Zola Jesus - The Spoils

 

Zola Jesus is a beautiful woman from Madison, Wisconsin making beautiful music.  The Spoils is an exercise of texture and mood creating an unsettling beautiful sound out of fuzzy synths, a hammering piano, and a drum machine.  Her classically trained voice floats angelically over the comparably uglier, more industrial noise her band creates.  Her songs build slowly adding layers of noise and wailing vocals until they reach an urgent apex, making the album an adventure you want to re-experience as soon as you are done.

As usual I am struggling to properly describe how amazing the work actually is.  So check it out now, as Zola Jesus is sure to take off soon.  With her internet hype building and a favorable score from Pitchforks you will most certainly be hearing more from this Madison artist.  She's currently touring the midwest, with more American dates to follow this spring (including SXSW).  So get out and see her live.  I'm willing to bet you won't be disappointed.

Download

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-Jim

Japandroids - Post Nothing

Summer seems like such a long time ago in the world of music, and in the world in general if you are relegated to parts of the world where you haven't seen the sun in weeks.  Last night I was pulled from the horrible winter doldrums when I heard a new Japandroids track on the radio.  So for the next post we can look back on last summer while we anxiously pine for spring.

Japandroids exploded onto this scene this summer after a couple years of EPs with their lo-fi full length "Post Nothing".  The duo from Vancouver makes surprisingly danceable tunes out of symbol punishing drumming and powerful, albeit simple guitar work.  The vocals consist of screamed out anthems that are often shared between the two members.  This creates the allusion of much more sound than you would expect out of a two piece band.  Most of the songs have fewer than five lines which makes them perfect for yelling out with your friends after a night of drinking.  The pair will also begin to release a series of 7" records of remastered tracks and previously unreleased material this spring.  I've heard one of the unreleased tracks and it is light years away from "Post Nothing".  Whether you consider this a good thing or bad depends on how much you liked that lo-fi, garage feel.   All this combined with the indie deity Pitchfork giving it a favorable rating, makes it no wonder why this band was so popular and will continue to be popular this year.

So give this an album a listen while you slam some brews with your bros.
Post-Nothing Download

*HMHYHT also has a new writer from the far reaches of California to share his knowledge of Math Rock and all things related to hipsterdom, so keep an eye out for his posts.

-Jim