Title: cool as mollyArtist: Speedway Star416 plays
Speedway Star // “Cool As Molly”
Here is a brand new track from my buddy Justin McNiff. I still remember when Justin sent me a handful of early scratchy Speedway Star demos last year. The tracks were certainly rough with crusty fidelity, but they also had a lot of heart from a guy who was earnestly searching for his songwriting footing.
With a cassette tape release and a year of experience under his belt, Justin has begun tinkering with the Speedway Star sound incorporating new influences and new sounds. His newest track “Cool As Molly” is not only named after the beautiful Molly Ringwald, but it also finds its bedrock in the music of her most successful decade: the 1980’s. He has smoothed out many of the project’s rough edges and embraced a dreamy early shoegaze sound. The track’s vibe, which is simultaneously sunny and melancholy, is a good fit for Justin. Here’s to hoping he has more stuff like this up his sleeve.
Tan Dollar // Diary of Our Journey to the Netherlands
I wasn’t really familiar with Tan Dollar when I downloaded this EP. In fact, I don’t even really remember downloading it in the first place, but there it was in my recently added folder in iTunes. So I listened, and I liked. I like a lot, actually. So I reached out to the very friendly frontman Chris Thorne via Twitter and then later e-mail and he gave me the scoop on this dreamy pop band from Tustin, California.
For being a relatively young band, Tan Dollar has not only quite a few releases under their belt, but they’ve also undergone more lineup changes than most bands will see in their lifetime. Chris Thorne remains the band’s sole founding member and he is now joined by three of his friends for their latest EP Diary of Our Journey to the Netherlands. After going back and listening to a few of their older releases it seems like Tan Dollar has been steadily shedding layers with each release. And on this EP it seems like this new skin of theirs is the softest, and most healthy yet.
The three tracks on Diary find ground that is very welcome to my ears. They successfully and effortlessly straddle the ground between dream pop and 1980’s shoegaze and they do so with two different guitar effects. It’s a great mashup of sound and it creates these pop songs that sound relatively timeless. Chris told me that the band is hopefully gearing up for a 12” release later this year. So now that I’m a fervent fan I’m definitely going to tracking that one.
This Funeral Home release is one that I have been really gearing myself up for. I am a huge fan of everything the band has done up until now which has literally only been a handful of songs and demos. About a month ago the guys sent me an advanced copy of their self-titled EP and it has been absolute torture waiting this long to share it. I’ve basically had to sit on my hands to keep from blogging about it. But now the time has come, on the eve of its release date, and I’ve been given the go-ahead to unleash the storm.
Rather than pushing things into new uncharted territory, the guys stick to their guns and choose to tighten all of their screws and churn out an EP of tight, brooding shoegaze tracks. The centerpiece of the EP is an eight-minute song called “Sweet Dreams” that is in absolutely no hurry to approach its destination. The track builds and swells like a hurricane approaching the shoreline. It’s not until more than halfway through its running time that the track finally unfurls itself in gale force winds, burning guitars, and crashing percussion. And thinking back I’ve realized that this is just how Funeral Home does things. Their approach is meek and quiet at first, but give it time and it will down powerlines and uproot trees.
The EP will arrive tomorrow, Valentine’s Day, on the Funeral Home bandcamp page.
Bands will change their name for a myriad of reasons. In the case of the Japanese surf rocking band Friends, their name change was done with you the listener in mind. I don’t know if you have ever tried to google the band or not. I have and it’s darn near impossible. So in order to make things less confusing, they will now and forevermore be known as Teen Runnings. I can dig it. In honor of the metamorphosis, there is a brand new bandcamp site with a handful of new demos for you to indulge in. (Seeing as their debut album was #15 on my year-end list, you can imagine how stoked I was to hear this.)
For proof of their good time vibes check out this video for the new jammer “Wonder Mountaineering.” Much less fuzzy, much less surfy, but still so very awesome. Painting over rough edges with a shoegazing sheen, Teen Runnings maintain the one thing that always brings me back to them: a totally infectious pop sensibility. When Shota Kaneko sings those hooks, man I’m sold. He’s known for dropping pearls every once in a while (like this Maroon 5 cover) so keep ‘em on the radar, folks.
