INDIE&POP

2014

twee as fxck!

March 2014

May '14 Forecast

Muso's Guide Underexposed 20140321

Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 2

Mis favoritas

“Sugarcrush” is the first single from noisepop five-piece Joanna Gruesome’s debut album Weird Sister. The album, due out in September on Fortuna POP! (UK) and Slumberland (US), sees their first foray away from recording in a living room to a proper studio under the guidance of producer MJ of the much lauded Hookworms.
Kicking it against sexism and homophobia, Joanna Gruesome draw inspiration from DIY scenes such as Riot Grrrl/noisepop/C86 /K-Records as well as post hardcore like Drive Like Jehu/Converge and the art rock of The Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine.
“Sugarcrush” (which is about spending the summer burning knitwear) is spiked with dissonant fuzzy jangle layered over a delicious pop melody, all punctuated by clattering hardcore drumbeats, feedback and summery ba-ba-bas.
The b-side is a gorgeous and ethereal cover of the classic Galaxie 500 track “Tugboat”. Retaining the dreamy pace of the original, the sparse verses are contrasted by the noise fuzz of the chorus. Joanna Gruesome’s version was heard by Galaxie 500’s own Damon and Naomi who watched them perform the song live via Youtube and tweeted their approval.
Based in Cardiff, Joanna Gruesome comprise Alanna on vocals, Owen on guitar, Max on bass, George on guitar and Dave on drums. They have built-up a phenomenal live reputation, blending obnoxiously loud guitars and the occasional band uniform, with a high energy performance dispersed with quieter reflection, boy/girl vocals and teenage angst.
 
“Abrasion, anger, attitude. One guitarist is in the audience, but this isn’t too much of a stretch. There are slower parts where the musicians take a second to breath. There are noisier bits where the musicians take a second to reflect. There are thumpy bits where the musicians take a second to dance and enjoy themselves. Everyone’s smiling. Everyone’s hugging themselves. What a glorious mess of a noise to be a part of. What a glorious sense of community.” Everett True, Collapse Board

"A brilliant band from Cardiff who love their fuzzy melodies and songs dripped in scuzzy reverb." Huw Stephens, Radio One.

Joanna Gruesome - Sugarcrush

Don't Wanna Be Your Girl

"Delphine (With A Purpose)" is the first single from the debut album 'Floristry' by young Dunedin, New Zealand floral-pop trio Trick Mammoth. They say:

“Formed in early 2013, Trick Mammoth are a pop band from Dunedin, New Zealand. Fragile, lucid but rough around the edges, their songs are unintentionally sincere and bashfully honest, performed with open arms and a soft indifference. 
 
Drawing mostly on film, literature and poetry, their music discharges a shy pretension buried under layers of simplicity. With comparisons ranging from Black Tambourine to The Carpenters, Trick Mammoth have crafted a sound saccharine sweet yet doused in death.
 
In mid July 2013, the band recorded their first full length album with the assistance of Tex Houston (The Clean, The 3Ds). Adrian Ng and Millie Lovelock play guitars and sing, Sam Valentine plays drums. They all took turns to play bass.

Their debut album 'Floristry' is released through Fishrider Records in NZ on 31 January 2014 and co-released by Fishrider Records and Occultation Recordings in the UK on 24 February 2014."

http://trickmammoth.bandcamp.com/

Trick Mammoth - Delphine (With A Purpose)

Plasticine Daydream

The Sun Days - You can't make me make up my mind

The sun days - You can't make me make up my mind

Fortuna POP! will be releasing the self-titled third album by London’s LET’S WRESTLE in February. The record sees the band enter a new phase of maturity and sophistication giving frontman Wesley Patrick Gonzalez a forum to showcase his songwriting talents and love of classic pop. More heartfelt and musically diverse than previous albums, Let’s Wrestle sees the band transformed and ready to move up to a different level completely. 

Let's Wrestle - Codeine and Marshmallows

Fires Ft Josh Record

Lilies On Mars - Dream Of Bees

This EP was recorded with Lee Bowden at Finnmark! HQ in Leeds and Lee's country retreat in York in May to June 2013.  

This is a joint release between Finnmark! and the brilliant February Records. 

Download or buy the CD from http://finnmark.bandcamp.com/album/were-not-k-ping 

DIY until we die!

Considering a Move to Sweden

Happy Diving s/t EP out digitally January 14, 2014 + on cassette on February 18, 2014.

