Best new indie rock songs, indie news, best bands, reviews
Author: Max Hammer
Discovering and sharing the best DIY/alt/indie/underground music you've never heard. I've been writing about music and other topics since the mid-1990s. We are also music industry professionals - PR; promotion; management; branding; etc.
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.
Sean McConnell is Cold CountryRecently we made a road trip mixtape for a friend who was driving across the country (from California to New York) and included a couple of songs from an artist (among many others) that we have only recently become acquainted with. Our friend texted to ask why he had never heard of this “brilliant artist” before and we reminded him that we say that all of the time when we review music submissions from amazingly talented artists and bands that almost no one has heard of before. In fact, the archives of IRC feature thousands of such artists dating back to 2007, and most still have active song links, especially those published since 2009.
The reason he had not heard of the artist before is that we had not posted about him until now. He is Chicago-based singer, songwriter, musician and a highly sought audio engineer, Sean McConnell, who has been recording and releasing music under the moniker Cold Country throughout the summer. On June 28th, McConnell released his first EP, Missing the Muse, with a backup band. The EP was released exclusively via BandCamp. More recently, McConnell completed an in-house artist residency at Hill House in East Jordan, Michigan.
Prior to recording and engineering his own original music, McConnell has worked on releases with bands like The Bears of Blue River, Dastardly and Teenage Rage. His remarkable ear for the perfect notes and for just the right volumes and tones of certain instruments is apparent in the wonderfully dreamy song, “MIssing The Muse” – the same guitar and harmonica ballad that our traveling buddy has listened to “at least a dozen times” on his journey, “especially through the Great Plains where the land is as flat as a table for hundreds of miles in every direction, and where you see more cows than people for days on end” and “where you can still drive through one traffic light towns, sit at an old 50s-built counter with creaky old stools and get a grand midwestern breakfast with a smile for under six dollars.”
Cold Country’s songs, even though his a big city fella, capture a sense of time and place, weave bluesy harmonica with dreamy guitar playing and just the right touch of percussion. We always thought that audio engineers make great musicians, and Cold Country is a good example of that. The second song, “Carried By The Wind,” is also a fitting track on a road trip mixtape although it is a bit more energetic – a song more compatible with exiting the Great Plains and heading into the heart of the Mississippi River delta. There is no traveler from the West heading to the eastern United States that doesn’t cross the Mississippi River in some form or fashion on their journey across the United States.
As travelers who have done so by car, bus, and train (not counting airplanes), you don’t really know the country until you’ve traveled, on the ground, across it and can see and appreciate every day on your journey the changing landscapes, people, climates, cultures and music. Artists like McConnell, and thousands of others, contribute to the road trip experience, which is really the American experience, the right of passage, the freedom of the open road for thousands of miles into the future, and an open invitation to truly experience the amazing musical melting pot that America is.
“Missing The Muse” – Cold Country from Missing The Muse
“Carried Away With The Wind” – Cold Country from Missing The Muse
This post and playlist includes over 65 MP3 singles from the second half of August releases, featuring dozens of popular, well-known and totally DIY, obscure artists and bands. This is the second, and final, post and playlist mix covering the cafe’s top picks for the best singles and albums of August 2013. The first volume of Best Singles & Albums for August 2013, covering July 30th to August 12th, was a huge success with listeners and included standout singles from new albums by popular and well-known indie artists like Heaven, Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo, The Polyphonic Spree, Pond, Medicine, Michael Franti & Spearhead, T. Hardy Morris, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Minks, The Delta Mirror and Jack Bellows , in addition to incredibly talented unsigned and obscure artists and bands like Barbarian, Egadz, Null Device, Lights at Night, Stuart Newman, Future Wife, Step Rockets, Mosaic, Hunter As A Horse, and others.
The first volume of the Best Singles & Albums for August, featuring 39 amazing songs, covered July 30th to August 12th, using the closest Tuesday (the day most albums are traditionally released by labels) to August 1st (which was July 30th). In these two volumes, there are so many terrific, ‘keeper’ songs – over 100 in all. It’s the most comprehensive MP3 playlist of the top singles from new albums released in the month of August available anywhere online. Enjoy.
Best Singles & Albums Released August 13th to 19th
Top Singles from Bloc Party’s and The Moondoggies’ Latest Album Releases
After you’ve listened to Volume One of the best new August releases, and crave even more great songs that you can stream or download, here’s where you’ll want to come for the rest of August releases. While the week of August 13th to August 19th was relatively thin for new releases, there’s still great music from popular indie artists like Washed Out‘s new Subpop release, Paracosm, followed by Bloc Party‘s latest album, The Nextwave Sessions, featuring the lead single, “Ratchet,” which is one of their best singles in a number of years. The popular Seattle indie band, The Moondoggies, dropped their sophomore album, Adios I’m A Ghost, on August 13th. The top song from the LP so far has been the track, “Red Eye.” The track is flanked by excellent electric guitar work, including a riveting riff throughout, and soulful vocals from Kevin Murphy. However, that can sometimes be balanced out by the fact that the albums have not had time to really seep into the listening public’s playlists the way that albums released earlier in the year naturally are more likely to.
“Ratchet” – Bloc Party from The Nextwave Sessions on Frenchkiss
“Red Eye” – The Moondoggies from Adios I’m a Ghost on Hardly Art
Ernest Greene, aka Washed Out, working on his music
The Genius of Ernest Greene Emerges Again on Washed Out’s Sophomore Album Release
The sophomore album from the talented, popular musician Ernest Greene‘s indie project, Washed Out, was one of the most anticipated releases of the summer, and it did not disappoint. Since the release of the debut album, Within and Without, in 2011, that made Washed Out an international indie recording star, Greene has been touring endlessly around the globe. In between tours, Greene found time to write and record the material that makes up Paracosm, his sophomore release. We think it’s good that he took his time, even though there was tremendous pressure on Greene to put out a follow-up album sooner because of the huge success of his debut. Often, when an artist that comes out of nowhere has a big and unexpected success with a debut album, the pressure – from the label and some fans – to turn out a new follow-up album or EP within six months to a year, is tremendous, and intense. Plus, the expectation of course is that it should be even better than the debut that also has to be as good or better than the debut, is intense.
But many times, as history has shown us, when artists and their labels rush a sophomore album out, the results are not so good. Greene, apparently, wasn’t willing to rush his follow-up album because of pressure, and that is respectful to his fans, who naturally have high expectations and we would guess would rather wait a little longer for a great album than to get a mediocre album quickly. Thankfully, Greene took his time with writing and recording Paracosm, which is a remarkable, at times stunningly genius, collection of new songs from Washed Out. Greene performed some of his new songs live during his terrific performance a couple of weeks ago at Monterey‘s debut First City Festival.
Aside from those big releases, it was a rather thin week for new albums from established and better known artists. As far as new releases from the next strata of artists we call the ‘inbetweeners’ – those that are not necessarily well known, but also not obscure and are signed to a label – there were a number of worthy releases dropped by Dog Party and Don Cavalli, and Jagwar Ma and Twin Steps, among others. And lastly, but not least, further down the page, make sure to check out the carefully selected fresh releases from DIY, under-the-radar and unsigned bands, many of who are exclusively featured on IRC.
Overlooked Releases from The Chastity Belt, Dog Party and Jagwar Ma
The band The Chastity Belt dropped their new album, No Regrets, fronted by the single, “Black Sail,” on August 13th. Punk pop blazes from the band Dog Party‘s short (44 seconds!) new anthemic single, “How Are You Doing,” from the album, Lost Control. If you like girl punk, you’ll want to get that album.
Next up is the thrilling single, “Man I Need,” from Australian duo Jagwar Ma‘s debut album, Howlin. The band grinds out a modern take on the Manchester dance-rock sound that bands like The Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets made popular in the late 80’s and early 90’s (before it was replaced by the Brit pop craze headed by Oasis and Blur). There’s also a clear influence of Jane’s Addiction throughout Howlin’. The Jagwar Ma music video is also worth checking out.
“Black Sail” – Chastity Belt from No Regerts on Help Yourself Records – attach
Auerbach Championed Songwriter Don Cavalli Delivers Another Winner
Let’s switch things up and get down and boogie 70’s-style with the funky blues rock and soul grooves of French artist Don Cavalli on the title track of his sophomore album, Temperamental. Cavalli’s profile was significantly raised when Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys referenced Cavalli’s 2008 psychedelic blues debut, Cryland, as an inspiration. A pat on the back from a Grammy-winning rocker must be such a huge confidence booster, but it also places an extra burden of expectation from new fans (especially the most committed hard-core Black Keys’ fans who surely sought out Cavalli’s music) on the artist. Ahh, the ying and yang of life. Following “Temperamental,” things shift into a higher gear on the playlist with the inclusion of the gritty tune, “The Corner Man,” a lo-fi, riff-heavy R&B meets garage punk rock track from Boston‘s own Barrence Whitfield and The Savages. Wrapping up this section, or more accurately perhaps, selection, of August’s third week of top singles from new releases by fairly well-known indie artists and bands, is the lo-fi, live single, “Son of Sam,” from the indie rock band Twin Steps. The song is off of the band’s new seven-inch, Plague Songs, available via 1-2-3-4 Go Records!
