It’s hard to believe that this is the last week of new releases for the summer of 2011, but time just flies right by. So it’s good that there are a number of notable albums for the final hurrah of summer.
Not surprisingly, there is plenty of buzz around the newest offering from the ‘blog darlings’ (as NME once wrote) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The band’s new album, Hysterical, is available to stream in its entirety via Spinner.
The blistering rockabilly of the Jim Jones Revue‘s 2010 self-titled debut album is finally available in the U.S. this week. Plus, check out the tropical pop of the cliche-titled song “An Argument With Myself” off Jens Lekman’s new EP, and Megafaun makes a statement once again with their self-titled debut album.
“Same Mistake” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from Hysterical (stream album)
“Elemental” – The Jim Jones Revue from The Jim Jones Revue
Two of Slumberland Records‘ top rooster bands dropped new albums this week. The sly, funky lead track, “Trying to Reach You,” from Portland‘s indie rock trio Nurses is an appropriate intro to the band’s new album, Dracula. England’s lo-fi beach pop band Veronica Falls lay it down with the lead track “Bad Feeling” from their self-titled debut album. There just one of a number of noteworthy debut releases out this week.
“Bad Feeling” – Veronica Falls from Veronica Falls
There are also a few noteworthy releases this week from another indie label, Drag City Records‘ recording artists, most notably the marvelously blissed-out electropop track “Adam Roberts” from CAVE’s new album, Neverendles. Drag City’s Social Climbers‘ self-titled, debut album is also out this week with the playful, melodic lead track, “Chicken 80,” plus the soft, sweet folk ballad from Meg Baird‘s latest album.
“Adam Roberts” – CAVE from Neverendless
“Chicken 80″ – Social Climbers from Social Climbers
San Francisco indie band Weekend return with a new EP as the follow-up to the band’s wildly popular 2010 debut LP, Sports. Plus, check out fresh tracks from new albums by Chris Letcher, The Pack A.D. and a double-shot from Portland-via-Madison band Southerly.
“Hazel” – Weekend from Red EP
“Phone Booth” – Chris Letcher from Spectroscope
“Sirens” – The Pack A.D. from Unpersons
“Without A Cause” – Southerly from Youth
Double-shot: “Suffer” – Southerly from Youth
Next up, WATERS‘ have released the lead single, “For The One,” from its new LP, Out In The Light, followed by White Orange‘s self-titled debut (this is a big week for debut albums), and Halloween Alaska‘s All Night The Calls Came In.
“For the One” – WATERS from Out In The Light
“Dinosaur Bones” – White Orange from White Orange
“Dance By Accident” – Halloween, Alaska from All Night The Calls Came In (stream album)
“By Song Through the Americas” – Blessed Feathers from From the Mouths of the Middle Class
“Rock of Calvary (featuring Laura Veirs)” – Cataldo from Prison Boxing
“A Sail”– Lisa Hannigan from Passenger
“Arson, You Let Me Down”– IfIHadAHiFi from Nada Surf + 3 EP
Other Releases That Didn’t Make Our CD/Vinyl ‘Listen To’ List
This is one of the best weeks for new album releases in a while – the list of bands with fresh drops reads like a line-up for Coachella. With at least a dozen popular artists like The Drums, The Kooks, Grouplove, Blitzer Trapper, Neon Indian, Girls, Mates of State, St. Vincent, Robbers on High Street, and Memoryhouse releasing new albums this week, it means that you have quite a number of albums to add to your collection, and/or to add to your wish list for Christmas.
For the past week, we’ve already heard some of the most anticipated LPs, like those from The Drums, The Kooks, Mates of State, Grouplove and Neon Indian. The fantastic singles from these albums make for a great mix that you can stream or download. Plus, there are other noteworthy singles below from lesser-known, new-to-us, and radar love bands.
Right out of the gate, we wanted to start off with one of the best debuts of 2011 from IRC Breakout Band of 2011, Los Angeles indie/alt rock band, Grouplove. We have so much to say about them, but we’re saving it for the upcoming Breakout Bands of 2011 feature series wherein IRC readers, like they did in 2010, will pick the top “new” bands of 2011.
The band’s lead single, “Colours,” is one of the best songs of 2011. If there is one band we think of when listening to Grouplove, it would have to be the Pixies. That’s not to say at all that Grouplove are comparable to Pixies in any way other than Grouplove have obviously been influenced by the alternative rock icons.
“Colours” – Grouplove from Never Trust a Happy Song
Next, The Drums keep it rolling, and demonstrate a musical and creative maturation, with their sophomore album, Portamento. The first single, “Money,” pretty much follows the anthemic summer pop sound that made them a buzz band in 2010. But the band also reveal a completely different sound with the track “Searching For Heaven.” If we hadn’t known it was The Drums, we’d never have guessed. What do you think about this bold step in a new direction for the band?
“Money” – The Drums from Portamento
Double-shot:“Searching For Heaven” – The Drums from Portamento
Up next is the Konk Studio recording artist, and one of our favorite U.K. indie bands, The Kooks, who don’t disappoint with their newest LP, Junk of the Heart. In addition to the widely circulated lead track, “It Is Me,” we also threw in the title track for good measure.
“Is It Me” – The Kooks from Junk of the Heart (stream album)
“Junk of the Heart (Happy)” – The Kooks fromJunk of the Heart
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a double-shot of Neon Indian, and two standout tracks from their sophomore album, and of course the lead single from Blitzen Trapper‘s new LP, American Goldwing, which is available to listen to in its entirety at the stream link below.
“Polish Girl” – Neon Indian from Era Extrana (stream album) Double-shot:“Fallout” – Neon Indian from Era Extrana
If you’re at work, fair warning: the wonderfully energetic track “Maracas” from Mates of State might cause you to get up in your cubical and dance. The same can be said for the following track from Robbers on High Street. It just made sense those two tracks where back to back in this mix.
Then the Shimmering Stars jump in the time machine back to 1965 British Invasion tracking on their new single, plus Girls, Pajama Club, Barn Owl, Big Harp and many others.
“Maracas” – Mates of State from Mountaintops(album stream)
It’s a rather thin week for new releases, most likely because it’s too late for summer releases, and too early for fall releases. Still, there are definitely releases we recommend, including new albums from Peter Wolf Crier, Gold Beach, Wiretree, Balmorehea, and many others.
