Sambassadeur started as a DIY version of ABBA in the year 2003. They were one of the bands that lead an explosive Swedish pop movement of home recording artists who surprised our country by not only achieving overnight indie fame (thanks to the MP3 spreading kids!) but also reached the sales charts. Since that their sound has continued to grow with their recording budget. On "European" they've finally accomplished to make the grand, classic and orchestrated album they've always wanted to.In the year 2007 Sambassadeur entered a new epoch as they stopped recording at home and started working with producer Mattias Glavå. The second album "Migration" not only gave the band ...
There is a war now. The message has been sent through short wave in code. The Besnard Lakes twisting chronicle, or fever dream, of spies, double agents, novelists and aspiring rock gods has turned violent. Loyalty, dishonor, love, hatred all seen through the eyes of two spies, fighting a war that may not be real. One follows the other as they receive coded messages and spread destruction. The city is burning, and it's to the benefit of music obsessives everywhere. Once again, the husband-and-wife duo of Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek has crafted a majestic, sprawling vision of guitar bombast and captivating pop experiments.The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night calls upon the influence of ELO and finer parts of the A...
Worker Bee's debut album, Tangler, is what the band made it to be and whatever the listener wants it to be. This ethos has been instated since the first conception of the band came together in San Jose, California in 2006. They self-released two EPs before mounting creative clarity came to a head and they penned their first full-length album. Their sound continues to evolve from one release to the next, perfecting the marriage of elaborate instrumentation, angularity and beautiful haunting noise.An exercise in simplicity, limitation was key in the recording of Tangler. Done in the non-studio of the band's house in California and working with only eight tracks each song, the record itself speaks of somethi...
Farmertan is a rock band from the USA's famed North East. Farmertan prides itself on the DIY ethic an strictly adheres to making kick-ass post-punk alternative rock....
The story begins when Canadian-born (Vancouver), Netherlands-reared Carol van Dyk was hired as the live-sound mixer for the celebrated underground band de Artsen (the Doctors). Bunskoeke and Visser were already members, Dubbe was their roadie and the musical side project in which all four friends participated became Bettie Serveert. (Since you ask, the name means "Bettie to serve" after Dutch tennis player Bettie Stöve, who lost the Wimbledon Ladies Final in 1977).After a false start in 1986 when they dissolved after only one gig, the band reformed in 1990 and quickly caught the ear of Matador, Brinkman and 4AD's Guernica label for whom they kindly agreed to record ...
Vices I Admire is an alternative/indie rock band dedicated to writing honest and passionate music. Dave Curtis, Mickey Dollar and Mark Towne met in 2002 while studying at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. During that time they balanced college-life with rehearsals, performances, a few DIY regional tours and the release of their first album, Plan B. (recorded at The Blasting Room, 2005). In 2007 Vices I Admire relocated to Denver and parted ways with original bassist, Robert Marston. The band continued to write new material and develop as musicians while they searched for Rob's replacement. 8 months and 21 candidates later, Vices I Admire welcomed Daniel Battenhouse onto the team. The addi...
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (SMZ) returns with its sixth full-length recording and first since the band's line-up change in summer 2008. Having shed three members and recruited a new drummer, the group officially dropped the "Tra-La-La Band' from its name, played a debut performance as a newly minted quintet at All Tomorrow's Parties in upstate NY, and embarked on an extensive European tour through the Fall of 2008. As Kollaps Tradixionales ably demonstrates, the band has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms.Anchored by the fried electric guitar and plangent...
The Beach House you're about to meet isn't the same you may remember from before. Lives have been shuffled, tangled and re-aligned.When Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally returned home to Baltimore last winter, they were worn thin from touring and travel. But deep inside them hot energies were incubating, ideas they had been whispering back and forth in the wake of their sophomore full-length, 2008's Devotion. By the following spring they began handing themselves over completely to those impulses, holing themselves up and exchanging ideas in a new, secluded practice space for dangerously long periods of time. As the songs that would become Teen Dream began to live, breathe and take shape, the duo was forced...
