The lead up to Coachella (see the Coachella Mix) and Record Store Day (extensive RSD mixes with rare songs), meant that we didn’t get to all of the Best New Releases for the week of April 12th. In addition to the regularly scheduled releases that week, there were the hundreds of limited edition vinyl releases as well coming out for Record Store Day. For the serious music enthusiast – especially the indie and alternative rock vinyl collector – it was a huge week, not to mention it was also the week of Coachella.
So, as a result of everything that was going on, we missed out on a few big releases that week, most notably, TV On The Radio, plus recommended releases by lesser known bands that we like, including Little Scream, Moonlight Towers, Old Calf. While we covered most of the releases for that week – including Panda Bear, Foo Fighters and Crystal Stilts – this edition of Recent Releases We Almost Missed starts out basically with volume two of the Best New Releases for the week of April 12th.
If The New York Times calls your band “the next big thing” (in ‘electro’) that’s a pretty darn good place to start. And since that high-tail nod, and many other accolades that have piled up or the past year or so, The French Horn Rebellion have been on a roll. Well, they released their debut album, The Infinite Music of the French Horn Rebellion, a few weeks ago with a stream premiere on MySpace.
On the back of just three EP’s to date, these two unassuming brothers, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have already toured and played with the likes of Hot Chip, Sleigh Bells, The Drums, Cut Copy and Sebastian and have been tipped by everyone from Q Magazine, The Guardian, Time Out and French music bible Les Inrockuptibles to hometown publications such as The New York Times and NY Daily News.
The Brooklyn-based duo already had an illustrious pedigree; David produced MGMT‘s indie release, Time to Pretend EP for New York indie Cantora Records, and with previous single “Up All Night” they scored a Record of the Week on BBC Radio 1 and an opening slot on the influential Kitsuné Maison compilation series. The band have also remixed the likes of MEN, Two Door Cinema Club, OMD, Young Empires and Alex Winston, the later resulting in JPlatt of New York producers du jour The Knocks madly tweeting “its like the hottest thing I’ve ever heard”!
The album’s lead track, “The Moment” is interesting, but we wouldn’t necessarily call it indie rock. Still, it’s great stuff, and the album itself is quite a spectacle of rock mixed with classical influences. Pitchfork called it “irresistible, panting synth-pop, with fat new wave key tones and ecstatic vocals.” Yes.
The French Horn Rebellion from The Infinite Music of the French Horn Rebellion
Another release we almost missed during that busy second week of April was Little Scream‘s awesome album, The Golden Record.
Little Scream are pretty much a new band from Montreal that we think are set to break out this year or next; right now, they seem to be less known than we expected, considering that their MySpace page – which has only been open for about a year – has only about 47,000 profile views. That’s not bad in one year, but it’s less than we expected. With so many awesome bands coming out of Montreal over the years, it’s harder, no doubt for good bands from Montreal to stick out. Plus, check out Moonlight Towers, Bass Drum of Death, and Bell X 1.
“Cannons” – Little Scream from The Golden Record
“The Heron and the Fox” – Little Scream from The Golden Record
“Heat Lightning” – Moonlight Towers from Day Is The New Night
“Young Pros” – Bass Drum of Death from GB City
Jayme Dee, Mothers of Gut, Vessels, Airborne Toxic Event, The Sundelles, and Snowblink
But it doesn’t end there, with the most most recent releases we almost missed. There are others from over the past few months that we have been saving, and are compelled to share with our readers because we like them a lot. Check out these singles from great rarely heard 2011 tracks, featuring bands like
This is like a big ‘let’s play catch up’ post. We’re not going to say better late then never, but it’s along those lines; the end point being it doesn’t really matter when the music came out in 2011 – these are simply songs from recent releases that shouldn’t be forgotten. In order to get through it all, we don’t have the time to review or provide additional information about all of the releases. Sorry guys, but we have so much other newer, and coming up, music to cover. All we can say is that if you really dig a particular band, we’re sure you’ll Google them anyways.
Although we pretty much don’t post remixes anymore – there’s too many of them; and too much original music to listen to – we found this RAC mix of “Love Whiplash” from Jayme Dee too irresistible to pass up. Plus, Mothers of Gut delivers with “Wizard Tree,” Vessels arrive with “Recur,” Airborne Toxic Event do it “All At Once,” (are they trying to sound like Kings of Leon? that would be SO tacky), and The Sundelles play the perfect metaphor with “Kiss The Coast.”
