I was apprehensive the first time I hear “The Tower” by Wye Oak. The new track, off Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner’s forthcoming LP Shriek, is so vastly different from their previous material, I was almost initiated the metaphorical reject button. Gave it a few days, and tried it again with better results.
Whenever I receive something new from Odonis Odonis, I always have flashbacks to an early EP of theirs. It’s loud, post-punk styling is deep and thick. But the new releases always surprise me. They’re not overpowering. They’re not filled with the gloom and black death that I see in my head.
The Mary Onettes returned last week with their new album, Portico, now out on Swedish label Labrador Records. The band maintains their somewhat dark, 80s style of pop, like a softer, smoother New Order. It’s most obvious in the short LPs second single “Native Dreamâ€.
Oh September Girls. These days, your heavily distorted female dominated pop group is somewhat run-of-the-mill. That sound blew up in the indie masses with Vivan Girls, and it continued with spinoffs Frankie Rose, Best Coast and La Sera. Hell, you even hear a bit of that sound in WOODS-related band The Babies.
Stopping by The Business in Anacortes the other day, owner Nick and I had a chat about local label P.W. Elverum & Sun’s forthcoming release of the somewhat long lost Half-Eaten Guitar by Wyrd Visions.
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.
For those unaware, Virgin Of The Birds is the brainchild of Seattle musician and Abandoned Love Records label head Jon Rooney. Virgin Of The Birds has a new album on the way late this month called Winter Seeds. I recently sat down with Rooney, with whom I’ve been acquainted since my discovery of The Lovely…
KEXP’s Robert Dale is back with a new track called “Loveless Way” from his solo project Belgian Fog. Like his previous singles “Wait For Help” and “You Drive Me to Madness”, “Loveless Way” is an electro-fused pop song with plenty of glorious beats, a few nods to synth-based genres of past, and a deeply introspective…
How To Make A Monster by The Rebel Set came out just about a month ago on Burger Records. I picked up a copy of the cassette and it has accompanied me on my 60 mile round-trip commute ever since. Drenched in a garage-y reverb with a subtle distortion in the vocal track, Phoenix band’s…
Morgan Delt fits the Trouble In Mind mold. That’s to say his thick psychedelic-pop is drenched in layers of complexity of label-mates like Jacco Gardner, MMOSS and Maston. His new self-titled LP on the label dropped yesterday.
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