Virals – INDIE ROCK CAFE

The number of new album releases is now starting to pick up. In fact, this week presents a healthy dose of new drops from a variety of artists covering a wide spectrum of musical styles. Some of the more popular and well-known artists and bands with new material out this week include Yo La Tengo, The Head and the Heart, Virals, Free Energy, Christopher Owens, and Pickwick, among others. We’re also working now on a treasure trove of excellent new albums, and singles from those albums, by an array of DIY and small label artists, set to post this weekend – you’ll really want to put aside some time to read about, and listen to, nearly a dozen talented artists and bands that most of you have probably never heard of before (and many of which will only be posted on IRC).

But first, let’s give a listen to new singles from fresh albums by more widely known, signed artists, starting off with the legendary indie rock band, Yo La Tengo, who we’ve been big fans of for a long time, and who are partly responsible for popularizing indie rock. On Tuesday, the New Jersey trio dropped their 13th album, Fade. The lead single, “Ohm,” is a six-minute-plus lo-fi indie rocker with a wall of fuzzy guitar rhythms and solos.

“Ohm” – Yo La Tengo from Fade on Matador

Lovvers Former Frontman Re-Emerges With New Outfit, Virals

England’s Shaun Hencher, the former frontman behind the popular cult band, Lovvers, has re-emerged with a new music project called Virals. Apparently, he had no plans to form a new band, and even went back to work doing the 9 to 5. But what started as a “fun thing to do” a few nights a week progressed into a new band and now the release of Virals’ debut EP, Strange Fruit. The title track showcases what Hencher calls “meat and potatoes rock,” and what we call one of the best new tracks of 2013, and one of the first bands to watch of 2013. The bonus track, “Summer Girls,” is a fast, feel-good guitar rock tease for everyone who wishes it was summer right now.

“Strange Fruit” – Virals from Strange Fruit EP on Zoo Music

Bonus track: “Summer Girls” – Virals from Strange Fruit EP on Zoo Music

Free Energy Drops Sophomore LP; Stick to Their 70’s Niche

After listening to “Summer Girls,” it seems only appropriate to follow it up with the latest from 70’s pop rock enthusiasts Free Energy. In 2009 and 2010, the Philadelphia band were riding a wave of blogger love, fan approval and touring non-stop. While their 70’s Cheap Trick sound is still appreciated by many fans, their sophomore album, Love Sign, will probably not get the kind of stir of attention and love that their 2010 debut, Stuck On Nothing, garnered. Still, the band delivers what their fans expect on Love Sign, including the lead single from the album, “Girls Want Rock.”

“Girls Want Rock” – Free Energy from Love Sign on Free Energy Music

New Singles by The Capsules, The Head And The Heart, Mystical Weapons and Others

This week also saw the release of new albums by The Capsules, featuring the catchy indie single, “Across The Sky”, followed by another acoustic classic from The Head And The Heart with “Josh McBride.” Former Girls‘ frontman and now acoustic singer/songwriter Christopher Owens delivers a terrificly heartfelt, emotive hook on “Here We Go,” that flourishes with piano, flutes and electric guitar riffs, together with his whispery, dreamy vocals from Owens’ first album since leaving Girls; Parquet Courts pick up the pace with their straight away, no frills indie guitar rock single, “Borrowed Time,” followed by lead singles from new albums by Mystical Weapons and Criminal Hygiene.

“Across The Sky” – The Capsules from Northern Lights and Southern Skies on Vespera Records

“Josh McBride” – The Head And The Heart from Josh McBride/Honey Come Home 78 rpm single on Electric Records

“Here We Go” – Christopher Owens from Lysandre on Fat Possum

“Borrowed Time” – Parquet Courts from Light Up Gold on What’s Your Rupture?

