Blog: the earlyfish

In our second podcast we feature 6 new brilliant bands including Shelby, The High Dials, Good Shoes, Le Sport, Assemby Now and Film School. Subscription to the podcast is and will always be free. We also integrated 'chapters' into this episode which allows you to skip through the podcast as you'd like. If you haven't yet subscribed simply copy this url: http://www.earlyfish.com/?feed =rss2&category_name=podcasts in iTunes go to Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast, paste the url and hit OK. OR simply visit this link to subscribe directly through iTunes. Thats it. [...]

The Cloud Room recently played Toronto and again for the second time I had to miss the show due to illness. The Cloud Room played with the National and from speaking from some friends that attended the show it has been dubbed 'show of the year'. The Earlyfish had a chance to chat with J Stuart singer and tambourine player of The Cloud Room. Earlyfish: First off, I’d like to say that your self-titled album was one of the best of 2005. It seems that The Cloud Room has been a fave amongst many independent [...]

When a friend told me that Film school was from San Francisco I fell out of my chair. For some reason I assumed that Film School was from Britain but upon further investigation of Film School this now seems dumb. The mind behind Film School is Krayg Burton who formed the band as a creative outlet for a bunch of San Fran rockers including Scott Kannberg from Pavement and Preston School of Industry. Film School's second album appropriately named Film School , is a brilliant album that feels almost experimental and requires more than one listen to [...]

Le Sport (formerly known as Eurosport) aren't French as there name might suggest, but rather Swedish. They are purveyors of indie electro pop in the vein of the postal service, but with a little more of a dance element to there songs. Imagine what the Postal Service would sound like if they were making records in 1985 or maybe a less polished Pet Shop boys and you will probably come close to imagining the sound of Le Sport. Le Sport record albums in their apartment in Stockholm (something that isn't all that rare for Swedish bands) and [...]

It's been waaay too long since we have heard anything from Built to Spill. So in anticipation for the new release You in Reverse Earlyfish is proud to announce it's first ever contest. Two lucky winners will receive, Time Trap 1994-2006 , an exclusive promo only CD, not available anywhere in stores, chronicling Built To Spill's 12 years of music, and also celebrating the release of You In Reverse Aprill 11th . All you have to do is fill out the form below and tell us what your favorite Built to Spill album. The contest will [...]

The llama farmers are nothing new, in fact according to their site they havent recorded anything since 2001 and the official site isn't even up anymore. However, the Llama Farmers have just crossed my path and totally impressed me. Out of Greenwich, England the Farmers are headlined by a brother sister combo and out out their material on Beggar's Banquet a lanbl out of London boasting talent including of The National. Check out the Farmers' track 'Snow White' and visit their page at Beggar's Banquet for future news (if any).

Good Shoes are a new british act that have a unique, haltingly style that is not meant to dance to. You listen. You rock. These guys are ridicullously catchy with great guitar riffs, big drums and a lead singer that sounds like the dude from Vancouver-based prog-punkers, SNFU. Good Shoes seem to be banging out new ground compared to what their contempories are doing in England these days. I dont know much about these guys but I could just imagine what they must be like live. Check out their myspace page for a few tracks and their [...]

Have you gotten fed up reading? Well now at Earlyfish, you don't need to. Introducing our first in a long line of Podcasts. In each Podcast we will be doing some chatting about the latest band profiles, playing a bunch of tracks, latest news maybe even some interviews... who knows. For those of you that dont know what a Podcast is you can do some reading about them and why they're excellent here . Of course you can download the mp3 directly without subscribing to the podcast here . The url to subscribe to [...]

For the past few years I have been bitching about the absence of music in Toronto and it isn't often I get to write about real, Toronto based, talent. Originally I planned on writing about Spitfires and Mayflowers as a hybrid post with another Toronto-based band, but on further investigation these guys really deserve their own. Now I'll be true, being from Toronto, I haven't paid a lot of attention to the local music scene for some dumb reason. However, it seems lately there has been a local scene that has grown around me that I wasn't aware of. When [...]

The High Dials deal a psychadelic sound for today's mentality (and play a mean Sitar, to boot). It reminds you of the 60's sound, not the hippy, bell bottom, pot-smoking 60's, but the black turtle-neck hanging out at The Factory with Warhol, 60's. If the High Dials drive anything other than Vespa's, I'd be shocked. The High Dials manage to find a new atmospheric sound on thier follow up to A New Devotion, entitled War of the Wakening Phantoms that results in a melodic masterpeice. The Dials immediately bring to mind their Montreal-based brethren The Stills and a bit of [...]

