April 29th, 2008 r8e8rcom
My friends call me a failure and tell me that I’m overly complex, lazy, and my work is shit. I swear I don’t know what they are talking about. I would write more, but I’ve inadvertently caused the swelling of my bladder by orally consuming generous amounts of hydrogen combined with oxygen and now I’ve got to piss like a racehorse.
Port O’Brien began early in 2005, as a folk-ish duo of Van Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin. In the summer of 2007, the band released a compilation of previously self-released songs titled The Wind and The Swell on American Dust Records. Their latest release marks Port O’Brien’s first full band release. One half of the record was recorded at the legendary Tiny Telephone Recording Studios, where Sun Kil Moon, the Mountain Goats, and Death Cab for Cutie have been recorded. Jason Quever, of the band the Papercuts, recorded the other half of the songs at his Pan-American Recording Studios. The songs on, All We Could Do Was Sing, reflect on Van’s summer work on his father’s commercial salmon fishing boat, the Shawnee, on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Pithy lyrics and lush arrangements paint pictures of long days spent working in the freezing cold, lament for home, frustrations of accepting your fate, yet remaining inspired by the world he finds himself surrounded by. There are so many beautiful songs on this record that it was hard to choose what to post. These tracks are from their upcoming album, All We Could Do Was Sing, scheduled to be released May 13th.
I Woke Up Today
Pigeonhold
Stuck on a boat
Preorder it here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/portobrien
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April 25th, 2008 r8e8rcom
I was sitting on a crowded train this morning when this pudgy round guy decided to stand right in front of my seat. He stood there in his grey mid-town power suit; jacket unbuttoned as if flaunting the protruding bloated mass, and sort of leaned towards me pushing his infantile round belly closer to my face. Considering the capacity of the car it didn’t really bother me much, but when the train slowed towards my stop I adjusted my bag and leaned forward to stand, he wasn’t budging. I didn’t expect him to move completely out of my way, but there was plenty of space to give me some room to prepare and I think it was pretty clear that I needed to get out. But instead of getting angry my first instinct was to put my hands on his fat belly and say, “who’s gotta a big fat belly. you’ve gotta big fat belly…yes you do’, in my most condescending baby voice. I smiled and relented to wait until the train stopped to gather my things. As I stood and moved past him I realized how strange the thought was, hoping it wasn’t some deep-seated Freudian bullshit hiding somewhere in the recesses of my brain. Wouldn’t it be funny to spend an entire day talking to everyone you meet like they were a baby.
Electric President is the second of Ben Cooper’s projects, this time with Alex Kane. Both were in Helicopter Project prior to its break up though no music from this group was ever released. Afterwards the pair decided to continue to make music together. They subsequently completed three albums in six months. Ben Cooper is also a member of Radical Face (Formerly know as Radical Face Versus Phalex Sledgehammer), Iron Orchestra, and Mother’s Basement. These tracks are from the new record, Sleep Well is scheduled to be released June 25, 2008 for the US according to Ben Cooper’s official website.
Bright mouths
Lullaby
A drift in space, or whatever
This entire record is great and is highly recommended. Not sure where you will be able to buy the record yet, but you can check Ben’s blog for updates: http://www.radicalface.com
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April 24th, 2008 r8e8rcom
tawdedsharkstudio (2:11:50 PM): yo
tawdedsharkstudio (2:11:57 PM): r u doing anything tonight?
r8e8r_mark (2:14:00 PM): rehearsal
r8e8r_mark (2:15:24 PM): why what are you up to?
