May 31, 2014

Angus & Julia Stone - Heart Beats Slow - 2014



It’s been a gruelling four years since this adored brother/sister duo released their chart-topping sophomore record, Down The Way. At long-last, the two-piece have unveiled a brand-spanking new track entitled ‘Heart Beats Slow’, and it’s everything you want it to be.

The track is vintage Stones, the siblings merging their distinct vocals together to create their one of a kind gorgeous harmony that we’ve been missing for so damn long.

Sonically, ‘Heart Beats Slow’ is a bit more of a foot-stomping indie track, leaving behind their traditional melancholy laced folk sounds.

This is the first release from the pair’s vastly anticipated third record that has been produced by none other than the larger the life man behind the mixers, Rick Rubin.

Their self-titled record is out August 1, with a Splendour In The Grass performance locked-in just before this release date – you’re sure to witness some fresh Angus and Julia.

The Coppertone - The Bakery - 2014



"Remember why you started". 

Those words are pinned on the studio wall next to where Red (Whom for the past 6 years has gone under her stage Moniker, The Coppertone) has sat working on new music. Musician, antique hunter, writer but most of all an artist. Red has undergone some serious changes and as a result has not released any new material since her 2011 EP "Hymns for the Hollow" & has not played a live show in two years. Triumphant from a split with her former label she decided to start ground up which meant patience, perseverance and oddly enough for the amplified songstress, silence.   

"My fans helped liberate me to really start again, there are not many chances in life when we are so blessed. I knew I needed to honor them and honor myself. It took a lot strength to stop, sit in that stillness and really process everything that had just happened in order to figure out the next right step forward."  

During her hiatus Red wrote over 200 songs.  

"The Bakery is an EP. I'm moving into a new place as an artist, I felt I owed it to my fans to release this. It's a celebration what we accomplished together." 

She is still working on her next full-length release. 

"Everybody progresses, grows, changes… Art has it's own timeline. Right now I am back to work, carefully and passionately putting together my next chapter."

May 28, 2014

Bashe - Open Up (Slowly) - 2014


home / BC

A slowed-down edit of Bashe's debut EP "Open Up", which features each song at 3/4 their regular speed.


CHAMPION LOVER - 2014



Music for your late-night neon discotheque light-show tanning; or the sound of being chased by a swarm of angry hornets. 
The gospel according to Kim and Thurston.

This is indie driven punk music with great swagger. 
Nice release from some Canadian boys.

May 27, 2014


Beijing Subway... 

Poncho Records Compilation Vol. 1 by Poncho Records - 2014



My Canadian cousins over at Poncho Records have just released their first ever compilation!
A truly wonderful selection of Halifax's most ambitious psych rock bands, plus a few "others"... get it on cassette and amaze your friends of your retro nature.

May 25, 2014

How To Be Productive


Richard Brautigan

Spring has Sprung!












On a recent visit to our local vineyard we got to feel and see the many wonders of what spring is all about... The littles and I studied the growth, the warmth and the summer still to be.
Wonderful stuff going on out there!

Hemant Rao - Lavender - 2014



I am a Montreal based singer/songwriter and I have just released a new album "Lavender".  In terms of musical style I would say imagine a little brown kid growing up listening to Blue Oyster Cult, Yes and Neil Young.


Ivory Hours - Two Keys - 2014


Home / Fb

Before 'Mary', my sister Annie and I were living in Vancouver, but moved back home to be closer to our family after the loss of our brother. Since then we've pursued music with a renewed passion, and an invigorated purpose.

The music is upbeat and colorful, while lyrically undercut with themes of loss, relationships and depression. As a younger songwriter it sometimes felt like I had to seek out chaotic experiences in order to tell compelling stories, but time has shown me that hardship will eventually find everyone. Songs can't change difficult circumstances, but I hope they can help people navigate them.

riot nrrd - settle - 2014


riot nrrd was born Conrad Sichler and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on a steady diet of second-hand smoke and urban boredom. settle marks his first release of the 21st century, and is a song-cycle that circles around questions of roots, identity and the connection to home. 



settle was recorded at Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton, where many famous people who have never heard of riot nrrd have also recorded! Hopefully riot nrrd will benefit from this peripheral association! The album was recorded very well, because producer Bob Doidge knows what he's doing. 

riott nrrd's words are numerous and quite possibly meaningful! 

Lullabier - Osservazione rilassamento e assenza di giudizio - 2014


This is a great release; I have no clue what they are saying, but it sounds awesome.
Check it out over at BC.