“Temperamental” – Don Cavalli from Temperamental on Everloving Records
“The Corner Man” – Barrence Whitfield and the Savages from Dig Thy Savage Soul on Bloodshot Records
“Son of Sam” – Twin Steps from Plague Songs 7″ on 1-2-3-4 Go! Records
Band to Watch Scott & Charlene’s Wedding Drop Ace Album
If you’re not familiar with the band Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, here’s a good chance to get to know the duo, and why they are a rising band in the indie ‘musicverse.”
There new lead single, “Wild Heart,” from the August 13th album release, Any Port In A Storm, is evidence of why the duo’s atmospheric post-punk rock sound, that is obviously influenced by Sonic Youth and Velvet Underground, is causing a buzz with some alternative rock lovers. The second single, “Lesbian Wife,” shifts in tempo and sound density and features Scott’s half spoken/half sung vocals. There is not an artist we have heard in a long time that sounds so much like Lou Reed.
“Wild Heart” – Scott & Charlene’s Wedding from Any Port In A Storm on Fire Records
Top DIY Releases Week of August 13th From Flashbulb Fires, CREEP, Sreamin’ Eagle and Others
Now for our favorite part of the weekly releases – select new singles and albums from DIY, under-the-radar and ready-to-break-out indie artists and bands, many of which have not, until now, received any significant exposure in the indie blogosphere. This turns out to be another great playlist of “rarely heard” singles released during the third week of August.
As regular readers and listeners see, there are dozens and dozens of talented artists and bands featured each month on IRC that don’t get covered elsewhere. Again and again, we are amazed by the wealth of remarkable musical talent across America, and around the world, that too often goes unnoticed and otherwise gets lost in the noise of the global mainstream music monster machine. The monster machine pumps hundreds of millions of dollars a year into worldwide production, advertising, marketing, promotion, social media, cable and on and on.
The top DIY release of the week includes artists that are well-known in the indie rock world.
Rising Band Flashbulb Fires Release New Single
From Denver, the indie “haze-pop” band Flashbulb Fires, has been making waves in the world of indie rock since the release of their widely acclaimed debut album, Glory, in 2009. In the ensuing years, the band toured extensively, played official showcases at SXSW and CMJ. Last year, the band released their sophomore album, Gasconader, which was also widely praised. On a roll, the band released a new single, “Unseen Things” on August 13th that we think many of you will enjoy , especially for fans of the band. No word yet on when their next album will be released, but it is in the works according to band member Michael James.
“Unseen Things” – Flashbulb Fires from single – Aug. 13th
CREEP’s New LP Features Guest Vocalists Romy Madley-Croft, Kazu and Andrew Wyatt
The DIY release, Echoes, from the band, CREEP, dropped on August 13th, includes 10 tracks, each with a guest vocalist, including artists like Romy Madley-Croft (The xx) on the track, “Days,” and Planningtorock on “Introduction,” as well as contributions from Sia, Tricky, Andrew Wyatt (Miike Snow), Kazu (Blonde Redhead), and Holly Miranda. The Brooklyn duo that obviously has some great connections, is headed by Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard, both DJs and producers. Even though Echoes was just released, there are already numerous mixes of tracks from Echoes floating around. For example, the song, “Days,” (view the official video below) has been mixed by Deadboy, Soul Clap, Azari, and Super8 (listen below).
“Days” (featuring Romy Madley Croft) – CREEP from Echoes
While he’s not going to be the next Bon Iver or Tallest Man on the Earth, Memphis musician Winston Legtheigh, who fronts Screamin Eagle, is nonetheless one of the most talented DIY musicians we’ve heard in August thanks the album, Old & Young and the standout track “Good As Dead,” teaming up with musician Zeke Johnson. You’ve probably already spotted a dreary theme, but his music is very much alive and well.
“Good as Dead” – Screamin Eagle from Old & Young – Aug. 13th
San Francisco Artist Jason Buckingham Drops EP as Strange Culprits
San Francisco one-man band Jason Buckingham, who records under the moniker Strange Culprits, released his debut EP, Five Fingers, on August 13th. Strange Culprits’ lead single, “Concrete in the Rain,” is a gloomy, gritty song with distant-sounding guitar licks, a looped bass, singular drum beat, piano riffs and kind of scary vocals. Buckingham said of his new project: “Strange Culprits aims to flip the bird at musical genres, choosing instead to operate by the simple credo that a good song is a good song, whether it was inspired by Motown, Woodie Guthrie, or Cheap Trick.”
“Concrete in the Rain” – Strange Culprits from Five Fingers
The Persian Leaps Drop Debut EP, Praise Elephants
From St. Paul, Minnesota, the pop rock band The Persian Leaps knock out incredibly catchy hooks, bright melodies and sing-a-long choruses on their new single, “Silent Treatment,” from the band’s debut EP, Praise Elephants. The young quartet, formed in 2012, create “driving, chimey music” influenced by bands like House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, Guided by Voices, and Teenage Fanclub. Those bands have informed The Persian Leaps’ “short, catchy songs coated with divine guitar noise and vocal harmonies.” Their new EP was dropped on August 15th.
“Silent Treatment” – The Persian Leaps from Praise Elephants
Top Singles from Paper City, Nytyly, Aaron Gibson Recent Releases
Also listen to new music from bands like Hunting Beach, California’s 60’s surf pop band Paper City who’ve opened for artists like The Blank Tapes, Jessica Dobson (of the Shins), The Secret 6 (of The Killingtons), Chase Frank, and Alyssandra Nighswonger. Their debut album, Summer of Love, was released on August 15th. Next, “Harmony Day,” is a strange mix of electronic rock and psychedelic pop from the Brooklyn band nytyly. Aaron Gibson is an accomplished singer/songwriter and musician from Oregon who has toured in China and around the states. The song, “Waiting,” is from Gibson’s new album, Loose Ends.
“Love and Fashion” – Paper City from Paper City
“Harmony Day” – nytyly from Brooklyn Broadcast – Aug. 16th
“Waiting” – Aaron Gibson from Loose Ends
Top Singles and Albums from Week Four, August 20th to August 26th
As if making up for previous weeks in which there were a thin number of new releases, the week of August 20th sprung a whole bunch of much anticipated, and warmly welcomed, new albums, from artists like Ty Segall, Crocodiles, Travis, Porcelain Raft, No Age, Kissaway Trail , and others.
Anytime Ty Segall has a new release, it’s like a holiday in the cafe. The northern California based, southern California-raised, musician is not only a composer, singer, songwriter, mulit-instrumentalist, producer and serial collaborator , he is also a prolific, original and versatile artist. Sleeper has apparently disappointed some Segall fans, but those who really appreciate his talents, will find the new album not to be a sleeper, but a grower. The more we listen to it, the more and more we discover all over again, again in a slightly different way than before, the sheer brilliance of his artistry and the necessity to proclaim that Segall is one of the most important indie artists of the past decade.
Top New Releases from Crocodiles, Diarrhea Planet and No Age Top Picks
We love the Crocodiles scuffed up, gritty persona and their reverb-heavy lo-fi rock, like the raunchy new single, “Cockroach,” from their new album, Crimes of Passion, demonstrates. Our next pick among the more popular and well-known bands with new albums released on August 20th is I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams by the Nashville band Diarrhea Planet (among our top picks for worst band name ever) and the new single, “Separations,” that we’ve listened to half a dozen times just in the first few days after we first heard it, and the album itself is also turning out to be a ‘repeater’ – one that you can’t help but to play again and again. Despite the terrible band name, which also has an element of ‘fuck you’ to the music industry and the brand makers, Diarrhea Planet are yet another indie band from Nashville – a non-country music trend that has been picking up steam in a city which has had its identity tied to country music for nearly a century. Nowadays in Nashville, country isn’t the only game in town.
No Age‘s new track, “No Impression,” is a strange lo-fi gumbo of post-punk and no wave blending deep base thumps, psychedelic rock style guitar, untuned violin strands, fuzzy synths, and lots of effects including reverb and fade. KEXP said the band’s fifth album, An Object, is “a dramatic change of pace that finds them exploring the sounds of stern post-punk, atmospheric shoegaze and amelodic No Wave with a mostly bleak blend of angular guitar lines, noisy ambient textures, taut rhythms and monotone vocals.” The terrific single, “An Impression,” gives a wonderful and correct impression of the rest of the songs on An Object. An excellent way to close out this block of singles is appropriately concluded with the single, “The Way Out,” the terrifically hazy pop glaze from Porcelain Raft’s new album, Permanent Signal.
“Cockroach” – Crocodiles from Crimes of Passion on Frenchkiss Records
“Separations” – Diarrhea Planet from I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams on Infinity Cat
“The Way Out” – Porcelain Raft from Permanent Signal on Secretly Canadian
An Excellent Trio of Singles from Kissaway Trail, Typhoon and Ski Lodge’s New LPs
Probably our favorite Danish indie rock band, Kissaway Trail, came roaring back on August 20th with the release of a new album of wonderfully guitar-driven, hooklicious, rhythmic indie rock on the song “The Springsteen Implosion,” followed by the latest single from the new album by the band Typhoon, and the new-to-us band Ski Lodge, a post-punk band from New York that crafts dark, dreamy and atmospheric elements into the songs on their debut, Big Heart.
