Listen Before You Buy

The Black Tambourines are a band that I stumbled upon after being sent music by someone else, somewhat like the way that We Were Promised Jetpacks were discovered. As I was perusing their MySpace page I noticed they had a Soundcloud player embedded and so naturally I gravitated towards that since MySpace is a pile [...]

So colour me confused (actually I did spell “colour” correctly, thank you very much) but the tunes I’ve heard coming outta the Best Coast camp that aren’t on their album, have been better than most of the songs that are on the album. Their Christmas jam they did with Wavvess and released as part of [...]

Uhhh….what the fridge? I can only assume that this was made with the sole intention of having nothing to do with the band name (Tennis), the song name (“Pigeon”), or the theme of the song (love), because it’s a magician, doing magic tricks.  Oh, and he’s in dark room, possibly with his captors in the [...]

COOLRUNNINGS, one of the more prolific bands that has yet to release a debut album, has returned with their latest demo, “Jesse.” There is no word whether this will eventually appear on an album or if it is a one-off release. In truth, it does not matter – “Jesse” is enjoyable regardless. The most notable [...]

It’s hard to believe that we’re introducing a band that has only played three live shows together, but such is apparently the case with Various Cruelties.  In a huge stroke of luck, though, the three bands for whom they have opened are Villagers, Mumford & Sons, and The Vaccines.  A four-piece hailing from White City, [...]

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 Gmail [...]

When I was making my best albums of the year list I initially had Best Coast, in a fairly prominent position, but as I re-listened to each album I wondered why I’d loved their debut “Crazy For You” so much. I think it was because it was Summer and the album was all hazy and shit, but [...]

Have you ever been to Margate?  Have you even heard of Margate? I’ve never been but I have heard of the small English town, just over the water from France on the English east coast.  Being a beach town it’s probably where Two Wounded Birds got a lot of their inspiration, given that they sound [...]

Remember that time when you heard a band you really liked on an awesome music site, and then you checked out more of their music and snagged it on vinyl?  And then you bought a ticket for you and your buddy to see them at a local joint and bought a t-shirt and 7″ from [...]

International music (from countries where English isn’t their native tongue) isn’t reviewed on here nearly enough as I wish it was. My main reason is because the international music I get is just pish, with very few exceptions.  It’s not because they don’t sing in English, it’s just that the music sucks giant balls.  To [...]

Another band whose upcoming debut album “Cape Dory” is sure to be a monster, is Tennis. Rolling out of obscurity towards the start of the year, everyone instantly latched onto their laid back, Lo-Fi, sweet summer sound and from then on, we were all smitten.  Since then they’ve gone from high to higher and then [...]

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 Gmail [...]

The bedroom and the beach. Those are the two locations that have epitomized this year’s indie landscape. Bedroom pop artists have emerged at such a rapid rate that, at times, they become indistinguishable, their soothing synths and submerged vocals soothing me into a saccharine coma. Meanwhile, the blissed-out sound of summer has invaded the stoic [...]

Best Coast and Wavves both released two of the better albums of the year, even though I despised (and still do) Wavves’ first album. Best Coast frontwoman Bethany Cosentino just so happens to be dating Wavves frontman Nathan Williams and presumably live life together in a garage by the sea that’s filled with smoke and tubes [...]

Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, I constantly struggled to find people with similar taste in music.   For every Pavement fan I located, I had to sift through fifty Travis Tritt die-hards, a hell I would not wish on anyone. It is this background that colors my adoration of COOLRUNNINGS, a septet hailing from that [...]

Short, sweet, and to the point. Easy tigers, I’m not talking about myself, although I am fairly short and my head does get all pointy at the top like Dan Aykroyd’s.  I’m talking about Shimmering Stars from British Columbia, Canada.  Whilst their sound is upbeat, harmonious, sunny, and can quench thirst at the drop of [...]