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Remember when you were a kid and all your friends would always end up hanging out at the same house? Maybe it was your house. But why did we always end up at the same kids’ house? On the new Air Traffic Controller track, singer Dave Munro questions, “Was it the house or was it the gang or a phenomenon no one can explain?” Realistically it’s probably because your family was the first to get a PS2 or something. But the Boston indie-pop quartet dip into this nostalgia with their whimsical anthem telling the story of how their (presumably brothers Dave and Richie Munro) house was that house, even after their mom remarried and moved them into a new house. Produced by Bleu, the track shines with a power-pop gloss and contains a chorus too catchy to get out of your head. “The House” is available on iTunes starting today, so grab it while we wait for the follow up to 2012′s Nordo. |
| Recommended by Scott Interrante | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Eli Wilde’s poetry collection The Lines muses on the dark nature of obsession, fantasy, and loneliness. Each piece is just one section in a larger narrative, which turns out to be the story of a young man who has just broken up with his French girlfriend and is returning to his native London. On the train home, the narrator muses on how isolated he feels in comparison to the happy memories of the life he had in Paris with his ex-girlfriend. Slowly but surely, his obsession with the former love of his life becomes incredibly creepy and obsessive as now everything on the train begins to remind the young British man of the woman he left behind in Paris.
| Recommended by Amanda Ferris | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Ahh, finally an alphabet book for today’s cynical adult. The Dictionary of Unhappiness is an 80-page book that mirrors the colorful alphabet books of our youth, but instead of C is for Cat, C stands for “Child: Proof of disposable income.” Written by Situationist Isaac Cronin, and with visuals by graphic designer Tyler Spangler, the tongue-in-cheek bleak descriptions and their accompanying pop art might give the impression that this is all for shits and giggles. But underneath the humor is commentary on human consumption and our shifting attitudes on communication–the kind of topics you don’t seem to notice until you’re a pessimistic adult with no hope for the future. Hey, no one said getting older was easier. [Hat tip: Dazed]
| Recommended by The Absolute Staff | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Staten Island duo Radial are getting ready to release their People EP next week, and we’ve finally got a taste of what to expect. “The Heat” finds Mark and Joe Endozo continuing to explore the ’80s disco-infused electro-pop sound they’ve shown on their previous EPs with dark synths and a perfect dance groove. The guitars shimmer underneath Joe’s idiosyncratic vocal melodies while the drums and bass keep a steady momentum. In the chorus he sings, “Everybody dancin’ in the street/Everybody dancin’ in the heat.” And with “The Heat” as the soundtrack, you’ll definitely want to join in.
Radial’s People EP will be released August 5, but you can download “The Heat” for free now.
| Recommended by Scott Interrante | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Playing Dear is quite possibly one of the most depressing experiences you can have without actually leaving your computer. Then again, it is a game about a marriage on its last legs, and so laughs do not exactly abound. The game is fairly simple. A man and a woman are in a house, and the woman asks the man to buy her something. Once the man arrives at the store, he can choose between purchasing an item for himself or an item for her…but beware, player, because his gifts are never met with gratitude.
| Recommended by Melody Lee | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Alexi Zentner’s The Lobster King adds a touch of magical realism in a lonely fishing village ruled by an aging patriarch with a fiery daughter. Somewhat based off of the Shakespearean play King Lear, Cordelia is the eldest daughter of Woody Kings, who is the reigning patriarch of the lonely fishing village Loosewood Island in New England. Even though the Kings family has been prosperous, there’s a curse on them: each generation’s fated to watch their first-born sons die. As the elderly ruler becomes more and more absent-minded, it’s up to his daughter to keep her beloved island out of the reach of the meth dealers who threaten to destroy the peace and keep her two younger sisters from making mischief, all while attempting to not suffer the same fate as her literary namesake.
| Recommended by Amanda Ferris | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
I doubt that Ryan Fox was the first person to have the idea to put a camera on the wheel of a car and drive around, but doing it without smashing the equipment involved and uploading it to YouTube is likely a much rarer feat. In Fox’s video above, the night lights of the city and constant speed make for a mesmerizing visual effect, like watching abstract video. If you like the concept, a couple of artists in the video’s comments section uploaded some videos of their own with the same concept.
| Recommended by Anwar Batte | Monday, July 28th, 2014 | No Comments » |
