DOWNLOAD: The May Fire - Red Eye
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Scuzzy Bay Area rock band the May Fire are back on our radars with “Red Eye”, which continues in their vein of down and dirty ‘90s alt rock with unabashed glee. The track sounds like something straight out of Elastica’s songbook, all catchy hooks and pissed-off female vocals. It’s a shame rock music like this has become so scarce—there are few things as satisfying as a good rock hook, and as much as we love like, heady electronica, at least someone is carrying on the tradition. We commend thee, The May Fire. We commend thee.
Sounds like: The Breeders, Elastica, Veruca Salt
Download: The May Fire - Red Eye
VIDEO THRWBCK: Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls (1997)
We're super into the new CSS single "Rat is Dead (Rage)", if only because it totally sounds like something one of our favorite alt. rock girl groups, Veruca Salt, would have bashed out in under an hour during their mid-'90s heyday. "Volcano Girls" totally hasn't aged as well as we'd thought, but whatever, THEY'RE BUNGEE JUMPING! So good. Being 13 was awesome.
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: The May Fire - Doctor's Appointment + No Clone
It’s 1996, we’re walking to school with our Discman in our backpack, and the soundtrack du jour consists pretty much solely of Hole, Veruca Salt and Velocity Girl, and it doesn’t even matter that we didn’t do out math homework, because mid-‘90s alt rock/pop was that awesome. The May Fire bring us back to those carefree days, when men were men and women dyed their hair with cheap drugstore color kits and wore really dark lipstick.
Fronted by enigmatic frontwoman Catty Tasso, The May Fire craft catchy rock songs that sounds exactly like the sunny Californian skies they were written under. So catchy, in fact, that we decided to sign the to RCRD LBL so we can release even more of their tunes. The May Fire’s new EP, The List, will be released on August 5th, with a US tour beginning the day after. It’s an exciting time in the band’s career, and we’re stoked to be able to experience them during it. The two tracks we’re releasing today, “Doctor’s Appointment” and “No Clone” are both from The List.
Sounds like: Velocity Girl, The Breeders, The Pixies
CONTEST: Win tickets to see Blacklist at the Mercury Lounge this Friday
As most of you know, we’re big fans of NYC-based dark wave band Blacklist, whose RCRD LBL single “Blue Shifted” has been getting mad airplay in our offices. The band will be bringing their Joy-Division-meets-The-Cure sound to the Mercury Lounge on Friday to perform with desert rock outfit the Warlocks. We except mascara and gloomy ideals to be abundant in the crowd, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be extremely fun. We’re giving away a pair of tickets to the show to one lucky RCRD LBL reader, all you need to do is join our email newsletter if you haven’t already (field to your right), and email us at contests@rcrdlbl.com with “BLACKLIST CONTEST” in the subject. Winners will be chosen randomly. Good luck!
Blacklist just released their new video, “Language of the Living Dead”, which was directed by esteemed documentarian Eva Aridjis. Check it out:
VIDEO THRWBCK: Radiohead - Karma Police (1997)
We've been really into the works of Jonathan Glazer recently, whether is be his amazing music videos or his feature films. We just got down with Sexy Beast and it was awesome (even though we had to watch most of it with subtitles because all the actors whisper in really thick Cockney accents). We thought we'd feature the Glazer-directed video for Radiohead's "Karma Police", even though Glazer himself believes the video to be a total failure of its original vision. We say, whatever JG, don't be so hard on yourself, we showed all our friends this video in middle school and everyone thought it was really cool.
DOWNLOAD: Girls - Lust for Life
It’s a scientific fact that handclaps make any song immediately 100% better, and “Lust for Life” by San Francisco-based alt pop band Girls does nothing to dispel that statement. As most of Girls’ songs, “Lust for Life” (not an Iggy Pop cover, somewhat sadly) is a bouncy, summery jingle-jangle about not being totally OK with the fact that you’ve messed up your life—something we can all relate to, we’re sure. The sound is very early ‘90s, like The Vaselines meets Mary Lou Lord (damn, when was the last time you heard a comparison like that). We guess that Bay Area sun is totally contagious.
There’s also a cool video for the Girls song “Morning Light” directed by Patrik Sandberg (from ace art blog Cobain in a Coma), Aaron Brown, and Aaron Buttig. Check it out after the jump.
Sounds like: The Vaselines, Mary Lou Lord, Hüsker Dü
VIDEO THRWBCK: Tripping Daisy - I Got a Girl (1995)
Before becoming a walking, talking antidepressant with the Polyphonic Spree, Tim DeLaughter was the front man from '90s alt. rockers Tripping Daisy, a fun fact we ALWAYS forget whenever we see the Spree live, but are reminded of when we are drunkenly looking for videos on YouTube at 4:30AM. Behold the funkee hair colors!
VIDEO THRWBCK: The Cocteau Twins - Iceblink Luck (1990)
Something about the Cocteau Twins has always made us immediately cheerful--even at their darker moments, Elizabeth Fraser's voice is always uplifting and masterful. "Iceblink Luck" is one of out favorite tracks off of the band's seventh LP Heaven or Las Vegas, and its brand of poppy shoegaze is a must-listen for any late-80s/early-'90s music fan.
DOWNLOAD: Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia - Dead Souls
Is it just us, or has France been killing it lately? Obviously you’ve got your Ed Bangers and your Institubes, but recently we saw Parisian band Hey Hey My My and thought, “Wow—French rock hasn’t been this good since the ‘60s…” Not that we were there or anything, but you know what we mean. Anyway, today we got a sick download from Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia, another Parisian outfit, that’s a sort of hypnotic alt. jam, featuring a laid-back, slightly psyched out guitar line, and dreamy, accented vocals repeating “Alright/What a great life” over and over. The song is called “Dead Souls”, and of course you can download it at Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia’s RCRD LBL page. This is the Ben Watt radio edit of the song (Ben is a London-based electro producer who owns the label Buzzin' Fly). Ben is also one-half of legendary band Everything But the Girl (with RCRD LBL fave Tracey Thorn), so you know we're stoked about this one. Enjoy!
Download: Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia - Dead Souls (Ben Watt Radio Edit)
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Morning State - Oh Yeah (Album Verison)
Band to watch! Atlanta, GA foursome Morning State are releasing “Oh Yeah” on RCRD LBL today, a distorted and slightly spooky alt rock song reminiscent of early (early) Radiohead and the Shins—you know, all that good ‘90s-sounding stuff. “Oh Yeah” is featured on their debut full-length You Know People, I Know People (which is dropping on May 5th), and the fuzzy, screaming guitars that crescendo all throughout the song will totally get you fist pumping, all while sorting through your flannel wardrobe and Sub Pop Singles Club collection. Ah, nostalgia!
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