If you’re unaware of the concept behind Desert Island Discs, check out the basic pitch I gave the artists and bloggers I got in touch with.  If you’re an artist or blogger and want to take part,  just send your submission with the eight pieces of music (not the actual mp3s) and some words about each one to admin (@) listenbeforeyoubuy (dot) net.

Check out previous Desert Island Disc submissions from artists and bloggers.

Today’s Desert Island Discs is by Glaswegian New-Wave Pop-Punks The Dirty Cuts.  It’s been a few months since I last had them on the site but their timing is pretty sweet since they got this to me just before their latest single was released on Tuesday.  Due to my scheduling conflicts I couldn’t get their DiD up on Tuesday, but today’s the day.  If you check out my post from back in April you can hear three of their songs and below you can hear their latest single “Yummy Mummy”, all of which are available from iTunes.

Keep up to date with The Dirty Cuts – MySpace

The Dirty Cuts – Yummy Mummy by ListenBeforeYouBuy

1. David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”

If you’re gonna be stuck on a desert island you’ll need a couple of songs to dance to once you’ve figured out how to make moonshine from coconuts. Where better to start than this one. There’s a lot of standout moments- Bowie playing the solo in white gloves (guess I can’t watch that on the island), the lyric ‘serious moonlight’, the intro… It’s just a great collaboration and better than Queen’s attempts at copying Chic. Did you know Stevie Ray Vaughan played the solo? Bowie’s just got the Midas touch – I bet he could polish a shite. At 7:38 We’re getting a bit of value for money too.

2. Hall & Oates – “Out Of Touch”

Hall & Oates are the world’s best guilty secret. Normally when an act has a title like ‘the best selling duo of all time’ attached to them it means they’re dull mainstream or The Beatles (same thing) but Hall & Oates are the exception rather than the rule. They’re the most unlikely pop stars by today’s standards but hail from the golden age when even Phil Collins could be a pop star. It’s hard to pick a favourite track but “Out of Touch” is just a great feel-good pop song about dysfunctional relationships. It features the brilliant line ‘Smoking guns hot to the touch, would cool down if we didn’t use them so much’. The music video is an absolute gem as well.

3. Donna Summer – “I Feel Love”

I don’t think I could ever tire of this tune. I think it’s a masterpiece. To start with, it’s guaranteed to get you moving, which could be useful on a desert island on a diet of nasty meat and coconuts. And I can imagine it being a good one to make up bad raps to keep your creative juices entertained.

4. Paul Simon – “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes”

Nobody does it like Paul Simon – he puts sunshine in a shaker and pours it all over the Graceland album. So for me it would be the perfect reminder that it’s bloody roasting and there’s nothing to be sad about, even if you’re in exile, and probably burnt.

5. Queen – “Don’t Stop Me Now”

For those days when we start to give up hope, put this bad boy on, get a few midgets, some chopped liver and bowls of cocaine (can we ask for luxury item each? obviously I’d take the midgets if we’re only allowed one). It’s the kind of song best put on at the end of a club night, bring the house lights up see how dirty everyone is. Freddie was always up for it, well for a while anyway.

6. Pulp – “This Is Hardcore”

This is a good one – dark and classy. Jarvis Cocker was apparently in the depths of despair when he made the This Is Hardcore album. We can stick this on and kill each other Reservoir Dogs style (using coconuts not bullets).

7. David Bowie – “Moonage Daydream”

From the “Ziggy Stardust” album, this is Bowie at his swaggering best. Even stuck on a desert island there will be times when you need to glam it up, so get your parrot feather head-dress on, stick this on the stereo and start strutting about like a narcissistic peacock. Guaranteed to make you feel good, it has the greatest opening line to a song ever and one of the best guitar solos ever recorded with Bowie and Ronson sparring like two heavyweights in their prime.

8. The Incredible String Band – “October Song”

A little-known gem, this is an almost perfect song with an ethereal, dream like quality. The string band were a Scottish folk group from the Sixties, this song is from their first album. The guitar playing is amazing and Robin Williamson’s vocals are beautiful. Perfect music for feeling thoughtful on a desert island and, as they’re Scottish, it’s good for when you’re feeling homesick too.

Cory Bannon, the dude behind +VIBES, sent this track to me back at the start of July and I’m only getting around to posting it today. sadface

He’s been doing mashups for past 9 months or so out of Boulder, Colorado, and is looking for more of an audience and that’s why I’m here, so that all three of you get to hear it.  He deserves it, all of the tunes on his Facebook page flow together well and some of the mashup staples (Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G.) make an appearance, but in a different way.  He makes both heavyweights spit over songs you wouldn’t normally think would work with said artists in a mashup, but go ahead, give ‘em a listen.

Keep up to date with +VIBES – Facebook | Blog

+VIBES – “Where’s Your Doctor At!” (Dr. Dre vs Basement Jaxx vs Duck Sauce)

When I first heard the new jams from Matthew Dear’s upcoming fourth album “Black City”, they instantly sounded like Prince had gone dark and ominous Electro-Techno-Pop on us.

That’s why I was happy, because it’s better than anything Prince has done in the last 15 years or so. “Black City” is 10 songs  filled to the brim with monochromatic synths, funky bass lines, melancholy vocals and electro drum beats.

Below you can hear two cuts from “Black City” and if you head on over to Ghostly International you can hear the whole thing before its release on August 17th.

Keep up to date with Matthew Dear – MySpace | Facebook | Website

Matthew Dear – “Soil To Seed”
Matthew Dear – “I Can’t Feel”

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had something new from Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley, otherwise known as Summer Camp, in fact there’s been nothing since March when nobody knew who they were.

Well about an hour ago they sent out an email announcing the release of a new EP in September on Moshi Moshi, tour dates, and of course a brand new song called “Jake Ryan”.  Their previous couple of songs are slightly different, lighter and more dreamy, with the new one kicking off with a distorted guitar that gives way to Elizabeth’s delayed and reverb-laden vocals.

“Young” will be out on September 6th and you can pre-order it from Moshi Moshi now and if you’re in the U.K. you can catch them on tour throughout August and September.

Summer Camp – “Jake Ryan”
Summer Camp – “Ghost Train”
Summer Camp – “I Only Have Eyes For You”

Tu Fawning have been around for a couple of years now, releasing a debut miniature-sized album back in 2008 called “Secession” on Polyvinyl and Discourage Records.

Yesterday CitySlang announced that they’ll be releasing their debut full-length LP on October 5th in the U.S., and November 1st in Europe.  You might’ve heard of some of the members before, the band being fronted by Joe Haege from Menomena and Corrina Repp who does her own solo stuff as well as plays in Viva Voce.  ”Secession” was a joyous six-song journey through atmospheric Indie-Pop music, drawing comparisons from Beirut with the horn hooks, to Regina Spektor with the piano parts.

There are three songs for you to listen to below, two from “Secession” and one from their upcoming album “Hearts On Hold”.

Keep up to date with Tu Fawning – MySpace | Twitter | Website | Last.fm

Tu Fawning – “Sound You Warn” (Secession)
Tu Fawning – “Out Like Bats” (Secession)
Tu Fawning – “The Felt Sense” (Hearts On Hold)

Yesterday morning as I was going through the blogs that I follow, I found this post by Confusion over at Pigeons and Planes.

I had heard the name before, also previously posted by Confusion but admittedly didn’t give it a listen.  This time though I did and now I’m kicking myself for not listening to it sooner.  What I do when I go to a site is find the music first, hit play and then read the article, so upon first clicking play on P&P yesterday the first through that entered my head was “Hmm…..this sounds like something by The Strokes from Is This It”.

That was until the vocals kicked in, then it just sounded like nothing I’d heard before.  New-Wave Electro Hip-Hop?  Does that shit even exist?  Well it does now and what’s even better is that it’s well-written, well-produced, smart, catchy and just straight up killer.  Thanks to KC at SpreadLabel for getting in touch and sending me the two songs below, both of which are tracks you’ll find on their FREE debut album “How Did This Happen?” coming out on August 18th, and you better believe I’ll be posting as much of it here that I’m allowed to.

The duo are from Portland, Oregon, and when I checked out their MySpace page and saw it only has 625 views I was shocked.  Hopefully it was just made recently and they’re not underexposed because that would be a shame.  Check out the two below and listen to the sweet remixes on their MySpace page.

Keep up to date with Moxie Black – MySpace | Twitter | Facebook | Blog | Website

Moxie Black – “So Much Better”
Moxie Black – “Rizky Bizness”

The indie blogosphere just collectively jizzed.

Having been around for about 7 years now, I was only introduced to him when his last album “Night Falls Over Kortedala” was released to huge and widespread critical acclaim back in 2007.  His music was then featured in TV shows, movies and every blog this side of the moon.

It’s a pretty standard Jens Lekman affair and sounds like it could be a cut from his last album.  If you head over to Secretly Canadian’s site there’s a letter from Jens himself, and true Jens style.

Jens Lekman – “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love”

(via Stereogum)

One thing I do very very rarely is copy and paste a press release.

I won’t do that here, but I will give a nod towards what was sent to me, in that they’re a three piece band consisting of a conjoint, raw, forceful drummer, named Brian Lackey. A soaring set of keys, mixed with an insane vocal box named Angel Bond, and a gargantuan wave of guitar known as Bryan Harder.  If you mix Peaches with Iggy Pop and Yeah Yeah Yeahs you’ll get close to the sound of Cusses, an emotional and atmospheric punk trio who, as the handsome guys at Tympanogram pointed out, seem to have immersed themselves in 80s New-Wave New York.

I got in touch with the band who let me post the two songs you’re about to hear below, one of which is on their debut EP “Thurst” which you can grab from iTunes, and the other is from “2nds” which is out on August 3rd.

Keep up to date with Cusses – MySpace | Facebook | Last.fm

Cusses – “Whatcha Gettin’ In”
Cusses – “Blood Everywhere”

A couple of weeks ago I was given the absolute joy of listening to a few songs by J. Irvin Dally.

He’d sent me a couple of his tracks and after listening to those I went looking for more.  I found his Bandcamp page and was blown away, his voice unwavering and tinged with the spirit of Jeff Buckley and the passion of Cat Power.  The songs I was listening to were part of an EP that he released on Parisian label Camaraderie Limited whilst traveling in Europe, of which only 100 were made and all released in Europe.

He gave me permission to post two of his songs not featured on the above-mention EP, below you can hear those and download “Runaways”.  If you give his Bandcamp page a visit you can listen to the entire EP and download the whole thing for just $5.

Keep up to date with J. Irvin Dally – MySpace | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud

J. Irvin Dally – Runaways by ListenBeforeYouBuy

J. Irvin Dally – The Punchbowls by ListenBeforeYouBuy

If you’re unaware of the concept behind Desert Island Discs, check out the basic pitch I gave the artists and bloggers I got in touch with.  If you’re an artist or blogger and want to take part,  just send your submission with the eight pieces of music (not the actual mp3s) and some words about each one to admin (@) listenbeforeyoubuy (dot) net.

Check out previous Desert Island Disc submissions from artists and bloggers.

As mentioned in the title, today’s Desert Island Discs is by champions of summer and all things happy and sunshiney, Tennis.   I’ve posted about them quite a few times over the last couple of months and Patrick got back to me pretty quickly when I asked them to take part in this, so thanks Patrick!  Check out the awesome “Marathon” by Tennis below and let me know when you finally manage to get it out of your head.

When I first got in touch with people about this I failed to specify that the selections had to be single songs or pieces of music, so with the first few who got back to me, some had whole albums listed, as is the case with Patrick’s selection below.  So what I’ve done is pick a song from each of the albums he’d listed.  Sorry dude, hope I picked well.

Keep up to date with Tennis – MySpace

0. Tennis – “Marathon”

1. Grandaddy – “Go Progress Chrome”

This song has been one of our favorite songs for the past 5 or so years. For us, Gradaddy denotes the simplistic – boarder line luddite – way of life. We like to think of ourselves as future farmers, without phones or the Internet, and this is the theme song.

