#californian shoegaze

[blackmarket-playlists]

New Shoegaze under the radar from California • Emerging and/ or unsigned artists • Current songs only 💥 Cover: LAUREN LAKIS • Photo by Rick Perez (Goodtimerickstudios) • Updated regulary. Submissions welcome: www.blackmarketplaylists.de

#spotify #shoegaze bands #shoegaze playlist #shoegaze #shoegaze music #californian shoegaze #shoegaze california #californian music #new music #newreleases #spotify playlist #playlist #playlistspotify #my playlist #newrelease #indie music #indie rock #emogaze #heavygaze #heavy shoegaze #grungegaze #dream pop #bedroom pop #alternative music #new playlist

[anexceptionallysimpletheory]

Top Albums of 2022

10. Marxist Love Disco Ensemble - MLDE

This Italian group delivers a thoroughly enjoyable disco album that recalls Chic or Arthur Russell.

9. A Place to Bury Strangers - See Through You

This supremely roaring New York band is greatly indebted to the sound of Jesus and the Mary Chain; a release of great elan.

8. April March - In Cinerama

Technically, In Cinerama was released in 2021 for Record Store Day, although it was not to be found anywhere digitally until this year. This Californian francophile is perhaps best known for her contribution to the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s movie Death Proof. On that soundtrack was the song “Chick Habit,” which was a reworking of the Serge Gainsbourg song “Laise Tomber Les Filles”. Incidentally this record greatly sounds like the French pop of Mr. Gainsbourg.

7. Jack White - Entering Heaven Alive

All of those who have been to Third Man Records in Nashville, London, or Detroit know Jack White is playing a critical role in documenting and persisting the legacy of rock n’ roll. One can’t feel anything but effusive warmth upon visiting one of their locations. This all speaks to the importance of Entering Heaven Alive, which is the best solo album yet from Jack White, and his best session since the White Stripes’ Elephant.

6. The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention

It's hard not to speculate about the future of Radiohead with the formation of this group. Even guitarist Ed O’Brien has said on record ‘the band doesn’t exist at the moment.’ The 2010s saw the band experimenting with Portishead’s drummer, Clive Deamer, so there seemed some restlessness among the group with the constraints the present members contributed. The Smile is the new project  from Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke (the two, some would argue, core members of Radiohead) with Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet. Despite the controversy among Radiohead’s fans, this album is the most alive Yorke and Greenwood’s music has been in years thanks to the jazz leanings of Skinner. Even the quieter moments sound more like Radiohead than anything any of its members have done in quite some time.

5. Panda Bear/Sonic Boom - Reset

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom have a relationship that most notably resulted in 2015’s au courant Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper. Sonic Boom is, of course, a founding member of what some consider to be the first shoegaze band, Spacemen 3. This release is the first time the two artists both share the spotlight officially (Sonic Boom was listed as producer previously). Reset sounds about as sample heavy as Person Pitch, but this time with more of a focus on 60s psychedelia.

4. Duster - Together

The band was resurrected by the famous Numero Group label, which has a niche for reissuing hard to find releases by artists that have developed significant reputations despite living in obscurity previously. Together finds these slowcore and space rock legends sounding their most accessible.

3. Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful

Speaking of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized was formed by Spacemen 3’s other main member, Jason Pierce. Spiritualized is known for their bass heavy and gospel-infused wall of sound style epitomized on the summum bonum, Lazer Guided Melodies. Everything Was Beautiful is the band’s best work since the aforementioned release.

2. Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen

This violinist gained fame as the opener on Tame Impala’s Rushium tour. A surprisingly experimental release for the legendary Stones Throw label, Natural Brown Prom Queen oozes immense creativity and funk. An overall sultry masterpiece. 

1. Beach House - Once Twice Melody

You may have heard this band’s singer’s vocals on Grizzly Bear’s "Two Weeks". Likely the finest current band on the very fine Sub Pop records, Beach House has an immensely impressive and indelible breadth of work stretching all the way back to 2010’s Teen Dream. This colossal double album has no dull moments in its eighty four minutes. Easily the best of the year.

[furtho]

Playlist 2019

Music posted on furtho.tumblr.com during 2019:

23 Skidoo’s Just Like Everybody, biting post-punk collage

A Certain Smile’s Original Replacement, sweet janglepop balladry

Adrianne Lenker’s Abysskiss, wistful folk sadness

Ai Yamamoto’s Going Home (Excerpt), super-quiet ambient minimalism

Altered Images’ See Those Eyes, bittersweet pop perfection

Al Usher’s Lullaby For Robert (Bogdan Irkük remix), lovely downtempo house re-imagining

Ampersand’s I’m Still Waiting, homemade indie tune

Anemone’s Sunshine (Back To The Start), kitchen disco-friendly pop

Anne Clark’s Our Darkness, lost classic proto-technopop from 1984

Aphex Twin’s T69 Collapse, twisting, twitching, frantic electronics

Asilomar’s Shimmer And Faded, spacious-but-warm Californian dreampop

Aster More’s Bought It, sweetly fuzzy indiepop

Asuna’s Sea Above, Chubby Plane, Sky Below, blissed out longform drone

Beatnik Filmstars’ Apathetic English Swine, trashy Bristolian garage rock ‘n’ roll

Ben Chatwin’s Coruscate, oddly delirious ambient

Bernard Grancher’s Fluxion Des Mollesses, homemade electropop with echoes of acidity 

Biff Bang Pow!’s Someone To Share My Life With, quietly impassioned cover of TV Personalities gem

Black Channels’ Two Knocks For Yes, longform collage on suburban hauntings

Blue Tomorrows’ Sound Of Moving, echoing, downtempo dreampop

Body Type’s Palms, energetic back-and-forth indie tune

Brambles’ Salt Photographs, quietly exhilarating modern classical

Brian’s Turn Your Lights On, big ecstatic I’m-in-love indie

Broadcast’s Before We Begin, glorious space age girl group pop

Buzzcocks’ Promises, lo-fi video for punk pop gem

Celer’s Rains Lit By Neon, drifting ambient drone

Chris Child & Micah Frank’s Debris Of The Days, dusty ambient folk chimes

Cloud Babies’ Dear Moon, too-fragile ballad from Kyoto duo

Corpse Factory’s Party Girl, “lo-fi mountain gloom rock from Thomas, West Virginia”

Cosey Fanni Tutti’s Tutti (edit), pulsing, joyful electronics

Cristina Quesada’s Hero, super-cute classic indie discopop

Darren Harper’s Slow Reveal, sweetly understated ambient 

David R Edwards’ A Novel For Lazy Readers - An Antidote To The Headache Of BBC Radio 4, bleakly comic spoken word

