Aug 31, 2014

Lowpines - UnFuckTheWorld (written by Angel Olsen) - 2014


"Lowpines achieves a rare level of lyrical honesty, delivering home truths in an unadorned, direct & emotional manner" Clash


Call off the Hunt music video

 

Aug 28, 2014

Should – Down A Notch - 2014


Baltimore's Should presents the digital single Down a Notch in advance of their impending fourth album, The Great Pretend. 

The single leads off with album track "Down a Notch" — at once the most effortless pop song in Should's catalog, but also elegantly crafted with guitars anticipating, doubling, and darting between the vocal melodies. 

The two non-album B-sides find Should testing new waters. "On Your Sleeve's" stripped-back verses underscore vocalist/songwriter Marc Ostermeier’s fragile pseudo-croon in anticipation of the more familiar lush dream pop atmospherics that swell at the choruses. The instrumental closer "Animate" locks into a heavy, hypnotic krautrock groove and never relents. 


crowdsource - Bit Rot Blues EP - 2014



'Bit Rot Blues' is the debut EP from crowdsource, a new solo alias of North Carolina-based author and electronic musician Phil Torres. Previously releasing three albums of intricately detailed folk/electronic/pop under the guise Baobab, crowdsource strays from these prior musings in favor of a brilliantly nuanced-yet-giddy turn towards the dancefloor. Layers upon layers of propulsive house-leaning rhythms, expansive instrumentation, and vocal samples both obscure and unexpected are thrown into the mix, yielding an exuberant and kinetic sound that’s deceptively complex – to be expected from the author behind the philosophical work 'A Crisis Of Faith: Atheism, Emerging Technologies and the Future of Humanity.' With its wide-eyed, anything-goes, sample-happy mentality, 'Bit Rot Blues' provides a refreshingly celebratory take on intelligent dance music.

Playlist: Covers Project Vol. XI - 2014


WooHoo Cover Mix from un-herd music


1. Daniel Ash Rock on (David Essex)
2. Joan Jatt Star Star (Rolling Stones)
3. Uncle Tupalo I Wanna Destroy You (Soft Boys)
4. Aimee Mann Baby Blue (Badfinger)
5. The Jags Here Comes My Baby (Cat Stevens)
6. Reno Bo I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better (Byrds)
7. Frankenstein 3000 Tenement Funster (Queen)
8. The Flashcubes Do Anything You Wanna Do (Eddie & the Hot Rods)
9. The Hold Steady Hard Luck Woman (Kiss)
10. Del Amitri Cindy Incidentally (Faces)
11. Me First & the Gimme Gimmes Believe (Cher)
12. The Sirens Glycerine Queen (Suzi Quatro)
13. Supersockers Never Let Me Down Again (Depeche Mode)
14. Hoodoo Gurus I Heard Her Call My Name (Velvet Underground)
15. Locksley It's No Use (Gene Clark)
16. The Redbeards Gudbuy T'Jane (Slade)
17. Tommy Keane Have You Seen My Baby (Flamin' Groovies)
18. Rachel Gordon Goodbye to You (Scandal)
19. The Cry! Louie Louie (The Kingsmen)
20. The Strypes Heart of the City (Nick Lowe)
21. Los Straitjackets w/ Raul Malo Black is Black (Los Bravos)
22. Jim Keays Tell Me When It's Over (Dream Syndicate)
23. Mathew Sweet & Susana Hoffs All The Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople)
24. M.O.T.O. Dancing in the Moonlight (King Harvest)

An Introduction To Twin Forks - 2014


“Whatever makes the audience stomp their feet and sing at the top of their lungs, that’s what I want to be doing,” says singer/guitarist Chris Carrabba of TWIN FORKS. Pulling together friends from other bands, and old friend Jonathan Clark on bass, Carrabba harnesses the acoustic spirit of his work with Dashboard Confessional and channels it through the rootsy classic folk of his childhood. These songs are anthemic enough for massive singsongs and personal and intimate enough for listening on an iPod. Twin Forks' self-titled debut album is available now worldwide. This 4-song sampler includes the lead single "Back To You," fan-favourite "Kiss Me Darling," never-released b-side "Good and Slow," and a sickly sweet cover of Taylor Swift's massive hit "Mean."