2. The Handsome Furs – “Handsome Furs Hate This City”

This song is pretty timeless for us. The outro somehow always maintains the same excitement and intensity; that’s hard to do when you listen to something 10 times a day.

3. The Shirelles – “Baby It’s You”

We’ve said this before, but we’re pretty sure our band formed because of this song…

4. Grandaddy – “The Crystal Lake” – The Sophtware Slump (whole album)

I don’t mean to keep putting mass amounts of Grandaddy songs on lists such as this one, but this album is through and through, one of our favorites. This album made me, Patrick, drop out of my Business program in college and switch to music and philosophy. It means a lot to me.

5. Wanda Jackson – “Fujiyama Mama”

This song is pretty racy, in a lot of ways. Not to mention, the vocals are incredible. This style of singing and playing has been one of the biggest influences on our music and we constantly use it as a reference point to see how far off we are. Alaina will, some day soon, sing like this and I will never want to listen to anything else. Until then, this song we be in constant play.

6. Family Portrait – “Babyskins”

If you haven’t heard this song, search long and hard for it. The guitar tone is perfect and the vocals are somehow an extension of the guitar. They flow together to make a dancey, sing-along that makes you snap your fingers for some reason that is beyond me.

7. Todd Rundgren – “Believe In Me” –  Runt (the album)

Our friends give us so much crap for liking this album, but it truly makes us happy. That’s all there is to say.

8. Whatever album we hate the most at the time. We need something for context…

By now you may already know that Arcade Fire’s new album “The Suburbs” has leaked ahead of it’s August 2nd/3rd release date.

By now you may already have a copy of it, or have listened to it and have heard this song already.  To you, this song isn’t new anymore, but to everyone else it’s another taster of their third highly-anticipated album.Personally I’ve listened to the album a few times, however I’ll reserve judgement as of yet because I like to give albums a good few listens before judging it.  ”Funeral” for example took me a few listens before it made its way into my top 5 albums of all time.

Another Zane Lowe exclusive was the song below.  That guy seems to get them all, but give it a listen and keep in mind that it’s a shitty radio rip.  If you do have the leak too, remember that’s a shitty transcode too and the real thing is only a week away!  Check out a few of their other songs they’ve released over the last month or two.

You can pre-order “The Suburbs” here:

• Amazon – CD | Vinyl | MP3
• Insound – CD | Vinyl

Arcade Fire – “Rococo” (Zane Lowe radio rip)

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week.

Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I’ve been listening to (new and old) over the past week and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them.  Want me to check someone out? Let me know at that Contact Us thinger up there.

In order to listen to the playlist you’ll need to have Flash enabled.

This week’s #MusicMonday playlist:

1. “Implied I – Sigmund Droid”
2. “Come To This – The Sleepy Jackson”
3. “Chlorophyl – Millionyoung”
4. “Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin”
5. “Modern Art – Art Brut”
6. “Empty Room – Arcade Fire”
7. “Loaded – Primal Scream”
8. “China Girl – David Bowie”
9. “Best Friend – The Drums”
10. “Bitten by the Tailfly – Elbow”
11. “Fat Bottomed Girls – Queen”
12. “Earthquake – Little Boots”
13. “Interiors (Song for Willem de Kooning) – Manic Street Preachers”
14. “Summer Heart – Blackbird Blackbird”
15. “Hateful – The Clash”
16. “The Boogie Man Song – Mos Def”
17. “U Hurt Me – Burial”
18. “Backfire at the Disco – The Wombats”
19. “Belfast – Neon Neon”
20. “Love – John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band”

When a band can manage to combine the melodies of The Beach Boys, the guitar-noise of mid 90s grunge, and the vocals of Echo And The Bunnymen in one 3:26 song, and make it work seemlessly, chances are that when you get to 3:27 you’re just gonna hit repeat.

That’s how The Moviegoers roll on the A-side song for their upcoming 7″ single.  The A-Side is “Big High School”, the aforementioned Beach Boys/Grunge/Bunnymen-like song, the B-side being “Avalanche”, more downbeat and sparse, the words reverberate as the guitar and drums get progressively darker.  The guys behind the moviegoers are Jordan, Richard, Carlos, & Jessica, four peeps from San Diego, California whose music could easily co-exist in genres such as Indie, Rock, Lo-Fi, Pop and even Shoegaze.

They’ve got three songs on their MySpace page, two of which they’ve kindly allowed me to put below, so give their MySpace a visit and listen to their third song “Show Me The Way”,  give ‘em a listen down there and pre-order their 7″ from Mangoose Records, set to ship in mid-August.

Keep up to date with The Moviegoers – MySpace | Facebook | Twitter | Website

The Moviegoers – “Big High School”
The Moviegoers – “Avalanche”

That song title might sound familiar to you and if you’ve been reading this site for the last couple of months or so then you’ve probably even seen it on here. That’s because it’s a cover of the always excellent L.A. band The Delta Mirror.

I posted about The Shimmies back at the start of July and mentioned back then that they have a pretty good relationship with The Delta Mirror, two of the guys from the band guest-vocalarisering on The Delta Mirror’s “He Was Worse Than The Needle He Gave You”, and now they’re covering them.  You can hear the original version over hither and listen to The Shimmies’ rendition below.  The Shimmies take The Delta’s atmospheric and electronic original to a rousing and more vocal-harmonising level, the way covers should be; different from the original.

The Shimmies – “And The Radio Played On” (The Delta Mirror cover)

If you’re unaware of the concept behind Desert Island Discs, check out the basic pitch I gave the artists and bloggers I got in touch with.  If you’re an artist or blogger and want to take part,  just send your submission with the eight pieces of music (not the actual mp3s) and some words about each one to admin (@) listenbeforeyoubuy (dot) net.

Check out previous Desert Island Disc submissions from artists and bloggers.

First up is Teen Daze who doesn’t like to give too much away about himself (it’s because he’s so handsome that he doesn’t want people tracking him down just to be next to him), but what he does give away is “all I really say about myself is that I’m from Vancouver, BC, Canada, and I’m releasing my record on July 22 (digitally) and August 10 (physically), both through Arcade Sound LTD!”

Listen to Teen Daze below and keep in touch with him – MySpace | Twitter | Tumblr

0. Teen Daze – “Saviour”

1. Miles Davis – “Blue In Green”

This is my all-time favourite song.  From the first time I heard it, I knew it had hit me on a level deeper than most songs.  It’s an amazing example of how a song can be technically brilliant, but also hit the listener on a much more emotional level.  So often these two can’t really co-exist; the technically proficient stuff tends to be over most people’s heads, but not this track.  It’s truly a beautiful song.

2. Daft Punk – “Too Long”

Daft Punk has always been my favourite electronic band, and Discovery one of my favourite records.  I can remember hearing it for the first time in like Grade 11, and having it be such a positive record.  In a time like that in someone’s life, when apathy and confusion are so common, it was so amazing to have such an upbeat, encouraging record be something prevalent in my life.  This track is the closing track on the record, and I think it sums up the whole album quite nicely; instantly catchy, danceable and such a totally positive jam.

3. The Beach Boys – “God Only Knows”

Pet Sounds was one of the first records I can ever remember listening to.  My parents were big Beach Boys fans, so I heard this one a lot growing up.  It’s one record that’s always seemed to mean something different to me at different points in my life.  Once I was old enough to recognize the musical merit to the record, and not just take it as a California pop record, this song seemed to stand out as one of the most powerful songs on the record.  Brian Wilson is a complete genius, and this song has been an inspiration to so much of the music that I make.

4. Here We Go Magic – “Collector”

This is a pretty new track, and so I haven’t had all that long of a relationship with it, but I can safely say that it’s been one of my most listened to songs in the last few months.  Again, the positivity that this song puts out is just so good.

5. Washed Out – “Feel It All Around”

Washed Out has been a huge influence on my whole Teen Daze project, and I think this track sums up everything that I love about Ernest’s work.  If I really was stuck on a deserted island, I feel like this track could help me recognize some of the beauty surrounding me.

6. Erik Satie – “Gymnopedie #1″

I first heard this song on the documentary Man On Wire.  The combination of the incredibly emotional scene, and this incredibly emotional song, was amazing.  Here you can see the beauty in such simple music.  This is just a man and a piano, and yet it still draws out a very emotional response.

7. Sigur Ros – “Ágætis Byrjun”

I had the pleasure of travelling Western Europe for three months, a few years ago.  In my travels, I found that I came back to this record more often than not.  It was a perfect soundtrack for long train rides, walking around quiet streets and falling asleep in noisy hostels.  This song especially does it for me; the scene in Heima where the band is playing this in what looks like a school gym is so humbling and powerful.  Another example of how music doesn’t need to be loud in order to evoke a big response.

8. Gobble Gobble – “Lawn Knives”

If I’m going to be stuck on a deserted island, I’m going to want to dance a little.  I’ve got to keep my spirits up somehow right?  This is my jam as of late; it’s just so huge, and so much fun.

So, here’s the new feature I’ve been pimping lately and harassing artists and bloggers about.  It’s looking to be a pretty sweet affair and I’ve had a great response from all of the artists and bloggers who’ve sent me submissions so far.  So first off, thanks to everyone for putting up with me nagging you about it, I really do appreciate you taking part in this.

If you’re unaware of the concept behind Desert Island Discs, this is the basic pitch I gave the artists and bloggers I got in touch with.

Desert Island Discs is a radio show from the U.K. that’s aired on the BBC since 1942.  Each week a different person will go on, someone from a strand of the arts, whether it’s music, film, literature, theatre, TV, athletics or otherwise, and they’ll pick eight pieces of music that they’d take to accompany them if they were stranded on a desert island for the rest of their life.

Twice a week (on Fridays and on Tuesdays) I’ll post a new DiD submission from either an artist or a blogger (currently I’m going on a first come first serve basis but have enough to last a while).  It’ll feature their eight music selections as well as some words from them as to why they chose that piece of music and also the song for you to listen to.  My hope is that you’ll get to see an insight into what influences and moves the artists you listen to and the bloggers you read, as well as discover some awesome new music.

So that’s (hopefully) how it’s going to go down.  If you’re an artist or blogger and want to take part just send your submission with the eight pieces of music (not the mp3s) and some words about each one to admin (@) listenbeforeyoubuy (dot) net.

Thanks for reading and check back in about an hour for the first submission from an up and coming artist.

In what’s gearing up to be album-of-the-year-contender, in whatever year they release it, Yu(c)k are releasing gem after gem after gem.

All of their songs so far have been free, accompanied by some astoundingly disturbing artwork, and each and every song has been astoundingly beautiful.  We’ve had “Weakend” a few weeks back and four other haunting and touching gemcicles at the start of June.

The pre-order for their “Weakend” EP cassette release is up now, but grab it quickly because it’s strictly limited to only 100 copies.

Yu(c)k – “Daughter”

“Mothership Connection” is the funk band’s fourth album and is the best work from the group Parliament. The group described the album saying “We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn’t think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang.”.

This album is a staple in creating some of the slang we know today.

-Tiana from Ride The Tempo helping you rediscover old music.

If you like what you hear below you can buy it from here:

• Amazon – MP3 | CD
• Insound – Vinyl – CD

On their MySpace page Freedom Or Death so eloquently sum up the entire premise behind their motivation for making music.

Its the way I want to live my life
Having the freedom to make my own decisions and not adhere to the rules of others
To make art for my own well being, not for acceptance from the masses
To listen to what my heart beats to, not to slave for anothers
Give me the FREEDOM to make a life I choose – or hand me my DEATH

Free from the shackles of what society or the music industry expect in order to shift units, Torontonian duo Freedom Or Death (Steve Fernandez and Sway) have made an EP that scale the walls of dark and haunting electronic music, creating a modern-day Joy Division-esque atmosphere with Miike Snow beats and the bite of Handsome Furs. On songs like “Meter Maid” they manage to combine a slow acoustic guitar with 80s rainbow synths that sounds like Primal Scream circa 1992 meets Primal Scream circa 2008.

