Aug 31, 2015

Jason Lytle & Aaron Espinoza - This Is Your Day - 2015 (original soundtrack)




Jason says.... 

I was asked by an old pal of mine (Mike Cloward-exec producer of the film) if I wanted to do some music for a film about long distance running. I said ‘yep’ … and knew I would be able to get into it when I realized it wasn’t so much about overly sporty/jockish types and their stringent diets and training regimens….but more about the epic journey your mind and body takes when embarking on a very long and arduous journey. 
Ive dabbled a bit with running long distances myself….completing a handful of 50k mountain running races and even a 50 miler in the Bighorn mountains of Wyoming…..so needless to say I was able to tap into the subject and the stories of the characters…and use some of my own understanding of what it takes to push through levels of pain and doubt and borderline insanity to finally reaching a goal of finishing with mind and body still kinda intact. 
This was also a nice opportunity to work with my dear friend Aaron Espinoza….just basically hanging out in his studio…discussing themes, drinking some beers,moving from instrument to instrument and hitting record ….over the course of a week. 
After a few more weeks of tweaking sounds and adding/subtracting stuff … Aaron got it all mixed and we realized we had an interesting little batch of (mostly) instrumental music that was composed for this film. 
So now here we are …..with the bright idea of making it available as an album…of sorts. 
We hope you enjoy. 
jason 

Aaron says... 

Marathon runners are an amazing bunch…Ultra-Marathon runners are in a class all their own. The level of athleticism that it takes to run 100 miles is without question…astonishing. 

But for me…the most interesting part of Ultra Marathon running is the mental side. The ability to transcend all of the highs and lows that go hand in hand in this endeavor. Equal parts triumph, beauty, darkness and just plain ol’ weird shit… It is truly an incredible feat! 

I think Jason and I tapped into a bit of all these feelings in the soundtrack. I love working with Jason…and I really think we made something cool. Hope you dig it too! ae

Aug 30, 2015

The Coolest Nature Video Ever

Ace Bushy Striptease - Slurpt - 2014


From Birmingham England. Five piece diy pop-punk group. Short songs avoiding repetition. Girls crying into microphones.

Kane Strang - Blue Cheese - 2015


Dunedin psychedelic-pop musician Kane Strang has unveiled his debut album entitled Blue Cheese. The self-recorded and self-released offering has been a long time coming, Strang scrapped a whole album's worth of work and started from scratch to carve out Blue Cheese, resulting in a fresh and immediate sound that befits his dreamy style.


Chastity Belt - Time to Go Home - 2015



Recorded by José Díaz Rohena, Time to Go Home sees Seattle four-piece Chastity Belt take the nights out and bad parties of their past to their stretching points, watch the world around them break apart in anticipatory haze, and rebuild it in their own image with stunning clarity before anyone gets hung over. Time to Go Home is their first full-length for Hardly Art.



Pitchfork – 
“(Chastity Belt’s) No Regerts sounds young and callow and smart and horny all at the same time. Playing it feels like a night out.”

CMJ –
“But, as with all good comedy, No Regerts is actually saying something too. In between pelvic-thrusting sexual innuendo and self-mockery, Chastity Belt filter feminist theory, cultural commentary and general intellectual bad-assery… Chastity Belt isn’t the band 2013 wants—it’s the band 2013 needs.”

The Finest Kiss –
“What a bunch of punks!”

The Stranger –
“Simple, brilliant chord progressions, shockingly astute lyricism, and noise, oh my god, the beautiful noise. Their first EP Fuck Chastity Belt is a lo-fi bloody spiral of unyielding fury that refuses to leave my MP3 player.”

Aug 29, 2015

Reindeer - Just Be Cool ep - 2015


Are a Boston and Providence based psych-pop band, consisting of Seana Carmody, Karen Orsi, Joyce Raskin, and Joe Propatier.
The four members have played in several independent bands including, Swirlies, Overflower, Scarce and The Bevis Frond.

The Future Dead - Feelings - 2015



fun slacker rock coming out of Belgium… 

Guy Fox - Night Owl - 2015


It’s not born out of decades of psych-rock, surf-rock or even folk, but lies at the very foundation of Bay Area music—soul and funk. Punctuating brass, playful bass lines, and even funk-pop make its way into a musical aesthetic found at the fingertips of Guy Fox

Stolen Jars - Kept - 2015



Stolen Jars is the indie music project of Cody Fitzgerald and Molly Grund. Inspired by acts as diverse as Sufjan Stevens, Elvis Costello, and Dirty Projectors, the music is a vibrant mixture of looping intricate guitar lines and floating melodies all brought to life by a live band featuring Elena Juliano, Connor McGuigan, Matt Marsico and Tristan Rodman.

