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
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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.

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.

Let’s just get this out of the way right now, if you ever use the line “you’re the sugar to my tea”, you should be getting laid.  Portland based singer/songwriter Shawn Lawson Freeman definitely knows this.  And when you sing and play guitar in the fashion of Sting or Justin Nozuka, yet have a real depth to your style that comes off more like Neil Young or a happy-go-lucky Elliott Smith, you may have created a “winning” combination.  And on Freeman’s latest project under the surfer friendly pseudonym, Beneath Wind and …

There are very few certainties in life. With the economy in a downfall, natural disasters coming from all angles, and the earth slowly warming, it is very easy to become weary about any sort of regularity in this world. But, there is are two certainties you can always count on: 1) you are going to get older and 2) Blitzen Trapper is going to release an album that just gets better and better. Both of these have inevitably happened this year. And however you feel about …

Eclectic pop music and Portland seem to go together like coffee, cigarettes, and Sartre. The branding itself really seems like a rationalization by critics, press gurus, and bloggers alike who can’t seem to fit an artist into a category. And this is probably where an act like the Portland (and the rest of Oregon) based John Craig & The Weekend come into play. And it is suffice to say that this is truly a wonderful characteristic by nature. Versatility is a virtue that should be exploited …

Blitzen Trapper are arguably one of the hardest working (and most estranged in character) bands out today. With a relentless tour schedule that makes you wonder if Eric Earley and crew actually have homes to go back to, and what seems to be an “album a year” strategy going for them, they have definitely earned this title. But, the best is yet to come. Everyone’s favorite indie-folk group is due to release their fourth album, third from Sub Pop Records, very soon! And if “Love The …

Foosball tournament enthusiast Kevin O’Connor is back under the guise of Talkdemonic with his music-making cohort Lisa Molinaro. The duo has a new album in the mix, and thus a new song for public consumption. That song is “Revival” and it continues Talkdemonic’s steadfast style of somewhat always eclectic, ever loud and clever percussion-meets-strings instrumental genius. The song begins with a light guitar riff before O’Connor opens up on his drum kit and Molinaro adds her touch with eccentric electric strings.

Some artists seem to prefer a sound that is constant, well structured, and predictable in the kindest sense. Krist Krueger, a.k.a. Southerly, is not one of these artists. But this is not to say that he is a frantic-minded artist hell bend on chaos, for he is actually quite the opposite. Krueger simply denies the crutch of conformity by offering up a hundred different tastes and feels of indie pop that he can squeeze into one album. And this is exactly what you will hear on …

Yesterday we covered a new track from Portland folk outfit Death Songs called “Wounds” off the new PDX Pop Now! compilation. We talked a little bit about the band and the song, and had a few words to say about the organization as well. That wasn’t enough; it’s high time I let slip a little something — we here at FensePost have been quiet supporters of the Portland festival.