After sharing the stage with his masters Low, and releasing a couple of EPs of drone-ambient under the moniker of Firetail, Andrea Vascellari resumes the project Lullabier, in which slowcore experimentation meets Italian songwriting.
His new creation is a concept-album concerning the Chakras, that are the seven energy centers of the human body, as well as the seven stages of human evolution according to the Indo-Oriental doctrine; as usual, through lapidary and metaphorical lyrics, Vascellari cradles the listener on a journey that from the minimalist dream-pop of Animali (muladhara) passes through hypnotical slowcore mantras and ethereal vocal harmonies, to sublimate in the atmospheric shoegaze of Invocazione (Sahasrara), in which seven guitars and seven voices chase each other for seven minutes, representing the contact with the deity. 
Osservazione rilassamento e assenza di giudizio is an opera accessible to most levels, suitable as a lullaby for insomniacs, but even more satisfying for those who want a musical accompaniment for their spiritual quest.

Recommended if you like: Low, Red House Painters, Mazzy Star, Rivulets, Gravenhurst, Coastal, Boduf Songs, Jessica Bailiff

May 21, 2014

Deep Elm Records Sampler No. 12 "Sometimes I See You in The Stars - 2014


Now with over 200 releases in its catalog, fiercely independent Deep Elm Records continues to build a better label - one that operates for glory, not gold. Deep Elm is about bands and fans coming together as one and experiencing music's awesome ability to inspire, comfort and console. We're not just making music together, we're making history. We are proud to be 100% independent.

May 19, 2014

DenMother - Four in Twenty Four - 2014


Band Interests:
haunting chants
warrior drums
distorted synths
victorian mourning traditions

REIGHNBEAU - Hands - 2014


Opaque and hallucinatory, the music of Reighnbeau acts much like the name: disparate elements drive each other into a graceful conclusion of what at first glance seems abnormal. An alchemist of shoegaze, melancholy electronica and southern rap, Albuquerque native Bryce Fletcher produces a thoroughly personal sound that mystifies before it assaults. 
The darkness of the music is belying of it's inner happiness, however, luring the listener into a mechanical, rainy world that is actually pretty damn fun to spend time in. Songs like "Hush" and "FullofSalt" feel threatening at first - dense layers of ambience and percussion crowd the soundscape to a breaking point until, with gentle ease, a kinder and more loving rhythm kicks in. This formula works spectacularly for Reighnbeau, sharing dark tension with the audience until a purifying breakdown of what I'm going to go ahead and describe as wistful gangsta. 
Hypnotic, danceable and inspiring, it is music from a not-too-distant future. The powerful combination of fear and rapture are well at work here, and it is surely only a matter of time before Reighnbeau is headlining your next catacomb throwdown. 
~ Nathan New 
Local iQ, 2013

May 18, 2014

A Victim Of Society - Distractions - 2014


From the same increasingly fertile DIY scene of Athens (Exarcheia) that spawned Acid Baby Jesus/ Baby Guru/ The Callas, A Victim of Society create the perfect soundtrack for a nightmarish post-urban landscape. The band - formed by Vagelis Makris (vocals, guitars) and Fotis Ntouskas (bass, guitar) - combines uncannily alluring melodies with raspy vocals buried beneath noise and distortion-drenched filters. His music is a plaintive, lo-fi mixture of nostalgia wrapped up in deeply ingrained noir sensibilities. Their first demo track 'You're Gonna Hate Me' was included in the compilation 'Reverb Conspiracy vol.1' released from Fuzz Club Records in collaboration with Austin Psych Festival. During 2013 they opened the gigs of bands such as The Black Angels, Moon Duo, Dirty Beaches and Disappears. Their debut LP 'Distractions' recorded at Sonic Playground Studios by Nikos Triantafyllou and mastered by Jamal Ruhe at West West Side Music Studio in New York.


Lunokhod - Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand - 2014




Lunokhod is the project of two guys who live between Italy and Belgium. It is a sound journey that begins with space melodies and ends up in a tribal rain. Fernando and Alex, who have already played together in Black Flowers Café indie-band, fill the distance with beats and musical colors that they exchange through the web. In the spring of 2013 they decide to give birth to Lunokhod. Soon Sandro, other previous drummer of BFC, join the project and now they are ready to their bran-new release.


Le Rug - Press Start (The Collection) - 2014




Press Start (The Collection) features 5 magnetic and pulsing post-punk releases from Brooklyn's Le Rug (32 tracks overall)-- 3 albums from when Le Rug was more active years ago (Sex Reduction Flower, Party Rock, Sticky Buns EP) and 2 new recent EPs released earlier this year (Dead In A Hole EP, Cut Off Your Dick And Turn Into Slime). The older material is more of the "deep cuts" variety in which the records were short EPs or singles that never saw an official release.

