Golden Silvers - True Romance

Psychedelic rock is such a huge umbrella term now. It covers anything from Of Montreal to MGMT. And I guess I'm okay with that, but there was a time where 'psychedelic rock' wasn't thrown around loosely. I'm about to contradict about myself, but I will say that modern 'psychedelic' music is probably more congruent with actual psychedelic experiences. Regardless, the word psychedelic as it pertains to music was set in precedent in the 1960s by American bands like The Velvet Underground and 13th Floor Elevators and British bands like Pink Floyd, Traffic, Soft Machine, and Cream.

Golden Silvers are true psychedelic rock from where I see it. These young Londoners released this debut last year to little to no hype. The trio has been kicking around singles since 2007 and released "True Romance" on XL Recordings. Synthesizers and dramatic vocals, and anything under the sun used to characterize 'psychedelia' are on this record. I have a sneaking suspicion they'll make waves with a future release as they improve upon their already tight sound.

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Fred Thomas - Night Times

In my short music playing career, I have had few special moments. Actually, I can only think of one. And that was playing a house show with City Center and knowing that Fred Thomas was watching me play music. Fred Thomas is of Saturday Looks Good to Me and City Center fame and is an all-around great songwriter. From the indie pop of his older works to the more ambient and experimental sounding project City Center, Fred is a truly special musician. This is a collection of songs he put out last year in between working on City Center material. Subtle compositions with acoustic and electric guitar tones along with catchy vocals and interesting sounds. A lot of solid stuff here. And it's free. So I don't feel bad. Thanks, Fred. Sorry about the leeeetle cover art, it's all I could find.

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Lisa Mitchell - Wonder

DOWNLOAD LISA MITCHELL'S WONDER

(sorry for rapidshare)

Holiday Shores - Columbus'd the Whim

Opening for Surfer Blood is A BIG DEAL. Holiday Shores did it recently, and will hopefully get a little more hype for this 2009 release. Pretty standard fare indie rock here. Reverberated guitars and harmonies dance on playful drum rhythms and melodies. Last.fm said 'new weird america,' but I disagree with that tag. These guys kind of remind me of a looser Local Natives and a softer Surfer Blood. Go for it dudes.

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MGMT - Congratulations

I'm sorry. I have to.

It really isn't bad. It's still MGMT, but they're weirder. A little less dance-y, a little more 60s. Definitely a step up in terms of consistency of an actual album. I can see myself actually buying an MGMT record. Tickle me surprised.

Givers - Givers EP

The Ruby Suns - Fight Softly

Ryan McPhun and co. have been kicking around since 2007 or so, creating indie rock comparable to some kind of psychedelic bastard child of Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes. With a new label in Sub Pop, the new LP from the Ruby Suns is a record full of interesting songs and attractive textures. The album is straight-forward psychedelic pop. Shimmering keyboards, tribal drums, and reverberated vocals outline the record. A staple of post-AnCo music, the Ruby Suns expertly craft pop songs that are catchy enough to garner replay value, but weird enough to stay refreshing. Standouts include, "Cranberry," "Closet Astrologer," and "Two Humans."



DOWNLOAD FIGHT SOFTLY RIGHT NOW MAN

Chromatic Flights - Sunset Bell

Kyle Wyss is one half of psych-folk-noise teenagers, Blind Man's Colour. The duo (Kyle's musical partner is long time friend, Orhan Chettri) released a record this year called Seasons Dreaming. It is definitely a good record, but I think his solo stuff is definitely on the same level. While Blind Man's Colour is a lot noisier and a little more free-form, Chromatic Flights is a more electronic-pop oriented project.

Synonymous with this whole tropical sound going down these days, the Sunset Bell EP is close to perfect. It's saddening that this is only 7 songs, with one being a cover of one of Orhan Chettri's songs (Lucid Bus). The songs are bit on the long side which makes up for its brevity.