Fitzgerald and Grund are building off the success of Stolen Jars' self-titled album released in 2011. The single off that album, "Driving," was featured in an international Apple iPad commercial and was awarded Song of the Week by Alt Mag. Their sophomore album Kept is decidedly more ambitious. Fitzgerald composed and layered tracks in his bedroom, tinkering to ensure precision. He and Grund then worked together to build vocal melodies around the tracks. When premiering, "Folded Out," the first single from Kept, Wondering Sound wrote, "Cody Fitzgerald and Molly Grund's voices spiral and intertwine . . . flutes dart like fireflies, strings swoop down - what started modest and pretty becomes mighty and bold and imposing." After the release other music bloggers enthusiastically agreed, describing the music, as"exuberant," "sweetly supple," "grand, an anthem." The album was mixed by Eli Crews (tUnE-yArDs, Deerhoof, WHY?) and mastered by Jeff Lipton (Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, LCD Soundsystem).



Aug 28, 2015

Seamus Fogarty - Ducks and Drakes - 2015


pre-order

Seamus Fogarty’s soul-stirring blend of alt-folk, country, blues and electronica – performed by Seamus himself on a variety of instruments against a background of fragmented recordings and found sounds, from broken household appliances to snippets of random conversations with friends and neighbours – is like nothing else in contemporary music: an intriguingly uneasy handshake between the ancient and the modern. Where God Damn You Mountain – recently hailed by Mercury Prize-nominated artist Jon Hopkins as “a shambolic masterpiece” in an interview with Mojo – was recorded in a cottage in the West of Ireland where he grew up, the Ducks & Drakes EP took shape in his adopted home of London. “The album was kind of me looking back where as these tunes are more about where I am now and how I got here,” says Seamus. “I’m from the country but soon I’ll have spent most of my life living in cities. Fields and rivers have been replaced by parks, ponds and the tube but I don’t think I’ll ever fully adjust to city life, and that’s fine with me. That’s probably why I fill songs with samples of various friends and neighbours I grew up with, to remind myself of where I come from, who I’ve met and where I’ve been.” 

Candelaria Varela - The day that I cried so hard I ran out of tears and cried music & Confesiones de un sábado a la noche - 2014




Frog - 2015



It's a different sound to "Kind of Blah" (heyitsfrog.bandcamp.com/album/kind-of-blah) but everything that makes them Frog is there. This mini-album promised more to come, in the shape of their debut LP but Frog arrived fully formed and totally originally. It's beautiful, noisy, mumbly, shouty, tragic, frantic, funny, accidentally country and unavoidably NYC.


"A safer bet there’s never been – this record is essential." - GoldFlakePaint 

"A bit of a masterpiece." - 7BitArcade 

"Oh, god. Help me, words. Help me convey what a blessing Frog is." - Collapse Board 

"A record whose sheer flood of ideas couldn't be denied...Irreverent, strange and just a little addictive." - CLASH 

"Utterly brilliant...they make you nostalgic for memories you never had and take you back to places you’ve never before been." - London In Stereo 

Jess Ribeiro - Kill it Yourself - 2015


Kill It Yourself’ is the anticipated second album from Jess Ribeiro, arriving in August 2015 via Barely Dressed and Remote Control Records. To celebrate the release, Jess Ribeiro and band have announced an Australian tour for September.
No stranger to critical acclaim, Ribeiro’s 2012 debut, My Little River, was awarded ABC Radio National Album of the Year, Best Country Album at the 2012 AIR Awards and was shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Music Prize.
The new album is recorded in collaboration with Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey) and is representative of a significant and exciting departure from Jess’s folk-country roots. red rattler

Aug 27, 2015

Home Alone Music - A U T U M N - 2015



AUTUMN 2015 features unreleased songs from Home Alone bands French for Rabbits, Urbantramper and Eb & Sparrow.  The cassette and corresponding digital release will be the only way to get hold of these songs – none will be released on future albums.

The album also showcases radio hit ‘Good Keen Man’ by Lake South, an unreleased version of City Oh Sigh’s ‘Still Let Me In’, and a live performance of ‘When You Find That Love’ from Timothy Blackman’s last (but not final) performance in downtown Auckland. It is rounded out with new material from Home Alone friends Glass Vaults, Womb (Charlotte Forrester), Fraser Ross and Oscar Doorne.

