GHOST ANIMAL

2010-09-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

THE SEA STRETCHED LIKE SILK ACROSS THE BAY. DISTANCE HAD AN EXTRAORDINARY POWER; THEY HAD BEEN SWALLOWED UP IN IT, SHE FELT, THEY WERE GONE FOR EVER, THEY HAD BECOME PART OF THE NATURE OF THINGS. IT WAS SO CALM; IT WAS SO QUIET.

2010-09-12T23:18:00.001-07:00

2010-09-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

MAYBE I'M JUST CRAZY

2010-05-28T14:31:00.001-07:00

The (I'm assuming) title track of off Best Coast's debut album Crazy For You coming out on July 27th from Mexican Summer. A simple two-chord love song that's about as sunny as Bethany gets. Catchy, quick, over before you know it; it's not hard to imagine a teenage girl singing this to herself in the mirror, pretending she's confessing her love to, er, her love.

(via p4k)

GONE FOR THE SUMMER

2010-05-28T00:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a stand-out track by up-and-coming chillgazers Teen Daze called "Gone for the Summer pt. 2". Hope ol' Ernie Greene is watching his back because Teen Daze is set to set the soundtrack for summer (indeed, TD has already got Washed Out covered.)

Some serious driving around on a warm LA afternoon music. Can't wait to drive up to SF on Tuesday and blast this shit all up and down the 5.

Teen Daze - Gone for the Summer pt. 2 (link via p4k.)

MOVING PAST THE FEELING

2010-05-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

HOW LONG HAVE WE WAITED. Here is the brand-new Arcade Fire single, "The Suburbs." Slated for an official release tomorrow, apparently some copies of the 12" vinyl have found their way into indie record shops nation-wide. It's kind of like the hunt for the golden ticket, except instead of a day with a crazy man you get another fucking gorgeous sidewalk-ramble track by Canada's greatest export since they invented the winter Olympics and Neil Young.

Arcade Fire - The Suburubs

UPDATE: 130bpm has posted a link to Month of May:

Arcade Fire - Month of May

DO DRUGS/FALL IN LOVE

2010-05-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Here is "Daffodils" off of Coma Cinema's free-to-download Baby Prayers. An absolutely gorgeous song that somewhat recalls early Shins, Death Cab, and everything else good about what you listened to in high school with some fuzz underfoot to boot. With a catchy half-whispered chorus singing "Do drugs, do drugs and fall in love. There's nothing better than drugs in love," this song takes over even the steeliest ropes of your heart. Both intimate and anthemic, it's songs like this that signal Coma Cinema's coming greatness. Go to their website to download the album and buy an awesome t-shirt (waiting for mine!).

Coma Cinema - Daffodils

2010-05-20T00:34:00.001-07:00

havent updated in a while. marisa and i drove down from portland to the bay on saturday, then drove down to la on monday. we've done these things:
- watch hours of modern family and castle
- wander around the promenade in santa monica and spend way too much money and amazing clothes and shoes
- hang out with my family
- spend the day at disneyland
- be exhausted at a hookah bar

tomorrow we will either:
- go to the beach
- do nothing
- wander around and go shopping with my mom.

ive got my new guitar, shes fucking amazing. havent had much of a chance to really play. but ive started hearing all these songs in my head, so new recordings are imminent.

that's all for now. listen to this song, i cant get enough of it:

ghost animal & snow cat do disneyland

FINALS WEEK MIX

2010-05-08T17:33:00.001-07:00

this mix is getting me through reading/finals week. sadly i do not have the time to upload mp3s for it so i'll just list the songs cause this is a minor procrastination:
(list is in random so it's in no order). also it's sunny and warm as fuck outside. it's so beautiful out and i'm stuck here but i'm writing a paper on the most beautiful book i've ever read (The End of the Affair by Graham Greene). so yeah. and i'm cracked out as fuck on coffee and nerves. backspace show tonight. freaking out. ok.