Drop Anchor is a 4-piece rock outfit from the greater Philadelphia, PA area. The band consists of bassist Kevin Mooney and guitarist Matt Buckley who share vocal duties, accompanied by lead guitarist Brad Holstine and drummer Harold Echols. Each member of the band has participated in numerous local musical acts for over a decade and has remained active in the music scene. After having crossed paths several times and collaborating on a few projects, Drop Anchor officially formed in Fall of 2007. The band draws heavily from the music they grew up with, exploring a modern take on raw rock/grunge and post-hardcore influenced by the likes of Quicksand, Failure, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, and Qu...
Hello! Objective third-person narratives, stereotypical ironic humour and hyperbole at the ready: this is Los Campesinos!'s biography, in all its clichéd glory.So, where to start... Well, the band came together in Cardiff city, Wales. Though none of the band are actually from Cardiff, they're fans of the Super Furry Animals and agree that Jason Koumas is one of the Championship's finest footballers. These points alone were enough to cement the lovely place to both their left and right ventricles. It was March of 2006 when the band reached its seven-headed form. It started in some way a little time before though, with Neil (guitar), Ollie (drums) and Ellen (bass) getting together to ‘jam' on Wed...
When the Disco Biscuits formed in Philadelphia in 1995, they introduced a pioneering blend of electronic and jam band elements. Since then, they've steadily cultivated a rabid fan base and have spawned an entire movement. Today the Biscuits are able to sell over a quarter of a million tickets in a year and have founded uber-successful summer music festival, Camp Bisco. But rather than remaining within their comfort zone, the band has forged ahead and introduced new ingredients to the beloved Bisco sound. This Fall, the Biscuits gave a sneak peak of the highly eclectic new material with two EP's, On Time and Widgets. On February 2nd their latest chapter is fully realized in the form of their new album, Planet Anthem,...
"We call it heart-quaking doom pop," says Neil Popkin of the sound of WAR TAPES' first full length album, THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, set for release on May 26 by Seattle-based indie Sarathan Records.The foursome includes Neil Popkin (singer/rhythm guitarist, from Boston), his sister Becca Popkin (bassist, also from Boston), Matt Bennett (lead guitar, from Hawaii) and William Mohler (drummer, from SoCal). They've been raking in rave reviews since their 2006 live debut, and the early buzz on War Tapes earned airplay on such tastemaker radio stations as BBC Radio 1 and Live 105 in San Francisco, while "Dreaming of You" was aired on NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly (and "The Night U...
The timeless sound of the aptly named "The Deep Dark Woods" belongs to the depressing winters of the north. Pulsing with human warmth, these original songs echo through the lonesome night. Ryan Boldt's plainspoken lyrics offer a strong but gentle tone which understates poetry, oftentimes as startling as hot blood in fresh snow. Despite the dark themes, the heaviness never overwhelms the music's playfulness. An utterly fun rhythm section, brilliant guitar work, and eerily rich harmonies drive the songs. One could easily be forgiven for mistaking their songs as treasures of decades past, as The Deep Dark Woods approach their instruments with studied respect for the honoured traditions of the shadowy side of roots...
As the nineties come to a close, more extreme forms of music continue to bleed together, resulting in dynamic new sounds and unique new hybrids of expression that stand apart from the faceless sea of followers. Such is the path that Kansas City's Coalesce have taken.The trio of guitarist Jes Steineger, bassist Stacy Hilt, and drummer Jim Redd formed coalesce in January 1994. They shared similar underground hardcore influences and a desire to experiment with odd time signatures, discordant riffing patterns, and controlled dissonance.Vocalist Sean Ingram joined during the Easter of '94, the band chose coalesce as their moniker, and entered Red House Studios with producer Ed Rose (who would go on to produce all their future ma...
Every so often over the past few years you'd hear a whisper about this new Brooklyn band featuring a couple of indie rock veterans. Supposedly they'd been practicing since 2006, but weren't ready to play live yet. Then they finally did play and immediately a bootleg recording of that first show spread all over the web. In lieu of having anything recorded for people to hear, the band even put some of the songs on its MySpace page.But little did Obits know how much the listening public was clamoring to hear more. With only the bootleg to go on, bloggers tried to fill in the blanks with comparisons both apt and not. They don't really sound that much like Creedence, maybe a little. Who knows what the people at Sub Pop...
