After blowing people’s minds at the Capital Hill Block Party, then surprising everyone at Bumbershoot, then hopping down to Portland for Musicfest NW, Black Whales have made quite a name for themselves in the past year. One listen to “Young Blood” from their brand new EP, Origins, should clue you in on how far this young band is set to go. The EP was released last month on Mt. Fuji Records
Modest Mouse / Whale Song ‘I knew I was a scout, I should have found my way out’ are the only vocal lines in the song and they only take up a minute or so of time. The rest is a musical jam that builds and builds into an epic ending that’s littered with different layers of guitar hooks, noise and percussion. Live, it’s even better. And did I mention the bassline? It’s good, really good.
Enon is a band from Brooklyn and Philadelphia. John Schmersal, Toko Yasuda, and Matt Schulz, have all been in a bunch of bands, and are still in a bunch of bands. But all that doesn’t really matter, right? What does matter is that these three, together, are Enon, always, and they’re always amazing. Some bands are content to develop a ‘trademark sound’. Enon continuously expands on every aspect of their music, managing to bring something new to the table with each release while still weaving a common thread through all of them.
Brigitte Fontaine / Brigitte It makes me feel calm when I put this song on.
Hailing from London, garage rockers Brute Chorus belie their name with a sound that takes in the stomping soulful music of the late 1970s with a more delicate and melodic folk twist. The BestTuna blog sums them up succintly: ‘In a UK music scene full of non descript interchangeable bands playing mind numbingly indistinguishable indie it’s great to hear a band with the courage to forge their own identity and serve up a cocktail of breathtaking swamp rock that sounds three steps removed from the usual tepid sludge’.
Cold War Kids / Hang Me Up To Dry This is a lyrically brilliant, dark but shiny bit of indie rock. The dirty laundry analogy works in all its possible computations throughout a minimally arranged yet heavy song. The clean production seems to play against the words and feel of it all. So indie but so pop.
My Secret Playlist is a music discovery website and weekly email publication. We invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. These are their words on the music that inspires them.