What can we say about Peter Wolf Crier that hasn’t already been said? The Minneapolis-based duo of Peter Pisano (formerly of Wilco) and Brian Moen have definitely gone beyond the band to watch status we tagged them with in 2010. The release of the duo’s sophomore album, Garden of Arms, marks a maturation of their sound, and offers fans a set of 11 fresh tracks that are marked by experimentation, wonderful songwriting, a growing appreciation for music and a seriousness towards making music that gets people’s attention – and they are sure doing a good job at that.
The restrained intensity of “Setting It Off” and the experimental romp “Right Away” exemplify the contrasts the duo are involving more in their music. There is no question that the duo’s touring experience in 2010 has propelled them towards a more lively and intricate sound that includes organ foot pedals, looping effects, stronger drumming, reverb and dubbing. When we saw them live for the first time during South By Southwest 2010, the duo were one of that year’s biggest buzz bands, and they subsequently showed just why that was the case.
“Right Away” – Peter Wolf Crier from Garden of Arms
Following PWC, we are loving the new album, Habibti, from the band Gold Beach. When we heard the first few verses from their new single, “Diving Bell,” we could not help but to think how much it reminded us of The Shins. That said, Gold Beach makes the track all his own, with all of its chillwave, lo-fi charm, in the first minute with barely any instruments except for a quiet guitar and synthesizer. As the track progresses, it opens up into new territory, complete with a steady drum beat, reverb vocals and a merging of various synth and guitar dubbing.
“Diving Bell” – Gold Beach from Habibti (self-released)
And if that wasn’t thought-provoking enough, we also thought of Paul Westernberg (The Replacements) while listening to the rock pop-oozing track, “The Year Things Fell Apart,” off the album Increase the Sweetness from the band The Golden Seals.
“The Year Things Fell Apart” – The Golden Seals from Increase the Sweetness
“Eat Yr Heart” – HTRK from Work (work, work)
“Shimmy Shimmy Dang” – The Ladybirds from Shimmy Shimmy Dang
“Letter To A Friend” – Pregnant from Life Hard: I Try
Next is a title track, “Make Up,” off of Austin band Wiretree‘s third album, plus, singles from Steven Hephter, Sea Pinks, AM & Shawn Lee, Balmorhea, and St. Even.
“Make Up” – Wiretree from Make Up
“Dreams/My Rope”– Steven Hephter from Spirit Animal
“Fountain Tesserae” – Sea Pinks from Dead Seas
“Dark Into Light” – AM & Shawn Lee from Celestial Electric
“Untitled” – Balmorhea from Live at Sint-Elisabethkerk
Artist Spotlight: Andrew Adkins
Andrew Adkins, a roots rock singer and songwriter based in Nashville, is better known as the other half of the duo Mellow Down Easy. The duo’s 2010 album, Cosmisutra, has been praised by critics from Rolling Stone, Outlaw Magazine, and Vintage Guitar magazine, which described their sound as “the most original style in the last decade.” Adkins’ music has also been featured on ABC, MTV, and USA networks. With his solo album officially out, Adkins is taking to the road for a cross-country tour. Here are two tracks Adkins sent to us to share with you.
“We Knew It All Along” – Andrew Adkins from Troublesome My Love
Ganglians have been on our radar for a little over a year now, there new album proves why.
Isn’t it just crazy how fast one week blends into another, and then another, and before you know it, another month is almost over?
It’s likely that some of you have missed the Best New Releases for either week one, two and/or week three of August, and as unreal as it seems, August is quickly leading way to September.
The good thing is – as is the case with more than 90% of our playlists mixes – that you can always go back and listen to, and download, the previous Best New Releases playlists. Just in August alone, there have been so many fantastic tracks from a whole range of bands who recently released new LPs, EPs and singles.
Anyways, no time for in-depth profiles of this week’s Best New Releases, but, all in all, it’s a pretty good week for new stuff, but nothing like last week’s BNR mix.
For those of you who have been following and enjoying the Fresh Tracks mix series, it’s been a little over a week since we have put one up, but there is no shortage of noteworthy new advanced singles from upcoming releases to share with you, so we’re going to invest our time in putting that together, as well as getting out another edition of In Dee Mail, and Recent Releases We Almost Missed.
Oh yeah, due to some scheduling problems, and the realities of “real work” responsibilities and busy “life stuff” (excuses, excuses), we were only recently able to actually finish our post for Day Two and Three of San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival – which ended 10 days ago. Yes, lame that we’re so late with that, but we’ll make it up to you.
This week we are starting right off the top with select tracks from the new album by Ganglians.
“Drop the Act” – Ganglians from Still Living
Double-shot: “Sleep” – Ganglians from Still Living
Ahhh, so you want more Ganglians? Well, you’re in luck because we don’t have just one or two tracks from their new album, Still Living, but rather, altogether, three free singles courtesy of the band, and their record label, Lefse Records.
“Jungle” – Ganglians from Still Living
We are digging Little Gold so much that we would have to say they are one of our favorite new-to-us bands of the summer, and the more we listen to their debut album, Weird Freedom, the more we’re convinced that they should be on our upcoming breakout bands of 2011 (view and listen to the Breakout Bands of 2010 series).
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks return with a new LP and a cool lead track about a senator, in a way that only Malkmus could write and sing about a senator. Although the song kind of flattens out at mid-point, the band recover to make it a memorable track for sure.
“Senator” – Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks from Mirror Traffic
Plus, the magnificent singer and songwriter for one of our favorite bands – The Magnetic Fields – is back with his newest solo album. Stephin Merritt delivers yet another satisfying, mellow dreamscape from his never-ending well of song ideas – even if he does seem to recycle melodies from long ago, he always has the lyrics to forgive him for playing it safe.
“Forever and a Day” – Stephin Merritt from Obscurities
“Playing House” – Active Child from You Are All I See
“Daylight Moon” – Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick from The Glad Birth of Love
“Swell Window” – Zee Avi from Ghostbird
“Hits Me Like A Rock”(Feat Bobby Gillespie) – CSS from La Liberación (stream)
“2012” – Young Circles from Jungle Habits
“Nevada” – The George-Edwards Group from Archives
“Warm Winter “ (download) – The Moor from The Moor
“Book of James” – We Are Augustines from Rise Ye Sunken Ships
“Nytt Pa Nytt” – Razika from Program 91
“Bicycle Spokes” – Kid Icarus from American Ghosts via BeatTheIndieDrum.com
For fans of esoteric and jam band music, we strung together these last four tracks from new-to-us artists and bands because they just flow so well together, starting with the Beach House-sounding band, I Break Horses, beautiful synth-driven track, “Hearts.”
