The Tractor Tavern is in for a night of Indie Blues-driven Folk on Friday, May 31st. Seattle native, Tom Eddy (also Beat Connection vocalist), is playing along with openers Heatwarmer and Pollens. “Tractor booker Greg Garcia offered me the opportunity to put together a bill of my choosing.  In my humble opinion, the resulting bill showcases some of the most amazing bands/musicians in Seattle,” Eddy stated.

Fans of Tom Eddy’s music have no doubt been awaiting this next show. “We haven’t played a show since City Arts Fest when we opened up of Blind Pilot at the ShowBox,” Tom stated, “But we have been practicing a lot getting ready for various recording sessions.  We decided to track everything live on the record, so it feels like we have been continually getting ready for a show that never happens.  Its been an awesome process so far.”

Tom Eddy’s next album is set to be released in August or September, with a single from the record to be released in June.

Watch Tom Eddy perform the title track off his 2012 EP The Bread Maker’s Blues and skip down for full show details.

Tom Eddy ‘Bread Maker’s Blues’ from Owl Sessions on Vimeo.

Show Details:

Time: 9:30 PM
Place: The Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave NW Seattle, WA 98107
Cost: Tickets cost $10. They can be purchased at the door or online at ticketweb
This show is 21+.

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“I think I’m gonna buy me a gun / A nice little silver one / And in a crowd someday / you won’t see it coming anyway…” sings Scout Niblett in her new song “Gun”. Partly angst-ridden and bent on revenge, another part emotionless and cold, the song provides an eerie juxtaposition to a modern American society rampant with horrific and predominantly public violence.

This surreal trait is heightened in Niblett’s accompanying video for “Gun”, which finds her wandering a fair dressed as Snow White. It poses the question of whether her (Niblett as the protagonist in the video) seemingly carefree and innocent appearance is actually a facade for an underlying mental instability that could lead to yet another news-grabbing atrocity.

The song itself blends a minimal, gritty folk ballad with a ferocious electric guitar and rough drum bridge just after the midpoint. Check out the song and video below and look for Scout Niblett’s new album, It’s Up to Emma, on Drag City come May 21.

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Club 8 has released their second video for a song off their eighth LP, Above the City, this time for closing track and lead single “Stop Taking My Time”. This video follows a somewhat disturbing one about animal cruelty for album opener “Kill Kill Kill”. Throughout, Above the City is a return to the more dance-worthy beats Johan Angergård and Karolina Komstedt have sprinkled throughout Club 8′s 18-year career.

The one exception and outlier, of course, being the band’s brilliant previous album, The People’s Record.

About “Stop Taking My Time”, I noted:

In a way, the beats backing “Stop Taking My Time” are a bit reminiscent of what Angergård created with his third album under The Legends name, Facts & Fiction.

The new video is a play on colors and silhouettes, which add to Angergård’s dark synth lines and Komstedt’s dreamy vocals. Toward the end, Club 8 breaks from the silhouette trend and we actually see the band cast in assorted glows from the lighting.

“Stop Taking My Time” is easily the album favorite, but don’t take my word for it. There’s a lot of greatness on Above the City, so you should give the full LP a listen. It comes out May 21 on Labrador Records.

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To accompany the official announcement of their forthcoming LP, White Lighter, Portland’s critically acclaimed Typhoon has released a new digital single for their track “Dreams of Cannibalism”. The new album will be released August 20 on Roll Call Records. Longtime fans of Typhoon will be pleased; “Dreams of Cannibalism” follows the band’s penchant for changing up time signatures, adding plenty of horns, and featuring a chorus of singers.

And there is plenty of that good ol’ experimental folk-pop they seem so fond of as well. Just listen to that piano throughout the earlier moments of the song. Adding to the mix is a subtle slide guitar.

This lengthy pull quote from the press release will give you a glimpse into Typhoon’s creative and recording processes:

Recorded at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon, Typhoon isolated themselves from outside distractions to arrange and record this collection of songs with an impressive emphasis on storytelling and melody.

“On the farm, we were living inside the record,” says songwriter Morton. “I had one place in the woods where I would write and rewrite one song, and a different place for working another. The whole thing was laid out spatially over so many acres. I built a small fort in the wood barn where I kept my books and guitar. Slept a couple feet away from the recording desk. When it was cold, we built wood fires, when it was warm we went swimming down the road. Friends came and went, sometimes recording with us.”