The first glimpse into this amazing collection of songs from one of Brooklyn's finest underground acts is Harold Camping from the A-side and Dead In A Hole from the B-side. Harold Camping, with it's slinky bass line and driving guitars that wind around Weiss' infectious shrieks, is Le Rug at their best: unbridled, pulsing post-punk with a perfect blend of quirky instrumentation and catchy vocals. Dead In A Hole is a brand new Le Rug track about not getting high that morphs from shimmering and pensive to propulsive and angry at the drop of the hat. Both songs show Le Rug's intensity and imagination, and proves Press Start is a must have collection.

Arkells - Come To Light - 2014


The recordings, produced by Tony Hoffer (Phoenix, M83, Beck) illustrate the band embracing a melting pot of modern production, heartfelt vocals, and throwback soul.
Lead singer Max Kerman on Come To Light: "Loud and hard, the rain came down like it meant it. Our van's window wipers worked furiously.  It was summer, the band was on the road somewhere in the northeast, and we were driving through a torrential rain storm. Mike couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of us, and if you spoke at a normal volume you wouldn't be heard. 

There's always a moment though - in the split second you drive through an underpass - where you find a moment of serenity. It's calm, peaceful and quiet. And then boom - you're back in the shit. Come To Light is about finding that moment and holding on to it."


May 15, 2014

Maggie Rogers - James - 2014


Too young too thoughtless I said to myself 
with idealistic visions all perched on the shelf 
and I'm still hoping, waiting for you to come home 

May your snowcapped mountains carry you far 
May they stand as protectors wherever you are 
May you stay safe and happy all of your days 

Oh James 

Maybe you're in love or hung up on another 
Maybe you found a far prettier lover 
Maybe you'll paint her a picture like you did for me 

You color your world with that neverland smile 
but it goes dark in pieces every once in a while 
and on my birthday I told you don't worry, there'll be other days 

Oh James 

I'll always be happy if you choose to call 
or write me a letter saying all that you saw 
and how things have changed since our days there on Noxontown pond 

No dont be a stranger No don't go too far 
and though you love places that have lots of stars 
just know in the city you'll always have a place to stay 

Oh James

WHOOP-­Szo - Niizhwaaswo - 2014


Merely an extension of their zealous course towards enlightenment. Guilty of drive by noise interruptions; a roll, wallow and play in the shades of grey sound. 90s child vocal spats, shoegazer-fuzz, tares of delayed time, sewn together within a rural folk tapestry.
Generally abhorrent to definition they do enjoy the inner ear.

The Franklin Electric – This Is How I Let You Down - 2014


This is a great video - slow motion / reverse madness

May 14, 2014

Wet Leather - Secret Preference - 2014





Wet Leather is a band from New York City. Their debut singles—
“SECRET PREFERENCE” and “STOP ME IF I'M DOING IT WRONG”—
marry the arch falsetto vocals of 80's synth pop with the DIY dance punk of
the best DFA bands. While the music builds on the legacy of oversexed
80's pop icons, lyrically these songs have more in common with the
neurotic world of Philip Roth than Prince.

May 12, 2014

Minipop - Chances ep - 2014


Lovely mini dream pop record from San Fran...
thanks for the intro Indoor

May 11, 2014

Happy Mother's Day


To My Mother
Christina Rossetti (1842)

To-day’s your natal day,
Sweet flowers I bring;
Mother, accept, I pray,
My offering.

And may you happy live,
And long us bless;
Receiving as you give
Great happiness.


Mother o’ Mine
Rudyard Kipling (1891)

If I were hanged on the highest hill,
   Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine
I know whose love would follow me still,
   Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!

If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
   Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine
I know whose tears would come down to me,
   Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!

If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
   Mother o’ mine, 0 mother o’ mine!


To the strongest woman I will ever know.
At first glance Mom's hands may seem crippled and meek.
She flinches when you bump them and her grip is quite weak.
But these hands are a reflection ..........
By REENA SHARMA


May 9, 2014

Ceremony - Birds ep - 2014


Ceremony make such expansive music, it'll take your breath. Massive heart injected melodies splash a cross over everything.

Modern Baseball-- I Think You Were In My Profile Picture Once


Modern Baseball - I Think You Were In My Profile Picture Once


Sunny Intervals - Step into spring - 2014


Imaginary, lo-fi, indiepop songs from London.
I have been waiting to post this one; Spring feels like it is here now, so here you go...

May 8, 2014

Salad Boys - Salad Boys - 2013


Thanks to the boyz over at spacerockmountain for this find... they have a knack for finding lofi indie bands that make me all gooey on the inside, and the Salade Boys are no exception. Outstanding slacker rhythms, with a rich "I could careless" attitude; Wow!