We’re halfway through the summer concert season, which means it’s too late to grab tickets for the big name acts coming around. So what’s a guy to do if he needs a last minute date? Or what if friends are coming to town, or he just needs a night out? Don’t worry, man. Headphones is here to shine a light on the best unknowns playing today, so you can cozy up in some little club downtown and catch some great tunes (which is the only way to hear them without a record player, in the case of our album pick). So plug in, push play, and get set for this week’s Headphones.
Album: Cassette by Viet Cong
Viet Cong is one of the best post-punk bands performing today, though you wouldn’t know that unless you’d seen them live. And not in that “Phish are only good live” kinda way. In the way of “They only have one album, and it’s only sold at tour stops. And its on cassette.” The album, appropriately titled Cassette, required a concert ticket and your boom box from 1998 just to be able to hear it up until now, with Mexican Summer reissuing it on vinyl (bad news for digital fans, there’s no immediate plans for an mp3 release). The listener may find themselves even more angry they couldn’t have it sooner once they hear how sonically satisfying and tonally consistent the album is. It’s an extremely promising debut from the band, and it’ll wet your appetite for their next album.
Single: “Milly’s Garden” by Steve Gunn
Brooklyn-based indie artist (and former Kurt Vile guitarist) Steve Gunn is back with a new track off of the upcoming Way Out Weather, and its Beck-eqsue mellow drive creates a perfect environment for Gunn’s bluesy guitar riffs. Gunn’s music has always had a Clapton/Allman vibe in its guitar playing, while sonically rooting itself in this post-Radiohead era. “Milly’s Garden” is the kind of mellow jam worthy of this brutal summer weather, the kind you roll the windows down for and cruise down the highway, lost in the mystic of the music.
Music Videos:
Electronica: "Dynamite" by Afrojack
It’s extremely fitting that an Afrojack video featuring Snoop Dogg would combine both genre’s aesthetics and tropes: the kaleidoscopic visuals and bizarre shot choices of an EDM video and the party setting and gyrating hips of the typical hip-hop hit. That said, its hard not to enjoy this new release, both for its catchy melody and its clearly self-aware blending of cliches. If you think perhaps the director wasn’t aware of how absurd both video genre’s have gotten, and that this video is sincere rather than skewering, just wait for the explosive ending.
Hip-Hop: "Pills N’ Potions" by Nicki Minaj
Love her or hate her, Nicki Minaj is an inescapable force in hip-hop today, and even if hit-wise she’s yet to top “Super Bass”, her videos keep getting better and better, as is the case with the artfully trippy “Pills N Potions”. The song showcases her softer side, while the video plays like a typical female hip-hop ballad that slowly deteriorates into madness.
Pop: "URL Badman" by Lily Allen
Lily Allen has never been shy about her strained relationship with internet press, and with this track off of her third album, she spits all of her typical cutesy vitriol at those foul, awful smug internet based music critics tapping away at their laptops. We’d be offended if it wasn’t so good.
R&B: "Two Weeks" by FKA twigs
Dazzling. That’s all that can be said about the video for “Two Weeks”. Inventive. Stunning. Memorable. It’s the kind of ambitious artistry that staggers opinions and evokes one word reviews. If there’s a must see video this week, this is it by far.
Rock: "Maps" by Maroon 5
Maroon 5 released a new video on July 2nd, and if you’re in a relationship, odds are you’ve seen it ad nauseum since your significant others finds Adam Levine “so dreamy” (it’s a law of nature, one person in every relationship has a thing for Levine, and the other always hates him for that reason). However, if you somehow haven’t seen it, set aside the disdain for the current “Sexiest Man Alive” and enjoy what might be the band’s best video to date.
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