“Track Changes” is a weekly column here at ARTINFO that acts as a notepad for the staff to jot down what they’re listening to that’s new and exciting. This week, Craig Hubert and Scott Indrisek pick songs from a variety of artists, including a new one from National frontman Matt Beringer under the name EL VY, the dark electronics of Soramimi, the singer from Real Estate — who has a very good solo record out this week — covering Pavement, and a “dumb-simple garage-punk blast” from the Brainstems.
EL VY, “Silent Ivy Hotel”
A smooth hepcat slink underlines this track, as National frontman Matt Berninger does his best Leonard Cohen over a minimalist bass, drum, and guitar bed courtesy of Menomena’s Brent Knopf, plus some ghostly choral accompaniment. “We could stay here forever, and never get together,” Berninger intones in this narrative of doomed romance — perhaps an oblique nod to the “you can check-out any time you like / but you can never leave” of “Hotel California,” which would be so uncool that it’s cool all over again. —Scott Indrisek
Sometimes you listen to a record based solely on the record cover. Such was the case with “Yellow Dust” by Bruce Ditmas, which features who I imagine is Mr. Ditmas sitting on the ground, wearing an elaborately-patterned suit amid different instruments — synthesizers, maracas, various hand-drums — spread out around him. “L’Unita,” the first track on the album, immediately blasts into a roaming and heavy free-rhythm, not unlike some of the Miles Davis “On the Corner” period stuff, but more focused on discordant electronic noise. The always-interesting Finders Keepers label is rereleasing this record, first recorded in 1977, and if you’re not familiar with them their deep catalog can be perused here. —Craig Hubert
Martin Courtney, “Bring On The Major Leagues” (Pavement cover)
The Real Estate singer and guitarist has a solo album, “Many Moons,” out now, and he recently recorded this cover for a session on Sirius XMU. While the original — penned by Steve Malkmus who, since this is ARTINFO, we shall henceforth refer to as “Jessica Jackson Hutchins’s husband” — is pretty damn laid-back, but Courtney gives it an even more pronounced stoner-suburban, quasi-country spin (all while looking like your unexpectedly hip 7th grade geometry teacher). —SI
Soramimi, “Rapture Insignia” EP
I don’t know much about this one, but it has been floating around for a month or so and has been a constant presence in my headphones. The second release on the New York-based Dusk Notes label — run by Soramimi and Cory James — is a dreamy and dark set of songs that alternate between ghostly rhythms and shadowy soundscapes, almost Lynchian in their attraction lurking darkness. —CH
A dumb-simple garage-punk blast, this song shares a certain aggrieved, blasé monotone with Parquet Courts (of “Stoned and Starving” fame). It clocks in at under two minutes and still finds time to squeeze in a snarling little guitar solo before it bows out. —SI
The New Orleans-based rapper put a new album this week called “Limbo,” with a large part of the production handled by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. So, if good rap over TV on the Radio sounds like something you’ve always wanted to hear, you’re now in luck. And it’s all about the desire to get paid, even though the money never shows up. Something we can all relate to. —CH
—Scott Indrisek (@indrisek) & Craig Hubert (@craighubert)
(Image: Screenshot from “Silent Ivy Hotel”)