“Boy” – Ski Lodge from Big Heart on Dovecote Records
After Hiatus, Superchunk and Travis Mark Return With Excellent New LPs
We call artists and bands that have been releasing noteworthy music for more than 20 years, ‘The Vets’ and we all love them from REM to Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins to The Strokes and Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, U2 to Dinosaur Jr. (among many, many others). These are the folks that have had a huge impact on many of the indie and alternative rock artists and bands we cover all of the time. So, it was a delight to finally see Superchunk release a new album that includes the excellent single, “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo” sounds like it could have been a Big Star hit single circa 1974 with it’s three power pop chords and glam rock-style riffs and chorues. Another veteran band of the music scene, Scottish post-Britpop, pro-alternative rock band Travis return with their first album, Where You Stand, in five years. While Fran Healy‘s vocals are not as robust as they were a decade ago, but he still carries a tune remarkably well, and the band sounds as tight and perfected as ever as the lead single, “Moving,” so aptly demonstrates.
“Me & You & Jackie Mittoo” – Superchunk from I Hate Music on Merge Records
“Moving” – Travis from Where You Stand on Red Telephone Box Records
Energized after a few chaotic years of a whirlwind success, singer/songwriter and musician Laura Veirs, did not slow down, writing and recording an album’s worth of songs for her sophomore album, Warp and Weft. The toe-tapping feature track, “Sun Song,” truly shines and flourishes in a swirl of violins, piano, drums, guitars and more, but is only made whole with Veirs’ magnificent vocal work. Following Veirs is “Getting Even,” the latest single from White Lies’ new album, dropped Aug. 20th, Big TV.
“Sun Song” – Laura Veirs from Warp and Weft on Raven Marching Band Records
“Getting Even” – White Lies from Big TV on Harvest Records
‘Inbetweener’ Artists Pure Bathing Culture, Still Life Still, Surf City Add to Top Songs of August
This next section is what we like to call the “inbetweeners,” meaning they are artists and bands who are not widely known and popular but are also not obscure, DIY or under the radar. Most ‘inbetweeners’ have hundreds or thousands of hardcore fans locally or spread about the country, and in some rare cases, around the world. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard a US-based ‘inbetweener’ band that had few fans in the U.S. but were wildly popular in the indie and alt rock scenes in places like Tokyo, Lima, Madrid or Sao Paulo. It’s amazing how things work out that way.
If you love diversity and pleasant surprises in your musical journey and discovery, and you have broad tastes, and keep an open mind to possibly digging something that at first you might not think is your cup of tea, our band profiles, new releases round-ups, playlists and other posts are for you.
Talented inbetweeners with releases from the week of August 20th include Pure Bathing Culture, Bent Shapes, Native, His Electro Blue Voice, Earl Sweatshirt, Tim Easton, and Golden Suits.
“Pendulum” – Pure Bathing Culture from Moon Tides on Partisan Records
“In Enemies” (Teen Daze Remix) – Still Life Still from Mourning Trance on Arts & Crafts
“It’s a Common Life” – Surf City from We Knew It Was Not Going To Be Like This on Fire Records
Boston DIY Band to Watch Bent Shapes Drops Debut
Bent Shapes is a new-to-us band that stood out for their nerdy pop rock with some reggae guitar playing (think Vampire Weekend), forceful yet raspy vocals and a hook-friendly rhythm and beat that is hard to turn away from. The Boston trio is composed of members Andy Sadoway, Ben Potrykus, and Supriya Gunda. Since forming under their previous name Girlfriends in 2009, Bent Shapes has released a string of DIY cassettes and 7”s full of fuzzy garage, frantic jangle pop, and scrappy post-punk. The band’s myriad of influences include Josef K, The Feelies, Jonathan Richman, Billy Childish, and The Fall.
Bands Army Navy, Gross Relations, Earl Sweatshirt, Tim Easton, Golden Suits Drop Fine New Tracks
One of our favorite RE-discoveries for the fourth week of August (Aug 20-26) was the band Army Navy, who we initially were turned on to last year, but honestly, in the flood of new songs, albums and bands since then, we unintentionally forgot about Army Navy and how much we liked them until hearing their latest offering. Next, Brooklyn lo-fi surf rockers Gross Relations spazz out on the uptempo, riff rolling single, “Cut The Final Scene,” from the band’s self-title debut album, dropped on August 20th, followed by hip-hop rapper Earl Sweatshirt and the 50’s style rockabilly of Tim Easton – a stark transition from one musical form to another and about as unlikely a pairing as Big Bird and Mickey Mouse. This next single, “Swimming in ’99,” by Golden Suits seemed like a good fit – because of its similar tempo – to follow Easton’s “Troubled Times,” but also different enough to be amongst the great diversity of sounds and styles in this block of singles from August album releases.
Psychedelic Rock from His Electro Blue Voice and Native’s Spooky Sounds
If you’re a Velvet Underground/Lou Reed kind of a person, chances are you’ll dig the loose composition, psychedelic meandering of instruments and long, disorganized, yet strangely appealing, jams of the band His Electro Blue Voice on the Subpop release, Ruthless Sperm, particularly on the single included below, “Born Tired.” The menacing and dark instrumentation and vocals on Native‘s “Coin Toss” fits appropriately placed right after His Electro Blue Voice – afterall, they got the whole eerily psychedelic rock vibe going with “Born Tired.”
“Born Tired” – His Electro Blue Voice from Ruthless Sperm on Sub Pop
“Coin Toss” – Native from Orthodox on Sargent House
“Whoa” (feat. Tyler, The Creator) – Earl Sweatshirt from Doris on Tan Cressida/Columbia
“Troubled Times” – Tim Easton from Not Cool on Campfire Propaganda/Thirty Tigers
“Swimming In ’99” – Golden Suits from Golden Suits on Yep Roc http://soundcloud.com/goldensuits/swimming-in-99
Top Singles from Julianna Barwick, Widower and Alexander Von Mehren’s Latest Releases
This section of the new releases covers artists and bands that are not from the strata of popular and well-known indie musicians, like Superchunk, Crocodiles or No Age, but at the same time are not DIY, under the radar or obscure like many of the DIY exclusive musicians we feature are – this section is for the artists and bands that fall in between noteriety and obscurity.
Kicking off is the wonderful musician Julianna Barwick and her beautiful single, “One Half,” from the album Nepenthe. Another mellow song from a new release dropped on August 20th is the single, “Oh Catherine, My Catherine,” by the band Widower – what a gorgeous acoustic love song. Alexander Von Mehren turns out another praise-worthy album Natural Selections, including the title track, among others.
“One Half” – Julianna Barwick from Nepenthe on Dead Oceans
“Natural Selection” – Alexander Von Mehren from Natural Selection on The Control Group
DIY Nashville Singer/Songwriter Rob Vischer Delivers Indie Pop from ‘Music City’
There were some terrific releases in the fourth week of August from DIY bands and artists that few people know about like Nashville singer/songwriter Rob Vischer. When people think of Nashville they think of country music. But in recent years, there are other musical styles emerging from the city that made Elvis famous (or vice versa?), including some terrific indie music from a growing number of musicians. Singer/songwriter and musician Rob Vischer is one of them.
On his new single, “Love For A Lifetime,” Vischer, and his band, touch on many ‘indie’ elements, such as a cheerful beat, handclaps, grandiose, soaring choruses, bright piano, keys and guitar playing. We’re surprised we’ve never heard of him before considering how excellent his songs are. You’ll have “Love For A Lifetime” playing in your head for days; it’s an irresistibly feel-good song with an incredibly positive and hopeful sentiment. Love is a common theme on Vischer’s new album, Meant to Love. The song, “Airwaves & Envelopes” is another love song, this time about long distance love set to flourishing guitars, big drum rolls and very tight production. It’s not a stretch to compare his music to bands like Fun, Death Cab For Cutie, Jimmy Eat World and Green Day, to varying degrees; Vischer’s sound falls somewhere in the middle of DIY indie and polished radio rock. Therefore, it’s no surprise that his biggest musical influences include Death Cab for Cutie, Fun, Bruno Mars, Civil Wars, Snow Patrol, and Muse.
Vischer started writing songs when he was 16. Four years ago, he travelled across the U.S. on bicycle, working odd jobs, performing and selling his CD of demos door-to-door along the way. With additional money he earned in the ensuing three years following his cross-country journey, Vischer had enough money saved to pay for the studio time, mixing and mastering to produce a proper CD release.
“Love for a Lifetime” – Rob Vischer from Meant to Love
“Airwaves & Envelopes” – Rob Vischer from Meant to Love
Sacramento Indie Band to Watch Appalachians Release New Seven-Inch
Our top pick for the best DIY release of the fourth week of August 2013 is the new 7″ two-song release from Sacramento band, Appalachians, a terrific and promising band we featured not long ago after coming across their music in our submission box. We think they’re one of the best new DIY bands we’ve heard in 2013 and ask ourselves: “why don’t more people know about this band?”
