Indie Shuffle » lizbrown

Warpaint – The Fool

lizbrown — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:35:36 +0000

Sounds like: Blonde Redhead, Mazzy Star, The xx, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bat for Lashes

Song: Warpaint - Undertow [download here]

What's so good?

Warpaint is probably the band you’d listen to stoned at your séance. Similarly, you may put them on as background sound while tripping acid in the forest, or perhaps to set the mood for a romantic dinner. Think of them as a bottle of scotch – best after hours and appropriate for most (alternative) occasions.

The all-girl quartet from L.A. started garnering local attention in 2008, following the release of their EP, Exquisite Corpse. Aside from some fine-tuning, more fans, and the replacement of then-drummer Shannyn Sossamon with Australian import Stella Mozgawa, pretty much everything has remained the same. With the stir from that same momentum continuing to build, and after supporting act spots on recent tours with The xx and Beach Fossils (among others), Warpaint’s much anticipated new album The Fool solidifies these sistas as more than just another name on your indie playlist.

The Fool plays like a veritable intermingling of everything streamed, pressed, played, and promoted over the past months. On each of The Fool’s 11 tracks there are traces of punk, shoegaze, psychedelics, and folk bleeding through the magical mouths of Warpaint’s ladies – and the most enticing part is that Warpaint, seemingly, takes cues from no one but themselves.

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1. Original post: Warpaint – The Fool

2. Posted in: female vocalist, folk, psychedelic, shoegaze, the xx

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Y La Bamba – Lupon

lizbrown — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:20:36 +0000

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Sounds like: Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, Beach House, Au Revoir Simone

Song: Y La Bamba - Juniper [download here]

What's so good?

Y La Bamba’s sophomore album Lupon is superlative for the enchanting October vibe. It is captivating, magical, at times eerie, haunting, and most other adjectives that are dead ringers for inducing the energy of autumn.

Lupon’s mystic aura was no doubt cultivated during frontwoman Luz Elena Mendoza’s childhood — the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Mendoza grew up in California’s San Joaquin Valley listening to Mexican folks songs. Mendoza now resides in Portland, OR with other Bamba bandmates whose recently released album (even though it was recorded two years ago) plays like a love song to the supernatural.

The album, produced by The Decemerists’ Chris Funk, evokes the kind of energy you’d imagine would stir when running (flying) through a forest… or playing a Ouija board. The first song, “Monster,” is a bit dull and errs on odd, but Lupon picks up with “November” and “Soy Captain.” Both are velvety and ethereal, with soft melodies and Mendoza’s angelic voice in reign. The album carries on as such and then we arrive at “Juniper,” which is (for lack of a more original word) beautiful.

Lupon features four songs from Y La Bamba’s debut album Alida St. – “Fasting in San Francisco,” “Isla De Hierva Buena,” “Festival of Panic” and “Winter’s Skin” – reworked to remain consistent with Lupon’s sound.

Press play – your next séance will thank you.

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1. Original post: Y La Bamba – Lupon

2. Posted in: folk, folk-rock, beach house, joanna newsom, y la bamba

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Parlovr – Hell, Heaven

lizbrown — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:01:09 +0000

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Song: Parlovr - Hell Heaven [download here]

What's so good?

For insight into the brand of music bred by growing up in the Middle East, look no further than the band Parlovr whose vocalist and keyboardist Alex Cooper spent his teenage years in Saudi Arabia. The collective band, namely Alex, Jeremy and Lois, now live in Montreal and are set to release their Hell/Heaven/Big/Love EP October 19.

“Hell, Heaven” is the first track on their EP and simply put, it’s worship worthy rock; your greasy, gas station, biker anthem. It’s gritty and dirty and beautifully rash. True to form, the song was spawned by memories of some chick Alex met while living in Saudi. Nothing wrong with getting your knacks from the ladies.

Oh, and for most of you sinking your teeth into your bottom lip to make that v work-save your rabbit face, Parlovr is pronounced Parlour.

