Everybody is Looking Forward to The Weeknd--A Hype Free Album From NSFW Newcomers

The Weeknd make some of the best nsfw soul / R&B music I've heard.  I always appreciate bands/artists that can make autotune and pitch shifting sound authentic and soulful rather than the shallow saccharine drivel it is usually associated with.  Bon Iver's "Woods," for example, uses autotune to create one of the best folk-freak-out a cappella choirs I've heard.  Burial uses it to great effect in songs like "Archangel," sampling and modulating simple emotional fragments--"holding you / kissing you / Tell me I belong."  The Weeknd actually sound a lot like a more coherent Burial.  Even though the songs are not chopped up like Burial and The Weeknd's songs focus on singing rather than the instrumental/sample experimentation of Burail, there is a lot of shared mood and sound between the two.  There are no high bpm's here, but The Weend's smooth and gritty jams still make my feet move, my shoulders bounce, and my fingers flail.
Get the whole album from their website for free.  [NSFW for cursing and nudity] http://the-weeknd.com/


In the immortal words of Rebecca Black, "I don't want this Weeknd to end."

March 2011 Playlist -- Metaphors, Son

Ryan Adams - "Damn Sam"
  "Damn, Sam. I love a woman that rains"

The Magnetic Fields - "The Book of Love"
  "The Book of Love is long and boring / no one can lift the damn thing"

The Mountain Goats - "International Small Arms Traffic"
  "Our love is like the boarder between Greece and Albania"

Okkervil River - "A Stone"
  "You love the hallowest tone / you love a stone"

Andrew Bird - "Sovay"
  "And then a word washed to shore"

The Castanets - "You are the blood"
  "You are the blood flowing through my fingers"

Thee More Shallows - "House Breaks"
  "If You stay awake in this dream, in this dream you're going to die"

Anathallo - "John J. Audubon"
  "Our stories all just sink below the mess of wake the millions of paddled palms our cupped hands make."

Cloud Cult - "Everybody Here Is a Cloud"
  "Everybody Here Is a Cloud / Everybody here will evaporate"

Bon Iver - "Flume"
  "Only love is all maroon / gluey feathers on a flume / Sky is womb"

The National - "Anyone's Ghost"
  "Walk through the Manhattan valleys of the dead / Didn't want to be your ghost"

Gold Panda and SXSW Sampler

Do you like dancing to glitched-out dance music? Do you like free music? I do. Amazon has a free South by Southwest sampler with some great tunes on it. My favorite is the opening track "You" by Gold Panda. The creative use of pitch shifted vocal samples and dynamic beats had me popping and locking in front of the mirror with funkified abandon. I like this sound; I even wrote a song this FAWM called "Crumbs" with a similar formula: take one or two words, tweak them and repeat them. Gold Panda's song is a lot more danceable than mine.

Free and Legal Mp3: Glasser's "Mirrorage"

Glasser's "Mirrorage" is hymnal, danceable, experimental fun. The vocoder at 2:22 is the sickness. Download it for free at Amazon.com

Favorites from FAWM 2011--Good music you haven't heard.

Phlex and Schmuck are bringing the indie-rock freak-out jams:  sounds like a Spiritualized, Yeasayer, Fiery Furnances hippie drum circle on British street drugs no one knows about yet:  Enjoy "Season 3, Episode 1."  Don't do drugs kids.  Listen to this instead; it is much more satisfying.

Evin Wolverton has a gift, and he is sharing it with you; he brings some tasty reverbed-Graceland-like harmonies on this sweet tune:  "In the Midnight Hour."

Timothy Bracken is one of my favorite Fawmers.  His production is always fantastic and his voice is tuneful and full of character.  He has many good offerings this year, and it was hard to choose just one.  So I won't. Check out these killer break-up songs "Still Don't Know," "I Drift Off," and "Shaking Hand."

A Texan known only to me as Nuerdetjuligen wrote one of the funniest songs I heard this FAWM.  It chronicles the moral imperative of a young lass traveling cross-country who feels impelled to put it all "On The Glass"--highly recommended. Nuerdetjuligen also has some great drawl-infused indie-country songs.  "Cleaning Out the Dance Hall" is a standout, featuring one of my favorite rhymes this FAWM--"innuendo/ Nintendo."  To top it off, her voicing reminds me a lil' bit of Jenny Lewis in early Rilo Kiley.

If you like mellow chilled out acoustic guitar songs in the vein of Jose Gonzalez or Nick Drake, you will enjoy "Siren" by Mr. Mikedebenham.  It is a still, quiet beauty.

Kidd is another of my favorite Fawmers this year.  He consistently churned out totally fantastic twee-chill jams.  His song "Leave Me Here I'm Sleeping" sounds like an even more laid-back and stripped down year-2000ish Yo La Tengo.  He also did one of my favorite collaborations this FAWM.  He joined forces with vomvorton to create one of the best Casio-whistling-pop songs I've heard.  Sounds like Bowie on a Casio.  You know that has to be good!

Fawmer Adam Follett, adforperu, is the lead singer for Cats.for.peru and he has a voice that often reminds me of Thom Yorke's own beautiful warble.  His stunning and soaring "Finding Alice" is a perfect case in point.  Too bad there is a little clipping going on.

Alana audirec produced some pretty amazing glitch-pop songs this February.  "Lost at Seen" is my favorite.  Even with her excellent production, it is her unique and beautiful voice that carries her songs.  I recommend this if you like Eisley and computer bleeps.