2012...what a year of music. We got new releases from favorites such as Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear and heard new favorites in Father John Misty, Nude Beach, Tanlines, and more. Last year Earbuddy celebrated one year of existence with the best 50 albums of 2011 . However, we've grown since [...]

Guided By Voices will keep the pedal to the metal as they head into 2013. The garage rock legends have just announced the Down by the Racetrack EP, which follows last year's trio of LPs, Let’s Go Eat at the Factory , Class Clown Spots a UFO , and The Bears For Lunch . Down by the Racetrack will be available in 73 and CD formats on January 22nd through the band's own GBV Inc. imprint. According [...]
#1. Moonface with Siinai - Heartbreaking Bravery Well I figure there isn't much reason to leave anyone in suspense because yet again -- for the 7th straight year -- a Spencer Krug album makes its way to the top of a Vague Space end of the year countdown. In 2007, it was Sunset Rubdown. 2008, Wolf Parade. 2009, Sunset Rubdown again. 2010, Wolf Parade's Expo 86 edged out Arcade Fire and Frog Eyes (and looking back, the album I've listened to most since then among the three is Frog Eyes' [...]
November, as most Novembers, was not as blockbuster for new releases that October and September turned out to be, but there were still plenty of standout songs from largely well-received new albums by a variety of musicians and bands, from bedroom DIY to signed artists. According to IRC listeners, the No. 1 song* of the [...] Read more, get songs or stream the entire mix on Indie Rock Cafe

well, here we are. 2012 almost over, my 7th year of running this joint has passed, and this is what i have come up with. most of this will not be a surprise to anyone who follows this place with any regularity. this year was increasingly hard, i must admit. i think every record in my top ten has the potential of landing that coveted #1 spot cause they're all amazing records in my very very humble opinion, but at the end of the day there can only be one, much like the highlander. my number one record this year [...]

Peter Ellenby When Bob Mould looks back on his 2013, he should be able to reflect on a very busy and productive year. First, he released his memoirs See A Little Light - a very direct and enlightening, if somewhat dryly written, accounting of his professional and personal life over the past half-century, back in June. Shortly thereafter came the release of the complete output of his second most-important power trio in Sugar , which he'd also marked by playing the entirety of the seminal [...]

While it likely won't earn them a new group of followers, The Bears For Lunch gives those already invested in Guided By Voices much to be happy about. 08_-_guided_by_voices_-_waving _at_airplanes.mp3 [...]
We fell in love with LA based Criminal Hygiene the moment we heard them. It's garage punk rock at it's very best - plenty of dirt with just a little strange thrown in. We were so infatuated with their two singles, the rollicking "Black Water" (complete with perhaps the catchiest backing vocals of the year) and "Rearrange Me", that we asked James, Sean and Michael to make us a mix of songs they were influenced by when making their debut LP. GBV - "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" The [...]
Our very earliest associates and supporters may remember that the origins of The Cargo Culte lay in a collection of mixes that BaddBob and I began sharing in the late fall and winter of 2008. A few scant months after the banking meltdown I found myself back in Los Angeles after eight years of wandering, [...]
On this edition of Audiography, we feature reviews of the latest from Umberto with Night Has a Thousand Screams , his score to a Spanish slasher film; Pop Levi’ s latest, souring disappointment, Medicine ; and the third album released this year by Guided By Voices , The Bears For Lunch . We also have an interview between Consequence of Sound ’s Len Comaratta and Bob van Heur, co-founder of Le Guess Who? , one of Europe’s premier festivals favoring [...]
Thursday's Volume One of this week's Best New Releases features the top singles from new albums by Crystal Castles, School of Seven Bells, The Weeknd, El Perro Del Mar, Clinic, Bear Colony, and others. Also, read about The Rolling Stones ultimate greatest hits collection, watch their new music video, see the trailer from their just [...] Read more, get songs or stream the entire mix on Indie Rock Cafe
In 1999, Guided by Voices switched gears in an effort to engage a brave new world entering a brand new century. Bandleader Robert Pollard brought in Cars frontman and power-pop producer-extraordinaire Ric Ocasek to assist in his vision. Do the Collapse was born out of said vision; and it certainly sounded different. Was it pressure, whether self-imposed or label-enforced, that brought forth the overproduction? It was the band’s first album with TVT Records after leaving indie-darling Matador in its lo-fi dust. “Hi-fi only ahead for this incarnation of GBV,” might have been [...]

These days there is no dearth of garage rock inspired by 902s bands like Guided By Voices , Dinosaur Jr and Superchunk . That gets you in the door, but it doesn't mean you get to stay. Hell, would you want them to stay assuming you already have Propeller, Bee Thousand, You're Living All Over Me, Bug, No Pocky For Kitty and On the Mouth? The quizzically named Eureka California who hail from Athens, Georgia are making the case for you to add one more fuzzy, slightly psychedelic, nuggets-inspired record to your collection. [...]

Here's part 2 of our new release coverage for this week. I tried my hardest to narrow them down, but there were just too many great new records to fit into one post. In case you missed it, here's my first round of recommendations from yesterday: New Release Spotlight, Part 1 _ Crystal Castles- (III) [Casablanca/Republic/Fiction] Quick Take: This is my other essential pick for the week. Their third album without a [...]

Slacker Shack favourites (and 'slacker rock' pioneers) Guided By Voices have just released their third album of 2012. Yes, that's right, their THIRD album of this year! The Bears For Lunch is another stonker too. It kind of makes a mockery of all those singers and bands who spend three or four years meticulously nitpicking their way through each and every album they make, that's for sure. Check out one [...]

It has been a busy year for the reunited Guided By Voices . With two new full length albums under their belts already in 2012, the solid Let's Go Eat the Factory and the excellent Class Clown Spots a UFO , the band released a third this week: The Bears For Lunch . The most striking thing about many of these songs is their completeness. We're accustomed to getting half-thought out, half-arranged song fragments from Robert Pollard and company. That's not this case on tracks [...]
Guided By Voices – The Bears for Lunch | CD Vinyl MP3 This year began with Guided By Voices reuniting with their “classic” lineup of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos, and Kevin Fennell for their first...

Hardly a season goes by without some sort of release from Robert Pollard or his reunited band Guided by Voices , and among the highlights of this week's list of new releases is the third GBV album of 2012. So what makes this so special? Our Music Director, Don Yates, thinks it might be "the strongest of the bunch," featuring among "half-finished sketches" other songs that "sound like fully-formed GBV gems that range from anthemic prog-rock and crunchy power pop to melodic psych-pop and sparse acoustic folk." And speaking of seasons, it's almost "tis' the season," and Chicago songwriter/composer [...]

Guided by Voices The Bears for Lunch GBV Records In retrospect, it shouldn't have been a big surprise that this, the reunited, classic era, Guided by Voices lineup would have chosen to record a new album nearly 15 years after their first go-round together had ended. Had you been there, too, at any of those first shows during the fall of 2010, the evidence was abundant - Robert Pollard and his rock kicks, guitarist Mitch Mitchell and his windmills, bassist Greg Demos with flashy pants and a giant grin, Tobin Sprout [...]

Well, I hope you like the Beatles and also vinyl, because there is a ton of it available today. There is also some Sufjan xmas music too. Amy Winehouse: At the BBC Bear Colony: Soft Eyes Beatles: Abbey Road (remastered) [vinyl] Beatles: Beatles for Sale (remastered) [vinyl] Beatles: The Beatles Stereo Vinyl Box Set (14-LP box set) Beatles: A Hard Day's Night [...]