The new Skyband additions of bass, drums, pianos and the occasional banjo plant the Skygreen Leopards somewhere more between the countrified jangle of Americana and the feel-good notions of blue skies pop than ever before.
Singer Victoria Legrand is a cross between Nico and Karen Carpenter, with her siren-like vocals covering the backdrop of hazy, reverb-laden organs & guitar. Courtesy of Car Park Records
This definitely feeds back to a time in the past, the sixties perhaps, but at times it fuses in parts of the seventies or even modern sounds. It's lo-fi and bubbling with life. It's looks back at a time when music and life in America were more simple than it is now, but David makes things more complex than they used to be, bringing the kind of modern dilemmas into the lyrics that were unheard of back in 60's music.
On The Lost Take, Dosh lays down a range of influences, from jazz to electronic to hip-hop to anything that seems to be bouncing around his ears. Dosh filters the world into his music, and his music gives you the world. Courtesy of Anticon Records
Upbeat bleeping contrasted with miserablist vocals. Xiu Xiu prove as well as being superior experimental indie kids, they can actually write a good pop song worth singing along to. Courtesy of Kill Rock Stars
There are many names for the kind music The Blow creates... glitch-hop, indie R&B, etc. It's the kind of bass-heavy music that makes you want to to reach for the volume dial and the bass control to increase the saturation to full-on, earth shaking levels. Maybe the Blow should be measured on the Richter scale? Courtesy of K Records
The music is real and visceral, with roots in dark 80's UK sounds. ¡Forward, Russia! have been called anything from dance-punk to to post-punk to math rock. The one thing everybody seems to agree on is that the sound is explosive and the music is addictive.
Motor City natives TAN! typify the urgency common when college students polished up punk and experimented with their parents’ keyboards in
the early 80’s. Courtesy of Frenchkiss Records
Les Georges Leningrad describe themselves as ‘petrochemical rock’, but it's more like rock with random electronic keyboard stranglings. Courtesy of Dare To Care Records
Sounding like Apples In Stereo crossed with early Sonic Youth and lost and wandering around in the collective unconscious, Welcome sounds like everything revolutionary that has ever happened in music... fractured 60 psych pop songs, indie rock rule bending, experimental structure, and a very cool sense of musical mytique that is hard to put into words.
Imagine the spirit of Joy Division inhabiting a band that has a love for experimentation and the bass guitar. And a female lead singer. And they're from Australia.
Recorded in the remote woods of Elktooth, Colorado, the album is a collection of pounding tribal drums, deep-throated chants and plenty of dark imagery. Courtesy of Sounds Familyre
Sounding like an indie rock band with an urge to experiment with a blend of off-hand background sounds, Annuals create music that seems ordinary on the first listen. Repeated listens will reward you with a dense layering of noises and sounds that build a greater sound around the song structure.
More new school from Toronto. Their music includes rumbling bass lines mix with jagged guitar lines to merge into the superform of indie rock with distorted, grilled vocals. They've garnered comparisons to David Bowie, Joy Division, and Pavement. It's like slight noise mixed with melody and hooks.
A cover of a song by Clinic called Distortions, recorded at the Alberta Court studio on an eight track. I can just picture Chris in the corner, operating an eight track recorder while electricians are coming and going behind him while working on the studio at large.
A hybrid of sounds loosely based around experimentalism, electronic leanings, and whatever they feel like throwing in at any particuliar moment. From the album The House of Apples & Eyeballs.
Sanguine pop experimentaion - noise pop, fuzzy noise, and energy. CNN's Anderson Cooper likes them - maybe you should heed Mr. Cooper's recommendation. Courtesy of Absolutely Kosher Recordings
One half of the dynamic duo of Fiery Furnaces, Matthew Friedberger has released a double album of solo material - 1 part pop and and the other part experimental. That's what you get in these two songs - an example from each. Courtesy of 859 Recordings
The Minders deliver blink and you’ll miss them pop gems with stellar production, engaging lyrics focusing on life and love, and just the right amount of musical accents & flourishes to keep them from becoming forgettable. Courtesy of Future Farmer Records
hard-edged, post-hardcore, math influenced music that shows the band growing into new heights of songwriting and experimentation. Courtesy of Jade Tree Records
Musically, the band remains as straightforward rock as they always have. Singer Tim Kasher sings on the verge of yelling, and power chords and catchy hooks are still around.
The semi-psychedelic alt-country of Return of the Native feels like being alone in a nowhere desert town. Anchored by the brush drumming of Matt Griffin and melancholic guitar wails, Amber Webber lends somber seductiveness. Courtesy of Secretly Canadian Records
It's kind of a quieter version of Deerhoof, more pop-oriented. You can definitely see what Chris' contribution to his former band was, but now The Curtains are a whole new thing!
Plenty of echoplex knockouts, but this time Comets On Fire teeter around the threshold of sanity rather than spending all of their time beyond it. It's this kind of reservation that makes you want more... Courtesy of Sub PopRecords
Dry guitar sounds soaked in reverb, but Your Black Star lays it over pop leanings while still retaining some of their indie roots. They sound like they grew up listening to the Cure. Courtesy of Wonka Vision Records
Combining elements of folk stylings and bohemian influences, Lewis & Clarke creates the type of hybrid that is not only off the beaten path, but also unique onto itself.
Cale Parks from Aloha is releasing some of his own stuff - home recordings of electronic music. It's ambient and flowing. Courtesy of Polyvinyl Records
Features 13 tracks from artists at the Intonation Festival - The Stills, Robert Pollard, Panthers, The Sword , The Streets, Boredoms, Bloc Party, Favourite Sons, Jose Gonzalez, The Constantines, Lady Sovereign, and High On Fire. Dig it! Courtesy of KEXP.org
Part of the noisy, droney movement that seems to be sweeping through the US right now. It's fuzzy, dark, and oh so good. Courtesy of Light In The Attic Records
