ARTIST / BAND: FOMA
MP3s: Seraphim Succubi
ALBUM: Inverness
FILE UNDER: Indie / Pop
LABEL: Self-Released
INFO: Soaring swells of strings come to the forefront, providing effortless counterpoint to striking vocal melodies and varied instrumentation in the fourth release of San Francisco via Albuquerque indie pop outfit Foma.
With Inverness, Foma departs from the story telling format of 2006’s Phobos, but maintains the band’s strongly motif driven approach to album making.
ARTIST / BAND: JARVIS COCKER
MP3s: Angela
ALBUM: Further Complications
FILE UNDER: Rock
LABEL: Rough Trade Records
INFO: Cocker insists that he hasn't "gone rock" for Further Complications, but production maven Steve Albini (of Pixies and Nirvana fame) was nonetheless posted in the booth for this offering. The two met while the former Pulp frontman was in Chicago for last year's Pitchfork Music Festival; Jarvis paid a visit to Albini's Electrical Audio studio to put some new songs through their paces. The experience (and the price: "very cheap") was perfect, and thus a partnership was born.
ARTIST / BAND: Hermas Zopoula
MP3s: Courons Courez /Alpha et Omega
ALBUM: Espoir
FILE UNDER: world music
LABEL: Asthmatic Kitty
INFO: Hermas Zoupula is many things. He is the youngest of 36 children. Born in a small village named Yoro, he is Burkinabe, a citizen and resident of Burkina Faso, West Africa. He is a moped enthusiast, orphanage volunteer, and internet cafe proprietor. Hermas is also a psalmist, and Espoir is his first international recording.
ARTIST / BAND: Pattern is Movement
SONG (MP3): "Right Away" / "Jenny Ono"
ALBUM: All Together
FILE UNDER: Indie
LABEL: Hometapes
INFO: Last fall our friend Travis came to visit...we hadn't seen him in years. As usual we started talking about music. He gives me two cds, stating, "This is your favorite new band"...I say, "Pattern Is Movement...who's that?" He reiterates,"You will love this." Turns out, Travis was right. We pretty much completely wore out those cds. It's all we could listen to. It was complex, but easy. Ultra palatable, but completely fresh and new. We played their records for others to get a second opinion...could it really be that good? The Hometapes Round Table spoke, and with voices in booming unison we heard, "This rips." We tracked them down, and let it be known that we would be the peanut butter to their jelly. Discussions over what type of bread we would be between were negotiated, and a deal was struck. Classic country white bread it would be. Pattern Is Movement, welcome to Hometapes.
ARTIST / BAND: BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW
MP3s: Born On A Day the Sun Didn't Rise
ALBUM: Eating Us
FILE UNDER: Experimental / Pop / Psychedelic
LABEL: Graveface
INFO: hailing from the creepiest of states, this 5 piece junk band grew up watching “321 Contact” and “The Letter People Show” and has found a way into my listening routine on a daily basis for several years. they say their primary focus is turning their childhood memories into songs and feel much more at home playing music in the woods or an old barn than an electro club. every person i have ever played their music to has ended up humming the child-like melodies all night long. so, go drop your feelings of depression for a few minutes and download an mp3. odds are, you'll be back to this site to hear more in no time.
ARTIST / BAND: Sunset Rubdown
MP3s: Idiot Heart
ALBUM: Dragonslayer
FILE UNDER: Indie
LABEL: Jagjaguwar
INFO: Sunset Rubdown is an indie rock band from Montreal, Canada. The band began as a solo project for Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, who released his debut, Snake's Got a Leg, in July 2005. Eventually the group expanded to include Camilla Wynne Ingr (Pony Up!), Jordan Robson-Cramer (XY Lover, Miracle Fortress and Magic Weapon), and Michael Doerksen (Deep Sleepover). Krug is the main writer of the songs, and the other members add their ideas in as well. [1]
ARTIST / BAND: Mistress Stephanie & Her Melodic Cat
MP3s: I Hate Cabaret / Grey / Little Death
ALBUM: Take That!
FILE UNDER: Sado-vaudevillian punk
LABEL: Pressing Records
INFO: Initially a cabaret act influenced by Weimar Republic Berlin,Mistress Stephanie and her Melodic Cat soon expanded into what one critic calls “Sado-vaudevillian punk.” Their diverse sound combines everything from classical music to classic rock, performed with outrageous style and irreverent humor that touches on half a century’s worth of history.
