When it comes to brand new bands, it doesn’t really get any fresher than this.
On June 29th, the brand new lazy beach rockers FAMILY TREES will release their debut 7″ from the San Francisco label Father/Daughter Records. Believe it or not, it also happens to be the first release for Father/Daughter Records too, so like I said, it really doesn’t get any fresher than this people. For their first release, they’ve only pressed 400 copies of the Dream Talkin’ 7″, and they come pressed on a voluptuous slab of crystal-clear vinyl that I’m sure everybody will go crazy for in just a matter of time.
The 7″ features three original songs from the Brooklyn band, and it clocks in at just about 7 minutes. These are the first three songs from Family Trees that are officially out there right now, but I’m sure these guys have more up their sleeves for us. Sure enough, I just checked their Myspace and they have plenty more to share with us. You can listen to the first song from their beachy, dazed out 7″ right below, and then you can head on over to the Myspace page and hear even more. If you like what you hear, you should definitely make your way over to the Father/Daughter Record store, because this breezy 7″ won’t be around forever, and you should snag one up before it’s too late. Thanks for coming by again today guys, and stay tuned for more!
Dream Talkin’ –
My Rating: 7/10 Genre/ Tags: Surf Rock, Lo-Fi, New Wave Dream Talkin’ 7″: Tracklist:
1.) Dream Talkin’
2.) Baby Come Back
3.) No One Will Ever Know
Hey there. Not sure if you’ve heard of these guys before, but their debut LP from 2009 called “Introducing” was quite a good one. It’s a ridiculously crunchy guitar album clocking in at no more than 23 minutes, making it a VERY short LP. It’s equally parts pop and punk, and it’s bound to put a smile on your face. Lead singer Jess guides us through the album with her dreamy, peppy vocals, and never once do they leave you wishing for more. Now the trio is back in 2010 with a brand new 7″, and it just came out this past April. It features two brand new songs, one of which I have for you below. Just head on over to Slumberland Records and you can snag your own copy before it’s gone. Sorry for the short, unorganized post today guys. Lots going on…
Never Mine –
My Rating: 7/10 Genre/ Tags: Pop, Lo-Fi Never Mine 7″: Tracklist:
1.) Never Mine
2.) Kissing’s Easy
Brilliant Colors on Myspace BUY the new 7″ directly from Slumberland Records!
Just yesterday I got an e-mail in my inbox from a band called GHOST MALL. They kept it very short, straight, and to the point. Here’s what they said: “We are Ghost Mall, a garage-y ramshackle pop/ethereal punk band from New Paltz, NY. This is our debut EP entitled ‘Goons’. It was produced by DJ Teenwolf of Ninjasonik.” Also included was a link to Mediafire where you could download the EP in it’s entirety. So I listened to the EP today for the first time, and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only was it awesome, but they definitely used an accurate description to describe their sound in the e-mail, and I think that’s what originally grabbed my attention. Bravo Ghost Mall!
They definitely have the ramshackle-y gunky rock/punk thing down, but I think they also add a bit of an electronic element to their music that takes it to a whole different level, with the best example from their EP being the song “Senile Felines”. They also forgot to mention in their description that they seamlessly, (and quite unexpectedly) add a reference to the Biz Markie song “Just a Friend” in their song “Balloon Ideas”. I think I speak for everybody when I say that I didn’t see that coming when I first listened. But going back to “Senile Felines”. This was the first song on the EP that definitely caught my attention. It’s a long one, and it continues to grow and get more and more complex as time moves on. Hopefully you can agree with my statement about the electronic elements in their sound after listening to this song. About halfway through they start to chanting short yelps of “woo!” which definitely makes for a fun listen. For about the last minute and a half of the song, they break things down as they all chant “Patience is a virtue baby,” and then we’re at the end.