To me, that sounds absolutely delightful. Relaxing and empowering at the very least.

Get excited for White Lighter, and for those who are new to Typhoon, do check out Typhoon’s A New Kind of House EP from 2011 and their 2010 LP Hunger and Thirst.

The post Typhoon: Dreams of Cannibalism (mp3) appeared first on FensePost.

In 2010, Young Hunting released a single called Into Your Mind; featuring the band at the time, I noted how the band was somewhat reminiscent of Swedish artist Moto Boy. The band also employed hints of The Beach Boys-style harmonies and had some Harry Nillson references too. Three years later, after a handful of additional singles, we finally have Young Hunting’s debut LP, Hazel.

I like this sound. It’s more refined than the early stuff. Though “Into Your Mind” opens Hazel, the album quickly finds Young Hunting better defining their sound, finding clever, dreamy harmonies and mixing in a fuller sound with superb guitar riffs and an occasional guitar solo.

Hazel is out June 11 on Gold Robot Records. Above photo by Paul T. Bradley.

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I’ve been getting into several new albums of late, and when that happens, I often want to play several songs from the same band on my radio show. I restrained myself, narrowing it down to a pair each; that’s the theme of tonight’s show – doubles. I’ll be playing back-to-back tracks from each artist I play tonight, including new stuff by The Besnard Lakes, Wolf People, King Tuff, and Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat dan Singa. We begin, however, with a band I originally covered way back in 2010: Young Hunting.

Regarding the above photo: I rode to the top of Little Mountain four times over the past week. Each ride included an intense 950 foot climb, most of it taking place in about 1.5 miles. This photo was shot at the North Lookout. However, on May 10 my pedals took me elsewhere, riding from Mount Venron to Conway, through La Conner and out toward Anacortes before making my way home in a 40 mile trip.

Young Hunting

Way back in 2010, I covered Young Hunting and their first single, relating the band to Swedish artist Moto Boy and dropping The Beach Boys’ name as well. That was for “Into Your Mind”, which is the opening track off Young Hunting’s debut LP Hazel on Gold Robot Records.

1. “Sweet Bird” off Hazel
2. “Baby’s First Steps” off Hazel

Dennis Callaci & Simon Joyner

Simon Joyner is a pretty familiar name; if he isn’t, he should be. Joyner has compiled quite the library of work, with thirteen LPs to his name to date. He has once again joined with Refrigerator member Dennis Callaci for New Secrets, the duo’s second together.

3. “Old Man in the Rain” off New Secrets
4. “The Frayed End of the Rope” off New Secrets

The Besnard Lakes

When I think of The Besnard Lakes, I will always think of the band’s 2007 release, The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse. That album was defining — featuring 60s pop-style harmonies backed by dreamy, aural, near-shoegaze instrumentation, the sound they built was unique. The band has had a few releases since then, their most recent just released via their long-time label Jagjaguwar.

5. “People of the Sticks” off Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
6. “The Spectre” off Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO

Wolf People

Wolf People are back with their sophomore LP, Fain. Hints of psychedelic guitar flirt with driving indie rock sounds on tracks like “Empty Vessels” and “All Returns”, all of it fronted by well-crafted lyrics that weave intricate stories inspired (per Jack Sharp) by “George Ewart Evans, an oral historian from Suffolk”.

7. “Empty Vessels” off Fain
8. “All Returns” off Fain

Wolf People – All Returns from Phil Poole on Vimeo.

Alex Bleeker and the Freaks

Earlier this week, I covered “Don’t Look Down” off How Far Away by Alex Bleeker and the Freaks. I noted that the band is like a Woodsist supergroup influenced (at least vocally) by Little Wings.

9. “Don’t Look Down” off How Far Away
10. “Who Are You Seeing?” off How Far Away

Rose Windows

Early this week, I also covered The Sun Dogs by Rose Windows. In the piece, I noted that “after spending a few glorious hours with it today in the sun, I am excited to say I have a fourth contender for best album of 2013.” I’ve listened to the album close to a dozen times now, and it still excites me. I couldn’t pass up a chance to play two more tracks off the new LP.

