Jan 31, 2014
Swiss Alps - Take Ecstasy With Me (The Magnetic Fields) - 2014
"The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Since the Middle Ages, transit across the Alps played an important role in history. The region north of the St. Gotthard Pass became the nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century."
Jan 28, 2014
The Telewire - Like Everything - 2014
Kahunasan Shoegaze fans will absolutely "like everything" on this release.
Pedal effects and phased guitars set to to STUN!
'Fall into Nothing' sounds like an out-take from 'Leave Them All Behind' Ride.
Outstanding soundscapes. Favorite track: Fall Into Nothing.
Jake It's enough to restore your faith in the cultural viability of solo home-recording technology.
Cock & Swan - Recess Tangle Vol. 2 - 2014
Run by KEXP DJ Alex Ruder, Hush Hush Records is dedicated to curating an emotional and introspective sound that's free of specific genre boundaries and ideal for headphone sessions, late-night travels, intimate encounters, and contemplative rides on public transportation.
Recess Tangle Vol. 2 is the SECOND volume of remixes from Secret Angles, with remixes by Cex, Graintable, Big Spider's Back, Snowman Plan, Suttikeeree, Chants, Stem Collector, Domokos, Brian Binning, OCnotes, Korma, and Tokyo Bloodworm.
Jan 26, 2014
Horrible Houses - Letting Go - single 2014
Preferably played in a car stereo.
'can you drive
canyon babe
the only book i've read
is the one you wrote'
Jan 25, 2014
Fever Kids - Holding Grass - 2014
A new project from Athens-based female singer-songwriter Stella and Keep Shelly in Athens guitar player Alex. The duo began writing music together in 2011. In a home recording studio they have created a sound that oscillates between pure pop and electro, with well-hidden disco elements.
Holding Grass is hitting the airwaves unstoppable across Greece!
Their first official release on Inner Ear is a 7” vinyl single including the tracks “Holding Grass” (A side) and “Peter, Debbie, Mary” (B side), both produced by Fever Kids.
Egg Hell - Once Part Of A Whole Ship Hell - 2014
Sao Paulo-born and Athens-Based Jef Maarawi’s solo project has now expanded into a five-piece band and the debut «Once Part Of A Whole Ship» will be a pleasant surprise for those who are discovering for the first time the music world behind the weird name Egg Hell.
«Once Part Of A Whole Ship» is an album as varied musically as it is thematically. Romantic folk-rock influences and lyricism encounter elements of psychedelic pop and electronic music. Egg Hell plays with its subject matter symbolically, literally, and most of all humorously, in the darkest and most human of ways. 11 tracks-messages traveling in a bottle on the waves in order to convey the smallness of human existence against the forces of nature and the agony of being stranded on a raft as expressed through the conditional nature of hope.
Hospitality – Trouble - 2014
Hospitality’s self-titled debut album was a love letter to life in your early twenties – a carefree, cartwheeling attempt to see the good in bad decisions, and only the sweet in bittersweet romance. A few years on, their second LP Trouble doesn’t just feel like an expansion of these themes, but a direct sequel: resigned to the realities of late twenties disappointments, and finding lyrical escapism in empty, imaginary landscapes.
Gone are the colourful bursts of brass flooding the choruses. Gone also are the peppy drum beats elevating acoustica into carnival. Instead, songs like ‘Going Out’ swing their hips on a slow, sultry groove; call and response casually falling down the fretboard, with acres of room around the instruments.
Jan 24, 2014
Pwrhaus - Be Free - 2014
With a flair for the epic and an ear cupped toward the sentimentality of ’50s rock ‘n’ soul, Portland’s PWRHAUS have claimed their very own creative corner. At eight members strong, the sheer size of the band is imposing; their capacity for capturing moods within strong songwriting that utilizes chamber and baroque sensibilities is a bit of an anomaly for the bar/club set, but the band has steadily transcended their outsider status to bigger stages, including a fantastic set at last year’s PDX Pop Now! The band’s new self-titled record is a fantastic, dream-like undertaking, melding the velvety vocals of frontman/guitarist/pianist Tonality Star with a wall of foggy, mildly dark instrumentation. There probably isn’t one bad song on the record, and in the live setting, the band’s attention to the same intricacies it hones in the studio remains present. That translates to good, good things.
— Ryan J. Prado, The Portland Mercury
Jan 22, 2014
Weather
In the midst of a deep freeze in Montreal. Qc.
- 29 degrees today...
Been sitting around listening to Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Black Religious Music,
Feels right...
Been sitting around listening to Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Black Religious Music,
Feels right...
