Deerhunter!

i think cryptograms is awful and up until bradford tuned his schtick down i actively hated this band, but microcastle is a minor miracle imo. just completely chill, great drum sound, haunting if you want it to be but also relaxing and warm if you want it to be that. "nothing ever happened" is already a classic and the album starts and ends really well.

bradford was great at pfork too

I just finished listening to cryptograms like 15 minutes ago. I think it's a great album.

So a girl I used to know apparently joined this band recently. I guess I should check them out, what should I expect? All I got from Wikipedia was that they have "antics" of some sort and that they have an album called "Turn It Up, Faggot" which doesn't really inspire me...but they're good?

i dig 'em.
get the fluorescent grey ep.

seriously who woulda thought they could lock into a groove like the one on "nothing ever happened"

yea, i'm not a huge fan of cryptograms, but microcastle is doing it for me. 'twilight at carbon lake' kicking my ass

i think cryptograms is awful and up until bradford tuned his schtick down i actively hated this band

Sort of surprised you feel this way, Jordan. A lot of Cryptograms washes over me and I can't recall specific tunes, but it has a great vibe, and a dangerous edge that's sometimes sorely lacking in indie. But I'm glad to hear you like the new disc.

get the fluorescent grey ep.

Yeah, it's much poppier than Cryptograms. And the first song on it -- Fluorescent Grey -- is where all the experimenting and fusing of drone and ambient and rock really pay off. The song is swirling and driving and has great texture and a real edge to it.

i still think their best moment 'like new.'

im not into ambience really, and things that i let wash over me are usually happy/sunny stuff (something like the ruby suns maybe) so if i just thought cryptograms was really boring. couldn't grasp any of it, but it's not my type of music either so it's not so much an indictment of the album as something larger i guess.

i don't like when bands like this try on "pop", it just never clicks with me. the songs on here that i love, "agoraphobia"/"never stops"/"nothing ever happened" are really propulsive even in a back-porch/relaxed type way

which makes the ambient stuff here way more special imo

Ah. I was just about to ask whether the new songs are less ambient/droning and more pop-oriented.

get the fluorescent grey ep.

Can't be said enough, really.

i know there was an interview on pitchfork with bradford (done by marc hogan i think) that's not this one http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/43085-interview-deerhunter

id like to read it but the current incarnation of pfork's search feature is the worst on the internet i think and i'm tired of filtering through google results

help

maybe im making this up actually

this one? http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/42945-deerhunters-cox-talks-lp3-atlas-sound-dresses

Never Stops is one of my fave songs of 2008 thus far....

this might be the one:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/47762-interview-atlas-sound

yesss

thanks dude

Jordan, want some advice? Be wary of any interview/blog entry involving Bradford. Dude makes great music, consistently and prolifically, but he's stuck in the mindset of a 17-year-old boy. A good number of people hate Deerhunter/Atlas Sound based upon the dumb things he has said or done, without ever hearing more than 2 songs. Anyways, I digress, but the point is that reading a substantial amount of what he has to say is more likely to diminish rather than enhance your appreciation of his music.

and that they have an album called "Turn It Up, Faggot"

I still have never gotten around to listening to this, and I doubt I will anytime soon, since Bradford basically disowns it every time someone brings it up.

funny you say that cuz i was gonna post in here about how much his rambling shit in this interview makes me like him/identify with him a lot more than if someone just gave me an untitled cd-r. maybe its cuz i've always been slightly fascinated w/ bradford even when i thought the music was awful (i remember reading this interview pretty clearly even though at the time i hated deerhunter and thought atlas sound was just "nice", which is i was looking for this interview specifically), but i couldn't imagine listening to deerhunter in "just listening to the music" mode. i think he's a really interesting and conflicted dude that i identify closely with which is why i even bothered to spend time w/ microcastle and makes me even happier to like it.

haha, even better for you then!

Yeah, although I advised not reading his interviews and blog, I guess I really advise not letting it ruin the music for you, if it rubs you the wrong way. Myself, I read pretty much everything he says like a pathetic fanboy. Once you get into it, it's like sitting in on therapy with a strange child.

Thanks for the tips, y'all - I'll do some seeking around, prolly this Fluorescent Gray thing...

You're welcome. I'd say to grab that song (Fluorescent Grey) in particular.

