Blog: Indie Music Finds

With the release of Arctic Monkey's fourth album 'Suck It and See', tickets will go on sale tomorrow for a  UK tour . 'Suck It and See' shows Arctic Monkeys reverting somewhat to the sound of their debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' with a more upbeat, stripped back feel. However, I still feel it lacks the everyman-relatable storieswe listened to in tracks like 'From The Ritz To The Rubble' or 'Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured' that made that album such a success. 28 October – Capital FM Arena, Nottingham 29 October [...]

Seu browser não suporta iframes. Directed by Philippe Grenade, 'I Was A Bomb' is the debut music video of the band Silent Rider, a downtempo, bass heavy group. The black and white narrative, shot on the RED in New York's Appalachia, follows a man and woman as they trek the landscape in search of some enigmatic form of nourishment. After what seems like a dreary and fruitless journey, they stumble upon what they've been tracking, culminating in a haunting sequence of events.

Broken Cities are precisely what this blog is about. They released their debut album 'Flux' under a Creative Commons licence last year and haven't looked back. To anyone who's not familiar with Creative Commons licences, it basically means that the band actively want you to download, copy, remix and share their music. It's the way to go for any small unsigned acts that just want to get their music out there. Flux is a 7 track album and is instrumental in its entirety. I'd be lying if I said [...]

With 6 albums in their back catalogue, Death Cab For Cutie have taken a bold new step with their seventh entitled 'Codes and Keys'. The album was recorded at 8 different studios in two week bursts and heavily features vintage keyboards. Digital modification in aspects such as beats and guitar effects seem to play a larger role than in their earlier more organic sounding albums.  Codes and Keys is definitely different, and I wouldn't even say necessarily for the better but it's certainly refreshing. Frontman Benjamin Gibbard has admitted being somewhat [...]

Delooze are destined for something big. Their latest singles 'Too Heavy To Stand Up' and 'We Are Transient' feature a blend of electro and hard rock with almost gothic elements to it. This mainly comes through due to the choice of classical instrumentation and dramatic feel and it's like nothing else around at the moment. We Are Transient isn't officially released for another 2 months so only the first 57 seconds can be heard on bandcamp at the moment (pretty uncool). However, I've embedded an earlier [...]

Seu browser não suporta iframes. This video of Weezer's recent cover of Radiohead's 1997 classic 'Paranoid Android' is something I expect will attract a large number of comments from both sides of the Atlantic. When I first saw the video description I was hesitant to open Pandora's box but during the first 20 seconds I was actually pleasantly surprised. However, Rivers Cuomo's vocals just don't fit this song at all. Some could argue his voice is just different to that of Thom Yorke but you really have to think carefully before you attempt to cover [...]

Delooze are destined for something big. Their latest singles 'Too Heavy To Stand Up' and 'We Are Transient' feature a blend of electro and hard rock with almost gothic elements to it. This mainly comes through due to the choice of classical instrumentation and dramatic feel and it's like nothing else around at the moment. We Are Transient isn't officially released for another 2 months so only the first 57 seconds can be heard on bandcamp at the moment (pretty uncool). However, I've embedded an earlier [...]

Seu browser não suporta iframes. The Civilization EP will be the most significant release since Justice's 'Cross' back in 2007. Scheduled for release on June 6th, it is currently unclear what other tracks the Civilization EP will contain but it is known it features a remix from Mr. Oizo. There's also word of a currently untitled second album set for release in autumn. Exciting times. If shattered monuments raining down on wildebeest in a post apocalyptic, gravity reversed setting is something you're into, then you'll love this immense work of CGI mastery.

With the release of Friendly Fires' second album Pala last week, the trio have certainly got a lot on their plate over the next couple of months. There's word of a music video in the pipeline that's currently being edited and the band are currently touring  North America with a  UK tour lined up for November. The first single from the album ' Live Those Days Tonight ' will have a universal appeal and is just downright danceable, even more so than their earlier material. Pala brings [...]

With The Horrors set to release their third album 'Skying' on July the 11th (26th in US), the first single from the album entitled 'Still Life' has been made available to stream. The self-produced album that was first hinted at over a year ago was recorded in the bands very own London studio. To me, this latest single lacks the drive and edginess we saw in their earlier stuff from the 'Strange House' and 'Primary Colours' era. It's still a decent sound though and I'm pretty hyped about 'Skying' [...]

