Straight Outta The Tundra

There are more ideas crammed into the 41 minutes of Max Tundra’s third album than most bands manage in their whole careers. Parallax Error Beheads You, the third Max Tundra LP and his first since 2002’s Mastered By Guy At The Exchange, is a masterpiece of micro-melodies and sound-bytes; a triumph of splicing, dicing and editing.

It’s an intricate mosaic of sounds and styles, some of which you might recognise from the last 30 years of pop, rock, prog, disco, funk, techno, rap, metal and soul, but many of which are completely new: either from a startling recombination of existing genres, or from Max inventing an original one himself. The attention to detail, and the sheer speed at which ideas whizz past you in the mix, will leave you stunned.

“Each song contains many facets and genres, and the starts of songs are often stylistically extremely different to how they each end up, touring via a few styles along the way,” says the man himself, going some way towards explaining why there are multiple, simultaneous or sequential, melodies during each of the 10 tracks on Parallax, and why one song can sometimes sound like seven different bands from totally different worlds playing at once—”Glycaemic Index Blues”, to name but one of the songs on the album, is like Yes playing glitch techno with Pharrell Williams fighting Todd Rundgren at the controls while Green Gartside offers his creamiest falsetto. Just call it cosmic glitch-pop R&B.

What the hell does all that mean? Simply put, Max Tundra makes crazy glitchy, fidgety, soulful stuff that bounces like one of those superballs through genre's and beats. Just check out the Mixtape and you'll see the frenetic pace that Max Tundra keeps. Crazier stuff you are not likely to hear.

Download: Playboy
Download: 30 Minute Mixtape

Spanish Dance Troupe

Spanish Dancer does not play Flamenco music. In fact, Spanish Dancer isn't from anywhere near Spain, but rather Rhode Island. SD is made up of one guy Anthony Ferreira and a warehouse filled with electronics.

If his name sounds familiar that's because Spanish Dancer isn't actually Anthony's first band. He was once part of Providence group A Trillion Barnacle Lapse who released three albums, got some decent press from Pitchfork and did the whole band thing.

As fate would have it, ATBL didn't last so he joined Honeyhander and well that didn't last past one album. That's where Spanish Dancer comes into play. Unlike the noisy dark new wave stomp of the two previous acts the Spanish Dancer material was sorta snarky, self-aware, and maybe more importantly fun while still retaining all the complex spastic freakout moments of both prior bands. Aside from the previously touched up genres of New Wave, Shoegazer, and post-Hardcore, Spanish now was incorporating more lost movements like Freestyle and Space Disco.

Whatever the hell he's influenced by, the results are like nuggets of dancey goodness. The songs are synthed out blasts of pop that are somewhere between Cameo, Herbie Hancock, and Figurine. Spanish Dancer's jumpy beats and totally over the top vocals are quite memerizing.

Download: Hustler
Download: The Bloods

Throw Me The Statue's New EP Will Ya?

Throw MeThe Statues's newest EP, Purpleface, is now available at your favorite retail and digital stores! Previously only available at the band's merch table on tour, the four-song EP is now also ready for those who live very, very far away from Seattle.

Purpleface features three brand new songs - "Ship," "Honey Bee," "That's How You Win" - and a reworking of the Moonbeams cut, "Written In Heart Signs, Faintly." The EP's standout track, "Ship," is an understated yet inventive gem that offers the listener yet another glimpse of band leader Scott Reitherman's prowess and range as a songwriter.

Do you need this in your life? Oh you're damn straight you do! Find it, buy it, cuddle with it, do whatever...just listen to it...lots.

Download: Ship

Ear Pwr Have Future Eyes

Devin Booze and Sarah Reynolds found each other in the spring of 2005 after Sarah became of loyal fan of Devin's party-punk band, Hide and Seek. That summer, the two began meeting up nearly every afternoon for 2-person dance parties. Not long into their courtship, they started improvising new words to their favorite songs, feeding off of each other and mesmerizing their buddies. It soon became evident that they "had the same brain."

