Monday, April 28, 2014

Brown Sabbath - "Hand of Doom"

Ubiquity band Brownout are about to drop a new album under their alter-ego Brown Sabbath. I'll give you two guesses what the genesis of this project is, but I figure you'll only need one. Alex Maas of Black Angels joins the funk firmament on vocals on this cut and it's a winner.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Jesse Futerman - Hidden Basement

Happy Hidden Basement Day! RR-fave Jesse Futerman dropped a collection of unreleased tracks and b-sides on his Bandcamp page today for free / name your price. You can hear the whole thing below, but I'd suggest you just go cop it now and load it onto your listening device of choice and take a step outside into the sunshine. Futerman's "lesser works" are still better than most producers' A material.

Little Dragon - "Let Go"

The new track from the forthcoming Little Dragon LP, Nabuma Rubberband, took me by surprise. My memory of their last full-length, Ritual Union, was of an album replete with upbeat numbers and an unrelenting forward momentum. But going back to that album after hearing "Let Go" this torch-song doesn't seem as anomalous. Tracks like "Brush The Heat" and "When I Go Out" were - in their own way - slow-burners like this one. But I'm certainly hoping the rubber band snaps back toward the likes of "Shuffle A Dream" and "Ritual Union" on this new record.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Diamond Version - "Were You There?"

It dropped a couple days ago on Soundcloud, but the first track from Diamond Version's forthcoming album, CI (due on Mute on June 2nd) is particularly appropriate for listening to tomorrow (Good Friday). "Were You There?" is an African-American spiritual that I was familiar with from my youth in a United Church. Not necessarily what I was expecting when I heard that Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys was guest-vocalist on a new cut, but strangely appropriate. Less pleading, more ominous than the version I grew up with...

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Secret Cities - "Bad Trip"

It's a good day for a bad trip. Secret Cities are back and from the sound of this first single, Walk Me Home is going to be another winner. A little crunchy, a little sweet; it's like that good granola for breakfast.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Marissa Nadler - "Drive"

Why isn't Nadler bigger? For that matter, why wasn't Galaxie 500 bigger? I bring up the latter, because Naomi Yang directed this video. She brings the same exactitude and subtle beauty to her film work that the band brought to their recordings. Lovely.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Apollo Brown - "All You Know"

"All You Know" is the lead-off track to the Cigarette Burns EP. The whole dang thing is available as a free download on bandcamp so there's no excuse to sleep on these instrumentals from yet another hype Mello Music Group producer. Get down with the Brown.

Nick Piunti - "13 In My Head"

This is some throwback powerpop. While I wasn't 13 when I first discovered the likes of Jason Falkner (Jellyfish) and The Posies - artists that led me backward toward The Knack and Big Star - this song could definitely be titled "16 In My Head" for my own purposes.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Antlers - "Palace"

"Bears" from their 2009 album Hospice breaks my heart every time I hear it (but in a good way - the record was one of my tops of that year). "Palace" is like the antidote to that song. Each time I've listened to it my heart swells and I feel buoyant with hope as the horns support the stanza: Then when heaven has a line around the corner, we shouldn’t have to wait around and hope to get in if we can carpenter a home in our heart right now and carve a palace from within. And then guitar line mirrors the horn line and I get all the feels in the world as the song crescendos over its final minutes. Can't wait to hear the rest of Familiars in June.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Tiny Ruins - "Me At The Museum, You In The Wintergardens"

You'll have to wait until May 13th to get the full-length, Brightly Painted One, from New Zealand's Tiny Ruins, but after hearing the gently captivating opener "Me At The Museum, You In The Wintergardens" you'll be drawn in and desperate to hear the rest of this lovely record.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Timber Timbre - "Beat the Drum Slowly" [video]

It would appear that the (creepy) stars have aligned and we now have a collaboration between dark-folk artist Timber Timbre and dark-pop artist Chad VanGaalen. Though in this instance CVG is lending his visual talents instead of his musical ones.