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Yellow Ostrich: The Mistress [Album Review]

  • Cyndi 

yellow-ostrich

Yellow Ostrich create brilliantly peculiar songs. Their latest album, The Mistress, is a delicious mixture of refreshing sound oddities. Listening to their work is like taking a trip on Willy Wonka’s wild boat ride, only less frightening. Clever lyrical themes and a clean composition make their music whimsical yet unpretentious. These guys know how to weave an element of surprise into their work offering an ideal album for our intermediary pre-spring days. The songs generate an unavoidable lightness in demeanor; they just feel good and are sheer fun to hear. Perhaps most striking is how smoothly the vocals are layered while blending with unexpected instrumental structure and chord progression. Read More »Yellow Ostrich: The Mistress [Album Review]

Jonquil: Fighting Smiles [mp3]

jonquil

I drove down to Seattle about mid-month in January, and in typical form my iPod was on shuffle. I had tossed a bunch of albums on it from my FensePost file, and was looking forward to some new tunes. One band in particular popped up a few times, with interesting synths, clean guitar licks and slightly higher pitched vocals. Each time, the band caught my ear, I had to check out who it was — and it was Jonquil. Read More »Jonquil: Fighting Smiles [mp3]

The Luyas: Tiny Head [Video]

luyas

I’m finding it hard to get over how trippy this video is, and I’m not entirely convinced that’s a good thing. Case in point, I felt the same way about “Casual” by Here We Go Magic. That video was so raw and shocking, it made me look at the song… differently… for a while. And maybe that’s the problem. I’ve only listened to “Tiny Head” by The Luyas while watching the video. Read More »The Luyas: Tiny Head [Video]

Virgin Of The Birds: They Wake [Video]

virgin-of-the-birds

There’s something about the music Virgin Of The Birds creates that is seemingly timeless. It’s absolute, in the present, yet it hints of a time long past. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the songs, with poppy guitar melodies and an ever consistent percussion. The songwriting is where complexity dominates; a lyrical prowess filled with story-like mystery. This mystery has dominated the library Virgin Of The Birds has built. And you can hear it thoughout “They Wake”. Read More »Virgin Of The Birds: They Wake [Video]

Mogwai: How To Be A Werewolf [Video]

mogwai

To me, Mogwai‘s music, were I to pare it down to a single description, portrays a journey in progress. This video conveys that thought; there’s always that sense that something big will happen, whether or not it ultimately comes to pass. “How To Be A Werewolf” never reaches that anthemic moment, that climactic explosion, but it moves forward through life as would a calming daydream. Transcendence comes to pass and we are more aware of our existence through the experience. Read More »Mogwai: How To Be A Werewolf [Video]

boat band

BOAT: (I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong [mp3]

BOAT is prepared to release their fourth album, Dress Like Your Idols, in March and we have here the first single from that album. The song is called “(I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong” and it maintains BOAT’s wild throaty vocals, packed with a seemingly self-deprecating sarcasm and a penchant toward pop culture. It maintains those rockin’ guitar riffs and bouncy percussion. It maintains all those lovable rock hooks, catchy as all hell. Yet it’s slightly different from their past three releases — it’s more mature, refined a little bit, almost grown-up.

Read More »BOAT: (I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong [mp3]

The Heligoats / Sam Humans: Live Free & Let Loose [Album Review]

heligoats

Split releases are always a love-hate thing for me. On the love side, I’m always introduced to a new artist, such as Sam Humans in this case. Humans’ music is a modern style of biting folk rock, filled with wild guitar riffs. “Hate Is The New Love” begins this process with interesting, angular chords, which is heightened with eccentricities and improvised ferocity of “Firedrill”. This song takes the cake, pulling out all the experimental folk brilliance of artists like Royal City or the master Vic Chesnutt himself. Read More »The Heligoats / Sam Humans: Live Free & Let Loose [Album Review]

Gem Club: Acid And Everything [Album Review]

gem-club

If there was anything that mesmerized me about last year’s We Built A Fire by Icelandic band Seabear, it was their ability to craft deep, heartfelt pop songs backed by heart-wrenching orchestral movements. At times their songs even come close to being upbeat. With Gem Club, upbeat isn’t an option. Like Seabear, Gem Club’s songs are orchestrated, but instead of percussion and guitars and full movements they focus solely on the strings of a cello and the keys of a piano. And they front the sounds these instruments make with wispy, longing vocals. Read More »Gem Club: Acid And Everything [Album Review]

Anja McCloskey [Feautre]

anja-mccloskey

What is that glimmering light reflecting off the empty RC Cola can on my window sill? The sun is not shining, but everything seems so bright. That’s when I realized that is was a spirit from an estranged universe shining in and talking to me through my iTunes, its Anja McCloskey singing “Instigate It”. And that is much better anyway! This American-German singer-songwriter and accordionist, who resides in the UK, has a specifically fine-tuned set of vocals that tell of how the heavens can come crashing down on to us at any moment; it’s simply enlightening. So we better start loving now. Read More »Anja McCloskey [Feautre]

Happy Valley [Feature]

  • Cyndi 

happy-valley

I have no idea how many hours of my life are spent swimming through music land listening to bits and pieces of various things only occasionally finding anything worth remembering. Even worse is once something incredible is actually found the journey there is rarely if ever remembered. Happy Valley is a perfect example. Yeah sure bandcamp is a fairly surface level exposition of music but there remains little to no information about the majority of its artists. All I can definitively say about the songs of Happy Valley is: they’re intoxicating. I have no idea how I found them but every part of me this thankful I did. All together pervasive and pulsing these songs just feel good. The intricately-textured instrumentals with muffled-vocals sound seems to be everywhere these days producing good, bad and even mediocre songs. Happy Valley feels to be in its own category of pure, reflective escapism. Simply mesmerizing. Read More »Happy Valley [Feature]

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