fog machine - fresh & onlys
ginger - twin sister
so gone - best coast
first things first - john k.
monster - magic man
i was thinking... - gauntlet hair
burden - mantles
lily never married - mantles
bury me dead - mantles
gian lorenzo bernini - memoryhouse
hall - baths
disappearing act - mantles (so into mantles right now)
whats in it for? - avi buffalo
the curse - cults
the fog rose high - craft spells
you should close the door - craft spells
this is real - best coast
weed demon - wavves

wish me luck.

x
ghost

GHOST ANIMAL

2010-05-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

my newest track for you all lovelies

<a href="http://ghostanimal.bandcamp.com/track/one-night-2">One Night by Ghost Animal</a>

<3

CRAFT SPELLS

2010-05-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

just downloaded CRAFT SPELL's single "The Fog Rose High" and my mind was fucking blown. equal parts jesus and mary chain and new order with a healthy dose of that lovely synth-gaze. i just can't get over it. it's fucking incredible. i'm also cracked out as shit but this is keeping me straight and level. i've gotta get in touch with these guys and do something with them. seriously, listen to this song. it's like everything i've ever wanted (to do) and more. i'm being so shitty with good journalistic description but i'd rather just rave about how much i love this song. but yeah think like new order meets its own zeitgeisted doppelgänger and they have some kind of fucking superchild.

NEW DRUMS SINGLE!

2010-05-06T01:21:00.000-07:00

Summer's coming, and so is the Drums' self-titled debut LP. They just posted a link to their newest video which is featured on The Sun's website. No idea why they haven't gotten as big in the US as they have in England. But anyway, it's everything you love about the Drums and more:

The Drums - Forever and Ever Amen (external link)

<3

UPANDCOMINGS

2010-05-05T16:00:00.001-07:00

a variety of upandcomings:
posts about:
FAUX FUR
BYE BYE BLACKBIRD
SKELETAL SYSTEM
BATHS
TWIN SISTER

other things:
SPLIT 7" W/ FAUX FUR
DEBUT EP SOMETIME SOON
JULY CALI TOUR W/ SKELETAL SYSTEM & BYE BYE BLACKBIRD

more to follow.

also i'm buying the danelectro.

THE MANTLES

2010-05-05T15:08:00.001-07:00

So last night I realized I still had some lala.com credit left that I should probably spend before Apple swallows it whole (side note: fucking seriously, lala.com rules because shit is cheaper and the files are unprotected - also, the new iTunes store doesn't work on my ghetto-ass OS X.5) and I ended up spending about $30. One of the albums I bought was The Mantles' self-titled album. I'd never listened to them before but had seen them show up on a variety of reputable sources (attractive girls' last.fms, yvynyl's mixtapes, etc). And fuck this is one of the best bands I've heard in a long long time. I'm so shit at blogging. Anyway here is their song Burden that for some reason stood out to me on my first listen through of the album. Currently listening to Bury Me Dead, which you should also check out. I can't even begin describing their sound, it's such an odd yet logical mix of influences - Orange Juice, the Fall, Monks, Sonics, Joy Division, etc etc etc. So here, listen:

The Mantles - Burden

ALSO I'M SEEING THEM ON JUNE 15TH. Along with Woods, Kurt Vile, Abe Vigoda, Real Estate, and a million other bands. Woodsist festival at the Echoplex. So excited.

<3

WANT!

2010-04-27T22:26:00.001-07:00

omg want so bad. will accept donations. my birthday is in less than two months! i think i will get this. it's only $475 + $35 shipping. $510...not bad yeh? considering that two years ago i got a $500 banjo. maybe i'll sell it and get this guitar instead. i never play the banjo which makes me feel kind of bad cause i really wanted it for a while and now it just sits all detuned in my room looking sad. i'm going to go play it now in fact.

