New Zealand's Glass Vaults absolutely floored us in 2010 and a year later in 2011 with a pair of excellent freely released EPs, Glass and Into Clear , respectively. They've been quiet for a couple of years but recently came back with a complete stunner of a track called "Ancient Gates" that takes their brand of ebullient art rock to epic new levels. You don't want to miss this one: As much as the true definition might suggest, I'm not sold on the [...]
Here's a newly released single from AZ/LA duo Calvin Markus and Travis Bunn a.k.a. Dead Times . "Centuries" is head-spinning future-r&b of the most original sort, grown organically from earthy percussion as much as sped up vocal samples, and with their first single "Feel" this officially makes Dead Times two-for-two: Dead Times - Centuries Ridiculous.
If you aren't too busy listening to the freshly streaming/leaked new Daft Punk album , this is fully deserving of your attention: Listen to the whole unstoppable EP from Freeze-Tag here , and grab it on bandcamp in pay-what-you-want fashion »
I guess I would be abiding some sort of subconcious stereotype if I said, "Well, I did not know that music from the Grand Cayman sounded like this!" It's an accurate statement all around, since singer/songwriter Natasha Kozaily has a unique style that fits somewhere between trips down the rabbit hole with Alice and guest appearances with Mickey on Fantasia. Whimsical and driving, but with rich layers and powerful voice to push it home.
As if the Gainesville scene, championing the likes of Hundred Waters, Levek, and Conveyor, needed another love child, but we're not complaining. Morningbell actually could be the parental figures in this analogy, now on their sixth album with the upcoming Boa Noite , an eclectic indie rock record that stretches from Broken Social Scene to the Small Faces. "Yes Wonderful Things" is the album's vibrant opening track, brimming with chipper orchestral bits and enough freneticism to churn our unusually cold spring into the summer we deserve: After listening to this track repeatedly, [...]
I have no idea where these guys came from (Asheville, NC) or why no one has been written anything about them before (shame on y'all), but my ears and eager appetite for promising new music could care less about any of that. All that matters is Kovacs and the Polar Bear made their way into my headphones last week and left a lasting impression. Their track "Dandelion" is a true gem, with enough melody to cleanse your palette like a mouthful of ginger before shoving in a succulent slice of sonic sashimi. That's an analogy for [...]
Keeping with today's theme of molasses-slow, euphoric, female-fronted dream pop, here's Brooklyn-via-London duo Belle Mare with the lovely, haunting "The Boat Of The Fragile Mind" » The Boat Of The Fragile Mind by Belle Mare I tend to prefer schizophrenic, multi-layered compositions these days: the sort of music informed by the frenetic, overblown dissemination of information and culture that's defined much of our globalized, connected world over the last twenty years. Perhaps that makes minimal gems like "The Boat Of The Fragile Mind" all the more compelling. It's strangely [...]
Here's a first listen from former Floridian (now Bostonian) Emily Reo 's upcoming summer album. "Happy Birthday" is from that Elestial Sound compilation that everyone's been talking about . Love me some swooning, waltzy dream pop: happy birthday by Emily Reo
There's some terrific stuff brewing in the center of the continental United States, something I found out first hand when attending Middle of the Map Fest . Kansas City has a crazy close-knit music scene and to say it's thriving might be an understatement. The problem (or maybe this is beauty of it more than anything else) is that not many people outside of KC seem to know what they're brewing. Soft Reeds were a group I came across during my brief visit, impressed with their choleric rhythmic rock that this group makes. They've [...]
Because this is an excellent cover, even if the lyrics are wrong (which they mostly seem to be). If you're living under a rock and haven't heard the original:
Ever since dropping that ridiculous video+track combo in "All Ways" (featuring a greenscreen dude walking around a cityscape), Austin's Corduroi has been high on my radar. If there weren't an already abundant list of reasons why, here's another... "Mainomai" is one of the most high-intensity, ADD-addled electronic tracks I've heard in a while: "Mainomai" is from a brand new EP, Jangala , out now digitally and on limited cassette .
