One of my favorite elements of shoegaze is its tendency to combine monumental, spacey guitar riffs with dreamy, oft wispy vocals. Conduits excel at this pairing on their new track “Top of the Hill”. Likewise, the typical shoegaze darkness persists, all encompassing but not entirely overwhelming. There’s energy here, but it’s not the torment so often found in post-rock.

Oddly enough, the voice is that of Jenna Morrison (Son, Ambulance), paired with the guitar meanderings of JJ Idt and Nate Mickish, the bass of Mike Overfield, keys by Patrick Newbery, and percussion form Roger Lewis to round out the band.

Conduits will release their self-titled debut on March 21 courtesy Team Love.

Download: “Top of the Hill” by Conduits

“Serpents” is a complete departure from Sharon Van Etten‘s early work. Admittedly, I missed her sophomore release, Epic from 2010, but was fully entranced by her debut, 2009′s Because I Was In Love. Here, she shatters the quietude of the stripped-down acoustic guitar of that earliest album with a folk-rock piece that is utterly haunting. Musically, “Serpent” may fit the title of her sophomore release, but it’s off her new album, Tramp, which was released yesterday via Jagjaguwar.

Download: “Serpents” by Sharon Van Etten

Black Marble is Ty Kube and Chris Stewart, who produce somewhat minimalist synth music. With a synth drum beat, a synth melody, and deep, dark vocals, “Pretender” is a song that is one part Joy Division, one part Craft Spells, and one part its own thing.

The song can be found on the band’s new EP via Hardly Art. It’s called Weight Against The Door and it’s out digitally now and on vinyl Valentine’s Day.

Download: “Pretender” by Black Marble.

Portland’s Y La Bamba returns Februar 28 with a new record called Court The Storm on Tender Loving Empire. The band has just released “Squawk”, the album’s opening track, and we hear a similar South American-influenced art folk we received on their debut full-length Lupon from 2010. “Squawk” features harmony vocals, hand claps, and wild melodies. Check out the song below and keep an eye out for the new record!

Download: “Squawk” by Y La Bamba

Guy Capecelatro III’s last name may be hard to pronounce, but the list of people he’s opened for are anything but. This list includes the venerable Elliott Smith, Bill Callahan’s SMOG, and the late Vic Chesnutt. Furthermore, he’s a frequent collaborator in a current favorite: Brown Bird. Excited yet? I am.

“Like Anything” is the opening track of Capecelatro III’s new LP, North For The Winter, out February 21. It may be brief at a minute-thirty, but within you’ll get a nice percussive shuffle, a musical saw, harmony vocals, a chill guitar stum, and catchy romantic lyrics.

As a fan of the softer, more endearing side of folk music, there’s no question whether or not I fancy songs such as “Like Anything” and its descendant “Switch”. Further: North For The Winter” has a full 18 tracks on the album, so there’s plenty to love.

Check out “Like Anything” below and look for North For The Winter soon on Dromedary Records.

Download: “Like Anything

Isidore, if you’re unaware, is Jeffrey Cain (formerly of Remy Zero) and Steve Kilbey (The Church), with the former on instrumentals and the latter lending vocal expertise. The collaboration came as a surprise, after Cain passed along an instrumental album to Kilbey only to receive it back later with vocals added in. The duo is now poised to release Life Somewhere Else on Valentine’s Day.

On the album you can find “Song Of The City”, a tune that is mesmerizing with Kilbey’s deep baritone and dreamy with Cain’s airy instrumentals. Immediately we are given an entirely memorable vocal hook with the song’s chorus; it’s one part folk yet seething with pop sensibilities. This one will get in your head and force you to hit the repeat button a few times.

Check out the song below and look for Life Somewhere Else on Communicating Vessels on February 14.

Download: “Song Of The City” by Isidore

I always get excited when something new by Eux Autres comes across my desk. The ex-Portland, now San Francisco brother-sister duo plus third member Yoshi Nakamoto (The Aislers Set, Still Flyin’) will release a new EP called Sun Is Sunk via Bons Mots Records on February 28. Recorded by Jason Quever (Papercuts), expect Sun Is Sunk to push the boundaries of what you know about Eux Autres.

The Larimer siblings (Heather and Nicholas) have always created highly infectious, French-influenced garage pop, and that continues in “Right Again”. No surprise: “Right Again” has plenty of rough, gritty guitar riffs and choppy, punchy drum licks. Here the band employs harmony vocals in a way entirely new and very intriguing.

“Right Again” will get inside your head and stay there. It’s delightful!

Download: “Right Again” by Eux Autres

Mexican Summer is the type of label that when it puts out an album, you give it your full attention. Unfortunately, I’ve been vacant of late. This is tragic, though the good news is that Mike Wexler has brought me back into the Mexican Summer light. A dreamy psychedelic pop sound, filled with chill ambient sounds, borderline haunting with Wexler’s vocal rasp. It makes songs like “Pariah” very cool.