“Love Whiplash” (RAC Mix)” – Jayme Dee – March 14th
“Kiss the Coast” – The Sundelles from Georgia Swan – March 15th
“The Tired Bees” – Snowblink from Long Live – Feb. 15th
Noteworthy Tracks from Peter Elka, The Honey Pies, Broken Gold, John Vanderslice, Two Tears
Next up, you’d swear the track “Cool Thing To Do” by R&B musician Peter Elka was one of the many wonderful Motown hits of the 50s and 60s. Instead, Elka, is a young man who obviously has great appreciation and reverence for that sound and era of music, and it’s hard not to if you’ve ever spent a few hours listening to any one of many Motown Greatest Hits compilations. Elka embraced this uniquely American music form and made it his own on this lead track from his February album release, Repeat Offender. Plus, great singles from Recent Releases We Almost Missed by The Honey Pies, Broken Gold, and John Vanderslice.
“Cool Thing To Do” – Peter Elkas from Repeat Offender – Feb. 22nd
“Ambulance Faces” – Broken Gold from Recovery Journal – Feb. 22nd
“Get it Right” – The Honey Pies from Think of England – Jan. 10th
“Sea Salt” – John Vanderslice from White Wilderness – Jan. 25th
Kerry Davis, formerly of Red Aunts, is now making music under the moniker of Two Tears. In February, Kerry release three garage rock track that were written and recorded in three locales – Paris, Dubai and New York City. Here are two of the three tracks that really got our attention. Two Tears is a new-to-us band that is now at the very least a blip on our very crowded music radar screen.
“Eat People” – Two Tears
“Heisse and Hex” – Two Tears
The Rural Alberta Advantage, Bridges and Powerlines, Hey Penny and More
For this next batch of songs, we’ll let the music speak for itself. Many of you are likely already familiar with The Rural Alberta Advantage, but for whatever reason, we simply missed their latest release when it first dropped. And while the album is still on our ‘listen to list’ along with many other 2011 albums, the lead single, “North Star” is a good indication of what we hope the rest of the LP sounds like. Plus, try these singles from early 2011 releases by Bridges & Powerlines, Hey Penny, The Windupdeads, Ocean Carolina, Pena, Hands and Kness, The Twilight Singers, Eux Autres, Junk Culture, and others.
“North Star” – The Rural Alberta Advantage from Departing
“Water” – Heypenny from A Jillion Kicks – Feb. 22nd
“Sitting at the Piano Disappearing” – Hands and Knees from Wholesome – Jan. 25th
“Summer Friends” – Junk Culture from Summer Friends – Feb. 1st
“Blackbird and the Fox” – The Twilight Singers from Dynamite Steps – Feb. 15th
“We Will Spin Forever” – The Echelon Effect
“Whale” – Yellow Ostrich from The Mistress – Jan. 11th
“Mirabell” – Bridges & Powerlines from Eve – Jan. 11th
“Don’t Let Go” – The Windupdeads from Army of Invisible Men – Jan. 4th
“Cardo O Ceniza” – Peña from Volume II – Feb. 22nd
“Night and Day” – Ocean Carolina from Leave On EP – Feb. 15th
“Go Dancing” – Eux Autres from Broken Bow – Jan. 22nd
“Can’t Win” – The Sundelles from Georgia Swan – March 15th
“Noise Floor” – Seafarer from Hiding Places – Jan. 11th
“Don’t Know About You” – Bardo Pond from Bardo Pond – Jan. 11th
“New Growth” – Southeast Engine from Canary – Feb. 15th
The Owsley Brothers Bring Gothic Country-Folk to Song
The Florida band The Owsley Brothers will probably be new to most people, but we wanted to share two tracks from their new album, Separated At Birth, set to drop next month. We really like the band’s organic, gothic folk/country sound evident in the song “Under The Shade of A Live Oak Tree.” Despite the apparent, implied optimism in the song’s title, “Faith In Me” paints a gloomy and sinister mood. These two fine tracks are from The Owsley Brothers’ forthcoming album, Separated At Birth, which apparently drops sometime in April.
“Under the Shade of a Live Oak” – The Owsley Brothers from Separated At Birth – April 10th
“Faith In Me” – The Owsley Brothers from Separated At Birth