There's a small part of me that loves a good, well-picked, well crooned bit of singer-songwriter release. The part that rapidly devoured Case Studies album last year. The part that can't believe he called his brother a 'puss' for years because he loved Kris Kristofferson and Bill Callahan. It's not a huge part and as [...]

Donovan Quinn - "Shadow on the Stone" Donovan Quinn is one-half of Skygreen Leopards, but he's also a talented solo artist who has previously released two strong albums. His new record is Honky Tonk Medusa , which finds Quinn and his band joined by contributions from Jason Quever (Papercuts) and Michael Tapscott (Odawas). The new album's out on Northern Spy Records on Feburary 14th. Related Posts: Videos: Donovan Quinn performs solo, with Six Organs of [...]
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[Audio] STR Mixtape - Floor Sweeping (Right click + Save as to download) Title Artist Starting Time God Only Knows Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. If I Were a Carpenter Sweet Tea 03:06 The Shore Chapel Club 06:25 Take Me Home Or I Die Alone Dead Gaze 11:35 The Ocean (Zeppelin cover) Laura Veirs 15:48 Metal Guru T. Rex 19:32 Leaving Graceland Electra 21:53 You Don't Own Me (Dusty Springfield Cover) Electra 25:51 Coconut Trees Starflyer59 28:26 [...]

This is a listing of albums that I came to way too late in the game, and that would have, given the proper timing, been most certainly counted among my favourite albums of this past decade. It's a category, I expect, will continue to grow over the course of this new decade. Each is worthy, without question, of being listed in any best of the decade listing for 2000-2009. Fire Show Saint The Fire Show (Perishable, 2002) Saint The Fire Show is [...]
Holy shit. The debut LP by LA psychedelic one man band White Fence is absolutely stunning! Tim Presley , the man behind this - Please take me away, acid heads, to a trip in my subconscious world. Find Syd Barrett and let me sit with him for a game of chess. Get me on the treadmill with the guys from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band , pass along the superglue from Mo Tucker to me (she's been holding it for too long anyway), [...]

There has been an unprecedented amount of disruption to this site over the last couple of weeks, caused by a hectic release schedule at Song, by Toad Records which prevented me preparing in the slightest for going away to the Fence Collective's Homegame Festival, rattling through two sessions in the day and a half I was back in Edinburgh, and then buggering off to Austin for SXSW. I can only apologise, and thank you for your patience and Dylan for his assistance, otherwise the whole universe might well have imploded. One of the best things about this site, [...]
ein paar vielleicht zu unrecht zu kurz gekommene alben, die ich gar nicht oder zu wenig beschrieben habe, einfach einige perlen, die kurz vor dem jahreswechsel noch einen glanzpunkt setzen sollen, album + label ergänzen die musikalische information: von "feral harmonic", erschienen im oktober auf saddle creek : old canes - trust old canes - little bird courage erschien im august auf secretly canadian , "creaturesque": throw me the statue - ancestors throw [...]

Was für ein langweiliges spannendes Musikjahr 2009: Während die Ersten schon im Januar ihre Jahresendliste schreiben wollten (Animal Collective), merkten die Anderen erst gegen Ende, wie mühsam es werden dürfte, 10 Lieder zu selektieren, die dann auch noch 2009 erschienen sein mussten. Heraus kamen dabei Listen, die -- um es höflich auszudrücken -- austauschbar wirken. Und beweisen, wie sehr wir vom vorgekauten Hype der Pitchforks und Stereogums futtern. Wir, die wir doch so unabhängig sein möchten. Bleibt also die Hoffnung auf 2010? mr. Gnome – Slow Side The Raveonettes [...]

Zoos of Berlin Taxis (2009, Self Released) RIYL = PAS/Cal, Colourmusic, The Pernice Brothers Taxis , the debut album (correct me if I'm wrong) of Zoos of Berlin is an album that is destined to be glossed over by the critical establishment and, as unfortunate as the correlation may be, by the record buying/illegally-downloading public as a whole. The problem is that on the surface, Taxis is a fairly standard example of indie pop that makes no inordinate stretches for a unique selling point or "angle" which can be easily [...]

