DOWNLOAD: Spector - Never Fade Away (Debukas Remix)
(Photo: Joe Tovey Frost)
Spector are huge. Their choruses are huge. They are monarchs of the chorus. Their devotion to indie-rock as a unifying device is huge. They are abbots of the devotion to indie-rock as a unifying device. They are hugely handsome. They are five handsome men, wrestling with gigantic drinking problems. In fact, the only thing about them that isn't huge yet is their profile, though that will surely inflate as their debut single, "Never Fade Away", pours through the ears of all those who've been waiting a decade to stand in a room and shout music back at the stylish men playing it without getting punched in the face by tuque-wearing Salem fans. This remix of that track—out now, through Luv Luv Luv—remains big, but in a very different way to the original: Debukas stretching it out into an opulent disco glider flecked with tears of noise and slow-mo piano significance.
Spector - Never Fade Away (Debukas Remix)
Find More Free Debukas Music Here
DOWNLOAD: My Sad Captains - You Talk All Night
(Photo: Raphael Olschner)
London's My Sad Captains absolutely, irrefutably prove that not all the loyal, indie-rock boyfriends died when they went to university/college. I remember when I used to be able to talk all night and not wake up with a sore head. I remember when I was more scared of girls than they were of me. Listening to "You Talk All Night" makes me feel sick and ashamed of myself, but in a good way - as if from this point on all things will be pure, an example that life can be as innocent as it used to be. This fragile slither of hope appears on the band's debut album, Here and Elsewhere, out now through Stolen Recordings.
My Sad Captains - You Talk All Night
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Fionn Regan - Protection Racket
Don't let the solemn, sorry-for-itself black n' white photo fool you - Fionn Regan is perhaps the chirpiest man alive, "Protection Racket" skipping from one narrative tangent to the next in a bluster of giddy folk and laddish bonhomie. Find it on Fionn's forthcoming new album, the less lonely follow-up to 2007's Mercury-nominated The End Of History.
Sounds Like: Eugene McGuinness, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams
Fionn Regan - Protection Racket
DOWNLOAD: Gentle Friendly - Clean Breaker
"Ride Symbols", "Ride Around Shining", Ride Slow. London-based pair Gentle Friendly seem preoccupied with riding, regardless of who or why or how. They appear to just want to ride, as if the simple desire for motion is in itself enough. That much is evident in most things they commit to tape, it all being hyperactive and propelled by drums and toy organs resigned long ago to providing joy doses and the same is true of "Clean Breaker", one of the first tracks to emerge from aforementioned new album Ride Slow, riding out through Upset! The Rhythm on October 19.
Sounds Like: the new No Age EP, The Wannadies, Charles Hayward
Gentle Friendly - Clean Breaker
Previously:
Gentle Friendly - Ride Symbols
Gentle Friendly - Ride Around Shining
Gentle Friendly's RCRD LBL Page
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Copy Haho - Pulling Push Ups + The Last Dash
An hour or so ago, Britain's musical landscape seemed a decidely less cheery place. Los Campesinos!, one of the cheeriest bands on earth, were mourning the loss of one of their seven members to the sage pursuit of academia and lovers of chirpy, post-adolescent indie that yearned to once again be adolescent were sobbing into their cardies. But Now! it's Scotland's Copy Haho righting the balance, "Pushing Pull Ups" and "The Last Dash" full-on in their boisterous pursuit of good, clean fun. Hear this summery cheer, taken from new EP Bred For Skills & Magic, out now through Big Scary Monsters.
Sounds Like: Alkaline Trio, The Buzzcocks, Vampire Weekend
DOWNLOAD: The Twilight Sad - Reflection Of The Television
Full of ominous guitar angst and Scotch brood, this new track from The Twilight Sad finds James Graham sounding like the survivor of his own personal war, love's shrapnel flying all about him as the explosions retreat into the distance. Does that sound histrionic? Of couse it does, but it suits this Glaswegian quartet. Not for nothing are the frequent comparisons to The Smiths, whose down-eyed melodrama is similarly affecting and always utterly convincing. Graham always seems like he's grappling with something profound in its weight, but he always seems calm while doing so, jumping not to grand metaphors or delirious screaming - instead, his psychopathic cool while the noise flares all around helps imbue a sentence as innocuous as "there's people downstairs" with ridiculous foreboding. Climb aboard the doom train but don't blame anyone but yourself when it explodes.
Sounds Like: Mogwai, Idlewild, Nirvana
The Twilight Sad - Reflection Of The Television
Previously:
The Twilight Sad - That Summer At Home...(Ensemble Remix)
The Twilight Sad's RCRD LBL Page
DOWNLOAD: Johnny Foreigner - Feels Like Summer
If Johnny Foreigner know anything it's how to get people excited. As in grin-struggling-to-escape-face, covered-in-a-stranger's-sweat excited. Here, the Birmingham three-piece combine that know-how with the onset of summer and things go nuclear - because, let's face it, there is nothing as exciting as being able to walk to the off-licence in just a T-shirt for the first time. Feel the heat in guitars that fizz like beer cans shaken and left in the sun too long and a sudden explosion of delirious gang chants. Johnny Foreigner's as-yet-untitled second album will be released sometime later this year. Let's hope it's in time to catch a tan.
Sounds Like: early At The Drive-In, Los Campesinos, Blink 182
Johnny Foreigner - Feels Like Summer
Johnny Foreigner's RCRD LBL Page
DOWNLOAD: Pit Er Pat - Evacuation Days + STREAM: The Good Morning Song (Lucky Dragons Remix)
You can rely on any reunion between US indie rock and nu-jazz to make for akward listening. It sometimes seems the two are miles apart - indie-rock, with its decades-old codes and rituals, on the one hand; and song-based improv, with its own internal battle between form and formlessness, on the other. Pit Er Pat are a trio who seem to have a knack of finding these disparate components some common ground - last year's High Time full-length, released through Thrill Jockey, cast tracks like "Cairo Shuffle" and "Evacuation Days" out into the ether at the edge of familiar experience, carefully combining Middle-Eastern slank with abstracted punk-funk percussion to build something new and very much their own. Preparing for a May tour of the UK, Pit Er Pat have sought out oddball compadres Lucky Dragons to remix "The Good Morning Song" for a limited edition remix 12", also featuring contributions from Brenmar of These Are Powers and High Places' Rob Barber, appearing on the record in his guise as The Urxed.
Sounds Like: Dirty Projectors, High Places, Gang Gang Dance
Pit Er Pat - The Good Morning Song (Lucky Dragons Remix)
Previously:
HECUBA - Sir (Lucky Dragons Remix)
Lucky Dragons - Morning Ritual