The single, “Dolly” is one of the best of all the lead singles for the week altogether, among new releases by both popular and well-known indie artists and unsigned, obscure bands, such as Applachians. On the second track, “Lo-Hi,” banjos are picking, mandolins are strumming, and a bass is humming, along with the gentle, reassuring vocals that add another appealing quality to an already appealing song. And it’s totally family-friendly too. Along with the songs that we featured the first time we profiled Appalachians, the two songs featured here on a two-song released titled, Bereaved, are by no means wholly representative of this band’s incredible talents, and the enjoyment their music has brought to all of us that have latched on as fans from the get-go. If you want to hear more from Applachians, stream The Rolling C’s, their brilliant July 2012 debut, on Bandcamp at http://appalachians1.bandcamp.com/album/the-rolling-cs
https://indierockcafe.com2013/01/5-diy-bands-to-watch-in-2013-vol-i-hemmingbirds-jumpiter-cloud-lantern-the-jesus-rehab-and-appalachians/ “Dolly” – Appalachians from Bereaved
“Lo-hi” – Appalachians from Bereaved
Indie Singer/Songwriters Blake Walker and Dan Jacobs Cross the Radar with New EP
Blake Walker is an indie pop/rock singer/songwriter in Los Angeles who sent us a couple of impressive songs from his debut EP, My Poor Joy. In 2003, he left Dallas in a car and drove to LA in pursuit of his dreams, a quest millions of young people have ventured on for nearly a century now. That’s what America is all about and you can get a sense of that in Walker’s heartfelt music. He listed his musical influences as Deerhunter, The Walkmen, and Velvet Underground. Walker provided one of the best answers we have heard of to the question asked on the submission form – “what is indie rock.” He replied: “Whether or not Indie refers to truly independent music, or music on a subsidiary label owned by a larger company, the term represents qualities of purity, earnestness, immediacy, exuberance, experimentation and fun. The spirit of good Indie music is always liberated, regardless of how it’s distributed. ”
Another singer/songwriter, Dan Jacobs of Washington, D.C., caught our attention with a couple of tracks that he sent in from his self-released album that he quietly dropped on August 27th. The world didn’t really notice, but we did. Since officially becoming a DIY artist in 2012, this is his first exposure on any blog or other publication. We love that we are often the first music site, or site in general, to exclusively premiere a promising new artist or band that has been overlooked for too long.
Hopefully, enough people will dig the two songs here and want to listen to more and purchase his album, which you can get by searching for his name together with the album name. We like his raspy, almost Dylanesque voice, a reference that is appropriate since he listed in his submission Bob Dylan as his greatest musical influence. If you know someone that is making an indie film that needs a great folk song, it’d be worthwhile to contact Jacobs to see if he’d provide one of his songs for an indie soundtrack.
“The Winter Classic” – Dan Jacobs from Creatures
“You Say” – Blake Walker from My Poor Joy
“My Little Singaporean Princess” – Blake Walker from My Poor Joy
Picture Atlantic is an alternative indie-rock band from San Jose, California with an explosive sound and an openhearted approach to song craft. Since their formation in 2006, the band has released two full-length albums and three EPs. They’ve also become a popular band in the competitive San Francisco Bay Area music scene and have performed at the annual Live 105’s BFD festival and headlined at San Francisco legendary venues like Bottom Of The Hill and Popscene. Their new video single, “Edgewood Road,” shot in a redwood forest, is a pretty good song. Recently, Absolute Punk named them of the Top 100 Best Unsigned Bands. Picture Atlantic’s new YouTube “Edgewood Road”.
Top Singles & Albums of August 27th-Sept. 2nd
The final week of releases for August 2013, compared to the previous week (August 20-26th) was thin. However, within that thin pile of releases from popular and well-known indie artists, were some of the summer’s most highly anticipated albums, including new releases from Franz Ferdinand, Capsula and The Dodos that all have sweet first singles to give you a taste of what the albums offer.
Plus, the last week of August also included other worthwhile releases from artists and bands like the wildly popular Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, who offer more dance beats and less synths on their fourth album, featuring the single “Right Action,” one of the band’s best singles in years.
With the blood-pumping from Ferdinand’s “Right Action,” it was Argentinian band Capsula‘s new single, “Blind,” that really blew the roof off and blaze through while the song, “Substance,” from The Dodos wrapped up the trio of top singles nicely with it’s uptempo beats. Plus, one of the best singles of August, “Bootlegs,” an infectious, lo-fi garage pop rock track by New Zealand‘s rising indie rockers, Ghost Wave.
“Right Action” – Franz Ferdinand from Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action on Domino Recording Co.
“Blind” – Capsula from Solar Secrets on Krian Music
“Substance” – The Dodos from Carrier on Polyvinyl Records
“Bootlegs” – Ghost Wave from Ages on Flying Nun Records
Singles from New Albums by Joe Black Lewis, King Krule, Ghost Wave and Others
Fiery funk and gritty soul comprise the latest work of Austin music icon, Black Joe Lewis; genre gumbo, with chunks of hip-hop, spoonfuls of rock and pinches of jazz is one way to describe the new album from British musician Archy Marshall, better known as King Krule; and listen to and download new singles from Disappear, Dent May, The Suburbs, Flaamingos (not a mistype), and Ghost Wave. Let’s keep the beats and electric guitars going with the single, “Turn The Radio On,” from The Suburbs, a terrifically catchy, radio-ready (oddly enough) pop rock song with a great rhythm, and even a horn section. Overall, the band seems to be influenced by artists like The Eels, David Bowie and Nick Cave.
“Come To My Party” – Black Joe Lewis from Electric Slave on Vagrant Records
“Easy Easy” – King Krule from 6 Feet Beneath the Moon on True Panther Sounds
MODOC Officially Release Album Featuring Popular Single
The Nashville alternative rock band MODOC was originally formed back in 2009 by friends from Ball State University in Indiana. After they became a pretty big deal in the local music scene, the band decided to move to Nashville in 2011 to up their game. Not long after, ABC picked up the band’s single, “Devil On My Shoulders” for a promo of the television series 666 Park Avenue. Seemingly little things like that can give a band a nice bump, as it seemed to do for MODOC. They signed to Zavitson Music Group and released their self-titled sophomore album that featured a reworked version of “Devil On My Shoulder” as well as another single, “Runnin’. Last year the band drummed up excitement in ‘Music City’ with the song and video for the track, “Coward.” We are always welcoming of a great new band that knows how to rock and roll and has fun doing it.
“Devil On My Shoulder” – MODOC from Devil On My Shoulder
“Runnin” – MODOC from Devil On My Shoulder
San Francisco Artists Gamble Gamble Die and TaughtMe Drop Fantastic New LPs
The year-old San Francisco post college-rock, post-punk folk rock band Gamble Gamble Die released their debut EP, Badman, on August 30th totally DIY style. The title track is a sunny, but mellow, indie pop song with looping guitar notes, melodic bass and a mid-tempo drum beat with crashing cymbals. The lyric that stood out was “everytime you tell a lie/the baby Jesus cries.” The band goes all out experimental punk and semi-psychedelic on the Yoko Ono-like track, “Chicken.” It’s a rather strange song, and not appealing to many, but in their home base of San Francisco, a song like “Chicken” is not out of place. While cities like New York, Seattle and to some extent Austin and Los Angeles, might be contenders, no other city in the U.S. beats San Francisco when it comes to weird, trippy experimentation in all arts, including music. The city has been the epicenter of underground, experimental and avante garde music movements in the U.S. for five decades now. So Gamble Gamble Die are right where they probably need to be for what they want to do musically.
“Badman” – Gamble Gamble Die from Badman
“Chicken” – Gamble Gamble Die from Badman
The unusual, but intriguing, album cover for TaughtMe's 'Am I Old?' Interestingly enough, another unusual, but talented, musical outfit from San Francisco, TaughtMe, also dropped a new album, Am I Old?, on Aug. 31st. Like Gamble Gamble Die, the songs are not the regular fare. Instead, TaughtMe, the musical project of acclaimed songwriter and musician Blake Henderson, crafts theatrical pop compositions that puts Henderson in the category with artists like Bjork, which just happens to be one of his top musical influences – go figure. Am I Old? is Henderson’s fifth release in a decade, and in between writing, recording and mixing, he toured extensively, performing in towns and cities across the United States and Europe. His music has received wide acclaim partly because it touches on guilt and innocence and other themes that are directly or indirectly affected by Henderson’s upbringing as a strict Mormon in Utah. San Francisco is about as far as one can get (less geographically) from Utah in terms of societal norms, culture and population.
Henderson wrote about this latest album: “I accepted that I was composing soliloquies and chose to own the fact rather than temper it. I named the collection Am I Old? and… my rawest album, and my best try so far to get real deep.”
“Into The Thicket” – TaughtMe from Am I Old?
“The Truth (Really?) Every Time” – TaughtMe from Am I Old?
It’s been a while since the last In Dee Mail series highlighting bands that emailed us their work via the submission form.
Unlike other more specific playlists (such as DIY Bands to Watch; 7 Bands You’ve Gotta Hear, Bands That Rock), In Dee Mail is a mix of all kinds of bands – signed and DIY; U.S. based or overseas; those with recent releases or older releases – but the majority of the bands featured in the In Dee Mail series are DIY and largely unknown to most indie music lovers.
What most people enjoy about this series is that it spotlights talented new artists and bands with great songs that most people have never heard before, but are glad once they have. This is the 23rd! edition of the In Dee Mail series that originally launched in 2010 and includes releases that we had drafted posts on years ago but never completed, and yet, two or three years, in some cases, four, years later, they have staying power enough to publish them today.
