Bands, Friends, Fans, Labels and Families are Asking For Promotion On Bolachas, We Give Them Exposure, U Give Them The Credits #6 [2009]
and 2 more that just came in :-)
Bird Talk – No Bird Left Behind – 2009
Bird Talk is Melissa “Jumpy” Marquez, Emily Engelhard, Anthony “Shimby” McCreery and Jacco Kuipers. They reside in Chicago, Illinois…in a three flat building they have affectionately named the Bird House.
Formed in the spring of 2007. Jumpy and Shimby found each other via a posting on a well known classifieds website, and hit it off right away. They tried playing with several different people over the span of a couple of months, before finally asking Emily to join them on keyboards in December of 2007. It was a match made in heaven, in more ways than one…Shimby and Emily are a couple, and the actual musical chemistry between all three of them was apparent from the start. Combining a wide range of influences…from 60’s Garage, Indie Rock, New Wave, Punk, Dance and all shades of Pop music to create a sound that is uniquely their own.
In the short time they have been together, they have been a featured artist on the national podcast Ace Radio Live, Chicago’s own WLUW 88.7 fm, and are also going to be featured on a Series Two Records compilation of Indie Rock and Pop Bands from all over the world that will be out this coming January. They have played several well received shows at reputable venues all over Chicago such as The Empty Bottle, Bottom Lounge, Cal’s Liquors, The Note, Ronny’s, and the Double Door. With their debut full length in the works and goals of touring and playing outdoor festivals this coming summer, Bird Talk is looking forward to getting their music out to the people, and definitely hopes to be around for a long time to come.
Eliot Wilder – Westphalia – 2009
Cory Levinson – The Frailty Of My Own Mind – 2008
myspace listen or buy
cjlevinson@gmail.com
Memory is something that we all take for granted. We define ourselves by our past, or at least what we can remember of it, but what happens when we lose our recollection of the past all-together? The Frailty of My Own Mind is a roughly 30 minute, 8 track album that explores this idea. The album begins by introducing Clive Wearing (using found interview clips from WNYC’s RadioLab) a man who suffers from one of the most sever cases of amnesia ever recorded, and subsequently takes the audience on a musical journey investigating the mind of the amnesiac. In short, the album is an electro-pop/experimental exploration of the mind. Enjoy!
Kevin Blake – You Are What You Hear – 2009
“Smashing, You Are What You Hear is the go-to release for fresh, engaging minimal electronic grooves” – Jim Caroll – The Ticket, The Irish Times, Phantom Fm
“You Are What You Hear explores all that is fresh in electronica at the moment, borrowing elements of glitch, minimal and dubstep and compounding them together in a way that’s uniquely respectful and progressive…. For a debut release on a brand new label, it makes a great statement of intent from the outset” – Crude Magazine
“An accomplished release, all the more so, when you consider that it’s a début. Quality control is sky high on all tracks. To say that I’m mightily impressed would be an understatement. Oi world, this is Limerick!” – Cian O’Ciobháin – RTE Radio Na Gaeltachta, An Taobh Tuathail, Sisi, 110th Street
DROP-D.IE – REVIEW:
“Kevin Blake is a man who’s played in experimental rock bands since he was 15 and Electric Underground’s live resident has released a six-track debut gem, an EP called You Are What You Hear. The EP opens with an eerily catchy Holy Smoke as Blake’s experimental influences take hold as the song moves with snare fills and synth bass riffs with minimalist sensibilities.
The EP moves subtly along Blake’s creativity as it goes into It’s The Rain which glitches vocal samples over slow tempo synths like rain beating against a window pane before a thumping bass drum brings the track along towards the climax it never reaches. Adventures In Subspace is exactly that, the track moves along progressive layers of minimalist techno synths and samples”
This finely crafted debut certainly raises the bar for electronic music in Ireland as Blake and Electric Underground make a firm statement about quality of Irish electronica.
Logan Lynn – From Pillar To Post – 2009
removed by request, lol
MY NEW RECORD IS MAKING WAVES IN THE BLOG-O-SPHERE AND BEYOND…CHECK OUT SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM ALL THE EARLY REVIEWS AND PRESS COVERAGE “FROM PILLAR TO POST” HAS BEEN GETTING ACROSS THE GLOBE!!!
