Midlake’s debut album, Bamnan and Slivercork, has spent the last two years flying well below the radar. Not as quirky as Grandaddy and less pretentious than Radiohead, Midlake gently nudged their way, sonically and alphabetically, between those two bands in my music collection. With the recent unveiling of their new album, The Trials of VanOccupanther, in stores July 25th, Midlake won’t be able to avoid the spotlight for much longer. For the most part they’ve ditched the keyboards replacing them with more guitars, acoustic and electric, as well as more vocals. The resulting sound boldly embraces the country/folk rock of the mid-70s as Midlake channels the likes of The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. Midlake wears their influences on their sleeves while managing a classical, button-down sound all their own.
*A note on the downloads: with the exception of “Roscoe” all links point to .zip files containing the MP3s so you won’t be able to preview them directly. They’re all worth downloading. Trust me.
You Americans reading and asking yourself “Is that what they really think about us?”, apparently the answer is yes. The Floor Is Made of Lava is possibly named after a Simpsons quote and in the funny and moshable “Told Her I’m From Compton” they name-drop Camaros and Kodak moments, among other things. One look at the Kodak moment to the left and you’ll agree that these guys wouldn’t want to find themselves in Compton, even in a Camaro. But that’s OK, because whether the crazy Copenhagen kids are taking the piss out of us or just having themselves some fun, their bouncy chords and goofy lyrics come across as a post-pop Ween for expats. So turn it up, turn your sensibilities off and hide your sister (see song 2).
For some reason, I thought I’d already posted Jennifer O’Connor. I remember looking at her website, and the older songs she has available for download there were already on my iPod. Ah well, my apologies to Jennifer and her fans, and here you go. If you work her song selection from the bottom up, you can see O’Connor’s development from girl-with-acoustic-guitar to full-on rocker, especially with the track “Exeter, Rhode Island,” off her next album, Over the Mountain, Across the Valley, and Back to the Stars, due in August on Matador. Until then, she’ll be touring through July with 3hive faves 
Hard-driving, guitar-driven rock and roll followed up with introspective, melodramatic ballads — what could be better? (There are many, many answers to that question, for sure.) Stella (U.S.) reminds me of an indie version of the bands you’d see on Headbangers’ Ball. Download these tracks — “NYC” is the ballad, btw — and think about how much hair these guys would have had in the late ’80s.
“Everyone in this town needs to shut up.” It’s nothing personal, just that this former roadie for 
This is a guest post from 3hive junkie 
Every summer, we here at 3hive look for a song for summer, you know, be it summer anthem or road trip soundtrack, etc. While the Living Blue do not offer such a song, they do offer the feel for a great summer song. They’re rockin’, stingin’, full of energy and buzz, they just sing about other topics. “Serrated Friend” is sure to keep you awake on that long drive to beach.
Ah, music my great distraction. You wouldn’t believe all the things I should be doing right now. I’ll spare you the boring details. I put it all aside to prove to the world that 3hive is the pinnacle of uncool. The Mount Everest of square. There are an umpteen number of cooler music blogs than this place. “Umpteen?” I told you. We’re dorks (I speak for myself here, shouldn’t drag the rest of the guys into this). Birdmonster is living proof of our cool-lessness. The cool blogs were talking up Birdmonster a year ago. Some 
This group of instrumental tracks is a far cry from those gathered on the folk compilation Imaginational Anthem, Vol.2. I’d be interested to hear from those of you who actually like both. I hope there’s more than a few. Members of Black Flag, Descendents, All, GWAR, Only Crime, and Hagfish come together for a full album of surf/punk/rock instrumentals. They’re quick and raw. For fans of Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen. Rock it!
Alas, the Delgados, Glasgow’s finest indie rockers/popsters/scenesters, ended their 10-year run when they announced their breakup last August. Thankfully, they’re continuing on with their other projects, including the record label Chemikal Underground, which has released the likes of