Dec 07, 2017

Ahead of their highly anticipated new album Brighter Wounds dropping in February, Son Lux already has a reimagination of the lead single “Dream State”. The tidal impact of the album version is toned down into a simply beautiful classical string composition on this Brighter Night version, over which the fragile power of Ryan Lott flutters. Check it out:

Dec 06, 2017

Seemingly out of nowhere, Total Control will be releasing their new album Laughing At The System this Friday on Alter Records. The Melbourne band’s last album Typical System was one of the best albums of 2014. Total Control was formed by Eddie Current Suppression Ring’s Mikey Young and UV Race’s Dan Stewart, other great Aussi punk groups. Today they revealed the first track off the new album, “Laughing At The System, Pt. 1”. Listen below.

From total Control’s Bandcamp page: Their new 12”, ‘Laughing At The System,’ is a succinct statement, but it feels like the sharpest thing they’ve ever assembled. Written and recorded over the past couple of years in various lounge rooms, bedrooms, and rehearsal studios, across Melbourne, regional Victoria, and Western Australia, Al Montfort, Daniel Stewart, James Vinciguerra, Mikey Young, and Zephyr Pavey are—for the record—all accounted for in the process.

Nov 29, 2017

Melbourne, Australia pop quartet Totally Mild will be releasing its sophomore album Her via Chapter Records on February 23, 2018, and Under the Radar is premiering the new album’s second single “Lucky Stars”. The band calls “‘Lucky Stars” “...a love song to a band. It’s about being thankful for the good things in an uncertain situation.” The new song is an unassuming piano ballad of poignant truth.

Her is the follow up to the band’s 2015 acclaimed debut Down Time. About the new album, singer Elizabeth Mitchell says ”Her is a record of failure and victory, new desire, stale romance, queer domesticity and what comes when the party is over. I was torn between a new domestic life and the impulse to tear it all away with bad choices. I fell in love, but I wrestled for independence. I was always trying to prove that I didn’t need anyone; my wife, my friends, my band. Her is a document of a woman struggling with the idea of potential. We are told that we could be limitless, but we wrestle with unseen personal and structural walls.” Her was produced by one-time Architecture In Helsinki member James Cecil.

Totally Mild started out as the solo project of Mitchell and has now become a lush pop quartet made up of guitarist Zachary Schneider, drummer Dylan Young and bassist Lehmann Smith.

Nov 27, 2017

The Hold Steady released a couple of new songs ahead of their four-show run at Brooklyn Bowl that has become an annual get down. “Entitlement Crew b/w A Snake In The Shower” was shared on Bandcamp with a note from the band:

We recorded these in Brooklyn just this month. We hope to play them at the shows, so we thought we’d share them in case you want to sing along. These will be available for the fans here on Bandcamp for this week, and next week we will make them available via the major digital music providers.
If you choose to download these two songs, a donation will be made to benefit the K+L Guardian Foundation. ALL monies received from downloads will be transferred to the K+L Guardian Foundation. The K+L Guardian Foundation was formed to benefit “Jersey” Mike Van Jura’s children after he suddenly passed away in November 2012 at only 36 years of age. Jersey Mike was the unofficial leader of The Unified Scene.

Nov 22, 2017

Today marks the 20th anniversary for a little band from the little town of Bellingham, WA called Death Cab for Cutie. So they released the audio recording of their first show at The Pacer House in Bellingham. Pretty cool. Listen to the rough but endearing session, interruptions and all.

Here’s a message from Ben Gibbard on the band’s Bandcamp page:

This is a recording of the first ever Death Cab for Cutie show. It was made by our friend Trevor Adams on his dictaphone at The Pacer House in Bellingham, Washington on November 22, 1997. Sprawled across couches and sitting crosslegged on the floor were 25 of our closest friends and fellow musicians. Everyone played acoustic or semi-acoustic with no PA. Trevor made and passed bowl after bowl of microwave popcorn because he was (and I assume still is) a great host.

Chris Walla and I had just finished the You Can Play These Songs with Chords cassette and we thought it would be fun to play a few shows around Bellingham to celebrate the release. We recruited Nick Harmer to play bass and Walla’s childhood friend Nathan Good to play drums. None of us thought we were starting a band nor did our ambitions for DCfC extend very far past this particular evening. We simply thought it would be fun to play these songs for our friends before moving on to other things.