The Lexington (that's in Kentucky, folks) slash Washington DC based quintet called the Apparitions deliver what they call 'golden pop rock' which somehow seems appropriate as it feels as new as it does classic rock. I have been trying to not give reviews of new bands by making comparisons but with The Appartitions it's too hard. Even on their press release they say "...somewhere between The Pixies and The Flaming Lips..." to compare themselves. But for me, imagine the dude from Kings of Leon fronting the Stroke (from Is This It) and you are close to the Appartitions' sound. The [...]

Having read about these guys on some blog, by someone who attended one of their shows I dont really know much about A Brief Smile except for that they are out of NYC and the track Kitchen Floor is fucking brilliant. The band makes sure to point out that the demo version of Kitchen Floor on their site is unmastered, even so, the qualtiy of it in terms of production sounds a hell of a lot better than half the stuff that crosses my desk. The song is quite intricate in its arrangement and almost feels like 3 or 4 [...]

Finding this jem through a circle of music blogs, I have been listening to Oh No!! Oh My!! for a few days solid. Oh No!! Oh My!! maintain a clear, focused, folky sound. I only describe it as folk as it is mostly acoustic and I don't have many adjectives for music without electric guitars. Play Oh No!! Oh My!! first thing in the morning when you get to work, that point where you aren't sure if it'll be a good day or an absolute shit show. Oh No!! Oh My!! will put you on the right track. I hesitate [...]

Remember the days when band names were easy to remember? Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana... those were the days. It's a good thing we all live in the future now and have PDA's to be able save the names of bands to check out. Bands like Austin-based, I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness (from this point forward will be known as ILYBICD) has one of the lengthiest names I've ever come across, yet there's something to it that intrigues. ILYBICD debuted with an acclaimed, self-titled EP in 2003 produced by Mr. Britt Daniel of Spoon and played SXSW last year to [...]

After just over a year the NME coddled, Test Icicles have closed shop and cancelled most of their dates including opening up for Nine Black Alps on the NME Awards show this Friday. The official release states: The band have just come off a European tour and are exhausted from the constant pressures of touring-subsequently they have cancelled their show at the NME Awards show this Friday and US tour. The band will play their UK tour in April, but there are currently no plans to make another album or tour beyond this. [...]

Earlyfish had the chance to chat with Brian Aubert, the front man of Los Angeles based Silversun Pickups and felt stupid asking him a bunch of dumb questions. Brian seems like the most down to earth person Earlyfish has yet had the chance to talk with. The Silversun Pickups have an important sound that should not be ignored. Earlyfish: Thanks for agreeing to an interview with Earlyfish. We were really excited that we were able to secure an interview with you as you guys are undoubtedly about to blow up. How does the image of [...]

The results' of the Norwegian athletes during the Olympics have proven Norway's dominance in the winter sports, Love Dance are helping show just how good Norwegians are at indie pop too. Hailing from Bergen Norway the same town as indie pop superstar Sondre Lerche, Love Dance is starting to make some noise in the indie pop world, and what beautiful noise it is. Although the have only released a four song EP on vinyl, Love Dance's ultra catchy songs are sure to make them contenders, against the likes of Acid House Kings and the Legends, for the title [...]

You're sitting at your desk, trying to work, streaming KEXP and this song comes on that is just incredible and you need to know what it is. What do you do? Do you open safari and type in K-E-X-P-DOT-O-R-G and go to the playlist? If you run os X Tiger you dont need to do this anymore. I was doing this for almost 3 years and the other day I had enough so I started coding up a dashboard widget which will allow you to view the artist name, the song title, and the album name of what is currently [...]

"Reagan babies, missile fears, and international blues." On thier myspace page, the Cold War Kids mention that the first bunch of band practices had little to do with instruments and more with finding harmony through chanting, clanging on heat pipes and thumping on plywood walls. All this homegrown effort is apparent in the songs that somehow manage to sound 'earthy'. They explain themselves as: By mixing soulful characteristics not often found anymore in white music, they could mirror Jeff Buckley accompanied by the Velvet Underground with a U2 Rattle & Hum spirit. Much [...]

Hudson Bell feels like a throwback and almost geographic. You can almost taste the 90's college rock in the sound and it's sunny enough that it could only be from California. Hudson Bell (the lead's actual name) was born in Baton Rouge, LA and grew up all over the south before relocating to San Fran, meeting up with 2 mates and starting a band with his name. Together they recorded When the Sun is the Moon for Monitor Records, an album that is seemingly overlooked but packed full of promise. Bell is a great vocalist and an amazing [...]