• DJ Krush

• DJ Krush

• DJ Krush

• Decibel Festival 2011

• araabMUZIK

• Fans at the Beat Prodigies showcase

• Shigeto

• Shigeto

• Fans at the Beat Prodigies showcase

• Marley Carroll

• Fans at the Beat Prodigies showcase

• Citymouth

• Citymouth

• Ghost Feet

• Ghost Feet

• Amon Tobin - ISAM Live

  Amon Tobin, ISAM Live, Decibel Festival 2011

• Amon Tobin - ISAM Live

  Amon Tobin, ISAM Live, Decibel Festival 2011

• Amon Tobin - ISAM Live

  Amon Tobin, ISAM Live, Decibel Festival 2011

• Amon Tobin - ISAM Live

  Amon Tobin, ISAM Live, Decibel Festival 2011

• ESKMO

• ESKMO

• ESKMO

• ESKMO

• ESKMO

• Tokimonsta

After the rave boom of the 1990s fizzled, Decibel Festival was founded by Sean Horton in 2003 as a way to showcase the beauty and diversity of electronic music. This year’s festival showcased 143 artists from over a dozen countries performing at 31 unique showcases at venues around Seattle. It’s a “techno SXSW” of sorts, one that floods the Emerald City with beats, beeps, and walls of lab-created sound.

Though I was well aware I would be in attendance, it took me until the night before the festival started to finally nail down my itinerary. There was so much good music scheduled to happen simultaneously! The hardest decision was what to check out on Wednesday, the first night of the festival. Zomby, DJ Krush, and Toro y Moi were all scheduled to headline showcases. After some heartbreaking deliberation, I decided to head out to Beat Prodigies, where DJ Krush was scheduled to spin. (He’s one of my all-time favorites). Also, Beat Prodigies was scheduled to go down at a nice place called Neumo’s in Capitol Hill, which is one of my favorite neighborhoods to see live music in Seattle.

I arrived right when the doors opened, and Marley Carroll’s set began immediately. Carroll hails from Asheville, North Carolina and his set was rather chill, a nice way to ease us into a long night of beats. He sung over his music a little, and his vocals reminded me a bit of Ben Gibbard.

Next up was Shigeto, who started out by telling us how happy he was to be there. He said with a smile, “Playing with Krush is, like, a lifetime achievement for me.” I’ve gotta say, I was really impressed with his performance! His music is unique, beat-driven, and full of life. He showed off his skills not only on the tables, but on live drums as well. The crowd ate it up! I couldn’t believe I’d never heard his stuff before.

I tore myself away from Shigeto towards the end of his set, promising myself that next time he was in town that I’d go watch him spin and stay for the duration. I hoofed it over to the HG Lounge to check out some of the local shit that was going on at the Dropping Gems showcase.

When I walked in, Citymouth was playing. He peered through a rectangular window above the dance floor, the trippy projected lights reflecting off his glasses like he was a villain in an anime. I only caught a song or two before he ended his set. Ghost Feet, from Olympia, Washington were up next. They had been standing to the left of Citymouth, waiting to play. Much of the festival went that way — to keep people dancing, one performer would set up while the other was finishing up. This kept the beats constant and the crowds happy. Ghost Feet had big smiles on their faces as the duo blended guitar and beats. As soon as they finished I made a beeline for Neumo’s –I wanted to be sure to catch Araabmuzik beating on his MPC.

I walked in, and indeed, Araabmuzik’s hands were blurring as he pounded out hard-ass beats on the MPC. The size of the crowd had almost tripled since I had ducked out to the HG, and they were loving it. I was able to wriggle my way to the front to get a closer look. I was shooting photos, and it seemed that no matter how fast I set my shutter speed his lightning-quick hands were a blur in every picture. He had a buddy on stage with him, a tall dude with enormous bling hanging around his neck who just kind of stood there nodding his head to the beats. I wondered if he had done something earlier in the performance that I missed. Was he an MC? Did he interpretive dance? Was he Araabmuzik’s official body guard? I’ll never know.