11. “Walkin’ With a Woman” off The Sun Dogs
12. “Wartime Lovers” off The Sun Dogs

MMOSS

MMOSS has a sound imbedded in late 60s, early 70s psychedelic pop. Multiple vocalists produce mystic harmonies atop music that could easily have been from a similar era Nuggets release. But here we are in 2013 and this album, i, is only a year old.

13. “Woolgathering” off i
14. “Hedge Creeper” off i

King Tuff

Last year, King Tuff’s self-titled LP made it fairly high on my list of the best albums of the year. First impression of Was Dead is that Tuff is due for a repeat. The new LP is called Was Dead and it’s out May 28 on Burger Records.

15. “Dancing on You” off Was Dead
16. “Connection” off Was Dead

The Fresh & Onlys

One of my favorite artists over the past few years has been The Fresh & Onlys. Last year’s Long Slow Dance came pretty close to cracking my top 5 albums of the year. I grabbed “Do What I Came To Do” off Stash Rituals this morning and simply had to play it. It features the same catchy garage rock I’ve come to expect from this band.

17. “Foolish Person” off Long Slow Dance
18. “Do What I Came To Do” off Stash Rituals

Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat dan Singa

I was a bit surprised upon first listening to “I Feel the Quickening” off Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat dan Singa’s new LP Open the Crown. First, it features Arrington spitting out vocals in English rather than his signature Indonesian guttural chanting. I’m also not hearing that wild free-jazz bass clarinet that he’s so partial to. Still, the incessant, consistent garage rock patterns remain. Both missing elements return in “There Will be No Survivors”, but to a lesser extent than before.

19. “I Feel the Quickening” off Open the Crown
20. “There Will be No Survivors” off Open the Crown

Tullycraft

After a bit of a hiatus, Tullycraft is back with a new album called Lost in Light Rotation on their forever home Magic Marker Records. Every Scene Needs A Center was released way back in 2007. The closing track even gives a nod to Skagit County with “Anacortes”.

21. “Lost in Light Rotation” off Lost in Light Rotation
22. “Anacortes” off Lost in Light Rotation

Saturday Looks Good to Me

SLGTM returns with One Kiss Ends it All. Like Tullycraft, the band’s last album came out in 2007, so it’s good to see Saturday Looks Good to Me return. The new album is out soon on Polyvinyl.

23. “Invisible Friend” off One Kiss Ends it All

The post Fense’s Radio Show: May 10, 2013 appeared first on FensePost.

San Francisco garage pop outfit The Mantles return with their sophomore LP, Long Enough to Leave. The band has given us a sneak peek from the new album with the psychedelic-leaning, garage pop track “Hello”. For fans of their 2009 self-titled debut LP, this track is sure to please.

With thick, fuzzy guitar riffs and vocal stylings that hint of the 70s, “Hello” finds The Mantles delving further into psych-pop while staying true to their garage-pop roots. It’s no surprise that Kelly Stoltz recorded Long Enough to Leave; you can hear Stoltz’s influence throughout “Hello”. It’s a good thing.

I am having trouble expressing my excitement behind the release of “Hello” and the announcement of The Mantles’ new LP. Their self-titled debut was easily one of my favorite releases of 2009!

Long Enough to Leave is out June 18 on Slumberland Records.

The post The Mantles: Hello appeared first on FensePost.

Alex Bleeker and the Freaks is set to release his sophomore album, How Far Away. Most out there will focus on the fact that the Freaks is a side band for Real Estate bassist Jackson Pollis, or that it features Woods’ Jarvis Tanviere, but the focal point should be on the band’s name: Alex Bleeker. It his with Bleeker that the direction is set and the project comes together.

How Far Away opens with “Don’t Look Down”, which immediately sets the tone somewhere between an obvious collage of Woodsist artists, but also hints (thanks to Bleeker’s light narrative and slightly airy, slightly southwestern-tinged vocals) of Little Wings brilliance.

“Don’t Look Down” features a bit of southern jangle guitar with a great laid back swagger and solid organ accompaniment. There’s a lot going on just below the surface; it’s not immediately apparent due to Bleeker’s unique vocals. Then there are the borderline self-pitying lyrics:

“Don’t look back on the way we met/ don’t look back at me now/ don’t retract all the things you’ve said/ don’t back out on me.”