[zbplayer]
The Unique Recordings of The Gifted Children
Let’s kick off with The Gifted Children, the first and only band on the new Tinhorn Planet independent record label, one of the most interesting, and talented, little-known bands indie bands around. The band, which is more accurately described as a collective of musicians, deliver a deliciously diverse buffet of sounds from straight pop to lo-fi, psychedelic rock to acoustic folk persuasions accented always by cuts and splices of sounds, shorter than usual tracks and unconventional means of recording and mixing their work – running the gamut of everything from old recording equipment to the newest devices not often considered recording equipment, like the iPhone. Altogether, there were 17 musicians who contributed to the collective’s 2009 11-song album, My Museum Pieces. The album is full of ecletic, wonderful songs that are sometimes epic, other times funny and even melancholy.
In addition to the dozens and dozens of songs the band has recorded and released over the years, The Gifted Children have also recorded a selection of Christmas songs every year for the past few years. You can listen to and download Christmas songs via The Gifted Children’s songs page, as well as other recordings.
“The Coalition Breathing Down My Neck” – The Gifted Children from My Museum Pieces
“Weathervane Alliance” – The Gifted Children from My Museum Pieces
“If You Get There” – The Gifted Children from My Museum Pieces
Pennsylvania Band Very Americans Drop Debut 7″
Very Americans are a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania indie/alt rock band who sent in their debut 7″ single Back From The Dead/Fast Planes To Rio a while ago, but that did not supply us much information about the band – and still haven’t despite our attempts. They signed with Ship Out Recordings only a few months after forming in 2012. We think the A-side and B-side of this 7″ release are terrific tracks that we’ve played numerous times in the cafe.
“Back From The Dead” – Very Americans from Back From The Dead 7 Inch
“Fast Planes To Rio” – Very Americans from Back From The Dead 7 Inch
Roaming Herds of Buffalo – Seattle, Washington
Roaming Herds of Buffalo is the exciting pop music project of Seattle songwriter, singer and musician Scott Roots. The idea behind this project is to set short science fiction stories to pop and rock music with the collaboration of musicians from other Seattle bands like The Torn ACLs, Skeletons with Flesh on Them, and Stencil.
With his previous bands, like SWFOT, Roots shared the stage with Aqueduct and The Lonely Forest and “a lot (and I mean a lot) of bands not many people have heard of.”
His major musical influences include Okkervil River, Beulah, Pavement, The National, and Guided By Voices.
“All of Them” – Roaming Herds of Buffalo from Roaming Herds of Buffalo
“Repaired” – Roaming Herds of Buffalo from Roaming Herds of Buffalo
Roaming Herds of Buffalo’s Website
Chicago DIY Indie Band Berry
Berry is a Chicago based experimental indie pop band that remind us a bit (note ‘bit’) like Apples in Stereo mixed with They Might Be Giants. In 2011, the nearly decade-old band set out on a 12-state, 20 set tour by train. You don’t hear of many bands who specifically go by train to tour (if there are more of you out there, please let us know).
In fact, the only time we can remember any musicians touring by train was the across-country tour through Canada featuring the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, and that was, well, four decades ago (there’s a documentary about the trip as well).
Fantastic songs like “Floundering” (“our punk rock song,” the band said), from the self-released EP, Flounder, and from the Recovery EP, the song, “Alma Mater,” are only a couple of out of some 100 songs the band recorded in a seven year time span. Of the approximately 30 to 40 that we have listened to, and downloaded, we can say that the band has a lot of ideas flowing for song themes, chords, rhythms and lyrics. If you like what you here, there is plenty of more Berry recordings available via their official website.
“Floundering” – Berry from Flounder
“Alma Mater” – Berry from Recovery
Texan Indie Artist Kelsey Brown
This next artist is one that, like Berry and a few other bands featured in this post, was put into a draft post a long time ago as an artist we eventually planned to feature on IRC. There are many dozens of artists and bands that we have never had the time – due to other priorities in coverage – to profile until now. Nearly two years ago, we received a few demos In Dee Mail from Texas singer/songwriter Kelsey Brown.
Now after having listened again to the songs he sent in, our antennas Immediately went back up; Brown is a talented artist that we would have hoped by now would be known more universally. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Brown sang with her grandfather’s bluegrass band at a young age and moved to Texas in 1997. She has been classically trained in voice, but began writing music and taught herself piano in 2007 and ukulele in 2009. Kelsey attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. She lists among her influences Regina Spektor, Joanna Newsom, Fiona Apple, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Beirut, Laura Veirs, Tegan and Sara, Camille, and others. *
“I’m A Creep And I’m Proud” – Kelsey Brown from Kelsey Brown
“Piccadilly Circus” – Kelsey Brown from Kelsey Brown
*Note: We have not yet heard her newer material
DIY Singer/Songwriter and Musician David Seume from Kansas City, Missouri
The following are some great tracks that we recently found in an old draft post that we never got to share at the time dating back to 2010. David Seume os a Kansas City singer, songwriter and musician who has garnered critical acclaim for his infusions of sweet melodies, gospel, soul, pop, rock, and Motown in his music. We are still big fans of his self-titled debut LP that includes his first single, “Will Ya Be My Friend.” You can hear more current songs via his official website .
Oakland band, Hot Einstein, headed by musician Matt Berkeley, is a five-piece rock band formed in 2011 when a number of musician friends got together and recruited a couple others to pour their creative aspirations into recording songs and playing live, adding plenty of experimentation, heavy bass and keys, reverb-laden vocals and programmed beats to their hallmark pop rock sound. The band’s musical influences range from vintage Bowie to King Curtis, Nina Simone and Led Zeppelin. Hot Einstein began with Berkeley’s primordial urge to form a classic rock and roll band. He states: “We felt that ‘rock’ has strayed to far from its roots in rhythm and blues, as Nick Lowe said…it lost the ‘roll’ somewhere along the line.”
After touring around the country, Hot Einstein eventually set up residence at Oakland’s Disco Volante, working on their original material and classics by Booker T. & the MGs, Talking Heads, The Pretenders, and D’Angelo. “We learned so many covers not to be a cover band, per se, but to feel like a legitimate band that knows how to play together, and has a repertoire beyond a handful of original songs.”
Produced by Berkeley and Joe Bagale, Hot Einstein’s eponymous debut album was recorded at Richmond, California’s Bird and Egg Studios. Hot Einstein is a nostalgic rock band whose members engage in experimenting with sounds and influences from the 1960s and 70s, including tambourine, vintage keyboards, and vocal harmonies. Their debut LP spans rootsy acoustic genres, electronic and groove characteristics, as well as traditional rock and roll elements.
Brides of Christ is the solo project of Los Angeles musician Kirk C. Naylor. Formed during his final year as a student of music composition at UCLA in 2010, Brides of Christ is heavily influenced by a wide variety of music and art. His songs are dark, beat-driven and bombastic, drawing from influences like goth pioneers Joy Division, with aspects of pop and dance, and drone and ambient music in the mix, alongside hard loops, experimental self-sampling and heavy-handed beats to “hold the chaotic elements together.” Drawing inspiration from imaginative artists John Cage, Yoko Ono, Abe Vigoda, and Freddy Ruppert, Brides of Christ is an act of pure creation, as Naylor describes, and ultimately “turns inward upon itself and gazes into darkness,” describing his sound more simply as ‘maximal minimalism.’ Despite this introspective attitude, Naylor maintains that at the heart of it this music is pure pop. “The viscerality of music and it’s meaning are infinitely detached,” Naylor said. Other artists that are major influences on BOC’s music include My Bloody Valentine, New Order, Xiu Xiu, Animal Collective, and Bright Eyes.
“Sihaya” – Brides of Christ from Woman Is Throne EP
“Ready to Die Now” – Brides of Christ from Woman Is Throne EP
Brides of Christmas on Facebook
…And More Great Songs from Under-Rated Bands
The following is a random sampling of other indie tracks that were part of other posts that never got published, or are songs from previous years’ draft posts that were never posted for one reason or another. We hope you’ll find a couple of tracks that are worth downloading to your own playlist or just bookmarking to come back here and listen to them again since we don’t delete song files after a couple of weeks/months as most other indie blogs do. The only time a song file (aka, mp3 link) doesn’t play is when the artist or the record label that originally posted the song removes it, which we obviously have no control over.
The Cairo Gang's "Tiny Rebels" was one of 35 top singles for the second half of July
With festivals and other events ruling the schedule during July and August, we’re still catching up with releases dropped in the six weeks. A couple of weeks ago, volume one of the Best Singles & Albums of July 2013 was posted, but the aforementioned fests – and other exciting posts were working on that we think you’ll appreciate – have delayed volume 2.
Now that the summer fest season is coming to a close with fests like last weekend’s inaugural First City Festival in Monterey, California, we’ll be getting back to regular posting of indie and DIY singles, playlists and band profiles (and there’s a lot in the pipeline), and in a couple of months, the first ‘Best of 2013’ posts will be coming out. Regardless that it is a bit late, there were terrific releases from the second half of July that could be categorized as “can’t miss,” including underground indie DIY bands and artists that are among some of the best of the year, as well as top-notch new releases. This post features a couple dozen of them.
