Blog: Alternapop

Every now and then, a band comes along with the sounds of something fresh and promising. Sydney band Battleships fits right into this category. Formed in early 2011, they spent most of the year writing, rehearsing and recording new material. Although only having played a handful of shows together as Battleships, they are already garnering admiration for their new single 'In Retrospect'. Jimmy2sox of Flight Facilities says of the song, "I haven't heard a song like 'In Retrospect' for a long time. It's a perfect mix of genius musicality and subtle hooks that leave a memorable aftertaste, which ensures a [...]

What is the Wrecking Crew? The Wrecking Crew were a group of Studio Musicians in Los Angeles in the 60s who played on hits for the "Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Rivers and were Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. The amount of work that they were involved in was tremendous. They were also involved in groups that I like to call, The Milli Vanilli's of the day. A producer would get the guys [...]

Spotify Playlists For Each Day Of Coachella 2012 Friday http://open.spotify.com/user/s onofhal/playlist/1qZLqYCD1QZVW HCWqtVRSI Saturday http://open.spotify.com/user/s onofhal/playlist/3mmLZqxWt1di1 EGRaaybIS Sunday http://open.spotify.com/user/s onofhal/playlist/4cMlbB5SZxc5p zNyCVyWD4 Unrelated to Coachella but here is my whopper of a playlist, "Alternapop's Alternative/Indie Super List" with over 1000 songs: http://open.spotify.com/user/a lternapop/playlist/7pVK6MsM6V8 MFnZURLlx7Z

SPC ECO (pronounced Space Echo) are a British-American shoegazing band, formed in 2007. The band consists of former Curve member Dean Garcia (bass, drums, guitar and programming), Rose Berlin (vocals) and Joey Levenson (guitar). When performing live, the band consists of Garcia on bass, Berlin on vocals, HKG on guitar, Debbie Smith on guitar and Monti on drums. In 2011 the group was signed to XD Records. Gone by SPC ECO

Forbes.com has a long article on Spotify's Daniel Ek. "Next week (this week) he's scheduled to return to New York to unveil Spotify's new platform in front of his first-ever press conference—a platform that he admits still isn't ready for a public debut." I'm been playing with the Spotify app beta for a while now and there isn't much there. If you don't know much about music and don't have time or the desire to find new music there are playlist by popular sources. (Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Fuse) Also one app that [...]

Highlights Friday: The Black Keys, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Mazzy Star, Explosions in the Sky, M83, The Rapture, The Horrors, Yuck, The Black Angels Saturday: Radiohead, Bon Iver, The Shins, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Miike Snow, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, St. Vincent, Kasabian, Buzzcocks, The Big Pink, The Vaccines, We Were Promised Jetpacks Sunday: Beirut, Real Estate, Wild Beasts, Gardens & Villa Sunday seems pretty light to me. I'd love to see Goldenvoice add The Stone Roses.

http://www.fastcompany.com//17 99610/google-music-geeks-try-t o-show-they-love-music-more-th an-algorithms It'll be interesting to check out at least. I'm sure Google has the talent and cash to give this a serious run but the execution is pretty important. There is a fine line between being too simple for the masses, who only have 500 songs total, and the small percentage who have 50,000 songs. Suggesting music for the former is easy... for the latter, not so much. I like Spotify and use it from time to time but it doesn't yet 'wow' me. I've yet to find a service that does. Pandora's suggestions [...]

The Stone Roses are pleased to announce that they have signed a record contract with Universal Music in London and with Columbia Records in New York.

SWERVEDRIVER US TOUR DATES FOR 2012 Mar 28 Philadelphia, Union Transfer Mar 29 Boston, Brighton Music Hall Mar 30 Washington DC, Rock and Roll Hotel Mar 31 New York City, Bowery Ballroom Apr 2 Cleveland, Grog Shop Apr 3 Chicago, Bottom Lounge Apr 4 Seattle, Neumo's Apr 5 Portland, Doug Fir Lounge Apr 6 San Francisco, Slim's Apr 7 Los Angeles, Key Club This will be somewhat nostalgic for me because my first Swervedriver show was at Slim's in the 90s. Also I [...]

http://2012.noisepop.com/annou ncing-noise-pop-20/ ANNOUNCING NOISE POP 20 Noise Pop turns 20 this year. Where did the time go? We can hardly believe it ourselves. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate in style and as such have put together a fantastic collection of bands. There'll be plenty more additions to come, but for now you can get excited about indie mainstays such as Built to Spill, Archers of Loaf (played NP in 1997!), Cursive (played NP in 2001!) and Imperial Teen (played NP in 1999!). We've also included some genre-bending acts to the lineup including: [...]

