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

Originated in Boise by Eric Ingersoll, Night Genes channels the likes of Tom Waits and Nick Cave with deep baritone folk. Accompanied by a trusty acoustic guitar, the songs Night Genes creates are light and playful – a contrast to the meditative and contemplative vocals and lyrics of Ingersoll.

Thematically, Like The Blood ponders mortality and the quandary of the evolutionary progress of mankind; in other words, are we truly better off than the generations of past? In a way, it reminds me a bit of 2011′s Apocalypse by Bill Callahan.

Joined by keyboardist Amy Foote’s operatic vibrato on select tracks, there’s always an element of surprise and obscurity with Night Genes. You never quite know what to expect, and that’s half the fun of Like The Blood. Rounding out the trio is David MacFadden-Elliott on percussion and samples.

Look for the album on January 31.

Download: “Cyber Me” by Night Genes

[CD, 2012]

1. I’d Rather Feel Small
2. Cyber Me
3. Woods Are Full Of Animals
4. Ornaments
5. Jesus Bugs
6. Soaring Through The Chromosomes
7. Letting Go Of A Moonbeam
8. Sweeper
9. Sunset Tulips
10. Life’s Not Too Short
11. Peel The Paint
12. Impression: Flood

Just the other week we wrote about Girls’ new song, “Vomit”, off their forthcoming third release Father, Son, Holy Ghost. They have now presented us a video for the tune, which after countless listens I shall now dub their most accomplished song to date. The video begins with seductive footage ’60s cherry red Mustang convertible then changes pace to a drive through the city. Interesting angles and bright colors amidst a dark background all emphasize the song’s power.

Yes, the footage fits well with the lyrics: Nights I spend alone / I spend alone looking for you baby. The song itself begins softly, the vocal tone beyond melancholy; outright depressing. But as the song picks up there’s hope. Guitar solos, a laid-back rhythm section, and the closing out of “Vomit” with a very Dark Side Of The Moon-like female vocalist all make “Vomit” one of the year’s most stunning tracks.

And it also makes this video quite unique.

Download: “Vomit” by Girls

Girls have come to be one of my favorite artists since their early release, Album, in September of 2009. Their music is simply astonishing, from upbeat pop gems like “Lust For Life” and “Alright” to more surreal explorations of pop psychedelia, like “Helhole Ratrace” and “Carolina”.

“Vomit” is a new track off the band’s forthcoming record, Father, Son, Holy Ghost and it takes the pop exploration to a whole new level. It begins soft and slow as a pop ballad. It has bouts of volume increases and epic guitar riffs, occasionally diving into experimental noise pop and impromptu guitar solos.

Girls’ previous work is nothing to scoff at. Remember the first time you heard any of the aforementioned earlier work? Get ready to have that same feeling of amazement; “Vomit” matches them head to head. Easily.

Father, Son, Holy Ghost is due September 13 via True Panther Sounds

Download: “Vomit” by Girls

San Francisco’s Weekend takes your favorite post punk fuzz pop sound and infuses it with a deep, dreamy shoegaze on their track “Coma Summer”. Now, I’m not sure if all of Weekend is like this, as I have yet to hear anything else from their LP Sports, but the epic distortion that fills this song is more than enough to spark immense curiosity. It’s based around experimentation and packed with dark, heavy vocals. This is precisely the type of track and style of band you’d expect to get turned onto by a label like Slumberland Records.

There are moments where the guitars block out the world and everything becomes dark, making “Coma Summer” a quite fitting name. In a way, the sheer presence of distorted guitar can be likened to The Legends’ masterpiece Over And Over, but where joyous pop reigned through the fuzz on that record, the darkness matches fuzz toe to toe here. Head over to Slumberland to grab this LP. I did.

Download: “Coma Summer” by Weekend

The nerd in me has been getting into comics of late, namely Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, so it’s fitting that the first thing I latched onto in Silver Swans‘ bio is that they pulled their name from the group of super villians in Wonder Woman. Like the evil-doers, “Secrets” by Silver Swans will haunt your nights. And they do it with slow, dreamy pop, swirling with synths and beats by DJ producer Jon Waters, and the vocals of Ann Yu. “Secrets” possesses the ability to tailspin you into a hypnotic trance; the song has an eerie calm, perfect for pitch-black nights broken by colorful lights and warm bodies.

“Secrets” can be found on Silver Swans’ EP of the same name.

