![l 88eedf435d3443af90edc5df0240939c [mp3] Crystal Castles – Baptism](http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/10/l_88eedf435d3443af90edc5df0240939c.jpg "[mp3] Crystal Castles – Baptism")
Everything I’ve read about the music of Crystal Castles has been overwhelmingly positive and filled with adoration. Conversely, everything I’ve read about the individuals behind the act – their behavior in many public settings in particular – has been reported as petulant, overwhelmingly negative and anything but adored. I’ll let you research their travails further on your own if you must. Regardless of their issues, I have never delved too deeply into their music. This is not because of their general malcontent, but rather due to a song of theirs I listened to a few years ago – the likes of which I can’t remember because I almost instantly deleted it – that was shittier than pigeon shit in the mouth.
Well, I like “Baptism.” I have for some time. I think I will likely break down and get at least the rest of the album from whence it came. It’s not as if I have any sort of prejudice regarding the band; they authored what is easily my favorite remix of all time in reworking Bloc Party’s “Hunting For Witches.” ”Baptism” is filled with blips and yelps that have certainly soundtracked a rave or two; it’s catchy as they come. The beat is indelible and this is clearly the work of a supremely talented, albeit ornery duo. I intend to give them an official change, and if in my exploration I learn of the offending song in their early catalogue that turned me off so, I shall report on my re-examination. Fist-pump away.
Crystal Castles – Baptism (mp3) from Crystal Castles ( II )![[mp3] Crystal Castles – Baptism](http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=tympanogram-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003IPSPOW "[mp3] Crystal Castles – Baptism")
![l 7a29c723cd9448c68e3b0bc6f4da895f [mp3] Introducing: Plastic Flowers Drive Me Home](http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/132/l_7a29c723cd9448c68e3b0bc6f4da895f.jpg "[mp3] Introducing: Plastic Flowers Drive Me Home")
There’s not much available by way of information on Plastic Flowers. Sure, I probably could have just asked, but it might be better to leave him a more mysterious figure. As far as I can tell, Plastic Flowers is the work of one man – Sean Earl Beard. His MySpace is minimal at best, with just this one song and a pensive photo of him with flowers, looking vaguely sad and washed out, even while wearing a hat I could never even try to pull off. He doesn’t even have his location listed.
When this song first starts, I’m reminded of Modern English’s “Melt With You,” but this track isn’t nearly as upbeat. It has all the hallmarks of 1980′s pop music: brooding vocals, space-y guitars, prominent bass line. And with all the nostalgia for the 1980′s cropping back up in popular culture, this is one of the more compelling arguments for revisiting that decade. Remakes of the A-Team are arguments against.
Plastic Flowers – Drive Me Home (mp3)
![471802976 1 [mp3] Introducing: Thralls Suicides](http://bandcamp.com/files/47/18/471802976-1.jpg "[mp3] Introducing: Thralls Suicides")
While Thralls may not fit squarely into the category of the other bands that were a part of “the scene that celebrates itself,” they boast enough reverb and fuzz in their songs to be considered. Let’s call the recent wave of bands in that resurgent genre newgaze. Or post-gaze. Or metagaze. (Personally, I like the first because it rhymes with the original genre name.)
Thralls hail from San Francisco, and their Bandcamp page – where this digital 7″ is housed – boasts a quote from Austerlitz by Winfried Georg Sebald. (I’ve never read it. I googled it.) And the quote is apropos of their music:
“All forms and colors were dissolved in a pearl-gray haze; there were no contrasts, no shading anymore, only flowing transitions with the light throbbing through them, a single blur from which only the most fleeting of visions emerged, and strangely – I remember this well – it was the very evanescence of those visions that gave me, at the time, something like a sense of eternity.”
Thralls may not prove to be eternal. Hell, they might not even last the year. But their sonically saturated songs are still enjoyable. If you’re around San Francisco, check them out at their lone tour date in August, which you can see on their MySpace. Otherwise, visit their Bandcamp page for a free download of the second track on their digital 7″.
Thralls – Suicides (mp3)
![l 7dada63607d1df07e42ab75fe8759aa2 [mp3] Deerhunter Revival](http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/62/l_7dada63607d1df07e42ab75fe8759aa2.jpg "[mp3] Deerhunter Revival")
I have voiced my fascination and superfluously honed personal tastes for Deerhunter (Bradford Cox’s in general) material on many occasions prior, and will likely continue to do so as long as I have a voice, i.e. this weblog. To commemorate new music that the band has given away in anticipation of their forthcoming album, I have written a few of the worst haikus in recorded history. Please don’t enjoy them. As a contest, see if you can come up with a better Deerhunter related haiku. The prize will likely be nothing more than a congratulatory digital back-pat of awe and wonder, so work hard at it.
Deerhunter I like
Enjoy Deerhunter do I
Bradford Cox is King
Apparently that haiku was inspired by Yoda.
The Deer Hunter: a
favorite film of mine. I
also like the band.
That’s just awful.
Deerhunter – Revival (mp3) from the forthcoming Halcyon Digest
![Levis RaphaelPrimaryMicro [mp3] Raphael Saadiq Its a Shame](http://images.levispioneersessions.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Levis_RaphaelPrimaryMicro.jpg "[mp3] Raphael Saadiq Its a Shame")
We talked about the Levi’s Pioneer Sessions before on the blog when Dirty Projectors covered Bob Dylan. It’s been moving steadily along since than, with a couple of new tracks each week, and now it’s completed its retrospective. I still need to go back and download everything, but this cover caught my attention immediately because I love the original version of the song.
Raphael Saadiq’s take on the classic Motown track from The Spinners is fantastic. (I didn’t know this before looking into the song’s background a little further, but the song was written by Stevie Wonder.) Saadiq’s voice is a little more muscular than the G.C. Cameron’s was, but he’s got the same range as the original. The cover extends the song’s timing by about forty seconds, but all in all, it’s a faithful representation of a song that was influential to Saadiq, and it shows.
Raphael Saadiq – It’s a Shame (mp3)
