Tape slingers Burger Records don't always venture into the vinyl market (though they seem to be more and more) but it's usually with good cause when they do. Breaking away a bit from their garage pop stable, the label's issued the debut long player from Chelsea and Justine Brown aka Summer Twins. The S/T LP swings with insistent jangles and a breezy air that will of course endear them to Vivian Girls and Best Coast fans everywhere but where their contemporaries sometimes slip into samey vibes the sisters have a crisp and refreshingly clean sound that carries its way throughout [...]
Hot & Cold are Simon and Joshua Frank, a Beijing via NY duo who grind out disconnected, synth scraped jams that froth atop insistent dime store beats. The pair fleshes out a narcotic loner niche that pays its share of homage to the Suicide jams that preceded them and the lo-fi contingent that feels like a lost limb. Coming off like deep space transmissions bounced from the communist underground, the whole of Conclusion/Introduction feels as if its wrapped its icy fingers around a dystopian youth pulse. Always good to see some fresh blood spewing from the Night People [...]
Among the current crop of acoustic guitar phenoms, James Blackshaw has always remained one of our favorites. His Important debut O True Believers grabbed the attention of RSTB with a mix of complexity and grace. Following a move to a few other labels including the venerable Tompkins Square and some rather intricate works for Michael Gira's Young God, Blackshaw has returned to his roots at Important. Preceded by a stunning EP, this new album is a hushed and somber piece of work. Love is the Plan, The Plan is Death sees James employing his usual mix [...]
If you're up for a night of garage, power pop, glam and 70's era punk and you're in the NYC area, come on out to K&M in Williamsburg tonight where I'll be DJing our latest installment of this monthly series.
We've always had a soft spot for Brian Pyle's Ensemble Economique but truth be told we were first aware of his releases with Starving Weirdos. Their new album, Land Lines is a decisive piece of well-constructed drift and synth stacked mantra. We're still wrapping our heads around it but for now check out a taster of the album in the form of the video for the track "Periods," a haunting spiritual journey of animal suited nomads lost in the psychedelic wilderness. Suport the Artist. Buy it HERE .
Outer Minds showed up here a year or so back with a great little single on HoZac that had rumblings of 60's psych inflected garage that pushed a bit further beyond the bar burner staples of their Chicago scene. They had promise then but they just needed a little something extra to really nudge their sound to its full potential. It helped that the band is stocked with plenty of talent; including former and current members of Baseball Furies, Lover! and Functional Blackouts and now it seems, since those early days, the band's found an ease with their sound and [...]
Dead People – Feel The Light 7" New Orleans trio Dead People take a swipe at off the rails, dirt-caked lo-fi and do a pretty good job at that. The four song single, the band's first, is an obscured nugget of fuzz and rumble that jerks along on all fours, propelled by a dual guitar assault and the sweat inducing pound of drums. The title track takes honors here but there's a definite taste of more on the horizon. It'll be fun to see if they back down the murk and blow this [...]
Ilyas Ahmed burned his way into our consciousness way back in 2008 with Vertigo of Dawn and returned, with Grouper's Liz Harris in tow for the stunning follow-up, Goner in 2009. Since then he's re-teamed with Harris on an excellent split for Social Music's record club and now his scarred folk tears through our winter dreams on his latest, With Endless Fire . The album pulls Ahmed's voice from the shimmering haze that's surrounded some of his past releases but still keeps his dust worn dirges cloaked in layers of light and shadow. Pulled tight [...]
Well the statute of limitations on discovering those hidden gems from 2011 still stands, though it's getting close. Don't know how this one slipped through the cracks (probably because it was mostly available in Italy) but it's a damn shame we're just stumbling on it now. Glam made a strong showing in 2011 with Smith Westerns and Mickey pulling from the genre but the Italian boys in Giuda (pronounced Joo-duh) have their steps in place and seem to bring wafts of glitter and leather back with every chord. The album is big and brash with the kind of swagger that [...]
As you might recall we were part of the Altered Zones collective until its untimely demise earlier this year. Since then several of the contributors have regathered under the former editors with the new name, Ad Hoc. A collective of ten music blogs from all over the world, Ad Hoc is a daily destination for MP3s, videos, mixes, interviews, artist's writings, and cultural commentary-- curated for quality, and with an emphasis on emerging artists and musical movements that best exemplify the new grassroots, Internet-fueled DIY. Ad Hoc is also a quarterly zine-- available in electronic and paper formats, [...]
