nye10

by cecilia a.s.

pause band

by cecilia a.s.

PAWF – Oyster Boy

seeing them tonight at Klubi in Turku, Finland!
PINTANDWEFALL.

PINTANDWEFALL

why are Finns so awesomely fun?
and especially girl indie rock/pop bands.
PAWF.

Local Natives :: Gorilla Manor (2010)

artist: Local Natives (from California)

album: Gorilla Manor

label: Frenchkiss Records

release date: 16.02.2010

genre: indie

rating: alright. as rated by me, remember? and I'm getting quite tired of indie shit. but don't let my opinions override yours.

62.72mb preview / purchase

(01). Wide Eyes [4:28]
(02). Airplanes [4:00]
(03). Sun Hands [4:53]
(04). World News [4:32]
(05). Shape Shifter [5:31]
(06). Camera Talk [3:45]
(07). Cards & Quarters [4:01]
(08). Warning Sign [4:12]
(09). Who Knows Who Cares [3:55]
(10). Cubism Dream [4:02]
(11). Stranger Things [5:48]
(12). Sticky Thread [3:48]

I caught two or three of their songs at Coachella last year (2010).
I liked them better live than I thought I would based on their album.
But their songs still just aren't my type.

Matt & Kim :: Sidewalks (2010)

artist: Matt & Kim

album: Sidewalks

label: Fader

release date: 02.11.2010

genre: indie pop/rock

rating: okay. think I've had enough of their sound after two albums..

74.63mb preview / purchase

01 Block After Block
02 AM/FM Sound
03 Cameras
04 Red Paint
05 Where You’re Coming From
06 Good for Great
07 Northeast
08 Wires
09 Silver Tiles
10 Ice Melts

The tent in which they played at Coachella last year (2010) was packed, but I managed to squeeze in enough at one side opening to catch a couple songs. Kim was totally not what I imagined—she totally displayed the punk-rock-girl attitude.

Ra Ra Riot :: The Orchard (2010)

artist: Ra Ra Riot

album: The Orchard

release date: 24.08.2010

label: Barsuk

genre: indie pop/rock, chamber pop

rating: sehr gut

83mb preview / buy

1. The Orchard
2. Boy
3. Too Dramatic
4. Foolish
5. Massachusetts
6. You and I Know
7. Shadowcasting
8. Do You Remember
9. Kansai
10. Keep It Quiet

and here's their debut album "The Rhumb Line".
I've also seen them live once at the nice intimate venue on campus two years ago.

Mother Mother :: O My Heart

artist: Mother Mother, from Vancouver, Canada

album: O MY HEART

release date: 31.05.2010 (Europe), 09.2008 (North America)

label: last gang records

genre: indie, indie rock, indie folk

sounds like: muffled brass on wet roads surrounded by lots of emotional sex (quote)

rating: very good

purchase: amazon

1. O My Heart
2. Burning Pile
3. Body of Yours
4. Try to Change
5. Wisdom
6. Body
7. Ghosting
8. Hayloft (watch mv) [newmusicblog.co.uk]
9. Wrecking Ball
10. Arms Tonight
11. Miles
12. Sleep Awake

new favorite band. thanks aaron axelsen + soundcheck music producers for playing "Hayloft" again this week!

Tokyo Police Club - Breakneck Speed

The title is misleading, “Breakneck Speed”’s speed is languorous compared to their earliest tracks. Wistful and ambiguous, it simultaneously yearns for “the big bad years” of youthful recklessness, and seems relieved that they’re over. It all depends on whether you think Monks is always singing “It’s good to be back” or if he switches to “It’s good to be bad.”

—stereogum premiere

new Tokyo Police Club track entitled "Breakneck Speed"

genre: indie
rating: very good

album Champ will be out on June 8th.

The XX - Crystalised live @coachella 2010

sry I started recording it at a part that makes it sound a little weird.

very good show.

The Sandwitches - Back To The Sea

The Sandwitches, from San Francisco

album: how to make ambient sadcake

genre: bossa nova, acoustic, indie pop, lo-fi

label: turn up!

direct-dl mp3s:

the sandwitches - back to the sea

idiot savant

marry me i actually like this much more than their single "back to the sea". vocals remind me of the vivian girls–garage, lo-fi – but more melodic and fun.

via gorillavsbear [fave new indie music site!]

SF Noise Pop 2010

SF Noise Pop started last Wednesday and is almost over. I'm a bit bummed I couldn't go, (presently going to school in SD)—would've be cool to go to indie rock shows every night for a week, and also because I would miss San Diego's Indie Fest as well.

But yeah, if you're in the Bay Area, you have one more night of Noise Pop. Go check it out, post pictures afterward and blog a reivew so I can enjoy it vicariously through you.

Here are a couple reviews by live105 of shows so far.

Oh, nvm, just took a look at the schedule—the closing night show has already sold out.

Next year, guys. Gotta get on those indie events. (and I gotta get on blogging at times when I actually find out about shit. I saved a draft with the noisepop website url last tues. night, and didn't get to making a complete post until tonight. Win.)

