Another installment in our weekly Independent Music Discoveries series - share your favourite independent musicians in the comments. Thanks to readers Andrea, John P., and fellow blogger/musician Marcel for this week's suggestions! Black Nite Crash - Alternative / Shoegaze - Washington, USA Spotting Spacemen 3, the Church, and Screen Vinyl image in Black Nite Crash's top friends on MySpace Music provided a bit of an indicator of the music to come. Black Nite Crash's (named after [...]
Shining the spot-light on three albums and two EPs from 2009 that everyone should be listening to and talking about: William Basinski - 92982 Known best for his awe-inspiring The Disintegration Loops (2002, and followed by parts II, III, and IV in 2003), William Basinski is a classically-trained American composer who deals in loops and experimentation. 92982 (see Cokemachineglow's excellent review ), brought out from [...]
I must admit... Wilco , up to this point, had been a band I simply wasn't able to get into. Yes, I'd heard Being There and Summerteeth . Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , too, and bits and bobs from their other albums. Some element of this music just wouldn't sink in, much in the way that prog and post-rock have proven confounding. Luckily, I decided to give this band another chance to resonate with me: that's where Wilco (The Album) , to be released [...]
Susumu Yokota ( 横田進 ) is a Japanese electronic artist with 30+ releases behind him yet; his first full-length album Acid Mt. Fuji was released in 1994, and most recently Mother in 2009. Enjoyed by the likes of Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, Bjork, and Philip Glass, Yokota's music has gone from shifting with the times (early albums being ambient-techno akin to the work of Aphex Twin, shifting towards house music) to becoming utterly transcendental, reaching new heights with Sakura in 1999 and the equally epic [...]
The 2000s have seen a host of wonderful re-issues; the Japan discography ,Tom Verlaine's Dreamtime , Danielle Dax's Dark Adapted Eye , the Wipers Box Set , for instance. Even still, there are many more critically important albums and hidden gems that could certainly stand to be re-released. Many of these I hadn't realized were out-of-print until I began poking around Amazon/Amazon UK for the purpose of this list, though you may be in luck with some individual sellers there, on eBay, and particularly through GEMM . [...]
Another round of fantastic independent artists- recommend your favs in the comments, and check out previous posts in the Independent Music Discoveries series here ! Chris Rehm - Folk / Pop / Electronica - Texas, USA Chris Rehm (of Caddywhompus ) has just put out a solo album, awash in rain and ambient textures, it is a peaceful, stunning work, and very different from the recently released Caddywhompus EPs . Listen to "Part [...]
Rainwater Cassette Exchange (to be released digitally 5/18 and on CD and vinyl 6/8- but not on cassette!) is the latest offering from Deerhunter . Immediately apparent from title track and promo mp3 "Rainwater Cassette Exchange" is some inspiration drawn from contemporaries Animal Collective (front-man Bradford Cox, incidentally, spoke of this in a Pitchfork interview ), sounding a bit trippy and oceanic, as well as like a poppier version of their last album, Microcastle / Weird Era Cont . Next up, "Disappearing Ink", my favourite from the EP, and "Famous [...]
The mix-tapes that my mom made, especially for the purpose of traveling in the car, are an important part of my youth- these are some of the songs that stand out the most in my memory and many of which have remained strong favourites through the years and shaped my own taste in music. I've included the track listings for some of these tapes below (all were made 80's-90's), and I've embedded an Imeem playlist including some tracks from each tape side at the bottom of the post- enjoy! Be sure to share your personal fav mix track-listings or childhood [...]
(Photo Credit: Andrew Catlin) Today, Ian McCulloch (front-man for Echo & the Bunnymen ) turns 50. After the brief existence of the Crucial Three in 1977, with Julian Cope (who would go on to form the Teardrop Explodes) and Pete Wylie (Wah!), McCulloch formed Echo & the Bunnymen in 1978 with Will Sergeant (guitar), Les Pattinson (bass), and, originally, a drum machine. Drummer Pete de Frietas joined on drums in 1979, the same year they released their debut single, "The Pictures on My Wall". Proving an important addition to both the [...]
