Thao & The Get Down Stay Down / "City" I've enjoyed watching (well, listening, really) as Thao Nguyen 's sound has progressed over a few LPs. We Brave Bee Stings and All was a stunning debut ( "Bag of Hammers" still slays me), letting Thao and her voice and lyrics lead the way overtop rockin' but folksy guitars and drums. Know Better Learn Faster found her plugging in the guitar more often and playing around with lyrics and song structures. And now, with We The Common , she [...]
Foxygen / "San Francisco" I'm beginning to take this album title, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic , quite literally. It seems like Sam France and Jonathan Rado believe that they are, indeed, those ambassadors. Drawing heavily from pop and rock styles of decades past, but with just the right amount of modern quirkiness and sensibility, this record will surely be a popular one this year. This song, "San Francisco", was what really drew me to the album completely, after listening to Take The Kids Off Broadway a little bit [...]
Song: "Waking Dream" Artist: Bleeding Rainbow Yeah Right is Bleeding Rainbow 's debut album with the new moniker (and larger group), but third as a band. Between the last album and now, guitarist/songwriter Rob Garcia quit his day job as an engineer to focus on this musical project, and it really shows. That's not to say Mystical Participation and Prism Eyes needed work (nor that Rob is the sole catalyst!); those two albums are impressively charming in their lo-fi buzz and fuzz, letting the pop [...]
Song: "Freaks & Geeks" Artist: Plaided Seeing as we just posted our favorite 2012 albums the other day, I've been going around and reading others' lists to see what they liked. I love seeing and reading about albums that completely missed my reader, finding new gems to love. Pocket Jury 's list, in particular, was almost completely full of new-to-me albums, save for Karl Hendricks ' The Adult Section (a fantastic release from this Pittsburgh band that made our "Best of the Rest" list). I went through and listened [...]
We love it when we find a great new band out there in the indie musico-verse. But you know what's even better? When that band comes right back with a stunning debut that exceeds even our already-high expectations for them. Booya! That's what Hello Caller has done here. Jim introduced us to this awesome Austin, TX band last summer, by way of fellow Austinite and DUL fave Shakey Graves . Their 4-song demo was a diamond in the rough, chock full of impressive songwriting, beautiful harmonies, and [...]
Song: "Wild Desire" + "Hole In My Head" Artist: King Tuff This is technically a "SongS Diary" because I just can't bear to write about only one side of this delicious slab of vinyl. I bought a bunch of Suicide Squeeze singles a few months back and this is the one that's been getting consistent spins at home. What's more, I can't get through the wild ride of "Wild Desire" without immediately flipping it and singing along to "Hole In My Head". King Tuff 's garage rock styles somehow [...]
Song: "Into The Night" Artist: The Raveonettes Words by Brendan This tune starts out as some electro-pop take on the theme song of a Twilight Zone -style show then morphs right into a perfect Raveonettes sound. There's fuzzy yet shimmery guitars and synths and those somewhat high-pitched vocal harmonies they do oh so better than anyone else, all pushing around some catchy and singable lyrics about, well ... heartbreak, as they say. The EP for which this tune is epnoymous just barely slipped [...]
Song: "Haunted Heart" Artist: Little Hurricane I was initially drawn to this song when I heard it on Little Hurricane 's Daytrotter session a month or so ago. It was exactly the kind of grungy blues rock I was looking for at the time, and I chuckled to myself at being able to add another item to my "bands that kinda sound like their name" list. This song's thumping percussion and riffy guitar lines fit perfectly alongside other garage rock duos like The Black Keys and Boom Chick , [...]
Song: "Hold On" Artist: Alabama Shakes Certainly, these rock 'n rollin' folks don't necessarily need any more publicity (not that this here post is gonna help much anyway ) but we're not ones to shy away from popularity when it's darn well deserved. There's no better introduction to the Alabama Shakes sound than this here tune, which also kicks off their debut album, Boys & Girls , which is physically released today (though it's been available digitally for a couple weeks, too). Rootsy bass and [...]
Song: "Somebody That I Used to Know" Artist: Gotye feat. Kimbra I want to begin with stating how much I love this song. I am guilty of playing certain songs that really hit a chord with me to death. I play and play and play, loving it just as much the last time as I did the first. With that said, I haven't played a song more times in a week's span than Gotye 's "Somebody That I Used to Know". Radiohead 's "15 Steps" is probably its only contender. The [...]
Song: "I Want To Forget" Artist: Psychic Twin Headlights have released some of the prettiest indie pop albums in Polyvinyl's entire catalog (seriously, check out Some Racing, Some Stopping ), but as of January of this year, the band has gone the way of so many other great musical entreprises: extinct. Lucky for us, vocalist/keyboardist Erin Fein and drummer Brett Sanderson have continued to write songs as Psychic Twin . The new moniker marks a subtle shift from guitar- and keyboard-led melodic [...]
