Stream Four Songs Off Gil Scott-Heron’s New Album, I’m New Here, Which, According to Brooklyn Vegan, Will Be Remixed By Goth-Brits The xx; Elsewhere, Does Anyone Know Whether or Not the Revolution is Going to Be Televised This Year? I’m Pretty Sure I Saw It On TV Last Year, But Who Knows…[Brooklyn Vegan]

Speaking of The xx, They Permanently Lose Keyboardist Baria Qureshi – Meaning They Are Now Contending With Only New Kids on the Block For Least Attractive New Kids on the Block Look Alikes [NME]

Stream Animal Collective Playing “Bleeding” Live, a Version of Which Will Appear on the Upcoming Fall Be Kind EP; Released November 26 [Stereogum]

Watch New Video From Clipse, “Doorman,” From the Oft-Delayed Till the Casket Drops, Due Out December 8; Clipse, We Get It, You Love Cocaine, It’s Played Out, No One’s Career Has Ever Been Defined By Their Love of Coc – Oh, Wait, Nevermind. Keep Doin’ What You’re Doin’ [Pitchfork]

Stream Flying Lotus’s Remix of Lil Wayne’s “I Feel Like Dying,” Which May Make You Feel Like Dying (I Apologize For Easy Joke, But C’mon, Flying Lotus’s Doom-Glitch Is Supposed to Make You Feel Like Dying) [Myspace]

Stream Memory Tapes Take On New Yeasayer Single, “Ambling Alp,” Which Retains All of the Original’s Inspiration, But Cuts Away the Almost-Sickening Attention to Detail (Read: Overproduction); Yeasayer’s Odd Blood Released February 9 [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Stream Solange’s (Beyonce’s Little Sister) Cover of Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca Highlight “Stillness is the Move,” Which is as Awesome as It Sounds – Elsewhere, Remember When Jay Z Went With Solange to Go See Grizzly Bear? That Was Cool [Pitchfork]

compiled by Max Sebela

FRESH BAKED
in NYC
Small Black
Small Black
2009 | Unsigned
A

Is Small Black the best release by a Brooklyn artist this year? Maybe, but a more apt question is: does anyone even care anymore, even if it is? As our once-little scene explodes more and more each month, any band able to book the Market Hotel is going to end up as part of Pitchfork’s “Rising” list; every blog is going to post their “single premier”/their exclusive video performance in an obscure household area (perhaps washtub?)/four or five Memory Tapes remixes/pictures of them in Halloween costumes/attempt analyses of their bar fights/take stabs at them for developing the hype that they did/try to destroy them.

Even I, by beginning a review of a band criticizing the literal hype machine (not HypeMachine; I have no beef with streaming social media), am part of the problem. After all, I probably wouldn’t have heard about them unless Pitchfork posted opening track “Despicable Dogs” as one of their Best New Tracks. Small Black is only available as an independently issued 10-inch, not a CD, and maybe us here at JM.com will backlash at them when they reissue the EP next year on Matador or some shit, once it makes Pitchfork Best New Music.

All predictions aside, right now, Small Black’s five-song self-titled debut EP sounds pretty fucking good. It’s 25 minutes of unflinching bedroom pop. Other, more genre-happy blogs have dubbed this sound “glow-fi” or “chill-wave” – the band makes heavy use of electronics, fuzz, and pulsing high toned synths. The synths coming up out of the fuzz is apparently analogous to the way glitter shines on a black page – thus, “glow-fi” is born. But music doesn’t glow, and sound doesn’t actually shimmer, so let’s leave poor descriptors to the other guys.

What counts are the songs, and this collection, though short, is as close as it gets to perfect. When “Despicable Dogs” first made its way to the blogs, it was described as a languid, beach-combing summer jam. But now, deep into October, it sounds a lot more melancholy, impenetrable, alienated, stuck in itself, and if that doesn’t sound like the colorless end of autumn, what does? The chorus, “Do it without me/ Do it when I’m gone,” is stark and simple, as resigned as it immediately sounds. Does it sound optimistic? Sure. But unlike most similar projects, which are immediately depressing and hide small moments of joy (Again, Memory Tapes, we’re looking in your direction) Small Black sounds pleased and content, and their depth comes from that buried melancholia.
More on Small Black | Small Black

Stream Another 17-Minute Memory Tapes Jam, “Walk Me Home”…It’s Halloween Spooky, And Leads To Fun Puns Such As “Monstrous Memory Tapes” or “Memory Terrifying Tapes” [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Nas Joins Courtney Love and Method Man On List of Musicians Who Owe a Shit-Ton in Back Taxes (For Nasir, $2.5 Million); Well, Life’s a Bitch (Eh? Get it?) [Prefix]

Stream New Of Montreal “Wet Butcher’s Fist” Off the HHBTM Single, Which Sounds Like It Was Recorded It Was Sounded Underwater, and Features Kevin Barnes Admitting to Wanting to be a Sex Offender [You Ain’t No Picasso]

Canadian Hardcore Band/Polaris Prize Winners Fucked Up To Release Singles Collection, The Two-Disc Couple Tracks; Released January 26 [Pitchfork]

Stream All of Devendra Banhart’s What Will We Be a Week In Advance of Its Release – This Album Isn’t Nearly Strange Enough; I Thought The Warner Bros. Were Supposed to be Pretty Crazy [Stereogum]

Animal Collective Joins Animal Rights…Collective, PETA, In Fight Against Bludgeoning Seals; If You Don’t Want To See a Seal Bludgeoned, Don’t Watch This Video [I Guess I’m Floating]

The Roots Push Baked Upcoming LP How I Got Over To Early 2010; Meanwhile, The Roots Still Playing on Jimmy Fallon Every Night, So No One Has Any Shortage of Roots (Except Licorice Root…I Can’t Get Enough of That) [Idolator]

Watch Norwegian Sleep-Folk Duo Kings of Convenience Play a Bunch of Songs in the Spin Studio Off Released-Today LP Declaration of Dependence; Grow Bored In a Matter of Seconds, Take Nap [Spin]

Madonna Getting Sued By Her Neighbor For Rehearsing To Loud; Shouts of “Damned Kids With Their Grasping at Straw Attempts at Former 80s Glory” Heard From Neighbor’s Apartment [NME]

Lego Freddy Mercury Will Appear in Lego Rock Band; Lego Moustache and Chest Hair Not Living Up To Precedent of Actual Moustache and Chest Hair [Idolator]

compiled by Max Sebela