We’ll definitely be keeping our ears open for more of their music (the only bummer is the song ends way too soon – it’s really strange to us when a band has a great groove, melody or instrumental going and then truncate it. We want to say, “Dude, noooo. Don’t stop you idiot, I was just getting into it. Why are you stopping?” (imagine Jerry Seinfeld saying it)
Anyways, following the too-short but stellar track, “Hearts,” enjoy the nine-minute jam, “Crete,” from Sun Araw, another new-to-us band that we’re really impressed by, followed by P.G. Six‘s “January.” The final track of this mix, “Familiarities” from Albert Swarm‘s EP, Held, seems like a great way to wrap up this week’s Best New Releases. Tell us what you think of this mix in the Comments section below – we read ALL comments, and love it when you guys chime in.
Fool's Gold released its sophomore album, 'Leave No Trace' earlier this week
As summer begins to wind down to a close (already?!), the number of new releases each week starts to increase gradually the closer we get to the Christmas holiday. We are only about four months away from Christmas – that’s just nuts. Anyways, this is a great week for new releases, and we urge you to listen to this entire mix. In fact, this mix is meant to be listened to from the first to the last song uninterrupted; we think you’ll see what we mean after you’ve spun it two or three times.
To stream this Best New Releases mix all the way through, just click on the first track and the embedded Y! player will do the rest. Of course, you can also download for free the songs you like the most (all we ask is that you somehow show some love to the bands you like the most from this mix) by doing a right click on the song title and then select Save As to save the MP3s to your computer.
This week’s Best New Releases contains new tracks and albums from bands we already dig, such as Cut Off Your Hands and Fool’s Gold, to bands that are new to us, like Bad Sports and Gold Leaves. Other Recommended Releases This Week:
Mister Heavenly Chairlift Gold Leaves The War on Drugs Botany The Weather Station Her Space Holiday Hercules & Love Affair Yob The Yellow Ostrich Trophy Wives
Thumbs Up to New Releases from COYH, Fool’s Gold & Botany
The New Zealand indie pop band, Cut Off Your Hands (how do you cut off the other hand if one hand is already cut off?), dropped its third LP this week. The perky, uptempo lead track from the album, “You Should Do Better,” is a great way to kick off this week’s Best New Releases. The song is simply infectious, embellished with jangling guitar notes, a non-stop tambourine beat and a heavy, melodic bass line, as well as the easily recognizable vocals of lead vocalist Nick Johnston.
“You Should Do Better” – Cut Off Your Hands (courtesy of My Old Kentucky Blog) from Hollow
On Tuesday,Fool’s Gold dropped their sophomore album, Leave No Trace, via Frenchkiss Records. While it is a bit of a departure from the sunny tropical feel of their debut album, there is still plenty to dance to, and to love about Leave No Trace, which is a strange name for an album that is so full of fantastic music.
“Street Clothes” – Fool’s Gold from Leave No Trace
It’s a bit baffling that some blogs we frequent have not made much mention of the new album from the electro-pop/synth music project Botany, the moniker of 23-year-old experimental synth-pop musician Spencer Stephenson of Texas. We expect to be hearing more about him in the near future, and would not be surprised if he is booked for 2012’s SXSW. (Read More about Botany via the new Music Quickies Blog)
Sometimes when there are so many bands that you are trying to keep tabs on, you’re going to inadvertently miss some. It’s been a while since we’ve listened to Mister Heavenly, a Subpop recording artist, with a new album out this week, Out of Love.
The lead track, “Bronx Sniper,” has the rage of grunge, and the sensibilities of indie rock, including frequent stops and starts that conjure up images of a big monster stomping through a city’s deserted streets, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. We still haven’t heard all of Out of Love yet, but so far, we like it a lot.
Thankfully, the rocking doesn’t stop there. No, not at all. Another band on our radar is The Jim Jones Revue, who seem to channel Jerry Lee Lewis, with the 50’s-sounding “Great Balls of Fire”-like track, “High Horse” from the band’s new LP, Burning Your House Down (Talking Heads‘ fans too?). This band really knows how to rock out, and we’ve already listened to the new LP a couple of times – it’s terrific!
“High Horse” – The Jim Jones Revue from Burning Your House Down
Her Space Holiday Calls It Quits With Farewell Album
The gifted purveyor of glitch pop music, Her Space Holiday (aka, Marc Bianchi) released his farewell, self-titled album this week. The lead track from the LP, “Ghost in the Garden” is a fantastically addictive track that is just one of many such tracks on the album. This past May, Her Space Holiday, much to the dismay of thousands of fans worldwide, announced that this would be the final album as the highly regarded indie pop outfit.
Just about as fast as you can like a band from the get-go was basically how we became acquainted a couple of years ago with the Philadelphia indie/alt rock band, The War on Drugs. Interestingly, Adam Granduciel moved from Oakland to Philadelphia in 2003 where he met singer/songwriter Kurt Vile.
The two began playing music together from the get-go, and in 2005, recorded as The War on Drugs, self-releasing a demo EP that year. By 2008, Vile had departed from the band – earning his cred as a gifted solo artist.
Later that year, the band gave away their debut EP, Barrel of Batteries, and established themselves as a band to watch. In fact, they signed to the popular indie label Secretly Canadian to released their 2008 debut LP, Wagonwheel Blues.
It was this album that first turned us onto the band, and we’ve been fans ever since. The WOD’s are commonly associated with genres from indie rock to Americana, and are believed to be heavily influenced by artists that range from Bob Dylan to My Bloody Valentine.
This week, The War on Drugs released their second album, Slave Ambient. The lead single, “Come to the City,” and “Baby Missiles” are two of our favorite tracks from the LP. If you like these two tracks, it’s a good bet that you’ll like/love the album. You can download Slave Ambient via iTunes.
Double-shot:“Baby Missiles” – The War on Drugs from Slave Ambient
“Amanaemonesia” – Chairlift from Amanaemonesia 7″
New Bands We Like: Bad Sports and Gold Leaves
A totally new band that we’ve never heard of before, Bad Sports, bang out the 1970’s-pop rock-sounding track, “Teenage Girls,” a perfect track for a mixtape of summer anthems, even as summer quickly fades away.