Song: "Dracula" Artist: More Humans With a song entitled "Dracula", you're expecting something dark and gloomy, a little goth, perhaps. Not so with this opening cut from More Humans recent Demon Station EP. Rather than focus on the sinister aspects of a dude who sucks your blood, these three guys mimic the sharpness of teeth with their signature angular guitar melodies and explore the inner turmoil of the man-turned-beast in the lyrics. Never mind that the words are sung in awesome vocal harmonies (with stellar recording, even), there's something intense (and [...]
Song: "Dracula" Artist: More Humans With a song entitled "Dracula", you're expecting something dark and gloomy, a little goth, perhaps. Not so with this opening cut from More Humans recent Demon Station EP. Rather than focus on the sinister aspects of a dude who sucks your blood, these three guys mimic the sharpness of teeth with their signature angular guitar melodies and explore the inner turmoil of the man-turned-beast in the lyrics. Never mind that the words are sung in awesome vocal harmonies (with stellar recording, even), there's something intense (and [...]
Song: "Wish You Were Here" [Pink Floyd cover] Artist: Lia Ices Pink Floyd is pretty hallowed ground, as far as my rock history fandom is concerned, so I wasn't sure what to expect from Lia Ices . Her hauntingly pretty, mellow dreampop debut, Grown Unknown , made an impression on me last year, but I've lost touch with it. After this, though, I'll be revisiting it, for sure. This is far more than a re-singing of the lyrics, a re-playing of the melodies. Her voice lilts and impassions the words [...]
Song: Catalpa Artist: Young Brokaw I'm a sucker for songs with spelling lessons."C-A-T-A-L-P-A" shouted over eighth note guitar strums is music to my ears. Young Brokaw transport me back to mid '90s awesomeness with this careening indie pop rock gem about a certain genus of flowering plants (or an album by Jolie Holland or a shipwreck or a city. Goddamn Wikipedia disambiguation). What the song is about doesn't really matter. All that's important is that the band has me rocking along to this album opening gem. I'll shout [...]
Song: "Shake Can Well" Artist: Boom Chick I never, ever thought that the directions/warnings on an aerosol can could be converted into foot-stompin' rock 'n roll mayhem, but that is precisely what Boom Chick have accomplished with this tune. I honestly listened to this song three or four times before even scrolling down the page to learn that fact, which is a testament to this song's guitar-lick-and-drum-pumping catchiness on its own. Pay closer attention and you might be able to figure out which brand name product you'll find these words on. [...]
About a month ago we announced a super duper holiday giveaway , asking you all for a paragraph about your favorite musical moment of 2011. We received a lot of great submissions. Seriously, we are stunned and humbled by what you've shared with us, dear readers. We wish we could print all of the stories we heard, but that would defeat the point and get out of hand, really. Here, we're sharing our favorite four. They touched us. They made an impression. They felt like a stories we'd want to tell our friends, if we had experienced them. They [...]
Song: "In The Pines" Artist: Widowspeak There's happiness to be found in quiet introspection, even the kind bordering on sadness. This song validates that observation, for me. Picture yourself in a snowy cabin, maybe on a skiing trip with some friends. Your legs are sore from a full day of shooshing and telemarking, and you're stretched out on your side on a leather sofa, staring out the window as the darkness settles in. The backyard has a view of the mountain in the distance, a white peak peering over the tops of the tall evergreens [...]
Song: "Delicate Creatures" Artist: Tim Cohen I'm really tempted to describe the haunting beauty of this tune by just copy/pasting the lyrics here, but even that won't do it justice. Tim Cohen fronts the San Francisco psych-pop outfit The Fresh & Onlys , but in this solo track he strips away all of the trappings and bares his musical soul. There's nothing but a strummed acoustic, a softly-shaken percussive shaker, his lilting voice, and a faint, ghostly warble in the background, but that's all this song needs. It's a strange little creature [...]
Song: "Waves" Artist: The Spires Is there a poem about poetry? Is there a novel about fiction? Is there a film about films? Maybe, but really, I have no fucking clue, and you and I and everyone we know can spend our entire lives, and then some, debating these very questions (which may or may not have any meaningful content, themselves). That's beside the point, though. I want to say that The Spires ' tune, "Waves", is a song about sound, but who am I to say? And who are you? And who are [...]
Draw Us Lines
Ciara – Goodies (BORGEOUS Remix)
José González – Crosses (Dinner Date Remix)
Kanye West Performs “New Slaves” And “Black Skinhead” On Saturday Night Live
