I’m finding it hard to get over how trippy this video is, and I’m not entirely convinced that’s a good thing. Case in point, I felt the same way about “Casual” by Here We Go Magic. That video was so raw and shocking, it made me look at the song… differently… for a while. And maybe that’s the problem. I’ve only listened to “Tiny Head” by The Luyas while watching the video.

So I’m really digging this band Suuns. Somewhere between shoegaze and electronica to noise and dub, their music is subtle and dreamy, but filled with an abundance of great hooks and hip beats. Zeroes hits all the right notes for a band that meshes very distinct, separate genres that occasionally overlap. Zeroes begins with a dub-influenced drone and the lyrics I killed a man when I was 11 years old, but I’m innocent. It begins a whirlwind of an EP that jumps between genres with frequency …

Dead Oceans announced yesterday the sophomore release by Portland’s Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, titled Where The Messengers Meet. The album, out August 3, hits about a year and a half after the band’s self-titled debut. That album came in just outside our top 10 album of 2009 thanks to angular, erratic, and often hauntingly frantic musicianship fronted by expert, harmonic vocals.

Citay‘s new LP, Dream Get Together, just found its way into my inbox. There are several descriptors you could apply to the album, from Cosmic to Anthemic. But when it really comes down to it, Dream Get Together finds a unique place in music simply due to its wide breadth of influences — so wide that the music they create has become unlike any of the bands whose influence they draw.

Bowerbirds create the type of folk music you could easily equate to being one with nature. It is above all the noise and shuffle of city life, just beyond the outskirts of small town life, and is that of the sustainable life. It seems to have a minimal footprint on this earth not because it isn’t popular or un-noteworthy, but because it is conscious and earthly. It is aware of something greater than the individual, something as great as a planet. Or the concept of pure …

On Friday, Skagit County saw it’s first true day of winter for the ’09/’10 season, which is a bit strange as it’s now April. It hailed in between bursts of clear, sunny skies. It was also the first day of the summer barbecue at Red Apple; and it was the day I saw “Winter” by Nurses over at Sound On The Sound. Nurses should have been included in my list of 10 bands I should have checked out last year. They made several end-of-year lists, including …

It hasn’t been all too long since Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band released their first video for a track off this year’s excellent self-titled debut LP, out now on Dead Oceans. In “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross” the band alters tempo and volume for a song both erratic and astounding. Signature to Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is the wild guitars highly infectious riffs and a vocal styling that is par none. The video takes the viewer through a similar mind-altering experience; it’s the makings of a short horror …

Any time the words “community” or “family” to a band moniker, one gets the distinct impression that the group is an ever morphing being, consistently and regularly adding people. On one end, a keyword is variation — a live performance could feature a band leader solo or with a few select members. On the other is quantity, noting an expansive collective of individuals. And so it is with Akron/Family; the core of the band is a trio and may, at any time, feature them alone or include a …

Destruction has never been so catchy, as proven by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band in their video for “Cheer For Fate”. The song, as noted in my review of their self titled Dead Oceans LP, the song originated from the group’s debut, Weepy EP.

Four of the eleven tracks on the latest release by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, actually their debut full-length, are not exclusives. These four can also be found on their Weepy EP and include opener “Who’s Asking”, “Cheer For Fate”, “Anchors Dropped” and “Dull Reason”. But, to be honest, I could care less. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is a phenomenal release worthy of as much esteem as the whole world can muster.