Next comes the fast paced, keyboard dominated song “Balloon Ideas”, which features that reference to Biz Markie that I mentioned up above. This also happens to be the shortest song on the EP. Following up that song comes the track “Young Lairs”, which I thought stood out the most on the EP. It starts off with some careful, intricate drumming, and then the rest of the band joins in to take part in the approaching destruction. This one definitely fits their description of the music, as it’s equally part pop and punk, and it doesn’t shy away from the word “ramshackle” one bit. Finishing up the EP is the track “Johnny Appleseed”, which starts off a bit slower than the last few songs we heard. The lead singer is sort of talking to us in the beginning, and he is definitely unhappy with somebody as he calls them out and says “You fucked up.” The song goes on from here, and it stays at the same pace for the remainder, never quite hitting those break-neck speeds we heard earlier, but you always gotta have time to catch up.
Senile Felines –
Balloon Ideas –
Young Liars –
My Rating: 7/10 Genre/ Tags: Punk, Pop, Lo-Fi Goons EP: Tracklist
1.) 40 Nugs
2.) Senile Felines
3.) Balloon Ideas
4.) Young Liars
5.) Johnny Appleseed
WHIRL is literally a brand new band. They’ve been a member on Myspace since January, and they made their first post on their Tumblr account about three months ago. Since opening all of these accounts, Whirl has been hard at work releasing their earliest material to share with us. Up until this point they’ve released a demo tape (which you can snag for a dirt-cheap $2.00!), and then their first full-length EP, entitled “Distressor”. They posted a link to download “Distressor” on their Tumblr page about two weeks ago, so you should definitely look into that. It’s 25 minutes of heavy, spaced out shoegaze music that’s meant to be played no other way but at excessively high volumes. You’ll figure that out pretty quickly too, as the guitars are almost always coming at your full force, like in the song “Child”, or in the melodic goodness of the track “Meaningless”.
When it comes to listening to their new EP, it doesn’t really take that long for it to sink in before you’re listening to songs over and over again. Like everything else out there, once it sinks in, it’s not an easy task to escape it. Songs like “Leave”, “Blue”, and “Meaningless” will keep you coming back for second and third listens, not to mention the entire EP itself. The songs are arranged very carefully, some playing into each other as seamlessly as possible, making this all hang together almost too perfectly. I don’t necessarily like to tell you guys when you’re going to like music, but I think I have to this time. It’s just so deliciously awesome and fresh that it’s kind of hard to ignore. Although this is pretty much getting their foot into the door of the music universe, I think it’s a safe bet to say that these guys are going to be moving on to bigger and better things very soon. Very ambitious, and certainly promising. Enjoy the songs, because I know I did!
Leave –
Blue –
Meaningless –
My Rating: 8/10 Genre/ Tags: Shoegaze, Alternative, Punk Distressor EP: Tracklist:
1.) Preface
2.) Leave
3.) Blue
4.) Ghost
5.) Meaningless
6.) Child
7.) Sandy
Whirl on Myspace
Whirl on Tumblr
Download the EP for free right here
Download the Demo Tape right here (you should buy it for $2.00, come on)
Probably a little over a month ago by now, I went out to a record store and found this gem sitting on the shelf. I bought it not knowing what I was getting into, and it was dirt cheap, so I didn’t really have anything to lose. Don’t ask me why, but I didn’t listen to it for weeks. It took me even longer to get it posted up here, as I’m finally getting around to it today, about 2 months after I bought it. Possibly even more. But that’s besides the point.
The name of the band is SCRIBBLER, and they come from up north in a place called Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The record is a 6-song vinyl debut EP for the band, and it’s made up of tracks from all different environments and without a doubt, different varieties of music. Some songs sound as if they were recorded right in somebody’s bedroom, while other tracks were taken from live shows these guys have put on in the past. You can hear the audience and everything, which makes for a pretty interesting listen of this beyond-mysterious release from this beyond-mysterious band.
