pc worship - toxic love

brooklyn based pc worship's 2012 record toxic love is a catchy grunge folk masterpiece, with the perfect blend of pop song structures, rusty desert shack noise texures, swamp stomps, weed ghost vocals and ornette coleman sax freakouts. i love this album. i just became aware that they have a bandcamp where you can download it for $7.


you can download a bunch of their other albums there as well.

DVS - dangerous

DVS is a NYC based MC (and former hardcore singer) who has gained some notoriety from a vice write up and his twitter account which is one of the funniest i've seen. whatever fame DVS has, he deserves more. his music/sense of humor remind you that new york is where hip hop was born, and make anything by jay-z sound like watered down arena rock made by someone who doesn't give a shit. DVS rhymes with lightning speed and brutal cleverness, earned from living a real, interesting life and telling us about it in air tight technical rhymes that are unmatched. to top off how much i'm loving this guy right now, everything on his bandcamp is free, which is very much in the spirit of the modern folk music of america. take advantage of it now. here is his latest track.


follow his twitter @DVSblast (it's worth it).

cecei - kingkoopa pipedreamz

kingkoopa pipedreamz is the first release by cecei of dallas texas. recorded at home, this heartfelt album contains neo-soul style tunes of heartbreak and regret, which when combined with the album title leads the listener to believe she was hurt badly by a guy who loved to play super mario brothers. cecei is inspired by the great, big lunged torch singers of the past, and sounds a little like those of the present. the music ranges from lush motown inspired arrangements to more of a candles on the piano situation, but cecei's strong vocals steal the show.


download it for free here.

popular culture - dandelion (video)

dandelion is the single from the debut album 'episodes' (stream it here) on sparrowsongs music by austin, texas based one-man-band popular culture. gritty, cold electro-pop...you could either dance to it or lie face down on the cement floor of some desolate warehouse, i guess it depends on your personality. solid industrial/dance music with haunting lyrics delivered in a dissipated baritone. reminiscent of new order, bauhaus.



i figured i'd also include this brooklyn subway video for another track off of 'episodes', called 'gothic spirit'.



buy this album, see more photos and videos, and find out information about tour dates here.

the 1957 tail-fin fiasco - private jet flashback

i sometimes say the thing about steely dan is that you never hear somebody saying 'hey this band sounds like steely dan' because it never happens to be true. well now my convoluted explanation of steely dan's unique charms no longer applies. the 1957 tail-fin fiasco throws out complex, sophisticated story-song style rock with a funky nu-jazz edge, sounding like 'pretzel logic' era 'dan. the lyrics bear the mordant wit that was the hallmark of a certain kind of songwriting in the mid to late 70's. this explanation of the band's influences from their website kind of says it all: 'if you like early steely dan, squeeze, randy newman, 10cc, andrew gold or todd rundgren you might be in with a shout.' bands do not usually describe themselves this aptly.


name your own price to download this quality album here. check out a video for their previous single below.

sunny jim brown - sweet virginia

sunny jim brown of san fransisco, CA brings us whistful folk with old-time touches all wrapped up in his gravelly, low pitched voice on his newest recording 'sweet virginia'. traditional style clawhammer banjo and some updates of old mountain songs keep sunny jim's music tied to his roots, while his original tunes of traveling and love lost push it forward out into our modern world.




find out more about sunny jim brown, including show dates, here. name your own price to download 'sweet virginia' here.

fires were shot - pieces of the white sun

'pieces of the white sun' is the newest recording by austin based ambient/post-rock guitar duo fires were shot. the album is slated to be released august 20th on it's only me records, and the band has provided the following two tracks as a preview. the playing here reminds me somewhat of the swelling six string crescendos of explosions in the sky, but the duo arrangement, lacking a rhythm section, leads to more of a droning, ambient vibe.





fires were shot has been at it for awhile, go here to check out their previous recordings.

many distant cities - how it was

bouncy world-inspired folk from many distant cities out of highland park in los angeles. this group of three musicians switches it up among a palette of sounds to arrange their tunes in an unorthodox manner, heavily featuring trumpet, accordion and ukulele to back up tight girl-groupish harmonies that contain surreal lyrics. there's whistling, glockenspiels, and much like the sorely underrated dexy's midnight runners, there isn't a 6 string guitar in sight.


i like this EP for many reasons, but one is that these ladies sing about drinking a lot. download this thing for five bones here.

danny whitecotton - love, war and other mistakes

finger picking troubador danny whitecotton brings us bucolic, laid back country-folk from upstate new york on his latest release, 'love, war, and other mistakes'. this album stretches out with a laid back sound as danny muses on love, loss and possibility in pleasantly weary voice over his crisply plucked guitar, walking bass lines and shuffling brushes on sleepy snares.


