New Single from POND - "Moth Wings"

We've been hearing about Australia's very own POND for some time now. They just released "Moth Wings," the second single from their upcoming record, Beard, Wives, Denim out March 6 on Modular Recordings. Dig it above. Has some balls eh?

New Strand Of Oaks- "End In Flames" mp3

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Strand Of Oaks: "End In Flames"

We've got a MUST LISTEN this morning courtesy of Strand Of Oaks, the nom de guerre of Pennsylvania Hebrew Dayschool teacher Timothy Showalter. "End In Flames" is a pensive, sometimes heartbreaking lament on years lost to love, to age and to tragedy, with an enchanting mandolin line meant to tug whatever innocence is left back into Showalter's life. It's the incredible lead track to the forthcoming Leave Ruin, which hits stores on Tuesday via La Societe Expeditionnaire.

In recent years, Showalter's been through a trying break-up, a fire that saw his house burn down and destroy all his possessions, and a subsequent bout with homelessness. Like all great art, though, that difficult stretch led to an intensely therapeutic, ultimately triumphant album in Leave Ruin. Showalter's wavering voice recalls Neil Young and Ryan Adams, themselves no strangers to a heart-on-sleeve mentality and a willingness to let vulnerability crack through their music. 

Download "End In Flames" above, repeat it incessantly like we have this morning, and order Leave Ruin at La Soc's online store. 

New Darren Keen - "Good People Like You," "Hot Air Balloon"

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Darren Keen: "Good People Like You"

Darren Keen: Hot Air Balloon"

The obviously great looking man above is Darren Keen, and no, he isn't homeless. But he is a working musician, so actually, homelessness wasn't too bad of an assumption to have made. He's releasing a fantastic new record on Slumberparty Records tomorrow called, appropriately enough, Slumberparty Record. It's 24 minutes in length, and at 13 tracks, that means the average song length is 1.75 minutes. See? I can do math. (Actually, I stole that from his Myspace. Shame.) If you dig bedroom projects with casio keyboards and unabashed out-of-tune vocals a la Ben Gibbard's All-Time Quarterback, you'll love this. Really. It's brisk, candid and lots of fun. Here's what Keen had to say about the project:

The point. Everyone wants everyone to get to the point. I guess that's what I'm trying to do with my music. I've wanted to make a "nice" album for a long time, but, my other bands are all strkingly un-"nice" sounding. The point was at first to please the ear, but that only led to the realization that my voice will never "please" any "ears". The point for me was to write pop gems that didn't drag on. One verse, one chorus, maybe two if that's what it took to get the point across, that's the point. Postmodern huh? My name is Darren and I made "Slumberparty Record" in my bedroom all by myself. I'm terrible at the drums so I used a $5 toy keyboard rhythm section. This was really fun to make, and I hope you enjoy listening to it. You'll never get to heaven if you're scared of getting high.

Please take the two mp3s above, and if you dig, buy the album from Slumberparty, a tiny, friendly label from Omaha distributed by (who else?) Saddle Creek. Sadly, mustache rides are not included.