MAGIC MAN

2010-04-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

outstanding track from my contemporaries new duo MAGIC MAN. they're a Boston-based duo and are now sophomores at, respectively, Yale and Tufts. their first release Real Life Color is available for free download over at Arcade Sound Ltd.. this song is called "Monster" and well it's pretty fucking fantastic. i'm listening to the entire album through right now. i highly recommend it. hmm. yeah. the sun is out and it's raining outside. it's that time of year for confusing and somewhat arresting weather. i just want to sit inside and eat caramel cone ice cream and read virginia woolf and listen to memoryhouse, twin sister, and magic man. yeah. alright. here y'are.

MAGIC MAN - MONSTER

<3

wooohoooo new best coast!!!!

2010-04-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

pirated straight from pitchfork, which in turned lifted it from Bright Falls, a brand new Best Coast song! i'm listening to it right now (will link as soon as diegetically i have finished). it's gorgeous, love it. "you took all my money, you took all my weed." ah, sounds like the last vestigal autumnal crumblings of some kind of doomed summer romance. hey, turns out bethany's actually got a fucking gorgeous voice. but we already knew that if we were paying any attention to Best Coast at all. she can't hide behind the fuzz for too long. ok song's done. i hope this is on the album. anywhere here it is. (oh shit it's on repeat!)

Best Coast - Our Deal

if i can figure out how to rip it i'll post an mp3

<3

ANTLERS

2010-04-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

Hospice, the first (so to speak) LP of Brooklyn-based bedroom-project-cum-atmospheric-epicenter-of-chilling-heartache, is without a doubt one of the most beautiful albums i've heard in a very long time (probably since i became obsessed with Iron & Wine's Creek Drank the Cradle). The album is based around the story of someone dying slowly in a hospital. Here is a fantastic video Pitchfork posted of them playing "Kettering."

2010-04-20T22:39:00.001-07:00

woooooooah jesus new crystal castles album (also, frustratingly titled Crystal Castles, henceforth CCII or CC+) is so fucking amazing. am listening to it now once through, then will post a track or two from it. also my very first ever interview is up!! check it out! sodapopculture.tumblr.com :)!!!!!!!!!

TAWNY OWL

2010-04-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Tawny Owl is Jack Ramm, my friend Joe's best friend from university. He makes some of the most incredible gorgeous music I have ever heard. Check out his first single, Ghost Writer (inspired by the Philip Roth novel). Namechecks Anne Frank, Nathan Zuckerman, and (Pete?) Doherty. And soundchecks just about anyone you can ever think of. Ian Curtis, Scott Walker, Phil Spector...just, listen to it. He is going to be huge. If not there's no point then.

ALL I WANT

2010-04-16T15:45:00.001-07:00

i think this is the best song i've heard all year. wearing clear and heavy echoes of "Heroes," LCD Soundsystem really makes me think: christ why bother? it doesn't get much better than this.

EMAY

2010-04-15T17:14:00.001-07:00

while we're at it check out this fucking mashup masterwork by canadian beatthumper Emay:

Emay, Karen, and the Kids – Worried Shoesbynmemagazine

fucking awesome! (stolen from nme)

OLD FOREST

2010-04-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

i gotta run and take a shower and then go out to thai food with my girlfriend but first i want to share this lofi buzzfuck by londoners and kindred scuzzpunks Old Forest. due to lack of proper recording equipment their song "tv" was recorded on a video camera (if you're reading this, come to california i'll record your shit for reals!). vocals emerge through the mucknfuzz like a blasé wavves-surfing zombie. fuck it even at this lofi quality i'd buy a 7" of these shambledemons. check em out.

OLD FOREST

direct link to "TV" courtesy of the band themselves:

TV.

shamble on.

-ghostttt

harlem

2010-04-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

nogood lofi shambling thrashpunk from austin band Harlem off their latest album, Hippies (which i just paid cashmoney for on lala). gay human bones is the first song i heard (think i got it from ol' pitchfork). it's awesome, check it out. loose and catchy as fuck.

