New Year’s songs. This time of year always gets people talking about ‘New Year’s songs,’ and other songs with titles or stories that are about starting fresh, new beginnings, making changes, setting resolutions, and hopes, plans, wishes and dreams of better things to come in the new year.
Yesterday we posted a playlist featuring a selection of excellent New Year’s Day songs from The Walkmen, The Stills, The Kinks, The Hush Now, Regina Spektor, Trembling Bells and Bonnie Prince Billy, Death Cab For Cutie and many others.
Today, the focus turns to easily one of the best – if not, the best – alternative rock New Year’s songs ever recorded. That is, “New Year’s Day” from U2‘s 1983 album, War, the band’s third album, and the one that catapulted U2’s breakthrough success in the United States and around the world, and set the stage for the band to go on to become of the biggest bands of the 1980’s and one of the most popular in the history of rock.
The hit single, “New Year’s Day,” is also included on many Best Songs of All Time lists, and among U2’s most politically charged songs of their entire discography. For thirty years, it’s been an alternative song played on rock radio stations to honor the beginning of a new year.
But it’s mainly a song about the Polish union workers movement, while “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” the biggest hit from War, is a protest song against the British massacre (known as ‘Bloody Sunday’) of Irish civilians in U2’s home country of Ireland. The album also contains another rather significant single, “Two Hearts Beat As One.”
The video above, shot in 1983, was not widely seen by most U2 fans until it appeared online some 12 or so years ago. The other video version of the song is the one most people are familiar with and which played on MTV regularly for months on end, at a time when the new music channel was just starting out, and coincidentally which bands like U2 helped popularize, and vice versa.
The famous album cover for War, featuring the anguished face of a boy with big, intense blue eyes, is one of the most recognized album covers of the post classic rock (1980 and on) era. The album cover for the “New Year’s Day” single release (back when vinyl 45″ singles were still mass produced) also featured the same kid.
Don’t miss our Best Indie Rock Songs playlist from yesterday, with songs from The Walkmen, Beach House, Camera Obscura, Death Cab For Cutie, The Stills, Trembling Bells with Bonnie Prince Billy, The Kinks, Regina Spektor, First Aid Kit and Stars in both MP3 and Spotify playlists.
Seems kind of strange to be publishing a playlist review of the top singles and albums of the second half of October releases now. That’s completely understandable, but we’ve been so busy with preparing the Best of 2013 coverage (to be published throughout the month of January) as well as sifting through hundreds of DIY submissions, listening to many hundreds of singles and albums, and selecting the most talented and promising artists and bands to profile, many of who break-through partly, and sometimes mainly, due to their exposure on IRC.
The first two weeks of October offered a selection of new and impressive singles and albums from Yuck, Teen Daze, Polvo, Fuzz (with Ty Segall), Dr. Dog, DARKSIDE, The Fratellis and HAIM, among others. But the third week of October is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, week of the fall for new releases from a knock-out line-up of established, well-known artists and bands, as well as under-the-radar, new and buzzworthy signed (and a few unsigned) bands and artists.
The third week of October, covering October 15th to October 21st, was a blockbuster week for releases, featuring terrific albums, along with nearly two dozens singles from those releases, from The Avett Brothers, Crystal Antlers, Cults, The Dismemberment Plan, Cave, The Chills, D33J, Heavenly Beat, Luke Temple, Cass McCombs, School of Night, Jonathan Wilson, Dean Wareham, Lucius, Gary Numan, and Pearl Jam.
As is evident by the playlist below, the sheer quantity and quality of the singles from new albums by well-known and accomplished artists and bands, as well from talented, under-the-radar bands, including newly emerging talented artists, is mind-blowing for just one week’s (Oct. 15th to 21st) drop. And that’s not even counting the fourth week of October releases.
Note: Because a new week of album releases starts on Oct. 29th (including releases from Arcade Fire), and runs through November 3rd, we are including that week’s releases in the November coverage.
Top New Singles from Albums by The Avett Brothers and Cults
Firstly, The Avett Brothers don’t seem capable of disappointing fans as their new single (“Another Is Waiting”), and the album (Magpie and the Dandelion) which it’s from, are simply amazing. Next, Cults returns with more of their splendid indie sounds from their sophomore album, Static.
Fusion Rock from CAVE, Plus Raw and Gritty from Crystal Antlers, The Chills and More
CAVE‘s new album, Threace, offers up the somewhat funky, somewhat fusion jazz, somewhat R&B, psychedelic jam rock instrumental, “Shikaakwa” accompanied by a music video that takes its cues from late 60s acid parties where abstract images, colors and effects were blended together and splashed on big screens, even walls, apparently to reflect, and enhance, the music and the overall social tripping experience. This technique was popularized in large part by Andy Warhol and the parties that he and his inner circle of bohemian/hippie/freak cohorts, and even celebrity guests, held regularly in Warhol’s grand apartment in New York‘s Upper West Side from 1968 to 1972.
Another top single for the third week of October was “Rattlesnake,” by Crystal Antlers. The track, as you’d expect from the title, is gritty, raw garage rock with blazing, fuzzy guitar licks and aggressive bass playing and drumming. Rock is just so good when it’s allowed to be free, gut-level and not all dressed up and tweaked by engineers until it ends up not sounding like rock and roll, but overly polished crap-o-la.
E3 Releases: New Electro, Experimental and Eclectic Spins from D33J, Kwes, and Heavenly Beats
If you’re a fan of the Big E3 – electro, experimental and eclectic sounds – this section is for you. Considering a large number of releases during the third week of October, it was important to compartmentalize the top picks to formulate order out of what would otherwise be chaos. Tracks include those from D33J and kwes. Also, while we have heard of Heavenly Beat before, the band’s new album really caught our attention, and the single from it, “Complete,” is a grooving, blissful electro-pop dance gem, with shimmering, wavy synths, faded, dreamy vocals, and funky bass lines.
“Slow” – D33J featuring Kreyola from Gravel EP on Anticon
“Complete” – Heavenly Beat from Prominence on Captured Tracks
Singles from Luke Temple and the State of Music Playlists
Slick melodies, terrific beats and sweet harmonies, together with excellent bass, guitar and lead vocals, make up the new track, “Florida,” from the band Luke Temple. The track is one of the geographically-focused songs that we’ve added to our State of Music in-house master playlists, which we plan to publish more posts from in 2014. The purpose of the series is to put together playlists of great songs that just so happen to be about a place, city or a state, and a relevant matching song title to go with it, from a wide range of artists, bands, genres and time periods – meaning it is not restricted to new music or necessarily to indie rock.
If you’re interested, you’ll definitely want to check out previous installments of State of Music series and which most, if not all, of the songs are still accessible to stream and download. The whole idea kind of is related to Sufjan Stevens’ abandoned “states project.” Now we can add Luke Temple’s “Florida” to the mix.
“Florida” – Luke Temple from Good Mood Fool on Secretly Canadian
Fine Mellow Tracks from Cass McCombs, School of Night, Dean Wareham, and Jonathan Wilson
Cass McCombs has put out consistently good albums for years, and his latest LP, Big Wheel And Others, is another success and fine example for a talented songwriter, vocalist and musician, as the cool, mellow single, “There Can Be Only One,” with its sweet melodic bass line and gentle hand drums in the forefront. McCombs vocals are superb and the subtle electric guitar riffs add yet another dimension to a fantastic song, of the best of the week, and that’s saying a great deal, all things considered. See what others think in the comments section on SoundCloud.
In keeping with the mellow theme for a minute, the band School of Night deliver the synth-heavy, semi-crooning single, “Lying,” that has a bit of an 80s mash of new wave and pop to it. The next mellow single, “Love Is Colder Than Death” is a slow, brooding, and slightly twisted love song, with beautiful and wonderfully melodic, even melancholic, instrumentation and vocals from the new-to-us artist Dean Wareham. It’s ironic, considering the subject matter, that the song has a warm, cozy feel from the first note to the closing verse. And closing out the “mellow” set of new singles for the third week is the sweet song, “Dear Friend” by Jonathan Wilson, and his band, and the accompanying music video that has received over 35,000 views on YouTube alone.
If you’re a fan of experimental ambient sounds, chances are you might enjoy listening to Tom Hecker’s Virgins. The composition moves through a myriad of phases with minimalistic and repetitious aspects of what sounds like dulcimers, and dreamy, drifting synth notes that pick up in tempo and number of keys as the composition progresses.
The new song from Lucius, “Turn It Around,” is an upbeat pop track with a finely produced groove and excellent female vocalists, leaning more towards a commercial song in sound, but we can see how some people might dig it a lot, and be curious to check out the album, Wildewoman.
Paul McCartney’s New Track, “Queenie,” Plus Gary Numan
Probably all the great and wonderful things there are to say about an artist have been used up in describing Paul McCartney over the past half of a century. And yet, now in his 70’s, McCartney is still writing and recording some fine music as his latest album, New, shows. It’s probably about the 40th album or so that he’s released in his long career from The Beatles, to his solo work, to The Wings, and back to his solo work and various monikers in recent years. A rock and roll icon for at least 35 years, Gary Numan returns with a new album, featuring the dark, semi-goth/new wave style single, “I Am Dust.”
Has Pearl Jam Sold Out or Simply Embraced Capitalism?
During the World Series, in which long-time Boston Red Sox fans, like ourselves, got to see (in our, and many other generations, lifetime), the team finally win a world championship at the sacred Fenway Park, Fox Sports was promoting the new Pearl Jam album in between breaks. That was a bummer to us – Eddie Vedder had really sold out, which does dent the band’s grunge/atlernative rock legitimacy, but especially since Vedder, who seemed over the years to be a guy opposed to “the machine,” actually become part of it. Eventually, young, idealistic passionate artists, not all, but many, when presented the opportunity, become older guys who feel otherwise entitled to cash in as big as they can.
That said, their new single, “Mind Your Manners,” is good stuff, but it does not have the same feel to it that the early Pearl Jam work had – in the years before they went headfirst into the commercial, big-time money. Hey, it’s America. Yeah fine, but as a “rock icon,” you still lose credibility every time you cash in, and especially team up with Fox Sports, which if we recall, Vedder criticized during the 2000’s as a propaganda machine for the Bush administration’s greatest evils.
So, Sr. Vedder, just sing, because you can’t preach (and cash in) anymore with any credibility about how you’re some salt of the earth guy railing against the machine, because you’re not that guy (and Pearl Jam is not that band); teaming up with the Fox Network after rightfully criticizing them for years is simply the height of hypocrisy, and a slap in the face to your most loyal fans.
Aside from that obvious, and distasteful, fact, we’ll still listen to, and feature (if the music stands up), Pearl Jam, but there will always be this issue tarnishing our respect for Vedder and the band. We are careful not to accuse bands of ‘selling out,’ because they need to make a living, but in this case, Vedder, and the band (if they willingly went along), really did sell out.
Teaming up with the network they used to rail against is not needing to put the food on the table – it’s simply the worst kind of hypocrisy and greed. We know people will strongly disagree with that viewpoint, but it’s quite simply a fact.
“Mind Your Manners” – Pearl Jam from Lightning Bolt on Monkeywrench
Other singles from new albums worth noting include the shoe-gaze/psychedelic girl rock of Mirror Travel; the beats of pop mistress Morcheeba; the hard/metal rock of the band Red Fang; self released song from DIY band Breathe Owl Breathe that sounds like The National mixed with chilled out Lou Reed.
“Blood Like Cream” – Red Fang from Whales and Leeches on Relapse Records
“Silent Movie Reel” – Breathe Owl Breathe from Passage of Pegasus (self-released)
Top Singles from New Albums by Best Coast, Active Child, Polica, Modern Kin, Gringo Star, Black Hearted Brother
In order to focus our energy on putting together profiles and songs of more talented, promising DIY artists and bands, we’re not really going to write much about the last week of October’s releases (Oct. 22nd to Oct. 28th). The final week of new releases for October was thin compared to the previous week (above), but there were still some major drops from artists like Best Coast, Active Child, Polica, Modern Kin, Gringo Star, Black Hearted Brother, Federico Aubele, Radical Face, and others.
