Nov 16, 2009

Seattle math rock quintet Minus the Bear are preparing to release their fourth studio album in 2010.The LP is untitled at this point but we can listen to its lead single, “Into the Mirror” and the above B-side, “Broken China.” Both follow the course the group has already set out for themselves on previous releases. Icy synths and guitar lines float into the ether as a steady drum beat keeps time underneath. Where “Into the Mirror” is about a late night with friends, “Broken China” is a more experimental piece that starts with a bit of sound collage and piercing waves of guitar distortion. Before long it slips into a prog-rock groove with Jake Snider giving the track a lissome lead vox. The end of the B-side slips back into experimental electronica.

The “Into the Mirror” 7” is available at gigs, but it’s also for sale digitally at major online retailers (iTunes, eMusic). The follow-up to 2007’s Planet of Ice was recorded this past summer with producer Joe Chiccarelli (My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes). The band is also on a North American tour. See those dates here. The group’s still searching for record label.

Nov 16, 2009

FoF‘s Ernest Gonzales got his hands on A Sunny Day in Glasgow‘s “Shy” earlier this year for the Major Lazer remix contest. The artist aka Mexicans with Guns turns the Philly noise-pop band’s new digital single from Ashes Grammar into a minimal, yet interesting mix. The song’s psych climax is the best part and is light years away from the original’s krautrock and drum-machine genre exercise. You can download the full single exclusively from Amazon now. This particular remix is not on that digital-only release.

Nov 16, 2009

Tindersticks last release on Constellation Records was 2008’s The Hungry Saw. Since then, the band’s founding members David Boulter and Stuart Staples have composed the soundtrack for Claire Denis’ new movie 35 Shots of Rum, toured the world, and finished recording another LP with a few guests. The current band includes Staples (vocals, guitar), Boutler (keys, vibes), and Neil Fraser (guitar), joined by longtime collaborator Terry Edwards (horns), and recent recruit Dan McKinna (bass). “Black Smoke” is a Northern Soul/folk cut from the group’s eighth album, Falling Down a Mountain. It will be available February 16th in North America (and everywhere else January 25th via 4AD). Be sure to check out the new single from the Nottingham band above.

Nov 16, 2009

Portland, Ore.‘s The Dimes are history geeks to the core. On their promising debut LP, 2007’s The Silent Generation, the folk-pop group based their lyrics on what singer/songwriter Johnny Clay’s read in Depression-era newspapers, which guitarist Pierre Kaiser discovered under the floorboards of his 1908 Portland house. The Dimes’ follow-up, The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry, retains their historical slant on indie rock. Tales about Union soldiers slain on the battlefield, a young Ms. Clara Barton (founder of The American Red Cross), and The Great Boston Fire of 1872, litter the musical landscape. The latter historical event is the inspiration for the plaintive track above, “Damrell’s Fire.”

Frontman Johnny Clay describes the track like this on the band’s blog:

“The city of Boston may very well have suffered the same fate Chicago did just one year prior to the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Wooden roofs on structures built right along side each other, inadequate water supply in much of the city, and a horse flu epidemic that kept the city’s fire engines from moving anywhere quickly combined to create the perfect storm in the winter of 1872. Had it not been for Boston Fire Chief John Damrell and the brave men of the BFD, historic Boston may have been left in ashes.”

The Dimes were originally a foursome, but recently grew into a septet; adding cello, pedal steel, and other intstruments. Engineer, Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Death Cab for Cutie, Menomena, The Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney, Dolorean) worked with the reconfigured band in the studio. They sort of a tap into The Decemberists’ aesthetic before the fellow Portland band’s prog tomfoolery. Check out The Dimes’ batch of album release shows this December in their home state. The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry is out December 11th, via Timber Carnival Records.

Nov 13, 2009

Singer-songwriter Elizabeth Harper’s synthpop group Class Actress, will release their debut EP February 9th, Journal of Ardency, on Terrible Records. The new imprint is run by Grizzly Bear‘s Chris Taylor. Above, you can download a song from said release. It’s a slightly goth-y synthpop cut entitled “Careful What You Say.” Looking past the EP, Class Actress plans to release a debut long-player, which will feature the single, “All the Saints.”

Nov 13, 2009

Watch on YouTube

The high profile production pair of DJ/rupture (aka Jace Clayton) and Matt Shadetek recently released their debut collaborative LP, Solar Life Raft. Above we have the stunning animated and hand illustrated video. It’s a hypnotic medley of cuts and it was directed and animated by Sara Taigher, with illustrations by Maria Chiara Di Giorgio. The clip falls in line with the album’s overarching/loose concept of a metropolis underwater. Though it sounds apocalyptic, their album is anything but doom and gloom. The video is a medley of DJ /rupture + Matt Shadetek’s “Underwater High Rise,” Nico Muhly’s “Mothertongue Pt. 1,” and Mizz Beats’ “Blue Night.”

Also, the duo has a 12” EP, entitled “Shallows,” slated for released on November 24th on The Agriculture. According to a press release, it spotlights “some of their strongest dub-wise productions to-date. The “Shallows” EP is a storm surge from New York’s Tropical movement, featuring two preview tracks from the new album, and a vinyl exclusive.” Solar Life Raft is out now on The Agriculture. Lastly, the dubstep mavens are touring select cities together and separately. Tour dates are below:

DJ /rupture + Matt Shadetek:

11-13 New York, NY - American Museum of Natural History w/ Jahdan Blakkamoore, Sonido Martines & Maluca (record release show)
11-20 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
11-21 Bloomington, IN - Video Saloon

DJ /rupture:

11-26 Mexico City, Mexico - Salon Calaver: Conference on the Evolution of Dub Music w/ Adrian Sherwood
11-27 Puebla, Mexico - Mictlán Dub Festival
11-28 Mexico City, Mexico @ Mictlán Dub Festival
11-29 Guadalajara, Mexico @ Mictlán Dub Festival

Matt Shadetek w/Jahdan Blakkamoore:

12-05 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - Bard College
12-10 Vienna, Austria - Fluc Wanne
12-11 Nuremberg, Germany - Kapu
12-12 Linz, Austria - Desi
12-18 Cologne, Germany - Global Player

Nov 12, 2009

Animal Collective will unleash some more hypnotic soundscapes on the world December 15th. That’s when their Fall Be Kind EP drops via Domino. In addition, the “Brothersport” 10” single was released earlier this month. On the release, Animal-ites also get a sprawling B-side in the form of the group’s live Big Sur performance of “Bleeding.” You can download/hear the epic, ten-minute song above. Like most AC live joints the trio fuse a hazy “Bleed” and with downright foggy “What Would I Want? Sky.” Both songs will show up on Fall Be Kind.