Toro Y Moi
23 year old South Carolina native Chaz Bundick AKA Toro Y Moi, has been making waves in the indie music scene since the January release of his debut LP, Causers Of This. What type of wave has he been making, you ask? Well, chillwave, to be precise. That has been the most common term to describe Toro Y Moi’s laid back, reverb and delay laden, synth driven sound. It’s probably no coincidence that the most notable artist to be associated with this sub-genre is fellow South Carolina musician Washed Out. Maybe there is something in the water in the ‘Palmetto State’, but I cannot confirm. What I do know is that summer is about to blossom and chillwave artists like Toro Y Moi and Washed Out will be blaring from boomboxes at hipster barbeques and rooftop parties across the nation in the next few months.
Toro Y Moi
I have seen Toro Y Moi two times prior to the performance at the Independent last Monday. Both were great solo performances that I thoroughly enjoyed, but apparently getting invited to tour with Caribou is motivation enough to kick it up a notch. This time he brought along a bass player and a drummer to fill out the sound. I think his plan worked because despite a bit of looseness on the drummer’s part, which I am willing to overlook, the band sounded great and this was the best sounding performance yet.
Toro Y Moi
Toro Y Moi
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[mp3] TORO Y MOI – Talamak from Causers Of This (2010)
Caribou
Caribou is the brainchild of Ontario, Canada native and mathematics PhD, Daniel Snaith. Recording since 2000 under the name Manitoba, he was forced to change the band name in 2004 under threat of lawsuit by some other American guy I never heard of who was claiming it was his namesake. Not wanting to challenge the potential suit and waste his time, Snaith changed the name to Caribou and released The Milk Of Human Kindness in 2005 and began to garner international attention. In 2007, Caribou released Andorra and the following year it received the Polaris Music Prize which is basically an award given by canadian music critics to the canadian artist who has the hottest shit in the land that year. Headlining back to back sold out shows at the Independent, this well oiled machine is now touring in support of their latest release Swim, which was released in April on Merge records.
Caribou
It is pretty clear that these guys know what they are doing. At points, they had two drum kits being played simultaneously and they were tight as fuck. Trippy visual projections were just the icing on the cake. If you like their recordings, then you will most certainly like their live show. And if you also like acid trips, then you better mark your calender for the next time that Caribou rolls through town, ASAP.
Caribou
Caribou
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[mp3] CARIBOU – Odessa from Swim (2010)