Andy Fenstermaker is a music lover, writer, marketing professional, and entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to sharing his passion for music with others. He is the founder of FensePost, a renowned music blog that has been sharing the latest and greatest in indie music since 2006. Andy has always been fascinated by the power of music to connect people, and he started FensePost with the aim of sharing his love of music with others. Andy developed a passion for music at a young age. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Andy grew up surrounded by a vibrant music scene that left an indelible mark on him. He attended Washington State University, where he studied Communication and Business. He holds a BA in Communication and a Masters in Business Administration. After graduating, Andy started writing about music and created FensePost as the outlet. The blog has a strong focus on indie music, but also covers a range of other genres including folk, indie pop, psychedelic, garage rock, and experimental. Andy and the blog relocated to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in 2020.
The New Year by The New Year (MySpace) opens with a lengthy, melancholy, minimal guitar strum. Somewhere toward the midpoint an organ chimes in softly. Then the momentum begins to build as the two-thirds mark nears; it is here we finally hear vocals on opening track “Folioâ€, but damnit, the wait was well worth it. Read More »The New Year: The New Year [Album Review]
Written by Fense
Looking at Zach Hill’s album cover for Astrological Straits (out now on Ipecac Records), one is likely to blurt out a common acronym these days: WTF!?!? This cover shows Hill with what looks like play-dough face makeup. Not surprisingly, the same response is yielded when one hits the play button on Astrological Straits. The album is packed with a bizarre and eclectic style of avant garde experimentalism. Read More »Zach Hill: Hindsight Is Nowhere [Video]
Written by Fense
Take note: if you write one thing about a band in New Zealand, you’ll suddenly have to write several things. I was contacted by someone at eep! productions, who if you recall, produced the videos for both The Little Pictures and The Enright House, both of which I covered, here and here respectively. Read More »The L.E.D.s [Feature Band]
These Flowers Of Ours channels an array of 60s subgenres, from folk and psych to jangle-pop and British Invasion. Layered under these vintage sounds, The Asteroid No. 4 (MySpace) combines elements of each sub-genre in a modern blender, portioning all the right amounts to create a concoction they can easily call their own. The result is a cohesive album, both fun and dreamy. Read More »The Asteroid No. 4: These Flowers Of Ours [Album Review]
Written by Fense
As I write this, I am not listening to the recent Sub Pop release of Antidotes by Foals (MySpace), which is a great album by the way. No, I am listening to their Daytrotter Session, available for download here. I am also reading a nice little notice by Sub Pop updating their beloved press contacts with the latest Foals news. Read More »Foals: Olympic Airways [Video]
Written by Fense
So, Id Engager by Of Montreal (MySpace) isn’t necessarily an album, though it will be categorized as such. It’s a single. And boy was I excited to see it in a small pile of singles when I was at Everyday Music in Bellingham last week. There it was, sitting precautiously on the counter top as I picked up $50 for selling them a bunch of old crap. I turned right back around and dished out four bucks for the orange-ish wax. Read More »Of Montreal: Id Engager [Single Review]
Do you want to know something I completely object to? Of course you do—if you’re a regular reader you probably long for me to go off on a rant about something negative. So… listen up: I strongly believe that those who say Oh, nothing good has been released this year have a vastly distorted vision of reality. Their folly is that they don’t expose themselves to that which is new. Take, for example, A Certain Feeling by Bodies Of Water (MySpace)—this album is absolutely brilliant!!! Read More »Bodies Of Water: A Certain Feeling [Album Review]
Written by Fense
I recently joined Jon Rooney on a trip to a record convention in which we perused piles and piles of albums in various collections. On this journey I snagged two 7†singles, one by The Wedding Present and one by The Smiths. As we hit Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood where Rooney resides, he mentioned he had a few albums for me, two of which were Morning Spy (MySpace) releases. Read More »Morning Spy [Feature Band]
Written by Fense
If Stereolab (MySpace) were a person, they’d have recently graduated from high school. That’s how long Stereolab has been around. Eighteen years. That means they formed in 1990. That means I was 10 at the time. Come November they will prepare to enter their fourth U.S. presidency. Their longevity outlives most independent labels and most independent bands; hell, they formed during the Cold War! Read More »Stereolab: Chemical Chords [Album Review]
Written by Fense
The Enright House (MySpace) is a masterful electronic and pop group from New Zealand that I discovered around the same time as Little Pictures (see my coverage of that band here). Both groups came to eep! productions for their videos and it’s easy to see why: eep! knows how to put together a great music video. Read More »The Enright House: Scattering The Sun [Video]