The song sets the tone for How Far Away, which includes plenty of other greats including “Home I Love”, “Who Are You Seeing?” and “Rhythm Shakers”. To sum it up, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks is like a supergroup of Woodsist names fronted by a guy influenced slightly by Little Wings. In other words: Freaking awesome.

How Far Away is out soon on Woodsist.

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Walter Sickert & The ARmy of BRoken TOys have a few traits that I sometimes frown upon, more to my own undoing than anything else. The dual capital letters in ARmy of BRoken TOys bugs me; I’m one for proper capitalization, spelling and punctuation, and it just reminds me a bit too much of the people WhO wRiTe LiKe ThIs. Second is Mr. Sickert’s dreadlocks. The things just creep me out — on anyone. Then again, he does have a somewhat George Clinton vibe going, which is a plus on the appearance side.

Beyond those two minute pet peeves is a band filled with talent, and it just took a little extra time for me to get over the personal annoyances and see it. The band also sent me their album on a sweet piece of wax, which is a big plus. (Disclaimer: Their sending me that has nothing to do with my opinion of the band in this post, nor the fact that I’m writing about them in the first place.)

First and foremost is their opening track “Devil in the Details”, and that’s likely where I’ll be spending the majority of my time. With a vibe that meshes a Devotchka-style of rock, adorned with color, dark-ish instrumentation and theatrics, Sickert and his ARmy bring forth something quite mighty.

From the band’s bio/album overview:

The name of the band came to Walter in a dream. He had been living in a haunted barn in the woods of New Hampshire and would often record very late at night. During one of these sessions on a mid-winter’s eve, he fell asleep curled under a pile of broken porcelain dolls. The dolls kept him warm and infiltrated his dream, marching as a musical army and finishing the recording he was working on, much like the elves in the tale of the shoemaker. Upon waking Walter realized that the song he had been working on was indeed finished and embarked on a journey to find real life broken toys to join him in his musical alchemy.

It seems a bit bizarre, but philosophically, we all have our own skewed realities and I like to think that of Mr. Sickert is pretty damn special. It takes a great mind to craft your own world, and while there are many such minds out there, only select ones can breed that into insurmountable creativity. Within his ARmy are “a troop of thirty-six performance artists who bring contortion, burlesque, and aerial performance to The ARmy of BRoken TOys’ arsenal.”

You get a minor glimpse of this in that opening track, “Devil in the Details”. There’s the sense that what’s lurking within is much greater than that which you can hear; a hint that you’re missing a few senses… that which you can see and feel (and perhaps even smell). There is some really great stuff in here, and I feel that with their recorded work, we’re just scratching the surface.

The LP is called Soft Time Traveler and you can find it now on The ARmy of BRoken TOys website.

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Every so often an album drops that makes you freak out a little bit inside; enter Seattle-based Rose Windows, my latest obsession. Their new album, The Sun Dogs, will be released June 25 via Sub Pop and, after spending a few glorious hours with it today in the sun, I am excited to say I have a fourth contender for best album of 2013. The band just released their first single off the LP, “Native Dreams”.

The song opens with a flute solo before giving way to a solid guitar riff and organ. But at the forefront of Rose Windows’ powerful experimental psychedelic rock are the mystical vocals of Rabia Shaheen Qazi. Somewhere between Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and The Besnard Lakes’ Olga Goreas, Qazi’s vocals have been called enchanting and exotic for good reason.

“Native Dreams” is the obvious first single, but The Sun Dogs includes an additional eight tracks that range from the psych-ballad “Walkin’ With A Woman” to the hyper-dreamy swagger of “Indian Summer”.

Rose Windows is on the road now in support of The Sun Dogs and will be rolling through their home-state around mid-month. Listen to “Native Dreams”, watch the album’s teaser video and jump below for local dates, including a stop in Bellingham!

May 16 – Olympia, WA – The Northern
May 17 – Bellingham, WA – The Shakedown
May 18 – Spokane, WA – Baby Bar
May 25 – George, WA – Sasquatch Music Festival
May 26 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir
Jul. 27 – Seattle, WA – Capitol Hill Block Party

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I love bands that have only a few hundred fans on Facebook and a sound that begs to be heard. The latest to come to my attention is Portland-based Lubec, who boasts four members, three of which provide vocals. On their new track “Local Celebrity”, male-female vocals front a sound that Portland Mercury calls “fuzz-drenched guitars to give it a charming shoegaze-twee feel.”

