While it doesn't always happen, there is something hugely satisfying about a band's commercial and artistic peak dovetailing. Biffy Clyro took the guts of ten years to reach a mainstream audience but managed it with their best work to date, 2007's fine Puzzle album. The worry now is that, having taken so long to truly find their sound, that instead of continuing on the path of greater things to come they head down the road of perdition to being remembered as a one hit wonder or under the category of 'one decent enough album'. Add the [...]
Knocking our heads for a spin with his straight-out-of-the-desert brand of stoner/doom rock, Oscape made a big impression on the Ripple office when their first EP The Growing Ground fell into our laps. Needless to say, we couldn't wait til we had a chance to chat with Oscape's main man, Scott Heller, and dig deep into his fertile mind. When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkle, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was [...]
The Telegraph lists the 100 books that "defined the noughties." The Omaha World-Herald interviews singer-songwriter Simon Joyner . Singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer talks to the Washington Times about her inventive use of Twitter as a promotional tool. "I didn't really get Twitter at first," she admits. "It's a thing that tells you what everyone is doing at all times, and that always sounded slightly Orwellian to me. [...]
The Miami New Times interviews author Jonathan Lethem. What differentiates Chronic City for you from your other novels, besides the fact that it's the first one set in Manhattan? I put a lot of effort into making each novel different, but I'm especially proud of this one. It's a special book for me. But if I had any corrective for the reviews that have come out so far, I'd say most gloss over the fact that it's a really funny book. When I read it aloud, people are [...]
ARTIST / BAND: Proud Simon MP3: "Rock Unturned" ALBUM: Anchors Aweigh FILE UNDER: Indie / Americana / Folk INFO: In Proud Simon 's 7-year voyage, they've explored everything from haunting banjo lullabies to bombastic orchestral pop. For Anchors Aweigh, the band sought the wisdom of Jamie Candiloro , producer behind the definitive sound of Ryan Adams and R.E.M. to give the record a toughness and clarity of pure Americana. He focused the [...]
Swirly, spacey, transcendent, and altogether a near-spiritual experience. Yes, I'm describing the first time I ever heard My Sleeping Karma's brand of pyschedelic stoner rock. Mesmerizing is another word that leaps to mind. Naturally, we were thrilled when the guys stopped by the Ripple office to chat, light some incense, and become one with everything Ripple. When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkle, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. [...]
Peter Squires - " Witch " (mp3) from Woe Is Me The Scruffs - " Treasure Girls " (mp3) from Conquest I Love You - " The Colloquialism Is Simply 'Gas' " (mp3) from Bell Ord Forrest on Joyful Noise Recordings Proud Simon - " Rock Unturned " (mp3) from Anchors Aweigh Sunset - " Pocketful of Debt " (mp3) from Gold Dissolves to [...]
Indie Rocks! A Benefit Album For Malaria No More is coming. As the title suggests, it's a benefit album to help Malaria No More , an organization dedicated to ending Malaria in Africa. It's a noble cause, but the obvious criticism is (of course) whether benefit albums actually work or not. At the very least, we're proud to announce the organization's existence on this site to hopefully spread awareness of the good that the group is doing. More blogs and other media are probably doing the same, so the album really does it's job simply by getting the [...]
For Terre Thaemlitz, audio is never "innocent." From Thaemlitz's earliest ambient recordings, through a series of incredible electro-acoustic projects for the Mille Plateaux label, to a current triple-life as producer of astringently political "radio shows," deep house auteur as DJ Sprinkles and K-SHE, and writer/polemicist, Thaemlitz's project has always been to unsettle any putative audience's assumptions of what constitutes knowledge and politics. Thaemlitz is also possibly dance music's finest socio-political commentator. Not to mention her continual "queering of the pitch." With DJ Sprinkles's Midtown 120 Blues somehow managing to be one of the best dance music albums of [...]
The producers of the two-night extravaganza at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's 25th Anniversary promised tons on surprises and they came through in a big way. From the moment special guest Jerry Lee Lewis kicked things off with Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On through the all-star finale of Darlene Love, John Fogerty, Tom Morello, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne, Peter Wolf and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher to end things well after midnight, night one was a full-on blowout. [...]
