It’s safe to say that among the biggest new releases this week The Decemberists‘ follow-up to the success of Hazards of Love in 2009, The King Is Dead. The band turn towards a more American folk style rather than the more-English folk that propelled the band from the fame within the indie rock world to the Billboard charts and the ‘mainstream’ rock world.
“January Hymn” – The Decemberists from The King Is Dead
However mainstream The Decemberists are, or how much they don’t deserve to be ‘indie’ anymore (since signing with Capitol Records in 2009), are legit discussions, but the point is, they have managed to keep their branded sound uniquely their own, and continue to release awesome, ballad-heavy folk pop songs that appeal to a wide audience of music lovers.
The first single release, “Down By The Water”, was played live for the first time last September when we saw the band performed it at their sold out performance in Pioneer Courthouse Square during NWMF, Portland‘s biggest annual musical festival.
“Down By The Water” – The Decemberists from The King Is Dead
R.E.M.’s Welcomed Return to Their Pop Roots
One of the world’s greatest rock bands of the past 30 years, R.E.M., have just made available the first single from their first album in since 2008’s Accelerate. The legendary band’s 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, is set to drop in March.
The new single, “Mine Smells Like Honey” (purchase MP3 via AMZ for 99 cents) is R.E.M. in true fashion – upbeat, hooklicious pop rock with a catchy beat, soaring, jangly guitar work from Peter Buck, the ironic lyrics and unforgettable nasaly and grumbling voice of Michael Stipe, and the sweeping chorus heights, preempted by the wild “call-and-response” backup vocals of Mike Mills.
You can pre-order the master CD for Collapse Into Now for a discounted $14.99.
The Debut Album from Husband and Wife Duo, Tennis, Officially Out Now
By Emma Majerus
After creating a buzz with the single, “Marathon,” college sweethearts turned husband and wife duo, Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, along with band mate James Barone, have just officially released their debut LP, Cape Dory. The songs on Cape Dory are not a departure from the summery sound of “Marathon,” as Tennis demonstrates a knack for the beachy pop music that so many bands have attempted to perfect over the past year or so.
“Marathon” – Tennis from Cape Dory
In fact, with their breezy vocals and jangly percussions, Tennis seems to have made themselvess fore runners of setting the tone for the indie beach sound of 2011. And that seems only fitting; afterall, the husband and wife duo spent seven months sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. The sounds and musical influences of the ocean, the wind and the sun are well within their grasp.
In large part, Cape Dory is reminiscent of an earlier, simpler time, while maintaining a refreshingly relevant sound. With all of Moore’s “Oh oh’s” and “sha-la-la’s”, there are songs that conjure up images of 1960’s girl groups, but this time around, singing on a sailboat. With rhetorical lyrics like: “Do you wanna go where it never snows and the mid-60s are the extreme lows?” from the album’s title track, Tennis doesn’t attempt to go far beyond the realm of beach music, but they do it so well that it would be difficult to fault them for it.
“Take Me Somewhere” – Tennis from Cape Dory
Chicago’s Smith Westerns Announce Debut LP for January Drop
The year 2010 was a grand year for Chicago’s rising band, Smith Westerns, whose name recognition and fan following grew by leaps and bounds, due in part to a wildly successful cross-country tour and plenty of blogger and social media love.
Today the band released its sophomore album, Dye It Blonde. Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House), produced the new LP. The short indie film, Friends Forever, features a performance of the band playing the track, “All Die Younger”.
“Weekend” – Smith Westerns from Dye It Blonde
The film was shot by popular indie artist and photographer, Ryan McGinley, who captured Smith Westerns’ performance at this year’s Pitchfork Festival. In addition, the film also features footage from San Francisco rising indie band, Girls‘, gig at Pitchfork. Interestingly enough, both bands will be featured in IRC’s Best Bands of 2010.
“Imagine Pt. 3” – Smith Westerns from Dye It Blonde
New Releases from Braids, David Gergen, Oh No Oh My, Modern Skirts and others
In addition to the new and terrific debut album from Tennis, other recommended releases include Braids, Dolorean, Seafarer and Modern Skirts. After a four year recording hiatus following their indie-hit debut, the band Oh No Oh My just dropped their sophomore album, People Problems, and the lead single below, just makes it more probable that we’ll get around to listening to all of People Problems.
Also, check out other recommended releases, including two DIY from Seafarer and David Gergen, plus LPs from Dolorean, Eulogies, Modern Skirts, Only Sons, Fergus & Geronimo, and others.
In addition to this week’s highlighted releases, you can also still stream and download singles from our first Best New Releases of 2011, last week’s installment that we were admittedly a couple of days late with.
“Plath Heart” – Braids from Native Speaker
“The Streets I’m Walking” – David Gergen from The Nearer It Was…The Farther It Became
“Walking Into Me” – Oh No Oh My from People Problems
“You Hide” – Eulogies from Tear the Fences Down
“The Unfazed” – Dolorean from The Unfazed
“Magic” – Only Son from Searchlight
“Noise Floor” – Seafarer from Hiding Places (self-released)
“Bumper Car” – Modern Skirts from Gramahawk
“Powerful Lovin'” – Fergus & Geronimo from Unlearn
“Superstition” – Disappears from Guider
Other New Releases – Hip-Hop, Country, World Music, Trip Jazz
Tracks that are rarely heard, but not forgotten
“Arrivederci” – Sane Smith from Robots Will Kill
“Dark Road – Daniel Martin Moore from In the Cool of the Day
“Wolf Pantolones” – Beep from City of the Future
“Tio Sam” – Aurelio from Laru Beya
Posts and Playlists In the Pipeline on IRC
We didn’t do any other real reviews this week other than what’s on this page. The reason why is because we’re so busy still compiling and rolling out ‘best of 2010’ playlists. In fact, on Wednesday, we’ll publish the first installment of our top songs for 2010, which will be different from the Top 50 No.1 Indie Songs of 2010 that you guys all voted for throughout the year on the Top Ten Songs page.
Since 2009’s Best Songs series was such a big hit, we had to put one together for 2010, right at the same time that the first best new songs of 2011 are coming out.
Also, don’t miss our Winter/Spring 2011 Anticipated Releases Guide, hopefully to hit the site next weekend. In the meantime, enjoy. When you run out of great songs, just remember that all you have to do is click around the site a little to find hundreds of more songs to stream and listen to online and/or download to your MP3 player.