Weekend Round-up #23/5 - Arcade Fire, Toro y Moi, Menomena, The Drums

The first taster of Chaz Bundick aka Toro y Moi's new sound drops July 20 (US) and July 19 (UK) via Carpark records, in the form of the Leave Everywhere 7". He's taken an organic and courageous turn and chosen to alter his classically overdubbed lo-fi electro sound for something categorically similar, however this time using entirely standard instruments. Lo-fi electro turns lo-fi guitar pop, with results sure to create a divide in the minds of most fans. New single is out July 20th, his second album drops sometime later this year. He's out on tour this year with Caribou, Phoenix and YACHT as well as having booked festival dates across the US and Europe this Summer. As far as I'm concerned, he's a Bestival definite.

Toro y Moi - Leave Everywhere (MP3) (due July 20) (Causers of This - Amazon)

The idea of Menomena's return is one that fills me with excitement on paper, however on listening to the actual new material (so far limited to one capitalised preview track - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS), i can't say i'm quite so enthralled. The new track, in my view, attempts to play Menomena's Portland quirkiness and lyrical unpredictability to its advantage, with controversial results. The music is not quite so interesting as they've shown in the past (Friend and Foe was stunning), and I can't help but feel the disjointed lyrics are somewhat 'forced'. See for yourself below, but don't expect to be blown away. It appears the new album is shaping up to be better visually than it is musically.

Menomena - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS (MP3) (Friend and Foe - Amazon)

California surf-pop duo The Drums are all set to act as face for the surf-revival movement in the UK this Summer - having already footed the bill of the UK NME Tour in March and built hype off the back of their Summertime EP. The full-length follow-up to that breakthrough record is going to be self-titled and will drop June 15, 2010. There's a few tracks floating around the blogs and 'Forever and Ever Amen' (not to be confused with the Randy Travis song of the same name) is one of them - providing us with Beach Boys-esque surfer-dance of the highest quality, with an added hint of melancholy and come-down for good measure.

The Drums - Forever and Ever Amen (MP3) (from The Drums, due June 15, 2010 - Amazon)

The Arcade Fire also revealed two new previews of two new tracks from their new album via a nice little widget from their website. You can sample the previews by clicking the play button, but if you feel like applying some manual labour to hear the new songs, you can spin the record yourself. Suburbs is a lovely little She & Him piano pop song, contrasted by the manic punk overtones of Month of May. Go on, give it a spin below.

Album Preview: Wild Nothing // Gemini (May 25)

Wild Nothing aka Jack Tatum releases début album Gemini next Tuesday (May 25) via Captured Tracks, before setting out on mini-tour with Neon Indian next month. Its been a busy year for the lo-fi artist, who's Summer Holiday 7" was just the beginning of a steady ascent to recognition for the Virginia based musician. Typically, hushed vocals can barely be heard beneath the sonic haze Tatum undertakes, one which sees fashionably murky recording styles in full use to emphasise general melody above individual arrangement. Splurges of chorus coincide with the overwhelming feeling of semi-ambient summer nostalgia - in particular on guitar heavy "Summer Holiday" and tracks such as "Live In Dreams". Other songs display equally shoegaze sections. Pick up his Kate Bush cover from my post last year, and "Summer Holiday", as was described above.

Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday (MP3)
Wild Nothing - Cloudbusting (Kate Bush Cover) (MP3)

Purchase Wild Nothing's Gemini on Amazon MP3

Trophy Boyfriend // Distant Chimes EP

Trophy Boyfriend aka Gregor Ruigrok dropped his Distant Chimes EP earlier this month, and having just picked it up, I have to say the music is as nice and optimistic as the album cover. From the predominantly rainy Ireland, TB makes nostalgic dance, Washed Out influenced chillwave with booming percussion, 80s soft synths and lo-fi production. He's stuck in some lovely Pacific-esque vocal layering on the title track, and some wonderfully fashionable lo-fi guitars feature heavily at the start of "Like You Were Frozen Just As You Were About To Speak". That is, before the hand claps turned dance percussion are submerged in swirling electronics and impassioned vocal harmonies. "Distant Chimes" begins with a long vocal phrase which loops, and before you know it, a worryingly Swedish vocal line transforms into something closer to 90s soft-synth dance music than indie pop. This guy knows exactly how to build a song, as I'm sure you'll agree. Download below, keeping tabs is strongly advised.

