Bournemouth, UK based music blog featuring a selection of downloadable tunes and reviews from both sides of the Atlantic. Subscribe to the mail-out, share my posts below, and spread the word. If you would like to submit your music (or someone elses) then email me at submissions@thismusicwins.com
Surfer Blood are a recently formed surf punk band from West Palm Beach, Florida. They're all in their early 20s, and spent the larger part of their freshmen year at the University of Florida penning their debut album, Astro Coast, out January 19th on Kanine records. Since around the beginning of October, they've been building up some serious hype, impressing at this year's CMJ showcase and embarking on tour with Japandroids and Jay Reatard in preparation for their US headline tour this December.
They make care-free coastal punk music with reverbial vocals and loud overdriven guitars - the whole Surfer Blood sound is huge, catchy and leaves you slightly stunned. They take all the catchy elements of Beach Boys harmonies and coat it in T-Rex style 60s rhythms, with streaming solos and massive chords to match. None of them actually even surf, but they still spend their time singing out about drink, drugs, the beach and how not one of the members can hold down a job.
Surfer Blood are a new band that are loud and extemely likeable, and they don't make a single pretence about breaking the mould. They do catchy US beach punk, with perfect execution. You can pick up new single 'Swim (To Reach The End)' below and see it live via Casual Fridays.
Saintseneca are an indie folk band from the Columbus, Ohio music scene. They put out their first album at the beginning of 2009 and a new four track, the self-titled Saintseneca EP, on September 1st. They play fast paced banjo/guitar folk music with handclaps and twee vocals, with stomping singalong chorusses and simple vocal melodies to match. According to the myspace, they'll play anywhere that 'it echoes, and there's a good floor to stomp on.'
They are currently on mini-tour around Ohio in support of the EP, which now available on Itunes (at full price) and on Paper Brigade, where you can name your own. Promo single God Bones is gorgeously catchy - twee folk at its finest. Furious high pitched strumming starts off the song at a high tempo, before huge percussion and violins present both a folk music anthem and a clear cut lead single from the EP. At two and a half minutes, it captures everything Saintseneca are about, tight strumming, fluid vocals, great lyrics and an endless repertoire of instruments. Saintseneca - God Bones (live)
Saintseneca are definitely a band to keep watch on. You can stream, or buy, the full EP from Paper Brigade Digital, and hear the rest of their music at the myspace page. You can download a collection of their material from earlier this year in RAR format from OHYM.
photo via BrooklynVegan.com, live at Bowery Ballroom.
The Drums is a name that has been kicking around my head to the point that i've been on the brink of listening to them for a couple of months now - and having just seen them confirmed on the NME tour alongside The Big Pink, The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club, the time really has come for me to put some sort of post together.
The Drums formed from the ashes of the two New Yorker's earlier projects - Elkland and HORSE SHOES. Jonathan Pierce (vocals) and Jacob Graham (lead guitar) had been playing music together as far back as 2003, back in the days when their electropop project was known as the Goat Explosion. They never really succeeded under this moniker, and after considerable time playing as Elkland, and subsequently a year or so out from music, Pierce and Graham changed their name to The Drums at the end of 2008 and released two new tracks. This time around, they were infinitely more successful.
They have all the laid back attitude of Vampire Weekend, and a very similar voice to match - 60s basslines and steady leads accompany a fast, clicky and dubbed down set of drumming, giving not only a fast paced, but also an extremely laid back feel to their music. Some tracks have quite a synthpop side to them, and parts even dip into powerpop, other songs are much more pop and post-punk influenced. They are not afraid to sing either, quite often their songs end up with finger clicks, handclaps and whistling to accompany their well-frequented two part harmonies. Ultimately, The Drums are rather erratic indie dance band, but to be honest, putting a finger on the exact genre is a difficult task. Have a listen for yourself below, and catch the video to Let's Go Surfing above.
They have a massive amount of shows booked in for February next year on the NME 2010 Tour, and their Summertime EP came out in October. They are soon to set about completing the full album, before a sure-fire jam-packed festival season ahead of them next year.
Best Coast is the latest project of Los Angeles musician, and former member of Pocahaunted, Bethany Cosentino. In her first musical endeavour since her work with the latter, Best Coast marks her return to California after a year in New York with a total change in sound - from the depths of ambient experimental rock (which incidentally saw her support Sonic Youth in 2007), into beach punk and reverb soaked California roots music. She particularly impressed at this years CMJ Marathon in NYC, and saw the latest in a long line of 7" singles, the Make You Mine 7-inch, come out on Black Iris records last week.