Four years later and the band known as Ear Pwr has been officially unleashed upon the earth.
Blistering thumpers with infectious melodies, Disco chants with wild-eyed electro anthems: all part of the unique electronic vision of Ear Pwr. Devin and Sarah, the fiery young duo known as Ear Pwr, have blended together bits of Italo Disco, Baltimore Club, and twee indie pop to create a nuclear party grenade that will blow your mind. Their booty-shaking aesthetic has never sounded more enticing than on their new record Super Animal Brothers III.

If the single, "Future Eyes," is anything like the rest of the album, we're in for a treat. It's as if someone took a pack of introverted, cardigan wearing, Sarah Record fans and made them listen to hours of Crystal Castles. Brainwashed, the kids then began to make music on their own that was was ridiculously sweet and geeky while being dance floor stormers. That's like the best of all possible worlds, if you ask me. I can't wait to hear Super Animal Brothers III.

Download: Future Eyes

Milke Demands Love Get Out Of Their Way

Milke are inspired by the third French wave of Kitsune artists, electro pop, Stuart Price and The DFA, mixed with the pop sensibilities of Eurythmics, The Cure, Talking Heads, Stevie Wonder and Prince. With a KLF approach to creativity (minus the sheep slaying), Milke sing about displacement, mental illness, love and love-lost, obsession and sex. This release comes out on Friendly’s label, Gulp, home of Joe and Will Ask, and New York scream/rap/pop act Black Peter Group.

The duo comprises Andrew Friendly (music) and Ra (vocal, lyrics). Under the producer/DJ moniker of Friendly, Andrew has released acclaimed albums and numerous club tracks including “The Bump and Grind” and “2Black2Gay.” He’s also remixed Justice, We Have Band, The Rivers, INXS, and many more. As with the best dynamics in pop duos, Ra sits at the other end of the musical table. Raised in an Australian hippy commune, his education came from classical and jazz schools. The pair met via Ra’s work on the Black Grass album.

What's this all mean? Absolutely blinding electro pop that's funky and soulful and sounds like someone took the Scissor Sisters and roughed them up a bit. If "Love Get Out Of My Way," doesn't make your booty move then your booty must be dead. Add in an unearthly, vocoded, warped synthed out Designer Drugs remix and you have a single sent from the dance floor gods.

Download: Love Get Out Of My Way
Download: Love Get Out Of My Way (Designer Drugs Remix)

Morsy is Back With Friends...

A little while back I posted a few Morsy tracks here and it got phenomenal reaction judging by the number of referrals I've seen. His Kinks rework is a killer and we all know it. Well, not being one to rest on his laurels, he's back with yet another tune.

This time Morsy has teamed up with Cosmic House heads Koko Dozo to create a vocal house stormer that's an absolute a disco monster. It's got everything that you need: funky guitar loops, wailing vocals, beats that are so hypnotic that your ears won't know what to do.

That being said, Morsy and Koko Dozo are no strangers to each other- Koko Dozo has played live at the monthly Crooked Disco party Morsy throws with partner Kestar. Well they all went into the studio and turned out "The Shine," together.

If that weren't enough...Koko Dozo are also offering up a new original "Gangsta"' that has a Warehouse feel to it with a bit of tribal drums and a whole lot of funk. It's the perfect late night tune to bring you back to the origins of house.

Download: The Shine
Download: Gangsta

Beware of Safety

If you read this blog regularly then you sort of know my feelings on post rock, but the number of bands who actually do a good job at making post rock listenable is slowly growing. You can add to this list LA instrumentalists, Beware of Safety. They sort of take a Los Angeles take on post rock which means there is some god guitar work scattered throughout their songs and it's almost as if they were a metal band w/o a singer.