This shoegaze-twee thing is spot-on, and it’s not the first time the band has delved into this realm; their thirteen-song LP from January of this year fits as well. That LP, Wilderness Days, can be snagged on 12 inches of white vinyl via Lubec’s bandcamp page. In particular, I’m quite fond of the track “Run With What You’ve Found”.

You can get a sense of Lubec’s personality through their sentence-long bio:

Lubec is a wandering noise-pop concern that seeks questions for the answers via blown piano, whammy-fuzz, and room reverbs that you can drink.

They aren’t joking about those reverbs; they’re thick. In “Local Celebrity”, it adds to the shoegaze-twee nature of the band. It’s not necessarily dark as one might associate with music that includes the pairing of terms shoegaze and fuzz. Instead it is as the band notes: “catchy AND unpredictable.”

Check out “Local Celebrity” below. The song is a sneak peek off the band’s forthcoming LP, due out later this year. It’s in the works now and currently being engineered/produced by Nucular Animals’ Rober Comitz. Above photo by Kelli Pennington.

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German Error Message returns with their first newly recorded material since a May 2011 single called In Comforting. The album, The Lifting, features seven new tracks and is available as a limited (to 25, so hurry!) cassette from Tent Revivalist Records and digitally from the same German Error Message bandcamp page. FensePost is excited to premiere “There’s a Place” off the new album.

It’s hard to believe that my introduction to German Error Message came two years ago. On April 25, 2011, I wrote about the band and its After the Warmth LP:

Oddly enough, the band has garnered comparison to local haunts like The Microphones. This is only partly true, as that band’s repertoire features both soft songs and loud ones. German Error Message is soft all around, but there are definite similarities in the two bands’ vocal styling.

Listening to “There’s a Place”, you hear the Microphones/Mount Eerie reference. It’s the lo-fi nature of German Error Message’s music and the soft-spoken vocals of Paul Kintzing. In fact, this album has many audible parallels to an album like Mount Eerie’s Lost Wisdom. It’s stripped down, often split between fully acoustic and a light hint of electric guitars, fairly minimal with songs and lyrics centered around stories.

The two have similar lyrical pairings, though German Error Message is very much its own. “There’s a Place” is a prime example; from the song’s humble acoustic beginnings, it grows with fuzzy-ish percussion that was recorded a bit hot (classic lo-fi) and light forays into bedroom-folk experimentation.

In particular, this song may have been the inspiration behind the cover art:

I like the look of the dark from afar /
Over my shoulders, standing in the back yard /
Nothing there anymore…

To quote German Error Message’s bio, the band “creates songs that exist in a realm of feeling that is all their own.” Such a true statement made all the truer on “There’s a Place”. Check out the song below and grab The Lifting on cassette before its gone (and digitally from bandcamp when it is).

Download: “There’s a Place” by German Error Message

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FensePost is excited to debut the new Nick Jaina track “These Fair Hands” off his new LP, Primary Perception, out now on Portland label Fluff & Gravy. His sixth album overall but his first for Fluff & Gravy, Primary Perception promises a more theatrical sound from Jaina, full of additional instrumentation. And “These Fair Hands” is no exception.

Actually, “These Fair Hands” takes an approach more along the lines of mid-era Decemberists, with heavier guitars, a trifle more story-telling, and hints of an underlying garage-folk influence. About the album, a little press note states the following:

The title Primary Perception refers to the gut instinct or sincere spontaneous emotions you have in a given moment, versus the calculated thoughtout response that comes after.

I like that. Essentially, the album was pieced together in-the-moment, with arrangements and parts occasionally pieced together on the fly by Jaina’s guests and friends who decided they’d like to be on the album and were available at time of recording.

“These Fair Hands” comes off as intricate and planned despite its more seemingly scatter-shot beginnings. You’ll get a lot of that on Primary Perception: plush sounds that are tight, complex and varied despite their more experimental conception. Check out the song below and grab Primary Perception now from Fluff & Gravy. Above photo by Talia Gordon.

