sun kil moon – INDIE ROCK CAFE

Best New Releases, Week of May 29th – The Walkmen, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Sigur Ros, Regina Skeptor

Posted on 06/03/201212/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Now that Memorial Day weekend has passed, it’s pretty much the beginning of summertime in the world of rock – festival line-ups have been announced, bands are on, or getting ready for, cross-country and worldwide tours, labels are prepping big releases for the summer, DIY artists are vying to get heard, and millions of music lovers are making their sunshine plans for the next few months.

IRC’s 2012 Summer Songs Mixtapes will be coming in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, if you’re building a summer playlist, check out our previous summer music mixes – where we’d say 90% of the songs are still active. Other recent posts you may want to check out include Album of the Week: Young Man’s Vol. 1, and the latest DIY Artist of the Week, Thad Kopec. If you didn’t get the chance to listen to the top singles for the week of May 22nd – check out Vol. I and Vol. II.

The BNR playlist post for the week of May 29th is loaded with great singles from new albums by The Walkmen, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Sigur Ros, Regina Skeptor, King Tuff, Sun Kil Moon, Broken Water, Lemonade, White Lung, The Toxic Avenger and others. This is a great collection of singles. The Walkmen’s “Heaven” is one of the best songs of 2012, and the title track of one of the best albums of the year as well.

“Heaven” – The Walkmen from Heaven on Fat Possum

“Man On Fire” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros from Here on Vagrant Records

“Varuo” – Sigur Rós from Valtari on XL Recordings

“All The Rowboats” – Regina Spektor from What We Saw From The Cheap Seats on Warner Bros. Records

“Sunshine In Chicago” – Sun Kil Moon from Among The Leaves on Caldo Verde Si

“Keep On Movin'” – King Tuff from King Tuff

And there is more good stuff here…

“Drown” – Broken Water from Tempest on Hardly Art

“Here They Come” – The Doc Marshalls from Look Out, Compadre (self-released)

“Softkiss” – Lemonade from Diver on True Panther/Matador

“Take the Mirror” – White Lung from Sorry on Deranged Records

“The Wrecking Ball Company”– Marissa Nadler from The Sister on Box Of Cedar Records

“Never Stop” – The Toxic Avenger from ANGST on Little Owl Recordings

Soundcloud Songs

Some labels put themselves at a disadvantage by providing only Soundcloud singles from their artists’ new albums. We know for a fact this puts them at a disadvantage and their artists’ singles get less circulation. The reason is that .mp3 links are the way to go because other bloggers can drop them into a post with a built in streamer (like Yahoo Player, which IRC uses) and it’s done. And music lovers are more likely to send them to friends, add them to playlists (since such links allow for a free download which freaks out some labels), post them on social media networks and on and on. You get the point. Soundcloud is like an obstacle in that aspect of the equation.

It’s a pet peeve not only because people can’t stream Soundcloud songs with the rest of the playlist, but also because it has no benefit to labels. If any record executives are reading this – trust us. If you’ve seen numbers go down for your artists since employing Soundcloud and other non .mp3 song link, that’s the reason. We are forced to put Soundcloud (except in rare cases such as with The Walkmen above because there was nothing but SoundCloud available) at the end of our posts because they don’t play automatically as the others do.

“Goldilocks Zone” – Grass Widow from Internal Logic on HLR Records

“One Drop” – Public Image Ltd. from This is PiL on PIL Official Limited

“Shake Them Shackles” – Tassels from Pressure Mounts on Pour Le Corps Records

Great Indie Cover Songs, Vol. IX: The Black Keys, The Golden Bloom, Ruby Isle, Shearwater, Franz Ferdinand, Nada Surf

Posted on 06/17/201107/22/2021 by Max Hammer

rubberfactory-blackkeys — On their awesome 2004 album, 'Rubber Factory,' The Black Keys covered The Kinks' "Act Nice & Gentle"

We absolutely love cover songs. It’s probably because, most of the time, they are like something that is familiar but new, which is an interesting dichotomy in and of itself. Plus, recording cover songs can be a risky venture for almost any artist; the more well-known and beloved the original song, the more scrutinized any cover song will be. On the most part, at least in our experience, most cover songs just do not work, and others are absolutely dreadful. But there are others that stick out.

We have two different types of cover songs playlist mixtapes that we’ve been posting for years. We’ve put together playlists of classic cover songs, but mostly new, and lesser known, cover songs. This installment includes cover songs (except for music fanatics, of course) by The Black Keys, The Golden Bloom, The Laureates, My Jerusalem, The Afghan Whigs, Sun Kil Moon, Nada Surf, Guards and others.

Note: Many covers were not officially released, and therefore, we don’t have an album link to offer, but where they’re available, we have, including the album links for the originals as well. Enjoy.

“Act Nice and Gentle” (The Kinks) – The Black Keys from Rubber Factory (2004)

The original: “Act Nice and Gentle” (Mono take) – The Kinks from Something Else (1968)

“Rake Song” (The Decemberists) – Ruby Isle

“30 Lives” (Motion Sick) – The Golden Bloom from 30 Lives/Doomsday Devices (2010)

The original: “30 Lives” – Motion Sick from The Truth Will Catch You, Just Wait… (2008)

“Baby’s On Fire” (Brian Eno) – Shearwater from unreleased single (circa 2008)

“You Got Lucky” (Tom Petty) – Setting Sun from single release (2009)

“Call Me (Blondie)” – Franz Ferdinand from War Child – Heroes Vol.1 [+Digital Booklet] (2010)

The original: “Call Me” – Blondie from Best of Blondie (1983)