Aug 27, 2014

Conor Oberst with First Aid Kit & Dawes - Lua - 2014



CARDINAL SESSIONS (Haldern Pop Special)

Interpol Revisit "Turn on the Bright Lights"



Interpol - El Pintor - 2014


 Interpol once seemed like a candidate for a quick post-debut flameout. Its 2002 debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, broke through with seemingly instantaneous intensity, setting the band up for an equally ferocious second-album letdown. So many bands in its fickle New York scene were playing a variation on Interpol's sleek, stylish, darkly driving post-punk that success was bound to be difficult to sustain.
Interpol often tiptoes on the fine line separating consistency from sameness. El Pintor treads that same line, but keeps finding Interpol on its better side. Twelve years after its debut, it's a band that knows what it wants to be — and, just as importantly, knows how to get there every time.



Dee Dee Mayo - Dee Dee Mayo Sweats It Out - 2014


Dee Dee plays melodic experimental pop - if you like basic strumming of the guitar with meandering lyrical play this is for you.


lispector - The Cult of Less - 2014


Julie has recorded music under the name of Lispector (because she likes the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector) since 1996.
This freethinking globetrotter from the south of france has translated her homemade one-woman-quiet-riot into numerous self-released cassettes and privately pressed releases, armed with a handful of yamaha keyboards, a sequencer, a drum machine and a electric guitar. 

Aug 24, 2014

The Dirty Nil - Cinnamon​/​Guided By Vices - 2014


Get it HERE

The Dirty Nil play rock and roll. Loud, distorted, and out of control, they play like it’s a fever they’re trying to sweat out. Reveling in the din of distorted guitars, pounding drums, and desperately howled vocals, the Hamilton Ontario three-piece makes music for turntables and hi-fi’s - music for dive bars and house parties - for beer drinking and joint smoking - for road trips and barbecues - for fighting and yelling and shouting and singing and screaming and howling - for sweating and bleeding - trying and failing and trying again anyways. Gravel-in-your guts, spit-in-your-eye, staggering, bloodthirsty rock and roll. They have two 7"s available that capture the snarl and destructive noise they create. The Dirty Nil play rock and roll - cause they couldn’t do a damn thing else if they tried.

VA - Gran Noise Family - 2014


As corporações ligadas à música sempre precisaram mistificar as coisas para manter seu mercado aquecido. E em outro extremo, não é raro ver selos alternativos com um discurso desencorajador mesmo quando supostamente tentam fomentar a produção independente. Nesse contexto, levar ao pé da letra o lema "faça você mesmo" parece um absurdo, mas não para a Transfusão Noise Records, que está completando 10 anos em 2014. Nossos 70 discos e mais de 30 bandas agregadas são reflexo da insistência em gravar dentro de casa ou em estúdios de baixo orçamento, produzir nossos próprios discos, fazer nossas próprias capas, prensar em cd, cd-r, vinil, cassete, disponibilizar tudo gratuitamente em mp3, montar banquinhas, organizar shows, silkar camisas e por aí vai. A mensagem é simples: faça canções, grave discos, não pare, monte uma gravadora e reúna seus amigos.

Gran Noise Family compila 16 faixas de discos do catálogo da Transfusão, funcionando como um best of da gravadora. O disco foi prensado na Europa e tem uma tiragem limitada de 300 cópias, sendo que as primeiras 40 cópias vêm acompanhadas de um pôster numerado a mão. Como lançamento do disco, uma série de shows especiais está prevista no Escritório (sede da Transfusão no centro do Rio) e também em algumas cidades do estado de São Paulo, como Santo André, Cachoeira Paulista e capital.

Catnaps - Forget About It - 2013


Twee pop out of Philly... Cute release.

Love is probably both the best and worst thing a person can ever feel in life. Few things, have such an inherent contradictory nature, such a mind-boggling capacity for instilling manic, transcendental joy as well bitter, burning hurt, all at the same time.

A prime example of that idea is Philadelphia-based band Catnaps. Not just because so few bands manage to musically and lyrically evoke the mercurial nature of love as perfectly as Catnaps. Also because Catnaps is a band so talented, so unique, so incredibly goddamn fantastic that it is, in my opinion, impossible not to fall utterly, hopelessly in love with it... 570 blog


Flower Drums - Night Rats // In One Place | AA​-​side - 2013


Flower Drums are a four piece dream-pop band based in Perth, Australia.