“Teenage Girls” – Bad Sports from Kings Of The Weekend
A few months ago, we learned about a new musical project, Gold Leaves, from Seattle-based songwriter Grant Olsen, who is more widely known as ‘Arthur’ in the duo Arthur & Yu.
Jason Quever of Papercuts was by Olsen’s side through most of the recording process, serving as co-producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. Ben McConnell, Thao Ngyuen, Amy Blaschke, and members of the Moondoggies all contributed to the album as well.
“Vocally, the album’s title track oddly gives me a My Morning Jacket vibe, but musically it replaces the alt-country/jam sounds with a 60’s psych/brit-folk/pop influences.” – My Old Kentucky Blog
The mellow, daydream-inducing track, “Cruel/Kind,” is one of the highlights of The Ornament, as well as one of the most beautiful, heartfelt ballady songs that we’ve heard so far this year.
In fact, the song conjures up a scenario in which Don McLean lifts a few riffs and melodies from the 1969 Grammy-winning Top 10 track, “Everybody’s Watching” (and which later became a staple on 1970’s A.M. radio) by Harry Nilsson, and makes his own track out of it.
Every time we listen to “Cruel/Kind,” there’s just no doubt that it is one of the most touching songs from a relatively unknown artist so far this year.
Thankfully, the treats don’t end there. But you’ll have to buy a copy of the album to find out for yourself what we are talking about. Oddly, there are no matching results when googling “Gold Leaves band.” Not a band website, MySpace page, Lastfm or Bandcamp profile – nada.
Firstly, “gold” and “leaves” are fairly common terms (but not together); it simply looks like there are no websites for the solo career of Grant Olsen. If anyone finds any additional information about Gold Leaves, please let us know.
Following Gold Leaves, the Boulder-via-Brooklyn electro/synth pop duo, Chairlift, released a new seven-inch single, “Amanaemonesia,” this week.
“Cruel/Kind” – Gold Leaves from The Ornament
Other Fresh Tracks from New Albums Out This Week
“You’re Like a Bad Song” – Trophy Wives from Old Scratch
“Fiery Ring(“ – Appetite from Scattered Smothered Covered (stream)
“Robin Hood” – The Great Book of John from The Great Book Of John
“My House” – Hercules and Love Affair from Blue Songs
“Falling Down” – Hotel Lights from Girl Graffiti
“Bee Nose” – Pink Skull from Psychic Welfare
“Derelict” – Sundress from Sundress EP (self-released)
Box Elder” (Pavement) – Astrid Swan from Hits (Pavement For Girls)
“Everything I Saw” – The Weather Station from All of It Was Mine
“Whale” – Yellow Ostrich from The Mistress
“Prepare The Ground”– Yob from Atma
“Smokin’ 100s Alone”- Bottle Rockets from Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening With…
“Comforts of the Coffin” – Matthew Friedberger from Cut It Out
“The Eagle, or the Serpent” – Case Studies – (courtesy of Pitchfork) from The World Is Just a Shape to Fill the Night
The second week of August is a fairly thin one for the weekly Best New Releases when compared to previous weeks so far this summer , but the good news is that because there are fewer releases, it just puts more of a spotlight on the new albums that are included in today’s post mix. Also, the fact that it is a thin week for new album releases is convenient since we’re really busy preparing for San Francisco‘s three-day Outside Lands Festival 2011 that kicks off on Friday. Check back later today for an overview of the schedule and a mix of tracks from the bands we are most looking forward to seeing in Golden Gate Park this weekend.
Our top two albums out this week are the newest release from post- punk revivalists and shoegaze UK rockers, The Horrors‘ , and the electro psychedelic rock duo – and a 2011 breakout band – Pepper Rabbit‘s new. The L.A. musical outfit are also one of our Breakout Bands of 2011, thanks largely to the duo’s debut album, Red Velvet Snowball. It’s one of our favorite LPs of the summer, and often reminds us of The Helio Sequence, but with a wider range of instruments.
“Moving Further Away” – The Horrors from Skying
“Murder Room” – Pepper Rabbit from Red Velvet Snow Ball (stream)
Double-shot: “Allison” – Pepper Rabbit from Red Velvet Snow Ball (stream)
After a two-year split, the band members of Chicago indie pop rock band Scattered Trees return with their first album in four years, and a new single that sounds like an alternative rock track from the mid-1990’s, with extra helpings of synth and guitar notes, and a chorus that reminds us of another popular song that we just can’t put our fingers on. Anyone? In case this really chill track gets you sleepy, we followed it up with
Following Scattered Trees, kick back and float away on the calm, warm waves of lush synthesizer melodies and double vocal dubbing on the new track, “Surface,” from Teen Daze’s new album, A Silent Planet.
“Four Days”– Scattered Trees from Sympathy (stream)
“Surface” – Teen Daze from A Silent Planet
Pittsburg indie pop band Falling Andes released their debut album this week
With a similar intro as Teen Daze, the band Prophets and Kings’ new track, “Die To Rest,” off their self-titled debut album, is a standout song in this week’s Best New Releases mix.This week’s In Dee Mail (songs we receive in the mail directly from bands) features the largely overlooked Pittsburg indie pop band Falling Andes, and their terrific lead single, “San Francisco,” from the band’s debut album, titled Frantic.
“Die to Rest” – Prophets & Kings – from Prophets & Kings (self-released)
As far as bands that are new to us, we really like new singles from albums out this week by Jason Ajemian & the HighLife, Kites With Lights, The Irrepressibles, and Sleeping Bag.
“Bliss Is This” – Jason Ajemian & the HighLife from Riding The Light Into The Birds Eye
Firstly, we’d like to apologize for being late with this week’s Best New Releases – work and family issues took over, plus, we wanted a few days to really listen to all of the tracks and put together an overview of the bands and artists who have the most exciting new albums out this week. As you will see below, there is also one surprise early release (Beirut), a deluxe edition (Arcade Fire) and a re-issued, remastered album (Archers of Loaf).
