Overview
Whatever you're doing this weekend — gardening, partying, doing your tax return — you're going to need a killer soundtrack. This is that soundtrack.
1. AIDAN ROBERTS - NOW THAT YOUR DOLLAR BILLS HAVE SPROUTED WINGS
Last year, American indie hero Beck released an album called Song Reader. Nothing exciting there, except that he released it as sheet music only, the idea being that to listen to the music, you needed to be a part of a community, and to sit around with musician friends and create the music together. Beck's imagining of a community inspired a small, dedicated group of Australian music industry folk to put on a show late last year, where the likes of Sarah Blasko, Jonathan Boulet, Josh Pyke and Caitlin Park came together to play the 'album' in full.
Now, some six months later, our friends at Sydney's FBi Radio have released perhaps the world's first full Song Reader album, available on iTunes and via FBi's Bandcamp page. And they are doing it for charity, with all money raised going to the Sydney Story Factory — an organisation that encourages and fosters creative writing among marginalised and disadvantaged young people.
This — from Aidan Roberts of The Maple Trail and Belles Will Ring — is just beautiful and heartbreaking and all those wonderful words. (Oh, and that wailing guitar noise you hear in the background? That's local legend Brian Campeau dragging kitchen scissors across his guitar strings.)
2. PAPA - YOUNG RUT
They haven't even released an album yet, but PAPA are a group to keep an eye on. The two-piece from Los Angeles make perfect indie-pop, but there's always something fascinating going on just on the edges that stops it sinking in to dullness. On 'Young Rut' it's those guitars in the chorus that crash in and transform the song from mid-tempo and forgettable to urgent, driving and absolutely indispensable. And more than one reviewer has noted a touch of the Springsteen in drummer/singer Darren Weiss's voice.
It's time to hop on board the PAPA bandwagon, because they're pulling outta here to win.
3. KANYE WEST / TAME IMPALA - BLACK SKINHEAD vs. ELEPHANT
In case you hadn't noticed, Kanye West recently released a new album. Whatever you think of him as a human being, there's no question that his desperate need to be A Serious Artist has led to some of the best hip hop of the past decade — 'Jesus Walks', 'Stronger', almost all of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 'Gold Digger', 'Touch The Sky', and so many more. 'Black Skinhead' is another such song, one that seems to be tearing down everything Kanye has built up around him: gold chains, designer clothes, even his own celebrity. And this mashup — essentially just Kanye's vocals over Tame Impala's 'Elephant' — works really well and demonstrates that Kanye really can do anything, even if that is rapping over an Australian psych/rock band.
4. JESSICA PRATT - HOLLYWOOD
Originally released at the end of 2012 in the US, Jessica Pratt's self-titled debut has only just made its way to our sunny shoes. But it's well worth the wait. 'Hollywood' recalls nothing more than the folk of the late 1960s, Pratt sounding for all the world like Joan Baez, or a young Joni Mitchell. With just a guitar and her voice Pratt presents incredibly vivid descriptions of the world around her, and manages to capture the excitement and confusion of being young and arriving in a new city, redolent with possibilities. If you enjoyed the Laura Marling track we featured here a few weeks ago, then you will absolutely love this.
5. NEKO CASE - MAN
You might know Neko Case from The New Pornographers or from her amazing solo albums (if you don't, you need a copy of Twin Cinema and Middle Cyclone right this second), and she's always seemed like that one awesome older sister/aunt/friend you always wished you had: wry, badass and full of knowledge of the ways of the world. And now she's back with her newest solo album, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. The title might be hard work, but the record won't be: Case's combination of country, indie, folk and rock and roll influences has led to a handful of absolutely essential albums, with her beautiful, clear, bell-like voice able to adapt itself to the music. She's also a shredding guitarist, gives no fucks, and once revealed on Spicks and Specks that her grandmother was one of America's first professional female wrestlers. All the types of rad.