Following up to their acclaimed debut EP, It Is Curtains, Beware Of Safety unleash their debut album, dogs. As ambitious as it is visceral, as dynamic as it is subtle and as frightening as it is comforting, dogs shows how Beware Of Safety have discovered a sound steeped in psychedelia and speculative exposition.

From the towering "The Supposed Common" [recently featured in Jonathan Dillon's critically acclaimed film Fight Night] to the driving, distorted "Circa," Beware Of Safety's power lie in their keen ability to crescendo and decrescendo at just the right moments. Powerful, epic and beautiful as Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Pelican & Red Sparowes, Beware Of Safety are instrumental rock's new torch bearers.

Download: The Supposed Common (zipped)
Download: Step of Stone (zipped)

Swan Lake & Enemy Mine...Now That's a Movie

That beloved musical group from Canada, Swan Lake, is releasing their newest album Enemy Mine on Jagjaguwar on March 24th, world wide. Those who purchase Enemy Mine through a pre-order program with their local record store or Jagjaguwar will be given a digital download of the album for immediate listening.

Two things you should know right off the bat about all this is 1) No they don't play ballet music by Tchaikovsky and 2) Lou Gosset Jr. does not make an appearance on this record despite the record being named after one of his most famous movies.

Oh and neither does David Bowie but you might think differently after listening to the tune, "Spider." It's a creepy, glammy sort of song that is such a dead ringer for a Bowie outtake that I'm almost convinced it really is. The rest of the record is pretty theatrical as well in an arch sort of over the top kind of way. In other words, Enemy Mine is definitely an intriguing listen.

While Jagjaguwar said that Swan Lake was not going to be touring around the release of Enemy Mine, and the label casually mentioned their preferred bribes (enthusiastic mobs and gold doubloons) might work. Some fans did answer this battle cry, forming an online petition to sway Swan Lake's opinion, saying: We the fans of Swan Lake can no longer remain silent. This petition is our plea to the band, please consider touring! Your fans need you to come to their towns and bestow upon them the great gift of live music. Soon your second record Enemy Mine will be released and now is the time for action. We implore you to truly consider touring to support the new record. Your fans need you!

Wow.

Download: Spanish Gold 2044
Download: A Hand At Dusk
Download: Spider

Mass Games Will Play With Your Head

Mass Games is a slowed down, slightly sinister lo-fi electro pop outfit from Thailand via Brooklyn, utilizing sparse samples pulled from Learn-To-Speak-English tapes. The songs from I Like Classical Music Too are reluctant to cross the indie dance floor but still stand close by - watching, secretly hoping to escape the club on a motorbike, speeding alone through the mountains at night with 808 beats pumping from the ground.

With their name pulled from the infamous North Korean synchronized gymnastics, the debut EP I Like Classical Music Too was produced by “Jagga” aka Joe Weber, the man behind Joseph Francis Machine, Lines of Escape, and Dead Ghosts. A full length album is currently in the works."

What's do Mass Games sound like? Hell they sound like Daleks attacked the BBC Radiophonic Workshop made a right racket and then decided to take over the whole damn BBC and make bizarre tripped out rainbow coloured TV that will give you a headache while entertaining you. (Blipverts anyone??).

Download: Eyes

Watch Zone B:

The Rest As They Say Is History

I don't know a lot about The Rest. But I received an email that contained a link and a blurb that read as such..."After a laborious, fulfilling year and half of writing and recording we (Hamilton, Ontario's The Rest) are gearing up to release our sophomore record Everyone All At Once this April."

That was it...a mysterious band from The Great White North that's about to release an album this spring. So I followed the link, because I like a good mystery, and it was like WHOA. Everyone All At Once is a super moody epic record that's soaring, melancholic at times, theatrical at others. It's warm one minute and chilly the next. It's truly a expansive record that Canada might have difficulty containing...because you know it's such a small country (ha). The record is filled with falsetto vocals that remind me of bands like JJ72 at their quietest or maybe even Geneva a bit mixed with bits of "northwestern indie."

