New York Music Blog

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

Sleigh Bells photo by Rob Loud.

​Sleigh Bells are having the best week ever. The Brooklyn noise-hop duo were the toast of CMJ, despite (or maybe because of?) doing their thing guerilla style: playing at four in the afternoon at Santos or one the morning in Bushwick; doing five-song sets; and having no official CMJ-festival-endorsed showcase to speak of. If you're keeping score: Pitchfork sang their praises, Stereogum too, My Old Kentucky Blog and Brooklyn Vegan and Fluxblog and Pop Tarts Suck Toasted and a bazillion other blogs with even sillier names chimed in simultaneously. And the hivemind may have been right this time, as Sleigh Bells are a kind of irresistible smash-up of peaked-out distorto-beats, whiny Big Black chug, ecstatic shouts, and the occasional Funkadelic sample. Too hyperkinetic to be chillwave allies, too grating to be Fader flavors of the month, Sleigh Bells walk their own squonky, skuzzy, rapgazer line. Their best track to date, "A/B Machines" is a simple mantra ("Got my A machines on the table, got my B machines in the drawer"). Frontwoman Alexis Kraus coos with both chilliness and dance-friendly joy, splitting the difference between Santigold and Karen O; guitarist Derek Miller wails and whines like he's trying to make funk with an electric drill.

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​Brooklyn's Ribbons have the stripped-down fever-shivers and uneasy fidget of classic post-punk--think Joy Division, Orange Juice, Durutti Column, etc. But these two Cali transplants can also play the shit out of their instruments. Vocalist/guitarist Jenny Logan wages a tenuous war between textural, reverby strumwaves and ferocious fretting; drummer Sam Roudman supplies skeletal grooves that occasional burst into frenetic fireworks; Logan's shivery vibrato skates on top. New track "Total Loss" balances a tender, woozy piece of Kate Bushian melancholy with Roudman's percolating drums, creating a tension that is at once dreamy and confrontational. Check out "Total Loss" and a handful of other new Ribbons tracks at their recent Dayrotter session.

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

Tim Fite, photo by Cybele Malinowski.

​Brooklyn folk-punk crypto-rap oddball Tim Fite is unleashing the third installment of his free Halloween EP trilogy, Watch Your Mouth, on October 31. And just like with his last two Halloween EPs (2007's It's Only Ketchup and 2008's Ding-Dong DITCH!!!), this treat comes with an added trick: It's only going to be available for 24 hours on timfite.com. He won't even let us hear the damn thing until the night of haunting is upon us--but has thankfully provided us with one little piece of candy corn stuck to the bottom of last year's bag in the form of a rare, non-Halloween download version of last year's country-funk gem "Raw."

Fite will be performing "Raw"--and all the songs from his Halloween Trilogy--as part of his special Halloween night performance at Brooklyn's Union Hall. He also promises "pumpkins to carve, pinatas to smash, apples to bob for--possibly in beer), a costume exchange booth for switching costumes with a friend, and a myriad of other spooky treats." Getting information out of the hopelessly quirky singer can be like trying to have a conversation with a fun house mirror, but he does tell Sound Of The City these somewhat reliable facts about the upcoming EP: "It is loosely based on the journal entries of the notorious candy poisoner Sheila 'Cellophane' Lindermier. If ever there was a musical representation of shameless depravity, this EP is it."

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

Now that Brooklyn loft-rock is leaning towards toward beach-y, garage-y, tape-damaged nostalgiasmush, we should thank the stars that Talk Normal have arrived to keep it ugly. The best thing to lurch out of BK noise-punk in years, Talk Normal take the Swans-iest tendencies of Liars and stretch them out for maximum syncopation, hypnosis, and unease. Guitarist Sarah Register pokes and slashes, pushing the These Are Powers dictum of "ghost punk" to even more haunting and slimy regions. Drummer Andrya Ambro plays skittery, tricky rhythms that pit-and-pat with mix of aggression and grace. Their debut LP, Sugarland, is out today on Rare Book Room Records; it's like if Sightings tried to make a dubstep record, all bowel-loosening tones, 20 shades of grey, and voices poking out at you from the fog. "In A Strangeland" is one of the record's catchiest songs, all PiL Flowers Of Romance pound mixed with good old fashioned New York noise--no surprise Talk Normal opened for Teenage Jesus and the Jerks earlier this month (they're also set to open for Sonic Youth in November). The track's stark video, directed by Pastor Alvarado and Genn Leong and premiering right here, is a performance piece that candidly shows the muscle behind the grit.

