The Memorial Day weekend traditionally symbolizes the kick-off of summer for tens of millions in the U.S., even though summer doesn’t technically begin until June. Unless you live in place where summer is especially hot and crude, the arrival of summer is a celebratory time of year. And part of the spirit of summer has always been music, from golden oldies to new indie rock, and everything in between.
Over the past few weeks, we noticed activity on the site that indicates people are building their summer playlists, and Gods only know that there are hundreds of songs, even thousands, to choose from in many playlists dating back to 2008 – including Top Ten Songs of 2010 and 2011, the popular Summer Songs Mixtapes series, Best New Releases series of 2010 and 2011.
There’s enough great music to keep any music lover busy for days streaming and saving their favorite songs, plus, a whole variety of thematic playlists containing all kinds of music gems – links to those are in columns and the category links on the homepage. This week’s Best New Releases will be published in three different volumes. Let’s do this.
We have got to kick off with the “new” single from the legendary Joey Ramone’s “second solo record” – more than a decade after his premature passing. Even though it is not technically a new album, it’s official release still qualifies as an original, legitimate release. It would just be wrong not to start off this week’s album drops with the posthumous LP release of an American iconic rocker (so much so he was featured in The Simpsons), and one of our rock heros.
Joey’s ‘new’ track, “Rock N Roll Is The Answer” – and of course the album itself – is like a piece of rock history that fans are getting to hear for the first time. While it’s not on par with other work of The Ramones, and actually does not feature the entire band itself, it’s still the original work of Joey Ramone, and probably the last previously unreleased material of his we’ll ever get to hear.
Ya Know? has been plugged as “a cache of demos and unreleased recordings.” Even though Joey died in April of 2001 a month from his 50th birthday, his brother, Mickey Leigh, set out to complete Joey’s unreleased songs with help from a star-studded lineup, including Joan Jett, Little Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band, and members of Cheap Trick and The Dictators to help complete.
However, some unappreciative critics have mixed feelings. Timothy Bracy of The Washington Post wrote: “…it may have seemed possible that Joey was lovably weird enough to have a great record stashed away. Sadly, such hopes for Ya Know? are rapidly dispelled during the album’s first track, “Rock N Roll Is The Answer,” which chugs along indifferently like 1980’s KISS at its most jaded.” Dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about if you think you’re talking to Ramones’ fans.
“Rock ‘N Roll Is The Answer” – Joey Ramone from …Ya Know? on BMG
Dope Body Influence of The Ramones Clear in New Single; Album Release
The next track fits nicely following Joey Ramone. Dope Body kick up the dust with a wicked rocker that has a relentless driving beat and blistering guitar licks with a Ramones’-style blitzkrieg that is not a rip-off, but instead an obvious influence of the greatest punk rock band ever. Dope Body’s new album is titled Natural History.
“Weird Mirror” – Dope Body from Natural History on Drag City
Young Man’s Release; The Danks Finally Give ’09 Debut a Proper U.S. Release
Young Man, who has been one of the rising artists to watch over the past couple of years, according to many bloggers and critics, is back again with the sophomore LP release, Vol. 1. And it’s our Album of the Week.
The Danks Release Debut in U.S. Three Years Later
Next is the latest single from The Danks, a band that we’ve been interested in since 2009 when they originally released their awesome debut Are You Afraid of The Danks? The indie rock band from Prince Edward Island in Canada have an identifiable rock sound with power pop hooks, similar somewhat to the sound of The Strokes.
For some reason that we haven’t been able to find a good reason for yet, The Danks are re-releasing their debut officially for the first time in the U.S. Since it’s original Canadian release in 2009, the band toured the world twice and opened for bands like Tokyo Police Club and Ted Leo. If you missed this LP the first time around, you’ll want to get it if you love raw rock and roll. Still, we’d like to hear some new material from the band, hopefully soon, but that does not negate the importance of their debut.