Dayflower’s Sweet Georgia Gazes, Lightning Seeds-style indie jangle

Death Cab For Cutie’s Northern Lights, appropriately big-skied indie

Dedekind Cut’s The Crossing Guard, foggy, distant ambient drone

Depeche Mode’s A Pain That I’m Used To (Jacques Lu Cont remix), gripping, propulsive dance mix

DJ Downfall’s To Bring You Joy, heartbreaking vocodered robotpop

Edgar Froese’s Epsilon Of Malaysian Pale, classic prog ambient 

Edward Artemyev’s Dedication To Andrei Tarkovsky, expansive late Soviet-era modern classical soundtrack

Emily A Sprague’s Piano One, quietly glitchy minimal piano

Emmanuel Witzthum’s Book Of Shadows, thoughtful modern classical

epic45′s Kaleidoscope Days, haunting, woozing post-rock dreamscape

Flaüta’s Pensar Mucho, lo-fi bedroom indie from provincial Argentina

Flying Fish Cove’s Sleight Of Hand, ramshackle but uplifting guitar pop

For Against’s Don’t Do Me Any Favors, catchily confident indie jangle

For Tracy Hyde’s 櫻の園, sweet-voiced shoegaze pop

Franziska Lantz’s Run For It, experimental minimal techno

Gabe Knox’s Lo Spettro, languid electronic pastoralism

Gavin Bryars with Philip Jeck & Alter Ego’s The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969-), spine-tingling long-form modern classical

Geotic’s Actually Smiling, blissful warm house

Grand Veymont’s session for La Souterraine, Radio Campus, Paris, stunning live longform pastoral drone

György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes, live avant garde performance - great for fans of clicking noises

Harae Nagoshi’s Case1, glitchy piano pastoralism

Hatchie’s Sure, big open indie tune

Hazell Dean’s Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go) 12″, thrilling 80s hi-NRG pop

Heartsease’s Blurs, drifting ambient sadness

Help Stamp Out Loneliness’ Pacific Trash Vortex, uptempo hooky indie with charismatic vocal

Hood’s Houses Tilting Towards The Sea, languid post-rock pastoralism

International Teachers Of Pop’s After Dark, anthemic, booty-shakin’ electropop

Jane Weaver’s Slow Motion (Loops Variation), dreamily melancholy synthpop

Jonteknik feat Malte Steiner’s Fernsehturm (iEuropean remix), glistening electro modernism

Kasper Marott’s Keflavik, beautifully, er, constructed house

Kenji Endo’s Curry Rice, charming snapshot of Japan’s underground folk boom of the late 60s and early 70s

Kevin Drumm’s A Puddle On The Floor, spine-tingling minimal drone

Kirill Mazhai’s Love Theme, hazily warm ambient drone

Komputer’s Skyskrapers, downtempo bleep-pop balladry

Kraftwerk’s Antenna, rare video of the electronic classic from 1975

La Boum Fatale’s Walls (Instrumental), warmly glitched-up technopop

Laveda’s Dream. Sleep, distant echoing dreampop

Listening Center’s Meridian, brisk synthpop experimentalism

Lives Of Angels’ Imperial Motors, lost classic of catchy post-punk drum machine pop

Lowfish’s Live In San Francisco, forty minutes of gorgeous funky electro

Lunar Vacation’s Blue Honey, sweet and fragile indie

Magazine’s The Light Pours Out Of Me, captivatingly gloomy post-punk

Malish Kamu’s Birds, ethereal minimalism from south-western Russia

Marble Index’s Love Talking To Boys, 1999 take on synth-driven post-punk

Marie Davidson’s Work It, funky as fuck minimal technopop 

Martha & The Muffins’ Echo Beach, irresistible new wave classic

Martial Canterel’s You Today, frantically catchy minimal synth

Mary Jane Leach’s Bruckstück, breathtaking modern choral

Memoryhouse’s The Kids Were Wrong, catchily polished indie

Meter Bridge’s It Was Nothing (Rodney Cromwell remix), blistering disco’d up electropop remix

Mick Trouble’s Shut Your Bleeding Gob You Git, bracingly ramshackle punk pop

Mode Citizen’s Sex & Steel (The Dark Robot remix), pounding sequenced electro remix

Moving Panoramas’ Baby Blues, exhilarating piece of kind of Alvvays-esque indie 

My Robot Friend’s Sex Machine, hopeful in lyrical theme, bleepy minimal wave in terms of sonic stylings

Naps’ Bad Vibrations, exciting indiepop from much-missed (by me) Florida outfit

Naw’s Still Breathing, looping electronic experimentalism

Night Hikes’ Avila, “you’re the only one who ever made my coffee right...”

Night Sports’ Substance, joyful disco-y synthpop

Nonconnah’s Driving Away For The Last Time Without Looking Back, determinedly lo-fi folk drone

Nov3l’s To Whom It May Concern, infectious modern post-punk jangle

Okonomiyaki Labs’ Blue Toast (edit), mischievous experimental bleepery by Japan-based former Pale Saint

Palais Schaumburg’s Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt, Neue Deutsche Welle post-punk angularity

Part Timer’s Nothing Changes, restrained modern classical vignette

Patrik Fitzgerald’s Tonight, acoustic punk poetry from back in the day

Pelopincho’s Puchos, exuberant two-chord indie from Argentina

Petrichor’s Petrichor Ten, charming minimal electronic sketch

Pet Shop Boys feat Example’s Thursday, scintillating hooky electropop

Piano Magic’s Dark Secrets Looking For Light, bleak post-rock balladry, as you may have inferred

Remington Super 60′s The Highway Again, luscious laidback jangle

Rico Loverde’s He’s A Wiardo, oddly funky electro experimentalism

Riton & Kah-Lo’s Fake ID, rough-around-the-edges funky house

Robert Rental & The Normal’s Live At West Runton Pavilion, incendiary live experimentalism from the lo-fi synth pioneers

Robjn’s Suburban Temple/Feel This Way (Corwood Manual remix), hauntological glitchpop, complete with captivating video

Rose Elinor Dougall’s Fallen Over, pleasingly brief loved-up pop

Roxy Girls’ Interjections, energetically catchy punk pop  

Ruby Jaunt’s Jeune, haunting electronic indie

St Etienne’s Carnt Sleep, lovesickness + insomnia = popdub heaven

Saariselka’s Void, charming blend of ambient and folk Americana

Sector One’s Can Machines Be Sad?, delirious post-Kraftwerk synthpop

Six Microphones’ Overture & Part 1, minimal ambient experimentation

Slow Pulp’s New Media, melodic post-punk twang

Sobs’ Girl, tuneful indie jangle from Singapore

Spread Eagle’s Palatine Hill, distant, foggy Glaswegian indie

Stan Tracey Quartet’s Starless And Bible Black, extraordinary jazz tune inspired by Under Milk Wood

