Instant Playlist - June 7 2012

Calexico

Twin River
Family Tree (Light Organ)
Haunting alt-country that owes as much to Courtney Ewan’s otherworldly vocals as it does to Andy Bishop’s distortion-fried jack-on-fire guitar work. Is it time to break out the moonshine, barbecue, and Creole voodoo dolls?

St. Vincent
Some of Them Are Old (Independent)
Boy, that Brian Eno used to write some weird songs, back when he could be bothered doing something as pedestrian as writing songs. Annie Clark pares this one back enough to reveal that under the weirdness, it’s damn pretty.

Museum of Bellas Artes
Bear Cubs (Force Majeure)
Yes, Museum of Bellas Artes is every bit as airy and twee as its name suggests, but don’t be deceived by the swirly keyboards and flute lines: bears are bad news, be they cubs or not.

Family Band
Moonbeams (No Quarter)
Imagine if Beach House stripped most of its layers away until it didn’t sound like Beach House anymore, then wrote a song that made you want to spend a long summer day indoors trying to figure out what the hell it all means.

Young Galaxy
Youth Is Wasted on the Young (Paper Bag)
Stephen Ramsay busts out his best Johnny Marr licks, while Catherine McCandless wistfully enumerates some of the stupid things that the young waste their youth on, like doing ecstasy and listening to the Velvet Underground.

Capitol 6
Wine in Bed (Light Organ)
The copyright stamp reads 2012, but damn if this languid, wonderfully jangly exercise in country-tinted paisley pop doesn’t sound like the ’60s at their most golden and sun-soaked.

Cousins
Secret Weapon (Saved by Vinyl)
The drums never quite lock in, the vocals are strangely off-kilter, and the guitar playing rudimentary at best. But if your idea of a great time is the Black Angels doing Pavement, prepare for epicness.

Old Time Machine
Where the Hell We Are (FU:M)
The answer to Old Time Machine’s declaration is a land where the guitars are of the country-punk variety, and any singer worth his salt seems to live on sour-mash and red-pack Marlboros.

Biljanaires
Girl From Warsaw (Independent)
The band’s name suggests an Oakland rap crew, but what you get instead is a sedated take on hard rock similar to everything off Alice in Chains’ Jar of Flies EP. That, by the way, is a compliment.

CFCF
Buildings (Paper Bag)
Can’t wait for that new Tangerine Dream record? Pop a couple of tabs of Orange Sunshine, cue up this microchip-powered soundscape, and then stare at the clouds until they look like talking marshmallows demanding your social-security number.

Calexico
Para (Anti-)
Oh, Calexico, where have you been, with all your twang-tinged melancholy? The slowly unfolding "Para" is as refreshing as a cool breeze on a sunburnt Arizona day.