Señor Coconut

ARTIST / BAND: Señor Coconut

SONG (MP3): Around the world

ALBUM: El Baile Alemán

FILE UNDER: Electro / Latin / Healing & EasyListening

LABEL: Naçional Records

INFO:Señor Coconut, the man of a thousand aliases, has struck again and amazed everyone once more. Following “El Baile Alemán” (dedicated to the German Electro pioneers Kraftwerk), “Fiesta Songs” (a joyful collection of popular songs including “Smooth Operator”, “Beat It”, “Smoke on the Water”) and “Yellow Fever” (a tribute to his Japanese fellow musicians of the Yellow Magic Orchestra) here comes his fourth trick, which the musical knight of the Order of the Coconut has worked on for almost a year in real and virtual studios.

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Late of the Pier

ARTIST / BAND: Late of the Pier

SONG (MP3): Heartbeat

FILE UNDER:Glam / Thrash

LABEL: Zarcorp

INFO: Late of the Pier are an English four-piece band from Castle Donington, currently signed to Parlophone Records. They have released five singles to date. Their album "Fantasy Black Channel" was released on 11th August.

They have garnered a large teenage fanbase from night clubs such as All Ages club, Filthy Few[2], Pat and Trevor, Death Disco, Transparent[3]. They even played the first ever Underage Festival, in August 2007.

Lead singer Samuel Eastgate also has a side-project, La Priest, often written incorrectly as LA Priest. He has numerous productions and has made several remixes, as well as having the song "Engine" being remixed by Erol Alkan and released via Erol’s Phantasy Sound label.

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Chin Chin

ARTIST / BAND: Chin Chin

SONG (MP3): Go There With You

ALBUM: Go There With You EP

FILE UNDER: jazz, funk, disco, contemporary R&B, rock, and electro

LABEL: Definitive Jux

INFO: Chin Chin formed in 2001 by Torbitt and Wilder Schwartz - joined soon after by Atlanta Georgia bred Jeremy Wilms- was originally intended to improvise back-up music for singers and MCs at a monthly party in Brooklyn. Realizing a greater potential the brothers started writing music. With songs in place they began recruiting musicians from the fertile Williamsburg scene.

Combining elements of jazz funk disco contemporary R&B rock and electro with smart lyrics powerful horn arrangements great showmanship and a taste for partying Chin Chin have synthesized the quintessential elements of such dance floor heroes as Brass Construction Ohio Players and Roger Troutman while presenting something decidedly new.

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Elizabeth Willis

ARTIST / BAND: Elizabeth Willis

SONGS (MP3): In Your Eyes / One

ALBUM: Elizabeth Willis

FILE UNDER: Alternative / Pop / Classical

LABEL: little blackbird music

INFO: Driven by her interest in composing pop music works of her own, Willis changed her entire life in order to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter. "I didn't have a life," she explains. "I didn't have a weekend off since I was 5, and I always had an interest in composition. I wrote my first song at 12." Armed with her immense skill and the knowledge she'd gained, Willis set out writing and recording what would eventually become her self-titled debut album. The 11-song disc is a powerfully emotional and musically lush outing filled with, as you might guess, elegant piano and strings underscoring her deeply moving vocals. Willis' songs have been compared to legends like Nina Simone, Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman and Antony & the Johnsons for both their emotional depth and musical warmth.

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Mochipet

ARTIST / BAND: Mochipet

SONG (MP3): Banana Split (Fliami Vice Remix)

ALBUM: Microphonepet

FILE UNDER:Club / Emo / Grindcore

LABEL: Daly City

INFO:Beat-bender Mochipet released his wobbly, warped hip-hop album, Microphonepet, back in the spring of this year. Then he went and announced a remix companion to the album, slated for a December 2 release via his own Daly City imprint. Jahcoozi, Darko, and Boreta all hold spots on the tracklisting, as does London's Fliami Vice, who did this track. As was the case on the original cut, Oakland's E Da Boss and Bicasso (of Living Legends fame) show up for guest spots.

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The Dandy Warhols

ARTIST / BAND: The Dandy Warhols

SONG (MP3): Little Drummer Boy

ALBUM: Dandys Rule, OK?

FILE UNDER: Indie Pop

LABEL: Beat The World Records

INFO: The Dandy Warhols currently offering their version of “Little Drummer Boy” on their MySpace and Facebook sites. Longtime Warhols fans may recognize the song from around the time of their first album, Dandys Rule, OK? — but now it’s out for FREE.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

ARTIST / BAND: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

SONG (MP3): Everything With You

ALBUM: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

FILE UNDER: Indie Pop

LABEL: slumberland records

INFO: Imagine if Stephen Pastel actually threw Aggi off the bridge and married Black Tambourine’s Pam Berry and had three four babies that formed a pop band.