These guys know what they’re doing though and have a plan, having both been deeply embedded in the Canadian corporate music industry for a decade, they know what it takes to get as huge as they could, but that’s not what they want.  They’re making music because they love it and are releasing it on the very cheap (can you afford $5 for awesome music?).

They kindly allowed me to let you hear three songs below from their debut self-titled EP, which you can buy from iTunes for $5 (clicking that link opens iTunes).  Also watch their arctic video for “Crowded Room”.

Keep up to date with Freedom Or Death – MySpace | Twitter

Freedom Or Death – “Lost In Dances”
Freedom Or Death – “Soldier”
Freedom Or Death – “Back For More”

As I said yesterday when I posted Sigmund Droid’s other EP “Interpretation Of Screams”, these guys impressed the shit outta me.

Their music manages to flit between some of the most fuzzed-up bass lines you’ll hear this side of Le Tigre and an Electro group of lion tamers.  Some of the beats are just ridiculous and you can’t help but get the down down (yeah that’s a double down…the dancing equivalent of a double rainbow) and rock the fuck out at the same time.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on two of their EPs thanks to Jules who said I can post them both, for streaming and for downloading.  So this’ll be a two-part post, this being the second one for the EP “Maximum Grind”, the first of which for “Interpretation Of Screams” I posted 24 hours ago.  Listen to the whole thing below and get your get down on.

Keep up to date with Sigmund Droid – Website | Facebook | Twitter

Sigmund Droid – “I Don’t Want You To Go”
Sigmund Droid – “Implied I”
Sigmund Droid – “Maximum Grind”
Sigmund Droid – “Palestine”
Sigmund Droid – “Things”

Chances are if you’re looking to get your music featured on this most-highly revered of music sites (mah Poppa says he loves it!) then it’ll serve you well if you’re from my homeland. It also helps if you make good music, so The Son(s) were on a roll.

From Edinburgh/Aberdeenshire they hail and they actually took the time out to check out my site, which to me means a lot. They’re obviously a good judge of character (or bad depending on how you look at it) after reading about me and thinking I might like their music. They were right, their three-song EP “Radar” is everything I love about Folk-Rock music, the softly-sung melodies, the multiple harmonies and the intricate guitar playing.

They have an album in the works and are hoping to release shortly after it’s done, but until then just enjoy what you hear below.

Keep up to date with The Son(s) – Bandcamp | Soundcloud

The Son(s) – Radar by ListenBeforeYouBuy

The Son(s) – Don’t Stick Around Longer Than You Have The Stomach For by ListenBeforeYouBuy

The Son(s) – Dogs, Boys & Men by ListenBeforeYouBuy

Ever wondered what a Cake/Towers Of London/Queens Of The Stone Age hybrid might sound like?  Of course you have, who hasn’t?  It’s something that’s crossed my mind frequently but now I don’t have to wonder. Now I know!

It comes in the form of Sigmund Droid, a band that, contrary to what their name might suggest, are not a German Electro lion-tamer group.  I was damn fucking impressed when I was sent their music that manages to flit between some of the most fuzzed-up bass lines you’ll hear this side of Le Tigre and an Electro group of lion tamers.  Some of the beats are just ridiculous and you can’t help but get the down down (yeah that’s a double down…the dancing equivalent of a double rainbow) and rock the fuck out at the same time.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on two of their EPs thanks to Jules who said I can post them both, for streaming and for downloading.  So this’ll be a two-part post, this being the first one for the EP “Interpretation Of Screams” and the second will be tomorrow for “Maximum Grind”.  Listen to the whole thing below and watch the below video, and check back tomorrow for the other EP

Keep up to date with Sigmund Droid – Website | Facebook | Twitter

Sigmund Droid – “Blackgirl”
Sigmund Droid – “Implied I”
Sigmund Droid – “Liverpool Sluts”
Sigmund Droid – “Molly Molineux”
Sigmund Droid – “Psychic Healer”
Sigmund Droid – “Sigmund Droid”
Sigmund Droid – “Symbols In The Sand”

One of the blogs I frequent and trust with new music is Knox Road. There are a few people who, when posting new music, I’ll always listen to because I trust their taste, and Knox Road is one of them.  Last week they posted about I Am The Dot and before I got the chance to get in contact with the artist, the artist had got in touch with me. Making my life easier is always appreciated, although I still refuse to use those drive-through banks, that shit’s taking it too far.

Anyway, the guy behind I Am The Dot is Zach Tipton, a young whipper-snapper from Denver/Atlanta who’s released a few EPs that you can get from his Bandcamp page.  He’s mixed things up a bit between EPs, his last one “Minimal Love” was on the more experimental side of Pop, chucking in some Soul along the way.  People get turned off when they read that something is experimental, they think it’s just some guy hitting things around his house and recording the noises they make, but it’s not (always) the case.

I’m not sure just how many people helped out on recording his EPs but it sounds like a bunch of them, with layers of backing vocals and harmonies it’s hard to imagine just one guy doing all of this.  If you wanna find out for yourself just how good it is, get to playin’ the songs below.  There are two of his EPs, his latest one “The Royal Few” as well as the one before that “Minimal Love”, and also his latest video for “The Crown”.

Keep up to date with I Am The Dot – Bandcamp | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter

“Minimal Love EP”

I Am The Dot – “Mark Twain”
I Am The Dot – “Minimal Love”
I Am The Dot – “That Golden Spiral”

“The Royal Few EP”

I Am The Dot – “Liquid Gold”
I Am The Dot – “The Crown”

I’ve long been a fan of Bloc Party and when frontman Kele Okereke announced earlier this year that we’d be seeing a solo project from him pretty soon, I got excited for it.

It turned out to not be what I expected it to be those few months ago, but instead a seemingly continuation of Bloc Party’s last album “Intimacy”, especially the more dance/electronic-fueled tracks.  Alicia over at BaebelMusic got in touch with me to let me know about a showcase he recently did for them featuring some cuts from his new solo album “The Boxer” as well as a mixtape he chose for them.

You can see the acoustic performance of “New Rules” below as well as listen to his mixtape over at their site.

Old buddy, old pal Charlie (King Post Kitsch) is back with another excellent EP.

Last time around (back at the start of April) I posted three of his songs that he releases for free on his Bandcamp page, and he’s done the same this time.  This time around it’s his Monomaniac EP that’ll be out on his Bandcamp page this coming Monday.  He’s taken a somewhat different turn on Monomaniac, going for a polished sound but with drops of Lo-Fi, a twinge of twee, and on the infectious “Walking On Eggshells” his voice sounds like he’s been smoking an extra pack or two a day (good thing for the sound, bad for the lungs).

You can hear a couple of the songs from the EP below and then head on over to his Bandcamp page to get the whole thing for free.

Keep up to date with King Post Kitsch – MySpace | Website | Bandcamp | Twitter

King Post Kitsch – “Monomaniac”
King Post Kitsch – “Walking On Eggshells”

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week.

Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I’ve been listening to (new and old) over the past week and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them.  Want me to check someone out? Let me know at that Contact Us thinger up there.

In order to listen to the playlist you’ll need to have Flash enabled.

This week’s #MusicMonday playlist:

Along with Tennis and Best Coast, Lights On are bringing sweet retro-influenced summer pop to brighten up everyone’s day, regardless of what the weather outside is actually like.

The four-piece may hail from sunny San Diego, but their new single “Red Lights Flashing” abounds in nods to past Brit-indie acts, from The Wedding Present and Echo And The Bunnymen to The Coral. There are scratchy, post-punk-esque guitar riffs sitting comfortably alongside delicate melodies and soaring vocals. The band are obviously very good at marrying diverse elements into an appealing and catchy package.

Their terrific debut album, “Here Comes The Ocean”, was released on July 6th, and features more of the washed-out surf-rock sound displayed on this single. It’s available to buy at their website on MP3, vinyl or cassette.

Keep up to date with Lights On – MySpace | Last.fm | Facebook

Lights On – “Red Lights Flashing”

I can’t get enough of this kinda music lately, it’s just so ethereal and relaxing (to me at least).

Not usually associated with music like chillwave (please, can we get some confirmation on whether it’s an actual genre or not yet?), bitterTV is from Russia where it’s stereotypically freezing.  Maybe that’s why he makes music like this, his desire to escape to a warm summer beach where he can get sand in his ass-crack and be annoyed by pre-pubescent boys throwing balls in his direction, at least that’s been my experience with beaches as of late (that sounds more perverted than the image in my head looked).

In his email to me he said that he writes “music for a non-existent forgotten channel. TV shows, soap operas, dramas.   Horny big antenna on the TV boxes against the window look black coal lines. On the street a gray sky, and on the screen – great color emotional happy life.”  Obviously some was lost in translation but you get the idea.

You can listen to his four song EP “New Season Screen” below, download it from his Bandcamp page, and check out his Soundcloud page for songs that I don’t have here.

Keep up to date with bitterTV – MySpace | Bandcamp | Last.fm | Soundcloud

bitterTV – “Open New Season”
bitterTV – “Summer Wave Tape”
bitterTV – “Caribean Sky”
bitterTV – “One Love”

Clearly inspired byFrench pop music, if it’s not evident by their name it’s certainly evident upon listening to their music.

They’re not actually from France though, instead hailing from a little town in the state of New York called Brooklyn.  That’s the origin of the band though, the members themselves hailing from Alabama, which as far as I know isn’t known for it’s Indie/French-Pop scene.  Maybe I’m wrong though, maybe there’s an entire underground scene dedicated to it, like that (literally) underground French cinema that was discovered underneath Paris in 2004.

Taking turns on the mic, the twee vocal stylings of Elizabeth Darnell, is joined by Evan Rowe, Bryant Saxon, and Michael Sherer.  As a unit they’re tight and will undoubtedly draw comparisons to the lyrical style of Belle & Sebastien and sound of Camera Obscura.  On songs like “Cease Fire!” they’re akin to Iggy Pop doing 60s organ-led-pop.  That never happens, which is why we have Beaux Animaux.

Below you can hear three songs from their just released debut album “Beautiful Animals”, and over at their site/Bandcamp page you can stream their entire album for free, then buy it for a measly $5.  Tell me that’s not a good deal (if you do I’ll call you a liar).

Keep up to date with Beaux Animaux – MySpace | Facebook | Website

Beaux Animaux – “Here I Am Inside Myself”
Beaux Animaux – “La Bete a Deux Dos”
Beaux Animaux – “Silhouette”

…which moment would you choose and why?

It’s not really much of a secret that I’m an insanely huge fan of The Beatles and I don’t think there’s anyone before or since who’ve changed music and culture in such a hugely profound way.  The moment in time that I’d go back to would be just before, during, and after the moment that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were introduced to each other at St. Peter’s Church Rose Queen garden fete in Woolton, on July 6th 1957.  John was 17 and was playing with his band The Quarrymen when Paul arrived in the middle of them playing their second set of songs.  Afterwards a mutual friend introduced them to each other, they spoke for a few minutes and then Paul played showed them how he tuned his guitar and played a couple of songs for them.

If they hadn’t met when they did, I think the chances of them meeting each other further down the road would’ve been slim, so to witness them being introduced as teenagers, shaking hands, talking to each other, watching Paul play them songs, and me knowing what just happened, how poignant those few minutes were going to be is something that fascinates me.  To them it was nothing, just meeting some other kid who played the guitar and then going about their business, John going back up on stage and Paul going home.  They had no idea they were about to change the world.

It was only a couple of weeks later that John asked Paul to join The Quarrymen and so began (arguably) the most prolific, inspirational, successful, and innovative writing and musical partnerships in history.  Their first ever recording together was a cover of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day”, still under the name of The Quarrymen and the b-side was an original song written by Paul and George called “In Spite Of All The Danger”, you can hear them both below.

So what moment would you go back to?