Steve Reich’s Come Out, ground-breaking tape loop experimentation

Sugar World’s Sad In Heaven, perfect rough-and-ready indie jangle

Surf Friends’ Outdoors, relentlessly upbeat guitar pop

Suicide’s Touch Me, can’t-break-the-spell synthpunk hypnotism

Susumu Yokota’s Grass, Tree & Stone, hypnotic cut-and-paste ambient by the late, great Yokota

Telefon Tel Aviv’s The Birds, hypnotic electronic glitch rock

Teleman’s Rivers In The Dark, winning melodicism from under-rated popsters

The Adverts’ The Great British Mistake, lost gem by punk legends

The Autumn Teen Sound’s Telegraph, Casiocore cover of OMD hit

The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness’ Close The Doors, laidback indie jangle

The Flirts’ Passion, trashy disco from early 80s New York

The Juan Maclean’s What Do You Feel Free About? (Man Power remix), driving techno-disco to get your party started

The Leaf Library’s Hissing Waves, lovely pastoral post-rock

The Screamers’ 122 Hours Of Fear (live at the Target), thrilling late 70s synthpunk

The Silicon Scientist’s Sinister Street, notably un-sinister vocoder-driven synthpop

The Slits’ Typical Girls, spiky post-punk pop

The Twin Roots’ Know Love, warm and soothing reggae deliciousness

The Wannadies’ You And Me Song, quiet-loud-quiet-loud indie classic

Thistle Group’s High, bittersweet solo tape loop experimentalism from New Zealand

Tiny Magnetic Pets ft Wolfgang Flür’s Radio On (Alice Hubble remix), dreamy electronics topped off with spoken word by ex-Kraftwerk legend

Tremelo Ghosts’ Paradise, sweetly lo-fi indie folk

Tvärtom’s Iltariennot, melancholy Finnish indie jangle

Utro’s Где-то там, hypnotic indie drone from Motorama spin-off act

VDOF’s Zooming In I Can Clearly See Your Heart Has Got Aliasing Issues, confident minimal electronic debut

Viktor Timofeev & Simon Werner’s Sphynx Cats Nuzzle, spookily experimental spoken word

Walt Thisney’s Shadows, delightful modern classical sketch

Will Burns & Hannah Peel’s Moth Book, charming blend of electronics and spoken word

William Doyle’s Millersdale, wide-eyed ballad inspired by the housing estates of England

Window Magic’s From Here Flows What You Call Time, pastoral found sound collage

Yazoo’s Midnight, killer-sweet electropop ballad

Yoshio Machida’s Synthi #04, whistling, gurgling, oddly pastoral electronic experimentalism

****************

The playlist for 2018 is here. The playlist for 2017 is here. The playlist for 2016 is here. The playlist for 2015 is here. The playlist for 2014 is here. The playlist for 2013 is here.

#folk #ambient #indie #indiepop #experimental #acoustic #electronic #synth #synthpop #electropop

[dustedmagazine]

Stars on Fire — Blue Skies Above (Jigsaw Records)

PZL159: Stars On Fire - Blue Skies Above by Stars On Fire

Seoul-based Californian Cristoph Mark recorded Blue Skies Above by himself, playing all the instruments and delivering six tracks of noisy, jangly guitar music that is roughly but clearly produced. His songs will hit a sweet spot for fans of the slightly ramshackle and yearning indie pop of The Pastels, Galaxy 500 and Beat Happening.  

Mark writes pretty great songs, and the occasional lack of polish merely accentuates their charm. At times his guitar playing slips out of time, and the parts don’t quite fit seamlessly together, but the melodies stick.  

A wistful elegance permeates Blue Skies Above but Stars On Fire is not afraid to make some noise. There’s a rawness and intimacy in the lo-fi production, where vocals sound like Dean Wareham mixed to the fore in a low timbre purr. If the drums are sometimes just barely functional, the bass drives the bottom end, and in the end this is all about the sweet guitars and voice. The songs are driven by a constant 12-string strum overlaid with a deceptively simple but often gorgeous bricolage of classic indie guitar tropes drawn from C-86, shoegaze and dream pop.  

Opening track “shutdown” sets the scene both musically and lyrically. A shoegazey feedback riff over a propulsive bass line. The voice slightly behind the music enters hopefully and you know this is not going to end well. “You took my hand/And promised me the world/I was sure/This would last forever.” It feels like a less exasperated, more resigned Wedding Present. “I feel so weak/as you shut me down/Don’t you speak/Don’t ask me round/make me feel weak/And I shut you down.”  

Mark played with short-lived Bay Area band ampersand in the late 1990s/early 2000s, so this is not his first time out. This debut solo EP has memorable moments. It left this listener pushing replay and singing along.   

Andrew Forell

#stars on fire #blue skies above #jigsaw #andrew forell #albumreview #dusted magazine #cristoph mark #dream pop #c86 #ampersand

[findasongblog]

Find A Song about the commonalities we all share across cultures and generations

slenderbodies - belong

slenderbodies came into existence during the long hot summer of 2016, two musicians – Max and Benji – intent of turning their dreams into reality. With summer returning once more the pair are ready to re-connect, unleashing bold new single ‘Belong’.

The project’s Spotify and Apple Music streams have already scorched into the millions, with praise being lavished by the likes of Billboard, Wonderland, and The Line Of Best Fit on their indie electronics. This enticing, though, new offering builds on that expectation by pushing their template to a new level.

Gorgeous, dreamy textures intertwine, reaching an almost shoegaze level of heavenly ambiance. Amid the swirling sound, though, slenderbodies sketch out a skeletal R&B vision, one that focusses on the link music can provide between our solitary worlds.

Cinematic in tone and vision, this Californian dream pop wonder has received a gorgeous video, one that sweeps across the vast 4000km expanse that encapsulates the border between Russia and China.

slenderbodies comment:

Pulse did such a wonderful job in visually capturing a made up word called "sonder". It's defined as the realisation that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and as complex as your own. This concept is so prevalent in the heart of the film, and ‘Belong’ is meant to be a testament to the commonalities we all share across cultures and generations, how we all find beauty in the world to help us live with purpose.

A project rooted in beauty and commitment, Slenderbodies have created something to become blissfully lost in. (press release)

#music #music blog #indie music #alternative music #electronic #slenderbodies #belong #indie #alternative #find a song

[dfhvn]

The Triumphant Return of Deafheaven: Interview // NME

Feature by Tom Connick via NME

With ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’, California’s Deafheaven have released one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, a record that makes non-metal fans sit back and think, ‘Wait, do I like metal?’ Tom Connick finds them – surfing, no less – on the day of the album’s release.

