These connections we make can be easy in today’s world (especially if you land more on the middle-ground ambivert end of introversion, as I do), but knowing and understanding ourselves may very well be the greatest challenge of all.
I’m somewhat smitten by the upbeat pop sounds of one of Sub Pop‘s new signings from the past year or two. It’s a little band out of Australia with a weird, long band name: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. If I didn’t have better things to do, like listen to this EP again unhindered by the… Continue reading One Weird, Long Band Name: A Peek at Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s New EP ‘The French Press’
Pretty stoked about the forthcoming LP by The Afghan Whigs. Out May 5 on the band’s longtime label Sub Pop, it’s called In Spades and it promises more of the great rock Greg Dulli and the guys have been doling out since 1986 (minus the 10 year hiatus in the aughts). Want proof? They posted… Continue reading The Afghan Whigs Share Video for “Demon in Profile”
One of my favorite new artists of 2013 was Seattle’s Rose Windows. Their debut LP, The Sun Dogs, on Sub Pop was a luscious array of mildly psych-induced folk rock fronted by Rabia Shaheen Qazi exotic vocals. It continues: Rose Windows have now given us a first taste of life beyond The Sun Dogs with… Continue reading Rose Windows Return with ‘There Is A Light’
To be honest, I almost entirely overlooked Diaper Island, Chad VanGaalen’s 2011 LP on Sub Pop. It just didn’t have the same upbeat nature as his 2008 LP, Soft Airplane, a favorite of that year. His latest venture, Shrink Dust (out next month on Sub Pop), won’t succumb to the same fate.
Joel Thibodeau’s Death Vessel returns in February with a follow up do his Sub Pop debut Nothing is Precious Enough for Us. The new album is called Island Intervals and it’s been a long time coming; his previous release as Death Vessel was way back in 2008.
Every so often an album drops that makes you freak out a little bit inside; enter Seattle-based Rose Windows, my latest obsession. Their new album, The Sun Dogs, will be released June 25 via Sub Pop and, after spending a few glorious hours with it today in the sun, I am excited to say I… Continue reading Rose Windows Prep “The Sun Dogs”
There is little more fleeting yet memorable about youthful pre/early-teen romance for someone my age than a 1980s roller skating rink. London band Still Corners capitalizes on this nostalgia in their new video for “Berlin Lovers” off their forthcoming Sub Pop LP, Strange Pleasures.
Low, the husband and wife duo of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, have been making beautiful music together for 20 years, and on The Invisible Way, their 10th full-length studio album, the lovely, haunting harmonies and melodies that highlight their distinctive sound are once again in strong evidence.
Alright. Let me just say that this Beach House video is totally amazing. It features Ray Wise, best known for his role as Laura Palmer’s father Leland Palmer in David Lynch’s epic Twin Peaks series. “Wishes”, directed by Eric Wareheim, is equally as imaginative, other-worldly and surreal as Wise’s famed role.