Jan 21, 2014
New Tales To Tell - Love and Rockets Tribute - 2009
Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins — that rose from the ashes of Bauhaus in the mid-’80s: “Love and Rockets are many things, but what they are more than anything are agents of that mysterious force known as rock ‘n’ roll, a force loved by many but truly understood by a few.” Pixies
Tracklist: New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets
1. Black Francis, “All in My Mind”
2. Puscifer, “Holiday on the Moon”
3. War Tapes, “Love Me”
4. Blaqk Audio, “No New Tale to Tell”
5. Dubfire, “I Feel Speed”
6. The Dandy Warhols, “Inside the Outside”
7. The Flaming Lips, “Kundalini Express”
8. Sweethead, “Life in Laralay”
9. Film School, “An American Dream”
10. A Place to Bury Strangers,”The Light”
11. Monster Magnet vs Adrian Young, “Mirror People”
12. The Stone Foxes, “Fever”
13. Frankenstein 3000, “No Big Deal”
14. VEX, “It Could Be Sunshine”
15. Better Than Ezra, “So Alive”
16. Chantal Claret vs Adrian Young, “Lazy”
17. Ian Moore, “Sweet F.A.”
18. Snowden, “No Words No More”
Jan 20, 2014
Against Me ! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues - 2014
Incredible release...
The bracingly political Florida punk band Against Me! has been a going concern since 1997, but Transgender Dysphoria Blues can't help but feel like a debut: It's the group's first album since singer Tom Gabel came out as a woman. Now named Laura Jane Grace, she still barks her lyrics with fiercely assertive intelligence — with a voice as yet largely unchanged from the one in the band's earlier work — but Against Me!'s subject matter can't help but be turned on its head.
It's right there in Transgender Dysphoria Blues' title that Against Me! intends to address Grace's new identity upfront: This is a coming-out record first and foremost, from its opening line — "Your tells are so obvious / shoulders too broad for a girl" — through songs that channel her fears and characteristic defiance. At times joltingly profane, Transgender Dysphoria Blues doesn't let up for 29 brisk minutes, but real tenderness and vulnerability surfaces in the melee. In "Unconditional Love," Grace repeats the self-lacerating line, "Even if your love was unconditional / it still wouldn't be enough to save me" — a terrifying and revealing notion, even as Grace remains by all accounts happily married to her wife.
Against Me!'s music only addressed gender issues in passing before Transgender Dysphoria Blues, so the album certainly qualifies as a left turn. But the end result is just as catchy and anthemic as the terrific speedball punk records that precede it. Gabel always told the truth as he saw it, so it makes sense that Laura Jane Grace would do the same, with the added benefit of comfort and courage in her own skin. - NPR
Jan 15, 2014
Those Willows - Existential Folks - 2013
Those Willows are Portland, Oregon-based and Detroit, Michigan-bred duo, Jack Wells and Mel Tarter. The vocally driven pair combined forces in 2007 to create a sound of their own.
With haunting harmonies and memorable melodies their high-energy performances incorporate indie, folk, jazz, pop and soul to entertain audiences of all ages and inclinations. Those Willows released their first full-length album, Rivertown, to much acclaim in February 2012 and their new 4 song EP, “Existential Folks,” will be released on October 15, 2013.
bandcamp / buy name your price
“Those Willows are internationally honored in the world’s most prestigious song writing competition. With a record setting 20,000-plus entries from 119 countries, the pair scored award nominations for three songs in three categories.” - International Songwriting Competition (Feb 20, 2013)
“If (they) were one of Detroit’s famous motor vehicles, they’d be a top-down convertible, driving a back country road on a sunshiny Sunday afternoon.” - Dan Macintosh, Indie-Music.com (Jun 06, 2011)
Treli Feli Repi - Mau Comportamento - 2014
I tend not to post music in another languages (don't ask me why?!?) but this one, out of Rio De Janeiro is too good... Lo-fi music makes me punch drunk happy, so I don't care if I have no clue what they are saying. It's raw, it's noisy, it's true; music made with passion and conviction all the way through. I feel odd saying this but the words are so melodic, it's easy to interpret all my happy thoughts into the sound pounding from the speakers!
Give it a try for free over at their BC page. Thanks for the submission.
Jan 12, 2014
The Clothes - Fairy Lights Dress - 2013
The Clothes have opted for an unashamedly nostalgic sound. For the exuberant opener ‘Cry Baby’, the guitars pay huge debts to both the Postcard Records era as well as the C86 brigade but the slightly fey vocals owe an equal amount to current revivalists, The Drums. On the similarly infectious ‘Creepy, Creepy World, Creepy Creepy Creepy Shoes’ and ‘Back In Town’ they sound like Buzzcocks, albeit a couple of notches slower in pace. Even though the appeal of Scoposki’s vocals wears thin by the end of the record, Palmiz’s drumming is impressive throughout, especially when she’s on inventive, rapid fire form for ‘No Future’.