Navigator – Songs For Mei And Satsuki – 2008
I think as a reader you deserve an admission from me on this one. I love Hayao Miyazaki films. Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro (with the original dubbing or Japanese voice overs) are among my favourite films of all time. That may seem like an odd admission in preface to an album review, however, Navigator’s latest outing, Songs for Mei and Satsuki, compiles 10 tracks in ode to the legendary Anime director’s various films. The concept is an utterly geeky and obsessive one to be sure, but the result at the hand of Navigator mastermind, Braden J. McKenna, is nothing short of humble adoration turned into wide-eyed brilliance. I guess it might be good to assure people who haven’t seen a Miyazaki film that it isn’t necessary to enjoy this album (though recommended based solely on their merit as film). Even those who have no particular affinity for the films (I don’t think this is possible, but it just may be) will find that the there is no real necessity of caring any way whatsoever about the director’s legacy to become enthralled with Songs for Mei and Satsuki. So, enough about the inspiration/gimmick, the music stands on its own creative legs very sturdily. You know what, lets just get all of the technical stuff out of the way up front, I think that McKenna is marketing this thing as a full length album, but the album is super brief at just under twenty minutes in length. And, again, for the record, this may seem like mark in the negative for Navigator, but it isn’t – the work actually holds up pretty nicely as a “full length” in the breadth of its ideas and movement of its sequenced tracks. Eventually, you’ll become so addicted that you’ll have to burn the album three times over onto a separate CDr in order to take as little time possible skipping back to the beginning. So what is this incredible music I speak of that seems completely unhindered by general standards of length and concept? Being that Navigator is pretty much still a virtual unknown some cheap comparisons might be good. The album is kind of like Microphones/Mt. Eerie filtered through Times New Viking’s pedals and recording equipment or perhaps a poppier, major chord version of the Meneguar side-project Woods.
Patrick Pleau – Hype-moi – 2009
Patrick Pleau’s claim to fame came in 2007 along with his band Plajia and the release Beautiful Explosion; an album for which Patrick wrote the majority of the lyrics and music. Beautiful Explosion was nominated in 2008 for Archambault’s ‘Grand Prix de la relève’ (with fellow nomeniees : Tricot Machine, Samian, Alfa Rococo, Gaële, Le Husky & Bruno Marcil).
Hype-Moi, Patrick’s first solo project produced by Bob & Bill (Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard) ranges from urban to oneiric themes. Several songs also make light of his “Geek / Internet” persona; tongue-in-cheek references to his past reputations. Raised in a musical environment (Patrick’s father was a DJ), it is with this first francophone release that he refined his lyrical stylings which he describes as “Peter Pan-like controlled naiveté” with songs written between 2002 and 2008 (including previously unreleased tracks from Plajia). Hype-Moi could be considered as the logical follow-up to Beautiful Explosion, with more of a masterful production and craftier songs (as shown by its first radio-single; Bacolophobe).
Though seemingly provocative, the album’s title Hype-Moi (Hype-Me) is a humorous invitation — one that should not be taken as a direct assault against critics but might recommend a different approach with which to showcase up-and-coming artists. Further following the example set by Beautiful Explosion, on Hype-Moi Patrick carefully utilizes sonic landscapes of popular 70s instruments such as Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer keys.
In addition to the first single, absurd/cryptic video shorts will be released in the following weeks to promote the album.
More info : http://www.patrickpleau.com
Visit the MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/patrickpleau
Silence Is Sexy – This Ain’t Hollywood – 2008
The Boring Landmarks – Blue
well, the album is done. please download it and pass it around. I’d say play it loud, but that’s probably just obvious.
super special thanks to westmont for constant inspiration, input, and for sequencing the thing when I wanted to just draw the order out of a hat. great job with it, too…she pretty much rules.
also, a most special thanks to maddie, a.k.a. meow mix, who was kind enough to co-write and sing peep.
Archive – Controlling Crowds
New Archive comes along in our ears and it is always a very big event. Forerunners of the trip-hop in 1996 with Londinium, the group had managed to charm several followers of Massive Attack and Portishead. Now, in time, the singer (Roya Arab) and the rapper (Rosko John) had been sent back. It was the beginning of the end for the group until 2001, with the arrival of a new singer (Craig Walker).
It is with the success “Again” that the group knew how to return to the spotlight and join the crowds. More popular than never, Archive recorded three other albums with the same singer, before this last one leaves the group. The style widely evolved (not always in the best direction, will say many persons) crossing trip-hop, pop, rock, and trip-rock, but what they reserve for the crowd with this new album?
In conclusion, Archive launches a very very long disk, which would have been able to benefit from some cuts. It would have allowed them to offer us something more audacious. Well, a new Archive is always something pleasant, and there is pleasant surprises on this disk. Rest that the best pieces are the ones where the voice of Rosko takes the control. They really ring as songs which would have been able to have their place on Londinium. What is it necessary to conclude from it? That Londinium is timeless or that these new songs are too much influenced by this first disk because of the rapper? “So much better” will say some people. We would like to heard more of the mixture of the voices of Rosko and Maria Q.By hoping that the group thinks of it for the next effort, in the meantime, it’s your turn to judge!