The wonderful, eight-minute track, “Fast Peter,” from Moonface‘s new album, is a sonic delight and musical journey soaked in shimmering organ notes, a steady tambourine beat, and the terrific vocals of the prolific Canadian musician and multi-instrumentalist Spencer Krug. He is currently a member of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, and has also written songs for, and performed with, bands like Swan Lake, Frog Eyes, Fifths of Seven, and many others.
For his second solo album, Krug, aka Moonface, wanted to use a vibraphone, but he later said it wasn’t working out, so he turned to the organ, which is implicit in the album title, Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped. We got hooked on the brimming quality of the song, which lead us to stream the album twice. This is a great album to add to your summer listening list.
The bonus track, “The Way You Wish You Could Live in the Storm” is yet another masterfully crafted voyage through sonic landscapes. Spencer has released it as a free promotional track for the album, however, it is not included on the album itself. Hmmm…No worries, it’s still an impressive sophomore solo albums from one of indie’s most talented musicians.
“Fast Peter” – Moonface from Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped(stream)
“The Way You Wish You Could Live in the Storm” – Moonface
The lead track off of Love of Everything‘s new EP has a great sound – it’s a metered track melodically, wrapped in repetitious lo-fi guitar notes, heavy bass thumping, a constant drum beat, and high-octane vocals that make it a song you’ll probably likely play a number of times.
The only bummer is that the track is only 1:38 minutes long – so just as you’re ‘getting into’ the track, it ends.
Other new releases include a new remaster of Archers of Loaf‘s fantastic album, Icky Mettle. Included here is one of the best of many top-notch songs, “What Did You Expect,” from Icky Mettle. The track is a fantastic punk rocker from a band we have always considered underrated compared to their talent.
“What Did You Expect” – Archers of Loaf from Icky Mettle (remastered and expanded)
Beirut Releases The Rip Tide Digitally Ahead of Planned Release
While Beirut‘s long-awaited follow-up to 2007’s fantastic The Flying Cup Club doesn’t officially drop on vinyl and CD until later this month, the band have made The Rip Tide available digitally this week for eager fans. As we reviewed earlier, The Rip Tide, is a fantastic album, and if you’re not already a Beirut fan, you’ll want to get a copy of it – easily one of the most anticipated albums of 2011. Read our partial review of the album and listen to more new Beirut songs.
As for the reason for the early release of the digital album, we believe it is probably so that the label can gauge the demand for vinyl and CDs. There will also surely be people who will buy the digital version just to be able to listen to the album right away. Some of those same people will likely purchase the vinyl or CD when they are released on August 30th.
Order The Rip Tide via iTunes
“The Rip Tide” – Beirut from The Rip Tide – due out August 30th
Arcade Fire Release Deluxe Edition of The Suburbs
Arcade Fire dropped a deluxe version of The Suburbs (they didn’t sell enough copies the first time around?). We’re not that big on deluxe issues, because they usually are only of interest to hard-core fans (which is fair to say they have plenty of), and of course the record label and the band. But, in this case, they probably will sell tens of thousands of copies of the deluxe version worldwide.
Also, check out our original coverage of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Here’s the question we pose to you: “Is Arcade Fire still an indie band?”
“From Scratch” – Brian Keenan from Today This Year (self-released)
“Sophia In Gold– Letting Up Despite Great Faults from Paper Crush EP
“I Can Hear the Trains Coming” – Mathieu Santos from Massachusetts 2010 (stream)
“Pleasuring the Divine – Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter from Marble Son
“Penthouse Suites“ – Wise Blood from These Wings
Doubleshot from Neon Indian’s Upcoming LP, Era Extrana
The other day on the latest Fresh Tracks MP3 mix, we featured a new track from Neon Indian‘s upcoming album, Era Extraña, set for September 13th release. Today, we have yet another new track from the album, titled “Polish Girl.” The first track, “Fallout” was released in late July.
Over the past few years, the Bay Area of San Francisco has been treated to a sleuth of new music festivals, including among them Outside Lands Music Festival, Treasure Island Music Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (the oldest of the bunch at 11 years), and many other festivals, including one-off festivals that are too numerous to list. Stay tuned, we’ll be publishing a guide to the first three festivals in the next few days.
This Saturday, August 6th, SF Weekly‘s All Shook Festival will be hosted at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Do not let the lack of press for this event let it slip by. With the exception of Crystal Castles, all the artists are based in the Bay Area and are locally known in their respective rock, hip-hop, and electronic genres.
I probably wouldn’t have heard of the event myself if it weren’t for the fact that Crystal Castles is the headliner. I love the band’s gothic style and lyrical delivery that exposes a masochistic pursuit of idealism. Maus Haus displays a variety of textures and abrupt transitions inline with old favorites like Kraftwerk. While Battlehooch have a sound that falls somewhere in between Led Zeppelin and Sublime, they fit best in obscure genres like orchestralectro and rocktronica.
“Baptism” (Baptism-Dark-Sky-Symphony-Megatron-Remix) – Crystal Castles from Crystal Castles II
“We Used Technology” – Maus Haus from Lark Marvels (2008)
There will also be a market place of local vendors serving food which I will happily stuff my face with. SF Weekly aims “to put some of the best local musicians together in one showcase, capped off with a big headliner.” ASD has a 18 and up age requirement. Here’s a link to buy tickets via SF Weekly or get tickets via Ticketmaster.
Stayed tuned, we’ll be putting out our SF Bay Area Music Festival Guide real soon.
July has been an interesting month for new releases, with many impressive releases from indie and DIY artists and bands that we never heard of before. In fact, if you missed any of the Best New Releases mixtapes for July, we encourage you to check them out because there are awesome lead single MP3s for streaming or downloading that you might be really surprised by, including Best New Releases for July 5th; July 12th; July 19th.
This week’s Best New Releases is the last installment for July, and we have some additional new albums, with new singles, that we are really enjoying a lot. While there have been few “big” new releases in July, there have been plenty of under and on the radar releases that have made us take a second look at some of the top new bands of 2011. As we did in 2010, we’ll be rolling out mixtape profiles of top new breakout bands of 2011, that will include voting scripts so that you can pick your favorite new bands of the year.
That said, July 2011’s new albums – in quantity and quality – falls far below the Best New Releases of July 2010. In fact, this week is one of the thinnest weeks for new albums, EPs and singles, but there are still some noteworthy drops that we think many of you will find intriguing – again, mostly from bands that few people – even indie enthusiasts – have heard of before. A number of bloggers have commented on the relative lack of buzz bands so far this summer. While we understand that view, there are still plenty that are worth highlighting, including releases that we think are exclusive to IRC because the artists sent them in directly to us, such as Pallers.