Next up was DJ Krush, and the sweaty crowd went positively nuts when he came on stage. They should — the man is a legend. Hailing from Japan, Krush is one of pioneers of Japanese hip-hop, and one of the first musicians, in 1991, to use turntables as live instruments while performing with musicians onstage. He started his set smooth and jazzy, greatly contrasting Araabmuzik’s hard-hitting beats.

Krush unveiled artfully mixed music of all genres over the course of his set, starting off the hip-hop section with Method Man and Redman’s classic hit “How High.” He then moved on to classic rock, of all things, launching in with a mix that utilized the stadium handclaps and chorus of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” He mashed the epic tune up with Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” He brought in vintage pop, too, with a little MJ in the form of a track you may have heard once or twice, “Billie Jean.”

I could have listened to him all night, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. At 1:35 am, a security guard came on stage and gave him a five-minute warning, and the crowd yelled out in protest. Krush nodded and a pensive look came on his face as he flipped the script, moving from mixes of others’ music to sick beats that were all his own. If you get the chance to see Krush spin live, do it! You won’t be disappointed.

What to do on the second day of Decibel Festival was, for me, a no-brainer. I was going to see Amon Tobin‘s ISAM Live at the Paramount, of course! Amon Tobin is one of the most interesting artists in electronic music right now, and there’s no way I was going to miss the highly anticipated American debut of his giant 3D art installation.

I walked into the historic Paramount during Tokimonsta’s set, and she was looking and sounding beautiful. Following her was ESKMO, who was filling in for Baths. He pulled props out of a box like Carrot Top, and looped the sounds with his voice and beats, warming the crowd up nicely.

Finally, it was time for Amon Tobin. The theater’s red velvet curtain was pulled back to reveal a big white structure, composed of many different sized cubes. The music started and lights were projected onto the canvas. The lights made the structure appear to glow from within, spin, fall to pieces, blow away, explode, and fly away, even though it sat still. Tobin sat in a cube at the center controlling both the visuals and the music.

It’s hard to put to words how gorgeous the sights and sounds were. I expected the show to be beautiful, but I wasn’t prepared for how mezmerized I would become. I was like a baby staring at a mobile, my mouth agape, my eyes darting back and forth to take it all in. I’ve seen many impressive displays in my time, giant shifting LCD screens, lasers, and the like. This is not the biggest, but it’s possibly my favorite. It walks that gorgeous line between simplicity and complexity.

I drove home, reeling from the amazing experience that evening. There was still more Decibel to come, and I couldn’t wait to see what was in store.

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download Verbicide Select Mixtape Volume 9, featuring “Lost and Found” by Amon Tobin

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download “Things Fall Apart” by Zomby

Cloud Cult are wrapping up their tour in the Pacific Northwest this week — go check them out on one of their final tour dates of the summer here in the US!

Cloud Cult on Tour
8/25 Seattle, WA @ Neptune
8/26 Portland, OR @ Mission Theatre
8/27 Blodgett, OR @ BurntWoodstock

Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson are also finishing up their tour, ending it with three dates in the Wild West.

Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson on Tour
8/26 Wilson, WY @ Q Roadhouse
8/27 Bozeman, MT @ The Emerson Theatre
8/28 Spokane, WA @ The Knitting Factory

There’s a few stellar festivals happening in the coming weeks as well:

Brooklyn: Afro-punk Festival, 8/27-28
This year’s line-up includes Cee Lo Green, Santigold, Janelle Monae, Fishbone, Toro Y Moi, Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely, Ninjasonik, Cerebral Ballzy, Gordon Voidwell, Reggie Watts, Res, Joi, Rocky Business, Straight Line Stitch, Gym Class Heroes, Das Racist, Kenna, Tamar-kali, Bad Rabbits, Joe Jordans Experiment, Jersey Klan, Radkey, and DJ’s Stack-Aly, Jillionaire, Dances with White Girls, D://BOi, dj.shErOck, and toni*K! In addition, the Nike Battle For the Streets Skate and BMX Competition, the largest street skate and BMX competition in NYC will return with the nation’s top amateur skaters and BMX riders in a competition to be judged by top professionals in both sports including Nigel Sylvester and P-Rod. Did I mention ADMISSION IS FREE?? Well, it is. It’s free to get in. Hell yeah.

