I stumbled upon these tracks (if one can call a mis-click of a mouse a stumble). Of course, you can’t be without their great cover of The Strokes, “Is This It?” — but that’s no fluke. More pop than country, more lemonade than bourbon.
Coastal
Coastal’s second full-length album, released this week, shows the gang venturing into new orbits, incorporating more instruments and complex harmonies while remaining hauntingly simple. And beautiful.
Osymyso
Dangermouse messes with Britain’s biggest export since, well, since a bunch of disenfranchised chaps bailed the island to follow their own nation start-up dreams, the web goes grey for a day and the masses are alerted to the mash-up. No newcomer to the genre, Osymyso, messes with your head and record collection with these two takes on the same theme.
Against Me!
Opening with the same explosive chord as the Pixies’ Bossanova, riffing right into a Killing Joke-like hook, and finally settling into Billy Bragg at 78 rpm, this brand of punk rock revolution is, regrettably, rare.
Tortoise
Tortoise’s latest track cuts to the chase with a tight, driving dose of spacial jazz. While you still won’t hear them on commercial alternative radio anytime soon, it’s as close to a “single” as you’ll ever get from these cats.
Fernando
Fernando plays geetar with the skill and freewheeling spirit of a Crazy Horse by the name of Neil, and that deep and raspy voice of his is begging for an arena with cavernous acoustics so it can get lost in the reverb for a while. Anyone waiting for the second coming of Mother Love Bone, now’s a good time to pull your lighter out and lift it to the sky.
Azure Ray
Not just for fans of “Felicity.”
n.ln
A prolific chap, Nyles Lannon (Film School, n.Lannon), a double major (how far can a I push the collegiate allusions?), hard at work in his computer science courses (I can run them into the ground I tell you).
Film School
San Francisco psychedelic outfit crash headlong into wall of sound. The result? Stripped down indie rock with detours into lingering, epic rock operas awash in layers and layers of guitars.
Havergal
Prairie drawl and bug zapper glitches = campfire music for the computer age.