“Automocar” – The Danks from Are You Afraid of the Danks on Hidden Pony Records
Blue Foundation Shoegaze Single with Sara Savery
The Brooklyn duo Blue Foundation really caught our attention with their haunting, brooding shoegazer, “Lost,” which interestingly sounds like a track off a David Lynch soundtrack. The fuzzy bass and drums, climaxes of instrumental explosions with woozy guitars and drum bursts that fizzle down to highlight the almost ghostly but gorgeous vocals of Danish-born singer Sara Savery.
“Lost” – Blue Foundation from In My Mind, I Am Free on Dead People’s Choice Records
New To Us: Dreamers, Riverboat Gamblers, Cold Specks
This week’s playlist also features a sizable group of artists that we call new-to-us bands. It’s always surprising how many stellar songs come over the cafe speakers from bands that we’ve never heard of before.
The next track, “City of Hope,” by the band Dreamers, reminds us a lot of Jane’s Addiction. Interestingly, the Dreamers sound doesn’t match the band name very well (it’s more fitting of a dream pop band). Another new-to-us band, Riverboat Gamblers, deliver a blazing, fast-driving post-rock track, “Comedians,” that sounds ready-made for radio – whether that’s good, bad or indifferent.
“City of Hope”– Dreamers from Dreamers on Germ Records Track via Earmilk
“Comedians” – Riverboat Gamblers from The Wolf You Feed on Volcom
“Blank Maps” – Cold Specks from I Predict a Graceful Expulsion on Mute
Don’t forget to check out Vol. II of the Best New Releases for the week of May 22nd, 2012. Plus, if you’ve missed any of the Best New Releases playlists for any week of 2012 so far, you can listen to, and download, 18 of them from the Best New Releases features page.
This week in best new releases is one of the most diverse, and largest (37 songs), mixtape reviews of the second half of 2010. The reason is simple: there are so many fantastic new singles and albums out this week from indie rockers, chillwave (omg, we said it) artists, buzz bands, unknown bands, new artists of the year, country and folk musicians, dance-oriented artists, exclusive tracks, and big buzz releases from, of course, Sufjan Stevens and Belle and Sebastian. Both of those artists were featured in the recent post, Five Anticipated Autumn Releases.
[zbplayer]
We are really digging Sufjan’s popular new single, “Too Much”, a track that has some of the elements of the chamber pop of Illinoise and orchestra, electro experimentation of The BQE, the latter of which Stevens told The Irish Times last week: “[BQE] was really exhausting and all-encompassing. I went beyond my means creatively and lost my way in the process.” We love Sufjan’s music, but still can’t help but to feel betrayed that his much anticipated “states album” project was just a “joke.” So, we started something similiar to that last year, called theState of Music playlists. We have been building new mixtapes for the State of Music playlists which we hope to start publishing by the end of the year and well into 2011.
The Age of Adz, so far, sounds terrific, from introspective tracks like “Now That I’m Older” to the wonderfully rich and multi-layered orchestration and chorus singing of “Vesuvius”, and other fantastic songs that you’ll just have to get the LP to discover – because this album, like many of Sufjan’s previous works, is a personal journey and an amazingly involved and complex project that is affirmation that he has found his niche again. Plus, as profiled in Five Anticipated Autumn releases post, we’re still also absorbing the new Belle and Sebastian, but so far, it sounds like the cerebral folk pop and story-telling we enjoy so much, especially after four years since the band’s last release. We’d love to hear what you guys think of Adz or any other releases the Comments section.
Also, LA’s JumpClubb released today this cover/remix of “Futile Devices” that appears on The Age of Adz.
One of our favorite new bands from this year’s South by Southwest, Brooklyn’sBeach Fossils, have released a new seven-inch vinyl single this week titled, “Face It”. The track continues on the band’s reputation for delivering summertime-like tracks, and reaffirms the band’s rising stake in the dreamy, sunny, sandy sub-genre of “chillwave/glo-fi” – a movement that has been a mainstay within the indie music domain for the past 18 months or so.
