We’re going back to the archives to pull out some great indie rock tracks from the past featuring:
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream – Berlin, Germany
The Away Days – Istanbul, Turkey
Shy Mirrors – Stockholm, Sweden
Nheap – Perugia, Italy
Matthew Squires and The Learning Disorders – Austin, Texas
*Click on cover art to play songs
The Berlin shoegaze, post punk band, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, otherwise known as, IHNMAIMS took their band name from a dystopian science fiction short story about survivors of a nuclear war.
The band’s shoegaze influences – Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine in particular – are clearly demonstrated on lo-fi rock tracks like “Drowning” and “PKD,” from the band’s 2016 eponymous debut.
IHNMAIMS also considers The Cure, Deerhunter, Nirvana and Velvet Underground as influences as well as “fellow Berlin bands The History of Colour TV, Brabrabra, Skiing and Jolly Goods, with whom we share current or former band members,” like Bastian Stein (vocals, guitar); Markus Mocydlarz (guitar); Angy Lord (keys), and Sara Neidorf (drums).
The band has opened for artists like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Die Nerven, and Jolly Goods.
Even before the release of its debut album, the Istanbul-based DIY band The Away Days was on the rise, especially in Europe.
In fact, the band played a string of music festivals in Europe in 2013 and 2014 and have been featured on NPR, BBC, XFM, NME, The UK Guardian, SPIN and KEXP.
Living in Istanbul affords the members a unique view of the world; it’s an ancient city that has been the gateway between Europe and the Middle East for centuries. It’s not often that we get to hear DIY bands from Turkey.
We think The Away Days are worthy of their recent run of good press. The lush, dreamy psych pop soundscapes, with big, booming bass; reverb-heavy vocals and layered choruses; light, ambient, and soaring guitar riffs and stoner rock jams on songs like “Best Rebellious” and “Calm Your Eyes,” off of The Away Days’ debut EP, THIS, should make just about anyone a convert.
The Away Days have opened for Portishead, Belle & Sebastian, Savages, Paul Banks and Wild Beasts. The band lists their top musical influences as Mac Demarco, Local Natives, Tame Impala, and Foals.
If you dig lo-fi, demo guitar garage rock, and pop-punk, chances are you may find yourself listening to Stockholm one-man-band Mike Downey discography in full. He records under the moniker Shy Mirrors.
As the listener soon finds out, Shy Mirrors’ music is marked by a lo-fi indie attitude, snappy rhythms, buzzsaw guitars, and melodic, catchy vocals. Downey said he formed Shy Mirrors in 2010 based on a “selfish need to make rock music for me again after many years of, well, not making rock music.”
In the ensuing years he dropped a number of EPs and LPs and attracted a small but loyal following online. In 2016, Downey retired Shy Mirrors to work on other projects. It’s a good thing for lo-fi indie punk pop rock (that’s a mouthful) lovers that the discography remains online.
“I grew up listening to and seeing Screeching Weasel, Winepress, Pegboy, 88 Fingers Louie and loads of other Chicago and Chicago-suburb punk rock.
In 2007 Italian musician Massimo Discepoli started the Nheap project. Under this moniker, he composes and plays his own music, which is a mix of jazz, electronica, post-rock, avant-garde sounds creating dreamy, calming, and transformational soundscapes.
The Perugia artist’s amazing, and widely hailed album, Realight, is a jazz-driven compendium of jazz fusion, featuring compelling tracks like “The Snow That Never Falls,” and “Gradients.”
His musical influences include a diversity of artists, including Aphex Twin, Miles Davis, Squarepusher, King Crimson, Sigur Ros, Godspeed you black emperor!, Fennesz, and many others
Launched in 2012, Matthew Squires and The Learning Disorders is an ever-evolving band project seeded in the thoughtful and sometimes witty, songs of Austin singer/songwriter Matthew Squires.
Equipped with an odd, dry wit, a humble disposition, and a voice that finds strength in the midst of vulnerability, Squires is paving a very original path on the musical landscape of indie rock.
While lyrically powerful at their core, Matthew Squires’ songs are generally much more ambitious in their composition than mere vocals and acoustic guitar. One critic aptly described his sound as follows: “There is a sense of lightness and confusion that is delivered in the wrapping of electronic and acoustic instruments, each piece delivering something unexpected, and it is those joyous strides of disconnection that gives the material that floats around the room. Like a sage delivering wise questions, there is a prophetic feel to the outpourings with the almost chanted lyrics. The whole effect is slightly jarring whilst simultaneously cathartic.”
Formed in 2012; 2013 was a busy year for Matthew Squires and the Learning Disorders, which saw the release of three critically acclaimed albums and three corresponding music videos. They’ve opened for bands like Mother Falcon, Marmalakes, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Top musical influences are Leonard Cohen, Modest Mouse, Jeff Mangum, Bill Callahan, Daniel Johnston, and Elliott Smith.