Happy Diving - Never Been

“A great, dark classic pop song” - Steve Lamacq, BBC 6Music

“Imperious vocals…oddball & accessible.” - 20 tracks you have to hear this week, NME
 
“What happened to Mansun's Paul Draper? Well, he's producing The Anchoress and the results are quite something” – CLASH

‘What Goes Around’ is the debut limited edition single from The Anchoress - a new project from Welsh London-based multi-instrumentalist Catherine Anne Davies, co-produced with Paul Draper. Set for release 5th May 2014 as a limited edition of 500 clear heavyweight vinyl (which sold out in 24 hours on preorder) via the prestigious Too Pure label (PJ Harvey, Stereolab, Hookworms), ‘What Goes Around’ is the first taste of The Anchoress’ forthcoming debut album and is a refreshing blast of “revenge pop”, with angular guitars and barbed lyrics framing this anthem about karmic balance.

‘What Goes Around’ will be released on May 5th 2014 via TOO PURE.

www.iamtheanchoress.com

Produced by Paul Draper & Catherine Anne Davies
Mixed by Cenzo Townsend
Mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios

Catherine Anne Davies: Vocal, Piano, Mellotron, Organ, BVs
Paul Draper: Guitar & BVs
Ben Sink: Electric Guitar
Ben Stack: Bass
Jon Barnett: Drums
Strings: Gillian Wood (cello), Mary Kelly (viola), Vicky Falconer Pritchard (violin)
String Arrangement by Gillian Wood

What Goes Around

A cover of Band of Horses which I've been playing at recent gigs. Free download at http://smarturl.it/DenaiMooreTickets

Download

Part One (Live at The Burrow)

Burrito Panza - El Paciente Tranquilo

"Fall In" is the first track off Young Magic's new album, "Breathing Statues".

View the teaser for "Breathing Statues" here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYoxLS5Iutg

Buy Here

Young Magic - Fall In

Available on 10" clear frosted vinyl and digital - 
http://dirtybingorecords.greedbag.com/buy/night-flowers-1/

www.facebook.com/wearenightflowers
www.twitter.com/Night_Flowers_
vimeo.com/nightflowers
www.instagram.com/wearenightflowers

Written and performed by Night Flowers
Recorded by Adam Jaffrey
All songs Copyright Control 
℗ + © 2014 Night Flowers under licence to Dirty Bingo Records Ltd.

Embers

WALLS / ORAM - Extremely Long Corridor

The title song of the forthcoming début album from Candy Says, Oxford's lo-fi chic pop garage recording collective.

Not Kings (the album) will be released on 28 May 2014, and you can see Candy Says live:

28 May - The Waiting Room, London (album launch)
29 May - Truck Store, Oxford
29 May - Midnight live streaming gig from the garage
Tickets available from http://candysays.it


Not Kings

Bentcousin with LL & the D's - You Make Me Feel So Young

Moon Gangs - I

From the MINDSPEAK EP

iTunes: http://smarturl.it/mindspeakep

Mindspeak EP

Pretend Believe

Released 6 March 2014.

facebook.com/theworriersband
twitter.com/the_worriers
instagram.com/theworriers

Cruel To Be Kind

Taken from Omi Palone's S/T debut LP co-released by Faux Discx and Negative Space on 14th April 2014, available on vinyl LP (limited to 300) and digital download.

PRE-ORDER NOW:
Via Faux Discx: https://fauxdiscx.bandcamp.com/album/omi-palone
Via Negative Space: http://negativespacemusic.bigcartel.com/product/omi-palone-omi-palone-12

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Following their long sold-out self-released cassette of 2011 and two split 7”’s in 2012, Omi Palone will release their debut self-titled long-player as a joint release between Faux Discx and new label Negative Space. 

The 8-track record is a frenetic fuzz-tinged pop headrush of barely-restrained punk outbursts. Singer-guitarist Philip Serfaty's deep and sleepy baritone reverberates over urgent, rushing chord progressions and incisive rhythmic precision.  Frantic jangling guitar hooks fall away to one-chord motorik chug, hypnotic drone and looming fuzz, giving the tracks a hounded, runaway feel.

Finding strength in brevity, the band explores and experiments with what can be expressed in a 3 minute post-punk song; controlled, complex melodies interweaving in amongst simple (but not simplistic) repetitive structures, interrupted only by stomping middle-eights. Artistic allegiances nod towards an Antipodean influence: the output of 80s New Zealand labels such as Flying Nun & Xpressway, as well as the current Australian punk scene. 