Defected Records' last destination release for 2010 is Singapore. We've travelled the World experiencing some of the greatest clubs and parties, hitting the Winter Music Conference in Miami, a whole season at Pacha in Ibiza, the ADE conference in Amsterdam and now its time to stretch our legs and head to the Far East. In conjunction with the infamous Zouk club in Singapore and the annual Zouk Out Festival, Defected are proud to present the official soundtrack to Zouk. [...]
It was Big Band week this week on X Factor. Always a terrible idea every year, as Big Band is a very niche genre, and people who buy swing records aren't the same people who buy pop singles. That said, Michael Bublé (or Bubble to you and me) was this week's mentor, so you've got to do what you got to do... First up on Saturday's live show was Olly Murs doing TV theme tune 'Bewitched'. It was a clever song choice with this being Hallowe'en week, and Olly performed his usual cheeky chappy routine. It'd be interesting [...]
'Never Been Gone' includes ten acoustic versions of her biggest hits, plus two brand new tracks Released October 27th on Iris Records Carly Simon performs "Let The Riverrun" on Good Morning America October 26th and "You Belong To Me" The Today Show on October 28th This new album 'Never Been Gone' revisits songs originally written throughout Carly Simon 's extensively long and productive career. The CD was recorded at home and consists of [...]
charting is fun it's really kool to check back how many great stuffz we posted in a month and it's always useful to see the stats and to find out what you loved most so without any further hype, here is the official APC TOP 10 in October the individual charts of the APC Family members are after the jump #01 The Found Sound Orchestra - Memorabilica [ link ] it wasn't really a question, MAJOR WIN by mr9 #02 Moby - Mistake (Animated [...]
Recorded on a simple 8 track recorder, the Killing Lazarus self titled mini epic thrilled the Ripple offices with its multi-faceted themes and emotions. It may have toiled in the pile of submissions for longer than I would have liked, but it ultimately struck such a chord with us that we had to pursue the masterminds behind the music. So, this week, we got the opportunity to sit with the lads of Ireland's best kept secret to find out what makes the music of Killing Lazarus so damn compelling, as well as to what they have cooking for the near [...]
First time I saw Our Broken Garden was last year at EuroSonic in Groningen in a very intimate venue. I admit that I was absolutely stunned by Anna Brønsted 's melancholic voice. Later on I learned that she is a touring member of Efterklang , but most importantly that her music inspired the same reactions in ex- Cocteau Twins member Simon Raymonde , who currently runs Bella Union (home to greats such as Fleet Foxes , Explosions In The Sky , The Dears and Midlake ) and who immediately [...]
ARTIST / BAND: Proud Simon MP3: Rock Unturned ALBUM: Anchors Aweigh FILE UNDER: Indie / Americana / Folk LABEL: Grape Juice Records INFO: Anchors Aweigh is an ode to letting-go, fragments of an American journey pieced together as the postscript to a letter. Songwriters Brian Keenan and Adrian Morgan document a year of heartbreak and goodbyes set to the backdrop of a CSNY jangle. In Proud Simon 's 7-year [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Ben's Imaginary Band : free and legal Trust EP [mp3] Ben's Imaginary Band : free and legal Nocturnal Fables album [mp3] other Ben's Imaginary Band posts at Largehearted Boy Charlotte Gainsbourg : "Heaven Can Wait (with Beck)" [mp3]* from Heaven Can Wait (out January 2010) other Charlotte Gainsbourg [...]
A Place to Bury Strangers might be the only touring band keeping the earplug industry in business. Their shoe-gazing, wall-of-sound live show is something to behold, and their albums aren't far off that mark, either. Sunday night, WOXY is proud to present A Place to Bury Strangers - fresh off the release of their latest, Exploding Head - at the Mohawk. The album was recorded by Andy Smith (Paul Simon, David Bowie) in Brooklyn at the band's own Death By Audio studios. The first single "In Your Heart" is out now and includes remixes from [...]
This is an ever changing and (hopefully) expanding list of some of the songs I have mentioned before in this blog or simply stuff I have found somewhere on the web that I find interesting, but have no time to write about. All files have been found somewhere in cyberspace (and NONE of them have uploaded by me, so I cannot help you with any requests you might have - just keep returning and something new might pop up), so they will be available until the artists, record labels, fans, whatever decide to remove them. Thanks to a few readers, [...]
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
Friday Five: Surf Songs
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
No Curve Allowed (Grading This Week's New Tracks)