Title: A Song You Can Fall Asleep To (demo)Artist: Funeral Home232 plays
Funeral Home // “A Song You Can Fall Asleep To”
Here’s a new demo track from Funeral Home. Man, these guys are killing me! One or two tracks at a time! In the blogosphere’s present climate it is pretty common for artists to write and release music on an almost daily basis. For some this is a good thing but for others it seems like they are merely trying to stay relevant and in the present consciousness. Think of Funeral Home as the complete opposite of that. Last time we heard from them was with their Vera 7” a couple months ago. Nowadays a two-month gestation period seems like a lifetime!
Well the band has finally put up a new track called “A Song You Can Fall Asleep To.” And even though it is technically a demo and still skeletal in structure, the thing still manages to communicate quite a lot. Like the two tracks on Vera this one is heavy on atmosphere and will totally invade your headspace. And true to its name, there is also a certain lullaby quality to the track that perfectly lends itself to, yes, nap time.
So if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna grab a blanket and lay down and dream of living in a world where Community gets six seasons and a movie.
This is the kind of music to get lost in. I was sent these tracks a couple days ago by a guy named Taylor MacKillop who creates music under the name Funeral Home. Now if you’re assuming that a name like Funeral Home is an indication of dark music then you’d be dead (heh) wrong. In fact I get an unexplained warm feeling when I listen to his music. Stylistically the music borrows from shoegaze, drone, and I might even hear a little Smashing Pumpkins in there. He has a talent for creating a wall of noise with nothing but thick guitar distortion and simple drum beats. It’s a great sound, but where Taylor really surprised me was lyrically.
On the title track “Vera” Taylor quotes a passage from I Corinthians 13. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Now I don’t know what your religious affiliation might be, but there is alot of truth in that one verse. It’s not something that I expected to find in the music of a guy who calls himself Funeral Home. Altogether these two tracks feel very weighty. The music is something to be digested not just played once and then forgotten. So hit up his bandcamp for some free downloads. It’s well worth your time.
One of the coolest things about being a music blogger is witnessing an artist’s evolution. This instance is one of those such metamorphoses. Way back in January I blurbed about the handful of demos that I found on the Youth Castles bandcamp. After the post went up, YC mastermind Dan Abary wrote me and thanked me for the exposure and it was from that point on that we had some sort of unspoken agreement/friendship. He penned the jams, sent them my way, and I’d post them up here for all you wonderful people to hear. Bing, bang, boom.
Along the way Dan has shown us several vastly different aspects of his songwriting prowess. He gave us some stripped down and deeply personal folk as Four Visions, then the sunny beach pop of Dorean, and even he flipped Youth Castles on its head and with the beautiful dream pop track “Sight Seeing” back in April. And apparently he isn’t done yet, not by a long shot.
Shifting his focus back to Youth Castles, Dan has assembled a full-time band, lined up some East coast shows, and (taking a cue from his last and most popular track) changed the name of the project to Sight Seeing. It’s a move that shows that this young band is gearing up for big things (including an upcoming cassette on Bleach Blonde Records), so stay ahead of the curve by keeping your thumb on their page. On their bandcamp you’ll find a handful of demos (some new, some old) all ready for you to sink your teeth into.
Whatever you do, do not (I repeat DO NOT) sleep on this. This stuff is just way too good to fly under the radar.
Kent State is the work of a friendly guy named Nicholas Vance who has a deep, burning passion for making delicious noise for your ears’ consumption. He cites the usual alt-rock/shoegaze influences (My Bloody Valentine, Guided By Voices, Pavement, etc.) but there is something undeniable about this music that lifts it up out of the murky swamp of the purely derivative. Guitars wail and crunch as they try their hardest to claw their way out of your speakers. The drumming borders on frenzy as they lend themselves to the fuzzy onslaught invading the airwaves. Oh, and one more thing that cued me in to how good this EP is was the fact that I really had a hard time choosing just one song to share.
So do yourself a favor and download it. You can get Walk Through Walls as well as his other EPs for free.
Title: The Answer Page - The Two Trees (Album Version)604 plays
The Answer Page // Orca
As also seen on Get Off the Coast yesterday, one-man shoegaze project The Answer Page absolutely needs to be heard. The brainchild of Texas native Nate McKee, everything you hear on this album was played, recorded, and mastered by Nate himself. The result is unbelievable. After listening to the album I was surprised at how full all of it sounds given the fact that Nate was pretty much learning as he went as far as recording and mastering go.
