Capybara - Earlier this year, Capybara self-released their excellent debut album - Try Brother - and are now planning on a proper release next week on indie label The Record Machine. Hopefully that means more exposure for the band, whose music deserves any attention it receives. Freak-folk might be an appropriate label for the Kansas City group, but they rest on the softer, more melodic side of the genre. Their lo-fi approach - utilizing guitars, banjos, and various percussion - gives their songs a charmingly rustic sound, but its the songwriting that truly shines [...]
Alex Brown Church, the singer/songwriter behind Sea Wolf, is wise as to the timing of his album releases. 2007's impressive debut - Leaves in the River - dropped in September and was a perfect fit to the fall season, with a broad stylistic range of folk songs that conjured both the last sighs of summer and the eerie approach of winter, using everything from acoustic guitars to accordions to digital percussion. And Church's voice - an unassuming, earthy tenor - just amplified the autumn-ness of the music as he delivered stories with titles like "Black Leaf Falls" and [...]
Spring Tigers - Learning that upcoming pop-rock band Spring Tigers hail from Athens, Georgia, I was initially a bit confused. Though there's no shortage of U.S. bands seeking to mimic Brit-pop artists even down to their charming accents, Spring Tigers really seemed distinctly and genuinely British. The mystery was solved when I found that singer/songwriter/guitarist Kris Barratt is - in fact - the real deal, though he's spent some time now in the States, where he met the rest of the band that would become Spring Tigers. The band's self-titled debut EP (or mini-LP, [...]
For Bradford Cox (known primarily as the frontman for indie heavyweights Deerhunter), albums released under his solo moniker, Atlas Sound, are clearly labors of love. When early versions of the songs that would eventually make up his new album, Logos , accidentally made their way onto his blog (he was, unfortunately, the one responsible), Bradford was so upset he nearly scrapped the entire project. For a man who routinely offers free tunes of all sorts on that same blog, this may have seemed like an overreaction, but it's obvious that Cox intended for his sophomore solo effort to be [...]
The second installment for the "Unheard Of" feature I'm doing for In Review Online just went up! There are some bands I've featured before on Chewing Gum for the Ears, and a couple new ones - so check it out! I'll post a shorter version of the feature below, but visit In Review for the full thing - including some free music! Full article: Unheard Of #2 Featured Artists : fun. - Recent Release: Aim and Ignite [...]
Old Canes - Chris Crisci, frontman of the Appleseed Cast, is the driving force behind Old Canes - the indie rock band that released their sophomore effort just this week. Feral Harmonic is a noisy blast of folk rock that contrasts that more electric style of Crisci's other project, with the band members using acoustic guitars, drums and all sorts of percussion along with their leader's rough tenor voice. It's a raw and energetic album packed with noisy hooks and bright melodies, usually hitting hard and quick with the 12 songs coming in [...]
Maybe this should read last week at In Review Online, but these review just got posted recently and I think we've got a good haul for you. My Monsters of Folk review I've already posted, but here's the full list: Flaming Lips - Embryonic ( by Yorgo Douramacos) 3.5 Stars (of 4) "If all you think of in connection [...]
Portland dance-rock band Hockey may be new to the scene, but they've already covered quite a bit of ground. They've toured on either side of the Atlantic, appearing on both the Jools Holland show and Jimmy Fallon, and created all sorts of well-deserved buzz on early singles like the infectious "Too Fake." After hearing a few tunes from the band, I was excited to get my hands on a copy of their debut album - Mind Chaos - which was recently released and mostly delivers on the sizable amount of hype with a healthy dose of both understated [...]
If the word "supergroup" makes you uncomfortable, you're not alone—that term has all too often created false hope for bands that should by definition be excellent but almost never fulfill those high expectations. But as jaded as you may be, it's impossible not to be intrigued by the idea of folk superstars Jim James, Conor Oberst and M. Ward, together with Bright Eyes member and producer Mike Mogis, teaming up to release a collaborative album. And really, Monsters of Folk, or MOF (as it is frequently abbreviated), would probably only qualify themselves as a supergroup with the same kind of [...]
Enjoy an unintentionally B-themed Three for... with lots of free music! The Blakes - Garage rockers The Blakes have returned with another helping of DIY rock 'n' roll on what is their second widely-available album, Souvenir , though the Seattle trio have been steadily recording music since their formation in 2001. The new record doesn't really expand much on the band's simple guitar-rock formula, but what they lack in invention they make up for in hook-filled, pop-rock songs with rough, unrefined edges that are [...]
