You know that post-chill R&B sound pioneers like How to Dress Well and Blackbird Blackbird have been conjuring up lately? Teams (Sean Bowie) could easily be passed off as more of the same, but with more of a supernatural, haunting element about it. Imagine being in Hawaii on Halloween I guess. Big tunes.
Imagine Real Estate with a little more melody and confusion: basically your perfect pre-spring anthems. If winter's already getting you down, try listening to Ridgewood, New Jersey's Family Portrait, a band so humble and fresh they make The Fresh & Onlys look stale.
The best thing to happen to tropical-beach-chill-sounds this year. 'BABES FOREVER EP' is like playing some 16-bit Sega game in yr beach hut while you're waiting for the sun to heat the ocean that little bit more, then taking the most perfect swim before the dopest, most fucked up evening of your life (which probably involves a lot of weed and cigarettes and things Wavves and Best Coast find 'kewl').
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, my chest hurts a little and I feel like I'm definitely forgetting/missing something today. Fat Worm Of Error pretty much describes my day so far, and they've written the score for it, too. The Northampton, Massachussets band revels in a anarchy reminiscent of angry AmAppy tweens rolling around on a bouncy castle in Hackney, London. It's noise rock, but with a bit of tongue-in-cheek playfulness that makes them stand out from the usual bedroom-dwelling lonely souls. If you feel like you've been glocked in the mouth and your mind is now a brain slushie, get this.
Freakishly hazey psych/garage band from Miami, Florida. Good noise for hot days. A lot of reverb, a lot of drone-esque vibes, and a lot of rad tunes. It's like they've perfected the soundtrack to the sweaty, stuffy border between unconciousness and reality, and if that's anything to go by then I wanna be wiped off my surfboard or something.
Superb garage-pop jam band from San Francisco, California to tie you over. A lot more melody and a lot more hooks than your average lo-fi rock'n'roll efforts. For fans of Ty Segall, Gun Outfit and The Art Museums! One of the better releases of last year.
Now defunct 4-piece from Brooklyn. Don't let the name fool you, these guys are sweet garage rock pioneers who sound like Times New Viking covering all their favourite Beach Boys songs. This is "It's Time!: Singles & EPs 2005-08" which is out on the awesome Slumberland Records. Hit it up if you're looking for some lo-fi summer lovin'.
P.S. Shoutout to the great Keyboards is Drunk for reppin me! Word bro, and hello to you if you're just joining us. Surf's up.
I'm spoiling you guys today. Now I only have one exam left, I can do this more often I guess. Keep an eye out for an upcoming mixtape, new Fair Ohs and Tijuana Panthers over the next few days.
Anyway, Magic Kids - some major new buzzband that's touring with Ariel Pink right now, and I'm not suprised, as they pretty much sound like a watered-down Ariel Pink with massive Beach Boys vibes. But this isn't a bad thing, as the end product is a total burst of sunshine and fun times. This is the soundtrack to that ideal, perfect breeze you get as you lay on your deckchair on Oahu. Bliss.
50's whiney surf pop with a fresh coating of sunglazed shoegazey vibes, this time from the UK! This is perfect for those overly hot summer days where you're just sweating everywhere and don't wanna get out of bed. Just sit inside with the blinds drawn and listen to some Spectrals, and think to yourself, "life is sweet after all."
Here I've got the debut 7" as well as the 4-track EP cassette, plus one extra song that I have no idea about. It's tough being a blogger.
You can also find two other songs from the Fair Ohs/Spectrals 7" I posted a while ago (just click the Fair Ohs tag in this post to easily find it). Full length "Bad Penny" "out soon" apparently!
Despite there being an overall 'style' in the garage rock genre there's been an emerging number of great new bands lately that have been shaking the scene up a bit, with psych-vibes and surf-riffs, and hazey moods and skuffed up basslines. Naomi Punk jump on the bandwagon too, sporting a distinct psyched-out, 'space rock' element in their traditional lo-fi garage punk roots. Think of them as Abe Vigoda making their way out of the blaring sunlight in the jungle and into a little run-down shack on the coast where the acoustics are really bad and thee's lots of echo.
