A rolling collection of the declared goods indie, underground,  cool new sounds from around the world updated weekly! follow us @declaredgoods

Winter/Spring 2023 Declared Goods

Colder Streams

No One's Listening

Same Old Story

Beige Bouquet

1871

Au diable

Music toys with time. Or, maybe songs reflect back that time is always toying with us. The world of a song takes hold of us like an eternity to be lost in, with its repetitions and variations, but ultimately, as with everything else, it has a start and then ends. And there’s no place to lose time like San Francisco, where there are no seasons and all the seasons occur within one day; where the fog takes the space where your plans might have been; where there’s insane wealth all around and everyone you know and love is hanging on at the periphery and making art on any given Tuesday night. About Glenn Donaldson’s new record, "The Town That Cursed Your Name," he says, "I realized as I was piecing it together that it's a song cycle about trying to live while also feeling called to make music." It’s a double life when it works and a deeper doubleness to mirror the Gemini nature of songs themselves. "The Town That Cursed Your Name" contemplates this problem with wryness, generosity, and the micro- and macroscopic realness Donaldson is known and loved for.

Whereas the 2022 collection "Summer at Land's End" was a softer, gauzier world, "The Town That Cursed Your Name" is heavier, with fuzzed lines running through. "Leave It All Behind" starts out with an amorphous whine but quickly launches into something both supremely melodic and buzzing at the edges. "Here Comes the Lunar Hand" is an impressionist geometry that seems to capture the album’s themes without telling you how. Lyrically, Donaldson embraces the earnestness of his heroes Paul Westerberg and Grant McLennan. Sonically, late '80s college rock is filtered through song-forward lo-fi acts like East River Pipe and House of Tomorrow-era Magnetic Fields. Like the images that accompany his releases – flowers and residential street scenes are pushed to the breaking point with color – Donaldson’s songs are at the same time dazzling and lurid, beautiful and burdened, not unlike life as a musician around here.

In the liner notes, Donaldson dedicates the record "to everyone who ever tried to start a band in the Bay." There will be many knowing smiles at his title "Too Late For An Early Grave." But, this dedication captures something else about the particular strain of sincerity that laces the city water supply – the front man around here is on stage under those lights evincing the fervor not of the pop star but of the biggest fan.

-Karina Gill

The Town That Cursed Your Name

The Reds, Pinks & Purples - The Town That Cursed Your Name

Star Eaters Delight

I Am The River

Ill-Fated Cusses

Reaching Through

There is No Light

Elevator Eyes

Silhouettes

Derde Verde 'Don't Look Away' out April 20th: https://found.ee/j2Cc4

Derde Verde are a Los Angeles-based indie rock band known for their melodic soundscapes, driving rhythms, and heartfelt songwriting. They are set to release a new album, Tug of War in June 2023, with 'Don’t Look Away' as the first single. Their 2019 album 'Slow Light was praised by KCRW as Best New Music. Their upcoming album, captured mostly live on 2-inch tape, explores the conflict between past and present selves in the post-pandemic world.

Written, Performed, Produced by Derde Verde
Recorded and Mixed by Rob Shelton at Altamira Sound
Mastered by Philip Shaw Bova

Lyrics

Maybe you’re just getting older,
feels like the world’s growing colder, oh oh. 
You stay in your own echo chamber, 
whatever makes you feel safer, oh oh oh.

But when the walls start closing around you 
there’s no more quiet corners to run to.
Twisted words and pointed fingers surround you 
threatening to tear up everything in two.

But don’t look away, 
don’t look away, 
don’t look away.

Nothing looks like it used to,
all the disguises were cut loose, oh oh. 
Everything that you understood
has been pulled out from under you, oh oh oh.

But when the walls start closing around you 
there’s no more quiet corners to run to.
Twisted words and pointed fingers surround you 
threatening to tear up everything in two.

Don’t look away, 
don’t look away, 
don’t look away, 
don’t look away.

https://www.derdeverde.net/
https://www.instagram.com/derdeverde/
http://www.facebook.com/derdeverde
https://twitter.com/derdeverde
https://derdeverde.bandcamp.com/
http://soundcloud.com/derde-verde

Don’t Look Away

Crawl

No. 2

Moth Eaten Velvet

Subject Matter

Give It a Day

The Sound

Western Mystery Tradition

Heavy Tears

The Sound Of The Marketplace

Gringo Star

Gringo Star - Hanging Around

http://www.discogs.com/Alpaca-Brothers-Legless/release/793716

Alpaca Brothers - The Lie

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