Jun 16, 2009

Josh Epstein crafted some beautiul indie-pop gems on last year’s The Globe. The Silent Years’ founder and lead-songwriter returns with his Detroit-based outfit July 14th. That’s when SideCho Records is releasing the Detroit-based band’s latest EP, Let Go. That’s the black-and-white cover below. On the delicious preview track, “Madame Shocking,” a string quartet swirls around few a few bars and then the full band opens up into a summery, xylophone and piano-driven jam. Epstein may say he “was born in the ‘80s” but this is timeless pop music, regardless of the season.

Jun 16, 2009

Modest Mouse are keeping up the recent stream of new tracks. After their recent post-Record Store Day single “Satellite Skin”/“Guilty Cocker Spaniels” here’s another, a 7-inch featuring “Whale Song” and “Autumn Beds”, the latter of which you can hear below at Spinner. “Autumn” harkens back to the group’s ramshackle banjo jams on break-out smash Good News for People That Love Bad News. The 7-inch will be available in independent record stores this Saturday, June 20, for the Record Store Day’s Vinyl Saturday.

Stream: Modest Mouse: “Autumn Beds”

Jun 15, 2009

Bowerbirds’ second track from Open Air may not be as instantly memorable as “Northern Lights” but it has its own merits. Lovelorn plaudits switchback between lead singers Phil Moore and Beth Tacular on “Beneath Your Tree.” The Open Air cut also features Moore’s accordion and light acoustic guitar and percussion.

If you want to know what the duo are singing about, the sad lyrics are below:

“I could bleed, bleed, bleed for days, but my heart would still beat for you dear. Yet we carry on like a storm, like we’ve no idea where we’re coming from. But the rain will subside by the morning. I could drag my legs across the desert, but my lips would still thirst for you dear. Yet I feel your gaze like a furnace. Though it burns, I go on; I keep crawling. And the moon will rise in the evening, and I’ll fall to sleep beneath your tree, and the wind will howl through your leaves and serenade me. You don’t own me, but I’ll take your lead down a gnarly thicket in the trees. And we’re soon lost, and we’re terrified, but I’ll always find my way to your eyes. And the moon will rise in the evening, and I’ll fall to sleep beneath your tree, and the wind will howl through your leaves and serenade me.”

The Releigh, NC nu-folkies are touring with Megafun throughout July and August and have a stop at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 18. Upper Air is now available for pre-order from Dead Oceans on CD/LP. Fans pre-ordering the album will receive an immediate download code, before the physical release floats into their mailbox. Also included with the physical copy will be a limited 17"x 22” Bowerbirds poster. Open Air will be available in stores on July 7 in the U.S. and July 6 in the U.K.

Jun 14, 2009

As far as postmodern hip-hop goes, the New York foursome Anti-Pop Consortium are in a league of one. The boundary-pushing experimenters reunited a few years ago. The blazing “Capricorn One” is the first fruits of their fall recording Fluorescent Black. The highly-antcipated LP is the crew’s first full-length since 2002’s Arrhythmia. Big Dada is releasing the 17-track black hole on October 13th. South London rapper/labelmate Roots Manuva (Rodney Smith) spits some verses on “NY to Tokyo.” Check out the spacey album artwork to the right; and here’s the tracklist.

Fluorescent Black:

01 Lay Me Down
02 New Jack Exterminator
03 Reflections
04 Shine
05 C Thru U
06 Volcano
07 Timpani
08 The Solution
03 Get Lite
10 NY to Tokyo [feat. Roots Manuva]
11 SuperUnfrontable
12 Born Electric
13 Apparently
14 End Game
15 Capricorn One
16 Dragunov
17 Fluorescent Black

Jun 11, 2009

The sophomore LP from Baltimore lovebirds/two-piece Wye Oak is now streaming at Merge Records. The Knot finds Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack unspooling more hazy Americana soundscapes. The new album arrives July 21, but you can hear it by clicking right here. (via Idolator)

Jun 11, 2009

Here’s a recent Dead Oceans signee that could pass for Akron/Family’s little brother or cousin or a really cuddly version of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah perhaps. Portland’s Nurses craft hooky psych pop on their new longplayer, Apple’s Acre (out August 4th) but “Caterpillar Playground” is the true standout. Songwriting twosome Aaron Chapman and John Bowers orbit a great Rhodes piano line around koo-koo clock-like whistling and the occasional outburst of chimes. It’s playful in all the right ways. I’m sure this lil’ guy would dig it.

Jun 11, 2009

Canadian electronic group, Faunts, get a summery tropical techno remix from Lemonade on the delicious title track off Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. We featured Faunts in our Spring issue’s Pleased to Meet You section.