You probably know this much already: Teenage Bottlerocket (or simply "TBR" to their fans) is currently one of the hottest bands in punk rock and their new record, They Came From The Shadows, is highly-anticipated. But before we go any further you should probably know that they're from Wyoming. Crazy, huh? Although more famous for its frontier forts and characters like Butch Cassidy, the "Front Range" (as it's known to the locals) may very well be the unlikely home to the next great punk rock band. At least that's what the kids are sayin'. But don't take our word for it, even Alternative Press featured them as a "Band You Need To Know in 2009"... and they don't even have those Jennif...
King of Jeans. The title of Pissed Jeans' third album and second for Sub Pop conjures their essence perfectly--masters of the mundane, beasts of the banal, high priests of the humdrum. These four, white, male high school graduates hardly look further than their own appendages for artistic inspiration, content to execute their own brand of brash and heavy punk music in the Joe Carducci-approved standard rock formation of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. From simple minds and simple fabrics comes this King of Jeans, perhaps also a slight nod to the variety of Pissed Jeans-inspired groups that have crawled up since 2007's Hope for Men. After all, there can be only one.If 2005's Shallow was Pissed Jeans coping...
In an underground music landscape where 140 characters equals "journalism" and lone MP3s propel bands to momentary internet stardom, bands are here today and gone tomorrow.Califone is a band that defies this blueprint. Their albums are full of layers and textures, offering endless depth, entire universes to lose yourself in - and beyond the thick spectrum of sound, they do something even more important: They write great songs. Califone is a band that will stand the test of time.The band is at the peak of its powers on All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, its sixth song based album. The long-awaited follow-up to 2006's acclaimed Roots and Crowns, the album is the strongest collecti...
Nosferatu D2 are two brothers from Croydon, the deep south of south London. Their influences include classic lo-fi records, 90's Seattle grunge, Will Oldham, Smog, The Afghan Whigs, Arab Strap, Sonic Youth, Biffy Clyro & The Fall. They have played with the likes of Los Campesinos!, been reviewed by NME & Drowned in Sound and been played by XFM, Radio 1 and Chris Chinchilla (of Art Brut)....
Born to soiled genes and a small northern town playing second fiddle to the despair-Mecca of Blackpool, life was never going to be all beer and skittles for Benjamin Shaw. After a period of particular awfulness and a short descent into madness, he awoke sober one lunchtime to find himself happily married and living in Melbourne, Australia. So with steps full of spring and a newly gained ‘can-do' spirit, the happy couple seized the day and followed their hearts up the river of golden dreams, all the way to a tiny, grey, one-bedroom flat in North London. Lurching from one disastrous Customer Service job to the next, and each day turning to nought but filth, there was one of two paths Shaw could take to escape - eithe...
Heather Renee is a singer/songwriter in the vein of Regina Spektor, Feist, and Priscilla Ahn. She has been rising up in the ranks of her unique genre...Indie Folk Pop.Love is her message and she uses her music to spread it to the world....
Fang Island describes its sound as "everyone high-fiving everyone." And, the Brooklyn quintet's anthemic and soaring songs make it quite possibly one of few bands befitting such description.Its finger-tapping guitar lines, chanted vocals, triumphant harmonies and overall perky songs hearken to the sort of "Total Music" of the Fucking Champs, Jay Reatard, Ponytail, Kraftwerk, Marnie Stern, Thin Lizzy, et al. But, perhaps more so, its songs are like the music in your head at that moment when everything feels just right: that first kiss, that high score on the video game, buying your first small nation in cash... you know, good stuff. Fang Island began, oddly enough, as an art school projec...
It was a depressive and drunken night when Den Saakaldte was born. Alkohol made things clear. Den Saakaldte was born back in May of 2006, under the candlelight and the light of the 5th fullmoon. The project started as a "one man band" project, by Sykelig. It's only purpose? ...To be the way for expressing the paranoia, depression and alkohol influenced thoughts of the individual. Den Saakaldte as a meaning, stands for every person that is not or doesn't feel a part of the "normal" society.Sykelig recorded the first two songs in Hellas and after that relocated once and for good to Norway. There after experiencing weird situations and after having interesting new points of view in life, Sykelig j...
