Los Angeles based quartet ALTO makes beautiful pop, lush and bouncy, with gorgeous instrumentation. Even with all of the layers, the music on single “Vocable” never becomes a dirge, but always keeps things light, even dipping into double dutch style chanting and clapping.
I was instantly reminded of Vampire Weekend’s first album. If that’s a good thing to you, then you’ll definitely dig this.
Very cool power pop from New Zealand kids calling themselves BEACH PIGS.
Reminds me of Teenage Fanclub a good bit.
I’m home alone until Tuesday, so my house has basically become a bachelor pad; there’s comic books all over the kitchen, I’ve been eating nothing but tacos, and I refuse to wear clothes.
Another bonus is that I can listen to as much obnoxious, oompah oompah, tard-o punk as I want, which brought me to TOXIC UNDERGROUND.
I don’t feel this band needs much explaining, which I love. The songs are about skating, dying, being bored, and general fucking terrorizing hood-rattery.
I think these kids found Animal Chin.
I’ve had computer issues the past couple of days. My 2 year old son smashed the screen on my laptop, which is what I do most of my blog work on. As I went to use my studio computer to get some posts queued up, I found that my mouse was full of crusty milk. O’ the never ending adventure of parenthood.
Anyways, it was hella late when I got around to getting things in working order and doing a new post and WING DAM was the perfect thing for my ears and mood.
The best way I can describe this is to say it sounds like if Karl Blau and Phil Elverum were stuck in a beach house with nothing but a Casio for a weekend.
WING DAM is actually the work of Baltimore kid Austin Tally and the “WAVES TO SHORE EP” is supposedly being released as his side of a split tape sometime in the near future.
Keep an eye out.
When AVERKIOU walks into a room, some claim it’s a haze of smoke they’re emerging from, being the delinquents they are, but I know the truth: these guys use so much fucking delay and fuzz that they’ve begun to embody the stuff.
This band essentially lives and breathes soaring pop guitar lines. They have a reputation about our town for being the kings of guitar tone, and for good reason. Their full length debut, “THROWING SPARKS” is filled with layers of sweet harmonies, shimmering guitars (that’s not a cop out, listen to this shit, it’s the only way to describe it,) and a full, tight rhythm section.
Their latest endeavor, “THE NEW IMPERATIVE“ is a 4 song EP which builds upon the band’s Husker Du meets Tiger Trap concoction and while many people have been pissing and moaning for a new record (“Throwing Sparks” was released in 2008, followed by a single, “Wasted and High”, in 2009,) I think this EP was well worth the wait and is more than enough meat (or sugar) to tide over the fanatics.
What I absolutely love about this band, as a Gainesville native who has seen them form and grow, is that everyone loves them. Beard bros, metal dorks, crusty freaks, alt country dildos, pizza snobs, squares, drapes, you name it, they like ‘em. It’s awesome to see a band bring people together in a town which is at times quite divisive and clique-y.
Listen to the first track from the EP, “Fuzzy Photograph” and be the judge, but be warned, it might melt your heart.
With music as sweet as this, how could you be a hater?
Grab the 7” from Sound Study Recordings or donate some dough for a free digital download.
Most of the time I love blogging about music. There are other times, though, when I absolutely despise it. For example, times that I check my e-mail hoping for something that will blow me away only to find e-mail blasts from the PR agency of some really shitty “up and coming” Dubstep dil-hole. How do I even end up on those lists? It makes me gag and want to listen to Black Flag all day.
There is an upside to days like this, though. I’m forced to start digging, to start flipping through Bandcamp in search of something that will tingle my ear holes.
Today I came up with a solid nugget of gold known as 3 1/2 from California. This is one of those bands that I will be keeping my eye on, eagerly awaiting their next move. It’s my dream combination in a band: vocals, guitar, and a primal drummer (because let’s be honest, fuck a bass player.) While listening to their debut “First Recordings” I’m reminded of early the Gossip and Beat Happening, while at the same time they’ve got something wholly original at the core.
A cassette version is available from the LA based label CO WAVE, but the digital version is available for free download via Bandcamp.
During the 90’s I didn’t really listen to a lot of music other than what was on the radio. I was in elementary/early middle school and what I heard was usually up to the radio DJ. Later middle school brought Limp Bizkit and Eminem my way. Those were dark days. Luckily, the bridging summer between 8th and 9th grade brought a revelation: we got the internet at my house. I spent days on days downloading music from Napster and discovering new bands on what was probably my favorite website of all time, Epitonic. Back in the day on Epitonic, you could type in a band and get recommended a ton of similar artists (kind of like how Spotify is now,) leading to hours of digital crate digging.
Through what my parents probably considered “wasted” time I discovered bands like Tiger Trap, The Softies, and ultimately just twee in general. TREEFORT takes me back to those days.
Sounding like a project someone from Olympia recorded in their one bedroom apartment during a potluck pajama party, this album is loaded with simple charm. There’s even some unexpected Garcia-esque jamming on the track “Telephone”.
Put on a pot of green tea, bake some cookies, and enjoy “TRES’ FORT”.
SEAGREEN RECORDS is a small collective/label based out of Connecticut. They’re home to some pretty awesome bands and have been nice enough to grace us all with a Valentine’s gift in the form of the SINGLES ON VALENTINE’S DAY sampler, containing unreleased tracks from each of their artists.
The compilation features a new track from HIGH POP, as well as MAJOR BUMMER and BOY CRUSH, which are the respective side projects of the High Pop dudes.
Give it a shot, you might find a new favorite.
The opening track on this EP punched me straight into my leather jacket. I can only imagine how sweaty a SINGLE MOTHERS show gets. The guitars are loud and gut busting, the drums sound like collapsing marble columns, and the vocals are just plain nasty, spitting out scathing lyrics about everyone you probably already hate.
I’m not surprised that such angry music is coming out Canada, being as the nation has produced such awesome hardcore bands as the legendary Fucked Up and the amazing Omegas.
They must be putting something in the poutine up there, ay?
