We’re playing catch up with last week’s new releases. This, therefore, is effectively Vol. II of the Best New Music Releases for the week of Oct. 16th, with new singles from Earlimart, Young Dreams, Shiny Toy Guns, Peace, Matmos, Rosie Flores, Blackbird Blackbird, The Lytics, Harlan, and a number of DIY releases that from everything we can gather are exclusive to IRC. This week’s best new releases coming soon.
Volume One of the past week’s top singles and releases highlights artists and bands like Ben Gibbard, The Maldives, The Luyas, Times New Viking, Jason Lytle, Little Comets, The Philistines and others, in addition to the artists and bands in this second volume.
So, the only way to kick-off part two of the past week’s top singles is with a double-shot from the no-frills Los Angeles indie duo, Earlimart, whose seventh album, System Preferences, is one of the best albums of the week. First up, is the dreamy, melodic track, “10 Years,” that highlights the beautiful vocals of Earlimart’s lead singer, Aaron Espinoza. Earlimart has long been one of the key denizens of the indie rock scene in Los Angeles for nearly two decades, which means the band has not only won the respect of other musicians within the so-called indie rock scene, but also
“10 Years” – Earlimart from System Preferences (CD) on The Ship
The second song from Earlimart’s new album, “Internet Summer,” is completely different than “10 Years” because it is upbeat, louder and bordering on post punk pop, complete with jangling guitar riffs, thumping bass, crashing cymbals, and lo-fi, reverb vocals. The casual observer would not guess that the two songs are from the same band. It’s interesting to note that another musician, Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle, who we featured in Vol. One for the release of his new solo album last week, joined up with Espinoza, Earlimart bassist, keyboardist and vocalist Ariana Murray, and his Grandaddy bandmate Butch Walker to form Admiral Radley in 2010. They released a debut album in July of 2010 that received considerable play on the indie blogs, including on IRC.
So here’s where the whole ‘degrees of separation’ theory becomes even more interesting – Espinoza worked on Ben Gibbard’s new solo album, which we featured as our album of the week.
“Internet Summer” – Earlimart from System Preferences (CD) on The Ship
Note: To purchase any of this week’s albums – either as MP3 albums, CD or on vinyl, just go to Volume One and scroll to the bottom of the post where there are quick clicks to purchase any release via Amazon in a couple of simple, convenient steps.
Young Dreams’ Cinematic, Sprawling New Track and New Wave Alt Dance from Shiny Toy Guns
On the single, “Fog of War,” by Norwegian indie band, Young Dreams, the listener is treated to a cinematic composition featuring a variety of musical layers and styles made up of shifting tempos, glistening synth riffs, thick bass lines, crashing cymbals and reverb-heavy vocal dubs and fades (that remind us a bit of Sigur Ros and Melpo Mene) along with orchestral flourishes of strings and horns. In the final analysis, the song does not come across as a “war” song, but much more as a grandiose, cinematic orchestration with a decidedly ‘indie’ influence.
Los Angeles band Shiny Toy Guns‘ new single, “Fading Listening” is a semi alt-dance/new wave track with a thick bass, keyboard and synth overlays, and an interchange of vocals between the band’s two main vocalists – Chad Petree and Carah Faye Charnow. Next, the Vancouver band Peace‘s new single, “Your Hand in Mine” has a dark undercurrent, retro post punk sound somewhat reminiscent of The Smiths, Orange Juice and Echo and The Bunnymen. It’s our first exposure to the band, but this song puts them on our watch list for sure. Plus, check out the new singles from hip-hop outfit The Lytics and San Francisco electronic psych group Blackbird Blackbird.
