Sean McCann

Handcrafted drones and noisy discussions between folk instruments during holiday dinners at Sean McCann's secluded cabin in the wilderness.

Last.fm // Discogs


Phylum Sigh (2009, DNT Records)


Open Resolve (2010, Stunned Records)


Chances Are Staying (2010, DNT Records)

Mimicking Birds

Mimicking Birds

genre: folk, singer-songwriter

Mimicking Birds began as the solo bedroom recordings of Oregon native Nate Lacy and eventually expanded to include close personal friends Aaron Hanson (drum) and Tim Skellenger (guitar). The music itself is very minimalist with simple rhythms and sparse arrangements, but what really sets it apart is Lacy's delicate vocal delivery.

I have a natural bias against most singer-songwriters. In my experience, they tend to lean on power chords, sing in cliches, and have massive egos. This is not the case with Lacy. You can hear a certain hesitancy and shyness in his voice as he fingerpicks through cyclical melodies. He's not a rockstar, he's just charming and talented. Plus, his voice reminds me of a less whiny hybrid of Okay and Electric President's vocalists (don't kill me for picking that adjective, I love both those bands).

Although most reviewers seem to favor the song "Loops," my personal favorites are "Burning Star," which is easily the most confident and structured song on the album, and "Cabin Fever."

P.S. sorry for getting this to you so late :c

Myspace // Last.fm

Buy it!

Here We Go Magic - Pigeons

Pigeons

Myspace // Last.fm

Obligatory

Have One On Me (VBR)

Beauty. This describes both Joanna Newsom and her music. This 3xLP is the most accessible thing she has ever done, but that should in no way make you think she has lost her edge. Just check out that fucking regal album cover.

Drag City

Cast Spells - Bright Works and Baton (EP)

Cast Spells is the solo project of Dave Davison of Maps & Atlases. He played at a local venue last night. He was extremely fun to watch. He told some really hilarious stories and his songs were beautiful and fun. The man also has quite a wonderful beard. You would be doing yourself a disservice by not listening to this release.

Bright Works and Baton (EP)

Feral Children

Feral Children are a Seattle-based band that incorporates woodland folk rock sounds with synthesizer-drunk backdrops. Their newest record, Brand New Blood, was produced by Scott Colburn, who also produced Feels by Animal Collective. After discovering them I decided to do some research and people are throwing around some pretty intense comparisons. One person on last.fm wrote "Take old-school Modest Mouse vocals, add in some Wolf Parade and Animal Collective for good measure, and you have Feral Children." While I don't totally agree with that statement, I don't totally disagree, either. I'll let you be the judge. I am particularly fond of "Second To The Last Frontier" over "Brand New Blood" so far. Thus, I would suggest starting at the beginning.

Second To The Last Frontier (2008)


Brand New Blood (2010)

Myspace
Buy

Midlake

The Acts of Men

Has been on repeat since I downloaded it.

I maintain that fleet foxes wanna be midlake, couldn't be this awesome if they tried, should keep their day jobs, have lamer cover art and beards, etc etc etc etc

Here We Go Magic - Tunnelvision (Live)

Soooo I didn't expect myself to want to post this so soon, but wow! I came across it while thinking about making a "Best Live Acts of 2009" post, and just couldn't contain myself. This song live is as epic as the fact that they are performing in front of a huge boat. No, it is more epic. Imagine they are performing on the boat, and it is a Viking boat on its way to discovering Iceland, and then they encounter a portal into another dimension, or something. I don't understand how this video only has three-hundred-something views.



If their new songs are any indication (they played maybe four*, I think, when I saw them two months ago), and if they release an album in 2010, I can't imagine a world in which they do not become huge.

*Sadly, there is no Youtube evidence of this. Total bummer.

P.S. I almost forgot -- Noisevox also has several other videos from this show up on Youtube and they are all Olivia-Wilde-goddamn-beautiful. Check them out.

M. Pyres (Pt. 2)

Yay, finally got around to posting this! You may recall M. Pyres from the post I made about Cast Off / Cold Months. Pretty awesome ambient/post-rock album. The following albums stray far from that -- but not too far. All three are totes srsly recommended. Apart The Echo is kinda like Meneguar and Wavves or No Age or some other lo-fi punk/noise band but really into 90's indie rock and still with the ambient ideas floating around. & New Past Tense, which hasn't been released yet, is like a cross between Apart The Echo and Cast Off / Cold Months, integrating the post-rock ideas into the noisier punk songs. Consider Me, Ghost is a collection of their early demos, but almost all of it is as good as the newer stuff. Get into it, dudes.


Apart The Echo -- Buy it!


& New Past Tense


Consider Me, Ghost (demos)

Myspace

H o l o p a w

Oh Glory, Oh Wilderness

I know there are people around looking for this, since it was supposed to be out 6 months ago. If you're not sure who these guys are, or if the name sounds familiar, Holopaw is an altcountry band who used to be signed to sub pop/friends with isaac brock, and now they're releasing another album with bakery outlet (i.e. new album sounds much better).

