2009 Indie Rock Albums – INDIE ROCK CAFE

2009 Indie Rock Releases: Cosmisutra from Mellow Down Easy

Posted on 08/17/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Nashville indie rock band Mellow Down Easy are not easy to put into a musical genre, which happens to be one of their biggest advantages. The band’s sound combines twangy classic guitar rock with elements of country and blues. Their latest album, Cosmisutra, features song after song of genuine, riveting rock that has won them approval of fans and critics around Nashville and throughout the world.

And if all of that isn’t enough, Mellow Down Easy has also received critical acclaim from country rocker Ryan Adams, the one and only George Jones and the surviving members of the wildly popular 1970s southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Before his death in 2003, the Man in Black himself – the legendary Johnny Cash – reportedly heard the band and gave them a hearty and powerful thumbs up. An endorsement from Johnny Cash is big, really big.

What Johnny Cash saw in the band all those years ago has come to fruition on MDE’s new record. Right off the bat, of all the songs on Cosmisutra, perhaps the most likely to appeal to wider audience is the catchy, gritty single, “I Am The Universe,” which is garage rock at its best.

The band’s hip, energetic blues rock style is evident on other songs like “Love Money” and “Pure Gold.” The latter topped the indie charts earlier this year on OurStage.com. Mellow Down Easy deliver edgy, infectious rock reminiscent of modern bands like The White Stripes, and nostalgic psychedelic rock that would make bands like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience proud.

Lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Andrew Adkins understands and appreciates the musical roots of modern day rock as demonstrated by songs packed with heartfelt lyrics, melodic guitar riffs and top-notch vocals. What makes it all come together and work so well owes a great deal to the impressive contributions of band mates Daryl Dasher (bass and vocals) and Rodney Russell (percussions and programming).

In a recent interview with Leicester Bangs, Adkins described Cosmisutra this way: “It’s full of various flavors and shades of sounds and music. The result of 3 years of pulling ourselves apart and piecing ourselves back together again…this band had went through so many things. Self-destructive things, really dark areas in our life. Writing and making this record was our way of getting through and moving on from all of that.”

Adkins says he was strongly influenced as a boy by artists and bands such as The Beatles, CCR, Bob Dylan, T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, Velvet Underground, Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and others.

MDE is signed with Dualtone Music Group in Nashville. Contributors to Cosmisutra include Tommy Butler (pedal steel guitar) and Nathan Johnson (Wurlitzer piano, organ, Hammond b-3 organ).

MDE set out on tour Friday and will be playing shows throughout the midwest and south on and off through December.

“I Am The Universe” – Mellow Down Easy from Cosmisutra (2009)

“Pure Gold” – Mellow Down Easy from Cosmisutra (2009)

Official website: www.MellowDownEasy.com

MySpace page: www.MySpace.com/MellowDownEasy

New Indie Rock Songs from Foreign Born’s Upcoming Sophomore LP ‘Person To Person’

Posted on 06/18/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

LA indie rock band Foreign Born will release their sophomore album Person To Person next week on the Secretly Canadian record label. Here are two great songs from the album to add to your summer playlist mix. The LP could be one of the biggest indie releases of the year.

“Early Warnings” – Foreign Born from Person To Person (out June 23)

Bonus Track: “Vacationing People” – Foreign Born from Person To Person

Brooklyn’s Post-Punk Revivalists Aeroplane Pageant Album Release Party Tonight

Posted on 05/30/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

New York City’s indie rock band Aeroplane Pageant has a new single “Stars Still Pretty” from their new album, Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me, set for release June 9 on Stormy Ice Records. An album release party will be held tonight (May 30) at Pianos in New York.

Aeroplane Pageant creates addictive melodic pop glazed with swirling guitars and groovy base lines. The vocal style of Brian Kelly has been compared to The Beatles and the guitar riffs “curve, duck, cascade and gush rather effusively” (according to Absolutepunk). Engineer Patrick Stoneback (Vampire Weekend and White Stripes) mixed the new album at Treefort Studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn, New York.

Aeroplane Pageant’s 2007 debut LP Wave to the Moon got the band opening gigs for bands like Vampire Weekend, The Hold Steady, Dr. Dog and Tokyo Police Club.

