The Shout Out Louds are working on a new album, titled Work, and the first single off it is called Walls. The band is have been oled up in a Seattle studio with Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Modest Mouse).
Bob Dylan / She Belongs To Me
Great lyrics. A different kind of love song. A portrait.
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Acrylics was formed by Jason Klauber and Molly Shea in 2008 and evolved into a trio. Their debut album All of the Fire was produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear at his church-studio in Brooklyn, Terrible Studios.
Bobbie Gentry / Reunion
Most famous for her hits, Ode to Billie Joe, and the unstoppable Mississippi Delta, Bobbie Gentry is a sultry-voiced country singer who wrote and produced her own music in a time when it was rare for both women and country singers. Gentry talk-sings the part of a young girl at a large family reunion in this track off her Delta Sweetie album. We first heard it the day after Halloween while driving back to New York from upstate and it made our ride. Starting off with a seductively sparse hand-clap rhythmic figure, Gentry’s Mississippian belle rap, ‘mama can I huh’ enters next. More and more voices and sounds enter the party until we reach a cacophonous fever-pitch. The result sounds like a Charles Mingus arrangement of I Want Candy in a southern baptist church. The song quickly fades back to a whisper before the three minute mark.
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It is 30 years since Visage released the seminal Fade To Grey. It was a huge dance floor hit, topping the charts in the UK and Europe. To celebrate this anniversary, Universal Music have announced the release of The Very Best of Visage, updated with 2009 remixes of Fade To Grey by Michael Gray – of The Weekend and Borderline fame, and Lee Mortimer, AKA Sawtooth Sucka and resident Ministry of Sound DJ, alongside the group’s complete chart topping hit singles and some of the classic and highly sought after original remixes and 12” versions.
Deadmau5 / Faxing Berlin
This track introduced me to Deadmau5 and I have been an avid fan ever since. He is the only DJ I have gone to see perform. To people who came for his music, his gigs at 02 club “matter“ and at The Roundhouse in London, the sound and lights were the stuff of my dreams from my early ecstasy trips at acid house parties.
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Sydney’s Cassette Kids are the final addition to The Big O bill. On the cusp of something big, Cassette Kids have already earned a fierce reputation thanks to captivating vocalist Katrina Noorbergen. They have toured with The Presets and shared the stage with Ting Tings, New Young Pony Club, Van She and many more.
Crystal Castles / Alice Practice
This was the first track I ever heard from Crystal Castles and it blew my mind. The sounds and textures were unlike anything I’d heard before and the song had this attitude and energy that I loved immediately. As a vocalist, I loved how messed up everything sounded, and it made me want to hammer some vocals through an amp and crank up the distortion.
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VV Brown is a dynamo self-starter: a songwriter and producer; a fashion maven with a retail website devoted to her personal eye for retro style in the 21st century, and a model, first signed through a chance in-flight meeting, and now represented by Next Models. Signed in 2008 to write and produce her own album, VV now lives in London in a quaint cottage with her sisters.
Bat For Lashes / Glass
When I first heard this song, I fell in love. I knew all her other music, but when I first heard this, the voice was just melting. She is one of my favourite artists. The radio station KCRW performance is just unbelievable.
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Julia Nunes has been a singer-songwriter since age 13. She plays guitar, ukulele, melodica, and piano, but she also uses household items, such as pillows, water bottles, tissue boxes or an old slinky, for extra percussion. Her charm is best displayed on stage or in the videos she posts on YouTube. Using video/audio layering and a unique approach to song arrangement, Julia has created over 60 music videos of originals and covers, most of which have been viewed an average of 650,000 times
The Early November / Hair
When I listen to this song, I allow myself to be as cynical and damning of the world as I can possibly get, and still have a spring in my step. I envision a Barbie version of myself making her way through the world, becoming self aware and crestfallen with a smile frozen on her face.
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Casper Bangs is the recording project of DC based vocalist and guitarist Rob Pierangeli. Named after the ex-lover that inspired many of the songs, Casper Bangs is a trip through the joys and downers of loving and being loved. The Whitespace 7” and s/t EP are a preview of Casper Bangs’ full-length record, I Woke Up. It was written and performed by Pierangeli at his desktop computer in the midst of relational bliss – it’s a document of a good thing that ultimately goes bad. The songs contain strong unaffected vocals balanced with harmony, layers of noisy guitars, and reverb.
Kurt Vile / Freak Train
I love the speed and repetition on this song, the beat, the arpeggiating guitar line, and pulsating bass. And when Vile starts shouting ‘freak train’, it’s somewhere in between Springsteen and Dylan. Make no mistake, these guys bring it live, too.
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The Good The Bad are three Danish desperados, bringing the finest New School Surf and Flamenco to the masses. In the space of just a year, were invited to play Roskilde Festival, German showcase festival Popkomm in Berlin, and do a Christmas mini-tour in London, followed by a quick jaunt to Norway. In 2009, after more English fun at Liverpool Sound City, Hop Farm Festival and a Harley Davidson European Rally in Latvia, TGTB rocked THE KILLERS aftershow party after their Royal Albert Hall gig in London.
The Sonics / Strychnine
The production of this song and whole album Here Are The Sonics is, for me, the essence of the sound of rock n’ roll. It just sounds right.
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Before Yeti Lane, there was Cyann and Ben. The four-piece were signed to the legendary Gooom Disques label alongside M83 and between 2004 and 2006 released three albums of fantastic, folk-inflected space-rock that, despite the proselytising of Pitchfork, went woefully under appreciated. Then, just as they started work on album number four, Cyann quit the band, forcing Ben (vocals, guitar, synths), along with LoAc (vocals, guitar, synths) and Charlie (drums, percussion, synths), to make a fresh start as Yeti Lane. The unusual name was chosen to echo releases by both Amon Düül II and The Beatles, which also rather conveniently sums up their new sound.
Pavement / The Hexx
A song on their final album, Terror Twilight. I really appreciate the guitar parts and how it repeats in the song. It’s so insistent, until it becomes a maelstrom that carries away the listener. Even the drums accentuate those parts. This is one of the best Pavement songs for me.
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Brooklyn-based five-piece Extra Life will release their second album, Made Flesh, on LOAF Recordings in March 2010. Extra Life is the primary musical vehicle for Charlie Looker, singer, guitarist and composer, who has become one of the most intense and respected voices in the New York experimental underground. Looker was a core member of legendary brutal chamber ensemble Zs and has also worked with diverse artists such as Dirty Projectors, Glenn Branca, William Parker and the S.E.M. Ensemble.
Sebadoh / On Fire
So gorgeous in such an understated way. When I was a kid, I really rejected this whole scene of bands because it was just too Indie and “tasteful” for me. Now I can really feel the elegance. Our drummer Nick got the whole band obsessed with this song on our last big tour. I have a really beautiful memory of a long night drive through Utah, laying in the back of the van curled up among the bags, this song playing, slightly tripping on a low dose of mushrooms, with the rattling van gently vibrating my entire body like a big filthy massage chair.
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