The first quarter of the year closes out with this week’s batch of new releases from artists like Vivian Girls’ bassist Katy Goodman’s second solo album as La Sera; the new supergroup, Poor Moon, founded by two former members of Fleet Foxes; the debut from orchestra pop band Oberhofer; the country and folk-influenced pop of Justin Townes Earle; the sophomore release from Swedish trio Miike Snow, and Paul Weller’s 11th studio solo album since The Jam broke up.
[zbplayer]There are also noteworthy new albums from The Mars Volta, who turn out a largely experimental LP, and the amazingly melodic debut from Caveman. Don’t miss the new single from Low band member Alan Sparhawk‘s latest release via his side project, the Retribution Gospel Choir.
First up, though, is the debut release by Poor Moon, a band that was originally formed in 2008 by Fleet Foxes and Crystal Skulls members, Christian Wargo, and Casey Wescott, and brothers, Ian and Peter Murray, of the San Francisco band The Christmas Cards.
Long-time friends, Poor Moon began as a long-distance collaboration, working on demos and sending them back and forth to one another while Wargo and Wescott were touring extensively in support of Fleet Foxes’ hugely successful, and critically acclaimed, self-titled debut album. Soon after, the four began to take the project more seriously, and started performing house parties in Seattle using a variety of playful and disposable monikers, such as Cookie Mask and Rabbit Kingdom.
However, it was when the band opened for Deakin at the Seattle venue, Neumos, under the alias Peppermint Majesty, that things really started to get rolling for the band. As the months wore on, and the band spent more time together recording and performing, they realized they had something special that was worth pursuing. It was then that Sub Pop signed them up.
The four members eventually decided on the name Poor Moon, the title of Wargo’s favorite Canned Heat song. This week, after four years in the making, the band released their first debut EP, Illusion, which is available for only $4.95 via Amazon.
However, hard core Fleet Foxes fans, indie folk aficionados and Sub Pop enthusiasts, who realize the value that a first pressing may have in the future, can grab the vinyl edition or CD version via Amazon as well.
MP3: “People in Her Mind” – Poor Moon from Illusion on Sub Pop
Poor Moon kicked off their first cross-country tour at The Loft on the University of California San Diego campus in La Jolla, California March 20th. They’ve played eight cities so far (as of 3/29) with another 16 to go, when they will wrap up on April 20th at The Aquarium in Fargo, North Dakota.
The very talented band, and Sub Pop artist, Lost in the Trees, are opening for Poor Moon for the entire tour with the exception of the last three gigs. Check out Lost in the Trees’ new single, and more, released last week. Get details on Poor Moon tour dates via Sub Pop.
Vivian Girls’ Bassist’s Alter Ego La Sera Drops Sophomore Album
The lead single, “Please Be My Third Eye,” from La Sera‘s sophomore album, Sees The Light (on sale via Amazon for $5.99), is a dance oriented, thumping pop track awash in melodies and harmonies interwoven with blissful synth keys and the spectacular vocals of Katy Goodman, who is also the bassist for the popular female-fronted band, Vivian Girls, and of course, the founding member and force behind La Sera’s success in the past few years.
Brothertiger’s Golden Years LP Out Now
Brothertiger‘s new single, “Lovers,” is a soft synth pop track that has some 80’s new wave revivalism going on, and a drum beat, and bass line, that sound like they were “heavily influenced” by a Hall & Oates song.
Anyways, it’s not a bad track, but it probably won’t be remembered in a month from now with all the music that has been released so far in 2012, and what has been announced is on the way. We have not heard the album, Golden Years, but if anyone has, let everyone know what you think of it; we sometimes incorporate listeners’ comments into posts after they’ve been published. Hell, why not?
Danish Band Alcoholic Faith Mission Dropped Fourth Album; But Plays Hard to GetUp next, the Danish band, Alcoholic Faith Mission, who we featured exactly one year ago, have returned with a new album, Ask Me This. Today or tomorrow, make sure to look out for a post about AFM in a new series called Band Update. The post describes their humble beginnings, strange recording rituals, their understated previous albums and EPs, a review of (although it is strangely hard to get), and more tracks from, their new album. In the meantime, here’s one of the albums various standout track, “Into Pieces.”
MP3: “Into Pieces” – Alcoholic Faith Mission from Ask Me This
Long Awaited Debut Albums from Brooklyn’s Oberhofer and Toronto Band Zeus
This week also marks the official CD release of the debut album, Time Capsule II, by Brooklyn band Oberhofer. The debut from Oberhofer is definitely one of our top anticipated albums of the month. When we first featured Brad Oberhofer in November of 2009 he was still a largely unknown artist and a DIY lo-fi one man band.
There was very little online that we could find about him, and when we profiled him, we were one of the first indie sites to do so, which he later told us helped lead to his name getting out, and helped build momentum that started started when Oberhofer performed at New York’s 2009 CMJ Music Marathon.
He was a 19-year-old NYC student working as an intern for Matador Records at the time, and some of the folks at the label were reportedly blown away when Oberhofer gave them a couple of demos that came out of his DIY one-man band experimentation.
One Matador employee, Thom Williams, told The Hartford Courant in November of 2009: “I have not seen someone with as much potential as he has. Give him a year or two and he could be a MGMT figure.”
In the past two and a half years since then, Oberhofer, hasn’t quite reached the level of MGMT, nor should they (at the time, MGMT were big within the ‘indie’ circles; now they’re mainstream). Yet, they have toured endlessly, played festivals, and released demos that got a lot of play on music blogs.
