Yesterday, we dropped the first volume of a two-part playlist mix highlighting our favorite new releases of the week. In that post, we debated whether R.E.M. are a mainstream rock band, or an alternative rock band. We unveiled a new track from the band’s latest album – Collapse Into Now – which critics and fans alike are calling R.E.M.’s return to their roots, a resurrection of the “original sound” that made them popular on college campuses before breaking into mainstream radio with the 1987 hit single, “The One I Love.”
The first volume of this week’s Best New Releases also includes lead singles from new recommended releases by Beach Fossils, Dinosaur Bones, Alexi Murdoch, Parts & Labor, Wye Oak, The Megaphonic Thrift.
Wolf People’s New Single Blazes a Line in the Sand
If anyone thought that solid psychedelic/blues rock was a thing of the past, the new lead single from Wolf People, “Silbury Sand,” proves otherwise. The London band that spans many genres from blues and folk to psychedelia and progressive rock, conjure up memories of 1960’s bands like Traffic, Blind Faith and The Yardbirds on “Silbury Sand,” complete with kick-ass guitar riffs, punchy percussion and the Stevie Winwood-style vocals of front man Wesley Eisold. We’re also including a track from their 2010 LP, Steeple; the track is definitely recommended for Jethro Tull fans.
“Silbury Sand” – Wolf People from Silbury Sand B/W Dry
“Tiny People” – Wolf People from Steeple
Kurt Vile Drops New Album, Smoke Ring for My Halo
Kurt Vile has been one of our favorite singer/songwriter’s of recent years. His 2010 EP, Square Shells, received a good amount of blogger buzz, and so is his follow up album, Smoke Ring for My Halo. There is a decidedly more upbeat feel to this album, with bright acoustic guitar-playing and clever use of reverb on vocal tracks, as demonstrated on these two tracks.
“Jesus Fever” – Kurt Vile from Smoke Ring for My Halo
“In My Time” – Kurt Vile from Smoke Ring for My Halo
Starf*cker’s New LP, Reptilians; Plus, Name-Calling
It’s interesting how different blog’s treat band names with swear words in them. Here’s an example of how two of our favorite blogs deal with one band’s name. The blog for Large Hearted Boy publishes this band’s name as ‘Starf**ker,’ while the blog for the popular Seattle indie radio station KEXP, uses a radically different treatment, opting for ‘STRFKR,’ which is not easily deciphered without some frame of reference. We use just ‘Starf*cker‘.
Some of you may wonder why there is avoidance of just spelling out the whole name. The answer varies, and even has multiple reasons, but the main one, at least for us, is not to get into trouble with Google. KEXP, because it has a radio license, is probably keeping the FCC in mind more than the web audience in how it handles such cases. LHB, on the other hand, is being extra careful with the use of two ‘stars’ in place of the ‘offending’ word, but at least it’s making the name understandable. It’s all kind of stupid in the final analysis; we all know what it should say. It’s also the title to a popular Rolling Stones‘ song. Anyways, here is the newest single from Starf*cker’s new album, Reptilians, which can be streamed in full via Spinner.
“Death As A Fetish” – Starfu*ker from Reptilians
One Is Not The Loneliest Number
Sebastian Zimmer is the one-man band behind the music of One in a Googolplex. While that is also the name of Google’s headquarters in Mt. View, California, but spelled “Googleplex,” the term “googolplex,” as defined by the late Carl Sagan, is “precisely as far from infinity as is the number one.” That said, Zimmer sent us his latest single, “Lilly,” out this week. At first we weren’t sure if we liked it, but the more we listened to it, the more it grew on us. As part of a double-shot, check out the dynamic track, “Monolith,” from Zimmer’s October 2010 release, The Dropout Cats.
“Lilly” – One In A Googolplex from Lilly/My Sister’s Poem
Double-shot: “Monolith” – One In A Googolplex from The Dropout Cats
Plenty of Notable Songs from Relatively Unknown Bands
This week, there are also many terrific new singles from artists and bands that are virtually unknown to most music lovers, including a good number of bands that we’d admittedly never heard of until this week. , but who will definitely be on our radar.
The jangly indie pop track, “Bells Ring,” from the band Empress Hotel‘s self-titled debut EP, is another surprise song that sounds so much like another band that we can’t quite put our finger on. Do you know who we might be thinking of? If so, please tell us in the comments. The band will be performing a number of shows at next week’s SXSW fest. Next, the single “Jericho” from the band Jamaica sounds nothing like reggae, but instead has the makings of a summertime hit with its catchy rhythm and 1970’s style pop radio appeal. Plus, long-time indie rockers Buffalo Tom return with a new album, Skins, and the lead track, “Arise, Watch.”
“Bells Ring” – Empress Hotel from Empress Hotel EP
“Jericho” – Jamaica from No Problem
“Arise, Watch” – Buffalo Tom from Skins
G00d-to-Hear Singles from Artists We’ve Never Heard Of…Until Now
It’s probably becoming evident at this point just why we split up this week’s Best New Releases into two parts. While many of you are probably familiar with our long posts – more is better, right? – we are making efforts to keep them shorter without shorting you on music we think you should hear. It’s a difficult task because the truth of the matter is that there is so much terrific music that we’re hearing on a weekly basis that we feel like we have to share as much of it as possible. Believe it or not, there are plenty of songs that we don’t post.
So, we’ll skip writing anything about these additional songs in the interest of simply letting the music speak for itself. Each of these bands are completely new to us. Don’t hesitate to let the world know what you think of any of the songs in this mix by leaving a Comment below.
“Already In Love” – Exene Cervenka from The Excitement of Maybe
“Geisha Means Open Minded” – Carol Bui from Red Sea
“I Led Three Lives”– Grails from Deep Politics
“The Kite” – The Sound Of Growing Up from Drifting EP
“The Wake” – The Albertans from New Age
“Dog Years” – Luke Rathborne from Dog Years EP
“So High” – Ringo Deathstarr from Colour Trip
“Worldwide” – Ancient Astronauts from Into Bass and Time
Don’t miss R.E.M., Beach Fossils, Wye Oak, and many others in part one of this week’s Best New Releases. You might also want to browse through all the playlist mixes for the Best New Releases of 2011 (so far). This year is already going fast.
Coming Up…
View the album trailer for Eksi Ekso‘s Brown Shark, Red Lion – March 15th
Keep an ear out next week for new releases Brave Irene, Eleventh Dream Day, The Joy Formidable, J. Mascis and others, all right here on IRC.
Volume Five (the final) of Best Indie Rock Songs of 2010 will highlight bring the total tracks in that series to 150. So get ’em while you can.
S-25 Mix on Sunday will be a mix of “Car Songs” as recommended by IRC visitors; see last Sunday’s ‘Red’ Mix