Listen Before You Buy

The Best Albums Of 2011 #3 – James Blake – “James Blake”. Use the Retweet or Share buttons to enter to win our entire Top 31 Albums of 2011!

The Best Albums Of 2011 #6 – Shabazz Palaces – “Black Up”. Use the Retweet or Share buttons to enter to win our entire Top 31 Albums of 2011!

The Best Albums Of 2011 #8 – Youth Lagoon – “The Year Of Hibernation”. Use the Retweet or Share buttons to enter to win our entire Top 31 Albums of 2011!

TweetShare The songs are heavy, not instrumentally, but with the weight of the experiences and raw feelings of their writer. The arrangements seem pretty sparse, yet I’m hearing an orchestra. Joshua Wayne Hensley’s voice backed by an emotion and sincerity so poignant, it translates louder and clearer than a marching band ever could crammed into my [...]

TweetShare From the city of Toulouse in France comes the duo Le Common Diamond. Thomas Juvé and Floran Remy make, well, without sounding so obvious, they make French pop music – and it’s everything you could possibly want from such an association (the moodiness of Air, the sexuality of Sébastien Tellier). Yet some of the [...]

TweetShare I’ve noticed I get drawn to recordings that hint at a really visceral core, something that already has that voodoo that gets your blood running, makes you a little hot under the collar. I can see myself in a room with other sweaty people chanting these choruses. What a great thing for music to [...]

TweetShare Sam Ueda’s synth pop brainchild Felix And Volcano! returns more than a year after releasing their fantastic first “Grow Rich EP”. The first single “Got Luv Fer Now” is what Ueda says is the beginning of more music, with Ms. Sydney M. Bilodeau rejoining the band and the possibility of a longer length release (cross [...]

TweetShare Before I go any further, let me just state a brief little disclaimer. I happen to be a bit of a fan of Cancel The Astronauts. I may or may not have a limited edition copy of their second EP, “Funny For A Girl”, which may or may not include a personal letter from [...]

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TweetShare Digits is the musical alter-ego of Toronto-based Alt Altman. Eagle-eyed readers will note that we recently featured Mr Altman in his capacity as one half of dreamy R&B duo Bad Passion, whose first EP should be arriving shortly. Listening to his solo output, it’s clear how much of an influence he’s had on their sound. [...]

TweetShare This post is a “QuickPick”.  QuickPicks are my attempt at getting all of the music that’s sent to me that I like (or just music I like but have no words for because it’s so awesome), out into the dubya dots. Any time I get sent music that I like I “star” it in [...]

TweetShare  Buy the album on Amazon – MP3 For a few teenagers, a second full album should be a testament to resilience. It isn’t very often that a group like Fungi Girls, comprising of three Northern Texas teens, finds anything closely resembling sustainable success. But with the June release of “Some Easy Magic,” the lo-fi garage [...]

TweetShare If you’re the sort of person who reads this blog regularly, you probably know where Radiohead got their name from; but can you tell where Dallas boys The Vliets (pronounced like “vleets”) got theirs? If this seems like a very obvious question to you, then congratulations: you officially have some serious musical chops. If not, I [...]

TweetShare LA four piece Stone Darling are a shoegaze band with a hint of country. Or should I say a country outfit with shoegaze trimmings? It’s tough to say which genre is in the driving seat with this group, especially when their latest seven inch is split so squarely down the middle. “I Stopped Missing [...]

TweetShare If there’s one genre of music I never expected to start getting into, it’s country. I mean, is there anything likeable about it? How often do we need to hear a downtrodden ex-cattle rustler growl about the tribulations of the trail, or how he’s called Sue, or whatever? Don’t even get me started on [...]

TweetShare “Hey dudes. Listen to us. If you do not like us, then you are not cool.” Well, it seems that for the first time in my life I’m cool, because I do quite like MAGIC EYE [though they could afford to lose the caps lock. No excuse for that.] The band describe themselves as [...]