Artist Picks: Cheetie Kumar (Birds of Avalon)

Cheetie Kumar (Birds of Avalon)
(In 2009 Raleigh’s Birds of Avalon released their sophomore LP, Uncanny Valley, turning down the riffs and kicking up the psychedelics.)

Flaming Lips - "See the Leaves"
It's hard to choose my favorite song from Embroynic, but as the leaves around Raleigh are dying, this song makes me happy from the inside out! This song is a pretty good representation of the "new" Flaming Lips sound: hypnotic and heavy, spontaneous, goblinesque warbly keys, simple melodies and gigantic, great sounding drums.

Mulatu Astatke w/ The Heliocentrics - "Addis Black Widow"
A very successful collaboration between the legend of Ethiopiques fame and the London musical collective at the (analog) Quatermass studios in England. Written and recorded in about a week, this song boasts an amazing sound as slap-back-laden funky drum pattern grooves relentlessly under a flute only to lead into a classic Astatke harmony-saxophone part that's hard to evacuate from my brain!

Oneida - "What's Up Jackal”
A manic uptempo drum-beat, a minimalist synth figure repeating throughout, and a menacing canine proclamation which sounds like a Japanese incarnation of Alan Vega.