Trophy Boyfriend - Distant Chimes (MP3)

Trophy Boyfriend on Myspace Music

Album Review: The Powder Kegs - Empty Side EP

The Powder Kegs began in 2005 as an old time busking bluegrass band from New York City and New Jersey, however on winning a 700-entry radio talent competition entitled "People In Their Twenties Talent Show" from A Prairie Home Companion Radio in Vassar, NY, their subsequent burst of fame and hype enabled them to sell 1,400 copies of their debut CD that following year. Now four years on, the Empty Side EP brings a new sound which represents the other side of the coin in terms of the fusion of indie pop and folk which their hype-ridden 2008 full-length exhibited. The latest instalment, the Empty Side EP, arrived unannounced in my inbox last week and proves a stark difference from the twangy bluegrass roots which launched the band all those years ago.

Now having relocated to Philadelphia, the trio's modified sound has brought their music to more mainstream attention. Single "La Mariposa" did brilliantly on the Hype Machine recently, crossing languages and genres to create a half-Spanish, half-American beach jam song, with influence displayed from artists as far ranging as Paul Simon and Jason Mraz. Although they play music nothing like so sickeningly cheesy as the latter, their music could certainly appeal to the same audience if it was ever to reach their ears.

"Window on Your Wall" opens the EP wearing its Vampire Weekend influences on its sleeve; even the vocals aren't far off those of Ezra Koenig's multi-million dollar afro-pop outfit - and this theme continues to some extent in to the rest of the tracks. "Don't Cry, Little Baby Bird (Its All Right)" however is quite clearly Beatles influenced, and the very same track displays some piano and vocal lines which wouldn't be out of place in a Wilco song. Aforementioned "La Mariposa" is followed with "Shake Me Down", a narrative vocal based track with chill-out bass and keys to accompany. The EP is rounded off with perhaps its most upbeat track "The Right Time", and this strummed finale is where the clean 60s production really comes into its own. Organ sounds push acoustic guitar into the background in this builder, and pretty quickly a track which begins  with organic sounds turns into a swinging folk pop song.

The Powder Kegs expertly combine organic folk sounds with influences far ranging as they are old, to create a concise 5-track showcase of their recently reformed genre preferences. Once more, the album is available through band camp at name your price. All you have to do is follow this link and you are free to pay as much or as little as you wish for the Empty Side EP.  If one track however is all you're after - La Mariposa is the one to grab from below.

The Powder Kegs - La Mariposa (MP3) (available at The Powder Kegs' Bandcamp)

Album Preview - Wintersleep // New Inheritors

"New Inheritors" is the name of both the new album and the wonderful new single from Canadian indie rock band Wintersleep. Originally scheduled to be out today in the UK/Europe and tomorrow in the US, the band's fourth album, and first in two years, is now anticipated for June 1. Title song "New Inheritors" is reminiscent of crisp-clean US alternative guitar pop, with light brass sections, funk-bass and sleek lo-fi leads epithetical of the Elephant 6 collective movement. The Canadian accented vocals top it off, and the rest of the album looks sure to follow the strong example which this track has set. Pick up the new song, which is offered for free at the band's website, just below.

Wintersleep - New Inheritors (MP3) (pre-order "New Inheritors" w/Book from Amazon.com)

Weekend Round-up #16/5 - RIAA, Mountain Man, Male Bonding, Alan Wilkis

There's quite a few big changes going on at This Music Wins blog over the coming weeks. At a time when I'm going through possibly the most important set of exams of my life, the blog really seems to be taking off, my readership having risen almost ten-fold since March time. With more readership however comes more demand, and as more legitimate people stumble across my articles, so do more blog-haters. In the last week, the last twenty three files i've uploaded to my Box.net account have been reported by the RIAA as having infringed copyright. Fair enough, you might say, after all, the music from bands such as Cults, Wolf Parade, The New Pornographers is not copyrighted to my name. But as far as i've been aware, the tracks from future and past albums which I have made available were designated by the labels as promotional for the bands. All were widely available across the legal blogosphere, often pushed by labels as a means to build healthy hype for their newest releases.

