Conversation 16 on Two Weeks of Music

The National - Conversation 16

The next two weeks of music in New York City are out of control. If your tent isn't pitched by the time you read through this list you're already dead. This is like SXSW, but with huge-ass bands. Come back to this post after shows occur for links to photos.

"I was afraid I'd eat your brains"

Summer of Sick, Vol. 1

There's too much talk about how hot summer is. Take a lesson from someone who went to see MIA at Governor's Island on that 100-degree scorcher.

For when you need to stay inside with your A/C on so that it feels like winter, you should have music that sounds like summer. Listen to our first mixtape of the season after the jump, or in the sidebar, or download it and carry it with you.




Download the mixtape here.

Kaili -- Caribou Live on Governors Island

On a hot Friday afternoon a couple thousand people lined up for a ferry only less aggravating than the weekend MTA. The heat and the wait challenged the endearing qualities of Governors Island's secluded beach venue, but awesome sets and great sound for two out of three bands did not let our sunburns peel in vain.

Swim is a lock in the top 10 albums of 2010; it's a complex and carefully sculpted soundscape that conceals its danceable qualities beneath syncopated rhythms and uncommon timbres. The harps, bells and flutes could have transferred badly to stage and we would have understood. Lots of bands use drum machines and pre-programmed synths to play what Caribou created plainly in front of us.The band sat facing each other, maybe because they liked to, or maybe because they had to as the two drum sets visibly relied on each other for cues. By extending instrumental bridges, Caribou turned the cerebral Swim into a sweaty dance party.

Dutchie Courage

Star Slinger - Dutchie Courage (free download)

You know you're soft for kids singing indecipherable lyrics. This genre-crossing mash of kid-singing reggae is expertly cut and re-assembled into exactly the kind of summer jam we've been looking for. Star Slinger is a Manchester producer and his debut mixtape, Volume 1, is free on his website. He samples a wide array of subjects--notably, Prefab Sprout's "Wild Horses" on his "Extra Time."

It's going to be another scorcher this weekend, but with a weekend lineup packed with the likes of Caribou, Ratatat, Phantogram, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and whoever is playing the Pool Party you're not going to mind it.

Home!

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros - Home (buy)

Of all the places that this song could appear, who knew a wedding DJ would wear it best? Perhaps only "Thriller" got a better crowd dancing on Saturday. Exactly a year old, but its choral vocals and spoken bridge are still as euphoric as they were last summer. The back-and-forth between Sharpe (Alex Ebert) and Jade Castrinos is a re-creation of those between Johnny and June Cash, but copying a style is okay as long as you land a hook as huge as "Home"'s in the chorus. Add this to the wedding playlist please.

July Flame

Laura Veirs - July Flame (buy the LP) (free song download)

This is uncharacteristically somber but the one-bar guitar riff is hypnotizing. The remix makes the drums bigger and adds subtle electronic embellishments that help its steady build. Singer-songwriter Laura Veirs is a folk musician, the proof is at Daytrotter. "July Flame," the single named for the album, escapes the dry acoustic guitar strums and feels current. The remix just makes it better.

July Flame (Alivin Risk Remix)

Oh Baltimore

Nina Simone - Balitmore (Ex-Friendly Edit) (buy the original)

It feels like a reggae song for its bass guitar and rhythm, but on top you get strings and Nina Simone. An uncommon combination of styles that works nicely. Now if only this edit existed a few years ago so it could have been used in the finale of The Wire.

Fireworks

Animal Collective - Fireworks

Running west on 46th Street silhouettes of people stood still, crowding the street and watching as if an alien ship descended into New Jersey. "Born in the USA" played from a rooftop in between fireworks explosions.

We climbed fences, rode ferries, jumped in fountains, watched football, ate fish tacos, drank from melons, and always smelled like sunscreen.

It was a weekend that deserved fireworks.

"Marathon" from Tennis

Tennis - Marathon

"We didn't realize that we had arrived at high tide, high tide could we make it out alive?"

Best Coast

Best Coast - Boyfriend (pre-order the LP)


Dry bass lines and fuzzy guitar reverb surround a simple vocal with simpler lyrics. Bethany Cosentino's lo-fi (noise) pop is summer's chillwave counterpoint. Texturally Best Coast's contemporaries are Dum Dum Girls, Tennis and Pains of Being Pure at Heart; the quick hooks, ooh-ahh vocal harmonies and lead-vocal distortion are all tricks of the trade. Sometimes you can't help it, you just have to jump on that bandwagon and hold on tight.

Model Turned Singer Turned Songwriter Named Karen

Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks (free download) (buy)

There's some hubris around Karen Elson; it's probably a good thing if you don't know her story because it will be easier to avoid pre-judging her music. English-born Elson sounds surprisingly like an American-folk singer, stylistically most easily compared to the outspoken Neko Case. The slide guitar and folk arrangements of her LP confirm this (stream it after the jump). There is a more relevant comparison though...

Sorry Mrs. Elson, you're no Joanna Newsom. The former models would make an all-star cover for indie magazines everywhere, but in this catfight the one with the hooks is also the one with the looks.