DOWNLOAD: Birds & Batteries - Sneaky Times + Out In The Woods
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Birds & Batteries’ new EP Up To No Good came out this week and there’s been some talk about honky-tonk layering, Halloween freak boogie and lost in the woods funk. Also, cough syrup-induced dancing. Below, a little more throat coat with “Sneaky Times” and "Out In The Woods" until the full length anodyne drops in 2010.
Birds & Batteries - Out In The Woods
Birds & Batteries - Sneaky Times
Previously:
Birds & Batteries - The Villain
DOWNLOAD: These United States - Everything Touches Everything
We don’t purport to understand how exactly how an album is written, so the sheer magnitude of These United States creating three albums in 18 months is one wild feat to us. What’s more is that these guys play as though they were born in the warm sunshine of a Coca-Cola commercial. There’s unbridled glee shooting through their springy alt-country folk-rock. Everything Touches Everything is out now, their freaky-PBS-corn-people video is here, and tour dates (with Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and more) are up here.
These United States - Everything Touches Everything
Previously:
These United States - First Sight
These United States - West Won
These United States - Get Yourself Home (In Search of the Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous)
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Birds and Batteries - Lightning (UTNG Version) + The Villain
This is some freak-funk, alt-electro right here. Birds and Batteries’ Up To No Good is dark with John Carpenter-esque crescendos, arpeggiated basslines and throwback studio slick, and kicks out just in time for Halloween. Blast it in honkey-tonk dives and haunted houses alike.
Sounds like: David Bowie, Lindstrom, Neil Young
Birds and Batteries - Lightning (UTNG Version)
Birds and Batteries - The Villain
Birds and Batteries' RCRD LBL Page
DOWNLOAD: Roman Candle - Eden Was a Garden
By now, indie rock has been canonized along with the rest of Chapel Hill's traditions: Dean Smith, vinegary BBQ and sweet tea, and hilarious tattoos. If only we could have caught Roman Candle at Cat's Cradle, where everything sounds perennial and cigarettes are probably still allowed and the shots of SoCo and Lime are always half-off. Pitchfork's long called them one of the great unsubstantiated rumors of pop-rock, but to us, Roman Candle captures precisely what it's like to exist in North Carolina, all mild seasons and scuffed sneakers, where Built to Spill are The Rolling Stones and the law of options and longer days make everyone's playlists equally good.
Sounds like: Wilco, The Replacements
DOWNLOAD: Son Volt - Down To The Wire
While his old Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jeff Tweedy went on to get weird with Wilco, Jay Farrar kept the alt-country torch burning in Son Volt, who are essentially the band equivalent of friends from high school you don't share any interests with but love just the same. Their sixth album, American Central Dust (out July 7th via Rounder), is being touted as a return to form after 2007's experimentally challenged The Search, and "Down To The Wire" confirms that in its straightforward prairie rock peachyness.
Sounds like: Slobberbone, Drive-By Truckers, Ben Nichols
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Fellow Citizens - Holden Caulfield Makes A Phone Call To Jane
Maybe it's the Cinco di Mayo hangover and I am feeling rather sorry for myself, but all I craved today was a steady dose of sun-flecked, finger-plucked, almost thumb-sucking alt-country jams, the kind made for camp fires, all-day stints in bed, and solemn think sessions on park benches. That said, I've been playing this serene, soothing concoction by Colorado-based Fellow Citizens on repeat. It has got a bit of the warm, reverb soaked guitar of My Morning Jacket, (The male lead even has a similar belted slur as Jim James,) a gossamery melody like Wilco, and a mountain wholesomeness like Blitzen Trapper. The soft female harmony tops off the song just right.
PS In case you are wondering about the title, remember Holden Caulfield is the lead from Catcher In The Rye and Jane was his innocence crush, whom he deliberates half the book about calling....ahh high school memories...
Sounds Like: Blitzen Trapper, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Sadies
Fellow Citizens - Holden Caulfield Makes a Phone Call to Jane
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EXCLUSIVE NEW STREAM: The Love Language - The Love Language (ENTIRE ALBUM)
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Last week, we introduced you to The Love Language's 1960s pop-tinged track "Lalita" during SXSW. Since then, we've been falling deep for the entire self-titled album, even though (and/or probably because) one man recorded the whole compilation lo-fi on a four-track in North Carolina. We liked it so much that we asked for permission to share and stream the whole thing with you.
Post break-up, post alcohol binging, post hitting rock bottom - and after moving back in with his parents to get his life on track, Stu McLamb played, recorded and mastered every element of this album by his lonesome. From the jaunty, melodic ballad "Stars", the shimmering tambourine pop like "Sparxxx", to the nostalgic sing-along waltz "Manteo" that moves in the direction of Cold War Kids' alt-country balladry, The Love Language certifies that even self-destructing, inhabitable love can birth lovely things.
* PS we only have access to this stream for 4 weeks, so relish it while you can!
Sounds Like: The Morning Benders, Cold War Kids, Deer Tick, Beach House,
The Love Language - Two Rabbits
DOWNLOAD: These United States - West Won + Get Yourself Home (In Search of the Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous)
What is up with bands putting out so many records this year? Trent Reznor’s releasing stuff as soon as the WAV files hit his iTunes, Jay Reatard is still writing a song a day, Fucked Up put out two full-lengths in nine months, and D.C.’s alt-country heroes These United States have now done the same. Crimes, the latter of the two, came out in September and includes both songs we have for you today, the cascading dirge “West Won” and the more straightforward straw-punk of “Get Yourself Home (In Search of the Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous).” These guys have a sound that is most assuredly bred from dwelling and traveling across America, but isn’t it a bit ironic that they’re called “These United States” and don’t even technically live in a state? Just saying.
Sounds like: Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Colour Revolt, Dead Confederate
Download: These United States - West Won
These United States' RCRD LBL Page
Previously:
DOWNLOAD: The Dead Trees - Shelter
Little known fact: Portland band The Dead Trees used to call themselves Furvis and lived in Boston. I know this because a few times they opened for a friend’s band (the now-dormant Aberdeen City) and every time managed to slay their flowery Americana for a handful of people, sounding like The Strokes if they’d idolized Apples In Stereo instead of Guided By Voices and also if they wore more flannel (proof above). Re-inventing themselves with a move west and a (welcome) name change, they four dudes are prepping their first LP, King Of Rosa, to hit stores on November 11 through Milan. “Shelter” is the first single, a daytime porch jam that turns into hot evangelical rock joint at the chorus and coda, all with dude screaming and band burning shit down. It’s hard to argue with an Albert Hammond Jr. co-sign (the band toured with the guitarist last year) and this is making us feel pretty sprightly on a Monday, so make sure to grab the song below and hit the jump for some ACTUAL Dead Trees porch fun.
Sounds like: Apples In Stereo, Albert Hammond Jr., Howlies
DOWNLOAD: Haley Bonar - Something Great
You gotta love 24-year-olds with ambition. Haley Bonar may look innocent but she's already working on her fourth album. Yeah, I know. Makes you feel guilty about couch-potatoing it huh? It doesn't help that she crafts sun-blissed, tingling tunes that mellow you out and coerce you to drop what you are doing and relax. Good thing she's too cute for you to hold too much of a grudge. "Something Great" has got a bit more uplifting cadence, with Haley coyly whisper-speaking sweetly over an infectious beat in half-lullaby half-nursery rhyme.
Sounds Like: K T Tunstall, Feist
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