one of the eight members that make up the geographically misleading Of Montreal (from Athens, Georgia) as well as being a member of Jupiter One so this man is no true newcomer. This solo project (which is a new[ish] thing) has turned heads at sxsw this week. For those of you who are wondering (which is likely far more than you’d think) sxsw is an American “industry” event where artists go to perform in front of bigwigs to simultaneously win hearts and contracts. There’re are also punters who just go for the spectacle but in the end it’s an exposure tool.

Kishi Bashi bang out some seriously chirpy numbers that would allow me to reference virtually any band within reason and still be drawing fair comparisons. Importantly, what they don’t do is write vibe songs without direction or progress. There’re some big melodies and there’s a clear trajectory to what the man is trying to achieve, notably in ‘Bright Whites’. He reminds me a little of Shugo Tokumaru (probably because I’m latently racist, but just as probably because they’re both musically joyful and exhuberant). Hit play below.

And for some balance, here’s a slow burner from the his first EP:

His debut record 151A drops in about 2 weeks and you can preorder it here. The mp3 is only $8 and you can splash out and get the physical CD for a $10 total. Avoid purchasing this on itunes (which will probably be $16) else you’ll just be funding apple (who are fine but in no need of your sponsorship). Finders fee goes to Katie Brown.

Slowdim are an interesting band. Their Spirals EP has been tagged on bandcamp with the terms ‘dreamcore’ and ‘lo-fi’, and though I’ll not pretend I know what those mean, I think it hints at the way their loose steel strings, flat voices and melodic guitar lines come through with some kind of crackle on the tracks. It works for me in a surprising way, most notably on the two standouts, ‘Don’t Cough Me Out’ and ‘take your heart that’s solely free’ (their upper and lower casing, not mine). On the latter in particular the homemade rhythms and ever-present beat make for an enjoyable piece of ‘indie-pop’.

On the subject of pop, the guitar and vocals on ‘Tallest Trees’ honestly made me think of The Beatles’ ‘Getting Better’, and with each song coming in at around two minutes, Slowdim make The Beatles look like Pink Floyd. It’s light, but for me it brings to mind a time when pop music was amazing, and though that time was long before my birth, here’s hoping Slowdim and every other amazing band from the land of the free can put Lady Gaghanna back in her cave, and bring talent back into fashion. You didn’t hear it first, but you did hear it here.

Slowdim – ‘take your only heart that’s solely free’

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[DOWNLOAD]

Slowdim – ‘Don’t Cough Me Out’

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[DOWNLOAD]

More to be heard at their bandcamp.

Today I official retract any complimentary things I had to say about Sydney weather over the weekend, for today is a wet hell. My only watertight pair of shoes proved far from watertight under the onslaught that was the morning’s gushing skies. Luckily I had a spare pair of boardshorts in my car with which to dry my head and am now ready for the day ahead. Yesterday (or maybe even the day before) Beach House dropped the first single from their fourth studio album, set for release later this year and it’s ticking all the right boxes. The iconic voice of Victoria Legrand is the key to the sonic wash, underlayed with the paradox that is Alex Scalley’s simultaneously twinkling yet downcast guitar line. The trilling guitar toward the end of the track reminds me a whole lot of Vampire Weekend’s Walcott (around the 2:00 minute region) but it’s obviously not unique to either song. Also, it’s downloadable here. Anyway, make up your own mind, but I’m feeling this.

Something extra for the greedy, here’s another first taste, this time from s / s / s, which is the collaborative project of Sufjan, Son Lux and Serengeti. As usual, Sufjan is unusual.

It’s a beautiful Sunny sunday in fickle Sydney today and on such a day one wonders what would best soundtrack the surprisingly decent weather outside. I can’t think of a better aural outcome than Dry The River’s new record Shallow Bed, free for you to stream as of yesterday. They’ve been covered on Sound Doc a few times now (see here and here and here) and almost all the songs we’ve streamed from their earlier EPs and subsequent single releases are present on the album. It’s uplifting, it’s sensitive and it’s powerful. I’ve made no secret of how I feel about Peter Liddle’s quavering falsetto but I think only the face of Gary Busey can truly representing my sentiments. Every time I’ve written about them, I’ve made the claim that they’re ‘going to blow up soon’ and this is the last time I’ll make it. If they don’t get gargantuan on the back of this record then I’ll give each and every one of you $10, and this is big for me, because I don’t have $70 to just throw away like that. It’s rare to see a talented and well marketed band, but here we have it. Play it through, you won’t be disappointed.

I’d love to provide you with an embedded stream but that doesn’t appear possible, so for the time being you can hear it all here: http://shallowbed.drytheriver.net/ I’m not sure when it’ll be released in Aus but it’s out tomorrow in the UK and April 17 in the US.
James Watson, who has been listening from across the hall and is best pleased by what he’s heard, gives Shallow Bed four and a half stars out of five.