For those of you who have asked, we’re also catching up with the Top 10 Songs playlists for final months of 2013 as well. You could spend days streaming the Top 10 Songs playlists and discover the best indie and DIY music of 2013 on one page, with the October and November Top 10 Songs playlists coming up shortly.
As this post and playlist clearly demonstrates, there was an absolute flood of quality album releases in the second half of October that took a considerable amount of time to review, organize and write about. In fact, this post and playlist by itself includes just as much, or more, coverage of new releases than some other popular indie blogs publish during an entire month; those of you who browse indie and alternative rock music blogs regularly probably know exactly what we’re referring to.
IRC is one of the few popular indie and alt rock websites and blogs that provides free MP3s that you can stream or download (and which we know leads to more support for the artists and bands) at any time, even months, sometimes years, after we publish a post with music in it. In order to do this, we have to support a huge server load and usage, but we are committed to chronologically documenting the best of both the popular and obscure indie music of the times, and providing a permanent record of over 10,000 songs available at anytime to anyone in the world. As far as we know, from our own research, there is no other indie music resource on the web today (that is not a file-sharing or torrent site) that offers as many active and free MP3 songs dating back to 2007 as IRC does.
“This Lonely Morning” – Best Coast from Fade Away EP on Jewel City
“Subtle” – Active Child featuring Mikky Ekko from Rapor EP on Vagrant Records
IRC’s long-running indie and alternative rock Christmas songs playlists collection, dating back to 2007, has been having a hugely successful run, topping the numbers of visits, streams, downloads, links, mentions, Likes and Tweets the collection received last year.
With each holiday season for a solid decade now, the popularity of the collection continues to grow as people look for alternative to the old-fashioned, stale (but still many beautiful) Christmas playlists of our parents and grandparents. [zbplayer]
Best Indie & Alternative Rock Christmas Songs series remains the largest, most comprehensive, yearly-updated alternative Christmas playlists collection on the web. There are also dozens of indie and alt. rock songs about Hanukkah, winter, and the holidays in general, intermixed with the Christmas songs.
This Top 25 playlist reflects listeners’ 25 most streamed and downloaded alternative and indie rock Christmas songs from our collection over the past decade. Enjoy and please share on your socials!
It’s on Spotify too along with many more of our popular playlists.
Mavrothi Kontanis, along with musicians who've worked with Bowie, Talking Heads, Yo Yo Ma, among others, collaborated on one of 2013's best underrated DIY debut albums.
by Devin William Daniels
The value of a given record isn’t hidden somewhere in the grooves; it emerges somewhere between the listener’s ear and the brain. It’s not a direct path. Any sound entering that space is necessarily filtered through our expectations, proclivities, and principles.
But we are not judging the record itself, only the remains that survived filtration. (Note: Stream all of MMR’s featured songs with this player)
[zbplayer]
The record itself theoretically exists, but we have no access to it. We are forced to listen in time, and, in time, we have good days and bad days, and things we arbitrarily like and things we arbitrarily don’t like. Bands get lumped together, genres are segregated over a couple dozen BPM, and the musicians themselves play to the expectations.
We judge countless albums without ever actually listening to them because the band name, the album title, or the cover evoke a certain sound or genre that maybe we aren’t interested in or have heard enough of.
Often we’re right in our assumptions because the artists are utilizing the same vocabularies as critics, fans, and promoters. Even when we do listen, the conventions are distorting the sound.
Mild Mannered Rebel has a special sound that is almost unmatched with any other unique style that we’ve heard from any other DIY artist or band in 2013. The first song that caught our attention, with its Middle Eastern and Baltic influences, is “The Climb.”
Mavrothi Kontanis, a highly skilled player of the oud (an instrument visually similar to a lute, associated with Arabic, Greek and many other cultures’ music), is the man behind Mild Mannered Rebel, a New York City DIY band. Kontanis is an American musician, born and bred in the United States, but his biography describes his roots in Halkidiki, Greece, as well as his associations with several of the greatest oud players in the world. His experiences have led him to composing film soundtracks and performing throughout the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. It’s a unique resume for an indie musician that leads to a unique approach.
He might blow a hole through your brain so that you might transcend the trappings of Anglo-American pop music, but with the excellent Mild Mannered Rebel debut, Ear to the Sky, he certainly provides a record that doesn’t fit into the typical trappings. It’s indie rock sensibility and English-language lyrics resist the label of “world music,” an oft-ignored and patently absurd genre, but its Eastern elements – which prove to be far more than window dressing – make it unlike almost anything out of the usual alternative music streams.
The reasons for the uniqueness of Ear to the Sky stretch far beyond its so-called “world music” elements, and one of its most striking quality as an indie record is the virtuosity and professionalism of its performances and overall execution. Indie rock is a genre that, like punk rock and the many alternative genres that descend from it, often trumpets the inherent value of amateurism, particularly as it relates to singing ability and technical skill at instruments.
So much has changed as punk rock gave way to post-punk and new wave and shoegaze and grunge, but one of the few constants of alternative music has been the fact that technical skill has never been a prerequisite, or even necessarily desirable. Various exceptions come to mind (J. Mascis, Stephen Malkmus, etc.), but those players are the exceptions that prove the rule, as their proficiency makes them stand out when in other genres (metal, jazz, etc.) it would be taken as a given.
The New York Music Daily wrote, Ear to the Sky is “raw, smoldering Middle Eastern rock …one of the most hard-hitting, fearlessly intense albums of the year.”
Mild Mannered Rebel, however, is chock full of extremely talented musicians with impressive resumes – not just Kontanis himself. Megan Gould provides violin and viola parts that engage in stunning conversation with Kontanis’ oud and guitars. Like many of the musicians, Gould has a varied and impressive background, with amble experience with Western popular music, Middle Eastern, and Greek styles. She has a long list of artists she’s recorded or performed with, including two giants of the indie world, David Byrne and Lou Reed, in addition to artists like Metallica, Philip Glass, and Fabian Almazan.
Drums and percussion are provided by Shane Shanahan, whose performances are integral to the record. Shanahan is versed in jazz, rock, and Western art music in addition to the styles of various other cultures. He is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s musical group Silk Road Ensemble and has toured and recorded with the group throughout its existence.
A lot of what makes pop sound like pop (and jazz sound like jazz, etc.) is the rhythm, and in Anglo-American pop music the same rhythmic approach has become ubiquitous and often limiting to the sounds artists are able or willing to produce. Shanahan’s familiarity with the drumming techniques of different cultures, genres, and traditions enables him to step in and out of these different rhythmic paradigms. In turn, the album’s generic identity shifts in ways that can’t be done with only melody and harmony.
Rounding out the main performance group (which is augmented by guest vocalist Eva Salina Primack) is bassist Brian Holtz, who performs both electric and upright basses on this record. Holtz has performed a variety of festivals including South By Southwest and the North Sea Jazz Festival, and has performed around the world.
His bass lines show a clear jazz influence and a proficiency not often heard from the instrument on indie recordings. The strong jazz elements combine nicely with other prominent sounds (Greek, Middle Eastern, indie rock, classical, drone, etc.) to form a potent cocktail.
With such musicians on display, the album drips with professionalism, to the point where this might be seen as a negative by some. Indie’s love of amateurism comes from an aesthetics that places value on the inherent core of a song – the basic, inspired idea that could pop into anyone’s head and can’t be practiced or taught. The accoutrements are given little credit if they aren’t outright discouraged due to the “elitism” of the proficiency they require.
It’s no coincidence most of the great heroes and voices of alternative music – Kurt Cobain, Kevin Shields, the dearly departed Lou Reed – obsessed over song craft while lacking the technical skill of many teenagers in Guitar Center. That isn’t a bad thing, but it’s created a lot of inherent assumptions that can make an album like Ear to the Sky, with its technical flourishes, seem all about the bells and whistles. However, a closer examination reveals the bells and whistles are far more than that, and the core songs are far less typical than we might assume.
Appropriately, the album opener “Flight of Ikaros” starts with a lone oud, soon joined by a bass in jazzy interplay. For these beginning moments, the record is operating completely outside the vocabulary of indie music. The closest reference point for many listeners who’ve grown up with the Anglo-American pop/rock model is probably Beirut, or perhaps even video game music. The result is a sound that’s somewhat defamiliarizing, forcing the listener to actively examine what they’re hearing.
The melody and general direction of “Flight of Ikaros” (like other melodies throughout the album) can’t be easily predicted, as the hackneyed structures of many modern indie tunes can be. Instead of setting a trajectory and merely following the song’s momentum, Mild Mannered Rebel frequently grab hold of the reigns and steer the songs into new directions. The following is a video of Kontanis performing the counter song, “Fall of Ikaros,” in November of 2013 for a documentary film.
The moments of virtuosic instrumentation – a preview of what we’ll be treated to throughout – are not just there for kicks, like some traditional Greek version of a speed metal solo. They are fully realized elements of the compositions. The flourishes interrupt Kontanis’s pristine vocals and lend the song a distinct rhythm that inherently differentiates it from most popular music.
One of the most striking qualities of the album is the wonderful interplay of different string instruments, producing harmonies not often heard by rock and pop listeners. On this track, I’m reminded of “God Bless Our Dead Marines” by the great post-rock group (and off-shoot of Godspeed You! Black Emperor) Silver Mt. Zion, and I think it’s fair to question if Ear to the Sky should be called a post-rock album.
Taking the genre’s name literally, Mild Mannered Rebel certainly move beyond rock music more than most with their cohabitation of distorted, droning guitars with stringed instruments most rock fans have never heard of.
Mild Mannered Rebel certainly move beyond rock music more than most with their cohabitation of distorted, droning guitars with stringed instruments most rock fans have never heard of.
The album’s tempo is often frantic, emphasizing the skill of the musicians. One imagines ornate and theatrical dance numbers set to the songs in one’s head, though ironically not on “Dancing in My Dreams.” This track oozes out fuzz like a festering wound, even evoking doom metal. The lyrics consist of a mere two lines: “You lead me through dark days and nights/ I wake with you dancing in my dreams,” delivered without hurry by Kontanis, who seems to dance with the words themselves, slowly, lingering on each syllable, not wanting the dance to end.
Another highlight is “Byzantine Eyes,” which follows “Dancing in My Dreams” and treats the listener to expertly ‘dueling’ (they’re really quite cooperative) strings whose intricacy and ultimate surrender to a raked guitar chord recalls the art punk of Television, another band of alternative outliers whose technical proficiency in the New York punk scene proved as notable as their more traditionally “alternative” proclivities.
The vocalized sections of “Byzantine Eyes” hold a completely different character though, and with slight aesthetic tweaks could be found on an album from Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, or even a classic rock group like Pink Floyd. They then give way to the instruments once again, and we’re treated to a solo that’s nothing short of awesome. The resulting juxtaposition makes this track one of the album’s strongest.
Lyrically, the album is not as interesting as it is musically. The songs tell fairly standard first-person narratives of pain and love, paired with indistinct cosmic and natural imagery. While this had no serious effect on my enjoyment of the record, it would be nice in the future to see Mild Mannered Rebel’s decidedly unique musical approach paired with a lyrical style that had more of an individual voice.
That said, there are certainly themes to unpack here, particularly as it relates to the band’s musical message. The Icarus myth runs throughout the entire record such that it could be labeled a concept album if you like that term (I don’t). References to the sky, clearly placed within the Icarus story, are frequent, such as “I look to the sky and there’s the sun,” and “You gave me wings to fly/ I just refused to learn.”
This fixation on the firmament is paired with a disinterest in the ground. Earthly images – be they a physical metal like gold (on “A Heart of Gold”) or a gravity-restricted setting (“So many times we’ve walked this/ road but now the trail’s gone cold”) – are largely negative, reflecting Icarus’s lust for the heavens.