The Rest have done a fabulous job at creating a record that sounds like the end of winter and beginning of spring. Perfect timing then.

Download: Sheep In Wolves Clothing
Download: Phonetically, Phonetically
Download: Apples & Allergies

1990s Resumes

One of the albums I've patiently been waiting for has been the new one from 1990s, Kicks. I loved Cookies quite a bit once I realized that the band was tied to the legendary Yummy Fur and V-Twin. I have yet to get sick of Cookies, so the fact that Kicks is due to be released is like a bonus!

Anyway, the trio that was 1990s gained a cult following with their debut, Cookies. The line up has since changed up a bit -whereas they formerly consisted of 2/3 Yummy Fur alums + 1/3 V Twin alums, the current incarnation of 1990s now features 2/3 of V Twin and 1/3 of Yummy Fur, with Dino Bardot replacing Jamie McMorrow on Bass!

What the hell was I just on about?

To clear up any confusion, 1990s are NOW:Jackie McKeown (vocals on most songs, guitars), Dino Bardot (bass,vocals on two songs), and Michael McGaughrin (drums and vocals on 4 songs).Kicks has references to Mongolian Warlords, Bears, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Baader-Meinhoff and Scientology, yet keeps their two favorite topics (girls and Glasgow) in the lyrical foreground, naturally.

Kicks was recorded at Edwyn Collins' West Heath Yard studio in London and was produced by Bernard Butler. (damn...nice little team)

Download: The Box

The So-So Glo's Head to Jacksosonville

This was originally posted way back in November 2008...but as it would happen, they are coming to Jacksonville THIS SATURDAY (2/21) to ECLIPSE. You should go check them out...seriously.

The SO SO GLOS are four brothers who play the punk rock and roll that they believe in. Originally from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, they now live at the Market Hotel in Bushwick- a space they founded that is both their home and community.

Brews, smokes and music blasting, the J train crushing along the tracks outside, non-stop. That is their music: aggressive, urgent, and immediate- political and poetic because it has to be. But these Brooklyn kids aren’t just touting the same old punk; Graced with electro MPC breaks, surf sounds, gang vox, and a little tambo it sounds fresh. Still though, after the rubble settles and the smoke clears, its unmistakeably punk rock in its spirit.

Download: 99 Degrees (Ninjasonik Remix) ---Via RCRDLBL
Download: Throw Your Hands Up ---Via RCRDLBL

Double Down With Double Dagger

Baltimore trio Double Dagger (Denny Bowen, Bruce Willen, Nolen Strals) are wrapping up production of their first release for Thrill Jockey due out on May 5th. The band has been hard at work recording in the upper reaches of the Current Gallery in Baltimore. Braving freezing temperatures and utilizing a lot of duct tape, extension cords and space heaters to stay warm, the band decided to record the album themselves in order to take their time and make sure they captured the live energy they're known for.

Judging by the picture above they pretty much destroyed the studio they were recording in. After listening to a bunch of tracks that's not to hard to believe. Their songs are shambolic and frenetic with enough energy to solve all our problems. It's crazy noisy bombastic stuff that might just blow your ears clean off.

Until their new album comes out enjoy some older material...

Download: Catalogs
Download: The Psychic
Download: Luxury Condos For The Poor

Here We Go Magic...

To date, Luke Temple has been unconfined by genre. His full-length debut Hold a Match for a Gasoline World presented heartfelt folk tunes and expansive pop numbers filtered through a unique outsider perspective. Last year's follow-up Snowbeast was an avant statement full of interwoven light and dark imagery recorded entirely in his Brooklyn bedroom.

Developed over a two-month period of stream-of-consciousness recording in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Luke's self-titled debut under his new moniker Here We Go Magic is a remarkable departure from his signature singer-songwriter material. Luke recorded the album at home using analog synths, a cassette 4-track, and his trusty SM-57 mic, coloring the sound with warmth and creating textures you want to wrap yourself in.