Our friends at Father/Daughter are releasing the debut LP, Occasion , of IGIF-favorite Saskatchewan very very soon. We were already treated to "calming vibe fit for Steve Zissou underwater exploration" of "Possession" - now here's second single "Youth Ministry" » These guys have worn a lot of genre hats, from shoegaze to beach pop, and now it seems like they've found their stride in the sort of well produced, tried-and-true new-wavy tunes found on Ocassion . You sort of know what you're going to get [...]
Been jamming to this track from Thundercat all morning long. It's a new jam from his forthcoming LP Apocalypse that was produced by Flying Lotus , which means if the other tracks are this funky and tightly produced then his sophomore release could live up to its album title on unsuspecting ears.
Poliça released one of my favorite albums of the past few years, Give You The Ghost , that was so haunting and had such replay value. The same exact thing could be said about Bon Iver's self-titled sophomore release too, so of course it's fitting that Justin Vernon himself is joining Poliça for new single "Tiff". I didn't/am not going to Coachella this year so I missed out on their live collaboration Friday but will happily take this recorded gem as a FOMO consolation. Love this jam and cannot wait for their new LP [...]
While we wait for a proper debut from LA's indie pop trio Superhumanoids , at least we're still being given the pleasure of songs like last year's pop-single-of-the-year contender "Geri" , and "So Strange", which does its best to be "Geri II" » "So Strange" is from Superhumanoids' upcoming debut LP Exhibitionists , out 6/11 via Innovative Leisure .
Two reasons to get pumped: finding a spanish language track as addicting as Violeta Vil 's "Aguamarina", and finding out where to buy that ridiculous limited edition vinyl pictured above. The first is easy (thanks to GIMME TINNITUS ): The second, that vinyl and where to find it, is proving pretty difficult. The record is Violeta Vil's debut LP, Lápidas y Cocoteros , put out by the Austin-based Young Cubs Records . And besides a large collection of glamour shots , it's nowhere to [...]
When a band plops into my inbox claiming to serve "cosmic cheese platters and squelching synth hors d’oeurves", how can I not listen. I'm not saying I live and die by this here proverb , but it's also an easy way to get into my ears. In all honesty, this food analogy should've stopped before it started but this Australian outfit happens to also go by the name of Yolke . After you're done rolling your eyes (at me), open your ears for their lead single "Tough Times". It's got driving bass, transient synth tinkerings, reticent [...]
Well this was unexpected. Yesterday Fader premiered a new track from Chris Laughner, a.k.a. Wise Blood , with a short interview about his night as a party service driver. "I drove these girls around to parties that had hired them. They would basically flirt/strip with these gross dudes. They listened to “White Houses” like fucking 20 times throughout the night all while railing lines in the van on the way to the next spot." Sounds about right. Somehow Vanessa Cartlon (you know, of "A Thousand Miles" fame) saw [...]
It was September 2010 when I first stumbled into Young Hunting 's world through their faded dream-pop track "Into Yr Mind" . A few demos later and as many years later, the LA band is set to release their debut LP, Hazel , through our friends at Gold Robot . Here's an excellent new track, "Baby's First Steps" » Young Hunting - Baby's First Steps There's sort of a cold English psychedelia feel to [...]
It's not the best song from James Blakes' upcoming Overgrown LP, and it certainly won't shed any notions of Blake being the brooding, dubstep equivalent of the Twilight series (tell me he's not one clove cigarette away from turning into a warewolf in this vid)... but the title track "Overgrown" finally has a video, and it's every bit the stylized, brilliantly shot quasi-epic you might have expected: Overgrown is out now. Vinyl here »
i guess i'm floating
Joe Goddard feat. Mara Carlyle - 'She Burns' [Listen]
Wolf Alice | Bros (Official Video)
Highmountain – “I Will & Above You”
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
