April 25, 2012 by A2S
Reptar’s new record Body Faucet will be out on May 1st via Vagrant Records, but you can hear the whole thing right here. These guys are a riot live–I saw them a few months ago in Los Angeles. The record is catchy as hell and it wouldn’t surprise me if “Sebastian” turns into the Summer 2012 “Pumped Up Kicks” phenomenon. Listen now while it’s still a voluntary decision and you can say, “I knew them when…”
@reptarathens
facebook.com/reptarmusic
Category Albums, News | Tags: album stream,Athens,indie rock,Reptar,vagrant records | No Comments
March 7, 2012 by A2S
LOVE this band and their full album is streaming on Soundcloud. Listen below.
Category Albums | Tags: Canada,Hidden Pony,indie rock,Said the Whale | No Comments
December 16, 2011 by A2S
1. 
Strange Mercy – St. Vincent (4AD)
2. 
Civilian – Wye Oak (Merge)
3. 
Nightlife – Phantogram (Indica Records/Fontana North)
4. 
Codes and Keys – Death Cab for Cutie (Atlantic)
5. 
This is Where We Are – Seryn (Velvet Blue Music / Spune)
6. 
BBDLP1 – Big Black Delta (Coming Home Records)
7. 
Paradise – Slow Club (Moshi Moshi)
8. 
Dig Up the Dead – Mansions (Burning House)
9. 
Blue Suicide – Coma Cinema (Wonder Beard Tapes / Fork and Spoon)
10. 
Tamer Animals – Other Lives (TBD Records)
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September 19, 2011 by A2S
Slow Club’s debut album Yeah, So is one of my top five favorite albums of 2010. The follow-up Paradise had a lot to prove. This album isn’t claiming to bring you to a “state of bliss,” as the name might suggest, but conjures mixed feelings about themes of love, loss, heartbreak, and occasionally sex.
“I think we both wanted to move away from our obsessions on the first album, and look more at our families, and how the loss of someone you love can affect you,” says co-songwriter and guitarist Charles Watson, before adding: “but we do still end up coming back to love and heartbreak, we can’t help it.”
“So, death and shagging pretty much sum this album up,” says Rebecca Taylor, the duo’s other half. “Yeah,” agrees Charles sardonically, “cocks, fannies and death. That’s our thing.”
Category Albums | Tags: British,doo wop,Duo,folk,Slow Club | No Comments
August 2, 2011 by A2S
“Botany’s debut Feeling Today explores the cosmic nexus of shimmering psychedelia, blissed-out pop, and instrumental hip-hop, as he turns recycled sounds into something thoroughly modern.”
Adding on to my love for music from Texas is Botany, calling home “somewhere between Denton and Austin.” I’ve been obsessed with “Feeling Today” by Botany (aka Spencer Stephenson) for almost a year and now the containing EP will finally be released on August 16th and doesn’t disappoint. The Feeling Today EP slices together noise samples into a beautiful amalgamation. Each sound trickles together and blends like similar shades of watercolor. “Feeling Today” feels like morning light on an empty city street. It gives a sense of brightness. In its simplicity, Botany is intensely beautiful and deeply personal.
Category Albums, Tracks | Tags: Botany,electro,Feeling Today,Texas | No Comments
July 26, 2011 by J-Man
If you’ve ever read any of my reviews, you know that I have a special place in my heart for albums that are real. I like albums that are more human and less computer. I like real drums, as opposed to drum machines. When my editor-in-chief sent me a track off of This Distance, the new EP from Oax, it hit me right in that “this is real” heart place.
I would even venture as far as to call this EP raw, and I would mean it in the most positive way possible. The guitars feedback. The cymbal hits aren’t uniform. You can hear that someone is playing the music you are listening to, and that someone is Angelini Giorgio. Aside from the closer on the EP, ‘Sutures’, everything on the album was written and played by Giorgio.
On my first listen through, this album made me want to drive. I wanted to feel wind, and watch mountains and hills pass by. I wanted to cruise down Highway 1 and listen to this and remember good times and bad times. Then I read the story behind the album and understood why.
Angelini had been on a hiatus from music, after leaving The Rosebuds and going back to school. Then he went through a hard breakup. Then he sat down and wrote music, by himself. This EP is the result of an emotional dam breaking. I listened to the album a second time and I could feel the lyrics. I empathized with the man singing about the sins he had committed, and the sins committed against him, and the culmination of all these sins and how they make up the lives that we lead.