Judging by single, "Tunnelvision," Luke Temple has made one heck of a record that's far more than just another singer songwriter sort of thing. It sounds as if it's going to be a lush record that just happens to have a bit of acoustics in it with a bit of a worldly vibe. The new Paul Simon? Hmm..maybe.

Download: Tunnelvision

Watch Tunnelvision

It's Never To Late For Christmas Lights

The Christmas Lights is the brainchild of 26 year-old Kenny Tompkins. Tompkins has worked as singer/songwriter and producer for several projects including The Trend and The Royal Army as well as recording and touring as a solo artist.

In 2007 The Christmas Lights released a split with Baltimore-based duo Emil titled 10 Paces. This record was received positively by independent press and fans alike for its mix of 8-bit sugar-pop and experimental noise construction. The recent full-length debut, Walk Like A Human (Pro-Gravity Records/RARC), is a mix of ambiance, harsh distortion, three-part harmony vocals, and odd-yet-dance-friendly time signatures. It was written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Kenny Tompkins at the RARC in Frostburg, Maryland from January to November 2007.

After completing the album, Tompkins invited his younger brother Curt along with friends Derek Shank and Josh Grapes to attempt a live version. The group has played just a handful of shows in its short existence, but has quickly developed an excited and dedicated group of fans.

The Christmas Lights are anything but festive and jolly. Instead they are dark and disturbing but in all the best ways. They're like a creepier Fischerspooner even with the theatrics! The tunes are minimal and weird but they're mind numbingly good and Walk Like A Human is a fantastic listen.

Download: Show Your Teeth
Download: The Water Is Gone, The Fire Has Come

Watch the video for Show Your Teeth:

De Rosa is Da Bomb

For those of us fortunate enough to be acquainted with De Rosa's 2006 debut Mend, the wait for album number two has been arduous and seemingly interminable; thirty months is a long time by anyone’s standards but given their lead singer’s aspirations, it was unlikely that the album was going to be rushed.

Finally complete and packaged with original artwork by Glasgow’s literary titan Alasdair Gray, Prevention builds on the promise of their debut and goes some way towards establishing De Rosa as one of the most accomplished and (dare we say it) cerebral bands writing today. It’s certainly been a long wait, but for many, Prevention will be one of the anticipated releases of 2009.

Prevention is an eclectic record that sounds like a twisted Death Cab For Cutie meeting The Pastels. It's shy indie pop with hints of electronics that come at you from every side and it will charm the socks off of you.

Download: Nocturne For An Absentee

Shortwave Set Gets Set

The Shortwave Set traveled from South East London to California on borrowed air miles, self-belief and the ton of goodwill (generated by their much-loved debut The Debt Collection) to record their self-financed second album with Danger Mouse. There they availed themselves of the string arranging talents of the legendary Van Dyke Parks (Beach Boys legendary collaborator on Smile) and the distinctive viola playing of John Cale (Velvet Underground).

They returned bearing Replica Sun Machine - the psychedelic pop adventure of the year, where acid-bright sunshine casts eerie shadows and illuminates uncomfortable truths. It's an impossible-to-get-out-of-your-head trip and judging by the single, "Harmonica," the album is going to be a laid back spacey odyssey filled with tripped out melodies and far out folk. In other words...blissed out beauty.

Download: Harmonica

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone Returns

From Kraftwerk to Leonard Cohen, The Smiths to Suicide, and Pet Shop Boys to Smog, Chicago’s one-man musical army Owen Ashworth – a.k.a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - has been bracketed with all manner of illustrious names in the course of his eleven year career. But in collecting the 7-inch split-singles and compilation tracks he released from 2004-7 (all but two of them on CD for the first time), Advance Base Battery Life provides compelling evidence of the singular nature of this industrious film-school dropout’s talent.

