More Recent Releases from DIY Artists Quixotism, Slow Buildings, Whaki, Har-di-Har, Romulus Rues

quixotism
Wyatt Baer is the one-man bedroom producer and musician behind the ambient synth pop, drone, dance and R&B textures of the DIY EP, Faustian Plea, self-released on November 27th, under the moniker Quixotism. Living in Burbank, California, Quixotism is a project that is only a little more than one year old, inspired by his love of artists like Burial, Drake, Holy Other, Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, and James Blake, all of which are influences that are clearly noticeable in a range of his tracks.

While the track, “I Wanted,” is one of his more accessible tracks, Baer also rises to the occasion on the second track, “Douse,” which is included as a contrast to the afore-mentioned track. The song, “Sooner,” from Quixotism’s debut LP, Conduit – released a little less than two months prior (on Oct. 1st) to Faustian Plea – is a spacious, free-flowing electro pop track with quirky sound effects and samples from Frou Frou. Listen to more of Quixotism’s songs via Bandcamp.

“Douse”Quixotism from Faustian Plea – Nov. 27th

“I Wanted”Quixotism from Faustian Plea

Bonus Track: “Sooner”Quixotism from Conduit – Oct. 1st

In his submission to IRC, Baer wrote about his endeavor: “No label, no studio, no producers, no formal music or production training or schooling of any kind (other than high school show choir). It’s just me…I do it because I love it and because I have to. It keeps me sane.”

New Jersey Singer/Songwriter Slow Buildings Drops New EP

In 2005, New Jersey singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jason Legacy released the debut LP, Good Things Happen with his band, Slow Buildings. He played all the instruments, recorded, produced and released the LP DIY style, followed by his sophomore release, Everything Like This, dropped in 2008. Both albums feature a combination of edgy, melodic indie pop, indie rock and elements of punk and alternative rock. Last year, Slow Buildings’ third album, This Is Dead Aesthetic Junk, was released to enthusiastic reviews.

On December 18th, Slow Buildings dropped their debut EP, Glass Joe, featuring the two singles below. Contributors include his brother, Ted Legacy, drummers Zee and Rich Meehan, guitarist Oce Dytioco and Christopher Basile on bass. Slow Buildings has opened for The Fearless and considers among their top musical influences The Beatles, The Kinks, The Soft Boys, early Weezer, and The Misfits.

“Glass Joe (remix)”Slow Buildings from Glass Joe EP – Dec. 18th

“Secrets Kept, Secrets Lost”Slow Buildings from Glass Joe EP

Slow Buildings Facebook Page

Portland DIY Genre-Bending Band Whaki

Portland DIY electro fazz junk band Whaki has been experimenting with a melange of sounds since their beginning in a Cleveland basement in 1999. With wild ideas and creative imaginings unbound by convention, Judd Higgins & Zakk Kuzda began to uncover the roots of a story.

While Higgins now resides in Savannah, Georgia, and Kuzda in Portland, WHAKi and their exploration of all things absurd continues. Reunited in 2005, WHAKi released their eponymous first album, a combination of their first tunes along with new improvisational jams. Last month, they released a unique album called One Minute Soundtracks (aka, OMS), from which they sent in two tracks to share with IRC readers.

“OMS #30 [Hub Numm]”Whaki from OMS (One Minute Soundtracks) – Nov. 26th

“OMS #31 [Something in the Air]”Whaki from OMS (One Minute Soundtracks)

Whaki on Facebook

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Cedar Falls Har-di-Har, Romulus Rues

From Cedar Falls, Iowa, Har-di-Har is the DIY duo of Andrew and Julie Thoreen whose indie-pop/psych-folk Americana sound took shape in December of 2011, following years of playing in other bands. Since January 2012, they have toured across Iowa, Colorado, and Minnesota for two-months straight, during which time they released two EPs – Words of Whim in July, and Feudal Kind, this December. The duo plan to release two additional EPs in 2013. Andrew sings and plays drums, guitar and bass, while Julie, also a vocalist and drummer, performs on keyboards. The duo described Indie rock as “the inner-connection of self-expression and the collective ideals of a creative culture…and at mercy of the usage of the populous (fortunately and unfortunately).

