Video Post: Sleigh Bells – “Rill Rill”

The awesome “Rill Rill”, just about everyone’s favourite track from Sleigh Bells’ terrific album Treats, has just been released as a single. The song was one of my most played of 2010, with its breezy vocals and irresistible guitar sample, pilfered shamelessly from Funkadelic’s “Can You Get to That?”. The video clip is pretty great too, featuring high school, demonic lockers, bleeding telephones, photo shoots, fashionable bandoliers, speeding cars, grievous head-wounds and more, all juxtaposed against one of the sweetest sounding tunes you’ll ever hear from a supposed “noise-rock” band.

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After his brilliant live performance, I just had to run out and grab this one:

Gareth Liddiard - Strange Tourist

It’s a pretty amazing release. The thing I love about Gareth Liddiard is his tendency towards literal storytelling, often from a character-based perspective. Too much lyrically-focused music these days features artists who are heavily pre-disposed towards cryptic metaphors that require extensive deciphering, and it’s great to be able to listen to a direct tale that’s instantly understandable and compelling. I love The Drones, and Liddiard’s lyrics and distinctly husky, Australian accent have always been pretty major drawcards of their sound. This album feels like a spin-off of the Drones’ sound where every other factor has been stripped back until nothing remains but a voice and a single guitar, and the result is a no-frills collection of memorable and intimate songs. Personal favourite tracks are “Blondin Makes an Omelette”, “Strange Tourist”, the extremely long “The Radicalisation of D” and “Did She Scare All Your Friends Away”, which I think I’d have to pick as the album’s very best piece.

Bought during the same shopping trip:

Sleigh Bells - Treats

It’s like Deerhoof teamed up with a group of high school cheerleaders and the result was produced by Girl Talk. Or something. It’s noisy and chaotic but really very poppy, and almost every song has very strong high school connotations. It’s really good fun. The single, appropriately titled “Infinity Guitars”, is awesome, and I’m also really digging “Crown on the Ground” and “Rill Rill”, the latter of which rides on an awesome Funkadelic sample.