Yes, despite just recently entering my collection, technically this LP is now two years old. The 10th Anniversary of Sleep… Read More »Sleep Party People 10th Anniversary Reissue on Pale Gold Vinyl
I just got my copy of Kishi Bashi‘s Christmas Flexi for “It’s Christmas But It’s Not White Here In Our Town” in the mail. Offered up as a limited edition (only 1000 were pressed, and it’s now sold out) 7-inch single from Joyful Noise Recordings, all proceeds benefit charity while the buyer gets a pretty sweet and exclusive Christmas track to enjoy on vinyl in the shape of a snowflake. Pretty cool if you ask me. Read More »Kishi Bashi: It’s Christmas But It’s Not White Here In Our Town
Bloomington, Indiana isn’t a name that rolls off the tongue as a purveying city of pop greatness. Yet here we have a band, Sleeping Bag, creating some very catchy, sometimes jangle-influenced, other times rock-related pop songs. Read More »Sleeping Bag: Walk Home
“RyBro” finds Helvetia continuing their nod to gritty 90s psychedelic experimentation. Weighty guitars are backed by a hefty organ and laid-back, lazy summer guitar riffs, all of it fronted by hazy, dreamy garage-style vocals.
Read More »Helvetia: RyBro MP3
What to say about Kishi Bashi? He tours with Of Montreal and Regina Spektor. He’s a founding member of Jupiter One. A side project of his called Cop Gravy will release its debut EP later this year on Joyful Noise Recordings (the same label that put out this LP, 151a). So to call Kishi Bashi new to the music scene would be false. He is a well-versed, well-traveled, and in fact quite notable multi-instrumentalist.
Read More »Kishi Bashi: 151a
Brutal honesty: I’m stuck on Helvetia‘s 2011 album The Lam right now. In particular the first track (“Saucer of Dread”) and track 3 (“On the Lam”). Helvetia has returned with a new track called “A Mirror” and it embodies precisely why I dig this band: epic soundscapes, driving shoegaze riffs, hazy melodies, downtrodden vocals.
Read More »Helvetia: A Mirror [Song Review]
Three songs totaling three-quarter hours. That’s a scenario you’d expect from masterful instrumental acts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or early electronic geniuses like Klaus Schulze. In a way, on Aerial Roots CJ Boyd channels both artists. He has the instrumental aspects of the former and the minimalist drone of the later. “Everytime I Don The Ski Mask” mixes various loops and, for the most part, maintains a delicate balance between complex minimalism and meditative consistency. Aerial Roots is an expansive aural state of being on par with the metaphysical experience.
Read More »CJ Boyd: Aerial Roots [Album Review]
Dub and DIY punk are gaining in momentum, a natural progression of the fuzzed out pop that’s been inundating the indie airwaves. The new album, Bell Ord Forrest, by Kansas City dub-noise duo I Love You fits this classification. With an angst-generating array of synth melodies and tripped-out production, the album opens with an undeniable pinnacle, “The Colloquialism Is Simply ‘Gas'”. As the song dives into the repetitive closing synth and bass lines, one is treated to a drone of greatness.
Read More »I Love You: Bell Ord Forrest [Album Review]
What a strange batch of Greek inspired gypsies Hermit Thrushes appear to be! The alt-pop/folk on their new album Slight Fountain is as intriguing as a businessman at Hempfest. And their slightly obtuse yet captivating sophomore release Slight Fountain crosses forward and backwards between obscurity and acoustic purity.
Read More »Hermit Thrushes: Slight Fountain [Album Review]
Joyful Noise Recordings is set to release yet another great album this year, this time by fellow Indiana band Marmoset. Contrary to what you’d expect from a label titled Joyful Noise, the collective of artists rarely warrants the “noise” label. And Marmoset follows suit; their music instead clashes modern garage rock sensibilities with the hazy garage rock of the 60s and 70s.
Read More »Marmoset: Tea Tornado [Album Review]