Beach Fossils’ new single is not a break-through for the band, but combined with their self-titled debut LP that dropped earlier this year, it’s enough to keep fans tied over, we think, until the ever-so-stressful sophomore album starts to leak out. While Beach Fossils is mostly the work of the wonderfully prolific Dustin Payseur, band members accompany him on tour and other live shows. In fact, after this weekend’s performance at the Brooklyn Bowl, Beach Fossils will set off next week for an extensive, month-long tour of Europe.
“Write About Love” – Belle & Sebastian from Write About Love
“Face It” – Beach Fossils from Face It/Distance 7″ via I Guess I’m Floating
One of the reasons were especially excited by this week’s best new releases is the fact that there are so many bands that will be on many best new bands lists by the end of this year. Two more to add to that list are Clevelandband Cloud Nothings and Milwaukee‘s indie outfit The Goodnight Loving. Cloud Nothing’s memorable lo-fi pop punk style mixed with the so-called chillwave sound has translated into blogger buzz and then a fan following. The band enjoyed praise for their live shows and their fuzzed out riffs and melodic pop hooks. Turning On is basically a collection of already released songs from their singles and tracks off their debut album that came out in June.
Another band that will likely be on a good number of top bands lists over the next few months is The Goodnight Loving with their debut, Goodnight Loving Supper Club. Although the band is not necessarily a new band – they received good reviews as far back as 2008 – they didn’t come on to many folks radar until this year with the promotion surrounding their newly released debut. The track here, “Doesn’t Shake Me” sounds just like a pop-rock radio hit from the 1970s, with Big Star being the band we thought of first when reviewing this track. But it also reminds us of more recent bands, such as Free Energy and The Rassle.
“Doesn’t Shake Me” – The Goodnight Loving from Goodnight Loving Supper Club
Another break-through band of 2010, New Jersey‘s sunny, surf popsters,Real Estate, drop a new seven-inch single this week to keep fans engaged until their sophomore LP is released. Plus, the debut release from boyfriend/girlfriend outfit, Houses, is out with the lead single, “Reds,” bringing more sunny, warm vibes – so it’s no surprise that their home base of Hawaii served as the nest for the writing and recording of the LP. And, of course, the electro ambient pop of Gold Panda.
“Out of Tune” – Real Estate from Out of Tune/Reservoir 7″ double single
“Reds” – Houses from All Night
“Same Dream China” – Gold Panda fromLucky Shiner
The lead track fromWolf People‘s new album, Steeple, is an audio time machine back to the late 1960s/early 1970s. “Tiny People” might as well have been released 40 years ago with its psychedelic folk rock jam reminiscent of Traffic and The Yardbirds, and complete with Jethro Tull-like flute infusions and solos, bluesy guitar riffs and heavy percussions.
A quiet new release this week that we probably wouldn’t have known about if the band didn’t contact us, is the debut album from Soft Landing, the new project from Beirut members Paul Collins and Perrin Cloutier. They teamed up with producer Griffin Rodriguez (Beirut, Need New Body, Icy Demons) for their self-titled debut, out now digitally and on vinyl. Stay tuned to us on Twitter for CD/MP3 album giveaways and ticket contests for Soft Landing and many others.
The band Suuns brings the electro dance pop on the track, “Arena”, which sports a long instrumental intro until the lead vocals and blazing reverb guitar licks take hold. Following Suuns, is the band Starf*cker, who the FCC doesn’t allow us to print their entire name – even though everyone knows what it says!
Anyways, Starfcker keep the dance beats going, and crank up the synthesizers, on their new dream-pop single, “Julius” – a song that is just bursting with glistening keys. Gears shift just a bit on the next track, “I Have Seen Everything,” from Climber‘s new LP, The Mystic. While it’s more pop-oriented, the track keeps in step with the dance-influenced trio of Suuns-Starfcker-Climber, not to mention it’s intriguing lyrics: I’ve seen you naked/ all of your hidden flaws exposed…You’re not embarassed/is that your problem?