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​"Funk" has long been a four-letter word in Brooklyn's noise-punk loft scene. To survive, hyper-aware BK dance bands either adopted stiff no wave personas, used aggro-synth terrorism, squelched out deconstructed stumblebump, or just signed to DFA, where disco gets a pass. But funk? Shit, better think about bringing that veggie-oil van back down to Bonnaroo, hippie. The brand-spanking new CSC Funk Band--the brainchild of former Usaisamonster mega-riffer Colin Langenus and Talibam! keyboard splatter-artist Matt Mottel--is unapologetically funk (it says so right in the name), and the band is set to bring booty-moving, head-nodding grooves to the Todd P universe. Boasting a nine(!)-piece lineup, the CSC features members from a variety of bands obscure and otherwise (drummer Jimmy Thomson once did duty as GWAR's Hans Orifice) and a sound that's tight, lively, and sharp. Langenus likes to draw the connection between funk and minimalist composition (i.e., repetition, repetition, repetition). But don't be surprised if dudes just devolve into a regular ol' awesome party band within a few weeks. "Bad Banana Bread" is definitely (and defiantly) more James Brown then James Murphy, and more acid-fried Funkadelic than either, given Langenus's ripping leads and Dave Kadden's completely bonkers, Ethiopiques-tinged oboe solo.

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​Brooklyn duo Christy and Emily (a/k/a Christy Edwards and Emily Manzo) create a viscous, slow-moving dreamgaze that's not as dry as Codeine nor as gooey as Grouper--just a chiming, folkie blur with pitch-perfect harmonies. Their second album, Superstition (due November 17), has been fleshed out with vibes, strings, and Oneida drummer Kid Millions. But the record gets most of its gleaming charm from the way Christy and Emily's voices have somehow grown even more tight and harmonious since 2007's Social Registry debut Gueen's Head. With bleary but never oppressive guitars, C&E are only "psychedelic" if your acid-trip color palette is limited to pastels. First taste "Lover's Talk" floats down a Nick Drake river into something close to a Dolly Parton ballad, with its rueful but stern warnings about deceiving paramours.

We here at SOTC have for the first time ever . . . wait for it . . . decided to give away free tickets to an excellent show. For our inaugural, er, contest?, we're bestowing one of you with a plus-one slot to this Sunday's David Bazan performance at the Bowery Ballroom. The former Pedro the Lion dude comes highly recommended in these parts, given that Rob is "moderately obsessed with" him and we respect Bazan's frank handling of religious confusion and drinking and Jesus and stuff. Plus, this takes place on the Sabbath. What better way to spend your day of worship than drinking and spiritual-demon wrestling with David Bazan?

Look, there's no way to say this without sounding like a DJ at WSOC, but the first person to e-mail rharvilla@villagevoice.com with the subject line, "David Bazan" will get two tickets to the October 18 show. Real easy! Also, here's an MPfree from Curse Your Branches, the record he's in town to promote. You're welcome.

Download: David Bazan, "Bless This Mess"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​O.C. and A.G. are New York hip-hop legends holding their own. The two members of longstanding pan-borough collective Diggin' In The Crates (the same one that spawned Fat Joe and Big L) still sound deadly: their first album-length collabo, Oasis (Nature Sounds, due November 10) is all effortless flow and perfectly skeletal boom-bap. Both rappers' most famous works are 15 years behind them: O.C. is the nimble voice from 1994's classic-beyond-classic, back-to-basics manifesto "Time's Up"; A.G. is best known for 1992's neck-snapping Runaway Slave. But their no-fat, no-gristle rhymes remain monstrously aerodynamic, zipping past sloppy up-and-comers--not retro, just timeless. "Think About It" is a lean motormouth boast meant to set the real from the imagined--one of those rhymes that manages to take shots at soft MCs and corrupt governments alike while still giving props to good weed and hip-hop's roots.

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​New York's bang-on-a-everything ensemble So Percussion are unleashing their most ambitious work to date tomorrow, October 14, as a part of BAM's Next Wave Festival. Imaginary City is a meditation on city life, a drums-and-wires piece that tries to capture the bustle, insanity, and joy of living in American metropolises via music plonked out on various pipes, pencil sharpeners, paper, plastic, and poppers. With the 70-minute composition, So Percussion are drawing parallels between New York's fried synapse universe and other cities, exploring their intertwining relationships with tons of Negativland-style sample work and a collaboration with video artist Jenise Treuting. This first taste, "Extremes" was recorded live during an August rehearsal in Montclair, N.J.'s Kasser Theater. A rapid, Morse-code pulse penetrates a slow moving, melancholy clang; brief Koyaanisqatsi smears of action sound like a flurries of sidewalk activity juxtaposed with the sparkling respite of lunch breaks and clock-outs.

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​Local sludgemos Drunkdriver make bleak, desolate blasts of nu-pigfuck that hearken back to the days of Jesus Lizard. Needless to say, they are one of New York's best live acts, a barrel of knock-down, drag-out energy that comes in spurts: vocalist Michael Berdan sends his body into spasms, barking with the calming grace of a street-corner doomsdayer; guitarist Kristy Greene digs into her guitar like she's burrowing from prison with a guitar pick; and Jeremy Villalobos hits his drums harder than pretty much any working drummer in Brooklyn. Their shows have resulted in more than a few pulled muscles, broken knuckles, and basement show fisticuffs. The band's just-released second 7", "Fire Sale" b/w "It Never Happened" (Fashionable Idiots Records) shows two opposing sides of the band--the A-side, a spazzy punkfuck monster cracking up like an AmRep demolition derby, the B-side, a lumbering wounded animal, limping along until it reaches its terrifying death throes.