Jesca Hoop - Four Dreams "What the hell is that accent? And that singing style–something between Nick Cave creepy and cabaret . . . Oh, no wonder. Jesca Hoop was a nanny for Tom Waits . It is safe to say that Jesca Hoop 's sophomore album is unusual in the extreme–a little Petra Haden , a little Bjork and Kate Bush , a sprinkle of Suzanne Vega , a tad Joni Mitchell and [...]
Frankie Rose and the Outs - Candy "Frankie Rose is a Brooklyn bartender best known for her drum/vocal/guitar work with fuzzed-out retro acts like Crystal Stilts , Vivian Girls , and Dum Dum Girls . As she bounced from one project to the next (in some cases before she was even considered a proper member), the distinctive threads that joined these bands-- garage-rock ethos, dour jangle pop, 60s girl-group harmonies, questionable [...]
A week from today is Black Friday, so it's time to kick-off our music buyer's guide for 2010. We'll break this down into three easily digestable parts with the conclusion over the Thanksgiving holiday. So, before the buying frenzy begins and you get stuck with a tuckey, browse our list of our most disappointing albums this year. Next week on Thursday and Friday, we'll bring you the main course of our recommended albums served up in two generous helpings. Let us quickly make a few points about how we came up with this list. Like any other year, [...]
The Decemberists - Down By The Water "I have something of a love-hate relationship with The Decemberists . It'd be a huge oversight on my part if I were not to admit that Colin Meloy and his fellow west coasters had released some of the most affecting and best composed music of the past ten years. At the same time, however, the band is responsible for what I can, without a doubt, call the worst concert I have ever seen ("The Hazards of Love Stageshow"? Ugh.) [...]
Lovers - Figure 8 "Figure 8" has you at "hello." The song kicks off with an attention-getting, percussive stomp from drummer Emily Kingan. Synth programmer Kerby Ferris adds a dark melody to Kingan's tribal beats, setting the stage for Lovers ' founder and primary songwriter Carolyn Berk's plaintive declaration: " They tried to shame us out of loving darlin' / but they don't pray as hard as I ache ." And that all takes place in the song's first thirty seconds. Lovers spend the [...]
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Heart in Your Heartbreak (via Regnsky ) "It was weird enough to hear that Pains of Being Pure At Heart were putting their scruffed-up, jangling pop in the care of mondo-budget producer Flood for their upcoming sophomore album Belong , even moreso after the whispers that they were going for a the sound of Siamese Dream -- after all, Flood was the guy who helmed all the Smashing Pumpkins albums that came after that one. Fortunately, "Heart [...]
Wise Blood - Solo (4 Claire) (via Weekly Tape Deck ) " Wise Blood is sample-pop artist Chris Laufman, a 22 year old who recently moved to his current city Pittsburgh from Houston, TX. Pittsburgh is an unusual place to jump-start a music career, but it just so happens that Girl Talk , our most famous recent musical export, knows quite a bit about creating pop-collages himself. While Wise Blood is more Panda Bear than Girl Talk , they share the goal of making complex yet [...]
Smith Westerns - Weekend (via Citizen Insane ) "Chicago's young Smith Westerns are in the enviable (or unenviable, depending on your POV) position of being one of the most blogged about bands on the internet. They live in that rarefied space where a couple hundred music bloggers get all hot and bothered about the next big thing (guilty as charged). It can last a nano-second or propel a band onto it's own larger spinning axis. Depends on a million different things, like, uh, is the music any good? Their [...]
Au Revoir Simone - Shadows (Tanlines Remix) " No indie-pop band I heard in 2009 made the kind of leap between albums that Au Revoir Simone did with Still Night, Still Light . Until recently, the band-- three well-dressed girls on keyboards-- made prim, toothless synth-pop and attracted advocates that seemed primarily interested in brushing the members' hair. But what seemed prim on The Bird of Music was refined into almost alien delicacy. Now, the band operates like a porcelain watch, no note [...]
Dominant Legs - Clawing Out At The Walls " Lefse Records is on fire this year, and one of those reasons is the release of Dominant Legs ' debut EP Young At Love and Life . I've pretty much been on a steady diet of this EP, Kisses , Glasser , and Small Black . Talk about feeling good! Ryan Lynch, who also plays guitar for Girls , and Hannah Hunt team up for this happy day pop ballad of an album. [...]
