NEW MUSIC MONDAY

Lot of new music dropped today. Check out some highlights below.

STREAM ICONA POP THIS IS... ON PITCHFORK ADVANCE

STREAM CHVRCHES THE BONES OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE ON NPR

LISTEN TO NEW FOUR TET "PARALLEL JALEBI"

LISTEN TO NEW CHROMEO "OVER YOUR SHOULDER"

New Islands Mp3: "Vapours"

[mp3] Islands: "Vapours"

I really loved Islands for one magical year in 2006. The group was riding high on its magnificent debut album, Return to the Sea, just as I was becoming enamored with lo-fi bedroom indie pop. So, duh, perfect match. In fact, here's what my 18-year-old self had to say about the album when it hit number seven on my year-end list, exclusively published on my Xanga (remember that?) for 10 people to read:

It’s absolutely ridiculous. Guitars, pianos, strings, accordions, flutes, triangles, whistles, saxophones, steel drums, bongos, rap breakdowns. Indie at its best. Starting with the Arcade Fire-esque “Swans (Life After Death)”, which rolls on for nine and a half minutes, the band delves into every different style imaginable. “Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby” and “Jogging Gorgeous Summer” explore the Calypso world. “Tsuxiit” is a psychedelic instrumental that turns into a video game theme. This album sounds huge even when it’s quiet, and that’s all the more impressive when you consider it was recorded in a bedroom. A gorgeous, fun, outstanding album that can be played anywhere, anytime.

Basically, I still agree with what I wrote, but reading that description is just UGH CENTRAL. Luckily, I went to college and learned how to write. Point is, Return to the Sea was great, but Islands' 2007 follow-up, Arm's Way was boring. I don't really remember much about it, except something Broadway and something French. (BTW, those writing skills I honed in college are, at this point, debatable.) I'm still iffy on most of the group's post-Return output, but the title track from the new record, Vapours, has significantly piqued my interest.

"Vapours" trots along on a killer Motown backbeat with brass accompaniment, while leader Nick Diamonds croons typically vague lyrics to anyone who's listening. I've always admired the singer's ability to craft choruses out of afterthoughts, and it's no different here: "It's a bassline in your mind / It's a sexy way to cry / You know I've had my share of doubt / Until I saw the vapours in your eyes." Hell if we know what it means, but damnit if we aren't signing along to it by the time it finishes. Fist bump to Stereogum for the mp3.

Vapours hits stores 9/22 via Anti-.

Lazy Blogging: New Weezer Single

"(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To"

Whatever, you decide.

via Stereogum

New Lissy Trullie Video

[mp3]
Lissy Trullie: "Boy Boy"

Any readers of this site will know that we fell hard for Lissy Trullie last year, and we couldn't be happier that she has began to catch on with the populous. Today, Stereogum premiered the video for "Boy Boy" one of the best tracks off of her recently released EP Self-Taught Learner which has manged to persevere as one of my favorite releases of '09. Enjoy.

New Sally Shapiro "Miracle" mp3

[MP3]

Sally Shapiro: "Miracle"

It's almost become a cliche to call Sally Shapiro's 2007 album Disco Romance a "guilty pleasure." Why should it have to be though? It was a great album of nostalgic dance-pop. Sure it could be a little twee at times, but we loved the shit out of it honestly. It was catchy, a little melancholy and generally perfect for winter listening. Therefore, it's fairly ironic that her follow up record is entitled My Guilty Pleasure. Today, we get the first mp3 "Miracle" from that record (due out in August on Paper Bag Records (thx)) via Stereogum. Her signature melodic hooks and great voice are intact here amidst booming storm clouds and layers of synth and keys. As most of her songs do, Miracle reflects on "the nostalgia you can feel over a lost relationship. Maybe it really felt like a miracle when it was going on, at least for you. Or maybe you just remember the relationship as better than it actually was." We've all been there.

Howard's Got A One Man Show

You all know how much we love Dent May around these parts. We post about the bespectacled troubadour like, all the time. He's the only musician in Stark history to be featured as an I Shall Be Released, On The Blog Reel AND an Artist To Watch 2009, so you know our love for this cat is legit. So anyway, adoring preface not needed this time. Check out Dent's new video for "Howard," a personal favorite from January's excellent The Good Feeling Music of Dent May and His Magnificent Ukelele. There are so many great filmmaking techniques employed here that middle schoolers learn in their summer movie classes offered at community colleges. So one of those middle schoolers probably made this video. (Natch, we don't know who directed the clip, but it obviously didn't cost a whole lot.) Anyway, thanks to Stereogum for premiering it. Enjoy!

