Disco Volante - Brother Sport

MP3: Disco Volante – Brother Sport (Right-Click-Save-As)

The best live show I saw last summer, hands down, was Animal Collective at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. It was a steamy, tropical affair, a strange confluence of perfect weather and set design as late afternoon showers subsided just as the band took to a stage decorated like the Hawaiian Tiki stage of Super Mario Bros., complete with candy colored Easter Island heads, swaying cardboard cut-out waves and even a giant cartoon shark that leaped from the “water” and dove back in over and again like a star Sea World performer. As the sun set, we noticed tiny pink paper lanterns glowing on wires above our heads. I smoked a joint with some hippie kids.

The irresistible Brother Sport (fantastic video!), this week's title track, was arguably the highlight of the show, with its childlike faux-tribal chanting and hypnotizing electric bounce that had us bobbing up and down like idiots. Here's hoping this summer brings similar delights!

1. Animal Collective - Brother Sport (5:59)2. Broken Social Scene - All to All (4:49)3. Talking Heads - Making Flippy Floppy (4:40)4. Audio Two - I Don't Care (3:54)5. Wagon Christ - Thick Stew (7:47)6. The Amorphous Androgynous - David Holmes - What R We Stealing (3:12)7. Devo - Mongoloid (3:43)8. Liars - Tumbling Wall Buried Me In The Debris With Esg (4:05)9. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - T.A.T.B. (For The Saints And Sinners Remix) (7:29)10. The Jesus Lizard - Nub (2:58)11. The Fall - Hit The North Part 1 (4:00)12. Komeda - A Simple Formality (5:28)

Disco Volante - Oh, MJ!

MP3: Disco Volante - Oh, MJ! (Right-Click-Save-As)

The Little Ones are a great little band. With a charmingly naive sound just North of twee, this Los Angeles indie pop-quintet are a whole lot of fun, both on their 2006 EP Sing Song, and their 2008 full length debut Morning Tide. Their sound is a little bit Zombies, a little bit Cibo Matto, a little bit Yo-Gaba-Gaba-Hey, but never, in my opinion, too cute for its own good.

I'm not sure if "Oh MJ!" is about Michael Jackson (I sorta think so for some reason,) but it sure is infectious. This particular version of the song comes from the excellent Daytrotter Studio Sessions, who record many of your favorite pop bands to tremendous effect. Check 'em out!

1. The Little Ones - Oh, MJ! (Daytrotter Sessions) (5:17)2. +/- - Bow To The Middle (The Rosebuds) (2:47)3. Little Dragon - Never Never (3:37)4. White Hinterland - Moon Jam (4:19)5. DOOM - Absolutely (2:43)6. Shafiq Husayn - Dust & Kisses Ft. Noni Limar (4:10)7. The Bird And The Bee - One On One (3:40)8. Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower ['Check The Rhime'] (4:08)9. Brazilian Girls - Corner Store (4:13)10. Dorothy Ashby - By The Time I Get To Phoenix (3:31)11. Beauty Pill - Goodnight For Real (4:49)12. The Smiths - Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (3:14)13. Grandaddy - Where I'm Anymore (6:05)14. Microdisney - Hello Rascals (2:46)15. Maureen Owen - When You're Down and Under (1:03)

DISCO VOLANTE - Lover Of Mine

MP3: Disco Volante - Lover of Mine (Right-Click-Save-As)

Whenever I see Beach House vocalist/keyboardist Victoria Legrand perform , I just can't get over the contrast between her well-scrubbed, babyfaced looks and the smokey, bourbon-soaked vocals that spill out of her. It's a nice surprise. Togetho\er with bandmate, Alex Scally, this Baltimore duo form the core of Beach House, a band whose moody, etheric sound evokes both 1970's AM-Gold and today's cutting edge psychedelia. 'Lover of Mine', a track off their fantastic new record Teen Dream, has a timeless, dream-like quality, as soothing as it is challenging, and it's the first song on today's playlist...