[ Stay tuned for a review of Thee Oh Sees' performance tomorrow or maybe later tonight; haven't decided yet. ] If you're looking for one band, just one, that personifies the latest wave of Punk, it's Fresh and Onlys . Their songs run an astonishing gamut between Factory Records/ Joy Division / Blank Dogs (by extension) darkwave ("Invisible Forces"), roots punk and rock-a-billy (just about anything off that first Castleface album), Bad English / [...]
I have a review of Gorgeous Johnny, the new record from the Skygreen Leopards, in tomorrow's issue of the Tucson Weekly:The Skygreen Leopards leave the impression that their songs started out informally, with two guys strumming guitars in a park, sitting cross-legged on the grass. Gorgeous Johnny is the sort of midtempo, laid-back, jangly folk-rock that is purely California, with pre-formed

I've been incredibly busy the past couple of weeks (primarily moving, among other things) and I'm just now finally getting settled in. I don't think I've had this kind of incessant time away from blogging since I started this thing, but hopefully things will get back to normal around here. What better way to kick things off than with The Daily Graboid, as this will be another chunk of the last month or so of releases that I've missed. Starting next week I will probably get back to a weekly posting of this, so I'm sure [...]

San Francisco, CA "Dixie Cups In The Dead Grass" The Skygreen Leopards on MySpace The Skygreen Leopards on The Hype Machine
Everything I've been listening to today fits right in with the bright sunshine right outside my window.I think my most central comfort zone as far as new music these days is right where the Laurel Canyon, AM Gold, 1970s folk-pop-rock throwbacks exist, and where it bleeds over a little more to country or folk. I'm talking generally Dr. Dog, Vetiver, M. Ward, Golden Boots, Jayhawks. None are
Summer, you sunshine-y beast you, you offer to me a myriad of tunes I can not help but to revel in. Somedays I wake up and I want electronica tinged with a bit of tropicalia, or New Jersey surf rock, or West Coast Beach Boy revival music pushed through a thin screen of lo-fi fuzz [...]

Quick doubleshot of Drake's Take and I'm pretty much caught up with the new releases now (except that it's already Tuesday again, sigh). -ed. Drake's Take: New Releases 07.21.09 A few more releases this week that I'd been looking forward to, including the latest from The Fiery Furnaces and the sophomore release from Baltimore's Wye Oak . Also some interesting new releases from Portugal.The Man , Megafaun , Magnolia Electric Co. , Florence & The Machine , Wheat , [...]

Donovan Quinn and Glenn Donaldson, core members of low-key pop group Skygreen Leopards, have teamed up with Jason Quever of Papercuts for their latest album, Gorgeous Johnny . The collaboration isn't much of a surprise given the musicians' previous work together, and considering the stylistic overlap of the two projects, making this new record sound awful familiar: breezy folk rock as jangly retro-pop. It's not necessarily a bad template, but it would seem the group is pushing their luck by sticking to such a familiar [...]

A few more releases this week that I'd been looking forward to, including the latest from The Fiery Furnaces and the sophomore release from Baltimore's Wye Oak . Also some interesting new releases from Portugal.The Man , Megafaun , Magnolia Electric Co. , Florence & The Machine , Wheat , Blue Roses , Bad Veins and the seventies sequel to Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs covers collaboration. Playlist: New Releases 07.14.09 [...]

Portugal. The Man Rollo & Grady Recommended New Releases - Tuesday, July 21st: Josh Mease - Wilderness (Buy) Label: Frog Stand Records MP3: Josh Mease - Neon Ghost Magnolia Electric Co. (Buy) Label: Secretly Canadian Records MP3: Magnolia Electric Co. - Little Sad Eyes [...]