Download: “Secrets” by Silver Swans

I like to think Emmalee Crane and I would get along well. I think this because of her music. It’s unassuming, unpretentious, yet it exists in a completely different realm of thought. It’s down to earth, yet it’s also quite out there. You get that with minimalist music, but unlike her earlier work in Crux, this one has louder peaks. On Formantine, Crane’s latest release, she adds more samples, picking up bits and pieces of spoken word. It’s part eerie and part relaxing, a trait common to the best of the minimalist genre.

Traits also include ambiance, obscurity, mystery; Crane plays these well, never quite showing her face, and shrouding her music in the most appropriate of melodies. These are movements in the classical sense, featuring electronics alongside oboes, synthesizers next to strings. On Formantine, Crane’s music has a dominating presence so spacial, it comes close to materializing nondescriptly, just out of sight, barely in the peripheral. And it’s terrifying; these songs will just as soon sooth your soul as they will frighten your very being.

Download: “We Came From Monsters” by Emmalee Crane

The Streetlight Farm [CD, 2010]

1. Crasher
2. Gight Vaulting
3. We Came From Monsters
4. Summit
5. I Never Expect You To Stay
6. The Queens Of Carmen
7. Inerosion
8. In Sense & Sign
9. Frame Alabaster
10. You Stare To Be Seen
11. Formantine

It’s amazing to hear the changes Eux Autres has gone through since they debuted with Hell Is Eux Autres in 2004. That album was rough and punchy, raw and bouncy. The punch and the bounce remain, but on Broken Bow things are smoother and more refined. They still contain all those elements I loved from the original — the stripped-down indie pop with a French twist, those lovable lyrics by Heather and Nicholas Larimer.

The changes are significant; such circumstances always run the risk of losing that early audience, of changing things too much, or even letting the core greatness of those earlier works slip away. Eux Autres does not succumb to these problems. Most notably, the band added Yoshi Nakamoto (The Aislers Set, Still Flyin’) in 2008 around the time of their Cold City release. In advance of this release, the trio became a quartet with Nathan Berlinguette on bass.

Songs on Broken Bow are just as poignant and stunning as before. You can hear it in “Under Rays” where Nicholas takes the lead, and in the lyrics the band writes. Always fun, there’s generally a hint of emotion, be it pensive dwelling on being treated poorly, or a raucous jaunt on a favored sports team. Fun, always; but the lyrics speak something a little different from what you might be used to. That, above almost anything else, is what makes Eux Autres one of the better pop bands around.

Download: “Go Dancing” by Eux Autres

[CD, 2010]

1. Jamais
2. Queen Turner
3. Under Rays
4. Wind Me Up
5. A Band Undone
6. You’re Alright
7. Rosehill
8. Go Dancing
9. My Love Will Not Let You Down
10. Take It Or Leave It
11. Cover Rights

Adorned in a heavy, lo-fi reverb, The Mallard plays light, fluffy garage pop music that a few friends have been raving about of late. They hit me up, thinking I’d like it, and they were right. The band boasts four members; what’s unique, however, is that they all belong to the same body. The body is that of a woman simply titled Greer. The right foot gets the kick drum, the left the hi-hat tambourine. The arms and fingers play guitar, and vocals are left to the mouth. It’s an interesting perspective in which to describe your band, but it fits The Mallard to a T.

So now for the gritty details. The Mallard is heading up the coast from her home in San Francisco to play a few shows. Starting in her hometown on Wednesday, she’ll make a two day trip up to Bellingham for a Friday show, zig-zag down to Portland on Saturday and hike back up to Seattle on Sunday. Not necessarily the route I would have selected, but if it keeps her in the Northwest a little longer that’s all fine with me.

After all, The Mallard has one of those must-hear sounds. In fine form, I’ve included a few of those sounds, “Old Hates Tatesale” and “Ex”, below for your listening/downloading pleasure. Below that is a video of her performing live – a little teaser for the upcoming performances. As I noted to Sound on the Sound’s Abbey, I may have to trek it up to Bellingham on Friday to check this one out…

THE MALLARD WEST COAST TOUR
08.25: Kimo’s Bar & Penthouse Lounge in San Francisco
08.27: Plan B Saloon in Bellingham
08.28: House Show in Portland
08.29: Bourbon in the Columbia Theatre in Seattle

Download: “Old Hates Tatesale” by The Mallard

Download: “Ex” by The Mallard

Magic (tenetivley…sorry mike) by The Mallard from Elliott Johnson on Vimeo.

So it’s 10:10pm and I’m a bit exhausted. Today was busy, tomorrow will be as well, and that will continue through the weekend and into next week. I wasn’t planning to write more tonight, but in perusing a few of the many emails I receive on a daily basis, I stumbled on Burnt Ones and felt oddly compelled. Backed by a few repeated, fuzzed out chords and fronted by punk-influenced vocals, the music just kind of washes over you – especially after a few good local brews.