She makes 60s inspired pop songs around the 2 minute mark, taking parts of the timeless Beach Boys formula and combining them with lo-fi overdriven rock. The new record, and subsequent album is being produced by Fool's Gold's Lewis Pesacov (MYSPACE), and her and her new musical partner Bob Brunn have said goodbye to Dum Dum Girls' and Graffiti Island's Art Fag and jumped ship over to Black Iris.
She's played a series of support dates since summer, including some with good friend Nathan William's Wavves, and has built up a whirlwind of hype after her shows in recent months. With a large number of pre-existing industry connections, an eager record label, and loads of fantastic material and performing experience behind her - it's going to be a busy 2010 for Cosentino. Dates on her calendar include shows with No Age at the Art Fag fest before the end of the month as well as a date with Spaceland in December. She's recording material for a debut album sometime next year, and constantly putting out more and more material.
Without a doubt, Best Coast is one of the most exciting emerging garage pop artists on the scene at the moment - and i've attached mp3s on the bottom of the post for you to have a listen. Sun Was High (So Was I) is airy and reverbial pop song with a catchy melody line, and That's The Way Boys Are is a careless anthem of sunny harmonies and punkish overtones. Her songs range between the airy and the upbeat, but always retain an air of youth and carelessness, and that California 'life goes on attitude' which comes across in everything Cosentino does. These songs will take you away, and make you want to move out there, forever. She's a very talented individual, and at 22, has many years of life on the 'best coast' ahead of her.
One last thing, there's a great June 2009 interview with her HERE via Popsense.com
I always imagine artists in this kind of genre to lock themselves away alone for months when they are writing, and emerge triumphantly at the end of their time down below with their new full-length. I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen at all like that (except maybe in Burial's case), but if I was to emerge from my basement after nearly five years (yes, it's been that long since the last full-length), i'd definitely be proud to emerge with this new track under my arm.
Four Tet has returned with not only news of a new 12", but also with a lovely 9 minute lead single entitled Love Cry, from January 25th's There Is Love In You. It's a repetitive, and at times quite glitchy record, taking elements of his work with Burial and mixing them all down into a semi-ambient, underground dance record. His staccato drums come in after a minute or so and only slightly alter throughout the one build up which takes precedence throughout the entire song. Around half way through the track enters vocals, which manage to take the song over for a good couple of minutes without saying much else other than a seriously manipulated 'Love Cry.'
Hebden's sound pallete is big enough that he never seems to have any issues with creating new sounds - as a result, his songs end up more intriguing than anything else. I tend to find my listening to Four Tet is often more out of the curiousity and respect I have for his music than because i find it particularly catchy or satisfying. At the end of the day, artists who fascinate and liberate rather than simply play what people are always in the mood for are far more creative and talented. 'Love Cry' is in no way inaccessible, but i'm pretty sure some dancefloor remixes will be headed our way in the next couple of months.
Not only is Three Trapped Tigers a successful book by Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, it is also a slightly less famous post-rock trio from London, UK. It definitely says something about them that they are touring with post-rock pioneers 65daysofstatic, as if their glitchy techno beats and Aphex Twin inspired IDM electronica didn't say enough. You definitely cannot fault their work ethic either - within a few weeks of forming as a band they had recorded their first EP together, and within seconds they had named their tracks after numbers from 1 through to 5. Two EP's and a 7" single down the line since they started out in Winter 2008, and the BBC has already named them 'One of the most exciting UK bands to emerge in 2009.' If they're keeping their short and simple naming system up, we're now waiting on a song number '10' - as well as news of an album which i am sure many in the business will eagerly receive.
Three Trapped Tigers - "1" via Blood and Biscuits records.
When they aren't touring with post-rock bands, they have spent time playing shows with chillout electronica artist Gold Panda (who i am a particular fan of), Crystal Antlers and The Phantom Band in and around London. They are currently on tour in Germany with 65daysofstatic and later France and the UK with Volcano the Bear. They are signed to, and release all their material and merchandise through London based DIY label Blood and Biscuits records.
As for sound, Three Trapped Tigers don't sound anything like the name suggests - if anything they are breaking free of convention, rather than being 'trapped'. I often refrain from calling bands truly ecletic, since no artist can take influence from everything, but TTT do a good job of taking influence from more places than most. In their mix they use elements of post-rock, IDM, math rock and british indie rock. They sound somewhat like a full band version of Four Tet doing his own post-rock version of a Foals song using the equipment Battles use in their live show.