Here's their debut. Put it on and give a shit about nothing.
I've been waiting so long to find this record! It's the new album by Boca Raton, Florida's scruffy lo-fi garage rockers Gun Outfit. I haven't actually listened to it yet,just wanted to immediately share it with ya'll! For those who heard the first record, expect more of the same: a distinctly garage sound, but with clear influences of shoegaze and dream pop that are oddly incredibly chilled, yet still manage to maintain enough hooks that leave you wanting more.
I got this in my inbox today, and it's the best new music I've received in a while!
The label that's putting out their new EP 'Cyanide Sisters', AMDISCS, describes it as "feeling the sunshine of summer 1985" and I'd have to agree. This sounds like what was going on in Marty McFly's head as he was going back to the future - droney, hazey, and oddly catchy. Definitely check this out if you like bands such as Girls in the Eighties and Ducktails (however, instead of a tropical paradise, you're getting an 80s sci-fi movie videotape played backwards).
This sweet new jam from Wavves found it's way on to the internet yesterday yet promptly disappeared shortly after P4K announced his next single 'Post Acid' out June 9th on Mountain Dew. It's very punky, a lot cleaner and yet, so, so good. It's literally pouring out with beach/summer vibes. Get on this, I seriously think he might have potential for AOTY.
The melodies these guys kick out are UNREAL. I think they sound a bit like The Thermals, minus the crisp production values and general pop sugar cleanliness. Songs about blue skies, the pacific and pyramids. General lo-fi skuzzy shenanigans of the rad kind. A bit late again on this one, but I'm on a kind of summer garage rock spree lately, just thought I'd share with ya'll.
Since I'm really digging this dude lately here's some more huffed-up beach punk from the garage of noise pioneer Ty Segall - this is the new record 'Melted', I think it's pretty rad. Those who listened to the previous record know what to expect, newcomers haven't yet lived and are about to experience a divine intervention of the musical kind.
It's so hot, I'm gonna find some hazey music to post and fall asleep to.
Hello summer fans. To anyone who doesn't have this, it absolutely rules. Ty Segall high-fives Mikal Cronin and they hug a bunch of sharks at the beach to come up with this skuzzy-up-in-my-fuzzy-huffy lo-fi garage rock that just doesn't give a fuck. Themes include high school and bikini babes and it's all incredibly catchy. Reverb heaven, surfer paradise. Enjoy what you can get out of the summer the next few weeks ya'll, I'll get as much tunes to you as I can.
Charlie & The Moonhearts are a garage-rocking, surf-popping musical act of tricks straight outta LA, USA. Their ten song tape 'Thunderbeast' has been a hidden gem in my collection for quite some time (I'm pretty sure I found it through Christian over at the hippest blog in the sphere BE BOP KIDS!) and I just wanted to share their jams with ya'll. These guys are pretty much a tribute to the Beach Boys and the 'swinging 60s', four words that should be making your brain think "holy shit, I have to get this RIGHT NOW!"
The band have recently changed their name to simply "Moonhearts", and their debut LP as a band will be released in June and under that moniker and on Tic Tac Totally. Consider this a head start and get on it!
Indistinguishable lo-fi reverb-laden Ty Segall pioneer from Ridgewood, New Jersey. Sounds like the ringing in your ears after you have a bad surf and get caught up in the waves, or, the feeling you get when you're 'so bored' and sit in your room by yourself listening to noise rock to numb your head. With an ice lolly.
One of my favourite albums of last year, 'An When' and Tonstartssbandht in general are FUCKED. UP.
What do you call your music? Tonstartssbandht. What's the name of your band? Tonstartssbandht. Tonstartssbandht? Tonstartssbandht? Tonstartssbandht?