Téléphone - Crache Ton Venin A couple of weeks ago we featured the great lost album Different from The Dogs, one of a rare exceptions to the notion that French bands couldn't compete on a level with their U.S. and U.K. counterparts. Well, an even stronger argument against such rumblings can be made after on listen to Téléphone. The band came together with former members of Sémolina and some fortuitous stand-ins that included the exhilarating guitarist Louis Bertignac. The band opened for several well known touring bands including Eddie & the [...]
Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem has always lent a unique strain of spirituality to the acoustic folk song. His ability to skirt the lines of Baroque and experimental, edging one genre into the folds of the other, has long been lauded and it's been celebrated in the entirety of his catalog. Here Van Wissem hooks up with previous collaborator Jim Jarmusch, a pairing that seems on paper an abstract connection if Jarmusch's credit is seen only as a filmmaker. In truth Jarmusch's guitar playing is sorely under appreciated and here it adds a stormy dissonance to Concerning The Entrance [...]
Justin Wright returns with another floating vabrational anthem under the Expo '70 moniker. His latest release comes from small run masters Sound of Cobra and features two cuts of dark, driven Kosmiche marked with the usual high quality musicianship that we've come to expect from Wright. The title track is a definite highlight, underpinned by an ominous drone and Wright's snaking guitar only building the inky tension to a white-knuckled height. The second cut injects an Eastern raga template to Expo's usual adherence to the Space Rock/Kosmiche axis and its a fittingly ornate counterbalance to the title track's dark spirals. [...]
Ricardo Donoso is a name that might ring familiar to regular RSTB readers, the ambient artist has hooked up with sound sculptor Luke Molodof and the two have christened themselves Perispirit. Spiritual Church Movements is the first full length vinyl release for the duo following some cassette releases for Hospital Productions and Ricardo's own Semata label. The duo digs deep into the recesses of sonic divination. Donoso harnesses the stratospheric vibrations of field recordings provided by Molodof and processes them into an amalgamation of deep space transmissions and noise juxtapositions that feel pulled from the pages of science [...]
Slumberland newcomers Terry Malts caught our ears last year with a pair of singles that mixed crackling hooks with a fuzzed out garage style that'll feel pretty familiar to most RSTB readers. The album acts as an extension of the redlined fizzy pop that those singles traded in but overall ends up feeling a lot more coherent than either. Its a simple formula but when a band does it so well and with such a delightful exuberance then its hard not to get swept up in ensuing wave of crunchy fun. The lyrics bounce all over the map from religious [...]
Teenage Head - Teenage Head Canadian punks Teenage Head never achieved their deserved level of success outside of their home country. Though often seen as Canada's version of The Ramones, the band seemed to not be able to cross the border and bring the bounce stateside. The band actually formed after some local gigs by The New York Dolls and The Ramones and picked up their name from the classic Flamin' Groovies track. After an initial single they recorded this debut packed full of taught rockers that never feel as loose as their [...]
Sharing two sides of a limited slab of vinyl, Pete Swanson (breaking out of the Yellow Swans mold) and synth master Rene Hell aka Jeff Witcher create a dichotomy of destruction and bliss. Swanson keeps things noisy as is expected but breaks from the total devastation that usually comes associated with anything bearing his Yellow Swans moniker. His side, a one track build that starts from a field of sonic debris and crescendos into a well constructed noise carving that bears a softer yet still jagged impact from one of noise's masters of the form. The flip sees RSTB favorite [...]
Here's a nice Friday treat. RSTB singles faves Bleached have worked up a sweet video for their song "Searching Through the Past". The Clavin sisters are quickly making a name for themselves post Mika Miko and with each piece of the Bleached puzzle that drops we're more anxious for a full length. Hopin there's new of that soon. Suport the Artist. Buy it HERE .
Young Governor – Where It's Quiet 10" Ben Cook's solo endeavor as Young Governor has always swung close to pop but his latest outing wraps up four tracks of pure cane sugar crunch that's an undeniable pop treat. Utilizing the bastard son of vinyl formats, the 10", Cook cleans the usual fuzzed edges of Young Guv's sound with the title track sounding like its ripped right from the soundtrack of any number of 90's indie movies. Pining and jangly, the cut is one of Ben's best yet. The rest of the EP takes [...]
Better known as one half of Australian electronic duo Solo Andat, Kane Ikin sets out on his own for an EP of guitar centered pieces that swing away from his formerly computer obsessed recording procedure and further into the blurred nuances of analog tone. The four pieces on the Contrail EP flutter through the consciousness in pulsating waves of nostalgia, crackling with the hiss of tape and time. Ikin adds some flourish with a wealth of field recordings that peek around corners like shadows in an old house. The EP comes immaculately packages in a chipboard sleeve with [...]
Raven Sings The Blues
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
My Funny Valentines
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
