Shock Mountain

Making me proud to be from Cleveland, Cloud Nothings are rapidly becoming one of my new favorite bands. The new band from Dylan Baldi and Adam Upp of Neon Tongues, Cloud Nothings proves that these guys are behind the absolute best music coming from Cleveland. Last night I was fortunate enough to see their first live show, here in New York at the Market Hotel with Woods and Real Estate, where they gave Woods, an excellent live act, a run for their money. Any minute now I’ll be heading out to see them play at Shea Stadium with Coasting. This is pure lo-fi pop gold. This is already one of my favorite albums of this year after only a few plays and they’re my most-anticipated act of 2010 by far. Thanks to Jeff over at The Noise Is for getting this up, he knows what’s up.

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-Max

If you follow any number of quality blogs, I’m sure you’ve already stumbled across this album, which I’ve been meaning to post for about a month now. Their last.fm description describes this much better than I could possibly hope to myself: “What the fuck do internet-era kids do when they’re growing up in the middle of nowhere with an understanding of great music? What do they do when they’re cuttin’ their teeth on records that took you (and us) years to get into? What do you do when you’re desperate to leave the dunkest of the podunk towns you’re stuck in and find all that punk, stoner rock, indie and surf music you’ve only heard from some weirdo record collector who beats off to your myspace pictures? Where does that leave you when you’re too young to even drive to a show you were booked on?

It leaves you to get high and try and capture everything you’ve heard with everything you can get your hands on. In doing so, Fungi Girls have recorded a blistering album of concise and experimental songs ranging from shoegazing grooves and stoner rock riffage to psychedelic pop freakouts, channeling everything their teenage brains can handle.”

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-Max

For those of you Clevelanders who were lucky enough to see Thee TV Oh Dees should be delighted to hear this tape from Neon Tongues, the new band from Adam Upp, the singer/guitarist/older brother. Rather than continuing down the jerky art-punk of Thee TV Oh Dees, Neon Tongues record ultra-catchy lo-fi garage pop jams. This ultra limited cassette (only 20 c0pies produced, 10 red, 10 yellow!) features two songs, both of which bring to mind the playful sound of NODZZZ, Japanther and Nobunny. Download this tape and sing along! If you’re in Cleveland, they play shows pretty often, including two shows next week at Now Thats Class!

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-Max

The last few days or so, I haven’t been able to get enough of NODZZZ, a noise-pop band whose album I found about a month or so ago, but didn’t listen until just now. Playing fast, fun and summery noise pop, NODZZZ have quickly became one of my favorite acts of the genre. More in the vein of Times New Viking and cAUSE Co-Motion than No Age and Blank Dogs, NODZZZ seem to focus more on writing ultra-catchy pop songs with a hint of noise than writing noisy songs that just happen to be catchy. If Times New Viking is a reiteration of Guided By Voices, then NODZZZ must be this generation’s Pavement or even the Dead Milkmen, both of which are bands which never took themselves too seriously and sounded more like a group of friends jamming in their basements than a band who practiced in studios. Clocking in at just under 16 minutes, I’m sure this album will leave you with a smile on your face, wanting more.

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-Max

Well, after several months of being recommended, I finally decided to use my old friend Google and nab this album. Black Tambourine were a Washington D.C. active in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Influenced by one of my favorite bands, The Jesus And Mary Chain, the group now legendary among today’s noise-pop crowd, played slightly noisy twee now mimicked (fairly well) by new sensations The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Seeing as they released very (and I mean VERY) little music during their career, this 10 track set consists of, you guessed it, everything they recorded. They were part of the original Slumberland lineup, a label which has since been resurrected and now home to Crystal Slits and cAUSE Co-Motion. It’s a shame that such a great band has so little music available. At least people listened!

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-Max