Listeners responded enthusiastically to Volume One of the Best Singles & Albums of July 2013, streaming and downloading tens of thousands of times 27 top singles from albums dropped in the first half of July, featuring dozens of artists, including rock veterans like Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) to fairly popular indie bands like Maps; small label artists like Little Legend, who like other terrific, new-to-us bands – Twin Peaks, Royal Forest and Sensual Harassment (all who dropped albums in early July) – are now a band to watch into the coming year. Plus, new material from solo artists like Gregory Alan Isakov and the songwriter/singer and musician known as Thundercat also stand out as artists to watch in 2014.
The debut, self-titled EP from a new band to watch, Smallpools
As stated above, Volume One featured many DIY, obscure artists and bands, who have had practically no coverage on the web, including bands like Grids, Driftwood Miracle, Futurist, Drops, Animals in Cars, Lions For Real, Ladada, Horsha On The Moon, among others, who had excellent singles from their new releases that needed to be posted. It’s a shame that so many terrific artists go largely unnoticed each month – we do our best with limited resources to highlight as many as possible, even if it simply means adding one of their songs to a playlist without providing very much additional information. Altogether, there are more than two dozen MP3 singles to stream or download in the first volume, and plenty of new artists and bands to explore. And if you want to hear even more amazing music and fill up your iTunes library, browse through popular playlist series like 5 DIY Bands to Watch; Best New Music Releases of 2013; Artist of the Week; 7 Bands You’ve Gotta Hear; Top 10 Songs playlists, among others.
And now, the second and final volume of singles from new releases dropped between July 16th and July 29th. We’re working diligently to catch up with August, which will also be divided into two volumes, and will include, as all the reviews of new releases do, songs from the popular ‘indie’ artists and bands, as well as the unsigned, obscure and under the radar bands that many times you’ll only hear on Indie Rock Cafe.
First Half of the Second Half of July’s Top Singles – Smallpools and Soft Metals
The following playlist represents singles from new releases dropped during the third week of July from indie artists that are more likely to be known among indie rock enthusiasts. However, there are also plenty of DIY artists and bands in this playlist (as with many IRC playlists) that even the most avid indie music consumers have never heard before – at least until today.
Smallpools is a new IRC indie band to watch in 2013-14 thanks to their self-titled debut EP that includes the incredibly catchy, upbeat single, “Mason Jar,” driven by thundering beats, a fast-paced rhythm with a blistering bass line, oh-ah choruses, and lightning speed synth and guitar jams. Plus, another track that has helped increase the popularity of Smallpools in recent months is “Dreaming,” and the music video (above) that was released just six weeks ago and already has over a quarter of a million views. It’s not hard to see why this band is blowing up.
Next, check out the dark electro pop track, “Tell Me,” from the album Lenses. by DIY band Soft Metals’ .The track also has a pronounced industrial techno aspect to it. But what stands out most about this song is the the main riff on “Tell Me” – it’s somewhat reminiscent (although it’s a bit of a stretch) of the ominous riff from the Kill Bill movies that was used as a warning that some serious mayhem was about to go down. The riff from Kill Bill is actually Quincy Jones‘ original riff, with a modern spin, used in the 1960’s TV series, Ironside. However, while the riff had a similarly dark intent on the old TV show, it was nothing even close to the scale of violence and bloodshed that Quentin Tarantino unleashed in the Kill Bill series. In fact, the “Ironside excerpt” remains one of the scariest sound bites in popular culture to this day, right up there with the screeching violin of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock‘s classic horror thriller, Psycho.
“Mason Jar” – Smallpools from Smallpools EP – July 16th
First up, is a DIY indie pop band from Oz that music lovers in the United States need to hear because we think they’re pretty amazing, and so far, have remarkably received almost no coverage from the tens of thousands of indie music blogs on the web. The band is Fairchild, formerly Fairchild Republic, from the Gold Coast of Australia. Fairchild is one the most popular new indie pop bands in the cafe right now, thanks largely to the incredibly catchy retro-pop hooks and dance grooves of the masterfully produced single, “Burning Feet,” from the band’s self-titled debut EP released on July 24th.
The band scored a huge victory when the respected producer and mixing engineer, Catherine Marks, signed on to produce the band’s debut EP. Marks has produced and mixed for talented bands like Foals, Death Cab For Cutie, The Killers, Interpol, and White Lies. Based on her accomplishments, Marks clearly knows how to pick talented artists that she wants to work with in the studio. Plus, she usually works with signed bands, so the fact that Marks choose to work with Fairchild also says a lot about the band. “Burning Feet” will ultimately be a top DIY track of 2013, and their self-titled debut EP is one of the best debuts of the second half of 2013. It’s time for this band to break out in the U.S.
We’ll be writing more about this band in the coming weeks. Fairchild has previously opened for artists like Neon Indian, Parachute Youth, Kids of 88, Cub Scouts, Last Dinosaurs, The Medics, Battleships, and The Cairos.
Latest Singles from Feral Children, BEACH, A Grave With No Name, David Lynch and Lykke Li, and Others
Seattle band Feral Children self-released their latest album, Too Much, Too Late, that features a more finely-tuned expression of the band’s sound of buzzing guitars, thumping bass and punk-rock tendencies, as the fast-moving, blazing track, “Rewind The Rerun,” demonstrates. Other top tracks for July include unforgettable singles like A Grave With No Name‘s song “Aurora,” with it’s heavy-hitting beat, grinding synths and jangly guitar strums; the haunting beauty of “I’m Waiting Here,” a musical collaboration between David Lynch and Lykke Li, and “While The World Burns,” a magnificent composition from the promising and talented singer/songwriter Svavar Knútur. There are also a some good singles from the first half of July off new albums by La Luz, White Dove, WL, Gauntlet Hair and BEACH.
“Rewind The Rerun” – Feral Children from Too Much, Too Late (self-released)
“Aurora“ – A Grave With No Name from Whirlpool on Lefse Records
“Bad Apple” – Gauntlet Hair from Stills on Dead Oceans
“Love Was A River” – BEACH from In Us We Trust on Short Story Records
“Cold Mountain” – White Dove from The Hoss, The Candle on RSRCH+DVLP
Last Week of July Music, July 23rd – July 30th: The Love Language, Van Dyke Parks, Weekend
The last week of new releases for the month of July spawned a number of standout singles from artists and bands that we’ve enjoyed in the past – such as Merge recording artist, The Love Language, or the popular indie rock band Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros (who just released their self-titled debut on Vagrant; even though it’s not their debut album) – and new, promising DIY and under-the-radar bands that we had never heard of before until recently, like The Cairo Gang or Dizzy Bats.
Sharpe sheds some old skin and doubles-down on influences like gospel and blues on the new, self-titled LP, featuring the lead single, “This Life,” in which Sharpe sounds like he is channeling Ray Charles. Next, the popular San Francisco indie band, Weekend, return with a trippy psych rock track, “It’s Alright,” that is also available as a music video, which contains a series of black and white photographs of everyday (and some not so everyday; i.e., bondage items and gator skulls; the latter of which adorns the cover of the album, Jinx) items like a skate, a cross, flowers, a whistle, figurines and a switchblade.
Temples’ Fully ‘Hippiefried’ Retro Psychedelic Pop
The hot UK band, Temples, tears a page from the psychedelic era (the trend is real), stepping into a time machine of sorts, and traveling back to sometime in 1967 or ’68, with the single, “Shelter Song,” from their debut double seven-inch on Fat Possum. The “Shelter Song” music video (above) includes the psychedelic era kaleidoscope and lava lamp visual effects, flashing colors, faded, overly-contrasted and overlapping photographs, and even some of the hippie attire. “Shelter Song” has a fairly constant, big drum beat that is the backdrop for wave after wave of distorted electric guitar riffs, R&B bass hooks, joyful tambourines, trippy keyboards, and layers and layers of reverb-heavy vocals and choruses – all wrapped up in even more reverb.
Overall, it’s a wonderfully produced song, and includes lyrics like “/Take me away to the Twilight Zone/” and “/We stayed up late in a dream/.” Had this song actually come out in 1968, 45 years ago, it likely would have been a hit record. Back then, however, you would have to go to a cool and funky local record store and buy the 45 vinyl or the vinyl album (we’re glad to be old enough to have been at the tail end of the ‘age of the record store’; it was the place to hang out on weekends and nights during the high school and college years. But the record store was killed by iTunes.)
The UK band Temples
The single, “Hold Back Time,” by the Van Dyke Parks does just that. In fact, this song appropriately follows Temples’ retro psych pop because it too has a retro feel to it. “Hold Back Time” actually holds back time as far as to the 1960’s, which is evident in any aspect of the single. You could have fooled us if you said “Here’s this song from 1969, do you know who it is?” and we would have thought of every 60’s band and artist before thinking it was actually from an indie band and released in 2013. And that’s part of the magnificence of the broad net of music we generally call ‘indie.’ Whatever it really is, it certainly is whatever kind of music someone wants to make without a huge budget or a label – and the freedom to create results in so much amazing music. The whole purpose of IRC is to capture as much of this amazing music that most people are missing out on before it disappears forever. No one is going to like every song we post, but hopefully, everyone hears music that they enjoy either for the moment or for repeat plays.
