ARTIST / BAND: GOSPEL CLAWS
MP3: Walk Me Down / Summer Nights Lakeside / Avenues
ALBUM: C-L-A-W-S
FILE UNDER: Indie / Melodramatic Popular Song / Thrash
LABEL: Common Wall Media
INFO: Gospel Claws have just released their first full-length record
C - L - A - W - S. Tracks from the record have been featured by Paste, Magnet, Large Hearted Boy, and more. With reviews that contain both the words “complex” and “pop” you know this is a must have.
ARTIST / BAND: Esben and the Witch
MP3s: "Warpath" / "Marching Song"
ALBUM: Violet Cries
FILE UNDER: Indie
LABEL: matador records
INFO: On the heels of their recent “Marching Song” 12″ EP and first US tour (culminating in tonight’s show at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory), Esben and the Witch will be releasing their debut full-length LP/CD/digital album on January 31, 2011 (February 8 in North America ). The Brighton trio, recently nominated for a Q Award, found themselves nearly drowning in plaudits following “Marching Song”‘s release “teetering on the edge of explosive emotion”, raved one observer, while the assessment, “thoroughly mesmerizing” came to mind for another.
ARTIST / BAND: Rebekah Higgs
MP3: Little Voice
ALBUM: Little Voice EP
FILE UNDER: Indie / Alternative / Pop
INFO: Rebekah Higgs is an instrument all her own. At times happy, often haunting, her voice echoes and chimes like a xylophone French kissing a wa-wa pedal. Produced by Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse, Califone), Little Voice is not only a shiny new four song EP to wrap around yourself for warmth against the coming winter but also a glimpse into what fruit Rebekah Higgs' upcoming sophomore full length record will bear come the new year.
ARTIST / BAND: Ezio
MP3: A Small Dream
ALBUM: This Is The Day
FILE UNDER: Acoustic / Folk Rock
LABEL: Tapete records
INFO: This is the Day is NOT just another Ezio record.
Some good friends of mine could never quite understand my passion for the songs and lyrics of Ezio Lunedei till theyʻd actually seen Booga and Ezio perform live, preferably as a duo.
Here the songs finally fulfill their wild promise. The delivery is always poignant, at times deadpan funny, melancholic, political, sarcastic and quite mean, indeed. Not so comfy and nice as some of the records would want you to believe. Itʻs always been a wee bit the „Let It Be/Phil Spector“ dilemma with Ezio. Great songs and sentiments,... but who let the string section and choir in?
ARTIST / BAND: Social Studies
MP3: We Choose Our Own Adventures
ALBUM: Wind Up Wooden Heart
FILE UNDER: Indie Pop
LABEL: Antenna Farm Records
INFO: Social Studies craft intricate songs that combine angular indie rock and classic twee-pop. What distinguishes the San Francisco-based group is their eclectic, complex song writing: unusual structures and mathy beats are tempered by soft edges and danceable casio hooks. Moody, defiant and hopeful, the lyrics celebrate duality through themes of discontent, violence, innocence, renewal, nostalgia, regret and joy. All these elements take shape in unpredictable, catchy songs that burrow into your consciousness and demand repeat listening and a critical reading between the lines. Combine this imaginative songwriting with a consistently high energy live show, and it is no surprise that Social Studies has generated a loyal fanbase and strong buzz in the SF Bay Area and beyond.
ARTIST / BAND: BOTANY
MP3s: Feeling Today / Waterparker
ALBUM: Feeling Today
FILE UNDER: Psychedelic
LABEL: Western Vinyl
INFO: Feeling Today is Spencer Stephenson's debut release under the Botany moniker. The culmination of years of assembling music, this EP, and his forthcoming full-length, flow with a transcendental radiance. Under the gauzy patina of decades-old samples, this Texan sound-sculptor masterfully merges the past and the present, the earthly and the infinite.
ARTIST / BAND: Frightened Rabbit
MP3: My Brother Tom, the Green Beret
ALBUM:If a Lot of Bands Play in the Woods…? (A compilation album by The Philistines Jr.)
FILE UNDER: Indie
LABEL: TARQUIN RECORDS
INFO: The Philistines Jr. are an indie-pop threesome from Connecticut whose members include super producer Peter Katis (Interpol, the National, Jónsi, and Frightened Rabbit), his brother Tarquin and Adam Pierce (who runs FatCat USA and plays drums in Mice Parade). October 19th will see the band release an album called If a Band Plays in the Woods…? along with an album of covers and remixes (If A Lot Of Bands Play In The Woods…?) from their impressive list of friends (the National, Jónsi, Tokyo Police Club, Tapes N’ Tapes and more).
