Five Songs You Should Have Heard Of By Now

It's another installment of my series bringing you five terrific songs in desperate need of checking out. The first month of the new year has been a busy one, and even though we're in the dead of winter (especially us folks living in Boston) all the news in music seems to point to the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of spring album releases, tour announcement, and festival lineup unveilings.

Animal Collective: My Girls

Animal Collective's newest release came with an absurd amount of hype, and still managed to blow away critics and fans alike. Their first single "My Girls" is anchored by repeating triplets and Panda Bear's swooping vocals. And yes, the video is super-trippy. If you haven't gotten into this band yet, now is the time. They might be making the best music in the world.

The Fireman: Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight

The Fireman? Yeah, it happens to be Paul McCartney's alias these days and he's (surprise surprise) made a good album! Like, a great album. As in, his best in years. "Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight" is a "Helter Skelter" throwback to a more bluesy era of McCartney. The album is a masterpiece of minimalist Rock & Roll. He was in the Beatles after all, he practically invented it. Oh, and Sir Paul was just announced as a headliner at this year's Coachella Music Festival. It's been quite a month.


Fleet Foxes: Blue Ridge Mountains

Fleet Foxes have quickly captured the title as the best new Americana band. Not that that title was necessarily highly contested before, but its going nowhere now. The band's signature harmonizing collective vocals are on display in "Blue Ridge Mountains." Minimalist guitar, outstanding vocals, and an uncanny awareness of crescendo make this a standout of the album, an absolutely beautiful song.

Antony & the Johnsons: Aeon

I have to admit, this album caught me by surprise. Composed primarily on the piano, "Aeon" builds with a style wholly uncharacteristic of similar bands. Heart wrenching vocals are what makes this band, and this song is no exception. Combine that with high reverb minimalist guitar (what, is minimalism suddenly a trend again?) and you get a powerful composition that you owe it to yourself to hear at least once, but will want to play over and over again.

Dan Deacon: Get Older

Off of Deacon's new album set to drop in March (stay tuned for review), "Get Older" is a more matured version of his sound, which isn't saying much considering Sesame Street is at times more mature than a Dan Deacon record. What is his style you ask? I recently described his sound to a friend as, "What would happen if Captain Kangaroo did electronic techno stuff instead of children's television". Intrigued? Press play.

New Animal Collective Album Will Rock, Cover Will Not

Animal Collective's upcoming album, entitled Merriweather Post Pavilion (fuck yeah, Maryland!) has already caused some hype. The record will be released January 20th (the same day the next president will be inaugurated; what a day that will be) and hearing from a few people who have listened to it already, I reckon the album will be extraordinary. AC member Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) has even stated in a recent interview that MPP is their 'best recorded album'. The album will differ in sound from their last kaleidoscopic-electronic frenzy of 2007's Strawberry Jam. Judging from bootlegs that have been going around for the past year and a half, the guys have got into the ambient dub/ electronica vibe, which is not a bad move on their part.

But on the contrary, a recent post on their homepage revealed the possible album cover for Merriweather Post Pavilion. If you are wondering, no, the image you see above is not the avatar of a LSD enthusiast blogger on some Phish fan forum, it is indeed the image that the fellows in AC posted on their site, possibly (but not hopefully) being the album cover. But a wise man once said to not judge an album by it's cover... unless its terribly phony like this one.

(click on the cover to enlarge the image, and gaze upon the waaaavvvyyy illusions.... still pretty silly)