Shiny Around the Edges on Death Grips and Patti Smith

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We’ve started poking around in locals’ iTunes, iPods, Spotify playlists, CD players, cassette decks, turntables and brains with one question in mind: What are you listening to? We don’t even care if it’s good, we just want to know what the music community has been obsessing over, playing on repeat, picking apart, hating or turning people on to. Sometimes, these things even all happen at once.

Denton duo Shiny Around the Edges told us a little about what’s been occupying their head-space, including their upcoming album, due in the fall.

Michael Seman
“The album I am most obsessed with right now is Death Grips‘ The Money Store. If you haven’t heard this yet, the quickest way I can describe it is that it answers the question of what would have happened if Brian Eno and Bill Laswell teamed up to produce Damaged by Black Flag, stripped away most of the guitars, and asked an MC equally informed by David Byrne and Kool Keith to front the band.

“The result is a hyperkinetic abstract force of nature, helping to explain the psyche of our country in a time when one is both observing and being observed in a near-constant state, via technologies leveraged by the individual, corporate interests and the state. Other albums that haven’t strayed far from my xB’s stereo include Bludded Head’s debut, which is a monolithic slab of doom metal from Denton; Dirty Vegas’ self-titled debut album, which is criminally overlooked; a rough mix of the new Shiny Around the Edges album due out this fall; and, as my friends will be quick to point out, the last two Gus Gus albums, 24-7 and Arabian Horse. Unfortunately, everyone who rides with me is pretty sick of my favorite band from Iceland by now. Sorry!”

Jenny Seman
“Since reading Patti Smith’s incredibly moving memoir of her life with Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids, I have been listening to her a lot, especially Wave and Horses.

“I love those albums, as some of the songs are dance-inspiring (she writes that Mapplethorpe wanted her to write songs he could dance to), her rich voice resonant with me, plus the poetry and explosiveness of it all. I am also loving PJ Harvey’s newest album, Let England Shake, which is different from her last but also dance-inspiring and poetic, and similar to Patti Smith.

“This summer I find myself wanting to hear Kim Gordon’s voice and songs, despite the fact that I love almost all of Sonic Youth’s catalog. I have a playlist on my iPhone featuring Sonic Youth songs that Kim sings, including these favorites: “Brave Men Run (In My Family),” “Making the Nature Scene” and “Shadow of a Doubt.” I also look forward to listening to the new Beach House record, Bloom, that I bought at Good Records over a month ago. I haven’t been able to tear myself away from Smith, Harvey and Gordon long enough to give it a listen yet… but soon!”