Playlists: serendipity tapes: cold lands, warm hearts
blithe field // twigs & yarn // 2muchachos // studiocanoe // amazing nirvana rmx by coloquix // hood // s // [post-foetus] // lunova labs // pawn // sora // wim // american green //
nebulas // shayou // message to bears
Folktronica make great 60 min playlists - check them out here
Jan 11, 2014
Cache-Soleil - Cache-Soleil - 2014
lofi Quebecois dream pop served up on a bed of shoegaze... La Belle Province poursuis bien!
Jan 9, 2014
Black Flowers Cafè - be/polar - 2014
Four piece band from Cosenza. A strongly brit-attitude mixed with lights & sounds from the south. Not just a loss of time, you know...
“What's refreshing about 'Black Flowers Cafe' is that they never labour the point. Some songs seem to end suddenly where other bands would have continued things further, and this helps keep the interest level high.” — The Sound Of Confusion
“Quando si torna a terra, resta il ricordo di un viaggio interessante e movimentato, condotto da una band che non ha paura di volare alto – “alto” non nel senso di stelle e pianeti bensì di modelli e ambizioni esibiti senza remore.” — Letizia Bognanni, Rockit
Jan 8, 2014
The Hedgehogs - I Can't Find Myself - 2014
The Hedgehogs is a six-piece psychedelic garage-rock band from Aalborg, denmark, formed in 2009.
The first EP - The Extended Play Sessions - quickly sold out and since then the band have played all over denmark with great bands like Dragontears, Tyvek, Spider Babies, Highway Child and the Setting Son.
Liza Anne - The Colder Months - 2013
Nashville-based artist Liza Anne is set to release her debut album, The Colder Months, independently on February 4th. American Songwriter had the exclusive premiere of the title track and first single, “The Colder Months,” which can be streamed here. To say that Liza Anne is ambitious is an understatement. At only 19, she is a full-time student at Belmont University studying songwriting, a part-time barista at a Nashville coffee shop and now the creator of a beautiful, haunting and deep freshman record.
Liza Anne’s music is rooted in folk with strong pop influences, a style that has been brought to the forefront by artists such as Daughter and First Aid Kit. Early accomplishments in Liza’s career include performing alongside established artists such as Matthew Perryman Jones, The Icarus Account, and Landon Austin. Liza also recently released a cover of “Wrecking Ball,” which was featured in a competition on RyanSecrest.com and can be viewed here.
The Colder Months not only showcases Liza’s proficiency for songwriting, but also highlights the musical talent brewing at Belmont University, with everyone involved in its creation a current or former student. The album was recorded at Schematic Studios with producer Zachary Dyke, and was mastered by audio engineer Chad Wahlbrink (Soil & The Sun, Caleb Groh). Liza commented on her debut effort saying, “I never intended on writing a full length record so early in my career, but I couldn't stop writing. I've written some of my most honest and painful moments into these songs. This album is a collection of stories that I’ve lived, and I hope they are found relatable."
Holly Echo - Out the Window Music - 2013
Really great sounds from TO Canada... A blizzard of shoegaze and chamber pop served up on a hushed popsicle stix of harmony. Check it out - reminds me of MBV / Lush / Joan and the Nutsack
Snow Mantled Love - conversations - 2013
This is such a nice release - I am crazy about bands that know how to build a song; SML nail it! And the best thing of all, they love to share their creations for free... Listen to them now please!
a little trio from london, ontario. making bedroom pop in a tiny studio. perry hammoud, jonathan zarola, and danielle fricke.
Snow Mantled Love have created yet another collection of ambient, soothing bedroom pop lullabies. Full of dreamlike extended jams, Conversations draws you into its world and doesn't let go. Favorite track: The Bear.
Snow Mantled Love have just become one of my favourite bands. Favorite track: Familiar Ground.
Illogical Time Concerns - Ttorches - 2013
I decided to take a minimal tone that I had been experimenting with for awhile and try to sustain it for an album in the attempt to make the quietest music I've ever made. I consider this to be my late night album and recommend listening to it during hours of darkness and/or contemplation.