Of these twenty three files, two I had been given the exclusive right to post (which I have in writing) from the respective promotional company. Another four, were from my own band - the latest EP of which had been displaying in my left sidebar for free download for around a month. If I don't own the copyright to these, i don't know who does. Certainly not a self-righteous office worker somewhere across the pond with nothing better to do than maintain personal vendettas against legitimate music blogs such as mine.

My problem lies not in the fact that the files have been reported and subsequently deleted by Box.net trying to cover their back from these unfounded claims. My problem lies in the fact that this copyright system is tailored to allow music to be removed from servers with absolutely no evidence to back it up. If musicians ask me to take their music down, I am more than happy to do so. The current system however allows absolutely anyone to report any file with no evidence whatsoever in their favour. That's the internet equivalent of a police state. Imagine if all of society operated on this principle. If i didn't like what someone was doing/saying about me, I'd be able to walk into the police station and report them for murder. They'd get life imprisonment without so much as a trial - and i wouldn't need a shred of evidence to back myself up.

The next problem is that the servers which host the infringing content (in this case blogger/google and box.net) have to cover their backs. They can't be expected to employ the resources to investigate every single copyright claim - so within their company the vast majority operate a very simple policy - removing any content that is reported. Ninety percent of the time this operates very smoothly. All the underhand music blogs which spread entire album links/leaks to their readers and P2P sharing services which host illegal file sharing are removed without much hassle. But the remaining ten percent, who try and write a decent article on a song and then need something to share with their readers - get caught in the crossfire. The creation of the RIAA, an organisation which takes a highly irrational approach to the whole thing means that I don't get a chance to share promotional MP3s with my readership; and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.


The polite, albeit sarcastic email which I sent to the RIAA explaining the situation was never replied to - I should have guessed. Box.net will delete my account and google may delete my blog if repeated reportings mount up. The only solution in my eyes is to dodge MP3 hosting providers and skip from service to service; and to move my blog hosting to wordpress.org on my own URL. The latter of these changes you will notice has already happened. You should be seeing a new look and layout, with all the articles hopefully maintained, over the next couple of months. I hope you'll enjoy it. Anyway, on to this week's update.


BATHS
Beginning on a much lighter note, here's the new video for "Maximalist", by Baths on Vimeo by Ben Sifel.



BATHS 'maximalist' from ben sifel on Vimeo.


(Pre-order Baths "Cerulean" from Amazon.com)


MALE BONDING
I'm not sure if you can remember the picture right back up at the top of the page, but that's Male Bonding. They've played a lot of dates with some of my favourite lo-fi punk bands PENS and Veronica Falls and are building up a hell of a lot of hype on the blogs this past week or so. They've also done a split 7" with Dum Dum Girls (who's LP never arrived from Amazon), and have a bunch of shows coming up with Ganglians and Blood Red Shoes. Their aggressive reverbial lo-fi is right up my street. The full-length debut LP "Nothing Hurts" comes out May 27, 2010 - and is sandwiched by an extensive set of UK Tour dates. Check out the Sub Pop Soundcloud or download "Franklin" direct from the label below. 


 Male Bonding - Franklin by subpop 


(Buy Nothing Hurts from Amazon.com)


MOUNTAIN MAN

Mountain Man provide a stark contrast to the above. The name suggests tranquil acoustics and natural imagery, which is correct, but doesn't warn you firstly that this project is a group, and secondly that its made up of three women. With distant vocals and much more direct finger-picked guitars, the sparse set up and rich harmonies from the Vermont Trio see their first full outing on July 20 - when Made The Harbor comes out on Partisan Records. Hear Soft Skin, the latest track to surface from the 13-track début below.


Mountain Man - Soft Skin (MP3) (pre-order from Amazon.com)


PHANTOGRAM (ALAN WILKIS REMIX)
Alan Wilkis sent along his latest remix to me earlier this week - this time of NY electro-rock band Phantogram's "Mouthful of Diamonds". Their label, Barsuk, called it a "joyous-new wave infected delight", and as far as i'm concerned that description is just about spot on. The remix has drive, a strong beat and all the Shoes-esque erratic dance sounds which characterised the new wave movement. Highly recommended.


