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Ghost Wave

We have an Indian summer happening out here in Utah. It’s a wonderful thing. The leaves are changing, the mountain ranges are colorful, and it’s still in the 80’s. With Autumn on the doorstep, Ghost Wave is the perfect band to help hold on to summer no matter what the temperature outside is.

Ghost Wave is a 3 piece band out of Auckland, New Zealand. They play a 60’s style, surf guitar pop similar to bands of yesteryear like The Ventures, and current musicians like Ty Segall, and Wavves. They released their debut S/T EP last month, you can snag it on iTunes. “On A Breeze” (below), with it’s jangly surf guitar, is my favorite song from the EP, and is a great example of how good this release is. Enjoy.

Ghost Wave – On A Breeze from S/T EP (2012)

Ghost Wave

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The Limiñanas

The Limiñanas | Crystal Anis | 3hive.com

The psychedelic/pop revival continues on with The Limiñanas. This French pop duo, consisting of Marie Limiñana on drums, and Lio Limiñana playing pretty much everything else, including vocal duties (other vocals provided by guests), have their genre pegged. Wearing their Gainsbourg, Velvet Underground, and any of the ye-ye girls of the 60’s influences on their sleeves, they also sound like what I think Stereolab would’ve sounded like had they been around in the 60’s.

The Limiñanas latest album, Crystal Anis, out now on the great Hozac Records, is pop perfection. The hardest part about writing this post was deciding which of the 11 songs to share. For your listening/downloading pleasure, (below) we have the straight forward, fuzzy, and over-before-you-know-it “AF3458”, and the sing-talking, Hammond and bass driven title track “Crystal Anis”. The more I listen to these, the higher this album moves up my favorites of the year list. Give these songs a spin. I know you will enjoy them.

The Limiñanas – AF3458 from Crystal Anis (2012)

The Limiñanas – Crystal Anis from Crystal Anis (2012)

Hozac

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Divine Fits

Divine Fits is a new side project/new band/supergroup made up of Britt Daniel from Spoon, Dan Boeckner from Handsome Furs and Wolf Parade, and Sam Brown from New Bomb Turks. They are releasing their debut album, A Thing Called Divine Fits on August 28, with Merge Records.

Full of throbbing synths, echoed vocals, and driving beats, A Thing Called Divine Fits is very catchy, just what one would expect after reading the bands lineup. Britt and Dan share lead vocal assignments, each singing lead on half of the album’s tracks. The two tracks included below are samples of each singer’s distinctive voices, and how those voices make each of their respective songs sound unique, but flow well with each other as well. “My Love Is Real”, the opening track sung by Dan, has a dark, fuzzy vibe to it. While “Would That Not Be Nice” sounds pretty much like a Spoon song, with a thumping bass line and maracas ushering in Britt’s vocals. Both songs are really good, and will give you a good idea of how great the entire album is.

Divine Fits – My Love Is Real from A Thing Called Divine Fits (2012)

Divine Fits – Would That Not Be Nice from A Thing Called Divine Fits (2012)

Merge Records

Divine Fits

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Fergus and Geronimo

You know that “Whoa! What is this?” reaction you can have when listening to a band or album for the first time? Sometimes it’s not a good reaction, and other times you’ve just been blown away. I had the latter moment last week when I first sat down to listen to Fergus & Geronimo’s new album Funky Was The State of Affairs. This two-piece band from Denton, TX sound like a Devo meets Zappa meets Ween mashup, with a snotty Descendents-like song (“Roman Tick”, below) mixed in here and there. It’s fantastic zaniness! Funky Was The State of Affairs was recently released on Hardly Art, and I highly recommend it. Check out the songs below, if you like them be sure to buy the album. Enjoy.

Fergus & Geronimo – Roman Tick from Funky Was The State of Affairs (2012)

Fergus & Geronimo – No Parties from Funky Was The State of Affairs (2012)

Fergus & Geronimo – Baby Don’t You Cry from Unleam (2011)

Fergus & Geronimo – Powerful Lovin’ from Unleam (2011)

Hardly Art

Fergus & Geronimo

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Redd Kross

15 years since their last studio album, Redd Kross will release their Merge Records debut, Researching The Blues, on August 7. After a few listens to this album it’s hard to believe that it’s been so long, it is tight and has more hooks than a Frazier/Ali fight.