Los Angeles: FYF Fest, 9/3
FYF Fest will be returning to the Los Angeles State Historic Park in downtown L.A. this year and will feature performances by Descendents, Death From Above 1979, Explosions in the Sky, Broken Social Scene, Guided By Voices, Girls, No Age, Glass Candy, and many more.

Seattle: Bumbershoot, 9/3-5
Check out this lineup: Minus the Bear, Little Dragon, STRFKR, Shabazz Palaces, Warpaint, Eyehategod, Champagne Champagne, Campfire Ok, Red Fang, Wiz Khalifa with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Broken Social Scene with The Lonely Forest, The Kills, Butthole Surfers, Carbon Leaf, Anti-Flag, Das Racist, Atari Teenage Riot, Tennis, The Jim Jones Revue, School of Seven Bells, Daryl Hall & John Oates with Fitz and The Tantrums, The Reverend Horton Heat, YACHT, LAKE, and My Goodness. My Goodness indeed! That’s just a small fraction of the artists that are performing, and I didn’t even get into the art exhibits and films that are happening. What a festival!

If you’re too far away to head out to any of these shows and want to know if there’s anything going on in your town, feel free to tweet us @verbicide and we’ll look into events happening in your neck of the woods.

First off, we have “Breakdance Beach” by Hail Mary Mallon, courtesy of Rhymesayers Entertainment. Aesop Rock, DJ Big Wiz, and Rob Sonic’s summertime party anthem gets a campy, colorful video, complete with folks breakdancing on green screens…um, I mean, beaches!

The next video is basically the polar opposite of the last one. You can dance to this one as well, but watching the video might make you cry, or will at least make you uncomfortable. It’s the video for Atari Teenage Riot’s track, “Blood In My Eyes,” a call to action to end human trafficking. It’s NSFW, and victims of sexual violence should be warned that this could trigger some dark memories. It’s powerful and disturbing — just like it should be. You can download the track for free as part of Verbicide Select Mixtape Volume 9.

Now I’ll lighten things up with Toro y Moi’s latest video, “How I Know,” another campy one for the summer. It depicts a bunch of guys exploring a haunted house and two lady ghosts who decide to screw with them. It has a retro, 1980s horror film vibe, a lovely match for Chaz’s song.

I can’t do a VTV post without a dose of rock, here’s, “Deathless,” a heavy one from Oslo, Norway’s Wolves Like Us. Check out the part at 1:13 where the lead singer (who looks a lot like Zach Galifianakis) nearly eats the mic. Their album’s coming out September 13th via Prosthetic Records.

Lastly, here’s some footage of the Dum Dum Girls running around LA, doing photo shoots, getting tattoos, and playing music. It’s the preview for their album Only In Dreams that’s dropping September 27th on Sub Pop.

The Sweetlife Festival takes place on May 1st in Columbia, Maryland and will feature performers such as The Strokes, Lupe Fiasco, Girl Talk, and Crystal Castles. Click here for more information.

Sweetlife Sessions – Toro Y Moi (Full) from sweetgreen on Vimeo.

• Ariel Pink\'s Haunted Graffiti

• Ariel Pink\'s Haunted Graffiti

• Best Coast

• Big Freedia

• Big Freedia

• Deerhunter

• Delorean

• Devin The Dude

• Dirty Projectors

• Os Mutantes

• Slick Rick

• Weird Al Yankovic

Amongst the commercialized Lollapalooza and the inflated Coachella, we need smaller, secluded festivals to keep us all grounded. Fun Fun Fun Fest gives Austin a more intimate, personalized, and risk-taking lineup in counterpart of Austin City Limits, featuring some of pop culture’s most surreal un-conventionalists like Yankovic, Gwar, and Suicidal Tendencies. Even the prime headliners MGMT, Bad Religion, Mastodon and Descendents (filling in for Devo) are not exactly main stage fodder, and beckon to a crowd that might not appreciate seeing a band on a “Budweiser” or “Toyota” stage. Fun Fun Fun is fighting the good fight — more promotors should pay attention to what they’re doing.