Download: “These Fair Hands” by Nick Jaina

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I picked up a new toy a few hours before my show. My bike had been in the shop for a few days with a broken spoke and to get a new chain and cassette (the latter of which was a special order item), and I decided to try out a 2012 model Trek. Ended up using my old bike as a trade in and coming home with the new ride pictured above. With this kind of reckless spending, I needed a garage/psychedelic rock kind of night.

Here’s my playlist for April 26, 2013, along with a few words about each song/band:

“Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys” by Black Lips off Black Lips / Icky Blossoms (Record Store Day 7″ Single)

I love this cover of Willie Nelson’s famous tune. Black Lips give it a substantial nod, throwing in a little slop and plenty of garage, making it the perfect opener for tonight’s show. After picking up this Record Store Day single last week, I wrote some words about it.

“Django” by Federale off The Blood Flowed Like Wine

I really dig the spaghetti western meets psychedelic rock thing Portland’s Federale have created. The Blood Flowed Like Wine features two very complimentary yet distinctly different sounds. One is instrumentally-focused with occasional accompaniment of whistling, the other is songs like “Django”.

“The Gifts You Hide” by The Soft Hills off Chromatisms

I covered The Soft Hills back in February, noting the following:

(The Soft Hills) mixes psychedelic rock with shoegaze sensibilities for a very heavy sound, but — and listening to it again, it may sound funny to say this — they do it so lightly, so delicately. It’s a contradiction that The Soft Hills have mastered throughout Chromatisms.

You get that here in “The Gifts You Hide”.

“Humans Be Swayed” by Thee Oh Sees off Moon Sick

I covered this EP last week and here’s what I had to say about this track:

“Humans Be Swayed” is frantic and über-catchy. Loud, swirling guitars meet with playful vocal hooks. Here we hear melody driven by bass guitar and vocals. It is one of two songs leaning post-punk on the EP, and, undoubtedly, the more notable.

Read the full review here.

“Candy Clock” by Thee Oh Sees off Moon Sick

And about “Candy Clock”:

“Candy Clock”, too, is equally catchy but a bit more laid back and hints of a late-60s, early-70s style of psych-rock/pop. With plenty of la las, occasional emphasis on percussive toms, and a jangle-worthy guitar riff, “Candy Clock” is the EP’s jaw-dropper.

“Summer in the City” by VietNam off VietNam

VietNam has a new album out this year, which is pretty exciting given their last one drew a crap-ton of hype and was released way WAY WAY back in 2007! That previous album was self-titled and included this song, “Summer in the City”. Now, I haven’t heard anything off the new LP, but you bet I’m planning to soon.

“G 4 A G” by JJUUJJUU off FRST

After a few listens to JJUUJJUU, I simply had to cover the band, which I did earlier today (being April 26) here. This is monumentally energetic, sonic psychedelic rock at its finest.

“Sleepwalker” by Moon Duo off Circles

I love that thick psychedelic sound, packed with energy and borderline overwhelming with noise. Like JJUUJJUU, Moon Duo certainly fits the mold. “Sleepwalker” is off last year’s LP Circles.

“Maryanne Rising” by MMOSS off i

I still haven’t given MMOSS’s 2012 LP i a full listen, only dabbling in the LP here and there. I need to change that, especially after discovering “Maryanne Rising”. Such a great song!

“58th Street Fingers” by Gap Dream off Gap Dream

I can see Gap Dream’s self-titled debut becoming one of those albums I listen to intensely for a month or so before letting it slip into the abyss of my collection, only to re-discover it half a year later in a recurring pattern. Opener “58th Street Fingers” is likely to forever be my favorite, too. I’m ecstatic that I was able to grab this one on clear vinyl.

“Mirror” by Maston off Shadows

I became obsessed with Maston after watching their video for “Messages”. Shadows, like Federale’s The Blood Flowed Like Wine, can be split into two categories one of which is instrumental. Maston, however, produces jangly psych-pop in both these sides.

“Dreambuilding” by GOAT off Dreambuilding (7″ Single)

I love the energy behind Swedish psychedelic band GOAT. The first half of the song sets the pace with wild and crazy everything: guitar, vocals, cowbell. The second half throws it out the window for a truly gnarly guitar solo. Super easy to see why Sub Pop signed these folks. I’ll be covering this single soon, so stay tuned for more!

