Photo of kids by .Dianna. on flickr. It's new mix time! I'm a few days late on this one, but hopefully you'll forgive me. The last couple weeks I've been in a bit of shoegaze listening mood, so I decided to make the July's mix a shoegaze fest! While my shoegaze interests tend to lie more on the noisier side than the ethereal, ambient side, you'll still find few shimmering, dreamy tracks peppered into the mix. Everywhere else however you'll be hearing lots of fuzz and lots of feedback, but above all, I wouldn't [...]
Grass Widow Hannah, Raven, and Lillian are Grass Widow – a fantastic pop group from San Francisco! They recently released their debut 12" LP on Make A Mess Records and it's totally rad and full of fast girl-girl-girl pop songs. In a time flooded with this type of stuff, Grass Widow seem to stand out for me, and I reckon it's their knack for vocal melodies and the occasional, yet wonderful, horns on the record that just ease it up to a higher level. Nonetheless, "To Where" is a killer pop song [...]
The amount of fun contained in this song is unbelievable.
Songs For Tuesdays ' blinding cover artwork. Summer Cats ' debut LP, Songs For Tuesdays , will finally be out on Slumberland Records come July 14th! – just two weeks away! Before hearing even a note of the record I'd decided it would probably be one of my favorite records of the year, and now, since hearing the new song "Hey You, It's Me (Oh My)" I'm almost sure of it! Not only will it be full of fantastic fuzzy pop songs, but it's sporting some of the most brilliantly colorful [...]
Tigerella Tigerella were a L.A.-based five-piece indiepop band active during the early 2000s. They played catchy songs with a sound not too far from that of perhaps Velocity Girl – thanks mostly in part to the at-times noisy guitars and lead singer Yvonne's sweet, yet powerful vocals. They released the Existential War EP of Shelflife 's CDr Series in 2003 and followed up with a full-length on Schmat Records later that same year. In the years following, they began to dwindle and by they end of 2004 they seemed to be done for [...]
Number Five! [MP3]: Pants Yell! :: Stop Making Music (Submitted by myself!) After three fantastic outside submissions in a row, I thought it was about time to to post another one of my 'Summer Songs'. As you've likely already gathered, the song is "Stop Making Music" by Pants Yell!. It was one of the b-sides on their '83 in '05 7" released back in 2005. I fondly remember playing the heck out of it on many a lazy day the last Summer before I moved up to school. [...]
I tend to not read Pitchfork too much these days, but thankfully Ed Shelflife does or I would have have missed The Depreciation Guild 's new video for their new single "Dream About Me". The song is a total bliss-out – like some perfect blend of New Order and Spooky -era Lush – and the video just accents it perfectly. The single was apparently supposed to be out of Shelflife , but now it will be seeing a release on Kanine Records on July 7. You can preorder it from Kanine's shop .
Beach ladies. Best Coast is the L.A.-based pop project of Bethany Consentino of Pocahaunted along with Bobb Bruno. I'm not a very big fan of Pocahaunted, but Best Coast's fuzzy pop songs are right up my alley. This is some seriously lo-fi stuff, but the melodies are definitely there and they're pretty memorable – at least to me. They've got a tape and a 7" slated for release on Blackest Rainbow and Art Fag Recordings, respectively. Not sure if this song will end up on either of the releases, but it's my favorite [...]
Better than cold fish. Sushi were a six-piece Bay area pop band with an all too short lifespan. They released an EP on Swingset Records in 1999 (which I've never heard) and an album on Shelflife in 2000 titled The Quiet Space Between Houses , along with a couple comp appearances. Later in 2000 they called it quits, but core members Jeff and Jared started a new band called The History of Utah. They supposedly had a single slated for Shelflife, but to my knowledge that never saw the light of day. I wonder if [...]
Seeland I've been loving Seeland 's debut LP Tomorrow Today since in was finally released back in March of this year. To be honest, I was initially drawn in by the LP's fantastic artwork at the mention of ex-Broadcast member Tim Felton. After realizing Tim was in the band and that Seeland's influences lie basically in the same field as Broadcast's, I expected some sort of Broadcast rehashing – which to be clear, I wouldn't have entirely minded. But such was not the case. To my surprise, the majority of [...]
