Sharing the sharing.
The weather has finally started to turn to winter out here in Utah, with plenty more cold and gray days to come. I’m glad that I just stumbled onto Bears new single, “Eleven a.m.”, from their forthcoming album Greater Lakes, to be released February 14 on Misra Records. I’ve listened to the song several times now and have found that their warm pop melodies are a perfect remedy for the winter blahs.
Bears – Eleven a.m. from Greater Lakes (2012)
It’s a Wednesday night, we are 4 days away from 2012 and the end of the world, my wife and kids are playing Rock Band in the background and I am searching through all the music that I’ve acquired this year trying to find any hidden gems that didn’t get enough attention when originally purchased. One of those gems is Austin, Texas 3-piece band Love Inks. They describe their sound as “minimalist dream-pop”, using just an electric guitar, bass guitar, and a drum machine, along with the simple, yet satisfying vocals of Sherry LeBlanc.
The songs below are great examples of their minimalist ways. While Love Inks isn’t the most musically or lyrically complicated band out there, their brand of pop music grabs hold of you, and before you know it you’re nodding your head and have listened to these songs several times and you don’t know where the last hour of your life went.
Love Inks – Blackeye from E.S.P (2011)
Love Inks – Leather Glove from E.S.P (2011)
Here’s a glimpse into the highly structured publishing process that powers 3hive: if one of us wants to call dibs on an artist we create a draft post in WordPress. As you might imagine I’m notorious among the more active authors for squatting on bands way too long. I swear I posted about Library Voices back in August but Sean sternly pointed out that the only thing I did in August is prevent anyone else from doing so.
Library Voices are a seven-piece outfit from Regina, Saskatchewan. The warm, spunky pop on their second album, Summer of Lust, belies the fact it was recorded in the deep cold of Canadian winter. There’s a lot to love here – bouncy rhythms, swirling synths, saxophone accents, swelling harmonies – but the lyrics, rich with literary and cultural references, pay dividends with repeat listens. Where else can you find yourself drumming on the steering wheel and singing along to a skewering of Canadian PM Stephen Harper’s cuts to arts funding? Or an homage to Miles Davis and Juliette Gréco’s tragic romance? Or a Gen Y take on the short stories of Raymond Carver? (I’m guessing that last one is why Sean was bummed I was sitting on this post for so long.)
As good as those tracks are, I’ll let you discover them on your own. Turns out Library Voices write their best lyrics when they’re not trying to be topical. I leave you with one of the best pop songs I’ve heard all year…
Generation Handclap from Summer of Lust (2011)
www.summeroflust.tumblr.com
libraryvoices.com
facebook.com/libraryvoices
www.myspace.com/thelibraryvoices
www.dinealonerecords.com
I’ve been trying since June to find time to post this. Meanwhile, if MP3s were tapes, I’d have already worn out my copy of Soft Science’s debut Highs and Lows. Their sound is a checklist of my vulnerabilities: melancholy lyrics, soaring harmonies, confident percussion, fuzzy guitars. Plus, singer Katie Haley’s delivery evokes at moments St. Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell or The Raveonettes’s Sune Rose Wagner. So I was smitten from the start. Love is the recurring theme, in all its many flavors. There are healthy doses of power pop and dream pop treatments here, but the most memorable songs are the nuanced and restrained ones. “Better Be Good” draws its strength from the smoldering embers of a broken relationship with an startling honesty that recalls “Voices Carry” (before you heard it a million times on ’80s rewind radio). “Put Your Arms Around Me” holds back in all the right ways – all that is left is Ms. Haley whispering sweet somethings in your ears, leaving you wanting more. Speaking of wanting more, this is only the second LP from Sacramento’s Test Pattern Records. Here’s to more where that came from…
Better Be Good from Highs and Lows (2011)
Put Your Arms Around Me from Highs and Lows (2011)
There isn’t much out there about Cuckoo Chaos other than they’re a five piece band from San Diego. They have posted a list of all the things they are, too many to name here, on their band page on Lefse Records’ site. What I can tell you from listening to the song “Just Ride It”, from their just released debut album Woman, they play super-tight pop/rock music. The song, and album as a whole, reminds me of Vampire Weekend, minus the Paul Simon influences. I hope I don’t get killed for that comparison. The song is full of muted and jangly guitars, combined with a nice bass groove and just enough keys, the song really takes you for a ride, and when it ends your ready to get back on and ride it again. Give this track a go, you will like it I promise.