London’s Breakout Band The Fair Ohs Drop Debut in the States
Our favorite new album of the week is from East Londoners The Fair Oh’s tropical indie pop debut, Everything Is Dancing, which is fitting for this album because it is full of uptempo, lo-fi Afropop influenced psych-rock. In fact, Everything Is Dancing is more of a tropical lo-fi psych rock blast than the releases from The Fair Oh’s Lefse Records‘ labelmates Ganglians, and, as KEXP stated: “trashier than either Woods or Dinosaur Feathers.” Yes, indeed. If you are a fan of any of the aforementioned bands, you’ll probably want to get The Fair Oh’s debut. We are stoked to have three singles from Everything Is Dancing below for your review; and it is a good representation of what is easily one of our favorite debut albums of the summer, thus far.
“Baldessari” – The Fair Ohs from Everything Is Dancing
Double-shot: “Eden Rocks” – The Fair Ohs from Everything Is Dancing
Triple-shot: “Summer Lake” – The Fair Ohs from Everything Is Dancing
Other than the spectacular debut from The Fair Ohs, there really is not much else going on this week in the realm of new releases that has us excited. Coming in a close second would have to be the debut from The Features, who appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last evening on the release date of their debut LP. We need more time to listen to The Features’ Wildnerness, but so far, so good. As well, we are really digging the fresh track from Tidelands, “Holy Grail.” While we sill have yet to listen to the entire self-released debut, If…, we expect it will be satisfactory, if not more so.
“Content” – The Features from Wilderness
“Holy Grail” – Tidelands from If… (self-released)
The lead track, “Think in Stereo,” from Boy + Kite‘s new, self-released debut, Go Fly, is an undeniably catchy indie pop track, and one of the standout tracks of the week. Next, the Dex Romweber Duo are 1950’s-style rockabilly revivalists, and we have absolutely no problem with that. The lead track featured below, “Jungle Drums,” is a certifiable bluesy rock romp that should get you up from your chair and dancing in your cubicle (cube dwellers: that’s your cue, in case you didn’t get the clue). We recommend inviting your fellow cubeivores to join you.
“Think In Stereo” – Boy + Kite from Go Fly (self-released)
” Jungle Drums” – Dex Romweber Duo from Is That You In The Blue?
Mr. Lewis and the Funeral Five Cover The Kinks’ “Alcohol”
And, in keeping with the bluesy, older style rock theme for a moment, don’t be afraid to taste “Alcohol,” a Kinks’ cover song from the band Mr. Lewis and the Funeral Five. Also included is the original track from The Kinks’ now-classic 1971 groundbreaking (at least in the annals of country/rock infusion) concept album, Muswell Hillbillies. The track “Alcohol” is one of the album’s many highlights, and is yet another example of Ray Davies‘ genius songwriting abilities, as demonstrated by some of the lyrics included below. It’s also a great sing-along drinking song.
The track, which is an interesting combo of marching band, theatrical, country and jazz styles, is also somewhat autobiographical – Ray, and his legendary guitarist brother, Dave Davies, were notorious in the rock world of the late 1960’s and early to mid-1970’s, for their drunken antics on stage during the early 1970’s, which sometimes included fist fights between the two. The Davies brothers were the Liam and Noel Gallagher of their time – there’s no question about that. In fact, even now, in their 60’s, the brothers squabble with one another, which has unfortunately or their fans, kept them from reuniting for the past 15 years.
“Alcohol” (The Kinks) – Mr. Lewis and the Funeral Five from Delirium Tremendous
The Original:“Alcohol” – The Kinks from Muswell Hillbillies (1971)
“Alcohol” lyrics: “Barley wine pink gin, He’ll drink anything, Port, pernod or tequila, Rum, scotch, vodka on the rocks, As long as all his troubles disappeared. But he messed up his life and he beat up his wife, And the floosie’s gone and found another sucker She’s gonna turn him on to drink She’s gonna lead him to the brink And when his money’s gone, She’ll leave him in the gutter”
Little Horn and Blind Atlas New Singles
We are fans of some country/folk rock (think Neil Young, Akron/Family, Wilco, Iron & Wine), but it has to be great to keep us interested. The two applicable tracks below, from Little Horn and Blind Atlas, are OK tracks, but probably not strong enough that we’ll remember them a month from now; however, we do prefer Little Horn’s “Bridges Break” over Black Atlas’ “Mary Anne”. In fact, Little Horn’s lead singer does remind us a bit of the Eels‘ lead singer Mark Oliver Everett (aka, “E”). Anyone else reading this agree with this assessment?
“Bridges Break” – Little Horn from Twelve
“Mary Anne” – Blind Atlas from Iron Wall
Another great band, Pallers, from our favorite Swedish label, Labrador Records, released their debut LP this week. After three years spent in apartments, basements, villas and cabins in Pallers, La mar, Stockholm, Miami and Cape Town, the indie pop/atmospheric/dark duo has completed their debut, The Sea of Memories. The single ”Come Rain, Come Sunshine” is the lead track from the album. In exactly four minutes, the track builds from weird, stripped down electro to a grandiose dance epos with thumping percussion, massive choirs and a monumental chorus.
“Come Rain, Come Sunshine” – Pallers from The Sea of Memories
“Evergreens” – Debbie Neigher from Debbie Neigher (self-released)
Double-shot: “My My My” – Debbie Neigher from Debbie Neigher (self-released)
“Always Like The Son” – Release the Sunbird from Come Back To Us (stream)
You probably know if you saw last week’s Best New Releases, that, at least compared to other weeks this year, the pickings were rather thin, and this week is just about the same. Atlanta musician Ernest Greene, better known in the indie rock/electro-pop/chillwave circles as Washed Out. Greene has risen fast in the past couple of years, especially leading up to, and following his 2010 appearance at South By Southwest music conference/festival, which we remember well after standing outside Emo’s for nearly an hour in the beaming March sun to catch his show that was part of a showcase that included other bands like Memory Tapes and Neon Indian.