The reason I use the word ‘mysterious’ is due to the second half of this record. Some of the tracks are just short, face-splitting noise tracks that if you listened to long enough would certainly give you a headache. I have a few of the songs for you to listen to below, so please check’em out. If you like it, you should consider buying the 7″. Why you ask? 1.) It’s pretty damn cheap, and 2.) It’s limited to 300 copies, so it’s not going to be around forever. The sleeves were all hand made and silk-screened, and the labels on the actual record were hand-drawn. So you’re definitely getting your moneys worth with this one. I think it’s a good thing to say that I am looking forward to the next release from these guys, whatever it may be, and whatever it may include.
My Old Lady –
A Girl Should –
Ocean Floor –
My Rating: 7/10 Genre/ Tags: Lo-Fi, Experimental, Noise Rock My Old Lady 7″: Tracklist:
1.) My Old Lady
2.) A Girl Should
3.) Ocean Floor
4.) A Few Days of Storm
5.) Nothing but Pain
6.) zzzzzz
Hey guys. So today marks the first day a cassette tape is ever being reviewed on the Styrofoam Drone – isn’t that exciting? The best part is it’s an awesome cassette tape from a band we’ve been hearing and seeing a lot about recently: Long Island, New York’s own TWIN SISTER.
The cassette was released not very long ago (in March I believe), and it was put out by the one and only Curatorial Club. The Curatorial Club is a branch of the ever-growing Chocolate Bobka brand, and they’re slowly but surely releasing new, limited edition tapes of otherwise hard-to-find music from some of the latest artists that have been making waves. Head on over to the Curatorial Club to see what else they’ve got in store for you, because most of these tapes sell out very fast. Unfortunately, the tape of topic today has already sold out long ago, but don’t get too down on yourself, because you can download both sides of the tape by using the links at the bottom of the post. See, it doesn’t have to be all bad!
This tape has a slew of songs from the Twin Sister catalog, being both equally old and new, and then some being completely unknown. The A-Side of the tape features rough versions of the songs from their very first EP, “Vampires with Dreaming Kids”. You’ll find rough versions of the songs “Ginger” and “Nectarine” amongst others from this era of the band. If you heard the final version of these songs first and then went back to check out these older ones, you’re probably going to be a bit shocked. The two versions of “Ginger” are completely different. One song from the A-Side of this tape that I hadn’t heard or seen anywhere else was the last track called “Jailbirds”. I’ve uploaded it for you to listen to below if you’re curious.
Now flipping over to the B-Side of the tape, this side comes dominated with rough versions of songs from the “Color Your Life” era of the band. Rough, unfinished versions of tracks like “Lady Daydream”, “All Around and Away We Go”, “Milk & Honey”, and “Phenomenons” appear on this side, with some of them being drastically different from their final version. For example, the version of “All Around and Away We Go” (credited as “White Bread” on the cassette) is a soothing acoustic guitar song wonderfully played by guitarist Eric Cardona. Him and Andrea Estella share the vocals efforts in this version of the song, and once again, the difference between this cassette version and the final found on “Color Your Life” is huge. You can ever hear the flowing water and footsteps-in-snow sound effects that they used to paint such a wonderful picture on the track “Galaxy Plateau” from the “Color Your Life” LP. Cool. So if you haven’t figured it out yet, Twin Sister totally rules, and you should listen to these songs below. Definitely looking forward to the next release (whatever it may be) from these guys, because lately they’ve continued to give us musical gold over these past few months or so. Thanks for reading guys, and be sure to check back yet again tomorrow!