“Mechanical Mammoth” – Mystical Weapons from Mystical Weapons on Chimera Music

“Rearrange Me” – Criminal Hygiene from CRMNL HYGNE on Small Smile Records

Swedish DIY Indie Outfit Marching Band

Marching Band is Swedish duo that have been playing music together for nearly a decade. This week the band released their self-produced EP, And I’ve Never Seen Anything Like That. Previously, the duo have released two critically acclaimed albums, one with Adam Lasus, and one with Jari Haapalainen. They’ve opened for bands like Loney Dear, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, and comedian Adam Green. The duo has previously been featured in Rolling Stone magazine, Pitchfork, and the AllMusic Guide.

“And I’ve Never Seen Anything” – Marching Band from And I’ve Never Seen Anything Like That EP – Jan. 15th

“Artistic Man, Shaved Head” – Marching Band from And I’ve Never Seen Anything Like That EP

DIY Drops from Pickwick, Midnight Spin and Reissue from Punksters Vampire Lezbos

Although we still have an entire separate post of new albums from a variety of DIY artists and bands that will be published this weekend (see the most recent DIY releases, featuring a great selection of relatively unknown, but talented bands), here are a couple of others worth checking out in the meantime, including the popular unsigned band Pickwick‘s self-released Covers EP, featuring the super talented Sharon Van Etten. The three-track EP is a precursor to the band’s much anticipated DIY full-length album slated for release in March while they’re on tour and gearing up for a number of appearances at SXSW 2013. Also check out the lead single from the new DIY drop by Midnight Spin . To close out this playlist post, veteran punk rockers Vampire Lezbos reissued their self-titled debut this week via Flat Field Records.

“Lady Luck” (feat. Sharon Van Etten) – Pickwick from Covers EP

“Lion Run” – Midnight Spin from Don’t Let Me Sleep

“Plasma” – Vampire Lezbos from Vampire Lezbos (reissue) on Flat Field Records

Don’t miss this week’s bonanza of new releases from DIY artists, coming up this weekend, featuring many artists slated to get their first ‘big’ (or their first at all) write-up on the web. In the coming weeks, in addition to our ‘best of 2012’ playlists, will be a flurry of fantastic music from artists and bands from around the world. Anyone that follows indie, or has been visiting IRC for years, knows that some of the best music you’ve ever heard came from artists that you had never heard of before, but are so glad you did. We have that Eureka moment many times a week.

As we throttle towards summer, the pile-up of great summer tracks (to be included in the upcoming Summer Mixes series) expands ever more. Add to that new singles from Here We Go Magic and P.S. I Love You especially. We already posted a review of P.S. I Love You as the Album of the Week with a number of tracks.

One song that will be a single for upcoming summer playlists will be the undeniable “How Do I Know” off of Here We Go Magic’s newest album, A Different Ship. HWGM is one of our favorite nerdy indie pop masters of recent years. The double-shot single, “Make Up Your Mind,” is such a different sound for the band that we’re not sure what to think. It has an 80’s new wave style, complete with high octane electronic keyboard notes and a forward-charging beat that remind us of soundtracks of movies from the 1980s, like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The album itself has mixed reviews online, but we’re digging it.

“How Do I Know” – Here We Go Magic from A Different Ship

“Make Up Your Mind” – Here We Go Magic from A Different Ship

Although we are digging A Different Ship, our Album of the Week has to go to PS I Love You’s sophomore release, Death Dreams. Read the full review and listen to tracks from the album.

“Bloody Mary” – Silversun Pickups from Neck of the Woods on Dangerbird Records
Track from CauseEqualsTime.com

Virals Rises Out of the Ashes of the Band Lovvers

Virals is a new music project from Shaun Hencher, the frontman of Dionysian punks, Lovvers. Following the break up of Lovvers, Virals offers a new beginning and see’s Shaun predominately writing, playing and recording on his own. With that new beginning comes a fresh approach to songwriting that takes cues from the sunshine vibe of certain American states yet retaining a suitably English feel.

Beginning as a studio-only project in late 2010, Hencher began with the main aim to craft songs that stick in the head but don’t take themselves too seriously. To date he’s stockpiled a collection of twenty-plus songs, and is only now starting to make these songs available with a series of well-planned releases.