Phantogram - Mouthful of Diamonds (Alan Wilkis Remix) (MP3) (buy Eyelid Movies from Amazon.com)

Introducing.. Cults

Cults is the newly formed musical project of Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion. After signing on to Forest Family Records in March 2010, they released their debut 7" single for free on bandcamp, and pretty quickly were reaping the benefits of a Pitchfork 'Best New Music' stamp and heavy features on Gorilla vs Bear. Already, the début album is a work in progress. In terms of sound, the three tracks on the first single indicate a mixture of 60s and 70s pop akin to Phil Spector with a hint of 70s motown and soul. The result is the sound of girl-groups the era with a futuristic sheen, a touch of modern recording styles and psychedelic surf influences. If you're going to file them next to anyone, its got to be Gigi, who released their debut album Maintenant earlier this year.


As far as interviews with the band go, they feel more comfortable out of the limelight. In an interview with Pitchfork, Brian admitted he felt that music was becoming too much of an all encompassing media package, a flawed trend where bands with the correct image and background were promoted over bands making more engaging music. “Back in the day, there was kind of a mystery to rock and roll, where you could look at album covers and imagine what their lives are like. Now we’re not satisfied unless we know exactly what they do everyday, who they are, where they live” . As two film students from NYC (of all places), giving an interview to Pitchfork (of all websites), some might say they fail by their own standards. I am going to disagree on the grounds that as I am sure was intended, their soul-infused experimental indie pop speaks for itself. 


cults - Go Outside (MP3) (download the Cults 7" via bandcamp, supposedly out 23 December 2012)

Weekend Round-up #9/5 - 6 Day Riot, School Of Seven Bells, Midnight Juggernauts

Now readying the release of their third album, twee folk collective 6 Day Riot have announced a new single "All I Need" for release June 7, 2010. The single comes in support of the as of yet unnamed third album, which will follow later this year in around mid-October. You can stream the new single from the 6 Day Riot Myspace. According to their blog:

"The sound is a little different from previous releases as I believe new recordings should be, it very much reflects where we all are in life at the moment and has a mood which I find hard to describe, kind of dark yet uplifting and hopeful, if that makes sense. The new single "All I Need" will be released on 7th June, PR and plugging has begun and it is creeping up fast considering we are finding it hard to even get enough rehearsals in before we lock ourselves in the studio at the end of May. The album is scheduled for release mid/end Oct, and we will be heading on a UK tour to promote the release around that time as well."

Stream via Myspace

The New Pornographers are definitely amongst my favourite Canadians, and cementing my affections even more firmly is their latest album - Together, an album from which the lead singles Crash Years and Your Hands (Together) originate. They've definitely expanded their sound since my first encounter with the band on Electric Version; Crash Years sees overdriven guitars joined by a daunting whistle and the remainder of the album contains collaborations with Zach Condon, Will Sheff of Okkervil River, and St. Vincent.

The New Pornographers - Crash Years (MP3) from Together (buy), out now.
The New Pornographers on Myspace music.


Former Secret Machines and On! Air! Library! band members make up psych-pop trio School Of Seven Bells, whose second album, two years in the making, comes out on Vagrant Records June 8, 2010. New track Babelonia is the preview track from the album, and features swirling noise, sinister synth lines and psychedelic dream pop vocals which reside above the calculated, engine-like whir of Benjamin Curtis and the Deheza sisters' shoegaze project. Download Babelonia below, or buy the album from the corresponding link.

School Of Seven Bells - Babelonia (MP3) from Disconnect From Desire, out June 8, 2010.
School Of Seven Bells on Myspace music.


Also in the realms of synth-rock, Midnight Juggernauts present the biggest album on album change from the three other candidates above. From an Australian group widely considered post-Dystopia to be a techno-influenced synth-rock band, their new music appears far more guitar based and space-rock infused than previous efforts. Its taken an organic turn with a sinister outcome - and track "This New Technology" and B-side "Get Connected" both display dance music much more concerned with 80s inspired guitars than with the electronic side of things.Hear for yourself below, or stream the new album via Myspace (recommended).

Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (MP3) from The Crystal Axis, due June 1, 2010.
Midnight Juggernauts on Myspace music.