From what I can tell, Small Black are a new and exciting noise pop band from New York who, after spending the larger part of last year locked away bedroom-recording their debut album, saw its long-awaited release on Cass Club last month. The band formed in 2007 and is certainly off to a good start with the music media, having been on the receiving end of some widely coveted love from Pitchfork for the single 'Despicable Dogs' and scoring 8 out of 10 for the debut full length.
The band is made up of permanent members Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heyner and they are joined live by Juan Pieczanski and Jeff Curtin. Together they play scatty, dubstep beats from their not so well-recorded drum machine and coat them with loud, Jesus & Mary Chain style overdrive. Small Black might not be quite so well finished production wise as the Big Pink, but there are a lot of distinct similarities in sound. Both are made up of two members and create dancefloor-filling shoegaze with mixing desks and electric guitars. Cascading melody lines sit above and behind the low droning basslines that drive every song forward - Small Black make the kind of hypnotic underground dance music that could keep the crowd going all night at a NYC warehouse party. If they haven't done it already, it's pretty certain they will at this rate.
Small Black make music for basements in basements, and have great things to come for them if they keep going as they are. You can pick up Despicable Dogs and Bad Lover below, and look out for a video to D-Dogs sometime this month.
Holly Miranda is a Michigan born vocalist, guitarist, trumpeter and pianist, famous for her work with the Jealous Girlfriends in New York in 2003 and before that, for her solo work in and around East Village in 2001. It was at this time she recorded her first album, a 20-track 'High Above The City', which was only available at shows. She has also recorded under the moniker of Raven Mayhem, as well as her own name and with the Jealous Girlfriends since dropping out of high school in Michigan at age 16. It is her solo work which is the latest to expand. She released an EP at the start of 2009 called Sleep On Fire, which acts as the precursor to her full-length due in the beginning of 2010.
She signed on to XL Recordings in September, (amazingly, she has spent almost a decade as an unsigned artist) and has already toured with The XX, Wild Beasts and The Antlers as well as Florence & The Machine and Friendly Fires. Not only this, but her songs have been played on Grey's Anatomy and CSI, and she was directly mentioned in a recent blog post from Kanye West. Her new album is being produced by Dave Sitek (Tv On The Radio, Foals, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and her EP has been reviewed by the New York Times and Time Out amongst many others.
Her sound is slightly on the ethereal side, and a lot calmer and folkier than her work with the Jealous Girlfriends. Her voice intertwines beautifully around calm waves of ambient synths, and retains every bit of Massive Attack style grandeur with every note. Underneath all of these effects you can really hear just how good her voice is. Without knocking the Jealous Girlfriends, her talent is brought out in a much clearer way on this project, and her sentimentality in expression is shown far more with these new songs.
She's an artist who's been about to explode on to the scene for several years, and then almost overnight has done it. Touring just about everywhere non-stop throughout 2009, New York City's best-kept secret is finally out the box.
Dum Dum Girls fit in perfectly with everything i've been blogging about recently, they are 60s revivalists hit up on playing catchy and reverb soaked punk music that sounds just like Vivian Girls. If sound wasn't enough confirmation, they have recruited the Crystal Stilts/Vivian Girls drummer Frankie Rose to their touring band (who incidentally has her own solo project imminent) and have just signed onto Sub Pop Records, home of contemporaries Male Bonding and veterans No Age. Musically, they are very similar to Vivian Girls, but fashionably they depart. They swapped tattoos and t-shirts for short skirts and stockings on their succession of live dates this year.
Photo via Pitchfork@ Sub Pop/CMJ Showcase.
There's only really one permanent member of the band, and she goes by the stage name of Dee Dee - employing a rotating cast of band members (all of whom sing) to back her on tracks which she herself has written and arranged. Her lo-fi, quivering garage pop melodies have seen her secure a support slot with King Khan & The BBQ Show, as well as California dates with The Raveonettes, Crocodiles, and No Age. Once more, they have a debut full length album due out in 2010 by the name of Cassette Comp. If you're into buzzing noise pop and scuzz heavy lo-fi rock with a light female vocalist, then Dum Dum Girls are a buzzworthy addition to your collection.
So far they have released a four way split on Art Fag with Crocodiles, PENS (who i introduced last week), and Graffiti Island, the Longchair 7" and the Yours Alone EP. Next year is their debut full length entitled Cassette Comp, also on Art Fag.
