Parades

 Foreign Tapes

 1. Dead Nationale
2. Hunters
3. Past Lives
4. Invaders (Review)
5. Springboarder
6. Lung Full Of Light
7. Loserspeak In New Tongue
8. Tripping Over Your Eyes
9. Marigold
10. Vulturehood

Parades are an outfit that list four members on their inside sleeve of their album but sound like a small army on wax. Bold, startling, awe-inspiring and genuinely heartfelt, Foreign Tapes is an astonishingly accomplished record that I just never wanted to end.  A band whose proficiency at a huge range of styles is second only to their ability to craft memorable melodies and the kind of harmonies that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and cheer in approval. These are tracks that didn’t drop out of the sky; they’re mapped out and executed with such skill that half the time they still sound spontaneous.

They also introduce a whole new side to Modular’s star signing, Jonathan Boulet, who produced this suite of songs as well as playing drums on them and arguably establishes himself as a musical force to be reckoned with. Parades are a posse who appreciate that the most talented are only as good as the company they keep. To this end, they ring-in a seemingly never-ending stream of friends, two female vocalists and three brass players, to pad out a sound which already wipes the floor with the competition. You could say they sound like Radiohead, Pink Floyd or even current touring partners, The Seabellies. But really, they sound like nothing else around. Which is fair enough; it’s always hard to define the sound of the future.

 MySpace ~ Official

Color Of Clouds ~ Great debut

Satellite Of Love

Brooklyn-based trio Color of Clouds will digitally self-release their debut album Satellite of Love on April 6th, 2010, a follow up to last year’s well-received EP The Look. A new band by old friends, Color of Clouds is fronted by singer-songwriter and Moby touring partner Kelli Scarr with Dan Chen (Nicole Atkins & The Sea) on keyboard and Nate Greenberg on production. The band will celebrate the album with a short performance and listening party at New York City’s Pianos on Thursday, April 8th from 7-10PM.

Satellite of Love emerged from former Moonraker bandmates Chen and Scarr as they employed music therapy to recover from bitter breakups in 2008. Their struggles with guilt, loss, and heartache were transformed into earnest lyrics and sweetly textured pop songs, and soon fellow ex-Moonraker Greenberg was recruited to polish them into what is now the trio’s debut album. Already, Color of Clouds songs have been featured on hit shows Ugly Betty, One Tree Hill, Damages and Mercy.

The album opens with Kelli’s seductive song floating over gentle keys and playful strings on single “Brother,” followed by dreamy electronic glimmers on “Wonder.” She is joined by Chen on vocals for a bright interpretation of Lou Reed classic and album namesake “Satellite of Love,” and Scarr’s impressive range is showcased to full effect with loop-created a cappella on “Haunts Me.” Satellite closes with country-infused “Come Back To Me,” complete with nostalgic slide guitar and a heartfelt plea for love. 

1. Brother
2. Wonder
3. Satellite of Love
4. Left You
5. Lullysome
6. The Look
7. I Want You
8. Haunts Me
9. Let Go
10. Cinderella
11. Come Back to Me

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

MySpace ~ Label

Band of Horses

 Infinite Arms

Band Of Horses are back with new album Infinite Arms. So far just a few teasers have been revealed but it sounds like the band have once again hit on their magic formula for atmospheric Americana drenched in passion and melancholy.

1. Factory
2. Compliments
3. Laredo
4. Blue Beard
5. Way Back Home
6. Infinite Arms
7. Dilly
8. Evening Kitchen
8. Older
9. Trudy
10. Northwest Apartment
11. Bartles + James

MySpace ~ Official

The National ~ High Violet

High Violet, the new full-length record by the National, is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the height of their collaborative powers. The music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of stark angles and atmosphere.

1. Terrible Love

2. Sorrow

3. Anyone's Ghost

4. Little Faith

5. Afraid of Everyone

6. Bloodbuzz Ohio

7. Lemonworld

8. Runaway

9. Conversation 16

10. England

11. Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks

MySpace ~ Official

Butterfly Explosion

Lost Trails

Ride. Slowdive. Lush. Swervedriver. They all added to the fuzzed out, rock 'n' roll glory of shoegaze greats My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus And Mary Chain. Now Ireland's The Butterfly Explosion are about to take their place amongst the elite with their debut album, Lost Trails, available March 1. The band will be stateside to play a few east coast dates before heading to Austin for South By Southwest.