Who would’ve thought that in 2010, 27 years after he put out his first record, someone as willingly silly as “Weird Al” Yankovic could both curate and kick off a festival filled with some of the biggest names in indie rock? Al has spent his entire career teetering on the balance of the good graces of the pop culture public, but while Carrot Top and Sinbad fell to laughable (and completely justified) ends, something about Yankovic’s pure, undiluted likability has allowed him to prevail. He’s still touring, he’s a regular guest on “Comedy Death Ray,” and, most importantly, he’s still funny.

His performance was more or less the same basic incarnation I saw back in 2003 (coincidentally, my first ever rock show), but the mechanics have been updated. He opened with a bleeding-edge polka, stuffed full of 2010 chart-crashers: Bieber, Ke$ha and Gaga. But that sat right alongside near-ubiquitous *ahem* “hits” like “Dare to be Stupid” and “Smells Like Nirvana.” Naturally, this was all paired with a constant costume shuffle, de-contextualized apropos-of-nothing video clips, and your brief onstage sketches.

Surprisingly, some of this stuff hasn’t changed since 2003. The Eminem faux-interview he aired was the same exact one I remember my 12-year-old self laughing at, same with the draconian, period-accurate germ PSA. But it was all funny the second time around, and his setlist has been frontloaded with Billboard-identifiable rips. But that’s all semantics really — the crowd would’ve been smitten with whatever Yankovic dished up; his personality occupies such a specific spot in pop-ubiquity that he’s become a sort-of godhead. We live in a world where Weird Al can never risk self-parody, irrelevance, or disdain. That’s a good world to live in.

Devin the Dude: he likes his weed, that’s not a secret to anyone, and it occasionally got a little silly hearing the dressed-down street-rap hero offhandedly mention getting high every chance he could, but if Devin was ever going to escape that typecast and dominate a bill he wasn’t headlining, Fun Fun Fun Fest is certainly that show. The glassy-eyed demeanor and languished beats simply isn’t designed to fill an audience, but when the crowd has utterly immortalized the man’s underground mythos it doesn’t really matter. For at least this one afternoon in Austin, Devin the Dude was an utter star — lyrics were tossed back and forth, call-outs were graciously reciprocated, hands were thrown in the air like they just didn’t care, etc. Fun Fun Fun Fest is a celebration of left field goofballs who never took the world at large, and that’s the perfect spot for someone as prolific and hidden as Devin the Dude.

If there was anything that could’ve stymied, and sucked out all the good-hearted energy an underdog like Devin cued up on blue stage it was Slick Rick: former star, current legend, and a hell of a disappointment on stage. The svelte, well-dressed figure you remember is long gone; today, Slick Rick is a hulking, over-blinged, and overweight shell of his former greatness. Mic to his mouth, feet planted, he exhaustingly plodded through the entirety of The Great Adventures without even a modicum of intensity. It was literally the most disengaged performance of the weekend — blame it on age, or hubris, nothing remedies blatant sluggishness. If you can’t control a stage anymore, that’s fine, that’s what a hypeman is for, but Slick didn’t even the courtesy for that — just an absent-minded DJ and a checked-out disposition, amounting into what was probably the lowest point of the weekend.

Os Mutantes, on the other hand — a band whose very career almost exceeds Slick Rick’s 45 years — have aged very well since their 2006 reunion. Their legacy is well-engraved now: they exploded in their native Brazil, got cursory and cultish time-defying respect in the United States, eventually imploded in the mid-1970s due to acid-frazzled nerves and creative differences…but Sérgio Dias and company are looking happy, healthy, and incredibly excited to be playing for studious hipsters 30 years their junior. The music hasn’t changed, rainbow streaks of tropical glitz, but the Os Mutantes sound still stands solitarily unique in the canon of pop. Bad Religion, The Vandals, and Descendents — they couldn’t help but sound retro, while the oldest group of the weekend came off immediately current. Not many bands could pull that off.

