Indie Music Universe

Blue Sky Noise  by Circa Survive

After their previous album debuted at #24 on the Billboard 200, Circa Survive have returned to once again rock the music world with their major label debut album, 'Blue Sky Noise.' The album is a reinvention of the bands trademark sound led by unique vocals and distinguished musical styling. The band has described 'Blue Sky Noise' as an entirely 'new chapter' which will solidify Circa Survive as one of the most visionary and forward-thinking young bands in contemporary rock music today.

One Good Thing  by Lou Rhodes

2010 third solo album from the former member of electronica band Lamb. She continues to explore a more folky side with her solo works.

New Home  by La Strada

Formed in early 2007, La Strada has quickly made a name for itself with raucous, foot-stomping shows. The quintet sports a grand yet playful sound, and the live lineup follows suit, expanding to include additional strings and horns. Recorded at Miner Street Studios in Philadelphia and The Buddy Project in Queens, the band's debut LP, New Home, features 13 tracks of raw emotion channeled into well crafted pop songs. With influences ranging from ancient music to modern indie rock, the band has garnered comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel, Beirut, and Arcade Fire.

Popularity: 3% [?]

III by Espers

2009 release from the Neo-Psychedelic Folk trio. After what seems to be an interminably long gap and born into an inextricably changed world, Espers III walks among us, finally and finely. It’s not as if Espers completely disappeared following their acclaimed first and second albums and tours. They played the odd show here and there but with time and focus given to Meg Baird’s solo album Dear Companion, The Valerie Project project and Helena Espvall’s collaborations with Masaki Batoh and others, not to mention the launching and flight of Greg Weeks’ Language of Stone label, three years passed like a day or two in the life of Espers. Picking up the threads with ease, Espers III was intended to be an aural reversal of the layered sound of II.

The Real Feel by Spiral Stairs

After a five-year absence, Pavement guitarist and Preston School Of Industry mainman SPIRAL STAIRS (Scott Kannberg) returns with a heart-on-sleeve (but occasionally tongue-in-cheek) songcycle about his complicated personal life. Spiral maintains his trademark melodic whoops and Flying Nun guitar licks, but overlays a layer of melancholy and wisdom, as well as a touch of Peter Green blues. Alert listeners will also spot Richard Thompson, Captain Beefheart, and The Died Pretty. The album was recorded in Australia with a diverse crew of talented people, including members of the Posies, Gersey, Ian Moore and others. It was mixed in Seattle with Jon Auer (Posies , Big Star). Spiral is assembling a new touring band including former members of Preston School Of Industry and others, and will be performing the new album worldwide in 2009 and 2010.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Dead Man’s Bones by Dead Man’s Bones

Dead Man’s Bones began recording, and quickly decided that the songs needed the special creepiness and longing of massed children s voices to complete the sound L.A. s Silverlake Conservatory Childrens Choir was brought in to the studio, and Dead Man s Bones, the album, was born. Some of their songs reflect the music they listened to a little bit of doo-wop, and artists such as the Shangri-Las, The Shags, Company Flow, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Bobby Vinton, Joy Division, The Andrew Sisters and Daniel Johnston, to name a few. In addition, the artistic aesthetic of old Universal horror films, vaudeville music-hall numbers, and silent-screen melodramas infest the music.

In & Out of Control by Raveonettes

According to the Raveonettes Sune Rose Wagner, it is incredibly hard being in a Danish rock n roll band cause of this damn thing we have called Jante Loven (Jante Law), which basically tells Danes not to feel superior to any other man, woman, child or beast. This translates into everyone being very scared of thinking highly of themselves and in the music world means that you’re no better than this band or that band.

The Raveonettes have always hated repeating themselves, and so they set the bar really high for In And Out Of Control. It’s a strange mixture of modern and old, dark and happy. It’s about rape, violence, lost love, suicide, not caring about what other people think of you and most importantly being mad and angelic! Jante Loven doesn’t mean anything to the Raveonettes cause they know they made a better album than anybody else out there!

Goat (Deluxe Remastered Reissue) [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] by Jesus Lizard

Re-mastered in 2009 by Steve Albini and Bob Weston. Vinyl packaged in deluxe gatefold album jacket with 12" x 24" double sided color insert including never before seen photos & extensive liner notes by the band & by journalists who were there. Vinyl also includes a digital download coupon for the LP, plus 5 bonus tracks not included on the LP itself. HQ-120 virgin vinyl pressing made at RTI. CD in deluxe Digipak with 14" x 20" double sided color folder including never before seen photos & extensive liner notes by the band & by journalists who were there. CD also includes 4 bonus tracks.  Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Monsters of Folk by Monsters of Folk

Monsters of Folk is a collaboration of Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward- three of this generations most critically acclaimed voices and Mike Mogis , one of the most sought after producers working today.

