Stagnant Pools

Stagnant Pools is a two-piece shoegaze/post-punk band from Bloomington, Indiana. The duo consists of brothers Douglass and Brian Enas. Brian and Douglass create a wall of sound that is both grooving and aethereal. Brian's reserved vocals emanate just below the level of noise that is created by the combination of fuzzed-out guitar and on-point drum beats in such a way that they sometime register as a very in-place hum that adds to the overall sound. I highly suggest downloading their album they have made freely available through their bandcamp website. I also highly suggest coming out to one of their many shows they put on in the Bloomington, IN area. You will not regret it.

"Real Lies" Free Download

Parallel Pyres

Parallel Pyres

Distorted drums and organ, sometimes looped and layered, with the occasional garbled vocal echo. Those are pretty much the only sounds heard on this self-titled release, but it's the kind of basic structure that can easily amount to more than the sum of its parts. Here, that means subverting pop and new wave in a way that's just as catchy as anything Wet Hair and Vacation Dad have done. Could totally be a cassette on Not Not Fun. Visit All, Everyone, United to watch a few music videos he made.

Myspace // Last.fm

Gauntlet Hair

(link contains all three songs from their myspace)

I'm too in love not to post this. If you haven't heard this band via GvB or P4K yet, you're in for a surprise. Listen to the track "I Was Thinking..." via everyone's fav bilingual blog or on their myspace (link below). When I posted it on my tumblr earlier, I described it as "a snowball made of sunlight and wrapped in glass, floating in a hall of reverb. It probably also has a Cadbury Creme center, for all I know."

The story so far is that they apparently played Todd P's MtyMx festival and blew a lot of people away. They sound like a cross between Japandroids and Band Of Horses. No one knows much about them, except they're two dudes from Colorado and they're apparently writing their debut right now.

Myspace // Last.fm

TV Ghost

Cold Fish

Got this because they're opening for Lightning Bolt and Black Dice on Oct 30 (pretty sweet show! I'll be there). I'm glad I did, because they're awesome. I've never listened to The Birthday Party, but this is what I would expect them to sound like if they were way inspired by Arab on Radar.

Here's a video directed by the amazing EyeBodega.
It's got boobs and creepy old black-and-white film clips!



Myspace //// Buy it!

Ahleuchatistas - What You Will (2006)

Why I don't bother with descriptions:

"Third and best yet from this amazing instrumental, post-Beefheart, avant-technical, improv-core, math-metal, art-damage, punk-rock power trio from Asheville, NC. Using the simple and classic skeleton of guitar, bass and drums, these three make powerful music that is undeniably 'rock' but is also undeniably much wider in musical influences than what one would imagine in such rock-based work."

Try it - .mp3, mediafire, 200 kbps (VBR)
Buy it!

Blood on the Wall - Awesomer (2005)

Blood on the Wall is the sort of great, solid rock band that tends to go unnoticed among Animal Collectives and Xiu Xius. Sadly.

Try it - 192kbps, .mp3, mediafire
Buy it!

The Raincoats - Looking in the Shadows (1996)

Not as good as their first, self-titled album, but that's like saying Surfer Rosa isn't as good as Doolittle.

Try it - 225kbps(VBR), .mp3, sharebee
Buy it!

Half Japanese - Charmed Life (1988, Reissue 2001)

Half Japanese is the classic awesomely bad band. Jad doesn't need to know how to play guitar or sing, okay!

Try it - 192kbps, .mp3, megaupload
I don't think you can buy this new anywhere. Ebay?