Listen To/Download: Memory Tapes “Wait in the Dark”

“Wait in the Dark” is off Memory Tapes‘ forthcoming sophomore album Piano Player, set to release July 5, 2011.

The template / motif for Player Piano was that it would be “keyboard-based psychedelic girl group songs, a sort of Motown suicide note” and so it is. Largely eschewing modern beats this time in favour of “drums that sound like The Kinks’ 60s records”, there are still the spaces of modern R’n’B, along with 50s doo wop, krautrock and a couple of nods to Aphex Twin. Dayve is already working on Memory Tapes’ third album, which is going to be a “space rock, kind of Sabbath” guitar based set.

Download “Wait in the Dark” here (right click + save link as)

Side note: Cover art by Rathaus featured artist Kazuki Takamatsu

Below watch Jamie Harley‘s video for another Piano Player track “Today is Our Life”

Listen To/Download: Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech is Kansas City duo Brandon Knocke (vocals, keyboards, programming) and Alexander Thomas (acoustic/electronic drums). Though initially formed in late 2009 as a live vehicle for Knocke’s solo electronic music, a more collaborative and organic sound evolved out of the creative pairing. The results are sonically adventurous and moody, while the emphasis on groove and melody keep things accessible to a wide range of music listeners.

Find out more at Overland Shark

Check out Parts of Speech live on May 14 at The Riot Room.

Download “Tasted Comfort” here (right click + save link as)

New Music Video/Download: John Maus “Believer”

Minnesota’s gothic synth pop revivalist, John Maus, has dropped a video for “Believer,” the closing track from his forthcoming full-length, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves.

“The video was the result of an ongoing collaboration between Jennifer Stratford, Nicolas Amato, and I,” Maus tells NPR. “Like the music, [it] wagers [that] all these old machines now consigned to obsolescence afford expressive possibilities the mere ‘cutting edge’ never could, you know?”

We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves is out June 28 in North America on Ribbon Music and June 27 in the UK / Europe via Upset the Rhythm.

John Maus – Believer by RibbonMusic

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Download Maus’ first single “Quantum Leap” here (right click + save link as)

New Music Review/Download: Gypsyblood

The music of Chicago’s Gypsyblood has been compared to Pavement, Guided by Voices, Dinosaur Jr., Throwing Muses, Archers of Loaf and dozens of other 90′s alternative bands. To me those comparisons are flat out lazy. I’ll admit certain elements of the early to mid 90′s (sludgy guitar riffs, strained vocals, brooding lyrics) vaguely hover around Gypsyblood’s latest LP Cold in the Guestway; but like musical gnats, hovering is as close as they come to picking an obvious reference to land on.

Often 90′s rock isn’t a touchstone at all, one could just as easily find bits of 80′s punk, 60′s psychedelia and 70′s glam in standout tracks “My R.K.O. is M.I.A.” and “Take Your Picture”. Jesus and Mary Chain, who I would consider more of an 80′s band, is a more valid comparison often cited, especially on a track like “A Song Called Take 2″, given the shared vocals and general noisy ethos. Only in a recent interview frontmen Adam James and Kyle Victor claimed they had not heard Jesus and Mary Chain until the comparison was made in the press. Whether or not that is true doesn’t matter because wearing your influences on your sleeve is nothing new to pop music. After all, Jesus and Mary Chain were reinterpreting the Beach Boys and The Stooges, Pavement did the same with The Fall and Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. loved them some Neil Young and Wipers.

What matters in the end is not necessarily the originality of the band’s aesthetic but the ability of that aesthetic to stir up something unique in the listener. Something Gypsyblood’s Cold in the Guestway achieves with their hazy, ragged but nonetheless hook-heavy approach to classic pop.

Cold in the Guestway is streaming now on Gypsyblood’s bandcamp

Tour Dates:

04.15 – Buffalo, NY @ The Ninth Ward *
04.17 – Hamden, CT @ The Space
*
04.19 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
04.20 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia*
04.21 – Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel *
04.22 – Harrisonburg, VA @ Clementine Café *
04.29 – Chicago, IL @ Liars Club (CD RELEASE SHOW)

* with Maps & Atlases

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Download “My R.K.O. is M.I.A.” here (right click + save link as)

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Download “Take Your Picture” here (right click + save link as)

Free Music: Atlas Sound “Bedroom Databank Vol. 1-3″

Christmas came early this year. Bradford Cox recently unveiled a free 11-song collection pulled from recent Atlas Sound home recordings entitled Bedroom Databank Vol. 1. The Deerhunter frontman covers the Bob Dylan/Rick Danko collaboration “This Wheel’s On Fire”  and Kurt Vile’s “Freak Train” amongst the otherwise-original set that was recorded between August and November of this year. Cox has carefully documented the details of each song in the liner notes and included the album’s cover art as part of the download.

As you might expect from a home recording project, Bedroom Databank Vol. 1 is Bradford Cox slicing his standout songwriting down to the bone. Tracks like the “Green Glass Bottles”, “These Were My Walls” and “Cynics Recourse” have a Neil Young-like vulnerability to them built around little more than soft endearing melodies, acoustic guitar strums and a harmonica. The excellent Dylan cover “This Wheel’s On Fire”  uses the same acoustic approach but features a more expressive and layered vocal style from Cox thanks to some well-placed effects. Which is not to say Cox has completely abandoned his inclinations toward minimal techno, “Laterns” and “Afternoon Drive” are testaments to that, it’s just that his laid-back explorations of folk are far more interesting.

Download Bedroom Databank Vol. 1 (58.34 Mb)

B. Cox: harmonica, synthesizer, drums, vocals, computer
W.A.B. Ii: maracas, other vocals

1. Green glass bottles +
2. These were my walls +
3. Wild love +
4. Lanterns ^
5. New romantic +
6. Cynic’s recourse +
7. Freak train (kurt vile) *
8. Afternoon drive *
9. Hotel orlando +
10. This wheel’s on fire (dylan) +
11. Postcard ^

+ recorded at home November 15-22, 2010 on Tascam dp-08
^ recorded on computer October 2010
* recorded at home August 2010 on Tascam dp-08

Update: Download Bedroom Databank Vol. 2 (84.81 mb)

B. Cox: electric bass, bells, congas, nylon guitar, mouth organ, vocals

1. Pilot light +
2. Strange parade +
3. Stationary blood *
4. La luna +
5. Day out *
6. Heatwave +
7. Change is good +
8. Mouth of the desert *
9. Autumn intro cascading into university courtyard +
10. Town center +
11. Helio intro +
12. Summer edit +
13. Willful *
14. Wintergreen sketch +
15. Oceanview +
16. Here come the trains *

+ recorded at home
* recorded at Notown
All tracks recorded in 2010

Update: Download Bedroom Databank Vol. 3 (65.69 Mb)

B. Cox: lit globe, panic, false snares

1. Mona lisa (version 1) ^
2. Yards of silk +
3. I can’t take it *
4. Border agents #
5. Indian bitrate *
6. Moonroof *
7. Crossriver #
8. Comet 8 *
9. Drums & pissing *
10. Western shirt +
11. Notown phase *
12. Dream color *
13. Mona lisa (alt. Version) ^
14. Epilogue *

^ recorded at home November 23, 2010
+ recorded at home Summer / Fall 2010
* recorded at Notown 2010
# recorded at the Hoxton Hotel, London July 2010