I can't believe how early this leaked. How long til I can actually buy it, end of October? It leaked almost 5 months early...Sheesh. 2008 man, 2008.

As usual, my gut assessment was totally off. It's a good thing I'm terrible at writing about music (good thing I'm posting on ILM, amirite?), because I'm completely incapable of making good snap judgments. This fucking rules. It's still not as consistent as Fluorescent Grey, but hey, this is 12 good-to-great songs in a row, can't complain.

A heads up for those interested:

Kranky finally has the Atlas Sound album on vinyl, and similarly to the Cryptograms+Fluorescent Grey package, it will be augmented with the 6-track Another Bedroom EP (which I haven't yet heard).

Meanwhile, the countdown to the Microcastles release continues, and for me at least, it's holding up quite well upon repeated listens.

im surprised/happy at how much i love microcastle

has anyone heard weird era cont.?

Yeah, what's the deal with that? I was just catching up with their blog (surprise, surprise: more controversy!) and his last post has all this stuff about Logos (apparently the new Atlas Sound album that will be out next year) and Weird Era material leaking. I'm doing a little "internet research" right now.

yeah i tried to find either of those online but i couldn't

my favorite atlas sound thing is the live recording from lisbon

Ah. Someone on the deerhunter forum posted this a few weeks ago:

Bradford accidentally posted a link to his mediafire account, people on atease discovered said mistake [which was in place for at least six + hours]. New Deerhunter album was found, Weird Era Cont., [which is most probably the "surprise" to come with the physical Microcastles] alongside a complete demo version of the Logos album and a few remixes/demos/artwork that hadn't been made available. Feel sorry for the guy, but I have listened so am probably a bad person.

I am live blogging my perusal of other forums. This is internet 3.EXTREME

I guess after he discovered the leak, he freaked out and posted a picture of him flipping blog readers off, and then said he was going to totally scrap the whole album now, named the post something like "R.I.P. Logos 2007-2008", etc. But now he has apologized, deleted said post, and replaced it with a picture of him giving the peace sign. All is well.

Oh, I guesss Stereogum covered this on Aug. 18th: http://stereogum.com/archives/so-much-drama-on-deerhunters-blog_015211.html

The era of extreme internet is over.

this band is so heroic

May as well bump this thread too. Jordan have you heard Weird Era Cont. yet? What other band releases a free bonus LP along with their "official" release, and then makes the bonus material even better? Deerhunter for prez!

for me, it wasn't better, but it surely was of very high quality. i especially love how he fleshed out "calvary scars," which was one of my favorites on "Microcastle"

OMG this "microcastles" thing is so good! who knew?

me

i'm a bit mystified by the reaction to this record.. i don't mind the album, 'never stops' and 'nothing ever happened' are pretty good, but the rest seems rather unremarkable at best

shudder to think what the songs are "at worst!"

well, i think calvary scars and cover me slowly are both crap

I'm not entirely sold on this album yet. But it's growing on me. I can tell it's a grower. Last night I listened to it backwards (last track first, first track last) and it worked rather well.

prob my album of the year.

I think I'm on the same page as ESOJ here. Wished I could get more excited by it, but bar a couple of songs, it's a bit of a snoozer. Not made it to Weird Era yet though.

Those of you that dig Atlas Sound would do well to check this out:

http://southernshelter.com/2009/01/atlas-sound-drunken-unicorn-123108.html

A solo set with a bunch of new songs. "Quick Canal" is the standout new song, imo. It reaaally gets cooking, especially around 4:00-6:00 in. If he can build it to that kind of an intensity all by himself (it's a solo set), I can't wait to see how a properly recorded version would sound, either as Atlas Sound or with the rest of Deerhunter.

Anyone pick up the $30.00 UK version of the Atlas Sound album that came with the bonus disc? I found it used for 1/3 retail price, listened once, new tracks are pretty nice if a bit similar to the album tracks.

I got the 2xLP a few months ago from Kranky that has the same bonus material(the Recent Bedroom EP). I enjoyed it and didn't mind the similarity to the album itself, since I really liked the album. But yeah, it doesn't represent the same kind of huge leap forward that that Fluorescent Grey EP did, or overwhelm with variety and volume like Weird Era.

http://stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new-deerhunter-rainwater-cassette-exchange_065012.html

^ is that out?

It's on eMusic, so yeah.