Meet The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a New York four-piece who plays sweet & noisy POP with boy/girl vocals, blissful melodies and blistering drums.

Here are some bands The Pains of Being Pure at Heart really like (but maybe don’t sound quite like): The Pastels, The Exploding Hearts, Black Tambourine/Velocity Girl, The Vaselines, The Ramones, Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, Rocketship, Dear Nora.

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MIKE BONES

ARTIST / BAND: MIKE BONES

SONG (MP3): What I Have Left

ALBUM: A FOOL FOR EVERYONE

FILE UNDER: Indie Pop

LABEL: THE SOCIAL REGISTRY

INFO: All these songs were written after June 2007, except "Everybody's Always Coming Down On Me" which is quite an old song. I wrote one on the beach in Spain, the rest at my desk in New York City. Other songs were written in that time and in those places. Those aren't on A Fool For Everyone. Most songs exist because of beautiful women and existential despair, but that's no surprise.

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Keak Da Sneak and San Quinn

ARTIST / BAND: Keak Da Sneak and San Quinn

SONG (MP3): Welcome To Scokland

ALBUM: Welcome To Scokland

FILE UNDER:mainstream hip-hop

LABEL: ehustl

INFO:This year represents the official return of the Bay Area as the vibrant epicenter of an ever-changing, multi-layered West Coast sound. In the middle of this re-birth is the Bay Area record label E-HUSTL Entertainment and the release of their latest project, Welcome to Scokland, from Bay Area legends Keak Da Sneak and San Quinn. Possessing the ability to join together the musical and lyrical subtleties of San Francisco (the "Sco") and Oakland, San Quinn and Keak Da Sneak have produced an album that highlights the distinctive sound of the next generation of Bay Area emcees. Welcome to Scokland is available now online and in stores everywhere via E-HUSTL Entertainment.

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Kicksville

ARTIST / BAND: Kicksville

SONG (MP3): Surrende

ALBUM: Buy Me

FILE UNDER: Experimental

LABEL: Ropeadope

INFO:This song has a lot of unique things behind it. One, it's one of the few times where we've consciously started writing a song with a specific goal (most of the time we just start writing, and whatever happens, happens). We deliberately went into this wanting something that sounded happy and silly, but was really about something bleak and miserable. It marks the first visit to Kicksville by Anna Purnell and Dave Park, as well as Andy Ewen, who has since become one of our most prolific Citizens. It's also the only song I play drum kit on, and it's one of the very few songs the Mayor doesn't actually play on at all.

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The Phantom Band

ARTIST / BAND: The Phantom Band

SONG (MP3): Folk Song Oblivion

ALBUM: Checkmate Savage

FILE UNDER: Indie

LABEL: Chemikal Underground

INFO:The debut album by The Phantom Band has finally been completed and it emphatically surpasses every conceivable expectation we may have harboured after signing them. A nine track, nearly one hour long mash up of krautrock, swamp-rock and Beefheart-oddness, Checkmate Savage will be one of our key releases of 2009 and it's out in January. The tracklisting is as follows:

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TEAM GENIUS

ARTIST / BAND: TEAM GENIUS

SONG (MP3): TAKE ME HOME / MEANDERINGS & MUSINGS /WHILE WE'RE ASLEEP

FILE UNDER: Indie / Pop / Other

INFO:Those personalities are quirky, indeed. It was a boring winter when Drew enlisted his brother Chad Hermiller and their friend and drummer Scott Dyer (a 150-pound wonder - sometimes shirtless, sometimes suited) to form the trio that ultimately became Team Genius. The boys later welcomed Chris Hudik on bass and then added a much needed feminine element to the team when Erin Griffith and Emma Firth both joined in 2007. Team Genius released the Hooray EP to critical acclaim in early 2008.

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We Landed On The Moon!

ARTIST / BAND: We Landed On The Moon!

SONG (MP3): Re: Your Letter

ALBUM: These Little Wars

FILE UNDER:Indie / Rock / Pop

INFO:In 2006, they made their first album, We Landed on the Moon! and then, by dumb luck or perhaps because of the tasty astronaut ice cream they gave with each record, radio stations across the country played it. People clapped and cheered and whistled at their Baton Rouge shows (those who could whistle)- enough that they decided to go play shows for far away people in a van that ran out of freon every hundred miles or so.

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Gramercy Arms

ARTIST / BAND: Gramercy Arms

SONG (MP3): Automatic

ALBUM: Gramercy Arms

FILE UNDER: Powerpop / Rock

LABEL: Cheap Lullaby Records

INFO: of Guided By Voices, Luna, Joan as Police Woman, The Dambuilders, Fuzzy and Too Much Joy. Their self-titled debut album features guest performances by Sarah Silverman, Lloyd Cole, Chris Brokaw as well as present and former members of Nada Surf, The Pernice Brothers, Dead Air, Fan Modine, Diesel, Elk City, Space Needle, Reservoir, Mascott, Shudder to Think, Scarce, Eve’s Plum and others. the record was recorded in Winter of 2008, produced by Dave Derby with additional production by Nathan Larson in New York, Thom Monahan in Los Angeles and Tom Rose in the UK. The record was mixed by Thom Monahan and mastered by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California. Gramercy Arms will be released on Reveal Records this summer

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Faunts

ARTIST / BAND: Faunts

SONG (MP3): Feel.Love.Thinking.Of

ALBUM: Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.

