May 2013
3 posts
14 tags
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MP3: Clams Casino - Bookfiend (feat. DOOM)
It’s safe to say most kids love peanut butter and jelly. I did not. Globby, purple and red preserves never appealed to me, which is why—in one of those inspired parenthood moves—mom always added honey to transform my simple bread and spread sandwiches into a “PB&H.” I still make them when I’m feeling homesick.
For me, Clams Casino and DOOM go together...
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April 2013
1 post
17 tags
March 2013
2 posts
18 tags
1 tag
Watch: Shabazz Palaces - Black Up (Album Short...
What a beautiful way to sift through Shabazz Palaces’ stellar Black Up…
January 2013
12 posts
13 tags
2 tags
Today's Best Song Ever - "A Tender History in...
Digging up rare, awesome or obscure tracks…
It’s takes a minute and a half of patience to hear why “A Tender History in Rust” is such a beautiful piece of music, but those early seconds of ephemeral noise give way to the most harmonic, delicate guitar playing; a melody that lingers and lingers and lingers… Très magnifique.
“Rust” closes out the a-side of...
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Stream: Just Blaze x Baauer - "HIGHER"
TNGHT’s self-titled EP was one highlight of last year’s ever-growing genre of Frankenstein, dance-floor, trap music: Gamera-sized beats that make you want to drink, smoke, freestyle and grind like you’re in Sodom or Gomorrah, not Williamsburg.
Baauer had a killer single and a few remixes in 2012 that explempified this to a tee, so it’s no shock producer-extrodinaire...
3 tags
Today’s Best Song Ever - "Sailing" by The...
Digging up rare, awesome or obscure tracks…
Today it’s marching, stripped-down folk from of the Sutherland Brothers, an early ’70s British folk/rock duo. Rod Stewart recorded a cover of the track in 1975 and though it ended up being his biggest-selling single in the UK, the original is so, so, so much better.
Right-Click + Save Link As:
Sutherland Brothers - Sailing
Note:...
4 tags
Download: Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move...
Though I didn’t advertise it here, Jessie Ware’s Devotion was one of my favourite releases of last year, an album knotted with pop-diva, neo-R&B and London-dubstep allusions, pulled taut by one hell of a voice.
Ware released her If You’re Never Gonna Move EP earlier this week and—convenient for me—it’s a pure victory lap, packaging a slight rework of...
2 tags
MP3: Wampire - "The Hearse"
“Brandon Flower’s preacher’s-warble meets bootleg instrumentals off Rod Stewart’s Blondes Have More Fun, with a dash of Danzig and the Cryptkeeper.”
That’s how I’d best describe “The Hearse,” the a-side of Wampire’s debut 45. Their band name’s incredulous, but the song’s pretty catchy. And kitschy. I dig it.
Can these...
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Lisztomania: The Best of 2012
How was your December? Mine was shit. Which helps explain why I’m as late as Pazz & Jop in posting my Top 50 Albums of 2012.
However overdue, this list is guaranteed to blow all the other lists you ever read about the year 2012 in music away…
[[MORE]] — Citizen Insane’s Top 50 Albums of 2012 —
50. Nude Beach - II 49. Purity Ring - Shrines 48. Supreme Cuts - Whispers in...
3 tags
MP3: Junip - "Line of Fire"
I’ve had Junip’s latest on my hard-drive for all of half an hour and I’ve spun it through four times already—José González, you and your band make some solid freak folk.
“Line of Fire” is off the group’s forthcoming sophomore LP (self-titled, natch). As long as they pick up where Fields left off, I’m on board…
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...
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MP3: David Bowie - "Where Are We Now?"
I’m not sure what any lowly, young writer can ad to the music criticism of David fucking Bowie, so… I won’t try.
I will say I’ve been playing this Lynchian epic since the Duke dropped it on iTunes a week ago and I still can’t wrap my ears around a 66-year-old, lounge-singing Bowie. Then, two and a half minutes in, everything clicks and I need to hit play again.
...
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October 2012
9 posts
4 tags
Stream: Ducktails - "The Flower Lane"
So Real Estate guitarist Matthew Mondanile has the fourth album of his Ducktails project due out early, early next year. Til now, the band’s been a solo, bedroom act, nothing but seams-showing, shambling, lo-fi, psychedelic-pop. The Flower Lane, however, is Mondanile’s first album proper, recorded in an actual studio, with actual musicians, which might help explain that keyboard-heavy AOR...
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MP3: Atoms for Peace - "Default"
It would be against the posterity of this site to not host Radiohead-related content whenever possible. Thus, down below you’ll find “Default,” the single Thom Yorke’s other band surreptitiously dropped a month ago. The track may be 29 days old, but playing a little bit of catch up never hurt anyone’s hard drive…
Right-Click + Save Link As:
Atoms for Peace -...
2 tags
MP3s: Savages - "Flying to Berlin" & "Husbands"
Typing out “Geddy Lee meets Death From Above 1979” was not something I thought I’d write to describe London post-punkers Savages, but how could one hear “Husbands” and not?
The band debuted their “Flying to Berlin” single back in May and every Siouxsie and The Banshees, Cocteau Twins, early Killing Joke, Blondie, et al. comparison still sticks. If the...
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MP3s: Airhead - "Wait" & "Pyramid" Singles
Like anyone else with their finger seemingly on the pulse of emerging UK producers, I first heard Airhead (née Robert McAndrews) when I tracked down his collaborative 12” with James Blake, Pembroke. That dropped back in 2010 and McAndrews’s been quiet—save a compilation contribution—until this year when he released two very fine singles, Wait and Pyramid.
Both...
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MP3s: King Krule - "Rock Bottom" & "Octopus"
King Krule aka The Artist Formerly Known as Zoo Kid aka Archy Marshall is England’s 18-year-old, baritone wunderkind. Part Morrissey, part Franco and all teenager, you can hardly believe that voice comes out of this body.
While last year’s King Krule EP failed to reach the bedroom highs of songs released under his Zoo Kid moniker, Marshall’s back with his strongest material...
2 tags
Today's Best Song Ever - "Seabird" by The Alessi...
Digging up rare, awesome or obscure tracks…
Today it’s little known pop-perfection from the Alessi Brothers, identical twins who were one-hit-wonders in both the US and UK; ’70s FM sugar through and through.
Note: Originally published in November, 2010.
Right-Click + Save Link As:
Alessi Brothers - Seabird
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Welcome to The Citizen Insane, Redux
I launched The Citizen Insane blogging project roughly six years ago this month. Back then, I was an emotional college sophomore who had no idea what he was doing (I still don’t, really). Since then, the site’s undergone about half a dozen facelifts, traveled across multiple web platforms and has changed drastically.
As this is an anniversary of sorts, I decided to totally redesign...
