One of my favorite elements of shoegaze is its tendency to combine monumental, spacey guitar riffs with dreamy, oft wispy vocals. Conduits excel at this pairing on their new track "Top of the Hill". Likewise, the typical shoegaze darkness persists, all encompassing but not entirely overwhelming. There's energy here, but it's not the torment so often found in post-rock. Oddly enough, the voice is that of Jenna Morrison (Son, Ambulance), paired with the guitar meanderings of JJ Idt and Nate Mickish, the bass of [...]
"Serpents" is a complete departure from Sharon Van Etten 's early work. Admittedly, I missed her sophomore release, Epic from 2010, but was fully entranced by her debut, 20092s Because I Was In Love . Here, she shatters the quietude of the stripped-down acoustic guitar of that earliest album with a folk-rock piece that is utterly haunting. Musically, "Serpent" may fit the title of her sophomore release, but it's off her new album, Tramp , which was released yesterday via Jagjaguwar . [...]
Black Marble is Ty Kube and Chris Stewart, who produce somewhat minimalist synth music. With a synth drum beat, a synth melody, and deep, dark vocals, "Pretender" is a song that is one part Joy Division, one part Craft Spells, and one part its own thing. The song can be found on the band's new EP via Hardly Art . It's called Weight Against The Door and it's out digitally now and on vinyl Valentine's Day. Download: "Pretender" by [...]
Portland's Y La Bamba returns Februar 28 with a new record called Court The Storm on Tender Loving Empire . The band has just released "Squawk", the album's opening track, and we hear a similar South American-influenced art folk we received on their debut full-length Lupon from 2010. "Squawk" features harmony vocals, hand claps, and wild melodies. Check out the song below and keep an eye out for the new record! Download: "Squawk" by Y La Bamba
Guy Capecelatro III's last name may be hard to pronounce, but the list of people he's opened for are anything but. This list includes the venerable Elliott Smith, Bill Callahan's SMOG, and the late Vic Chesnutt. Furthermore, he's a frequent collaborator in a current favorite: Brown Bird. Excited yet? I am. "Like Anything" is the opening track of Capecelatro III's new LP, North For The Winter , out February 21. It may be brief at a minute-thirty, but within you'll get a nice percussive shuffle, a musical saw, [...]
Isidore , if you're unaware, is Jeffrey Cain (formerly of Remy Zero) and Steve Kilbey (The Church), with the former on instrumentals and the latter lending vocal expertise. The collaboration came as a surprise, after Cain passed along an instrumental album to Kilbey only to receive it back later with vocals added in. The duo is now poised to release Life Somewhere Else on Valentine's Day. On the album you can find "Song Of The City", a tune that is mesmerizing with Kilbey's deep baritone and dreamy [...]
I always get excited when something new by Eux Autres comes across my desk. The ex-Portland, now San Francisco brother-sister duo plus third member Yoshi Nakamoto (The Aislers Set, Still Flyin') will release a new EP called Sun Is Sunk via Bons Mots Records on February 28. Recorded by Jason Quever (Papercuts), expect Sun Is Sunk to push the boundaries of what you know about Eux Autres. The Larimer siblings (Heather and Nicholas) have always created highly infectious, French-influenced [...]
Mexican Summer is the type of label that when it puts out an album, you give it your full attention. Unfortunately, I've been vacant of late. This is tragic, though the good news is that Mike Wexler has brought me back into the Mexican Summer light. A dreamy psychedelic pop sound, filled with chill ambient sounds, borderline haunting with Wexler's vocal rasp. It makes songs like "Pariah" very cool. Dispossession is his new album (sophomore release but first on Mexican [...]
Brutal honesty: I'm stuck on Helvetia's 2011 album The Lam right now. In particular the first track ("Saucer of Dread") and track 3 ("On the Lam"). Helvetia has returned with a new track called "A Mirror" and it embodies precisely why I dig this band: epic soundscapes, driving shoegaze riffs, hazy melodies, downtrodden vocals. "A Mirror" will grip your soul and twist it mercilessly, and you? You will enjoy it. helvetia- a mirror by helvetiamusic
In a way, I kind of miss the days when Of Montreal gave us songs like "Disconnect the Dots" and "The Party's Crashing Us" and even "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal". Paralytic Stalks seems a different beast entirely, filled with further psychedelic pop experimentation than we're used to from Kevin Barnes and company. The more I listen to it, the more I get it. This album is not supposed to be an easy listen. "Dour Percentage" is the first single from the new [...]
