New Songs from Peter Doherty, St. Vincent and Micachu & The Shapes

Trouble-maker, rebel-rouser, super model dater, self-described hell raiser and recovering drug addict. Whatever you think of one of the UK’s most talked about rockers, Peter Doherty makes fine music. Doherty’s new release Grace/Wastelands is out and it’s a keeper. It’s heavy on misery and pain. Hopefully this is his way of overcoming his life-threatening drug habit and some day he might write some ‘brighter’ songs.

“Arcady”Pete Doherty from Grace/Wastelands (2009)

“New Love Grows on Trees”Peter Doherty from Grace/Wastelands (2009)

When an artist or band gets a lot of praise from critics, and love from fans, one of two things usually happens: it goes to their heads, or it goes to their hearts. St. Vincent, the moniker of Annie Clark, looks like she taking it to heart as evidenced by the brilliance of her new release Actor.

“The Strangers”St. Vincent from Actor (2009)

This unusual band from London whose music has been described as ‘kitchen sink avant pop’ made quite a splash at South by Southwest this year and have since garnered the oh-so lovely ‘blog buzz’. From the blog Earfarm: “[Micachu sounds like] Deerhoof mixed with Captain Beefheart, The Bug, and the board game Chutes & Ladders…Mick Jagger swagger, worn by a puppy.”

“Lips”Micachu & The Shapes from Jewellery (2009)

“Calculator”Micachu & The Shapes from Jewellery (2009)

Note about posting new songs

When you have a limited staff (literally three people) and you’re getting up to 50 music submissions a week, plus plenty of music to review that isn’t sent in, there will be a backlog. Those of you who sent music for review, keep checking back because you never know – your music could be posted at any time.

That’s exactly what I am currently working on; I wish there was more time to write full reviews of all the great music I hear, but there simply is not. But I do my best to keep you all up on the best of the best (IMO) of new and classic indie, alternative, rock, folk, pop and electronica.

New Indie Rock Songs of 2009: The Veils, Superchunk, Robert Gomez, King Khan and more

It’s been a busy week so far with stories about, and songs from, Melpo Mene, Klum, Fearless Vampire Kills, Pope Joan, downdime, L’Avventura, Curvise and many others. During that time the queue with more new indie and alternative songs has filled up again. If you like any of the bands, check out their web sites.

Songs featured today include newbies from Texan singer-songwriter Robert Gomez, Georgia’s King Khan and The Shrines, Portland’s Tara Jean O’Neil and Brooklyn electronic DJ Throcke. But first up, let’s start with two bands that released new music today, London’s The Veils and alt-indie legends Superchunk.

“The Letter”The Veils from Sun Gangs, out today, April 7
The Veils Website

“Misfits & Mistakes”Superchunk from Leaves in the Gutter EP, out April 7
Superchunk Website

“On This Day”Robert Gomez from Pine Sticks & Phosphorus, out April 14
Robert Gomez on MySpace

“Land of Freak”King Khan and The Shrines from From What Is?!, out on April 21
King Khan and The Shrines on MySpace

“Drowning”Tara Jane O’Neil from A Ways Away, out May 5
Tara Jane O’Neil on MySpace

“Starry”Throcke from Sometimes Not Unpointful, out now
Throcke on MySpace

You can grab our RSS ‘Feed Me Indie’ so you never miss a beat, follow IRC on Twitter to get cool stuff that is sometimes not featured here or friend us on IRC’s MySpace page.

New Indie Songs from The Thermals, Dan Auerbach, Faunts

Today’s batch of new songs from current and up-coming releases includes a fresh pop tune from Portland’s The Thermals, Stockholm’s indie pop duo The Sweet Serenades, Edmonton’s five-piece shoegaze Faunts, Finnish pop couple Burning Hearts and a hard-edge blaze from Akron’s Dan Auerbach.

“Now We Can See”The Thermals from Now We Can See
The Thermals on MySpace

“Mona Lee”The Sweet Serenades from Balcony Cigarettes
The Sweet Serenades on MySpace

“Explain”Faunts from Feel Love Thinking Of
Faunts on MySpace

“I Lost My Colour Vision”
Burning Hearts from Aboa Sleeping
Burning Hearts on MySpace

“I Want Some More” Dan Auerbach from Keep It Hid
Dan Auerbach on MySpace

New Indie Songs & Releases: The Antlers, Say Hi and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart


“Two”The Antlers from upcoming release Hospice

“Bear” The Antlers from Hospice

“November Was White, December Was Grey”Say Hi from Oohs & Aahs

“Everything With You”The Pains of Being Pure At Heart from their self-titled debut

After Kanye West’s mention, IRC gets loved

Almost two weeks ago we posted about Florida’s electronic unsigned duo artists called Blind Man’s Colour.

The posting received a lot of attention!

So much so that even big-time hip-hop musician Kanye West, in a post titled “Some Dope Shit for My Apartment” (why was he living in an apartment?) on his Kayne Universe City blog, linked to our review of Blind Man’s Colour.

Kinda cool, huh? Getting some love from Mr. West? In addition, indie blogs Gorilla Vs. Bear and I Guess I’m Floating wrote about Kayne’s post and the IRC discovery. Then more high visiblity blogs jumped on the BMC-IRC-West love wagon – although they conveniently failed (decided not to) to give the original attribution to us. That’s not cool in journalism or music journalism.

In his post, West also posted a link to our announcement of the lineup for this year’s Coachella fest.

Anyways, the latest word from Blind Man Colour’s is that the guys have been getting calls from record labels and a huge number of new friend requests on MySpace since our review posted.

New and Upcoming Indie Songs and Album Releases

Today’s playlist of new songs include Here We Go Magic, Plus Minus, Ancient Crux, Of Montreal and It Hugs Back.

It Hugs Back will release their debut album, Inside Your Guitar, in early April on Beggars Group Records.

“Work Day”It Hugs Back from the upcoming debut Inside Your Guitar

“First Time High Reconstructionist (Remix of An Eluardian Instance)”Of Montreal from the new EP Jon Brion Remix

“In Teen Dreams”Ancient Crux from Interracial Coupling EP Limited on Family Time Records.

“Unsung”Plus Minus from X’s On Your Eyes on Absolutely Kosher Records

“Tunnelvision”Here We Go Magic (the moniker for Brooklyn musician Luke Temple and his band) will be available February 24 on West Vinyl Records.

Download a new song from The Doves by email.

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