Shock Mountain

Hamish Duncan sent me an email last week stating that he had finished his fourth full length album in his short two years as a recording artist. Carnival is going to be released by Enemies List Home Recordings sometime in the coming weeks. Enemies List is home to some of our favorite artists such as Have A Nice Life , Nahvlar, and Afterlives, so we couldn’t be more happy that Hamish is going to be doing more work with them. If you’ve followed Sleep In’s musical progression, you’d know that he’s never content to milk a certain style for too long. For what seems like the first time in his recording history, we’re seeing some clean vocals and inspired leads interlaced into his brooding samples and beats. Carnival is also home to a host of acoustic guitars that do well to balance the artificial and organic sounds heard on every track. I’m not a particularly huge Nine Inch Nails fan, but I know Hamish is and he has done a fantastic job emulating the industrial feel of Trent Reznor’s shadowy supporting vocals on this album.

This kid is very talented and was kind enough to give away his music to you for free before it’s intended release date. Please keep an eye on him and if you like the music, buy it when it’s officially released.

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Myspace

Enemies List Home Recordings

- James

If you’ve ever been to Kalamazoo, Michigan, you’ll understand Son Drop’s music a lot more. Reflecting their town’s sense of sunny Americana, the group of friends that make up Son Drop are making music that is perfect for the quickly approaching spring. With splashes of folky americana (a genre which I usually dislike, though they do it very well) and pyschedelic pop, Deep In The Underbark reminds me of summer vacations in the band’s hometown: slides, milkshakes, beaches on the Great Lakes, sandy sidewalks and faded lighthouses. Over the course of the album, I’m reminded of the Elephant 6 Collective (early Of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control), Ganglians, Kurt Vile and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Also, I was won over by the hidden track, which is the band playing “Acknowledgement” by John Coltrane, the first song off one of my favorite albums ever, A Love Supreme.

MySpace

This can be downloaded for free on Last.fm, but you can always donate on their MySpace!

-Max

King Rhythm is an electronic/hip hop artist born and bred in Baltimore, Maryland. Generally when I get an email from a hip-hop artist, I dismiss it almost immediately because frankly, most d.i.y. hip hop is trash. However, I was taken aback by the artist who cites Sonic Youth, Can, and Miles Davis as primary influences. When I heard a tight mix of fresh dirty beats, noisy interludes, and thick guitars bouncing off one another, I jumped at the opportunity to get him some exposure. As a rapper, he fervently spouts of rhymes in rapid succession-touching on subjects such as inner turmoil, escapism, substance abuse, and media induced paranoia. Also, his voice sounds eerily like Aesop Rock. You can buy the album digitally for only $7, or pay $10 for the vinyl. If you’re one of the first 100 to buy it on vinyl, you can enjoy staring at some beautiful red wax on your turntable.

Demolition Setting 95

Mad And Hating (For Syd)

Current Floor aka Kid Do The Brick

Myspace

Buy

- James

Dylan Baldi is by far the most determined and talented young musician to emerge from Cleveland’s music scene over the past year. The 18 year old said ‘no thanks’ to a traditional musical education at Case Western and has since set out pursuing his dreams on his own terms. However, unlike most of his bedroom-rock contemporaries who release music that goes largely unnoticed, Dylan has taken the internet by storm, landing Cloud Nothings on major music blogs left and right. The band’s debut album, Turning On, has already gone through multiple pressings on both cd and cassette through Bridgetown Records and was just released as a 12″ through Speakertree Records. Dylan is set to take his songs on the road this spring, playing shows all throughout the midwest in march leading up to a bunch of shows at SXSW. When I spoke to him on Saturday, Dylan expressed a lot of excitement about playing at MtyMX Fest in Montery, Mexico where he and his live band will take the stage with some of the biggest names in indie rock.

Campfires is an equally impressive artist, who I am definitely going to be doing more research on. So far, Jeff Walls has released a 7″ on Mexican Summer, an 8 song cassette on Leftist Nautical Antiques, and a split cassette with Bernard Piolaurd on FM Dust.

Below are tracks from both artists that appear on their recently released split cassette on Bathetic Records. To download the tracks, just right click the song titles. This release is limited to 100 copies and contains 4 songs by each band. I suggest acting on this fast, because it’s likely these will sell out pretty quickly.

