Last we heard from Philly’s own MOON WOMEN was back for their debut release, the “Listen Closely” cassette tape. Now they’re back with this digital EP, featuring three songs recorded live at Philly’s WXPN studios. Continue reading “Moon Women – Live at WXPN”
THE SOFT MOON is fronted by main-man Luis Vasquez, and this single comes from his debut release from the Captured Tracks label. The record was released about a month before the turn of the new year, and it received a great deal of praise. Continue reading “The Soft Moon – Parallels 7″”
Forming right within the city limits of Philadelphia comes NOTHING. They’re a self-described “shoegaze” band with their first recorded single now under their belt. These guys opened up for Creepoid the other night, and it was a surprising and refreshing performance. Continue reading “Nothing – Last Day in Bouville”
Hello and welcome back in 2011!!! WOODSMAN will release their sophomore effort from the Fire Talk Records label this January. Normally these dudes play long-form psych jams that last a lifetime, but this time around they trimmed things down and went with a more straightforward approach – now it’s time to see if the change worked out for them. Continue reading “Woodsman – Rare Forms”
What’s up dudes!? Hopefully everybody had a decent weekend. If not hopefully this week in music will help you forget about it, because I’ve got a ton of gems in store for you all this week. To start, let’s look at this cassette tape from Bridgetown Records headman Kevin Greenspon.
This stuff popped up in the middle of last week on Altered Zones, and after listening to the featured track I felt like I needed to hear the rest. Not just because I liked what I had heard, but I thought it was unique. Greenspon creates small life-like biospheres in each of these new tracks, coming at you with some serious warmth and passion. The delayed guitars are beyond gratifying as they swirl and surge over your head, immediately throwing you right in the midst of an echoed out dream world where anything is possible, but not exactly all good things. Many different moods present themselves in the music as you change from one track to the other – suggesting that each song is on it’s own when it comes down to mood. Basically it’s up to whatever you think. Either way, the sonic textures, grittiness, and delayed guitars go a long way in painting lush, vast soundscapes, wherein you’ll definitely find some ineffable love for this music. Be sure to check out these thought-provoking songs right below, and buy the cassette before it’s gone for good, because it’s very affordable.
Machine Shop –
Atrophied –
My Rating: 7/10
Genre/ Tags: Ambient, Experimental
Rose Window Cassette: Tracklist:
1.) Machine Shop
2.) Heart on Chain
3.) X.A. Assembly
4.) Atrophied
Kevin Greenspon on Myspace
Kevin Greenspon – Official Website
BUY the cassette only from Life’s Blood before it’s gone – Limited to 51 !!
What’s up people. I didn’t really have anything prepared for today, so I kind of just went searching for anything and took the first thing I could find. I usually don’t do this sort of thing, but time is an issue today. I’m waiting on a good amount of new wax to come in the mail, so don’t get used to this – but more on those things later this week.
With the stuff I have here today, it’s simply going to be a hit or a miss. I’ll say it right up front that the two songs on this 7″ are not for everybody. It might even be a stretch to refer to them as “songs”, let alone music in general. These two tracks are more or less the noisy experimental escapades of David Payne, the main man behind the Fossils moniker since it’s birth in 2004. He’s been putting out countless cassette tapes, CD-R’s, and various formats of vinyl ever since the beginning – see a full comprehensive list right here – and this is apparently one of the latest releases.
I’ll say it again that this stuff isn’t for everybody – it’s definitely more of an acquired taste sort of thing. If you like thought-provoking sounds that paint a strange landscape in your mind, then this could be just for you. Parts of the track “War Puzzle” sound as if you’re standing on an extremely windy runway while an airplane slowly comes down to the ground to make it’s landing. If there’s anything this stuff is going to do for you, it’s bound to paint a vivid picture, as long as you keep an open mind and don’t dismiss the stuff before you’ve even listened all the way. Check out the B-side “War Puzzle” right below. Leave comments too, because I want know what you all think.
War Puzzle –
My Rating: 4.5/10
Genre/ Tags: Noise, Ambient, Experimental, whathaveyou
The Golden Door 7″: Tracklist:
1.) The Golden Door
2.) War Puzzle
Check out the extensive Fossils discography @ Discogs
Fossils on Myspace
Fossils on Last.fm
Fossils on Facebook
Don’t think this one is left to buy anywhere…it’s limited to 100 from Kye Records
Hey dudes!! It was a busy weekend here at the Drone. After that post with the new Panda Bear 7″, the hit count shot up a significant amount – an amount big enough to shatter our previous record of pageviews (in a 24 hour period) by over 100 hits! So for that, I must thank all of you viewers. If I could personally shake each and every one of your hands, I would. Sadly, that probably won’t ever happen, although I would like it. So now you’re probably wondering what’s in store for the upcoming week. To start things off, we’ve got the debut LP from Pennsylvanian dark-pop band SOARS. This is their first official release, and it comes from La Société Expéditionnaire, also located in Pennsylvania.
