Washed Out Leak

                Washed Out leaked. If you’re reading this, you know. Or if you don’t, get on top of it. Ernest Greene didn’t disappoint with this one. Most chillwave artists tried to stray away from their roots. You can’t imagine my happiness at Washed Out doing basically the same thing he did with his EPs albeit a slight change: There are less sample-based songs.  That’s the biggest evolution for him. Familiarity with his EPs is a must to see where he came from. If you’re unfamiliar, get familiar in particular “All Around You” perhaps the best song of his early work. People will be talking about this new album for quite some time. 

                I judge artists partially on how early their albums leak. An earlier leak indicates a greater anticipation and a possible criminal element within their fan base (depending on your judgment of leakers). Other chillwave artists leaked pretty early: Neon Indian’s album leaked a whole blog year (blog year = three months) before the album was due. By the time Pitchfork reviewed it saying how great the album was readers were like “Thanks for keeping me up to date with the latest news. Next you’ll tell me about the Wright brothers’ new invention called “the aero plane”.  Washed Out leaked pretty early. That bodes well for the project and for a continuing interest in Mr. Greene. Here’s where I admit Ernest’s self-releases of a few tracks kind made it pretty easy to figure out how this was going to sound. Nonetheless, considering all his previous releases were only EPs that’s a very good thing. He’ll be selling out shows wherever he goes, playing all his smooth, lovely songs. 

                Most other chillwave acts have a bit more of a direct, dance-pop influence. For example, Neon Indian wants you to get up and dance. Neon Indian wants you to take acid with him. All sorts of unmentionable things occur in Neon’s sound, perhaps too many unmentionable, potentially life-changing things. Washed Out deals with smaller details: how to hug, how to make love, etc. Perhaps these won’t change your life, but the nine songs make for excellent ‘make out’ or ‘love making’ music. It is a gentler sound, less dance based than rock based music. Think shoegaze. 

                How will others react to this? Will this be the album that saves the flailing genre ‘chillwave’? I feel it is chill enough; at least it will be until Neon Indian comes out with his new album. Unfortunately Neon Indian’s release may overshadow this quiet, understated album. We’ll have to see; each one has influential newspapers, blogs, bloggers, magazines, TV and other important sources of buzz. Ernest did do those Adult Swim bumps which help along with the intro song of IFC’s ‘Portlandia’. So at least Washed Out has a serious presence on Television, the laziest form of media. Can Washed Out and Neon Indian live in harmony? I think they can. Listening to this album, Washed Out seems pretty chill. With “Within and Without” Ernest solidifies his credentials as the ‘father of chillwave’. Respect your elders. 

Chad Valley – Equatorial Ultravox 8.1

                I first heard of Chad Valley about a month or so ago. When I heard the fifth track on here “Fast Challenges” I felt pretty excited. Here was an artist going back to the proud tradition of trance pop from the early 90s. Unlike some others working in the same sound, he deftly avoided any trace of irony. No, his work sounded fairly genuine, heartfelt even. 

                “Reach Lines” is truly great. The sound is pristine. I’m a little blown away. I mean, here we have all these artists obsessing about creating a lo-fi sound to impress others. Listening to it I’m reminded of a sweet Washed Out track. Vocals come from far away. Just for those not convinced, they bring out the vocoder. Oh this makes me happy. 

                With the full album, I’m reminded a bit more of the nostalgic vibes everyone’s been surfing on lately. Chad Valley’s work succeeds with the sheer smoothness of delivery. All those vocals make up most of the sound, taking up huge amounts of space. Vocals are more of an instrument than mere backup. This isn’t a bad thing; countless artists (Cocteau Twins) have convinced me of the importance on focusing of the texture of the sound. Besides, this is in English unlike the Twins’ made-up language. 

                Actually, most of the album explores the 80s more than that teaser “Fast Challenges” hinted. I’m not bothered by this fact. You’ll probably politely hum along with most of this album. The warmth it contains makes it pretty hard to dislike. Even the melodies are infectious.

                Of course, there are a lot of bands using a similar sound. Immediately the group “Games” comes to mind. Like Games, it stays true to a pop format, with all seven of these songs staying within five minutes or less. Similar to Games, it explores the myriad percussion and synthesizer pads. But the main difference is the more human approach to pop. The experimental impulse of the sound is kept in check by the human vocals. It’s a great summer album. Shame he isn’t coming to the US.