In the past year, Washed Out has continued to rise as one of the top ‘chillwave’ artists around, despite the fact that hundreds, thousands, of similar artists have tried to replicate his success with their own take on DIY indie electro-pop bedroom recordings that are heavily synthesized, full of reverb and echoing vocal tracks, dubs, computerized beats to create a lazy, warm and fuzzy (yes, that does sound a bit over-stated, but those are commonly used words to describe his music) summer time evoking tracks. In addition to extensive tours, music festival appearances, collaborations with other artists, Washed Out’s lent one of his most popular tracks, “Feel It All Around,” as the theme song for IFC’s show, Portlandia.
Although he has been pumping out tracks for some two years now, Greene only just released his debut album, Within and Without, yesterday on Seattle‘s legendary Sub Pop Records, which is home to some of the best indie artists of the day, and which also has an amazing history of having signed some of the biggest grunge and alternative rock bands of the 1990’s and beyond. Washed Out has great company on Sub Pop, including label mates such as Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, The Vaselines, The Shins, Iron and Wine, Mudhoney and many, many others. Get the album via iTunes by clicking the album title link below.
Washed Out’s debut includes tracks that were released as DIY singles over the past couple of years, including two EPs, and which helped establish him as a serious artist after a few influential bloggers featured his music after ‘discovering’ his home-made tracks on MySpace. Afterall, if Sub Pop signs an artist to their label, it is only because they are immensely talented, unique and promising. After listening to the tracks below, you can learn more about this fascinating artist from our Washed Out archives, as well as Ernest Greene’s profile in Wikipedia. We expect Within and Without to be one of the top debut albums of 2011 – and so far, based on our own spins of the album – it’s looking like it will definitely be on our 2011 Best Debut Albums list come the end of the year (which amazingly is already half over).
Flashback Track: “You’ll See It” – Washed Out from Life Of Leisure(2009)
In addition to Washed Out, we were really impressed by the release from another similar artist, UK dubstep/dance producer Zomby. The lead single from the album, “Things Fall Apart” is one of the most delightfully electro-pop, Panda Bear-sounding tracks we’ve heard so far this summer.
“Things Fall Apart” – Zomby from Dedication
The summer sounds are all over this week’s Best New Releases. In addition to Washed Out and Zomby, we’re also excited by the new solo debut of Eleanor Friedberger, who is best known as the other half of the brother (Matthew Friedberger) and sister duo known as The Fiery Furnaces. Friedberger’s appropriately named album, Last Summer (when it was recorded), according to KEXP‘s blog, “waited on a shelf until the appropriate season returned to compliment the album’s warm glow, yet its relative simplicity, compared to the duo’s sometimes difficult songwriting, harkens back to times much further than that…”
“My Mistakes” – Eleanor Friedberger from Last Summer
There’s an unmistakable string of great female singers among this week’s new releases, from Eleanor Friedberger to Celeste Griffin of the Austin blues folk band, Monarchs. When we heard the track, “Business Casual,” from Monarchs’ new album The Rise and Fall, we couldn’t help but to think of the similarities in her voice to that of Neko Case.
We are fans of The Joy Formidable, so the fact that they have a new live EP, appropriately titled Roarities, is also definitely worth noting, and one which we’ve already listened to in the cafe. There are a number of strong tracks on there, but our favorite is “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade.” Also, we’re digging new singles out this week from new albums by Sons & Daughters, Oax, Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs, Street Eaters, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Bones Howell, and Thomas Dybdahl. Plus, don’t miss the In Dee Mail artists with new releases this week including Fiction 20 Down,
“Alone in This Together” – Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs from Alone In This Together
“Nation Builder” – Street Eaters from Rusty Eyes and Hydrocarbons
“Open Everything“ – Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players from Lost and Found
“Hair of the Dog” – Bones Howell from Hair of the Dog
“B.A. Part” – Thomas Dybdahl from Songs
This Week’s Best New Releases from In Dee Mail
As much as possible, we also like to highlight artists and bands who have new releases out this week, but they are either on no one’s radar, or they usually are flying below the radar for reasons that we never truly understand. Hundreds of artists every month submit their music to IRC, and mostly because of time limitations, we don’t get around to profiling far to many of them, or we have to simply integrate them into other mixes that we publish to the site all of the time. Because we basically have been receiving and profiling bands who send their music to us via the mail for years, it is important to our readers, because, as mentioned above, there are many cases when an artist or band gets their first ‘big’ exposure on an indie music site via IRC.
As some of you know, we usually keep these artists for the In Dee Mail series, but because of the volume of impressive music we receive all of the time, we’ve had to branch out to include the songs we are receiving in other playlists, including Best New Releases. Therefore, you can call this the In Dee Mail section of the Best New Releases since each of the artists and bands featured below sent their music to us unsolicited, and they also have new albums out this week.
Fiction 20 Down is not as ‘new’ or ‘unknown’ as many other artists that submit music to IRC, but they are also not well-known outside of Baltimore. Yet we love their finely polished reggae rock tracks very much, including the new singles, “Do Not Feed The Radio,” and “Say So Long.” The former track is perfect for a summer cookout party. With a sound similar to 311 and Sublime, Fiction 20 Down have opened for artists such as EVE 6, Supervillains, Iration, Ballyhoo, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, and The Movement.
“Do Not Feed the Radio” – Fiction 20 Down from Do Not Feed The Radio
“Say So Long” – Fiction 20 Down from Do Not Feed The Radio
Beirut will release their new album, The Rip Tide, on August 30th
One could make a pretty good case for the fact that Beirut are one of the most talented and popular indie bands ever, and deserve their fair share of the credit for helping to popularize indie music to a wider audience over the years. With a solid discography of classic indie albums like The Flying Club Cup, any announcement of a new album by Beirut creates a sustained flurry of expectation, speculation and chatter among literally millions of fans worldwide.
The anticipation building around the upcoming release of the band’s first album in four year’s is palpable. The new album is called Rip Tide, and has been slated for official release in the U.S. on August 30th. After a show recently, we were given an advance copy of the album (see tracklisting below), and listening to it, was the main priority after the show.
Based on the number of times we’ve listened to Rip Tide now (on the fifth or sixth spin right now), we feel strongly that Beirut fans are going to be pleased with the band’s first album in four years. We’ve already listened to it three times. Already, the first single from the album, “East Harlem,” has made the rounds, even taking the No. 2 spot on the third week of June’sTop 10 Songs list. It’s a fantastic song, but, thankfully, it doesn’t end there. Rip Tide is yet another album of wonderfully written and impeccably recorded songs from one of the best indie bands of the past decade.