ARTIST / BAND: Robert Gomez
MP3s: Middle Of Nowhere
ALBUM: Pine Sticks & Phosphorus
FILE UNDER: Rock / Acoustic
LABEL: Nova Posta Vinyl
INFO: Robert Gomez began making music at the tender age of 7 putting on his first ‘show’ for friends and family at a Baldwin piano store in his hometown of Corpus Christi, TX. His years to follow could be considered that of a musical vagabond moving through an eclectic run of various side man stints with the likes of Cuban guitar (tres) master Nelson Gonsales, Turkish singer
and multi-instumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek and the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus band.
ARTIST / BAND: ApSci
MP3s: Under Control
ALBUM: Best Crisis Ever
FILE UNDER: Hip Hop / Electro /
LABEL: Quannum Projects
INFO: They also could’ve simply followed the same path on Best Crisis Ever that they did on their 2005 Quannum debut,Thanks for Asking, a dark, collabo-heavy hip-hop electro album that UR Chicago named “the freshest hip-hop album that’s come out so far [that] year,”SPIN.com described as a mixture of “Eminem and Bjork,” and XLR8R called “the real deal.”
ARTIST / BAND: Mocky
MP3s: Feather
ALBUM: Saskamodie
FILE UNDER: Pop / Jazz / Experimental
LABEL: Crammed Discs
INFO: Mocky will release his new album "Saskamodie" on Crammed Discs on March 23rd 2009. The album was co-produced by Renaud Letang in Paris' famed Ferber Studios (Nina Simone Serge Gainsbourg and others have recorded there). This gives the album a unique quality that blends a classic feel with a modern sound. Mocky signed the album with the legendary Crammed Discs from Belgium (Bebel Gilberto, Konono Number 1, Balkan Beatbox ). On "Saskamodie" Mocky is listed as playing drums, bass, rhodes, piano, guitar, percussion, bells, recorder, vocals, whistle, organ and toys as well as writing string arrangements. Taylor Savvy, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell & Feist contribute additional instrumental and backing vocal performances that make this record sound more like a live performance than a studio creation.
ARTIST / BAND: Headless Heroes
MP3s: True Love Will Find You In The End"
ALBUM: The Silence of Love
FILE UNDER: Psychedelic
LABEL: Headless Heroes
INFO: The Silence of Love is a beautiful themed album of covers, dreamt up by a chap named Eddie Bezalel, helped and produced by Hugo Nicolson, who pulled together the songs and a bunch of great musicians (Josh Klinghoffer, Woody Jackson, Joey Waronker, Leo Abrahams and Gus Seyffert) to play on it, all topped off with the voice of one Alela Diane. The record is a simply beautiful collection of lost classics and unearthed gems sung with arresting clarity by Nevada City's emerging new folk star Alela.
ARTIST / BAND: The Dandy Warhols
MP3s: "The Legend Of The Last Of The Outlaw Truckers AKA The Ballad of Sheriff Shorty"
ALBUM: Earth To The Dandy Warhols
FILE UNDER: Rock
LABEL: Beat The World Records
INFO: The members of rock band the Dandy Warhols will appear on the TV Series Les Invincibles during the next episode, broadcast on Radio-Canada, Wednesday March 18, 2009, at 9:00 PM.Earlier this season, Jean-François Rivard, director and co-author of Les Invincibles, used The Dandy Warhols’ song “The Legend Of The Last Of The Outlaw Truckers AKA The Legend of Sheriff Shorty” (from their album …Earth To The Dandy Warhols…) on an episode. Rivard then decided to send the Dandy Warhols an English-subtitled version of Les Invincibles to see if they would be interested in appearing on the show.
ARTIST / BAND: Linda Draper
MP3s: Time Will Tell
ALBUM: Bridge and Tunnel
FILE UNDER: Folk / Pop / Acoustic
LABEL: Planting Seeds Records
INFO: The album showcases 10 fresh new songs further exploringDraper's signature sound - light, enchanting music with gentle, heartfelt honest lyrics. "Limbo" leads off the LP capturing the very essence of morning's first ray of sunlight. It is followed by the stripped down splendor of "Sharks And Royalty". The collection's charm continues to shine bright in the tracks "I Will" and "Pushing Up The Day" - both primed to be sure classics.