 1. Closer
2. Tracing Stars
3. Sophia
4. Chemistry
5. Automatic
6. Turn In You
7. Insulate Dreams
8. Carpark
9. Crash... See You On The Other Side
10. A Nearer Sky
11. A Warmer Moment

MySpace ~ Label

Raised By Swans

No Ghostless Place 

 

 1. We Never Were Young
2. Hail of Arrows
3. Secret Garden / S.C.
4. Easier
5. Night Fighter
6. By an Ion
7. How Do These Hearts Unfold
8. The Waiting’s Over
9. Old Fires
10. The Past Is The Prey
11. Longer Shadows, Shorter Days
12. There’s Hope Yet
13. North of Light’s End

Raised by Swans is an indie rock band from London, Ontario, Canada. The band consists of singer-guitarist Eric Howden, guitarist Alex Wright, bassist Andy Magoffin, and drummer Brady Parr. Raised by Swans latest album “No Ghostless Place” is a sort of eulogy/anthem for a broken heart. Melancholy lyrics punctuated by falsetto are sweet and sugary despite being full of remorse. The music is carried by shimmering single-note guitar melodies that weave through pop-infused drum beats and bass lines. While the guitar chimes and echoes through a melody, the bass and drums are sparse and deliberate, adding dynamic punch. The vocals sit in the mix with the guitar acting as an instrument as often as they are narrating a story. This is the first release by London’s Raised by Swans in five years. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 MySpace ~ Official

I'M HERE ~ Heart touching movie

I'M HERE by Spike Jonze

 

Watch Movie Online

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Aska Matsumiya - There Are Many Of Us

  Three Questions To Aska

I’M HERE features original music by Sam Spiegel and original songs by L.A.-based art musician Aska Matsumiya and other emerging musicians. We had a word with Aska, a classically trained pianist and a key figure in the local artist community.

Q: You play in the noise band AsDSSka, the indie rock trio Moonrats, the experimental pop group the Sads and the a cappella group L.A. Ladies Choir. What links all these bands together?
A: I have many musical projects for different forms of expression. You know, we all have our emotional side, our passionate side and our fun side where we are able to let go. I get to express all my differents faces through my musical projects.

Q: Your song “There Are Many Of Us” is featured on the I’M HERE soundtrack. How did the song come about?
A: Last year I wanted to go back to the essence of music so I started the L.A. Ladies Choir, which is a choir group for our community. We don’t carry lots of equipment, and we just go down the street and sing wherever we want to. “There Are Many Of Us” was the first song I wrote on guitar for the choir, and as with many of my songs I sent it to my friends. Spike was one of them, and now the song is featured in the film.

Q: What is your next project?
A: “There Are Many Of Us” is out now as a digital release from Manimal Vinyl Records. It will also be part of my first solo album, which is out on Manimal in July. The album is less experimental compared to some other projects, and has a lot of classical influences, electronic beats and ambient sounds.  (LINK)

MySpace

Retro Masterpiece: Dark Captain Light Captain

Miracle Kicker 

This debut LP from 2008. is a real treat. Sitting down to listen to it again before writing this review, I couldn't help myself, and at the end, had to play it all over again...

Supported by the likes of Zane Lowe, Rob Da Bank and Mark Radcliffe, amongst others, DCLC specialise in a gorgeous sort of trippy folk-music. The press release mentions both The Strawbs and Can, and that seems appropriate. I'd be willing to bet that the people who fell in love with the Erland Oye-Royksopp-Kings Of Convenience Norwegian axis will fall in love with this too.

Sure, mixing electronica and folk is far from a new idea, but hearing it done this well is a rare treat. From opener 'Jealous Enemies' to closer 'Miracle Worker' this album is consistently wonderful. 

The album is a font of glistening guitar plucking, hushed harmonizing vocals, and brisk brushed drumming over a bed of lushly layered keyboard swells. The entire effort swims in a deep ocean of melancholy, but retains a lightness, a buoyancy in the atmosphere that prevents the band and the listener from drowning. What strikes me the most with this record is its pacing and tempos, in that, though the vocals and strings call you, like sensual sirens, to crash and founder upon their beautiful shores, the drumming presses each song steadily onward toward completion. Even if you were to remove the rhythm section to discover a fairly typical folk act, their voices and instrumental arrangements still rich and enchanting. 

 

Miracle Kicker is full of life and replete with a high degree of musicianship; there should be more bands like this one out there helping to redefine how folk and pop really could sound.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 Official ~ MySpace