Telekinesis - Dirty Thing " Here is a new indie pop track with dark flare. Telekinesis has just released their latest EP with single "Dirty Thing". Telekinesis is Michael Benjamin Lerner, an indie rocker based out of Seattle, Washington. Lerner signed to Merge Records in early 2009, and shortly afterward released the eponymously named debut album Telekinesis! . Recorded in September of 2008, the album was produced, mixed, and engineered with the help of Chris Walla (guitarist for Death Cab [...]
Tennis - Cape Dory (via WATM ) " Like many modern buzz bands, Tennis has benefited from the maximum amount of exposure derived from the smallest amount of output. With a few demos and singles out there in the ether, the husband-and-wife duo is getting set to release their full-length debut, Cape Dory , on Fat Possum. Largely recorded independently, songs like "Marathon" and "Cape Dory" are dead ringers for '60s bubble gum pop, but that's not the whole story. The songs actually sound [...]
Tapes 'n Tapes - Freak Out " A little more storytelling than from what I remember of Tapes 'n Tapes , but it is fitting and welcomed. Chugging guitar chords pull you along the story of "Freak Out," the latest single off Outside . Due for release on January 11 (1/11/11 at that! like the monotony of binary), Outside is the third album by the Minnesotans who know how to throw down some guitar [...]
Kids of 88 - Everybody Knows " The Kids Of 88 are amongst my new favorite discoveries. The New Zealanders make fun poppin dance tracks. They describe their sound as a " whimful combination of dirt spitting kicks and feathering grit. An overdose of nightlife; the lubricated moan of spilt vodka. The hard realization of concrete and the happiness of blurry vision. An alleyway gangbang between Grandmaster Flash and The Knack ." Which pretty much nails it [...]
"If you thought "Erase Me," Kid Cudi and Kanye West' s foray into Weezer -esque guitar rock, was cheesy, wait till you get a load of the music video. We first heard to the tune nearly four months ago, but Cudder and Yeezy are still pushing forward with the track. And, yes—that's Cudi decked out as Jimi Hendrix and a teased-wig-wearing Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse you see there beside him. Jason Goldwatch, who previously directed Kid Cudi's "Cudderisback" and "Soundtrack 2 My Life" [...]
Girls - Heartbreaker " The "Heartbreaker" mp3 was released with a scanned, handwritten thank you letter from Girls ' Christopher Owens. " All of us have something to say and give ," he wrote somewhat legibly, " and this is what happens when we show a little interest and support in others. " This would presumably refer to the first new recording (they've been playing it live for nearly a year) [...]
Lykke Li - Get Some "I'm going to bet that if you asked ten people, you'd get ten different responses as to how to pronounce Lykke Li 's name. I think I've pronounced it ten different ways myself. Anyway… With her new single "Get Some," I'm struck by how strong her vocals are when compared to what I'd heard from her in the past; the song itself [...]
This week we posted some 'scary' good tunes like "Ghosttown" (First Aid Kit), "Radioactive" and "Pyro" (Kings of Leon), "Sixteen Shades of Black and Blue" (Fujayi & Miyagi), and "Sun Demon" (Stereolab) as a 'dead-on' giveway we were posting our annual Halloween mix. Yep, there's some 'killer' indie music here and played loud enough it's sure to make your ears bleed. So, find a favorite haunt, invite your best ghouls and goons, and get 'ur freak on. Happy Halloween! - Ed Blinking Pigs - [...]
Stereolab - Sun Demon "For longtime fans of Stereolab , it feels good to be able to look back at the band's albums and say their old music sounds just as good now as it did then. They were certainly one of the more influential bands of the 1990s, playing a style that combined a high level of experimentation, especially in their musical transitions and the elegantly detached alternating vocals of Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen, who died in an accident [...]
Fujiya & Miyagi - Sixteen Shades of Black and Blue " Fujiya & Miyagi are not Japanese and are a four piece, not a duo. The band are getting ready to release their fourth record, Ventriloquizzin g next year on Yep Roc records but today's song of the day is the first sampling, "Sixteen [...]
Wake Up and Smell The Music
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