Electro party-starters Heads We Dance , set to release their debut album Love Technology on 6/1, collaborated with neo-disco-pop sensation Little Boots on the B-side to their single "When the Sirens Sound" (due 5/18), and have made it available for free download; get it now! Download "Work It Out" - Heads We Dance Ft. Little Boots Pre-order Heads We Dance - Love Technology at This Is Fake DIY Records
It's impossible to listen to or discuss the new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal For Plague Lovers (set for release on 5/18), without placing it in the context of the band's history: their confrontational, politically-charged style of music, after a couple of EPs and 1992 debut album Generation Terrorists , offered a stark contrast to the early-90's British shoegaze scene. Though threatened to be smothered by the exploding Britpop movement, a cult following sustained them. Member Richey James (songwriter and guitarist) contributed heavily to the lyrics and mood of 1994 album The Holy Bible , [...]
Another fabulous installment in the ongoing series - recommend your favourite indie artists in the comments! Ladybear - Rock / Alternative / Indie - Twickenham / London, UK Ladybear are an up-and-coming three-piece British group comprised of Amy Nicholls, Louis Matthews, and John Martin, whose latest demo was produced by Amy's brother Morgan Nicholls (known for performing with the Streets, Gorillaz, and Muse). Described as "No nonsense big vox rock", "Crocuses" and "The Garden" are sweet and powerful vocal-centric tunes- [...]
Psychedelic/experimental group Xu Xu Fang (including Bobby Tamkin of the Warlocks and Hovercraft, and Barbara Cohen who sang with Air) are to host a record release show for their new release Seven Days Now at The Echo in Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA at 10 pm tonight . Available for free download are two trippy album tracks: "Your Way" , a breezy, trip-hop reminescent tune recently heard on Gossip Girl, and their darkly beautiful cover of the Cure's "Fascination Street" . Xu Xu Fang - These [...]
Family Records , described as "an independent artist development and management firm with full record label capabilities" (see also previous article on associated artist Dinosaur Feathers ), has a batch of talented artists with recent releases and streamable material- check them out!: WAKEY!WAKEY! is the music of vocalist/songwriter/pianist Mike Grubbs, who has a particularly moving, cinematic touch in his stylings. Members of the Arcade Fire, Beirut, and Anthony and the Johnsons also contributed to The War Sweater EP , which gets released tomorrow- [...]
Today, the stream of Sonic Youth's The Eternal went live for those participating in Buy Early Get Now , with the actual physical release date set for June 9th. Bearing in mind that I'm one of those odd sorts that favors Bad Moon Rising and EVOL over Daydream Nation and what came after, these are my impressions on the new album: "Sacred Trickster", the album's single, is a standard-fare Sonic Youth track (not a bad thing, mind you), with all the elements you might expect: a sort of [...]
Caddywhompus are a new group putting out material that rivals the efforts of the likes of Animal Collective and No Age, in terms of neo-psychedelia and noise-rock power, respectively. A two-member experimental noise-rock group based in New Orleans and Houston, comprised of Chris Rehm (vocals / guitar / keyboard ) and Sean Hart (percussion / vocals), Caddywhompus' first EP was reviewed favorably here in February . Now they have a full-length available, EPs , which combines the EP material with their previous split cassette [...]
Dead Leaf Echo , an experimental, shoegaze-reminiscent New York group, have recently put out an EP entitled Truth , mixed by John Fryer (notable for working with Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, Lush, and Nine Inch Nails). The dreamy, beautiful track "Act of Truth" from the EP has recently been made available for free download; grab it-! free mp3 | free m4a Dead Leaf Echo on MySpace Music | Dead Leaf Echo Blog
This is the 5th installment of the Independent Music Discoveries series- see also Issue #1 , #2 , #3 , and #4 . Recommend your favourite independent musicians in the comments! Hugo Frusslinky - Indie Rock - Isle of Wight, UK Featured in the NME as well as the fantastic music blog How Marvellous , Hugo Frusslinky is a fantastic new British group. With all the frantic rock energy and fierce bite they've managed to pack [...]
Only about a month after their last single " Sea Within a Sea ", the Horrors have a new video out for their latest single from Primary Colours (to be released May 5th; very favorably reviewed here at A Future in Noise ): "Who Can Say", fuzzed-out and shoegaze-esque, with the lads all looking quite suave! Watch the official music video of the single from XL Recordings below:
Orioles is the new side project from Panda steps in chocolate . Drawing inspiration from acapella, ambient, and shoegaze sources, with the addition of natural sounds (rain in "psalms" and birds in "jeremiah") and tribal elements ("Native", my favourite) and an extravaganza of reverb and sonic effects, Let Me Be Your Partner is in an echoic, drifting world of its own. A follow-up is in the works. Best appreciated as a whole, Let Me Be Your Partner is being offered for free download- grab [...]
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