Wild Young Hearts by Noisettes

2009 sophomore album from the British trio. Wild Young Hearts is a set of sleek Pop songs steeped in Soul, dizzy on Disco and harking back to the days of Blues and Jazz greats. From the galloping Funk grooves of first single ‘Don’t Upset The Rhythm’, to the joyous, jazzy title track, the stomping Electro-Rock of ‘Saturday Night’, the glorious `60s-tinged Soul of ‘Never Forget You’ and the sultry, shimmering pop of ’24 Hours’, in Wild Young Hearts, Noisettes have made what is set to be one of 2009′s most adventurous albums.

A Brief History Of Love by Big Pink

There’s something ultimate about London’s The Big Pink. It’s as though they’ve compressed everything that’s great about post-war music into their sound. They’re as accessible as a pop group, with almost folkishly warm melodies, the spiritual quality of soul and gospel, the rhythmic propulsion of rave, the white noise of punk, the glitchy textures of electronica, and the heavy drones of your favourite New York rock bands past and present.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

The Visitor by Jim O’Rourke

Jim O’Rourke returns with his first new solo album since 2001. All the classic O’Rourke-isms are here for you musicologist types: percolating banjos smooth electric leads organic kicking drum sounds the flickering of shakers to the left and right mellow but ominous woodwinds sounds that indicate vintage (before turning left and running out the door) sonic jokes sonic tear-jerkers sonic jerkoffs all wrapped in spacious yet subtle left to right placement of everything.

As Good As Gone by Nudge

Nudge returns with a slow burning full-length of sounds perfect for the dying days of the summer’s swelter. The varied stylistic shifts of previous material have garnered their fair share of comments regarding a schizophrenic nature, but here the experimental lean of the group is placed to deliver it’s most cohesive sound to date. Masterfully blurring the music’s entangled live and programmed approaches to the point of imperceptibility, layer upon layer of synth, guitar and vocals are draped over skeletal Pop structures and anchored by Dub basslines born of resin-stained fingers. Covered in an electric blanket of atmosphere that can surely only come from years in outer space memorizing the top of one’s shoes, the gothic trappings reveal themselves as hard-earned circles beneath the eyes as opposed to poorly applied hot topic nail polish. As Good As Gone is a proper album whose arc is intended to be absorbed stem to stern.

Get Color by Health

GET COLOR is the highly-anticipated second album from Los Angeles noise-wonders HEALTH. After two solid years touring with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Of Montreal, Crystal Castles, etc., and releasing their much-loved self-titled debut and bangin’ HEALTH//DISCO remix record, the band convened in in an especially gnarly part of Lincoln Heights, L.A to record GET COLOR. The record is an exuberant proclamation of noise, rock and electronic splendor. It’s a celebration of sound; pretty, harsh, soft and basked in a blanket of ethereal vocals.
 

Popularity: 3% [?]

Riceboy Sleeps by Riceboy Sleeps

Jon Thor Birgisson (Sigur Ros) and Alex Somers (Parachutes) have been exhibiting artwork and staging exhibitions under the name Riceboy Sleeps for a few years now. Their track "Happiness" was featured on the "Dark Was The Night" compilation. This record is more active than its antecedents in the ambient output of Brian Eno and other deliberately low-impact works.

I’m Going Away by The Fiery Furnaces

Their eighth album and first studio record since 2007′s "Widow City". CD presented in a 4-panel mini-LP style jacket. LP limited to 1,500 copies and pressed on HQ 180 gram virgin vinyl at RTI. Presented in an old-style tip-on gatefold jacket with MP3 download coupon.

The Satanic Satanist by Portugal. The Man

Alternative Press (p.110) – 4 stars out of 5 — "[T]he band deliver a powerhouse of pithy Motown and funk-inspired classics, with hints of ’60s anti-war folk, ’70s soul and ’90s alternarock….The songs themselves are rock solid…".

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Popularity: 2% [?]

We Were Promised Jetpacks by These Four Walls

Like fellow Scotsmen Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad, We Were Promised Jetpacks bring emotional intensity to the forefront in their immensely appealing rock anthems. Adding nimble, driving rhythms and bristling tension to the mix, they unfold their songs into effortless-seeming choruses imbued with romanticism and pop sensibility

Civilized by Stellastarr

Coming off a break-out trip to SXSW 2003, this unsigned New York-based band was immediately booked personally by Carson Daly and was the first unsigned band to perform on his Last Call With Carson Daly show. Other media and industry influencers, from Nic Harcourt, to NME, to a host of blogs and tastemakers, soon took notice of this bands distinctive sound and energetic live show, and within the year, Stellastarr had been signed to RCA Records. Stellastarr released their self-titled debut album in 2003. Support surged in from mainstream press outlets such as Rolling Stone, Spin, MTV News, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, LA Times, and the crème de la crème of the indie world. They continued to grow their following with their 2005 sophomore album, "Harmonies for the Haunted", and by touring the country and the world with artists such as Jane s Addiction, Joe Strummer, Placebo, Editors, DEVO, The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Following their two records with RCA, the band decided to branch out on their own. Their 3rd album, ‘Civilized’, which was produced by Tim O’Heir (who also produced their debut), is released on Stellastarr’s own Bloated Wife Records, through Warner’s Independent Label Group.