Gay Human Bones - Harlem

fluffy lumbers

2010-04-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

killer chill-fi from ridgewood new jersey's (home of, among many, Real Estate) one-man bedroom project Fluffy Lumbers. can't find any direct links and am currently too lazy to upload (will edit if I do) but head over to his myspace and check out "cruiser" and "harry dolland's". fucking amazing tracks.

FLUFFY LUMBERS

single man

2010-04-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

finally recorded a new song. called 'single man' - wrote it after seeing tom ford's unbelievably gorgeous film. it's not really about the story but i had it in mind when i was writing it, for whatever that's worth. probably my heaviest jamc-esque song. originally was going to have the first few seconds be a distorted clip from 'happy when it rains' ("and we try so hard and we look so good" - i toy with those lines and sing "i'm not trying too hard, i'm not looking too good"). anyway check it out:

<a href="http://ghostanimal.bandcamp.com/track/single-man">Single Man by Ghost Animal</a>

go here for other songs of mine: GHOST ANIMAL.

will return with other songs that aren't mine tomorrow.

christ i'm hungry.

real estate

2010-04-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

new jersey's rising Real Estate. one album down, already another and an ep on the way. something a bit different even though they seem to have all the basic elements of chillsurf, beachwave, surfgoth, whatever. one the vivian girls i seem to recall claims they're our generations pavement. anyway, it's taken the album a while to grow on me, but it finally has. here's one of the many killerchiller songs on the album, fake blues.

it's nice because they sound like the just almost don't care.

fleetwood mac

2010-04-07T16:06:00.001-07:00

sure it's wednesday afternoon but what the hell. i love this song.

surfer blood/weezer

2010-04-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

so i have a confession. until today i'd never heard Pinkerton before. in fact, i've only heard two weezer songs in my life before today. beverley hills, which you couldn't move without catching somewhere a few summers ago, and 'falling for you' which gillian sent me the other week. her outcry at my never having listened to weezer prompted me to download pinkerton. and so i'm listening to it now and thinking, jesus, where was this when i was fifteen? why was i obessed with zeppelin and the doors? anyway, here's an excellent song by one of their most obvious inheritors, Florida's Surfer Blood.

warpaint

2010-04-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

just finished writing a paper to this little tune. fucking gorgeous slowgaze kind of dirge by LA upandcoming chanteuses Warpaint. seriously. gorgeous song.

Stars - Warpaint

omg

2010-04-04T18:23:00.001-07:00

omg playing backspace on may 8th with youthbitch and wilder (probably). kind of reed band showcase night. trying to get eat skull to maybe play with us too. YEAH! first real ghost animal gig!!!!

mat riviere

2010-04-03T21:31:00.001-07:00

two amazing songs by mat riviere, a friend of a friend of mine from england (my friend goes to University of East Anglia in Norwich with him). the second song, castroreale, absolutely changed the way i thought about and approached music. he's unbelievable. a "freaky genius," in my friend's words.

FYH - Mat Riviere

Castroreale - Mat Riviere

sun's not high neither am i

2010-04-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

it's grey and rainy a bit outside but still i can't this feeling that summer's coming. i'll be home in less than two months. in almost a month actually. this is anticipation:

CULTS

2010-04-01T02:58:00.000-07:00

so pretty much the newest crazehype is Cults, two 21 year olds from san diego currently studying film in new york city and oh shit they make this fucking crazy-good strange pop music that seems to combine all kinds of different genres that have emerged in the last couple of years. everyone by now im sure has heard 'go outside', the almost painfully catchy tune that got them noticed by pitchfork. just downloaded this song, 'the curse', which is on their bandcamp for free and is not on the 'go outside' 7" (yellow vinyl! totally buying it). but it's crazy fucking good. like stupidly good. and it showcases a bit of their darker side, a nice counter to the sunshine gloompop of 'go outside' and 'most wanted'. instead we get a 60s girlpop song that manages not to be buried under the countless layers of fuzz made so popular by my near and dear lofi popqueens (dum dum girls, best coast, etc). instead we get dark distorted guitars and boomclap dancehall choirs and a song that owes in equal measure a sturdy debt to "he hit me" and man man than to, say, the simply the sunnier sides of lesley gore.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://cults.bandcamp.com/track/the-curse"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Curse by Cults&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

my boy lollipop

2010-03-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

"she's a first wave ska darling."
- g

i'm starting to think music has never really been as good as it was in the 60s.

go outside?