He’s got both the loud and quiet aspects of shoegaze down pat. When it’s quiet you’d be hard pressed to find more beautiful music and when it’s loud it is a hurricane of focused, blasting noise that will leave you feeling electrified. Just check out this track “The Two Trees.”
Even after absorbing all of the amazing music he’s captured here, for me the best part of experiencing The Answer Page was encountering Nate’s spirit. He is such a friendly guy and his love of making and sharing music is so genuine. So do yourself a favor and check him out and support him if you have the means.
I love being pleasantly surprised and such was the case with SneakPeek. This group of lifelong L.A. friends are working hard on a seven-song EP that they hope to have finished by the end of the summer. Featuring former members of The Willowz, this girl-fronted garage rock band is really too good to only have a few demos online. On track “WAYTOOMUCH” lead singer Dora Hiller’s vocal line is so beautiful that it almost seems incongruent with the track’s churning shoegaze underbelly. But the more you listen to it, the more you realize that it really couldn’t be any other way. She calls out like a siren and I willingly follow and am torn to bits on the jagged rocks below.
Check their bandcamp for a few more demos and live tracks. Then keep them on the radar because these tracks will show up again later on the band’s EP looking beautifully reworked and spit-shined.
Title: Light PollutionArtist: Dizzy Dearest60 plays
Dizzy Dearest // All These Flowers
I received this in an email. With only a link to click I dove into this EP literally knowing nothing about this band Dizzy Dearest. Given the band’s name and the album artwork, I was convinced that it was going to be cutesy electro-pop. Thankfully I was wrong. While there are elements of electronic music here, there is a ton more to discover. The influence of shoegaze is apparent with much of the EP dripping reverb, but depending on where you are in it you might find some tropical, dream pop, or noise tinges too.
Even though I can list what the EP sounds like, it really should be experienced. With the layered-music and the vocal delivery, the whole thing has this sort of sluggish feel. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just seems like life inside All These Flowers is moving in slow motion.
I don’t know about you, but for me chillwave has long outstayed its visit. What fresh originality the microgenre once had is now sucked dry and hundreds of bands are churning out the same sorta music with the same sorta vibes and the same overall aesthetic. And with so many blogs writing about every new band that comes down the chute, its getting to be a tad overbearing.
When I received this track in an email, the word “chillwave” was thrown around a bit in the description. I’m not sure why though, L.A. band Soft Crest really has nothing to do with the microgenre other than the typical-looking chillwave cover artwork. Instead this track reveals itself to be more of a slow-burning shoegaze track. It takes a bit to gain some momentum, but once it reaches full speed it turns out to be a great song. The best part is how they manage to hide some sunny, California vibes in there by way of the vocal hooks which are tucked nicely under waves of heavy distortion. A great track indeed.
“Young Blood” is actually a single from their upcoming album Pacific Electric, so keep your ear to the ground for that. Until then hit up their bandcamp for some free tunes.
Good good news. My pals in Youth Castles has a new track on their bandcamp. This one tones down the ear-burning a little bit and heads down a vaguely dreamy pop avenue. Dan Abary has a knack for penning these vaguely goth shoegaze jams that would have fit in perfectly in the 1980’s melodramatic scene.
Right now the band is preparing an upcoming 7” for Bleach Blonde Records (which is run by Ritchie San Luis of Telenovelas). After that they’ll be dropping their debut EP on the world. These dudes are one of my favorite new bands and I can’t wait to hear what they’re gonna unleash in the coming months.
And if you haven’t checked out their Demosyet, then you’re definitely missing out.
GLOSSOLALIA is quite a labor of love for Spirit Spine. This hulking piece of work is a concept album about a man helplessly lost in the desert. His plight there forces him to wrestle with existential questions ultimately leading him to question the very existence of God. Those are some heavy issues to cover over the span of an album. Even without the backstory though, this album is a pretty great piece of artwork.
His painstaking buildup of noise if staggering. The sonic weight of this album will suck you like the gravitational pull of a black hole. Once inside, the feelings of loneliness and despair felt by the story’s character are almost palpable. The sweep of soaring guitars and reverbed vocals create a storm of dusty, dry, desert noise. While the sound blisters and leaves you with a dry throat, you can’t turn away. For where the journey brings pain, there is also beauty.
Choosing one track from the album is tough. I feel like something like this needs to be digested as a whole. However, I also feel like a taste is all that you need to decide that you want to hear the whole thing. You can buy it in several different formats on his bandcamp. Highly recommended.