Side A

Lake South – Good Keen Man

Womb – Airplane #1

French for Rabbits – Holding Hands

City Oh Sigh – Still Let Me In

Oscar Doorne – Loyalty 

Side B

Eb & Sparrow – Tried So Hard

Fraser Ross – Lead Me Out Tonight

Glass Vaults – Ancient Gates

Urbantramper – Karori Afternoon Existentialism

Timothy Blackman – When You Find That Love (Live)

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Town Topic EP - 2008



Town Topic EP is the soundtrack of the Laurel Nakadate film Stay the Same Never Change.


VARSITY - Cult of Personality / So Sad, So Sad - 2015


"this personal taste and direction make varsity unlike many of its local peers. the band formed only two years ago, and yet its music sounds refined and sophisticated, with a level of charisma that would typically be found in a group years older." - chicago tribune


An Occasion For Balloons - 2015


Shadowed beneath a melody drenched in reverb, Nate Wagner outcasts his vocals to become one with the instrumentation – an ambient buzz evoking a tropical aesthetic. ‘Revival’, the preview to the reissue of the bands self-titled EP drifts you into transparent waters, with the dreamy drum beats and the muffled synths resembling the many sounds the ocean possesses, challenging your senses into a confusion, mutating eventually into relaxation. The track continues the pleasant hazy sounds An Occasion For Balloons have produced in previous works, a chilled atmosphere minus the lethargic song structure which outlines a steady balance for the rest of the EP. POND

Centre Negative - Emotion Is Cringey - 2015


“It’s fucked!” 

As we all know, familiarity breeds, uh, that thing, can’t remember what. In a haze of selfish delirium and the usual crying sessions, I bothered to make a ‘popular music’ album so as to get my friends to like it. Here's hoping this doesn't suck! 

Finally, it would be unlike me to under-think, so check out all my marks of shame and regret in the form of lyrical annotations, included for your amusement.


Aug 24, 2015

Slow Meadow - 2015


Meditative music from ambient artist, Matt Kidd. Matt uses guitar, piano, and synthesizers to compose minimalistic changes and arranges strings throughout each work. The songs weave in and out of substantial neoclassical "pop" arrangements to whimsical textural soundscapes. A mixture of obsessive planning and instinctive improv, Slow Meadow is the foreground and background of thought provoking leisure. 

Seize the modest moments.

two white cranes - Radisson Blue - 2015


This release is great in a couple of important ways; for one it has wonderfully smooth, distinct angelic female vocals that have tons of character, second the instrumentation is very rhythmic yet simple, guitars and heavy bass lines chart the path. These two aspects combine in the most organic fashion creating a release that is worth your time and cash!

A Nero - Hysterical Fiction - 2015


A Nero began in the Winter of 2011 when musician/songwriters, Annie Nero and Josh Kaufman recruited long time co-conspirators Brian Kantor, Jim Smith, and Nate Martinez, as well as fine artist Kara Smith to join in a recording field trip to The Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, ME. The old friends, all multi-instrumentalists and songwriters in their own right, got to work quickly and for the five days that followed recorded what would become the foundation of their debut album, Hysterical Fiction. 

The band worked in creative bursts over the next three years, experimenting with textures and combinations of instruments. No gigs or rehearsal, just recording, recording, and more recording. A disproportionate amount of it. Re-thinking, revising, and re-making new versions on top of old versions of songs, harmonizing the new way with the old. Fun music adventures! 

In all it's ethereal, haunting beauty, the songs of A Nero's Hysterical Fiction bloom out of long winters, short summers, and ancient love. 

Aug 21, 2015

The Tailbreakers - 2015


Still riding the sonic wave of the electric 60's, the 4-piece band formed in 2014 in Toronto, Canada, delivers its audience the pioneering sounds of underground dance-to rock and roll, garage-beat and psychedelia.

The Tailbreakers' self-titled album recalls the vintage days of analog, live-off-the-floor recording techniques and reintroduces the listener to familiar tape hiss, slap-back echoes and reel to reel's warm, all-natural compression.


Pre-orders of a limited run of 100 Cassette tapes are available as of today at www.ongakubakarecords.bandcamp.com
RIYL: The Blues Magoos, The Kinks, The Sonics, The Chocolate Watchband, The Black Lips 

Advance Base / Concern - Traditionals - 2011


For Orindal Records' inaugural release, Advance Base & Concern covered songs from the Carter Family's first recording session in 1927.

Advance Base - Four Abstractions - 2014


Advance Base - Whirlaway the Horse - 2015


This was the first release by Advance Base. It was a split 7" with Hello Shark on the other side. PIAPTK released it in early 2011. The Advance Base songs were recorded on three tracks of a cassette four track & mixed in mono for some reason.