“Campaign”Har-di-Har from Feudal Kind EP – Dec. 11th

“Losing You”Har-di-Har from Feudal Kind EP

Romulus Rues is a DIY folk rock musician based in Hyde Park, New York, who originally released small music projects as Fine Troubled Prince and Pictures in the Clouds. His songwriting always starts with a phrase, word, or name, and he continues to work from that foundation until he has a song that he is satisfied with. On his new solo debut, Who Knew Forever Could Be So Short?, Rues is a one-man band – writing, singing, playing all of the instruments, recording and mixing.

“The Fall”Romulus Rues from Who Knew Forever Could Be So Short? – Dec. 13th

“Evangeling”Romulus Rues from Who Knew Forever Could Be So Short?

DIY Albums, EPs and Singles from The Directionals, Daylight Fireworks, Remember Your Dead, Morning Harvey, Adam George

thedirectionals
As a former member of rock bands This Robot Life and Color Deluxe, Milwaukee musician Mark Poe, decided to create his own band. In 2007, he took a break from his music studies in college to work on his own music. Four years later in 2011, he set out to form the band, The Directionals, with a group of like-minded “rock and roll junkies,” and fellow music students, he’d met on campus.

The band evolved into what Poe called “an artistic collective and garage rock powerhouse ensemble,” with Bob Schaab on drums, Tory Dewalt on bass, Sean Jurewicz on lead guitar, and himself as lead composer, vocalist, and rhythm guitarist. As with all DIY bands, they will need to work on honing their sound, but we think their brand of garage rock/surf pop is worthy of mention. The Directionals have opened for artists such as Tiger Waves (a great band we’ve featured in the past), Wavvy Hands, Ahab’s Ghost and The Gazettiers, while Poe lists his major musical influences as Arctic Monkeys, Spoon, Buddy Holly, The Ramones, Pinback, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This is the band’s first single, “Serenade of Fire,” followed by the B-side, “Eyes.”

“Serenade of Fire”The Directionals from Serenade of Fire single

Double-shot: “Eyes”The Directionals from Serenade of Fire single

The Directionals Official Website

daylightfireworks

In 2009, two former members of the disbanded Bristol, England group Porchlight formed Daylight Fireworks, eventually adding two other members. In 2010, the new band released their well-received debut album, Skellington, followed by a six-track EP titled Secretly, We Hope. After the departure of their bass player, the remaining members decided to stay together as a trio. On Friday, Daylight Fireworks will drop their sophomore album, Some Kind of Low, from which we have two lo-fi singles, the title track and the track “Vs.” It’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, nor an earth-shattering record (they have some work to do), but some people might dig the band’s unrefined guitar rock sound. Daylight Fireworks has previously opened for bands like Tellison, Hot Club de Paris, The Crookes, and the Ex-Lovers. Their major musical influences include Pavement, Seafood, and Death Cab For Cutie.

“Some Kind of Low” – Daylight Fireworks from Some Kind of Low

Double-shot: “Vs.”Daylight Fireworks from Some Kind of Low

Daylight Fireworks Homepage
rememberyourdead

Cross-Continental Duo, Remember Your Dead, Release Debut Album

The cross-continental duo Remember Your Dead was formed this past summer by long-time Maryland friends, Mario Munoz and Richard Sanchez. The seeds of their collaborative musical effort were planted over a decade ago when they began playing music together with a $10 USB microphone hooked up to a rudimentary computer that is a joke compared to today’s much more powerful PCs and Macs. Together, Munoz and Sanchez crafted moody, melancholic demos that were very rough. Yet over the past decade, they honed their musical and technical skills in the areas of writing, recording, mixing and mastering. In 2010, they joined up with the band Tigertronic and self released an EP.

Soon after, Munoz moved across the continent to Redlands, California, while Sanchez stayed behind in Tacoma Park, and revived a gestating musical project, Panda Sanchez. But the two did not give up on their plans to release their own EP, and this summer, thanks to stunning developments in affordable recording technology, persistence, and the Internet, they achieved their goal. The EP is a melancholic, yet energetic, collection of rock songs, instrumentals, vocal arrangements and moody transitions. The duo sent us two songs from the EP to share with everyone.

