It's that time of the year again...chestnuts roasting on an open fire, time for a sleigh ride w/silver bells, in a winter wonderland while listening to a few of our favorite things. And whether or not your knee deep in snow (like some of us) or drenched in sub-tropical sunshine (like the rest of us) we here at The POP! Stereo would like to wish you a fantastic Christmas. Thank you for your continued support. We really appreciate it. While we can't give you all presents...we run a blog...not Conde Nast publishing, we can [...]
One of our favorite bands around here is easily Twiggy Frostbite. Sort of a splinter group of The Deer Tracks every once and a while something appears from them that leaves us in awe. It's completely random when they show up. In fact, we don´t know exactly when, what or even if something will happen with these guys but this is how it goes when you give an artist total freedom. No demands on format, no deadlines. no nothing... The saga of these occasional songs is something that we don´t understand the beginning [...]
9 of Scotland's finest artists have launched a brand new collaborative record as part of 2010's Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Featuring: James Graham (Twilight Sad), Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), Rod Jones (Idlewild), Jill O'Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop), Emma Pollock (The Delgados), Karine Polwart, Jenny Reeve, Alasdair Roberts and James Yorkston The Fruit Tree Foundation is a new independent project in partnership with The Mental Health Foundation, Scottish Wave of Change and Breathing Space Scotland. The project has grown from the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (1-24 October 2010) [...]
With the release of Ice Cream Bones , an EP, in May of 2009, A Lull was a band that was confident, but was somewhat still searching for its sound. After countless more hours in practice spaces, basements and bedrooms, A Lull kept at it, and after over seventy-five songs and partial song ideas, something began to take shape. In May, A Lull released Weapons For War/Spread It All Around , a vinyl and digital single from its upcoming full-length record, Confetti . Using a mixture of conventional and [...]
Cowboy Indian Bear started off like most bands; in search of a name. When members CJ Calhoun, Beau Bruns and Marty Hillard came together they couldn't decide on a band name so they traded a buddy a six pack of beer for the one they settled on. For the Lawrence, Kansas-based trio, the name was essential. With featherweight melodies, ghost-like echoes and whirring rhythms they create an ethereal celebration that is tempered with a tinge of classic rock/pop. Reflective of the free association ethos of the music, Cowboy Indian Bear stands as the [...]
Sometimes friends wind up in places that you would have never guessed. Well that's what happened to a friend of mine who now works for a rather famous indie label up in Seattle that has some affiliation with that band that sung something about Teen Spirit. Since she started there, she's been informing me of all these band that have recently put out records on Sub Pop or are planning to put something out over the next month and it's been overwhelming in the best possible way. To say they aren't busy at SP HQ would be a [...]
Portland's Spirituals is set to release their debut record with Waaga June 22nd. Spirituals is the moniker for the sample-based electronic music endeavor of drummer, producer, and graphic artist Tyler Tadlock. In his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, Tyler began experimenting with samples from local free jazz projects and sounds recorded with his laptop to form rhythm driven compositions. After relocating to Portland, OR, he began work on his first album, drawing on a wealth of samples, meticulously chopped and arranged to form electronic music which pays homage his jazz [...]
It might be a few weeks before Summer officially begins, but the folks at Lefse Records have such a prolific release schedule, they've decided to start early. Heck, between now and June they've got four records coming out and that's only a month into summer. The way we figure it, Lefse might just have as many records out by the start of Fall as the The Fall. It's a crazy schedule and we give them many props for attempting to release so much music. Here are the first four releases on the Lefse schedule... [...]
The National have returned...or I guess I should say, are returning. Their new album is called High Violet and is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the height of their collaborative powers. The music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of stark angles and atmosphere. Berninger's singing—wild, half-broken, sly—evokes a feeling of being haunted, by love, by paranoia, by something just out of reach. High Violet may be The National's most thematically twisted [...]
One more before I get back to the game...so pardon the quick post and press speak. Hailing from the Blue Ridge Valley settlement of Roanoke, located in southwestern Virginia, the Young Sinclairs is a highly accomplished and gifted conglomerate of enterprising young mavericks steeped in the traditions of tuneful entertainment. Armed with tube amps, 12 strings, and enough reverb to swath half of the continent in a pool of electronically amplified pop-art, this group of musical magicians pluck, bang, and wail their way across the highways in search of open minds and ears. [...]
From the super cool records you want to own department comes the announcement of a new High Places 12" Single. High Places began as an experiment in collaboration: two people with diverse artistic backgrounds coming together to merge their skills, aesthetic tastes, and music-making approaches. Robert Barber grew up listening to punk and hardcore, and Mary Pearson studied bassoon performance, but both gravitated toward a DIY compositional style and a love of layers. It is the affinity for layering that has thus far defined the duo, both in ideas and instrumentation. [...]