OMI PALONE – Shallow Divide

The Moons - Heart and Soul
Out: 31 March
Schnitzel Records

http://www.themoons.co.uk
www.facebook.com/themoonsofficial
www.twitter.com/moonsofficial

The Moons - Heart and Soul

Hailing from Pity Me near Durham, vegan straight-edge pop group MARTHA have just signed to Fortuna POP! and will be releasing their new album ‘Courting Strong’ at the end of May. Providing energetic, impassioned pop punk, Martha are informed by 90s indie rock and Scandinavian anarcho noir. The album, produced by MJ from Hookworms, is laden with harmonies and interchangeable vocals whilst still retaining the energy and excitement of the band’s live shows. 

Formed in 2011 by siblings Naomi (bass, vocals) and Nathan Griffin (drums, vocals) with J. Cairns (guitar, vocals) and Daniel Ellis (guitar, vocals), Martha have fast become a staple of the UK DIY pop scene. There are many competing stories as to the origin of their band name but it’s a fact that the very last passenger pigeon on earth was called Martha. When she died, the whole species became extinct.

Decamping from the North East to record the album at Suburban Home Studios, Leeds, the band enjoyed the freedom of being in the studio and experimenting with MJ’s equipment to produce unexpected sounds. The process saw them opening up to new ideas and, feeling more confident in their own abilities, allowing a wider range of dynamics.

Taken from a line in the song Gin and Listerine, the album title “Courting Strong” is an expression that was used to describe couples who were getting really serious. There’s the old cliché that when you’re young you think you’re invincible and that everything will last forever - the album is about looking back and reflecting on past moments in your life, past friendships and relationships, accepting the uncertainty and fragility of those things and moving forward positively.

The overarching theme of the album is ‘growing up weird’. It’s a semi-autobiographical story about growing up in a small town, with a sense of not fitting in but on the way finding people who share that feeling and forming really strong bonds. It’s about clinging to a sense of belonging and about being proud of who you are and where you are from, as well as the community of which you are a part. It’s an album for the people who stayed in their hometown, and for the people who still go back and visit.

Martha’s melodic punk pop celebrates being an outsider whilst being part of a community. The album touches on uncertainty, fear and loneliness whilst exuding an effervescent sense of excitement and joy. There’s darkness beneath the pop surface - but there are also songs about teenage antics, drinking, courting and having your heart broken – everything a good indie record should have.

 “Martha have mastered that neat Buzzcocks trick of riding those gloriously glowing guitars with sweet, comfortingly-fey voices singing in irresistible harmony. In short, they’re pretty darn great” Clash Magazine 

“Top notch buzzsaw indiepop with enough melodic punk in their DNA to make them stand out. Definitely worth keeping an eye on” Narc Magazine

Martha - 1997, Passing In The Hallway

A Little God In My Hands is the first track to be taken from Swans' forthcoming album 'To Be Kind' released on Mute on 12 May / 13 May on Young God Records (North America).

The album features several special guests: Little Annie, St. Vincent, Cold Specks and Bill Rieflin, the album was produced by Michael Gira, and recorded by John Congleton at Sonic Ranch, Texas. Further recordings and mixing were accomplished in Dallas, Texas. 

Swans are Michael Gira, Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Phil Puleo, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica.

'To Be Kind' will be released on triple vinyl, double CD, download and 3 disc deluxe Edition (including a live DVD).

SWANS US / UK TOUR
14 May - Washington DC, Black Cat Mainstage
15 May - Philadelphia PA, Union Transfer
17 May - Boston MA, Royale Nightclub
18 May - New York NY, Bowery Ballroom
19 May - Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg 
22 May - Manchester UK, Academy 2
23 May - Newcastle UK, Hoults Yard
24 May - Glasgow UK, The Arches
25 May - Aberdeen UK, The Lemon Tree
27 May - London UK, Brixton Electric
28 May - Bristol UK, Trinity Community Arts
29 May - Reading UK, Sub89
31 May - Birmingham UK, Supersonic Festival - Custard Factory
1 June - Leeds UK, Cockpit
2 June - Brighton UK, Concorde 2

Tickets are on sale now, http://www.seetickets.com/go/swans. 
Support comes from Jenny Hval on all the May dates.

www.younggodrecords.com
www.facebook.com/SwansOfficial

Swans - A Little God In My Hands

Taken from the album 'Friendly Bacteria', released 19  May 2014 on Ninja Tune. Featuring @matthewhalsall on trumpet/fx & @taz-modi on rhodes & stringy synths. Mastered by Kevin Metcalfe at Soundmasters. Heavy!

