Month: April 2015

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MIX TAPE

Beth Bombara Makes MAGNET A Mix Tape

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Americana singer/songwriter Beth Bombara‘s story began as many musician’s did, with punk. She was in a punk band with some high-school friends and was given time to explore music. After finding her place in music, playing soothing Americana for the masses, she now she readies for the release of her self-titled album, due out June 23. Bombara has been so kind as to make MAGNET a mix tape, so check it out below!

Smith And Weeden “Aim To Please”
I heard these guys for the first time at one of our shows in Nashville last fall, and I was immediately blown away. The chorus is such an anthem: “Don’t you try to speak to them of anything/They only aim to please.” Bonus points for putting on a raucous live show while also being super-friendly dudes. Audio

Bill Withers “Use Me”
I keep wanting to do a cover of this tune, but I’m going to wait until I figure out how to do it justice. What a sweet jam. Video

Big Star “Thirteen”
Remember when the world was still big and exciting, and falling in love was some new revelation? This song takes me back there. Video

Sturgil Simpson “Turtles All The Way Down”
My friend Jacob introduced me to this record during a tour last year. Jacob and I don’t always see eye to eye on music, but we can agree that Sturgill Simpson’s got some kinda magic that I hope to catch from him. Video

Karl Kling “Forward Thinker”
Karl Kling’s whole record is already a classic for me even though it just came out this month (a lot of people know him from his other project: RAC). This tune is comfortable leaving questions hanging in the air. So good. Audio

Mates Of State “Get Better”
I have such a soft spot for Mates Of State; they were an important part of my soundtrack as a young musician. I remember seeing them in a small dive bar where I grew up in Michigan, and having the best time. I felt inspired to be myself and do my own thing. Video

Spoon “Don’t You Evah”
I just found out recently that this is a cover song … Crazy cause this is one of my favorite Spoon jams. Both Spoon’s version and the original, by the Natural Selection, are cool in their own right. Spoon video / Natural Selection video

Dr. Dog “Lonesome”
“What does it take to be lonesome? Nothing at all” This tune is somehow whimsical and dark all at the same time. That’s a tough line to walk. Video

The Velvet Underground “Sunday Morning”
Can anyone other than Lou Reed make a song so beautiful and peaceful and sad? Video

Laura Veirs “The Sun Song”
Every time I hear this song, it feels like waking up out of a stupor and throwing the windows open on the first day of spring. Video

The Kinks “Mountain Woman”
Ahh, the Kinks. Don’t know if any other British band could make sense of a “rural America” concept album like Muswell Hillbillies, but it’s one of my favorite Kinks records. This tune has a great old Southern rock vibe, and the vocals are spot on. Video

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GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of Torche: Cool Weather

Back in 2005, when Torche unleashed its debut helping of thunderous doom-pop, guitarist/vocalist Steve Brooks’ former band, Floor, was dead and buried. Never again would Brooks’ former and present groups compete for his time and attention. Well, never say never. Floor dropped Oblation last April. Suddenly, “a few reunion gigs” became a time-consuming reality, with Brooks balancing two bands’ write/record/tour cycles. It’s a juggling act Torche has been at since 2008 when members started moving away from the group’s Miami home base. Restarter, the band’s fourth LP, packs in all the familiar elements, but does so with a looser, more somber tone and sullen mood. The members of Torche will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.

CoolWeather

Steve Brooks: So, you know, I grew up in Miami. Most of the year is humid, wet and miserable. I don’t have the body to be naked in public, so layers are the way to go. Then, I moved to San Francisco, and it’s cool all year long. Gimme that fall and spring feeling.

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VIDEOS

Film At 11: Dan Deacon

Dan Deacon recently dropped the critically acclaimed Gliss Riffer and now offers a new video for current single “When I Was Done Dying.” The clip was directed by Adult Swim’s Off The Air, and, as may be expected, it’s a hallucinatory trip. The animation is fantastic, but it’s all brought to life with the music. Check it out below.

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FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Kuroma

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Brooklyn and Athens, Ga.-based psych/pop quartet Kuroma consists of three members of MGMT and will release full-length Kuromarama this spring. Now the band offers fun single “20+ Centuries” for free download, and you don’t want to miss it. The garage-rock energy captured on this album is unreal and couldn’t be more different than the band’s previous projects. Download “20+ Centuries” below.

“20+ Centuries” (download):

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PHONING IT IN

Phoning It In: “Underwater Woman”

TMBG

They Might Be Giants have resurrected their ingenious Dial-A-Song concept by streaming a new song each week of 2015 at www.dialasong.com. MAGNET’s Matthew Fritch reviews them all.

Last week, we learned that They Might Be Giants will release a new full-length, Glean, and it will include “many” of the 2015 Dial-A-Song tracks. We were all set to predict the tracklisting this week, but the internet had other plans. At a glance, we know 10 of the 15 tracks already. It is a sensible lineup, and it leads off with the strongest track (“Erase”). I would’ve put “No Cops” in the first slot, because that’s the only place it could have gone (as it turns out, it does not appear on Glean). The Jonathan Richman cover (“I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar”) was appropriately left out as well. It’s going to be a good album, and the Johns should do whatever they damn well please, and there is no crying in baseball—but if you could cherrypick from a whole year’s worth of Dial-A-Song, a pool of 52 songs, how great could that have been?

The question hangs, and we move on to this week’s entry. Sort of. As I add each weekly track to iTunes, the songs are arranged alphabetically. After listening to “Underwater Woman,” last week’s “Unpronounceable” (rated 5/10 for a perceived 1980s complex) came on, and I realized I was too harsh. It’s more like a 7/10, because it has a good melody. This occurred to me because “Underwater Woman” does not.

File-A-Song: 4/10