It's An Aeroplane Pageant

On the heels of completing their "Invisible Tour", New York City's indie surrealists Aeroplane Pageant are preparing the release of their sophomore full-length Even The Kids Don't Believe Me, out June 9 on Stormy Ice Records.

Sounding like an indie pop dream come true, the band's latest single "Stars Still Pretty," sounds a bit like Modest Mouse if they dressed up in outfits like Of Montreal and came from New York. Confused? You should be because Aeroplane Pageant are a grandiose mixture of all sorts of influences that sound like a pixie stick induced sugar rush. It's sweeping pop that's quirky and even has a beat you can dance to. Summer anthem? Could very well be.

As for the album, Even The Kids Don't Believe Me, it's American-made, barely punk, with some last-minute domestic surrealism. Even the Kids Don't Believe Me was initiated in a winter-rental beach house on Long Island. From there the compiled audio and other non-musical elements were transferred over to Treefort Studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn where Shane Patrick Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Jim Jarmusch, White Stripes) could gloss, pry, and/or add to the standing material. With the release of Even the Kids Don't Believe Me this summer, the group continues their march towards obvious superstardom and all are encouraged to sing along the way.

Help them on their quest and pick up the album when it comes out in two weeks (June 9th). In the meantime download the single and skip to the beat!

Download: Stars Still Pretty

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

Quick...Venice Is Sinking!

Venice is Sinking plays orchestral pop, that's lush, rather expansive, and absolutely adorable. Founded in Athens, GA in 2003, this five-piece outfit eschews facile categorization. Its sound is familiar but hard to pin down, rooted in cinematic arrangements, subtle genre tweaks, and clear, ringing harmonies. The band’s 2006 debut LP, Sorry About The Flowers, gained national attention for the crystalline male/female vocals of singers Daniel Lawson and Karolyn Troupe and for Troupe’s deft layering of her instrument of choice, the viola, which makes few appearances in rock history.

The new album, AZAR, finds Venice is Sinking widening its palette and deepening its focus, tackling the idea of location’s ability to influence our lives. Growing musically since the band’s debut, the group, challenged by engineer Scott Solter (Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, Pattern is Movement), shed some of their past influences and started from scratch. As a result, AZAR is a dynamic work of beauty and ambition: the songs are meticulous, vertical creations, tackling tiny, specific moments and exploding them outward. It's a beautiful effort and when that viola chimes in it's pop heaven. Orchestrated chamber pop hasn't sounded this good in a long time.

Download: Ryan's Song

It's A Block of Yellow

A Block of Yellow began when the dual dueling Vox & Guitar boys, Alex Whalley and Anthony Nastasi, wanted to get their crafty song-craft beat-powered and bassified in truly beautiful fashion. Recruitment of Dan Tomas on bass line creating bass and Rich Baker on beat creating drums followed and rounded out the quartet.

Conceived under the influence of The Kinks, The Clash, and The Stone Roses, the glorious BritPop sounds of A Block of Yellow certainly work wonders on tired and lonely ears. It's like listening to old Of Montreal in a fist fight with The Kinks doing, "Victoria." It's jangly, slightly twee and has a 60's feel to it. In other words...better pop you are unlikely to find.

Their album Do I Do was recorded and produced by Don Kerr of Rheostatics and Ron Sexsmith fame over two years of hot summers and cold winters in Toronto, Canada.

Download: Do I Do
Download: You Shook My Head
Download: Are You Sure

Dancer Vs. Politician Isn't Even Close

Dancer Vs. Politician, the musical project of German native Sanni Baumgaertner, has recently released A City Half Lost. Featuring the accordion, guitar, musical saw, and lyrics in both German and English the album is reminiscent of old Sarah Records or old Summershine twee pop if it were sung in German.

Produced by Matt Yelton (The Pixies, Frank Black), Andy Baker (The Glands, Azure Ray, Shannon Wright), and Sanni herself, A City Half-Lost features a number of Athens and Berlin musicians. Including members of Phosphorescent, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Glands, and Five-Eight, it was recorded over a period of two years in Athens, Georgia, and Berlin, Germany.

After traveling back and forth for the last three years and playing shows in the US and Germany, Dancer Vs. Politician brings a three-piece backing band, featuring keyboards, samples, glockenspiel, viola, drums, and bass on A City Half Lost.