Kerry McCoy spent the morning surfing. The black-haired, bespectacled metalhead might not look like the archetypal surf bro, but McCoy uses the waves as an escape fairly often. Today, the guitarist took to the board to get away from his own record – Deafheaven’s ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’, which, when we speak, has been streaming online pre-release for a matter of hours.

“I’ve been trying not to look,” he says of the online reaction to the record. After his time on the sea, he went to hang out with friends – now he’s back home, ignoring his phone as much as possible. “My mom is keeping me updated,” Kerry says – he laughs when I suggest she might be filtering out any negativity.

Any longtime Deafheaven fan will appreciate his apprehension. Since their 2013 breakthrough, the Californian metallers – completed by vocalist George Clarke, guitarist Shiv Mehra, bassist Chris Johnson and see-him-to-believe-it mega-talent drummer Dan Tracy – have courted critical acclaim and genre purist backlash like few others. Second record ‘Sunbather’, released in 2013, was a beautiful fusion of post-rock atmospherics and doomy, heavy aggression, which achieved metal’s most elusive feat – crossover success. Heralded as genius by critics across the globe, this small-time, seemingly niche prospect soon found themselves performing at mainstream festivals like Coachella, and – according to reviews aggregate Metacritic – producing the year’s most critically acclaimed record, beating the likes of Beyoncé‘s self-titled, Kanye West‘s ‘Yeezus’, Daft Punk‘s ‘Random Access Memories’ and countless others to the top spot. With breakthrough success, though, came underground backlash. Black metal purists turned their noses up at Deafheaven, pinning them as culture vultures after a quick buck. They hadn’t paid their dues, spewed the forums, all while Deafheaven’s stature continued to rise. Their sonic fusions irritated the blacker-than-thou, too. “A lot of people have this idea that we’re thumbing our nose at the metal diehards,” says Kerry, “and it’s never that. It’s really just that we want to be this kind of band.” The fact they were pinned as metal saviors by some corners of the press was “overwhelming”, Kerry admits. Reviewed and written about by critics who’d never delved into the world of atmospheric metal before, they soon became tagged with all kinds of statements – ones they never wanted to make themselves. “You got people that either like, just really liked Beach House and had in no way ever listened to metal, but were like, ‘This is the most original thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life, this is god’s gift to music, oh my god’, and then there were people where all they listen to is Mortuary Drape, or they’re on the Nuclear War Now! Forums like, ‘This band is wildly unoriginal and the original thing that they’re ripping off sucks – this is the worst thing that could possibly happen to music’,” Kerry explains. “Both of those people were wrong!”

Citing the likes of ColdWorld and Alcest as early inspirations, he’s keen to drive home that Deafheaven never thought they were reinventing any wheels. “You’re getting blamed for stuff that you didn’t write, or you didn’t say, or whatever,” he shrugs. “People are gonna say what they’re gonna say, and they’ll like it or they won’t. Either way, we tried our hardest. That’s a mature way of thinking about it that I have now, but I think at the time we were trying to get to that point… hence my mom texting me stuff about the record, rather than me looking at it.

Photo credit:  Sean Stout ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’ is a record many will have to hear to believe. A swarming, euphoric mass of metal extremity, huge post-rock, Britpop melodies and guitar solos that could slot into place on a Thin Lizzy record, it’s a record that could soundtrack both victory marches and funerals – at once beautiful and bleak. “We’re all dudes that like extreme metal – really heavy, ridiculous stuff – but then we’re all dudes that really like psych-rock and shoegaze, Britpop, Madchester… Everyone in the band listens to everything,” explains Kerry of that anything-goes musical approach. No idea is considered too outlandish in the writing process, he explains: “If we like it, it goes in there – I think that’s how we end up with things like ‘Night People’ on the record, which is more like Portishead or The xx than anything else. The main thing that stops it sinking into those more atmospheric indie passages is George’s banshee vocal. A death metal-like scream that could shatter your grandma’s spine, it adds an element not often found in records this sonically beautiful. “I think that the juxtaposition between the harsh vocal and the more melodic parts of the songs is cool,” says George, matter-of-factly. “I think that my voice, more than anything, provides a lot of texture to the music. I think that its main process is to provide texture, which I think is a little bit different to how vocals are normally approached.” It’s a method which sees George’s vocal used as much like a musical instrument as it is a means to deliver a story – though that vicious scream hides poetry worthy of its own publication. “I think that – while it can be a little difficult for some to hear – it’s an integral part of the band,” George continues. “It’s necessary to do.” Fusing all those elements is often a case of trial-and-error. When it came time to approach ‘Ordinary Corupt Human Love’, the band exchanged voice notes and iPhone memos for months, before entering the practise studio last October. Picking out various riffs and piano parts that they’d demoed, and noodling over the top of each other, Kerry and Shiv began constructing what would become Deafheaven’s fourth full-length, almost by accident. “That happens a lot,” Kerry admits, “I’ll be playing this weird riff, just messing with it, and Shiv will just jump on top of it with something he’s making up on the fly, and we’ll be like, ‘Stop… that’s the thing. Don’t change that – that’s it right there’.” Your music taste stems from a pretty British indie background – Oasis are one of your favourite bands, right? Kerry: Yeah, definitely. Shiv is really into that too – we’re both large Manchester fans. I’m more of like a hooks, Beatles-y kinda guy, and he’s more of a Pink Floyd-y, psychy kinda guy. When we put that together, it comes out with this weird thing. For me, I can hear all of those things. I feel like it’s a… I don’t know what else to really compare it to, and I don’t mean to compare myself to this band, but I’d imagine this is how Thom and Jonny from Radiohead feel. There’s a really cohesive thing, where both of their separate influences gel together really nicely – that’s how I feel about Shiv. We’re both really good at separate things, and those things come together really nicely. Is it nice to find someone that you can gel with like that – if you’re mixing together loads of different influences, it can go disastrously, sometimes. Kerry: Absolutely. [laughs] And especially with Chris – he’s by far the most musical of any bassist we’ve ever had, and then Dan’s drumming, I think, just speaks for itself. I’m yet to meet another person who can play drums like him.