FILE UNDER: Indie / Rock / Other

LABEL: Friendly Fire

INFO: Write what you know. It is the most common advice offered to young songwriters, and its probably the best. But in the case of Faunts’ approach to songwriting, such advice would be misguided and reductive at best. This is a group of musicians that write what they can imagine. At once symphonic and sprawling; ambient, yet driving, Faunts’ latest articulation, the full-length Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. (out February 17th, 2009 on Friendly Fire Recordings) is the culmination of a year of touring, recording, and meticulous exploration of this transcendent imagination. With its effervescent guitars, mathematic loops and synthesizers, surging drums, and seemingly nomadic bass lines, Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. is a fluidic expression of Faunts‘ painstaking attention to instrumentation and arrangement which allows the buoyantly defiant mood of the record to transverse any one song in particular. This is a band of perfectionists - every movement agonized over, every melody deconstructed and explored, all of which results in an expansive, layered, textured, and sublime collaboration. Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. perfectly encompasses the band's ambitious, imaginative devotion to sculpting not only a musical moment, but an entire atmosphere which accompanies that moment.

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Metermaids

ARTIST / BAND: Metermaids

SONG (MP3): Feel Alive

ALBUM: Metermaids Nightlife

FILE UNDER: Hip Hop / Alternative

LABEL: 27sound

INFO: Metermaids is two New York emcees, Swell and Sentence, and DJ Space Caboose (aka Tom Kennedy). Backed by the guitar playing, beat making, production prowess of 27 Sound founder Matt Stine, the package is complete. Metermaids came to be in the winter of 2004 as the brainchild of Sean McGaughan (pka Swell). His first album was "New Jersey and California," a gritty mash-up of rock and roll samples, breakbeats, and heartfelt lyrics. Sentence is an emcee/producer living in New York City. Before joining Metermaids, he made a name for himself by performing constantly across the US. Some of the hip hop giants Sentence has performed with include KRS One, Aceyalone, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Lyrics Born, Black Sheep, Beat Junkies, Raekwon of Wu Tang Clan, Jungle Brothers, Blackalicious, Del The Funkee Homosapien, and many more. After a hugely successful debut as a duo at Sin-e, New York's legendary lower east side club, Sentence officially joined Metermaids- and the results have been electric.

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Lex Land

ARTIST / BAND: Lex Land

SONG (MP3): As Much As You Lead

ALBUM: Orange Days On Lemon Street

FILE UNDER: Acoustic / Rock / Folk Rock

LABEL: Intelligent Noise

INFO: Lex began her life in a somewhat nomadic manner, traversing the High Sierra and sparkling coast of Southern California. In her pre-teen years, she resided amongst the beach towns of Orange County where she developed aspirations to one day become a full lyric soprano. Meanwhile, Lex discovered the guitar and started writing songs, incorporating a unique style of finger picking and rhythm. Although her disciplined study of voice and concert music was an excellent catalyst to her innate talent, the rigid confines of classical study was soon to become a hard-edged dream in her past.

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Salme Dahlstrom

ARTIST / BAND: Salme Dahlstrom

SONGS (MP3): Superstar Car Crash / C’mon Y’All / Hello California

ALBUM: The Acid Cowgirl Audio Trade

FILE UNDER: Electronica / Powerpop / Rock

LABEL: kontainer music

INFO: Waist deep in potential singles, the album is 100% a one-woman show. Self-written and self-produced, Salme wrote and recorded the entire album in her studio in New York City. A hands-on producer, Salme does all her own programming, editing and mixing. While she invited a couple of friends to perform on a few of the tracks she played most of the instruments herself as well.

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Setting Sun

ARTIST / BAND: Setting Sun

SONG (MP3): They’re Calling

ALBUM: Children of The Remix

FILE UNDER: Experimental / Indie / Pop

LABEL: Young Love Records

INFO: Setting Sun is the name by which Gary Levitt expresses his current musical vision. Levitt has served a lifetime in music. Since putting his hands on a guitar, Levitt has pursued his subsistence by music alone-no easy task. Traveling and living back and forth on both sides of the country, Levitt has gained a musical education.

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Quitzow

ARTIST / BAND: Quitzow

SONG (MP3): What Time Is It?