A Conversation with Sérgio Dias of Os MutantesBefore the long-running style Musica Popular Brasileira settled in as Brazil's national favorite, evolved a form of boundary-shattering multi-dimensional pop art music called Tropicalia. A combination of classical, folk, rock, samba, and bossa nova, Tropicalia thrived in the governmentally terrorized country for only a brief period.In the mid-60s leading the way of this music was the giddily experimental Os Mutantes, which bega...
Lucero's sixth studio album and major label debut, 1372 Overton Park, is due October 6 on Universal Republic Records. Produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem) and featuring horn arrangements by legendary Memphis session player Jim Spake (Al Green, John Hiatt, Solomon Burke, Cat Power), the record marks a decided turn toward the Memphis soul sound that has long informed the band's records from afar. 1372 Overton Park follows the band's 2006 release, Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers, hailed by Pitchfork as "the best showcase for the band's taut dynamic yet." After a run of festival and club dates this summer, Lucero will tour throughout the fall in support of the new album with the Lucero Ramblin' R...
Sometimes the best way to deal with a break-up is to write a batch of great songs about it, turn up the amplifiers and just rock out.Think of enduring classics - from Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville to Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine to Beck's Sea Change - and how they achieved musical catharsis from the crumbling walls and crossbeams of a relationship gone bad. On their latest release, Forget And Not Slow Down, Relient K carry the break-up album into the 21st century, tweaking it with clear-eyed songwriting and a four-to-the-floor optimism that is positively refreshing. Yes, there's sweet sorrow in "...
Sweden-based El Perro Del Mar, known informally as Sarah Assbring, is set to release her third full-length album Love Is Not Pop (The Control Group) on October 20, 2009. Following the album release, El Perro Del Mar will be supporting Peter Bjorn and John on their North American tour in November as well as playing a couple of headlining shows of her own."Both dramatic and playful, the result sounds lovably gentle and impeccably crafted: Assbring conveys vulnerability and pain without histrionics. A sweetly simple, gorgeous song." - NPR Song Of The Day"Mixing tears with sugary sound effects, she wallows with Scandinavian style." - New York Times"Achingly genui...
"Tom Petty, Springsteen, Neil Young, and Pearl Jam...these are the people I look to," says Chris Carrabba, the creative force behind Dashboard Confessional. "They do what they want and follow their hearts, going wherever their music is taking them. I look to those guys, and I start to think: how does it work for them? What were they holding on to, and do I hold on to that as well?"With the release of his fifth full-length album Alter The Ending, the Boca Raton, Florida resident is no longer simply an up-and-coming musician; he's a career artist. Alter is certainly the most defining album of what has already been a remarkable career; on one end, it's a return to the full band so...
Beautiful Small Machines may be synthetic, but they're not stupid. Caught somewhere between the 70's, 80's and deep space, this electro-pop duo learned about comedy from adult swim and heartache from Philip K. Dick and they're spewing it all back out at you like a bunch of mandroids on whiskey and psycho-pharmaceuticals. Fun, Sad, Creepy and Clever - Beautiful Small Machines is the retro-future.Forging a successful writing partnership over 10 years ago during the making of Bree Sharp's debut "A Cheap and Evil Girl", which featured the wryly-scripted cult hit "David Duchovny", Don DiLego (Lonestar Hitchhiker - Universal Records) and Bree have gone on to work on several records together, which ha...
Five Finger Death Punch are ready for battle.Their new sophomore album, War Is the Answer, is locked and loaded with twelve tracks of raw epic heavy metal. Released September 22nd 2009 via Prospect Park/EMI, the record's deafening battle cry will undoubtedly rattle the genre to its very core and pull listeners deep into this War. Many were surprised to see the meteoric yet steady rise that 5FDP undertook in the last two year, and that was just the beginning. 5FDP have embarked on quite the journey to reach this point. The Los Angeles quintet's assault on heavy music began in 2007 with the release of their hit debut The Way of the Fist. After forming a "dream team" of metal musicians, t...
