Atlas Sound/Panda Bear: “Walkabout“
If you were among those who downloaded the half-finished version of Atlas Sound’s (aka Bradford Cox) new record, Logos, after he accidentally leaked it a several months ago, well, shame on you. Luckily, Cox went back and changed a few things. Apparently “Walkabout,” a collaboration with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), didn’t even exist back then. From its burbling sampled beat (taken from The Dovers’ “What Am I Going to Do“) to its drowsy electronic interludes, it’s pretty sweet.
Kurt Vile: “Overnight Religion“
Philadelphia songwriter and mega-producer Daniel Lanois are privy to the same secret: If you take the music of the baby-boomers and run it through a ton of effects, it sounds cool again. Hey, don’t laugh, it worked for Bob Dylan on Oh, Mercy. And it works for Kurt Vile, too. A little bit of reverb and delay goes a long way here, turning the strummy “Overnight Religion,” into something spacey and meditative. And probably at only a fraction of what Peter Gabriel had to pay, too.
Beastie Boys f. Nas: “Too Many Rappers“
Yeah, the Beastie Boys are old, but at least they aren’t pretending otherwise. “Oh my god/ just look at me/ grandpa been rapping since ’83,” raps Mike D Ad-Rock on this new track, apparently debuted at this year’s Bonnaroo festival. But where the Beastie Boys used to be bratty, here they’re just sounding cranky—about contemporary rappers, holograms, and Wolf Blitzer. Ad-Rock, again, lays out the group’s beef in articulate and unambiguous language. “All you crap rappers/ you’re rapping like crap.
Free Energy: “Free Energy“
A big curve ball from DFA, the label who, up until this point at least, mainly concentrated on producing and releasing post-punk and retro-disco records. From the sound this song, though, Free Energy’s influences predate all that club junk by at least ten years. The finger prints of Thin Lizzy, Big Star, and Shoes—bands that have never been closer than a thousand yards to a remix—are all over this. There is, however, still some cowbell going on.