The Beatles/The Quarrymen – “That’ll Be The Day”
The Beatles/The Quarrymen – “In Spite Of All The Danger”

- Previously Discussed -

• Is Illegally Downloading Music Ever Justifiable?
• How Do You Tag Your Music And What Software Do You Use?
• Person Wakes From A Coma After 25 Years Having Never Heard Music Before, What’s The First Song You Play For Them?

Although they’ve been around and being spoken about for a good few months now, it seems like only in the last couple of weeks or so that I’m starting to hear about New Jersey’s Alexander and Daniel, the guys behind Slow Animal.  They’ve been showing up on various different blogs and Twitter streams and it piqued my interest.  I did some digging (wasn’t difficult since I had a PR email sitting in my inbox with everything I needed, thanks Jessi!) and checked out their MySpace page.

Initially I only had a couple of their songs to go up here, and then I found their Bandcamp page with four more songs all for free, so of course I downloaded them all.  Some have described them as a male Best Coast, or similar to Beach Fossils, and I’d agree with both of those.  Best Coast have done it and Slow Animal are doing it too; creating a lo-fi, fuzz-pop summer beach sound without actually going the stereotypical route of having waves and cascading harmonies, a la The Beach Boys or Souxsie Sioux (not really).

They have a 7″ single out right now for a mere $4.99 (limited to 250) called “theFUNsun” and you can hear both songs from that below as well as three others.

Keep up to date with Slow Animal – MySpace | Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook

Slow Animal – “Sitting Here”
Slow Animal – “theFUNsun”
Slow Animal – “Sanity”
Slow Animal – “Dolt Heart”
Slow Animal – “Saturday Mourning”

Yet another fine song from Indianapolis’, soon-to-be-San Franciscan three-piece Burnt Ones.

Last week….or was it the week before……I can’t remember, I’m posting so much about these guys lately it’s difficult to keep track. Ok, it was last week I posted a live video of them taken at the end of June and last weekend they held a launch party for their new EP, out Nationally on August 10th.

“Burnt To Lose” is taken from their debut album “Back Teeth & Golden Tongues” and is a lot slower and more reverb-laden than some of the other songs I’ve previously posted.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Burnt Ones – “Burnt To Lose”

Spinning off from cult Denver band The Vanity, where he played bass from 2005-2007, Kamtin Mohager is now known as The Chain Gang Of 1974. He’s adopted a much sleeker sound – more electro-influenced and poppier.

The opening to his track “Matter Of Time” is a pulsing wall of synths recalling Jan Hammer’s score for Miami Vice. Then we’re into a smooth yacht-rock melody underpinned by funky bass work. But before you think this is pure retro-cheese, Kamtin’s husky, decidedly un-80s voice spins a poignant tale of loss and abandonment.

Kamtin’s been keeping busy this year – in addition to releasing his album “White Guts” this year, he’s been supporting The White Tie Affair on tour as Chain Gang of 1974, and played bass with 3OH!3 at their live shows. He’s also found time to make an odd and entertaining video for the single “STOP!”, featuring Domo-kun of Japanese TV fame.

The Chain Gang Of 1974 – “Matter of Time”
The Chain Gang Of 1974 – “Don’t Walk Away”

You’ll likely not go for long without reading a feature of Kisses without them being compared to Jens Lekman.

It’s true, singer Jesse Kivel does sound similar to Jens Lekman, but not in the same sense as Owl City sound like Postal Service.  Jesse doesn’t comprise Kisses as a whole (he’s joined by Zinzi Edmundson), so really it’s only his voice and not so much the band’s sound that are comparable.  It’s yet another summer-sounding onslaught with tight hand-clapped beats backed by ethereal synths and waves of background sounds that only help to enhance that feeling of needing to be outside in the sun, whether it’s in the middle of a road or on a beach.

You can listen to two of their songs below, both are singles you can buy or pre-order on 7″ vinyl.  They’re also both taken from the band’s debut album “The Heart Of The Nightlife”.

Keep up to date with Kisses – MySpace | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Site |

Kisses – “Bermuda”
Kisses – “People Can Do The Most Amazing Things”

I know next to nothing about this band, other than Cults made a tweet late last night/early this morning saying they were featured on the new EP by a band called Guards and they linked to their Bandcamp page.

So check it out I did and I’m glad I did, because it’s pretty fucking impressive.  It’s seven songs long and is tagged as “alternative, doom, new wave, power pop, rock & roll, New York”.  I looked for a MySpace/Twitter/Facebook page and came up short.  Regardless, just enjoy this stunning, fresh, new lo-fi summer gem.  Not only does it feature Cults but also Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek.

UPDATE: So I got in touch with the band (it’s actually just Richie on his own) who wrote back and told me that they don’t have a MySpace (“Bandcamp is the future”) and he sent me a press photo.  Also, there seems to be more than just a working relationship between Guards and Cults, as Richie (unless it’s a giant coincidence) is related to Madeline from Cults, sharing the same last name (Follin).  The talent clearly runs in the family, as does their apparent “love” for the mysterious (when Cults first appeared nobody knew anything about them, other than the fact that they were awesome, and the same holds true here too).  He’s also got another solo project and another band (The Willowz).

Keep up to date with Guards – Bandcamp

Guards – “Resolution Of One”
Guards – “Trophy Queen” (featuring Caroline Polachek)
Guards – “Sail It Slow” (featuring Cults)
Guards – “Don’t Wake The Dead”
Guards – “Crystal Truth”
Guards – “Long Time”
Guards – “I See It Coming”

Thanks to The Guardian you can listen to the entire debut album “Crazy For You” by Best Coast below.  It’s kinda been doing the rounds, a couple of other sites getting full streams of it and a couple of the songs getting official videos and being released as free downloads.  But now here’s the full thing with the choice to skip songs and buy them! Just do the latter though.

I let this one sit in my inbox for too long.  On a recent cull I came across it and the lengthy description that accompanied it.  After maybe a paragraph or two I just stopped reading and started watching.

I don’t want to spoil the video for you if you haven’t seen it yet, but not only is the video really really well done it’s also humourous and touching.  The song on the other hand is just fucking awesome, I fell in love almost instantly.   It’s taken from his upcoming album “Smash” which is out later this year, the song itself won’t be out until September, hitting the radiowaves in August.  Unfortunately I don’t have an MP3 of it for you, and it’s rare for me to just post a video but this one deserves it.

I could’ve made this post a couple of ways.  Because Hard Mix has a shitload of songs all available for free, I could’ve made one giant post with all of his music, or I could’ve split it up into three posts, with five songs or so for each post.  My only problem is that I’d probably use up all of my fancy words in the first post and the second and third would sound especially bland (more so than usual).  I’m not sure if this is his entire discography, but it has to be close.

I eventually went with the giant post, that way you only have to stay on one page and listen to them all instead of laboriously coming back day after day just to hear all of his tunes.  The guy behind Hard Mix goes by the name of Noah (yeah he wasn’t actually called Hard Mix from birth….weird huh?) and hails from South Carolina, the home of chillwave and Stephen Colbert.  It seems like anyone with the name Noah these days is destined for great things; This Noah, Panda Bear, that guy from the bible who parted the seas……there was probably a dinosaur called Noah too.

I digress.  It’s not where he’s from that’s important, but the cut of his jib, and Hard Mix’s jib cuts like a warm butter knife through nostalgic sun-lashed (butter) synths. You could lump him into the chillwave genre (if it is indeed a genre) but he only really touches on that.  Of the 16 songs you’ll hear below, there are definitely elements of chillwave, but also Hip-Hop, Dance, and Electro-R&B, all interspersed with some sampled classics of yesteryear.  You can play these songs, and while they differ from one song to the next, do one of two things; 1.), Dance the shit out of your tiny little ass, or 2.) Just take it easy and kick back.  You could try to do both at the same time but things might get broken and might end up like a game of musical chairs.

You can listen to 16 of his songs below and I think that might just be all of them, and let me know what you think.  The only reason I found out about Hard Mix is all down to Jared from the amazing and underrated Life: Aquatic blog.  He has the video for the above song “Memories”, so go check it out as well as the rest of his stuff.

Keep up to date with Hard Mix – MySpace | Facebook | Twitter | Last.fm | Blog

Hard Mix – “All The Time”
Hard Mix – “Alright”
Hard Mix – “Baby Just”
Hard Mix – “Ballin’”
Hard Mix – “Close To Yah”
Hard Mix – “Control This”
Hard Mix – “Drama-Drama”
Hard Mix – “Just Tell Me”
Hard Mix – “King Of The Stars”
Hard Mix – “Memories”
Hard Mix – “One Thing”
Hard Mix – “Sky Up Above”
Hard Mix – “Sonar”
Hard Mix – “Swore I Was Dreamin’”
Hard Mix – “To Care, To Know”
Hard Mix – “Words, They Burn”

The first time I heard The Walkmen was late at night, many moons ago when I was watching Subterranean on MTV2.  The vieo for “The Rat” came on and the song blew me away, spurring me to hunt down everything else this new (to me) band had done.  Back then that was only their second album “Bows + Arrows”, but still, it was enough.

I enjoyed what I heard, but then I stopped giving a shit….they lost their appeal to me.  Where people call The National “granddad rock”, I’d half agree and half disagree.  I think The Walkmen are taking that label, whether they want it or not and this new number is slow and horny, kinda like a granddad, but to each his own.  You may love it, you may hate it.  Personally I think it’s decent, but not great.  It seems to be lacking something.  Youth, maybe?

“Stranded” is taken from their upcoming album “Lisbon” due out later this year.

The Walkmen – “Stranded”

(vai WeAllWantSomeone)

New Interpol can never be a bad thing, can it?  Even without Carlos D?

Well actually this song was done before the D’ster quit the band, so it is technically from the Interpol of old.  They released “Lights” back in April and that one DID have Carlos D, as well as every other song on the album didn’t have Carlos D on it (as far as I remember) so see how this compares.  OneThirtyBPM got its hands on the single that showed up on iTunes this morning so give it a listen below before you head over and buy it, and let me know what you think.

Interpol – “Barricade”

(via OneThirtyBPM)

Ahh Germany.  You really know how to produce some fucked up music huh?

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Live At Kalibou Beach make weird/fucked up music, but the duo of Dhom and May seem like they might be kinda weird themselves……well if their email to me is anything to go by.  I get a decent amount of emails from German electro artists and most are pants that only make it to the ear part of my test, so I didn’t hold out hope for what their MySpace page had in store.

Wincing, one eye closed as if about to receive a slap in the face, I clicked play.  Then came the slap, not of an open hand but of a sick distorted electro beat. Hmm…..that was unexpected.  The sickness in question was “Slushball” and played through like The Knife doing 8-bit industrial dance.  In fact the rest of their songs kinda took that route, which is by no means a bad thing, you obviously just have to be into that kinda music to appreciate it.

You can get into them below with three songs they sent me and let me know what you think.  Their upcoming album “Herz Esbjerg” is self-released on August 4th

Keep up to date with Live At Kalibou Beach – MySpace | Facebook | Twitter | Last.fm

Live At Kalibou Beach – “Slushball”
Live At Kalibou Beach – “3 Letter Victory”
Live At Kalibou Beach – “Checmate Miracl”

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week.

Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I’ve been listening to (new and old) over the past week and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them.  Want me to check someone out? Let me know at that Contact Us thinger up there.

In order to listen to the playlist you’ll need to have Flash enabled.

This week’s #MusicMonday playlist:

1. “When I’m With You – Best Coast”
2. “Leave Me Be – Spectrals”
3. “Light My Fire – The Doors”
4. “Empassant – Black Lips”
5. “Cet Air-La – April March”
6. “That’s Entertainment – The Jam”
7. “The Humans Are Dead – Flight of the Conchords”
8. “Colours – Editors”
9. “Multiplication – Bobby Darin”
10. “Perfection As A Hipster – God Help The Girl”
11. “White Sky – Vampire Weekend”
12. “To the Ghosts Who Write History Books – The Low Anthem”
13. “Lazy Day – Beach Fossils”
14. “Trouble – Spoon”
15. “Babelonia – School of Seven Bells”
16. “The Maginificent Seven – The Clash”
17. “Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated) – The Offspring”
18. “Song of Our So-Called Friend – Okkervil River”
19. “Real Wild Child – Iggy Pop”
20. “Space – M.I.A.”

