What isn't all that old is new again

This'll be a quickie to compensate for the essay the other day. I guess it feels like the time is nigh for a "What's on your generic mp3 player?" Kind of like the AV Club feature. But with no cult celebrities. But that's kind of secondary, right? I mean, first and foremost is having an mp3 player with music on it. It's definitely peripheral that it be a celebrity's iPod (oops, it slipped) and not just that of some idiot blogger (see: this week's The Onion headline). Anyway, I'm being silly. Let's skip to the end.

Firstly, The Aislers Set. Remember these ladies? Probably not. It was kind of an occupational hazard that I heard them (their last record came out on Suicide Squeeze). I recently picked up their 1998 debut. It's called "Terrible Things Happen" and I highly recommend it. It's kind of a precursor to Electrelane with a bit more of a MBV infatuation. It's loose, scrappy and completely enchanting. Here's track two from the debut. It's called "California."



Then there's Matmos. These guys have been at the forefront of experimental electronica for the better part of a decade and haven't stagnated in the least. It's a rare artist whose arc doesn't come crashing down after three or four records and Matmos is a prime example of a more committed artistry. Maybe the genre of experimental electronica just has more real estate to be claimed than, say, garage rock. Either way, it's allowed Matmos to continue releasing records without any indication that their ideas are drying up.

They recently released another full-length named "Supreme Balloon" and, while it remains just as sonically off-the-charts as anything previously, it also fashions some of the sharpest melodies of any of the Matmos records I've heard. It's good enough a record that I'm going back and snagging all of the other material of theirs that I don't have because I think they're worth knowing intimately. That's the best compliment I can give any band.



So we have A) an old band worth digging up B) a veteran band worth taking a second look at. The only thing missing is a new band. Well, I think this month I'm pretty much sticking with my standbys. I haven't found any new artists over the past month or so that I can champion at this point. The last on was The War on Drugs but I already wrote about them. Listen to them anyway. Gee, they're great.