Radio Exile | Hype Device VIII – “Wreckin’ My Format” Edition

Hype Device VIII – “Wreckin’ My Format” Edition

By Tom Williams - July 14, 2009 | Email the author

Hyping songs that deserve it since 2008. This may be my favorite collection of songs I’ve featured yet. Check out awesome stuff from Tristen, Bombadil, Run Toto Run, Kurt Vile and the Violators, and Nana Grizol after the jump…

[mp3] Tristen – “Eager For Your Love”

Matt over at Stark Mag sent me this track a couple of weeks ago and I’ve pretty much fallen in love with it. The only place in the world that music like this can come from is Nashville. Not country, not folk but just….earthy. Humble and unpretentious and full of melody. Music like this has not existed since the 1960′s. If the Arcade Fire were had emerged from Nashville in 1960, this is what they might have sounded like. This is really strong stuff from somebody I hope we hear a lot more from.

Tristen MySpace

[mp3] Bombadil – “Sad Birthday”

I’ve had the album this song originates from, Tarpits and Canyonlands, on my desktop as a zipped file for months now. No clue how it got there, whether I found it, was given it, or what. Maybe it just magically appeared. Honestly, I have no idea at all (if you did give this album to me then please let me know because honestly, I’m sort of curious…). The other day I finally unzipped it and gave it a listen. Pleasant surprise, it’s sort of awesome! Love it when that happens. There is something about the upbeat and minimalisticaly bombastic piano if this song that’s really captivating. Much like this album’s origins I can’t can’t quite put my finger on it. But I know I like it.

Bombadil MySpace

[mp3] Run Toto Run – “Sleepyhead” (Passion Pit cover)

I flat out adore this cover. Sleepyhead is one of the catchiest songs of the past couple years and Run Toto totally remake into this slightly shambolic bedroom symphony, replacing the synth line with a fiddle. I always thought the original Passion Pit version had a pretty strong twee undercurrent and fortunately Run Toto Run saw them same and decided to emphasize it. I know nothing about this band but I think I need to check out their other stuff now because this is one of the best covers I’ve heard in a long time.

Run Toto Run MySpace

Kurt Vile and the Violators – “The Hunchback” (SendSpace Link)

Kurt Vile was the unquestioned highlight of the Woodsist Captured Tracks Festival last weekend (aka The High Point Of The Hipster Culture). I’ve written about him before but this track really stood out to me as we all stood under the elevated subway tracks, drunk on cheap bodega tall boys. A unplaceable song (in terms of time, location, and space), I guess the best way to describe it is “druggy”. Druggy in a syrupy way. But the song doesn’t sound like what I normally think of when I think of druggy music. How about this: perhaps this is what Jim Morrison would hear in his head as he wandered through a California dessert at 4 a.m.? It’s hard to describe but Kurt Vile is something special. Perhaps that’s why Matador just signed him.

Kurt Vile MySpace

[mp3] Nana Grizol – “Stop And Smell Thee Roses”

Okay, so picture Conor Oberst, right? Now take away that gloom and doom and replace it with awkwardly enthusiastic optimism. Replace self-indulgence with a more punk aesthetic. Replace Omaha with Athens, the Saddle Creek crew with the Elephant 6. That’s Nana Grizol. That’s this song. Dig it?

Nana Grizol MySpace