Blog: Cougar Microbes

1. The Decemberists- The King is Dead Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 2. Beirut- The Rip Tide Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 3. Death Cab for Cutie- Codes and Keys I have been a Death Cab super fan since about 2001. 'We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes' is one [...]

1. M83- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 2: Kanye West & Jay Z - Watch The Throne Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 3: Atlas Sound - Parallax Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 4. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts For those who don't know Thurston Moore he's the genius behind Sonic [...]

1. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 2. Adele - 21 Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 3. Cliff Martinez with various artists - Drive (Original Movie Soundtrack) Drive the film was bad-ass. Ask all my friends, I was obsessed with [...]

1 - Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will Mogwai yet again releases an amazingly ambient yet centrally driving album filled with anticpatory progressions and songs that blend sonically disparate sections as if they were just one melodic chorus. 2 - Yeasayer - End Blood Yeasayer's 'End Blood' EP made the list thanks to [...]

1) Gotye - Making Mirrors Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 2. Adele - 21 Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 3. The Decemberists - The King is Dead Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here 4. Rufus Wainwright - House of Rufus A massive 19-disc box set of [...]

Tv On The Radio didn't take too long to follow up 20092s brilliant 'Dear Science,' and as usual didn't disappoint. This time the Brooklyn outfit set up camp on the West Coast and the sunnier climate appears to have seeped through to these tracks. With another mild change of direction the tracks on 'Nine Types Of Light' [...]

Last year I sat through a blogger and A&R roundtable organized by one of the majors in London. In between talk of "organic artist growth" and "breakout singles" The name of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, and more specifically Tyler, The Creator's 'Yonkers' video, came up several times as the label people seemed genuinely baffled by the success [...]

The musical superduo Ashtar Command, composed of Chris Holmes (Sir Paul McCartney's go to DJ) and Brian Liesegang (Founding member of Filter) first showed up on our radar with a track on the PS3 game 'Red Dead Redemption'. Their debut album 'American Sunshine' was an unexpected and delightful revelation. Chief Cougar Microbes collaborator Kyle hailed it [...]

It feels like it was only yesterday that we started hearing about The Decemberists. It amazes me to think that the band has released six official studio albums earning a spot amongst indie rocks biggest success stories. Cougar writer Emily added them to her list describing 'The King Is Dead' as "A folky album with [...]

A double album in this day and age is perhaps a tad over ambitious but if anyone could have pulled it off it had to be monsieur Anthony Gonzalez of M83 fame. For his sixth album outing Gonzalez succeeding in making an album that would satisfy his loyal internet following as well as imprinting itself [...]

With "Swag" seemingly chosen as the buzz word for 2011 it was appropriate that Jay-Z and Kanye West's long rumored collaboration had tons of it. . Having set the bar very high with last year's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' it seems anything Kanye touches turns to gold and Jay-Z also has the midas touch [...]

Metronomy's 3rd release seems distant from the discopop the band first made their name for. Frontman Joseph Mount re-imagines his home town of Totnes in Devon as a sun kissed and hip destination where people come to relax and forget about their troubles. It may be slightly removed from the truth, global warming permitting, but [...]

Alex Ebert's dedication to writing music showed no signs of slowing down in 2011. Having wowed us with THAT Magnetic Zeros album and resurrected Ima Robot recently he also found time to release his solo album named simply 'Alexander'. Recorded in his off time from touring this album sounds like the stripped down extension of [...]

Bon Iver's much awaited sophomore album did not disappoint warranting a spot on numerous "Best of 20113 lists including a handful of Cougar Microbes types. Nicole justified its selection saying "Bon Iver continues to carve out his niche, and the deeper he goes the better. If the listener follows as he continues his subterranean exploration, [...]

considering Jamie Hince's extended stint in the tabloid papers and Alison Mosshart's largely enjoyable The Dead Weather project The Kills may have been forgiven for losing focus once it came down to the business of recording music again. Instead with the release of 'Blood Pressures' the duo returned with a bag full of attitude and some of their [...]

Annie Clark's return marked the continued metamorphosis of her St. Vincent project. 'Strange Mercy' see's the Texan mix eerie instrumentation and crystal clear vocals into a delicious concoction. Cole included the album in his year end list adding "Annie Clark, performing as St. Vincent, has crafted a spellbinding third album. Perhaps it's her serene vocals [...]

PJ Harvey returned in 2011 with her 8th studio album and yet another reinvention of her sound. Yet again the Dorset native does not merely retrace steps she has taken in the past instead preferring to venture into unexplored territory. This is a concept album of sorts dissecting events and behaviors leading to and during the [...]

As a teenager I dragged my dad to see Radiohead's The Bends tour in Milan making me the youngest person in the audience and him the oldest most likely. At the time I thought this would be a momentous occasion as we both witnessed a phenomenal show from what I was certain would be [...]

Lykke Li returns with the long awaited follow up to 20082s 'Youth Novels'. Back then the Swedish starlet was a shy teenager whose quirky manner and heart-on-sleeve delivery made her impossible not to like. Still, the very inexperience and exuberance that made the album so endearing also produced some of its most obvious flaws. On [...]

It is somewhat poetic that 'We're New Here' would turn out to be Gil Scott-Heron's last release before he sadly passed away in 2011. In a career where he distinguished himself for confounding expectations it felt like the tracks from 'I'm New Here', his triumphant comeback album from 2010, where ripe to be quoted, sampled [...]