Dispossession is his new album (sophomore release but first on Mexican Summer) and on it you can find “Pariah”. There is no doubt this is one worth hearing; it has all the elements of greatness. A catchy melody, mystical instrumentation, and unique vocals make “Pariah” an instant hit.

Look for Mike Wexler’s Dispossession, out March 6 on Mexican Summer.

Mike Wexler – Pariah by Mexican Summer

Brutal honesty: I’m stuck on Helvetia’s 2011 album The Lam right now. In particular the first track (“Saucer of Dread”) and track 3 (“On the Lam”). Helvetia has returned with a new track called “A Mirror” and it embodies precisely why I dig this band: epic soundscapes, driving shoegaze riffs, hazy melodies, downtrodden vocals.

“A Mirror” will grip your soul and twist it mercilessly, and you? You will enjoy it.

helvetia- a mirror by helvetiamusic

In a way, I kind of miss the days when Of Montreal gave us songs like “Disconnect the Dots” and “The Party’s Crashing Us” and even “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal”. Paralytic Stalks seems a different beast entirely, filled with further psychedelic pop experimentation than we’re used to from Kevin Barnes and company. The more I listen to it, the more I get it. This album is not supposed to be an easy listen.

“Dour Percentage” is the first single from the new album, and as singles go it’s a little catchier and a little more accessible than the rest of Paralytic Stalks. There are elements here that are a bit new to Of Montreal — the inclusion of woodwinds, the sheer complexity in song composition, and the intensely personal nature of songwriting. We’ve heard these before from time to time, namely in more recent years Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? to now.

Of Montreal continues to demonstrate they are a band to be reckoned with, one to be taken seriously, and one capable of intricate musicianship and songwriting. To sum it up, “Dour Percentage” may not be the easiest Of Montreal song to listen to. This continues throughout Paralytic Stalks. But some of the best albums begin this way; they grow on you, get under your skin, are well ahead of their time, and ultimately become genius works of art in their own unique way.

I strongly believe this will be that type of album.

Paralytic Stalks arrives February 7 via Polyvinyl Records.

Download: “Dour Percentage” by Of Montreal

Something dark and immense haunts the pop that Ben Heywood (Summer Darling) masters on his new release Skills for the Long Emergency under the name Heywood. From the depths of a post rock, shoegaze haze, Heywood will just as readily produce mind-melting noise as it will dive into an obscure, dream-like melody.

The former is where we find ourselves at the early moments of “Spectacular Violence”, with a wild guitar riff. But Heywood is not one to stay in once place too long; he demonstrates this quickly as the loud guitars drop to a near bouncy pop melody. For a moment there, I had recolections of All Smiles, but with an affinity for noisy post rock sensibilities.

Check out Skills for the Long Emergency, out now on Velvet Blue Music.

Download: “Spectacular Violence” by Heywood

To me, being an indie music fan is all about being an explorer, discovering new and untapped realms of audio heaven. One of my favorite things to experience is to stumble upon something astonishing in all its brilliance. An artist I didn’t know. An album that blows my mind. Or a single song that simply appears out of nowhere. I have no clue how Siskiyou‘s “Always Awake” found its way onto my laptop, but boy am I glad it did.

Siskiyou creates music that is dreamy and laden with soft guitars, soft percussion, and mesmerizing vocals. “Always Awake” was a commissioned piece for Canadian painter Tom Thomson. Listen below and grab it officially over at Constellation Records.

Listen: “Always Awake” by Siskiyou

“Television Youth” blends power pop, garage rock and fuzzy punk for a fun — playful, even — sound that reminds me a bit of the early works by The Thermals. The band is Sonic Avenues, the latest addition to Dirtnap Records. They are four Montreal natives (you can just barely hear that French Canadian accent in the vocals… just) that produce loud, raucous, exhilarating music that simply begs to be heard.

Check out “Television Youth” below and find it on their sophomore LP and Dirtnap debut, Television Youth, out January 15, 2012.

Download: “Television Youth” by Sonic Avenues

On their 2008 debut, Freedom Wind, The Explorers Club likened their pop music to classics. The harmonies were what did it; saturated in layers and filled with male-on-male falsetto, that album had Pet Sounds written all over it. Nearly four years later, the band has returned with a new EP called The Californian Suite — very Beach Boys-esque, too — and with it, those to-die-for harmonies.

But on “Weight Of The World (Under Construction Mix)”, they’re not a prevalent. They’re masked behind a deep set of vocals that hint at an influence that dates back a few additional decades. To top it off, The Explorers Club kicks the whole thing into gear with some Buffett-like steel drums.

It’s an interesting mix that’s certainly unique, despite a lengthy list of well-known and not influencers. The band employs just the right amount of each to craft a song that’s recognizable in sections, but entirely original.