“Stars Still Pretty” – Aeroplane Pageant from Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me

Aeroplane Pageant official website
Aeroplane Pageant on MySpace

New Album Covers Revealed: Animal Collective and White Denim, Concerts and New Songs

Posted on 05/16/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

The music blog Gorilla vs. Bear has revealed two new album covers from forthcoming releases by Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes, due out July 7; and White Demin – Fits, due out June 22. If anyone has found the track listing for Summertime Clothes, please share.

A track from the upcoming White Demin album has already made the rounds and it’s an interesting, but welcomed, change-up from the alternative garage rockers. “Mirrored and Reversed” is spacey rock; esoteric, driving psychedelic jam.

“Mirrored and Reversed” – White Demin from Fits (out June 22)

Last week, Animal Collective premiered a new song, “Bleed”, on NPR’s coverage of the band’s performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.

“Bleed” – Animal Collective from upcoming release Summertime Clothes.

In case you missed Animal Collective last week on Letterman performing Summertime Clothes, one of the best songs on the magnificent, soon-to-be classic Merriweather Post Pavilion. No one knows what the deal is with the illuminated maggots dancing and writhing in the background, but hey, it is Animal Collective.

Here’s the setlist from the 9:30 Club-NPR performance that you can stream here.

01 “Chocolate Girl”
02 “Summertime Clothes”
03 “Guys Eyes”
04 “What Would I Want Sky”
05 “Comfy In Nautica”
06 “My Girls”
07 “Slippi”
08 “Daily Routine”
09 “Bleed”
10 “Lablakely Dress/Fireworks”
11 “Banshee Beat”
12 “Who Could Win a Rabbit”
13 “Brother Sport”

Metric’s New Album ‘Fantasies’ is Band’s Fourth Studio LP

Posted on 04/28/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Metric is a Canadian-based new wave/indie rock band originally formed in New York City in 1998. In recent years, they have gained a loyal following and performed at many summer music festivals worldwide.

Metric’s first LP, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, wasn’t released until 2003, but earned the band a Juno Award nomination for Best Alternative Album. They just released their fourth studio album, Fantasies, last week.

“Help, I’m Alive” (Twelves Remix) – Metric from Fantasies (2009)
Metric official website

Sin Fang Bous: Great Indie Album Releases of 2009

Posted on 04/15/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Eccentricity, creativity and raw talent all mixed together sometimes reveal pure artistic brilliance that is immediately addictive. If you haven’t heard Sin Fang Bous yet, now’s the time. Sin Fang Bous is the moniker of the young musician Sindri Mar Sigfusson from Reykjavik, Iceland.

Whatever the case, his debut album Clangour is a brilliant treasure chest full of musical treats, and thus far, one of the best indie releases of 2009, yet the album has not received the attention you would expect.

Maybe Sigfusson should join the growing Animal Collective family? Well, maybe not; he’s doing well on his own as evidenced on Clangour. The music is rich with textures of ‘noise’ synth pop layered with choruses, orchestrated embellishments, lo fi and hi fi weaves, sunny and watery sound effects found on songs like “Lies” and “The Jubilee Choruses”.

Other tracks like “Poi Rot” suggest an intrinsic gift to create lush ballads with gorgeous vocals, interspersed with whistling and string plucking similar to Andrew Bird’s signature sound. Yet other songs like “Fa Fa Fa” mix lo fi with rock elements and acoustic guitar before reaching a climax of “oh oh ohs” that soar higher with each note.

One of things that is magnificent about Sigfusson’s musical abilities is his penchant for creating songs that stand on their own, and with the exception of some commonalities, are individualistic in style, delivery and content. An example of this is the song “We Belong” full of xylophones, echoed vocals, driving beats and electronica pop influences. Another good example is the noise pop track “Melt Down The Knives”, one of the album’s standout songs.

Sigfusson is not a newbie to the indie music world. In fact, his previous band, Seabear, established themselves as a buzz band with their magnificent debut The Ghost That Carried Us Away in 2007. As of today, Seabear’s MySpace page has over one million views – that’s no small accomplishment.

By comparison, popular singer-songwriter M. Ward has 700,000 more views but has had his MySpace account twice as long as Seabear. Sin Fang Bous MySpace page, opened in January of 2008, has had slightly over 107,000 views.
Read more and listen to songs.

The following YouTube video of the song “I Sing I Swim” has been viewed nearly a quarter of a million times and has 4.5 stars. So, clearly, Seabear is not unknown in the indie music world.