Jan 7, 2014
Playlist Covers
DISC 01
01 - The Arctic Flow - If You Need Someone (The Field Mice)
02 - Beach Fossils - Alison (Slowdive)
03 - Another Green World - Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths)
04 - Tape Waves - Age Of Consent (New Order)
05 - Blouse - Pale Spectre (The Wake)
06 - The Gentle Isolation - Sea Horses (Blueboy)
07 - Golden Gardens - Pale Shelter (Tears For Fears)
08 - Foxes In Fiction - Heaven Or Las Vegas (Cocteau Twins)
09 - Soft Shadows - French Disko (Stereolab)
10 - Broken Little Sister - A To Fade In (Adorable)
11 - Memoryhouse - When You Sleep (My Bloody Valentine)
12 - Stumbleine - Fade Into You (feat. Steffaloo) (Mazzy Star)
13 - The Spectors - Femme Fatale ( The Velvet Underground & Nico)
14 - Worries - Space Age Love Song (A Flock Of Seagulls)
15 - Keep Shelly In Athens - Just Like Honey (Jesus And Mary Chain)
DISC 02
01 - Coma Cinema - I Wanna Be Adored (Stone Roses)
02 - The Secret Goldfish - Come As You Are (Nirvana Cover)
03 - Tinsels - Tell Me How It Feels (Sweetest Ache)
04 - Warpaint - Ashes To Ashes (David Bowie)
05 - Four Visions - 40 Days (Slowdive)
06 - The Sleepyheads - Feeling Called Love (Wire)
07 - White Ring - Hey Hey, My My (Neil Young)
08 - Hammock - Black Metallic (Catherine Wheel)
09 - Ghost Animal - Brand New Life (Young Marble Giants)
10 - Pure Bathing Culture - Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
11 - Typsy Panthre - Pretty In Pink (Psychedelic Furs)
12 - Swiss Alps - Summershine (The Sea Urchins)
13 - The Garlands - Forever Live And Die (OMD)
14 - Mondrian - Manic, Magic, Majestic (Band Of Holy Joy)
15 - The Go Find - Pink Frost (The Chills)
16 - Bathing Beauty - Christmas Tears (The Hit Parade)
Check it out over at For Ex-Lovers
Jan 5, 2014
The Story of... Neutral Milk Hotel
"Two-Headed Boy" is a disturbing puzzle that never quite coalesces into more than a collection of disquieting images equating sex, death, sideshow freaks, and the emotional release of dancing to the radio, "catching signals that sound in the dark." Unlike the rest of the album, which sets Jeff Mangum's vocals and acoustic guitar to neo-psychedelic blends of odd instrumentation, "Two-Headed Boy" is a live-sounding solo recording that sounds as if it was recorded to a cheap cassette deck -- the volume audibly pegs into distortion in a couple of spots as Mangum hits emotional climaxes -- and is all the more immediately powerful for it. - All Music Guide
“Soft silly music is meaningful, magical.”
― Jeff Mangum
“And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea, but for now we are young, let us lay in the sun, and count every beautiful thing we can see... Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all.”
― Jeff Mangum
Neutral Milk Hotel, composed of Mangum, Julian Koster, Jeremy Barnes and Scott Spillane, had already accumulated a large following by the time In the Aeroplane over the Sea , their second album, was released in late 1997. But Aeroplane elicited a response from listeners that made a palpable wave in the music world. The album inspired a profound emotional response in people; many a cynical music critic wrote of being moved to tears by its baroque beauty and raw honesty.
Mangum's reclusiveness was legendary: Slate descibed him as indie rock's Salinger.
we have this album and another very good one, and that to me is serious riches. Amazing to think how it started, how at the core of it all was guts. I keep thinking of "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding," and one of Dylan's truest lines: "If my thought-dreams could be seen/ They'd probably put my head in a guillotine." Aeroplane is what happens when you have that knowledge and still take the risk. Pfork
I get another opportunity to see NMH in Montreal. The excitement is crazy!
Montreal Show in association with POP Montreal!
Jan 4, 2014
VARSITY - Turns Out b/w Downtown - 2013
It starts slow, is admittedly sloppy, isn’t recorded particularly well, but the bedrock of this is undeniably Wilco. You might even persuade me into believing their favorite album is Summerteeth, what with the swirling keyboards and the fuzz. But these kids have their own voice, and they have something to say. Their earnest midwest sentiments (the way they emphasis fucking around is just perfect) and their jubilance with having found an excellent chorus are easy to get caught up in. There’s a lot to love here, and I bet they have the best time playing live. MfR
Jan 3, 2014
tyler burkhart - hibernator - 2013
Tyler creates such a dynamic lo-fi feeling to his songwriting - it is delicate yet at times raw. A small sampling of two pretty cool songs. The title dictates the tone of this mini release.
Nap time!
Drink More Records Compilation # 3 - 2014
Great comp. coming out of Brooklyn NY, featuring artists from all around the globe!
Indie, Electronic, Shoegaze, Garage, Blues, Punk, Lo-Fi, Psychadelic, PowerPop, Math, Neo-Folk, Hardcore and any interesting combination of the above.
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