“Kaleidoscope Eyes” has the dream-like tenacity of a band like The Radio Dept. but is full-fledged punk (thought it walks hand-in-hand with bouncy pop melodies). “Burnt To Lose”, on the other hand, opens with a spacey experimental nature and echoing tambourines. While I prefer the former, the latter holds merit in it’s mere ability to be weird yet cohesive and melodic despite its overall exploratory sensibilities. In other words, it grows on you whereas “Kaleidoscope Eyes” is an immediate hit.

Burnt Ones’ debut LP Black Teeth and Golden Tongues came out yesterday on Roaring Colonel Records.

Download: “Kaleidoscope Eyes” by Burnt Ones

Download: “Burnt To Lose” by Kaleidoscope Eyes

Lefse’s latest lust-worthy tune-layer is Dominant Legs, the project of San Francisco-based musician Ryan Lynch (also the guitarist for Girls), whose light, harmonic melodies will draw you in. Joining Lynch is Hannah Hunt, who lends keys and vocal expertise. Shrouded in vocal reverb, Lynch’s ballads, like “Clawing Out At The Walls” off Dominant Legs’ forthcoming debut EP Young At Love And Life, cast a dreamy shadow over these summer days and conjure a longing for the slightly cooler evening hours when the crickets emerge. In “Clawing Out At The Walls”, Dominant Legs packs every moment with continuous, all-encompassing harmony that refuses to let go until the final moments. Just like this summer heat. The key difference being: You won’t want the songs to end.

Download: “Clawing Out At The Walls” by Dominant Legs

Grand Lake is the latest project from Port O’ Brien founding member Caleb Nichols, who joins forces with long-time friend Jameson Swanagon. Together, with drummer John Pomeroy, the San Francisco band is complete. The band is poised to release their debut LP, Blood Sea Dream, August 10 on Hippies Are Dead Records. That is where you can find “Spark”, their first single and the song featured in this somewhat trippy video. Featuring swirling dreamscapes of upbeat, hypnotic pop melodies backed by driving percussion, Grand Lake will creep into your head and take hold of your senses. In “Spark”, Grand Lake demands to be heard, and as the song climaxes attention will become singular – focused solely on the music.

Download: “Spark” by Grand Lake

Grand Lake – Spark from Ryan Pierce on Vimeo.

Fresh off the buzz of their last EP, BBM, Collider has once again come out swinging with their own brand of 90′s influenced fuzz pop. Strobos EP is their third release to date, and is quite frankly a subtle, yet very well organized jump forward in their progression as artists. In the true spirit of the band’s hometown, San Francisco, the guys have taken a real DIY approach by releasing this frenzied and furious digital EP all on their own. This could arguably be considered the City Lights Books version of indie pop artistic expression.

“!Ex Ex!” is without a doubt the most exciting track on Strobos EP with its sporadic hints of electronic madness, and old school alternative rock hype notes. But, the hidden gem on Collider’s third release is without a doubt the keyboard riddled “Take Off”. It’s a song of struggle and the pain of loss through a tremendously catchy hook and a triumphant rhythm section that hits harder than a tsunami in Japan. Each track on this EP has its own personality and an utter discontent for mediocrity that is unparalleled.

It is quite the treat to have a band like Collider be so easily accessible. They really play their asses off just for the sake of creating intense, blood curdling indie pop that the world should enjoy. Their Bandcamp site is filled with a couple dozen tracks that can be yours for the taking at the low, low cost of free. The Strobos EP is a must-have for the experimentalist we all like to think is buried somewhere deep inside our overtly pretentious hearts and minds. Collier could easily become your favorite band’s favorite band.

Download: “Take Off” by Collider

Download: “!Ex Ex!” by Collider

[Digital EP, 2010]

1. Amarind Sashes
2. Schemes
3. !Ex Ex!
4. Take Off
5. V-K Test
6. Glory Lights
7. Separate / Return

The Blank Tapes‘ Matt Adams wrote his new album Home Away From Home, as he puts it, in a van in probably half of the states in America. For that, it is named appropriately. It, too, is packed with garage-worthy tinkering that extends from folk to pop to experimental psychedelic. It’s an array that bodes well for the San Francisco native, and it’s one that’s definitely worth a pair of ears. Namely — yours.

“Flashing Before Your Eyes” is one of many standouts, this one blending hints of psychedelic rock with folk-pop sensibilities. And he drops in some experimental traits while he’s at it. Home Away From Home opens with “Black Hair”, a track with an epic, powerful rock riff and hazy, warbled vocals. He follows that with a smooth bass-line and carefree vocals in “We Can Do What We Want To”.

