Best New Music Releases, Week of Feb. 19th – Nick Cave, Atlas Genius, Beach Fossils, Iceage, Apparat

The breadth of new 2013 music releases – albums, EPs and singles – that have been coming out in recent weeks, and those set to drop in the ensuing months, have been keeping us very busy, especially when you factor in all of the DIY releases that we receive on a weekly basis, which are not usually posted in the weekly Best New Music Releases (listen to top releases posts for 2013 and 2012) because this series focuses on more well-known and signed artists’ newest drops.

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The first album that caught our attention this week is the new release from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, followed by fresh albums from Atlas Genius, Beach Fossils, Iceage, Apparat, STRFKR, Flume, Mitzi, Matmos and many others. This week there is a lot of synthesizers and dance singles.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Atlas Genius, Beach Fossils, Iceage

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds return with album No. 15, Push The Sky Away, a brilliant experimental album of heady themes that is dark and eerily beautiful, and displays some of Cave’s finest song-writing and the Bad Seeds’ remarkable instrumentation, even though it’s the band’s first album without Cave’s long-time colleague Mick Harvey, who left the band in 2009.

“Jubilee Street”Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds from Push The Sky Away

Another indie artist, Atlas Genius, has signed to a major label for his latest release, When It Was Now. While it’s always difficult to stomach an originally ‘indie’ favorite abandoning the DIY or small label world to play in the majors, it happens so frequently nowadays that people have seemed to stop noticing. It appears that as long as the music itself remains unscathed by the label execs, and sometimes even when it’s manipulated by commercial pressures, that most music fans don’t notice or don’t care. But it’s always a risk too though, especially to the artists’ ‘street cred’ within the alternative and underground music scenes. Check out the lead track from When It Was Now, the dance-tinged, “Trojans.”   If you dig da beats, you should find some keeper tracks in this playlist of singles from new albums out this week.

“Trojans”Atlas Genius from When It Was Now (deluxe version) on Warner Bros.

“Careless”Beach Fossils from Clash The Truth

“Coalition” Iceage from You’re Nothing on Matador

“A Violent Sky”Apparat from Krieg und Frieden (Music for Theatre) on Mute

“While I’m Alive”STRFKR from Miracle Mile on Polyvinyl

“Chasing The Light”Lust for Youth from Chasing The Light 12″ on Sacred Bones

Destruction+Unit

“Evil Man”Destruction Unit from Void on Jolly Dream Records

“Because I Care”Pony Time from Go Find Your Own on Per Se Records

“Space Academy”Eat Skull from III on Woodist

“Holdin On”Flume from Flume on Mom + Pop

“Valleys”Misfit Mod from Islands & Islands on Stars & Letters Records

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“All I Heard”Mitzi from Truly Alive on Future Classic

“Hurricanes, XO”Beat Radio from Hard Times, Go! on Awkward For Life Records

“Fortune Teller”Campfires from Tomorrow, Tomorrow on Fire Talk Records

“Primetime Clown” The Howling Hex from The Best of the Howling Hex on Drag City

“Teen Paranormal Romance” – Matmos from The Marriage of True Minds on Thrill Jockey Records

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“Dirty Mind Melt”Natasha Kmeto from Dirty Mind Melt EP on Dropping Gems

“Devil Moon”Bobby Long from Wishbone on ATO Records

 

 

 

Best New Releases – Bon Iver, 1,2,3, Iceage, JEFF the Brotherhood, Paleo, Ty Segall, Viva Voce, Cassettes Won’t Listen, FM Belfast

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Bon Iver are one of the hottest folk indie bands. Justin Vernon (with the banjo) is the band's frontman.

This is the week of Bon Iver. From the top music sites and blogs, to airplay on various television shows and movie soundtracks, and an appearance on Comedy Central‘s The Colbert Report Monday night, the band have been on a roll for the past four years, and have performed at some of the biggest musical festivals, including Bonnaroo, Sasquatch and many others, including fests in the U.K.