1. Beach House - Lover Of Mine (5:06) 2. Dam-Funk - Mirrors (3:19) 3. The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble - Mystic Voyage (For Roy Ayers) (4:25) 4. Vicki Anderson - Home Is Where the Hatred Is (5:31) 5. The Association - Along Comes Mary (2:48) 6. Paul Weller - All The Pictures On The Wall (3:57) 7. Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun (4:23) 8. Stereolab - Allures (3:29) 9. Special Ed - Ya Wish Ya Could (3:48) 10. Rza - daily routine (4:23) 11. Public Image Ltd. - Careering (4:32) 12. The Slits - I Heard it Through the Grapevine (4:00) 13. Talking Heads - The Book I Read (demo) (2:55)

DISCO VOLANTE - 2009 Devastator Jr. Awards!

Stuff these in your stocking!

To be honest, 2009 was such a great year for new music, I couldn't possibly choose just ten albums for a 'Best Of' list. So instead, this year I did something a little different. I made a mix featuring songs from some of my favorite albums, not necessarily in top ten order, only kinda sorta that way. So ultimately, YOU get to decide. Isn't that neat?

There's a lot of great stuff I had to leave out, like Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx II, Dark Was The Night, and Shafiq En'a Free's Ka, and on and on, apologies to all, but I only have so much time to fool around making arbitrary lists.

To find out which albums these songs come from and see the whole durned list in all its glory, with album artwork and more goofy comments, jump to the 2009 Devastator Jr. Awards at Rate Your Music and go hog wild.

Happy New Year!

MP3: Disco Volante - The 2009 Devastator Jr. Awards (Right-Click-Save-As)

1. Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears - Sugarfoot (3:18)2. The Flaming Lips - Silver Trembling Hands (3:58)3. Dam-Funk - Brookside Park (9:49)4. Animal Collective - No More Runnin (4:23)5. St. Vincent - Dig A Pony (The Beatles) (4:09)6. Neko Case - People Got A Lotta Nerve (2:35)7. Camera Obscura - French Navy (3:19)8. Fever Ray - Triangle Walks (4:23)9. DOOM - Gazzillion Ear (4:11)10. The Fiery Furnaces - I'm Going Away (2:27)11. Broadcast - Creation Day The Travel Flute Way (0:33)

Disco Volante - Convinced Of The Hex

For me, the bizarre career of The Flaming Lips is a perfect example of just how wrong you can be. As a music fan, I'd known about them for years, long before their seminal breakout album The Soft Bulletin, and I'd always considered them born losers. They were an ok band, pretty cool and interesting to noise fans actually, but far too weird for mainstream appeal. She Don't Use Jelly? Come on! But a friend mine was adamant that they were the best band in the world, he even bought Zaireeka, their baffling boombox experimental album that required you play its four discs in four separate players just to listen to the thing. Then in 1999 came The Soft Bulletin. Wow, that lumpy, ugly, punk rock caterpillar had somehow transformed into this gorgeous, multi-layered butterfly. And in 2002 they did it again with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

The 'Lips new album, Embryonic, is another instant classic. This time just dangling on the edge of accessibility, it's a masterpiece of fuzzed out psychedelia and propulsive krautrock rhythms. It's just shocking how good these guys are. I was wrong all along, and I couldn't be happier! So here's the first track off the album to start our playlist.

Also, this episode is dedicated to legendary Lower East Side poet Jim Carroll, who died this summer. His book The Basketball Diaries is the kind of thing you read as a mixed up kid in high school that changes your life forever. I know it did mine. Cheers Jim!

