Prime Cuts Playlist: Experimental Electric Stocking Stuffers

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For this week’s Prime Cuts playlist we stuff your stocking with a trio of experimental freak folk cuts from [mp3com-artist]Castanets[/mp3com-artist], the [mp3com-artist]Drug Opera[/mp3com-artist] and [mp3com-artist]Deathbot[/mp3com-artist].

Sparing no expense, we’ve hired out-of-work zoo monkeys to stuff your stocking full of music. Yes, we are givers. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

For this week’s Prime Cuts playlist we stuff your stocking with a trio of experimental freak folk cuts from [mp3com-artist]Castanets[/mp3com-artist], the [mp3com-artist]Drug Opera[/mp3com-artist] and [mp3com-artist]Deathbot[/mp3com-artist].

Raymond Raposa (a.k.a. Castanets)

Raymond Raposa (a.k.a. Castanets)

Castanets are the one-man band of Raymond Raposa, a Portland-based composer who records his songs with a rotating cast of swooning singers, percussion pounders and horn toodlers.

Raposa has spent the last several years touring the world by bus, selling CD-R’s out of the trunk and entertaining audiences with his unique brand of indie/psych/folk neo-gothic avant-garde.

He’s recorded a number of albums for Asthmatic Kitty, most recently 2009’s Texas Rose, the Thaw and the Beasts.

[mp3com-download url=”http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/113691107/Strong%2BAnimal.mp3″ artist=”Castanets” song=”Strong Animal” expiration=”03/31/2012″ email=”none” label=”Castanets”/]

The Drug Opera

The Drug Opera offer something a little less solemn than Mr. Raposa’s rambling neo-gothic tone poems. Opting instead for a heart-thumping swirl of psychedelia, “Welcome Song” is as to-the-point as it gets. At just a minute long, it’s more a snippet than a song but it says what it has to say with startling poignancy.

[mp3com-download url=”http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/302180061/Welcome%2BSong.mp3″ artist=”The Drug Opera” song=”Welcome Song” expiration=”03/31/2012″ email=”none” label=”The Drug Opera”/]

Deathbot

Just in time for Christmas, it’s Deathbot! Former frontmen of New York punk rappers Turbulence and Calibrate and Cali alt-country outfit Big Wheels, Deathbot are R. Mansfield and Joseph James. Blending together indie, alt and American influences, Deathbot are like a lo-fi [mp3com-artist]Pink Floyd[/mp3com-artist] meets [mp3com-artist]Neil Young[/mp3com-artist].

Doesn’t everyone want a little Deathbot in the bottom of their stocking?

[mp3com-download url=”http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/168805932/Aint%2BNo%2BRevolution.mp3″ artist=”Deathbot” song=”Aint No Revolution” expiration=”03/31/2012″ email=”none” label=”Deathbot”/]