There are clear parallels to draw between what Kontanis is doing and what Icarus did: venturing into new territory with people wondering why he wouldn’t stick to the safe ground (i.e. straight indie rock or even completely traditional Greek music) with its firm foundation and pre-installed (and predisposed) audiences.
Instead, he is attempting to create something new, just as Icarus tried to reach higher than anyone might dare. But Icarus’s fault, the way this album seems to see it, was not pride, but a complete disenchantment with the earthly world. In that way, he is a hero of the self-sacrificing artist who forsakes safe rewards gained via earthbound (i.e. clichéd) music, who risks everything to achieve his vision. I’m not sure how self-sacrificial Kontanis and Mild Mannered Rebel are being, but I certainly can understand why they would empathize with Icarus and look to him as an inspiring, not merely tragic, figure.
“[Kontanis] is a hero of the self-sacrificing artist who forsakes safe rewards gained via earthbound (i.e. clichéd) music, who risks everything to achieve his vision.”
Icarus’s story relates to Kontanis’ ambitions but certainly not his downfall, as this album remains airborne. The question on future releases will be whether Kontanis has flown close enough to the sun and, knowing the fate of his inspiration, will retreat to more oft-trodden heights, or if he will disregard the traditional lesson of his own adopted narrative and continue upwards, whether motivated by arrogance or stupidity. I personally hope he does continue, but is rather motivated by ambivalence, not towards the music, but towards the boxes music is put in, towards what might go wrong. A few moments in the sun, with the trajectory of a god, are worth the inevitable crash.
Devin William Daniels is a writer and musician from Pennsylvania currently teaching English in the Republic of South Korea. Follow him on Twitter or listen to his recordings on Soundcloud. Read more of Mr. Daniels’ posts and reviews via IRC’s archives.
At only 21 years old, Tyler Bryant has already shared the stage with rock legends like Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Benetar, REO Speedwagon and Heart. Bryant is also featured in the award-winning film, Rock Prophecies. Bryant, a student of blues rock, joined up with talented musicians like Caleb Crosby (drums), Noah Denney (bass) and guitarist Graham Whitford (son of Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford), the ‘Shakedown’ pushes the limits of music and performance, and has captured the attention of fans across the U.S. with their spectacular talent, blazing guitar rock and roaring drums, and boundless energy on stage, as the videos in this profile demonstrate.
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, based in Nashville, formed in 2009, and released their debut EP, From The Sandcastle, in September 2011. In this video, you can see why the band has been building a following and creating a buzz.
With rollicking SXSW performances under their belts, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown have been compared to talented blues rock bands from the thriving Nashville scene like Cage The Elephant and The Black Keys.
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown made their late night television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2012. The band’s riveting debut album, Wild Child, was released on January 22 via Carved Records, featuring amazing songs like “Last One Leaving,” “You Got Me Baby,” and “Say A Prayer.”
The band’s top musical influences include Elvis Presley, Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Robert Johnson.
“Last One Leaving” – Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown from Wild Child
“You Got Me Baby” – Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown from Wild Child
The following is the official black and white (which works really well with the music and the band dynamics) music video for the track, “Say A Prayer.”
The stacks of music submissions – the life blood of IRC’s original, often exclusive scoops on hot new bands (and why we are so different from any other blog) – from all across the United States, U.K. and Canada mostly, grow and grow each week. For months we have been sorting through them and processing as many as possible; it’s a tremendous amount of work – not saying that to gain any sympathy or anything like that, but just to demonstrate how seriously we take the process of reviewing submissions and breaking them into smaller and smaller groups of our favorites who we then write a profile for and publish to the site.
This special installment of new overseas DIY bands to watch that most of you have never heard before is the seventh in the series. These are five amazing bands that we think our readers are really going to enjoy (some songs are definitely grower tracks – trust us). The unsigned, non-U.S. bands are Hospital; Get Inuit; Mary Goes Wild; The Unassisted and Rascal Experience.
Just click the first song on the playlist and let it stream automatically while you read the band profiles and do other things. A ton of work goes into putting together this special features, so if you like what you hear, please let us know by Liking, Tweeting, Google +1’ing and spreading this around to as many people as you can.
Note: In an effort to publish faster posts focused on one band, song, video or other singular subject, we’re adding a blog in the tradition of the original type of blog, which will serve as a supplement to the main IRC website that you’re on right now.
Hospital – Moscow, Russia
While IRC receives hundreds of submissions a month from all over the world, you’d think there would be more than about a dozen submissions a year from one of the biggest countries in the world, especially considering that it’s been almost 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall that brought sweeping changes that spurred a historic, relatively bloodless, revolution of freedom and democracy, and ushered in a near-complete dismantling of the once powerful communist empire, which unraveled and imploded after decades of squandering the country’s wealth in an epic arms race with the United States.
And yet, nearly a quarter of a century after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, the Russian government under President Vladimir Putin has been gradually reverting to old Soviet-style restrictions on speech, which includes music, the Internet and other forms of entertainment, art and media. That aside, there is a genuine curiosity and anticipation whenever we come across a submission from a band in Russia. Recently, a Moscow band named Hospital, not to be confused with the Houston techno house outfit of the same name, caught the attention of our ears, and those of cafe patrons, which was exciting because this ‘new’ band from the former USSR sounds great, and turns out to be one of IRC’s Breakout Bands of 2013.
The quartet’s energetic, 80’s-style rock mixed with threads of dream pop and hints of folk is strangely, yet wonderfully, caught between embracing the post punk revivalist trend of the time, and toying with new wave (that was later labeled ‘indie electro pop’).
It’s not hard to imagine (at least it wasn’t for our group) after you listen to the songs below, Hospital breaking out in a big way in the U.S. We won’t be surprised at all if there is a strong reaction to this profile of the band in the coming weeks, as often happens for under-the-radar artists and bands that are featured on IRC, but who’ve received surprisingly little coverage elsewhere online.
The four members – Yegor Berdnikov (vocals, guitar); Aleksey Shorin (bass); Andrej Tsvetkov (guitar), and Vladimir Balovnev (drums) – formed Hospital in the autumn of 2011, but didn’t release their first 7″ single, a mini-classic by Russian indie rock standards, “Time Will Tell” (with the B-side, “Falling”), until December 2012.
A month later, in January of 2013, Hospital’s debut album, When The Trees Were Higher, was released, gaining exposure in Russia, Europe and the UK. When The Trees Were Higher has quickly become one of our favorite overseas debut LPs of 2013. It’s energetic, well-produced, provocative, unabashed, terrifically crafted, wonderfully catchy and thoroughly enjoyable, coming darn close to rivaling other top DIY debut albums of 2013 from talented overseas bands.
Plus, even though their debut single, “Time Will Tell,” was technically released in December of 2012, it was officially released as the lead single of their January debut LP, and therefore qualifies, in our book, as one of the best DIY songs of 2013. Nearly a year since their official debut release, it’s time for the band to get more exposure in the western hemisphere, especially with the release of Tailspin, Hospital’s debut EP dropped in August.
“Time Will Tell” – Hospital from When The Trees Were Higher – Jan. 13th
The five-track Tailspin EP contains only one original new track, the title track, and it’s a stellar song by all measures. It combines elements of electro pop and rock, with sprinklings of funk and R&B, creating a retro edge that is surprisingly, and yes, ironically, modern. The band members all contribute their particular skills masterfully, which is one of the reasons they sound so tight and create such catchy, memorable, melodic, and energetic songs.
There is also a remix of “Tailspin” by Halcyon Drive, is truly fantastic. In the past few weeks, we’ve listened to When The Trees Were Higher‘s seven songs at least a half dozen times, probably more. And it has really grown on us, as well as a few others who we’ve turned on to the band’s music in recent weeks. Another track that people are loving is song “Secret Place,” which we’ve included as a second bonus track in addition to the two lead singles – “Tailspin” and “Time Will Tell.”
In fact, “Secret Place,” is yet another terrific example of Hospital’s talent and knack for writing incredibly catchy songs. Listen to more songs via Hospital’s Soundcloud page.
There’s no question that Hospital is one of the hottest new bands from Russia that we’ve heard in a long time – perhaps years. To add even more credibility to that declaration, consider that Hospital was chosen to open for Lana Del Ray when she performed a sold-out concert in Moscow last July, raising the band’s local profile one hundredfold and and generating a bit of a buzz for the band that started getting them play in the UK and Europe.
In their submission, the band listed their main musical influences as Doves, The Vines, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Coldplay, and The Cure. That’s a diverse and quality selection of artists and bands with the common thread among all of them being that they are uniquely talented artists who are clearly very gifted.
We want to hear what you have to say about the band; please leave Comments in the box below or via Twitter to @IndieRockCafe with the hashtag #hospitalband
“Secret Place” – Hospital from When The Trees Were Higher
Get Inuit – Kent, England
Get Inuit is a newly emerging surf/grunge rock band from Kent, England who recently had a Record of the Week on the BBC radio program, BBC Introducing, for the single, “Cutie Pie, I’m Bloated.” The band specifically referred to their music as, verbatim, “surf/grunge/indie/retro/pop.” And it’s true (they forgot rock and elements of punk).
However, it would not work in a sentence. For example: “Next, Get Intuit is a surf grunge indie rock retro pop punk band from the United Kingdom.” Nonetheless, the results are what matter, and Get Inuit achieves what they set out to do with a mix of genres and 60s pop and rock aesthetics and songwriting with grunge guitar tones and sing-a-long choruses.
The band was literally formed in July and popped out these two tracks, including the B-side to “Cutie Pie, I’m Bloated,” a catchy rocker called “My Oh My.” On their Soundcloud page the band wrote: “We make dirty, surf inspired pop music and we come from Kent. None of us can actually surf.”
The band’s top musical influences are Weezer, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Yuck, and Bleeding Knees Club. Will this new UK band break out big? It’s always hard to say from the get-go, but they’re off to a pretty good start.
Mary Goes Wild – Munich, Germany
Launched in 2012, Mary Goes Wild is a Munich based DIY garage rock, surf and blues duo formed by Danny Wild (guitar, vocals) and Freddy Jones (drums). MGW is one of the more promising overseas DIY rock bands we’ve heard in 2013. The duo’s meticulous performances are marked by an edgy swagger in the delivery of predominantly blues roots rock signature style and sound of riffs and beats squarely places them in the Bands That Rock series.
For die-hard fans of rock, Mary Goes Wild is a roots rock band that draws from garage rock, surf and definitely blues elements. Their sound consists of back-to-the-roots blues with garage rock and surf elements. Mary Goes Wild’s live performances are excessive and extremely noisy, an effect the band strives to achieve with each show by stacking multiple amplifiers to create a modern “wall-of-sound” effect.
From the first couple of notes on the track, “Redheaded Chain,” Mary Goes Wild belts out a wicked rock sound that communicates to the listener right away that they’re not messing around with any synths, drum machines or cookie cutter riffs; their music is organic, raw and untamed. On the track, “Do Anything,” the duo kick it out just right. The band’s top musical influences include The White Stripes, Ty Segall, The Blackbox Revelation, Bass Drum Of Death, Wavves, and The Black Keys.
The Unassisted – Manchester, England
The Unassisted is an unsigned indie/alternative rock band from the U.K. that should be on the cusp of breaking out soon – that is, if the planets are aligned just right, and if DIY music lovers get their friends to listen to the tracks below. The more we listen the the tracks featured here, and the band’s other songs via Soundcloud, the more they grow on us.
Last January, the four-piece scrappy young band from Manchester dropped their debut album, The Yellow Guitar Chronicles, that included the single, “Hands Dance Hands,” a gem of a track that is pure grim rock with an terrific drum beat, gloom mixed with angst style vocal delivery, strange lyrics and a creative pairing of keyboard and guitar that gives the song a sense of creepy urgency – like something really ugly is about to go down at any second.