“Innuendo Eyes”Remember Your Dead from Vigilia EP

“After You”Remember Your Dead from Vigilia EP

Remember Your Dead Official Website

New Releases from Two Down Under Artists, Morning Harvey and Adam George

The Aussie band, Morning Harvey, is a quintet based in Brisbane, Australia. Since forming in 2011, they’ve become fairly popular in their hometown, and increasingly, throughout Australia, for their interesting mix of genres such as psych, “drone,” (obviously not like the remote aerial weapon we read about in the news), dream pop and rock.

Earlier this year, the band recorded their debut EP with the popular Australian producer Yanto Browning (Art of Sleeping, The Medics, Tara Simmons). They’ve also opened for bands like Cut Off Your Hands, Bass Drum Of Death, Expatriate and the Bleeding Knees Club. They dropped their new single, “Don’t Try It,” earlier this week. The song, a psych alternative rock track inspired by drone rock and fused with hazy reverb and atmospheric guitar hooks, airy melodies and soaring vocals, is the lead single from the EP. The band lists their top musical influences as Tame Impala, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Dandy Warhols and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Next, Sydney, Australia, singer-songwriter Adam George creates a minimalistic style of pop with gorgeous melodies and dreamy vocals as the single, “Clocks,” clearly demonstrates.

“Don’t Try It” – Morning Harvey from Don’t Try It EP

“Clocks”Adam George from Black Rainbow EP

Visually-Impaired Folk Rockers Seek Cure for Eye Disease and the ‘First Deaf Rapper’ Overcomes Incredible Odds

searchforsight2

Search For Sight is a Missouri classic folk rock band that was formed by Jeff Grady and Kelly Matthews who are both blind. The band’s central goal is to raise funds to find a cure for the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, also known as RP that is robbing them of their vision. All the profilts from the two albums they have released (Too Many Goodbyes – Feb, 2012 and See You Around – Oct, 2012) go towards this much needed research.

“Six O’Clock”Search For Sight from See You Around

“Lost In The Sand”Search For Sight from See You Around

More information at Search For Sight

Purely by coincidence, we also received singles from a new release this week by Prinz-D, who calls himself the “first deaf rapper.” We have no way to verify or not that claim, but we do think his new single demonstrates clearly that a hear-impaired artist, especially nowadays thanks to technology and the Internet. Prinz-D took speech therapy to improve as a recording artist growing through the years and now believes his new LP, First Deaf Rapper Vol 2, will be the step in the right direction in gaining a significant following.

“Kick Em to the Curb”Prinz D with Rob The Rockstar from First Deaf Rapper Vol 2

“Shawty Like Me”Prinz D with Rob The Rockstar from First Deaf Rapper Vol 2

Prinz D Facebook page

Top DIY Releases of the Week, Sept. 25th – Dizzy Bats, Slunq, Defy The Ocean, High Pines, Arioc, Faithless Town, The Shallows

Each week, we post a playlist of MP3 singles from the Best New Music Releases dropped for that week. This week’s top releases featured singles from Frightened Rabbit, Mumford & Sons, Dum Dum Girls, Sera Cahoone and many others. Often in the BNMR playlist, we mix singles from popular indie bands, as well as lesser known and DIY artists, many of whom are unknown to even the most die-hard indie music fans. However, lately, we’ve decided to break it up a bit to separate the ‘indie mainstream’ and label releases from the organic, DIY releases dropped by artists and bands that exhibit qualities worthy of at least getting a chance to be heard.

Afterall, it was IRC fans that helped propel bands like Oberhofer to indie fame, and who voted overwhelmingly in favor of Artist of the Week profiles for DIY musicians like Thad Kopec, and just this week Paul Thomas Zito. Plus, the Top Ten Songs playlists are determined by how many times IRC listeners stream or download a song we posted during the week. Many times, we are fascinated by the results, and other times baffled, but in an enlightening way every time.

Much of the filtering includes songs and submissions received from DIY, unsigned artists and bands. And time and again, we are genuinely surprised how much great music from talented musicians we hear that, in many cases, we would have never heard anywhere else. With the DIY posts, we try our best to give artists and bands that we think at least deserve to be heard, and step back a bit to let the listeners decide for themselves – as the Top 10 Songs playlists (September in the works) demonstrate.