ARTIST / BAND: Loxsly
MP3s: Battalions
ALBUM: Tomorrow's Fossils
FILE UNDER: Indie / Pop / Rock
LABEL: Little Mafia
INFO: Fresh off the heels of the Flashlights EP, Austin’s Loxsly emerge from the lab with their third LP, Tomorrow’s Fossils (Little Mafia/Texas Heat, May 2009). This newest and perhaps most ambitious edition to the Loxsly discography retains the band’s signature synth pop sensibilities while revealing a darker layer.
ARTIST / BAND: SAINT BERNADETTE
MP3s: Already Gone
ALBUM: Word To The Lourdes
FILE UNDER: Rock / Pop
LABEL: www.exoticrecordings.com
INFO: On Saint Bernadette's third release, WORD TO THE LOURDES, lead singer Meredith DiMenna emerges as Madonna's rock n' roll kid sister. 'In the 80s, Madonna kicked the door down. She was powerful and positive and singing that women should express themselves,' Meredith says.
ARTIST / BAND: Barbara Trentalange
MP3s: “VALENTINE“ | “SHADOW MAN” | “FEVER”
ALBUM: Awakening, Level One.
FILE UNDER: Indie / Gothic / Emo
LABEL: Coco Tauro Records
INFO: After fronting the darkly sophisticated Seattle band Spyglassfor five years, Trentalange released her first solo project onCoco Tauro Records in 2006 called, Photo Album of Complex Relationships. The critic's response to the record was overwhelmingly positive. Trentalange's haunting voice and hypnotic beats grabbed the attention of the music editors atMTV, VH1, and the Oxygen channel, where her music is in regular rotation on a wide variety of dramatic series.
ARTIST / BAND: Rainbow Arabia
MP3s: Omar K (Ghosts On Tape remix)
ALBUM: Kabukimono
FILE UNDER: Live Electronics
LABEL: Manimal Vinyl Records
INFO: Rainbow Arabia marry electro-acoustic dance sounds and world music with the youthful energy of punk using an array of Lebanese synthesizers and drum machines, serpentine guitar lines, live percussion, and Siouxsie-esque vocals that are at times war calls while beautifully spectral at others
ARTIST / BAND: Big Fresh
MP3s: W.L.U.V.
ALBUM: B.F.F. (Big Fresh Forever)
FILE UNDER: Pop / Soul / Psychedelic
LABEL: Garden Gate Records
INFO: Lexington, Kentucky's beloved pop superheroes have been hard at work in the laboratory since Yes, Nice, Please, Thanks(2001, Aquapop Records) electrified the regional college radio airwaves.
Their U.S. tour last year opening for The Apples in stereobroadcast their pop manifesto to head-bopping masses, disseminating a 150-copy limited pressing of their newly completed album.
ARTIST / BAND: Robert Gomez
MP3s: On This Day
ALBUM: Pine Sticks & Phosphorus
FILE UNDER: Rock / Acoustic
LABEL: Nova Posta Vinyl
INFO: Robert Gomez began making music at the tender age of 7 putting on his first ‘show’ for friends and family at a Baldwin piano store in his hometown of Corpus Christi, TX. His years to follow could be considered that of a musical vagabond moving through an eclectic run of various side man stints with the likes of Cuban guitar (tres) master Nelson Gonsales, Turkish singer
and multi-instumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek and the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus band.
ARTIST / BAND: Pete Doherty
MP3s: New Love Grows On Tree
ALBUM: Grace / Wastelands
FILE UNDER: Rock
LABEL: Parlophone
INFO: Think you know Peter Doherty? Think again. Vilified by the world’s press and written off at every turn, Peter Doherty finds himself constantly at the centre of a media maelstrom, a frenzy that bombards his private life with allegations, accusations, invasions and intrusions. They say that it’s calmest in the eye of the hurricane, and that’s where you’ll find Peter; coolly strumming his guitar while the storm around him carries him ever closer to Arcadia.