Download: Mach Dich Los
Download: Justin Fairborn

Absentee Counts...Album Released

This write up is short and sweet, because well...I already wrote about Absentee back in August. But Absentee released its new album, Victory Shorts, two weeks ago here in the United States of America on label Memphis Industries (The Go! Team, The Pipettes, The Ruby Suns, and more) and since it's frickin' awesome they deserved a second go-round.

Tackling themes of premature marriage proposals, adultery, lost property, love, and broken crockery, Absentee provide the soundtrack for every lost soul who took a wrong turn whilst looking for the right one.

Born to the sounds of Barry Manilow and The Carpenters, raised on romantic comedies, and schooled in failed love and misfiring lust… Absentee emerge well-versed in the rigours of romance with their finest album to date, Victory Shorts.

Download: Bitchstealer
Download: They Do It These Days

What The Heck Is A Fol Chen?

"You know that mysterious black object that the creepy family is staring at on the cover of Led Zeppelin's "Presence" album? Fol Chen sound like that. But we don't sound like Led Zeppelin. (We actually do a little.) Instead, we sound like Prince with Amon Duul II and a children's religious revival, not to mention Hot Chip, Pink Floyd, Gwen Stefani, Pere Ubu, Danielson Famile, Scritti Politti, Boards of Canada, The Blow, and Pulp. (Mostly.) We are using secret powers and the guidance of legendary DJ Donna Donna to combat our nemesis, John Shade. We are cryptic and joyful and we would like you to dance."

I'm not really sure what the heck Fol Chen are on about up there, but their single Cable TV is an addictive St. Etienne blast of retro pop cool that sounds like it's more from 90's London than Los Angeles.

Their album, John Shade, Your Fortune's Made comes out on Asthmatic Kitty on February 3rd of next year, and if the single is any indication it's going to be a kitschy cool retro indie pop dance masterpiece. Until then try to figure out what the heck a Fol Chen is and download their single.

Download: Cable TV

the Legend of The Happy Hollows

The Happy Hollows is, put simply, transformative. That is, the young Los Angeles trio’s infectious and amorphous sound is one that immediately sticks upon first listen, evoking hints of bands that listeners remember not for the scene that launched them nor the trends of the era, but for the moment at which they first heard its music. Vocalist/guitarist Sarah Negahdari wields ominous riffs and finger-tapped arpeggios with skill reminiscent of Mary Timony of Helium while simultaneously singing and wailing like a hyper hybrid of Debbie Harry, Kim Deal and Karen O. Meanwhile, the agile rhythm section of Charles Mahoney (bass/vocals) and Chris Hernandez (drums) vault and lunge with precision.

The Happy Hollows’ raucous and irreverent noisy-pop sound is influenced by genres as disparate as 90’s college rock, Broadway show-tunes, garage punk, and 80’s pop. The band combines innovative song structures, surreal lyrics, and fiercely adept instrumentation to recreate reality into a jagged panorama of vibrant, kaleidoscopic collage.

Three years into its existence, The Happy Hollows have put forth Imaginary, an EP that is an amalgamation of contemporary alt-rock, distorted atonality, and exuberant yelp. Produced by David Newton (founding member of C-86 legends The Mighty Lemon Drops and producer of The Little Ones), Imaginary articulates the band’s inherent magic.

Download: Lieutenant
Download: Tambourine

If It's Fall It Must Be Twee

Screens is the name of the Chop Chop’s new album. Like its predecessor, the songs combine pop, rock, and electronica, with influences ranging from the 1930s to the Bee Gees to Run DMC, and somehow sound ridiculously huggable.

This time around the band used quaintly analog instruments like the French horn, keymonica, and a toy Zylophone have been tossed into the mix alongside cranky, craggy digital synthesizers and electric guitars. The result is a record that will make you laugh, will make you cry, will make you dance, and it will haunt you and mysteriously force its way to the beginning of your iPod shuffle queue.

Screens is the sound of the seasons changing from summer to fall and it's sugary sweet little songs will warm the cockles of your heart. After hearing Chop Chop's record I've come to the conclusion that not only is 2008 the Summer of Twee, but it's well on the way to becoming the Fall of Twee as well.