ALBUM: Animal Nature

FILE UNDER: Experimental / Live Electronics / Pop

LABEL: Young Love Records

INFO:The songs were inspired and influenced by the live performances and is thus an extension of the project. The songs were brought home as skeletons of samples and drum loops, each originally named after the state in which it was created.  Erica added the Quitzow touch, creating a collection of pop tunes and dreamy sounds capes; its dancey digital elements warmed up with an organic analog feel provided by cello, violin, acoustic guitar, live percussion and Moog.

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Heroes of The Dancefloor

ARTIST / BAND: Heroes of The Dancefloor

SONG (MP3): Ricky

ALBUM: Torch

FILE UNDER: Indie pop

LABEL: INgrooves

INFO: The record features Gary Alesbrook who tours with Kasabian and Scissor Sisters on trumpet and James Morton on sax and Dan Moore on keys who both tour with former James Brown sideman Pee Wee Ellis.

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Maus Haus

ARTIST / BAND: Maus Haus

SONG (MP3): Reaction / Rigid Breakfast

ALBUM: Lark Marvels

FILE UNDER: Experimental Pop

LABEL: pretty blue presents

INFO: Maus Haus makes an action-packed sonic statement with its first long-player, Lark Marvels (first for new Oakland label Pretty Blue Presents). Over the last year, the band debuted with a bang in the SF Bay Area, with sold-out shows and support slots for Black Moth Super Rainbow, Dark Meat, and a particularly strange Four Tet support performance (let's just say he had airport troubles). The band has already appeared in several blogs and radio playlists, including chart appearances on prominent Bay stations KALX and KUSF -- all on the strength of a sparsely decorated, hand-delivered CD-R.

Johann Johannsson

ARTIST / BAND: Johann Johannsson

SONG (MP3): The Rocket Builder

ALBUM: Fordlandia

FILE UNDER: Eclectic

LABEL: 4AD

INFO: A musical tapestry of hypnotic richness and surprising emotional depth. Johannsson makes stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music, which frequently combines electronic processing with classical orchestrations. Fordlandia is the second installment in a proposed trilogy based on technology and iconic American brand names. A fascinating, immersive, and deeply rewarding web of ideas and melodies.

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PEACHCAKE

ARTIST / BAND: PEACHCAKE

SONG (MP3): Stop Acting Like You Know More About The Internet Cafe Than Me

ALBUM: What year will you have the World?

FILE UNDER: Indie electro pop

LABEL: The Planet Awesome /Collective / Subtractive

INFO:In their first four years together, Carefree, AZ outfit Peachcake have gone through more than most bands go through in an entire 20-25 year career (eat that, U2). After their formation in 2003, Stefan Pruett (aka Space Panda) and John O'Keefe (DJ JohnO)’s quest to do something positive led them to release a well-received EP on Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World's label Western Tread. The response to their music and interactive live performances was overwhelming and the duo quickly found themselves playing sold-out shows to fans of all ages, being picked up by a new label, and receiving unusual offers, such as being the first-ever band asked to play Burning Man. With a full-length debut in the making, Peachcake were poised to take over the world - but perhaps as is the very nature of fate, the band soon thereafter found themselves hit with a slew of unfortunate incidents: unfair arrests, accidents, arguments, and ultimately, death.

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MT. SIMS

ARTIST / BAND: MT. SIMS
SONG (MP3): DIG IT IN
ALBUM: Happily Ever After
FILE UNDER: Indie
LABEL: HUNGRY EYE RECORDS
INFO: Matt Sims began startling audiences with his unusually provocative performances which were equal amounts political satire , surreal imagery and sensual debauch. With three dancers (à la The Fall), this performance group explored the contemporary connections between media, consumerism, sex, and entertainment. Gaining comparisons from artist Paul McCarthy's food work to James Brown's hip work, this show caused enough of a stir to get the attention of DJ Hell who quickly signed them to his International DJ Gigolo Records label alongside the likes of Tuxedo Moon, Terence Fixmer, CROSSOVER, Vitalic and Linda Lamb. The release of Mount Sims's first album Ultrasex on Emperor Norton records, now a cult classic electro-pop album, put Sims on the map internationally with the hit song "Hate Fuck."
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Air France

ARTIST / BAND:  Air France
SONG (MP3): No Excuses (The Autumn Cantata)
ALBUM: No Way Down EP
FILE UNDER: Indie Pop
LABEL: Sincerely Yours
INFO: Air France is a band from Gothenburg, Sweden.^[1] Their music has been described as "post-rave bliss",^[2] "beach foam pop",^[3] and "balearic disco".^[4] Their No Way Down EP received a Best New Music inclusion from Pitchfork Media and a rating of 8.6.^[4]
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Boy Eats Drum Machine

