FUCK! It’s like all my childhood past caught up with me in the form of one random unassuming email by a seemingly unassuming band. This is the kind of stuff that I like to be surprised by. Spelling Bee is, on APOP, the same label TwoDeadSluts OneGoodFuck is on. Speaking of TDSOGF, these crazy bastards from Boston pretty much destroyed my childhood with their electronic grindcore mindfuck. I suggest you pay them a visit.
The Hush Now
From: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Boston indie-popsters, The Hush Now, are releasing the second single, Contrails, from their upcoming, sophomore album, Constellations which is due out February 16th.
It was a total High Fidelity moment. I was hanging out at Academy Records Annex, getting my fingers dirty flipping through used records something came over the speakers that instantly made me prick up my ears. Low-fi pop, a bit shambly, but in the best way and every song was super-catchy and there was a clever wit going on too. They had by by the third song and I went up and asked what was playing. "So Cow. He’s this Irish guy, played an in-store here last year. Some of the record was made Korea, so…a real international affair." Indeed.
Lots of great stuff this week, as the new album Middle Cyclone from Neko Case certainly comes out on top with having both excellent songs and equally good cover art. Honestly, she could release an album of her just reading from a phone book and I would probably buy it. I’m sure we can all agree on this one.
A couple of other albums that I would personally recommend have been released digitally on iTunes: The Boy Least Likely To’s The Law Of The Playground and Fanfarlo’s Reservoir. Other releasese worth checking out include Marissa Nadler’s (god she has a gorgeous voice) Little Hells, Say Hi’s Oohs & Aahs, Wild Light’s Adult Nights, and The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’ Communion (if only because I haven’t heard from these guys since their debut so many years ago).
Rarely does the US release of an already-available foreign record seem like a true second chance, but kudos to Razor & Tie for picking up The Whip’s X Marks Destination for release on March 3rd because it’s a solid album that got overlooked in oh-eight’s deluge of post-Klaxons dance bands. The Mancunian foursome do the full-band electro-house thing and do it well, drawing just comparisons to Simian Mobile Disco and their more punkish offspring Late Of The Pier. "Divebomb" is X’s side-b epic, a five-minute-plus rager that builds from drippy disco pulses into a monster peaktime tune; sirens and general synth backwash smeared on for good measure. The band will be supporting the release next month with dates alongside Deadmau5 and LOTP, including stops at WMC and SXSW. Being 2009 and all, they also will be Twittering their way through the tour. Full itinerary after the jump.
The word "twee" gets thrown around a lot when talking about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. They are cute, with tendencies towards la-la choruses and cardigans ("we have three extras just in case"). But what you don’t hear a lot, at least not yet, is how much they rock. Not the way, say, Cheeseburger rocks, but singer Kip keeps his guitar in buzzsaw mode and the amps set to Tinitus. (Another thing you don’t hear people talk about too much is how dirty the lyrics are. All innuendo, but…filthy!) I’ve seen TPOBPAH a bunch of times over the last year and while they’ve always been good, they are genuinely really good now — tight, rocking, and both Kip and Peggy have become more confident singers. This was their album release show, tour kickoff, and first performance since being bestowed (deservedly) with Pitchfork’s coveted Best New Music status. The room was packed — packed! — with friends and fans, all of whom were very vocal and enthused and bobbing and swaying. The only thing that could have made it a more perfect evening would have been if it had fallen a week later on Valentine’s Day.
Daniel Striped Tiger - Slalom (from Condition)
When I saw Los Campesinos! at the Paradise a few months ago, singers Gareth and Aleksandra walked right past me, and I remember thinking “how can they let those children in here!” Like the excellent Eastern Lane, or The Wombats (who recently passed through TTs), Los Campesinos! show us that the young have taken over (again).
To celebrate the world’s first totally online Artrocker music festival XX Teens took a big banner to Parliament Square to advertise the world’s first totally XX Teens music album.
We never asked...
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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