After parting ways with Seabear, Sigfusson cut out on his own to develop his musical career on his own terms. What came of that brief time with a full band was the seeds for his new solo release under the unusual moniker Sin Fang Bous. It’s hard for me to see this album not being in my personal list of the best indie albums of 2009 at the end of the year.

“Melt Down The Knives” – Sin Fang Bous from Clangour (released in Feb. 2009)

“Poi Rot” – Sin Fang Bous from Clangour

“Nothings” – Sin Fang Bous from Morr Music compilation Not Given Lightly: A Tribute To The Giant Golden Book Of New Zealand’s Alternative Music Scene (out May 25)

“I Sing I Swim” – Seabear from The Ghost That Carried Us Away

Sin Fang Bous on LastFM

Sin Fang Bous on MySpace

‘Just OK’ Album Releases of 2009: The Decemberists

Posted on 03/23/200902/27/2016 by Max Hammer

This week you’ll see some reviews of much talked about recent releases by groups like The Decemberists, Beirut and U2. I’m probably going to get some spitfire emails, but just trying to keep it real (one person’s opinion). Let’s start off with a band that was a favorite of mine for years.

Then, not so long ago, The Decemberists ‘crossed over’ and signed with a major label – Capitol Records. That was a bit hard to take for a band that helped boost the popularity of true indie labels. Anyways, my fear that their music would change has come true, and not in the best way.

And so what is the freaking hype for? First off, I have been a huge Decemberists’ fan since first hearing The Crane Wife. After hearing that record, I immediately bought everything they ever released – and I was hooked man. The upcoming release of The Hazards of Love marks a new direction for the band that personally I am not a fan of.

There are really only a handful of songs on Hazards that are keepers for me, among them “The Rake Song” and “The Wanting Comes in Waves”. I am more inclined to go back and listen to their merchant sailing songs and bucolic ballads from bygone days.

The NPR music dudes from All Songs Considered recently “bet” after The Decemberists’ SXSW show last week in Austin that Hazards will be the best album of 2009.

What?! First of all guys, it’s only freaking March. Secondly, I’ve heard dozens of better albums so far this year from bands few have heard of. Sometimes NPR irks me. For the last few years, NPR’s musical staff druels over a handful of bands and commonly declare, prematurely notwithstanding, the contenders for ‘best albums of the year’, and eagerly enough, the sure-fire, got-to-be, hands down winner – with an entire freaking nine months in the year left.

Please guys. Time for a reality check at NPR music. If you don’t believe me, dig through the IRC archives for this year and check out some of the other albums on the list to the right of this page; I promise there are better albums in that list than The Hazards of Love.

Next up in “Just OK” New Releases: Beirut and U2

New Indie Songs of 2009: Ben Kweller, Bishop Allen and The Decemberists

Posted on 02/12/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Ben Kweller’s new album is creating plenty of buzz even as the new resident of Austin adds country to his repertoire; indeed, changing horses.

On his blog, Kweller says about his newest album: “People are asking me, ‘why did you wake up and decide to make a country album?’ To them I say, ‘I didn’t. It’s been in me the whole time, I just never put it on tape.'”

Also, the new album from Bishop Allen simply titled Grrr is receiving wide praise. The anticipation keeps building in lieu of the release of the new Decemberists’ album Hazards of Love, due out at the end of March.

“Things That I Like To Do” – Ben Kweller from Changing Horses

– Buy the album from Ben’s website
– Ben Kweller’s MySpace page
– Download other Ben MP3s

“Dimmer” – Bishop Allen from Grrr…

“The Rake Song” – The Decemberists from upcoming release The Hazards of Love

New 1990s’ MP3 from Upcoming Album ‘Kicks’

Posted on 01/30/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Glasgow’s rock trio 1900s play a mix of dance and glam rock reminiscent of the sounds of T. Rex and modern bands like CSS and The Gossip. In 2007, they released their widely-acclaimed debut Cookies.

The 1900s’ sophomore album, Kicks, is set for release in March on Rough Trade Records. The album was recorded in rocker Edwyn Collins’ London studio and produced by Bernard Butler, the former Suede guitarist who has also produced The Libertines.

1990’s are Jackie McKeown (vocals, guitars), Dino Bardot (bass, vocals), and Michael McGaughrin (drums and vocals).

