Listen: New How to Dress Well songs

How to Dress Well's first 7" just came out on Lefse Records, and its a beauty. Like Tom Krell (the man behind HTDW) announced some time ago, he has a lot more stuff coming out. Transparent Records will release his next 7" in just over a week. Ecstasy With Jojo / Take It On is up for pre-order right now at Pure Groove and the two songs can be streamed/downloaded below:

How To Dress Well - Ecstacy With Jojo (Single) by Pure Groove

This all leads up to HTDW's first full length release called Love Remains, coming September 21 also via Lefse. This debut LP will consist of songs Krell has released previously, only in recorded form and properly mixed and mastered. A first album song, You Won't Need Me Where I'm Goin', is up for grabs here as well (via Pitchfork):

MP3: How to Dress Well - You Won't Need Me Where I'm Goin'

Free download: Holy Spirits: The Afternoon's Blood

Here is another great treat as a free download via Bandcamp. The Afternoon's Blood is Holy Spirits' first release and is already being picked up by sites like Altered Zones. The band just made their EP available as a free download, and it is definitely worth taking a minute of your time for.

The EP starts off with the orchestral chamber pop that might remind you of acts like Grizzly Bear, only a bit darker and at times even somewhat grimy. The EP continues this mood, following with Bridges and Contain. At this time, comparisons shift a bit toward Mount Eerie or Vic Chesnutt, only with more falsetto voice. The fourth song in, White Walls, is the EP's highlight. Here, the band starts looking for different sounds and finds them in lush electronic organs and bass synth. Maybe this reminds you a bit of Radiohead during Kid A. As said, this is highly worth taking some time for. Listen/download:

Monster Rally: Palm Reader EP

Highly recommended this is. The Palm Reader EP consists of a couple tracks from Monster Rally's forthcoming album. This is sample-based pop at its best, in my opinion: Think Flying Lotus, only a bit less complex or Madlib, only more exotic. The full-length album is out in September; his EP can be downloaded for free from Bandcamp right now:

Free download: Guards

Another great discovery via Bandcamp: 60's pop outfit Guards. Their EP can be downloaded for free, and there's even a song with Cults (talking about 60's pop perfection) on there. Download this slice of summer:

Free download: Green Gerry

The first listens of Green Gerry's new album have literally left me speechless. Odd Tymes is probably one of the most amazing discoveries in quite some time. The band originates from Athens and Los Angeles and creates dark, dense and mostly acoustic music. I keep thinking of a modern times' Syd Barrett. The album was fully recorded in GarageBand, once more showing the potential of DIY-aesthetics; everybody owning some basic equipment can give shape to great music and interesting ideas. Too bad the album doesn't come in some kind of physical form, ‘cause I would love to hold a copy between my fingers. Highly recommended this is:

Free download: Wise Blood

Got some really great and free music from Bandcamp again last week. First off is Wise Blood, expect more later this week. Dubbed 'future music' by the band itself, they indeed sound remarkably fresh, with a mix of contemporary pop, hip hop and sect-like chanting:

Free download: Coma Cinema

I already bumped into Coma Cinema’s great video for Only some time ago (watch below), and love these great words on their site: "The music you'll find below is currently free for you to download and listen to. If you feel the need to compensate us, we only ask that you share the music with others."

You should definitely download their beautiful album Stoned Alone right here. You can also get a cassette version from Arcade Sounds.

Coma Cinema - Only from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.

Free download: Mount Pleasant

Jonathan Phillips has been releasing music under his lo-fi moniker Mount Pleasant for quite some time now. His music is very expressive and very dark. Like Xiu Xiu for example, the music is sometimes hard to grasp. Listening to his discography gives you an idea on how uncompromising this music really is, and that, in my opinion is really admirable.

From an interview with Salient:
I make most of my music at home, in my bed, I guess. I do record songs in friends’ living rooms, sometimes at like two in the morning. I record all the songs using the free software on my MacBook, GarageBand, and into the little inbuilt microphone. It doesn’t really add up to a “top quality” sound or anything. The guitar never sounds good and there are generally like six vocal layers to cover up how stark the vocals sound. The writing of the songs is generally like intuitive, like stream of consciousness lyrics that I edit out. Mostly the songs work with piano or a harp loop, something like that, it’s just like loops and destroyed samples and lots of delay and reverb. I really believe in delay and reverb, I think they are the two most important things in a song.


You can download a lot of music from Mount Pleasant's site. Some beautiful gems are there to be discovered by your ears. I'd recommend you at least download the Dissolute, Dissolute, The Flood and Rio Joy albums.

Download: Cool Runnings & Blurred Vision mixtape

Here is some more great music to get you through the weekend. Cool Runnings piled together this awesome mixtape featuring some of my favourite bands of the last couple months: How To Dress Well, Salem, Spectrals, they're all in there somewhere!