“Hold Back Time” – Van Dyke Parks from Songs Cycled on Bella Union
“Calm Down” – The Love Language from Ruby Red on Merge Records
“This Life” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on Vagrant
Fu*k Buttons and Gogol Bordello
Up next is the latest track from Fu*k Buttons off the band’s fifth album, Slow Focus (of the alternate, ‘Slow Fuckus‘). Next, Gogol (no relation to Google) Bordello returns with the spaghetti western-style single, “Lost Innocent World,” from the album, Pura Vida Conspiracy. Truth be told: we don’t like the single all that much, but we included it anyway since we know there are some hard core Bordello fans among you. The song is a bit flat; Bordello’s singing sounds a bit amateurish.
“The Red Wing” – Fu*k Buttons from Slow Focus on ATP Recordings
Radar Bands The Cairo Gang, Coke Weed, and Musician Grant Hart
The Cairo Gang sound nothing like the imagery their band name might suggest. Their newest single, “Tiny Rebels,” is a slow, melancholy tune that sounds like it could have come right out of San Francisco in 1967. (We’ve been noticing an uptick in psychedelic influences in the music of many indie rock bands in 2013, which was evident by performances from bands like Deerhunter at last weekend’s first annual First City Festival in Monterey, California. And yet what was also impossible to miss was the number of young people, particularly, teenage and young adult women, who were dressed basically like hippies, although they refer to it as “hipster style.” You can read more about it in our First City Debuts post.)
“Tiny Rebels” – The Cairo Gang from Tiny Rebels on Empty Cellar Records
“Sunseekers” – Coke Weed from Back To Soft on Heavy Friends
Following the Cairo Gang is Coke Weed‘s latest track, “Sunseekers,” which would have been such a better song if they sped it up and gave it more of a punch. After all, the title of the song is “Sunseekers,” of course are known for being sunny, upbeat and pop oriented. Following Coke Weed is a new single, “Is The Sky The Limit?” from Grant Hart. The multilayered track includes dreary organ and dulcimer playing which makes it sound like a sad carnival of gypsies performing an interpretation of a haunting song from The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack.
Turn up the amps and get ready to punk out with a band that is from our backyard – San Francisco street punk quartet Hunx and His Punx. The front man, Hunx, aka Seth Bogart, started Punx back in 2008 after years in a gay pop band called Gravy Train. Bogart wanted to rock harder, and since then, he and his punx have been doing just that. Following Hunx and His Punx is another loud band, the garage rock band Kid Karate, whose new single, “Two Times,” has been making the rounds on the web. For a perfect contrast, we posted new Mean Lady, who doesn’t sound mean at all on her new single, “Far Away.” After the Mean Lady, the indie pop band, The Memories, deliver a soft, lazy summer afternoon love song, “I Remember You.”
”Bad Skin”– Hunx and His Punx from Street Punk on Hardly Art
“Two Times” – Kid Karate from Lights Out EP (self-released)
“Far Away” – Mean Lady from Love Now on Fat Possum
“I Remember You” – The Memories from Love Is The Law on Burger Records
Self Releases From Filigar, Dizzy Bats, Fialta, Kid Karate
There were a number of self releases that had a fair amount of publicity behind them. First up is the band Filigar, which we’ve posted about in recent years, and who now have a terrific new single, “New Local,” that starts out with a piano introduction, and is followed by an immediate launch into a full-fledged power pop track with heavily melodic hooks, harmonica infusions and an excellent interplay between the bass and drums. Dizzy Bats presents the single “Batman and the Joker” and “Photographs,” from the band Fialta, is one of the best singles for the final week of July. Plus, listen to the garage rock of Kid Karate,. Diggin’ that.
“New Local” – Filligar from Hexagon (self-released) – July 23rd
“Batman and the Joker” – Dizzy Bats from single only (self-released) – July 21st
“Photographs” – Fialta from Summer Winter (self-released) – July 23rd
Top Singles from Promising DIY and Under The Radar Bands: Colours, Alex Riggen, Wind Up Rabbit, Tikkle Me
The following section of the best singles for the second half of July include – as so many IRC posts do – songs from DIY and small label releases by artists and bands that have had little to no coverage within the indie music blogosphere. First up is “The Illusionist,” from the band Colours; a sullen song from Iowa lo-fi indie pop artist Alex Riggen; the spooky pop of “Hearts On Ice” from New York indie quartet Wind Up Rabbit; the hip-shaking song from Orlando’s indie dance/pop outfit, Stockholm; the chunky single from New Orleans power pop/garage rock band Missing Monuments; the sprawling, suspenseful, near-epic single, “Niagara,” from Stockholm girl duo, Tikkle Me; Edinburgh band The Phantoms add some spook to their rock on the new single, “Coming For You.”
Most of the bands in this final section of the singles playlist for the second half of July 2013 have not been featured in a playlist of new singles anywhere else on the web – this is it. Hopefully, you’ll find some new artists to add to your like list and some new songs that you’ll be listening to in the coming days, weeks or maybe even months. What is always special about this part of the new releases series is the exclusivity of great music it provides for the tens of thousands around the world who follow IRC regularly for music they often will not find anywhere else on the web available in MP3 format.
“The Illusionist” – Colours from Skin & Bones – July 23rd
“Milk Milk” – Alex Riggen from Milk – July 23rd
“Hearts On Ice” – Wind Up Rabbit from Wind Up Rabbit – July 23rd
Tens of thousands of festival goers were treated to an impressive list of indie and alternative rock artists and bands this past weekend at the first annual First City Festival in Monterey, California. The fest, featuring headliners like Modest Mouse, Washed Out, Passion Pit, MGMT, Beach House, Purity Ring, among others, drew large crowds each day of the two-day music festival held in the idyllic location of the Monterey Fairgrounds, where large grassy open spaces are shaded by groves of beautiful cypress trees and graced by fresh ocean air from the nearby Monterey Bay. It’s a perfect location for a mini-festival. In addition to three stages, there was also a vaudeville stage that drew crowds throughout the course of the festival. Plus, there were food and drink vendors, booths, charging stations, and even games and rides available at the adjoining carnival grounds.
Indie rock legends Modest Mouse closed the festival with a one and half hour set on Sunday night that included a bunch of their newer material mixed with some of their older, and more well-known, material, including highlighted tracks from the band’s mesmerizing 2000 album, The Moon and Antarctica. The band performed excellent live renditions of “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” and “I Came As A Rat.” They also crunched out classic indie rock songs like “Dramamine” (which we included on our First City Spotify playlists) and “Float On.”
While the band played brilliantly through old and new material, things didn’t go so well when Mouse’s vocalist and guitarist Issac Brock tried to instruct the crowd to hold their breath for four seconds. When that odd request failed, Brock made even a stranger one, asking the crowd instead to boo loudly and spit on each other. Thankfully, that failed as well. That confused people, but the band’s set was so good that it didn’t matter one bit at the end of their set. Modest Mouse was the perfect band to close out a spectacular weekend featuring some of the biggest artists of indie music, from the pioneers, like Modest Mouse, to artists that have become so popular that they’re now pretty much mainstream, like Passion Pit and MGMT.
Prior to Modest Mouse, who performed at the main Redwood stage, was a performance on the Cypress stage (located at the opposite end of the grounds) by Purity Ring. We opted to juggle sets from Deerhunter, who performed a remarkably buzzy set with excellent jams (perhaps to honor the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival at the same location, a festival that was the first major and heavily promoted rock festival in the United States) that blazed through the sky like the changing light and colors of the setting sun. Deerhunter were one of our favorite sets of the day.
In order to catch all of Deerhunter’s set, a festival goer who was not staying for the set up and performance of Purity Ring, had no choice but to miss some of Neko Case’s set. Case was essentially the opening artist for Modest Mouse, put on a predictably tight performance, selecting a range of songs from the band’s discography.
Earlier on Day Two, was a full afternoon’s worth of talented artists, including Toro Y Moi, Lucero, Devendra Banhart, Dr. Dog, Capital Cities, Antlers, The Dodos, Generationals, Avery Tare’s Slasher Ficks, Akron/Family, Seventeen Evergreen, Bleached, among others. That’s the kind of line-up we’re used to seeing at the bigger, already established and popular festivals like Coachella, ACL and Bonaroo.
With all of those terrific bands performing one after another all afternoon, it’s hard to totally comprehend that the day’s headliners, which always draw the largest crowds, had yet to perform. As the sun began to dip little by little in the other direction, the number of Passion Pit and MGMT hipsters were increasing by the boat loads. It’s easy to conclude that many came to the festival just for one or two artists. And while the success of Passion Pit and MGMT grew out of the indie underground buzz, they are now clearly more mainstream than just a popular indie buzz band.
For example, in just the first few notes MGMT played of their popular song “Time to Pretend,” the enormous crowd roared with overwhelming approval as big crowds periodically do in the first few notes of wildly popular song. Again, a consistent theme we noticed about First City, the sound is amazing as far as outdoor festivals go. While MGMT delivered a good show, it wasn’t their best as one writer, Jody Amable, reported for a Bay Area blog called Bay Bridged. She wrote that MGMT: “rolled out the same old show they’ve been doing for years, featuring a whole lot of trippy visuals in retina-melting shades of neon to go with their brand of feathers-and-face-paint electro pop,” and while psychedelic visuals are a ‘time honored tradition’ for rock that originated in the Bay Area to begin with (and MGMT is a San Francisco band), the visuals were “starting to upstage them [MGMT] a little bit.” It’s true that the visuals aspect of the set was old hat, but the main annoyance was the temporary blinding effect and disorientation caused by overly contrasted and brightened visuals that flashed on and off repeatedly.
