Dirty Beaches

Pitchfork Best New Tracks on Dirty Beaches

Dirty Beaches: "Sweet 17"

It's not hard to get tangled up in the Name Game while listening to Dirty Beaches . Alex Zhang Hungtai's schizo romantic crooning alter ego is chillwave-ugly in name and greaser-gorgeous in execution, as defined by its many references as it is by its creeping allure. "Sweet 17" mines a few crucial touch points-- Suicide 's desiccated punk wailing, the existentialism of David Lynch 's ominous Lost Highway , Duane Eddy 's rollicking echo rock-- to create something that slashes ligaments and hits the bone. In this moment of relentless, unchecked nostalgia, the 1950s have remained a curiously under-romanticized era, with a torrent of mystery and unmined cool ready to be pillaged. Hungtai, clearly an admirer of the decade , has a blood-red baritone that explodes into shrieks here, revealing some alien hybrid of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis . Dirty Beaches' forthcoming Badlands album splits its time between corroded dream-pop and this sort of menacing road music. Brace yourself for....[from Badlands ; out 03/29/11 via Zoo Music ]

Pitchfork Best New Tracks on Dirty Beaches

Dirty Beaches: "Lone Runner"

Dirty Beaches ' Alex Zhang Hungtai once compared the sound of music to the role of the leading man in a movie-- what he called "the look and soul of the film." And like the movies of directors he's obviously and unapologetically influenced by-- whether it's David Lynch, Wong Kar-Wai, Jim Jarmusch, or Terrence Malick-- Hungtai's music is light on plot but heavy on atmosphere. "Lone Runner" (recorded live at a Part Time Punks session for KXLU in L.A.)-- like most of the songs he released on Badlands earlier this year-- functions like set decorations: little repositories of grainy, romantic, signifiers borrowed from 1950s noir and artists inspired by it, like Nick Cave and Suicide. Like most contemporary retro culture, the nostalgia is borrowed-- instead of a sound that triggers the memory of a first-hand experience, it's the sound that triggers a memory of an experience you've only had watching books and movies. I always felt like the music on Badlands hid behind the concept, or used it as a kind of apology for thin, distant mixes and songs that felt like they hadn't been finished. Here, Hungtai is infinitely more vivid and intense-- the screams are dynamic and pained, the drones cut through the middle of the track like a fire. You can almost hear when the handclaps start re-looping, or the slight digital crust on some signal in the background-- small cues that we're dealing with now and not then. The problem with movies-- or the beauty, depending on how you look at it-- is that they're two-dimensional. What Hungtai delivers here is something with all the trippy remembrances of Badlands but with something new and complementary: texture. [from the Lone Runner 7", out October 18 on Suicide Squeeze ]

Quit Mumbling on Dirty Beaches

Tweet Alot of records as of late have been clear attempts to reproduce sounds that have been buried deep in record stacks for years. At this point I've heard enough of girl groups channeling early 60's Phil Spector bands, while bringing nothing new to the table besides weaker song-writing sensibilities. If you are going to emulate an era of music, great- but do something with it. Make it your own. Alex Zhung Hai of Dirty Beaches does just that. Zhung Hai's ghostly more here

Quit Mumbling on Dirty Beaches

Trying to pin down the music of Dirty Beaches is like trying to grab a piece of the fog, or reaching out to touch a storm cloud. It's not that it's hard to nail down the influences or motives behind each piece. What makes it such an enigmatic listen is his technique of never resting too firmly on lyrics, melody, or instrumentation, but rather blending sounds to create an entire mood. "Lone Runner" is a superb example of Dirty Beaches taking you down a river leading towards a water fall of complete insanity. The mood is set not more here

Quit Mumbling on Dirty Beaches

A funny thing happens when you cross time zones. Well, I guess it's not really funny, you just don't sleep. So for the past week I've been in Ohio, not sleeping. Some nights I stay up for a disgusting amount of time watching Netflix (seriously, I think I've watched 2 seasons of How I Met Your Mother in a week) and other nights I find something like "Golden Blonde". "Golden Blonde" is an older track from QM favorite Dirty Beaches , but is now being re-released with a cleaned up mix. The result is a track perfect for sleepless more here

Quit Mumbling on Dirty Beaches

Tweet Alot of records as of late have been clear attempts to reproduce sounds that have been buried deep in record stacks for years. At this point I've heard enough of girl groups channeling early 60's Phil Spector bands, while bringing nothing new to the table besides weaker song-writing sensibilities. If you are going to emulate an era of music, great- but do something with it. Make it your own. Alex Zhung Hai of Dirty Beaches does just that. Zhung Hai's ghostly more at elbo.ws

Quit Mumbling on Dirty Beaches

Trying to pin down the music of Dirty Beaches is like trying to grab a piece of the fog, or reaching out to touch a storm cloud. It's not that it's hard to nail down the influences or motives behind each piece. What makes it such an enigmatic listen is his technique of never resting too firmly on lyrics, melody, or instrumentation, but rather blending sounds to create an entire mood. "Lone Runner" is a superb example of Dirty Beaches taking you down a river leading towards a water fall of complete insanity. The mood is set not more at elbo.ws

Quit Mumbling on Dirty Beaches

A funny thing happens when you cross time zones. Well, I guess it's not really funny, you just don't sleep. So for the past week I've been in Ohio, not sleeping. Some nights I stay up for a disgusting amount of time watching Netflix (seriously, I think I've watched 2 seasons of How I Met Your Mother in a week) and other nights I find something like "Golden Blonde". "Golden Blonde" is an older track from QM favorite Dirty Beaches , but is now being re-released with a cleaned up mix. The result is a track perfect for sleepless more at elbo.ws