Roadkill Ghost Choir - Slow Knife EP - 2014


Enjoy an exclusive download of Roadkill Ghost Choir's Slow Knife EP. Out of Central Florida, Roadkill Ghost Choir make unsettling, powerful American rock; think Tom Petty by way of Radiohead and Cormac McCarthy. In addition to two songs off their newest album, In Tongues, this EP includes the breakout hit "Beggars' Guild," as well as an unreleased acoustic version of that track.


VA - VOLKOREN 10 - 2014


VOLKOREN celebrates her 10th anniversary with a sweet compilation as a thank you to all fans around the world. 10 features the following songs:

1 Jonas David - You In The Fires 2 Mariecke Borger - All That I Need

3 Ponoka - September

4 SEA+AIR - Do Animals Cry?

5 minco eggersman - een andere dag

6 Kim Janssen - the sound of someone watching me

7 Mensenkinderen - Kinderen, We Drinken Op Het Vaderland

8 White Stone Assembly - Point Of No Return

9 Hillmadelow - Camouflage

10 anderson - Get In The Car

11 ME - GOD'S COUNTRY

12 Sarah Lois - Mother

13 at the close of every day - 't hellend vlak

14 Brown Feather Sparrow - Take The Plunge

15 SILMUS - Bright

16 16 Horsepower - Sinnerman

FOR FANS OF
Loney Dear, Bon Iver, Owl City, Damien Jurado, Tom Odell

The Whiskey Switch - 2014


I love making my music available for free, but I also love having some money to feed and clothe my family - so I encourage you to leave a tip!

A stripped down folk/americana project featuring Nasvhille’s Mike Meadows (Taylor Swift) on mandolin and banjo, singer/songwriter Luke Brindley on guitar and vocals, and DC’s Laura Tsaggaris, on harmonies.

Press for Luke's past albums:

“The rambling acoustic environment of New Morning—era Dylan and the smokiness of early Townes Van Zandt…his own compelling musical voice.” - Acoustic Guitar

“Digging deep and mining for the soul…One Of The Top 12 Albums of the Year” - Paste

“Magical…an early contender for one the best albums of the year.” - The Washington Post



The Features - Old Familiar Melodies - 2008-2013


There's a good chance you've heard The Features music somewhere...This exclusive NoiseTrade compilation includes The Features most popular recordings from their last 3 albums (Some Kind of Salvation, Wilderness, and The Features.)

Every song is either a fan favorite, radio single, or film/tv placement. Their music has various influences and inspirations – spanning elements of krautrock, indie, psychedelia, and classic AOR.

Download for free



FOR FANS OF
Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, The Walkmen, The Kinks

Aug 21, 2014

VA - Fresh Fringe The Inside Track Vol​.​5 - 2014


FreshAir.org.uk are delighted to announce the release of our 5th annual instalment in our 'The Inside Track' series. The compilation was started in 2010 to raise funds for Waverley Care and has raised a significant amount of money since its conception. Our other aim for the project is to ignite interest among Edinburgh students in the bands included and Scottish music as a whole.

Aug 19, 2014

Slight Birching - Currency - Single 2014


Some Mercury Rev, some Bill Callahan... Nice little ditty.

Slight Birching is the alias of Vancouver-based lo-fi neo-folk artist Sean Travis Ramsay. For over a decade he has been writing, recording, and performing his own peculiar brand of idiosyncratic bedroom music in his hometown and around the world. label

Dunbar Hunter - The Genie - 2014


a tribute to Robin Williams... so sad...