“I Have Seen Everything” – Climber from The Mystic
We’re getting low on ink, but you’ll definitely want to check out the following bands’ new singles from bands to watch and bands on radar, including the fantastically catchy music of Fox in the Henhouse, Great Lakes, Sunset, So So Glos, Fox in the Henhouse, Fresh and Onlys, Envy, Ten Million Lights, The Brute Chorus, and others.
“Fears” – Fox in the Henhouse from Fox in the Henhouse
“Lindy Hop” – So So Glos from Low Back Chain Shift
“Four Days Straight” – Scattered Trees from Four Straight Days 7″
“Kill Your Idols” – Ten Million Lights from Ten Million Lights
“Heaven” – The Brute Chorus from How The Caged Bird Sings
“Waterfall” – The Fresh and Onlys from Play It Strange
“A Breath Clad in Happiness” – Envy from Recitation
Now, our readers might see why we’re a bit late putting out this week’s Best New Releases mixtape review. If you just finished listening to the songs above, there’s still more. The best way, at least for us, to listen to the huge mixtape/playlists we published on IRC, is to click on the first song and let the Yahoo Media Player stream through all the songs automatically so you can do other things, instead of clicking from one song to the next. As promised, there’s more:
Updated 10/14: There was such a strong reaction to IRC’s exclusive new track from the band Take Care that we decided to post another track in addition to “Halfway House.” We think that if you liked that song, you’re probably going to enjoy the Take Care track, “Trips.” Let us know and see more – and download the Demo 2010 EP at Take Care’s website.
“Trips” – Take Care from Demo 2010 – IRC Exclusive
“Halfway House” – Take Care from Demo 2010 – IRC Exclusive
We’re not so sure about the title track from Violent Kin‘s new release, Velvet Hideout, so if any of you would like to write up a mini-review in the Comments section, please do, for the world to see. In fact, comment about any song – it’s a great way to share your thoughts with thousands of other people. Some folks may also enjoy the under-the-radar band, Carissa’s Wierd,and songwriter-singer Brandie Emma.
“Velvet Hideout”– Violent Kin from Velvet Hideout
“Fluorescent Lights”-Carissa’s Wierd from Ugly But Honest (vinyl reissue)
“Let Go” – Brandie Emma from Photographic Memory
A musical substitute for Prozac comes in the form of the blissful, floating ambiance of the single, “Over There”. As with Cloud Nothings, today’s release from Banjo or Freakout contain previously released songs; so “new” in this case finds itself in a bit of a snafu. But seriously folks, is this song not somehow heavenly? To keep a good vibe going, let the stream go for Manzanita y su Conjunto‘s “Agua”, from a compilation of psychedelic music from Peru, plus Simian Mobile Disco and Cheyenne Marie Mize.
“Over There”– Banjo or Freakout from Way Slow Series; Volume One: Banjo or Freakout
“Agua” – Manzanita y su Conjunto from Roots of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru
The final tracks in this release are all ones we like or ones that we think a lot of our regular readers/listeners would like. In a way to keep all of these tracks more organized, we’re trying to group them as much as possible, like the way the more ‘dance’ tracks above were grouped. The same thing was done for the country and folk rock singles, from bands like The Moondoggies, The Black, The Black Heart Procession, Whitey Morgan and The 78s, and others are grouped together below. Plus, we have a number of exclusives that we’ll be interested to see the reaction to.