If you were trying to take photos from a few rows or more from the stage with a phone camera, chances are you got little else but big, blinding splashes of neon colors across the picture. Maybe that’s why they did it. Maybe it’s a secret government brainwashing mechanism. No, but seriously, tone it down guys. Or maybe it goes so well with MGMT’s hipster image and fan base that it’s purposely made to be way over the top.
By the time the closing act for Day One, Passion Pit, came on, the arena was packed with tens of thousands of people crammed into the fairground’s dusty Redwood stage area (which is built more for rodeos than music concerts). Passion Pit topped off the first day of what was an amazing afternoon and evening (11 hours total) of music. The band played with the quality of performance one would expect from such an accomplished band that started out DIY, went indie and are now admired by millions of young people around the world.
First City’s inaugural would have been solid even if all of the artists scheduled for Day One were spread out over two days. Yet, there was still another blockbuster day of performances from excellent bands still to come.
As we noticed all weekend, the sound at First City was spectacular, and there are likely a number of variables for that – one of course being the size of the grounds and the stage areas – relatively small compared to bigger festivals with a line-up the caliber of First City’s. Often times, a new festival can’t get dozens of popular indie bands booked for a variety of reasons. There are few debut music festivals that have a powerful lineup like First City did. We’re already curious about what they have in the works right now for 2014. First City is also a music festival that was clearly designed for indie rock fans. However, the festival’s name is attributed to the fact that Monterey was the first capital of California.
In the few reviews of the festival, there is not much emphasis placed on the sound quality. Sure, there is plenty of cred to the sound engineers – that’s a given. But the relatively small area, compared to Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park, keeps the sound contained and the number of trees and mostly wooden structures in and around the fair grounds absolutely help to provide a better, fuller sound inside that space. Now we can see part of the reason why Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Janis Joplin all became famous directly as a result of their performances at Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967. The sound, even with the little sound quality technology that existed at the time, must have been incredible.
To that point, there is the once best-selling official soundtrack from Monterey Pop as well as the film by the same name. See our preview of First City that includes an embedded video of rare concert bonus footage that was not released on the official film (no idea who posted it, but YouTube could remove it at anytime).
While there is some tweaking to do here and there, for the debut of a new festival, the organizers, Golden Voice, did a spectacular job, and they also brought a major rock festival back to the place where they were born nearly a half century ago. Plus, it’s simply a terrific spot to have a music festival for the ambience, ease of parking, fresh ocean air, moderate temps, and definitely for the acoustics. During his Father John Misty set, Tillman even commented to the crowd that there was something wrong with anyone who didn’t think it was an ideal place for a music festival.
The Monterey Fairgrounds has been home to the world famous Monterey Jazz Festival for the past 55 years. In fact, from September 20th to September 22nd, three weeks from now, the Monterey Jazz Festival will celebrate is 56th year, further solidifying its place in music history as one of the world’s oldest and continuously running music festivals.
First City will most certainly return next year based on the feedback we’ve been hearing, and a number of artists who openly praised the festival to the audience during their sets. Although the festival did not sell out of tickets by the time the gates opened on Saturday at 11 am., the crowds we saw, particularly at the Redwood stage for the top headliners, certainly seemed to be in the tens of thousands. Monterey Pop had 55,000 in attendance. From looking at the crowds in different locations throughout the two days, we’d say it was closer to 55,000 than not. The most striking similarity we could see to Monterey Pop 46 years ago was the attire. As was the case at Outside Lands just a few weeks ago, there were thousands of teenage girls and young adult women dressed in hippie-style attire, from dresses and flowery head bands to ripped jeans and colorful blouses and even polyester. For anyone who has seen many images over the years of the attire of the real hippies from the actual original time period, seeing all the hipsters as if they walked off a 1969 photograph, was trippy, mostly because it was so right on, right down to the straight, long hair and minimal facial make up.
If you’re already thinking about festivals to attend next summer in California, follow news during the coming winter and spring about First City via their mailing list. Plus, if you’ve never been to the San Francisco Bay Area (Monterey is part of the central coast region, some 110 miles south of San Francisco), and you have the ability to do so, it’s strongly recommended to spend a few extra days to see San Francisco and other amazing places in the Bay Area and central coast, including Monterey’s famous Aquarium, the 17 Mile Drive, the redwoods, and the Golden Gate Bridge, to name a few. If luck has it, the second annual First City will occur the weekend following, or proceeding, San Francisco’s hugely popular Outside Lands Festival. That’ll make it possible for visitors to California, who also love music festivals, to attend both fests. Bundling for vacations is always a good idea, and if this year is any indication, attending First City in 2014 should be high on the list for indie rock fans.
Powerhouse indie rock artists such as Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, MGMT, Beach House, Toro Y Moi, Devendra Banhart and Neko Case will headline the inaugural of the First City Festival in Monterey, California next weekend, August 24-25th. Dozens of other popular artists and bands, including Deerhunter, Washed Out, Okkervil River, The Hold Steady, Father John Misty, Dr. Dog, and The Dodos, are scheduled to perform at the premiere two-day music festival.
With the blockbuster success of the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival last weekend in San Francisco, fest fever is running high, and for many music lovers in northern California, and beyond (especially those who were unable to attend the sold out Outside Lands), First City is a fest not to be missed.
While its location on the beautiful coast of Monterey Bay is idyllic, the main draw of First City is the amazing lineup. Altogether, there are more than 30 top-notch artists and bands scheduled to perform on three stages from noon to 11 pm Saturday and Sunday. They include, in addition to the already mentioned headliners, Georgian electro artist Ernest Greene, better known by the stage name, Washed Out; Austin’s homespun sons, Okkervil River; Brooklyn indie rockers The Hold Steady; Texas psychedelic rockers The Black Angels; famous songwriter and instrumentalist J. Tillman‘s (Fleet Foxes) newest project, featuring the moniker, Father John Misty; Portland experimental country/folk band Blitzen Trapper; plus, Civil Twilight, Delta Rae, Tennis, Quadron, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Guards, and Guy Blakeslee. That’s just on Day One.
View the full schedules, and create a custom schedule, for Day One and Two.
On Day Two, in addition to top headliners Modest Mouse, Neko Case, Toro Y Moi and Devendra Banhart, artists and bands set for Sunday include Brooklyn psychedelic band Deerhunter; Candanian electro duo and Juno Award nominee Purity Ring; Philadelphia indie rockers Dr. Dog; New Orleans rockers Generationals; Los Angeles indie pop duo Capital Cities; Memphis country-punk rock band Lucero; Brooklyn indie rockers The Antlers; Portland experimental folk outfit Akron/Family; San Francisco indie rock duo The Dodos; as well as Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, Bleached, Seventeen Evergreen, Electric Guest, and Light Fantastic.
“Dashboard”– Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank [Explicit]
First City is a festival tailor-made for indie rock fans. With a line-up that rivals any two-day festival in the U.S. this year, the cost of admission, in our opinion, is well worth it, especially for avid indie rock fans. How many opportunities does any music lover get to see this many fantastic bands all in one place over a two-day, 22-hour music marathon?
Last week, festival organizers, Golden Voice, announced a number of after parties that include a DJ set from Passion Pit on Saturday night at the Blue Fin in historic Cannery Row. Also on Saturday evening The Hold Steady will perform a show with Eli “Paperboy” Reed at Planet Gemini, located across the street from the Fairgrounds. Get tickets for Passion Pit or The Hold Steady; as with the festival two-day passes and single day passes, there are no added fees. Carnival rides and games will also be available, which can be purchased via the official First City website.
First City is the latest of a number of major music festival to premiere northern California in recent years. With the success of the Outside Lands and Treasure Island music festivals in San Francisco, it sure seems very likely that First City will be as well.
The picturesque seaside town of Monterey, located some 120 miles south of San Francisco, was made famous around the world as the inspiration for many of John Steinbeck’s historic novels, for the magnificent Monterey Aquarium, and for the beautiful Pebble Beach golf course.
In the arena of music, the coastal city is widely known as the location of the annual Monterey Jazz Festival, one of the longest continuously-running music festivals in the world. But it is best known in the history of rock for the Monterey Pop Festival (June 16-18, 1967), the first major outdoor rock festival in the United States. Some of the greatest rock and roll artists of all time – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Who – received their first major exposure to America at Monterey Pop.
With the subsequent film and album, and press and radio air play, the now iconic artists became international rock super stars as a result of their appearances at Monterey Pop. The festival is also widely credited as a pivotal moment of the “Summer of Love” in 1967. Monterey Pop attracted 55,000 festival goers at the Monterey Fairgrounds, the same spot First City will kick-off it’s debut on August 24 and 25th.
The name for the First City Festival comes from the fact that Monterey was the first capital, or ‘first city,’ of California before it was moved to Sacramento.
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 
This post and playlist includes over 65 MP3 singles from the second half of August releases, featuring dozens of popular, well-known and totally DIY, obscure artists and bands. This is the second, and final, post and playlist mix covering the cafe’s top picks for the best singles and albums of August 2013. The first volume of 