What I’m trying to tell you is that this music is good. It is really good.
Category Albums, Tracks | Tags: Garage Rock,lo fi,Oax | No Comments
July 2, 2011 by A2S
The three man band from Seattle better known as The Cave Singers deliver soulful folk at its best in their latest release, No Witch. Out earlier this year, No Witch is the band’s third and strongest album yet, prompting them to tour alongside fellow Seattle folksters, Fleet Foxes. Utilizing the rhythm of the audience’s hand-clapping, Marty Lund’s sizzling percussion, Derek Fudesco’s melodic guitar and Pete Quirk’s enveloping voice to bring it all together, The Cave Singers deliver passionate and memorable live performances. I highly recommend catching a show in their ongoing tour, which includes a performance at this year’s Newport Folk Festival.
Listen to “Swim Club”:
Category Albums, Features | Tags: indie folk,Seattle,The Cave Singers | No Comments
June 19, 2011 by Kaitlin
Spanish musician Sutja Gutierrez integrates opposing forces of dark and light, hard and soft to create his latest EP White Ponycorn In My Room. Acoustic guitar, distorted with synths and other noises, accompany his melodic voice in a simultaneously happy and uneasy way. Mellow jam, “Borderline (Hell, I’m The)” and ending lullaby “Oh, Say Good Bye (Outro)” illuminate Gutierrez’s softer side, while “I Don’t Want To Be Alone (Reprise)” and “Another Room (Called Doom)” exude the musician’s fascination with darkness and distortion. Gutierrez’s echoed lyrics and indie pop instrumentals create a sound comparable to Portishead meets Thom Yorke. The record is being sold for $1 on his bandcamp with all donations funding Gutierrez’s US tour.
Category Albums | Tags: Electronic,indie pop,Spanish,Sutja Gutierrez | No Comments
May 10, 2011 by A2S
For those of you who haven’t already streamed it in full on the album’s website, this is an album review of Manchester Orchestra’s upcoming album Simple Math, released today.
If you’ve been wary about Manchester Orchestra’s follow-up to their sensational 2009 album Mean Everything to Nothing, fear not. If you love the band for Andy Hull’s hold-nothing-back emotion-filled vocals, the raging guitar breakdowns, swelling strings, and all-around finely crafted and dynamic style, you will not find this album lacking. For the most part, Simple Math takes the essence of Mean Everything to Nothing, boils it down, and molds it into a new shape on these ten tracks, with a few exceptions.
The album opens with “Deer.” It begins with minimal electronics leading into a basic guitar melody. The lyrics seem to be autobiographical, apologetic, and despondent. Each verse is about something else falling apart. “I acted like an asshole so I could keep my edge on you”, then “I acted like an asshole so my albums would never burn. I’m hungry now and scraps of dirty dirt.”
If “Deer” is an apology, “Mighty” is a “fuck you.” A shredding intro and demanding vocals from Hull, “Mighty” comes through kicking and screaming with noisy riffs over a string melody.
“Pensacola” is the first song of the album that sounds out of character for Manchester Orchestra. The melody intro bears a striking resemblance to a band I grew up with called Melee—incredibly upbeat, almost entirely in a major key, very dynamic, making use of some brass and a shout-chorus, and for the most part is completely optimistic. “I did it all for you.”
After the completely M.O.-style “April Fool” and “Pale Black Eye” comes the track recently premiered on their Facebook, “Virgins.” The haunting chorus of youngsters coupled with the minor keys creates a dark and eerie mood. “We build this house with our with our hands / and our time / and our blood.” This is certainly one of my favorites on the album.
The title track of the record, “Simple Math,” is the seductive rock ballad equivalent of an R&B “undress me” song. “Leave It Alone” slows down into a sincere and earnest guitar and orchestral track with the vibe of Mean Everything to Nothing’s “100 Dollars.” “Apprehension “ provides some classic piano-interspersed indie-rock and “Leaky Breaks” closes the album with a quiet sensibility and echoing vocals, letting the album trail off slowly with this 7+ minute track.
Simple Math has all the ingredients that you could expect from Manchester Orchestra and then some. Mixing up the formula a bit to provide some originality, “Deers” and “Virgins” are probably the most stunning on the record. If you’re a Manchester Orchestra fan, you’ll surely love this album and if you’re not, then maybe these ten tracks can change your mind.
Pick up Simple Math on Amazon.
www.themanchesterorchestra.com
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