For starters, this debut LP comes jam-packed with constantly fluctuating moods and feelings, as songs can go from one extreme to the other within short periods of time. For the most part, there’s almost always a creepy, foreboding feel weaved into the songs. The presence of a dark, murky energy hangs over your head, instigating you to make the wrong decisions – kind of like when the devil and an angel are depicted in movies and cartoons as hanging out on your shoulder, always giving you advice on what or what not to do. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see this picture right here. While all of this goes on, there’s an uplifting, spiritual ambiance that without a doubt contradicts the other qualities of the music that I just described. Sometimes it’s extremely difficult to decide which one over-shadows the other more – like in the song “Figurehead”. The ambiance comes shining through, and once it does, it may make it hard for you to decide what you actually think of the music.
While all of this is going on, there’s still other qualities to the music. In just about every last song, there’s some sort of repetitive, electronic percussion. Considering that most of these songs fall into the longer category, this percussion tends to get a bit stale, and usually pretty quickly. It doesn’t give the songs that much depth, as it just continues to repeat over and over again, making some of these songs difficult to get into. Tracks like “Young Adult” and “Figurehead” escape this downfall by getting heavier and denser without ever loosening their grip, of course, until the song ends. Find out for yourself with the tracks I have for you below, and as always, don’t forget to come back for more tomorrow.
Throw Yourself Apart –
Figurehead –
Young Adult –
My Rating: 6/10
Genre/ Tags: Experimental, Pop, Ambient
Soars: Tracklist:
1.) Introduction
2.) The Sun Breaks Every Way But One
3.) Throw Yourself Apart
4.) Escape on High
5.) Ditches
6.) Figurehead
7.) Young Adult
8.) Monolith
Soars – Official Website
Soars on Myspace
BUY the self-titled LP directly from the label – Limited to 500 on colored vinyl !
If you haven’t heard of YOUNG ADULTS yet, stick around and learn a thing or two. These guys hail from Allston, Massachusetts, and they formed not very long ago in October of 2009. They definitely play a large part in the ever-growing scene that is constantly expanding up in the Boston area – which also includes a few other bands that have been featured on the Drone, like DOOMSTAR! and Girlfriends.
These bands all certainly have a little bit of something in common, and it’s not just their music. Part of it would be that they’re all responsible for the emerging punk and garage rock scene that is taking the Boston area by storm right now. There’s going to be a video documentary on this happening up in Boston, and Young Adults play a big role in that documentary. A film production company in Massachusetts called ExNoise, in association with Foundwaves, will be shooting the documentary and it’s going to be funded by Kickstarter. This will certainly be an interesting watch – can’t wait to hear more about it!
But yeah, put all that information aside for a second, and learn that the Young Adults debut LP is upon us! Yes, it’s true! In this coming November, AMDISCS – a record label based out of Prague in the Czech Republic – will release this debut LP in an edition of 500, and it will also be available digitally in places like iTunes. But seriously, I know you guys are all going to buy the vinyl, so I probably don’t even need that little digital format blurb – right?!
Buy it, and you get nearly 40 minutes of a heavy, glowing mix of garage rock and punk that’s just too good to forget about. Glowing because of all the invigorating, ambient lead guitar that dominates songs like “Let Us Out”, “Wasting Time”, “Rip it Up”, “Impression”, and “Campfires”, amongst many others – and punk because these guys just tear shit up without ever turning around to see the destruction they just caused. They even cover The Wipers song “Over the Edge”, which definitely confirms their punky influences. But no matter what you’re into, you should definitely free up some time to listen to these songs below. All three are highly recommended and shortly after listening, you’ll be eagerly awaiting this debut LP of theirs (as well as the documentary!). Hopefully this growing Boston scene will continue churning out new jams like these.
