Have you ever drifted asleep at the bottom of a dried up well, but when you woke up you realized that you’d actually been floating on a crude bamboo raft on a murky urban river, the bends and bows of which had deposited you on the beer-sticky parquet floor of the dive-est night club in your town?

When this does happen, Paul A. Rosales–performing under his own name or as Wonder Wheel–will be crafting a sonic wicker lounger upon which you will be tempted to dance and, eventually, melt.  Rosales’ sound is an excavated pop, stripped of it’s syrup and shine, leaving behind a lustre of echoing vocals that spiral around the fuzzy color wheel of lo-fi synths and beats that Rosales manipulates with the terrifying dexterity of an artist whose bodily extremities can materialize the nightmares and sex fantasies that lurk deep within in his–and our own–sub-conscious. Honing his chops through collaborations with R. Stevie Moore, Rosales cuts some bomber tracks.

See for yourself in this video for “Crimes”

“Crimes” is currently available as a 7inch single on Care in the Community Recordings. It’s also the first track on his debut full-length, Wonder Wheel I –a welcome addition to our summer indie rotation.

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We just got this record in from Crustacean Records:

It’s the new release from Screamin’ Cyn Cyn & The Pons, “Damn Girl.” Behind the plastic-gem bedazzled gold acrylic nails is a band that appear not to take themselves very seriously. If they are serious about anything, it’s penning irreverent and offensive songs that poke fun at just about everything: trophies, hairdos, and cats that dig pop culture icons. This record may not be for everyone–our world music director describes it as “painful.” Hey, sometimes punk hurts, but this punk tickles. Check out the lyrics to track eight, “POTO”:

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Helloooooo, Robert Mapplethorpe.

Listening to a Scissor Sisters album is like getting into a car with a friend who, while being brash and exciting, might lack a tiny bit of common sense and doesn’t give a damn about it. Finally, after four years, countless scrapped songs, and a near dissolution of the band, we can go on more magical adventures with Jake Shears, Ana Matronic, Baby Daddy, and Del Marquis.

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Wolf Parade just picked the world up and dropped it on my head.  An advance copy of their latest Sub Pop release, Expo 86, just landed at our station, and our pet seahorse is still recovering from the impact. We don’t really have a seahorse, I just needed an excuse to embed this video:

Firstly how cool is it that male-bodied seahorses give birth? What if I could give birth to a sea horse? What if I could be reborn as a seahorse? Incidentally, the opening track of Expo 86 grapples with the mysteries of reincarnation. Krug cries, “You’re gonna be okay come morning, / find your legs and find your horns. / Everybody’s gotta be reborn, / but you will never be born as a scorpion.” So according to Wolf Parade:

scorpion reincarnation – no

seahorse reincarnation – undeclared (I’m taking it as a maybe.)

Yes, this album is fantastic, and you should totally pick it up, or at least tune into our summer indie rock shows soon for a listen. (I’d be remiss to not let you in on a lil’ secret: Pitchfork has two tracks available for free download.) Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner team up again on the songwriting for this album. If Krug and Boeckner’s collaboration on Wolf Parade’s sophomore release Apologies to Queen Mary was nothing short of magical, then Expo 86 is an act of merciless sorcery. The symbiotic blend of Broekner’s infectious melodies, his guitar driven dance rhythms and Krug’s unearthly synths and vocals will exhaust, inspire and delight. The sixth track, “Ghost Pressure” is a must summer for dance parties; think The Boss meets Culture Club in a dungeon dance hall.  THIS TOUR IS GONNA BE AWESOME! And hey, Wolf Parade will play with The Moools at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on July 29th!

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Sound artists/musicians/ambassadors-from-the-beyond Miguel Frasconi and Denman Maroney met in a Brooklyn recording studio one afternoon to record some improvisational jams. Compiled into the album Gleam, set to release today, each recording presents a terrifyingly fascinating, alien expression of not only otherworldly sounds but also moods and atmospheres beyond the purview of our ordinary Earthbound existence. In addition to their compositional bravery and ingenuity, Frasconi and Maroney’s particular methods of noise-making set their sound apart from other experimental artists. Enclosed with the album, Porter Records‘ promotional one-sheet gives some clues about the instrumentation :

Miguel Frasconi uses a menagerie of glass objects to create music from a uniquely imagined tradition. These objects are struck, blown, stroked and otherwise coaxed into vibration…Denman Maroney plays what he calls the hyperpiano,” which involves bowing and sliding the strings with steel cylinders, Tibetan prayer bowls, rubber blocks and CD cases to create a unique sonic vocabulary.

Klavier Integral by Nam June Paik

The hyperpiano initially sounded a lot like Nam June Paik’s Klavier Integral, but Maroney doesn’t physically alter the pianos he plays except through the manipulation of strings with his tools.

Tune into Cabinet of Curiosities on Monday nights from 8:30pm-10:30pm for a chance to devour a sonic morsel from this outfit. Porter also has an audio sample available to stream here.

Scroll down for a video of Miguel Frasconi shredding some glass!

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