“East Harlem” – Beirut from The Rip Tide – out August 30th
One of the main things that we like about Beirut is the consistency of their sound and their work – rich, textured, full, creative, clever, engaging, and a pillar of influence to other musicians around the world. And while Beirut does have a recognizable sound – the unmistakable brass and string instrumentation, the distinct, crooning vocals of Zach Condon, the synth orchestrations, fabulous choruses, thrilling climaxes, strong poetic songwriting influenced by a keen world view, and a professionalism that makes the band members, individually, and collectively, admired by fans, critics and fellow artists.
We don’t want to give away too much about the album, but we believe that Beirut fans will be particularly delighted with The Rip Tide. There are some really fantastic songs on here, including “Santa Fe,” “Goshen,” “A Candle’s Fire”, the first single, “East Harlem,” and the title track. As is the case with all of Beirut’s albums, it’s hard to find a song on The Rip Tide that we don’t like, and easy to find songs we enjoy immensely.
“The Rip Tide” – Beirut from The Rip Tide – due out August 30th
One of the things we also like about the album is that there are many songs about places, as the track listing below clearly shows. Beirut has always evoked a deep affinity, and even longing, in their music for places, which any Beirut fan knows to be true. There are a dozen or more Beirut songs from their fantastic discography that have a geographical reference in them, whether it’s in the lyrics, the song title, or both. We share this affinity for songs that are about places – whether it’s a town or city, state or country, or even a lake, river or ocean.
Beirut has the unique gift to create a sense of place, not just in their lyrics, but through their rich, dynamic and world music influenced compositions. Anyone familiar with the band’s music over the past decade can’t miss this central theme in the music and one of the reasons
The other reason we like The Rip Tide is that fact that it presents more terrific songs for our State of Music playlist series – a mixtape series with the names of states or cities in the song titles. It’s one of our favorite mixtapes to put together, so, if you’ve never heard them before, you gotta check them out.
In fact, it’s about time to make a new State of Music mix. Surely, one of the songs from The Rip Tide will be included. In the meantime, listen to State of Music mixtapes, and find out how this mixtape series was partially influenced by Sufjan Stevens. We have hundreds of great, manually selected and organized playlists for this series, and it’s been a while since we’ve put together a new one – so watch out for that, coming soon.
You may remember Beirut’s third album from 2009, which was basically two EPs – March of the Zapotec/ Realpeople Holland. The former was the band’s collaboration with excellent mican artits. recording with a marching band in Mexico, and the other from Condon‘s solo, bedroom project under the moniker, RealPeople (nope, not the 1980s TV show) . On the latter EP, was yet another place name song, the enchanting, “Venice,” via UmStrum.com. And the place name songs list goes on and on.
1. A Candle’s Fire 2. Santa Fe 3. East Harlem 4. Goshen 5. Payne’s Bay 6. The Rip Tide 7. Vagabond 8. The Peacock 9. Port of Call
Have You Heard Beirut’s New Brazilian Cover Song?
Beirut also has a new cover song out from the compilation Red Hot + RIO 2, that officially dropped this week. For their part, the members of Beirut recorded an unsurprising excellent cover of Caetano Veloso‘s “O Leãozinho.” While we have yet to hear all of volume two of Red Hot + Rio, if it’s anything like the first volume, then we’re looking forward to hearing it – the LP is on our Summer Listening list (that gets longer every day).
“O Leãozinho” (Caetano Veloso) – Beirut from Red Hot + Rio 2 via DayDreamStationMusic blog
Slim pickings is about the best way to describe this week of new releases. In fact, this is one of the thinnest weeks for new albums that we’ve seen all year. So far, 2011 has delivered a steady flow of one week after another of terrific new releases from virtually unknown bands to the most popular ‘indie’ and alternative rock artists of the day.
Traditionally, releasing new albums right after a holiday is not a smart strategy because so many people’s attention is divided up between vacationing, catching up with work after the holiday, visiting with friends and family, and so on. So, not surprisingly, the offering of new albums out this week is rather thin compared to most other weeks so far this year.
While there are no “big” or highly-anticipated releases out this week, coming close to that would be the newest LPs from popular artists like Brian Eno, Kaiser Chiefs (who are not ‘indie’ anymore), Memory Tapes, and the Old 97s. In our opinion, the album that we look most forward to listening to from this week is the newest offering from the legendary Brian Eno, whose influence on indie music – especially synth pop and rock – is unmistakable.
There are also some other new ‘bands on the radar’ this week, most notably the dreamy lo-fi synth sounds of Big Spider’s Back, and the shoegazey electro-pop of Digitalism. Plus, while we generally stopped posting remixes some months (because, as we see it, the remix craze has gotten out of hand; but mostly, because there’s simply too much good original music to focus on already). Nevertheless we make exceptions, such as this remix from Arc in Round of A Sunny Day in Glasgow‘s “II.”
And there is also the new track from the self-titled debut from Gardens & Villas, which sounds more like the title of an elitist magazine then some rock band – so, hate the band name, but the track “Black Hills” is alright. (Hint: Guys, change your name now rather than later; trust us; it’s hard to market and publicize a band name “Gardens & Villas” – hello).
Secret Chiefs” – Big Spider’s Back from Memory Man
“2 Hearts” – Digitalism from I Love You, Dude
“II (A Sunny Day in Glasgow remix)” – Arc In Round from || EP (self-released)
If you are a fan of female pop singers, then you may enjoy the singles below from Bright Archer, and a melancholy track from Circuit Des Yeux. And if you like a little bit of indie country/folk from time to time, then check out the new single from The Express.
We also included a track from the new album by The Glorious (via the site ThisBonusTrack.com), but it’s not exactly going to prompt us to buy the album (which you can stream here). We’re including it mainly to see what you guys think of it. While we don’t share the enthusiasm (not even close; we hear far better bands no one has ever heard of all the time) that the writer at TBT does for the Americana folk band’s debut album, we’re pretty sure some of our readers and visitors will appreciate the inclusion.
“Carry Me Home This Way” – The Glorious from Stories from A Fractured Youth
“Hidden Systems” – Bright Archer from Hidden Systems
“3311” – Circuit Des Yeux from Portrait
“Nobody Knows” – The Express from The Express (self-released)