I remain forever grateful to Trevor for inviting us to play in his living room 20 years ago today. It was one of the greatest nights of my life at the time and its significance has only grown since.

Benjamin Gibbard
Death Cab for Cutie
November 22, 2017

Nov 16, 2017

Atlanta’s Small Reactions and Dot.s will be combining new track releases tomorrow via Chunklet. The bands will also play a release show together tomorrow in their hometown at 529 Bar. Listen to Small Reactions’ “Dinner Song” and Dot.s “Rose Lens”, both equally tantalizing, below.

Here’s some info about both bands from the press release:

SMALL REACTIONS :

“I’m dying for your light,” Small Reactions’ singer and guitarist Scotty Hoffman sings on the band’s new single “Dinner Song.” Serving as the track’s brief refrain, the line is perhaps more like a mantra for the band’s current state. Small Reactions has always written pop songs, but noise, grit, and reckless abandon helped to not get too comfortable with the label “pop music.” On “Dinner Song,” though, the band lets the track stand on its own as an unapologetically catchy single. Trimmed to a taught 3:02, the song finds the band as relentless as ever, but its crystalline post-punk foundation is embraced head on. Polish might not be the right word (it intentionally never will be for Small Reactions), but clarity of sound and purpose is. 16th notes hi-hats, 12-string guitars, a kettle drum, and a file cabinet: it’s a good look. Perhaps pop music is subversive after all?

DOT.S :
Dot.s is the little baby that Ryan James and his friends Bonnie, Joe, Nick, and Garrett brought into the world under their mutual love for drums and synthesizers and the way people move when the two are put together in the right way. Since their initial formation in 2015, Dot.s have released two full length albums {Jellyfiss (2015) and We Swim (2016)}. While the two are different in theme and scope, they both attempt to take “dance music” to a place that is unfamiliar and confusing and sweet. “Rose Lens,” their third official release and first official one-off/not-on-an-album thing. It was recorded with Damon Moon at Standard Electric Co. in Atlanta, Georgia.

Nov 14, 2017

The Southern California indie-rock trio Wallows has attracted a surge of industry attention ever since releasing their debut single “Pleaser” and getting out of the starting gate in a blur, selling out a string of sold-out shows that introduced it to the music world. Zane Lowe gave follow-up track “Sun Tan” its radio debut on Beats1 and did the same for Wallows’ latest “‘Pulling Leaves Off Trees”. Under the Radar has the online premiere of the track that brims with the band’s 90’s alt-rock influence. Listen below.

Despite forming less than a year ago, Wallows members Braeden Lemasters, Dylan Minnette and Cole Preston have been playing music together for nearly a decade. You may recognize Minnette from his lead role in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why and the super creepy horror thriller Don’t Breath. Turns out he’s in a good band as well. “Pulling Leaves Off Trees”, engineered by the band’s friend Stefan Mac at his studio in Lake Forest, CA, is yet another in a sequence of buzzworthy songs the band has released since its formation.

Wallows is set to keep the buzz going in 2018 with its first headlining tour in North America, kicking off January 24th in San Francisco. Check the rest of the dates below.

Wallows Winter Tour 2018

January 24 - San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall

January 26 - Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge

January 27 - Vancouver, BC Rio Theater

January 28 - Seattle, WA Chop Suey

January 30 - Santa Barbara, CA Velvet Jones

February 1 - San Diego, CA House of Blues Voodoo Room

February 2 - Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre

February 3 - Santa Ana, CA The Observatory

February 22 - Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall

February 23 - Detroit, MI Third Man Records Cass Corridor

February 24 - Toronto, ON Mod Club

February 26 - Cambridge, MA Middle East Downstairs

March 1 - New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

March 2 - Philadelphia, PA The Foundry at The Fillmore

March 3 - Washington, DC Union Stage

March 5 - Richmond, VA The Broadberry

March 6 - Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle

March 7 - Asheville, NC The Grey Eagle

March 9 - Nashville, TN Third Man Records

March 10 - Atlanta, GA Vinyl

March 12 - Dallas, TX Club Dada

March 13 - Houston, TX House of Blues - Bronze Peacock Room