“Researching The Blues” the album’s title track, included below, kicks things off in a hurry with it’s crashing cymbals and chunky guitar and doesn’t let up for 3 minutes and 53 seconds, leaving you in a puddle of your own sweat and out of breath. Hopefully you won’t destroy your favorite listening device while thrashing about and you can enjoy this song more than once. Enjoy.

Redd Kross – Researching The Blues from Researching The Blues (2012)

Redd Kross

Merge

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Mean Jeans

Mean Jeans are a pop-punk band out of Portland Oregon. They released their second album, On Mars, back in April on Dirtnap, it is catchy as hell! Full of rad hooks and goofy lyrics, On Mars blows through 36 minutes without really taking any time to breathe. The track below, “Anybody Out There”, they pull out all the stops with xylophone (i’m guessing) at the beginning and “oh-oh-oh’s” throughout. It’s a great punk rock track, and would fit nicely into any summertime playlist. Enjoy.

Mean Jeans – Anybody Out There? from On Mars (2012)

Mean Jeans

Dirtnap

Green Noise

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Cat Power

Sun is the first album of original material Cat Power has released in six years. According to Matador, Chan performed and produced the album all on her own. The album’s release date is set for September 4th, with pre-order options available soon. Below is a track from the new album. Enjoy.

Cat Power – Ruin from Sun (2012)

Cat Power

Matador

Here’s Sean’s original post from 11.6.2005

Cat Power’s been napping. By the time her new album, The Greatest (not a greatest hits record — boy I’m sure her label friends will tire quickly of repeating that mantra), hits stores in January three years will have passed since her last album. Not bad really. The space between her last albums lasted about four years. I should cut her some slack. The wait is always worth it. This time around she taps the Memphis soul scene for her backing musicians, with, among others, Al Green’s boys, Teenie Hodges (who co-wrote “Take Me to the River” with Green) on guitar, and Leroy “Flick” Hodges on bass. Judging from the small sample offered, Chan Marshall may be on her way to creating a timeless work of art.

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Y La Bamba

I learned of Portland, OR band Y La Bamba late one night while scrolling through the twitter feed and saw @NekoCase tweet the following:

This was a recommendation I could not pass up. I logged onto Spotify that night and listened to their newest album Court The Storm. I was instantly captivated by singer Luzelena Mendoza’s haunting vocals, which held onto me until the album finished some 46 minutes later.

Court The Storm‘s songs are flavored with latin-inspired rhythms and melodies that work wonderfully with Mendoza’s vocals. The band’s label, Tender Loving Empire, set me up with the two songs below, opening track “Squawk” and track #2 “Bendito”. Both songs are fantastic, and a great preview to how cool this album is. I highly recommend it.

Y La Bamba – Squawk from Court The Storm (2012)

Y La Bamba – Bendito from Court The Storm (2012)

Y La Bamba

Tender Loving Empire

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Monster Rally

What do you get when you take a stack of old records and sample bits and pieces in order to create new music with a psychedelic, tropical, surf, hip hop vibe to it? The answer, my friends, is Monster Rally.

Monster Rally is the project of Ohio-resident Ted Feighan. His music has a warm, lo-fi, crackley, organic feel to it. It’s put together so nicely, it almost sounds like a full band recorded these songs directly to tape. Since 2010 Monster Rally has released quite a bit of music via his bandcamp page, and is set to release a new full length album, Beyond The Sea, on June 19. Below are just a few tastes of Monster Rally’s music for you downloading pleasure.

You can download all of Monster Rally’s releases at his bandcamp page, and preorder his new album here. Ted is also an artist, you can check out his stuff here.

Monster Rally – Jaguar from Beyond The Sea (2012)

Monster Rally – Lone Rd from Crystal Ball (2011)

Monster Rally – Siberian Girls from Deep Sea EP (2011)

Monster Rally – Maori Mai from EP (2010)