Jonathan Boulet – You’re A Animal

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[FREE DOWNLOAD via Stereogum]

I don’t know why so much is made of the fact that Jonathan Boulet is 22. It’s not that young. Old mate from Tim & Jean is 12 or something, isn’t he? That‘s young. Two things should be said though: when I say 12 I’m exaggerating and Jonathan Boulet has more than the combined talent of Tim AND Jean.

After releasing his hugely successful self titled debut album, Boulet is back with a new single called You’re A Animal. While I don’t absolutely love the recording you can bank on it being enormous live. The first time I saw J. Boulet was at Manning Bar late last year in support of the recently discussed Middle East. The energy of his live show was pretty attractive so I can’t wait to see how the pace of this You’re A Animal fits into his set. You can catch the tail end of the You’re A Animal Tour on any of the below dates.

December 3 – Newcastle – CBD Hotel
w/ Grace Woodroofe, Nova and the experience

December 4 – Sydney – Beach Road Hotel
w/ Grace Woodroofe, Megastick Fanfare

December 9 – Brisbane – Alhambra Hotel
w/ Grace Woodroofe, Sunshine Ensemble

December 10 – Adelaide – Uni Bar
w/ Grace Woodroofe, Jimmy and the Mirrors, East End Villians

December 17 – Melbourne – The East Brunswick Club
w/ Grace Woodroofe, The Parking Lot Experiment

It’s been a long time between drinks if you’re a fan of the Middle East but at last we have something new to sate the thirst. It’s been three years since the Recordings of the Middle East was released (the full length, not the EP) and a year since they released Dirty Looks but a few days ago Triple J played the new song Jesus Came To My Birthday Party.

There are differences and similarities to The Recordings. Bree’s vocals now seem to be the main focal point of the harmonies and it’ll be interesting to see if that continues to be the case with the rest of the album when that drops, whenever that drops. Anyway, enough from me, just listen to it. I’d provide a stream but the mp3 isn’t available yet.

Midway through the year I wrote an article about Mountain Man for the Spit Press, Sydney based streetpress for the creative individual. I’ve given that time to cool, but it’s been long enough. Here’s a song from Mountain Man. If you want to read the original article I wrote then click here and turn to page 18. It’s pretty funny. Not laugh out loud funny, more like “this bitter twenty-something is attempting to convince me that he himself is outside of pop-culture” funny. You know, like a hipster calling a hipster a hipster even though they are both hipsters. We’re all hipsters, some of us just don’t know it yet.

Mountain Man – Animal Tracks

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Mountain Man – River

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There are four songs available as free downloads from their Daytrotter session. Just click here and they can be yours.

Mountain Man are playing the Famous Spiegeltent in Sydney on Monday the 14th of January. I won’t be there as I’m away on camp but you should be there. It’ll be all time. Imagine the dead silence with these harmonies hovering above it.

Here are three tracks that will:
● function as a sweet backingtrack to your kickflip compilation video
● make whoever’s sitting in your passenger seat say “whoa, this is so summer!”
● make a girl fall in love with you when you give her a mixtape for Christmas
● help you do a sick 360 invert on a gnarly barrel at Curl Curl

On top of those swell features, you can also create an intentionally nostalgic season. Just listen to one (or all) of these tracks about twice a day for the next three months and I guarantee that you’ll constantly associate it with the summer of ’10/11 for the rest of your life.

The Explorers Club – Last Kiss
http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf
The Explorer’s Club are kind of like the Beach Boys crossed with… I guess they’re just kind of like the Beach Boys. Which is to say that they’re exactly like the Beach Boys.

The Walkmen – In The New Year [FREE DOWNLOAD]
http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf
My pal Samuel played this song on a drive down Mona Vale Road one time recently and it was pretty sublime. Outrageously good, you should probably listen to this track as you hit 100km/h on a freeway in blazing Summer sun.

Yukon Blonde – Wind Blows [FREE DOWNLOAD]
http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf
Lyrically, it’s more Winter than anything else but the gradual build, the Fleet Foxesesque harmonies and the heavy reverb all smack of heatstroke or something.

Feel free to suggest any other tracks you think would go well with this trio. All the better if they have a free download available. Perhaps this three can become a four.

At 3:30 this morning Valar, with your best interests at heart, uploaded a new track to their bandcamp. It’s called Make No Sound, ironically named since the song itself is full of sound – probably a good thing since four minutes of silence would arguably be the most pretentious thing Valar have released so far. On top of this, John Cage would probably sue for copyright were he still alive. It is however, a step forward for Valar being unlike any other recording they’ve released so far. Enjoy.

Valar – Make No Sound [FREE DOWNLOAD]

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If you haven’t already then be sure to download a few more of Valar’s tracks [for free] here. They also have a blindingly good EP for sale too. Get behind it and spend a tiny bit of coin.