“It’s A Shame” – The Moondoggies
“Love Don’t Need A Reason” – The Black from Sun in the Day, Moon at Night
“Blank Page” – The Black Heart Procession from Bloody Bunny/Black Rabbit
“I Ain’t Drunk” – Whitey Morgan and The 78′s from Whitey Morgan and The 78′s
More New Releases This Week (compiled by Pitchfork):
10-11-10
A Band of Bees: Every Step’s a Yes [Fiction]
Antony and the Johnsons: Swanlights [Rough Trade] [European release]
Benoit Pioulard: Lasted [Kranky]
Dexys Midnight Runners: Searching for the Young Soul Rebels [EMI]
Esben and the Witch: “Marching Song” 12” [Matador] [UK Release]
Josephine Foster & the Victor Herrero Band: Anda Jaleo [Fire Records]
Paul Smith: Margins [Billingham]
10-12-10
Antony and the Johnsons: Swanlights [Secretly Canadian] [U.S. release]
Badly Drawn Boy: It’s What I’m Thinking: Photographing Snowflakes [The End]
Banjo or Freakout: Way Slow [Lefse]
Beach Fossils: “Face It”/”Distance” 7″ [Captured Tracks]
The Beets: Stay Home [Captured Tracks]
Big Search: Lay of the Land [St. Ives]
The Black: Sun in the Day Moon at Night [Moon Records]
The Black Heart Procession: Blood Bunny/Black Rabbit EP [Temporary Residence Ltd.]
Blank Dogs: Land and Fixed [Captured Tracks]
Blue Water White Death: Blue Water White Death [Graveface]
Breathe Owl Breathe: Magic Central [Hometapes]
British Sea Power: Zeus EP [Rough Trade] [Vinyl Release]
Callers: Life of Love [Western Vinyl]
Cloud Nothings: “Leave You Forever” 7” [Carpark]
Cloud Nothings: Turning On [Carpark]
The Dead C: Patience [Ba Da Bing]
Die Antwoord: $0$ [Cherrytree/Interscope]
Doug Paisley: Constant Companion [No Quarter]
Envy: Recitation [Temporary Residence Ltd.]
Esben and the Witch: “Marching Song” 12” [Matador]
Florence and the Machine: “Dog Days Are Over (Yeasayer Remix)” [Island]
The Foreign Exchange: Authenticity [Foreign Exchange Music]
Franz Nicolay: Luck & Courage [Team Science/Sabot Productions]
The Fresh & Onlys: Play It Strange [In the Red]
Gangrene [The Alchemist and Oh No]: Gutter Water [Decon]
Gold Panda: Lucky Shiner [Ghostly International/NoTown Recordings]
Hauschka: Foreign Landscapes [130701]
Heavy Times: “No Plans” b/w “Ice Age” 7” [HoZac]
Holy Sons: Survivalist Tales! [Partisan]
Houses: All Night [Lefse]
Idle Times: Idle Times [HoZac]
Jane Birkin: Di Doo Dah [Light in the Attic] [reissue]
Kedl Winter: Apple Core [Steeple]
Kelly Stoltz: To Dreamers [Sub Pop]
Lil Wayne: I Am Not a Human Being [Young Money] [physical release]
Maserati: “Pyramid of the Moon” 12” [Temporary Residence]
Peter Gordon: The Love of Life Orchestra [DFA]
Purling Hiss: Public Service Announcement [Woodsist]
Real Estate: “Out of Tune” b/w “Reservoir” 7” [True Panther]
Silje Nes: Opticks [FatCat]
Simian Mobile Disco: Is Fixed [Defend Music]
Starf*cker: Julius [Polyvinyl]
Styrofoam: Disco Synthesizers & Daily Tranquilizers [Nettwerk]
Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz [Asthmatic Kitty]
Suuns: Zeroes QC [Secretly Canadian]
Various Artists: Jackass 3D OST [Epitaph/ Kings Road Merch]
Various Artists: From the Land of Ice and Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin [Jealous Butcher Records]
White Moth: White Moth [Angel Oven Records]
Wolf People: Steeple [Jagjaguwar]
Zola Jesus: Valusia EP [Sacred Bones]