Short Handed

New video from Camera Obscura: "French Navy" off the upcoming release My Maudlin Career due sometime in April on 4AD.

Daytrotter session with Those Darlins.

Idolator report on Guy Hands and his depature from CEO chair of Terra Firma.

GVB: Gorilla vs. Booze SXSW showcase preview.

New video from the Veils via Stereogum: "The Letter" off Sun Gangs (4/7 on Rough Trade)

Pete Seeger, 90th B-Day special at MSG May 3 via Billboard.

Pop & Hiss SXSW photos and bullshit approximately.

THE Band to Watch - Crocodiles

Crocodiles - "Neon Jesus" mp3

Crocodiles - "Summer of Hate" mp3

As Lauren commented the other day - when it comes to SXSW, EVERY band is marketed as the next band to watch. But Crocodiles are the real deal. After getting the album the other day, we've been listening to it fairly constantly, to the pleasure of all in the office. Crocodiles have been a band to watch for awhile and Stereogum graced them with the BTW moniker just a few weeks ago. Crocodiles popped up on most people's radar after fellow west coast rockers No Age raved about the band's song "Neon Jesus." Another duo mining the depths of Jesus and Mary Chain style noise rock, San Diego's Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez have made the Nouns of 2009. Highly melodic, yet drenched in fuzz, electronic drums, cranked guitars and reverb, their debut Summer of Hate, will be released on April 28 by Fat Possum, (who has been having an awesome year). So this year at SX when you're inundated with bands to watch, make sure you see Crocodiles, and tell your friends that they are one of the real deal bands to watch. See the video for Neon Jesus, track list and all Crocodiles SX dates after the jump.




SXSW
18 March - FAT POSSUM SHOWCASE - Emo's Outdoor - 2:30pm
20 March - AAM PROMO - Habana Calle 6 - ((Noon-6pm))
20 March - BALLISTIC MISSLE PARTY - 7:00pm
22 March - PANACHE PARTY - Beerland - 5:05pm

Track Listing

1. Screaming Chrome
2. I Wanna Kill
3. Soft Skull (In My Room)
4. Here Comes the Sky
5. Refuse Angels
6. Flash of Light
7. Sleeping with the Lord
8. Summer of Hate
9. Young Drugs

New Fever Ray Video

We'll have some nice stuff up for you today, including an interview with Brazilian musician Marcio Local. While you're waiting, here's the newest video from Fever Ray (via Stereogum). We've already gone on about her in our post last week - so for now, just sit back and enjoy.


When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Valentimes Day.

It's not that we dislike Valentines Day, it's more that we just don't care. Save for Andrew, we're all pretty much footloose and fancy free, so look for us at your local watering holes tonight where we will be meeting our usual weekend hook up, beer. But we write today, not out of bitterness, or alcohol problems, but to share with you Stereogum's Anti-Valentine's Day mix. It features some great new singles from upcoming or recently released '09 musicians like Neko Case, Florence and the Machine, and Lissy Trullie. Go HERE to check it out, and remember, tonight, don't be bitter or jaded - we still love you, kind of.

New Marissa Nadler - "River of Dirt"

[mp3]

Marissa Nadler "River of Dirt" mp3

This morning, via the sometimes great Stereogum "'Gum Drop", comes a new track from Marrissa Nadler's upcoming record Little Hells (due March 3rd on Kemado.) This record seems to promise a more fleshed-out, full-band sound from Nadler, who is known for her introspective and largely acoustic ruminations. On her amazing last record, Songs III: Bird on the Water, she was backed by members of the more ethereal Espers, while on Little Hells the backing instrumentation features synths, drums, lap-steel and piano. We're not saying she's going to sound like AC/DC or anything here, just that this recording promises to be more crisp and focused than her previous outings. Either way, we're looking forward to it. Marissa Nadler also has a cool blog where she posts a lot of demos and home recordings. Check it out. You can read an excerpt of Stereogum's interview with Nadler after the jump.


How did you come up with a "River Of Dirt" as the central image in this song?

The imagery for the song was written stream of consciousness. It was the first song that I wrote when beginning to write Little Hells. To be honest, I wrote the song with a bottle of wine, sitting on my floor, and I had the melody that just wouldn't go away. I had the picking going and this droning guitar piece, and then the words arrived. I tried to just let them flow, without being intentional and without censoring any of the thoughts that were coming into my head. The meaning did not clearly present itself until months later. I knew it was more autobiographical, which was a goal for the record. It grew spinning like a wagon wheel, because of the jumping around of time and place. El Camino is a car I always dreamt of having, because I think they are sexy cars. But el Camino also means the road, or the path.