Psyched-out noise rock that really gets in your head. I can't even begin to describe their sound, since every track is as diverse and intense as the next, but anyone who likes the ambient/drone/noise scene will LOVE this band.
Highlights include 'Little April Showers', 'Andy Summers', and 'Midnite Cobras'.
First things first, I've taken this link and discovered this band through the always fantastic All, Everyone, United so ya'll probably know about this anyway... but for those who don't, you're in for a treat.
My Wet Calvin are a part-shoegaze, part-surf, part-post-punk band from Athens, Greece. (We're getting all multinational on here now, we're going pro.) The first time I heard "Sweet and Sour", it kind of sounded like No Age if they were fronted by Toro y Moi. Seriously, the heavy, jam-laden hypnotic riffs are there but there's just this ever so slight shoegazey, beach pop touch to it. It's like adding a flake to your Mr. Whippy, and just like that addition, it is fantastic.
Look at this dude. He is one half of Heavy Hawaii and he has a sweet hat. I also wish I had a pair of glasses like he does, maybe he will some day read this blog post and think "yeah, you know what? I'm gonna send Tom some of these glasses" and I will brofist him across the Internet.
There are actually three bros in San Diego's Heavy Hawaii though, who according to their MySpace are "Matt Bahamas, Sundar and Jojo KeyLargo". Makes me wish my last name was KeyLargo. Personally in the opinion of an Englishman I think they sound like the Conservatives if they were a lo-fi, dreamy surf-pop band. It's all very pretty-people-in-the-park, strolling-along-in-the-sunshine-esque. Blue Indian? Toro y Cameron? Hehehehehe.
But, you know, deep down? Rad tropical dream-noise. Ride it.
Look at those bros. They are the kings of the hazey tropical-daze scene and they know it. They are Minus the Bear and they should be a household name for anyone who even remotely likes chill indie rock or is about 25.
I've always loved them for "Pachuca Sunrise", you know, that song about midnight on a beach in the Mediterranean?" So I was pretty stoked when a new album I didn't even know they were working on leaked yesterday. OMNI
Basically, if anyone is familiar with the band's song "Knights", it's pretty much that, but with a synthpop party going on in the apartment above it and a 25-year-old bro playing his Menos el Oso CD below in the basement thinking "why did chillwave have to die?"
There's a song about angels in summer though, which is always nice.
Thanks to hits from a pretty sweet blogfriend, I've had a few e-mails today from a couple of cool bands I thought I'd share with my bros. There's some other stuff I plan to post too including some Heavy Hawaii which I will get round too, I've just started a new job and they've had me in 40 hours this week... I'm pretty tired, but the chill and the surf and the sun is keeping me alive. ;)
Ravenous are pretty sweet. Straight out of DC, they make jams I can only describe as sludgey, slimey lo-fi classic rock in a sunny swamp. Think Cloud Nothings if they had been listening to a lot of Boston. Coincidentally 'Highway, Holmes' sounds like something you'd listen to on a hazy sunrise as you're driving along the highway on the first five minutes of yr epic road trip. Good noise bros.
"Tropical No Age" is the first thing that sprung to mind the first time I listened to Jacuzzi Boys. Swimming from the sweet location of Miami, FL, three broskateers Gabriel, Diego and Danny are currently taking their sweet lo-fi surf rock'n'roll jams have dates lined up with bros such as No Age, Beings, The Bellys, The Wiggins, The Fresh & Onlys, The Art Museums and more. Pretty much sums up their style, right? Get on this!
Heavy Times is dope. Heavy Times is also Bo Hansen. Heavy Times used to record under the name "Slums". Heavy Times is from Chicago, IL and sometimes plays live with Matt Courade and Kyle Reynolds.
But all that aside, Heavy Times are pretty out there. Imagine for one moment Jay Reatard has come back from the grave, but his mind quite isn't the same, his mouth doesn't move in the same way and he can't thrash out on his guitar quite as furiously as before. Instead, he makes new songs with a lot more reverb, and are lot more chilled, and a lot more garagey. This is pretty much what Heavy Times sounds like. Punks on a beach getting high and scuzzing out. RAD TIMES.
