Posts Tagged ‘Barsuk’

05.01.2010

Best Of 2009: Volume One

posted by Will

in Year End Lists

11 Comments

I have decided to combine LPs and EPs together into one big end of the year lovefest. No rankings til I get to my Top Ten. Click on the album cover for any more coverage.

Cheap Girls “My Roaring 20’s” (Paper + Plastick)

While it might not live up to the charm of their debut, My Roaring 20’s eschews any real sophomore slump and cements Cheap Girls as one of the brightest young bands around today.

Witches “Self-Titled” 7″ (Salinas/Mandible)

Simply gorgeous and mesmerizing songs and I can’t wait for a full-length.

Wooden Birds “Magnolia” (Barsuk)

Not better than AmAnSet but equal to at least. Welcome back Andrew Kenny. We missed you.

Grown Ups “Songs” EP (Kid Sister)

So many great young bands springing up and Grown Ups are one of the best. Pop punk with noodles!

Sleep Bellum Sonno “Judge Us By How We Lived Our Lives, Not By How We Made A Living” (Self-Released)

I understand that a lot of people probably won’t get these guys but I swear if you give this concept album time it is a moving experience. Proggy, arty hardcore with balls and intelligence. If you miss how mewithoutYou once sounded you should listen to Sleep Bellum Sonno.

Certain People I Know “4 Songs” EP (Self-Released)

I don’t understand why more people don’t talk about this band. Hell, it’s members of Braid and it basically sounds like Hey Mercedes with the addition of female vocals.

Communipaw “Self-Titled” (Self-Released)

The supremely talented Brian Bond and his band play a smooth and confident brand of indie rock laced with alt country and brit pop influences. These kids sound wise beyond their youthful ages.

Teenage Cool Kids “Foreign Lands” (Protagonist)

Built to Spill – The Jammy Parts + More Hooks = Teenage Cool Kids

Latin For Truth “We Are Sick of Not Having The Courage To Be Absolute Nobodies” EP (Pitfall)

I listened to this EP non stop upon first receiving it. Fast paced pop punk with definite hardcore influences throughout.

Dude Japan “Self-Titled” Demo (Self-Released)

Husker Du-ish Lo-fi indie power pop. These songs just have a way of slowly finding traction and before you know it they are on repeat in your head for days.

20.12.2009

Heads Up! New Rocky V!

posted by Will

in Heads Up, Music News

5 Comments

rockyv

I totally missed this when it was announced a few months ago. True Devotion comes out on February 23rd via Barsuk Records. You can check out the record info here. Here’s a song from the new record performed live. Werd.

Rocky Votolato “Sparklers” (Live)

Tags: Barsuk, Heads Up, Rocky Votolato, Waxwing

10.11.2009

Best New Music: The Wooden Birds

posted by Will

in Best New Music, Music Reviews

3 Comments

[BEST NEW MUSIC]

I was and still am a huge American Analog Set fan so the fact that The Wooden Birds debut album Magnolia doesn’t stray far from that same formula is music to my ears. For those that don’t know, Andrew Kenny is the principle songwriter for both bands. Understated indie rock is the name of the game and Kenny and his counterparts have carved out a nice little niche for themselves through the years. The only difference I can see from AmAnSet to The Wooden Birds is now the view into Kenny’s songwriting is a bit more clearer. While AmAnSet songs had a beautiful tendency to veer off the tracks into a dizzy instrumental haze, The Wooden Birds stay front and center with their arrangements. The more direct instrumentation embraces Kenny’s soft vocals and clever pop songwriting. Leslie Sisson’s harmonies add a feminine touch on top of Kenny’s biting lyrical matters. Of course Kenny is still waxing poetic about all those sad matters of the heart and that suits me just fine. Magnolia is yet another beautiful album by a truly underrated indie songwriter.

Label: Barsuk

The Wooden Birds “False Alarm”

www.myspace.com/thewoodenbirds

Tags: Andrew Kenny, Barsuk, Best New Music, Music Reviews, The American Analog Set, The Wooden Birds

01.10.2008

Say Hi: The Wishes And The Glitch

posted by Will

in Music Reviews

2 Comments

The Wishes And The Glitch is the fifth album by Eric Elbogen’s pop brainchild, previously entitled Say Hi To Your Mom, now shortened to just Say Hi. While I am fairly ignorant to the band’s history, I do remember listening to the band’s last album, Impeccable Blahs, a few times. The Wishes And The Glitch succeeds in keeping my attention at a greater rate than Impeccable Blahs ever did. Say Hi are doing the whole quirky pop thing full of sequencers and witticisms (if that’s not a word, I have now made it up). Being from Seattle and considering David Bazan (Pedro The Lion) and John Roderick (The Long Winters) guest on the record you figure Say Hi would be the next “it” band on Barsuk. Doesn’t that label release stuff like this every month now? Either way, my tolerance for this kind of stuff is not very high but Say Hi strike a nice balance that is somewhat tolerable. In fact, there are a number of great songs that scatter themselves throughout The Wishes And The Glitch. Still, by the end of the album, you get the feeling that Elbogen is trying a little too hard. And that’s never really a good thing.

Genre: Indie/Pop

RIYL: Death Cab For Cutie, Harvey Danger, Long Winters

Label: Euphobia

Northwestern Girls

01%20Northwestern%20Girls.mp3

www.myspace.com/sayhitoyourmom

Tags: Barsuk, David Bazan, Death Cab For Cutie, Harvey Danger, John Roderick, Music Reviews, Pedro The Lion, Say Hi, The Long Winters

04.06.2008

Mates Of State: Re-Arrange Us

posted by Mattison

in Music Reviews

2 Comments

Quirky. I used to use this word to describe Mates Of State in a positive sense, back in their My Solo Project through Team Boo era… I guess I could say in their “pre-Barsuk” days. But for the past two releases for Mates Of State, it hasn’t applied. Bring It Back (2006) struck me as a weak release: every song sounded pre-planned and lacked the surprising tempo changes and voice arrangements that their previous releases always had. Their latest album, Re-Arrange Us, is an unfortunate continuity in that regard.

Basically EVERY song is in 4/4 time, and the once distinguishable vocals are now either blandly playing off each other or just one long double-vocal where Kori takes the high octave and Jason takes the lower one. I can just hear the changes coming in each song: “oh here they’re going to go up a key” or “here comes a slower bridge where they both sing la-la-la-la”. Don’t even get me started on the fact that the Yamaha YC-45 combo organ (one of the coolest musical instruments ever made) normally heard on a Mates Of State album has been replaced by a plain-old piano.

SAL execs used to and still do make fun of me for liking Mates Of States in the past, and maybe with listening to this new release it was rightly deserved. Were they always this predictable and bland? Was I just fooled by the ruse of husband-and-wife band gimmick? This type of music does nothing for me. Re-Arrange Us is just begging to be used in an automobile, iPod, or cell phone commercial. Oh wait, kinda like that song that was already in that AT&T commercial!!!

Second verse, same as the first!

Genre: Indie/Pop

RIYL: Captain & Tenille, Matt And Kim, Ben Folds

Label: Barsuk

My Only Offer

MatesOfState_MyOnlyOffer.mp3

www.myspace.com/matesofstate

Tags: Barsuk, Ben Folds, Mates Of State, Matt And Kim, Music Reviews, Polyvinyl

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