It was August 11th, a Monday like any other Monday 
His personal assistant had worked her way through the front doorway
After her knocking was met without reply 
The furthest thing from her mind was to suspect suicide 
Then she went inside 

I was staying a few nights at my parents' house in Ossining 
When we heard the news about Robin Williams' untimely passing 
Ever since I was a kid we would turn on the TV 
When we sat down for dinner to eat as a family 
It kept us company 

But his death was so fresh in our minds that evening 

That instead we thought it would be best to put on one of his old movies 
So we scoured the whole house and parsed our way through all the DVDs 
Though we had many we came up with nothing 
So I got in my car and drove to the library 
I started browsing 

When a sinking feeling started to overtake me 

There was a gap where Aladdin should be 
There was a gap where Jumanji should be 
And Dead Poets Society 
And Hook, Patch Adams 
All were absent 

And so I went home empty handed 
I went back to my mom and dad and 
We didn't watch TV that night 
We didn't watch anything that night 

There was one time I was on vacation with my parents in Palm Springs 
I was dealing with a lot back then, I think I must have been fifteen 
I fastened a belt to the closet hanger rod 
And I was getting light headed, then I chickened out 
And I got myself down 

And it's been ten years since then and I still struggle with the same demons 
And Robin Williams was too before the poor bastard let them beat him 
Maybe he never had a friend like the one he had been to me 
When I was growing up alone and he was the Genie 
He could do anything 

And I wish he experienced even half the joy he brought to me 

There was a gap where Aladdin should be 
Where Mrs. Doubtfire should be 
The Birdcage and Good Will Hunting 
Baron Munchausen 
Were all absent 

They had already been checked out 
By people like me who had gone out 
Who weren't ready to say goodbye yet 
Who still aren't ready to say goodbye yet
credits

The Emsee - Rap Squared - 2014


I don't usually post hip hop or rap, but this tune is superior in lyricism and musicality... 
Worth a listen.

"I'll be honest, I would rather be Phil Collins"

Jessica Chase - The Only One - Single 2014


For me, writing music is all about spacing out and finding a place in your heart that feels right. These songs are about as in the moment as I can manage, and each one makes be feel like I'm standing outside in the wind and leaves, and there's a dark sky and a big rain storm coming (which is the best feeling).

I hope they take you there too. 

V/A - Deep Elm Records - Sample Our Bands - 2014


Deep Elm is now offering the download of every album in our catalog on a Name Your Price basis. Your support of our artists is a key element in the creation of the music that moves you, so if you have the means please show them love by Naming Your Price. If not, in exchange for each download we kindly request that you post, share, tag and tweet to tell your friends about the album as our bands depend on your word of mouth. We're not just making music together, we're making history ;) 

Download. Discover. Defend Deep Elm. 

Aug 18, 2014

VA - Nothing But Hope And Passion - Nothing But... Dreampop - 2014


I find this the appropriate first post since the cover depicts what I was doing the past while. To boot, it's a pretty sweet compilation.

"Nothing But… Dreampop " is a free compilation by NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION, featuring a bright selection of dreamy pop, shoegaze and other easy floating songs.. 

Nothing But Hope And Passion is the music magazine for everyone who thinks a bit more about life, who wants to get a bit more from life and who gives a bit more to live.

Home of NBHAP Magazine

Aug 8, 2014


Back in a bit...

Names - 2013-2014






Names play a delicate yet dusty kinda folk music... Brittle strings vibrate along the voice lines. Two nice releases out of Boston.

adult mom - Sometimes Bad Happens - 2014


Voices like this need little introduction... Like this very much!

Sea Wolf - Song Spells, No. 1: Cedarsmoke - 2014


Song Spells, is an exciting new Sea Wolf project. “It’s a real Sea Wolf album, but it’s not an official record. It’s a gift for our fans,” says Alex Brown Church, the songwriter/guitarist behind the band, “It has a roughness to it, and an intimacy that was allowed by a faster, more experimental approach. It provided a kind of creative regeneration for the next album.” 

With Sea Wolf, Church has made three excellent albums - Leaves In The River; White Water, White Bloom and Old World Romance – each displaying his dexterity as a songwriter and the band’s ability to flesh out his visions with a subtle grace that intensifies their fluid emotional content. The music on Song Spells is powerful and more experimental than their previous studio work. 

“This is the first of a series of records I’m going to be doing in my spare time, between official studio albums,” Church explains. “The word ‘spell’ can refer to a magical spell or a period of time. I wrote and recorded it in a four-month period to force myself to go with first instincts and let go of the need to get things perfect. It was done for fun, with no commercial expectations from a label, something to share with our fans until we make our next ‘official’ album.” The band will be offering it on their website as a free or pay-what-you-wish download. “We’re giving it away as a thank you to the people that have supported us,” Church says. 

