This month's mix marks a farewell to a Summer that I've been eager to see the end of ever since it began. I'm not sure if that emotion shows through in the mix itself, but there's a good chance it's there somewhere. Despite my personally lackluster experiences the past several months, music has been very good to me and I feel like there are quite a lot of new things to be excited about! Opening the mix is Swimsuit. I mentioned them just a post ago, so you go find out a bit more there! The Best Coast and Wild [...]
Ypsilanti's own, Swimsuit! Not since getting ahold of the Weed Hounds demo last year, have I been so excited and blown away by the first listen of demo. The band is Swimsuit and they're from Ypsilanti, MI! They're relatively fresh out of the over and are not to be slept on! Fred Thomas of the amazing, incredible, best ever Saturday Looks Good To Me teamed up with friends Shelley, Dina (of Secret Twins), and Amber to form Swimsuit back sometime around the beginning of the year. They've since released a Demo EP, Life [...]
Liechtenstein are back! Following their fantastic debut LP, Liechtenstein are back with a new single on, you guessed it, Fraction Discs! The single's three tracks represent the sound of Liechtenstein we've all come to love, but the songs just seem to keep better and better. A-side "Passion For Water" sounds as if it were nicked from some lost El Records compilation. Like the rest of the single, it remains catchy and very danceable — just like I like my Liechtenstein to be! Have a listen to "Passion For Water" and keep your eyes peeled [...]
A need to be on a rollercoaster asap. Hey! Time for another monthly mix! The past month or so has yielded too many awesome records I've barely been able to keep up! Ideally I would get to separate posts for every single one of them, but if I don't have time for all of that, at least you'll be getting familiar with most of them on this new mix! There are a few personal Summer stardards on here — Dressy Bessy, The Cat's Miaow, True Love Always — that I hope you'll love, too! I'd really [...]
I cannot resist one second of the new Serena-Maneesh album. SM-2 is full of sounds and melodies that I've mostly heard before, but the thing is, those are some of my favorite kinds of sounds and melodies, so I'll never say no. I'm pretty much in agreement with how Eric at Marathon Packs so perfectly put it: "Seriously, music: if you keep recycling the basic Lush formula and stirring in different elements/theme variations, I'll keep buying (into) it." This live video makes me love this song/album even more than I already do. I urge you, please [...]
The Blanche Hudson Weekend , like the late MLS, seem to never stop releasing records. Not so far off the heels of their last EP, comes a new one called Hate Is A Loaded Gun . A new track from the EP titled "Let Me Go" is up streaming on Drowned In Sound right now, so you should go check it out post haste! It's a bit more upbeat than anything on the last EP, and I think it might just be my favorite BHW song yet.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's new sun-soaked video for their new single "Say No To Love" has just (well, two days ago) been released and it does just what a video should: it makes the song even more infectious than it already was. Watch it!
The Liminanas I don't follow Hozac's release schedule all that closely, but after realizing I've been missing out on The Liminanas for a while, I think I may be paying a little closer attention from here on out. The Liminanas come to us from France with pockets full of reverb-soaked hooks that both Phil Spector and VU could only be proud of. One listen to their single "I'm Dead" and you should be hooked. Grab the single from Hozac . [MP3]: The Liminanas :: I'm [...]
I originally mentioned my favorite Florida band named after a Black Tambourine song almost three years ago on this very blog and they have just finally released their debut single! It comes to us from Magic Marker (who by the way are absolutely killing it with Summer releases right now — World Atlas, Gold-Bears, AND For Ex-Lovers Only???) and features three songs. A-side "Coffin" is a driving, fuzzed-out pop song if I've ever heard one; a Summer jam, for sure. The B-sides follow in somewhat different veins, with "Scaps" even sounding a bit Guided By [...]
The brand new video for Dum Dum Girls' "Bhang Bhang, I'm A Burnout", directed by Christin Turner, is as perfect a visual companion to the song as I could have imagined. Girls dancing, colorful layers, sunshine — what more could one ask for?
Pet Milk are fantastic new band from Philadelphia featuring, among others, the lovely Herbie Shellenberger of Brown Recluse! They — like one of my other recent favorites, Weed Hounds — play some highly infectious fuzzed-out pop with a little bit of that boy/girl vocal thing going on from time to time. Their debut demo EP reminds me of everything I love about noisy pop and ultimately leaves me feeling about as excited as I was when I first heard the Pains several years ago. I could listen to records and records of this stuff. I've been dying to see them [...]
Summer! The June mix is here! I feel quite bad for completely missing May, but I was a bit too distracted with at least a million things that it just never really came together. I've got a lot more free time right now though, so for the time being, you might see a little more action going on here than usual! The cover art for this month's mix might be one of my favorites and it also happens to be relevant to my recent interest in Paris. "Paris" by Northern Picture Library is also [...]
Bake Sale Hailing from the likely, yet unlikely, city of Memphis, Tennessee are Bake Sale . If I were a slightly more bitter, critical soul I'd probably be able to find fault in the pop stylings of these girls (and guy). However, being the easily swooned pop-lover I am, the beautiful four minutes and sixteen seconds of "Prom Song" left me glass-eyed, sighing "Yessssssssss." Have a listen for yourself. "Meanwhile", which is currently streaming on Bake Sale's MySpace , is also definitely worth a few listens. [MP3]: Bake [...]
Las Robertas These girls seem to be getting written up all over the internet right now, but I'm finding myself too in love with their debut Cry Out Loud to not also give a shout about them here. Las Robertas hail from Costa Rica and make some of the best fuzzed-out pop these ears have heard in a while. There are a lot of bands out and about right now just chomping at the bit for this type of sound, but so few really have the melodic chops for it. You can't [...]
I've been dying to hear the new Club 8 album, The People's Record , ever since I got my ears on it's first single "Western Hospitality" months ago. It's a brilliant song and I love the video. Now if you could just put the record into my hands, I would be the happiest person! Preorder The People's Record from Labrador!
Cover art for Rocket Fire . The new Ceremony record that I speculatively mentioned back in early March is finally really, truly out! True to my hopes and suspicions, it's flat out fantastic. While comparisons could easily be made to A Place To Bury Strangers, anyone with a keen ear for melody would have to agree that Ceremony lends themselves much more to Skywave's pop sensibilities than that of APTBS. That said, the noise is definitely coming before the pop on Rocket Fire — and to great success, too! Songs like [...]
So in love with this song right now!
The latest yet! Hello all! Long time no see, yes? Unfortunately, when real life responsibilities pile up, the internet responsibilities are the first to fall to very bottom of the list — but we all know that. Anyway, enough excuses! I present to you the absolute latest monthly mix to ever be compiled! This month's mix is a real mish-mash of stuff; pretty much a random sampling of what you would have heard had you been hiding out in my room for the past couple weeks. It's full of 100% totally good songs though, and I [...]
Really, really excited for this record! Slumberland will be releasing it on both CD and 12" vinyl on April 26th! Just a little over a week-ish after the Chin Chin reissue is released! It's gonna be a good Slumberland Spring!
I'll regret not being at this for a very long time. Possibly forever.
S K A T T E R B R A I N
![Serena-Maneesh - Reprobate! [live]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/k5w9Fh_38Ok_130.jpg)
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