I wasn’t sure who Big Freedia was before Friday — the wiki-proof MC more or less evaded me in the days before the fest, but I did know I liked how her press-bio described her as “New Orleans bounce-rap.” What I saw was a gargantuan, near-Amazonian transgendered titan of a woman who plays hyper-sexualized, semi-sarcastic crunk-attacks that completely bypass the brain and shudder right down to the hips. This was not a work-safe environment; in fact, it was the sweatiest, grossest, but still kinda enthralling moment all weekend. By the time she got to “Azz Everywhere,” the pretenses that were already lowered were cast aside entirely — because losing your shit is a lot more fun than judging others in the process of losing their shit.

How great must it feel to be Delorean? Trading in noisy punk for druggy club-rave is an odd and uneasy transition, but to come out the other end with a nighttime slot and a huge showing of American kids singing along? That must feel amazingly rewarding. They deserve all the love, too — Delorean adopted a nothing-but-bangers policy, churning through the biggest crests in electro-pop from both their 2009 teaser Ayrton Senna EP and this year’s hype-delivered Subzia. Basked in throbbing neon lights, songs like “Seasun,” “Real Love,” and “Stay Close” sound just as good as you can picture them. Delorean owe America a full tour, and judged by how they essentially managed to incite a riot with every song they played, they won’t have too much trouble winning us over more than they already have.

For whatever reason, I’ve managed to miss Dirty Projectors at the gaggle of festivals they’ve toured over the past year. Other acts — Fuck Buttons at Lollapalooza, The xx at Coachella — always stole my attention away. So this was the first time I saw Dave Longstreth perform with a band. Dirty Projectors have certainly evolved since their most avant-garde era (and now resemble a “band” more than ever before) — now all the boys and girls can sing along to Bitte Orca. During the jaw-dropping chorus of “Stillness is the Move,” Angel Deradoorian grabbed her microphone and pointed it at the audience, who shouted the incalculable notes right back at her — not something you’d expect out of the Projectors during The Getty Address days. Their performance was so taut, so chiseled, it’s almost as if the band has something to prove — if you ever doubted they could hit these notes, shape-shift their vocals, and ping-pong their verses on stage, well you ought to see them live. These are the most dedicated musicians playing today, and it’s utterly inspiring to see them together.

Of course, RJD2 is the guy who brings a bag full of vinyl to his show. Unlike pretty much every musical collagist these days, RJ Krohn is all analog — his setup included four turntables and a tuned-up drum machine. That’s it; not a laptop in sight. So that means when he cues up a classic like “Ghostwriter” it’s created from the same samples, and feasibly, the same records, which is a pretty cool thought. It wasn’t the most active or danceable set of the weekend, or even the day (that honor lies with Delorean) but RJ’s smoky, chilled-out psych-hop was a good way to end an active day of music listening.

It was clear that anyone who made it out to the Blue Stage at 4:50 despite stiff competition from Best Coast and The Bronx were going to be pretty big rapheads, especially to see such a scene-hero like Pharoahe Monch. The wayward rapper has put out a scarce two records in his career, a stark difference from the mixtape-monster mentality that every up-and-coming rapper subscribes to these days, but that didn’t really matter – Internal Affairs and Desire are both so dense with bangers, a 45-minute festival set turns into a slash-and-burn, profanity-laced rampage. Even the new songs he tried out from his perpetually-upcoming third album W.A.R. were greeted like old-school favorites. Few rappers have garnered so much love with so few songs.

If it wasn’t already clear on Crazy For You, most Best Coast songs sound pretty much the same. Bethany Cosentino finds her greatness by being easy to root for, and naturally, her sunset-backed performance was primarily highlighted by her bittersweet banter. “Just so you know, Bobb is super excited to see Mastodon tonight…but now he has to play in a fuckin’ girly pop band,” she said with a smile. The songs, well…they don’t exactly show well — Best Coast is something that works best with the sum of its parts all added up. They’d rather win your heart over the course of an album rather than during a set, but based on the amount of people singing along with deep-cuts like “Bratty B” and “Our Deal,” Bethany won’t have to worry about her status for quite some time.

