We already heard a new Typhoon song this morning, but there's much more Music Monday! Cold Hearted Town by The Taxpayers Local DIY punk-folk-goof-etc. band the Taxpayers have a new album on the way titled Cold Hearted Town , and and here's the opening title track, in two parts: "Cold Hearted Town Pt 1" and "Cold Hearted Town Pt 2." A rollicking, seasick-drunk jaunt with ragtime overtones, the two-parter is lively, dark, and immediately gripping—"Pt 2" in particular is really outstanding. The album comes out June 15 on CD [...]
Quick, before it's too late! It's Music Monday! I'm pretty nuts over the new Night Mechanic album. Earlier I posted the terrific "Attempt to Steal" (which you will want to listen to here ) from their new album Working Late , and now here's the album opener, the just-as-terrific "Send in the Clowns." Do not get nightmares of Sondheim stuck in your head; this is a full-tilt, utterly catchy rocker with a magnificent chorus and a devious bridge. You can read more about Night Mechanic in the upcoming issue of the Mercury ; [...]
Man oh man, it's Music Monday! Local Celebrity by Lubec Starting the week off is a marvelous new song from Portland band Lubec that moved here from Virginia a couple years ago (and named themselves after a town in Maine). The song's called "Local Celebrity" and it boasts dueling male-female vocals and fuzz-drenched guitars to give it a charming shoegaze-twee feel. The song is a preview from their upcoming album The Thrall , which they're currently recording with Robert Comitz of Nucular Aminals at his Frawg Pound Studio, and it's currently [...]
Mmm, mmm, it's Music Monday! Swim by Blue Cranes Portland jazz-and-beyond ensemble Blue Cranes will release their fourth album, Swim , on June 4 via Cuneiform Records, and the record was produced by Decemberists bassist Nate Query. As tenor sax player Joe Cunningham says of the album, "It’s a lot denser than our other records. It’s got this heaviness to it, and a lot of dissonance. I think we were all sort of okay with that because of how we were feeling. It’s dark, but it’s not all dark." Here's an [...]
A rough news day. Here's some music to help a little, maybe, hopefully. Radiation City premiered another track from their upcoming album Animals in the Median on Nylon last week. "Zombies" is an outstanding track, a lush, immaculately crafted pop symphony that feels far greater than its three minutes. As it moves through a complicated series of sounds and sections, it incorporates an army's worth of voices, clicks, guitars, organs, percussion, synth blurbles, and more, but never loses the thread or gets overwhelmed. In other words, it's the kind [...]
My my my, it's more Monday musics! Here's the new track from Luck-One , from his upcoming "fralbum" (that's free album, for all you accountants) Curse of the Pharoah , which is due out this summer. Simultaneously invective, self-reflective, and musically stampeding, "Strange Fruit" was produced by Samerei, and Luck himself says it's possibly his greatest lyrical performance yet. I don't disagree. Settling Down by Charts Last night Charts released their brand new EP Vacation at last night's show at Rontoms. Its four great [...]
So much music for Music Monday! Makes Taco Tuesday look like a puddle of puke! I'm sorry, Taco Tuesday. I didn't mean it. Let's never fight again. First up is the unsurprisingly great new track from Radiation City . "Foreign Bodies" is the first single off the forthcoming Animals in the Median , due out May 21 on Tender Loving Empire, and it continues Rad City's trend of effortlessly pouring ingredients from the entire history of 20th century pop music into a shaker and serving them up in a zesty new cocktail. [...]
It's Music Monday! Here's the best in new Portland music. Gaytheist announced a new record is on the way, less than a year after their splendid Stealth Beats hit an unsuspecting metal scene last year. Described as a "power (bottom) trio?)," Gaytheist releases Hold Me... But Not So Tight on May 21 on Good to Die Records, and here's the lead track, the quick, rumbling, raging "MANhattan." (You will notice the clever wordplay with emphasis on the word MAN.) Gaytheist—one of Portland's best metal bands, and certainly its gayest—just [...]
Here are some local musics for your Monday! Attempt to Steal by Night Mechanic First up is a killer track from the amazing new Night Mechanic album, Working Late . It's the Portland band's second album although it's the first one I've heard. This band has it all: Knotty dueling guitars, heat-seeking pop chops, a singing drummer! I had a rough time picking a track from Working Late to post, as the whole album is terrific, but here's track 3, the fantastic "Attempt to Steal." The nasal vocal in [...]