MP3: Disco Volante - Convinced Of The Hex (Right-Click-Save-As)

1. The Flaming Lips - Convinced Of The Hex (3:56)2. Deerhoof - Running Thoughts (3:47)3. Gang Starr - Manifest (4:56)4. William Onyeabor - Better Change Your Mind (8:23)5. Marianne Faithfull - Broken English (4:40)6. Ween - Back To Basom (3:46)7. Yo La Tengo - I'm On My Way (4:36)8. Nellie McKay - Gin Rummy (2:59)9. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career (4:19)10. Air - Tropical Disease (6:47)11. Joyce - Feminina (3:48)12. Jim Carroll - "A Peculiar-Looking Girl" (6:22)

Disco Volante - Mudra

Greetings True Believers, this week's playlist is very much a trip down memory lane, most of the music being stuff I was listening to back in the '90's, with a few exceptions. And who better to head such a list than one of our absolute favorites, those Gallic titans of indie-rock, the nearly perpetual Stereolab.

Though currently on "hiatus," the Groop, as they are affectionately known by rabid fans, remain our personal superheroes around here. After almost twenty years of live performance, touring, fourteen stuido albums, and endless b-sides, compilations and rarities, I can't think of a band more fearlessly experimental, effortlessly brilliant or more deserving of a vacation. Let's hope they enjoy the time off and get back to work quick.

The baffling Mudra is exceptionally weird, even for them, and comes from the cute-as-a-button and totally awesome Dimension Mix compilation from 2005.

Enjoy!

MP3: Disco Volante - Mudra (Right-Click-Save-As)

1. Stereolab - Mudra (6:44) 2. Yoko Ono - O'oh (1:31) 3. Yo La Tengo - Moby Octopad (5:47) 4. The Silver Jews - Smith & Jones Forever (3:18) 5. Lush - De-Luxe (3:31) 6. Vivian Girls - Where Do You Run To? (3:14) 7. Pavement - Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse) (3:15) 8. Swervedriver - Rave Down (5:06) 9. Cornelius - New Music Machine (3:52) 10. Cornershop - Free Love (5:37) 11. De La Soul - Long Island Degrees (3:29) 12. Wu-Tang Clan - Tearz (4:17) 13. Talking Heads - Sax and Violins (5:18) 14. Harry Nilsson - Put the Lime in the Coconut (3:51)

Disco Volante - If Not Now, When?

Welcome back, true believers! I hope you all had a wonderful summer full of trees, parks, picnics, skinny-dipping, beenie weenie, staring at your cousins cut-offs and lemonade. But now that it's back to school time, I hope to get back to a weekly schedule here, bringing you the newest in old music for your listening enjoyment, so stay tuned.

This week's headliners are those fun-loving gals from Brighton, England, formerly known as Electrelane. While not exactly jazz rock, their sound still reminds me, in some rudimentary way, of the music of Charles Mingus, the way it careens wildly from structured elegance to barley controlled chaos, often within the same song. Though originally an entirely instrumental band, the 2004, Steve Albini produced record The Power Out added vocals to varied and startling effect, especially on tracks like gorgeous gregorian chanted The Valleys. Sadly, for mysterious reasons known only to them, the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2007, after releasing the excellent No Shouts, No Calls record, from which we take our opening song...

MP3: Disco Volante - If Not Now, When? (Right-Click-Save-As)

1. Electrelane - If Not Now When? (5:47)2. The Kinks - Lazy Old Sun (2:48)3. Sun Ra - Friendly Galaxy (2:17)4. Boards of Canada - Aquarius (5:57)5. Mike Ladd - Off To Mars? (4:25)6. De La Soul - Transmitting Live From Mars (1:12)7. The Sexual Life of the Savages - Fellini - Zum Zum Zazoeira (5:35)8. Lambchop - I Can Hardly Spell My Name (3:24)9. Calexico - Alone Again or (3:25)10. The Free Design - Umbrellas (Peanut Butter Wolf Mix) (3:56)11. Stereolab & Brigitte Fontaine - Caliméro (6:25)12. The U.M.C's - It's Gonna Last (3:56)13. Ken Nordine - You're Getting Better (2:07)