It’s the kind of tense, but cool, track you could imagine in a Quetin Tarintino movie or in a Breaking Bad episode. “Hands Dance Hands” helped gain the band some important airplay and blogger buzz in the UK, and put their name on the board as a new band to watch in the Manchester underground scene, most especially among fans of gloom rock.
It helps that the band has other tracks worth mentioning, including the raw, lo-fi Joy Division-like track, “Get On The Floor,” with its riveting guitar jams, menacing back beat and rhythm, and edgy, dark vocals. The track is another standout single that lends more credence to a band that is poised to that is a fan favorite at live shows, which is completely understandable.
The band’s top influences are Queens of the Stone Age, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and Beck, which is not hard to imagine after listening to the two tracks here from their recent debut. Also don’t miss the riveting mix of “Hands Dance Hands” by Future Plans. The Unassisted is planning a new release early in 2014 and we’ll certainly be interested to hear it.
The best part about Rascal Experience‘s music is Hedy Gabriel‘s excellent melodic guitar riffs, the lo-fi rawness of the songs in a way that only a DIY band could produce. There is something charmingly authentic and reassuring about band’s that are putting their heart into their music for the sake of making music and not to be popular or to overly polish their songs. In their nakedness, these are good songs; with a great producer they could be fantastic songs.
In September, the DIY band dropped their debut EP, Bad Luck Experience. Gabriel is an interesting and clearly talented indie and alternative rock songwriter, vocalist and musician from Florianopolis, Brazil, and a fan of Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes, the latter of which is easily believable listening to the band’s songs, especially stand-out tracks like “Demon of the Crop.”
One of the things we like about Gabriel’s songs is his mostly flat, yet emotive, vocals, and the fact that we can hear each and every word, which you have to give props to for someone we assume is not a native English speaker. The more we listen to the band, the more we like them. Surely they can be even better with some work and a great producer.
There are songs that fall flat, like “Begger Inside,” but if it was worked on, and if Gabriel could sing in a harder, more aggressive voice, would be such a better song. That’s the thing with DIY bands – their not quite as good as they can be, but the essential elements are there to produce some exceptional music as they mature as musicians and as a band.
Besides The Strokes, and at times, Arctic Monkeys, we also definitely hear influences of Sonic Youth, and would not be surprised if the band members were also fans of Lou Reed, with and without, The Velvet Underground, which songs like “Fake Interests” and “Different Views” make us think of. It’s always exciting to hear DIY artists who you can tell by their playing which bands they admired and listen to the most.
“Fake Interest” – Rascal Experience from Bad Luck Experience
Los Angeles DIY artist Davis Fetter. Photo by Ry.Due to the popularity over the past year of the Bands You’ve Gotta Hear series, we decided to expand it to artists. Originally this feature was going to be a new installment of the One Man Band series, but a couple of these highlighted artists have had some help from other musicians, so it would not be technically accurate to refer to them as a one-man bands, even though, for the most part, they are.
One man bands are usually young guys who write, play, and then track and mix, all of the instruments, and sing, produce and master their own songs. Performing live is often impossible for a one man band, which is why, over the past decade, they are often referred to as “bedroom artists.” Since the mid 2000’s, there have been dozens and dozens of one man (and woman too) bands profiled on IRC, who, often because of their popularity (in which case record executives often pick the band members), or a natural desire to perform live, have wound up in a band. Just a few examples would be Bon Iver, The Tallest Man on Earth and Oberhofer.
This debut of the 5 DIY Solo Artists You’ve Gotta Hear artist profile and playlist series kicks off with the buzzed-about Los Angeles artist, Davis Fetter, followed by Bring Prudence from Brooklyn; Ben Kernion of Pittsburgh; Tapes and Tubes from Olympia, Washington; and Ian Burn from St. Louis, Missouri.
Davis Fetter – Los Angeles, California
When Davis Fetter, a Los Angeles musician, was 12 years old, he heard rock and roll legend Chuck Berry for the first time, and from that moment on, he was hooked on rock and roll. Not long after being converted to rock by Berry, Fetter’s parents bought him a Gibson 335 guitar. Before he was even a teenager, Fetter was learning how to play rock and roll simply by listening to Berry and other artists. Over the years, Fetter’s music would gain him his own recognition as an artist. In fact, Fetter has opened for artists such as Peter Murphy, Blondie, Chris Cornell, The B-52s, Young The Giant, Local Natives, and The Airborne Toxic Event. That’s an impressive list of bands to have opened for.
Davis is inspired by the iconic songwriting of artists like The Smiths, Elvis, Roy Orbison, Lou Reed, and John Lennon, along with the euphoric melodies of The Libertines, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Buddy Holly. Overall, he says that his musical influences include His guitar tones are unique, technical, and spacious at the same time. Vocally, Davis’ range gives him the freedom to hit Little Richard type notes with the effortless cool of a Morrissey or Julian Casablancas, and the childlike raucous of Peter Doherty. His sound has been compared to Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Glasvegas, John Lennon, and James Brown.
In August 2012, Fetter’s single, “I See Love,” went #1 on LA’s KROQLocals Only broadcast, earning the song additional airplay on London’s XFM. Fetter’s songs have also been featured on MTV, FX, Oxygen, Sky Network, and in various independent films. Nylon Mag featured Fetter’s track, “Euphoria” on their Sept 2011 mixtape. His latest single “I Won’t Let The World Break My Heart,” clearly demonstrates Fetter’s talent as a songwriter, vocalist and musician. Fetter has no plans at the moment to release an album, stating that he’s a “singles guy.” It would be nice to see him put out a debut album. The second single, “Look What You’ve Done to the Boy,” and the accompanying music video, is yet another excellent track that adds credibility to Fetter’s profile.
The one-man electro pop band project of Brooklyn resident songwriter, musician and producer Oleh Zaychenko, called Bring Prudence, was an interesting discovery in our submission box. Zaychenko records quirky, heavily melodic pop songs with a 80’s new wave/goth edge, drum machines, chunky bass lines, understated guitar parts and Casio-sounding keyboards on tracks like, “Don’t Break My Heart,” complete with Zaychenko’s nerdy style vocals that remind us a lot of They Might Be Giants. His musical influences include Depeche Mode, Elliott Smith, Leonard Cohen, and The Talking Heads. Bring Prudence’s EP, Aliens, was dropped on August 5th.
“Don’t Break My Heart” – Bring Prudence from Aliens
“Grandview” – Bring Prudence from Aliens – August 5th
Ben Kernion – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh DIY indie psychedelic guitar rock musician Ben Kernion began writing and recording music during 2004 to 2006 while attending audio engineering school in New York City. After graduating in March 2012, Kernion moved back to his hometown of Pittsburgh after being evicted from his New York apartment for noise complaints. Along with Marko Zyznewsky, Kernion co-wrote the music to “The Rust,” the standout track from his debut album, Tunnelvision. The album cover art for the release is awful, which is why we avoided using it, but the alternative wasn’t much better. (If you’re going to use crayons, at least come up with something stunning; not some chicken scribble that looks like a seven-year-old did it; a seven year old lacking artistic talent at that.)
Recently, we started asking musicians who submit their songs for review, “what is indie rock,” in their own words. Kernion wrote: “Indie rock to me is any music that honestly reflects the unique thoughts and feelings inherent in each of us, individually, and as communities, performed with at least one traditional element of rock.”
“The Rust” – Ben Kernion from Tunnelvision – Feb. 17th
“The Sinking Facts” – Ben Kernion from Tunnelvision
Another one-man band, Tapes & Tubes, is the work of Olympia, Washington experimental recording artist Austin Potter, who occasionally gets help from family and friends, although his recordings are primarily his work, from the writing and recording of instruments to the mixing and mastering of the final tapes. His DIY recording of the lo-fi, dreamy, hazy pop song, “Salad Days,” reminds us of American Analog Set and in other areas of the album of My Bloody Valentine, specially on the track, “My Own America,” which is reminiscent of the droning vocal layering MBV’s Kevin Shields used on the band’s classic album, Loveless. Both tracks are off of Potter’s self-released album, simply titled, 27, released on August 5th. Potter also hosts a weekly radio show at KAOS 89.3 FM in Olympia and lists his top musical influences as Yo La Tengo, Dump, The Feelies, Neil Young, and Lambchop.
It happened on a January evening in 2013. Suddenly, it all clicked, and the young, aspiring musician Ian Burn was inspired to write and record his first song titled, “Enough.” From St. Louis, Missouri, and only 20 years old, Burn attempted to write an album’s worth of material, but soon he discovered that he could actually write songs better and more quickly if he approached his songwriting from a non-album framework. Plus, as Burn said in his submission, he has been “trying to write music, but could never finish either the music or the lyrics.” For the songs that he has finished so far, we are impressed by the raw, untainted sincerity and lo-fi magnificence of DIY.
Should he continue to hone his skills, we think Burn has a lot to contribute as a songwriter and musician. He sings about avoiding mediocrity and embracing a life of curious searching for his place and meaning in life, which is perfectly normal for a young man to do, and it’s a process that lasts a lifetime. He found that attempting to write music within the concept of an album was blocking him from finishing songs, both lyrically and musically, so he now writes and records a song a month, which he indicated works well for him.
“I started writing music cause I have some things to say,” Burn told IRC. “I’ve been playing guitar for about 10 years, so most of my songs start from the guitar and then I build them up. Genre wise I think my music is just rock n’ roll. Besides Petty and Dylan I’m a big fan of Link Wray and a lot of early rock/surf music… I write and record all the parts on my laptop, but do the drums/bass through a USB keyboard. All this is done solo, usually on the floor in my room.”
Burn has a nasally, pitchy voice woven together with jangly blues guitar and simple, clear cut, drums and rhythm, reminiscent of early Tom Petty. Burn currently performs at open mics around the St. Louis area.
If you’re looking for good wrap-up and reliable playlist of MP3 singles of the top indie tracks for the first two weeks of October, then you’re on the right page.
San Francisco‘s ever-prolific guitar rock prodigy, Ty Segall, put together a new band, Fuzz, earlier this year, and in the first week of October, Fuzz dropped its self-titled debut album to warm reviews and music lovers’ praise. The album features an array of influences and genres, combining heavy psychedelic rock mixed with 70’s stoner, and even ambient rock and heavy metal elements driven by sweet rhythms and the type of blazing guitar riffs and solos that are Segall’s signature sound.
Yuck Drops a Brilliant Sophomore LP, Glow & Behold
One of the most popular indie rock bands of the past couple of years, Yuck, dropped their much anticipated sophomore album, Glow & Beholdon October 1st. Critics and fans love it, and the lead first single, “Rebirth,” is a good presentation of the rest of the new album. This is definitely one album to get in the second half of 2013. Add to that list the just released new album another indie favorite, Teen Daze, complete with their earthy, radiant and heartfelt electro dream pop.
Who would of thought that Philly‘s indie rockers Dr. Dog would end up releasing one of the catchiest, feel good pop songs of the year? Well, it sounds like they did just that with the simply-titled track, “Love?” One of the things that has been a hallmark of Dr. Dog’s modest popularity in the sphere of indie rock is the fact that they take chances, try different things, experiment and obviously enjoy innovating and creating songs that really stand on their own, and often stand out in memorable ways. Dr. Dog fans spread from coast to coast as we witnessed this summer during the Outside Lands Festival (which in just five years has earned its place in the same sentence as festivals like Coachella and Bonaroo). A clearly loyal, enthusiastic, and pumped up group of maybe 400 to 700 (wild guess) fans gathered around one of the smaller (but not small) stages – The Panhandle stage – at Outside in August sang along to one great Dr. Dog track after another.