Jailbirds –
Lady Daydream (Cassette Version “Smoke”) –
Phenomenons (Cassette Version “Synth Jamm”) –
My Rating: 7/10 Genre/ Tags: Dream Pop, Experimental, Electronic Alternates Cassette: Tracklist:
1.) Idea Bubble #20
2.) Ginger (Jab)
3.) Nectarine (Extended)
4.) I Want a House Built of Old Wood
5.) Excerpts from Other Side
6.) Jailbirds
7.) Smoke
8.) New Suit
9.) White Bread
10.) The Walk
11.) Synth Jamm
Hey guys, I have kind of another short post for you today. That’s because a new pair of Nike’s are being released this morning and I’m trying to snag a pair before it’s too late. They’re limited edition Nike SB Dunk Highs designed by skater Eric Koston, and they’re supposed to represent the temples in Thailand. Check them out right here. If it’s still early and there’s a decent skateshop in your town, it might not be too late to get them yourself! All this Nike talk makes me wonder why this isn’t a Nike SB/Music blog. Hmmmmmmmm…………
Well, for our music entry today, I have something that has been making some waves across the blogosphere lately. At least in the places I’ve been looking anyway. This time it’s a band called Deep Sht, and it sounds like we have another one-man bedroom pop band on our hands again. Deep Sht is the moniker of a man named Tom Watson, and his Myspace says he’s from London in the United Kingdom. He plays sluggish, drowned out pop music that sounds like it could lean a bit towards the “shitgaze” sound, and it’s quite awesome. Other words like “slowgaze” and “slowcore” could be used to describe the minimally awesome blissed-out sound that is Deep Sht. Every song from this 7″ EP could qualify as a highlight, but some of the hazy, euphoric goodness still stands out before the rest. Tracks like “Hector” and the spacey, far-out ones like “Weird You” and the final track “No No Mr. Greenspan” are all certainly worth hearing. Watson sings in them all, and his voice sounds like a buzzing wasp in the mix that is at some points very hard to understand. Sometimes he whispers, and things get a bit eerie. Find out for yourself by listening to the songs below! Farewell, and good luck if you’re hoping to grab a pair of these beauties today!
Hector –
Weird You –
No No Mr. Greenspan –
My Rating: 8/10 Genre/ Tags: Lo-Fi, Shoegaze, Slowcore Weird You: Tracklist:
1.) Hector
2.) Other Peoples Lives
3.) Loose Lips Sink Deep Shit
4.) Weird You
5.) No No Mr. Greenspan
If you’re a reader here at the Styrofoam Drone and you’re also a member of the website Last.fm, why not join our fabulous group? It’s still pretty roomy as we’ve only got 33 members and almost no activity whatsoever, so why not join and take place in the non-action? It’ll be fun, I promise. It’s a great way for all of us to get together and talk about stuff and suggest stuff and things of that nature. So follow this link and join our group!
Hailing from somewhere out of the Czech Republic comes Mon Insomnie. Mon Insomnie is the name of a one-man bedroom pop outfit, and that’s about as far as I could get when it came to finding some information on the band. I couldn’t even figure out the lead singers name, but I did figure out the record label – Monster Heart Records. While they don’t quite have any physical releases to buy just yet, they seem to be in the process of getting that ready for us.
Going by the Mon Insomnie Bandcamp page, there is only a handful of music to listen to, with some of that being from their first 7″ record. The 7″ is three songs long, and it’s definitely worth a quick listen. The songs all evoke a longing feeling whether you like it or not – like you’re trying to reach out to something you just can’t grasp. The first two tracks, “Barbed Wires” and “Keep Love” definitely fall into the same vein, but the last track “They Left Me Here Where No One’s Around” is somewhat haunting, and more of an instrumental piano track that’s bound to paint a picture in your head. For some reason it reminds me of playing Resident Evil or something like that. But you should listen to these songs – head on over to the Bandcamp page so you can download them too!
