Yesper 's heartfelt folk melodies and luscious finger-plucked guitar will strike a chord with fans of Justin Vernon's Bon Iver and Sam Beam's Iron & Wine. With vocals containing a soft playfulness that border on dreamy, Yesper adds in occasional plush with harmonies that complement the accompanying instrumentation. Cannibal King is the new EP by Yesper and it has a wonderful reverberating, chamber-like sound that cuts through silence. And there's good reason for this. According to Yesper, Cannibal King was "recorded with a single [...]
I received a message from Stuarto requesting I cover his show in the late afternoon hours of Friday, March 8. After a minute or two to think about it, I agreed. In all the times I've covered for his show over the past year and a half, I have never done a show that gives a nod to his show, which often features more mainstream music including a handful of tunes from the 60s and 70s. For March 8, I decided this needed to change. I pieced together quite the show for the first two [...]
Drop in whatever label you want, Wimps are awesome. The Seattle three-piece featuring guitarist Rachel Ratner (Butts, Partman Parthorse), bassist Matt Nyce (Meth Teeth) and drummer Dave Ram (The Intelligence) creates crazy punk songs with little infectious pop sensibilities thrown in a a huge ol' bonus. Their lyrics are wild and a bit neurotic. Take "Stop Having Fun" as a prime example: I got a long face / That's because I'm a horse and It's the time of the month / For you to shut up . [...]
Let's get this out right away. This is not my style of music. I tend to shun anything dubbed hip hop or rap. But with a name like Art Vandelay - insert Seinfeld bass-line here - and I couldn't help at least giving the guy a listen. And DAMN! am I glad I did! Together, wordsmith Ricky Pharoe and producer Mack Formway have put together something truly amazing with LP Eye 8 The Crow . You get a sense of their accomplishment in their split video for back-to-back highlight tracks [...]
I must admit, I was quite sad to hear that What The Heck Fest, an über indie music festival in Anacortes, WA, was coming to an end after ten years. While I had only attended a few, I caught a many great acts at the event, including The Hive Dwellers and Stephen Steinbrink. Good news: The Anacortes Unknown Music Series is gearing up to take its place. Curated in part or whole by Geneviève Castrée, there's rumor that the event is to be a quarterly series with at least two taking [...]
Brazos is fronted by Brooklyn-via-Austin artist Martin McNulty Crane, who released his debut under the Brazos name in 2009. That album is called Phosphorescent Blues , and was crafted after a 1969 poem called "The Observer" by feminist/radical Adrienne Rich. The acclaim Crane received for Phosphorescent Blues ultimately landed Brazos on the Dead Oceans roster, and later this year (May 28 to be exact) the band will release their follow up, a nine-song LP called Saltwater . "How The Ranks Was Won" is among [...]
It donned on me while listening to "Don't Blame The Times", the fifth track on We Found A Lovebird 's new six-song EP, Let's Start The War , that this band may in fact be influenced - at least in part - by early Elvis Costello. It was a thought that had not occurred to me previously, for whatever reason, so I asked member Larry Lechner, the band's vocalist/guitarist about it. What began as a simple question became a full-fledged interview over Facebook messages. We Found A Lovebird is [...]
Last year everyone seemed to rave about The Men 's third LP, Open Your Heart . Makes sense. It's a damn fine record. And, following the likes of Ty Segall, they've returned almost instantly with a follow-up. It's called New Moon , and it's absolutely beautiful. The LP opens with the light swagger of "Open The Door" before jumping into the catchy, upbeat successor "Half Angel Half Light", one of the album's many pinnacles. From there, they take it up one more notch with the high-paced "Without A [...]
The most notable element of Angel Olsen 's sophomore release, Half Way Home (2012), is her distinct voice. And on this element she capitalizes throughout the album, playing down the instrumentation to an almost inaudible level. This doesn't mean Olsen can't pick things up. "Lonely Universe" stands out on Half Way Home with actual percussion and a hint of electric guitar. In a way it can be likened to early work by Sharon Van Etten. The same can be said about "Tiniest Seed", the album's phenomenal [...]
You may not know the name Tyler T. Williams, but I do. This is the same TTW that directed the stunning, emotional video for "Montana" by Youth Lagoon, as well as that band's breathtaking night of horror for "July". It's the same Tyler Williams that has done similarly impressive videos for Pandit, Coma Cinema, Entrepreneurs and Craft Spells. Not to mention Finn Riggins. He now turns his sights on Trouble in Mind psychedelic artist Maston . The best ones, no surprise, are the ones that tell a story. [...]