ARTIST / BAND: Boy Eats Drum Machine
SONG (MP3): Booomboxxx
ALBUM: Booomboxxx
FILE UNDER: Indie / Big Beat
LABEL: tender loving empire
INFO: boy eats drum machine is the solo work of native portlander, jon ragel. he is a songwriter, producer, singer, turntablist, and also plays saxophone, guitar, synthesizer, organ, and several percussive nick nacks. as a one-man musical act, BEDM merges the worlds of turntablism and live rock performance as ragel spins breaks and surgically inserts sounds while juggling vocals, percussion, and saxophone.
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New MATADOR compilation album for free

The spring Intended Play label download sampler was a huge hit, so we’re doing it again. Just like before, you get a track from one of each of our current and upcoming releases. Seven of the tracks have not been released on MP3 yet, and four of those are from albums that haven’t been released yet. The sampler this time is a bit more varied musically, from A.C. Newman’s jewel-like pop songscapes to the majestic neo-punk of Fucked Up to the gorgeous female vocals of Jennifer O’Connor to a track from Lou Reed’s painstaking, thoughtful, first-ever performance of his controversial classic album ‘Berlin.’ We also introduce an unreleased song from Pavement’s ‘Brighten The Corner’ sessions, due out on the deluxe edition of that album in November.

Click on the link to get a zipped file of all 13 tracks plus front and back artwork, and burn it yourself (or just listen to it digitally). And support the bands and the label… if you like the track, click on the album title link below to buy (or preorder) the album (or more individual tracks) directly from us.

Intended Play Fall 2008 (zip file)

Track listing:

1. A.C. Newman There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve (from Get Guilty, due out January 20)
2. Belle and Sebastian The State I Am In (BBC Version) (from The BBC Sessions, due out November 18)
3. Jennifer O’Connor Here With Me (from Here With Me, released August 19)
4. Shearwater The Snow Leopard (Remastered) from Rook, released June 3)
5. Lou Reed Caroline Says, Pt. II (Live) (from Berlin: Live At St. Ann’s Warehouse, due out November 4)
6. Mogwai The Sun Smells Too Loud (from The Hawk Is Howling, released September 23)
7. Fucked Up No Epiphany (from The Chemistry Of Common Life, released October 7)
8. Jay Reatard An Ugly Death (from Matador Singles ‘08, released October 7)
9. Jaguar Love Humans Evolve Into Skyscrapers (from Take Me To The Sea, released August 19)
10. Pavement Cataracts (from Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed., due out December 9)
11. Brightblack Morning Light Oppressions Each (from Motion To Rejoin, released September 23)
12. Times New Viking Call & Respond (from the Stay Awake EP, released October 14)
13. Condo Fucks What’cha Gonna Do About It? (from Fuckbook, due out March 2009)

Me And My Monkey

ARTIST / BAND: Me And My Monkey
SONG (MP3): It's Coming Back
ALBUM: It's Coming Back (Single 2008)
FILE UNDER: Indi/Electronica/Alternative
LABEL: Studio 1, Caucasus Rocks
INFO: Both involved in solo projects before forming MAMM, They joined forces after a chance meeting at a party stirred their drunken spirits and inspired their musical collaboration. Sandro Chicnchaladze had been playing with local Tbilisi act The Neverland, while Gacha Bakradze was part of local band Vietnam Radio. The pair decided to quit their respective solo efforts in 2007 and put their heads together to focus wholeheartedly on MAMM.
Officially MAMM was formed at 2007 in capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. Influenced by favorites like Beck, Mogwai, Royksopp, Radiohead and etc … early hard rock sound developed into indie electro-rock complete with catchy synth beats, sweeping atmospherics, and sharp songwriting.
After getting favorable reviews at the Rockwise festival in Saarbrucken, MAMM got a producer from Germany and they signed a contract with label “CaucasusRocks” to work on putting together their first record.
Staying true to the monkey theme, the duo outfitted their recent May 17th CD release party with free bananas donning MAMM stickers, watching the giddy audience with contained hilarity as a jungle of banana-chomping enthusiasts danced along to their track We Are The Monkeys.
Nowadays band is working on their first album “The Starfucker”
You may contact MAMM at MeAndMM@Gmail.com

Of Montreal

ARTIST / BAND: Of Montreal

SONG (MP3): Id Engager

ALBUM: Skeletal Lamping

FILE UNDER: Indie Pop

LABEL: polyvinyl

INFO:Skeletal Lamping is the title of the ninth studio album by Athens, Georgia-based band Of Montreal. Kevin Barnes said about the title: "This record is my attempt to bring all of my puzzling, contradicting, disturbing, humorous...fantasies, ruminations and observations to the surface, so that I can better dissect and understand their reason for being in my head. Hence the title, Skeletal Lamping. Lamping is the name of a rather dreadful hunting technique where, hunters go into the forest at night, flood an area in light, then shoot, or capture, the animals as they panic and run from their hiding places."