Wasting Time –
Rip It Up –
Drifting –
My Rating: 8.5/10
Genre/ Tags: Garage Rock, Punk, Ambient
Black Hole: Tracklist:
1.) (Reverie 1)
2.) Let Us Out
3.) Wasting Time
4.) Black Surf
5.) Rip It Up
6.) Impression
7.) Over the Edge
8.) Life Under Review
9.) Annulation
10.) Bummer Summer
11.) Drifting
12.) (Reverie 2)
13.) Campfires
Young Adults on Facebook
DOWNLOAD their demo for FREE! – features five songs from the coming LP!
More info. on Young Adults @ AMDISCS – Pre-orders (most likely) coming soon…
What’s up people. Here’s a band we haven’t talked about here on the Drone just yet. Their name is DESOLATION WILDERNESS, and they hail from Olympia in Washington state. There’s just one problem now – Desolation Wilderness isn’t a band anymore. It’s a huge bummer too, because these dudes had quite a unique sound going for them. Nic Zwart made a post on their Blogspot page back in Feburary of 2010 saying that he is moving to San Francisco, thus proving that Desolation Wilderness is no more. But it doesn’t mean that’s the end of their career in music for good, oh no. Zwart has been working on another project for at least a year now, and you may already know it as Electric Sunset. If not, go check’em out. But I kind of got off task here. Desolation Wilderness is our band of focus today. Maybe we’ll have something from Electric Sunset some other day…
So yeah, basically the A-side of this 7″ comes from their last full-length album before they called it quits, called New Universe. The B-side doesn’t come from any of their albums, so it must be extra material that never made it on an album…or something. Whenever I hear Desolation Wilderness, I have a tough time NOT thinking of a band like Galaxie 500, due to the slow but dreamy nature of the songs. On top of that, they’re always catchy as can be with dazed-out, dream like textures that kind of give you the feeling you’re staring into a blinding light with a good bit of drool spilling out of your mouth – which probably helped give them the name for their first full-length, “White Light Strobing”. The B-side of this 7″ fits perfectly with that description too, so if you’re looking to get your drool on…I have both sides of the records uploaded below, so you should definitely check those out.
No Tomorrow –
Pacific Palisades –
My Rating: 7.5/10
Genre/ Tags: Dream Pop, Slowcore, Ambient
No Tomorrow 7″: Tracklist:
1.) No Tomorrow
2.) Pacific Palisades
BUY the 7″ directly from Insound – it’s only $4.40 – a steal if there ever was one!
Desolation Wilderness Blogspot
Desolation Wilderness on Myspace !
Desolation Wilderness on K Records
The new Desolation Wilderness – Electric Sunset
So as most of you may already know, noise-rocking heavyweights NO AGE are in the process of putting the finishing touches on their next full-length album (which is due to be released on September 28th by none other than Sub Pop records). To get everyone ready for the LP, Sub Pop did us the favor of putting out two brand new releases by No Age (one is a 7″ – the other is a 12″), each featuring the album song “Glitter”, and then each containing their own unique non-album B-sides. The 12″ has the B-sides “In Rebound” and “Vision II”, while the 7″ includes one B-side called “Inflorescence”. Pretty cool, right?
By now, I’m sure you already know the deal here. No Age is a duo consisting of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall, and they tend to play these noisy, rambunctious, punk rock songs – sometimes with a bit of added ambiance or possibly with a pinch of infectious pop (and usually played best at loud volumes). You could honestly use any single one of those words to describe the music from the new 12″, because they really do cover every last sound mentioned – they just do it all with that familiar No Age sound. Which would most likely mean lots of unintelligible noises and clamorous textures.
“In Rebound” sort of falls a bit more towards the poppy side of things with the shredded guitars, while “Glitter” takes on a much more noisy, metallic sound dominated by wrenching guitar sounds that may or may not give the listener a slight headache if they listened for too long. Then last but not least we’ve got “Vision II”, which would more or less fall into the ambient side of things. Singer/ drummer Dean Spunt’s vocals get lost in the murky, intoxicating textures, and before long you hear some effects that actually reminded me of bubble wrap being popped relentlessly, or a bunch of fireworks going off nearby. I’ll let you decide. Check out the songs below.
PS – You can download the song “Glitter”, courtesy of Sub Pop (just right click, and hit ‘save link as’)
Glitter –
In Rebound –
Vision II –
My Rating: 7.5/10
Genre/ Tags: Noise Rock, Experimental, Punk, Ambient
Glitter 12″: Tracklist:
1.) Glitter
2.) In Rebound
3.) Vision II
BUY the 12″ directly from Insound
No Age on Myspace
No Age on Blogspot
More info. on their upcoming LP right here @ Sub Pop
Styrofoam Drone 