Cloud Nothings – Little Raygun

Campfires – Magic Carpet

Cloud Nothings

Campfires

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- James

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that Exit Stencil Recordings are giving away 20 of their releases, nearly their entire catalog, for free download until March 1. Simply click on the icon above and you’ll be on your way to legally downloading releases from Hot Cha Cha, Mystery of Two, Blake Miller, Like Bells, The Dreadful Yawns, Spanish Prisoners, roué, and This Moment in Black History.

I’m so happy to see a local label embrace music downloading. The guys behind this label are always open to bloggers and have helped me and Jeff who runs The Noise Is… quite a lot. Love these bros.

PS. Be sure to check any of the free Mystery of Two shows going on every saturday in February at Arts Collinwood.

- James

Richard Wehrenberg of No Target Audience spent the second half of 2009 preparing songs for his debut album.  Matt Scheuermann (No Target Audience/The Sidekicks/American War) and Jon Washington (Underdogs of Nipomo) were integral to the albums creation, taking part in instrumentation, recording, and arranging the songs. Having said that, it’s still Richard who shines on this release. The young man has been writing songs for years, but it’s clear that he has dramatically grown since even more recent releases. His songwriting has gone into more conceptual areas generally concerned with the values a typical American strives to live up to. It seems Richard, who recently moved into The Monster House in Columbus, took time to take inventory of his life, something that too few people do today, and discovered that the things many accept as an unfortunate necessity in their life is generally a load of bullshit. Other times, Richard is nasally spouting off random skatterbrained thoughts and philosophical allusions in rapid succession, leaving you to question your own one after another. I encourage anyone to take the time to read his poetic lyrics.

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Liner Notes

It’s funny how small a place the internet can be sometimes. Hamish Duncan and I know each other through a Deerhunter forum. When he sent me his debut release of bedroom recordings I was struck by how amazing it sounded because let’s be honest; most self produced music is utter drivel. However, as Hamish has demonstrated on his debut album and far moreso in this stellar follow up, he isn’t a forgettable artist. In fact, his ambitions have garnered the attention of Enemies List Home Recordings, home of some truly incredible bands such as Have A Nice Life, Afterlives, and Nahvalr. Though certainly a great accomplishment for any emerging artist, it’s far more impressive due to the fact that he is only 19 years old. If you were a fan of his debut album Pyramid-an eclectic mix of electronica and shoegaze riffs, then you’re going to love Blackwidow for it’s fast electronic beats, colorful crescendos, and abundance of flange. Lastly, I want to praise Hamish for his inventive use of acoustic drums that resonate with gritty intensity, much like that of label-mates Have A Nice Life. If there’s one artist we’ve featured on this blog that you need to watch out for, it’s this kid. It’s no surprise that I firmly believe this kid has more than enough potential to blow up.

Last.fm

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- James

After seeing my post on Cloud Nothings, Kevin Greenspon of Bridgetown Records emailed me with the label’s winter sampler, featuring more of the top-notch bedroom pop I loved in Cloud Nothings. This sampler includes songs from Vehicle Blues, Trudgers, Nicole Kidman, label founder Kevin Greenspon and Cloud Nothings. While all 6 songs here are linked by a similar aesthetic, they range from the dreamy, snow-pop style of Vehicle Blues to Trudgers skittering Xiu Xiu-esque noise to the fuzzed-out movie-star love of Kevin Greenspon + Nicole Kidman. Judging from this sampler, Bridgetown Records have some great stuff coming our way, definitely some acts to keep an eye on.

Bridgetown Records

Have some extra Christmas money? You can buy all 6 featured releases for only $20!

Chrome Wings is an ambient pop band from Portland centered around musician Jon Jurow and any others that may by chance be collaborating. The act has played shows with Grouper, City Center, and Parts and Labor, to name a few. The cool thing about Chrome Wings is likelihood for esoteric noise to be cleverly laid on repetitive chords, that makes it a fairly accessible album as far as noisier stuff goes. Haunting field recordings and flanging guitar sketches meet to form the perfect backdrop for spacey fuzzed-out electronics. You can expect to hear glimmers of reverb in every audible note. Let’s hope this guy can rise above the multitude of riff-raff  noise acts in the coming months.

This album is scheduled to be released by SoHiTek Records on March 4, 2010.