I was introduced to Thao Ngyuen's music at the beginning of last year with the release of her album We Brave Be Stings and All , which I thankfully stumbled upon and quickly fell in love with. Her distinctive but ear-pleasing voice and quirky, enlightening look into relationships was perfectly complemented by the sometimes folky, sometimes funky sound she and her band create - charming, bright, and endlessly catchy. She and the remainder of her band - The Get Down Stay Down (bassist/keyboardist Adam Thompson and drummer Willis Thompson) -are now back with another full-length entitled Know Better [...]
Meaghan Smith - I wrote briefly about Meaghan Smith several months ago when she released her debut EP, but I thought she was worth bringing up again as she's just dropped her full-length album - The Cricket's Orchestra. I was initially a bit disappointed to find that all of the songs on her EP are also included on the LP, but I'll admit the new record works remarkably well as a whole. And for most of you, that probably won't be an issue at all anyway. Meaghan's music is reminiscent of classic pop/jazz/swing [...]
Nicholas Thorburn – or Nick Diamonds if you prefer his stage name – seems to have been gifted with an inability to recognize his own limitations or boundaries, a curse as well as a blessing, but probably more often the latter when it comes to making great pop music. He never stays in one place for long, resulting in an involvement in numerous, varied and often significant musical endeavors, only one of which has lasted more than an album or so. His first group, The Unicorns, only released one true LP (the spectacular Who Will Cut Our Hair When [...]
Over at In Review Online we've just posted our third 'Discographer' feature - a look into the albums of Yoni Wolf's band, Why? I only wrote one of the reviews - but the entire feature is worth looking into for a take on this unique musician's notable career: Discographer: The What of Why? Reviews - Oaklandazulasylum (by Jordan Cronk) Elephant Eyelash (by Chris Nowling) Alopecia [...]
Zoos of Berlin - Detroit quartet Zoos of Berlin may only have one full-length album under their belt - Taxis - but they have the sound of a band with much more maturity and experience. Their brand of indie rock has an almost elegant, stately feel to it - incorporating elements of jazz, soul, and classic pop - though the band is more than willing to up the tempo and volume when the occasion calls for it. The boys have a solid debut on their hands that they recorded, produced and released themselves [...]
Almost by its very nature, Muse's music inspires drastically different reactions. Even the critical opinion seems to be quite divided , and though most everyone acknowledges the same strengths and weaknesses, how much you enjoy it seems to depend on which attributes of their music you choose to focus your attention. Or maybe, at least recently, it really just boils down to whether or not you love stadium-sized rock 'n' roll that pays homage to classic 80s rock. Because that's what The Resistance is at heart - no more, no less really - a collection of overblown and [...]
Whatever your opinion of his music, you have to admire Justin Vernon, a man determined to push boundaries. When his former band, DeYarmond Edison, fell apart several years ago, Vernon removed himself from society and retreated to the woods of Wisconsin, where with some basic recording equipment, guitars, and very little else he managed to create one of the best albums of 2007 (or 2008 if you count the re-release) and the finest work of his career as Bon Iver. And people noticed – the singer/songwriter, who had before kept an extremely low profile, would suddenly find himself in the [...]
Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe have, over the course of their ten year career, been consistently adored by fans and critics alike. And they deserve it. The duo, known as Basement Jaxx, made three stellar dance/house albums in a row, and though their 2006 effort, Crazy Itch Radio , didn't quite earn them the number of accolades they had probably become accustomed to receiving, it seemed nobody gave them too hard a time about it either – but was it a sign of decline or simply a one-time slip? Listening to Scars , the fifth album from the [...]
J. Tillman - J. Tillman - perhaps best known as the drummer for last year's breakthrough folk group Fleet Foxes - is a remarkably prolific singer/songwriter who has just released his sixth album in only five years. He's been getting significantly more attention since 2008, but I imagine Year In the Kingdom will still fly under the radar of many, which really shouldn't be the case. Tillman uses a simple combination of acoustic guitar, limited percussion, and his soft, stirring voice for the majority of his tunes (though there is the occasional instrumental [...]
Four-piece rock outfit The Twilight Sad are one of the foremost bands among what appears, to me at least, to be a recent explosion of Scottish rock 'n' roll acts emerging into the indie mainstream (for lack of a better term). That's not to say Scotland ever stopped producing noteworthy musical exports, but between this year and last, we've seen many young acts such as Glasvegas, Broken Records, and We Were Promised Jetpacks follow similar formulas - including big, loud guitars and even bigger-voiced singers - to similar amounts of acclaim and attention, especially in the UK. With their [...]
Chewing gum for the ears
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
