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

Violens

Amoral, V

I have a new band crush. Their name is Violens and they're 4 New Yorkers from Miami. I would describe them myself, but their last.fm info does the job perfectly already:

"Their music imagines a place where The Zombies & The Byrds meet Wire & The Violent Femmes, and Crass meets Angelo Badalamenti & Prefab Sprout."

So much genre melding going on with Amoral - from poppy to psychy to some fast shoegazing on Another Strike Restrained and a little post-rocking on Generational Loss - I'm melting I'm melting! Also, I think there's a didgeridoo playing for a few seconds at the beginning of "Could You Stand To Know." They're so cool (I assume... not like we're close personal friends) and such a great change of pace from all the shit I've been listening to lately.

That's right. Officially dropped off the chillwave and ditched my chillboard, at least for the time being. One second my friend and I were driving around and he was telling me how much he loves Tame Impala, and the next second their music was blasting and I just had this thought:

This shit is kinda boring/repetitive and I've had enough!!!(?)

An inexplicable sorrowful rage filled my body. I asked him to change the music, and when he didn't I seriously considered cashing his face via my fist, but then I remembered that I weigh about 100 lbs, so instead I went home and listened to Violens.

Hope you liked hearing my life story and hope you like their music!

Lush Cola

Lush Cola

Didn't know about Weed Diamond until a few days ago, so I was pleasantly surprised when Patient Sounds (same label that put out the M. Pyres and Smelly Magic cassettes last year) sent this little beauty over. Lush Cola is an old project of Weed Diamond's Tim Perry. The sparse, minimal arrangements often lean on his calm ghost harmonies and drum machine beats, occasionally joined by a guitar or bass that sounds like it's being played in the basement with the door ajar. Perfect music for driving at night down a road surrounded by forest but close enough to the city for you to be able to see a faint glow through the brush. Watch a cool video on Get Off The Coast, put together by Jheri Evans himself, and preorder the cassette from Patient Sounds below.

Myspace // Last.fm
Buy it!

Have A Nice Life

Time of Land

UM HOLY SHIT

THANK GOD

...no, just kidding. dont thank god. thank me.

Melt Day

This is that split between Glass Buds (a.k.a. Pawlic) and Orchard Thief. It's as awesome as you could have imagined. Glass Buds' side calls to mind an ambient bizarro version of Kickball, and Orchard Thief's contribution is like Beach Fossils and Atlas Sound in a slow-motion light cycle race. The whole thing is streaming on their respective myspaces.

Orchard Thief :: Myspace // Last.fm
Glass Buds :: Myspace // Last.fm

Orchard Thief

Work

So I found out one day last week that Vacation Dad is touring the east coast this summer with Farms, Bad Tanya, and Orchard Thief. I think it's clear from what I'm posting right now that I'm really glad I looked up that last one. This album is darker than you'd expect of something that is the perfect thing to listen to on a summer day that's hot enough for your back to get stuck to your t-shirt but breezy enough to toss your hair into knots. Think of a minimal version of Real Estate, but moodier, like Crystal Stilts; and then take out the lo-fi fuzz, leaving just reverb and delay and open space; then strip the drum kit down to a few floor toms, a snare, and the occasional shaker, to keep the beats tribal. Add in a pinch of early Appleseed Cast and Sharks Keep Moving, and you're getting kinda close, but you still haven't listened yet. And you must.

You'd be missing out if you didn't also get the two songs No Conclusion posted a few days ago. They're gonna be on an upcoming split with Pawlic (performing under the name Glass Buds), and they're both really killer.

Myspace // Last.fm

Hooray!

Mixtape Memories

Swell stripped-down solo shoegaze. Reminds me of Atlas Sound, but the more songwriter-y stuff. And not as emotionally draining. Carefree, but still kinda heartbreaking. There's intimate lo-fi noise-pop hooks and a definite Underwater Peoples Records feel. Way better than the generic exclamation of his namesake may imply.