“Fog of War” – Young Dreams from Fog of War on Modular
“Fading Listening” – Shiny Toy Guns from III
“Your Hand in Mine” – Peace from The World is Too Much With Us on Suicide Squeeze
“Dear World” – The Lytics from They Told Me
“Tear” – Blackbird Blackbird from Boracay Planet [EP] via MusicForRants.com
Working Girl Rosie Flores, Daphni’s Ye Ye, Matmos’ Very Large Green Triangles and Widespread Panic’s Live LP
Rosie Flores‘ new single, the title track of her latest album, Working Girl’s Guitar, is an old fashioned type of rock track with a touch of blues and country and a catchy guitar solo to boot. Daphni‘s fresh track, “Ye Ye,” is something for the electronica and techno crowd, while Matmos delivers a driving cinematic action piece (sort of like a track you’d hear on the next Mission Impossible sequel) with their new single, “Very Large Green Triangles” from The Ganzfeld EP on Thrill Jockey Records. Plus, the country single from Ken Stringfellow, with its Leonard Cohen-informed vocal delivery and songwriting, is definitely worth a listen. While not a release of new material, the 2012 Live Tour LP by Widespread Panic, one of our favorite 90’s bands, dropped this week, and for WP fans, it’s a nice treat, and exceptionally mastered and mixed.
“Working Girl’s Guitar” – Rosie Flores from Working Girl’s Guitar on Bloodshot Records
“Ye Ye” – Daphni from JIAOLONG on Merge
“Very Large Green Triangles” – Matmos from The Ganzfeld EP on Thrill Jockey Records
“Doesn’t It Remind You of Something” – Ken Stringfellow from Danzig in the Moonlight on Spark & Shine
…and More Singles from Albums Officially Dropped This Week
The sounds keep a’rollin, starting with a new single from Pinback, “Proceed to Memory,” that is good in the sense that the band plays it safe and delivers more of what is expected of them every few years – big sounding, guitar-driven songs with Rob Crow‘s fine vocal work, but there’s nothing really modern or innovative; Plus, check out the ironically-named, melodic pop of “Teeth,” by Santah; ironic because the song itself is an under-stated acoustic love song, not a track with “teeth” to it, so to speak. Yet the new single, and title song from alt/garage rockers Police Teeth‘s new LP, Bellingham Media Blackout, does have a bite to it.
Also, check out the slow, dark, psychedelic Soundcloud single from Autumn Owls. Plus, in keeping with this week’s theme of songs with female lead vocals, check out Piney Gir‘s syrupy pop single, “Outta Sight,” with an early Beatlesque guitar riff, and the bristly rocker “Plastic Fantastic” by TKTTSM , featuring a high-pitched chorus that rails against the “plastic people.”
“Teeth” – Santah
from You’re Still A Lover EP on Saki Records
“Bellingham Media Blackout” – Police Teeth from Bellingham Media Blackout
“Great Atlantic Drift” – Autumn Owls from Autumn Owls
“Plastic Fantastic” – TKTTSM from TKTTSM on Sumxuni Records
“Outta Sight” – Piney Gir from Geronimo! on Highline Records
“Sending Your Positions” – Harlan from Night Loop
DIY Releases For the Week of October 16th by Taylor Sheridan and Russian Bones
There are also some DIY artists and bands that dropped new releases during the past week, and most of them featured below, you’ll probably only hear on IRC. We’d love to hear your comments via Twitter, Facebook or the Comments box below. We occasionally award regular commentators on IRC (especially who leave thoughtful, astute comments via the Comments box on the site’s posts) with prizes and other giveaways – next week we’ll award two people access codes to download the popular e-book released this summer honoring 50th Anniversary of the formation of The Rolling Stones.
Melbourne, Australia singer/songwriter Taylor Sheridan dropped his self-titled debut album on October 15th, featuring the following two songs of acoustic-driven soul pop. We’re kind of on the fence, but we want people to decide for themselves. Especially with new DIY artists, we like to see what the response is so we can learn more about what our listeners want to hear. Recently, one of Sheridan’s music videos received over 150,000 views on YouTube.
“Don’t Know Why” – Taylor Sheridan from Taylor Sheridan – Oct. 15th
“Professional Heartbreak” – Taylor Sheridan from Taylor Sheridan
The next band, Russian Bones, is a Los Angeles hard rock outfit formed in 2009. They just released their debut, self-titled album that includes the song, “My Eyes Don’t See What My Mind Knows.” Russian Bones have previously opened for bands like The Movies, Everest, Juliette and the Licks, and Dave Lovering. We also threw in a new track from the Canadian DIY rock band Great Rooms to see what others think. They’ve previously opened for artists like Buck Cherry, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown, and The Waltons.
“My Eyes Don’t See What My Mind Knows” – Russian Bones from Russian Bones – Oct. 15th
“Down That Road” – Great Rooms from Great Rooms – Oct. 12th