And so, in 2010, Deerhunter are no longer forced to close their set with “Nothing Ever Happened.” That duty now lies with Halcyon Digest’s “Helicopter,” a song that exceeds everything else the band has done in terms of potency, humanism, and direct synapse-tugging impact. Like your average Deerhunter festival set, this was a vaguely passive-aggressive, somewhat indifferent attack of the band’s highlights, but those moments of uncomfortable irritation (Bradford giving some faceless crowd-member a quipping “shut up,” the band abandoning a sound-check with a “Fuck it, let’s just do it”) are all quickly forgettable when you consider just how great these songs are. Even at their most slack-jawed torpidity you can’t help but feel wrapped up in a specific guitar sound, or a lyrical snap. Even when they aren’t playing nice and mechanical, Deerhunter is better than nearly any other band going.

From the first piano clinks of “Constructive Summer,” it was all over. Craig Finn skipped across the stage like an enthused schizo, shouting quick-lipped cracks to the audience sans microphone, all with a huge grin on his face. This was the exact and logical opposite to Deerhunter, who played just one space down the bill. The Hold Steady couldn’t be any happier to be in a rock n’roll band. Say what you like about Heaven is Whenever, it doesn’t really make a qualitative difference when those songs are played with this much vigor. The songs were introduced with hammy couplets. which made it that much more fun. (“This song, well, this song is about a boy, a girl, and a horse,” before “Chips Ahoy.”) Truth is, we could barely hear Craig the entire night, thanks to an overpowered mix on the band’s labyrinth of guitar-amps. It didn’t really matter; we knew all the words anyway. The Hold Steady is exactly the band you want to be closing your festival, because regardless of what happened or who sucked earlier in the week, they’re genetically coded to restore faith in music.

So how long have you been touring with the Toro y Moi project?
I guess for over a year now, since August of 2009.

And you and Ernest from Washed Out made music together.
Yeah, me and Ernest did stuff together in college.

So is it cool to make music together, and then a few months later share the same festival bill?
Yeah, definitely, it’s like the best thing, or the best circumstance possible because it’s hard to share and identify this experience with people who aren’t really doing it, you know?

Is it surreal?
Very surreal, very surreal — it’s amazing that this could happen.

So you have some music that doesn’t sound a lot like Toro y Moi — do you want to do more of that stuff next?
Definitely. I want to focus on that stuff more, like with Les Sins, we’ve got a 12-inch single coming out in a couple days.

When you wrote Causers of This, did you ever imagine playing it live?
No, that’s the thing, we’ve scrapped a good bit of the record just because it wasn’t working live — it was too boring. We were like, “Let’s just play the new stuff, it’s so much more upbeat,” and I think [that is because] when I was writing the new album I had festivals in mind, I had people dancing in mind. And that’s sad how it affects your songwriting, but hopefully it’s done in good taste. But yeah, Causers of This is not the best festival album.

Does that give you more pressure?
Not really. I guess the only thing I worry about now is, “Is this song going to be synced in something? Will it be a part of a commercial? Will it be successful?” which I guess is something that’s always hanging over your head. But on top of that, always try and make what you like.

Last question: you’ve collaborated with a lot of people, who’s your dream collaboration?
Honestly, R&B, hip-hop — Drake, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, that’s my dream.

The album submerges here and there into a kind of murky electronic fuzz, especially in the middle portion, as Chaz Bundick tinkers with waves of tape hiss, drum machines, and guitar loops. Suddenly, though, the energy resurfaces with “Talamak,” a sun-drenched pop song featuring distant and distorted vocals and electro funk. Precise and upbeat, “Talamak” features gorgeous melodies that, unless we do something about it, will most certainly be heard in a commercial for cheap beer or a cell phone in the near future. The streak continues through to the close of the album, the title track “Causers of This,” a throwback to early nineties new jack swing, when Michael Jordan was king of the court and people still wore British Knights without irony.

The truth is, Toro y Moi balances the fine line between style and substance- from the aquatic sound throughout the whole album, to the faded cover art, he has created something timeless. If you have listened to the other “lo-fi” artists that have been getting play recently, and have yet to check out Toro y Moi, do yourself a favor and give Causers of This a listen. It’s an album for the morning after, the lazy afternoon, or the quiet night, a record that plays off of your own memories and allows you to sink into a comfortable, far away place that may or may not have ever existed.