It's Music Monday! Shake the cobwebs outta your ears and listen to some hot new tracks from Portland bands. Radiation City dropped this gorgeous, lush cover of "Fly Me to the Moon," the standard made famous by Frank Sinatra, although this version owes more to Astrud Gilberto's 1965 bossa nova rendition. Spearheaded by Lizzy Ellison's incredible vocal and a candlelit romanticism, the song boasts a squiggly synth solo that also evokes the space-age futurismo that surrounded the song in its original heyday. This is a beautiful track, whetting the appetite all the more [...]
It's Monday, so it's time to embed some Soundclouds into the blog! Wampire have another preview track to listen to from their upcoming full-length, Curiosity , which comes out on Polyvinyl on May 14. "Spirit Forest" is driven by warbling analog synth sounds, slapback bass, and a skating but slightly funky drumbeat. They've been accompanying Unknown Mortal Orchestra on their very successful US tour, and after they play SXSW, they'll open for UMO on April 5 at the Aladdin. • • • [...]
Brainstorm 's new single "She Moves" comes out on Tender Loving Empire tomorrow in digital form. It's the follow up to their 2012 album Heat Waves and Brainstorm says it's an antidote to winter time: "Dear Winter, If it wasn't for your dreary days we may never have holed up in a basement to record these two new songs... Call us escapists, but we need to write tunes that summon sweat and sun burns... These new tracks pine for the care-free bliss of an endless summer in the middle of the dank Pacific NW haze." The A-side's up [...]
New and newish ones from Portland bands! First up is one from the Woolen Men 's upcoming album, due on March 5 on Woodsist. We played another teaser track —the excellent "Mayonnaise"—at the beginning of the year, and this one is just as good. "Head on the Ground" is a blurry but not incoherent garage stomper, joyously jangling through its three-chord verses at top speed. • • • Second is "Lonely, Lonesome and Alone," the new track country ne'er-do-wells Denver posted on their site for Valentine's Day last [...]
It's Monday! There was a big something or other on TV about music last night, but I'm not sure what happened exactly. You can probably check Facebook and find out. In the meantime, here's a lot of new music that you actually care about. • • • Not long after announcing the details of their next album, the Thermals have a preview track to listen to. The cheerily titled "Born to Kill" is no vast departure for the Portland trio—it's a loud, brash, uber-melodic, punkish, poppish number that's both caustic and super catchy, all [...]

Every now and then, and specifically on Mondays, I require a bigger pick me up than a tall blonde from Starbucks and a few packtes of Splenda could provide. So, I get on my mac, open up my dropbox folder of EMPT goodies, and I almost ALWAYS go on the hunt for that quick pick-me-up type of sound. Normally, I find something vocally soothing that I fall in love with right away and then most of my posts revolve around love somehow. Not the case today. This morning I went on a 4:30 a.m. run, and [...]
![BILLY DANIEL BUNTER & SANXION meet $PYDA – Jump Around (Mixes) [Music Monday]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4427196_lg.jpg)
Hands down, with a clear metre ahead in the far distance; - ‘Jump Around’ by Billy Daniel Bunter , Sanxion and $pyda, gets the Aerial Noise: Single Release Of The Month Award for August 2012. Packed by four epically stunning breakbeat / garage remixes from Cotton Mouth , RadioKillaZ and UK garage production legend, Scott Garcia ; Billy Daniel Bunter & Sanxion’s ‘Jump Around’ single is accompanied in good health by these melts-in-the-mouth old skool hardcore mélanges and originally written, ultimate rhymes. Billy Daniel Bunter’s new label called Music Monday (named after his radio [...]
Para One You Happy Music Monday. Cool shit. Thanks for keepin’ my head bobbin’ Para One + Annie Mac. Love the description of his take on genre bending bass spanning the musical spectrum with influences ranging from Burial to Prince. Spot on. Para One’s album, Passion is out now via Marble/Because Music, get it HERE . Para One | Soundcloud | Facebook
Mondays are for elaborate hairpieces Jenee Halstead – Raised by Wolves Saint Motel – 1997 (via soundcloud) Rec Center – No. 2 Teenage Sweater – Oceans and Seas (via bandcamp) The Shrouded Strangers – (Don’t Look at the) Pink Lightning
Mondays are for exclusives... First, a premiere from Boston band The Lights Out. About the song by drummer and singer Jesse James: "This song is about an experience I had with a bully growing up. Every day he'd pick on me during the same walk from one class to the another, and one day I [...]
Mondays are for saying it Paris – Say it Shake the Baron – Crazy Align Night Noise Team – Blue Light (via soundcloud) Old Bricks - Anthem Little, Big - Wasted Dante Elephante – Heartbeat (via soundcloud)