Most of the times that we have published a new installment of In Dee Mail, Artist of the Week or, more recently, 7 Bands You Gotta Hear, the responses from listeners range from good to overwhelming. While there will still be DIY releases in the Best New Music Releases, and other playlist series, expect to see more posts exclusively focused on DIY and unsigned artists and bands, many of them exclusively on IRC.

New York Alt. Rock Dizzy Bats Debut First Singles

Just a year since their formation, the New York City DIY alternative/nerd rock band Dizzy Bats got our attention with their light and playful style, sounding very much like college indie rock – with touches of punk pop – that was so popular in the 1990s. “Please Stall” sounds a lot like Weezer, as does the second, more uptempo, single, “Sundial,” with an added touch of They Might Be Giants. So it’s no surprise that lead vocalist Connor Frost told IRC that Dizzy Bats model their music after bands like Weezer, Green Day and Dinosaur Jr. Their album cover looks like it was illustrated by Keith Haring.

“Please Stall”Dizzy Bats from Sundial

“Sundial”Dizzy Bats from Sundial

Dizzy Bats Official Website

London Alternative Rockers Slunq Collaborate Remotely for Debut Album

It may just be coincidental, but we’ve been hearing a higher than usual number of singles that are of a dark, gloomy, heavy, sad, and mysterious nature.

In keeping with that trend, on Wednesday, the alternative rock band Slunq officially dropped their debut album, Spoiled Portion. Slunq’s band members are two-thirds London, one-third Brixton. The three musicians have never met one another since they began to collaborate on Spoiled Portion in 2010. But they are not newbies to the world of UK alt. rock.

In fact, they’re all UK noise-rock veterans – Peter Dahl Collins and Chris Collins (no relation that we know of) are former members of CrashTV, and Daniel Knowler was an original member of The Infinite Three. Slunq’s mix of alternative rock, noise rock and post punk recall their favorite bands – Killing Joke, Cardiacs, and Nine Inch Nails. And like most bands, their musical influences show through in their music.

On the track, “Pig Stick,” the trio knock out dark and raw guitar-driven hard rock (not quite metal), punctuated by a brewing progression that over boils into full-steam, unabashed rock. On the second track, “Nailbox,” the sound is even heavier with chunky guitar riffs and driving rhythms. The more we listen to these tracks, the more we think Slunq may just be a band to watch in 2013, and yet there are only a couple of original reviews of Slunq via Google searches, however, their debut album did appear on Bandcamp’s page of recommended new releases.

“Pig Stick”Slunq from Spoiled Portion

“Nailbox”Slunq from Spoiled Portion

London Duo Turn Love of Hard Rock Into An Environmental Cause

Yet another London band, well technically, duo, Defy The Ocean, dropped their debut EP, Myopic, last Wednesday. Chris Theo is in charge of not only vocals, but guitar, bass and keyword, while drummer Marcos Economides, also co-writes with Theo. But the two friends are not writing and recording music for any personal monetary gain. In fact, all proceeds from the EP will go to a conservation charity called Sea Shepherd.

The EP is a concept piece about humans’ role in the rapidly depleting biodiversity of Planet Earth, which explains both the bleakness and dramatic darkness of songs like “Invaders!” and “Neolithic.” It’s hard not to think of Avatar when listening to the duo’s songs. The EP is available for purchase at Defy The Ocean’s official website. The band listed their major musical influences as A Perfect Circle, Deftones, Alice in Chains and Marillion.

“Invaders!” – Defy The Ocean from Myopic

“Neolithic” – Defy The Ocean from Myopic

highpines

Brooklyn’s High Pines Drop Psychedelic Debut, We Are Humans

More gloom and darkness for this past week’s releases comes from the singles of Brooklyn‘s unsigned band, High Pines, but this time it’s in the form of psychedelic rock joined with soothing pop. It’s quite an accomplishment that this Brooklyn band is able to effortlessly transition from a dark undertow to a soothing pop melody in the single, “I Haven’t Seen it All” from the band’s new album, We Are Humans, dropped last Thursday via the band’s DIY label, Mind Pattern.

