Thursday, March 20, 2014

Sylvan Esso

I had a tough time deciding what to write about today. This week has been a bit all over the place. Some bad, some good. No pictures this time, sorry. Maybe next week.

I'm kind of bored at work, and kind of sick, and found out my great-aunt passed away, which obviously did not make me very happy. Especially considering she's always been my favorite and is basically like a third grandmother. And then later that same night I was watching Girls (*spoiler maybe?*) and I saw the episode where Hanna's grandma died, so that didn't make things any better. And there are other things about the whole situation which really pissed me off, but we don't have to go into those here. So that's no fun.

But a lot of good things have happened this week, too. I found out yesterday that I can move out of my hotel and into my apartment here in Germany next week, which is earlier than expected. I also just changed my weekend in London to a week in the UK cause I'll be there for work, too, which means now I get more time in London with friends and I don't have to pay for the plane ticket. Then I finally booked trips for all my upcoming long weekends, so now I have weekends planned in Copenhagen and Madrid to see friends, and Estonia to use the Lonely Planet I stole from my sister. And I finally started House of Cards and holy shit I can't believe that first episode!!!

I don't really know how I feel right now. I'm sure I'll figure it out. For now at least I have good music and will be seeing friends in Munich this weekend. And this week I have very good music.

I think the last time I got this excited about a new musical find was Lief Vollebekk, so it's been a couple of months. I've found some really good new stuff since then, but nothing that got me this as excited as he did, or as excited as Sylvan Esso, my find from this morning, did. Sylvan Esso only has three songs, and when I first started listening to Hey Mami this morning, I thought it was kind of cool. Then it got to about 1:30 and I was sold.




This is what I imagine Tune-yards would sound like if she was produced by Jai Paul. And that sounds like a dream come true to me. And in the same week that Tune-yards dropped the first single off her new album. Between Tune-yards, Lykke Li and Ray LaMontagne's new albums, May 6th is going to be a good day for music.

Anyway, I heard Hey Mami and loved it, so I listened to Play It Right, the other track off of Sylvan Esso's first single, which came out last year. And I was not let down at all. Again with the Jai Paul-esque goodness. I'm starting to think that this is my sound of 2014. Between artists like Banks, SOHN, Kwabs and now Sylvan Esso, who all kind of fit into this dark electro-pop kind of sound, it seems that some of the artists I'm most excited about this year are right in here.





Until about 3 minutes ago the only things I knew about Sylvan Esso were what I wrote above, and the fact that they've toured with Volcano Choir, and currently have tour dates with Wye Oak and Tune-yards, which makes me like them even more. In fact they have a date in Berlin with Tune-yards, which would be incredible to be at, but it's while I'm home in the States in May. But I'm bored at work and so I jumped on facebook on my phone to find out more (and because I wanted to know who produces their music. Turns out it's them). I found out the fun facts that they formed in North Carolina, and that they apparently have a self-titled full-length album which they self-released last year. But I can't find any of the other songs from it online. Luckily this album will be re-released by their label in May. Not sure if their last song that I can find, Coffee, is off the original release or a new song for the reissue or what. But it doesn't matter, cause I have to wait for the reissue anyway. At least for now I have these three songs, though.





These guys have just jumped up to almost the top of my list of most anticipated artists of 2014. They're still behind Banks, but I can't wait to hear more from Sylvan Esso.

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