The Middle East is another Australian-based band with an interesting history and a bright future. Formed in 2005, they recorded one album called The Recordings of The Middle East then split up. Less than a year later, they regrouped and re-released an abridged version of that album as an EP that was released in the US late last year. It’s an absolutely gorgeous album comprised of a compelling combination of vocal harmonies, plunking guitars and electronic ambience. The group have just finished recording their debut album in Denton, TX and are hitting the road for an exhaustive tour. They’ll be playing at San Francisco’s Slim’s on June 2 opening for Mumford & Sons. Don’t miss it as they’ll likely be headlining next time they come around. I wonder if they’ll be fated to change their name like The Muslims?
While you’re pondering that, I’ve got a couple of albums to giveaway to the first takers. Hit me on email theocmd@gmail.com or Twitter @indierockgirl.
Artist: Future Islands Album: In Evening Air Release Date: May 4, 2010 File Under: Post Wave Featured Track: “As I Fall”
If you’re in need of a fresh sound, look no further. This Baltimore-based synthpop, new wave revival trio is really just…spectacular. It’s frontman Samuel T. Herring’s vocals that get me. At times growling like Tom Waits, at others crooning like Matt Johnson he forces you to sit up and listen. It takes a few spins to get acclimated to the album, the tempo, the sound, the voice. But once you do, it’s so damn compelling you won’t be able to stop.
Their debut LP “In Evening Air” will be released on Thrill Jockey May 4 and the band will play San Francisco’s El Rio on May 24.
Danger Mouse strikes again. This time with The Shins’ James Mercer in the self-titled debut, Broken Bells. Do I really need to say any more? Okay, the two met at a Danish music festival way back in 2004 and began secretly working on the album late 2008. The pair released “The High Road”as the debut single late December to promote the album that’s due out March 9. But the full album leaked that same month anyway. Are these things really accidental? Hmmm, I wonder. Regardless, it’s fantastic and I love it. Experimental and melodic, chalk it up to another Danger Mouse masterpiece. He truly is the man with the Midas touch.
The minimalist album title, IRM, (French for MRI) was inspired by Gainsbourg’s frequent MRI’s she endured after suffering a brain hemorrhage from a water-skiing accident in 2007. ”I had to do so many [MRIs] and every time I was in that tube I was thinking it would make great music,” she’s quoted as saying. And great music it did make. Her lyrics on the album’s single, “IRM”, offer a detailed, psychedelic journey into her experience and sets the tone for the album. Which, you can hear, is amazing.
Take the locomotive tempo and percussion of The Dodos and add the layered harmonies of The Fleet Foxes with some rapturous chorus outbursts a la Arcade Fire and you pretty much have the sound of Local Natives, an LA-based group whose debut album is an absolute gem from start to finish. Get to know this band.
Artist: Pavement Album: Quarantine The Past- The Best of Pavement Featured Track:“Stereo”
Should I even have to explain this one? No, I shouldn’t. You should understand, however, that this is it for me – the foundation of my lo-fi love, the source. All roads lead to Pavement. And they are finally reuniting this year. So get this remastered best of collection. Learn it, love it, live it.
Let me just say that I’ve been drowning myself in this album since it was released. Drowning, rolling, wallowing, surrendering myself to all of it. I just love it. The first LP from the Saratoga Springs, NY-based duo, it’s the perfect combination of electronic beeps and boops, hazy guitars and spacey synths. Give me more, please. Take a listen yourself and you’ll be begging for it.
Artist: Twin Tigers Album: Gray Waves Featured Track: Everyday
There are times when you hear a new band and just know they are going to be huge. Athens-based, Twin Tigers is one of them. Their debut LP, Gray Waves, is an epic assault of psychedelic, shoegaze rock. Jaw dropping good. The kinda stuff that’ll make you swoon. The kinda band that “could dismantle The Silversun Pickups from their perch.” The kinda sound that will keep you coming back for more. Get into this band is all I have left to say.
Artist: Serena-Maneesh Album: No. 2: Abyss in B Minor Release Date: March 23, 2010 For Fans Of: The Velvet Underground, MBV, Norwegian metal Featured Track: “I Just Want to See Your Face”
Very few bands evoke a visceral reaction in me but Serena-Maneesh is one of them. There’s something about their music that touches a place deep and primal within me. It’s dark, it’s scary and it takes you to the inner recesses of your cobweb-filled mind. Listening to their forthcoming sophomore album, “No.2: Abyss in B Minor”, is a sonic thrill ride like that of a horror movie. And I mean that in a good way. It’s heart-racing, sit on the edge of your seat music that at times makes you want to cover your eyes and peek through your fingers because it’s so terrifying yet irresistible. And just when you think you can’t take anymore, when you’ve come to your absolute edge, Elvira comes on with a sweet, soothing ballad to rest your weary nerves. Few albums leave me so emotionally spent, yet satisfied. Cigarette, please.