Only a year old, the band did not tell us much about them, which is a bit annoying. So, we hunted down some further details about who they are and all that. The now four-member band actually started out as the solo project of Caribbean-born musician Leo “Jottin” Lugo when he relocated to Brooklyn in 2007. Lugo was previously a member of Loin, and spent much of last year working on demos. He then met Colorado experimental musician Maxx Loup (they both have cool ‘stage’ names). The pair made fast friends in part because of their interest in different forms of music. Loup, now the band’s lead guitarist, had travelled throughout South America and Europe studying African music as well as Spanish culture.

Lugo and Loup knew they had to have a four-piece band, particularly in Brooklyn where live gigs are essential for a band to build buzz and credibility in a borough with more musicians than could fill a football stadium. Soon, they recruited drummer Felipe Torres and bassist Andrey Kisselev, and had a full band. This past summer, the band performed a number of concerts in the metropolitan area, including a July 28th show at the Trash Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s hard to come up with another place in the U.S. which has been more influential for indie rock for the past decade as Brooklyn has, and continues to be.

In addition to world music, Brooklyn, and the larger New York City area, offers a cornacopia of every type of music, no matter how old or how outlandish. Therefore the band will benefit from that especially since they are an experimental band. Plus, the influences of High Pines’ self-proclaimed musical proteges, like The Doors, The Velvet Underground, Can, Radiohead and The Verve are evident at one point or another on songs like “All Around,” “I Haven’t Seen it All,” and “I Walk With You.” If you like to kick back and listen to melancholic retro psychedelic guitar rock, featuring moments of pop infusions, you might just dig High Pines. On the SoundCloud page for “I Haven’t Seen it All,” there are a dozen positive comments, including Trent Marshall, who wrote: “Definitely has a chill Shins’ vibe to it. I’m a fan!” You can also view their Facebook page here.

“I Haven’t Seen it All”High Pines from We Are Humans

“All Around”High Pines from We Are Humans

PA Metal Rockers Arioc Drop Debut Three Years in the Making

More good news for hard rockers looking for bands they’ve never heard of before. Yet another hard rock band – self-proclaimed as metal – Arioc, from York, Pennsylvania, self-released a debut album this week, titled , Symphony of Demise. The band members, Matt Himes (guitar), Brent Zellers (lead vocals), Joe Werner (drums), Drew Jeffrey (keyboards), and Jeremy McCombs (bass, vocals) combined their love of metal, their musical talents and ambition to form Arioc in 2009, and have since been performing mostly in the York area.

According to their official bio: “The band enjoys writing complex rock pieces complete with technical guitar riffs, powerful vocals, and amazing drum work,” adding an unusually modest, and defiant, commentary: “Although not necessarily appealing to the masses, the band will continue stay true to their progressive roots and write pieces that complement their current style and improving musical skills as a band.” Whether you love, like or hate them, it’s hard not to respect their conviction and stick-tuitiveness, which is not a real word, but it gets the point across. The band members listed their major musical influences as Dream Theater, Opeth, Ayreon, Symphony X, Kansas, and Trivium.

“White Walls”Arioc from Symphony of Demise

“Symphony of Demise”Arioc from Symphony of Demise

The first single we heard from the Atlantic, Georgia DIY alternative rock band Faithless Town stood out among dozens and dozens of other DIY singles out this week. The song, titled “Ghosts of My Hometown,” sports a catchy rhythmic groove, punk-style guitar riffs, and excellent vocals and choruses. The band told IRC that they aim to “combine singer/songwriter sensibilities with a commitment to genuine, roots rock.”

Faithless Town have headlined at some of Atlanta’s finest venues, including The Earl, Smiths Olde Bar, Vinyl, The Drunken Unicorn, The Highland Ballroom and The Five Spot, and have previously opened for bands like Manchester Orchestra, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, Chris Knight, Rachael Sage, and Connor Christian & The Southern Gothic.

Their new album, American Refugee, was produced by Dan Dixon (PLS PLS, Dropsonic, The Biters), and the results demonstrate his instincts were right on target.