The White White Lights are a violent bunch from Austin, Texas that bash you over the head with a broken keyboard and then serenade you with twisted love songs. Off kilter and potentially off their rockers, this is a band in love with the melodic as much as they are in love with all things demented and they're only to proud to sing about it. Their layered songwriting entangles the delicate and violent in equal parts, creating vivid and potent songs that both seduce and destroy. Fans of Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pixies, Butthole Surfers, and [...]
Hailing from Carrboro, North Carolina, Schooner is a four-member band currently comprised of Reid Johnson (whose sister, Kathryn, played and recorded on all of the band's material until recently), Billy Alphin (The Ashley Stove, The Rosebuds), Maria Albani (Organos, Pleasant), and Chris Badger (Hotel Lights). Together they create an understated, disheveled pop sound that ranges from narcotic sad-eyed tunes to erratic rock numbers highlighted by boy-girl harmonies and impressionist lyrics. Schooner has released two full-length albums, You Forget About Your Heart , and Hold on Too Tight , along with [...]
Bear in Heaven have trapped echoes, tremors, winds, and fading light. They've redefined time, and folded it. They've unbuttoned sound, and realigned it. Within four walls in Brooklyn, Jon Philpot, Adam Wills, Sadek Bazaara, and Joe Stickney mined the democracy of their collaboration, plus the endless hours of stream-of-consciousness recorded documentation of rehearsals over the past years, to conceive the crystalline form of Beast Rest Forth Mouth , their second album, their exaltation. Now, with the album out, Hometapes recording artists Bear In Heaven are out on a massive North [...]
After Pattern Is Movement's 2008 album, All Together , and near-constant performing along side the likes of St. Vincent, Shudder to Think and The Roots, the Philly duo is ready to give fans a hint of what's to come with its new tour-only EP, Light of the World . The handmade EP features new Pattern Is Movement songs as well as awesome covers and other unreleased gems, and will only be available at the band's merch table on the upcoming tour. Which of course means the band is heading out on the [...]
Finnish band Kiki Pau return with 2nd album White Mountain . The follow up to the well received debut Let's Rock displays an impressive and more guitar driven Kiki Pau channelling the spirit of Mr. Marc Bolan, T REX, Velvet Underground and slacker gods of the past such as Pavement and Guided By Voices. An "Old Song," has been floating around for a little bit now and it's a good stompy tune that's crossed the Atlantic now and is destined to sweep across the country on a ray [...]
I'm a bit late on getting this post up, but Venice is Sinking is so worth it that better late then never definitely applies. Venice is Sinking has had a busy year. In March of 2009, the group released its acclaimed second LP, AZAR , which garnered good notices from NPR, Magnet, Venus, and PopMatters, not to mention Album of the Year honors from Fensepost. In September of 2009, Venice is Sinking released the Okay "maxisingle," which featured alternate recordings of [...]
Air Conditioning School is the latest project of Chris Heidman, formerly one half of indie-electro band Sukpatch, whose releases on Grand Royal, Moshi Moshi, and the mighty Sub Pop garnered much critical praise. The beauty of ACS is the fact that Chris is no longer hiding behind the veil of collaboration. What's left is Heidman being exposed to the world by himself and the fact that the guy can actually write a pretty decent song. While ACS is nothing like his former band, ACS is like listening to a long lost Yo La Tengo meets Beck [...]
If you thought the music business was running out of ideas, wake up because 1986 has just proven that there are still creative people out there and whether it's the music or marketing or both ends of the stick some people just get it. The long-awaited sophomore release from 1986 , Everybody Is Whatever I Think They Are, releases tomorrow, March 9, 2010; and they're giving it away for free! Kind of. Influenced by the seemingly infinite cases of pyramid schemes that riddled the headlines of global [...]
Saint Bartlett opens up with a grandiosity yet unheard on a Damien Jurado album. It strips away the many layers of paint from the house down the street where we know Jurado has occupied for the last decade. The new coat is exhilarating. It makes the whole neighborhood shine. It's a modest grandiosity; still homegrown. The mellotron swells, heavenly handclaps ring in stereo and big drums create a sky for the songs to fly in. And the words. Words spring forth from within the volcano of Jurado, full of hope. There's so much hope, in fact, that album [...]
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Chromatics: “Into The Black”
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Sunday Means Eight Of The Best
Whitney Houston uncovered
