It’s been a while since I’ve caught up on the happenings of singer-songwriter Sonya Cotton. Her beautiful harmonies provided an eerie weight to the murder ballads on The National Lights’ terrific The Dead Will Walk, Dear in 2007, and her own Out Of The Ocean was a notable release from later that same year. Cotton’s new album Red River, along with its striking album art, will be self-releas
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[mp3] Sonya Cotton - "Red River"
Introducing: Mud, Blood & Beer
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Track:I Am The Road
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Introducing: Secondstar
A good friend of mine recently passed along Brooklyn singer-songwriter Liam Carey’s latest EP, Teeth. Carey performs and records under the name Secondstar, and the fine songcraft he is capable of delivering was clear on my first listen to Teeth a few weeks back during my late drive home from Keyspan Park. The harmonies that propel “Ravens” and “Tied To The Mast” jumped right out at me, r
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The July Mixtape
Stream :: Got Nuffin’ - Spoon (original post)Stream :: All For The Best - Thom Yorke (original post)MP3 :: Walkabout - Atlas Sound (ft. Noah Lennox) (original post)MP3 :: Sun Was High (So Was I) - Best Coast (original post)MP3 :: Tell It (In My Ear) - Fergus & Geronimo (original post)MP3 :: Dream City - Free Energy (original post)MP3 :: Blank Passports - Hallelujah the Hills (original post)MP3 .
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Bruce W. Derr - Python
Bruce W. Derr, one of the most prolific songwriters in all of Lewisburg, PA, has recently released Python, his second new album of 2009. This is following a 2008 in which Derr was a part of three top-notch records - his own The Time of Day and Mr. Personality and as co-front man with Earl Pickens on The Sweetbriars’ Please Pass the Revolution! Python follows the acoustic Sigh by just a few mont.
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[mp3] Best Coast - "Sun Was High (So Was I)"
With the glut of lo-fi outfits doing the whole “equal parts sun-drenched pop and skuzz-drenched noise” thing these days, picking the worthwhile tracks out of the bunch can be a somewhat daunting task. It’s nice then that Best Coast, the recording project of Bethany Cosentino (also/formerly of Pocahaunted) and Bob Bruno, make it very easy on the garage-pop gem “Sun Was High (So Was I)”. T
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Old School Vid :: Frank Black - "Headache"
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For no other reason than wow, what a great great song. From his second post-Pixies album, 1994’s Teenager of the Year. Buy here.--------------------------------------------------------------
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[mp3] The Octopus Project - "Wet Gold"
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Austin’s The Octopus Project. Their awesome 2007 single “I Saw The Bright Shinies”, from Hello, Avalanche, was one of my very favorite songs of 2007. The eclectic electro-rockers are now readying Golden Beds - an enhanced EP featuring 5 new songs and 7 music videos. The band is also getting set to embark on a rather large North American
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The Wooden Sky - If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
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Artist:The Wooden Sky
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Album:If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
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Track:Something Hiding For Us In The Night
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[mp3] Rain Machine - "Give Blood"
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Artist:Kyp Malone
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Album:Rain Machine
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Track:Give Blood
Kyp Malone (he of TV On The Radio and that wicked beard/afro combo) is getting set to release his solo debut record under the Rain Machine moniker. The first single, “Give Blood”, was debuted over at Pitchfork today and isn’t so much a radical departure from the sweaty indie-funk/soul of last year’s excellent Dear Science, as much as a more aggressive, stripped down version of it. And who
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[mp3] Fergus & Geronimo - "Tell It (In My Ear)" & "Harder Than It's Ever Been"
There’s a ton of really exciting new songs going around right now that seem tailor-made for summertime listening. My June Mixtape started to touch on a few of them (Smith Westerns, Real Estate, Zach Vinson), but July has kept them coming at a steady clip (Atlas Sound, Times New Viking, Hallelujah the Hills, Free Energy - just scroll down). Add the Motown-influenced garage-pop Denton, TX band Fe.
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[mp3] Atlas Sound - "Walkabout" (ft. Noah Lennox)
Though you may enjoy them all year long, some songs just seem made for summer listening. “Walkabout”, the first single from the upcoming Atlas Sound album Logos (Kranky, October 20), is completely sun-drenched. It’s a hypnotic, eyes-closed pop song filled with childlike wonder and totally blissed-out melodies. Built around a sample from an old song by The Dovers called “What Am I Going To
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Thom Yorke & The National record songs for Mark Mulcahy tribute album
Mark Mulcahy is not a household name, or at least it isn’t one in my house. Before very recently I had never even heard of the man or his former band, Miracle Legion. That all changed in a hurry though with the recent news of the forthcoming tribute compilation Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (Shout Factory, September 29). It’s heartbreaking that the album needs to be released
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[mp3] Kurt Vile - "Overnight Religion"
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I think they think it’s the Summer of Love over there at Matador. So far this month has seen a constant stream of excellent new tunes from the label, several of which you can find simply by scrolling down right now, and today is no different. Kurt Vile, he of side duties in The War On Drugs and the solo album Constant Hitmaker from 2008, has been riding a wave of critical goodwill so far this y.
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[mp3] Mission of Burma - "1,2,3 Partyy!"
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Album:The Sound The Speed The Light
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Track:1,2,3 Partyy!
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Japandroids to re-release Post-Nothing on Polyvinyl
I’ve said this before, but Japandroids’ Post-Nothing is rock n’ roll at its most raw, direct, and exhilarating - easily one of my favorite records of the first half of 2009. Unfortunately, if you want to get your paws on a physical copy of it right now at this very moment, it may be next to impossible. Most retail outlets (including Insound, where I picked up my vinyl copy last month) have i
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Bowerbirds - Upper Air
Bowerbirds’ gorgeous new album Upper Air is filled with pastoral folk songs that focus on love, nature, and the way the two intersect with one another. It seems lead-birds Phil Moore and Beth Tacular have a deep connection with Mother Earth and all of the beautiful things that make it, like, totally the best planet in the solar system. This connection is used as an extended metaphor that inhabi.
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Japandroids to re-release Post Nothing on Polyvinyl
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Album:Post Nothing
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I’ve said this before, but Japandroids’ Post Nothing is rock n’ roll at its most raw, direct, and exhilarating - easily one of my favorite records of the first half of 2009. Unfortunately, if you want to get your paws on a physical copy of it right now at this very moment, it may be next to impossible. Most retail outlets (including Insound, where I picked up my vinyl copy last month) have i
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[mp3] Times New Viking - "No Time, No Hope"
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