While we’re more rock than pop, there are some great pop, and pop/rock, songs that come out from time to time, and “Love?” is one of the them. That said, the album does have a good number of more pop-oriented and mixed-genre songs on the new album, titled B-Room. And not to worry rockers, B-Room has some solid rock songs. But more than anything, B-Room exemplifies how Dr. Dog is a natural product of their Philadelphia roots, with heavy mixing of all types of genres from jazz and funk to blues and R&B to 60s-style bluesy psychedelia. And they push the limit even more on songs like “Twilight,” which starts out as basically a classical arrangement and transforms into a hard-to-pinpoint – and even to explain – style of shiny, but melancholic at the same time, acoustic guitar with what sounds like a dulcimer and somewhat theatrical vocals all while the wonderful sound of vinyl, with a nick in it, plays in the background. View the “Love” music video from the band.
Blitzen Trapper, Saint Rich, and Tape Deck Mountain Bring Grit on Fresh Tracks
Blitzen Trapper‘s seventh album, appropriately titled VII, offers a more gritty, roots-oriented, beats-driven sound, with moments of funk-heavy rhythms, and infusions of slide guitar, harmonicas, banjos and keyboards. It’s definitely not the alternative country rock and folk sound of the early years. It’s pretty amazing to us that the Portland band has dropped seven fine albums in the span of 10 years and three labels. The lead single from the album, “Ever Loved Once,” exemplifies the band’s talent for switching things up, experimenting, evolving and taking chances. Following Blitzen Trapper, is the power pop single, “Officer,” from the debut album, Beyond The Drone, from the new musical project, Saint Rich, featuring Delicate Steve bandmates Steve Marion and Christian Peslak. The album is a hook-filled and well produced collection of power pop, prog, and folk-influenced psych pop. And of course, don’t miss out on the latest reverb and feedback heavy single, “Half Life,” from long-time favorites, Tape Deck Mountain, newest album, Sway.
“Half Life” – Tape Deck Mountain from Sway on Nineteen98
Top Psychedelic Rock Singles and Albums from Polvo, Raccoon Fighter, The Sadies and Baiterspace
The following singles all share common characteristics – they’re essentially psych rock jams, with some folk and other styles that echo the sounds of the late 1960s Chapel Hill, North Carolina band Polvo released their second album, Siberia, since reuniting a few years ago. The album includes a seven-minute psychedelic rock jam with hints of goth, experimental and hard core. Another jammy, but less psych-oriented single, “Santa Tereza,” is off of Raccoon Fighter‘s debut album, ZIL, on Papercup Music. And if that’s not enough jam-heavy, psych rock influenced tunes for you, there is also the latest from psychedelic rock veterans, Toronto‘s own The Sadies and the single, “The First 5 Minutes” from the band’s 16th album, Internal Sounds. And finally, the band, Baiterspace, succeeds at crafting dark, heavy psychedelic rock – that sounds like it could be from 1969 – on their latest single, “Films of You,” from the album Trinine. We only wish the song were a bit longer so that we could enjoy the groove they laid down for a longer time period.
Top Singles from Black Moth, Cumulus, Hunters, Those Darlins and Others
Keeping with the hard rock edge is the smoking single (that came out just in time for Halloween), “The Articulate Dead” from the band Black Moth‘s sophomore release, The Killing Jar. Next, the new-to-us band Cumulus deliver a sweet little melodic pop rocker on the track, “Middle,” featuring some early 80’s-style guitar rock riffs, catchy, singalong choruses, shifts in tempo, and a FM-friendly rhythm and percussion all of the way through. Plus, listen to singles from The Field, Hunters, Those Darlins, among others.
New-to-us band Hollow & Akimbo quietly, for the most part, released an excellent debut album in the first week of October containing standout tracks like “Still Life” and “Solar Plexus.” For fans of late 60’s and early 70’s T. Rex and David Bowie, you might wish to indulge in the latest release, Mole City, from Quasi, including the very Bowiesque sounds, and more, of the ironically ttild single, “See You on Mars.” Gratefully they did their Bowie/Rex rendering with taste and made it unique enough that it stands on its own merit.
“Solar Plexus” – Hollow & Akimbo from Psuedoscience EP on Quite Scientific
Los Angeles multi-genre sister band, HAIM, have been creating a buzz on music blogs in recent months thanks to their debut, Days Are Gone. The album displays the sisters sunny 80’s pop sensibilities integrated with other genres like soft rock, R&B, electro, dance, power pop woven together with a convergence of glistening pop guitar hooks, rhythms to dance to, subtle, emotive synth playing, lush harmonies and sleek, echoing beats. Also check out electro tracks from Moby, featuring Cold Specks, plus Oneohtrix Point Never (unusual, tongue-twisting name but easy to find them via search engines) received a huge number of hearts and comments on Soundcloud;
“Zebra” – Oneohtrix Point Never from R Plus Seven on Warp Records
Top Indie Singles – Week of October 8th: DARKSIDE, Albert Hammond Jr., The Fratellis, Of Montreal and others
Electronic producer Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington teamed up last year to create the duo DARKSIDE, and in the second week of October released their debut album, Psychic, which earned the duo a lot of big buzz on music blogs across the web. There’s a flurry of genre-cross dressing going on in the pair’s songs, intricately arranging moody and provocative electronic prog rock, psych and dashes of rhythm and blues. Psychic is easily one of the best electronic debuts of 2013, and a must-have for electro fans.
Don Yates, the music director at Seattle‘s KEXP, described the album as “a moody, entrancing blend of various downtempo electronic styles with prog, blues and psych-rock” as the lead single, “Golden Arrow,” demonstrates over the eleven minute track. We think every minute of the song is worth the time investment for sure. It’s hard to think of any other new electro artist this year that has made such an impression with bloggers and fans across the country and around the world.
Next, Strokes‘ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. offers up his latest solo effort featuring the single, “Rude Customer.” The latest single from the band Dale Earndardt Jr. Jr., with its long title, “If You Didn’t See Me (Then You Weren’t On The Dancefloor),” is a dance pop track, and if you dig that kind of thing, or are just in the mood, it’s catchy and upbeat. The band’s record label was nervous about the name, so the band wrote the famous race-driver and asked him if it was OK with him to name their band after him, and according to band member Daniel Zott, Earnhardt replied and said it was fine with him, that he was flattered and wished the band good luck.
“Rude Customer” – Albert Hammond Jr. from AHJ EP on Cult Records
Top Singles from New Albums by The Fratellis, His Clancyness, Tim Kasher and Of Montreal
This next block features stellar singles from new albums by under-rated indie rock band The Fratellis; the increasingly popular indie band His Clancyness; and singer/songwriter Tim Kasher; indie quirk heroes Of Montreal with The Kinks-sounding single “Belle Glade Missionaries ; and the hard-driving, eclectic post-punk of Parquet Courts.
There’s going to be a rush of 2013 DIY, small label and under-the-radar releases in the coming weeks, and perhaps even into the first couple of months of 2014. It all goes by so fast. But we have some great songs from recent drops in September and October for you – altogether, 17 new songs. Stream all of the songs like a podcast by simply clicking the play button of the first song on below from Gang of Brothers.
This is the latest installment of 7 Bands You’ve Gotta Hear; the last ‘7 Bands’ was published in June. Another terrific series, with amazing bands making first-rate music, is a variation called 7 Overseas Bands You’ve Gotta Hear.
Both series have been incredibly popular, and thus, the newest installment with: Australian funky R&B band, Gang of Brothers; Baltimore orchestra pop band Sun Club; Boston electro dance band, The Bynars; St. Louis indie rock band The Union Electric; Los Angeles indie pop trio Kid Cadaver; London tropical rock band Crash Island; and Los Angeles pop band Ocelot Robot.
Gang of Brothers – Sydney, Australia
A new Australia that crossed our radar with a submission of two singles is the soulful, R&B, funky band Gang of Brothers from Sydney. They blew us away with their retro late 60’s, early 70’s sounds.
The first track “Get Up On Ya Feet N’ Testify” is a straight out, fast moving, big bouncing R&B and soul music extravaganza that sounds so so good that if these guys were around 40 years ago, they could have been competition for Sly and the Family Stone – for reals. No wonder that the single has been No. 1 on some online charts (they didn’t tell us which ones though) for weeks.
With one exception, they really are a gang of brothers, and it came as no surprise when we read more about them that they all were born into, and raised around, music. Brothers Andro, Dauno, Fenix and Banel Martinez hail from “the prestigious musical” Martinez family (Martinez Akustica).
On the drums and lead vocals is a brother to the family (not genetically though) Buddy Siolo, whose talents have taken him around the globe to perform, and we can certainly see why.
While the band remains unsigned, MGM is in charge of their distribution. All we can say about that is they should have a big-time distributor because they belong in the big time. While there is yet no indication of when a debut album should be expected, we at least hope that it is coming soon.
Gang of Brothers have also performed at a number of jazz and rock festivals in Australia and New Zealand; somebody needs to book them to perform at a festival in the U.S. if they can bring it like they do on “Get Up On Ya Feet N’ Testify.”
The second track the band sent us, “She’s Gone,” is the polar opposite, a much slower, heartfelt track that furthers the band’s status as an excellent soul and funk band the soul is still there. Even though we know otherwise, it’s still hard to sink in that these cats are from Sydney – they sound like they’d be from New York, Philly, LA, Oakland, Chicago or some other big U.S. music city with a tradition of soul, R&B and funk. But the fact that they’re from Australia, you gotta say, is even more impressive.
“Shes Gone” – Gang of Brothers from Gang of Brothers
Sun Club – Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore band Sun Club creates upbeat indie orchestral pop tunes with flourishing, bright instrumentation, a series of musical stops and starts along with delirious stomping, joyful ohh-ohh choruses, melodic hooks and animal calls and howls (“Language Juice”) reminiscent of Brad Oberhofer (of Oberhofer).
We knew that someday we’d hear someone else emulate Oberhofer’s wild howls he so wonderfully mixed into his songs dating back to when we were the first blog to publish his demos in 2009, and part of what catapulted he and his band’s popularity.
Sun Club, formed in 2012, live up to their name; their songs are sunny, shiny and deliciously upbeat. They have toured as far north as Toronto and as far south as Austin. In May of 2012 the band released their debut LP and now they’re following up with this new double-track 7″ release.
Sun Club has opened for bands like The Spinto Band, Fang Island, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Morning Teleportation, The Weeks, and The Front Bottoms, and count among their biggest influences The Beach Boys and Animal Collective.
Kid Cadaver – Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles alternative pop rock trio Kid Cadaver, has been on regular rotation in the cafe for weeks. The band members all grew up in San Fernando Valley area and got together in 2010 thanks to friends. According to their profile, they “draw inspiration from girls, dread growing older, mask their emotions, and are constantly seeking to maximize their fun.”
Kid Cadaver released their debut EP, New Modern, in September 2011 and just dropped their sophomore, self-titled EP on September 23rd. The band has previously opened for bands like The Black and The White and Escondido and listed their top musical influences as Passion Pit, MGMT, Grimes, Bad Suns, Vampire Weekend, and Tokyo Police Club.
“Stable” – Kid Cadaver from Kid Cadaver EP – Sept. 23rd
“Stick Around” – Kid Cadaver from Kid Cadaver
The Bynars – Boston, Massachusetts
Put on your dancing shoes for the undeniably addictive electro pop dance single, “Dancing on a Dream,” from the Boston DIY band The Bynars. As with do with all posts featuring talented new artists and bands that are inexplicably under the radar for too long, we’ll watch the feedback and numbers to see how all of you take to this promising new band. Their sophomore album, X vs. X, officially dropped on September 17th. Good thing is that, judging the reactions of friends of the cafe, the cloak of obscurity is lifting off of The Bynars. In listening to X vs. X, we get the sense that this band is going to start breaking out soon.
It’s not really clear how to put a genre on the album’s second track, “Tired of Hooking Up With You,” featuring ATM. It’s a beat pop framework – that’s the best way to put it – with rolling waves of 80’s new wave synth coupled with 80’s electric guitar riffs, as if Prince, OMD and Eddie Van Halen were put into a blender.