tawdedsharkstudio (2:15:55 PM): might go out with som work peeps after work
r8e8r_mark (2:17:29 PM): work peeps, they are little marshmellow chicken shaped candies that produce ad campaigns for corporate conglomerates that want to seem “hip” and “with it”
r8e8r_mark (2:17:52 PM): and they’re really good at their jobs
r8e8r_mark (2:17:56 PM): becuase after all
r8e8r_mark (2:18:16 PM): everyone knows “peeps” will always be ironically “cool”
tawdedsharkstudio (2:18:41 PM): totally
r8e8r_mark (2:20:19 PM): I like to bite their heads off
tawdedsharkstudio (2:20:30 PM): and suck their yellow blood
r8e8r_mark (2:21:29 PM): or lick the sugary goodness from their bloated bodies until they glisten with saliva and stick to my fingers
r8e8r_mark (2:21:48 PM): and you can tell them I said that
tawdedsharkstudio (2:21:56 PM): you are quite articulate today
r8e8r_mark (2:21:56 PM): cuz I dont even give a fuck what they think about me
tawdedsharkstudio (2:22:05 PM): fuck their little yellow holes
Wye Oak (formerly known as Monarch) are Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack. Jenn & Andy have been playing music together and apart in Baltimore, MD, and chose their name from the honorary state tree of Maryland. If Children is the culmination of many months of recording, polishing and perfecting to achieve what Any Given Tuesday best described as, “. … . mingling in a room full of shoegaze, alt-country, folk, and noise, shaking hands, kissing cheeks, and making friends with everyone.” If Children is an exuberant debut – noisy and restrained in turn, Wye Oak describe their philosophy: “We’d like to think that if a song is good enough, it’ll stand on its own regardless of how much noise you pile on top. On the other hand, we do like noise.” - last.fm
Please Concrete
Family Glue
Fair
buy it here: Insound.com
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April 23rd, 2008 r8e8rcom
If you thought it was a joke, you were wrong. If you thought it wasn’t real, you were wrong. If you thought I was going to shut the hell up about it already, you were wrong. Just a little taste of what you might have missed: http://www.vimeo.com/878256. And, your chance to see the final installment comes this weekend to Trash Bar in Brooklyn.
Santogold got her pseudonym in the 1980s from a friend’s nickname for her. She worked for Epic Records as an A&R representative, but left the position to write and produce How I Do, the debut album from R&B singer Res. In 2003, her father, a lawyer involved in a Philadelphia municipal government corruption case, died. Santogold was lead singer of the Philadelphia-based punk rock/ska band Stiffed, whose 2003 EP, Sex Sells, was produced by Bad Brains member Daryl Jenifer. While in this group, she was offered a solo contract by Martin Heath of Marrakesh Records. Her initial singles succeeded based on heavy attention from Internet media.Working with fellow Stiffed member John Hill as co-producer, she recorded her debut album, Creator, which was originally slated for release on Downtown Records in January 2008, but was pushed back to April 2008. The album features appearances or production work from Freq Nasty, Disco D, Diplo, M.I.A, Switch, Naeem of SpankRock, XXXchange, and Clifford Moonie Pusey of Steel Pulse. Her style has been compared often to that of M.I.A. and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.Additionally, she has toured with the former and Björk and worked with Lily Allen, Mark Ronson and Ashlee Simpson.
-last.fm
L.E.S Artistes
Creator
Starstruck
buy it here: Insound.com
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April 22nd, 2008 r8e8rcom
Styrofoam (Arne Van Petegem) is a Belgian one man electonic project that writes glitchy, downtempo pop in the vain of Notwists, Postal Service, DNTEL, and L’Altra. His last album, Nothing’s Lost, Stryofoam worked together with artists Lali Puna, Andrew Kenny (The American Analog Set), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service), Bent Van Looy (Das Pop), and Alias. This album features guest appearences by Josh Rouse, Blake Hazard, Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World), Lili de la Mora, Erica Driscoll (Blondfire). These tracks are from the upcoming release, A Thousand Words, scheduled to be released on May 27th.
A Thousand Words
Final Offer
No Deliveries (feat. Lili de la Mora)
buy it here: Insound.com
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April 16th, 2008 r8e8rcom
I can’t say that I was a big Shivers fan prior to this album, I checked them out a bit when pitchfork posted a track review a while ago and thought it was nice, but didn’t find anything that really sparked much more than a cursory listen. But I recently stumbled across the track ‘Deserter’ and I’ve listened to it about 50 times in the past 2 days and I think its no less than brilliant. Just seems to fit my mood so well right now.
The Shivers (not be confused with the alt-country outfit of the same name from the mid 90s) formed in February of 2001 in New York City. The band has had many line-up changes, at low points being reduced to a one-man band and banned from several prominent local venues for a variety of reasons seen by Zarriello as a ‘series of misunderstandings’. These tracks are from their first proper album Beaks to the Moon, recorded at the famous Loho Studios after house engineer Dan Hewitt asked to work with the band. The album is distinctive in that it marks a new songwriter to mix in Pianist/Vocalist Jo Schornikow, and it is her contribution that ultimately have drawn me to this record.
Deserter
Feather
Beaks To The Moon
so far I think this is the only place you can buy this record: http://www.theshiversnyc.com/merch.html. If you dig these tracks, please support the band and pick up a copy of the record, as this is truly an “indie” release, having been fully financed by the band members.
