Django Django pulled together the perfect video for their eccentric instrumental WOR, which sounds like a hybrid of Arabic music and surf rock. They talked VICE’s music channel Noisey into traveling to India and filming a short documentary on the completely insane circus sport known as the Well of Death, which is like a cross between Jackass, roller derby and Evel Knievel stunts.
Both Django Django and the video itself are worth a look if you haven’t given them one yet.
Earlier this week, Edinburg’s Django Django released yet another video from their brilliant 2012 self-titled debut LP – this time for the track Hand of Man. In case you missed it, Django Django pulled #17 in the Hidden Track Collective Top 25 albums of the year. Check the video below directed by John MacLean who is both the older brother of Django Django’s drummer Dave and an alumni of the wildly influential Indie-Gods The Beta Band.
Django Django returns to the U.S. for more live dates starting in March.
Welcome to the fifth consecutive Best Albums of the Year countdown here at Hidden Track. Hopefully, you know by now that we pride ourselves on covering music that spans any genre, any age, any geography, and any instrumental makeup. To us, good music is good music. Period.
So, you can rest assured of the one thing that will always make our list a cut above the rest: we consider everything. Our submissions include all styles of music from bluegrass to jazz, jam to indie, electronica to rap, as well as everything in between. At the end of the day, we’re a diverse open-minded music blog. Our writers work here because they have great taste in music, and thus they are encouraged simply to write about what catches their interest. We have no motives, no editorial biases, and no strings attached. We hope that comes across in our picks.
We’ve hit day two of our week-long countdown of the 25 best albums of 2012. Let’s check out numbers 20 through 16…
20) Heartless Bastards – Arrow
Sounds Like: Drinking a good whiskey: that moment that straddles clear-headed sobriety and a warm-hearted buzz.
Key Tracks: Only For You, Skin and Bone, The Arrow Killed the Beast
The Skinny: To be a truly great rock band, at some point you need to stop sounding like the great rock bands of the past and chart your own path. With 2009’s The Mountain and even more so with this year’s Arrow, The Heartless Bastards have proven their greatness, staked out a path and delivered some truly kick ass rock and roll. As I wrote earlier this year, Arrow features “superlative songs with patient, build-to-climax construction and some of the most soulful female vocals to sing them.” Erika Wennerstrom has a special from-the-soul passion – when she sings here of life, longing, love, you wish she was singing about you. Listen again and again and you might just convince yourself she is.
19) Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself
Nothing left to do but smile…
There are so many things to love about Jason Collett’s new album. Collett is another one of those Broken Social Sceners who’s going on to do his own thing in wonderfully divergent fashion. On Reckon, the general modus operandi seems to be efficient, bubbly pop music perfection. Barely any of the 15 tracks break the three minute mark, but no matter, they all leap fully formed into the ear with a big smile on their face, sounding like a trove of undiscovered Paul McCartney solo gems. And don’t miss the “bonus disc” which is essentially a Jason Collett “greatest hits” and, lo!, appropriately contains a McCartney cover as well.
Spotify: Jason Collett – Reckon
MOG: https://mog.com/m#album/
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00978XFR6
Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist
It being Friday, and just shy of half-way through the ninth month of the year, this morning I (@andykahn) decided on a whim to tweet out my Top 9 Albums of 2012 (so far). Along with the nine I chose, I also added a handful of, “Honorable Mentions,” that didn’t quite make the cut. With a quarter of the year left, 2012 has thus far proven to be another impressive year of album releases.
