Top 10 Shows of 2011 Since I grow my music library by bouncing back and forth between decades and music styles, playing catch up on the music I've missed, I don't really have a "Top 10 Albums of 20113. I could do a list of "10 Albums That Were Released in 2011 That I Have" but that would make me look stupid since I'm pretty sure Duran Duran's newest album is not one to the best 10 albums released this year. I could also do a "Top 10 Albums That I Discovered This [...]
Top 10 Releases of 2011 1. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake Polly Jean Harvey has been my favorite artist for almost 20 years (!), but I haven't felt this strongly about one of her albums in at least a decade - maybe even since 1995 and To Bring You My Love . Casting herself as an English patriot just to knock those ideals off their pedestal, Harvey uses discordant sounds, off-kilter rhythms, skewed stereotypes...and her tremendous vocal range to create a haunting, [...]
Top 10 Releases of 2011 Once again, the great releases of this year are roundly ignored by other 'best-of' music compilers. I am again mystified how some of the releases included here got such short shrift, particularly, when there was not much by way of competition. 2011, overall, was largely dominated by folkie southern-rock sounding bands, which is a direction that is easy for me to ignore except for the insanely good The Wooden Birds record, which, against all reason has shown up on no best-of lists that [...]
Burning Hearts put out one of my favorite records in 2009 and they are finally back with a brand new EP out on Shelflife Records. The 4 song EP is a little more mellow than their previous record, but the Finnish duo manage to squeeze in one rocker at the end. The track Into The Wilderness picks up with the same catchy sound that I was so fond of on their debut album and is a great taste of what to expect from their upcoming sophomore album. Download: Burning Hearts - Into The Wilderness
The Sound Of Indie will be on a short 3 week hiatus*. Instead of giving you your fix of the best in live and rare indie music, 25% of the site will be traipsing around Eastern Europe trying to "Find Ourselves". If any readers are in Vienna, Prague or Salzberg, hit us up in the comments with must see suggestions on concerts or museums. See you mid-May. * There's the off chance we may not be able to help ourselves and will have a couple of posts up in the meantime, but we're covering our [...]
In the past couple of months there has been an outbreak of schools selling, or attempting to sell, their college radio broadcast license. In the wake of budget cuts and other effects from a downturned economy, the universities which oversee these stations have realized they are sitting on potentially millions of dollars. The University of San Francisco recently sold their KUSF broadcast license and Vanderbilt University's WRVU is currently on the chopping block . It's a continuing trend which absolutely must stop. I will tell you upfront that a few of the writers for TSOI are Vanderbilt [...]
In honor of the release of PJ Harvey's latest genre-defying release, Let England Shake , I felt like it would be fun to post an obscure track that's one of my all-time favorites: " Sweeter than Anything ," off the single A Perfect Day Elise. Please, Island Records, don't be litigious jerks about this; I'm on your side. Actually, there were two versions of this CD single, with two B-sides each, released to promote 19982s Is This Desire . Harvey has done this before: the Send His Love to [...]
When talking about the UK riot grrrl scene, it was all about Huggy Bear , but for my money I always preferred Pussycat Trash . Although they never had the notoriety and fan base of Huggy Bear , their output between '92-'95 was unmatched. I think what always appealed to me was that they took their influences not only from the same garage rock bands as everyone else, but also from the C86 scene which gave them a much more unique sound than some of their other contemporaries. A note about [...]
Canada's best kept secret The Rest have a brand new record coming out in 2011 and have released this teaser track to the interwebs in advance. They seem to be ditching the Shins-esque sound for a more modern synth-laden layered approach which I'm really digging. I'll certainly be keeping and ear out for their forthcoming SEESAW next year. Download: The Rest - John Huston
TSOI pretty much only features bands that we really dig. Dan Gellar is the mastermind behind the influential Athens, GA based label kindercore and a member of two bands that we absolutely revere: I Am The World Trade Center and his current band, Ruby Isle . Ruby Isle released "Night Shot" a massive bouncy slab of machined-guitar drum machine thump-driven pop perfection. Earlier this year, Ruby Isle released "Night Shot – The Remixes" which runs their 2008 debut record through the remix machine. [...]