Cuckoo Chaos – Just Ride It from Woman (2011)
Ganglians are a band that I stumbled upon tonight while searching the www’s for new music. They are a four member band out of Sacramento,CA. They take their name from a mixture of the words “gang” and “aliens”. I am brand new to these guys and I don’t know anything more about them.
I was pleasantly surprised by the track “Jungle” that is being shared below. It’s equal parts psychedelic and noise pop, with all the fuzz you can handle, all things that get this listener’s ears to perk up, and when this song came on for the first time, they perked. Their new album Still Living comes out on August 23. You should buy it.
Ganglians – Jungle from Still Living (2011)
I love having people in my life who are just as obsessed with finding new music as I am. This find comes from my cousin Ben, and It’s a pretty darn good find.
Floating Action is from North Carolina, the band consists mostly of one person, Seth Kauffman, who sings and plays everything except the pedal steel on this, his third release Desert Etiquette. The album was written and recorded in a matter of about 4 days, and it shows, but not in a bad way. The songs are loose, but not sloppy, as a whole the album have a very casual feel to it. Both songs included below, “Eye of A Needle” and “Well Hidden” are both chilled out, and laid-back. So get out your chaise lounge, and put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage, and relax to some smooth indie rock.
Floating Action – Eye of A Needle from Desert Etiquette (2011)
Floating Action – Well Hidden from Desert Etiquette (2011)
When I was young and didn’t know better, I thought I could do anything I wanted to do. I wanted to be a cartoonist. Draw funny pictures for a living. All my favorite comic strips were created by accidental artists: “I didn’t set out to draw a comic strip, but now I’m in thousands of newspapers. Go figure.” I hated reading stories like that.
If I were a musician, I’d hate Tomorrows Tulips’ story. It goes something like this…Alex Knost started this band called The Japanese Motors with some friends when he was 17. They didn’t know how to play instruments, but they practiced a lot, then got signed to Vice Records and toured the world with bands like Modest Mouse. Then he thought it’d be better to play and tour with his girlfriend (wise choice) and so he wrote some songs, she played the drums, and now they have a record out on this cool boutique label.
Tomorrows Tulips are all reverby and lo-fi. The guitars give off a hazy shimmer, the sunset’s rose reflection off the rippling sea. Simple melodies and hooky bits that get stuck in your head like the ocean does in your sinuses after you’ve been out surfing all morning.
Oh yeah, and Knost rips at surfing and skateboarding.
Some guys have all the luck. And skill.
The rest of us blog.
Tomorrows Tulips – “Casual Hopelessness” from jack Coleman on Vimeo.
Tomorrows Tulips – “Eternally Teenage” from jack Coleman on Vimeo.
The sophomore record by Montreal-based Graham Van Pelt (dba Miracle Fortress) is single-handedly satisfying my seasonal synth-pop jones. The single, “Miscalculations”, is an achingly perfect jam that sounds as right today as it would have 25 years ago. It will ease its way into even the hardest of hearts, mark my words. Miracle Fortress is currently touring with Junior Boys, which should make for a double scoop of synth-pop goodness.
Miscalculations from Was I The Wave? (2011)
Computer Magic and 3hive are kindred souls. First off, they love to share. And that’s what we’re all about here at the ‘hive. Sharing the sharing. Computer Magic has three EPs for your downloading pleasure. No strings attached. And here’s the best part: it’s as good as anything you’ll hear on the radio right now. But it’s not on the radio. Yet.
Kinship part two: the sound is right up our alley: the bass has a slowed-down New Order bounce to it which works so well with CM’s spacey synths and sweet, sultry vocals. Their compositions are playful like Land of the Loops, or more recently Michna, but without their glitchiness.
The brains, voice, and vision behind Computer Magic is Danielle Johnson aka Danz a New York native, an up-stater, who made her way to Brooklyn after high school and went from spinner of records to writer and recorder of records. With a little help of some friends Danz translates her bedroom bliss pop to the stage and according to NME her cuteness belies a “monstrous talent.”
Computer Magic gives me hope. Hope that in today’s pop culture ruled and reigned by the likes Lady Gaga and Jersey Shore I can steer my daughter towards a more palatable pop icon(oclast).
Found Out from Electronic Fences EP
Grand Junction from Spectronic EP
Holiday Song from Spectronic EP
The End of Time from Spectronic EP
Everyone Feels That Way Sometimes from Spectronic EP