Bon Iver is the moniker of musician, singer and songwriter Justin Vernon. In 2007, he self-releaesd the fantastic debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, and became almost an instant ‘indie sensation.’  Interestingly, Bon Iver’s new album, which officially dropped yesterday, is self-titled. Ordinarily, artists and bands use the self-title treatment for a debut album. Perhaps it’s a statement from Vernon, the artist – a deliberate and clear message to indicate this album is what he considers to be his true debut as an artist and musician. During a brief interview before his performance Monday night on The Colbert Report, Vernon told Stephen Colbert that he secluded himself for three months in a remote cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness to write the songs that ultimately became the tracks for his two albums. Bon Iver’s other members are Michael Noyce, Sean Carey and Matthew McCaughan.

Bon Iver is available for streaming via Spinner for a limited time, and can be purchased from Amazon (#2 on Amazon charts) as a 320kps MP3 download. It’s definitely one of our top albums of 2011, and we won’t be surprised to see it listed in Top 10 albums of 2011 on music sites and blogs later this year. Here is the excellent lead single, “Calgary.”

“Calgary”Bon Iver from Bon Iver

But, first, we want to introduce you to two bands that is on our list for break-through bands of 2011; they are 1, 2, 3 – a Pittsburgh duo who dropped their debut album this week. The second band is a group of teens from Copenhagen who call themselves Iceage, and they are raising eyebrows in Europe as well as the U.S. They will be featured in an upcoming edition of 5 Break-Out Bands of 2011. Iceage dropped their debut album, New Brigade, this week. And the prospects keep piling up – another band that is new to us in 2011 is JEFF The Brotherhood; if you haven’t heard of this band in our previous posts this year, check them out. They are on fire, especially after packed performances at SXSW in March. Plus, don’t miss the new track from the latest album by Ty Seagull, who recently released an EP of T. Rex cover songs, titled Ty Rex.

“Work”1,2,3 from New Heaven

“Riding Coach”1,2,3 from New Heaven

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The Copenhagen teenage band Iceage are an IRC Break-Out Band in 2011. Their debut LP is out this week.

“Broken Bone”Iceage from New Brigade

“White Rune”Iceage from New Brigade

Here’s the title track via Soundcloud: “New Brigade”Iceage from New Brigade

“Mellow Out”JEFF the Brotherhood – from We Are The Champions (Stream)

You Make the Sun Fry Ty Segall from Goodbye Bread

There are many other great albums out this week that we either have already approved internally, or that we’ve put on our Summer Music Listening List (we’ll be sharing the list soon), including terrific bands like Witches, Cassettes Won’t Listen, Dananananaykroyd, FM Belfast, Yacht, Paleo, Viva Voce, and Gomez. The albums further down in the mix are simply listed because we like the lead single, but, we have not heard them, and will probably not have time to listen to (got to draw the line somewhere:). Also, make sure to check out the In Dee Mail section, which includes new releases that were sent directly to us through the submission form by the artists themselves.

“Creature of Nature”Witches from Forever

“Perfect Day”Cassettes Won’t Listen from Evinspacey (Stream)

“Muscle Memory” – Dananananaykroyd from There Is a Way

“New Year” – FM Belfast from Don’t Want To Sleep

“Dystopia”Yacht from Shangri-La

“In the Movies” Paleo from Fruit of the Spirit

“Analog Woodland Song”Viva Voce from The Future Will Destroy You

“Options”Gomez from Whatever’s On Your Mind


Albums to Stream and links to purchase albums

(don’t miss Part II of this week’s Best New Releases that will be posted in the next couple of days)

– 1,2,3 – New Heaven
– Blood Orange – Sutphin Boulevard EP
– Bobby – Bobby (Stream)
– Bon Iver – Bon Iver (Stream)
– Cassettes Won’t Listen – Evinspacey (Stream)
– Digitalism – I Love You, Dude (Stream)
– Gomez – Whatever’s On Your Mind
– Grieves – Together/Apart
– JEFF The Brotherhood – We Are The Champions (Stream)
– Laurel Halo – Hour Logic EP
– Liam Finn – FOMO
– LMFAO – Sorry For Party Rocking
– OK Go – 180/365 (Live)
– Seun Kuti – From Africa With Fury: Rise
– Skrillex – More Monsters and Sprites
– Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
– Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Stream)
– Viva Voce – The Future Will Destroy You (Stream)
– Weird Al Yankovic – Alpocalypse (Stream)