There are times, on standout songs like “All I Wanna Do is Have Some Fun Tonight,” that you link you hear some Passion Pit, MGMT and New Order, but the truth is, and it becomes clear (although ultimately not) as you progress through each track that this band thrives off of experimental and taking a dabble from the spectrum of music genres to create an original, and interesting, musical journey.
On “All I Wanna Do…” a nearly 12-minute track, the band breaks out into an interesting and colorful free form-style jam somewhat characteristic of jazz jams, as well as some late 1960’s and early 1970’s rock, where players and their instruments, in intervals lead the song and step into the spotlight for a couple of minutes.
The Union Electric, a St. Louis DIY band, has released four 7″s and their debut LP, Time Is Gold (2011), since their 2009 inception. Time Is Gold was the first record on the Rankoutsider label to make the CMJ Radio 200 chart.
The band has previously opened for artists like Deer Tick, Dax Riggs, Murder By Death, Puerto Muerto, and Gringo Starr, and their influences include Woody Guthrie, Nick Cave, Handsome Family, Richard Buckner, and Calexico.
Dark tropical indie rock from London comes to us from the unsigned band Crash Island. The band gathers indie punk ethos with 80’s nostalgic synths, reggae rhythms and melodic vocal lines. They have so far played in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland and France.
The band’s debut studio EP, Strange Shores, was mixed by the famous Strokes‘ producer Gordon Raphael in Seattle and Buenos Aires, and released on October 21st. Crash Island’s top influences include Fatboy Slim, We Heart Sharks, Jack Savoretti, The Clash, College, !!! and Bloc Party.
In March, DIY power pop songwriter, vocalist and musician Sam Page self-released his debut album, Breach, featuring ten original songs of excellent guitar-driven pop/rock that partially channels styles of the 1980’s and 90s.
Page wrote all of the songs himself, and recorded and mixed all of the vocals, guitars and bass tracks at his home in Mission Viejo, California. He also mixed in shakers, tambourines, and even various children’s percussive instruments that he picked up around his home. His friend, Jim Moreland, stepped in to play drums and mastered the tracks for the album.
Prior to the release of Breach, Page released a number of EPs and performed at more than 20 well-received gigs throughout southern California. He has a well-honed, driving guitar rock pop sound with strong melodic hooks as demonstrated on the single, “Hold On,” which almost sounds like an 80’s FM single, although the vocals and some of the production levels could be tweaked a bit to make it even better. The second song off Breach, “Now I Know,” has a catchy chorus, buzzing, jangly guitar riffs and an overall feel-good aura about it; the song reminds us of Matthew Sweet, who not surprisingly turns out to be one of Page’s major musical influences. Other influential artists include Jack White, CAKE, Cloud Nothings, Dinosaur Jr., Weezer, and The Pixies.
“Hold On” – Sam Page from Breach – March 16th
“Now I Know” – Sam Page from Breach
Sam Page is a talented songwriter, vocalist and musician who creates hook-filled pop rock tracks
Page’s prolific work in the past two years has provided fans with more than a couple dozen tracks in a relatively short period of time. His discography features one splendid, enjoyable, and infectious hook-heavy guitar rock/pop song after another, as the terrific single, “I Wonder,” from his 2012 EP, Going on a Rampage, demonstrates.
“I Wonder” – Sam Page from Going on a Rampage – Jan. 1st, 2012
“Pass Me By” – Sam Page from Waiting For Another Spring – April 1st, 2012
Page Song Popular on Spotify?; Schoolhouse Rocks Comparison
A couple of weeks ago, Page said that another track, “Pheromones” had more than 27,000 streams on Spotify in a week, but he doesn’t know why. It’s possible those statistics could be a “false positive,” because we’ve counted at least four other songs with the same “Pheromones” title from different artists.
Therefore, it’s possible that people looking for the song of the same name, by another artist, were creating those streams, depending of course on Spotify’s reporting methodology. It’s also possible that the song – which is an excellent track on it’s own – simply went semi-viral – all it takes is one link from a blog post, or even a very popular Spotify user who just happened to include the song link in a playlist.
That said, “Pheromones” is a pretty good track and it even has a bit Schoolhouse Rocks charm about it. Schoolhouse Rocks was a long-running (1973-2009) ABC television series of short educational spots that used music and animated characters to teach school children about everything from grammar to how a bill is passed in Congress.
Page is not only the Artist of the Week, but he’s also an Artist to Watch. We keep listening to his tracks – they’re addictive when you’re in the mood for guitar-driven pop rock songs with super melodic hooks.
Learn more about Page’s work at his official website.
We’re catching up with September’s top releases – the amount of music – from both popular and signed artists as well as under-the-radar and DIY artists – was crazy – hundreds of singles and albums to filter through. The first volume of Best Singles and Albums for September 2013 covered the first half of September, and the playlist contains 50 excellent singles from albums released between September 3rd and September 16th. This, the second volume, features top singles from new releases dropped between September 17th and September 30th.
Unlike the previous volume, we’re going to publish the section of latest releases from new, talented and promising under-the-radar, DIY and small label bands that are some of the most amazing bands we’ll come across in the second half of September – Kill City Cartel, Crash Island, Gang of Brothers, Sun Club, The Union Electric, Ocelot Robot, Kid Cadaver, The Bynars, Odesza, and many others in a separate post in the next couple of days, so you’ll want to watch out for that. We’ve been listening again and again to over one hundred singles from September releases from mostly unsigned bands.
In fact, Volume One includes about a dozen DIY and obscure indie artists, and the upcoming special edition covering the best in DIY for the second half of September will include a number of phenomenal new bands exclusive to IRC. In the end, as far as DIY and under the radar bands, we’ll have altogether about 40 to 50 top singles from September releases, including Volume One. Those of you who have enjoyed all of the lesser known, but amazingly talented bands and artists that we’ve published over the years, definitely don’t want to miss the next big batch of brand new picks for the second half September that should be finished by next week.
This uninterrupted playlist featuring the top singles from the best albums dropped in the second half of September is nothing short of mind-blowing (we’ll keep it on a loop for a few days after posting it public), and the sheer magnitude of the collective talent speaks for itself:
Said The Whale, Sebadoh MGMT, Nightmares On Wax, The Darcys, Delorean, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Crystal Stilts, Factory Floor, Islands, Grouplove, The Dirtbombs, The Mission, Campfire OK, The Naked and the Famous and Sidi Toure Apr, Keep Shelly in Athens, Potty Mouth, San Fermin, Daedelus
It’s a mini Who’s Who of indie artists featuring a wide cross-section of genres, styles, sub cultures and talented musicians. What’s even better is that is only one half of this playlist. The second half, which covers the last week (starting September 24th) of September, features fewer bands than the third week, but no less an awesome collection of singles:
TRAMMS, Kelley Stoltz, Heaven’s Gate, The Herms, Au Revoir Simone, Ha Ha Tonka, Deer Tick, Golden Animals, CHVRCHES, Icona Pop, The Chambermaids, Kyson, Star Anna
The top releases for the second half of September kicks off where volume one left off – the week of September 17th, followed by the week of September 24th. The best singles from new albums for the week of the 17th include tracks from an incredible array of talented artists, including Said The Whale, Sebadoh, Cloud Control, Grouplove and of course MGMT. Probably the catchiest track and riff of the week goes to Said The Whale’s track “I Love You” that definitely has some “My Sharona” overtones and clear 80’s new wave pop rock radio sounds.
“I Love You” – Said the Whale from Hawaiii on Hidden Pony Records
“I Will” – Sebadoh from Defend Yourself on Joyful Noise Recordings
Sweet Releases from Factory Floor, Islands, Grouplove, The Dirtbombs Represented by New Singles
DFA recording artist Factory Floor get this block hopping with a smokin’ new single, “Turn It Up,” off of the outfit’s self-titled debut album, followed by singles from new albums by IRC long-time favorites Islands, Grouplove and The Dirtbombs. Just a series of tracks from those three bands one right after another is representative of what a blockbuster week September 17th to 23rd was after a relatively thin summer for new, anticipated and highly recommended releases. In fact, during July and August, there were more impressive releases coming from our pool of DIY, under the radar and small label bands than there were from the aforementioned, which was exciting for us as well as a lot of listeners who come to IRC for the popular new releases but also the other choice picks that we feature each month, including many new bands and exclusive releases not found, most of the time, on any other major indie blog.
“Turn It Up” – Factory Floor from Factory Floor on DFA Records
“Wave Forms” – Islands from Ski Mask on Manque Music
“Ways to Go” – Grouplove from Spreading Rumours on Atlantic Records (with their Kim Ill music video – ,
Placebo’s Odd Music Video and The Mission, Campfire OK, The Naked and the Famous and Sidi Toure’s Latest Releases
The music video for Placebo‘s “Too Many Friends” features a long intro before the music starts. It’s a bit trippy and kind of interesting in which the viewer is asked to participate in choosing which plot best fits the remainder of the story played out in the intro. It’s a risky experiment and came out OK. We respect bands that take a risk of getting slammed, in a quest for originality, by politically or culturally correct critics and bloggers . Plus, don’t miss notable lead singles from fresh albums by The Mission, Campfire OK, The Naked and The Famous and Sidi Toure.
Sam Fermin Music Video in the Redwoods; Arp, Keep Shelly in Athens, Potty Mouth
San Fermin really has a pair of lungs as she belts out the lyrics to the orchestral pop, funk single, “Sonsick.” The music video for the song was filmed in a redwood forest. Here in coastal California, we love our redwood forests. For what it’s worth, the redwoods in this video are not even the really big ones. Some of the tallest redwood trees are taller, or almost as tall, as many of the skyscrapers in New York City (see the very end of this post to read more about the redwoods). Plus, check out singles from new-to-us bands Arp, Keep Shelly in Athens and Potty Mouth.
“Sonsick” – San Fermin from San Fermin on Downtown Records
West Palm Beach’s C86 Revivalists (Even If They Don’t Know It) The Band in Heaven
From West Palm Beach, Florida, comes the exciting and promising outfit, The Band in Heaven, with their new shoegazey kind of dream popish single, “Dandelion Wine,” which, from the opening notes to the last hook, reminds us a lot of Echo and the Bunnymen, but even more precisely of Close Lobsters, a long ago disbanded 1990’s quintet that hard-core C86 enthusiasts likely have heard before. The C86 ‘mixtape’ movement of the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s was largely an underground movement – most especially on college campuses – that spawned the first wave of artists and bands that would later become known as indie rock or ‘college rock’ artists. If you’re a fan of dream pop, post punk and shoegaze, we recommend getting your hands on their debut album, Caught in a Summer Swell, released on Sept. 19th via Decades Records.
There is also a string of seven inch singles and demos available via The Band in Heaven’s Bandcamp page, that includes a free download of the song, “Summer Bummer,” that we featured in one of the popular summer playlists back in 2011 as well as profiling the band the first time in a 2010 edition of In Dee Mail, along with other new (at the time) bands like Luna is Honey, A Silent Film, Ganglians, and many others. Unfortunately, some of the song links (but not for the band’s just mentioned) in that post no longer work (and the same goes for images), but the two songs we featured from TBIN are much more in the vain of their early fuzzy shoegaze sound, which is apparent on one of our favorite DIY tracks of 2010, “High Low.” The Band In Heaven performed at New York’s prestigious venue, Pianos on Oct. 17th to a fairly enthusiastic gathering of their followers.
Since their formation in 2010, the band has gained a considerable following and last year signed to Decades Records. They’ve opened for big time bands like Jesus and Mary Chain, Brian Jonestown Massacre, No Age and Surfer Blood. In addition, the band lists their top musical influences as Diiv, Neutral Milk Hotel, My Bloody Valentine, and Spacemen 3. We’ve been digging their mix of dream pop, shoegaze and psychedelic rock tracks since we first were turned on to the band in 2010. However, their new album marks a shift to a heavily dream pop collection of songs, which they deliver with kudos from cafe patrons.