Although Generationals debut record and debut Los Angeles performance didn't make my Top 10 last year, I really enjoyed both. They are back with their second release, a 4 track EP being lead by this ridiculously good track, "Trust." It's a perfect mix between '60s influenced girl/boy jangle pop and '80s new wave. Keep your eyes peeled for them as they are touring the midwest and west coast the next couple of weeks opening for Two Door Cinema Club. Download: Generationals - Trust
Earlier this year I extolled the greatness of Alex Winston's track "Choice Notes" . Since then, the minions of the interweb have caught on and I now have found 3 new remixes of the track. Though none of them come even close to the excellence of the original, I thought I would put together a post compiling all the remixes I've been sent over the past month or so. Also, I see she's playing a couple of shows this week at CMJ. If you happen to catch her, I would love to hear a review. [...]
The brother and sister team of Eux Autres are back with a brand new record coming out at the end of November. They have added a bassist and drummer to the lineup but still have managed to keep the same '60s pop sound that first caught my ear. I got a hold of a copy of the record last month and it hasn't left the cd player in my car yet. The track "Queen Turner" is the standout track on the record and finds itself coming in a close second to my favorite track of theirs [...]
Despite the best laid plans to have a week's worth of posts ready to go, time got away from me so you'll have to wait a week for your indie fix. In the meantime, hopefully the archives will tide you over (have you heard this live Flin Flon track from the archive? I was listening to the show this evening and it's so great). Don't worry about me, I'll be busy hanging with Drew Brees , Brett Favre and Quintron .
Though I came late to the game when it comes to my appreciation of Vic Godard, I've had a great time tracking down a lot of his back catalog. With a musical style varying wildly from release to release, I've always found myself attracted to Vic's jazz standards-esque songs from the early 802s. In his latest endeavor, Vic teams up with author Irvine Welsh to release this EP from their 2003 musical of the same name. I am first and foremost not a "musicals" fan, but I'm really enjoying this track. Vic also has a new LP coming out October [...]
Yesterday was the legendary decision declaring California's Prop 8 ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. People here in Los Angeles are celebrating it in different ways. Some are going to parades, some are eating vegetables longer than 23. I decided to celebrate by doing the most gay thing I could think of, listen to the entire Aluminum Group discography. While going through all the their songs I had (and supplementing them with a few on the Hype Machine), I had forgotten that they were on the "Reproductions: Songs of The Human League" compilation. Check out this fantastic [...]
I have a soft spot for anything that's '60s pop or soul and sung by a female. This amazing track by Alex Winston sounds like it could have come out on any of the many Motown-influenced labels back in the day. She captures the exact flavor of '60s soul but with an updated sound. I would best describe her on this track as the female counterpart to Raphael Saadiq , definitely someone to watch. A very limited run of 250 73s for this single is being released next week, but you can pre-order [...]
Along with the brand new layout and features of our site and our brand new Twitter feed , The Sound Of Indie is bringing it to you even more high-tech with our brand new Facebook page. Feel free to "Like" us here . And who knows? Maybe your mug will end up in the fancy Facebook widget on the left-hand side of our page. But what we do know is that if you do "Like" us, you will have a badge of honor telling the world that you, in fact, have impeccable taste in music.
Here in Los Angeles it's finally hit 80+ degrees two days in a row, so I declare summer has finally started. And with the start of summer, I gotta find my summer jam. Fortunately this track from Keepaway fits the bill perfectly. This song "Yellow Wings" with it's indie meets 902s era-4AD feel is by far the stand-out of their Baby Style EP which was released earlier this year. I would describe the other tracks on the EP as if Modest Mouse traded in their guitars for synths. A bit discordant at times, but it still [...]
We are excited to announce that the "Bands Featured on TSOI" module on the sidebar is now completely populated with all the posts from the archive. You can now easily browse TSOI by band as well as by month/year!
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Karmin – “Broken Hearted” and “I Told You So” 2/11 SNL
The Best Whitney Houston Covers: A Tribute