Church recorded, mixed and produced the record at his home studio, inviting band members Lisa Fendelander, Joey Ficken, and Scott Leahy in to augment the album’s undulating, moody tone. “I wanted the music to convey the broad spectrum of moods one might experience in a typical four month period, the multi-dimensional flow between reflective, quiet moments and the more urgent, visceral feelings you get.” 

As promised, the songs on Cedarsmoke are spellbinding. Spinning together layers of acoustic and electric instruments that connect with vaguely familiar ambient sounds, mimicking the wistful feeling of floating between drowsiness and dreams. “Ram’s Head”, led by a warm classical guitar and subtle synth swells, suggests a quiet scene in front of a fireplace on a cold and rainy evening. A wandering cello line drifts through a cloud of swirling white noise on “Cedarsmoke,” an instrumental with a smoky, yearning feel. “Young Bodies” is a song of regret and betrayal, full of raw emotion delivered simply by Church and his acoustic guitar. Grainy electronic textures and a propulsive backbeat drive the fractured reflections of “Bergamot Morning,” while the clash of major and minor keys gives “Whitewoods” a rollicking, feverish tone. The music ebbs and flows as the songs unspool, carefully balanced between feeling tough and sensitive, dark and hopeful. 

Alex Brown Church was born in Columbia, a gold mining town in the sierra foothills of northern California. When he was seven, his family moved to France. They spent time in Paris and living a tent in the French countryside for a year, before returning to California, relocating to Berkeley. Then he moved on to New York to attend the Tisch Film School of the Arts at NYU. “When I was young, I used to hear bluegrass bands playing on the street and thought I’d be a fiddler when I grew up,” Church recalls. “I took classical violin in elementary school and got into bass guitar for a while, but put it aside to study film.” 

In college, Church had a roommate that played in a band. “He was the first person I knew that took music seriously as a career. That gave me the confidence to do it myself.” After graduation, Church moved to LA to make films, but music took over. “I spent the requisite 10,000 hours making up songs and learning guitar. I was interested in songs as a whole, in creating a mood.” After meeting Brian Canning and Steven Scott, they started Irving, an indie rock quintet that made two albums. “We all contributed songs to the band, but I was also writing things I wanted to do on my own.” While he was in Irving, Church did a couple of shows a year as Sea Wolf, allowing his sound to evolve slowly into songs that were more serious and introspective. “I sing and write songs, but I’m not a singer/songwriter. The trick is taking something that’s essentially the creative output of an individual and making it a group experience.” 

Church’s work with Sea Wolf has been widely praised for its blend of language, both literary and homespun, and melodic invention that touches on rock, folk and classic pop structures. “I really feel good about this record and we’re happy to give it away. Experimenting, doing things in new ways, working with a looser, more visceral approach and exploring new territory was really invigorating. I’m already working on the next official Sea Wolf album and am excited to keep pushing forward in this way.”

lispector - The Cult of Less - 2014


Julie has recorded music under the name of Lispector (because she likes the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector) since 1996.
This freethinking globetrotter from the south of france has translated her homemade one-woman-quiet-riot into numerous self-released cassettes and privately pressed releases, armed with a handful of yamaha keyboards, a sequencer, a drum machine and a electric guitar.

Neighbors – Failure - 2014


Noah Stitleman returns with Failure on March 4 — the official reboot album from his Neighbors moniker. The Brooklyn-based songwriter/producer emerged from a hail of other bands and bedroom projects in 2012. We shared "Diamonds," from his indietronic debut Good Luck, Kid, but he's aiming for a sound much bigger this time around. Case in point: "Wild Enough." The new single, witnessed above, finds Stitleman cooing over a massive wave of thick synths, tropical drums, and airy effects pushed forward by the occasional ripping guitar solo. The accompanying video is equally ambitious and instantly enjoyable. Helmed by commercial director Philip Van (YSL, Chevy) and choreographed by Celia Rowlson Hall (MGMT, Chromeo), the VHS-filtered clip casts our host as a mad scientist conducting a series of strange yet beautiful tests on his unwittingly coordinated subjects. Failure was produced by Kyle "Slick" Johnson (Modest Mouse, the Hives).