Photo credit:  Sean Stout That adulation is core to Deafheaven’s being. Now steadfast in their line-up after a bunch of early-days personnel changes, their trust runs deep. Kerry and George – ostensibly Deafheaven’s central duo – met at 14, drawn together in the kind of teen movie fashion only outcast kids at an American high-school could really muster. “I saw George at school – he was this new kid and he had a Slayer shirt on,” Kerry explains. “I went over to him and complimented him on his Slayer shirt, and I had a Dead Kennedys back patch and he was like, ‘Cool patch!’. The rest is history,” he peels off with a laugh. “I feel very fortunate to have that relationship,” says George more solemnly. “Most people go into these great adventures alone, and it’s been nice not having to do that. ”Off the back of ‘Sunbather’’s acclaim, 2015 follow-up ‘New Bermuda’ was a much darker prospect, stripping out much of the beauty that made ‘Sunbather’ so accessible to those outside of metal’s four walls. Rather than a sonic mission statement, the shift was a reflection of the impact that explosion of interest had on the band. “It was just exhausting,” says George today. “We didn’t really have a break between ‘Sunbather’ and ‘New Bermuda’, and we essentially – in terms of recording and touring – just merged those two together. By the time that we were done recording that record, we were a little bit jaded, and definitely in need of a break.” Kerry agrees: “’New Bermuda’ was a very big reaction – when I listen to that record I can feel the stress in it – it sounds like five guys who have their insides all wound up.” The result was a record which revelled in self-hatred.

Photo Credit: Sean Stout Was that darkness on ‘New Bermuda’ a reaction to the way ‘Sunbather’ exploded? You just got thrown into this, what I expect was, quite an unexpected success. George: Yeah. That’s exactly it – with ‘Sunbather’ we found an opportunity to live off our music, and then we started living off our music, and then we got really scared of not being able to do that. We just kept going – we didn’t want to take any breaks. It was great – we did a tonne of extremely cool things – but it also took a bit of… a bit of a toll. Growing up in that metal community, too, you don’t ever expect to have that kind of crossover success. It’s not really the done thing – it’s not something you’re prepared for. George: Yeah, I think so. We’re flying this ship blindly, is how I like to describe it. Everything that we were embarking on then – and even still now – a lot of the time, is unfamiliar territory. We navigate it as best we can. It is interesting being this sort of ‘crossover’ metal act, because there comes pressure from both sides, in a way. The Deafheaven of 2018 harbour a far more positive view of that crossover appeal – in fact, with the demons of the ‘New Bermuda’ cycle now behind them, ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’ is an altogether more positive prospect all round. “If we’re your gateway into this beautiful form of music, then I think that’s win-win for everybody,” shrugs Kerry. “I feel like when I was a kid, there was a hard line between being into alternative music and alternative things – especially aggressive music and aggressive things – and being a regular guy,” Kerry continues. “What I kinda see happening is that those lines are getting blurred. Some of these kids, these high-school kids, it’s not a big thing. They’re listening to the new Drake record or whatever, and then they’ll have Code Orange or Power Trip on next. From what I’ve seen, it’s not even really being talked about anymore – it’s kinda generally accepted that everyone needs to have a diverse music diet. I think that there’s a lot of bands out there that are helping open those doors, and I hope we’re one of them. More than it’s bands that are doing it, I think it’s just kids are smarter now than when I was in high school,” he breaks off with a laugh: “I remember it sucked being the punk kid in high school, when I was there.” ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’, then, feels like a victory lap. It’s an escape from numerous dark pasts – one that finds Deafheaven rejuvenated. “It’s definitely a cathartic record,” Kerry agrees. “To me it sounds like five dudes who have, essentially, been holding their breath for about five years [laughs]. We’re finally taking a deep breath and relaxing a little bit, instead of trying to handle things in a negative way. I think you can definitely hear that on it.” It’s a record which doesn’t shy away from the grisly truth of that path to redemption, though – for every soaring, reflective moment of musical bliss, there’s a doomy scream, or a well-timed lyrical takedown, to bring things back to reality – for every ‘You Without End’, on which George sings of being “In a dark tunnel / And new dawn approaching / With a sphere of light / Ever glowing”, there’s a ‘Honeycomb’, which finds him declaring that “My love is a bulging, blue-faced fool / Hung from the throat by sunflower stems.” “If I’m going to be spending time making art, or spending time writing lyrics or writing music, I think it’s important just to be honest,” says George. “I think it’s a waste of time if I’m not honest, and in being honest one has to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of life. I think we try and do that – we try and be well-rounded about our reflections on life, and take the good with the bad, and not shun away the darker side of things. We try and be as accurate a representation of our feelings as possible.” “I think that, where the world is at now… I know I’m in desperate need of some positivity these days,” says Kerry. “It is nice to be out there and put out a record that isn’t literally pure darkness. It’s almost like a true, human version of positivity – it’s flawed positivity, like: ‘Hey, no one’s perfect here – but we’re all gonna end up alright’. ”Deafheaven’s new album ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’ is out now via ANTI- Records.

#Deafheaven #Ordinary Corrupt Human Love #NME

[iloveyouphillipmorris]

🎧

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE + THE TELESCOPES — BEFORE YOU FORGET

this was released earlier this year between two of my favourite shoegaze / neo-psych bands and i don’t actually really know the story behind it. the brian jonestown massacre are a californian neo-psych band which cropped up in the early 90’s, they’re one of my favourite bands & i truly do believe in their singer, anton newcombe, even if he’s been temperamental & has a bad rep. this band fills me with life.

#replies #music talk

[escafandrista-musical]

Yourside marca el retorn dels Young Prisms (2021)

@youngprisms Gènere: #shoegaze #alternativerock #sngoftheday Yourside marca el retorn dels Young Prisms (2021)

@youngprisms Gènere: #shoegaze #alternativerock #sngoftheday Els californians Young Prisms tornen després de gairebé una dècada. Aquí teniu l’últim que sabíem del quintet de San Francisco. Tot i estar fora del nostre radar tant temps, el senzill de tornada manté l’esperit conegut. Yourside disposa de guitarres electrificades i reverb, amb ones modulades que es barregen amb la veu de Stefanie…

View On WordPress

#Young Prisms #Yourside

[harrisnovick]

I'm suuuper trilled to let you guys know that my band, Adiós Cometa, signed with Californian label Velvet Blue Music (home of one of my all-time favorites: Starflyer 59). Take a listen to our single and please let me know what you think. <3 

emague posted this to r/shoegaze at 2021-01-05 06:09:01 UTC

#soundcloud #shoegaze #reddit

[recommendedlisten]

Album Review: SPICE - ‘SPICE’

There are five members in the pan-Californian band SPICE who’ve contributions lay equally on the surface of their debut album’s crackling, rocky complexion. At its epicenter of those fault line is most notably that of vocalist, CEREMONY frontman Ross Farrar. Following Farrar’s career throughout his shape-shifting hardcore-punk band as well as projects like his shoegazing offshoot the Down House, he’s never shied away from applying varying degrees of pressure onto sound, and on SPICE, we experience this in one of its most focused instances of aggression to date.