“Presence of Mind” by The Fresh & Onlys off Long Slow Dance

When I reviewed Long Slow Dance last year, I had this to say:

Long Slow Dance is, for the most part, a departure from the rough and the grit of Play It Strange for something I can only describe as a bit more contemporary. I know, right!? It sounds strange to say that, given The Fresh & Onlys‘ occasional penchant for noisy, rambunctious (albeit not overly so) psychedelic rock.

It’s an odd statement, but it fits. Read the full review here. Check out the video for this song:

“Summertime” by Girls off Album

I always forget how diverse the music of Girls can be. Christopher Owens is a phenomenal songwriter, and it shows in his ability in a song like this, “Summertime” off their debut LP Album, which transforms multiple times throughout, from an upbeat garage pop song that morphs into a space-y almost post-rock drone before dropping into a heartfelt ballad to close out the track.

“See You There” by Psychic Ills off One Track Mind

Along with The Men’s New Moon and Darlings’ Perfect Trip, Psychic Ills’ 2013 LP One Track Mind is right up their in the running for my favorite album of the year (thus far). Sacred Bones has done a phenomenal job putting out truly amazing releases, two of which are noted here. “See You There” is one of many high points on this album.

“Without A Face” by The Men off New Moon

These lyrics get me every time: I saw a man without a face / I think about him everyday. The way these lyrics come off, effortlessly, emotionless. It makes them all the more powerful. As of right now, New Moon has my early vote for album of the year.

“Rain On” by Woods off Songs of Shame

Each time I hear “Rain On”, I think the following thought: I need to listen to “Songs of Shame” more. I’ve had this LP for ages, but have only given it an embarrassingly few listens.

“Run Like the Hunted” by Wymond Miles off Under the Pale Moon

Wymond Miles, of course, is the guitarist for The Fresh & Onlys and Under the Pale Moon is his solo debut. With each listen, I get more and more into this album. Current favorites: “Lazarus Rising”, “You & I Are of the Night” and “Run Like the Hunted”.

“Hazel” by The Woolen Men off The Woolen Men

“Hazel” is the Woodist debut by The Woolen Men, though the band has a few prior recordings under their belt. “Hazel” is my current favorite off the LP, thanks to a catchy riff, prominent tambourine and plenty of vocal hooks. Sample the song over at Pandora.

“Vomit” by Girls off Father, Son, Holy Ghost

I’m a huge fan of the video for Girls’ song “Vomit”. It begins with sexy shots of a cherry red ’64 Mustang. Being a car guy, this excites me. While I don’t see much in the way of coinciding themes between the song and the video, but I don’t care. “Vomit” is one of the better tracks from Girls, right up there with “Hellhole Ratrace” and “Laura”.

“Change” by The Legends off Call It Ours (7″ Single)

The Legends’ 2004 debut LP Up Against the Legends remains one of my all-time favorite albums — definitely a top 3. “Call It Ours” is the album’s opening track and one that received single-status. “Change” is the second track on the album’s B-side and it follows the LP’s other songs in its upbeat nature. It’s easy to hear why it didn’t make the album — doesn’t quite fit — but it’s still among my favorites.

“Where Damage Isn’t Already Done” by The Radio Dept. off Lesser Matters

Sleepy lyrics backed by plenty of fuzzy pop, “Where Damage Isn’t Already Done” was the song that made me fall in love with The Radio Dept. My discovery of this band came on a Labrador Records binge, shortly after becoming obsessed with The Legends.

“Stare Back” by Wax Idols off Discipline & Desire

Oakland (yes, you read that correctly) band Wax Idols have moved their dark post-punk sound from Hozac to Slumberland for their new release, Discipline & Desire. “Stare Back” is the LP’s opening track. The album came out one month ago today (i.e. on March 26).

“Hypnotic Regression” by Girls Names off The New Life

It seems this show has been comprised of label groupings. We’ve heard pairings of bands off Woodsist, Burger and Sacred Bones. Now with Wax Idols and Girls Names, Slumberland Records. Girls Names transformed between their first record and The New Life, expanding to a four-piece and creating a deeper, darker sound, which you hear here on “Hypnotic Regression”.

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