Why? - These Hands/January Twentysomething

Why?: These Hands/ January Twentysomething [Anticon]

Insound | eMusic | Lala | Pitchfork

(one of) my favorite band(s).

related posts: WHY? this blackest purse, live@theLoft, alopecia (2008)

My Girls and My Boys

Animal Collective - My Girls, from the album "Merriweather Post Pavilion" (jan2009)

I don't think it's that great of a song. Drones on and gets boring after a bit. I've listened to the MPP album, too, and that just seems to be Animal Collective's sound. Kind of psychedlic, a little shoegazy, sort of dancable, but mostly just drones on and on (especially the vocals). Even if I were in an altered state of mind, I think I would still have a pretty low tolerance for their songs. Being so, I'm in that small group of hipsters who don't get what all the hype about Animal Collective was about.

Nevertheless, check out this acoustic cover by this Swedish band called Taken By Trees. It's slightly more tolerable to me because it's 2 minutes shorter than the original.

Taken By Trees - My Boys

Mumford & Sons :: Sigh No More

artist: Mumford & Sons

from: the UK

genre: indie, indie-folk

album: Sigh No More

release date: 16.feb.2010

label: Glassnote

rating: pretty good

buy: amazon

1. Sigh No More
2. The Cave
3. Winter Winds
4. Roll Away Your Stone
5. White Blank Page
6. I Gave You All
7. Little Lion Man
8. Timshel
9. Thistle & Weeds
10. Awake My Soul
11. Dust Bowl Dance
12. After The Storm

Ok, upon first listen, I thought this was quite good, until I read the pitchfork review a couple minutes ago. Not that I completely allow critics to form my opinions. But I probably should listen to albums more than once before posting it here. Oh hey, 8/10 rating on popmatters review. And yeah, what he said: you would think that this is another americana/indie-folk band, but they're from west London. Also, some Christian themes in the lyrics. Which could be tiring after a bit, actually.

Indie Covers: Smashing Pumpkins, M.I.A., and the Pixies

GOTTA check out this band The Da Vincis from Jackson, MS and their cover of M.I.A.

They're currently seniors in high school!

Rainy day yesterday, which means...perfect day for listening to indie music! was listening to Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist and noted a few QUITE GOOD indie/indie-folk/acoustic covers to share with you guys.

HoneyHoney - 1979 (Smashing Pumpkins cover) ★★★★

The Da Vincis - Paper Planes (M.I.A. cover) ★★★★★

Emmy the Great - Where Is My Mind (Pixies cover) ★★★★

Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist

Like indie music but don't have time to frequent pitchfork, blogs, hype machine, or scour your town's small indie record shop for new bands?

Solution: Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist.

100+ songs every month.

I'm still catching up on September's playlist. Kind of hard when I'm listening on my iPod, sometime I switch genres, then when I come back to indie rock I don't remember where on the playlist I stopped at.

Not posting the playlist here, way too long. But it includes new Why?. Karen O, Mutemath, Elvis Perkins + much much more.

megaupload | torrent | total 7+ hr playing time | total 737mb | ★★★★★

i, hipster, also hate..

Most of the Members of My Gender

Craig: What are you doing tonight?

Hazel: Dunno. Otis just texted me asking the same thing. Gus and Faceplant are gonna have people over later, I guess, and supposedly Luca’s having some party. But I bet all those stupid Columbia girls he hangs out with are gonna be there so I don’t really wanna go.

Craig: I think some of us are gonna go to Sheena’s gallery opening thingie and then smoke at Regina’s, you wanna come?

Hazel: Ugh, I cannot stand either of those girls. They’re so fake and like, guy-obsessed. Like everything in life is about meeting guys.

Craig: Uh, aren’t almost all of your friends guys?

Hazel: Yeah, cuz girls are bitches! They’re all judgmental and catty and into gossip and shit. I’m such a dude at heart. I was totally born into the wrong gender.

Craig: Maybe that’s why that guy mistook you for a man from behind at the Charleston on Tuesday.

Hazel: Whatever, it isn’t my fault that I look good with short hair and that every male on Bedford is wearing a plaid shirt on his emaciated shoulders and skinny jeans over his girlishly small hips. Hey, I might just go to Milo’s and drink beer. He got She’s All That at a stoop sale last weekend for, like, 25 cents. On tape.

Craig: I don’t get why you guys aren’t dating.

Hazel: No way, man. I love Milo so much. So much. He treats the girls he dates like shit, he knows that. Right now we’re like, best friends. We would never go and fuck that up by dating. Fuck, no.

Craig: But you have fucked.

Hazel: Whatever.

WHY? this blackest purse

I wanna speak at an intimate decibel
with the precision of an infinite decimal,
to listen up and send back a true echo
of something forever felt but never heard
I want that sharpened steel of truth in every word

WHY? – this blackest purse | 2009, 320kbps | ★★★★★| full lyrics

Yoni of WHY? @theLoft, 22.oct.09, UCSD campus

interview with Yoni about jogging, SFbayguardian, 03.2008

WHY? myspace

Sandbox Astronomy

Sandbox Astronomy, from Pittsburgh, PA

Album: View From the Center of the Universe

Release Date: Sept.2009

Genre: Indie, Indie-Folk

Rating: Good.

1. Lost Languages 03:15
2. Bird in Hand 03:28
3. This is How 04:53
4. Astronaut 03:56

Download album here on their website. Choose what file format/quality you would like, and you can name your price, too, if you would like to support the artist. But there's no minimum amount so you can download for free.