purchase this album as a digital download, cd, or cd and t-shirt bundle at the bandcamp. learn more about releases and show dates here and here.

the solvents - ghetto moon

port townsend, washington local legends the solvents have been making quality singer/songwriter style folk rock music for years. the core of the band is the husband and wife duo of jarrod bramson and emily madden, featuring his fragile-strong somewhat alex chilton-esque voice and introspective, confessional lyricism and her vibrant, tasteful fiddle playing and harmonies. their most recent recording, 'ghetto moon', is a beautiful and brief album of personal folk gems with well placed touches of sparse percussion floating around the edges of the solvent's duo arrangement. this is a back to basics approach, compared to the full-band sound of their previous release, 'forgive yr. blood'.


find out more about the solvents here, and download 'ghetto moon' for $5, or grab a physical copy for $12, and check out many of their older (and some louder) recordings here.

observe a video of the solvents covering madonna:

ozarks - pyramids of love (video)

my roommate is in the live version of this band, the brainchild of portland, oregon based bedroom recording powerhouse robbie augspurger. i saw them for the first time the other night and they were excellent, nailing down the smooth 70's AM sound with a sprinkle of weirdness and impeccable arrangements that included some nice harmonized lead guitars. in the studio ozarks is an auteur affair, with arranging duties handled by augsperger and instruments by augsperger and his bandmate eric lee. 'pyramids of love', from ozarks' latest effort, has a great brian wilson joins granddaddy baroque pop sound and a video that looks like something tim heidecker would do but it's not funny, it just works. observe for yourself:


Ozarks - Pyramids of Love from Robbie Augspurger on Vimeo.

download ozarks s/t for 6 bones (or buy a vinyl LP for 15) and check out previous releases here.

spencer tucker & the mother - s/t

here's some moody singer/songwriter alt-country/rock from the rainy olympic peninsula of washington state. dark vibes prevail as the band cuts loose with it's capable rhythm section, beneath dryly delivered and recorded vocals reminiscent of interpol. the songwriting ranges from grungey to twangy, lending to an overall feeling that spencer tucker & the mother fits into their geographical location (with a hint of midwestern-ness), if perhaps a decade or two too late.


find out more about the band, including show times and future realeases, here. download this thing for 7 bucks here.

sleeping on ceilings - our winter year

'our winter year' is a mesmerizing album of ambient guitar music and soundscapes by sleeping on ceilings AKA tyler mahan coe of springfield, missouri. echoes (haha) of david gilmour's plodding perfectionist psychedelia and the proto-ambient drones and grinding textures you might hear on early brian eno albums can be heard on 'our winter year', but coe is careful to keep anything from slipping too close to the arena of traditional song structure.  there is however a narrative to be understood from the album:

this is a rare post where no streaming is involved, because this website is artfully set up so just get on there and download it. you can also follow coe's fairly entertaining twitter feed @TylerMahanCoe 

***update***

check out the bandcamp page for easy listening!

hadara levin areddy - songs, naked

a live album of 'lost songs' from israeli singer/songwriter hadara levin areddy. piano based songwriting with lyrics that are by turns witty, embittered, dirty and funny, with a wry, winking and often soulful delivery. these live tracks are backed up by a tight rhythm section, a few good guitar players and small stabs of brass.

find out more about hadara here. her newer releases are rap, in hebrew. here is a video for one of those tunes.

dead professional - downtown at sundown (video)

i posted the tune already but here is the highly appropriate video for dead professional's 'downtown at sundown'



find out about upcoming shows and other news from dead pro here.

the gloria darlings - come home to me

a pleasantly melancholy, blue-with-a-smile record of old time folk tunes from the gloria darlings of seattle, washington. this duo of ladies reminds me of a female version of the early duo incarnation of the holy modal rounders, minus the acid and wackiness and a little bit easier on the eyes...this might be because the second tune on the darling's album, "you done me wrong", seems to be a reworking of the rounder's "if you want to be a bird" of easy rider fame. at any rate, the darlings feature the same type of arrangement: fiddle, guitar and tight harmonies bring us a series of upbeat but broken-hearted old time folk music. good stuff.


the CD is a 16 dollar purchase but it comes with homespun artwork and extra goodies as well as download copy. get it here.

thunderclap! - forced to walking

this is a strange one, a unique folk/rock song, delivered in an almost theatrical style. niagra fall's thunderclap! trades in dramatic readings of his songs, like a less gruff tom waits in some his more west side story-ish moments. the music is very cool as well, somewhat classic sounding and waltzy.


check out more thunderclap! here.