DOWNLOAD: To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie - The Needle
Minneapolis' To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie can get morose–beyond the name, most of their noirish post-rock sounds like excavating dead things from silence. Of course, on second LP, Marlone (out now through Kranky), they went and wrote and actual pop song (hear it here), but we're still preferential to cuts like "The Needle" where we can get lost in five minutes of deep, liturgical fog.
DOWNLOAD: Codes In The Clouds - Don't Go Awash In This Digital Landscape
Kent quintet Codes In The Clouds makes philosophically-named, dreamy post-rock scores that belong onscreen. Blasting in the background as we watch our anti-hero’s getaway into green, pastoral hillsides, hard mist, and frothy, cold seas. “Don’t Go Awash In This Digital Landscape” precisely instructs us to keep lucid and not fall into the swells. But the track is too lush with epic highs and lows for us not to do just that. CITC’s North American debut Paper Canyon is out now on Erased Tapes.
Sounds like: Explosions in the Sky, M83
Codes In The Clouds - Don't Go Awash In This Digital Landscape
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Miracle Condition - The Wandering Y
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(Photo: Zach Wagner)
Two thirds of Miracle Condition were in U.S. Maple, the insanely great Chicago band that de- and reconstructed hard rock in such a ridiculously clever way that most of the hard was stripped off, leaving a tension that could feed a family of five for a week. “The Wandering Y” shows that Miracle Condition are onto another great trip entirely, sounding like the Pale Saints if they’d come from Chicago instead of Leeds. Shoegaze meets post-rock? If you must, but those are just words, and this song’s better than words. Grab the track here and join me in counting down the seconds till the band’s self-titled debut comes in November on Tizona. I think there are about 5,443,200 of them.
DOWNLOAD: Cougar - Stay Famous + Mike Ladd Remix
Wisconsin agit-prog quintet Cougar just linked with Ninja Tune's Counter imprint for their new album, Patriot, due out September 1. "Stay Famous" is the first MP3 to surface; a buggy, beastly, three-headed worm of a jam that moves from polite post-rock to what sounds like Fugazi riffs dunked in battery acid. We've also got a line on Mike Ladd's smashed-up remix of the tune, a version we are feeling for its blatant disregard of proper gain levels. Remember kids, distortion can be beautiful. Cougar head out on tour with Maximo Park in September, dates up at their MySpace.
Sounds like: Battles, Mr. Bungle, Japanther
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: The Poison Arrows - An Unexploded Dream (New Crystal Aquarium Remix)
Back in May, Chicago post-rock trio The Poison Arrows put out their debut LP, First Class, and Forever, through File-13 (buy it here), where you can find the original of "An Unexploded Dream". We think this remix from New Crystal Aquarium (ex-Film School guitarist Nyles Lannon and Tim Hingston) exemplifies the song title a bit more accurately, swelling like a water balloon filled with worms that never break the membrane. In other words, it goes pretty deep. Look for more PA remixes on File-13 this summer.
Sounds like: Holy Fuck, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Battles
Poison Arrows - An Unexploded Dream (New Crystal Aquarium Remix)
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DOWNLOAD: Tartufi - Dot Dash
Tartufi are a raucous, restless pair. It wanders off down so many side streets that it's hard to classify, but "Dot Dash" - taken from recent album Nests Of Waves And Wire - is atypical post-rock, basically - atypical in the fact that it's not skull-suckingly boring or obsessed with its own prowess. Instead, guitarist/vocalist/pedal-stomper Lynne Angel and drummer Brian Gorman use their powers for good, urging the listener down said side streets, erupting there illicitly with buoyant vocal oddness and soft lilts of metal-petal fret-work. When they're not jamming hard, Angel and Gorman run what's been described by their label Southern as "a rock n' roll school for kids" called Saturday Morning Rock Out - Tartufi could well be a product of their own teaching, injecting staid post-rock formulas with a youthful thirst for kicks.
Sounds Like: Asobi Seksu, Autolux, Animal Collective
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Soap&Skin - The Sun
As you may have gathered from the photograph, Anja Plaschg isn't the happiest of campers. The 18-year-old's stern Soap&Skin project wilts the soul with an eery, monochromatic misery somewhere between archetypal pop shrewishness and windswept post-rock; "The Sun" all doomed piano and ragged guitars, lyrics with nagging references to black holes and imminent death. It's as masterful a rendering of gloom as you'd expect from someone who'd grown up punk on an Austrian pig farm. The consensus seems to be that Plaschg might just be something of a genius - her debut album will look to reinforce that view upon its release next Monday, April 13 through PIAS.
Sounds Like: Björk, Fever Ray, Sibylle Baier
DOWNLOAD: Reigns - Everything Beyond These Walls Has Been Razed
Reigns is piano-based shoe-gaze magical realism. "Everything Beyond These Walls Has Been Razed" begins with deep, throbbing waves of piano-plucked sounds, shy electronic whispers, and monotone vocals. Mid-track, the song is lifted up by ghostly electronic beats and carried further out to sea. Reigns cite an abundance of fog as their inspiration. Indeed, you can hear the aimless drifting of mist below.
Sounds Like: Barzin, Gravenhurst, Radiohead, Explosions In The Sky, Pink Floyd (think "Hey You")
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: From Monument To Masses - Beyond God & Elvis + Defeaning
Bay- area post-rock trip, From Monument To Masses, have a long history with Dim Mak, back to when Steve Aoki (Label Owner) and FMTM's Matthew Solberg were college buddies at UCSB. The first released sounds via Dim Mak were in 2002 with the band's self-titled debut release. That release was then followed up by second album "The Impossible Leap..." and 2005's critically acclaimed remixes/rework album "Schools of Thought Contend". We have decided to offer you a FREE download from "Schools of Thought Contend", the track 'Deafening', the addictive and haunting lead-off track. The giveaways do not stop there! Also available for download is "Beyond God & Elvis", another (Felix Cartal Remix was released last week on Rcrd Lbl) taste from the new album (out soon), "On Little Known Frequencies". OUT NOW: From Monument To Masses' "Beyond God & Elvis" single with remixes by Mixhell, Designer Drugs, & Felix Cartal.
Exclusive Download: From Monument to Masses - Deafening
Exclusive Download: From Monument to Masses - Beyond God & Elvis
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD + INTERVIEW: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Bells Of Creation
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Though some of them recently re-located from Austin to New York City, ...And You Know Us By The Trail Of Dead will always sound like a Texan band, if only because their music is as mammoth and indignant as the Lone Star State herself. Over five albums and as many EPs and singles, they've perfected a towering brand of rock music with skyscraper-huge guitars and drums that sound like they're loaded with C4. In early 2009 the band will release a yet-untitled album they've been working on for the past year, an album they recorded with producers Mike McCarthy, Frenchie Smith, and Chris Coady that will be their first for their own Richter Scale imprint. A four-track collection of songs from those sessions were released as the Festival Thyme EP in October, and "Bells Of Creation" is the first song from that EP, which sounds like The Who if they'd decided to write about epic viking battles instead of pinball wizards. The band have graciously hooked up an exclusive download of the track for the next SEVEN DAYS so make sure to grab this one right now. Also hit the break to read a chat we had with frontman Corad Keeley about the song and how it was inspired by Mormonism, School Of Seven Bells, and a hymn Keeley heard as a youngster.
Sounds like: The Who, The Velvet Underground, The Secret Machines
Exclusive Download: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Bells Of Creation
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's RCRD LBL Page
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