ARTIST / BAND: Bird By Snow
MP3s: Friends In The City / There Is A Marriage
ALBUM: Common Wealth
FILE UNDER: psych-pop, indie pop
LABEL: gnome life records
INFO: Place is important. Bird By Snow was formed in the weather, wild, and little towns of Northern California. Cold water, dark woods. Fog in the branches, sunlight through a Pelican-wing. Abundance in all directions. This is theplace that has informed the aesthetic of the whole Lo-fi, Pacific Northwest Indie Scene. Bird By Snow can be seen there too, but not limited to one view, instead at home in the limitless, expanding west. --- You’ll find genres bent as if light through a prism. Song-craft as ritual, where themes of primitivism, pagan meditations, and transcendent dronings breathe deeply. Only one constant member: words, tunes, recording and much playing by Fletcher Tucker.
ARTIST / BAND: Tony Castles
SONG (MP3): Black Girls in Dresses
ALBUM: No Service
FILE UNDER: Indie Pop
LABEL: Famous Class Records
INFO: Tony Castles was born in August 2008 in Brooklyn, NY. For having been formed one year ago, the band has plenty of history. Paul Sicilian and Gabriel Wurzel first crossed paths as freshmen in high school. The two soon began playing together in bands and ended up attending college together continuing to write music throughout. During this time they were introduced to fellow student and musician Willie Miesmer. Within a year after graduation all three moved to Brooklyn where they reconnected and began playing together in loose free form sessions, often swapping instruments and experimenting with loop pedals and samplers. The chemistry was instant and they continue inventing, deconstructing and reinventing their sound all the while clinging to a shared adoration for both strong vocal melody and open space.
ARTIST / BAND: In Grenada
SONG (MP3): Distance & Temptation
ALBUM: Break
FILE UNDER: Indie Pop
LABEL: s/r
INFO: In Grenada was born from the ashes of Philadelphia’s premier ukulele indie-rock band, Movable Type, during the summer of 2007. Now, they make their presence felt with their debut release, Break.
Stuck with a few left over songs and an environmental conscience, songwriter/instrumentalist Jesse Leyh plucked the tunes from the trash and saved them for his compost heap. Over the next two years those first few songs grew in the fertile environs of a home studio, watered by a monsoon of shifting and breaking relationships and the pressures of finding a new place in the world and life.
ARTIST / BAND: Jupe Jupe
SONG (MP3): Something About Love
ALBUM: Invaders
FILE UNDER: electro-ambient synth with guitars and poppy hooks
LABEL: s/r
INFO: Jupe Jupe mix sci-fi and glam into a synth-noir cocktail and serve it in the genre they wholeheartedly embrace: Pop. Invaders, this debut cocktail, see it’s national release October 5th, 2010!
Taking their textual cues from campy films and the excitement of a late-night dance hit, Jupe Jupe provide escapist songs you can move to – in Milan, or alone in your bedroom.
Jupe Jupe is composed of My Young on vocals and synthesizer, Bryan Manzo and Patrick Partington on guitar, and drummer Jarrod Arbini – veterans of the Seattle and Austin music scenes (Pleasurecraft, The Cinematics [U.S.], Maximum Coherence During Flying). The quartet’s first release, Invaders, combines crooning vocals, jangling guitars, shimmering synths and pulsating beats to take you on a glamorous ride to the far reaches of the electro-pop universe. Set the controls. Launch.
ARTIST / BAND: Fox In The Henhouse
SONG (MP3): Fears
ALBUM: Fox In The Henhouse
FILE UNDER: Indie
LABEL: iBot Records
INFO: After moving from coast to coast, and spending two years writing and recording, Wakefield singer, Ryan Escolopio has finally settled down in Baltimore, MD. Shying away from his pop punk roots, Ryan broke into the indie rock scene with his new project Fox in the Henhouse and their debut album The Fox EP, on iBOT Records. The bands latest album, Vulves Vulves, unites his poignant lyrical stylings with rollicking guitars to spark a number of crowd pleasers. The album, with standout tracks like "Fears," which appeals to indie rock fans and non-indie rock fans alike, is set to release October 12, 2010.
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