PEBBLES

MP3: Gem Jones - Ellegua

Gem Jones' murky AM-croons creeped their way onto my favourite tracks of last year, but he's flipped things around in 2011 with this new dance psych hit taken from an upcoming tape release. Ellegua is all no-wave funk crossed with deep Sun Araw grooves and free-wheeling organ squeal - whole new direction but digging it for sure.

myspace

TOP 2010 SONGS: Shea

Hey doggies! Honestly, I've been kind of dreading this end-of-year list season, partly because the whole process of ranking music always feels pretty unnatural to me, but I also thought it could be a struggle finding enough material that I felt truly excited about. I think for the most part I felt pretty jaded about a lot of music in 2010, but looking back and putting together this list made me realize there was still a whole bunch of stuff that is really exciting, forward-looking and fun. Like Richard, my list ended up being super Olde English Spelling Bee heavy, but what can ya do, "label of da year" and all! Enjoy:

10. Bathcrones - False Teeth
Psychorama out through No Pain In Pop // myspace

"Infusing those shimmering club-friendly beats with the mesmeric positivity of new age synth muzik never felt so right or so real; a track to be played at clubs with skyward waterfalls and inter-dimensional soundsystems".

9. Hype Williams - Untitled 03
S/T 12" out through Carnivals // myspace

Real potent jammer from these masters of the mystique, whose material feels indebted to weird mass internet culture and their subsequent hacking of it. Slowed down, codeine-fuelled drawl, decaying vocal jibberish and dank beats infused with Eastern bombast; this is dense listening for sure.

8. Autre Ne Veut - OMG
S/T out through Olde English Spelling Bee // myspace

"O.M.G."; who would've thought big kaleidoscopic blooms of synth-pop and super sensual off-kilter R n' B grooves would sound this great together?!

7. Gem Jones - Glows Dim
Gem Jones / Part Time Cruiser split out through CGIF // myspace

"Gem Jones imbues his reels with a strange 80s pop sheen which still manages to shimmer through all the murky tape dust, sounding like a lost Ariel Pink demo with its star-strewn synths and perfect bassline bounce"

6. Coyote Clean Up - Pollution Shampoo
2010 CE out through Deathbomb Arc // myspace

Glowing, blissed out club that looks like pink clouds and sounds like giddy light-headedness

5. Dirty Beaches - True Blue
True Blue 7" released through Zoo Music (SOLD OUT) // myspace

Seriously, after listening to this croony ballad on repeat for months and then seeing him swigging whiskey from a hipflask, pulling a comb from his top pocket and slicking his hair back "Live In Concert", I'm starting to think Alex Hungtai is a bona fide outsider Elvis and this is his "Blue Moon".

4. Ducktails - Hamilton Road
Hamilton Road 7" out through Olde English Spelling Bee // myspace

Richard is right-on with "picket fence pop"; this is the coziest hit of 2010!

3. Rangers - Deerfield Village
Suburban Tours out through Olde English Spelling Bee // myspace

Totally evocative, sepia-tinged opener to one of my top LPs of '10. Moves at a real comfortable pace just like a Sunday night suburban family drive.

2. Greatest Hits - (You're Just An) Uptown Girl
Digital single out through Olde English Spelling Bee // myspace

Straight glam and maximal F.U.N. from these Bushwick popstars; "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" but these boys just wanna hang at the mall w/ babes and do drugs at dance parties.

1. Outer Limits Recordings - $20 Dollar Bill
Unreleased; other 7"s out through Transparent & OESB // youtube channel

Easily my top-played jam of the year, and it's not surprising with a big goofy care-free hook like that, loose falsettos all over the place, held together by a classic pop structure and rendered real murky but still golden.

As Max and I had the same #1, here's the video for my #2>

GREATEST HITS "UPTOWN GIRL" from OLDE ENGLISH SPELLING BEE on Vimeo.

OTHER FAVES:
Big Troubles - Bite Yr Tongue
The Sweethearts - Burnin Through the Nite
Teengirl Fantasy - Vibes
Wild Nothing - Live in Dreams
Golden Axe - Free Time
Salem - Asia
Jeans Wilder - Sparkler

MY NINE TO FIVE

MP3: Gem Jones - Smokin' In The Girls Room

Some more ultra wayward Zach Morris-causality pop from Gem Jones who's bizarro pop gets particularly savant here and hints at some neon or highschool kind of desperation through the hedonistic beats and weirded out slap bass, letting some subtle harmonies come out in the chorus and some major energy out towards the end. New Symphony in P tape out on CGI Friday in December.

myspace / buy / blog

SEWER SURFIN'

Gem Jones - My Nine to Five
YES! Real stoked to hear another track from sludge disco groover Gem Jones and this time its basically all made up of that killer FM freq/Ferraro-style guitar wailage and then a whole bunch of stardusty pop exhileration. This brand new one taps into the Raw Thrills kind of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" teen thrills again. Yeah basically just our fav stuff ever really!

[Gem Jones MySpace / Blog]

ASTRAL BUTT

Gem Jones - Glows Dim (excerpt)

Vibed all weekend with this A.M. radio warper from Iowa City's Gem Jones. This excerpt is taken from a split cassette with Part Time Cruiser that is steeped in a similar smoky, tape-dubbed mythos to fellow Midwestern weirdos like Taterbug and Tracey Trance. Gem Jones imbues his reels with a strange 80s pop sheen here though which still manages to shimmer through all the murky tape dust, sounding like a lost Ariel Pink demo with its star-strewn synths and perfect bassline bounce. The haunted karaoke vocals fit nicely in amongst all this, particularly in terms of the tape's skewed hauntological qualities; maybe this is what it sounds like to re-enter your prom night as your present self via the limousine radio just to croon and spook everyone out?

[Gem Jones Myspace]

[Download Gem Jones/Part Time Cruiser Split from CGIFriday]