Full tracklist:
1 Spectrals — “7th Date”
2 SUNBEAM RD. — “Waves”
3 Magic Kids — “Summer”
4 Crocodiles — “Sleep Forever”
5 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN II AND III — “Dream Safari”
6 Ghost Animal — “In Your Room”
7 TOP GIRLS — “Not Enuff”
8 Salem — “King Night”
9 Pandit — “Crisp”
10 Wet Illustrated — “Flying”
11 Tonstartssbandht — “Midnite Cobras”
12 COOLRUNNINGS — “I AM YOU”
13 Big Troubles — “Drastic and Difficult”
14 Elite Gymnastics — “Montana”
15 How to Dress Well — “Read for the World”
16 Aias — “La Truita”
17 Young Mammals — “Stay to the Left”
18 Star Slinger — “Bumpkin”

Also, Cool Runnings themselves have a really good EP out that you can download from their Bandcamp. Grab it right here:

Free download: Stunts

What a great song Felt by Austin's Stunts still is. Luckily, it's also featured on their newest, self-titled EP that you can download for free from their Bandcamp. Four feel-good lo-fi songs that you should definitely put your ears to:

Free download: In A Cabin With Neonbelle

Here's a post for al you non-Dutchies, since everyone from The Netherlands probably already knows Neonbelle. This really is one of the most promising bands emerging from our humble local scene the last couple of years (well, in my opinion that is). Their first 8 songs were recorded in cooperation with the In A Cabin-project, which links different musicians to record songs in, that's right, a cabin. The Neonbelle album was recorded the rural area near the Belgian Lanakenin August 2007. In their own words: "Without a specific plan we left Utrecht with a van full of keyboards, synthesizers, a guitar, a banjo and microphones and headed for Belgium. In a small cabin in the middle of the woods the creative juices richly flowed (as well as the Jupiler beer) and eight tracks emerged. Songs were written on the spot and Maarten recorded everything. This result is a mixture of fresh electronic beats and hauntingly intimate songs."

Resulting are some beautiful atmospheric songs, sounding a bit like The xx, only more organic. The match of musicians (Pien Feith, Jelte Heringa and producer Maarten Besseling) was such a success, that they decided to keep playing together as a band.

Listen to some songs on Myspace, or download the album for free from the In A Cabin website (email address required) where you can also order a physical copy.

Free download: Clearing

Here's another free downloadable album. Clearing sounds like listening to last night's dream. The one you remember you had, but don't know what it what was about. Their music is hard to grasp, but strangely makes you listen again and again. The band sound a bit like The Caretaker, only less haunting. Download their untitled album from Megaupload or take a look at their equally strange video below:

Free download: Teams - Catch Pool EP

Lend your ears to this one. Teams creates progressive and very contemporary electronic music, linking pleasant melodies to grand beats. Listen or download their Catch Pool EP via Bandcamp right here:

Free download: pə-ˈrād

pə-ˈrād (pronounced "parade") make lo-fi, grungy garage-recorded songs, somewhere between Sonic Youth, mewithoutYou and Sebadoh. In their own words: "we're an experimental, low fi band who tries to create interesting music; focusing on how we like various sounds rather than specific chords, notes, or rhythm. We shy away from traditional verse chorus verse arrangements and are fascinated with the DIY music scene. We like the digital age and digital music but we have a fascination for the old analog world. Playing live is as much of a passion as making music. I hope this makes sense. Its strange to try and describe our music. Thanks so much for listening."

In my opinion these guys sound really interesting, you should definitely take some time to download their first release for free from mediafire. You can also get a tape from Leftist Nautical Antiques.

Download: Oberhofer - o0Oo0Oo

Erg leuk indiebandje met fijne catchy liedjes uit Tacoma, Washington. Klinkt een beetje als het kleine broertje van Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Harlem Shakes of Tokyo Police Club. Download de eerste EP van Oberhofer, o0Oo0Oo, gratis hier.

Luister:
Oberhofer - Dead Girls Dance
Oberhofer - Away FRM U
Oberhofer - I Could Go

Best of La Blogotheque (8): The Antlers - Shiva

Bij fans van Grizzly Bear en Bon Iver zal The Antlers ongetwijfeld ook in goede smaak vallen. Tot vorig jaar vrij onbekend, tot Hospice, de vierde plaat uitkwam. Zeker de moeite waard om die eens op te sporen, als je hem nog niet kent. Blogotheque deed in ieder geval een mooie sessie met ze in huis bij een poppendokter in Parijs:

The Antlers - Shiva - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Smaakt naar meer? Download dan gratis de EP New York Hospitals met twee nummers en een clip hieronder:

Via de Myspace is verder nog een oudere EP (Cold War, met een cover van Beach House) te downloaden. Luister daarnaast bij WPGU o.a. naar een mooie cover van The xx's VCR.