July 24 2008
It may seem like putting five grown men in a van and sending them on the road is a tall order, but when you're looking at a row of three or four guitars (depending on whether someone's on an organ) and four microphones so that at times you've got twangy, angelic harmonies so dense you can't figure exactly what goes where only that it sounds lovely, it seems a small price to pay to be squished in a van. Anchored by the honestly earthy vocals of Russell Pollard, Everest has created 11 songs of acoustic pop brilliance on Ghost Notes - released by Neil Young's Vapor Records and recorded in Elliott Smith's former room, New Monkey Studio, on classic vintage equipment, recorded and mixed entirely to analog tape. If the recording credentials don't immediately make you realize this band is for real, if you dig into the band members resume file, you'll find tours of duty spent with Sebadoh, the Folk Implosion, Ealimart, Slydell, John Vanderslice, Mike Stinson and the Watson Twins and a video on their MySpace with the band being accompanied by various members of My Morning Jacket.
RCRD LBL is happy to showcase two songs from the Ghost Notes debut. "Rebels in the Roses," opens up Everest's debut quietly introducing the listener to what they can expect from the band. The lyrics are so sweetly heartfelt you immediately feel like you could bring these dudes to a family function and they would probably call your mom "ma'am" and play horseshoes over beers with your grandpa. The tune is a slow build but as each new element is introduced to the song, the understanding that this band has you in the palm of their hand and they'll bring you exactly where you want to be is implicit. Then there's "Reloader." This tune came on during an iPod shuffle session and someone quipped, is this Wings minus Linda? If you're looking for a pop song so catchy you'll be shouting out the chorus the second time it comes around, this is your jam. If you give this album the time it deserves, prepare to have these melodies in your head indefinitely.
Sounds Like: Brendan Benson, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, Moon High
Download: Everest - Rebels in the Roses
Download: Everest - Reloader
Everest @ MySpace
Everest @ RCRD LBL
The story begins with a 26-year-old beat-maker Factor. Rumor is he culls together hip hop, soul and rock into a wild, bubbling cauldron (read: production station) somewhere in the prairie hinterlands of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Truth be told, we don't really know what Saskatoon is like nor can we even say it 29 times fast. And we also really don't know the morale of this story.
Alls we know is that we find this track "Good Old Smokey" hypnotic- deep musky rap over bluesy coos and jewelry box tingles that float in and out of a mellow rhythmic soundscape.The lyrics feel like they are being churned out in slow motion like a 68 year old woman churning butter - you know- so that the richness and texture of each word is retained.............?(Far be it of me to shove an drugged out analogy next to one of dearly beloved elders- but here goes:)....The cadence makes you feels like the pot has just hit, your eyelids droop, and everything suddenly feels light and subdued. Smokey indeed.
Sounds Like: Microphone Mike, Myka 9, Sadat X, Tyron Davis
Download: Factor - Good Old Smokey My Kanine Feat Myka 9
Factor @ Myspace
Paper Bag Records and post-punk band You Say Party! We Say Die! are gearing up for the release of Remick’s Cube, a compilation of remixes and reworkings of YSP!WSD!’s tunes. It’s being released digital-only, so make sure to keep on checking the Paper Bag RCRD LBL blog until it e-drops 8/26, you never know what you may find... In the meantime peep PBR's post for loads of info, on both Remick’s Cube and the band’s upcoming LP.
YSP!WSD! at the Paper Bag RCRD LBL blog
Download: You Say Party! We Say Die! - Monster
Download: You Say Party! We Say Die! - Like I Give a Care (RAC mix)
Toronto-based producer Don Cash takes his eclectic stance on music making to the extreme with his new song “Flash Out (Yes We Can)”, the title track off his new EP. Of the two other songs we’ve released off the EP so far, “Paper Thin” is a loud, brash, and totally enjoyable garage rock beast, and “Trans Am” is a repetitive space disco jam about riding to gyms in Trans Ams (really). “Flash Out” is perhaps the most fleshed out of all the tracks, sounding like Sylvester had he not died in the ‘80s and hung out with Tiga instead. Take a gander, you’ll be spinning it all afternoon…
Sounds like: Sylvester, Tiga, Miss Kittin & the Hacker
Download: Don Cash - Flash Out (Yes We Can)
Download: Don Cash - Paper Thin
Download: Don Cash - Trans Am
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We know you guys have been salivating for some new Cold War Kids tracks, and we have just the thing to quench your overwhelming desire for urban indie Americana this morning. “Something is Not Right With Me” is a brand new, RCRD LBL exclusive track off of the Cold War Kids’ second album Loyalty To Loyalty (out Sept 23rd) , and if we use this as a measuring stick for the new material, then we’re all in for a special treat when the LP drops. Singer Nathan Willet has cultivated his inner Frank Black, and it makes for the sort of raw kinetic power that appeared on their debut album Robbers and Cowards. While we’re waiting to see where CWK are going to take us, take in “Something Is Not Right With Me” below.