“Dandelion Wine” – The Band in Heaven from Caught in a Summer Swell – Sept. 17th
The Redwoods: Precious National Natural Treasures
The San Fermin video we included above in coverage for Week 3 got us on the subject of redwoods. They are basically part of our big back yard, if you will, in northern coastal California. Some of the redwood trees are 1,000 to 2,000 years old. Sadly, due to the huge demand for redwood around the world (particularly in the U.S. and Asia); out of control population growth in the past century; corruption in California state government dating back to its beginning, and humans’ insatiable appetite, and disregard, to consume precious natural resources, including national treasures like the redwoods. According to the Sierra Club, there are only about 7% of the virgin, old-growth redwoods left in California, tucked away in places like Muir Redwoods just north of the Golden Gate Bridge; Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains; Redwood National Forest way up in northern most coastal California, and a number of other state and federal parks and areas from Big Sur to Mendocino. These are the only places in the world were redwoods still remain, and while most of them are gone, there are still places you can go to experience something that will blow your mind – walking through an old growth redwood forest. You’ve seen them in the movies, but you have to really be there to absorb just how gigantic, majestic and beautiful these towering trees are and just how small and humbled you feel standing in their enormous shadows. Put it on your lists of ‘must do’ things. Hopefully you enjoyed our little tangent.
Featured Artist: The amazing collage art of Derek Gores; see more at derekgoes.com Because the two-part Best Singles & Albums of August (volumes One and Two) were so crazy popular with listeners, we’re doing the same for September; this post and playlist is a collection of the best singles from albums released during the first two weeks of September from well-known and signed bands as well as DIY and under-the-radar indie artists. The first official week of releases for September runs from Sept. 3rd to Sept. 9th, and featured a bunch of excellent anticipated and surprise album releases – showcased by lead singles and music videos from bands like Glasvegas, Neko Case, Nine Inch Nails, Califone, Okkervil River, King Khan and the Shrines, among others. This extensive post and playlist also features DIY and under-the-radar releases from various band submissions by Osk, Soy La Vid, Burning Condors, Rossonian, and more.
The second week of top September releases, spanning Sept. 10th to Sept. 16th, highlights lead singles and music videos from new LPs and EPs from artists such as Holy Ghost, Man Man, Forest Fire, Obits, Goldfrapp, and the Arctic Monkeys, plus exclusive IRC entries from DIY and small label bands like Bucharest, The Visibles, The Big, Fin Folsom, Sterling Fox and Wonderflu, among others. The first two days of September overlapped into the last week of releases for the month of August, the week of August 27th to September 2nd.
Top Music Releases’ Singles Playlist, September 3rd to September 9th
Top Singles of Week One from Glasvegas, Neko Case, Nine Inch Nails, Califone, Okkervil River and Others
This playlist features 50 hand-picked singles from LPs, EPs and singles officially dropped in the first two weeks of September. The first week of releases for the month of September covers Tuesday (the day most labels drop new albums), September 3rd to September 6th, with top singles and albums from bands like Glasvegas, Nine Inch Nails, Neko Case, Califone, Okkervil River, King Khan and The Shrines, Royal Canoe, Holograms, The 175 and Volcano Choir among more well-known and signed artists, as well as a range of fantastic singles from new albums by DIY, small label and under-the-radar bands like Osk, Soy La Vid, Burning Condors, Rossonian. Fire up the playlist, kick back and enjoy.
We were surprised (but then not really) to see Captain Kirk (aka, William Shatner) doing the intro for Glasvegas‘ new music video for their single, “If.” In fact, it spun off a separate conversation about Shatner, his age, iconic status and even his musical career that was too long to fit here. “If” is one of the highlights of what sounds like a pretty decent album from Glasvegas. We haven’t yet really had a chance to listen to it three or four times, which is about what it takes to start to absorb an album like Later… When the TV Turns to Static. Next, the dynamic Neko Case has done it again; that is, produce a terrific album of heart-warming and intricate songs. She’s also managed to get by with an unusually long album title – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. On a different label, she probably could not have gotten away with it, but Anti-Records is not one of the old stuffy labels of yesteryear, and they’re cool with thinking out of the box. Check out the song, “Man” and stream the album – which should be called The Worse Things Get for short – and enjoy the masterful music compositions and wonderful voice of Neko Case.
“If” – Glasvegas from Later… When the TV Turns to Static on Go Wow
“Man” – Neko Case from The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You on Anti-Records
Hot New Singles from Nine Inch Nails, Okkervil River and Califone’s Latest Releases
Nine Inch Nails‘ frontman, and the band’s longest remaining original member, Trent Reznor, has been a busy guy. Just in the past year, he has been on successful tours, released an excellent new album with his side-project, How To Destroy Angels, and even found time to compose video game and soundtrack scores. Plus, on Sept. 3rd, NIN released a new album that contains more synths, complex rhythms and strong hooks than any previous album. Indie folksters Okkervil River, lead by the spectacular and catchy single, “It Was My Season,” dropped their seventh studio LP, The Silver Gymnasium in the first week of September. The album is a concept LP of songs that relate to frontman Will Sheff‘s childhood in his hometown of Meriden, New Hampshire, and it is full of nostalgic reflections on childhood friendships, 80’s pop culture, and life events all draped in the band’s flourishing orchestral folk and pop sound that is evident throughout.
Chicago band, Califone, hit the mark again with their 13th album, Stitches, featuring experimental folk-pop with a spooky, sometimes hypnotic, and atmospheric, sounds and frontman Tim Rutili‘s amazing vocals. And then of course there is the sophomore album from Justin Vernon‘s (Bon Iver) side-project Volcano Choir, consisting of smooth melodies and atmospheric and experimental folk-pop and post-rock flourishes. If you like Vernon’s work, you’ll want to get the LP, Repave.
“Came Back Haunted” – Nine Inch Nails from Hesitation Marks on Columbia Records
Latest Releases from King Khan & The Shrines and Grooms Spawn Terrific Singles
With an eighth album, Idle No More, King Khan & The Shrines has produced their most political work yet, paying homage to the indigenous rights movement in Canada, as well as personal insights about love and loss on one excellent soulful garage rock song after another. The official video for the song is cheesy, but some people find it interesting – in a cornball way. Next, the Brooklyn band Grooms employs 90’s-era indie rock with buzzing guitars and infectious melodies. The band’s third album, Infinity Caller, is available now on Western Vinyl.
“Bite My Tongue” – King Khan and the Shrines from Idle No More on Merge Records
Top Singles from Holograms, The 1975, Royal Canoe, Caged Animal and Sundowner’s Latest Drops
Holograms, a Swedish rock band, employ a tougher, drearier post-punk edge on their sophomore album with buzzing guitars and thick ; The first three minutes of the eight minute single from Hookworms starts out hushed, dark and haunting with a freaky, mystical twist and then launches into a louder and darker musical journey. We can’t really say that we understand the them or story of the video. Also, listen to the catchy riffs of Royal Canoe; the sweet pop of The 1975; the heavily melodic, tamed sounds of Caged Animal, and the intricate, atmospheric computer-generated sounds and beats of Jackson and His Computerband. Lastly, in as far as signed bands with releases, is “Faded Glory,” the first single from Ginkgo‘s debut record, Manopause. Ginkgo features Josh Grier and Jeremy Hanson of Tapes ‘n Tapes. Next, check out the top DIY albums and singles released by unsigned and small label artists Burning Condors, Soy La Vid, Rafon Godard and Osk.
Standout Tracks from Radar Artists Burning Condors, Soy La Vid, Rafon Godard and Osk Exclusively on IRC
There are a number of fine EPs and LPs from DIY and small label artists and bands this week that you don’t want to miss. Of all the artists in this section, London band Burning Condors is the least under-the-radar of them all. Burning Condors have made waves in the U.K. for their energetic garage rock blaze, a sound the band calls “artful punk.” That said, there is clearly a heavy influence of rock and blues in their sound as evident on blistering songs like “Last Train Home” and “Twisted Kind of Bliss” off their debut album, Round Our Way, dropped on September 9th. Aspiring vocalist Marcus ‘Tommy’ Thompson left his roots of Bradford, England in 2009, and moved to London where he met future band mates Matthew Edun (guitar) and a guy we only know as Churchy (bass) whose previous band had just imploded after becoming the first unsigned act to hit the UK top 40 with a debut single.
Over the ensuing years, Burning Condors made a name for themselves in the fiercely competitive music scene of London, opening for popular acts like the Legendary Shack Shakers and The Go Getters, and drawing from diverse musical influences like Joy Division, David Bowie, Flat Duo Jets, The Kills, Blur and Jack White, as well as old-timer blues, rockabilly and country legends like Muddy Waters, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Burning Condors have gained a good deal of blogger buzz in the UK and beyond. Now it’s time for them to be introduced to a larger audience of potential fans in North America and elsewhere that will dig the band’s ferocious punky blues rock as much as we do.
Belgium Project The Feather’s Excellent Single and Debut Album
The Feather is an indie rock project of Belgium pop musician Thomas Medard. We played his new song, “Sighs,” at least half a dozen times after hearing it for the first time; the track is from The Feather’s debut album, Invisible. There is also a YouTube lyrics video of “Sighs.” Medard’s top influences include Sufjan Stevens, Department of Eagles, Bright Eyes, and in the instrumental soundtracks sphere, Daniel Elfman and Eric Satie. We’ve written to him to please supply another song, but no luck yet. As soon as it’s available, we’ll be sure to at the least send it out via our Twitter and Facebook feeds if people react positively
IRC Spotlight Artist Soy La Vid Returns with Follow Up Album
dropped in the first week of September from DIY artists that we’ve included songs from below. An Indianapolis DIY artist that we featured last year, Soy La Vid, has returned with another remarkable album, Egocentric In The City, and if you didn’t catch Mark Abdon‘s brilliant songwriting and playing the first time around, you’ll want to hear these new tracks, especially the wonderful acoustic track, “Atticus vs. The House of Leaves.” For good measure, we’re also including a second song, from Egocentric In The City, called “Dear White Privilege,” which is further evidence of Abdon’s talents, and why we are featuring him for a second time. This is an artist that we really feel more folk music lovers will come to appreciate; and hopefully from there, Soy La Vid, will gain more followers and start to gain the broader visibility that he deserves.
From Noise Trade: “The concept album – an autobiographical snapshot of a middle-class, suburbanite couple – recently self-displaced to the St. Clair Place neighborhood of the Near East Side of Indianapolis. Hilarity, heartbreak and a good deal of selfishness ensue. There is an internal struggle that becomes strikingly clear when confronted with both the salient needs of neighbors, as well as the relational time investment of having neighbors that initiate relationship frequently and boldly. The crux of the matter for the introvert is that one is left with very little personal space or, alternatively, pangs of guilt for ignoring the doorbell once again. Coupled with a sense of inadequacy when faced with the substantial needs of friends and neighbors – this leads to the realization that living in the city does, in fact, reveal one’s selfishness – hence the title.” Abdon summed up the album as “the joys and frustrations of being a white, middle-class, suburbanite couple living in the ‘hood.” It’s no surprise that Abdon’s biggest influences include Sufjan Stevens, The National, Andrew Bird, Iron & Wine, and Interpol. Listen to more tracks from the 16 song album at Soy La Vid’s Bandcamp page, or purchase a copy to show support for a promising musician.
“Atticus vs. The House of Leaves” – Soy La Vid from Egocentric in the City – Sept. 6th
“Dear White Privilege” – Soy La Vid from Egocentric in the City
Based in Oslo, Norway, musician Oskar Yazan Mellemsether, who records under the moniker, Osk, dropped his debut, self-titled EP earlier this month featuring standout tracks like “The Gesture I Just Made Means I Love You,” (no clue what the gesture is supposed to be though) which is a soft and melancholic song that eventually works up into flourishes of pop-tinged choruses as he repeats again and again: “you will never know how much you mean to me.” Mellemsether gathered some of Trondheim‘s finest young musicians to perform a range of instruments, including trumpet, piano, wurlitzer, tuba, and of course guitar, bass and drums, for the studio recordings and live performances.
