Winter Break Music Overhaul

So my Winter Break started on Saturday and before I left school I took about 35 albums from the radio station library and bought another 12 for really cheap on the Amazon Marketplace (great stuff, some of the CDs were less than a dollar plus shipping). I'm planning on listening to all of them over the next month so I can find some good, lesser-known stuff to play on the next season of our show. Basically I used allmusic.com to find artists similar to some of my favorite bizarre-sounding bands like Animal Collective, Frog Eyes, Grizzly Bear, Dan Deacon, Dirty Projectors, Deerhoof, etc. and took any albums that got good ratings to give them a try.

I know it sounds ambitious, but I was already able to listen to eight albums on the train home and I've scheduled it so that I spare about an hour or so each day to just sit and listen to new stuff, so hopefully I can push through the massive mountain of new music. So far I've heard Crystal Stilts, The High Llamas, Bearsuit, Alaska In Winter, Daedalus, Mercury Rev, Piano Magic, Fennesz, and Fridge, all of which were fairly good and deserve some attention. A list of my favorites follows:

1. Alight of Night by Crystal Stilts (Distorted noise pop like The Jesus & Mary Chain)
2. Beet, Maize, & Corn by The High Llamas (Honest folk/pop similar to Brian Wilson)
3. Denies The Day's Demise by Daedalus (Electronica with scratching and exotica beats)
4. Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev (Experimental 90s pop a la The Flaming Lips)
5. Endless Summer by Fennesz (Beautiful ambient glitch pieces, found through my Computers & Music class)

Other notables: The track "Close Your Eyes - We Are Blind" on Alaska In Winter's Dance Party In The Balkans features Zach Condon of Beirut. The title track on Disaffected by Piano Magic, the only track worth a listen in my opinion, is similarly fantastic.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been going through the stuff alphabetically by album name. I'll probably interject some random ones once my CDs come in the mail (5 of them arrived yesterday!)

Today's album was Es Tiempo by Alla (right), which sounded like a psych-folksy, Spanish version of Portishead's Dummy. Some good stuff, especially the intro "Un Dia Otra Noche" and the title track.

Finally, I'll leave you with a link to one of the best tracks I've discovered so far. Click here to see a fan video accompaniment to "Endlessly" by Mercury Rev (who you'll definitely be hearing more about in the near future.) Enjoy (and check out the wonderful use of theremin in the background!)