Download: Northern Armies
Download: C Train David

We're Listing To The Left

Listing Ship invites you to explore A Hull Full Of Oil and Bone, their self-released, nautically-inspired, fourth full length album. This reinterpretation of the classic country song and folk ballad adds violins, violas, 10 string guitars, banjos, the vibraphone, and 3 part harmonies to craft songs of war, government corruption and love so moving even whale hunting seems relevant.

Founders Lyman Chaffee and Heather Lockie (known a decade ago as Leather Hyman) recruited Shawn Lockie, Julie Carpenter, Laura Steenberge, Michael Whitmore, and Kyle C. Kyle to collectively share the stage and tour Italy earlier this year.

They have played with Low, Pedro the Lion, Lou Barlow, Imaad Wasif, DOS (Mike Watt, Kira Roessler) and Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers), and cite influences as diverse as Johnny Cash, the “presence of sun” and Abba for this record.

A Hull Of Oil and Bone lands October 14th and trust me as someone who generally hates anything too folky, this is quite enjoyable. In fact, I would almost say that Listing Ship hovers more around twee territory then the folky wasteland I dread. Theatrical, dusty and dear, Listing Ship are a fascinating band.

Download: Depression
Download: Voice of the Future

What's That? More Twee?

Soda Fountain Rag fits in amongst the true spirit of indie pop; they are uplifting and write joyous music with sublimely subversive lyrics.

Soda Fountain Rag is 25 year-old subversive genius Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl, a one-woman indie-pop phenomenon from Bergen in Norway. In 2007, Soda Fountain Rag released a number of sold-out DIY EPs in the US (Cloudberry Records) and Europe, which quite charmingly introduced her unique take on 21st century pop.

An anti-folk Nico fronting a garage Belle and Sebastian hybrid, she established herself as a compelling indie-pop heroine. In a sense imagine if Isobel was a bit less twee and a bit more angry and you kind of have what Soda Fountain Rag is all about

Her latest LP, It’s Rag Time, is released September 30th on Yesboyicecream!

Download: Angry Girl
Download: Don't Kill The Clowns

This Thursday (August 21st) at POP! at Eclipse

It's been a crazy week this week. Fay has or will literally covered every inch of this state with a blanket of rain. It's nuts.

Rain or not Eclipse will be open tomorrow night and we've got a double whammy of a show for everyone that comes out. Straight from Manchester UK comes the punka pop power of Hotpants Romance and from Athens, GA comes a crazy two piece band called Cars Can Be Blue. Of course I'll be spinning the hits before, between, and after the bands.

In addition to all that, we've got Darker My Love CD giveaways AND we're going to have a puzzle putting together contest for a bar tab!

Sounds like a Hurricane Party to me...ok Tropical Storm Party.

Hope to see you out!

Download: Cars Can Be Blue - I Used To Think
Download: Cars Can Be Blue - I Hate You (Studio Outtake)

Twee POP! Forever

caUSE co-MOTION! have spent the last three years releasing a series of increasingly rad singles on What's Yr Rupture?, Cape Shok, Can't Cope and finally Slumberland. Their sound is a blazing chaos of jangle, clatter, and thump - busted strings and broken hearts. Hummable tunes to scratch that TVPs/Pastels/Comet Gain itch, with more than a dash of 14 Iced Bears and Desperate Bicycles in theretoo.

Using reverb as a weapon, caUSE co-MOTION! have honed their hyperactive sound into a formidable DIY pop lexicon. Dig their new language.

Slumberland is very happy to bring you It's Time!, a compilation of all of these fine singles. The fourteen songs race by in barely over twenty minutes, the compressed rush of melody, tunes and crash-bang energy perfectly mirroring the hormonal frenzy of adolescence and young adulthood. The eagerness to COMMUNICATE, if only for two minutes at a time. Classics like "This Time Next Year" and "Take A Look" have become mixtape staples, and are joined by more recent missives like "Say What You Feel" and "Cry For Attention" in the canon of crash-pop.

Download: I Lie Awake

Can't Stop the Twee POP!

As recounted in songs by Comet Gain and Walker Kong, the Vivian girls are the seven sisters who featured in Henry Darger's posthumously published fantasy epic, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. They've also been paid tribute by everyone from poet John Ashberry to Sufjan Stevens, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Camper Van Beethoven, F***ed Up, the Residents' Snakefinger, and ex-Maniac Natalie Merchant. And now by Brooklyn noise-pop band the Vivian Girls.