Aug 20, 2015

Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons Folkadelphia Session 11​/​1​/​2014


Recorded at the WXPN Performance Studio by James Clark Conner and Eric Sanderson. Mixed by Conner in Philadelphia. 

Cemeteries - Barrow - 2015


This cover art captures this release pretty well; spacious, expansive, simple, tranquil… Nice dream ladened material coming out of Oregon.




"Barrow" is limited to 50 hand-numbered black/white cassettes. You can get one here: http://snowbeastrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/cemeteries

Aug 19, 2015

Tape Runs Out - Friends / Flowers - 2015


"Spectral, shoegazey, magical" - Fierce Panda

"Folk-pop songs that quietly get under your skin” - Gold Flake Paint 

"A polished mature sound, rife with hooks, addictive vocals, innocence and optimism" - The Record Stache 

"Cleverly crafted melodies, melancholic ambience and dreamy reverb-tinged rhythms" - Primal Music Blog 

"A perfect introduction to new and unseen places in the sonic universe!" - Producer Marc Joy (Mike Peters, Golden Fable, Bernard Butler) 



FOR FANS OF: Yuck, The Radio Dept., Alvvays, Mogwai, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

FOREVR - DEMONSTRATION - 2015


"Perfect shoegaze. Takes you somewhere amazing without being obvious about it" - Nat Tencic, Triple J Radio
  
"FOREVR does a really good job at making shoegaze sexy" - Rotunda Media

"Didn’t take long for me to fall in love with their music. Their future looks very bright, as it does for the whole Brisbane shoegaze scene" - This Is That Song

"FOREVR will be known as one of the emerging modern shoegaze bands very soon" - The Revue

FOR LOVERS OF: Warpaint, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Medicine, GEMS, Rev Rev Rev, Strata Florida, Jaguwar, Sounds of Sputnik


Brisbane shoegaze duo FOREVR has released their debut EP after recording it in April of this year. FOREVR is made up of Donovan Miller (No Anchor, Roku Music) and Sam George-Allen (Mega Ogre, Low Season), who writes fiction and non-fiction about desire, sex work, family, beauty and witches when she's not making music.

‘Demonstration’ is their first recorded material. The four-track EP was recorded live at Tym Guitars in Brisbane, using programmed drums, dense synthesiser and cavernous, shimmering guitar. They wanted to make loud, beautiful music. ‘Demonstration’ is what happened.

Malka - The Constant State - 2015


"One of the best guitar records of the year" - The Revue 

"A sterling example. An impressively aggressive blast, that doesn’t shaft melody in the process. Sounds like if Kevin Shields had decided that MBV really needed a drummer like John Bonham" - Overblown Magazine

“Right at the edge of nugaze, moving it and reshaping it. Somewhere between Sigur Ros, Pink Floyd and Mogwai” 
Producer Marc Joy (Mike Peters, Bernard Butler, Golden Fable)

"A sonic landscape full of psychedelic impressions, stunning emotive shoegaze & dreampop flair" 
Del Chaney, Primal Music Blog / Primal Radio

"Easiest described as shoegaze or dreampop, certainly taking on both genres to beautiful effect" 
Deadly Music

“A brilliant blend of shoegazer, dreampop and post-rock”
Pedro Damian, Shoegazer Alive

"Covering the listener in a soft caress of aural intoxication... melding folds of echoing guitars and synths"
Emerging Indie Bands Blog

Braided Waves - 2015


crunchy, dusty, with just the right amount of rock and roll thrown in there; built to spill influenced.

Obedient Wives Club - That Boy / This Is It - 2015


running music from the distant past through a noisy filter…

The Cool Hands - EVENING - 2015


The Cool Hands live and practise above a hardware store on the worst road in Canada. We provide music for all the alley cats and rodents out on the street at night. 

Observer Drift - Echolocation - 2015


Michael Bombard So consistently good! He's doing such a great job. Is this guy signed yet?? Favorite track: When you Disappear.

shoutitoutoutcorp. Once again a wonderful album! There aren't that many artists who keep getting better from record to record. Favorite track: Time Stands Still.

Aug 14, 2015

Copywrite – A Heart Of Glass - 2015




"They may be self-proclaimed non-musicians and non-producers, but A Heart Of Glass proves that Copywrite display a staggering amount of talent that does not deserve to be contained by such humility. While grounded in indie rock and tackling themes that have been sung about to death, it is the manner in which Copywrite approach that material that makes A Heart Of Glass so interesting. Not afraid to get experimental and lavish with instrumentation (sax and violins), they know not to get bogged down in any unnecessary flab. That being said, A Heart Of Glass is a staggering debut and a grand testament to the pain of youth."