Alongside SPICE bandmates in fellow CEREMONY drummer Jake Casarotti, bassist Cody Sullivan (No Sir, Sabertooth Zombie), guitarist Ian Simpson (Creative Adult,) and violinist Victoria Skudlarek, the collective's "deliberate isolation of pain” through fascias of hardcore and indie rock channel themselves through in non-stop urgency that makes for one of the year’s most rewardingly thrill rides in anxiety-riddled head charges and whirring melodies. The listen is pop-induced, billowing in the air, and heavy like a pile of bricks at once, and when all of these elements atomize onto one slab, we hear how pain even in isolated form comes in many forms.

The audacity for SPICE to entitle a song called “I DON’T WANNA DIE IN NEW YORK CITY” and to have it bark back through the dark, rat-scaped city mania of an early Walkmen track is a sticking point that echoes throughout the rest of the listen. It’s been almost two decades since the Aughts’ NYC underground sculpted a movement in rockism, after all. That’s enough passage to warrant revisioning metropolitan nightmares through a modern lens with windows dirtied and pushed out here on tracks like “BLACK CAR” and the PDA signals of “THE BUILDING WAS GONE”.

With “FIRST FEELING” and “ALL MY BEST SHIT”, SPICE punctuate post-hardcore and brainy pop-punk with tightly-wound exclamations and sharp brevity. There’s a separation from where they stand against sinking into familiarity, however, thanks to the searing heat radiating from Victoria Skudlarek’s violin strings, sparking instantaneously as they careen through the former. On “MURDER”, she helps orchestrate a dark secret life lived, and on “REWARD TRIP” she guides an electric third rail down a lost highway. Later on “26 Days”, she and her SPICE 'mates stretch light with a towering wait.

The totality of SPICE in its 30-minute, non-stop concentrate of pain succeeds as a group exercise in attempting to control that which consumes us. That it also happens to be knockout debut from a band whose makeup continues to reinvent themselves by leaving no corner of underground rock uncovered as a conduit to carry this out only helps it go down easier.

SPICE by SPICE

SPICE’s SPICE is available now on Dais Records. Physical | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify

#albums #spice #dais records #ross farrar #ceremony

[plungermusic]

No dinosaurs were harmed in making this album ...

With a band name taken from the hypothesis of mass extinction by meteor strike Plunger expected The Alvarez Theory to be a Californian doom metal band or similar, rather than a roots act based in London. The eponymous debut from Dee Diehl (vocals, guitar), Sarah Louise Bates (bass, vocals), Julia O’Hanlon (fiddle, concertina, vocals), Mark Patterson (mandolin, banjo, guitar) and Flo Miller (drums) mixes New World country and Old World folk elements with a modern North London twist.

The high plains country of opener By The River promises much: simple slide lines, fiddle, and relaxed drums behind Dee’s strong voice with rich harmonies in the chorus. The breezy mandolin-led waltz of St Peter keeps up the country feel with an added splash of very harmonica-like squeezebox, while the dark Western feel of Big City, Empty features twangsome guitar and swooping fiddle backing punchy vox. Mesmeric progressions bittersweet harmonies and spare guitar melody lines give the (very short) Last Of A String Of Tempests the air of a Neil Young number cut off in its prime.

Still with a toe on the other side of the pond, Mary McKinley has the feel of traditional emigrant folk: off-kilter rhythms, haunting slide and concertina back low, near-spoken vocals (particularly in the harmonies) that seem to draw on more modern influences. That vocal style continues in the minimalist singer/songwriter shoegaze of Lady Of Shallot where spare acoustic accompaniment is eventually fleshed out by fiddle and squeezebox, and reaches a peak in Like Turner Studied Clouds, where the hesitant harmonies sound like someone not wanting to wake the neighbours. That small quibble aside that latter track is a hypnotic, almost Bushesque music box waltz, with automaton guitar chords, and crystalline mandolin accents.

A touch of hesitancy lurks in the retro village hall danceband ballad of 1949 but Dee’s Dylanish drawled lead and mando, concertina and drums up the levels of oomph sufficiently. There’s certainly no lack of oomph in House That Stood The Storm: the melancholy fiddle-led chunky-knit folk dirge has almost Hammill-like levels of searing despair in the passionate vocals. The album closes back Stateside, with Bring Her Back To Life, another waltz with banjo and salty seadog squeezebox lending a Newport News shanty ambience.

The Alvarez Theory is a bit of a curate’s egg: the switches of energy levels and dynamics don’t lie easily on the ears of dinosaurs like Plunger, less used to contemporary stylings, but the best bits really are well worth a listen.

The Alvarez Theory is released on 24th May on Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music, and from https://www.thealvareztheory.co.uk.

Their album launch show at Camden’s Green Note takes place the same day, tix available here: https://www.greennote.co.uk/production/the-alvarez-theory/

#the alvarez theory #evans above pr #folk #country #rootsmusic

[noiseartists]

Amusement Parks On Fire: The indie minstrels of Nottingham

Amusement Parks is Noise Pop / Shoegaze band from Nottingham, UK. We are humbled by their kindness to agree spend some time with Noise Artists for an interview, and slightly star-struck.

The band present themselves very well on Facebook:

Amusement Parks On Fire first came to prominence in 2004 with the release of the eponymous debut album, conceived and consummated by the then-adolescent founder Michael Feerick and phonically actualised on a shoestring. Issued on Geoff Barrow (of Portishead)’s Invada label, it was described by the then-relevant New Musical Express as "hedonistic teenage genius" and saw itself projected onto the planetary meta-retina. A live line-up was essentially preformed and extensively performed with the likes of Dinosaur Jr, The Flaming Lips, M83 and dEUS among innumerable other acts of the era. The unit then retreated to Sigur Rós’ private swimming-pool sanctuary Sundlaugin in Mosfellsbær, Iceland to complete the venturesome sophomore release 'Out Of The Angeles', during which time they experimented with sleep, sustenance and sunlight deprivation at the insistence of V2 Records. After several years of international incidence the band crash-landed in Los Angeles in 2009 to make 'Road Eyes' with producers Michael Patterson (Beck, Nine Inch Nails) and Nicolas Jodoin (Arcade Fire, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club). Again inspired by the locale, the collection was intended as 'a skewed Californian contemporary-classical' with Alternative Press characterising it as "sun-drenched, challenging and gratifying… a near-perfect album". After an 88 month moratorium the band returned in November 2017 with a new single 'Our Goal To Realise' and coinciding UK live performances, followed swiftly in April of this year with the concept EP 'All The New Ends' and a concert tour of mainland Europe. In December, the collective play 3 special UK shows at which they promise to perform material from the next album 'An Archaea' for the first time, alongside deep cuts from their extensive back catalogue.