Tre Burt and a Big Gust of Wind is to put it simply really quite amazing. It's essentially a one man and a guitar act (bar a couple of tracks with banjo) as shown in the somewhat humourous artist name but this certainly doesn't stop him from creating some of the most engaging music I've heard in quite a while now. [...]

Ahead of the release of Bon Iver's second album, a track from it entitled Calgary has been made available for free download in glorious 320kbps from his  website . It's been a three year wait interspersed by the Blood Bank EP in 2009 but Bon Iver's new self titled album is set for release on the 21st of June 2011. Bon Iver, Bon Iver's progress has been tied into the construction of a new recording studio created in his hometown of Wisconsin and this album features some unusual track names [...]

Seeing as I'm living in the Netherlands at the moment, why not feature a Dutch band? The Black Atlantic are a four piece band originally from Groningen fronted by Geert van der Velde. Reverence For Fallen Trees was their debut album released as a free download back in the late summer of 2009. The album was recorded in a cabin in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and then finally put together back in the Netherlands in Zwolle. Reverence for Fallen Trees feels like autumn music, stripped back [...]

'Other People's Toys' is a 5 track EP released two months after Special Benny's debut album Toys . It features some unique remixes of tracks taken from this album by the likes of 'Specialist' and Johnny Beverton. The reason I think this EP is worthy of a feature is because these artists have done what any good remixers should, they've made the song their own. You can really hear their own unique musical stylings in each of these tracks from  Hong Kong In The 602s stripped out (almost MIDIish), yet [...]

Tall Ships are a band that had previously gone under the math-rock radar for me but with the band getting ready to release a new single during a hectic UK tour, they definitely deserve a bit of acknowledgement. Hit The Floor is a frantic and whirring 3 minute forward driven blitz and comes along with B-side Safe As Houses. A lot of the imagery surrounding this band consists of archive clips and washed out pictures of mountain ranges and this comes through in [...]

A band I've been meaning to feature on this blog for well over a year now, Hong Kong In The 60s finally released their debut album 'My Fantoms' digitally on the 2nd of May and will also release it physically on June 6th. Influenced by early electronic pop, 1960s Chinese music and European film soundtracks, the 12 tracks include bittersweet pop songs, dreamlike instrumentals and even excerpts from a mouse opera for children. [...]

Warpaint, a four piece girl band of LA released their debut album Fool towards the end of October last year. Fools to me had a real overcast feel to it and despite their relatively stripped down sound, they maintain a driving rhythm in a similar fashion to The xx, with a real emphasis on bass and drums. Vocally, three of the four member contribute and with this they produce some captivating layers and harmonies in their songs. Late last year, Warpaint took part in the AllSaints Basement Sessions . They played a version of their song ' Billie Holiday [...]

get-ctrl is in my opinion, the hottest, free tool for unsigned bands at the moment. A one stop shop where an artist can build a professional-looking, official website using a simple content editor complete with media players, galleries, news feeds and a gig calender. A bit like MySpace you're probably thinking but get-ctrl have really gone the extra mile with this service without feeling the need to ruin your bands all important public image by cluttering your page with cumbersome adverts. This music platform is also offering you the ability to simply make [...]

get-ctrl is in my opinion, the hottest, free tool for unsigned bands at the moment. A one stop shop where an artist can build a professional-looking, official website using a simple content editor complete with media players, galleries, news feeds and a gig calender. A bit like MySpace you're probably thinking but get-ctrl have really gone the extra mile with this service without feeling the need to ruin your bands all important public image by cluttering your page with cumbersome adverts. This music platform is also offering you the ability to simply make [...]

With spring just around the corner (optimistic?!) everyone will be starting to enjoy the lighter evenings and warmer days. So to match everybody's brighter moods how about some great new music to have a little listen to? We've got web editor Callie Morris from ticketing website Aloud.com to recommend her top 5 live acts you should all go and see this year... Fixers This five piece from Oxford seems to have the 'psychadelic indie' genre pinned. Having only got together for a one off show last year they [...]