I'm really late on these guys but this EP will blow your mind in to a hazy dreamscape up in surfer heaven. Small Black a Brooklyn, NY four-piece whose most recent adventures include playing as Washed Out's backing band and touring with him and Pictureplane.
The best way I can describe them is through fantastic debut single 'Dispicable Dogs' - think the dreampop-esque, chilled out sandy vibes of Washed Out/Neon Indian but with less electro and more Japanther-like drum beats and lo-fi, cloudy vocals.
Fair Ohs bring the surf of the finest California beaches and the tropical dance-daze anthems of Delorean and put it all in a smoothie maker in a Caribbean cafe in East London. This is their split 7" (with Spectrals) on Tough Love Records in the UK. First track 'Hey Lizzie' is probably the best, a srsly sweet jam full of summer vibes and hazy dreamscapes. Like No Age, but on a beach.
Found this on one of the best blogs ever and just wanted to share the love with ya'll. More lo-fi garage rock anthems from curret pioneers of the genre Cloud Nothings! I haven't listened to Campfires yet but based on the name alone I'm sure they're worth listening to.
This is the shit! Delorean are Spanish tropical synthpop chill-dance heroes. The song below 'Stay Close' sounds like the backing music to an advert for the best holiday ever. If there's one anthem you need this summer apart from KISSES, this is it. If Delorean were an island, it would be an island floating in the bluest skies, selling the milkiest cookies to the most perfect girls surrounded by everyone riding the waves. A bit more electro than most other similar bands, but it doesn't matter - it's way too catchy. Get on this now.
Never has the name of a band been so relevant to their sound. Dirty Beaches sounds just as filthy as it's name - hideously beautiful scratchy guitar tag-teamed with some pretty funky looping drone and the haunting voice of Alex Zhang Hungtai, a dude all the way from that Canada place. This is for those days when a big black cloud decides to shit all over yr beach trip.
Thrashy noise-punk rockafellas MALE BONDING have put their debut album 'Nothing Hurts' up to stream on their blog, but I'm gonna embed it here because I'm nice like that.
I really wish they'd stuck with their 'raw roots' though, this album sounds a bit too polished for the genre, but it's still pretty A+++ lo-fi kerfuffle.
Gonna find a new EP or something to post tomorrow.
Lemonade are three broskateers Ben, Alex and Callan from San Francisco, Brooklyn and Californa USA. Three sweet cities coming together to form one of the illest bands of the year - these guys make jams as if they were Japandroids hanging out in a beach hut. My favourite song from the EP definitely has to be 'Lifted' - you don't get much more tropical than looping underwater sounds and a drum beat that sounds like it's made on a bunch of seashells. This is going to be big on my playlist this summer.
No post yesterday, so there'll hopefully be two today if I get the time.
Teengirl Fantasy are a band I'm pretty late to get on the bandwagon for. They play this sort of cross between the twinkly melodies of yr average twee pop band, but fuse it with dubstep and an essence of drone to create a totally chilled, Washed Out-esque tropical island. 'Hoop Dreams' was the first song I listened to from their CD-R, completely by chance, and I'd say it's probably their best so far - sweet beats, sweet samples, and one sweet jam. I can assure you won't be hearing anything like this on the next Justice album.
Gonna post the entire CD-R, simply because it's way too difficult to narrow down one track. You need to hear this.
Fresh Woodsist meat from somewhere in the U.S.A. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes poppy, yet always catchy, their debut (?) 'Rough Frame' is one of my favourites of the year so far. Imagine if the Beach Boys were locked in a small cupboard for several days on end with a little keyboard and single guitar - you end up with a lot of bouncy hand-clapping and feet-stomping melodies. But scratchy acoustic guitars, tambourines, pulsing echoes and haunting vocals also come along for the ride, giving them a cutting edge on today's blogosphere waves. Check it out.