ARTIST / BAND: Boozoo Bajou
MP3s: Grain
ALBUM: Grain
FILE UNDER: Down-tempo / Electronica / Dub
LABEL: !K7
INFO: Boozoo Bajou is a musical duo from Germany. They are noted for their distinct blend of Cajun sounds with island rhythms. Their first album, Satta, was released in 2001. In 2005 they released Dust My Broom to much critical acclaim. The Nuremberg natives behind the music are Peter Heider and Florian Seyberth. The list of Boozoo Bajou remixes for other artists includes Common, Tosca, Trüby Trio, and Tony Joe White.
ARTIST / BAND: Royksopp
MP3s: Happy Up Here' (Holy F--- Remix)
ALBUM: Happy Up Here
FILE UNDER: Techno
LABEL: Astralwerks
INFO: We just offered you a jam-packed Röyksopp Progress Report and before that the Norwegian duo ushered in their 10th birthday with an appropriately titled "Happy Birthday" song. Here they give us another one with happy in the title, "Happy Up Here." It's the first single from the forthcoming Junior. As mentioned, the collection will include guest spots by Lykki Li, Robyn, Anneli Drecker, and the Knife's Karin Dreijer. There are vocals on this one, but it's apparently Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland holding court.
ARTIST / BAND: Maximo Park
MP3s: Wraithlike
ALBUM: Quicken the Heart
FILE UNDER: Rock / Pop
LABEL: Warp
INFO: Quicken the Heart is the third album by Maxïmo Park.[1] It is to be released on 11 May 2009.[2]
The album is now available to pre-order on vinyl, regular CD and a special edition CD & DVD pack. It will also be available to download once released.
The special edition contains the regular CD album along with a DVD featuring a 65-minute long tourfilm taken from the band's sold out show at Newcastle Metro Radio Arena in December 2007, including live performances and exclusive backstage footage.
ARTIST / BAND: Little Boots
MP3s: Stuck On Repeat
ALBUM: Arebico EP
FILE UNDER: Pop / Disco House
LABEL: 679/ Atlantic
INFO: Victoria Hesketh (born 1984),[3] known professionally as Little Boots, is an English electropop musician.[4] She sings, plays synthesizers,Japanese electronic instrument the Tenori-on, piano and the stylophone.[2]Hesketh was born in Thornton-Cleveleys on the Fylde coast in Lancashire and now lives in London.[5][6] Her father is a businessman and her mother is an author of children's books. She has three younger brothers.[1] She attended Rossall School,[7] Blackpool Sixth Form College[8]and then the University of Leeds, where she gained a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on "The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum".[9][10]
ARTIST / BAND: Golden Bear
MP3s: Night Light /All The Stars
ALBUM: Everest
FILE UNDER: Rock
LABEL: c-siderecords
INFO: Following its inception in 2003, Golden Bear determinedly and steadily worked their way into the bulging Austin music scene and built a loyal and devoted fan base before releasing its debut LP in August 2006. The self-titled album won praise from national publications such as Magnet, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, and The Onion, as well as from DIY bloggers and prominent internet sites such as Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes. Additionally, the record spent three weeks on the CMJ top 200 college radio chart.
ARTIST / BAND: My Dear Disco
SONG (MP3): White Lies /Ulysses/ Love Lockdown /
ALBUM: Dancethink LP
FILE UNDER: Disco House / Techno / Funk
LABEL: Dancethink Records
INFO: Known for their distinctive, "DanceThink Music," their debut has been meet with critical acclaim since it's release in 2007, described as, ". . . at once a psychedelic exercise and a grasp at the Top 40," (CD Reviews.com), "Ultimately the successful delivery of many musical variables, tastes, and influences into one final product . . . " (The Sentinal-Tribune), and " . . . from Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder to Daft Punk and Tom Waits." (The Battle Creek Enquirer).
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ARTIST / BAND: Maximilian Hecker
MP3s: The End Of Longing
ALBUM: One Day
FILE UNDER: Pop / Alternative / Acoustic
LABEL: Louisville Records
INFO: After a long journey, Berlin-Mitte's favourite adopted son Maximilian Hecker finds his way back home. In his luggage: a new record. His fifth studio album called "One Day". Where the hell did Maximilian Hecker hang around? In Asia. His personal interpretation of "Big in Japan" became "Big in Taiwan, China and Korea". This might sound strange at first, but it certainly makes a lot of sense. Hecker's pop is characterized by two constant components: his musical proximity to british music like Radiohead or Oasis and his lyrical proximity to german romantic modernity. This combination falls on fertile grounds in traditionally und culturally sentimental Asia.