“The Box” – 1990s from forthcoming Kicks

Check out the 1990’s MySpace page for more music and news from Kicks

Andrew Bird Raises The Sword with Noble Beasts

Posted on 01/26/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Andrew Bird has done it again. Bird’s 2007 album Armchair Apocrypha was widely hailed as one of the best albums of that year. It’s almost a sure bet that his newest release, Noble Beast, will go down as one of the finest albums of 2009. I’ve had the album on a near loop for days, and it’s a grower – the more I listen to it, the more I am sure it will probably remain on my essential albums list years from now.

Bird, who is currently on tour, really expands as an artist on Noble Beast and yet manages to perfect the framework that made him famous and keep his compositional idiosyncrasies that so many fans treasure still interesting, such as his signature whistling.

Few artists can get away with as much whistling as Bird spreads throughout this work because it is always appealing and woven in with the music just perfectly. For example, on the track “Take Courage” Bird whistles like a musician, not just some guy walking down the street.

“Souverian” is a love song that would go well with a road trip through quiet places. It’s also a split single in that it transforms in to another style of music half-way through. Split singles are becoming a trend in recent years, and Bird is a natural when it comes to creating such a song. Other album highlights include “Oh No”, “Anonanimal” (see new video above) “Fitz and the Dizzyspells” and “Tenuousness”.

There is a limited edition double CD version called Useless Creatures, a collection of new instrumental works. Orders for the limited edition are being taken at http://fatpossum.com.

Please note: I have not heard the bonus CD except for one ten-minute track titled “The Barn Tapes”. Let’s just say that song is not a keeper – an unusual occurrence with Bird’s music catalog.

It must also be noted that some critics will argue Noble Beast is not as ground-breaking as Armchair Apocrypha, or as accessible, but the overall collection of songs on Noble Beast is a solid follow-up to AA and will easily survive any nit-picking.

“Tenuousness” by Andrew Bird from Noble Beast

Stream songs from Noble Beast at Andrew Bird’s MySpace page.

Get Noble Beast at Emusic.com or iTunes
Official Release for Europe: Feb. 15 (how romantic)

Bird is performing Monday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City Wednesday night.

With the exception of a two-week break in early March, Bird will be touring until the end of April. Chances are he will sell out just about everywhere he plays, especially as word about his newest release spreads.

Vetiver Set to Release Fourth Album "Tight Knit" on SubPop

Posted on 01/23/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

It’s that time again. A band I didn’t know about before, but should have known. Vetiver, the brainchild of San Francisco singer/songwriter Andy Cabic, creates dream-like folk pop full of sweeping moods and introspective lyrics.

Tight Knit is the fourth LP from Vetiver. If the following single is representative of the rest of the album, then we expect Vetiver to make a splash in 09.

“Everyday” – Vetiver from Tight Knit

Tight Knit will be released on February 17, 2009 on SubPop Records.

Recorded in Sacramento at The Hangar and in Los Angeles at Melva, Tight Knit was produced by longtime Vetiver collaborator Thom Monahan. Accompanying Cabic were Sanders Trippe on guitar, Kevin Barker on guitar, Otto Hauser on drums, Brent Dunn on bass and guest musicians including The Shins‘ Eric Johnson (also of Fruit Bats) Jonathan Wilson, “Farmer” Dave Scher, and Adam Peters.

Fresh Release: Stream M. Ward’s Upcoming Album Hold Time

Posted on 01/14/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

M. Ward and National Public Radio have collaborated to offer a full stream of the talented artists’ upcoming new release Hold Time.

The album is rich with what fans expect from Ward – acoustic ballads and songs that are soothing and bright. NPR said of Hold Time: “Hold Time, continues this tradition, with a gorgeously produced mix of finger-picked guitars, upright bass and shuffling rhythms, all tied together by his achy voice.”

Stream the full album uninterrupted choose to listen to individual songs.

Ward was the other half of She & Him which received wide critical acclaim for their 2008 Volume One. The duo are working on Volume Two slated for release in 2010. Hold Time will be officially release on February 17, 2009 and the following day, Ward will kick-off a tour with a show in Boston.

According to Reuters UK the long-awaited album from Ward, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis is also expected in 2010, even though Ward called the work on the album moving at a “glacial pace.”

Free Merge Records 2009 sampler featuring Ward, Portistatic, Lampchop, Conor Oberst, Wye Oak, The Broken West and others.