Jon Hopkins

I'm not really an electronics type, but Jon Hopkins participated in one of my absolute favorite albums from a couple of years ago, a joint effort with King Creosote, where he surrounded the really gorgeous, fragile folk melodies of KC with oddly evocative bits of found and manufactured sound...Immunity Jon Hopkins latest solo album is a bit drier and more abstract (because, doh, it doesn't have King Creosote on it), but quite lovely in spots. Here's a video while I try to think of something intelligent to say about it for Blurt.



Sorry I've been so haphazard lately. My work has picked up a bit, and I'm in the middle of track meet frenzy (three meets this week, two next...good times).

Come again?

Matador is reissuing 11:11, the debut album from Come, a searingly powerful piece of work, described very ably by David Sprague in the band's Trouserpress entry:

Eleven: Eleven is very much a guitar tour de force, drenched as it is in the sweaty fluids that come forth when the six-strings of Zedek (a veteran of Boston's Dangerous Birds and New York's Live Skull) and Chris Brokaw (who served concurrently as Codeine's drummer until 1993) rub against each other. The guitarists seldom settle into standard lead/rhythm roles; rather, they hydroplane in roughly parallel arcs over the steadfast rhythms laid down by drummer Arthur Johnson (formerly a member of spazz-punk ensemble the Bar-B-Q Killers) and bassist Sean O'Brien (who played with the Kilkenny Cats). On tracks like "Brand New Vein" and "Submerge," the atmosphere verges on the oppressive, the air heavy and blue-black with a pharmacological ennui that only abates on the double-barreled windup of "Fast Piss Blues" and a cover of the Stones' "I Got the Blues."

Come has been playing a few shows (and has a tour planned). Here's video from a 2011 reunion show.



And dates, mostly Europe and very large American cities on both coasts (with Chicago in the middle).
5/17-19 Orange Blossom Special Festival Beverungen DM
5/20 Bitterzoet Amsterdam NL
5/22 The Ruby Lounge Manchester UK
5/23 Dingwalls London, UK
5/24 Instant Chavires, Paris FR
5/26 Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona ES
5/27 Le Romandie Lausanne, Switzerland
5/28 Jubez Karlsruhe, Germany
5/30 Locomotiv, Bologna IT
5/31 Kino, Ebensee AT
6/01 Pilot, Prague CZ
6/02 Festaal Kruezberg, Berlin DE
6/19 Bootleg Theater Los Angeles CA
6/20 The Independent San Francisco CA
6/21 Mississippi Studios Portland OR
6/22 The Crocodile Seattle WA
6/27 The Sinclair Cambridge, MA
6/28 Bowery Ballroom New York NY
7/12 Empty Bottle Chicago, IL

Barrence Whitfield and the Savages

Just signed to Bloodshot...this guy is awesome.



Not these Savages, unfortunately. (Wouldn't that be incredible?) Though they are pretty good on their own and obviously do not need much hyping help from me.



Off to another track meet, this time the girls' 7th and 8th grade invitational...busy, busy, busy. (But ice cream after, so that's fun.)

People of the North

This sporadic side project of Oneida's Fat Bobby and Kid Millions has a new album coming out in June, another bit of extended psychedelia that sounds very much like Oneida's recent long-form output (and also like Kid Millions' Man Forever, except with more keyboards, duh, hi Bobby!). I like it okay...not as much as Secret Wars or Anthem of the Moon, but I guess I can always pull those out when I want to hear them. They've switched from Jagjaguwar (specifically their Brah imprint) to Thrill Jockey for this one, which totally makes sense, given the more experimental vibe.

There's no audio yet for the new People of the North, but here's a video from album #2, out about three years ago.

Immediate rush, lasting pleasure...Cronin's MCII

Really enjoyed the new Mikal Cronin...my review, up today at Blurt.

MCII

Mikal Cronin

Merge

BY JENNIFER KELLY

Mikal Cronin’s second album filters the lyrical melancholy of confessional pop through a joyfully dissonant, dirt-crusted lens, winding fuzz-frayed guitar lines through sunny miasmas of overtone, threading triumphant melodies through hedge-rows of strident strumming. Sounding at times like his garage pop collaborator Ty Segall, but more often like power pop icons Brendan Benson, Jason Faulkner and the Flamin’ Groovies, Cronin has recorded the beach-and-pool-and-driving-with-the-windows-down album of the summer. MCII is an immediate rush and a lasting pleasure.


More

You can stream it, at least for now, at NPR.

Micah Blue Smaldone

Lot of people are liking the new Hiss Golden Messenger (very fine, reviewed for Dusted here). Micah Blue Smaldone's new album The Ring of the Rise is in the same family of folk-based, Neil-Young-style-electrified rock...you could also throw Arbouretum and Red River Dialect into the mix. Micah has been around for a while, and I believe he's playing Peterborough's Thing in the Spring in about a month...might have to check that out. Ring of the Rise is out now on Immune records.

A new one from Daughn Gibson

Last year's All Hell from ex-Pearls & Brass drummer Daughn Gibson was a moody slice of existential dread, cavernous and country-tinged, like Johnny Cash bereft of the comforts of church, Rose Carter and whiskey all at once. His follow-up, on Sub Pop, is less skeletal but just as dire, surrounding corpse-y authenticity with the bright clarities of electronic music and studio-refined rock. It's called Me Moan...and it's a good one.

You can DL "Reach into the Fire" here.