You can download another couple of EPs on his myspace, while you're at it.

Myspace // Last.fm

A Weather

Everyday Balloons

i've been waiting so long for this.

sweet and dreamy. sounds like laying in your bed on a pile of pillows wide awake on a rainy day.

Myspace // Last.fm

Warpaint

Exquisite Corpse EP

just some babez with angelic voices who make gorgeous music.

really dreamy, a little post-rocky, and completely otherworldly.

perfect for being snowed in for the night.

if you're starting to lose hope with all these recent dreampop bands springing up and putting out 7 minute tracks of boring, repetitive shit, don't worry-there's quite a bit of range here. they go from the more traditional "stars" to this pretty jazzy track appropriately titled "billie holiday" to "beetles," which is probably one of the more interesting stylistic ventures i've heard lately in the genre.

Ren Sanchez

Ren Sanchez is a dude I know. He does shoegaze-influenced electronic stuff, which is pretty awesome. This is a collection of tracks he composed over the last year or so. Reminds me of Atlas Sound and Mogwai and Grouper and other stuff. Kinda depends on the song. The last two are full-band songs, under a different name: Sun Shower. The first is a pretty standard post-rock tune, but the second puts an organ alongside the guitar, transforming the groove into a dark drive down a rural road. He's writing some pretty ridiculous epic dubstep-ish music right now, which I'm really psyched about. I'll probably post it when he's got enough material.


Soundtrack

Stella Luna

Stella Luna : Stargazing EP

My friend asked if I had heard Stella Luna's new EP and i freaked out a little bit (read: a lot a bit). after all, as far as i know, this is their only release and it was all the way back in 2002. But apparently, there is some solo artist who goes by Stellaluna.

Forget him. He is not very good. This is the Stella Luna people should be listening to.

They only have 4 songs in the entire world. They were supposed to release an album 7 years ago, and i waited and waited and waited... tragic, right? Claire Records' message board has a post from a few months back saying Stella Luna still exists, so hopefully they're still making music somewhere out there...

Parotia Tree & Tycho Anomaly & Memory Screen

Stay with me here, this might get confusing. Recently, some dude on www.CollectedAnimals.net posted some of his music. And it was awesome. Some members of the forum requested that he post more music. So he did. All of it was awesome.

The first and most recent thing he posted was this:
Balloons Split
One half is Chordata Primate, the other half is Tycho Anomaly (the guy that posted it). It was recorded "over the past few months".

Chordata Primate is now known as Memory Screen. Memory Screen's album can be downloaded HERE for free (watch the video, too). Get this if you're a fan of Do Make Say Think and miss the way they used to play jazz like they wanted to hypnotize the Titans.

These are both awesome records. Listen to them at their myspace links below if you want a better idea of how they sound. Also, do you see how many genre labels I used on this post? I even resorted to using "experimental". That should tell you something, because I usually make it a point to avoid that tag simply due to its cop-out, anti-descriptive nature. Today, I can't avoid it. I'm of the opinion that the fact of this being posted on an Animal Collective fan forum is enough incentive to download all this stuff.


Then, he posted this album, which the Tycho Anomaly guy made with the guy who is now Memory Screen. And it is awesome. I've been listening to this one the most, which is weird, because it apparently was recorded "several years ago" and, according to the dude who is now Tycho Anomaly, is "definitely not as well developed as some of the stuff on the split". I don't know what he's on about, really.

Parotia Tree Myspace
Tycho Anomaly Myspace
Memory Screen Myspace

ULTRAPOST2

Okay, I guess it's been long enough, and boy (or girl), have I got some tunes for you. I hate to present them like this, but really, I don't. Enjoy the noise.

Magic Markers - Balf Quarry (192 kbps [VBR])
Myspace
A few of the tracks here are like nothing they've ever done before, in such a good way. And yeah, this is probably their best release so far.

Nodzzz - Nodzzz (320 kbps)
Myspace
Quick, summery noise-pop. This is how No Age would have sounded in the 80's. Totally recommended, obviously.