“Ghosts Of My Hometown”Faithless Town from American Refugee – Sept. 25th

London Band The Shallows Drop Debut EP; Featured on BBC

London is dropping plenty of DIY releases in the past week. We have yet another album that was sent to us this past week from London, but this one is on the lighter side of rock. The Shallows are an unsigned indie rock/pop band that just formed this year, and already they have a four-track EP out, About Time Vol. 1. The band sent in two tracks to share, “Fairly True” and “Win or Lose.” In July, “Fair True” was featured on the BBC Radio 6 mixtape series by Tom Robinson called “BBC Introducing,” an award-winning radio show. The song has a rhythmic groove with repeating guitar chords, and dynamic percussion.

The band consists of young musicians Tom Skelton (guitar, lead vocals), Russ Cragg (guitar), Michael Rendall (bass) and Timmy Rickard (drums). Their own website’s About page, the band offers no details about themselves, but rather some philosophical observations that basically say nothing substantive. The information we were able to find came from a few different sources, including IndieRockReviewer.com, which said of “Fair True”: “The chorus erupts…with soaring guitars reminiscent of bands like Kings of Leon, or the poppy Two Door Cinema.” Just so happens the band considers Two Door Cinema Club a major musical influence, in addition to The Strokes, The Bird and the Bee, and The Beatles. Visit The Shallows’ official website.

“Fairly True”The Shallows from About Time Vol.1

“Win or Lose”The Shallows from About Time Vol.1

Band Who Opened for Artists Like fun. and Good Old War Releases New LP

Pittsburgh‘s power pop band Instead of Sleeping released a new album, The Reds, The Blacks, The Grays, and sent in a couple of tracks to share with IRC listeners. While their polished pop sound leans more towards what we call commercial rock (think Taking Back Sunday) than it does alternative or indie rock, the young band does have their fanbase, and probably a good number of others – especially guys – who can’t admit to digging their sounds. The band’s multi-instrumental configuration consists of two drum kits, horns, keys, and a myriad of other sounds. In less than three years from the founding, Instead of Sleeping, have become fairly popular for an unsigned band, and have opened for other bands like fun., Good Old War and Hawthorne Heights. We’ll see when the Top 10 list is made for this week whether the band’s new singles generate any love from listeners.

“Black Light”Instead of Sleeping from The Reds, The Blacks, The Grays

“Indian Giver”Instead of Sleeping from The Reds, The Blacks, The Grays

Indieducing…Brooklyn Singer-Songwriter and Multi-Instrumentalist Charles Larson

Brooklyn and London were not doubt represented in this post playlist. Add another. Charles Larson is a Brooklyn-based American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who likes to mix pop, minimalism, and alternative rock in the vein of pioneering artists like Elliott Smith, Graham Coxon, and Thom Yorke. Larson’s new release, Shift, immediately sparks full of playful melodies with haunting electronic undertones to create what Larson himself describes as “gloom pop”. Showcasing his proficient songwriting abilities, Shift sets the stage for Larson’s transformation from a standard band outfit to a more minimalist approach that highlights his striking developments as a songwriter and performer.

“#4” – Charles Larson from Shift

wanderlustrecordtime

Fifteen Years After Hitting It Big, Wanderlust Returns with Third Album

A couple of weeks ago, we feature Wanderlust in a Fresh Tracks installment. Now that the band has officially released their first album in 15 years, we have another track they sent us to share with IRC listeners, “Blow Away.” This year the band celebrates 20 years since they first got together, a whirlwind of a time when the Philadelphia alternative rock/power pop band quickly amassed a following of fans and plenty of love from radio DJs. Although it took three years, Wanderlust released their debut album Prize, on the RCA record label. By that time, they were one of the most popular power pop bands of the day, even opening for one of the biggest bands ever, The Who, as well as Ben Folds 5 and Collective Soul.

While their debut album was considered a success, the pressure to record a second album, and apparently disagreements with RCA, did not work out and they were dropped by the label in 1997 when the sophomore album failed to get off the ground. The unfinished album was later released by a small label, Not Lame a few years later, but by then fans moved on and Wanderlust were all but forgotten as a quasi one-hit wonder. Now, 15 years later, the band is back with a new album, Record Time, which officially dropped this week on Zip Records. Here’s the album’s first single, “Lou Reed,” which had a great reception from fans when we premiered it a few weeks ago, followed by the second single, “Blow Away.”