Upper Air by Bowerbirds

UPPER AIR, the Bowerbirds’ second release, finds the band continuing in the vein of their first effort; this is rustic, cerebral, ramshackle music. One could call it "beard rock"–it’s the kind of backwoods, wild-poet-of-the-mountain sound that …    Full Descriptionnods to Bon Iver, Bonny Prince Billy, and Iron & Wine. What makes the Bowerbirds just a touch different lies in how manipulative (in a good way) their songs can be. "House of Diamonds," with its stormy percussion and piano chords, and blocky guitar riffs, is simply electrifying. But the Bowerbirds really are at their best when they call up the quietly fiery side of their sound. "Ghost Life"’s wordless chorus (a series of triumphant "ohs") shouldn’t be as convincingly uplifting as it is; it’s a testament to the Bowerbirds’ creative chemistry and pop sensibilities that it works as well as it does. UPPER AIR only runs into trouble when the Bowerbirds get a little too introspective; some of the slow, meandering tracks here tend to get muddily dirge-like ("Chimes"). But this is a small issue in the wake of all the twisting, strangehearted stuff this disc has to offer.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

God Help The Girl  by God Help the Girl

After the success of the most recent Belle And Sebastian album, "The Life Pursuit", band leader/singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch decided to pursue his dream of writing a rock musical scored for female singers. After auditioning vocalists via Internet contests, he made his choices and, with all members of Belle And Sebastian backing him up, recorded this breathtaking record. It combines the strengths and feel of early Belle And Sebastian records in a broader musical palette, which draws equally on musicals, 60s girl groups, 80s indie, and most of all, classic pop.

Beacons Of Ancestorship  by Tortoise

Their first new record in over five years. Tortoise have been expanding the definition of rock music for over fifteen years. "Beacons" gives nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut up beats, heavily processed synths, and mournful, elegiac dirges. CD version is presented in a 4-panel mini-LP style jacket.

Dragonslayer  by Sunset Rubdown

Sunset Rubdown was once the moniker under which Spencer Krug released lo-fi solo recordings. The project has long since evolved into a full band, and "Dragonslayer" is the third full-length. The musicianship is unassisted by studio magic, and the songs are left to justify for themselves their own screwy pop-rock existence.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Bitte Orca by The Dirty Projectors

The follow-up to 2007′s critically acclaimed and Domino debut "Rise Above". Their fifth release is a big rock album by design. Its idiosyncratic and sincere take on popular music is reminiscent of David Byrne with whom Dirty Projectors collaborated on "Knotty Pine" for the 2009 compilation "Dark Was The Night". In many ways, group leader David Longstreth could be seen as this generation’s answer to Byrne, a distinctive torchbearer of labyrinthine song arrangements that go down easy.

Flowers by Joan Of Arc

Despite being written over the course of a year in four different sessions with four different lineups, the songs on "Flowers" sound more cohesive than those on last year’s "Boo Human". This experience encapsulates the spirit of Joan Of Arc – a mentality that embraces contradictions and tears apart common musical structures, only to rebuild them without a blueprint. They continue to create an obscure combination of familiar, obvious ideas while sticking with the notion that "if it feels good, do it."

Concrete Class by The Lonely H

Their third full-length howls through roadhouse walls and soothes that long walk of shame the next morning. Twelve glowing tracks of tires humming through the Southwest while Skynyrd scratches through the nearest AM radio station. Written at bar stools and scrawled on diner napkins, "Concrete Class" seethes with a lust for America’s highways and laughs with the trials that ensue.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

There is an unbelievable clarity of sound and vision to Veckatimest: vocals (a duty shared by all band members) are sharper and more complex, arrangements are tighter, production is more venturous and lyrics more affecting. Having opened the creative dialogue at such an early stage, Grizzly Bear was able to realize these 12 songs together as a band, making it their most collaboratively compositional album to date.

This yielded an unexpected mix of material that feels more confident, mature, focused and most of all, dynamic. From songs like ‘Dory’ (a gracefully psychedelic, ever-evolving work),’Ready Able’ (a synth-y opus, and one of four songs that boasts string arrangements by composer Nico Muhly) and ‘Foreground’ (a plaintive, vocal-driven send-off, and one of two songs to feature choral arrangements also by Muhly) to more resounding pop songs like ‘Two Weeks’ (an other-worldly doo wop featuring backing vocals from Beach House s Victoria LeGrand) and ‘While You Wait For the Others’ (a triumphant and melodically cacophonous pop masterpiece), Veckatimest is an album of the highest highs and lowest lows an unbelievably diverse collection of songs that celebrates the strength of each band member, and the power of the whole. It was well worth the wait.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix

The 2009 album from the French Electro-Rockers. Born out of restlessness and a steady hunt for inspiration, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a career-defining album filled with the band’s signature melding of synthetics and organics, sharp, danceable rhythms, infectious choruses with a considerable dose of aural panache and candy-colored pop sensibilities.

Popularity: 3% [?]