Check the 'Render Me' video> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEZz8xMH6fQ

Ninjashop - http://smarturl.it/friendlybacteria
iTunes - http://smarturl.it/friendlybacteriait
Amazon - http://smarturl.it/friendlybacteriaam

Album launch party at the Roundhouse in London on 31 May, plus gigs in Manchester, Southampton, Norwich, Hay on Wye, Blackpool & tons of festivals.. Full list of gigs here: http://mrscruff.com/gigs/

Buy on Ninja Tune

We Are Coming

123Mrk - Pleasure [IM004]

As we love them both, we recommend this parisian show. Free gigs, cheap pints !

The Starlets - Tenterhooks

From our soup studio sessions for our forthcoming album Let Desire Guide Your Hand, due in March 2014. 
Video for this song directed our friend Michael James Hall. Go look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U55VXOSM6N0&feature=youtu.be


Erika K

Nearly 20 years since releasing their first cassette album, Milky Wimpshake unveil their fifth 'proper' album Heart And Soul In The Milky Way, due out on Fortuna POP! in February 2013. Recorded in a single day, it consists of 15 more songs from the pop/punk chocolate assortment box which the band have raided for so many years: love songs, silly songs, songs about obsolete items of stationary and such like, all set to a basic guitar buzz and kick drum combo. 

The album bristles with spontaneous excitement due to the success of the live recording with no overdubs, giving Heart And Soul In The Milky Way a much rawer, yet fresher feel than their previous albums. Here for your listening pleasure is the opening track, the subterranean homesick 'Chemical Spray', full of arbitrary rhymes and replete with taking-the-piss guitar break.

Milky Wimpshake - Chemical Spray

In anticipation for the first new Tullycraft album for five years, Fortuna POP! are releasing a single featuring the title track ‘Lost in Light Rotation’. One of the most influential bands to have emerged from America’s indiepop underground, Seattle’s Tullycraft revel in a DIY aesthetic having honed their particular brand of clever, self-reverential pop to perfection.

‘Lost in Light Rotation’ is an all-in-one banner anthem for the heartbroken, the disenfranchised, and the fleeting pop star. The song also makes a not-so-veiled reference to the 1996 single “This is Fake D.I.Y.” by the Scottish indiepop band Bis.

The b-side ‘Bad Connection’ is a cover written by the British synthpop duo Yazoo (also known as Yaz in the United States). The song originally appeared on the group’s 1982 debut album, Upstairs at Eric’s.

The album ‘Lost in Light Rotation’ was mixed by Phil Ek (The Shins, Band of Horses, Built to Spill, The Halo Benders, The Shout Out Louds, Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen). Sparkling with brainy fairy dust and glittering with proper pop songs, Ek irons out the quirks to create a wonderfully polished, yet still as punk as ever, sheen on the 11 delightfully upbeat, smart, indiepop anthems. With Sean Tollefson’s nasal vocal delivery counterbalanced by the sweetness of Jenny Mears’ responses, if you need a template for what the best indiepop sounds like, look no further.

Tullycraft - Lost in Light Rotation

This is a cover of a french song . hope you like it 

02 Coeur de Pirate - Comme des enfants

Violet Hours – Alone With Everyone

English Singles are a staple of Sacramento, CA's excellent DIY pop/punk scene. Featuring members of local legends The Bananas, Nar and Bright Ideas, English Singles mine a rich tradition of DIY pop that stretches from Swell Maps and The Television Personalities through to The McTells and The Sea Lions. Scratchy and home-made (but NOT lo-fi!), English Singles take pop back to the basics of catchy tunes, urgent guitars and sing-along choruses. Their live shows are frenetic and impassioned, with lead Single Scott Miller often seen wading into the crowd for some quality face-time with the fans.

Following up two fine singles on Slumberland and Squirmy, English Singles are back with this excellent three song EP. "Ordinary Girls" is a fine mid-tempo tune with a stick-in-your-head vocal melody and ace 12-string guitar leads. "Bitter End" is one of the band's earliest songs and live favorite, full of jittery guitars and rough-and-ready drums. The EP is rounded out by "Rain," a perfect slice of power-pop that clocks in at a brisk 1:53 but doesn't sacrifice anything in terms of energy, melody or excitement.


English Singles - Ordinary Girls

Your new favourite Stockholm-based sextet has this new song out in a week. Here's the exclusive online premiere. The song has been on our radio playlist for a week, tune in at www.gimmeindie.se. Thanks to the excellent label of Esplanaden Fonogram.