Washed Out is Not Washed Up

               Ernest Greene (better known as the first chillwaver) decided the waves needed to get a bit chiller: he’s announced the release of his first album. As his music is so heavily focused on the summer, the July 12^th release date on Sub Pop makes sense. Hopefully, just as the summer begins to drag on, we’ll have his sweet “With and Without” album to give lazy afternoons a better soundtrack.

                I can’t express the joy I have at reporting such good news. Forever has gone by since chillwave began with Ernest, a mild-mannered librarian from Perry, Georgia. He seduced us with spaced-out vocals and reverb, so much reverb. Reverb got reverbed, up to the point where you wondered the origin of such dreamy sounds. 

                Singles have been Washed Out’s stock and trade. Thankfully most of the album’s track list appears to be brand-new material. Having an album consist of nothing but a collection of EPs always feels lazy to me, Panda Bear, Uffie, and Real Estate fell into that trap. Obviously I feel dramatically different emotions regarding those three albums, but I do admit to enjoying a surprise.

                Washed Out doesn’t exactly seem terribly interested in surprises. In fact, the biggest surprise I could hear from Washed Out would be a continuation of his old sound, the sound that introduced “Portlandia” on IFC (It’s All Around You). Lately a great deal of chillwave bands have shunned that moniker, with Toro Y Moi going towards a full band sound, Ducktails taking a more tangible approach, and I’m not sure what Neon Indian will do, but I’m assuming he too will try to move behind his old sound. 

                Right now only one of the nine songs is out (You and I), the Adult Swim single with Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, is the one people have already heard. Everything else will be brand new. I hope the rest of the songs are as good as these five minutes. With further ado, I present to you the song “You and I” available for download. See the below for the rest of the track list:

Washed Out, Within and Without:

1. Eyes Be Closed

2. Echoes

3. Amor Fati

4. Soft

5. Far Away

6. Before

7. You and I

8. Within and Without

9. A Dedication

Struggle of the Bedroom musician

Life is hard for the bedroom musician. Nobody respects a guy who goes up to an audience and mumbles into a microphone:

“Hi, I’m going to play songs from my laptop.”

Then for the next 45 minutes you see this guy pretend to jam out on a better laptop than the one you have at home. Of course, there’s always the chance that he’s just playing MP3s out of it as he’s winning solitaire games. Usually there’s one or two of their friends in the audience as plants. After the show they usually say what a great job the guy did nodding his head back and forth along with staring blankly at a computer monitor. 

Life is hard for these artists. It used to be acceptable to have those kinds of concerts. No longer can anyone tolerate it. You just don’t have the labels as interested. Each time a guy comes on stage with a laptop the audience groans. Only somebody like The Field, who plays decadent dance music, can get away with this. And even he included actual musicians on his second album.

Some labels like 12k, City Centre Offices, and a few others accept this as a legitimate art form. But for most, one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do. Waking up in the morning and writing MP3s just has been sort of frowned upon. Thus, you either need absolutely amazing material (Like Washed Out), or, more realistically, you need to flesh out your live sound with a full band, like what Toro Y Moi does (and should continue to do).

Besides the obvious joy of having actual friends, being a bedroom artist now carries a derogatory connotation, like you can only be bothered with this before you go to sleep or after you wake up. Heaven forbid you actually spent time on making this good. See Jandek as a bedroom artist for further evidence that there’s something a little off about it.

Plus (and this might be the most important) without those other bands members, you’ll never get sweet advertising money. Do you really think that WAVVES would be as successful if he didn’t have Mountain Dew? Of course not, he’d be living on the streets. Just like Twin Shadow is the spokesperson for Robitussin, or the Polyphonic Spree advertises for Prozac. It just makes sense, and having a creepy, lonely dude explain that to you doesn’t have the same effect. 

So if you’re going the route of bedroom musician, fine. You can write those songs in your PJs, but keep in mind at some point, if you become successful, you’ll need a group of musicians good enough to learn the songs but not good enough to actually make it on their own. Perhaps you have a music teacher friend, or a guy who does weddings. It doesn’t matter so much where they are from, but that they will propel you to another level. As you grow together, you’ll gain access to Converse’s recording label and someday use Motel 6’s warm welcome to all touring artists.

A-level doesn’t involve being alone anymore.