Your DailyCrack

Yeasayer  - Final Path

Even though the song Final Path has been floating around for a while, I hadn’t heard it until RCRD LBL posted it on their website sometime this past summer. I found their debut album All Hour Cymbals to be a psychedelic treat for my jaded auditory system and felt the same way when I heard Final Path. Yeasayer’s usually good for some tribalesque chanting and howling. They serve it up on Final Path with the mantra “any day, any day, any day now” I look forward to their new album Odd Blood even though it sounds like they might be moving towards a more user-friendly sound (See Ambling Alp). I’m all for experimenting.

- opparaics

The Zombies - Girl Help Me

The Zombies are a rock band from the end of the 60’s. If you haven’t heard of them, you’re probably quite familiar with their song Time of the Season which is synonymous with the free-spirited era and is often used in flashback sequences to the 60’s in sitcoms and movies. Their album Odessey and Oracle is an amazing piece of work and was recognized by Rolling Stone as the 80th best album on their list of the 500 Best Albums of All Time. The Zombies are an interesting story in that they disbanded before they saw any success with the release of Time of the Season as a single. As a result, Odessey and Oracle has been released at multiple times in various countries with different cuts and bonus tracks. Girl Help Me is one such bonus track and there is another version entitled Call of the Night. Both versions are great and worth finding along with the rest of the Zombies’ music if you’re a fan of the era.

Lyrics:

Last night I walked out to a darkening sky
I heard a sad song, and the song made me cry

Girl help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you
Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you

For when I was young with the fever of life
Your love cut my soul like a blade of a knife

Girl help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you
Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you

And when I take a look around to see what’s done
To see the sum of all that I’ve become
Then I see it’s true girl
There’s nothing there but you
(Oh girl)

Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you
Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you

And when I get to the dark at the end of the hall
I shout out you name but you don’t hear me call

Girl help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you
Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you
Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you
Help me, I
I can’t think of nothing but you

- opparaics

Y Society - Puzzles

I first heard of Damu the Fudgemunk when I saw a YouTube video of him banging out beats with his MPC at Washington Square Park. After downloading a free instrumental album, Overtime, I purchased the Y Society album. Y Society is Damu the Fudgemunk’s collaboration with underground rapper/producer Insight. Damu the Fudgemunk is the star of the show. His beats are reminiscent of early nineties hip-hop consisting of healthy amounts of jazz and soul samples and all the scratching your heart desires. I get the feeling that he is a record collector first and foremost and as a result he produces beats that take you back to a simpler time in hip-hop’s history.

- opparaics

Bear in Heaven - You Do You

Two Brooklyn-based band posts back-to-back, but I think it’s worth it. When I heard You Do You I actually thought it was Yeasayer. Aside from being based out of Brooklyn, the bands share a common psychedelic ambient sound on some songs with Bear in Heaven utilizing electronics more often. You Do You is off of the album Beast Rest Fort Mouth which has received some praise from the likes of Pitchfork. In my opinion, it’s a good album that requires some patience, but I think Pitchfork might be playing the we-have-better-taste-than-you-in-music card so you wouldn’t understand why our album rating is high (8.4).

- opparaics

Yppah - Again With the Subtitles

Yppah (happy backwards) is an electronic producer with instrumental albums that are much more rock-oriented compared to some of the artists I’ve posted about in the past. His latest release They Know What Ghost Know and the one prior to it You Are Beautiful at Times both feel as if they are soundtracks to climbing out of the dark void. They have this feeling of optimism and hope— of dusting off your jeans and walking again. Again With the Subtitles, in my opinion, has that feel and is one of the highlights off of You Are Beautiful at Times.

-opparaics

Wax Tailor - Lost the Way

Recently I found out that Wax Tailor had released a new album entitled In the Mood for Life. It has been a couple years since his last release and subsequently I had spent very little time listening to his music since then. So, I opened up iTunes, clicked on artists, typed W, scrolled down past Wah Wah Watson, The Walkmen, Warren G, Washed Out, the Wavves, and let Wax Tailor’s two previous albums, Hope & Sorrow and Tales of the Forgotten Melodies, ride out. He is definitely one of the more talented producers releasing electronic trip-hop albums. Lost the Way of off Tales… and is a melancholy song about humanity getting lost on the path to egalitarianism and human progress. An appropriate song as we wait to see if the health care bill gets passed by the Senate.

-opparaics

DJ Shadow - Six Days

If I were to be exiled from New York and stranded on a deserted island, left only to make friends with inanimate objects, DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing and The Private Press are two albums I’d consider taking along with me. Six Days is off of The Private Press and I think most people are probably more familiar with the remix featuring Mos Def which plays during the end credits of the movie Phone Booth. Shadow samples Colonel Bagshot’s song Six Day War here and provides a new and powerful dynamic for CB’s somber lyrics. Within DJ Shadows massive collection of work, Six Days would undoubtedly be on a “best of” album.

-opparaics

Daedelus - Make It So

I had a whole post comparing Daedelus to the Greek mythological character Daedalus and his moniker’s inspiration. There were Minotaurs, labyrinths, wings, and even a Bob Villa reference. But, a combination of me going to the fridge and Firefox’s impatient need to update caused my computer to restart and as a result my post is now buried in the deepest crevices of my computer’s memory. Here is the half-assed version:

Daedelus is essentially the Willy Wonka of music. His eccentric and ecletic style find a home on his various releases of cohesive musical experiments. It seems like he just honestly enjoys learning what combinations of sounds he is able to get away with. From his “solo” albums filled with vintage samples, thick basslines, crashing drums and chops to his collaborative effort with Laura Darlington in a folky-electronica group his production feels like a complex homage to a simpler time. Make It So is a catchy lil’ number on one of his more accessible albums, Love to Make Music To, but I would definitely recommend checking out some of his earlier albums like Invention, Of Snowdonia, and Exquisite Corpse. Fans of Flying-Lotus should enjoy listening to another producer originating from the LA scene prior to FlyLo himself.

- opparaics