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The Postmarks

ARTIST / BAND: The Postmarks
SONG (MP3): 11:59
ALBUM: By The Numbers
FILE UNDER:Indie Pop
LABEL: Unfiltered Records
INFO: Together with fellow multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wilkins and singer/lyricist Tim Yehezkely, Moll crafts meticulously arranged, richly cinematic music with subtle nods to Bacharach, Brian Wilson, classic British indie and vintage French pop. Had The Sundays embraced a Baroque aesthetic or Van Dyke Parks orchestrated an especially autumnal-sounding Francoise Hardy album, it might have sounded something like The Postmarks’ self-titled debut.
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Pallers

ARTIST / BAND: Pallers
SONG (MP3): Humdrum
ALBUM: Humdrum 12"

FILE UNDER: Indie, Electronic, Pop
LABEL: Labrador
INFO: Pallers is neighborhood in Åhus, Sweden, not a Swedish word for buddies. It's also the name of a new duo on Stockholm's Labrador imprint. Far from the realm of Kansas, Boston, or Chicago when it comes to geographical band names, Pallers' debut single "Humdrum" is dreamy, Saint Etienne-esque electronic pop, with programmed beats and warm, flickering synths washing over spiky, reverbed guitars and androgynously intimate vocals that could explain why the band was briefly known as Sara and Jenny.
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Facing New York

ARTIST / BAND: Facing New York
SONG (MP3): All A This
ALBUM: Get Hot
FILE UNDER: Progressive / Indie / Rock
LABEL: FiveOneInc
INFO: Facing New York formed in 2004 when ex-members of ex-bands became ex-friends and formed the group on January 1st, viewing this symbolic birthdate as a good omen for the year and those to come. The band begun as a five piece: Eric Frederic on vocals and guitar, Rene Carranza on keyboard, Matt Fazzi on guitar and vocals, Omar Cuellar on drums, and Brandon Canchola on bass. The eager young band rushed through rehearsals to meet the mid January recording dates that singer Eric Frederic had already booked. A 6 song EP was recorded entitled "Swimming Not Treading" to document this aggressive approach to making records and music business in general.
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Fred

ARTIST / BAND: Fred
SONG (MP3): Running
ALBUM: Go God Go
FILE UNDER: Alternative Pop
LABEL: kill beat music
INFO: Fred are a five piece from Cork City, Ireland who take the anguish, angst and pain out of Rock'n'Roll, opting instead to just be really good. Some journalists interpret this as 'quirky', but Fred's achievements both live and in their recorded output far exceed any 'quirky' flash in the pan. Having a 'Cult Status' for a long time on the live scene, 2008 has seen Fred deliver the studio album their fans both home and abroad were waiting for.
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Project Jenny, Project Jan

ARTIST / BAND: Project Jenny, Project Jan
SONG (MP3): You Said (feat. So Percussion)
FILE UNDER: Electronica / Experimental / Indie
LABEL: Might Records
INFO: Project Jenny, Project Jan is a laptop rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The band consists of singer Jeremy Haines and programmer/keyboardist Sammy Rubin. Formed in late 2004/early 2005, they have released an EP called EP in 2005 and an album, XOXOXOXOXO in 2007. Influenced by varied bands such as Aphex Twin, Basement Jaxx, and The Gorillaz, Billboard called the band a "shockingly dynamic, danceable and hilarious affair."
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Curumin

ARTIST / BAND: Curumin

SONG (MP3): Compacto
ALBUM: JapanPopShow
FILE UNDER: Samba / Soul / Dub
LABEL: Quannum Projects
INFO: Luciano Nakata Albuquerque, born in Brazil to Spanish/Japanese parents, early on earned the moniker Curumin, a term reserved by indigenous Brazilians for their more precocious children. It was the 1970s in Sao Paulo, and with his older brother Curumin began his journey through the world's music, from Jorge Ben to Devo to Bebeto. By the time he was 8, he'd already formed his first rock band with classmates, with pots and pans substituting for a proper drum kit. Within two years he'd formed another band, this time an instrumental funk group called ZU. By the time he was 14 he was already a percussionist at Sao Paulo's top clubs. By 16 he'd taught himself to play keyboards as well.
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School of Seven Bells

ARTIST / BAND: School of Seven Bells
SONG (MP3): Half Asleep
ALBUM: Alpinisms
FILE UNDER: Other / Psychedelic / Other
LABEL: ghostly
INFO: Like many bands before them, School of Seven Bells were born as the result of a late-night revelation. Benjamin Curtis connected with sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza in 2004 while their bands—Secret Machines and On-Air Library!, respectively—were on tour. While watching PBS at 3am, Alejandra caught a show about the School of Seven Bells: a mythical South American pickpocket academy that may or may not have existed in the ‘80s. The idea of seven minds working as one appealed to her, as did the phrase’s cryptic musicality, and a creative spark ignited.
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+/- {Plus/Minus}