An Orange End – Lego – 2009
An Orange End is a band with all it’s members originating from Tripolis, Greece. The band have also listed themselves in being also located in Patras and Athens, Greece. They released their first work through their promotional single “Skyline Playgrounds”, which included three songs: “Urban Sights”, “Murder the Lonely” and “Dance”. Having the most positive reviews amongst various bands and their populairty spread, the band quickly became a fine supporting act and opener for other great Greek artists in their live concerts. Soon they had their own concerts out of Greece and their fame to be spread abroad. The band had participated in the Coca Cola Soundwave Vol.2 in 2007 and they won in the Radar Coke Competition with their video clip “Murder the Lonely”, created by Anna Xiao. Their debut album “Lego” was released in 23rd February by Inner Ear Records.
OCDC – Piano Suites For Kristin
A Story
I went to a New Year’s Eve party at the Sons of Noel and Adrian’s house in Brighton. They live in a big house on top of a hill. Their back room is made of glass and full of plants, and they had made a stage for their friends. I watched Rowan, howling like a wolf. I watched Danny sway.
Shortly before midnight, the Sons came out. In a small room, half the people seemed to be in their band. They played their stories with gut string guitars, trumpet, cello, piano and drums. As the New Year of 2009 ticked round we were all shrieking along to the mighty ‘Damien. Lessons From What’s Poor.’ We danced and we sang and we drank and as dawn approached people fell away, until I was on my own, sat at an upright piano, surrounded by unconscious bodies asleep on the floor.
At this point I started to play the piano. I wrote these piano songs with Kristin in mind. I had met her earlier that night.
Later that day I made it back home to my father’s house to the south west of London. The house was empty. There was a piano. I recorded this album in two sittings on New Year’s Day. There was frost on the grass outside and the sun came at a low angle through the window.
It will be released April 2009 on Bell’s Hill records, and can be ordered anywhere in the world from altvinyl.com.
I hope you like it, and I’d love to hear any stories you might wish to tell me. If you write to me here or at: subverbia at gmail dot com
I will send you a copy in the post. I like post. Everyone likes post.
Two Small Steps – Sleeping Cities – 2009
Two Small Steps is a solo project from Portland, OR based Jenny Tiffany. Two Small Steps unleashes on it’s listeners quirky songs using guitar, piano, organic instrumentation, synth flourishes, layered percussion and a cacophony of other instruments. Tiffany played in several bands over the past 12 years and has melded all her influences into this solo project.
Stephane TV – Stephane TV – 2009
Stephane TV is a fanciful and sometimes disturbing dream that constantly threatens to usurp the waking world. It’s a deep conversation, more or less animated, about a band playing every weekend within the same four walls. It’s a song talking about five guys that met, in a way or another, in 2008 in Pavia (Italy).
At the beginning of 2008, Giovanni (bass) and Rocco (guitar) join the early unit of the band, formed by Giuseppe (vocals), William (guitar) and Claudio (drums).
Since then, Stephane TV tries to create a personal and omogeneous sound working on original compositions: the result is a melancholic rock music, rich in melody and with a psychedelic mood, referring to classic alternative rock from the nineties and modern days independent rock such as Logh, Jeniferever and Interpol. Across the end of 2008 and the first months of 2009, the band self-produce its first studio work: a self titled EP containing four tracks in which the different shades of Stephane TV‘s early sound cohabit.
James Moore – Crows – 2009
“Crows” is a great four-track EP that nicely fuses folk with alt-country from New Jersey singer/songwriter James Moore. Drawing from a variety of influences, Moore creatively and skillfully blends slide guitar with great folk guitar work, great guitar and drum rhythms, and sincere lyrics. At his vocal best, Moore sounds like Jim James from My Morning Jacket, but he has such a range that he is also reminiscent of David Gray. His lyrics are honest, personal, and often saddening, well-suiting the arrangements and vocal styling. Though “Crows” was recorded by Moore on a digital four-track, it sounds impeccably clean. The title track, “Crows,” has a nice acoustic and drum arrangement, a superb Jim James-esque delivery from Moore, and great lyrics. “One Way To You” is the type of song you might sway to at a concert, holding a lighter high in the air and features a great vocal delivery and heartfelt lyrics against a slow acoustic progression. Overall, “Crows” is well done, its four tracks leaving you anticipating what Moore could do with a full length release. Fans of folk, alt-country, and talented singer/songwriters should check out James Moore.
Fuck Buddies – Justice – 2009
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Comments
The Boring Landmarks :)
indeed
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