They're having an art competition on their website here, definitely worth a look (it's all better than the cover art they actually used)

BIBIO (Two EPs)

This is a dude I would never have listened to if it wasn't for Collected Animals' overwhelming enthusiasm regarding the Ambivalence Avenue leak. And now, that's one of my favorite albums this year. Thanks AnCo bros. (We call each other that sometimes, in the CA. lol j/k not reely)



Here are his two recent EP releases: The first,


Ovals And Emeralds, is in the style of his older releases, like Vignetting The Compost. As far as I can tell, this was a limited edition vinyl only available in stores. Weird decaying guitar loops that carve out a tunnel to some 70's folk festival drug trip. The second,


The Apple And The Tooth, is actually a double EP. Or a four-song EP with seven bonus remixes? Whatever. And hey, guess what? The remixes are actually worth listening to. I'm only saying that because (and I'm sure most of you will agree) it is rare that one encounters a decent, entirely listenable remix album. With this EP, I barely feel an itch to skip any of these tracks. They mostly stay true to the AmbAve-era "Bibio spirit", if you want to call it that. One of the remixes is a killer reworking of "The Palm Of The Wave", done by Bibio himself. Another could be called a "fully realized" version of "All The Flowers", extending it three minutes past the original track's teasingly short running time of 63 seconds. Buy it from Insound (I sure did!), "housed in a gold foiled sleeve and strictly limited to 1000 copies." Sounds fancy!

Myspace

Good Luck, Wrugs.

Yes, as Patrick has said, college is realllllllly busy. I have been meaning to share some music for a while now, and even though I do have quite a few midterms to study for, I have decided to post up some links for your listening pleasure. I was also a tiny bit influenced by Patrick's stellar post. Just a tiny bit.....


Good Luck - Into Lake Griffy - (MYSPACE W/ BUY LINKS)
Speaking of college, this band was the headliner for my first show I attended during my first week here in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. They hail from said town, and drew a huge crowd of locals. The show was energetic, fun, and really set the mood for what I hope is going to be a great experience schooling here. Their music is great, heartfelt pop-punk with lyrics that just make you want to chill on your stoop with your good friends, listen to some good music, and take out a dirty thirty of whatever is cheapest.

Wrugs - Pass The Time Please - (MYSPACE)
Wrugs is a band from Chicago. They sent me their Braided Gas EP a while back and I enjoyed what I heard. This EP is no different, still some good psych-folk coming from this project.

Wrugs - Braided Gas EP (2009)

This is a nice little EP I got sent to me by one of the band members. It shows a lot of promise and I can't wait for future work from them.
Myspace
Download

Hush Arbors - Hush Arbors (2008)

I always name my .zip files with the first letters of the name of the band and then the album, so when I renamed this one it turned out to be HA-HA. I thought that was nice.

Preview on Myspace
Download - 320kbps
Buy it!

Dark Dark Dark - The Snow Magic (2008)

Dark Dark Dark is a lovely little gypsy folk band. And I really only say gypsy folk because they use a lot of accordion. They're from Minnesota. There's also banjo. They sound a bit like a wonderful group of musicians called Bowerbirds.

Myspace
The label doesn't want you to download the album from here. Sorry!
Buy it!

The War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues (2008)

Myspace
Download
Buy it!

Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom (2008)

"10 songs recorded quickly and quietly during a surprise visit by Julie Doiron, keeper of the world’s greatest and saddest voice, and Fred Squire, hidden guitarist of the floating riff, in a small wooden room in Anacortes, Washington before they returned home to eastern Canada. Songs with the expression of the face of a baby in a burning world, in the swirling dust. They hang on a theme of impermanence and destroying forces. The river is revealed to be going right through the house, the river of inevitable chaos, sorrow and love."

Check out Mount Eerie's tour dates with Doiron here. He's going all over, see him!

Try it - V0(VBR), .mp3, mediafire
Buy it!

Mount Eerie - Dawn (2008)

"“…Dawn is a 19 track unreleased album/journal/drawings collection that Elvrum recorded and compilled during a winter stay in Norway in 2002-2003. Dawn will be released as a book with a CD and on 10" white vinyl on Nov. 1st..."

Try it - V0(VBR), .mp3, mediafire
Buy it!

This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb - Three Way Tie For A Fifth (2004)

Great folk-punk innovators from Florida. They started as a new wave band, but quickly changed their direction to folk-punk with heavy traditional country influences. They were signed with Planit-X records, a fairly prominent name in the anarcho-folk/folk-punk genre. They're real fun. This is actually the only full CD I have bought of theres. If I get more, they will be promptly be up here.

DOWNLOAD - megaupload
Myspace
No Idea Records site w/ bunch of merch

O'death - Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin (2008)

Will be released October 28th. I've posted an older album of theirs here.

Preview on Myspace
Try it - 192kbps, .mp3, mediafire