For its fifth album, the Athens-born/Nashville-bred trio decided to eschew extraneous effluvia and do things the old-fashioned way: write some good songs and record ‘em live from the floor.
Flagstaff, AZ isn’t exactly known for its thriving music scene, though somehow DC transplants Wilson Getchell and Robert Keane have managed to make one all their own with Wall-Eyed, a quartet that combines ’90s alternative rock with folk-rock Americana and Southwestern desert mystery for a unique sound that encapsulates the entirety of their vision.
Every time a band releases a new album, it proclaims the new work its best so far. For Buffalo Killers, that claim is absolutely right.
Former members of Los Angeles’ defunct, but beloved, Aberdeen reunite for a new band that continues the jangly indie pop sound while drawing heavily from the ’80s.
Since their blistering debut, This Is What Your Mind Imagines (HHBTM), two years ago, Muuy Biien have honed their craft and expanded their sound while remaining true to their hardcore punk and ambient noise roots.
To fully understand Random Order’s sound, imagine an alternate universe where The Cramps watched James Bond films instead of B-horror movies.
After their startling debut, Light Up Gold, and the puzzling Tally All the Things That You Broke EP that followed, Parquet Courts are back with their second full length Sunbathing Animal.
The Blue Angel Lounge continues to move further away from its psychedelic roots on A Sea of Trees.
Featuring politically-and-socially-heavy lyrics, Lovesick Saints give their listeners enough feedback and distortion to please just about every kind of punk.
Basically I’d rank the songs according to how much of the heavier guitar sound of Belong they jettison, not because I wanted that to happen, but because Berman seems to have needed it.
With the newest folk revival well upon us, it’s rare that any of it is actually good, and it’s even rarer to find it along with the heart and soul of Matt Townsend and The Wonder of the World.
Seth Goodman is unlike anyone else today. His project The Grand Undoing is releasing his new album White Space Flavors and Parties On TV, wherein Goodman combines artists such as David Bowie and The Damned for a truly original and wild ride.
Trouble finds them casting ever further afield from the string band tradition, as well as folding in such previously untested elements as electric guitar and drums.
In short, this is one of 2014’s best albums and perhaps La Sera’s best work yet.
Ready Never’s sound aligns with modern EDM, but their lyrics often slyly subvert everything, even poking fun of those probably dancing along to their own music.
The careful pop production makes this album a much easier listen, and may even distract from what he’s really saying but it’s likely it would have been too heavy of a record without it. It’s heavy stuff, but this is about as honest as it gets these days.
After packing away his longtime project Frank Smith, Austin by way of Boston songwriter A. Sinclair, arrives umarred and anew with Pretty Girls.
Since Calla‘s seemingly indefinite hiatus in 2007, frontman Aurelio Valle dropped off the musical radar, save a few film soundtracks here and there.
On their second release, Brooklyn’s Flutronix push the boundaries of soul music by incorporating elements of jazz, electronic music, hip-hop and funk into their unique vision.
Basquiat is a spiritually and politically charged record, infused with an unparalleled energy courtesy of lead singer Nicholai La Barrie’s poetic delivery verging on hip-hop.
As Grandma Sparrow, Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) explores the fun and silliness of children’s albums through lavish orchestration and sound collage, creating a debut full-length full of smiles, laughter and psychedelia.
Another fine example of China’s ever-growing music scene, Beijing’s Luvplastik, a bass/drums duo comprised of British ex-pats (one of which is Dann Gaymer from GuiGuiSuiSui & the Electric Shadows), deliver a strong debut built on fuzzy ’70s garage rock.
A year after their debut 7”, London’s Cosines release yet another small slab of vinyl that shows the band growing heavier, both sonically and lyrically.
On his first proper full-length debut, Brian Magar (Pyroclastix, Denier, Albatwitch), the sole member of Layr, fuses black doom with his noise roots and stark religious imagery for an epic tome of warfare and decay.