With their debut 7" on their very own Plays With Dolls Records already sending out waves of panic and adoration to the outer limits of the underground pop contingent, they have become the newest breakout sirens of the New York loft-pop brigade. Within seconds of hearing their seductive three-part vocal harmonies lushly interwoven with chest-pounding rhythms of beautiful feedback, it's obvious that their songs are hard to resist, especially if you find yourself keen on the mid-80s noise pop trifecta of Jesus And The Mary Chain, The Vaselines and the Shop Assistants.The Vivian Girls self-titled debut album appeared recently on Mauled By Tigers records in a vinyl-only edition of 500 which sold out before the band had completed their recent three week US tour. In The Red is now proud to bring you the re-release of this essential pop platter in both vinyl and compact disc formats. Swirling noise topped with sweetly angelic vocals is practically a can't-miss concoction, so expect your fruity neighbors and your attention-starved friends to chime in with unabashed praise when you spin this record.

The re-release of the Vivian Girls album will be preceded by a seven inch single with two exclusive songs. The re-release will be followed by much touring of the US and Europe.

Download: Where Do You Run To

Even More Twee.

Not many bands can say they have put out 12 albums, much less a twee indie rock band but that's exactly what Super XX Man has done since their inception in the 90's.

After 13 years writing, recording, and producing, Scott Garred aka Super XX Man, has cultivated a mildly edgy modern rock sound in the new release Volume XII: There’ll Be Diamonds. Previous releases have garnered acclaim from everywhere, even the likes of Bob Boilen, host of All Songs Considered (“If we’re going to choose ten songs every week, let it be Super XX Man”).

The bands songs are marked by washes of feedback, dark atmospherics and pointillist lyrics that chronicle the lives of the people Garred works with at the Oregon State Hospital, the oldest psychiatric institution in his home state. Super XX Man has been through many changes since the beginning but none as dramatic and exciting as what can be heard on Volume XII: There’ll Be Diamonds. It is a difference that both long-time fans and new listeners will surely welcome with open arms, sharing a long embrace with Garred’s musical vision.

Download: Medication

The Summer of Twee presses on!

This Is Ivy League is a bit of an alter identity for it's members. You see, the two members of This Is Ivy League, Alex Suarez and Ryland Blackinton, have a day job with super emo stars Cobra Starship. When they're not receiving 10,000,000 Myspace plays on their page, they're not holed up somewhere not playing with their hair, but instead writing pop music that would make most emo kids question why they're hung up on being so miserable.

This Is Ivy League's album, This Is Ivy League is a masterful whirl of sugary twee pop perfection. It's as if Alex and Ryland were possessed by an AM Radio and forced to write jangly pop ditties about love and erm the weather. About the easiest comparison would be to say This Is Ivy League sounds as though Belle and Sebastian had American accents, listened to a lot of Matinee Records, and figured that every song must be happy.

The eleven songs on This Is Ivy League are just about perfect in every way and sound as if they were hidden away in an attic for 30 years and found by the band purely by accident. The first three songs alone are so incredibly good that they could very well be singles of the year; if it were 1974 they would be giving the Carpenters a run for their money.

Truly the definition of pop perfection, This Is Ivy League is a stunning record of happy go lucky music that's in such a good mood, it's infectious. The songs on This Is Ivy League are crisp and springy and overjoyed that you're listening to them and after one listen you'll find yourself just as elated.

They might be emo stars during the day, but you get the sense after listening to This Is Ivy League that the members of This Is Ivy League truly love making music of this nature far more than they do for their day job. Whether they do or don't is unknown but here's hoping that they continue to make records as This Is Ivy League for many years.

Download: The Richest Kids
Download: London Bridges
Download: You Me and the Moon (Magnetic Fields cover)

Always In The Mood

The Mood was first formed in late 2005 in Florida by singer/songwriter Marco Argiro. After relocating to NYC in 2006, Marco joined forces with his cousin Corinne Callen and began working on material with longtime friend, Kenton Langstroth. The band released their Two Night Stand EP on vinyl in July 2006.

Two years later, they're on their second CD and it's a doozy. Called, Synaethesia, it's the sort of record that has Summer written all over it. It's a pogotastic, power pop treat that's slightly twee and ridiculously addictive, it's the sort of thing that could make even the angriest hardcore kid crack a smile.

