Is and of The | Acrobatic

Is and of The is a Philadelphia project fronted by Drew Bandos. I put their 2012 album Know Not onto my top albums of 2012 list. He has recently released this new free EP Acrobatic. It’s a dark, bass-driven, ambient album, with some 8bit sounds and possibly found sounds thrown in there. It’s all instrumental. It is pretty fucking great. This is the kind of music that makes you want to just lay down on the floor naked in the middle of whatever room you are in and just absorb all the great sounds that you experiencing and let the music take over you. And it’s also the kind of music that will make you write run-on sentences when trying to describe it. It’s also free, but you can purchase it for however much your little heart desires. 

(Source: http://bandcamp.com/)

Stinky Smelly is a band from Philadelphia, PA. My friend introduced me to these guys after seeing them play at the famous Philly basement venue Maggot House. After hearing their name, I had to hear them. They have broken up since then, but this release is their last album. Which really sucks because they are really great. The opening track The End (fin) is very literally the beginning of the end. This album has an overall feeling of angst and frustration. The only time I find myself skipping a song is on Plastic Bag Factory and A Boy & His Dog. This is only because these songs do not flow with the rest of the album at all. Plastic Bag Factory is basically a rap song. But other than those 2 out of 16 songs, this album is fucking great. A lot of these songs are older songs, but recorded a lot better. Get it now because it’s free. Plus, since they’re broken up, it probably won’t stay on the internet forever. Or they might forget about it and it will stay on the internet forever. Either way, download it because it’s fucking good and fucking free.

4/5

(Source: http://bandcamp.com/)

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #3

Perfume Genius: Put Your Back N 2 It

This is the saddest album I’ve heard all year. Perfume Genius plays beautiful, short piano songs. Even though only a few instruments are used, it sounds gigantic. Like a huge orchestra playing with him. Listen to this and sob.

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #6

Mount Eerie: Clear Moon

This is one of the most depressing albums of the year. If you enjoy feeling sad, you’ll love this. It’s not the kind of sad where you want to cry, but the kind where everything sucks so much that you can’t really react. But that’s what makes this album so fucking great. That it can evoke such a great feeling (in me, anyway). 

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #8

Screaming Females: Ugly

Marissa, lead singer/guitarist, makes some of the coolest sounds from her mouth and guitar you’ll ever hear. I cannot find the right words to describe Screaming Females. They’re definitely punk rock, but there’s more to it. 

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #11

Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan 

I’ve been casually listening to Dirty Projectors for a few years, but I didn’t realize how great they were until I saw them at Pitchfork Music Festival this year. They seriously blew me away. It was by far the best performance the entire festival. After seeing them, I really listened to their new album, and it is so great. Every single person in this band is amazing at singing and harmonizing. 

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #13

Converge: All We Love We Leave Behind

One of my good friends turned me onto Converge just in time for their new album to drop. Holy shit, this is fucking intense. It’s the most hardcore punk, hardcore punk can get. 

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #15

Ty Segall: Twins

In case any of you haven’t realized, I fucking love garage/psych/rock bands. It just reminds me of the summer and it’s fucking awesome. Anyway, Ty Segall released 3 albums this year. 3! And what’s even better is that they’re all fucking great. All different enough to be on 3 different albums. This one is his “solo” album. It fucking rocks and it makes you just wanna jump to the beat with a bunch of other people in a mosh pit. 
Bonus fact: I went to Pitchfork Music Festival this year and he crowd surfed and I got to touch his sweaty back. It was awesome.  

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #16

Zammuto: Zammuto

Zammuto is the singer of The Books. I found out about this through the famous The Needle Drop. The opening track gets me every time. It’s so fucking awesome, especially with what he did with the vocals. Somehow making them all jittery and making it to the beat. It’s all basically disjointed electronic music with really awesome song names. Groan Man, Don’t Cry and F U C-3PO are just two of the song names. Listen below.  

TOP ALBUMS OF 2012: #18

Tame Impala: Lonerism

When I start listening to this album, it’s really hard to not close my eyes and get lost in all the colorful sounds I’m hearing. It’s pure psychedelic rock. It will be one of the most interesting albums you listen to this year and probably for years to come. You can only listen to this album when you’re really paying attention with headphones on so you can hear all the little extra sounds to fully enjoy it. Please, enlighten yourself, if you haven’t already.