Opening with “Coming Up With The Sun,” a glorious shot of wide-eyed she-loves-me/she-loves-me-not powerpop, Virals offer up an EP that’s as infectious as the band name would suggest. Recalling the classic productions of Nick Lowe, Bob Mould’s Sugar or even The Go Gos, sharing the same earworm qualities and wreckless abandon. But let’s start off first with the sweet track, “Gloria.”

“Gloria” – Virals from Coming Up with the Sun

The Cribs, Heavy Cream Deliver Back-to-Back Punk Rock Singles

These next two new singles were almost made to be played back-to-back. First up, one of the U.K.’s finest brother bands of the past decade, The Cribs, return with more of their straight-forward punk/garage rock on the lead single, “Chi Town” from their fifth studio album. It’s the trio’s first album since 2009’s Ignore The Ignorant, which peaked at No. 8 on the U.K. charts and earned them a Silver Certificate for the album, In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull.

Add the new-to-us band, Heavy Cream, to the list of awesome girl fronted garage/punk rock bands that have been popping up all over the place in recent years. The single, “John Johnny,” is an infectious, lo-fi, punk rocker track that reminds us a little bit of My Thrill Kill Cult’s “Devil Bunnies.” It also sounds like a track that would be considered if there were ever to be an alternative soundtrack to Pulp Fiction – a playlist which we actually plan to publish this summer – we enjoy making alternative (or Part II or Part III) soundtrack playlists for movies, especially Quentin Tarantino movies, like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill.

“Chi Town” – The Cribs from In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull(Bonus Edition) on Witchita Recordings

“John Johnny” – Heavy Cream from Super Treatment on Infinity Cat

Royal Headache have emerged as Australia’s foremost new soul rebels. After a youth spent earning their stripes in the punk and hardcore scene, Royal Headache came together in 2008 over a mutual love of the urgency and melody associated with the classic sounds of 60’s mod and 70s punk and power pop. They craft tight, irresistible, R&B-inflected punk songs, and hone a universal message of redemption through passion. Pure of heart and immune to pretension, Royal Headache released their self-titled debut in the U.S. this week. They play youth-energy rock at its most vindicating and motivating.

Wisconsin musician S. Carey is best known as music director, drummer (one of two drummers) and supporting vocalist of the immensely popular indie folk band Bon Iver. But on his debut EP, Hoyas, he explores a different territory. The lead single below, “Two Angles” delivers a hauntingly electronica/dub-step track combined with an interesting infusion of trumpet runs.

“Down the Lane” – Royal Headache from Royal Headache on What’s Your Rupture?

“Two Angles” – S. Carey from Hoyas EP

New Singles from Freshly Dropped Albums by Orpheum Bell and Sean Bones

The new single from Dana Buoy is one we just happened upon. The name was somewhat familiar, and without checking it out further first, we just fired up the single from his/her new album and a minute into it realized it’s a pretty good track in its own way, for a certain moment. It has aspects that range from celebratory to shimmery, even soaring, with high-pitched guitar notes, robustly upbeat drums, choruses and synths.

This is a good song for a summer playlist because it just sounds like a song fit to play at the beach, at an outdoor barbecue, driving on a blazing day with windows down or while your biking on a trail. Some songs just create an imagery, and “Call To Be” does that. And with an album title of Summer Bodies it’s even more enticing to eventually get around to listening to it. Turns out, Dana Buoy is simply the solo moniker of Akron/Family percussionist Dana Janssen. Sweet.

“Call To Be” – Dana Buoy from Summer Bodies on Lefse Records

Next, it sounds like Tom Waits has met up with the Squirrel Nut Zippers on the track “Poor Laetitia,” from the band Orpheum Bell; the song overall has such a convincingly old fashion bluesy jazz style that it would fit nicely on the soundtrack to Chicago. Shifting into a completely different gear, the new single from Sean Bones, “Here Now,” which is followed by the dark dubstep electro dance track, “Kaiyo Maru” by Led Er Est.