Some lucky bastards managed to get their “Tomboy” 7″ early, but of course I wasn’t one of them.  Shit, vinyl I’ve been waiting on since May hasn’t even arrived yet, nevermind vinyl that hasn’t even been released yet.  Hopefully by Thursday I’ll have it (I’ll cut someone if I don’t).

Anyway, said lucky bastards ripped the vinyl to MP3, upped it to the interwebs and everyone collectively jizzed in their pants.  It’s the first new music by Mr. Bear from his upcoming album of the same name.  Released as a 7″ vinyl it’s also the first of a bunch of limited 7″s released via different labels in the run up to the album’s release. The followup to 2007’s absolute stunner of an album “Person Pitch” is due out on Paw Tracks in September.

You can check ‘em out below but if you’re gonna jizz, make sure it’s in your pants.

Panda Bear – Tomboy by ListenBeforeYouBuy

Panda Bear – Slow Motion by ListenBeforeYouBuy

“Loaded” is the fourth album from The Velvet Underground, and was released a month after Lou Reed had left the band. All songs were written by Lou Reed except “Ride Into The Sun”, which was written by Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker. Reed left behind some of the best hits the band has had in their lifetime.

-Tiana from Ride the Tempo helping you rediscover old music

If you like what you hear below, then go ahead and buy it.

• eMusic – Sign up and download the entire album for free.
• Amazon – CD | Vinyl | MP3
• Insound – CD | Vinyl

Last night (Saturday July 10th) saw Burnt Ones release their highly anticipated, sure-to-be critically acclaimed debut album “Black Teeth & Golden Tongues”.

They only released it in Indiana last night, with a national release coming on August 10th via Dodge’s new label Roaring Colonel Records.  Below there’s an excellent video of them performing their 7″ single song “Gonna Listen To T-Rex (All Night long)” recorded by Monkey Eats Monkey live in Indianapolis at the end of June.  The song almost sounds even better live, Mark’s voice disappearing in reverb and Amy pounding away on her two drums.

If you were lucky enough to go to their album launch gig last night, let me know how it was, even though it’ll make me insanely jealous.

Burnt Ones – “Sunset Hill” (Live on LaundroMatinee)

This is a grey area, a touchy subject, something people don’t really like to talk about in public.  But let’s try to.

You can debate something without having a solid viewpoint on it, it’s the best skill that a debater can have (a master debater if you will).  Discussing the merits of illegal filesharing doesn’t imply guilt or admission of use, so let’s get to talking.

What do you think is fair and not fair in terms of what you download (is it justifiable to download an album by a band who are huge and can afford to miss a few bucks from you? or to download the biggest movie on the planet that won’t miss your few bucks as opposed to a new, upcoming band who could probably use it?)?

Do you think it’s alright to download an album to “listen to it before you buy it” so to speak?  Personally I think that’s fine and a lot of people do that.  With the music industry in the absolute shite state of affairs it’s in, if they’re going to screw over the customer and even artists with over the top prices, the least they could do is let us listen to it before we overpay for it.

Let’s say your favourite new band just released their awesome new album and they’re touring in your town.  You have $30 to spend, the ticket is $20 and the album is $15.  Since your friends and family are stingey and won’t give you that extra $5, would you have a problem downloading the album illegally, for free, and then buying the ticket and some merchandise at the gig?  Do you think bands would have a problem with that, since I’d assume they probably get a bigger cut by selling merch at gigs than from their label.  I can’t see them advocating the illegal procurement of their music since their labels would have a shit fit, but they might be alright with it.

Let me know what you think, and enjoy the glory that is:

The Jam – “That’s Entertainment”

I’m starting to get backlogged with music submissions now, and whilst I still listen to everything that gets sent to me, I’m delayed in actually getting to post the stuff I like, which is currently about 70% good, 30% alright, and 12% terrible.

Obviously Toronto, Canada’s Strider Hero made it into that highly prestigious 70%.  You’ve probably heard me harp on about how much I love free music, who doesn’t.  But when it’s entirely free EPs or albums, it just sets my heart and ears all a flutter.  I’ll admit I was surprised by Strider Hero.  At first, looking at their email and their MySpace page it seemed as though maybe they had put so much time and effort into the aesthetics of their look or even brand if you like, to compensate for having bland music.

Not the case. Not only is their aesthetic really well done and thought out, but their music is passionate, catchy and welcoming.  As I said they’re giving away their EP for free, but on their MySpace page they’ve made seven nice-sized alternate covers based on a super hero (fits in with the hero part of their name).  On the music side, the melodies and harmonies are light and breezy and the vocals are like a cross between The Morning Benders and The Smiths.

Give the entire EP a listen below and head over to their MySpace page which has all of the lyrics for each of the songs, the alternate cover art, and the link to download the whole shabang.

Keep up to date with Strider Hero – MySpace | Facebook | Twitter

Strider Hero – “The Well Wisher”
Strider Hero – “Future Wife”
Strider Hero – “Monstrous Girl”
Strider Hero – “Brave”
Strider Hero – “Take It Slow”
Strider Hero – “The Spaces That You Only Know”
Strider Hero – “Fake NYC”

This was Browne’s 4th album. It was not as lighthearted as his previous works since his wife had committed suicide while he was writing this. It took a bitter turn, “Say a prayer for the pretender,” he sings, “who stared out so young and strong, only to surrender.”The man who had delved so deeply into life’s abyss on his earlier albums was in search of escape this time around.

-Tiana from Ride the Tempo helping you rediscover old music.

If you like what you hear below then buy the album here:

• Amazon CD | MP3
• Insound – CD

I’m always being held captive by Ninjas and having Charlize Theron rescue me.

What can I say, I’m a lucky guy (or unlucky depending on how you look at it).  Apparently it happens to Brandon Flowers a lot too because in this candid clip for his new video you can see him being held hostage by a bunch o’ ninjas and Charlize (we’re on first name terms) bursts in and rescues him.  Then it happens again, and again.

She’s like the Santa of ninja rescue operations.

Brandon Flowers – “Crossfire” (Radio rip)

(via Stereogum)

This guy never stops.  Never. Never ever.

I’m pretty sure that he’s still making music when he’s sleeping.  He’s one busy guy, that’s for sure.  If he’s not working on new music of his own then he’s remixing someone else’s, or he’s guest-posting on other sites and blogs, or he’s being harassed by me about guest-posting on a new feature I’m working on. All I do is sit here and type shit and I find it difficult trying to get enough time to do it, so I’ve got no idea how the fuck he does it, I’m just glad that he does.

Five new songs by Blackbird Blackbird is what you want, and five new songs you shall receive.  One is a remix of “Good Evening” by The Concretes no less, the second is a collaboration with Neon Canyon, the third is a brand new song of his own, the fourth is a song of his remixed by Sunvisor, and the fifth is another song of his remixed by Kohwi. His debut album “Summer Heart” is out now via his Bandcamp page and there’s a physical version coming out in September via Arcade Sounds.  Check out my previous post on him and listen to (almost) his entire discography.

Mikey; Take a fucking break ok?  For your own health and safety. Smooches.

Blackbird Blackbird – “I’m Feeling Hazy”
The Concretes – “Good Evening” (Blackbird Blackbird Remix)
Blackbird Blackbird & Neon Canyon – “We Have To Know”
Blackbird Blackbird – “Hawaii” (Sunvisor Remix)
Blackbird Blackbird – “Pure” (Kohwi Remix)

Formerly Jazica, Arp Attack are a four-piece from the South of England who thankfully changed their name.  Compared to the likes of Delphic and Friendly Fires (and with a hint of The Killers circa 2005), they’re more upbeat and optimistic than the former two bands whilst at the same time fusing some killer guitar solos over waves of synthetic beats.

Singer Frankie’s voice is lush and easily recognisable in the same vein as Katie White’s from The Ting Tings and Lovefoxxx from CSS.  Arp Attack don’t fall into the same trite category as other electro-indie bands who have come and gone, leaving us with nothing more than 11 failed attempts at this whole “music” thing. No, Arp Attack actually deliver, in a big way, not only with one good song but with four of the four that I’ve heard.

They’ve already shared the stage with the aforementioned Delphic as well as Chew Lips, Two Door Cinema Club, Everything Everything, The Spinto Band, Esser, and Just Jack to name a few.  They’re also playing at T In The Park this weekend. Give em a listen and get to diggin’ it.

Keep up to date with Arp Attack – MySpace | Bandcamp | Soundcloud

Arp Attack – “Illusions”
Arp Attack – “Follow The Rhythm”

I gush, what can I say?  Sorry?  Ok, maybe sometimes a “sorry” is warranted, but most of the time it’s not because I’m not the only one gushing.

The latter part of that sentence is definitely true for Cults.  I gushed back in March when they showed up unannounced out of nowhere and turned us all on.  I gushed when Forest Family Records told us they were their first signing/release on the new label, and I gushed when I got the limited edition vinyl.

Now I’m gushing because thanks to Adult Swim’s glorious 8 Singles in 8 Weeks project, we now have a brand new, gush-worthy Cults song.  It’s a little more upbeat than their previous three songs and the words are easier to make out, but it still has that sweet summer Cults sound to it.  Give it a listen below as well as the lead track for their first 7″ single “Go Outside”.  They also did a video for it, their first ever video (other than that video that was doing the rounds a month or two ago of them playing live).

Cults – “Oh My God”
Cults – “Go Outside”

An entire album being given away as a free download?  Those can be hard to come by these days, you might think that if someone is giving away an entire album they spent time recording, it must be pretty bad.  The digital equivalent of a second-hand shop and their bargain bins, you might think.  Well you think wrong!

Why would you be judgmental like that?

In the realm of entirely free full albums, this is by far the best I’ve heard.  They do have an option to buy on vinyl and whilst some albums just aren’t worth getting on vinyl, not only is this worth buying on vinyl but it’s worth paying something for it.  Free music like this just doesn’t come around every day.  When I listen to “Warship” I can hear the atmospheric dissonance of Interpol, the huge wall-of-sound crescendo of Arcade Fire, the ramshackle tidiness of Frightened Rabbit and the country heartbreak of Ryan Adams.

You can buy their album as a double vinyl LP that comes with a seven page handwritten lyrics book and a digital download too.  These guys put a hell of a lot of time and talent into this album, so if you have the cash, go to their site and buy the vinyl.

Keep up to date with The House Floor – MySpace | Website

The House Floor – “All Aboard” MLWR (LOL!)”
The House Floor – “Makers Of Taste/Tests/Waste/Pious Factions”
The House Floor – “Play Doctor”
The House Floor – “Cheer Up, Chance (Some Personal Injustices)”
The House Floor – “Christian Friends”
The House Floor – “Tyrants!”
The House Floor – “Nice & Proper”
The House Floor – “Lava (No Hope For The A-span)”
The House Floor – “Axis”
The House Floor – “Debra Downer’s Playin’ With Her Barbies”

It’s pretty sweet when a band you really like starts recommending new music to you.  That’s what Craig from The Delta Mirror did with The Shimmies.

Not only did he recommend them but he even sent me a couple of their songs too.  The four-piece are from a land far far away in Dagobah System, California, their sound reminiscent of Grizzly Bear meets Conor Oberst meets a Jeff Buckley-fronted Band Of Horses.  High-arching guitar build-ups, resonating vocals and drum skins hit like they’re going out of fashion make their upcoming album “To All Beloved Enemies” sound like a truly genuine and emotional take on well-written rock music.

Made up of three brothers (Jimmy Galloway, Stephen Galloway, Sean Galloway) and a buddy (Jack Gingerich), they describe their music as “home-school rock”, with big emphasis on home and rock.  Jimmy and Sean switch it up on vocal duties, whilst Sean and Stephen actually sang on The Delta Mirror’s song “He Was Worse Than The Needle He Gave You”.  Self-released “To All Beloved Enemies” is out July 27th and you can get their previous album “The Frogtown LP” via CD Baby.