(Car Park Records, PO Box 42374, Washington, DC 20015)

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download “Blessa” by Toro y Moi

Bewaaaaaare…for it has been foretold by the prophets that on the 13th hour of the 17th day of the 3rd month in the 2010th year of our lord that Verbicide Select Mixtape Volume 4 shall rise from the grave and walk amongst the living…

Hear! Thirteen tracks of indie rock, hip-hop, and other unclassifiable horrors!

Listen! To the previously unreleased Jenny Owen Youngs song “Thanks, Mesopotamia!”

Grind! To the varicose melodies of Elliott Smith and League510!

Wonder! In amazement at how those two artists came to be included on the same mixtape!

And when the blood moon rises and casts down its ghostly pallor, more tracks will be revealed from the likes of Little Brother, Jookabox,  and Pelican. Shouded in darkness, Neon Indians will dance to Midnight Masses. A damned cotillion of the lost! Cower in fear as you download this cursed compilation.

Click (control click for pc) to download!

Click Here for Verbicide Select Vol. 4

1. Jenny Owen Youngs
“Thanks, Mesopotamia!”
Previously unreleased
Courtesy of Nettwerk Records
www.jennyowenyoungs.com

2. Imaad Wasif
“Priestess”
From the album The Voidist
Courtesy of Tee Pee Records
www.imaadwasif.com

3. Quasi
“Repulsion”
From the album American Gong
Courtesy of Kill Rock Stars
www.killrockstars.com

4. League510
“In My Face (Womp Womp)”
From the album Invasion Vol. 1
Courtesy of League510 and Clear Label Records
www.clearlabelrecords.com

5. Midnight Masses
“There Goes Our Man”
From the EP Walking Wounded By The Dying Choir
Courtesy of  Midnight Masses and Team Love
www.team-love.com

6. Neon Indian
“Sleep Paralysist”
Originally appeared as a free single at greenlabelsound.com
Courtesy of Lefse Records
www.lefserecords.com

7. Jookabox
“John Kill Meets the Brick People”
From the “Jookabox/Kid Primitive Family” limited edition split cassette
Courtesy of Joyful Noise Recordings
www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com

8. Growing
“Hormone”
From the album Pumps
Courtesy of  Vice Records
www.viceland.com/vicerecords

9. Toro Y Moi
“Blessa”
From the album Causers of This
Courtesy of Carpark Records
www.carparkrecords.com

10. Little Brother
“Curtain Call”
From the album LeftBack
Courtesy of Hall of Justus
www.hallofjustus.com

11. Garotas Suecas
“Codinome Dinamite”
From the “Codinome Dinamite”/”Ghostwriter” 7″
Courtesy of American Dust Records
www.americandust.net

12. Pelican
“Strung Up From the Sky”
From the album What We All Come to Need
Courtesy of Southern Lord Records
www.southernlord.com

13. Elliott Smith
“Last Call”
From the album Roman Candle
Courtesy of Kill Rock Stars
www.killrockstars.com

Toro Y Moi is 23-year-old Columbia, South Carolina native and resident Chaz Bundick. After earning a BFA in Graphic Design at The University of South Carolina, Chaz decided to push his music further now that he has more time on his hands. His mom came from the Phillipines to the United States, where she met her future husband (who’s African-American) in college. They lived in New York City taking in all the wonderful cultural influences the city’s rising underground scene had to offer at the time (late ’70s/early ’80s). Deciding to slow down and be closer to family, they moved to Columbia, South Carolina where they had their first child.

Chaz Bundick’s methods are constantly changing and evolving. Heavily influenced by his parent’s vinyl and tape collection, he also possesses great admiration for contemporary influences like Animal Collective, Sonic Youth, J Dilla, and Daft Punk. Like most prepubescent teens, he had his punk band and once that died out, the “side project” soon became the main focus.

Toro y Moi started in 2001 as a bedroom project but quickly grew into the live performance realm. The songs are born from a plethora of different genres, from freak-folk to R&B to French House.

Click (control click for pc) to download!

Blessa