I recently gave in and reluctantly purchased a used car after not having one for 4 years. This was an old used car that I bought where the cd player barely worked, but it did have a cassette deck. On a trip to Soundgarden I found their small cassette section and picked up Dustin Wong’s “Let It Go” album which I played on repeat for a couple months, it’s really great. Besides seeing Wong on a couple occasions in Baltimore (which were also great live performances) this was really the most I had ever been exposed to the music which I now can’t get enough of.

That brings me to a new Dustin Wong album release for Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads due out on February 21st. The first track released off the album (with accompanying video) is “Pink Diamond” which has a very nice sound to it. I can really put his music on at any point in the day and I’ll immediately just start daydreaming.

Pre-order the album now through THrillJockey.

Free Download
Dustin Wong “Pink Diamond”

Video

Dustin Wong – Pink Diamond from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Dustin Wong is also doing an interesting promo for the album:

Meanwhile, Dustin continues to work on his “Say Your Dream, Create a Sound” project. Fans and friends can tell Dustin about a dream by recording a desription of the dream to his Soundcloud page, and he will create an original peice of music inspired by each of the dream and incorporating the description. Dustin will post a selection of these recordings to his Soundcloud page during the week of the release of Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads, beginning on Monday, February 20.

http://www.soundcloud.com/dustin-wong/dropbox

Pitchfork gave this album a measley 4.4, but I wouldn;t really expect them to understand that Nada Surf aren’t a band that are going to be breaking new ground in music but are probably one of the most consistent indie-pop bands out there. I find their albums to be very infectious and something I can pop in at any time of the day for a good quick listen.

You can stream the entire album at Spinner.com.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

One of the more underrated albums of last year was the seemingly out-of-nowhere You Are All I See;  the debut from Active Child. The band is basically just Patt Grossi, and if you’re into M83 (minus the “epic-ness”) you’ll probably dig this album (he opened for M83 last November).

The second single, “Hanging On”, gives a night-drive/end-of-the-night-romp kind of vibe, which is why it surprised me to find the video standing in as more of a soundtrack to a poetic River Runs Through It. This song doesn’t exactly make me think of fly fishing, but the more i watch it the more it works. Check it out, and be sure to track down the whole album. It’s a gem in the rough.

Whenever the cold weather sets in and it’s dark by 5:30PM I tend to veer towards more singer/songwriter type tunes. So it’s kind of perfect that one of the better ones of the past year, Cass McCombs, who put out two (!) albums last year, is coming to town to play the Ottobar this Saturday (1/21). I’ve seen both of his albums on a lot of Best Of lists…if that means anything to you; either way it should be a good show.

Check out his most recent single:

Great new track from Lower Dens recently completed forthcoming album (no release date yet). The track is available for free here.

Excellent new lazy dance track from Tanlines.. I nearly forgot about them and need to go back and listen to the EP they released 2 years ago. Looks like their is a full album coming out this year.

Tanlines “Brothers”