They’re on tour at the moment with The Delta Mirror (among others), but there’s no word yet if they plan on touring with The Shakes.  That’d be a billboard poster worth stealing (see what I did there? The Shimmies and The Shakes?  On tour together? No?……ahem).

Keep up to date with The Shimmies – MySpace | Facebook | Website | Twitter

The Shimmies – “Judas”
The Shimmies – “My Heroine”

Taken from the B-side to the 7″ single “Come With Me”, “Everything Is Gonna Be Alright” is almost an instrumental, but not quite.

It follows the same African tribal beat for most of the song, switching it up to give us some kinda Hip-Hop yelling half-way through and Eric (presumably) himself harmonising off and on.  It’s a cover of a song by ex-Swedish band Sagor & Swing, and that’s about it really, give it a listen and check out “Come With Me”, the standout track from his amazing debut album “White Magic” (out now via Modular People)

ceo – “Everything Is Gonna Be Alright”

(via GvsB)

Taken from their second release from their latest album “The Chaos”, Sunderland’s The Futureheads use some Roy Lichtenstein inspiration in their video for “I Can Do That”.

The animated video has the band fighting with each other in a pub, knocking bottles of Jack over each other’s heads, using superpowers like flying, x-ray vision, telepathy, and being a ninja, as well as turning into a red version of The Hulk.

Actually, it’s mostly singer Barry who’s doing all of that.  Not sure why he turned into such a douche, though.  At the end a Matrix-looking Nick Frost shows up all sorts of crazy shit starts happening…..you know what, just watch it.

The Futureheads – “Struck Dumb”

(via TheMusicSlut)

Yet another artist which invites comparison with Phil Spector and the “wall of sound” production technique. (And yet another great track from The Fader – they keep on coming up with the goods.)

Eerie vocals wind through the fuzzy guitar melodies, recalling The Raveonettes but without the ironic rock’n’roll pastiching. Brooklyn’s Night Manager currently only have two tracks posted on their MySpace site, but are definitely a band worth keeping up with.

Night Manager - “Blackout Sex”

It’s only been ten days since these weirdoes graced us with some brand new music from their upcoming tenth studio album “False Priest”.

Back then I said that I loved the song in question “Coquet Coquette”, and this follows suit quite delightfully.  It’s not like the former, it’s more synthetic and electronic, compared to the former’s more guitar-orientated structure.  This one plods along rather daintily visiting some points of soul along the way.

“False Priest” is due out on September 14th via Polyvinyl.

of Montreal – “Hydra Fancies”

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week.

Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I’ve been listening to (new and old) over the past week and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them.  Want me to check someone out? Let me know at that Contact Us thinger up there.

In order to listen to the playlist you’ll need to have Flash enabled.

This week’s #MusicMonday playlist:

There’s a slow rhythmic vocal refrain to the vocals on Spectrals’s song “Don’t Mind”, which combined with the chimes and strings produces a Scott Walker/Phil Spector effect. It’s ethereal and feels like it’s being beamed from the past directly to your computer, maybe picking up a little shoegaze influence along the way.

Louis Jones, the one man behind this orchestration, obviously has an ear for the music of the past, but also the talent and originality needed to carve out something new from what came before.

Spectrals – “Don’t Mind”
Spectrals – “It’s OK (Not To Be OK)”
Spectrals – “Rot With Me”

I read about this last week when it was making the blog rounds, but I didn’t actually watch the video until Peenko asked me if I was able to.  You see, Peenko lives in Scotland and can’t view the video because of lame copyright/licensing laws.  I on the other hand, even though I’m from Scotland, live in the U.S., so I could see the video.

So because he did me a solid, I did him a solid and ripped the audio from the video for him.  He posted it yesterday, and today it’s my turn.  It’s not exactly Frightened Rabbit because it’s just Scott the lead singer, but it’s close enough.

It’s taken from the below video that’s part of a series of videos by The Onion A.V. Club where they get a giant artist and make them play in a tiny room, “Being John Malkovich” style.  Previous luminaries to take part include Ted Leo and his band of pharmaceutical punk rockers, Fruit Bats, Ben Folds, and The Antlers.  Give your ear buds some earbud-food.

Frightened Rabbit – “Confetti” (Lemonheads cover)

Frightened Rabbit covers The Lemonheads

If you’re unaware, the Gymnopedies are three compositions by Erik Satie, a 19th-20th century French composer.  They’re by far his most famous works and if you’ve never heard them before I urge you to seek them out (in this day and age it shouldn’t take you much more than three minutes).

MillionYoung has just released this excellent “rendition” of “Gymnopedie No. 1″ as a free download from his site.  It’s a sweet 2 and a half minutes of dream-pop and lazy Sunday synths, even though it’s still Saturday.  Check out my post on MillionYoung from back in May and listen to five of his other awesome tunes.

Below you can hear MillionYoung’s rendition as well as Erik Satie/Reinbert de Leeuw’s so you can compare the two.

MillionYoung – “Gymnopedie No. 1″
Erik Satie – “Gymnopedie No. 1″

I’m not sure how to take this news.

The Stone Foxes, a four-piece blues-rock band from San Francisco, are openly admitting on record that they killed the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson in 1938 and nobody’s doing anything about it!

Robert Johnson is a hero of mine, falling foul to the “geniuses who die at the age of 27″ deal, via alleged strychnine poisoning in 1938.  Almost everything that surrounds Johnson is awesome, from his early life, to his bullshit death, and everything in between whether it was his travels throughout the Mississippi Delta, his pact with the devil, his influence on Rock and Roll long after he had died, or of course his music.

The Stone Foxes didn’t actually kill him, that would be silly since they’re from the future.  They’re just singing about his death and how nobody knows who did it since reports are sketchy.  Their song is actually really well-told and reads like an account of the person who killed him and took it to the grave with him.  It’s a straight-talking blues-rock fret-wanker, with huge swells of rock yelling and an awesome guitar solo.

“I Killed Robert Johnson” is from their upcoming album “Bears & Bulls out on July 6th.  Listen to that and “Stomp” (which you can get from their site by giving them your email address) below.

Keep up to date with The Stone Foxes - MySpace | Facebook | Website | Twitter

The Stone Foxes – “I Killed Robert Johnson”
The Stone Foxes – “Stomp” Sorry, I was asked to remove it, but you can still get it for free from their site.

Not one, but TWO! brand new songs from Atlanta’s garage-punk-rockers Black Lips.

Last time around (just over two weeks ago) they released “Before You Judge Me”, their first new song via Adult Swim’s eight new songs in eight new weeks thinger.  That jam was a lot slower and more melodic than this new one, “Best Napkin I Ever had” is just straight up voice-scratching, guitar-janglin’, shit-punk-talking garage rock, fast-pased and come and gone in just 2:34.

“Best Napkin I Ever Had” is released on July 6 as a split EP with Oregon garage rockers Pierced Arrows.  It’s part of a series by Scion/AV where they steal bands and take them to NYC, forcing them to play live until they manage to record it all on vinyl.  Luckily for us, nobody died and some new music came out of it, but not so lucky for the musicians in general.  I don’t know about you guys, but the thought and fear of being kidnapped by a knightrider-style Scion would freak the fuck out of me.

Listen to it below and head on over and give Will a couple of minutes of your time for the Pierced Arrows track “The Doorway”.

Black Lips – “Best Napkin I Ever Had”

One sure-fire way to get people listening to your music these days is an innovative Twitter/Facebook campaign.  I’ve seen quite a few, some are cool as shit and some are just atrocious and badly thought-out.  The Teenagers’ is definitely one of the better ones; Tweet that their new song is available for free download, and then get the song as a free download.

The result? A huge amount of Twitter tweets and retweets about their new song, spreading like wildfire across the webs of inter and a shit-tonne of people finding their new music.

It’s been a couple of years since we’ve heard any new music from these French electro-synth-pop rockers, but now they’re back with “Made Of”, an 80s-inspired, juvenile-rap electro-dance banger.  Give it a listen below and download it for yourself.

The Teenagers – “Made Of”

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a buddy about how anal I am when it comes to tagging my music.  One thing that really grinds my gears is getting an album from someone who has the tracks labeled as “Track 1″, “Track 2″ etc, and I wondered if this pisses anyone else off too?

Personally I use Tag & Rename to tag my music.  I have one big Music folder, and in that folder I have the artists listed alphabetically.  Inside every artist’s folder I have each of their releases (albums, singles, EPs etc) as folders with the album name, and inside that folder I have the actual tracks on that album that are tagged with the track number and then song title (08 – “Don’t Let Me Down”), with the letter of each word capitalised, as well as the artwork embedded into each song.  My Dad and Brother on the other hand are similar, but their albums also list the year of release in the title.  I’ve thought about doing this but at this point it’d be a massive undertaking, unless there’s some awesome software out there that could do it for me.

What’s your process after downloading an album? Where does your music go? How do you sort it and subsequently tag it?

Previously Discussed: What song do you play to someone who has grown up having never heard music before?

Tennis have been blowing up lately, in large part thanks to Weekly Tape Deck, Gorilla Vs Bear, and then Pitchfork.   Also in large part to them being just straight up fucking awesome and drowning in summer sun and warm winds.

A couple of weeks ago I posted two of their songs, then another of their songs, then stopped posting about them but continued listening to them, and now I’m posting about them again, and still listening to them.  Yeah, I listen to three songs on repeat multiple times a day, what’s wrong with that?

Watch the video for “South Carolina” and listen to two other songs below.  Due to ship in mid-late July is a limited-to-300 copies 7″ single you can pre-order from FireTalk.

Tennis – “Marathon”
Tennis – “Baltimore”

The White Panda have been mashing the shit out of well-known songs for nigh-on a year and a half now, giving them away for free but also with an option to buy that’ll get you some sweet goodies, like t-shirts and signed cover art.

They released their first album at the end of 2009 and have been teasing us with news of their new album as of late, but now it’s finally here.  ”Rematch” is 47 mashups made into 14 songs and lasts just shy of an hour long.  You can see the tracklist and the original tracklist below, but head on over to their Bandcamp page to download it (and pay what you want for it), and enjoy it for hours, play it parties or alone in your basement, it’s entirely up to you.

Also give a listen to their first album below too; “Versus”.