Serena-Maneesh is the brainchild of Emil Nikolaisen, who is in his own right Norwegian rock royalty. The new album features a variety of collaborators including Sufjan Stevens who plays vibraphone, flute and piano and his own sister, Elvira, who is a pop star in their country . The band is set to embark on a US tour in support of the new album this month and will land at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill on March 23. I’ve got a pair of tickets to giveaway for the show, along with a 12″ vinyl copy of the single “Ayisha Abyss” to the first reader to hit me via email at theocmd@gmail.com. Come and get ’em!
Artist: Twin Tigers Album: Gray Waves Release Date: March 2, 2010 For Fans Of: Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, A Place to Bury Strangers Featured Track: Sexless Love
Holy shit, this album is unreal. There are times when you hear a new band and just know they are going to be huge. Athens-based, Twin Tigers is one of them. Their debut LP, Gray Waves, out today on Old Flame Records is an epic assault of psychedelic, shoegaze rock. Jaw dropping good. The kinda stuff that’ll make you swoon. The kinda band that “could dismantle The Silversun Pickups from their perch.” The kinda sound that will keep you coming back for more. Get into this band is all I have left to say.
Need help? Okay. I have a handful of albums to giveaway to the first readers to email theocmd@gmail.com and claim them. Then head on out to The Rumble SF this Wednesday to hear them live…for free! RSVP here.And if that doesn’t work, then I’m sorry. You’re a lost cause and need to seek help elsewhere.
Danger Mouse strikes again. This time with The Shins’ James Mercer in the self-titled debut, Broken Bells. Do I really need to say any more? Okay, the two met at a Danish music festival way back in 2004 and began secretly working on the album late 2008. The pair released “The High Road”as the debut single late December to promote the album that’s due out March 9. But the full album leaked that same month anyway. Are these things really accidental? Hmmm, I wonder. Regardless, it’s fantastic and I love it. Experimental and melodic, chalk it up to another Danger Mouse masterpiece. He truly is the man with the Midas touch.
These past few bone-chilling, foggy days here in San Francisco, I’ve been comforting myself in a blanket of fuzz from San Diego’s Tape Deck Mountain. And it feels so good.
The band’s debut album, Ghost, was written by frontman Travis Trevisan during all the free time he had after being laid off from his job last year. With a self-proclaimed ‘mid-fi’ sound, the album title is befitting of the slacker-fuzzed lullabies it creates. Filled with ambient electronics and intricate layers that give way to walls of crashing guitars, the album is intoxicating and the perfect winter elixir. Let’s just hope Travis doesn’t have plans to return to his day job.
Bradford Cox is a genius. That’s all there is to it. And a prolific one at that. Between his work with Deerhunter and his solo work under the alias Atlas Sound, I’m more than satiated, compelled and intrigued. Cox, who suffers from Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by abnormally long limbs, uses his music as a portal into is pain. Who knew suffering could sound so good.
His second album, ‘Logos’, is just as good as his first, ‘Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See...‘ and features a couple collaborations: “Walkabout ” with Noah Lennox of Panda Bear, and the centerpiece of the album for me, “Quick Canal” with Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier that is truly sublime. The 9 minute journey is like an homage to the late Mary Hansen days of Stereolab. Perfection. Just put your headphones on and get lost.
Atlas Sound and Broadcast play Great American Music Hall in San Francisco tonight.
“A Brief History of Love” is the debut album of the UK-based electro-rock duo, The Big Pink, and it has me completely enraptured. Their sound is modern and anachronistic all at the same time – like MGMT meets My Bloody Valentine. It took me a good month to wrap my head around the combination of that and it’s enormity. Once I made it past the wall of distortion and reverb to the other side of their music – the lyrics – I fell to my knees. The impassioned plea of “Velvet”, one of my favorite tracks, particularly slays me. “These arms are mine/ Don’t matter who they hold/ So should i maybe, Just leave love alone/ You call out my name, for the love you need/ Which you won’t find in me.”
The pair will make their way to San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall on November 17. Count me in.
Got my hands on the new Flaming Lips double LP, Embryonic, today and …eeeeoooowww…I’m so excited to see them at the Treasure Island Music Fest this Sunday I can hardly contain myself. I spontaneously squeal every time I think about it. For this album, the band of fearless freaks have ditched their pop tendencies and headed squarely down the path of lo-fi, ethereal psychedelia – while remaining fabulously weird.
In true Flaming Lips fashion, there are plenty of kooky delights to be found on the album, like the track, “I Can Be a Frog” that features Karen O making an array of animal sounds. There’s also a number featuring MGMT, “Worm Mountain“, that has me dreaming…anticipating…a joint performance with the two bands this weekend at Treasure Island. They’re playing the same festival after all. It’s gonna happen. It’s gotta happen. I know it. All hail Wayne Coyne!
the OCMD 