Girls (original post) are a set of 60s revivalist musicians, partly because it's the music they love, and partly because its all lead singer Christopher Owens was ever exposed to during his childhood and teenage years. He grew up in the American Christian cult Children of God, and despite leaving as a teenager, he was always restricted to old films and movies, and music created exclusively within its member circle. It makes the fact that his band, Girls, have pulled off such a brilliant debut album even better. The album is psychedelic shoegaze pop 40-50 years out of time. Its Buddy Holly and Beach Boys influenced surf music, with bubblegum pop melodies coated in loud reverbial, lo-fi strumming. Despite the sunny repertoire of surfing licks and San Francisco beach feel about all of the music, there are some serious themes underneath.
via Turnstile/True Panther Sounds
Owens has always said that his time in the cult had serious influence on the music he made. As much as he felt free, and as much that the first album was a 'freedom of expression' he includes darkened personal references throughout. The first track Lust For Life appears to be naively going along its way, and that is exactly how its meant. The world around Owens at beginning of his teenage year passed him by in exactly the same way. The opening few lines:
'Oh I wish i had a boyfriend/ i wish i had a loving man in my life/ I wish i had a father/ maybe then i would have turned out right/ now i'm just crazy/i'm totally mad just crazy/i'm fucked in the head'
This album is a lot more real than it initially shows, and i'm pretty sure this is was intended. Track Hellhole Ratrace is easily one of the songs of the year, if a little predictable. Its a monologue of troubles set underneath an uphill slope of emotion, a song on a downer that manages to rise into a grand finish. 'I don't wanna cry my whole life through/i wanna do some laughing too/ so come on and laugh with me' is the loud, defiant and shoegaze-drenched conclusion that Owens comes to.
To pick out one more track, 'Summertime' is the final of the three album highlights. Until the bass guitar enters it sounds pretty close to Neutral Milk Hotel, but takes a distinctly San Franciscan turn after it joins the vocals and lead line. Its not much of a bright August song at all but nonetheless is totally and utterly spectacular. Girls strongest point throughout all of their music is their ability to construct such a huge sound in the main part of their songs. If The Twilight Sad were a San Franciscan 60s rock band rather than a scottish post-folk band, this would be exactly what they sounded like.
Lyrically, this is an album of emotion rather than of much relative context. Owens lets out so much personal feeling that little is left of many actual events taking place. You don't really know what context this album is in until you know the background of its creator. It is an album where you fill in the gaps yourself, and maybe that's why they didn't really give the album a name. Track titles 'Headache', 'Summertime' and 'Morning Light' leave you more with feelings, moods and seasons relative to the listener than a distinct storyline to follow. As I have said throughout, Album is a masterpiece of personality, and reveals more of itself to you with every listen. I don't tend to give ratings, but Album gets at least a 9 from me.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's latest installment, the Higher Than The Stars EP is an altogether much more electronic affair than anything they've released before (s/t album review from this February) - the overdriven guitars however still pulsate over everything they play, and the vocals are still dubbed down in true shoegazing fashion. Listening to this EP confirms that, despite the changes, it is still very much the same band underneath. The tracks certainly do mark a progression, but whether its a positive one I am unsure.
The lead track from the follow up to February 3rd's Slumberland release, Higher Than The Stars, is probably one of their strongest releases yet, they've dropped any kind of normal guitar work for the track, instead opting for a dreamy, euphoric synths which are closer to M83's Saturdays = Youth in sound than anything from the last Pains album. The 90s influenced pop which their guitars typically drown out are getting even more 90s than before. Twins is a particularly good example. It sounds like Jesus & Mary Chain slowed down, and armed with a few more modern effects. All of the typical traits of the Pains remain throughout this five-track, and there's even a pretty nice ambient remix on the end done by Saint Ettiene Visits Lord Spank, of Higher Than The Stars.
Where my concern lies is with the slower tracks, the fact is that with such simple song structures that their early 90s naivety leads them to play, they have to be very careful not to get too similar sounding or start to rip off their own sound album after album. The simple structures mean that squeezing that last bit of originality out of them gets harder and harder - hence why shoegaze eventually went out of fashion. For the Pains to truly impress, a more decisive change into M83 style shoegaze would have been logical. Altogether though, this is a very nice EP indeed, and if their next full release does end up fully electronic, then even better.
For a band with an obscene amount of haters for the cute and early 90s influenced genre they play, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart do what they do extremely well. They wear their influences on their sleeve - they are in no way trying to subtly rip off My Bloody Valentine or even J&MC as some say. They are having a good time playing the music they love - and are one of the most exciting new emergences of the year that 'newgaze' has seen. I can't wait to hear a new album, and maybe this time when they play near me I won't be too ill to see them.