The Secret Love Parade The Secret Love Parade are Aino Vehmasto and Janna Coomans, two girls from The Netherlands with some dreamy voices and even dreamier pop melodies! They sound to me like a Dutch Brittle Stars – though a bit slower. Their songs are perfect for tired eyes and sleepy hearts just itching to drift off into dreamland. I haven't got any MP3s, but you should totally go to their MySpace and have a listen! I would highly recommend "Paper Moon" and "My Secret Love Parade"! [...]
Summer just keeps getting better Number Four! [MP3]: The Neoboys :: Richman's Dream (Submitted by reader Salvador Martinez!) "My favorite summer song is a classic track by the cult all-girl band The Neoboys. They were part of the interesting punk scene of Portland in the early 80's. The song is called "Richman's Dream" and I know that it isn't about summer but I discover it while seeing the first Gus Van Sant movie, "Mala Noche", last summer and I immediately fell in [...]
Wow, it's been ten days. Summer has been hogging all my attention, I'm so sorry. Back to business! The Lodger will release their new 'I Think I Need You' EP on June 22nd! The EP's title track is a smart, instant pop classic and the video's aesthetics (as well as the EP's cover art ) only further the fact. Watch! 'I Think I Need You" is out on Elefant Records
Pocketbooks! "Footsteps" is the new single from Pocketbooks ' smashing debut LP Flight Paths ! It will be available officially on June 15 on iTunes, as well as Pocketbooks' website, but we're doing an early giveaway of the MP3 right here on Skatterbrain! "Footsteps" is an obvious highlight of the album – a perfect album opener, and a perfect single. [MP3]: Pocketbooks :: Footsteps (Highly Recommended!!!) As the single's artwork hints, "Footsteps" is indiepop written for the dancefloor. The song's innocent storyline follows a [...]
Guess the movie! It's that time again! This marks the very first two mix streak of consecutive monthly mixes – as you may know, I tend to forget to keep these kinds of 'regular' things going! About the mix though, it's a very good one! Featuring a smattering of mostly U.S. indiepop mostly from the 90s mostly with leanings towards quick, noisy, fuzzy, hook-laden pop songs. In short, the perfect thing for these hot summer days. Personal highlights include Poastal's "The Absolute Magnitude...", with it's speedy and totally unrelenting bassline; Fuzzy's "Flashlight", which I [...]
Some of The Seven Inches Boy do I feel silly. Since first coming across them sometime in the past, I've always purposely glossed over Leeds' Seven Inches . Why? I don't know, really – which is exactly why I decided to give their new Open-Ness and Honesty EP (released just yesterday on Tom's new Indie-MP3 Records !) a try! Sure glad I did, because, though unbeknown to me this whole time, The Seven Inches are actaully really, really good. Both the first and final tracks of this three-song EP are [...]
I just realized, thanks to Mike Slumberland on Facebook, that there's a new Crystal Stilts video for their single "Love Is A Wave". It's pretty rad for more or less just being a video collage of archive footage. In fact, as the first commenter on YouTube puts it, "this is the exact succession of images I wanted to see at this exact moment" – funny, though, true. Check it out!
Alyssa and Andy Nun Party is the wonderfully catchy lo-fi pop project of Alyssa Roberts with occasional help from Andrew Smith (The Airport of Love). At the moment, the female-fronted lo-fi pop moniker seems to be over-diluted with that fuzzy four-chord garage sound that, upon the beginning of it's recent revival, I was pretty smitten with – well, it's starting to wear a bit thin to me. Fortunately we've got Nun Party, who seem to lean more towards the likes of Dear Nora or The Aislers Set, rather than the Shoppies or JAMC. [...]
I present to you, a less-than-interesting YouTube video of quite possibly of the catchiest, funnest, smileyest songs I've ever heard! Beryl Marsden's 1965 single, "Break-A-Way". Oh, god, when her voice gets a little snarly, like she's just getting over a cold, I think my heart breaks just the slightest bit. Beryl went on to join Rod Stewart, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, and others in Shotgun Express in 1966 after her final single "What She Got" turned out to be a bit of a flop. This song, however, is a timeless pop gem if there ever was one.
That Summer Feeling! No. 2 [MP3]: Friends :: You'll Never See That Summertime Again Submitted by Krister Bladh "I had a very difficult time choosing a song, because I realised there are many songs that I associate closely with summer. Even though I made a summer mix earlier in the year (before heading to the New Zealand summer!) I thought I should choose something new that I'd heard since then. But then I thought some more about it, and if [...]
Monday Kick Periodic table of Music Groups
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GDD™ presents CONTROL at the Avalon w/ Santiago & Bushido + Don Diablo + more!
