11 Anticipated Local Records For 2011
Here we are in 2011, what could very well be the greatest or worst year of music history, but will likely end up somewhere inbetween like all the others. By the time we make our year-end lists in December, bands we’ve never heard will creep into our inner sanctum, while other favorites will have sprung surprise releases on us (looking at you, Newsom and Stevens). So, very much for now, here are our 11 most anticipated New York-bred releases set for this year.
Real Estate, title TBA; Ducktails, Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics
The boys in Real Estate are the local songwriters to beat right now. Coming off their excellent debut album in 2009 and a 2010 that saw the band evolve from Brooklyn shitholes to big theaters all over the world, anticipation is high and the Neil Young-infused gloss of the group’s recent "Out of Tune" single shows that Real Estate can step up to the pressure. Most of the band now lives in Brooklyn rather than New Jersey, so another big question will be how urban grit will influence the group’s nostalgic, suburban style.
Meanwhile, the band’s guitarist, Matt Mondanile, will release Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics to kick the year off. Expect the usual cheap synthesizers and guitar pedal work with a renewed dedication to lo-fi songwriting on tracks like the Seinfeldreferencing "Art Vandelay."
The Babies, The Babies
The Babies, a side project for the Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone and Kevin Morby from Woods, is finally releasing a debut album. More than a glorified supergroup, the band has locked-up its own brand of bouncy rock ‘n’ roll that touches on everything from pop punk and Nuggets garage rock to some unflappable, classic New York cool. The record’s first single "Run Me Over" is yet another rock-solid track that highlights the near-irresistible male/female dichotomy between Ramone and Morby.
Highlife, title TBA
Highlife’s Doug Shaw was one of the more original artists to emerge in 2010, and the follow-up to his Best Bless EP should find him stretching into new genres with his powerful vocals and evocative, Africaninfluenced guitar work. Word has it that Shaw is entering Rare Book Room studios to hole up and record his debut full-length later this month.
Dream Diary, You Are The Beat
Dream Diary makes sugary pop music with just enough fuzz to own the underground. Like a bong filled with grapefruit juice, the group’s debut should be heady, sweet and put another notch in Brooklyn’s flirtation with bands like The Smiths, The Supremes and jangly contemporaries The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Last year, singer-songwriter Jacob Danish Sloan talked about being more ambitious with recording and eschewing some of the necessary lo-fi production of the band’s past. We’ll see if the group goes for the gloss or retreats more into layers of hiss and blurred instrumentation.
Julianna Barwick, The Magic Place
A lone female voice endlessly looped and duplicated to the point of transcendence. That’s the M.O. for Julianna Barwick, and the technique should be on full display on her upcoming full-length. Barwick has always flirted with glorified music as a one-woman project and we hope for a heightened version of her past work over the course of a full album.
Class Actress, title TBA
For the second winter in a row, Class Actress’ Elizabeth Harper is the Queen of the season, thanks to her EP Journal Of Ardency. 2011 will bring her group’s makeor-break full album debut, though. Expect more of the starry-eyed ’80s synthesizers and unrequited lovelorn lyrics that make Harper such a desirable, catchy pop star for the Brooklyn dance set.
Thurston Moore, Benediction
A Beck-produced Thurston Moore solo album might just be the perfect gift for our ’90s-obsessed contemporary music scene. The record will be Moore’s next project with Matador (Sonic Youth signed there for its last jaunt) and the followup to 2007′s underrated Trees Outside The Academy. With a similar band in tow, including violinist Samara Lubelski and instrumental contributions from Beck himself, the New York icon seems poised to shred his way past all the posers jacking his style these days.
The Diplomats, Diplomatic Immunity Vol. 3
At The Diplomats’ recent reunion show at Hammerstein Ballroom, cocaine blunt smoking reached its yearly high and Dipset was most definitely back in action. The reunited Harlem rap group’s new record will be an important effort in putting New York hip-hop back on the map. Look for potential production by Dr. Dre, overwhelmingly disgusting rhymes by Cam’ron, hilarious ad-libs by Jim Jones and an all-grown-up Juelz Santana to aim for one of the biggest street bangers of 2011.
Silk Flowers, LTD. Form
Silk Flowers is relentlessly artsy and cold, and don’t expect that to change on the upcoming LTD. Form. The record’s first single "Band of Color" is a little poppier than usual, yet still features raw synthesizer work, hard drum machines and the sort of baritone vocals that make these horror jams even scarier. The cover also features a burning candle, wax hand and drugstore fan, so there’s that!
Zs, New Slaves Part II: Essence Implosion!
Zs’ New Slaves, released in 2010, was one of the best experimental albums to come out of New York this side of Black Dice’s Beaches And Canyons, and seems perfect for the full-scale remix treatment. That’s where New Slaves Part II comes in. In addition to a new side from Zs, this record will feature New Slaves remixes from Thee Majesty (Genesis Breyer P-Orridge), J.G. Thirlwell, Gabe Andruzzi from The Rapture, Zebrablood from Excepter, Ecstatic Sunshine and Weasel Walter. Untested ears need not apply on this one.
The Beets, Stay Home
Home The Beets might just be the hardestworking local rock band right now and is set to release a second LP, Stay Home, next week. The album finds the band doing what they do best by paying tribute to nearly every form of once-ostracized rock ‘n’ roll, from Sun Records and garage rock to ’90s lo-fi indie and early K Recordsinfluenced songwriting.