The thing is, Home Away From Home is full of this, from the southern-influence “Driving Out Of My Mind” to the mysterious “Don’t Mind” to the soft folk closer “Place In My Heart.” And for that, Adams seems like he’d be a pretty amazing individual to meet.

Download: “We Can Do What We Want To” by The Blank Tapes

Listen to the full album and pick up a digital copy over at BandCamp.

[CD, 2010]

1. Black Hair
2. We Can Do What We Want To
3. Flash Back
4. Driving Out Of My Mind
5. Home Tonight
6. Don’t Mind
7. Flashing Before Your Eyes
8. Let The Growing Begin
9. Home Away From Home
10. Place In My Heart

From the first moments of Magic Bullets‘ self-titled LP, one is taken back a quarter century on a journey into the music of The Smiths. No, Magic Bullets do not cover the famed band, but to say they were influenced by Moz’s early entourage is an understatement. Magic Bullets pack on the indie pop jangle and provide Moz-ish obscure, melodramatic vocal hooks that make you want to dig those Smiths records out for a spin on the ol’ turntable.

There are plenty of wandering bass lines and hyper-upbeat drum beats to bring the Smiths reference full circle while tossing in reference to similar era groups like Orange Juice. True to their influence, songs like “Lying Around” and “Sigh The Day Away” will get under your skin with one part foot-tapping and one part cower away in a depressive doom. Magic Bullets have mastered the continuously manic/depressive songwriting style, and they display it proudly on their sleeves on their self-titled LP.

The band just released a single for “Lying Around” on Mon Amie and will be releasing Magic Bullets in June.

Download: “Lying Around” by Magic Bullets

Mon Amie Records [CD, 2010]

1. A Day Not So Far Off
2. They Wrote A Song About You
3. Pretend & Descend
4. Lying Around
5. Young Shoulders
6. Red Room
7. On Top Of The World
8. A Name Sits Heaviest On My Heart
9. Millions Of People Running Around
10. China Beach
11. Sigh The Day Away

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. This is apparent from the get-go with “Careful With That Hat”, a song that channels the likes of Led Zeppelin, Styx, Electric Light Orchestra and Eno on one end, yet throws in a few 80s hair guitar riffs while the band dons an indie-pop Essex Green or other E6 band male/female collective vocal style. You’ll hear this style of vocals throughout the album, from the light, folk-pop “Mirror Kisses” to the intense pop of “Fortunate Son”. And these songs are split by the harder, more epic wailing instrumental, “Hunter”. Throughout Dream Get Together, Citay takes a sound familiar to the late 70s and early 80s, with wildly epic, dreamy guitar solos, and make it modern. Dream Get Together closes with a cover of Galaxy 500′s “Tugboat”, a seemingly perfect close to an album so diverse in influences it has become entirely original, and brilliantly awesome.

Download: “Careful With That Hat” by Citay

Download: “Mirror Kisses” by Citay

Dead Oceans [CD, 2010]

1. Careful With That Hat
2. Return From Silence
3. Dream Get Together
4. Secret Breakfast
5. Mirror Kisses
6. Hunter
7. Fortunate Son
8. Tugboat

Collider is a band that just plain rocks. And it’s worthy to say that 16 years ago they would have been considered “buzz worthy”. With their latest EP, BBM, these guys blend modern indie rock with 90′s low key yet sultry alternative that is reminiscent of groups like Primitive Radio Gods and Everything But The Girl. These San Francisco-based rockers have a sound that is as cool as flannel and Matt Dillon were back then.

Collider’s modern influence is most obvious on the single “Time Concerns”. They’re happy attitude bleeds through their indie pop masculinaty. “Big Bang Machine” cuts the rhythmic veins of BBM‘s prevorbial wrists a little deeper in the opposite direction of albums blood flow with an electronic and almost spaced out attitude. But, their ability to take you on a time warp faster than a Delorian back to the simpler days of Clinton and grunge. When the world was in a state of depression, simply because it was the coolest place you could let your mind wander off towards.

Indie pop is such a generic term for such an outrageous genre of music. Their are so many tantalizing aspects and creative tools to be used with only a minimal amount of time on a track. Shoving all this goodness into a few minutes seems as though it might be pretty tough. But Collider seems to make it work with every song. It’s likely they don’t even know how well they do it. Or that they could even fall into such a category. Or maybe they don’t fall into that category at all. Maybe it’s just destiny. Or maybe they just rock exactly as they want to and have created something pretty damn great in the process. Maybe.