2010-03-31T14:37:00.001-07:00

it is pouring rain and hailing like hellstorm, jesus christ. makes me think of this song in a funny way:

cults - go outside
killer song. très catchy.

love comes close

2010-03-31T02:58:00.000-07:00

fuck this song is so good.

2010-03-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

found best coast's pre-best coast music online. very indiefolk. and strangely it makes me think of how i was once kind of indiefolk too and then suddenly became all about fuzzed out blissedup beachpop. sooo weird. like my older ghost animal stuff versus what i do now. of course i blame it all on jesus and mary chain and my bloody valentine.

CEREMONY

2010-03-30T15:46:00.001-07:00

Ceremony - Galaxie 500

Ceremony - New Order

paradise misplaced

2010-03-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

it's all grey and cold and rainy here again as if the earth and its seasons suddenly decided to stand still. i'm missing class - we're discussing the first 60 pages of sartre's la nausée which is all too appropriate a descriptor for my mood the past year or so - and instead sitting on my bed listening to galaxie 500 and thinking about finishing paradise lost. well i have to, ive got class later tonight and i should have it finished by then.

first real practice with marisa last night playing drums jesus and mary chain style. went really really well actually. she's a natural. keeps time really well, and has a good general feel for songs and stuff. we knocked out a couple covers (be my baby, that's the way boys are, so bored), wrote a song (sheena is alright) and worked on through your eyes. we should be ready by friday.

alright i need more caffeine. i haven't been sleeping much because i stay up until all kinds of nearmorning hours with this girl of mine a curltwisted wildflower of the hedges. she says im ridiculous but that's alright and then she comes over and takes my clothes but they look better on her anyway.

thinking of blue thunder now.

Blue Thunder - Galaxie 500

2010-03-29T21:18:00.001-07:00

finished my qual thank god. still have an obscene amount of work to do tonight. and still have to practice with marisa cause we've got a show friday night. and i have to make flyers for it as well. christ. oh well. and i'm tired.

but this is keeping me alive right now:

marisa's a new ghost

2010-03-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

max my current drummer has more or less fallen off the map for now so let me introduce you to my new drummer:

her name's marisa. she's my best friend. i started teaching her how to play drums today. she's going to rock hard.

i need to finish my qual. and listen to jesus and mary chain nonstop.

marisa and i are going to have our first real practice later tonight. maybe post some pictures.

summer tour info also coming soon. once i like figure out how to plan one. gonna tour with youthbitch maybe, and matt & matt maybe. youthbitch is a band made up of friends of mine who play searing grilltop backyard psychgarage. matt & matt is another reed band, they play improvisation drum/guitar noise. they're fucking awesome.

ok massive paperwriting time now.

m

2010-03-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

started my qual. got 3/12-18 pages done. due monday at noon. im pretty set. time for drinking now. listened to an unmixed and unvoxed track by my friend cameron. so good! gonna try to get him to be in ghost animal this summer, play some shows up and down california. what the hell else am i gonna do?

song of the moment:

fuck yeah pixies!

2010-03-23T00:32:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I'm in the library doing all kinds of crazy Englishmajor work. Hard to promote and get a musical project off the ground while I'm so grounded by the strenuous demands of cold college. Rainy Portland. Cold loveless lifeless breath. So I'm sitting here listening to Warpaint and about to read some Paradise Lost. Listen to this because it's the best song ever:

-ga