Explode Into Colors is a band out of Olympia featuring "three weird aunts"- one of which is Lisa of longtime Catbird favorite Kickball (the other members are Claudia Meza of Japanther and Heather Treadway of Tender Forever). Kill Rock Stars will be putting out a single later this summer, and they're going to be tearing it up at SXSW (so there's another band to add to your list). Willamette Week says they conjure a "ghostly drone funk that seemed to come from far [...]
Legendary kiwi rockers The Bats are to return this April with The Guilty Office , their first album of new material since 2005 (it'll be their 8th LP overall). It's coming out on Hidden Agenda and is available for pre-order now from Parasol . The record will be preceded in April by the 73 Don't You Rise EP, which collects four tracks from 1998-2003 and will be released by the mighty Slumberland Records . In other kiwi news, there's a rumor making the rounds that 2009 [...]
The first time I checked out recent Rough Trade signing Micachu & the Shapes , I honestly didn't know what to make of it. To paraphrase Frank , my first instinct was that 'I never want to hear this again.' Which was followed immediately by me hitting the repeat button. So yeah, it took a bit for me to wrap my head around Mica Levi's unusual musical aesthetic, but the more I listened to it, the more I started to be really excited by what I was hearing . [...]
The March Mix has (finally) been posted- Enjoy.
Photo by mariontognoni A few weeks ago I was chatting with Phil from SSLYBY , and he casually tossed in a "hey go check out this song" link at the end of one of our exchanges. I did indeed go check the song out, and it turned out to be a very a good one. As the band was from Missouri, I assumed they were just friends of Phil's, and he was hipping me to some music that not many were aware of. Foolish me! You see, the [...]
Being a longtime fan of Gentleman Reg Vermue, it pleases me to tell you that his new record, Jet Black (a joke title I assume, considering Reg's platinum physiognomy), is out this week on Arts & Crafts ( Three Gut , you're gone but not forgotten). ::: Gentleman Reg - "We're In A Thunderstorm" ::: Buy Jet Black at Amazon. [ Vinyl ] [ MP3 ]
Whoa, has it really been that long since I last posted something about Apollo Ghosts ? Time to rectify that- how about this time, with a video? The prior AG videos, for " Bad Apple ,"" Ghost Get Out... ," and " Yan's Going Back... " were all on the lowest-of-low-budgets, but this new vid for " Angel Acres " is a different beast. Whether inspired by The Wrestler or just wrasslin' in general, Random Pictures ' Stephen Gillis ups the ante with this one. And of course I'll tell you [...]
::: Death - "Politicians In My Eyes" ::: This track from the Drag City full-length collection of Death 's 1975 output, For The Whole World To See... , is just flat-out awesome. Someone deserves a medal for not letting this material get lost to history. Death were the Hackney brothers, three young black musicians in the melting-pot of mid-70s Detroit. After they began to absorb the rock and roll sounds of local heroes like Alice Cooper and Iggy and the Stooges, they traded the strength of [...]
Donewaiting pointed out that Andrew Bird's Noble Beast is on sale for $1.99 at the Amazon MP3 store. If you've been slacking on picking it up, here's your chance. Wavves is playing three shows over the next three days here in New York. Hipsters' heads all over Billyburg are exploding at the mere thought. The 2nd Annual Jan Kotik Memorial Show is being held tomorrow, 2pm, at Union Hall . Jan was an original member of the Mommyheads , as well [...]
::: Richard Buckner - "Born Into Giving It Up" ::: Merge is preparing to digitally rerelease three of Richard Buckner 's older, out-of-print albums: Bloomed , The Hill , and one of my favorite records of 2002 , Impasse . I always found Impasse to have that raw, jagged, almost-live feel that's so rarely captured on tape, and that I totally love. "Born Into Giving" is one of my favorite tracks from the record, but to be fair, I've really always looked [...]
Ok, another UK band who deal in Lo-Fi Fuzz. And who are touring with Wavves and Pens . They proudly proclaim their love for Tascam 4-track recording, have a perfectly-curated list of influences (" The Fugs, Guided By Voices, Swell Maps, The Modern Lovers, The Clean, Flying Nun, The Fall, Beat Happening, Television Personalities, Pavement, Terminal Boredom, Nuggets, Siltbreeze "), and they wrote this song, which I really enjoy: ::: Mazes - "Bowie Knife" :::
There are 3 sides to the Nü Lo-Fi Distorted Fuzz Buzz fence: there's the "Hate It" side, encompassing people whose heads explode at the mere mention of the terms "Wavves" or "Vivian Girls." There's the "Love It" side, who surely must exist, if only to play Yang to the haters' Yin. And then, of course, there's the "I Just Like What I Like" group. Pick your side and read on. Pens Pens is a 3-piece girl group hailing from the UK. They play [...]
I was scratching my just yesterday wondering where this track in my iTunes library, Box Elders - "Hole In My Head," came from- then today, out of the blue, another copy of the track shows up in my email inbox. Okay, universe, I can take a cosmic hint, enough already. ::: Box Elders - "Hole In My Head" ::: Let's get straight to the point- Box Elders : from Omaha, Nebraska. Short, hooky, garagey (they call it "cave pop") tunes. Jay Reatard and Gerard C. [...]
...just a minute ago! Go here , or just grab 'em below. The Catbirdseat Mix: February 2009 Benjy Ferree - "Fear" Apollo Ghosts - "Land of the Morning Calm" Marissa Nadler - "River of Dirt" The Dutchess and the Duke - "Out of Time" Apollo Ghosts - "Bad Apple" Julie Doiron - "Consolation Prize" [...]
...just a minute ago! Go here , or just grab 'em below. The Catbirdseat Mix: February 2009 Benjy Ferree - "Fear" Apollo Ghosts - "Land of the Morning Calm" Marissa Nadler - "River of Dirt" The Dutchess and the Duke - "Out of Time" Apollo Ghosts - "Bad Apple" Julie Doiron - "Consolation Prize" [...]
Over at MBV, I just posted a full-album stream of that Apollo Ghosts - Hastings Sunrise album that I've been going on and on about. Listen@MBV: Apollo Ghosts - Hastings Sunrise
For some time now, We've watched as the music mags began giving up the ghost . We've even seen magazines squeeze out an extra 6 months of life by taking reader donations . But here's a new one, a zombified magazine (of sorts): Folio reports that the founder of Harp (which folded last year) is planning to launch a print version/companion of his apres-Harp website Blurt . Yes, it sounds very Bizarro world: instead of being a print mag with a companion website, [...]
A few MP3s have crept out from something I've been quite curious to hear: that forthcoming Of Montreal Eluardian Instance EP aka "the Jon Brion Remix EP." Apparently, he took two cuts from Skeletal Lamping ("An Eluardian Instance" and "Gallery Piece") and worked his studio magic on them. After hearing these, I'm kinda dumbfounded that it never really occurred to me just how well Brion & Of Montreal sort of "fit" together- it was a good match. If you like orchestral disco pop, I mean. ::: [...]
...is Hastings Sunrise , by Apollo Ghosts , who I wrote about last week . It pains me to use that old " perfect blend of " trope, but there's no way around it: this record is a perfect blend of '70s Punk/New Wave/Power Pop, '80s College/Jangle, and '90s Slack Mofo Indie/Twee. I'd post another mp3, but honestly, the songs vary so widely in styles, I don't want to overstate any one in particular. Best bet: go to the Apollo Ghosts Myspace , where there are a crapload of different songs [...]
The Catbirdseat
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Mr Fogg - Eleven