Something dark and immense haunts the pop that Ben Heywood (Summer Darling) masters on his new release Skills for the Long Emergency under the name Heywood . From the depths of a post rock, shoegaze haze, Heywood will just as readily produce mind-melting noise as it will dive into an obscure, dream-like melody. The former is where we find ourselves at the early moments of "Spectacular Violence", with a wild guitar riff. But Heywood is not one to stay in once place too [...]
To me, being an indie music fan is all about being an explorer, discovering new and untapped realms of audio heaven. One of my favorite things to experience is to stumble upon something astonishing in all its brilliance. An artist I didn't know. An album that blows my mind. Or a single song that simply appears out of nowhere. I have no clue how Siskiyou 's "Always Awake" found its way onto my laptop, but boy am I glad it did. Siskiyou creates music [...]
"Television Youth" blends power pop, garage rock and fuzzy punk for a fun - playful, even - sound that reminds me a bit of the early works by The Thermals. The band is Sonic Avenues , the latest addition to Dirtnap Records. They are four Montreal natives (you can just barely hear that French Canadian accent in the vocals... just) that produce loud, raucous, exhilarating music that simply begs to be heard. Check out "Television Youth" below and find it on their sophomore LP and Dirtnap [...]
Hey, everybody! Anthony Fantano, here. You know who it is. I hope y'all are doing well. I'm here on my text thing again for a track review of a song from this new Animals As Leaders album, Weightless . These guys are a Washington, D.C. metal band who I've known about since they dropped their self-titled debut in 2009. And let's be honest here: I wasn't really a big fan. Maybe I didn't give the album enough of a chance to really sink in or something. Ultimately, I just found Animals As Leader's style to [...]
On their 2008 debut, Freedom Wind , The Explorers Club likened their pop music to classics. The harmonies were what did it; saturated in layers and filled with male-on-male falsetto, that album had Pet Sounds written all over it. Nearly four years later, the band has returned with a new EP called The Californian Suite - very Beach Boys-esque, too - and with it, those to-die-for harmonies. But on "Weight Of The World (Under Construction Mix)", they're not a prevalent. They're masked behind a deep set [...]
The great thing about Summer Fiction is that their songs are so, well, summery. Indie pop music is the sort that so often remains unchanged, boundaries un-pushed, and you get a little of that here. But rather than being a hindrance, it's comforting. "By The Sea" blends soothing male and female vocals with plenty of hooks, a soft guitar strum and catchy bass line, and a playful drum rhythm. Summer Fiction's songs reference 60s pop, and "By The Sea" is no exception. There are [...]
"We Were Wild" by Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun is a track like Arcade Fire's "Wake Up". It defies all you thought you knew about rock music, takes things in a completely different direction than expected - a direction much more anthemic and epic. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun draws from an insurmountable realm of influence. Dance, pop, rock, electronic, it's all indie at its core but it extends into an entirely different plane of existence when compared to so much of the [...]
FensePost is excited to debut "Sitting On The Edge" off Blue Skies For Black Hearts ' LP Embracing The Modern Age . The song continues the band's penchant for classic pop sounds backed by glorious pop-rock guitar hooks, loud drums and late 60s to early 70s-style pop vocals filtered through a haze of 90s indie rock. "Sitting On The Edge" features all of these, blending together elements of The Kinks, Phil Spector and Teenage Fanclub into one blissful, fun pop mess. The band is currently [...]
I thought Lost Lander 's "Cold Feet" sounded familiar. The song appeared on this year's PDX Pop Now! compilation. But there's more. Lost Lander is the new band of Matt Sheehy and Brent Knopf (Ramona Falls, Menomena). "Cold Feet" has the sound f Knopf's other band and his prior band, though a bit more restrained and calculated. Lots of vocal harmonies, precise percussion and intense instrumentation. The song is off the band's debut release, DRRT , out in January. That makes [...]
Acid House Kings are a favorite in the indie pop world. Their songs are some of the most upbeat, perfect pop you can find anywhere. To continue their excellence in everything pop, the band has teamed up with Television Personalities' front-man Dan Treacy who lends vocals on Music Sound Better With You track "Heaven Knows I Miss Him Now". Texas Bob of TV Personalities also lends his expertise on guitar. The song can be found on a new Acid House Kings single, out on vinyl and [...]
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The Needle Drop
![Niki & The Dove - The Fox [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/l2f6UbMnlq4_130.jpg)
Whitney! ♥
The Twilight Sad cover The Smiths
Chromatics: “Into The Black”
Download: The Violet Lights - "Sex and Sound"