Live from the Scrapheap, an apt title and one that only truly makes sense once the record is fully digested, is just about everything one could dream of for a debut album.
Hailing from South Central Pennsylvania, both Night and Layr create powerful, engaging music the stems from a black metal base, but adds other elements that twist it into something else.
Under the moniker of Cute Heels, Colombian-born Brussels resident, Victor Lenis, releases a thought-provoking debut electronic music album that explores the darker elements of electronic instruments while avoiding the standard 4/4 thump of generic house music.
For its ambitions, it’s an amazingly concise and formulated record. Native America makes the perfect first statement for a band in a city where everyone is fighting to make their own mark.
Lost Colony manages to tap into that intoxicating East Nashville ardor, a place you never expect to find yourself, but once you’re there, you never want to leave.
After eight years of existence, New York City’s largest electronic music showcase, Warper Party at The Delancy, finally releases its first collection of music from artists associated with the event.
For her fifth offering, Pantaleimon, aka Andria Degens, delivers nine songs of dark, dreamy psychedelia with the help of co-producer and former Bad Seed, Hugo Race.
On their debut EP, The Jungle sounds as if you played Prince at one end of a long wind tunnel and listened to it from the other end, hearing a dreamy, altered recreation.
On 73, Falbo sounds like a kid in a candy store grabbing and diving head first into any style that interests him. He is such an exciting musician, it was enough to grab bring famed-Dylan producer Bob Johnston out of retirement to produce this record.
This is a great EP, and it’ll fit whatever mood your currently in, whether you’re looking for something only to put on in the background, or something you want to settle down with and let it move you
Ten years and four albums in, they’re still bringing 1966 red hots kicking into our era and making us beg for more.
Sometimes, you should never find out the influences of a band you really like, as with Wetwood Smokes’, being a cross between AWOLNATION and Mumford & Sons, but they’ve jumbled this all up and have created something fresh and new.
A dance duo influenced by Daft Punk, Tachyon craft interesting, if a little oddball, grooves, interwoven with experimentation and the unexpected.
Record Store Day just got a lot more exciting with this double vinyl package from Northern Spy documenting the first ever performance of J. Spaceman (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized) and Kid Millions (Oneida) as a duo.
Notta Comet has so much music in them I doubt that many could even survive a full length from this disgustingly talented new band.
A truly and authentically fucked up album with stunning artwork by monsters of the considerable Quebec psych/garage/punk/whatevs scene that lingers in the mind’s ear like it’s been branded there.
Turkey’s Ekin Fil, aka Ekin Üzeltüzenci, has recorded since at least 2008, though her tracks are filled with an eternity of mystery that could only come from a country so steeped in civilization’s history.
In a celebratory merging of the East and West Coasts, two veterans of avant-garde music collaborate for a Record Store Day 7” that’s sure to get all salivatory juices running.
Books on Fate is the solo project of Adam Dishart, heavily and proudly influenced by 80s post-punk and guitar pop like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, and most obviously, The Smiths.
The crown jewel of Legacy’s 2014 Record Store Day offerings is a 50th anniversary edition of “The Pink Panther – Music from the Film Score Composed and Conducted by Henry Mancini.” A better marriage of quirky-yet-stylish music and popular film is hard to imagine.
Paul Mill‘s ultra-rare 2009 debut album as The Lord finally sees the light of day again as yet another ultra-rare release from the premiere English noise label, Exotic Pylon.
Maryland trio, Trans Am, embark on their tenth studio album, aptly titled Volume X.
Cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer/persussionist Chad Taylor team up once again for an album that uses jazz to deconstruct modern music.
So many of these songs sound like unearthed treasures from classic rock’s greatest bands, making Breathe Air a fantastic album for anyone unafraid to let loose and get their Dad Rock on.
This gripping, atmospheric Paris quartet claims to be inspired by UK Britpop and the NYC music scene, and this debut five-song EP backs up those assertions.