It is clear that Wyss has a good ear for a structure and how to build a weird pop song. His use of keyboards and synth pads is impressive along with his beats and samples. Simple stuff here, folks, but definitely download this.

Download the album for free at his bandcamp.com site

Delorean - Ayrton Senna EP/Into The Plateau EP

If you had a car that could go back in time, what would you do? I would probably not almost hook up with my mother, but I would probably steal some ideas from the 80s or something and come back and make some sweet EP's.

Delorean does not have the car, but they have the name. And they have some stellar tunes to match. These Spaniards are joining this whole European pop scene going down in Sweden and Iceland and such called Balearic pop or something like that. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to classify this as Balearic by the genre gods, but whatever they remind me of The Tough Alliance and that whole Sincerely Yours thing that's getting real popular with the blogs lately. I dig it.

The Ayrton Senna EP is Delorean's latest release and is probably their best. Fast disco beats against delayed guitars and catchy melodies, layered and supported by digital organ sounds and pianos. Four songs deep, this EP is far too short and I'm looking for an LP to be released sometime here soon.

I put up their previous EP as well just so there's a little more meat to this post. Yeah. Meat.

Ayrton Senna EP

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Into The Plateau EP





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Sin Fang Bous - Clangour

I really want to go to Iceland. After watching the Sigur Ros documentary, Heima, I decided that one day I'll hit Iceland and explore or something. Not only does Iceland have some amazing landscapes, they produce some alright musicians.

This particular Icelandian (?) is named Sindri Mar Sigfusson. Under the moniker Sin Fang Bous, Sigfusson makes cute folky/synthy jams. The sounds here are kind of hard to classify because you get that Morr Music feeling of kind of sad, subdued acoustic songs. But then there's a lot of weird things going on around it; matched with odd rhythms and interesting keyboard sounds. Sigfusson's voice is strikingly dry and somewhat muddled and stumbled over at times. But the songs all have tight melodies and structures to hold the song together. I'm interested in this guy's live set up. Could be very interesting to play this stuff life.

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St. Vincent - Actor

I'm posting a lot of my top 10 of 2009 already.

Oops.


St. Vincent, a.k.a. Annie Clark is the latest indie wondergirl this side of Marnie Stern. Not a second too soon either, because her record, "Actor" is fantasmical. Her compositions are quaint and melodic, but there's a heavy dose of noisy instrumentation from fuzzy guitars and blaring saxophones. The drums lock seamlessly with the percussive demeanor of her arrangements. Songs like "Marrow" and "Black Rainbow" are art-pop masterpieces that need to be heard. The leading single, "Actor Out of Work" is a marvelous pop tune with a gorgeous hook and a playful horn section.

This is the second St. Vincent record, and I can't wait to hear more. She has joined the sad list of bands I discovered AFTER they played at Bonnaroo. Oh well. This album is very nice.

St. Vincent - Actor

1. "The Strangers" - 4:04
2. "Save Me from What I Want" - 3:35
3. "The Neighbors" - 3:30
4. "Actor Out of Work" - 2:15
5. "Black Rainbow" - 4:11
6. "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood" - 3:01
7. "Marrow" - 3:24
8. "The Bed" - 3:43
9. "The Party" - 4:05
10. "Just the Same but Brand New" - 5:24
11. "The Sequel" - 1:53

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Discovery - LP

Indie wunderkinds Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend) and Wes Miles (Ra Ra Riot) formed a duo/side-project called Discovery. They released a few tracks a while ago for the EP and announced the LP a few weeks later.

Well, it leaked and I've decided to post it up here. Probably not the moral thing to do, but I'll probably buy this album when it comes out.

This record is straight up R&B, which is kind of humorous and silly, but it works for them and the songs come out catchy and well-crafted. There are cheesy drum synths and auto-tune, but it's all done in good taste.

I forsee this being a fun summer release. Stand out tracks; "Osaka Loop Line" and "So Insane"

Discovery - LP

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I don't know where you can buy this yet.