“Kaleidoscope World” (The Chills) – People Press Play from Not Given Lightly – A Tribute To the Giant Golden Book Of New Zealand`s Alternative Music Scene (2009)

“66” (The Afghan Whigs) – My Jerusalem

The original: “66” – The Afghan Whigs from 1965 (1998)

“Where Is My Mind” (The Pixies) – Nada Surf from Where Is My Mind: A Tribute to the Pixies (2007)

The original: “Where Is My Mind” – The Pixies from Surfer Rosa

“Can’t Stand It” (Velvet Underground) – The Laureates from unreleased single (1999)

“Never Ending Math Equation” (Modest Mouse) – Sun Kil Moon

“King of Carrot Flowers, Part One” (Neutral Milk Hotel) – Neutral Uke Hotel

The original: “King of Carrot Flowers, Part One” – Neutral Milk Hotel from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)

“Taxi Cab” (Vampire Weekend) – Guards

“I’m on Fire” (Bruce Springsteen) – The Morning Birds

Want more cover songs? Browse through the Cover Songs archives.

World Ocean Day Mix: The Black Keys, The Format, Dennis Wilson, Sonic Youth, Vampire Hands, Sun Kil Moon, Love and Rockets

Posted on 06/06/200912/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Orcas are just one of many threatened species in the world’s oceans (photo: NWF.org)

Dedicated to Al Gore

The planet faces a number of dire environmental threats, not only the problem of global warming. The oceans of our good earth are threatened, from the Atlantic and Pacific to the Arctic and Indian oceans. The ridiculous theory that floated around for decades was that the oceans were too big and deep to be affected by man’s polluting ways and from the pillage and plunder that has been wagged against them for the past century.

On Monday, June 8, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people worldwide, will honor, in various ways, World Ocean Day. Started in 1992, and given an official declaration this year by the United Nations, World Ocean Day is a symbolic gesture to raise awareness and encourage conservation and preservation of the oceans by governments and people everywhere. (See World Ocean Days by country)

In celebration of World Ocean Day, here’s a little mix with the hopes of raising even just a little awareness about how we all can turn the tide back in the oceans’ (and thus our own) favor.

“Oceans & Streams” – The Black Keys from Attack & Release (2008)

“Oceans” – The Format from Dog Problems (2006)

“Delicious Ocean” – Love and Rockets from Lift (1998)

“Diamond Sea” – Sonic Youth from Washing Machine (1995)

“Sailing Man” – Neil Halstead from Seasons (2002)

“Ocean” – Velvet Underground, unreleased (1969)

“Out At Sea” – Pete Kilpatrick from Yesterday Love (2005)

“Ocean Breathes Salty” – Sun Kil Moon from Tiny Cities (2005)

“Oil Sea” – Vampire Hands from Virgin Dust American Lips (2009)

“Pacific Ocean Blues” – Dennis Wilson from Pacific Ocean Blue (2008)

Mark Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon’s New Album, Book and Tour

Posted on 03/12/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Pained and yet hauntingly beautiful, Mark Kozelek‘s music as a solo artist and with Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon has gained him great respect in the music community, especially among indie folk rock fans.

Kozelek’s record label, Caldo Verde Records, announced this week the pre-order sales for both Sun Kil Moon’s new album April and the re-issue of Kozelek’s 2002 book Nights of Passed Over, a compendium of his lyrics and other writings through the years.

The limited edition (only 2,500 copies) re-issue of the hard-cover book will come along with a 12 song CD titled Nights LP, featuring live and rare versions of Kozelek’s music from 1996 through 2007. The limited edition will be available for pre-order on March 17 on Caldo Verde Records website only.

The first 2,800 copies of April are autographed and numbered by Mark Kozekel and available for pre-order ($15.99) beginning March 12, 2008.

The release of April will mark the first original recording from Mark Kozelek since Tiny Cities (an album of Modest Mouse covers) in 2005 and Sun Kil Moon’s 2003 debut classic Ghosts of the Great Highway, which was recently re-issued.

During the past decade, Kozelek’s sombre acoustic sound, tender vocals and guilt-ridden and troubled lyrics propelled the otherwise shy and Kozelek in to the emerging indie rock ‘blogosphere’ where fans gobbled up his music and bloggers hailed the arrival of yet another brilliant songwriter. He has been compared to artists like Nick Drake and Elliot Smith.

Mark Kozelek’s Music and Videos:

MP3 – “Ocean Breathes Salty” – Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon
Stream – “Heron Blue” and “Drop” from Sun Kil Moon’s upcoming release April.

The songs for April were recorded between March and August 2007 in San Francisco and Seattle. Contributors include other well-known artists like vocalists Bonnie Prince Billy, Eric Pollard and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab and Postal Service), plus drummer Anthony Koutsos (Red House Painters), bassist Geoff Stanfield (Black Lab), violist Michi Aceret and percussionist David Revelli.

April contains 11 songs that play for 74 minutes. On March 16, 2008, the album will be available as a digital download on the record label’s site for $7.99 with album art included.

The following video is an interview with Mark Kozelek in which he performs “Bubble”.

– Check the concert tours for Sun Kil Moon and Mark Kozelek
– Sun Kil Moon’s MySpace page
– Sun Kil Moon’s official website from their label Caldo Verde

Paste magazine’s review of April:

“Kozelek’s work has proven over the years that it reveals itself slowly,” O’Connor writes about April. “What grabs you at first is the simple, gorgeous hook, which turns out to be a gateway drug to the deeper mysteries that power his music.”

Jonathan Cohen, Billboard

“From 10-minute, three-guitar jams to heartbreaking acoustic ballads, April shines with the most evocative music of Kozelek ‘s career.”