Download: “The Grid Goes Down Tonight” by Collider

Download: “Time Concerns” by Collider

[Digital EP, 2009]

1. The Grid Goes Down Tonight
2. Back Rooms
3. Take A Stress Pill
4. MCL
5. Time Concerns
6. High On Blue Tomorrows
7. Big Bang Machine
8. Modern Ends

Tempo No Tempo‘s Waking Heat made it into my Top 50 Albums of 2009 thanks to rockin’ dub beats and intense vocal hooks. Top songs, in my opinion, were “The Rat (Pt. 1)” and “Medicine”. Just under those two stellar tunes is “Pole Position”, and it is that song to which they’ve given video treatment. The song features the band’s signature dub beats but forays momentarily into harmony tonal vocals then dives straight into a little guitar freak-out before transitioning straight into the next tune, “Kilometer”.

The video kind of reminds me of that bizarre sequence in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when Joel and Clementine attempt to escape the memories Joel is having deleted by hiding in his subconscious. It turns and twists in strange ways yet always comes back to the band performing “Pole Position”. And as any true music video should go, it climaxes with the song. Listening to “Pole Position”, it’s easy to hear why I put it in my top 50 — Waking Heat was definitely a hidden gem from 2009.

“Pole Position” was put together by French Press Films.

Download: “Kilometer” by Tempo No Tempo

Tempo No Tempo – “Pole Position” from French Press Films on Vimeo.

If you’ve been following FensePost for a while, you may have heard of Railcars. We premiered a song off their EP Cathedral With No Eyes back when it was just a demo, and we had great things to say about their debut 7″ single Cities Vs. Submarines as well. So yeah, we’ve been a fan of these guys for some time. Railcars is an experimental noise pop outfit from San Francisco fronted by Aria Jalali, and we’re now giving them more love by giving away a copy of last year’s Cathedral EP.

At present is a second item of note. Frontman Aia Jalali is handing out (by way of a Banned Books Muxtape) a free download remix album, where (I believe) Jalali gives his experimental noise treatment to the likes of No Age, Xiu Xiu, and Lucky Dragons to name a few. Word on the street is that you’ll be able to pick up the remix EP from Aria’s site as well. The EP isn’t out yet, but it will be soon.

Cathedral With No Eyes (out now on Stumparumper) blends the lo-fi freak-out noise of the terse moments Jamie Stewart occasionally dispels upon audiences with grating harmonies and catchy melodies.

Giveaway Specifics
So here’s what you have to do… pick one (or more) of the following by Wednesday, May 5 and we’ll choose a winner:
1. Listen to the songs and give your two cents in a comment!
2. Tweet this on Twitter (don’t forget to mention @fensepost, and follow us while you’re at it)!
3. Like us on Facebook and leave a little note about a recent post or something.

Here’s the excellent title track off Cathedral With No Eyes. Beware: you’ll need to crank up the volume because it’s best ingested that way. Still, there’s potential that it will make your ears bleed while putting a move to your feet.

Download: “Cathedral With No Eyes” by Railcars

Jeans Wilder remixed “Castles” by Railcars, one of the top tracks from Cathedral With No Eyes. Check it below:

Download: “Castles (Jeans Wilder’s Day Off Remix)” by Railcars

And here’s a pretty amazing remix Jalali gave to Seamonster’s “Oh Appalacia”, which was released on one of our favorite singles from the year so far.

Download: “Oh Appalacia (Railcars Remix)” by Seamonster

It seems like everyone’s raving about The Morning Benders this year, and after picking up a few copies of their single Promises, I’m joining the crowd. While “Promises” isn’t my favorite, it does warrant a hefty portion of merit thanks to unbearably catchy guitar riffs and vocal hooks. It’s an easy track to love, packed with plenty of pop and a fair share of originality to boot. My true favorite, though, is “Excuses”.

All this talk about favorites and I feel this needs to come with a disclaimer: I have yet to experience the band’s LP Big Echo in its entirety. Big Echo is in my queue to pick up on vinyl in the next month or so, budget permitting. Hopefully then I can fully experience the album everyone seems to be raving about.

The band dropped by Yours Truly for a little session in which they performed the song, joined by an entourage of additional musicians from the San Francisco area (Isn’t that the long-haired dude from Girls in there?) and a slew of percussionists. You can check that video out below.

From what I’ve heard thus far, The Morning Benders has me pretty excited to hear more. And I’d be surprised if, after listening to “Promises” and watching “Excuses”, you don’t feel the same.

Download: “Excuses” by The Morning Benders

Download: “Promises” by The Morning Benders

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.