“Lou Reed”Wanderlust from Record Time – via Zip Records

Bonus Track: “Blow Away”Wanderlust from Record Time – via Zip Records

DIY Releases Out This Week – Two Suns, Teleskopes, Soy La Vid, Hey Enemy, Tricky Dope, plus Flashback Tracks

There are plenty of choices of new tracks out this week from freshly released new EPs and albums by bands and artists like The Magnetic Fields, Andrew Birds, Said The Whale, White Rabbits, and many others (see Part One of this week’s Best New Releases), as well as from punk bands like Ceremony, Nu Sensae, The Men, plus others such as Crushed Stars, Nite Jewel, and many others (see Part Two for those tracks).

This post – DIY Releases Out This Week – is a new series (in conjunction with Best DIY Releases of the Month), that features only new tracks from albums out this week by DIY and unsigned artists.

First up, is an artist we’ve previously featured, Norman, Oklahoma (hometown of The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne) one-man band, Two Suns. Last year, Two Suns, or Jake Davidson, released two EPs, which had some cool songs on them. Now, he is back with his debut album, Dream Familiar.  While predominantly a bass guitarist, Davidson also performs all the instruments and commonly mixes in samples with his genre-bending blend of shoegaze, psychedelic pop folk (yeah, that is a mouthful).  The name Two Suns stems from the fact that Davidson has two young sons. Let everyone know what you think of Two Suns – it’ll be great to hear more feedback.

“Eyes to Hope” – Two Suns from  Dream Familiar

“Ran Wild” – Two Suns from  Dream Familiar


Tricky Dope, Teleskopes, Soy La Vid, Hey Enemy

Tricky Dope is an unsigned indie band from Linköping, Sweden who started performing together only in December 2011. Not much else is known about this band, but this is their first official single, “Seven Whales.” View the Tricky Dope Facebook page.

“Seven Whales”Tricky Dope from Seven Whales

Los Angeles DIY space rock/noise duo Teleskopes shared a single, “Release Your Mind,” from the just released album, For The Living.

Soy La Vid is the moniker of indie rock/folk/electronic aritst Mark Abdon from Indianapolis, Indiana. Interestingly, each track on his album, Lost in Translation, is based on a piece of art housed in the Art Institute of Chicago. Next, check out the new song from the album dropped this week by indie band Hey Enemy and Young Mammals.

“Release Your Mind” – Teleskopes from For The Living

“Fisherman’s Cottage (The Hermit)” – Soy La Vid from Lost in Translation

“Happy Sanchez” – Hey Enemy from The Wrong Songs to Right Wrongs

Flashback Tracks: Yarn Owl, One in a Googoplex, Wave Array, and This Mad Desire

Flashback Tracks are songs that we received via our submission process, but never had time or room to feature them for the date they were released. As with all Flashback Track segments, all the songs in this mini-playlist within a playlist, were released during March of 2011.

The featured songs are those which passed the first ‘listen’ test, but that in the end, we’re more interested to see what others think about them. Due to time constraints, we’re not doing any write-ups about the artists who recorded these songs – however, if we see that there is a lot of interest for a particular artist, we’ll think about featuring them in a follow-up post, especially if they have new music (2012) to post.

The band that stands out the most from the Flashback Tracks is Pullman, Washington’s Yarn Owl, who have previously opened for bands like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Local Natives, The Most Serene Republic, The Helio Sequence, Grand Archives and many others.

Last March, the still unsigned band released their debut album, Montaña Y Caballo. Here’s the lead track from the album, “Seashell Wind Chime.” We’re actually keeping our eye on this band because we think they have a great sound that would probably catch on if more people heard them. Since their debut, we don’t see any newer releases, and cannot understand why this band has broken out. Listen to more tracks on the Yarn Owl bandcamp page to see what we mean. We’ve also include a track from their terrific 2010 EP (free via their bandcamp page) with the hopes that more indie rock listeners will latch on to Yarn Owl. The band have been previously featured on popular indie sites like Gorilla vs. Bear and Weekly Tape Deck, among others.

“Lily” – One in a Googoplex from Lily – March 8th, 2011

“Arm Yourself”Wave Array from Golden Girl – March 10th, 2011

“This Mad Desire”This Mad Desire from Valhalla – March 12, 2011