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1. Original post: Parlovr – Hell, Heaven

2. Posted in: indie rock, rock

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Tegan and Sara – Home Recordings

lizbrown — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:50:27 +0000

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Sounds like: Rilo Kiley, Land of Talk, Jenny Lewis, The Watson Twins

Song: Tegan and Sara - Back In Your Head [download here]

What's so good?

Identical indie sisters Tegan and Sara recently recently released The Complete Recollection (1999-2010), a vinyl box set inclusive of seven albums, 13 videos, two documentaries and Home Recordings – a bonus album featuring 9 demo tracks from So Jealous (2004), The Con (2007), and Sainthood (2009).

Home Recordings effectively doubles as your “best of Tegan and Sara” playlist. The first three tracks, “Walking With A Ghost” – later covered by The White Stripes on their EP Walking With A Ghost, “Fix You Up,” and “Where Does the Good Go” are off of their third album, So Jealous, which solidified them as two chicks offering more than just shrill voices.

Songs four (“Back In Your Head”) and five (“Dark Come Soon”) are off The Con, a more emotionally-fueled album and probably the most unanimously acclaimed. “Back In Your Head” features Chris Wall and Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie as well as founding member and former bassist of Weezer, Matt Sharp. Lyrics from these songs capture polar moods (“I’m not unfaithful but I’ll stray,” “remember when I was sweet and unexplainable, nothing like this person unloveable”and “hold out for the ones you know will love you”) emanating from both sisters at the time the album was recorded.

With four tracks on Home Recordings, Sainthood (2009) is the most heavily represented. “Red Belt,” “Sentimental Tune,” “The Ocean” and “Northshore” all aim to capture the theme of that album – obsession with romantic ideals.

All songs showcase their emotive, animated tendencies with headstrong lyrics, soft melodies, and an increasingly polished and spunky sound.

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1. Original post: Tegan and Sara – Home Recordings

2. Posted in: indie pop, folk, indie, folk-rock, alternative

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Tired Pony – The Place We Ran From

lizbrown — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 19:03:13 +0000

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Sounds like: Snow Patrol, Keane, Coldplay

Song: Tired Pony - Point Me At Lost Islands [download here]

What's so good?

For his new project called Tired Pony, Snow Patrol’s frontman Gary Lightbody put together the makings for quite a hardy stew. Main ingredients are as follows: Peter Buck (R.E.M.’s guitarist), Richard Colburn (Belle & Sebastian’s drummer), Scott McCaughey (R.E.M.), Iain Archer (Snow Patrol) and Jacknife Lee, who produced the whole thing. Adding spikes in flavor, Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward and Editors’ Tom Smith drop in. The group got together in Portland, OR this past January to record what ended up being ten songs for the album The Place We Ran From, released on 9/28.

Lightbody’s long-time urge to make a country-esque album is what spearheaded the Tired Pony project. Though it doesn’t at all appear like he succeeded in creating “country,” The Place We Ran From delivers exactly what you would expect to bleed out of a Portland recording studio in January.

The album is romantic (albeit a bit dreary); it’s full of lush harmonies, beautiful lyrics, and sophisticated sound. Those familiar with Snow Patrol’s intimate, often-melancholic resonance will find Tired Pony to be reminiscent of just that. What we have here is Lightbody’s “twisted love letter to the States.”

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1. Original post: Tired Pony – The Place We Ran From

2. Posted in: indie rock, folk-rock, americana, alt-country, banjo

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You

lizbrown — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:28:31 +0000

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Sounds like: MGMT, The xx, The Knife, Delorean, Yacht

Song: The Naked and Famous - Young Blood [download here]

What's so good?

The Naked and Famous are, in a word, damn cool. Okay, so that was two words… but they’re really effing cool. If MGMT (circa Oracular Spectacular) and The xx were to have a child, that kid would be The Naked and Famous.