This track seems to be the only thing anyone is blogging about Yeasayer at the moment, and rightfully so. Ambling Alp is the lead track from the follow up to 2007/8s debut album All Hour Cymbals. The new album goes by the name of Odd Blood, and, after 2 years in the making, is shaping up to be a Talking Heads influenced psychedelic mess of experimental, ambient indie dance - just like the last one. From Odd Blood, they've been playing four new songs live recently, hopefully we are on track for more new singles soon!
Odd Blood, Yeasayer's first release since Tightrope hit the Dark Was The Night Compilation last year, is out February 9th 2010 on Secretly Canadian records.
You can pick up the download at their site, or, if your feeling lazy, it is also below. There's also a strangely satisfying Memory Tapes remix which is, as always, worth having a listen to.
The Swing Movement are a British indie rock band i have favourably mentioned before, they do what they do, dynamic and fast-paced indie rock revival, very well indeed. For the bio, you can check out the original post (from September) - for the new tracks, which, in time, you will come to realise is the real reason you are here, head over to their new blog/website THE WAY THE DEAD LOVE. It's a nice little site with a few photos on it; the simple layout proved far harder for me than it should have been though - it took me a scary amount of time to realise that the tracks are embedded in the pictures...
The new tracks are more of the same, some darker, all heavily accented - and there's a couple more instruments, Notes Of Defiance has a very post-rockish tremolo echoing behind acoustic guitaring and some ever-present and Turner-esque vocals. Fighting Freakshow Circus is bassy and dancy, the regular beat turns it into both the most obvious pop song of the selection and a solid track. Tarantula is vaguely shoegazy and definitely the most experimental of the tracks, the quirky riff is engulfed by the rest of the music but catches attention behind The Swing Movement's new acoustic guitar's emergence.
PENS are a cute, all-girl garage pop band from London who play a loud and fuzzy mix of garage punk and 60s style pop harmonies. I was initially quite shocked when i realised that they were from the UK - their music sounds like everything i had long since associated with the tropical beach punk explosion the US recently (Vivian Girls/Wavves/Times New Viking), but as it turns out they're sparking off part of a DIY punk music movement in the UK - because its certainly not just them playing this kind of music over here.
Until this point every release Pens had done was a split; they've done them with Male Bonding, Graffiti Island and not to forget the four way split they've shared with the latter, as well as Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles, which came out on Art Fag this August. Nearly all of the aforementioned projects are British. On De Stijl records, their debut album Hey Friend What Are You Doing came out at the end of September 2009. The musical result is ramshackled and cascading beach punk, a hazy mess of overdriven melody and fuzzy, but controlled noise. The result is USA inspired to say the least. The 60s pop vocals of Amelia, Steph and Helen saw them support No Age last month, and they had a series of tour dates in the US this August and the UK in this October. For now the shows are over, but i'm going to be keeping a close eye on them for early next year.
video via De Stijl records
You can download Freddy, High In The Cinema, and Networking below watch the video for High in the Cinema above. Be sure to watch this space for live shows + more releases early next year.
Ellie Goulding is a new 23 year old electronic artist from Hereford who is quickly and convincingly rising through the ranks of London's electropop scene. Off the back of a prestigious support slot with one of last year's best, Little Boots, she's done a brilliant covers of Passion Pit and Bon Iver with her band-mate and producer Starsmith (Marina & The Diamonds, Frankmusik) and has her first single Under The Sheets out now. She has an unnamed album due in the early months of 2010, which is set to follow a second single, Starry Eyes, due later this month.
video via NeonGold Records
With a setup not unlike La Roux's, Goulding and Starsmiff make synth heavy, electronic pop music, accompanied by a fragile vocal line completely reminiscent of the genre. Little Boots and Lykke Li influences are clear - she wears them on her sleeve. If Burial made songs which were happy and upbeat, and then enlisted the help of Little Boots to write some danceable indie - it wouldn't be far from the result we've got here.
Goulding is definitely one to watch this year and indeed next - she's supporting Florence & The Machine at the end of November and her first headline show at Cargo in London in December is already completely sold out, and a Little Noise Session with Jo Whiley is due before the end of the year. If she keeps churning out great music at this rate (her myspace was only set up in July), she's definitely got a lot of great things to come. Ellie Goulding, remember the name.
Ellie Goulding - Sleepyhead(MP3) (Passion Pit Cover featuring Starsmith) Ellie Goulding - The Wolves (MP3) (Bon Iver Cover) Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets (MP3) (from the unnamed album, due 2010 on Neongold records)
from Amazon.
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