The current line up is:

Michael Feerick, guitar, vocals

Peter Dale, Drums

Gavin Poole, bass

Rafe Dunn, Guitar

Joe Hardy, keyboards/guitar

Their impressive musical work to date is:

Venosa/Eighty Eight, EP, 2005

Blackout, EP, 2005

Amusement Parks on Fire, LP, 2005

In Flight, EP, 2006

Out of the Angeles, LP, 2006

A Star Is Born, EP, 2007

Young Fight, EP, 2009

Road Eyes, LP, 2010

Our Goal To Realise, EP, 2017

All The New Ends, EP, 2018

This interview is the perfect new year gift to discover or revisit their music while learning more on the band. We hope you enjoy.

What is your music about?

Not to be a spoilsport but I don’t really like attempting to characterize it in any meaningful sense as it only really serves to diminish it and spoil the fun. I guess what I love about music is it’s such an expressive medium, a way of communicating things that can’t be described, so analyzing it on paper is kind of irrelevant and boring. But yeah, it’s mainly about struggling to accept a prescribed reality and being sad about that.

What are your goals as an artist artistically/commerically?

I guess artistically the goal is probably to give the thing you’re working on a reason to exist, to justify adding it to the already overwhelming amount of man-made information in the universe. It’s not always easy to justify that to yourself. I made fun of my issues with that on our song ‘Our Goal To Realise’. The only real commercial goal we have is to break-even on tour. Anything beyond that would be ridiculous to conceive of.

Who would you want as a dream producer, and why?

Hmmm maybe Jim O’Rourke. Way back in like 2004 someone working with us suggested him as a producer but I wasn’t too familiar with his stuff. In the intervening years I’ve become his biggest fan. He’s either made or produced some of the best music I’ve ever heard and yet he seems like a humble, humorous dude, which is to his credit. Maybe the stars will align one day but I’m not holding the phone. Well, I am but only ‘cos I’ve got literally all of his recordings on it. Also, Ken Thomas. We talked to him loads and loads about making a record but couldn’t figure out how to fund it at the time. I’m still really gutted, he’s a lovely chap and seems to really understand us too.

What are you trying to avoid as a band?

Any relevance or commercial success WHATSOEVER. Not really. Well… I’d refer back to a couple of questions ago. I guess we want to avoid making the stuff mundane, stopping before you’ve made something that goes a little further than it could have. We’re trying to avoid leaving the EU too but not having much luck there. Trying to avoid it being too expensive for us to tour in Europe next year.

Explain your songwriting process.

If I could, I would. Actually, I probably wouldn’t. Either way, it’s more of an anti-process. My theory is, if I make no discernible effort at all, the stuff I do do, or do remember, is gonna be legit. That goes some way to explaining why there has been such a gap before this next album. We could have recorded one in 2010 but I don’t see any point in writing for the sake of it or rushing to release a record. It’s got to happen when it wants to happen. Plus, who could be bothered to do anything?

In 2018 there is no new or old music to a 17 year old with internet access. Discuss.

I think I know what you’re getting at. I don’t know if I have any opinion on the way people consume music anymore though. I’ve never thought of music as new or old really. Unless it’s very cynically of a particular time and therefor dates terribly. You can listen to stuff from the 50’s on some good headphones and it sounds like it’s happening in that very moment. That’s the magic of recording I guess. Moreover, I don’t really believe time exists. The concepts of new and old are manufactured notions of no consequence. So, I’m non-plussed.

Why do you make the music you make?

I don’t know why anyone does anything at all. I suppose it’s an exercise in making something intangible in your mind into something subjectively real so yourself and others can appreciate it. Plus, it’s fun.

Describe your palette of sound.

I mean, at the risk of sounding vague again, it’s infinite, isn’t it? If you can imagine it, you can figure out how to make it. If you limit yourself in that respect there’s no point. I spend far less time thinking about guitar tones than i do about structure, melodic arrangement and the like. That’s where the real beauty and intrigue is for me. We are obviously jonesing on guitars most of the time but that’s only because that’s what we have lying around and it’s such a handy songwriting tool.

Which of your albums are you the most proud of? Why?

It’s trite but it would be like choosing which of your kids you’re most proud of. They all came around at different times in your life, under different circumstances. They all drive you irreparably insane and bankrupt you. You love all of them and they are all part of you. I’m just as proud of the JCDX album. I guess I was a kind of sonic sperm-donor on that one, just to rinse this analogy completely.

As a touring band, what do you find the hardest? The best?

These days, just getting everyone in the same place at the same time. The logistics are the only concern. Once we’re in the van, it’s always great. I feel really grateful that venues and promoters are still willing to have us. We went away for quite a while so we’re kind of a risk in some places I imagine. It seems even more special now to show up somewhere far away from home and there are people there to see you, after like FIFTEEN years. Fuck.

You write a good amount of songs in different time signatures, like 7/8, do you set out to write that way or does it come naturally ?

It’s never for the sake of it. It has to occur naturally with the vocal melody and everything. 7 feels pretty natural too. I’ve wondered why we find 4 the easiest to deal with. I imagine there’s a scientific reason for that, human language patterns and stuff. But it seems kind of arbitrary to me!

You’re from Nottingham, has the environment affected your sound?

Absolutely yeah. Maybe not the sound so much as the approach and the attitude towards what we’re doing. There’s a really great, independent scene in Nottingham that isn’t beholden to any one genre. A really healthy amount of bands and artists supporting each other and helping each other out. I’m always blown away when bands from other towns talk of competition with other local bands. That is so alien to me. Plus, it’s right in the middle of the country so you can usually drive home from any show if you have to, which helps a lot.

Find Amusement Parks On Fire here:

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

Website

#Shoegaze #UK #Noise Pop

[thedallasmusicmansion]

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Live at RadioKulturhaus Vienna

Blues, shoegaze, psychedelica and the Californian sun are all in BRMC’s dna, but it also mixes up fine with the cold in Europe. This rather intimate gig was recorded in December 2017 in the capital of Austria. Listening to this, I am very pleased to finally see them live next summer.