Alisa Xayalith, Thom Powers, Aaron Short, Jesse Wood, and David Beadle have been garnering quite a bit of hype in their native Auckland, New Zealand since the release of their debut album Passive Me, Aggressive You. They will, without a doubt, stockpile similar plug everywhere else… and soon.

The Naked and Famous radiate killer vibes and hip energy. They sound like the 80s, only sexier. The sequence of tracks on Passive Me, Aggressive You vacillates between indie-pop, shoegaze, and electronica with skilled narration.

Listen to it when you’re driving in a Wrangler, chilling on a roof, skateboarding, walking around half-naked (or hanging with people that are half-naked), or (let’s be real) doing drugs.

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1. Original post: The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You

2. Posted in: indie pop, electro pop, shoegaze, pop

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s – Buzzard

lizbrown — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:17:40 +0000

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Sounds like: Broken Social Scene, Okkervil River, The Decemberists

Song: Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos - Let's Paint Our Teeth Green [download here]

What's so good?

Consider how difficult it is to locate a light switch when you’re looking for it in the dark. Now amplify that situation tenfold and imagine recording a full-length LP in an abandoned movie theater, without the use of any artificial lighting, during hours when the only groups getting anything done, typically, are bats and functioning insomniacs.

Incredibly, that vision turned into reality is the environment Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s used to record their new album Buzzard. Burning the midnight oil, literally, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s recorded Buzzard in the dark between the hours of 10pm and 5am (breaking a few band member bones to prove it).

It all began, as these things go, with a fire. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Edwards was living in Indianapolis, in the house he and the previous seven Margot band members had lived in, when a fire forced him out. He headed to Chicago and set up shop in an abandoned theater, writing songs inspired by 8mm films found in the basement. Margot members Tyler Watkins and Erik Kang soon arrived, later joined by local musicians who collectively got to making music.

Undoubtedly the point of such an odd recording atmosphere is to inspire eclectic music –- and that it did. Buzzard‘s 12 tracks vacillate between grunge, pop (often referred to as “chamber pop”), rock, and folk. The lyrics take us on a bit of an emotional roller coaster, beginning with “Birds” (“You dance like a frog whenever you dance, your friends they can’t stand you nobody can”), to a darker “New York City Hotel Blues” (“I never want to break your heart – not unless I have to”). “Your Lower Back” begins with an erotic narrative then takes us on a candid dive into emotions tied to old flings and “My Baby (Cares for the Animals)” reminds us love is as simple: “If you love me don’t eat me, if you want me be sweet.”

Most tracks treat us to a climaxing chorus, dreamy harmonies, and the sound of an electric guitar. With fewer band members, less instruments and considerably reduced electricity, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s new sound is captivating, hypnotic and evolved.

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1. Original post: Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s – Buzzard

2. Posted in: indie pop, folk, folk-rock, rock, pop

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Infantree – Would Work

lizbrown — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:39:44 +0000

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Sounds like: Mumford & Sons, Girls, Blitzen Trapper, The Avett Brothers

Song: Infantree - Speak Up [download here]

What's so good?

It’s about time everyone’s surf pop hangover wears off. For those who have managed to sober up from the psychedelic sounds of summer, and the rest who are vacillating between withdrawal and detox, Infantree’s LP Would Work is your 12-track program.

Out of the San Fernando Valley in California, Alex Vojdani, Matt Kronish, and Donald Fisher started playing music together in high school. Now in their early twenties, with the addition of Jordan Avesar on drums, Infantree breathes (much needed) life into a new season of song. Influenced by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, and Neil Young (Infantree is on Young’s label Vapor Records), Infantree’s well-balanced, sometimes brash, steady rock rhythm make you want to set off down by the river and hang underneath the harvest moon.