“Poor Laetitia” – Orpheum Bell from The Other Sister’s Home (self-released)

“Here Now”– Sean Bones from Buzzards Boy (self-released)

“Kaiyo Maru” – Led Er Est from The Diver on Sacred Bones Records

Popular Austin Band, Saints of Valory, Drop Sophomore Album

The next band, Saints of Valory, released their sophomore album this week. The title track, the first single, “Kids,” definitely got our attention. The lead singer exhibits a wide vocal range with similarities to Chris Martin. The track winds and turns through verses of mellow rock story-telling backed by a strong drum beat, bass and synths that slowly build to grand, almost epic, choruses and shimmering guitar riffs. The song is a wonderful composition with hi-fi recording quality that makes it seems likely for FM radio, and especially college radio.

Less than six months after relocating to Austin – after an inspired visit to SXSW in 2010 – the band placed in the top ten in six categories of the Austin Chronicle‘s 2011 Music Awards. Saints of Valory sound is less indie and more mainstream leaning, which would explain why they’ve been featured on Billboard.

“Kids” – Saints of Valory from Kids

Raleigh Band Drift Wood Miracle and The Driftwood Singers

Drift Wood Miracle is a Raleigh unsigned indie rock band Indie. In 2010, the band was formed organically between friends Alex Phillips and Bryan Diver, and soon they had an 11-song debut album, Today or Yesterday. The duo have now released a follow-up EP this week, Cuidade. They formed a band to play live gigs in North Carolina.

Their influences include Manchester Orchestra, James Vincent McMorrow, Brand New, Danny Malone, Timbre, Sigur Ros, Brand New, and Kevin Devine. “Cabin in the Snow” is the track that we actually picked over another song they are offering up as a single, “Call My Name,” because the former is more representative of the promise we hear in the duo’s folk pop/rock sound. Diver’s voice sounds like another singer that we just can’t put our finger on.

“Call My Name” – Drift Wood Miracle from Cuidadé

Cabin In The Snow – Drift Wood Miracle from Cuidadé

The next band, The Driftwood Singers, mix folk sounds and gospel style singing in their longing tale, “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.” It’s a bit coincidental that this week’s Best New Releases includes two bands with the not too common word “driftwood” in their name, so it made sense to group them together.

“I Don’t Live Here Anymore” – The Driftwood Singers from I Don’t Live Here Anymore

Life-long friends growing up in Philadelphia, the band Cheers Elephant were once called Instant Breakfast, but after high school they went their separate ways for a year or so, but decided to get back together as a band, and renamed themselves Cheers Elephant, after a circus elephant in Coney Island, who reportedly only drank beer.

They soon started gaining some traction as a serious band with their mix of rootsy and psychedelic rock, mixed with aspects of folk and even a bit of pop. We like the edgy guitar solo on “Falling Out.” The band’s second track, “Doin’ It Right,” is much different – energetic, upbeat, mysterious and somehow almost danceable. In fact, the first few seconds of the track sound almost exactly like the intro to the Kings of Convenience stellar track, “Toxic Girl.”

“Falling Out” – Cheers Elephant from Like Wind Blows Fire

“Doin’ It Right” – Cheers Elephant from Like Wind Blows Fire

Soundcloud Tracks: Animal Kingdom, Bigg Jus, and Fela Kuti

The following is a collection of Soundcloud only tracks, which are placed at the end of the playlist so that the all of the other 16 songs above will stream altogether (wish one exception on the second track from Virals) uninterrupted. Out of time to say much about these next three tracks other than we included them because some people are bond to dig one or more of them.

Animal Kingdom – Strange Attractor from The Looking Away on Boombox / Mom + Pop

Bigg Jus – Black Roses from Machines That Make Civilzation Fun on Mush Records

Fela Kuti – Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense from on Live In Detroit, 1986 on Knitting Factory Records

Tag: Virals

Best New Releases, Week of Jan. 15th – Yo La Tengo, Virals, Free Energy, Christopher Owens, Pickwick & Sharon Van Etten