Barbed Wires –
Keep Love –
They Left Me Here… –
My Rating: 6/10 Genre/ Tags: Lo-Fi, Singer/Songwriter, Bedroom Pop Barbed Wires 7″: Tracklist:
1.) Barbed Wires
2.) Keep Love
3.) They Left Me Here Where No One’s Around
Banned Books are a band hailing from the Philadelphia/ South Jersey area. I saw their record “Mission Creep” in AKA Music one day, and didn’t really have the money to buy it, so I just kept their name in mind til I got home. I ended up buying the album online, and I’m glad I did. These guys mainly play a crazy sprawling mess of heavy blues rock driven guitar, but then there are times on the album when you’re just thinking, “What is going on here?” They completely change things up and never give you a chance to see what’s coming next. I think that’s why I like them too much, too. It’s the element of surprise that can make music so interesting sometimes, and these guys use it to their advantage. One song will be completely guitar driven (Mission Creep), and then they’ll go into a dancy, electronic jam like “Anti-Anthem”. Definitely worth hearing.
The album starts off on the opening track “The Alarm”, and I think this one serves nothing more than being an opening track. It’s a near-instrumental start to the album, and it more-or-less gives you a sense of what the rest of the album could be like, although you’re probably still not entirely sure what’s going to come later on. This is just the magical pathway that leads you to the rest of the madness that is “Mission Creep”.
Following up would be the self-titled “Mission Creep”, and this is when you’ll first see what Banned Books are all about. Heavily distorted blues rock influenced guitars take control of this one, and they don’t really let go until the song is over. They pause for a bit about 3/4 of the way through to give us a chance to catch our breath, and then they go at it again for the last 40 seconds. Because that track took on a more guitar driven sound, this next one is going to catch you off guard. It’s a crazy fast paced song dominated by lots of little sound effects like hand claps, tambourines, squeeks, and whatever else you think you hear. Singer Zane Kanevsky whispers at points in the song, giving it an almost creepy feel, all while the use of the restrained guitar and keyboard guide us through. Suddenly the next track “Wilderness Area” starts out of nowhere, and now we’re back in familiar territory…at least for now. The bluesy guitars come back for the start of this one, being much more in line with the song “Mission Creep” we heard earlier. For the last half though, they take a step back on the intensity and lazily ride out the rest of the song (It’s parts like this that make me think why this album had a “FFO: Animal Collective…etc” sticker on the front).
Skipping ahead to the fun track “Summer Death Camp”, this one again features some heavy guitar. Lead singer Zane Kanevsky sings about “roasted marshmellows and cyanide”…interesting! I want to go to summer death camp! It sounds like a blast, right? This song changes completely about halfway through though, so don’t get too excited about death camp. I’m not even sure what to say about that second half; it sounds like breaking glass and like the world as we know it is crashing down right beneath our feet. Suddenly summer death camp doesn’t sound like much fun anymore! But it’s okay, because the next song “Anti-Anthem” can make you happy again.
Every time I think this album can’t get any more different, it does. This song starts off like it’s coming completely out of left field with it’s icy, shimmering sound effects and dancy, fast paced drum beat. The last half of the song, (whether Banned Books like it or not) , turns into a hell of an anthem with singer Zane Kanevsky wailing “This is not the voice of your generation/ You’re just another overnight sensation,” over the mix. They use minimal guitar in this one as this is definitely a song of its own on this record. Fantastic stuff right here. The album ends on the oddly named “Black Knot of Plum or Cherry”, and again this one starts out completely different than any other song from the album. I’m not too sure I agree with this song in regards to everything else we just heard on the album, but still worth hearing and even worth buying (they only pressed 300 copies of “Mission Creep”)! Definitely looking forward to hearing new stuff from these guys as well, it should be interesting. Follow the link at the bottom if you wish to buy the LP, and be sure to check out the songs I have for you below, I think you’re going to like them.
Mission Creep –
Wilderness Area –
Summer Death Camp –
Anti-Anthem –
My Rating: 8/10 Genre/ Tags: Blues Rock, Experimental, Electronic Mission Creep: Tracklist:
1.) The Alarm
2.) Mission Creep
3.) Supernatural Mongoloid
4.) Wilderness Area
5.) Trophy Wife Sings the Devil’s Fanfare
6.) Summer Death Camp
7.) Anti-Anthem
8.) Black Knot of Plum or Cherry
Styrofoam Drone 