In the beginning of the song, there is a desire to return home, but to a home that doesn't exist. Words of a desire to revisit a lost place linger. There is an idealized sense in the first stanza that the protagonist, or "I", would run away with my first love and live this utterly romanticized version of a life together, birds chirping and all, like some freaking children's book. That doesn't happen in the song, didn't happen in real life, and very rarely does. I have stopped romanticizing that fairy tale happy ending that we are force fed in movies and books in our childhood, and the song slowly enters my interpretation of reality by each stanza. I still believe in love, am on the wagon and all, but that is not what the song is about.

New M. Ward and The Very Best Videos

Featured:

THE VERY BEST - "Komphopo"

M. WARD - "Hold Time"

We are taking a break from Merriweather for awhile -- I think I have dry mouth from all the hype. Today's On The Blog Reel provides you both uppers and downers.

Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit a.k.a. the Very Best, drop their first official video under the aforementioned moniker. We are talking lo-fi here, camcorders and locals filmed in his hometown Lelongwe, Malawi, as reported by GVB. There are no shortage of smiles here, or people with more rhythm than most of us can boast. What a great song and what a great mood it evokes.

M. Ward released the title track video to his up-coming album Hold Time, dropping Feb. 17 on Merge. The video is mellow, filmed in black and white and a true testament to Matt's musical style. Relax, ride the gondola and sing along. (Video is below, Very Best after the jump.)

THE VERY BEST - "Komphopo"

M. WARD - "Hold Time"

Fight Bite Video - "Swissex Lover" + mp3s

Fight Bite "Swissex Lover" - mp3
Fight Bite "The Accident" - mp3

We've been talking for awhile about one of our favorite new bands of '08, Fight Bite. Coming to us this morning via Stereogum is the new video for "Swissex Lover," one of the best tracks off their album, Emerald Eyes. The band explains the video below:

It was made from layering archival commercials (from IBM etc.) and news reel footage. world war II to cold war era. there's some stop motion claymation in there too. the kind of low budget thing a band might have done when they were out of ideas in the 80's. what B- art projects are made of!

We don't feel like there's a need to make excuses for cheap videos. Musicians these days have little money as is...Don't think anyone would blame them for piecing together archived footage to make another marketing tool, or visual aid to add to their music. We posted it didn't we?

Stereogum Teams with Amazon mp3 Store

dIn a bit of awesome news that we somehow passed over Stereogum has teamed with the Amazon mp3 store to bring great indie rock records to poor people (a.k.a. us) for super discounted prices. This week, it's Guided by Voices Bee Thousand for $3.99. Whatever people say about Stereogum selling out, we call bullshit, because anyway to get great music to people cheaply and legally is cool with us. Not to mention Amazon's mp3 store is much better than iTunes'. Its albums are on average $2 - $3 cheaper and every download comes at the same sound quality as iTunes "Plus" and downloads directly to your iTunes.

Fist pump to Mike Bailey for the heads up. More about Bee Thousand from Stereogum...

From "Hardcore UFO's" through "You're Not An Airplane," Pollard's melodic sense, immediate hooks, and catchy cut-up lyricism coupled with Tobin Sprout & Co's dead-on contributions are uncanny, moving, ecstatic, and ultimately transformative. Flipping between Kinks-esque noise, post-Syd-Barrett nuggets, skeletal psychedelia bursts, cassette-only garage pop, and Who-meets-hiss balladry, Bee Thousand is a rich pop kaleidoscope, a 36-minute patchwork that feels like a Beatles bootleg folding in on itself, or like surfing the radio dial and finding one AM hit after another.

More Overrated Noise Rock In January!

Please file Animal Collective under "Bands Whose Popularity I Can't Comprehend For The Life Of Me." Fresh off their underwhelming and ultimately eardrum-shattering performance at All Points West festival in August, everyone's favorite indie-noise-something-rock outfit is returning in January with a new album called Merriweather Post Pavillion, according to some clever sleuthing via Stereogum and GvB. It follows '07 LP Strawberry Jam and this year's Water Curses EP, and should more-likely-than-not come out on Domino. I gave up pretending to like this band ages ago (or, August 9, if we're getting particular), but they do claim a pretty significant following, so some kids are probably pretty stoked about this one. I just don't get it. To me, I hear loud exercises in self-indulgence. I'll take the Dodos any day.