-mark
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April 15th, 2008 r8e8rcom
I wish I had more to say about these tracks or some interesting story to go with them, cuz I really like this record. But sadly my life has been rather boring lately and I haven’t had too much time to find out more about the band. Anyway, I like it and I thought you might as well.
Visiter, by San Francisco band The Dodos, is their second full length and first for Frenchkiss. Originally formed in 2006 under the moniker Dodobird as a one man acoustic act, Meric Long would gig around SF playing folky guitar with a combination of loops and ambient keyboards. Having already studied West African Ewe drumming, Meric got turned onto country blues fingerpicking and sought to create a band where the drumming could be a center role and help bring out the syncopated rhythms coming out of the acoustic guitar. Through a chance introduction by a roommate, Meric met Santa Cruz transplant Logan Kroeber, who had also been experimenting with drumming, but in the area of progressive metal.
-insound.com
These tracks are from their latest release, Visiter, which was released on March 18th on French Kiss.
The Season
Ashley
Walking
Jody
buy it here: insound.com
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April 14th, 2008 r8e8rcom
still playing catchup, still keepin’ it short. This band has been a fixture in many of your playlists for a while now I’m sure, but this is for the kids that aren’t already in love with these kids.
Does It Offend You, Yeah? is an electronic band from London & Reading in the UK. They describe their sound on their myspace as “an arcade machine thrown into a lake, A ZX Spectrum in a prison shower block (That soap on the floor…? it’s a trap)” The band is made up of four members; Morgan, James, Dan and Rob. They have remixed songs for the likes of Muse and Bloc Party. They are signed to Virgin Records. They have an upcoming tour in the autumn which they are headlining. Their album “You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into” was released on March 24th with Rich Costey (Muse, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand) producing.
These tracks are from their debut, ‘You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into’, which was released in March on Virgin UK and will be released here on April 15th.
Being Bad Feels Pretty Good
Epic Last Song
We Are Rockstars
buy it here: insound
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April 11th, 2008 r8e8rcom
Alright, I’ve said this at least 3 times already, but I’ve got lots of tracks I wanted to send out over the past 2 weeks that I was MIA. So, I’m going to try to catch up. These tracks might be old news to some of you, but I still feel they are worth mentioning. And besides its all about spreading the love here….aint it? I guess that remains to be seen.
Los Campesinos! are a seven piece indie pop band from Cardiff, Wales. “Los Campesinos” roughly translates as “The Farmers” (or “The Peasants”) in English. The group came together at university in 2006, originally consisting of Neil on guitar, Ellen on bass guitar, and Ollie on drums. In March 2006, Tom joined the band, assuming the role of lead guitarist and songwriter, later followed by Gareth on vocals and glockenspiel, Harriet on violin and keyboard, and finally Aleksandra on vocals and keyboards. The band performed their first gig in May 2006 at a student union club night, and went on to play a number of increasingly well-received gigs around Cardiff. An early demo was recorded featuring the songs “Death To Los Campesinos!”, “It Started With A Mixx”, “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks”, and live favourite “You! Me! Dancing!”. The songs were posted on the internet, bolstering the popularity established by their energetic live shows and earning them airplay on Beth & Huw’s evening show on BBC Radio 1 Wales. The band’s reputation continued to grow, and in August 2006 landed them a slot supporting Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene.
-last.fm
These track are from their debut, ‘Hold On Now, Youngster’, which was released earlier this month.
Death to Los Campesinos!
Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats
And We Exhale And Roll Our Eyes In Unison
buy it here: www.insound.com
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April 10th, 2008 r8e8rcom
I don’t know very much about these guys, my friend saw them at the bar she works at in brooklyn. Other than that all I have is this release and thier last.fm blurb:
Appomattox have been stunning music freaks with their uniquely frenzied sound and sneaky-catchy songs since forming in late 03 both on cd and on stage…Led constantly to the edge by the ringing shout/stop singing and kinetic-spazz guitar tones of their sinewy frontman nick gaynier, the trio’s shows have become mandatory for those who seek the cathartic scream-along and the pulsing wall of sound…Anchored by the sinister melodies of david nurmi’s growling bass guitar and propelled with metal-on-concrete bombast by james mello’s drumming
You can get this release, ‘A O’, from iTunes or directly from their label (http://www.tripledownrecords.com/main/shop.php?content_id=28), where you can get the physical CD and an instant mp3 download for only $10!
Either Way
Sparx
Money From 10 To 4
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