Mount Kimbie // James Blake - "Maybes"

Supposedly 'dubstep' remains a relatively unheard of phenomenon in the United States; I find this extremely hard to believe, but also strangely liberating - giving me the vague hope that one day the teen craze will, eventually, blow over. Music in clubs and parties, ninety percent of the time, depends entirely what uninspiring and unoriginal recording Skream and Benga and their adrenaline-fuelled band of imitators have recently come out with - and to be honest, its just boring.

Mount Kimbie mix it up a bit, and because I'm not unshakeably opposed to the genre in itself (just the way people abuse it), I think they do a fantastic job of what they do. They've done remixes for Foals, The XX, and The Big Pink in the past year and are doing pretty much a European tour in Summer, including a date with Caribou. The latest news on them is that James Blake has remixed Maybes (2009). 

With a heavily manipulated, eery opening chord-sequence, which almost runs dry before dropping into 2-step, the remix gives a Burial-esque slow-build track a somewhat turbulent finish, with glitch-sections, shoegaze noise and scattered idm beats.

Their new remix EP, with contributions from big names FaltyDL, Instra:mental and the man himself, James Blake, came out on April 19, and is available from HotFlush recordings.

Mount Kimbie - Maybes (MP3)

Mount Kimbie - Maybes (James Blake Remix) (MP3)

Mount Kimbie on Myspace // Amazon

Introducing.. Free Energy

Free Energy are a five-piece band based in Philadelphia, signed to James Murphy's DFA Records. Formed in 2007, their first EP came out in 2009 and after a hastened bout of blog-induced hype they had more than enough of a following to talk début album. That début album, "Stuck On Nothin'" came out on Tuesday, and my copy is almost certainly going to be ordered soon. 

For a band signed on to one of the most innovative dance labels in the USA, Free Energy are a band with a set of influences wildly different to those bands which immediately surround them. They play indie rock with a 70s twist - comparisons have been drawn to Journey and The Cars - but how accurate this is I'm not sure. In my eyes their music is closer to that of bands like The New Pornographers, Hockey and a much less gutsy and much more talented version of Jet. You certainly shouldn't let that last comparison put you off, since Free Energy are one of the most gloriously simple bands out there at the moment.

In an interview, they revealed that their lyrics come mainly from self-help guides, and the band dream of being able to measure up fully to the corporate classic rock of 70s/80s US radio. Feel good rock is the way to describe Free Energy, a band already named amongst Rolling Stones Magazine's best bands of 2010. You'd have to be out of your mind not to like this stuff; its the most optimistic and nostalgic pop/rock music around, living proof in the eyes of many that the classic Springsteen formula is by no means suffocating from lack of originality.

Free Energy - Hope Child (MP3)

Free Energy - Dark Trance (MP3)

Buy Stuck On Nothing via Amazon.com

Buy Free Energy EP via Amazon.com

Album Preview: Ratatat - LP4 (June 8, 2010)

Ratatat
LP4
XL Recordings
Electro/Synth/Rock


Wolf Parade are joined in the new singles club this week by Ratatat, who also pleasantly surprised most with "Party With Children" from the upcoming LP4. With a distinctly European feel behind some of the percussion and sequences on this track, one help but consider whether this is going to be truly representative of the LP. The answer I can't tell you (yet), but if this is anything to go on, the new album is going to be very strong indeed. As ever, winding energetic instrumentals characterised by the NY duo are accompanied by afro-beat percussion, lead guitar wails and streaming synthesizers; however this time around there's a distinctly Spanish beat and feel behind the music. As weird as this sounds, I'm going to stand by it, even if the kind of sound I meant fades out as the song goes on. Hear and judge for yourself below.


Ratatat - Party With Children (MP3) (from LP4, due June 8, 2010)
Pre-order Lp4 on Amazon.com
Ratatat on Myspace.