If 2006’s sumptuously accomplished Etiquette was Casiotone For The Painfully Alone’s The Queen Is Dead, this is his Hatful of Hollow - a selection of formative fragments which add up to an utterly satisfying whole. In expanding his musical palette from minimal battery-powered electronics to include strings, flutes, tabla and pedal-steel, Ashworth has lost none of his miniaturist’s eye for detail. And his forensically acute two and three minute character-studies are all the more poignant for their (relatively) expansive new settings.

Download: Old Panda Days
Download: Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When the Saints Go Marching In)


Watch White Corolla:

Polly Scattergood Scatters Good Tunes

Mute will release Polly Scattergood's self-titled debut album May 19th, 2009. Album single I Hate The Way will be released via Mute on 10" and digital download February 24, 2009. The single includes the exclusive B-side "Poem Song." "I Hate The Way" follows Scattergood's debut single Nitrogen Pink.

Polly Scattergood is a rare talent, a musician who can make the disturbing sound delightful. Built around fractious yet delicate guitar and piano (she plays a stylophone and accordion too), and Scattergood's distinctive voice, the album is produced by Simon Fisher-Turner and Gareth Jones.

She sounds something like Kate Bush meets Kate Nash on hard drugs and could probably kick your ass. Her songs lure you in by sounding fragile, but in all reality are sharper than a wall of razor blades. It's haunting stuff that's pretty damn good...in a psycho sort of way.

Download: Nitrogen Pink
Download: I Hate The Way

Morsy's On Fire!

New York's own, MORSY, founder of the DJ collective NANA CHILL, has gained a worldwide reputation for shaking up the dance floors. His acclaimed remixes and mix tapes bring out constant energy and upbeat party vibes that can be seen in his performances.

Producer by day, DJ by night, MORSY is a non-stop formidable musical fireball
invigorating audiences everywhere. He's been featured in URM, BM Magazine, Rolling Stone and the ever reliable Hype Machine.

If that wasn't enough, his tunes are corkers and you can hear them for yourself below. While I had issues with the fact that he touched a Kinks tune, his re-work won me over with loopy goodness.

Download: On Fire
Download: Jasmine Solano - Coco Puff (Morsy Mix)
Download: The Kinks - You Really Got Me (Morsy Mix)

Dan Black is Back

Dan Black is one bad ass skinny white boy. In his short time around he's done one hell of a job of mashing up Biggie's "Hypnotize," which even seems more relevant now that the movie has come out. For those of you who didn't get to see it here it is...


He's back with a new single called, "Alone," which is a bit lo-budget cool in a Peter Gabriel sort of way and the song is frickin' killer too in a Magnetic Fields on acid sort of way. Check it out here...


Oh and he's even got a new track that's awesome stuff as well. You should probably download it...

Download: I Love Life

We Have Band!

I'm a wee bit late on this one, but welcome to the world of We Have Band. The London-based three-piece that have everything going for them despite having been together for little over a year, not had any releases to their name (yet) and played just 50 live gigs. Described as a ‘disco rock trio’ who ‘wear their influences like a flak jacket’ they are Darren Bancroft (vocals, drums, percussion, sampler), Thomas WP (vocals, guitar, bass, programming) and Dede WP (vocals, percussion, sampler).

Having all originally met at EMI (all three of them were working desk jobs in the HQ), it was just last year that married couple Thomas and Dede informed Darren about the name of a new band they’d created and as Darren says “basically on the strength of the name I was like right I’m in!”

Their sound is catchy, fun, familiar and classic-sounding but also unarguably their own, it’s We Have Band, and that comprises of dark dance rhythms, washy electronic synths, post punk funk bass and individual pop vocals from each member, layered in a way that really makes them sound like nothing else today.

It's good loopy stuff that's a bit dizzying but altogether a lot of fun. Spin yourself in a circle while your listening and the songs make that much more sense. Here's hoping an actual record gets done with the quickness.

