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DOWNLOAD: Royal Baths - Faster, Harder
(Photo: Fatos Marishta)
You’d be hard pressed to find a Royal Baths song that invokes the hazy, red-curtained world of the Velvet Underground as much as “Faster, Harder.” From the purposeful drawl bemoaning a damaged girl and the off-kilter opium guitars to the barroom drums and nearly dismissive bassline, the satire outshines the subject. And that’s even before the screeching crescendo end. Something to be proud of: because it’s 2012, and it rocks, and it’s relevant and somehow, some way, these dudes are getting famous by exploiting a fantasy without being reductive. Support them; they’re good, and their sophomore effort, with songs even better than this one, comes out on Kanine in February.
DOWNLOAD: Nurses - Fever Dreams
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Nurses always kind of sound like a team of psych-rock beachcombers yelping from the shores of Cocomo, but perhaps never more than in “Fever Dreams,” which is perfectly named because it’s both deliriously warm and shaky in its bongo drums, bleary guitars and gleeful, tripped out vocals. Listen hard enough to this and the rest of Dracula, and the thousand-day-wait ‘til spring will fly on by.
DOWNLOAD: Gauntlet Hair - Top Bunk
When we saw Gauntlet Hair play a few weeks back in a cold warehouse, the drummer started the set with his shirt already off. He then proceeded to rip it so hard that we began to wonder if he arrived in New York with one in his possession at all. Listening to “Top Bunk,” we have decided that no, he totally did not. This muted psych-rock melody sounds like a lost b-side of the Trainspotting soundtrack—it's that wavy, weird and young-hearted. Of course it’s rock, not electronica, but it’ll make you wanna take your shirt off and sway just the same. More in our bin, and on the Denver dudes’ eponymous debut on Dead Oceans.
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DOWNLOAD: PASSWORDS - Life After Summer + Idaho
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“Life After Summer,” by Canadian young guns and avant psych-rockers PASSWORDS is luxuriant and noodling, with a milky vocal timbre that’ll take root in your psyche, along with painfully beautiful bridges and lamenting lyrics. Even more lush and unassumming is "Idaho." And yet, if you catch these dudes live, they gleefully skitter and crash about as if they’re playing the biggest stadium in town, alternating between melodic English trilling and calling to the crowd to start flailing along in French. Layers! We love to see that. And we will, during CMJ, where the soon-to-be Dan Deacon and The Antlers-supporting band will be working concert-goers into a lather Québécois-style, before they go back to tweaking their textural, guitar-and-keys-driven LP.
PREMIERE: Nucular Aminals - Nobody's Man
Nucular Aminals is a Portland quartet keeping very busy. After dropping its full-length debut earlier this summer on K, the band is back with a follow-up 7-inch out today. While the group usually delivers high-impact psych pop, “Nobody’s Man” slows it down for a moodier spin. Its signature lo-fi finish works well with the change in pace, allowing the track’s finer points—like Erin Schmith on the farfisa—to shine in full force.
Nucular Aminals - Nobody's Man
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PREMIERE: Sea Of Bees - Gnomes (Tunng Remix)
When we first heard Sea Of Bees, we assigned them to the highest order of freak folk, as their sound was one of mating alien birds and interstellar explosions. With this Tunng remix of “Gnomes,” we see Julie Ann Bee has fallen to earth, landing hard on the other, more human end of the psychedelic scale. Her beautiful strangeness is no less understandable—it’s simply primal where it once rang celestial. Add Far East guitars, chopped beats, harping keyboards and a wall of feedback, and you’ve got a lost-in-the-woods tweaker that'll haunt you for days. Pre-order what you can, over on Amazon right now.
Sea Of Bees - Gnomes (Tunng Remix)
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DOWNLOAD: Frankie Rose & the Outs - Candy (Dinowalrus Remix)
Frankie Rose & the Outs get muzzy thanks to Brooklyn psych-synth weirdos Dinowalrus in this purple bloom refit of “Candy.” Aqueous synths, glockenspiels, shaky tambourines and digi-drums push the original’s early ‘60s girl group vibe into proper late ’60s psychedelia. We are into it! And we are into Dinowalrus, whose members include former Titus Andronicus guitarist Pete Feigenbaum, and whose upcoming sophomore release info and tour news can be viewed here.
Frankie Rose & the Outs - Candy (Dinowalrus Remix)
Get More Dinowalrus Music Here
Get More Frankie Rose & the Outs Music Here
PREMIERE: Nucular Animals - Gay & Gay
Nucular Animals is three Portlanders by way of San Francisco and a native son on the drums. I mention this move because it also seems relevant to the sound of the band, neatly wrapped indie with a lo-fi feel and freewheeling finish. Think The Doors' finer points with that signature K recs rub. "Gay & Gay" is a spirited psych-jaunt from the group's self-titled LP, which drops today.