Album Preview: Wolf Parade - Expo '86 (June 29, 2010)

Wolf Parade
Expo '86
Indie Rock/Folk Rock/Progressive
Sub Pop


The latest album from one of my favourite bands ever drops June 29, 2010, when Wolf Parade's long-awaited third album comes out on Sub Pop. The new LP will be called Expo '86, and in aid of its promotion the band premiered two new songs for the music blogs via the label last week. Neither of them are quite up to the wow-standard of At Mount Zoomer's Kissing The Beehive, but nevertheless both "Ghost Pressure" and "What Did My Lover Say (It Always Had To Go This Way)" retain the kind of solid folk-garage vibe which the earlier albums always exemplified. Characterised by long and drawn out guitar riffs, winding folk instrumentation and additional synth work which further distinguishes this band's sound from any other, Wolf Parade's music incorporates fascinating time signatures, steady off-beat drumming and an ever-increasing dose of standard drive on the guitars.  The new tracks both weigh in at nearly 6 minutes, and certainly don't disappoint.


Wolf Parade - What Did My Lover Say (It Always Had To Go This Way) (MP3)
Wolf Parade - Ghost Pressure (MP3) (from Expo '86, due June 29, 2010)
Pre-order Expo '86 when it becomes available from Amazon.com

Introducing.. Geotic

Baths (previous posts) is relatively new to me personally, but it seems his association with ambient chillout goes back further than I figured. Formerly a member of chilled out folk act Post-Foetus, Will Wiesenfeld's other side project - known as Geotic, also delved pretty deeply into electronic experimentalism. Combining deep electronic whirrings with occasional falsetto and soft-edged overdubs, Geotic sounds just like the chill-wave artists of today in their early form. Ambient dance music "but without the big beats" is as close as my descriptions go.

Why am I telling you all of this? Its because Geotic offer pretty much the whole selection of recordings, albums, and EPs for free via their Angelfire page, and if you're a fan of the relaxing side of Will Wiesenfeld's production, I couldn't recommend you a better way of spending your next five minutes. If you've got another spare moment, then Post-Foetus are more direct and acoustic based, and are equally as brilliant.

Geotic - Ex-Doctrine (MP3) (from Winter Loops EP)
Geotic - Gryffindor Mixer (MP3) (from Duchenne Smile)
Baths - Hall (MP3) (from Cerulean)

Baths on Myspace Music
Post Foetus on Myspace Music
Download albums by Geotic via Angelfire

Cerulean on Vinyl via Amazon.com (June 22, 2010) 

Album Review: Darwin Deez - Darwin Deez (April 12, 2010)

Darwin Deez
Darwin Deez (US/UK - April 12, 2010)
Lucky Number
Pop/Indie Pop


Darwin Deez is far more of a breath of fresh air in terms of mainstream entertainment than he is in musical innovation - its fair to say that the ten tracks and 32 minutes of his debut album will just about hold most people's attention for long enough to reach second single "Radar Detector" at track nine. Aside from "Constellations", "DNA", and the aforementioned single, the self-titled debut from former Creaky Boards guitarist is arranged into a hierarchy of great tracks and decent ones - whereby the seven remaining tracks on the album are distinctly average. In spite of this, they still make for a nice listen; there's no way you'll listen through the album in full and not be whistling a melody at the end or chuckling to yourself at some of the lame Americanised lyrics which never stray far from Darwin Deez's songwriting.

However in comparison to the bands which Darwin Smith's voice appears to mimic (we're talking US pop-punk, enough said), the lyrics are comparatively meaningful - even if the occasional rather strange lyrical pairings "the sky is green // say you love me now", and "the river is a bed // the hair on my head" filter out the lyrical tastes of many more deep-thinking listeners. The music, mainly guitar based, has also been done before. Merging guitar tones of Albert Hammond Jr and afro-pop overdrive that Vampire Weekend re-popularised in 2008, Darwin Deez makes friendly pop music sounding like an amalgam of all the above, We Are Scientists and the musical demand that an increasingly Americanised NME-brandishing British seem to unquestioningly consume.

The results however are undeniably entertaining, and when combined with Darwin Deez's brilliant dancing and colourful videos - 2010's best entertainer looks all set to make it big whether his music has depth or not. I certainly love this guy even if I can't quite place why without feeling a strong guilty pleasure. In short, nothing new or original - but influences of old, re-done with flying colours.

Darwin Deez - DNA (removed by polite request) (MP3) see previous posts for more Darwin Deez music/ sign up to the mailing list for two more MP3s @ Darwin Deez's website.


Buy Darwin Deez on Amazon.com