Night Manager just released a new single, “Alien,” on their Bandcamp page. The Brooklyn group is currently working on a new six-song EP, but this song won’t be on it.
Zoe Ligon did the art for both the single and the upcoming EP.
You can pay what you want to download “Alien” and a demo version of it on Night Manager’s Bandcamp.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Alien, Bandcamp, Brooklyn, Night Manager, Zoe Ligon
Last year, Ohio band Southeast Engine released Canary, an album based on Great Depression-era Appalachian Ohio. Today, they’re putting out its companion EP, Canaanville. The new EP is not composed of b-sides or outtakes, and just based on the first single, it sounds like it’s going to be another wonderful time-traveling indie folk piece.
Check out the fantastic sing-a-long “Old Oak Tree.” Canaanville is out t0day on Misra Records.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Appalachian Ohio, Canaanville, Indie Folk, Misra Records, Old Oak Tree, SoundCloud, Southeast Engine
People aren’t still watching Weeds, are they? I definitely stayed on board longer than I should have, but it seemed to steadily decline when they dropped “Little Boxes” as the theme song (which, not coincidentally was when the Botwins left Agrestic).
Malvina Reynolds’ folk song “Little Boxes,” about the conformism of suburbia, was used for the first season, and various artists covered it for the second and third seasons. It brought some pretty cool renditions by artists like Elvis Costello, Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins and Regina Spektor.
I haven’t been watching season eight, but apparently, “Little Boxes” is back, and the Mountain Goats performed it with help from Midtown Dickens.
Check out the cover below, and if you’ve been watching this season of Weeds, let us know if it’s worth it.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Cover, Indie, Little Boxes, Malvina Reynolds, Midtown Dickens, The Mountain Goats, Weeds
You’ve probably heard the name Matthew E. White a bit lately, either about his horn arrangements on the new Mountain Goats record — including the fantastic first single, “Cry for Judas” — or about his upcoming solo debut, Big Inner.
There’s no big budget behind the record (he’s releasing Big Inner on his own Spacebomb Records with help from Hometapes) and his former bands, Great White Jenkins and Fight the Big Bull, were local secrets. So the real reason everyone’s been talking about him, even before the record comes out, is the music is that good.
His first track, “One of These Days,” incorporates the Delta sounds of Bobby Charles into Lambchop-style indie rock. He ties everything together with strings and beautiful horn arrangements that sing as sweetly as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”
“Big Love” starts with a wailing free jazz saxophone straight out of Sun Ra. It squeals out a few fuzzy notes, before a sweeping drum beat kicks in, followed by Dixie piano, strings and a gospel choir. White packs massive layers of sound together, but the real feat is its cohesion. There’s so much going on in “Big Love,” but he keeps it brilliantly precise.
Listen to “Big Love” and “One of These Days” below. Big Inner comes out August 21 via Spacebomb Records and Hometapes.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Big Inner, Big Love, Hometapes, Matthew E. White, One of These Days, Spacebomb Records
After an extended break, Bloc Party is back with a new album and a new label. The British band left Atlantic Records to release Four, their fourth album and first in four years, on indie stalwart Frenchkiss.
The album’s first official single, “Octopus,” came out earlier this month, and they just put up another new one. “Day Four” doesn’t have the massive dance rock energy of “Octopus,” but it’s another strong track.
Listen to “Day Four” below and stream “Octopus” after the jump. Four is out August 20 via Frenchkiss.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Bloc Party, Day Four, Four, Frenchkiss, Octopus, SoundCloud
Animal Collective just released a new song from their upcoming ninth album. “Today’s Supernatural” is the first single off Centipede Hz, which comes out this fall.
As promised, “Today’s Supernatural” is weird. Animal Collective barrage the listener with everything they can think of, but buried beneath the pounding tribal drums, distorted guitars, acid-tinged effects and Avey Tare’s howl, a strong melody takes shape. It may take a few listens to uncover, but when it clicks, it leaves you breathless with excitement.
Centipede Hz is out September 4 via Domino.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Animal Collective, Centipede Hz, Domino, Indie, SoundCloud, Today's Supernatural
The Demos have been in the studio working on the follow up to their debut album, Lovely. The Rochester power-pop band will be releasing a new album, Paramount Clouds, this fall.