In December 2012, Ósk was awarded “Artist of the Week” by the Norwegian radio program P3, and was listed in a number of Norwegian publications, newspapers and blogs’ top bands to watch. The band also played Øyafestival and Pstereo music festivals in Norway this past summer. Osk’s EP was released by the small Norwegian label, Impeller Recordings. Stuwe’s top musical influences are Elliott Smith, John Grant, and Beirut.
“The Gesture I Just Made Means I Love You” – Osk from Osk EP – Sept. 6th
The members of the unsigned Denver band Rossonian met three years ago while they were all instructors at Camp Jam, a kid’s rock band camp. However, it was not until last year that Kramer Kelling (bass), Scott Roush (keys, computers), Seth Evans (guitar, vocals), and Nate Barnes (drums) began playing together, and not long after, performed their first show at Denver’s Underground Music Showcase, which lead to the band being booked to open for popular indie bands like Generationals and Magic Trick. Rossonian mix an array of genre influences, like pop, garage, soul, rock and electro to create sensual songs that have led them to be compared to a “grittier, groove-orientated Alt-J” with “Bowie-like multiform ingenuity and deliberate lyrical content hearkening to the likes of Warren Zevon and My Morning Jacket.” On September 9th, the band dropped their debut EP, You Are Your Own Dentist.
“Garuda” – Rossonian from You Are Your Own Dentist – Sept. 9th
“Ticklish” – Rossonian from You Are Your Own Dentist
Paris Producer Rafon Godard Releases Genre-Blended EP
Other unsigned albums worth checking out that dropped in September include Paris producer, and musician, Rafon Godard‘s new EP, The Big Bank Theory. Godard described the EP like this: “This project was created to mimic life moving through music, and it flows from beginning to end with an eclectic mix of several of my favorite styles (EDM, Trap, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Pop and Soul) incorporating experimental sounds and even more experimental construction.” Download The Big Bank Theory for free via Bandcamp.
“Drunk N High” – Rafon Godard from The Big Bank Theory – Sept. 4th
September Week Two Top Releases from Forest Fire, Holy Ghost, Goldfrapp, Man Man, Obits, and More
Up at the top of our favorite singles, and the albums that come from, for the second week of September is Forest Fire‘s “Alone With The Wires,” is a slow-burning, hazy pop mixed with psych track with hushed vocals and beautiful melodies from a thick bass signature and heavy reverb guitar strumming, and a steady snare and bass drum delivery. The single is simply a representation of the rest of the album and it’s one of our favorite ‘surprise’ releases of the week. Next, Philadelphia indie band Man Man change things up with the single from their fifth album, which is less hectic but still full of energy and genre mixing infusions, catchy hooks and intricate prog-pop instrumentation. But first is one of the top upbeat songs of the summer, the fast-paced synth pop hook, “Teenagers in Heat” from Brooklyn duo Holy Ghost. If you haven’t hear this song yet, you’ll probably play it over and over; the chorus and the instrumentals are insane, and don’t be surprised if you find yourself dancing, or at the very least tapping your foot. The accompanying official video for “Teenagers in Heat” is also worth checking out. The duo’s new album, Dynamics, was co-produced by former LCD Soundsystem frontman, and DFA Records founder, James Murphy.
Still Waiting For Arctic Monkeys To Return to Their Roots
The second week of September releases includes top albums from popular artists like Goldfrapp, Holy Ghost, Man Man, Obits, as well as Forest Fire, Jacuzzi Boys, The Orwells, The Stepkids, among others. Of course, there was also the newest album from Arctic Monkeys. We were huge fans of the band when they first really hit the scene in 2004-05, but we have not been able to really feel the same enthusiasm for the band’s releases in the past few years; they’re not terrible, but they’re not the same old band either. The band’s newest album, AM, is OK by all measures, but we’d embrace a return to the rock sound that made them famous to begin with – it’s what they did best. Since their change-up, they seem to be wandering somewhat lost in a world of sonic dappling that in the end just doesn’t really work. It’s a shame to see a band that played such great guitar rock abandoned it for the fear of being criticized for not growing – but we’re waiting for that return- to-roots album from Arctic Monkeys, and suppose millions of others do as well.
The long-time Los Angeles pop band, The Black Watch, formed in the late 1980’s, and referred to as “a national treasure” by the L.A. Weekly, released their 17th album in early September, The End of When. The Black Watch frontman/songwriter John Andrew Frederick said of the band’s new single, “Meg,” as “revolving around the singer’s appreciation of a woman’s uniqueness and beauty and how he goes all ‘ice cream inside’ when he thinks of her looking at him ‘green-eyed-shyly’ through ‘imperfect bangs.’”
“Meg” – The Black Watch from The End of When on Pop Culture Press
Top Songs from The Weeknd, Obits, The Orwells, Wilcat! Wildcat’s Latest Releases
When San Francisco band The Weeknd put out new material, it creates a buzz, and so they did just that in early September with the release of their new album, Kiss Land. The video of the single “Belong to the World,” is much more in the style of a mini-film than a music video, but it’s definitely something you’ve gotta check out if you are a Weeknd fan, or curious after hearing the single if The Weeknd is new to you.
“Sugarcrush” – Joanna Gruesome from Weird Sister on Slumberland Records
“Interlude” – London Grammar from If You Wait on Columbia Records – Check out the accolades from listeners on Soundcloud – http://soundcloud.com/londongrammar/london-grammar-interlude
“Fire & Brimstone” – Trombone Shorty from Say That to Say This on Verve Forecast
Power Pop Band MiniBoone, The Stepkids, Peelander-Z and Terry Malts’ Fresh Singles
The New York quintet MiniBoone deliver an “enchanting mesh of old-school energy and new-school melody” with late 1970’s-era post-punk and super hooks of modern indie-pop-think Buildings And Food-era Talking Heads,” according to Christopher Weingarten, The Village Voice. People have compared the latest single “Sweet Salvation” from The Stepkids as a blend of George Clinton, Prince, Frank Zappa and The Shins. The freaky sci-fi music video is bizarre, yet somehow interesting. Terry Malts busts out gritty lo-fi surf rock on the track, “Walking Without You,” from the album, Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere, officially dropped on Sept. 10th via Sumberland Records.
“Baby, I Hope So” – MiniBoone from MiniBoone on Ernest Jenning Record Co.
“Ride on the Shooting Star” – Peelander-Z from Metalander-Z on Chicken Ranch
Bands to Watch Bucharest, The Visibles, The Big DIY & Small Label Releases
Now things get really interesting. The second week of September’s DIY and small label releases kicks off with a promising new band from Tel Aviv, Israel, interestingly named Bucharest. The band’s debut single, “Freaking Out” is an uptempo jangly pop song with a catchy rhythm and sweet, melodic hooks. Apparently the band’s self-titled debut album will be released in October, which we’re looking forward to and will be sure to feature with hopefully some other songs as good as their debut single. Following Bucharest is another promising new band, The Visibles, who released their self-titled, debut album on September 10th, featuring the terrific single, “Clarendon Hills.” Next, The Big composes indie rock inspired songs with a theatrical structure and introspective lyrics as demonstrated on their excellent single, “Silver Soul.” The Big explores the endless possibilities behind terrace dynamics and intricate chordal structure. The Big refer to them as “mothers of a new genre; slow pop.”
“Freaking Out” – Bucharest from Bucharest – Sept. 10th
Stellar Music from Sterling Fox, Fin Folsom, Wonderflu and Other Top DIY Drops
From Port St. Lucie, Florida, the punk psych rock band, Infinite Radio & The Shadow People, jam out like acid-popping space invaders from Mars on songs like “Night Life” and “Breaking Out” from their debut album, The Fall, released on September 10th. The band’s musical influences are not surprising: The Mars Volta, The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, Thee Oh Sees, Arcade Fire, and Camper Van Beethoven. Listen to the excellent, mellow single, “Ghost,” from New York City artist Sterling Fox. He is a songwriter/producer turned rock and roll singer best known for producing Lana Del Rey‘s breakthrough hit “Video Games”. Also, check out tracks from New York City DIY band Fin Folsom and Paris indie band Wonderflu.
“Night Life” – Infinite Radio & The Shadow People from The Fall – Sept. 10th
“Breaking Out!” – Infinite Radio & The Shadow People from The Fall
“Brett Ashley” – Fin-Folsom from Tell-Tale – Sept. 12th
“Ghost” – Sterling Fox from single – Sept. 13th Bonus: “Drip Drop” – Sterling Fox from single
Brooklyn’s Bobby Blue Works With DFA Producer on New Release
Brooklyn-based, Indiana-raised, songwriter and musician Bobby Blue mixes a variety of genres – from pop, electro, country, rock – on his new album that was engineered by DFA Records engineer Abe Seiferth. The acoustic/electronic track ‘Sunshine’, with clear influences from ELO, is incredibly sunny, uplifting, and melodic with plenty of hooks. Another track, “Go,” is a semi electro country song. Blue is heavily influenced by artists like Jónsi, Björk, This Mortal Coil, ELO, and Loretta Lynn. Blue’s songs have been featured on radio stations, and remixed for the dance floor by other artists, in Europe and America. The Tim Letteer remix of “In A Song” was on the dance charts for four months. Blue has previously performed at the Knitting Factory and former CBGBs in NYC.
“Sunshine” – Bobby Blue from Sunshine – Sept. 14th
Side Story: Captain Kirk Appears on Glasvegas Video; Latest in Long Musical History
This is a side story, or in journalistic terms, a side-bar. It just kind of happened. William Shatner’s appearance in the Glasvegas was a nice surprise. The band scored an intro from Captain Kirk. Every time we see William Shatner (all of the time for Priceline), we are marveled at how amazing he looks for a man of 82 years, even if he is a little plump. He looks like he could easily be 20 to 25 years younger, and whoever did his plastic surgery should get an award because the caption of the Starship Enterprise does not look like one of those hatchet jobs that so many celebs of his age group, and younger, have had where you can tell that they had plastic surgery (and it didn’t necessarily go well – Kenny Rodgers). Anyways, we just thought that was worth mentioning because Shatner is such an icon across generations and throughout the galaxy and those beyond. He’s a testament, and inspiration to all, that you can be 82 and still be cool, vibrant and looking great (even with his unnoticeable plastic surgeries). Shatner is probably the male equivalent of Betty White – he’s been in the entertainment industry for some 60 years, he’s recognized by numerous generations of people and he still does TV, film, commercials, live shows, has won Emmys and other awards, and more. Shatner released a few albums back in the day – the 1960’s – that were commercial flops, but in later years, as the popularity of Star Trek continued to grow into a full blown Trekkie Nation three and four decades into the life of the franchise, those otherwise forgotten albums became collectors’ items, and due to demand, by the turn of the century, Shatner’s old original recordings were being remastered and re-released. Shatner recorded new albums in the 2000s that were given high marks by fans, and he has made countless contributions to other recordings over the years. There are even recordings with Doctor Spoke (Leonard Nimoy). If you’re interested, whether you’re a Trekkie or not, check out Shatner’s Spotify channel.
If you’re looking for good wrap-up and reliable playlist of MP3 singles of the top indie tracks for the first two weeks of October, then you’re on the right page.
In March, DIY power pop songwriter, vocalist and musician Sam Page self-released his debut album, Breach, featuring ten original songs of excellent guitar-driven pop/rock that partially channels styles of the 1980’s and 90s.
We’re catching up with September’s top releases – the amount of music – from both popular and signed artists as well as under-the-radar and DIY artists – was crazy – hundreds of singles and albums to filter through. The first volume of 
