My friends in Town Hall have released the first single from their forthcoming LP they’re calling Roots & Bells. Roughly based on Miranda July‘s story “The Swim Team”, the track describes one man’s desire to learn to swim even though he lives in a desert town- and plays out almost like a movie. The vivid descriptions, the catchy melody, and the awesome ending all work together to make the track memorable on its own. However, the fact that the story is about the boy and is told from the point of view of the townsfolk really proves Town Hall’s ability as song writers and keep me on the edge of my seat waiting for the new CD to drop. Stream “Swim Team” below:
Author Archives: Ricky Stephens
[New] The Griswolds – Mississippi
The Griswolds are a brilliant new indie pop group from Sydney who’ve been making a lot of noise on the net recently. The band’s new track “Mississippi” is an incredibly colorful and upbeat cut that practically embodies the summer season in its upbeat feel. Between the clean guitar rhythms,the memorable drums, and excited vocal parts “Mississippi” sounds like it should be on the commercial for a water park. Stream it below and you’ll know what I mean.
The song is available for free download HERE.
[Electronica] Japandroids- Wet Hair (Teen Daze Remix)
What I love most about Teen Daze is that he is consistently putting out great remixes like its second nature. His remix of Japandroids‘ “Wet Hair” is a perfect example of this.
The grungy sound of the garage rock original almost sounds like the name of the band who created it- huge, clanky, Japandroids destroying Tokyo while they try to write a love song. It’s lo fi and catchy, but Teen Daze really cleans it up by taking that fuzzy lead guitar and chopping the part and letting the vocals fill out the background.
Like Inception, he plants the repetitive vocal idea in your head to make the track memorable. That’s where the Inception analogy ends, though, so of you wake up and in a plane with Leonardo DiCaprio it’s just a coincidence… Right?
Japandroids- Wet Hair (Teen Daze Remix)
[New] Chiddy Bang – Zeros
The hip hop duo called Chiddy Bang has taken huge steps with the digital release of their first full length, titled Breakfast. The album’s positive reception from the singles “Ray Charles” And “Mind Your Manners” has them nearing the ten slot on Billboard’s charts solely from online sales. Their new track, “Zeros”, hopes to keep the hype going before the album’s physical release this week and hits hard enough to do just that.
[New] Yellow Ostrich- The Shakedown
Yellow Ostrich‘s new album teaser, “The Shake Down”, premiered over at Rolling Stone yesterday to keep the hype up for the band’s forthcoming LP Strange Land. The track is a pulsing groove met with thick rock guitars that are inspired by the likes of Neil Young and big cymbal laden drum sounds to top the whole thing off. Singer/ Guitarist Alex Schaaf maintains the track is about “imaginary people” but it’s catchy enough that it really could be about the flu.
Yellow Ostrich will be at SXSW 3/13-3/19 and the new album Strange Land drops 3/6.
[Experimental] Thriftworks- Tlālōc + Free Download
Thriftworks, a.k.a. Berkley’s Jake Atlas, has recently released an album titled Rain Maker to meet the demands of purists all around. The kicks are saturated with reverb, the songs are unique and experiment just enough to stay interesting. “Tlālōc” almost feels Indian in melody and texture, which is a neat change of pace for the electronic music scene, and the beat makes you want to move- if only to bob your head.
While his first few releases began to earn Thriftworks a name in the scene, I think Rain Maker is exactly the album he needed to earn his place and prove his versatility.
Download Rain Maker for FREE HERE.
[Remix] Sufjan Stevens- Futile Devices (Shigheto Remix) + Free Download!
The Lineage EP is full of the kind of thoughtful edits we’ve come to know from Brooklyn based producer Shigeto. His latest experiment is a step in an almost untouched direction- into The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens. Shigeto’s remix of “Futile Devices” is almost a new song entirely. The original parts are chopped, cut, and pasted to almost twice the length of the original track.
His subtle additions really add to the song’s melody without overpowering it; keeping in focus that Shigeto doesn’t just remix other people’s music, he creates it himself. The synth textures bob and weave to fill out blank spaces and give the song a cloudy, lazy day, kind of feel. Download HERE. Stream below:
Via: Stereogum