ARTIST / BAND: +/- {Plus/Minus}
SONG (MP3): Snowblind

ALBUM: Xs on Your Eyes
FILE UNDER: Pop / Electro / Rock
LABEL: Absolutely Kosher / Teenbeat / & Records / WWR
INFO: With their fourth album, X’s On Your Eyes, James Baluyut, Patrick Ramos & Chris Deaner haven’t dumbed down their approach, but they’ve slowed it just a wink (or slowed it long enough for a wink and a smile).  Handclaps, warm vocal harmonies and rhythms you can tap your toe to without hurting yourself.  The results are sublime, an engaging and catchy pop record better than anything the band has ever done.  Maybe it’s the rash of marriages and children that came since the last record was finished.  Maybe it’s James Baluyut's many late nights belting out the ballads of the 1970's at his local karaoke bar. Maybe it’s drummer Deaner’s increased role in the album’s composition following his touring as Kelly Clarkson’s drummer.  Maybe it’s hearing Ramos’ soaring vocal from Let’s Build A Fire’s “For You” in a placement over David Caruso’s histrionics on CSI: Miami last year.  Maybe it’s just a matter of maturity and the changing nature of things.  In any case, this is a band still bristling with excitement, but a more inclusive, kinder sort.  There’s still plenty, like Baluyut’s lead single “Snowblind” and Ramos’ companion “Subdued,”  to captivate their core fanbase and a whole lot more for new fans to put their arms around.  +/- {Plus/Minus} will be touring the world in support of the album.

Hauschka

ARTIST / BAND: Hauschka
SONG (MP3): Freibad
ALBUM: Ferndorf
FILE UNDER: Experimental / Electronica / Acoustic
LABEL: FatCat
INFO: Hauschka’s second album for FatCat’s 130701 imprint offers a brilliant advance on 2007’s ‘Room To Expand’. Where the previous album comprised mostly solo recordings of Hauschka’s ‘prepared’ piano (with a few electronic and instrumental overdubs), ‘Ferndorf’ is a far more expansive and fully-realised album, with many of the tracks also featuring a string duo, enabling an increased solidity.
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Interview with FREQNASTY (Tbilisi,Georgia)

Dancer Vs. Politician

ARTIST / BAND: Dancer Vs. Politician

SONG (MP3): Mach Dich Los

ALBUM: A City Half-Lost

FILE UNDER: Pop / Indie

LABEL: none

INFO: DANCER VS. POLITICIAN is the band/recording project of Audition With Max Reinhardt's Sanni Baumgaertner. After flying back and forth between Athens, Georgia and Berlin, Germany for the last three years, she has now settled back in Athens and is quite happy to have escaped Berlin. She would love to come to visit soon though. Back in Athens, she has found fabulous new people to play music with and is currently working on new songs for Dancer vs. Politician, and on German lyrics for some of Jeffrey Butzer's songs for his upcoming album "The Garden of Scissors". The songs are based on a screenplay he wrote. His album will be released on Hongkong based Lona Records next year.

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The Rollo Treadway

ARTIST / BAND: The Rollo Treadway

SONG (MP3):"Dear Mr. Doe" "Kidnapped"

ALBUM: The Rollo Treadway

FILE UNDER: Psychedelic / Pop / Rock

LABEL: none

INFO: The Rollo Treadway are five people right now but they used to be only two when Blake and David did some demos a bunch of years ago and then they were four people for awhile when they were recording the record but the other two besides Blake and David aren't part of the other three that are in the group right now. Those other three are Jörg, Grant and Tyler.

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Simon Bookish

ARTIST / BAND: Simon Bookish

SONGS (MP3):"Synchrotron"  "Dumb Terminal" 

ALBUM: Everything/Everything

FILE UNDER: Simon Bookish

LABEL: Tomlab

INFO: Lyrically, the album’s concept is “the flood of information” in our modern age, taking in chemistry and ecology, language and art, sometimes surreal, sometimes humourous, sometimes provocative, a weird blur of fact and fiction, delivered in Bookish’s distinctive English-eccentric vocal.

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Michael Zapruder

ARTIST / BAND: Michael Zapruder

SONG (MP3): Ads for Feelings

ALBUM: Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope

FILE UNDER: Indie

LABEL: Sidecho Records

INFO:Minimal and tricky, Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope presents a world of large spaces and tiny details. It dwells in contrast and juxtaposition. Whatever intuition made Zapruder set the two-week limit on this record, it was a good one, because the recording lacks oversight and planning and thereby exposes common threads in songs that might have initially seemed too dissimilar to belong together. What results is a larger world that feels strangely effortless and surprisingly unified. And thanks to Scott Solter, on Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope for the first time, the quality of the recorded document equals the quality of Zapruder's songs. This is the best record that Zapruder has yet made.

Kristoffer Ragnstam

ARTIST / BAND: Kristoffer Ragnstam

SONG (MP3): Swing That Tambourine

ALBUM: Wrong Side Of The Room

FILE UNDER: Rock / Shoegaze / Alternative

LABEL: Weekender / Bluhammock Music

INFO: While high-profile pop bands from Sweden were busily grabbing press attention, their countryman Kristoffer Ragnstam was working under the radar screen, making music that refused to fit the Scandinavian stereotype.
His sound was different – too different to ignore. Musicians took note, not only in his country but in Germany and Japan. The media responded too, going overboard with effusions that, at the request of this somewhat self-effacing artist, we won’t repeat here.

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Of Montreal

ARTIST / BAND: Of Montreal

SONG (MP3): Nonpareil of Favor

ALBUM: Skeletal Lamping

FILE UNDER: Indie Pop

LABEL: polyvinyl records

INFO: Skeletal Lamping is the title of the ninth studio album by Athens, Georgia-based band Of Montreal. Kevin Barnes said about the title: "This record is my attempt to bring all of my puzzling, contradicting, disturbing, humorous...fantasies, ruminations and observations to the surface, so that I can better dissect and understand their reason for being in my head. Hence the title, Skeletal Lamping. Lamping is the name of a rather dreadful hunting technique where, hunters go into the forest at night, flood an area in light, then shoot, or capture, the animals as they panic and run from their hiding places." The new album is set to be released on October 7, 2008 on Polyvinyl.^[1]

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Zach Hill

ARTIST / BAND: Zach Hill

SONG (MP3): Dark Art

ALBUM: Astrological Straits

FILE UNDER: indie

LABEL: ipecac

INFO: Though Hill earned his stripes as co-founder of the Sacramento-born duo-turned-quintet Hella, with whom he?s recorded four albums and a number of EPs, split releases and compilation tracks, Astrological Straits marks the first time he?s acted as ringleader, composer, chief vocalist and art director. In placing Hill front and center, the album also magnifies something about the drummer?s writing style that might not have registered with those who?ve heard him in other contexts. ?I?ve always been more influenced by people like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, to name a few, than by other drummers,? he explains. ?Those non-drummers? ideas and free-form expression are what I?m trying to apply to the drum set.?

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Lake

ARTIST / BAND: Lake

SONG (MP3): Blue Ocean Blue

ALBUM: Oh, the Places We'll Go

FILE UNDER: A'cappella / Bossa Nova / Nu-Jazz

LABEL: water island records

INFO: LAKE is a group of cloudy individuals brought together through lines drawn along Interstate-5, intersecting in olympia on or around 2005. Since forming, they have both gained and lost members, recorded 12 full length albums (only 3 of which have seen proper release), played across the world supporting such talented acts as Adrian Orange and Her Band, Half Handed Cloud, Laura Veirs, and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. The sounds they craft are straight from the playbook of the good parts of Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, and Turkish psychedelic music. Caressing the Rhodes piano, endearing drum fills, guitars that dont sound like guitars, and some slamming bass lines: Listening to LAKE is like pouring sugar in your ears. They'll turn your brain into chocolate, 67% cacao.

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Richard Swift

ARTIST / BAND: Richard Swift

SONG (MP3): Would You

ALBUM: Ground Trouble Jaw

FILE UNDER: singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist

LABEL: Secretly Canadian

INFO: Richard Swift (Born Ricardo Swift Ochoa) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and short-film maker. Swift began performing and singing in Quaker churches around the age of fourteen and began writing and recording his material at home not long after. He has appeared as a guest musician on dozens of albums of all music genres; he was a keyboardist in the band Starflyer 59 for most of 2003, and currently fronts his own ambient-electronic-outfit-side-project, Instruments of Science and Technology.

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THE MOOD

ARTIST / BAND: THE MOOD

SONG (MP3): Eskimo Scientist

ALBUM: Synaesthesia

FILE UNDER: Powerpop / Psychedelic / Rock

LABEL: Outright Rock Records

INFO: The Mood has been making quite a name for itself in New York City's music scene. This five-piece boasts infectious pop tunes infused with a sunny rock 'n' roll vibe that has audiences dancing far and wide. The effortless vocal harmonies of cousins Marco Argiro and Corinne Callen gracefully complement gritty guitars, grooving bass lines and pounding drums.

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Tracy Shedd

ARTIST / BAND: Tracy Shedd

SONG (MP3): Whatever It Takes

ALBUM: Cigarettes & Smoke Machines

FILE UNDER: Indie / Alternative / Pop

LABEL: Teenbeat Records

INFO: Tracy Shedd's helpful reminder on the opening track "Never Too Late" from Cigarettes & Smoke Machines, her latest album of smart, pointed pop is a direct and economic assertion backed by sharp musicianship and just the right amount of reverb. Cigarettes & Smoke Machines is Shedd's most accomplished record in a career that has now spanned four full-lengths.

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