Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth (Hometapes)
“Take out the earbuds and let it fill a space: This is music that’s bigger than your iPod— music you’ll want to feel all around you.” - Eric Harvey, Pitchfork "Best New Music" (8.4)
MP3: Bear In Heaven - "Wholehearted Mess"
Capybara - Try Brother (The Record Machine)
"I'll tell you this: I had never heard of Capybara before, but "The Wimp" is totally the soundtrack to my day now." - Gil Kaufman, MTV
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Vs. Children (Tomlab)
"If Stephin Merritt is the Stephen Foster of DIY synthpop, deconstructing romance with droll precision, Ashworth might be Bert Williams, swaying around the beat to simultaneously emphasize and unpack his melancholy." - Village Voice
MP3: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - "Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When The Saints Go Marching In)"
Casper & The Cookies - Modern Silence (HHBTM)
"This song [Little King] has quickly become one of my favorite CATC jams, packed full of Big Star, a dash of the Replacements and a heaping helping of XTC." - You Ain't No Picasso
MP3: Casper & The Cookies - "Little King"
Circulatory System - Signal Morning (Cloud Recordings)
"It took nearly eight years to make, but Circulatory System's breathtakingly inventive new album, Signal Morning, justifies the wait." - Robin Hilton, NPR
MP3: Circulatory System - "Overjoyed"
The Flying Change - Pain Is A Reliable Signal (SR)
"Jacobs' album is by turns defiant and exhausted, jittery and delicately accepting, its restrained but carefully considered arrangements wrapped around shards of surrealistic shards of lyricism." - Jennifer Kelly, Blurt
MP3: The Flying Change - "Dirty White Coats"
Jookabox - Dead Zone Boys (Asthmatic Kitty)
"From paranormal themes to the genius/madness precipice, this one-man experimental collection bewitches and beguiles on repeated listen." - MOJO
MP3: Jookabox - "You Cried Me"
Simon Joyner - Out Into The Snow (Team Love)
"...the nine-minute opener "The Drunken Boat" is a masterful drifter's narrative that moves seamlessly in its middle from understated country backing to dark chamber folk dominated by Laraine Kaizer's intricate string arrangement-- the point where the song makes the full transition is perhaps the biggest surprise in his whole discography, and the song's final third is pretty breathtaking, getting progressively lusher until Joyner is left behind by the violins as they spiral off into silence." - Joe Tangari, Pitchfork
MP3: Simon Joyner - "The Drunken Boat"
Lord Cut-Glass - Lord Cut-Glass (Chemikal Underground)
"Woodward communicates such a strong sense of creative freedom — waltzes give way to mariachi stomps, brass, accordion and strings jostle for space, wry, spat-out lyrics contrast with rococo-folk settings, and songs such as Even Jesus Couldn’t Love You, You Know and Holy F*** are at once heartbreaking and vicious — that, in his case, the term “indie” here reasserts itself as a hallmark of quality rather than the insult (think “landfill indie”) it has increasingly become." - Dan Cairns, London Times (4 Stars)
MP3: Lord Cut-Glass - "Even Jesus Couldn't Love You"
Marmoset - Tea Tornado (Joyful Noise Recordings)
"...what you're most likely to notice are the sunny, folky guitars and the crisp melodies, which sound a little like something Syd Barrett might've written for early Yo La Tengo. But as on past releases there's a surly, cynical edge to the lyrics, which infects the pretty songs with a hint of toxic malaise..." - Monica Kendrick, The Chicago Reader
MP3: Marmoset - "Peach Cobbler"
Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly (Hometapes)
“Megafaun’s roots are familiar; the bloom is uniquely theirs” - David Fricke, Rolling Stone (4 Stars)
MP3: Megafaun - "Kaufman's Ballad"
Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous (Chemikal Underground)
"'Waxing gibbous' refers to a moon that's almost full, and Middleton here surely approaches full brilliance." -MOJO (4 Stars)
MP3: Malcolm Middleton - "Carry Me"
The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage (Chemikal Underground)
"Seriously, if Checkmate Savage doesn’t make you want to sail the high seas in the company of buccaneers while drinking your weight in spiced rum then I don’t know what on earth will." - Coke Machine Glow (89%)
MP3: The Phantom Band - "Folk Song Oblivion"
Pride Parade - Dose (SR)
"Take two pieces Pixies and one piece Drive Like Jehu and you’ve got Pride Parade, a hyperkenetic Athens band big on brawn and bellow. Vocalist Andrew Prater hollers like he’s being eletrocuted — his bug-eyed shouting powers these filthy bruisers." - J. Edward Keyes, Rolling Stone
MP3: Pride Parade - "If You See Her, Say Hello"
Slaraffenland - We're On Your Side (Hometapes)
"There is a sublime incipience, a sense that something wonderful is coming, in the way these tunes drive and strive and push to their conclusion." - Jennifer Kelly, Blurt
MP3: Slaraffenland - "Hunting"
Venice Is Sinking - AZAR (One Percent Press)
"...AZAR finds Venice Is Sinking expanding on the orchestral, ambient, pop that initially caught my ear invoking the mellower side of Yo La Tengo/Mojave 3." - Justin Gage, Aquarium Drunkard
MP3: Venice Is Sinking - "Ryan's Song"
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