Sounds like: The Pixies, Tom Waits, The Walkmen
Exclusive Download: Cold War Kids - Something Is Not Right With Me
Stream: Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry
Stream: Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds
July 23 2008
We’re super excited to report that sample-crazy Aussies and Modular Records signing Bumblebeez are streaming their new album Prince Umberto and the Sister of Ill, an LP that blends rap, hip hop, freestyle, post punk and pop in a kaleidoscopic array of breakbeats and early ‘90s flair. The first single from that album is “Dr Love”, which if you’ve spent any time on any dance blog these past months you have undoubtedly heard. Surprisingly, it’s not the climax of the record though—the entire thing is kind of a continuous mish mash of Neneh Cherry, Beastie Boys, Liars, The Avalanches and Lisa Lisa. In short—amazing. Enough with that, get over to the Bumblebeez RCRD LBL artist page and experience the tracks for yourself.
Sounds like: The Avalanches, Neneh Cherry, Tribe Called Quest, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
Full Album Stream: Bumblebeez - Prince Umberto & The Sister of Ill
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I get seasonally attached to music. Some songs just feel like summer or winter, so it seems a bit counter-intuitive to post Tu Fawning's "Sound You Warn" on a day when it's sunny and in the mid-70s when it makes me think of falling leaves and autumn. Their debut, the Secession EP, is a July release from Polyvinyl and it just seems cruel to keep this song from you. Featuring Corrina Repp and Joe Haege (31Knots) as the core of Tu Fawning, with Toussaint Perrault and Liza Rietz adding strings, horns and vocals, the band has released an EP with 6 songs of loveliness. This is cinematic music at its sweetest, with subtle drums that sound like fat raindrops falling on the roof, subdued handclaps leading into great cymbal pounds and choral backing vocals that shake like wind through the trees, "Sound You Warn," sounds like the prelude to a storm. Check out "Sound You Warn," and remember what it feels like to be inside listening to autumn rain.
Sounds like: Bodies of Water, Au, Beach House, Andrew Bird
Download: Tu Fawning - Sound You Warn
Tu Fawning @ MySpace
Tu Fawning @ RCRD LBL
Three lovely ladies, guitars, velvet vocal harmonies and immeasurable quantities of what my dad would undoubtedly refer to as Tennessee moxie: these are not just a few of the ingredients that fuel Those Darlins' dirt-road, throwback country jams, they comprise a feminist cocktail of its own punky persuasion as well. Man, when alliteration backfires, it can be totally ugly. Right?
A friend once told me it's better to be crazy than boring. I sort of agree and although I'm not one for re-printing lyrics, this is one of the better lines I've heard in a long while: "If you can't handle crazy go ahead and leave/ If you don't want a wild one, quit hanging 'round with me." Pretty straight-forward and awfully awesome (I'm the worst). But seriously, you'd be crazy to even consider it. Put this on repeat and hang tight -- we've got some exclusive video from the Nashville trio headed your way lickety-SPLIT.
Sounds Like: June Carter, Neko Case
Exclusive Stream: Those Darlins - Wild One
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Meanest Man Contest’s new EP, We Blame You, out now on Gold Robots Records, features a remix of their new single “We Wouldn’t Want it Any Other Way”, and it’s totally incendiary. The remix is by Paris-based electro producer Débruit, who is signed to Musique Large (the label Ghislain Poirier calls home). The remix itself takes MMC’s trademark lo-fi rap and buffs it up a bit, adding fresh keyboard lines and putting the emphasis even more on Quaterbar and Eric Steuer’s rapidfire rhymes. Check it out below, as well as five other MMC singles we’ve released over the last few months.
Sounds like: Beastie Boys, Flying Lotus
Download: Meanest Man Contest - We Wouldn't Want it Any Other Way (Débruit remix)
Download: Meanest Man Contest - Partially Smart
Download: Meanest Man Contest - I Would Leave
Download: Meanest Man Contest - The Tenderloin
Download: Meanest Man Contest - Let's Go (feat. Subtitle & Eso Tre)
Download: Meanest Man Contest - Throwing Away Broken Electronics
Can we say how much we love that San Francisco is bringing back the psychedelic rock with as much aplomb as humanly possible? At the same time that a band like Girls are cranking out heady shoegaze pop, Lemonade are making… laptop tropicalia electro punk? Is that it? We can’t even tell frankly, and that’s a large part of their appeal. Casio beats, synthesizers, Happy Mondays-esque chanting and bursts of noise are all part of the plan for Lemonade, which counts Alex Pasternak as a member, whose music we’ve featured before on RCRD LBL. Give it a spin and let us know what you think—we’re smitten.
Sounds like: Happy Mondays, CAN, Alex Pasternak
Download: Lemonade - Sunchips