Listen: “Weight Of The World (Under Construction Mix” by The Explorers Club

The great thing about Summer Fiction is that their songs are so, well, summery. Indie pop music is the sort that so often remains unchanged, boundaries un-pushed, and you get a little of that here. But rather than being a hindrance, it’s comforting. “By The Sea” blends soothing male and female vocals with plenty of hooks, a soft guitar strum and catchy bass line, and a playful drum rhythm.

Summer Fiction’s songs reference 60s pop, and “By The Sea” is no exception. There are no unexpected punches, no overly melancholy rhymes, no painful harmonies. It’s simply good, true pop music. Grab the single from the Summer Fiction bandcamp page

Download: “By The Sea” by Summer Fiction

“We Were Wild” by Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun is a track like Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”. It defies all you thought you knew about rock music, takes things in a completely different direction than expected — a direction much more anthemic and epic. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun draws from an insurmountable realm of influence.

Dance, pop, rock, electronic, it’s all indie at its core but it extends into an entirely different plane of existence when compared to so much of the music out there today. And “We Were Wild” capitalizes on these influences, with Mew-esque vocals, dark electronic beats complemented by a heavy drum rhythm, dropping in hints of fuzz, synth, and flirting with Stars-like plays on tempo and volume.

Download: “We Were Wild” by Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun

FensePost is excited to debut “Sitting On The Edge” off Blue Skies For Black Hearts‘ LP Embracing The Modern Age. The song continues the band’s penchant for classic pop sounds backed by glorious pop-rock guitar hooks, loud drums and late 60s to early 70s-style pop vocals filtered through a haze of 90s indie rock. “Sitting On The Edge” features all of these, blending together elements of The Kinks, Phil Spector and Teenage Fanclub into one blissful, fun pop mess.

The band is currently running a pay-what-you-want campaign for Embracing The Modern Age with a goal of $1,000 and all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Grab your copy here.

Blue Skies for Black Hearts is also on tour the remainder of the month. Grab “Sitting on the Edge” then jump down to see where the band plays next!

Download: “Sitting on the Edge” by Blue Skies for Black Hearts

BSFBH TOUR SCHEDULE:
Oct. 20th – Chicago, IL – the Beat Kitchen
Oct. 21st – Madison, WI – the Frequency
Oct. 23rd – Indianapolis, IN – the Melody Inn
Oct. 26th – New York, NY – Arlene’s Grocery
Oct. 27th – Brooklyn, NY – Spike Hill
Oct. 28th – New York, NY – Bowery Electric
Nov. 4th – Portland, OR – Kelly’s Olympian

I thought Lost Lander‘s “Cold Feet” sounded familiar. The song appeared on this year’s PDX Pop Now! compilation. But there’s more. Lost Lander is the new band of Matt Sheehy and Brent Knopf (Ramona Falls, Menomena). “Cold Feet” has the sound f Knopf’s other band and his prior band, though a bit more restrained and calculated. Lots of vocal harmonies, precise percussion and intense instrumentation.

The song is off the band’s debut release, DRRT, out in January. That makes it the first highly anticipated album of 2012.

Download: “Cold Feet” by Lost Lander

Acid House Kings are a favorite in the indie pop world. Their songs are some of the most upbeat, perfect pop you can find anywhere. To continue their excellence in everything pop, the band has teamed up with Television Personalities’ front-man Dan Treacy who lends vocals on Music Sound Better With You track “Heaven Knows I Miss Him Now”. Texas Bob of TV Personalities also lends his expertise on guitar.

The song can be found on a new Acid House Kings single, out on vinyl and digital formats October 18 courtesy Labrador Records. Grab the song below, but don’t forget to keep an eye out for the single — in also features two new songs!

Download: “Heaven knows I miss him now” by Acid House Kings feat. Dan Treacy

It’s all coming back completely full circle.  Folk music proves itself time and time again to be one of the truest influences in the musical world.  A touch of Americana blended with a grave sense of indie rock realism rarely turns out badly.  And in the case of Jesse Payne‘s latest album Buffalo and it’s kick off single “Take Me”, we might have possibly found the closest thing to perfection. With a sound that is just a little bit country, and a little bit folk n’ roll, Payne is a truly entertaining artist that is definitely not one to be overlooked when it comes to American splendor.

Buffalo kicks off almost as you would instantly expect. “Take Me” has a stripped-down blues and back-country folk sound that solemnly introduces splendidly saddened vocals that instantly let you know that this will be a song about a little bit of pain.  Which we all have to admit is something we long for in folk and indie rock alike.  

This track is an obvious college radio and coffee shop favorite to be. It is mellow, understanding, and contains a copious amount of simplistic fortitude that is both awe-inspiring and entirely relevant to the struggles of the modern man. A real pleasure for both thrill and despair seekers alike.

Buffalo was released October 4.

Download: “Take Me” by Jesse Payne