And as the clock rolls round, the potions get fruitier and the eyes smokier, lies and truths lengthening like the lines of shot glasses across the bar. For the old Destroyer knows how to weave a wondrous tale or two of illicit promises.
For Dan Bejar, it’s always heaven or hell at the bottom of every glass. Which one exactly, it’s just so hard to tell.
There is nothing in themselves that I hate about the young. It is simply that youth is a cipher for my own transience, an expression of my own cosmically deigned obsolescence. The relentless unerring rebirth of the world is a reminder of all the time wasted doing nothing on the way to being nothing at all. Youth is the view from falling behind.
When various members( notably minus Earl Sweatshirt) of LA hip hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All take to the stage at their debut UK show at The Drop in London on Friday just gone, it’s clear that they’re just babies. Already an internet darling that I’m miles behind writing about now, they’re knee deep in bloggers while still knee deep to grasshoppers. They’re here surrounded by record labels, because Odd Future do not waste time, brandishing their youth like the weapons they hype on about. Because for all their dubious lyrical content that skirts the usual gangster concerns, they’re biggest threat is their age. Odd Future have only just started and you’re already playing catch up in a race you’ve lost.
“Slow It Down” is from the first mixtape – The Fucking Tape - and is a Tyler jam, because beyond seemingly being the figurehead of the collective, the boy’s an elastic face that’s equal parts cartoon and horrorshow. Just like the chopped and screwed verses here. Just like Odd Future.
Slumberland (US) and Tough Love (UK) team up to release a split 7” featuring a track apiece from Belfast’s Girls Names and San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors. Released on 23rd November, the record is limited to just 600 copies worldwide and features artwork designed by Brilliant Colors’ singer, Jess Scott.
“I Lose” represents the next step in Girls Names’ evolution. Recorded as a three piece for the first time, the track is driven by an insistent cyclical riff, punctuated by Cathal Cully’s deceptively assured croon. Entitled “I Lose” as a response to Brilliant Colors track on the flip, the song is charged with a confidence that belies its title, Cully lifting two fingers to the past as he intones: “I don’t miss my old life”. The first of their new recordings, “I Lose” bodes well for their forthcoming debut album in early 2011.
San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors have staked-out a unique spot in the indie music landscape, inspired in equal parts by post-punk DIY fervor and the spiky pop of C86 and early Flying Nun/Creation label output. Their 2009 album, Introducing combined guitar buzz with dreamy melodies and rushing rhythms, forming a startling blend of The Dils and Shop Assistants. Fresh off the simultaneous release of singles on Slumberland and Make-A-Mess, and a UK tour with La La Vasquez, Brilliant Colors have hit the studio again to record “You Win”, this time with the estimable Ty Segall. Driven by an absurdly catchy vocal melody and the band’s now trademark distorted guitars, “You Win” is another anthem in Brilliant Colors’ ever-growing catalog, offering a superb taster for their new album, due Spring 2011.