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains (256 kbps)
Myspace
Half of these dudes are my age, and they already got "best new music" from Pitchfork. Here I am sitting on my ass blogging about it. This is some pretty transcendental indie-rock. Kind of sounds like Arcade Fire and Titus Andronicus, but that really does it no justice.

Magic People - You Are The Magic People (256 kbps [VBR])
Myspace
Kind of a spoken-word, mewithoutYou-style vocal, but there's no guitar involved, only analog synth and awesome distorted bass. I got addicted to this album while playing Donkey Kong Country 2.

Inverness - Forest Fortress (128 kbps)
Myspace (includes sendspace link to 320 kbps version)
Kind of a spacey, underwater Deerhunter/Atlas Sound feel. But more expansive, in a post-rock way, in that it'll make you almost forget about the impending apocalypse by predicting something entirely more painless. Plus, they're from Brazil. How exotic is that? Makes you want to jump into the South Atlantic and find out how deep they went to record this.

Pocahaunted - Passage (128 kbps)
Myspace
Another sweet, swirling set of tribal slow jams from the best of them. If anyone has a better quality version, help me out!

Snowing - Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit (320 kbps)
Myspace
Killer five-song EP from ex-members of Street Smart Cyclist and Boy Problems. If you don't remember them, think about Cap'n Jazz, Algernon Cadwallader, Braid, etc. I also get a shout out on one of the tracks: "I did some funny things with my best friend Patrick." John, I'm honored. Really.

Kickball - ABCDEFGHIJKickball (192 kbps)
Myspace
I've seriously been meaning to post this for over a year, no joke. It's kind of like minimalistic post-punk, with a vaguely Bobby Burg-esque vocal. Erm, yeah. They're friends with Paul Baribeau, if that helps you. Did I mention it might also change your life?

I was gonna post the new Dirty Projectors album, Bitte Orca, as well. But since they're on Domino now, I guess the links for it have been taken down just about everywhere. If I were to post it, though, I'd have to be pretty clever about it.

Deerhunter Live @ Noise Pop 2009

This is pretty recent, posted on Youtube a little more than a week ago. Maybe you've seen it already anyway. Four new songs are in here. Pretty good audio quality, even if the video is somewhat lacking. Go to the Youtube page for the rest of the setlist.

School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms (2008)

SVIIB is made up of members of Secret Machines and On!Air!Library!. It's pretty, shimmery, ethereal pop music. Dream pop or whatever.

Myspace
Download - 320kbps, Megaupload
Buy it!

The War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues (2008)

Myspace
Download
Buy it!

Deerhunter

This is an amazing band that no amount of hype will ever be able to accurately describe.

Wikipedia Page
Preview on Myspace
Buy their records!


Cryptograms (2007)


Fluorescent Grey EP (2007)


Microcastle (2008)
Weird Era Cont. (2008?)

Turn It Up Faggot (2005)

Gregor Samsa - Rest (2008)

I'm reposting this for two reasons:
1. It's amazing.
2. I recently discovered that the version I posted earlier was incomplete. Sorry!

The physical manifestation of this album will be released on May 13. You can purchase it digitally now through their myspace.

Try it - .mp3, mediafire
Buy it!

{{{Sunset}}} - Bright Blue Dream (2008)

I'm going to do what every other blogger paying attention to this album is doing and tell you how awesome Bright Blue Dream is and that it's an early contender for a Best of 2008 album.
Mainly the project of Bill Baird from the former Sound Team.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Sunset

Sadly, the label doesn't want you hearing the album without buying it. I believe it's unwise of them to have this attitude, but I respect their request.
Buy it!

Black Tambourine - Complete Recordings (1999)

This band was around for a very brief period of time, not even long enough to release a full album. This is a compilation of singles and demos recorded in the late 80's. They were very much ahead of their time.

EDIT 4/4/10 :: LINK UPDATED. should work now.

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