Last October, we received a taste of London band Still Corners ' follow-up to their 2011 debut, Creatures of an Hour , with a new single called "Fireflies". The song was the first to be released from the band's forthcoming 2013 sophomore LP Strange Pleasures . We now have "Berlin Lovers", the second taste. In my review of "Fireflies" , I noted: Taking notes from electro-pop bands like Purity Ring, Still Corners add some heavier beats... (yet) Still Corners maintains their cinematic [...]
I spent quite a bit of time during my February 22 show chatting with Ozarks' Robbie Augspurger about various items, from music publicity to awesome cars from the 70s and 80s. Turns out he's quite the photographer as well. Beyond that, not much to say about this playlist. Another eclectic mix of tunes for a Friday night. Oh yeah, and a bit happy 29th to my fiance Andi. Tune in tomorrow, March 1st from 10pm to midnight PST for another show! On to the playlist: [...]
There's something quite nice about Austin band Dead Recipe . Their music features deep, soulful vocals split three ways. Back those with chill folk-pop that flirts with surf-pop and the result is both familiar and unique. "Flowers" and "Patterns" are great examples of this young band's prowess. "Flowers" is the perfect tune to get your head bouncing with enough unique and interesting elements to pick at the brain of the listener and entice them to seek out more by this new band. "Patterns" follows suit with harmony vocals that [...]
Kacey Johansing is back today with Grand Ghosts , her sophomore LP, blending styles of folk, pop and jazz into a mystical sound on par with My Brightest Diamond or St. Vincent. Moody and laid back, Johansing casts a dreamy haze throughout highlight song "Pinecone", sliding her vocals up and down to compliment a light, jazzy shuffle in backing instrumentation. There's a lot going on here. From an array of keyboard, synthesizer and xylophone features to Kacey's quite stunning vocal display. It continues with a haunting piano melody [...]
Anna-Lynne Williams returns as Lotte Kestner with "Wrestler", taking a slight break from her Ormonde project with Robert Gomez (though he appears throughout her new album on additional instruments). "Wrestler is a highly emotional song, one about love and loss, hopelessness and loneliness, depression and anxiety. Fronted by Anna-Lynne's quiet vocals and backed by a soft acoustic guitar, the song finds similarities to Ormonde's Machine . And the video accompanying "Wrestler" finds her draped in loneliness travelling around Washington's Puget Sound region, riding the ferry and breathing anxiously into [...]
I really dug Restraint , released last year by Orca Team . Unfortunately, as things go, Orca Team took a hiatus not long after the album was released. Now front-man Leif Anders (who has also joined The Intelligence) is back with a new project, a somewhat Seattle underground power group featuring members of Orca Team, The Intelligence, The Torn ACLs and Health Problems. That band is called Week of Wonders . The newly formed band has been busy. Already, they've posted a five-song EP on bandcamp called [...]
Along the Oregon coast protrudes a giant, monolith called Haystack Rock. Standing 235-feet tall, it is the easily the most defining item in Cannon Beach, giving the seaside town a short drive south from Astoria its fame. I know the Cannon Beach (and surrounding) area quite well from my childhood, having spent several week-long summer vacations along the northern Oregon coast in the late '80s. Cannon Beach is also the name selected by a minimalist lo-fi folk duo from Scandinavia. Simon Hjortdal (Denmark) provides vocals and writes the [...]
Aubrey Plaza is one of those actresses that has a pretty intense following. She's not what you'd call "super hot" by the standards of your typical jock movie fanatic. But she's certainly good looking, has superb style and that quirky, oft self-deprecating sense of humor that gives you chills and makes you swoon. It's like she's one of the guys... that you wouldn't mind dating. I'd assume the flip side of Plaza (for you ladies out there) would be someone like Michael Cera. Why all this talk about a known [...]
I've been dwelling on Seattle band The Soft Hills ' new LP, Chromatisms , for several weeks now. It's been a stumper; there are so many songs here that I dig, like feature track "Sweet Louise" and the mysterious "Dear Mr. Moonlight". Yet I've had a tough time finding the words. This is not the first time; this has happened before. It happened with Beach House's breathtaking LP Teen Dream , which was ultimately a top 3 album of 2009. It happened with Acid House Kings' Music [...]
Oh February is the latest by Portland multi-lingual folk band Y La Bamba; it's a six-song EP filled with harmonic female-fronted, male-backed vocals. Intricate as usual, Oh February has high influence from front-woman Luz Elena Mendoza's Latin heritage paired with she and her bandmates' indie-folk background. Opener and title track "Oh February" sets the tone for the EP, but the true standout is "Death on the Road". This song not only maintains a strong, danceable shuffle-beat, it packs in both the proper levels of emotion and catchiness. Here her [...]
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PREVIEW: Hyperbits – Karekare (Original Mix)