Maff - Maff - 2015


"Maff are something like Santiago’s answer to Weekend, while the band keeps their sound-sites set on the bold chord pop found on much of the SideOneDummy roster. Santiago will forever have our ears fixated" – Impose Magazine

"Where shoegaze meets grunge, but with wavelengths of beaming positivity" – The Record Stache

"Pretty damn impressive. Thunderous, euphoric and yet dream-like... a glorious aural assault" – Overblown Magazine

"There is something hypnotic about this EP, with its twisting guitar and synth lines, like a labyrinth that is in constant movement, just when you’ve found your way, it becomes blocked by wall of guitars or a fog of synths" – This Year in Music



My Cruel Goro EP - 2015


Pleased to present you the debut EP from My Cruel Goro (Italy-Iceland), who makes what British producer Marc Joy (Mike Peters, Bernard Butler, Lights That Change, Golden Fable) calls "immediate and in-yer face Italian neo-punk, somewhere between Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Early Dinosaur Jr. and the Fratellis", while The Sound of Confusion reference The Clash, The Stranglers, The Jam, Ash, Arctic Monkeys and Weezer

Aug 13, 2015


Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - S.O.B. EP - 2015


Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats will release their self-titled debut on Stax Records August 21. It’s fitting that the album will bear the iconic logo of the legendary Memphis label with its vintage soul and R&B DNA.

Those who heralded Rateliff’s 2010 solo folk effort, In Memory Loss, are in for an initial shock. Delve beneath the surface of this new album to find Rateliff exposing harsh truths about the life he’s lived, the people he’s hurt and the despair he’s struggled with. Additional layers of expressiveness provided by The Night Sweats bring a new soulful sound and intensity to these songs. Of the record, Rateliff explains, “I try to be lighthearted because, although the songs are heavy, I want it to be a release for people. I mean things are hard. But I can remember dancing around to some song that was breakin’ my heart, dancin’ with tears in my eyes. I love that feeling, and I wanna share it with people, and hopefully they’ll feel it too.”

Rateliff & The Night Sweats already had the arrangements of the new songs down cold, having work-shopped them on the road. When it came time to record, Rateliff chose producer Richard Swift, known primarily for his work with The Shins, Foxygen and as touring musician for The Black Keys. Swift, whose specialty is capturing the intensity of live performances, honed the sound, allowing the studio itself to serve as an integral sonic component.


Aug 2, 2015

Cœur de Pirate - "Flume" (Bon Iver Cover) on Exclaim! TV



Canadian chanteuse Coeur de Pirate (real name Béatrice Martin) is an accomplished singer-songwriter in her own right. But for her most recent full-length, the soundtrack to the fifth season of the hit Canadian medical drama Trauma, she let the words of other songwriters do the talking, creating an album made entirely out of covers. 

The Lonely Parade - Rolling Dog Show 2008 Split - 2015




The trio set up in our backyard to perform for our Exclaim! TV cameras. The set begins with a lighthearted introduction before they launch into "Girl," when it becomes immediately clear why the Lonely Parade have been compared to the likes of Bikini Kill, Patti Smith and Mudhoney. Like these acts, Veno's authoritative voice leads the song through sharp twists, while Dempsey and Climenhage are hot on her heels with the rhythm.  exclaim!



Foreign Tongues - Fragile, As Said Before. - 2015


Melodically rich with a depth in sentiment and delivery. This is a great album for all you alt-kids out there. Very nice.

CBMC - Amy Locust Whatever - 2014


savannah i love the feel of this whole album 
Favorite track: life time warranty.

Claudia Herrera Anything they create is just great.
Just a real world & down to earth band. 
Favorite track: smking to dth.

Bailey Pratt i dont understand quite why i love this and thats perfectly fine with me 
Favorite track: fight night champion.

gobbinjr - manalang - 2015


So much good in this release… natural female vocals, killer melodies, just enough beat and intimacy to keep the inner fire a light most any day. An excellent diy release.

Blood Sound - Too Much Sun and Not Enough Gloom at the Beach - 2015


a small blast from the 80's shoegaze movement… lots of synth and groove. Nice release coming out of Philly.

drug train - free hippy ep - 2015


chill wave out of France… 
great for a lazy, hazy Sunday lull.

Boys Age - Thank You​!​! Yo La Tengo - 2015


Experimental in nature and of course a chapter or two from YLT… worth a listen for fans.