Download: OH (DIY Version) Zip File
Download: West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys Cover)

Forever the Sikki Kidz

Sikki Nixx has no recollection of anything before the age of 23 when he woke up in a government facility. After a dangerous and lengthy escape, (think Alias) he went to work as a mercenary overseas for a while. That's where he met Sid Licious, an orphan abandoned by his family at age 2, while he was playing buckets and pots in a crowded plaza in Bangkok for donations.

Sid, as it happened, also worked part time as a moonshine bootlegger and serviced wealthy debutantes for a steep price. Sikki and Sid quickly became good friends because they were both kinda jerks to each other, spent much of their time talking shit to each other, drinking tall cans, and playing golf. Of course they also made music and the two eventually joined forces with one goal in mind: to play a lot of golf...no, wait...complete and total world domination... oh, and to be pretty good DJ's as well.

If you believe that...I've got some beachfront property in Nevada I'd like to sell you. All kidding aside, these two trouble makers crank out some pretty damn fine little tunes. If they get sued by the Sex Pistols or Motley Crue, they'll be super famous and superstar DJ's.

Download: Pornstar (ft. F.E.R.) via Zshare
Download: No Love for Sikki Kidz via Zshare
Download: The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers (Sikki Kidz Remix) via Zshare
Download: Depeche Mode - No Disco (Sikki Kidz Remix) via Zshare
Download: Digitalism - Taken Away (Sikki Kidz Remix) via Zshare
Download: Sikki Kidz Mixtape volume 1 via Zshare

The Golden Bear

Golden Bear have recently completed their latest EP, Everest. To hear Chris, chief spokesman from the band explain, the goal of this EP was to make a record that didn't sound like their previous albums, but rather the energy of their live performances. Chris was driven nuts by the fact that their studio work didn't capture the band in their truest form: live. So when they started to work on Everest.

Here's Chris on the process, "I was a little anxious about being able to approximate the sound of our live show in the first place, but I figured to hell with it-let’s give it a shot. And I’m glad we did. There were no endless nights of playing the same song 150 times, no overscrutinaztion, and in all honesty, no hitches in the plan whatsoever. It was loose, rowdy, and rewarding-just like our shows. After finishing our parts, we brought in a couple of pals to add some sugar (Kullen Fuchs [Ian Moore, Future Clouds & Radar] and Sara Beck [aka Pink Nasty]), got our friend Erik Wofford (who produced our first album, as well as albums by Voxtrot, Explosions In The Sky, and The Black Angels) to mix the songs, and Everest was done and ready to go."

It's a raucous ride through indie rockdom that sounds something like the Unicorns meets Arcade Fire meets Modest Mouse and maybe even Wolf Parade. Honestly though, who cares what bands Golden Bear sounds like. It's just damn good indie rock that you need in your life.

Download: Night Lights
Download: All The Stars

The Sun Rises for Setting Sun

A while back I did a post on Setting Sun and their string laden folky pop. They were compared to The Radar Brothers, Elliott Smith at his darkest and early Nick Drake. I did the post back in May prior to their release on Young Love Record and their national tour that would follow in June. Nearly nine months after that tour, they've just come back from their European tour filled with a renewed sense of energy.

So what did they do? Why they headed into the studio to record. They recorded Tom Petty's, "You Got Lucky," for the latest Buffet Libre DJ's compilation Rewind 2. As Gary Levitt of Setting Sun explains, “I’m so proud that I recorded, mixed, mastered and sent the track off to the Buffet Libre DJ’s in Spain the very next day. We just got back from our European tour on Christmas Eve with a December 27th deadline looming. It was started on Dec 26th and then sent off completed Dec 27th! It was a great exercise in having to let some things go. That’s 24 hours out the door complete! That’s old school style. That’s how records used to be made. Motown baby MOTOWN!!!”

You think he's excited? Check the tune out below and have some bonus ones while your at it! (as someone who hates Tom Petty...I actually really enjoyed the cover)

Download: You Got Lucky
Download: How Long (Remix)
Download: They're Calling