Eventually in 2010, they signed with Glass Note. We expected a debut album at some point in 2010 or 2011 because usually labels require a first album get released within months of a signing in order to maximize the momentum an artist has at the time. But, for whatever reasons, it took longer than expected.
But it has finally arrived, and it’s as good as expected – you really need to hear it for yourself, especially if you like the band’s previous, and new, singles. Time Capsule II, contains a collection of psychedelic, effervescent and heavily melodic pop tracks, including a couple that Oberhofer himself had first sent to us two years ago as demos, like “Away Frm U,” “oOoO,” (official spelling from the track listing on Amazon; since there have been various formats used by Oberhofer and blogs and media) and “I Could Go.” You can listen to the original Oberhofer demos here.
“Away Frm U” – Oberhofer from Time Capsule II
Double-shot: “oOoO” – Oberhofer from Time Capsule II
Toronto alternative/indie rock band, Zeus, dropped their sophomore album, Busting Visions, this week. The band was born out of the dissolution of a previous band called Paso Mino when members Michael P. Clive and Afie Jurvanen left to pursue other ambitions.
In fact, Jurvanen went on to tour with Feist, and formed a solo project under the name, Bahamas, which went on to become quite popular in it’s own right.
From the ashes, the remaning band members, in 2009-10, formed Zeus. The release of Zeus’ 2010 widely-praised debut album, Say Us, put them on the radar. After listening to their newest LP, Busting Visions, we consider Zeus a band to watch in 2012.
Another debut album out this week worth looking into is the pleasantly melodic tracks on Caveman‘s LP, Coco Beware. We were immediately smitten when we spun the first few songs, particularly with tracks like “Easy Water,” “Thankful,” the amazing “In The City,” and the first single, “Old Friend.” The latter is a strong track, but one of the other three would have been better choices for the first official single. Paste gave the album an impressive “8.7” out of 10, calling it “…instantly catchy and likable on a first listen.” That is so true. They also compared the standout tracks to “slowed down versions of early Shins’ tracks.” Also, so true.
Young Prisms and Retribution Gospel Choir Return With New Offerings
It’s a bit difficult to admit (especially living in the Bay Area), but we haven’t kept close enough tabs on a band we were impressed by when we first them a couple of years ago – Young Prisms.They’re a San Francisco quintet that play a range of styles from shoegaze and lo-fi psych to garage rock and surf pop.
Young Prisms carry on their woozy shoegaze bliss, but this time around, they are also weaving in more dream pop influences on one hand – with hints of Galaxie 500 – and new wave touched with punk elements – echoes of The Cure – that end resulting in a pretty solid and enjoyable follow up to their debut.
This will give even more credence to the argument that the band is under the radar still.
But that hasn’t stop the critics from chiming in, especially, with the release of their new album this week. In fact, one of the oldest and most respected sources for music, All Music Guide, wrote: “Slowdive wish their early records were this strong” and “the perfect Frankenstein’s monster of a retro shoegaze band.”
Back in August of 2010, IRC published one of their tracks “Weekends and Treehouses” as apart of the extensive, and wildly popular, Indie Summer Mix series (the series features 12 playlist posts containing over 300 summer themed songs, and so far have attracted over half a million page views!).
The track was originally released on their 2009 self-titled debut EP via the Mexican Summer indie record label, and “Weekends and Treehouses” was one of the top tracks.
At the time, Pitchfork wrote: “Their sun-drenched, washed-out sounds recall hearing Kurt Vile‘s 70s AM rock through a conch shell.” The truth is there are so many labels put on their music; SF Weekly acclaimed: “Young Prisms, whose washy, insistent psychedelia stands out among the crowded S.F. dream-punk scene,” and as noted above, All Music referred to their sound as “retro shoegaze.” The track below, “Floating In Blue,” is the first official single from the album.
MP3: “Floating In Blue” – Young Prisms from In Between @Z
Young Prisms just wrapped up a tour a little more than a week ago that brought them to 15 cities (including a couple of Canadian shows). A few days ago, their label, announced a short west coast tour in May with the Dum Dum Girls.
May 15 – Constellation Room – Santa Ana, CA
May 16 – Belly Up Tavern – Solana Beach, CA
May 17 – Pappy and Harriets – Pioneertown, CA
May 18 – Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA
May 21 – The Blank Club – San Jose, CA
May 25 – Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC
May 27 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
The Retribution Gospel Choir dropped the new EP, The Revolution, this week, and spun off a lead single, “The Stone (Revolution!),” that repeats over and over again: “You want a revolution/start a revolution.” Sounds like a throw back to the late 1960’s, not in the musical aspect of the track – because it’s clearly indie choir pop – but in the title and lyrics. “The Stone (Revolution!) could be perfect for Occupy mixtape. You can listen to the EP via Spinner, or get it right away from Amazon by clicking the title link below.
MP3: “The Stone (Revolution!)” – Retribution Gospel Choir from The Revolution EP
And there’s more…we had to divert a bunch of other worthy singles from new releases from a variety of artists like Justin Townes Earle, Thee Satisfaction, Paul Weller, Way Yes, The Mars Volta, Sleep Wave Sleep, Cats on Fire, plus our favorite DIY picks from In Dee Mail box, to a second post that will be posted in the next day or two, so keep an eye out. We’ll also be publishing a separate post for Denmark’s Alcoholic Faith Mission.
In case you missed them, check out the recent post highlighting the Top 10 songs for the last week of February, last week’s Best New Releases for week of Feb. 21 (The Shins, Tanlines, Lost in the Trees, Yukon Blonde and others), more Top 10 Songs mixes, and IRC’s SXSW 2012 coverage.