Jawbone JAMBOX (Black Diamond) I decided to try out this highly rated bluetooth speaker for my iPad and iPhone and was shocked at its ease of use, sound quality, small footprint, portability and long battery life. I liked the choice of colors which makes these small speakers standout and easy to spot. When I first opened the package, I was pleased that the company included several high quality cords including both short and long micro USB cords for recharging and computer synching, charge adapter, and a tangle-free audio cord for non-bluetooth sources. You can [...]

Jawbone JAMBOX (Black Diamond) I decided to try out this highly rated bluetooth speaker for my iPad and iPhone and was shocked at its ease of use, sound quality, small footprint, portability and long battery life. I liked the choice of colors which makes these small speakers standout and easy to spot. When I first opened the package, I was pleased that the company included several high quality cords including both short and long micro USB cords for recharging and computer synching, charge adapter, and a tangle-free audio cord for non-bluetooth sources. You can [...]

My Bloody Valentine's epic album Loveless turns 20 today. Here is a vinyl rip of the last track on the album, 'Soon'. My Bloody Valentine - "Soon" (1991)

"There are new songs… 'pure psychedelic pop' according to Ian after this week's conference, Ian also said that Reni's drumming was amazing 'like the kid has got 8 arms!'. Ian said the band wanted to announce the reformation the day after the UK riots. Liam Gallagher has been in touch with them saying he's going to every date on the tour and Noel Gallagher told us he had been sworn to secrecy for months but … 'holy shit balls!'" - via louder than war Fri 29 June Heaton Park, [...]

The internet is buzzing with rumors that The Stone Roses are reuniting. I was first informed days ago that a Golden Voice insider was quoted as saying, "we're working on getting them for Coachella". Then this morning The Sun ran this article and NME followed up with this article . Elbow's Guy Garvey has also confirmed the reunion, with a source telling the paper: "Guy was talking to friends about how the original line-up had been rehearsing over the summer in Manchester."

San Francisco band Moonbeams reminds one of My Bloody Valentine or The Horrors along with other bands mentioned on Alternapop in the past year: Whirr, Weekend, The Soft Moon, Young Prisms. The Daisy Chain by moonbeams Upcoming Bay Area Shows: 8/18 Stork Club @ Oakland 8/19 Hemlock Tavern @ San Francisco 8/20 House Party @ San Francisco http://www.facebook.com/pages/ Moonbeams/207834491215 http://moonbeamsband.bandcamp. com/

Hooray For Earth - "Sails" from Dovecote Records on Vimeo . Listen on iTunes Listen on Amazon

Waiting For The Rain To Fall by Under Electric Light After years of secretly singing over records as a child in his native Victoriaville (somewhere between Quebec city and Montreal, Canada), Danny Provencher started playing bass in his secondary school band. He then moved to Montreal where he started writing and producing electronic music on his own as Under Electric Light. After the release of his first EP (Untitled, 2002), he decided to sing over his instrumental pop songs and released the Never See The Light EP (2005), the Blue EP (2006) and the After the [...]

Freshly Picked Diamond by Vinyl Williams Vinyl Williams is a one-person project by Lionel Williams that has had several members (namely Bryan Lee on drums) and has toured throughout the USA. The musical style is usually referred to as psychedelic and ambient - additionally, the music has a pseudo-scientific direction involving exploration of "sonic matrices," combinations of sounds that affect dimensions of the body. These are enabled by frequency intersections, and when certain tones, chords, and patterns are composited to induce specific (and usually unpredictable) emotions, unexplainable feelings, expansions of the spirit etc. [...]

Yuck, who hails from London, played two nights in a row this week at The Independent in San Francisco. They remind me of several 90s bands, many from Boston, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've never heard of any of them. The Blake Babies (with Juliana Hatfield), Fuzzy and a non Boston band, Elastica. Here is a track by Yuck called "Get Away". In the mid-90s I caught this band called Fuzzy locally. It has a similar vibe and the guitars sound very similar. Listen to [...]