#black rebel motorcycle club #FM4 Session #live #session #Vienna #blues #rock #alternative #psychedelica #shoegaze #Wrong creatures #down the rabbit hole

[8mmmusik-blog]

DI. 10.10 DJ: PRADA MEINHOFF DJ SET POST-PUNK/NEW WAVE/GARAGE/RIOT GRRRL/K RECORDS/BURGER RECORDS 

MI. 11.10 DJ: ATARIAME DARKWAVE/POST-PUNK/FRENCH COLDWAVE/CALIFORNIAN ROCK AND LO-FI 

DO. 12.10 DJ: KB (CHICOS DE NAZCA) ROCK`N`ROLL/PSYCH/GARAGE/WAVE/SHOEGAZE 

FR. 13.10 DJ: MARTIN (DAVID WATTS FOUNDATION) VINYL ONLY/60s & MODERN PSYCH/GARAGE/POST-PUNK/KRAUTROCK/POP/OBSCURITIES

SA. 14.10 DJ: ALVAR & DALE (ACID BABY JESUS/SICK HORSE/MODERN PETS/HELLSHOVEL...) ALL VINYL/PSYCH/GARAGE/PUNK/COUNTRY-PUNK/ROCK´N´ROLL LIVE: BJÖRN MAGNUSSON LO-FI/PSYCH 

SO. 15.10 DJ: LIESEL BERLIN THIS COULD BE OUR SONG LOVE/FIRST DATE SONGS 

MO. 16.10 DJ: GREEK FRIEND OF JIMMY TRASH PSYCH/GARAGE/POST-PUNK/ KRAUT 

DI. 17.10 DJ: DAVID STRAUSS POST-PUNK / NO WAVE / KRAUTROCK / WAVE / GARAGE / PSYCH / SHOEGAZE / LO-FI

[brettdavidbaker-blog]

Review: Trash Boat - Nothing I Write Can Change What You’ve Been Through

Review: Trash Boat - Nothing I Write Can Change What You’ve Been Through

The things Trash Boat have managed to achieve during their short time together is nothing but impressive. For the last year and a half, the Saint Albans five piece have been making serious waves taking over the web and shaking up venues with their gnarly brand of heartfelt pop-punk. A sound not too far removed from label mates ROAM, Knuckle Puck or Something to Write Home About era The Get Up Kids. To date the Kerrang! Fresh Blood winners have released two EPs, hit festival stages at the likes of Download and Slam Dunk, all whilst writing their stellar debut album. Nothing I Write Can Change What You've Been Through was released this June by the alternative power- house Hopeless Records. A label home to the likes of All Time Low, New Found Glory, The Used, Neck Deep and many others.

Carrying on in the same vein of 2015s Brainwork, the bands signature style of fast paced gritty catchiness is still there. If anything, all those things the lads hold dear are amplified even further. Vocalist Tobi Duncan's distinctive style of passionate delivery, carries and supports his lyrics in the best of ways. Each line a stark and honest confessional, brought to life through sky-scraping melody and pure emotion. The creative drum work laid down by Oakley Moffatt really is undeniably a driving force behind the album. His super tight and breakneck approach to the kit is evidently reminiscent of Californian punk bands such as Bad Religion, Lagwagon and NOFX. This comes as no surprise, as the principal songwriter has openly stated his love for pop-punk, like many others out there, grew from the playlists of THPS games and his involvement within skateboard culture. Lock him in with bassist James Grayson and you're left with a rhythm section that is virtually bullet proof. Guitarists Dann Bostock and Ryan Hyslop appear to bounce off one another effortlessly. Interlacing melodies, locking riffs and creating some amazing textures throughout. Whether that be by cutting across each others crunchy jagged palm mutes or lamenting huge chorus chords with reverb drenched single note melodies.

As in any saturated scene, it is always going to be hard to create something that rises above the rest. By adopting such a diverse writing style the band have managed to produce a record that is more than what it may appear to be at first glance. Scratch beneath its surface and you'll find elements of melodic hardcore on tracks such as How Selfish I Seem; Hum-esque shoegaze dreaminess throughout Things We Leave Behind and straight up shredding punk rock in Pangaea and Eleven. Of course, all the choruses are killer. Album opener Strangers, featuring a guest verse from Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, has the kind of hooks that'll keep you awake at night. Not to mention The Guise of a Mother being one of those songs that is impossible to shake. The type of track that has you singing along from the first listen and leaves you humming well after it's over. Trash Boat have certainly hit the sweet spot with Nothing I Write Can Change What You've Been

Through. Overall creating a record stacked with unbelievably catchy yet conscious material.

(Written for and published by Skateism.com)

#review #music

[glamglaremusic]

SXSW Roundup Day 3: Let’s Eat Grandma, Mt. Wolf, Temples, Mothica, Dead Leaf Echo, Sexores, Lilly Among Clouds

Time to get serious at SXSW (and have some fun too): for breakfast, we went to Rainey Street to see Norwegian producer Coucheron at the Paradigm Talent Agency Cookout. He does catchy energetic dance songs, albeit currently without a live singer. After that we were caught in surprise by Australian duo Boo Seeka. Their dark, beat-driven pop and unique vocal style puts them in line with acts like Icehouse or Future Island. Brilliant! We wanted to leave, but it was a beautiful day, so we hung out a while with members of Californian band Frenship, courtesy of Fancy PR. The world is smaller than you think: it was funny to discover that drummer JR also works with CSS, a band whose rise to fame was helped by Fotolog, a company that Elke worked for. Back downtown, we went to the British Music Embassy for Let’s Eat Grandma. We saw them on a far bigger stage at Iceland Airwaves, but their show works in a small venue just as well. They are the talk of the town and everybody is curious where they go next. Also on our must-see list was Mt. Wolf, the U.K. electro-folk three-piece who put out some of the most exiting music last year. They also put on a great show and Bassi Fox can indeed sing the whole vocal range live. Back at the convention center the programming on the Day stages started. On the International stage I caught a song by Australian producer Woodes, who sounded absolutely great. Meanwhile at the other stage, UK four-piece Temples were on. We saw them at the same place three years ago – they have come a long way since then. We were in the mood for a (relatively) quiet dinner after that, but where? Two hours waiting time at Stubb’s. The restaurant of the Indigo Hotel at Red River had dirty dishes piling on the table. The bar of the Omni Hotel was our rescue and we even witnessed something that looked like an initial contract negotiation between a label and an artist. First show of the evening was the SXSW debut of Brooklyn singer/producer Mothica at ScratcHouse. We follow her since her first show and were delighted to see her on the festival stage stage, where she played new material from her upcoming second EP. Next on were our long time friends Dead Leaf Echo whose massive mix of shoegaze and punk rock hit us like a wall when entering Iron Bear Bar. The release of their new material is something to look forward to. They were followed by Sexores a Ecuadorian/Spanish three piece around singer/guitarist Emilia Bahamonde, who play a dreamier, hazy brand of shoegaze. We were happy to see them again after their show at Northside two years ago. Our last show of the evening was Lilly Among Clouds who hails from my old hometown Würzburg, Germany. She played the Speakeasy Kabaret, a fitting venue for the late hour. She does catchy, intelligent pop songs with powerful vocals. It looks like something exciting is happening in the Germany music scene.