The band just released a teaser single featuring two new songs, “Primitive” and “Neon.” The core duo of Jason Milton (lead vocals/guitar) and Callan Saunders (bass/vocals) is rounded out by guitarist Adam Ford, drummer Mike James (aka Mikey Jukebox, ex-Longwave), keyboardist Caela Moore and backup vocalist Anna Dana.
“Primitive” might be the group’s best song yet. It comes together like a Strokes song, slowly adding guitars and building toward the chorus. “Neon” takes more of a Big Star approach, but the sugary hooks tie them both together.
The single is available on the Demos’ Bandcamp.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Adam Ford, Anna Dana, Caela Moore, Callan Saunders, Jason Milton, Mike James, Neon, Paramount Clouds, Power pop, Primitive, Rochester, The Demos
Balmorhea has been quietly blowing minds since its 2006 beginning. The instrumental sextet just released a new single, “Pyrakantha,” from their upcoming fifth album, Stranger.
“Pyrakantha” opens with a quiet, expansive landscape of plucked guitars. The starry night of distant notes is washed over by the shooting stars of soft synths as the song begins to shift. The perfectly controlled drums kick in and the clean electric guitars switch to light funk riffs, dancing over subtle melodies.
Before you know it, six minutes have passed, and the song is over. But for those six minutes, everything stops but Balmorhea.
Stranger is out October 2 via Western Vinyl.
Posted in Music Reviews, Track Reviews
Tagged Balmorhea, Instrumental, Pyrakantha, SoundCloud, Stranger, Western Vinyl
Update: Chelsea Light Moving recently revealed that this song is actually called “Empires of Time.”
New music from Chelsea Light Moving — Thurston Moore’s new band with Samara Lubelski, Keith Wood and John Maloney — has been trickling out through Matablog.
“Burroughs” and “Groovy & Linda” were put up free download, and now the group has a third song, “Frank O’Hara Hit.” The new single definitely affirms the pattern of visceral alternative rock and love of proper names in song titles.
Download “Frank O’Hara Hit” on Matablog or stream it below, thanks to Slicing Up Eyeballs.
Feist wrapped up the bulk of her touring behind her terrific fourth album, Metals, with a stop in Buffalo. She headlined one of the Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor events held at the Erie Canal Harbor, sandwiched between the canal and the city.
Local opener Roger Bryan and the Orphans started playing in the late afternoon sun, and by the time support act Snowblink — Canadian singer/guitarist Daniela Gesundheit backed by guitarist Dan Goldman — finished, dusk had settled over the harbor. The duo played a handful of originals and a haunting cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper.” Gesundheit was soft-spoken and quiet but was propelled by an incredible voice — not unlike her friend Leslie Feist.
But while Feist’s performances may once have been quiet perfection, only one of those words would describe her now. The singer-songwriter, backed by a six-piece band that included Broken Social Scene’s Charles Spearin and the three singers of Mountain Man, is a red-blooded performer. With a fervent intensity, they kicked off the set with “A Commotion” — a song heavy enough to be covered by the metal band Mastodon.
Behind her, the stage was lit up by a sea of psychedelic projections and deliberately lo-fi video feeds from cameras attached to mic stands and hanging from the trusses.
Most of the songs were from Metals, definitely her most forceful record. Feist and her band played the single “How Come You Never Go There” (with excellent three-part harmonies from Mountain Man) and thundered through “The Bad in Each Other.”
She did slow it down a bit with songs like “Comfort Me” and “The Circle Married the Line,” but she rearranged most of her slower songs for a stronger live performance. “I Feel It All” and “My Moon My Man” were sped up and distorted, and “Mushaboom” was almost completely transformed. Even the encore of “Sea Lion Woman” — one of the most upbeat songs on 2007′s The Reminder – was very different.
Surprisingly (or not, if you’ve paid attention to recent setlists and show reviews), “1,2,3,4″ failed to make an appearance. Though it’s her biggest single, it really wouldn’t have fit in the set. Feist was both somber and energetic, but nothing short of sincere. The silly sing-a-long would have completely undone the set’s complex intensity. And though its absence was noted, no one seemed to mind.
See some more photos from the show after the jump. Continue reading
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