It's hard to believe that Synaethesia is from a New York band because The Mood sound so UN-New York. I mean when you think of shiny sunny jangly pop you don't think of NYC. It must be a shock to unsuspecting New Yorkers that this band is just so damn upbeat.

Check them out for yourself and get in the erm...mood. (I HAD to write that)

Download: Masquerade
Download: Eskimo Scientist

Take A Bath

The Boy Bathing is an independent rock band from New York City (yet another one). Their music focuses on prolific lyricism, extravagant arrangements and dramatic live performances. The band is fundamentally comprised of four members who use a variety of sounds to create micro-worlds out of the story or imagery of each song. Their first full-length record, A Fire To Make Preparations, is releasing this Summer!

Judging by the two tracks below it's going to be a fantastic record. It's kind of strummy, twee, ethereal and spacey with just enough of a pop sensibility to allow them to eat your brain away after a couple of listens.

If you ever loved a Matinee or March record you'll love The Boy Bathing. The Summer of Twee continues!

Download: The Beaches Meet The Sea
Download: A Fire

Summer of Twee Continues!

Coke-and-Spiriters, the second album from New York’s Dream Bitches, is yet another record from the Summer of Twee! Packed with snarling pop anthems and hyper-literate acoustic ballads, this concise collection captures the Bitches at their most vibrant and volatile. Yoko Kikuchi and Ann Zakaluk, friends and collaborators since their New York City tween years, began the group as a duo in 2003, each fresh out of art school. By the time their first album, Sanfransisters, was released by Olive Juice Music in early 2005, Yoko and Ann had recruited a backing band that would become an integral part of their sound and style. A playful folk-pop affair, Sanfransisters boasted jangly guitars, catchy choruses, and wry lyrics in the wordy tradition of anti-folkies Kimya Dawson (K) and Jeffrey Lewis (Rough Trade).

Dream Bitches’ sophomore release finds the now five-piece band sporting songs with bigger hooks and biting, schizophrenic subject matter. Where Sanfransisters celebrated friendship, the relationships chronicled on Coke-and-Spiriters are beyond dysfunctional. Despite the misanthropic lyrics, the music is far from introverted. Dream Bitches’ sound has expanded tremendously since their last record – it’s bigger, brighter, and bolder than before, but still rather twee in that K Records/Up Records sort of way. Think of Little Red Car Wreck meets the Breeders.

Coke-and-Spiriters was recorded by Mark Ospovat at Emandee Studios (CocoRosie, Wooden Wand) in Brooklyn, NY, and produced by Casey Holford (Cheese on Bread, Daouets). The record is out now on New York’s Recommended If You Like Records and the band will play select dates throughout the United States soon, hopefully Florida is in their somewhat immediate future.

Download: Bad Luck Bill
Download: Mother's Day
Download: Me and the Major (B&S cover!!)

Summer of Twee!

The Fairline Parkway's Zachary Okun and Raj Gadhia met in a quiet summer of college unemployment. Raj recognized Zach as the guy in the back of the dusty university anthropology lab who diligently slept through monkey documentaries, waking from deep sleep only to angrily protest discernible differences in the skull specimens forced upon the class every week. In this manner things came to a head and they were graduated, just as they decided to have a good run at actually thinking. Reeling in denial, the two began recording together in 2002. They were promptly kidnapped by an enthusiastic fan and ushered into a studio. Shortly after, their self titled debut full-length emerged.

The wind blew Zach west to Arizona, then Portland OR to work as a studio engineer. Raj found himself earning his stripes and making marks with Roofwalkers (formerly Pagoda) in Washington DC, Zach splitting his time between Antlerand (Sound Family), the Kingdom (Arena Rock), and the Minders (Future Farmer) in Portland. Meanwhile, someone left the mic on in the hall while old friends (Ben Licciardi), new neighbors (Krista & Elmer Sharp), and evening guests arrived at the door. Before they knew it, the parlor was full of sound, the tape ran out, and The Fairline Parkway's sophomore effort, A Memory of Open Spaces, delivered itself in 2007. The band made an appearance at SXSW and the buzz has begun. So put your ear to the glass and listen close.

Check out the video and single below which are so Twee it hurts. The tune itself reminds me of Beulah at their best and has summer single written all over it. If the album is half as good as this single we could have the indie pop album of the year on our hands!



Download: Westward Bound