1. Juicy O’Riley
2. Genius of Play
3. Excuse Me Miss Cyrus
4. Sugar Groove
5. Smooth Ballin’
6. The Independent Touch
7. Get Ready To Go Low
8. I’ll Get Your Whistle
9. Raining Rude Boys
10. I Wish I Broke Your Heart
11. Rhythm To The House
12. Overnight Panther
13. Drake’s Goin’ Down
14. Pop Bottles Baby

(Original Tracklisting)

1. Juicy O’Riley (Notorious B.I.G // The Who)
2. Don’t Wanna Hurt Your Neck (Khia // The Sounds)
3. Intergalactic Spell (Beastie Boys // Alphabeat)
4. Replaylight (Iyaz // Matt & Kim)
5. Nothin’ On Paris (B.o.B // Friendly Fires)
6. Genius of Play (David Banner // Tom Tom Club)
7. Flippin’ Style (50 Cent // Flipsyde)
8. Alejandhoes (Ludacris // Lady GaGa)
9. The Next Starfucker (Dr. Dre // Starfucker)
10. Excuse Me Miss Cyrus (Jay-Z // Miley Cyrus)
11. Get Like Butterflies (David Banner // Crazy Town)
12. Teach a Billionaire to Diggity (Blackstreet // Cali Swag District // Travis McCoy)
13. Praise Outkast (Outkast // Fatboy Slim)
14. Tipsy In The Sun (J-Kwon // Weezer)
15. Sugar Groove (Flo Rida // Madonna)
16. Smooth Ballin’ (Tupac // Michael Jackson)
17. Welcome to Celebration (Ludacris // Kool & The Gang)
18. Ahh California (Trey Songz // Katy Perry)
19. The Independent Touch (Webbie // Bloodhound Gang)
20. Final Thong (Sisqo // Cassian)
21. Ritual God (Usher // Worship // Bestrack)
22. Freak Faces 2Night (Willie Wonk // Electric Youth)
23. A Cholo You Know (Down AKA Kilo // Two Door Cinema Club)
24. Get Ready To Go Low (Ludacris // 2 Unlimited)
25. Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend To Romance You (Lady GaGa // Black Kids)
26. Never Gonna Set Me Free (Rick Astley // Phonat)
27. I’ll Get Your Whistle (Too Short // Classixx)
28. One More Whoop (Tag Team // Daft Punk)
29. Wired To The Systems (Dorrough // Knightlife // Ying Yang Twins)
30. Heads Will Shake (Eminem // A-Trak // Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
31. Hold On My Momma (Will.i.am. // The Vanish // Russ Chimes)
32. Raining Rude Boys (Rihanna // Moby)
33. Got Some Stratosphere (Obie Trice // Junkie XL)
34. I Wish I Broke Your Heart (Skee-Lo // Taio Cruz)
35. Flashtomania (Phoenix // Calvin Harris)
36. How We Remember (The Game // David Guetta)
37. Rhythm To The House (Snap! // Trick Daddy)
38. Shake The Moonlight (Ying Yang Twins // Fonzerelli)
39. Always Push ‘Em Up (Fatman Scoop // Pet Shop Boys)
40. Kiss Anthonio (Chris Brown // Annie // Designer Drugs)
41. Prez-a-boo (Dead Prez // DEVO)
42. Overnight Panther (Twista // Crystal Castles)
43. Alone Over Here (Alice DeeJay // Young Jeezy)
44. Fireflies Goin’ Down (Young Joc // Owl City)
45. Drake & Diane (Drake // John Mellencamp)
46. Shooting Superstars (Eminem // Bag Raiders)
47. Pop Bottles Baby (Birdman // Justin Bieber)

Rematch by whitepandamusic

Versus (The White Panda Mixtape) by whitepandamusic

The Thermals have too much talent but not enough recognition.  Someone needs to do something about that.

With their fifth “Personal Life” album done and dusted, all that’s left is to release new music from it and then release the album itself, which incidentally is out September 7th.  The first taste of new music in three years from The Thermals comes in the shape of the distorted, fuzzy, and herpes-like-melodic-contagiousness of “I Don’t Believe You”.

Give it a listen below.

The Thermals – “I Don’t Believe You”

Newly signed to Domino Records, Chief are a 4-piece from Santa Monica who play melodic, atmospheric guitar pop. The piano chords twinkling in the swirling, textured arrangements of their single “Night & Day” add an extra degree of magic to the song. The vocals are rich, layered and recall Band of Horses, as well as their 1960s forebears.

“Night and Day” is now out as the first single from Chief’s forthcoming album “Modern Rituals”. The single’s B-side is a new version of their song “Your Direction” – watch the video below!

Keep up to date with Chief – MySpace | Twitter | Facebook | Last.fm

Chief – “Night & Day”

The first thing you might wonder about MIO MYO is how to pronounce their name, and just to clear things up (because I was pronouncing it wrong myself) it’s “Mee-oh Mee-oh”.

Ok, so now that that’s out of the way, onto their music.  Uwe from the band sent me a few songs from their album “HYPER ROMANTIC SYMBOLISM”, four of which you can hear below.  On those four songs you’ll hear dark trawling tones, electro-beat thuds, tearful lyrics and some self-described Ghost Rock.  Chances are that you probably won’t pick on them being German (from Berlin to be precise), the vocals sung with unflinching fluent English, you’ll lose yourself in their contemplative lyrics and melancholy strings.

Being unsigned they sure do put a hell of a lot of time and effort and creativity into packaging their music with Uwe putting his amazing and unique artistic touch not just on the music, but on the design.  Check out his personal MySpace page to see what I mean.

“HYPER ROMANTIC SYMBOLISM” is out now.  Check out four songs from the album below and let me know what you think.

Keep up to date with MIO MYO – MySpace | Facebook | Vimeo | YouTube

MIO MYO by ListenBeforeYouBuy

The Pernice Brothers are back with a new album, “Goodbye, Killer”, which showcases their knack for expertly catchy, country-tinged songwriting. The new single “Jacqueline Susann” is available on their website – it’s a blast of scruffy garage-rock overlaid with smart, cynical lyrics. “Bechamel”, the other track from the album, is far more laid back, offering vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar work that recall every perfect summer pop song from The Beach Boys onwards.

These two tracks are a nice sample of the album, and they’ve definitely convinced me that the Pernice Brothers’ latest release deserves a place in my music library.

Sign up for eMusic and download their latest album “Goodbye, Killer” for free.

Pernice Brothers – “Jacqueline Susann”
Pernice Brothers – “Bechamel”

Two things you’ll do when listening to Fitness Club Fiasco; 1.) Dance, and 2.) Dance some more.

Now, they may not be perfect bedroom-dancing music, but if their tunes started pumping out at a club you just happened to frequent, you’d have no choice but to dance your pointy little toes and knuckly little knees until the flailing started.

The four piece, half British and half Canadian, based in Bristol in England describe themselves as a “4-piece synth-pop jungle gym”, their live shows are notorious for only letting in as many as they can fit on the frame of said gym of the jungle (not true, unfortunately).  Their infectious debut single “Forest City” got some beefy radio airplay back in March and even though you could compare them to The Postal Service, or even Owl City (shudder, please don’t compare them to Owl City), they’ve got a more relaxed and downbeat, yet still dance-fueled vibe going.  None more evident than on their remix of Phoenix’s 1901.

“Forest City” is available via iTunes now and they’ve kindly allowed me to let you listen to that as well as brand new single “Dialogue Dreamer” below.  Also have a deek at the video for “Forest City” too.

Keep up to date with Fitness Club Fiasco – MySpace | Twitter | Last.fm

Fitness Club Fiasco by ListenBeforeYouBuy

Now this one I like!

Just over a month ago they played the first song “Flashover” from their highly anticipated second album.  Whilst their last single was decent, but kind of all over the place, “Echoes” on the is definitely more like something off of their last/first album “Myths Of The Near Future” and has that distinctive, noise-rave-rock sound they’re known for.

Try finding all the different people in the Sgt. Pepper’s-inspired artwork above, it took me 18 minutes but I think I got them all (click it for a huge version).

Their second album “Surfing The Void” is set for release on August 3rd via Polydor. Have a listen to the radio rip of “Echoes”, played on Zane Lowe’s BBC radio show this evening.

Klaxons – “Echoes”

Even though M.I.A.s latest album “cantbearsedtypingtheactualtitle” was supposed to be released today (it’s now slated for July 13th), she’s only gone and released another new single from the album.

Her last single/song was “Stepping Up” that came out with a remix of “XXXO” by Jay-Z, and this new one is on the better side I think, tribal drums, sirens, handclaps, and a sick beat, but the lyrics leave a little to be desired. Check it out below and let me know what you think.

M.I.A. – Teqkilla by ListenBeforeYouBuy

This is the last part of Beck’s current Record Club series which this time around focused on INXS’s 1987 album “Kick”.

Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until his next edition comes out that’s supposedly featuring Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth and the band Tortoise.  Last week it was “Calling All Nations” and before that we had “Kick,  ”Mystify“, “Never Tear Us Apart“, “Wild Life“, “Loved One“, “Mediate“, “Need You Tonight“, “Devil Inside“, and “New Sensation” and “Guns In The Sky“.

Download INSX’s “Kick” for free when you sign up for eMusic (also free).

These guys got me all-a-smitten at the start of June with their sumptuous “Automatic”, which then led me on a mission to find more of their music, culminating in me splooging over the interwebs and posting three more of their songs and a couple of videos.

Even though this found it’s way online last week and I’m a few days late, it’s still very much worth the post, so give it a listen and watch the video for it too.  It’ll be out soon on their cassette EP via Mirror Universe.

Yuck – “Weakend”

(via GvsB)

The last time I featured Wild Nothing the world was a completely different place. A lot’s changed in seven days.

Actually things are pretty much the same, except for the fact that we’ve got a new song by Wild Nothing, this time the sound of it more than the Jack’s voice reminds me of The Smiths, his voice sounding more like Alec Ounsworth from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

The song is part of an EP called “Evertide” on new label Warmest Chord who instead of releasing music on 17 different formats with 10 different versions for each format, they’re releasing only digital music but offering an unbelievable package with the download.  Check out their site for more details, but note that their prices are in GBP, so for this first edition it’s about $30 (USD).  Follow them on Twitter and keep up to date with their new releases.

Listen to “Your Rabbit Feet” as well as “Golden Haze”.

Wild Nothing – Evertide by Warmest Chord

It’s less than a month until Best Coast release their debut album “Crazy For You”, which is kinda hard to believe I guess because they’ve been pumping out tunes for months and months now, whether it’s digital, vinyl, or cassette EPs.

Yesterday they released a brand new song called “Boyfriend”, the opening track on “Crazy For You” as a free download if you gave them your email address, or you can just get it from me below.  It follows the same route as the songs on their MySpace page as well as their cassette EP “Where The Boys Are”; Lo-fi, Garage Surf-Rock.  Oh, and awesome, too.

“Crazy For You” is out on July 27th on Mexican Summer.

Best Coast – “Boyfriend”

By the late 60’s, Cash was ignored by country radio and struggling for a comeback. This album was what reignited his career. The album was a result of a live performance at Folsom Prison that ended up with 15 tracks. The songs are very focused on prison life. For example “25 Minutes To Go” is a countdown to execution and “Folsom Prison Blues” has a line about shooting a man just to watch him die. The album was heard and felt by the inmates he performed to and it reached number one on the country charts that year.

-Tiana from Ride the Tempo helping you rediscover old music

• eMusic – Sign up for get “At Folsom Prison” for free.
• Amazon – CD | MP3
• Insound – CD

Well I am one happy chappy, originally I was hoping to just find some stuff to post from their mind blowing previous albums “The Fall of Math” and “One Time for All Time” in order to demonstrate the near overwhelming sounds they produce (often compared to Aphex Twin and Mogwai having a rather violent encounter) and lo and behold after checking their site they’ve got a new album out! I wasn’t even sure they were still going.

Their most recent release before “We Were Exploding Anyway” was 3 years ago back in 2007 with “The Destruction of Small Ideas” – which seemed to lack the enthusiasm and energy that I was so amazed by in their first 2 albums. After checking out “Tiger Girl” from the latest on their site it seems that energy seems to be back in quite a different form, a more electronic vibe but still with the epic buildup that I love.

If you check their site you can hear a few of their new songs, some live clips and download “Tiger Girl” as well as a few remixes of their songs. Also, below are links to one the said mind-blowers from “One Time For All Time” and two from their latest album “We Were Exploding Anyway”, if you want to try before you, uh, download for free.

Keep up to date with 65DayOfStatic - Website | Twitter | Myspace

Sign up for eMusic and get “We Were Exploding Anyway” for free!

65DaysOfStatic – “Crash Tactics” – We Were Exploding Anyway”
65DaysOfStatic – “Radio Protector” – “One Time For All Time”
65DaysOfStatic – “Tiger Girl” – “We Were Exploding Anyway”

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week.

Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I’ve been listening to (new and old) over the past week and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them.  Want me to check someone out? Let me know at that Contact Us thinger up there.

In order to listen to the playlist you’ll need to have Flash enabled.