Tracklisting for Merriweather Post Pavillion:

1 In The Flowers

2 My Girls

3 Also Frightened

4 Summertime Clothes

5 Daily Routine

6 Bluish

7 Guys Eyes

8 Taste

9 Lion In A Coma

10 No More Runnin

11 Brother Sport

(Please direct all the hate to the comments.)

Stark heads to Seattle...

Hey all,
Stark is heading to Seattle, not for musical purposes, but rather to celebrate a wedding. We are hoping to perhaps meet up with a few Kill Rock Stars personnel albeit that may be easier said than done.

Please check back next week for our exclusive Ezra Furman interview. We like him. He is funny. You will soon like him too. Also we will be reviewing the Thao/Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson (MBAR) show at the Bowery next week as well.

Until then, keep your chin up and your head on a swivel.

Here are a few things we came across in this week's Hot Sheets...A.K.A blogs and such we read:

FADER - On the road w/ MBAR

Gorillavsbear - Lykke Li Remix

Brooklyn Vegan - All things Girl Talk

Pitchfork - Conor Oberst Review

Stereogum - Jenny Lewis "Acid Tongue"

Take Away Show w/ Man Man

~Best,
Stark

After the jump.

New Calexico - "Two Silver Trees" - mp3

Calexico - "Two Silver Trees" - mp3
Via Stereogum this morning, a sparse low key affair from this stalwart Southwestern duo. While being a band for hire on numerous (and fantastic) projects such as the I'm Not There soundtrack, multiple collaborations with Sam Beam of Iron and Wine and occasionally Neko Case, Calexico is preparing to release their newest offering Carried to Dust Sept. 9. This is definitely a record I am looking forward to this fall —an album probably best served with a generous helping of Cormac McCarthy novels.

Blogger Buzz: What's Happenin' Around the Blogs

Being that we are in the midst of a somewhat slow album release week (except for Beck), Stark would like to take this time to acknowledge a few happenings/interesting posts around the blogs:

• Pitchfork: "Sufjan, LCD, Newsom, Feist, BSS Inspire Coloring Book"

• Stereogum: "This is Fred Durst 2008"
  

• Poptarts Suck Toasted: "Recommended Release"

• Daytrotter: "The Dodos (video)"

• Stark Online: "Blogger Buzz: What's Happenin' Around the Blogs"

Enjoy.

After the jump.

New Roadside Graves - "Ruby"

The Roadside Graves - "Ruby" mp3
The Roadside Graves are one of the best out of the new crop of "indie" folk/rock bands out there right now. When compared to similar groups such as the Felice Brothers, Cave Singers, and the Avett Brothers, the Roadside Graves songs always win out. Yet, I have to say that when Vince, Tara and I caught them at Trash Bar in Brooklyn last year - they proved one of the most perplexing live acts I've seen in awhile. Hailing from New Jersey, this group is a conglomeration of friends that could not look more disparate. From the 40 something looking bass player, to the 16 something looking keyboardist, they really didn't seem to make sense together. Yet, somehow they produce a fantastically cohesive AM radio sound that centers around the crackly country warble of a lead vocal. For all their odd quirks live, we still love them, and are glad to hear a new track. Thanks to Stereogum for posting this, this morning.
Myspace

Opposites Attract? Johansson and Waits

The computer keyboard seems foreign to me today, whereas I haven't posted in a fortnight or so. Since my last piece on the fizzled Hold Steady show, I have been to Florence and am now taking up residence in Nashville for the summer.

To the business at hand: Scarlett Johansson’s renditions of classic Tom Waits tunes on Anywhere I Lay My Head. I felt obligated to at least mention this unique release from Johansson because everyone else in the industry is doing so. Jon Pareles placed the album on his Times playlist, Stereogum covered it, and Paste Magazine put her on the cover.

Anywhere builds on contradictions. On one hand, you have the beautiful, young actress who starred in The Horse Whisper, then you have Waits -- does he really need explanation? Somehow, Johansson finds a middle ground on the record, making it not prophetically good, but not bad. Pareles praised producer David Steik (TV On The Radio) for the major success of the album.

Johansson finds a comfort zone on songs such as "Falling Down," but her vocal abilities ultimately lack the range needed to fulfill all the raspy, yet tonally-sound nuances of Waits. Give credit where credit is due; Johansson takes risks on this album, as would any artist attempting a Waits compilation. However, the low points on the record are over shadowed by the more fulfilling and developed tunes. It's hard to get Waits right, but any attempt is bold and should be commended.

Listen HERE

INDIANA JONES COUNTDOWN: 4 Days