Myspace

SoHiTek Records

- James

Our first artist submission was from the Elkhart, Indiana band inbirdseye. Just a few days ago, I got an email from their guitarist asking me to let people know they have a new 7 song ep coming out soon called Speak Easy. It’s easy to see that these guys have grown quite a bit since quietly releasing their 3 song ep earlier this year, so you definitely want to be on the lookout for this ep when it comes out. As of now, there is no concrete release date, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking out two great songs off of the album!

Moral Crusaders

Sorry, Deric

Myspace

- James

I was tipped off to Dragon Turtle by Jessi Hector, of Goldest Egg, who has sent me lots of great Brooklyn based artists that her public relations company promotes. To my personal embarassment and regret, I have sat on some of her submissions for far too long, but Dragon Turtle is a truly captivating act to watch out for. The band describes themselves as “Ambient-Winter-Calypso-Space-Folk” and as contrived as a description as that may be, it’s quite accurate. The band’s sound is quite unique with vocals that are subdued and echoey, acoustics clamoring for your attention at every turn, and a good deal of electronic undertones to keep any listener paying close attention. For your listening pleasure, we have a track off of their new album, Almanac, streaming below. The album is being released by La Société Expéditionnaire in a variety of formats. However, if I had to choose one of the three it would definitely be the black and red vinyl, which is limited to 500 copies.

Dragon Turtle Myspace

Buy from La Société Expéditionnaire

Dragon Turtle – Island Of Broken Glass

- James

Since coming to NYU, I havent found a ton of people who like a lot of the same music as myself. One of the first people I became good friends with was Paul Kollmer, who shared a love of Flying Lotus, Boards of Canada and J Dilla.Not only this, he made music with his good friend Trevor, which happened to be phenomenal. Drawing together instrumental hip-hop in the vein of Flying Lotus and J Dilla, electronic music ranging from Boards of Canada to Prefuse 73 and electro-pop like Junior Boys or Hot Chip, Taul has made a sound that will appeal to fans of all mentioned groups. After shitting bricks over the random tracks he’d sample for me over the weeks, he finally hooked me up with his album, which I’m now super excited to share with everyone. There isn’t really a reason not to download this, it’s great and it’s 19 minutes.

MySpace

This album will be available on iTunes on Friday, November 20.

-Max

Yesterday, I received an email from Ian, one of the two members of No Anchor, asking me to give their album a listen. This time I was more excited than usual, as he noted that they were a bass and drums doom metal/sludge band from Australia. I’ve been wanting to post more albums of this variety, yet I’ve been a little stuck. Fortunately for all involved parties, No Anchor’s Steam is great. Drawing influence from The Melvins, Boris, Nirvana, Sunn O))) and Black Sabbath, No Anchor are reminiscent of OM for their bass-heavy grooves and growing, epic anthems as well as Electric Wizard for their crunchy, balls-to-the-wall, loud-as-fuck sonic assault. Another thing to be noted are the vocals, which really won me over. Too often, music of this variety has awful vocals and none of it seems to replicate the distorted howls of Electric Wizard, but these guys manage to come very close. I’m glad my room was empty when I was able to listen to this: any witnesses to the full-volume rocking out would have been terrified. If you were a fan of the OM album I posted a few months ago, this is right up your alley!

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Buy

-Max

I was recently emailed by the drummer of Sub Verso who conjssider themselves a post punk band, though I wouldn’t really pigeon hole them into any single genre. It’s a pleasant mix of synths in the background, shimmering guitars, and smooth vocals that somehow remind me of Native. The band recorded this debut EP with Ryan Stack who has worked with The Effort, Watchfire, The Nasty, Late Nite Wars, and My Heart To Joy. This release is being put out as a 10″ for only $6 and though it is set to be released on New Year’s Day, the guys seem to be sending these out ASAP.

Myspace

Website/Buy

- James

Last week, I received several more emails from bands submitting their albums (3, for those of you counting!) and this was the first one I’ve heard so far. Their press release described their sound as shimmering psychedelic pop with soft, ethereal vocals set against a lush soundscape. That pretty much sums it up perfectly. This reminds me of some of that chillwave/browave/hypnagogic pop along the lines of Memory Tapes, as well as the tropical drone-party sound of Universal Studios Florida. The final track on the EP, “Everything Will Be Alright” is rapidly becoming one of my “jams.”

MySpace

Note: I could not find a link to purchase the album. Check for their debut LP soon!

-Max