This week’s #MusicMonday playlist:

If you’ve been reading the site for for any amount of time then you might’ve seen me mention The Delta Mirror on a few occasions, and on one of those occasions posting a few of their songs and a video.  Well that was back in April and their album “Machines That Listen” is still one that I’ve had on repeat over the last few months, so when singer Craig sent me a couple of remixes (as well as that awesome cover art up there) from an upcoming, as yet untitled, remix album of “Machines That Listen” (due out this autumn), I did the only thing I could think of;

They’re touring quite extensively throughout July and August (the tour dates are below) and chances are they’ll be stopping by somewhere close to you, so have a look at the feature I had on them above and listen to a few songs from their awesome album, and then listen to two remixes from their upcoming remix of the album, too, the first of which he sent to me has never been released before, and then go buy tickets to see them.

Sign up for eMusic and download their entire debut album “Machines That Listen” for free.

The Delta Mirror – “It’s Dark And I Welcome The Calm” (Healamonster & Tarsier Remix)
The Delta Mirror – “He Was Worse Than The Needle He Gave You” (Alias Remix)

@ with Admiral Radley
% with Miniature Tigers

I could’ve sworn that when I was raping and pillaging Arcade Sounds’ free download section that that’s where I had discovered Laurel Halo, but alas that’s not the case.  Now I’ve got no idea where I found her music, but I know that it was a while ago and it’s taken me this long [            ] to get around to posting it, but the wait is well worth the……….wait.

Coming from Ann Arbor and Brooklyn simultaneously, Laurel Halo has been making music as Laurel Halo for a while now, releasing some songs for free as far back as late last summer.  I’ve heard some class her as weird but to me the only weird music is anything that instantly turns you off, follows no kind of rhythm with no melodic structure and is just bland noise (basically Lady Gaga), all of which Laurel stays well away from.

She could loosely be thrown into the Avant-Garde genre, mainly because her songs don’t follow the norm, getting lost mid-way through to find some kind of note you’ve never heard before only to be found again three miles down the road sharing it with the local weasel community.  Since people can’t live without categorisation, let’s chuck her into Electronic, New Age, and the much-loved Chillwave genres.  Or like a Tranced-up Enya pushing the boundaries of music as art, and vice versa.

Weird? No. Different? Yeah. Good?  You know it!

Check out her “King Felix” EP below as well as two extra tracks from “The Blue Light”.

Keep up to date with Laurel Halo – MySpace | Last.fm | Website

“King Felix” EP:

Laurel Halo – “Coriolis”
Laurel Halo – “Embassy”
Laurel Halo – “Metal Confection”
Laurel Halo – “Supersymmetry”

“The Blue Light”:

Laurel Halo – “Cult Of Optimism”
Laurel Halo – “Future Fruit”

“False Priest”, album number ten for of Montreal, is fast approaching (September 14th, via Polyvinyl) and in the run-up to the album they’ve done what most bands are doing these days, and that’s releasing a few songs either for free or to radio stations to promote the album.

This new song was found just lounging around the interwebs until someone found it and gave it to the masses (I’m gonna thank Stereogum), and here it is for you.  I have to say I love  it, and of Montreal can really blow hot and cold for me.  I loved “The Sunlandic Twins”, could not get into “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?”, and then loved “Skeletal Lamping”, so if history repeats then I should hate this new album “False Priest”.  If the whole album is just this one song though, then it’ll be album of the year.

Sign up for eMusic and download 25 of their songs (that’s a couple of albums worth) for free.

of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”

You know you’re onto a winner when other people start stealing stuff from your site.  That’s exactly what I’ve done to Transparent, quite literally one of the best sources anywhere for amazing new music.  Their hit rate is insurmountable, maybe having one shite song in 20, and even then the song isn’t shite, it’s just not great like the rest of their stuff.

That’s where I found Slow Motion Shoes, a four-piece band from Manchestaw (Manchester) in England.  It’s another of those summer jams, complete with chilled tones and twinkly twinkles that make you wish you were laying by the side of a pool, drink in hand and flicking through your back catalogue of Weekly World News.  Well that’s how I envision my lazy Sundays.

They just posted a new song (“The Quiet American”) to their MySpace page a few days ago so take a gander and have a listen to it, and check out their ode to the actor/future Prime Minister; Brendan Fraser below.

Slow Motion Shoes – “Brendan Fraser”

In what sounds like a cross between The Black Keys, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club doing Lo-Fi garage rock, Night beats have got a damn fine sound, coupled with spiky energy and catchy melodies.

It’s almost as if this three-piece from Seattle don’t care how good they are, and that doesn’t even matter.  All that matters is that YOU care just how good they are.

Check out “H-Bomb” below as well as the official video for “Rabbit Hole”, and head over to their MySpace page for a bunch of other crazy-delicious songs.

Night Beats – “H-Bomb”

Wolf was a big man of six feet three and 300 pounds of “heavenly joy” as he stated in his songs. His huge, eerie sound centered around his commanding growl and the collaboration with two blues-guitar geniuses: Willie Johnson and Hubert Sumlin.

This enormously influential collection of singles instructed the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck in the ways of the blues. It is interesting music for a musician who had his first recording session ever at age 41.

- Tiana from Ride the Tempo helping you rediscover old music.

• Sign up for eMusic and get your first 25 songs absolutely free!
• Amazon - CD | MP3
• Insound – CD

It may not be what you’d normally hear on this site, what with my obsession with all things summery and chilled at the moment, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting it now would I?

Pocket Vinyl is just one guy, Eric Stevenson, who plays (mainly) the piano but one of the coolest things I’ve heard of in recent times is that when playing live he has his friend Elizabeth Jancewicz doing live paintings on stage.  Now this kinda stunt could only be pulled off with certain types of music.  An on-stage painter wouldn’t last two minutes at a Rammstein/Justin Bieber co-headlining tour, nor would it really work with a band like Klaxons or the timeless Brokencyde, but with Pocket Vinyl’s slow-burning, piano-led rock, it works perfectly.

His new album is coming out and he’s given me three of his songs for you to listen to, so do that.  He also has an amazingly strong voice, which can be heard in all of its glory on the song “Protagonist” that you can hear on his MySpace page.

He’s also doing a huge tour in support of this, so check out the dates after the songs and see if he’s playing near you.

Keep up to date with Pocket Vinyl – MySpace | Facebook

Pocket Vinyl – “Stand Point Theory”
Pocket Vinyl – “That Old Familiar Tune”
Pocket Vinyl – “4 Legs Good, 2 Legs Better”

June 24 – Brooklyn, NY – Hank’s Saloon
June 25 – Elizabethtown, PA – DIY show at the Basement
June 26 – Ithaca, NY – The Shop
June 27 – Bath, PA – Brenda and Jerry’s
June 29 – NYC – Otto’s Shrunken Head
June 30 – Lancaster, PA – Gusto’s Upstairs
July 1 – NYC – Arlene’s Grocery
July 2 – Trenton, NJ – Championship Bar and Grill
July 3 – Vineyard, NJ – Fuel House Coffee Co.
July 6 – Jersey City, NJ – Lucky 7
July 7 – Philadelphia, PA – Fergie’s Pub
July 8 – NYC – Kenny’s Castaways
July 9 – NYC – The National Underground
July 10 – Tannersville, PA – The Summer Outlet Series (afternoon show)
July 10 – Philadelphia, PA – The Raven Lounge
July 11 – NYC – Webster Hall
July 14 – Rochester, NY – Bug Jar
July 16 – Jamestown, NY – Labyrinth Press Company
July 17 – Warren, PA – The Crossing
July 18 – Lancaster, PA – Soul Stock Festival
July 18 – Harrisburg, PA – Stage at Herr
July 19 – Rochester, NY – Boulder Coffee
August 12 – Dover, PA – Dover Teen Center
August 13 – Albany, NY – The Dublin Underground
August 14 – Jewett City, CT – PJ O’Connor’s
August 17 – Portland, ME – Slainte Wine Bar
August 18 – Worchester, MA – Lucky Dog
August 19 – CT – TBA
August 20 – Nyack, NY – Olive’s
August 21 – Allston, MA – TBA DIY Festival
August 22 – Cambridge, MA – All Asia Bar
August 23 – NYC – Mercury Lounge
August 24 – Red Bank, NJ – Fixx
August 25 – Burlington, VT – Half Lounge
August 26 – Providence, RI – The 201
August 27 – Galloway, NJ – Solid Grounds
August 28 – Binghamton, NY – DIY show in a basement
August 29 – NYC – Fat Baby
August 30 – Pittston, PA – The River Street Ale House
September 1 – Pittsburgh, PA – Howler’s Coyote Cafe

These guys from Dublin, Ireland have only been around for a few months at most and even though you can tell it’s still early days by the recording quality of a couple of the songs, one thing you can also tell is that they have something.  There’s something there.

I can’t quite put my finger on it just yet, maybe it’s the fret-wank guitar solos, or Robbie McCarthy’s voice-breaking vocals, or the Friendly Fire’s kinda groove they’ve got going on.  Maybe it’s all of the above, who knows, but their cover of The Knife’s “We Share Our Mother’s Health” caught me completely off guard, especially after having listened to their three other songs which don’t sound similar, with “Shame” reminding me of early Oasis demos like “Fade Away” and “Listen Up”, raw and unbridled.

You be the judge, and keep in mind that these songs are still demos, but impressive demos nonetheless.

Keep up to date with Manhattan – MySpace | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Manhattan – “We Share Our Mother’s Health” (The Knife cover)
Manhattan – “Shame”
Manhattan – “Hypnotise”
Manhattan – “Old City”

Who the fuck knew that fun could be so much fun?

No seriously, who knew that?

Apparently Felix and Volcano! did and it’s instantly evident within the first few bars of their song “Shaadows”, a slow, deliberate, dance groove.  They have a bunch of songs, some you can buy and some you can get for free (check the info tab on their Facebook page) but their most recent slew of songs are like an Electro-Dance-Waltz LCD Soundsystem/Matt & Kim hybrid fronted by Connor Oberst, when in actual fact they’re fronted by Sam Ueda, a 19 year-old from New Hampshire, with help from Aian Constantineau.

I get a bunch of submissions every day and it’s difficult to keep up with them sometimes (that’s what my weekends are for).  When Felix and Volcano! sent me “Shaadows” three days ago I didn’t get the chance to listen to it right away, it ended up taking me about 16 hours unfortunately, but once I did get to listen to it it’s one of those moments (that as The Recommender (who apparently got it at the same time as me but beat me to the punch) points out in their writeup of Felix And Volcano) where someone just sent you something so damn good that you just can’t ignore it, and it doesn’t happen too often.  It’s happened a few times, but Felix And Volcano! have everything they need to take themselves wherever they want to go with their music, they’re just that good.

Check out three of their songs below and go buy their “Grow Rich” EP from their Bandcamp, it’s only $5.

Keep up to date with Felix and Volcano! – MySpace | Facebook | Soundcloud | Bandcamp

Felix and Volcano! – “Shaadows”
Felix and Volcano! – “FRDM?”
Felix and Volcano! – “Boku-Maru”

What was your previous line of employment?  For me, I was a dishwasher.  When I moved to the states I had the pleasure of dealing with the INS and their ineptitude, so I wasn’t able to work for almost a year until I got my green card.  When I did get the card I took the first job I could, which just so happened to be in a country club washing dishes for rich people.  Gotta start somewhere, right?

Well the reason I ask/mention is that Brock Enright’s previous job was kidnapping.  Yeah, he kidnapped the shit out of people, but they weren’t just your run of the mill, South American drug cartel kidnappings.  No, these were designer kidnappings that involved his company Videogames Adventure Services basically doing whatever you wanted, for $1,500.  But that was five years ago and he’s now given that up to concentrate on his music, together with his girlfriend Kirsten Deirup.

Their debut album “Torben”  is released next week (June 29th) and I’m happy to let you hear the lead track from that album, “Maybe”.  It’s a short and snappy 2:13 long (or short) and is reminiscent of Interpol and The Airborne Toxic Event, but the album itself differs slightly, switching from dark and moody electronic tones to upbeat and chirpy jolts, all centred around the duos son Torben.

There’s also a movie that accompanies the album that you can get from Factory25.

Keep up to date with Brock Enright – Site | Facebook

Brock Enright – “Maybe”