EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Smirenye
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It's probably too late for ghoul puns now, but you suspect that for Zola Jesus it's Halloween all year round. Taken from recent album The Spoils, "Smirenye" is as haunted as anything else Nika Rosa Danilova's put her name to thus far, either alone or alongside Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and Freddy Rupert in Former Ghosts. Former ghosts? What do ghosts become after they die? Where do they go? Do they weep? Zola knows. Just look into those eyes.
Sounds Like: U.S. Girls, Kate Bush, Trailer Trash Tracys
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DOWNLOAD: Small Black - Despicable Dogs
(Photo: Katie Ford)
When sending over materials for this feature, Josh from Small Black said, "I think this is the first time we've done hi-res anything." He was joking, but his self-awareness was relieving, like he was okaying the use of certain words to describe his band. So yes, "Despicable Dogs" is druggingly dirty and cheap-sounding, awash in noise but still an obviously great, pubescent pop song. Small Black's self-titled EP is out now through Cass Club, you can buy the 12-inch over at Insound.
DOWNLOAD: Peepholes - Airforce Trainer
"A 'peephole'," Wikipedia tells us, "is a small opening cut in a door, typically to allow people inside to see outside without opening that door." OK - so quoting Wikipedia is pretty much the laziest thing that anyone can possibly do, but for Brighton duo Peepholes the definition's too apt not to use, "Airforce Trainer" so obviously the result of two lonely people making music in a bunker somewhere. The great thing about the track though is that it'd sound equally at home spinning around and around and around in a jet engine, such is its thrust and the roar of its electronics. Tell me that when those synths rise up from the song it doesn't sound just a little like "Virginia Plain" - "Virginia Plane"?! No, because that would just not be funny in the slightest.
Sounds Like: Gentle Friendly, Roxy Music, No Age
DOWNLOAD: Future Trends - Moonraker
The louche, bedroom-disco cad behind Future Trends is one Andrew G Clark, resident to West Chester, Ohio. I don't know a great deal else about him, to be honest, but maybe that's for the best - the fantasy of these things is always better than the reality, isn't it? Of that spangled, suddenly vivid synthpop that always sounds born in its maker's latest drunken epiphany. I don't know if Andrew G Clark drinks a lot. I don't know that. What I do know is that this track is great, and you should listen to it. Because you definitely drink a lot, and we all deserve an epiphany every once in a while. Don't we?
Sounds Like: Nite Jewel, White Williams, Liquid Vega
DOWNLOAD: The Fresh & Onlys - Dude's Got A Tender Heart
San Francisco's The Fresh & Onlys always sound like they're emanating from a graveyard radio, Spectorian girl group and garage rock ghosts absorbed in from the ether. That's not to say they sound morbid, just totally of another time. The two-part "Dude's Got A Tender Heart" comes from Grey-Eyed Girls, their second LP out now through the always killing it Woodsist.
The Fresh & Onlys - Dude's Got A Tender Heart
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EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: IVANSXTC - The Deepest + Breathe
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It's not hard to see why everyone's so hype about IVANSXTC - the guy's anonymous and sounds like Mike 'Blank Dogs' Sniper singing SALEM songs. A more accurate equation for hype I never heard, but if he keeps spewing out tracks like "The Deepest" and "Breathe" it'll all be justified; Suicide-al crooning indie-friendly melodies that do war with steamy atmospherics and none-more-ominous bass grumble. Good shit.
Sounds Like: Zola Jesus, Roy Orbison, SALEM
DOWNLOAD: Cotton Jones - Where You Stop For A Minute
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I don't know if people from Maryland are supposed to sound like Michael Nau, but even if they're not his voice still wouldn't annoy me. Cotton Jones - Nau, plus Whitney McGraw - may hup and slur like rootin', tootin' country folk but there's a genuine melancholy to "Where You Stop For A Minute" too quiet and private to really be considered pretentious or 'wacky'. Even if it is about missing a stray cat from Michigan called Don.
Sounds Like: Baby Venom, Elton John, Devendra Banhart
DOWNLOAD: Washed Out - Belong + Feel It All Around
We're more than aware that the internet can be a place of great hyperbole, but damn if the mouth foaming on this one isn't warranted. Ernest Greene bka Washed Out has been spilling lots of ink since a few home demos surfaced earlier this summer, and while that is great, a quick glance at his blog reveals he's spent the ensuing months just like we did–biking, swimming, hanging with friends, and taking photos. I say this because his music perfectly encapsulates such pleasure-seeking–it's like hearing Depeche Mode from the inside of a lava lamp. "Belong," from the limited High Times cassette due next week through Mirror Universe, and "Feel It All Around," from the Life Of Leisure EP, out now through Mexican Summer, were our go-to late-summer tunes. And between the above photo and their titles, you kind of know what you're getting into here. So long, Summer. It's been real.
DOWNLOAD: The Smith Westerns - Girl In Love
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So, this is where we're headed then: lo-fi, having exhausted the vast trove of arcane Eighties fuzz and heart, has retreated back to the chest hair and sequins of the early Seventies. The stiletto stomp of The Smith Westerns is mighty authentic - you imagine this was recorded drunk and at home, so playing "Girl In Love" feels like dusting off on of those ever-so-slightly warped 7"s your parents keep in the loft. I guess that makes you bisexual and us... The Old Grey Whistle Test?
Sounds Like: T-Rex, Black Lips, The Dead Boys
The Smith Westerns - Girl In Love
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The Smith Westerns - Irukandji
DOWNLOAD: Best Coast - Something In The Way
Some people are all stuffy about this so-called "lo-fi resurgence," and to them we say, "Whatever–go have your pity party elsewhere. We will jam these songs and you will be jealous of our good times." Among those songs will be this one from Best Coast aka Bethany Cosentino, former lead singer of Pochahaunted. It's not a Nirvana cover, but it's just as understatedly perfect.
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