Would Work’s 12 tracks hearten and flow, sending an opportune surge of folk through our veins just in time to transport us out of a heavily dosed shoegaze. Mandolins, banjos, and acoustic guitars intermingle with the uniting voices of all three vocalists. A crescendoing chorus makes you eager for one (two, three…) more hits. Nostalgia and novelty permeate the band’s lyrics, in part and without a doubt, because Alex, Matt, and Donald are all songwriters; each depositing bright twenty-something soul for us to swill.

In “No One’s Home,” the lyrics “how long can you disguise how you feel with a song, all day long until you feel there’s nothing wrong?” make me pretty confident that I could masquerade in the music of Would Work. After all, aren’t most (music) addicts in search of sublimity?

Infantree exudes refined originality well beyond their years. Get your fix.

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1. Original post: Infantree – Would Work

2. Posted in: indie rock, folk, folk-rock, rock

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Stornoway – Beachcomber’s Windowsill

lizbrown — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:22:57 +0000

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Sounds like: Fleet Foxes, Mumford & Sons, Chief

Song: Stornoway - Zorbing [download here]

What's so good?

Even though Stornoway is not a namesake for the band’s origin, listening to their debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill could easily evoke images of that small seaside village in Scotland. Their sound is uplifting, soulful, and natural, further inspiring the notion that we could all mellow out from a stint in a port town and some good tunes.

While attending Oxford University, Brian Briggs (singer, guitarist, cellist, keyboardist) and Jon Ouin (singer, guitarist, bassist) began playing music together. Joined by Ollie Steadman (guitarist and bassist) and his brother Rob Steadman (drummer), the four formed Stornoway in 2006. Adam Briggs on trumpet and Rahul Satija on violin are often featured on the band’s tracks.

They are a highly accomplished group on and off the stage – Briggs has a PhD in Ornithology and Ouin has a Masters in Russian literature – and they cook tunes with the help of over 100 instruments.

Folk influences, rich harmonies and romantic lyrics make it pretty easy to muse and flow through the album’s 11 tracks. “Zorbing,” the title track, bounces with the sound of fiddle and trumpet, “We Are The Battery Human” with banjo riffs, fiddles in “The Cardharbour Road” and kazoo on “Watching Birds.”

The album concurrently energizes, softens and fills you up, like a good libation – so pour yourself a glass and enjoy.

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1. Original post: Stornoway – Beachcomber’s Windowsill

2. Posted in: acoustic, alternative, indie folk

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.

Suckers – Wild Smile

lizbrown — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:09:29 +0000

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Sounds like: Local Natives, TV On The Radio, Yeasayer

Song: Suckers - Save Your Love For Me [download here]

What's so good?

You know those days when you hop in your car and can’t quite get a grip on your music mood? You’re halfway into the first melodious song on (insert album that facilitates sedation) when you’re socked by impatience and an urge to roll down the windows and get raw to the tunes of (insert album that facilitates energizing). The obvious solution for those who suffer from Jekyll and Hyde on the drive is a mix tape (excuse the outdated reference, I’m a child of the 80s)… or you can just listen to the first full-length album from Suckers, Wild Smile.

The multi-instrumental Brooklyn-based band gained attention with their 2009 self-titled EP and continue to create quite the hive of buzz. Each 12 tracks are a drip of Ritalin for the musically restless.

Wild Smile begins with the sweet tidings of “Save Your Love For Me,” followed by more raucous “Black Sheep.” The album evolves on this manic and outstandingly agreeable pace, an ideal rhythm for those who suffer from schizophrenia of the ear. “It Gets Your Body Movin” (hell yeah) makes a reappearance from their EP, and the wailing, flawless succession of “A Mind I Knew” (a bedtime story for adults), and “You Can Keep Me Runnin’ Around” builds on the previous anthem-like tunes with captive exhilaration.

Do yourself a solid and check this out. If you’re already plugged in, continue moving through your moods via a Suckers soundtrack to life songs. The band is currently on tour with Menomena, curing music maladies nationwide.

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1. Original post: Suckers – Wild Smile

2. Posted in: indie rock, indie pop, alternative

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog.