no longer player - now here, no where

no longer player has a flair for presenting himself, the email he wrote me was fairly mysterious, and his website is very cool looking and well made. i look at A LOT of homemade musician websites. continuing a long rock'n'roll tradition, his bio section is filled with ambiguous misinformation. it's touches like these that not everyone bothers with anymore.

anyway, the music is cool too. retro psychedelic rock, with an individualistic spin on it, maximal instrumentation and twisting and turning melodies in that 60's/70's high brow sort of british rock style. there are strong 90's britpop vibrations at play as well, especially on the heavy closing track 'the happiest man in the world'. the EP, 'now here, nowhere', contains three good examples.



get it here.

wicca woo - woo wicca

i wrote about floridian brother duo wicca woo awhile back, and now their debut EP, 'woo wicca', has arrived. like 'detatched', the preview song i covered before, it is minimalist and hazy, drawing on 90's trip-hop influences. atmospheric vocals and guitar riffs cling like a dense fog to skeletal drum machine beats, bursting and blooming at times into dream pop hooks.

i'm getting a little hooked on the moody goth/lofi/U2 vibes and grinding synth bass of 'ten times to sunday'.


get it here.

jake noel - suite dreams

'suite dreams' is the first effort at home recording by chicago musician jake noel. the music is complex and genre-bending, floating around the area of instrumental rock but incorporating touches of techno, trip hop, dub, and a general psychedelicism.

the title is appropriate, these are dreamy tunes, but the vibes they convey are not always placid, there are moments of glitchy, frenetic rhythms. the inventive percussion/drum machine programming is a highlight on this album, as is the chilled-out smooth-jazz guitar jamming.

alpine camp - six pack

alpine camp is a californian roots-inflected americana rock band...stompin' beats, plucking banjos and wailing pedal steel provide a backdrop for catchy, straightforward songwriting with populist appeal. definitely one of those contributions that falls into the beer-drinkin', field dancin' category.

it's good-time party music, but alpine camp isn't afraid to stretch a jam, or pull a heart-string. some of the group vocal arrangements are quite complex as well. check out the sampler 'six pack', below.



get more here.

joe and bethany - still dark on newbury

joe and bethany are a guy/girl folk singing and songwriting duo. they have the romantic backstory of having quit their desk jobs in connecticut, packed up, left for austin, texas and started being folksingers. that's a leap that takes a lot of courage. i think about doing something of that nature a lot, but it's funny, i live in a city where one might go to make moves as a musician and i kind of want to move out of it. anyway, joe and bethany seem to have the skills to back up their leap of faith. their voices blend in soothing harmony in their americana-tinged ballads and songs of love.

they accompany each other very well instrumentally too, staying true to the duo format blending two silvery guitars or a guitar with a subtle piano.



get it here.

polyon - three songs

'three songs', the debut EP by washington DC rockers polyon starts off with a massive wall of guitars and flailing drums topped by those chiming shoegaze style lead melodies.

the impact of this EP does not let up across it's short length, it slams ahead but maintains an underlying pop sensibility that abides beneath the noise.



get it on cassette or digital here.

jeremiah and the apostles - in truth

jeremiah and the apostles are a folk band from st. louis, missouri. on their newest album 'in truth', they focus on songwriterly stories of stories of lost love and silvery acoustic fingerpicking.

the instrumentation is simple but tightly performed, consisting of two acoustic guitars and an electric bass. the rhythmic bass and rootsy lead runs motivate the songs and create the right atmosphere for the gravely vocals.



get it here.

the lead guitar player for jeremiah and the apostles, brad wood, also has an album of american primitive styled guitar jams available, called 'ten years ago'. check that out below:



get it here.

errant tiger - novender

'novender' is an album of what guitarist/songwriter errant tiger calls 'permanent demos' that he feels will always remain unfinished. these are lofi recordings of haunting, minimalist folk, with certain mistakes left in that add an air of intimacy.

the idea of honoring demos as the final product is of course very much respected here at MFOA.



get it here.

the man behind errant tiger also sent me some music he recorded longer ago with a few collaborators under the name 'now you can dance forever', so check that out too:



get that one here.

mormon toasterhead - blissful ugly

mormon toasterhead is a bedroom deconstructed folk recording project out of chicago, illinois. 'blissful ugly' is one of a number of collections of songs available on the bandcamp site. the music is lofi and fragile sounding, but robust with ideas and ambition.

the instrumentation is varied but organic, lone guitar, distant piano, a cobbled together folk ensemble sound of double bass, fiddle and banjo accompanying the guitar, and other more experimental textures. these elements are added and subtracted across the expanse of 'blissful ugly', creating an atmospheric and edgy experimental folk experience.



name your price for it here.

pulco - the rodeo EP

i was going to wait until welsh lofi auteur pulco's (AKA ash cooke) new work 'the rodeo EP' was officially released to write about it, but i found myself listening to it this morning and not wanting to wait, cause i really like it. the opening track is a lofi-pysch-country jammer...it somehow sounds exactly like a welsh rodeo. a native of great britain interpreting americana is something i love, be it ray davies singing a love song to rural america on what i consider his magnum opus, muswell hillbillies, or thin lizzy rocking in the rodeo on 'cowboy song'...there is something special about it.

the rest of the rodeo EP is pulco at his best, vaguely maintaining the americana theme, but of course messing around with it, combining a well developed skill at sweet lofi indie rock melodies with a restlessness for experimentation and an obsession with the cut-up technique pioneered by brion gysin and william burroughs. i really love the second track, 'slow trem - low', as well.



the EP will be available here in june.

heaven smile - the veins of love cassette release

i am happy to announce here on MFOA the second cassette release from our very own label practice records, 'the veins of love' by heaven smile. i covered it here awhile back.

'the veins of love' is an album of lonesome, darkly contemplative folk ballads and a few silvery, atmospheric instrumentals that we are proud to have on the label. i think it compliments the first release, 'low hum' by joplin rice, quite well. limited edition of 50 blue cassettes. get one.



get it here.

grndms - capitol mill

grndms is a duo experimental folk project, one member of which i have written about before in the form of hairpins, a contribution i really enjoyed.

grandms new album 'capitol mill' has similarly lovingly crafted songs, with the addition of hazy, beautiful harmonies, and some electric guitar and drum machine for a noise pop vibration. at times the craft is dismantled. i really dig it. i'd say buy the tape from fox food records, but i'm pretty sure i bought the last one.



get it here.

zach phillips - the heisenberg awards

zach phillips seems to have an anti-internet point of view (i don't blame him) and there isn't a lot of his music streaming. he's posted a tune from his latest album 'the closest exit may be behind you' for preview purposes, but you're gonna have to buy a physical copy of it to hear much more, and i find myself recommending that you do.

recorded with 'monophonic guitar', (all strings tuned to the same note, i think) this is some lyrically complex, mellowly psychedelic, melodically advanced bedroom non-pop...made unique by the strange vibes of the monophonic guitar and minimal online presence, which in and of itself is intriguing in today's world.



get it here. zach also runs the offline, not for profit record label osr tapes, which is worth looking into. order their catalog here.

lesser knowns - what you wanna do?!

lesser knowns are heavy rock band from massachusetts whose new cassette release, 'what you wanna do?!' got me going me from the first track. lesser knowns deal in their own fresh sounding style of melodic, ragged, songwriterly punk. the songs have big chrouses and catchy verses and the lyrics have a dirty laundry/heart on the sleeve quality.

the players all bring it, but the bassist has that classic punk style, reminiscent of paul simonen, that combines with the drums for a rhythm section that really motivates these tracks. i have to say, this reminds me more than a little of the replacements. i recommend this one heavily.

get it on cassette or digital here.

hc-b - deux

hc-b is a sicilian post-rock band whose third album, 'rough', is due out on hidden shoal in june.

on the lead single 'deux', their music builds and swells to dizzying, pulse pounding heights, guitars swirling around each other before breaking like a wave into a tide of washed out melody.



the album will be available here. listen to some their previous album, 'soundcheck for a missing movie' here.

sedate illusion - solitude (video)

sedate illusion is a progressive/metal band from greece. 'solitude', the single from their new album 'what remains', is a psyched out, heavy rock journey with many twists and turns.

their music has deep grooves and serious riffs, prog-metal lightning flowing in glorious fountains from keys and guitars alike.



listen to and buy the music of sedate illusion right here.

all those ships - good luck

'good luck' is the latest in the ongoing series of one-song-at-a-time transmissions from bedroom indie folkster all those ships.

this is the most electronic so far i believe, with a poppy drum machine providing a stiff back bone for some jaunty, sunny-but-melancholy bedroom rock. the songs ends with a nice muted synth horn melody.



listen to more here.

peter edwards - suspended.lucidity

peter edwards is a sound designer and ambient musician from albequerque, new mexico. listening to his new album, 'suspended.lucidity', i am certain the wide open, harsh, and barren expanses of the place he calls home have an influence on his music, which combines field recordings with sparse ambient atmospheres to create what peter thinks of as 'daydream soundtracks'.

classic ambient tunes are to be had here, music that feels like the desert breathing at night.



you can get the album on CD or on a deluxe USB drive with a high bitrate audiophile mix and bonus tracks right here.

girl science - demos

i wrote about pennsylvania based folk/punk singer/songwriter jason ray strickland awhile back, and now he has contacted me again with some new demos, recorded in the same simple, lofi style, but with addition of a female singing companion and a new band name, girl science.

the new songs are more measured in their approach, leaning more towards folk with an emo vibe than punk now, but the youthful energy and slight bitterness in the romantic lyrics remains.





listen to more here.

josh smith - a few songs

folk/punker josh smith didn't provide me with a whole lot of information, but he did provide me with a whole lot of soundcloud links. there is so little info i had to screen capture the picture below (thank you soundcloud for not hosting pictures properly...score another point for bandcamp. i can't emphasize it enough...get a bandcamp). he found my site via jason ray strickland, another singer/songwriter in the folk/punk mold from pennsylvania, so i'm guessing that's where josh is from as well.

the music contained on josh's soundcloud is classic folk punk. roughly sung, heavily strummed songs of woe and regret, of lost love and found drugs. there are a few songs recorded with a full band arrangement too which are my favorites, late 80's/early 90's type punk rock. in the full band context, josh's singing is very reminiscent of mike ness.









listen to more here.

state champion - don't leave home without my love and fantasy error

louisville's state champion has a sound like a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways. they manage to incorporate americana, country and folk touches into their raggedy indie/punk rock'n'roll in a way that is not contrived at all, which is a huge mountain to climb.

earnest, boozy rock that you could spin late at night in the glow while pouring the final, against-your-best-judgement drink and that you would then play on your headphones the next morning while you're walking home in the sun. the album will be available soon, here are some preview tracks.





the album will be available 'late spring' from sophomore lounge records.

william csorba - sign of contradiction

american primitive style picker william csorba, of houston, texas, is very prolific, his latest work 'sign of contradiction' being the third he has sent me in the past year. i respect this level of work ethic, and despite the volume of recordings and constraints of solo acoustic guitar music with no words, william makes a very new album each time he sits down to record.

'sign of contradiction' features his tightest, most silvery playing to date, starting out with epic eleven minute landscape called 'diablo canyon', which is great, and full of twists and turns. this album is a study in long form compositions...each tune tops seven minutes, except the closer, a cover of sam mcgee's 'buck dancer's choice', which is a standard for american primitive players. i recommend this one.



name your price for it here.

yuzima - behemoth

i was glad to get a new track from hard to classify new york recording artist yuzima today. his music tends to swerve between lofi indie, noise rock, soul, electronica and industrial forms, though he blends these modes in a way i've never heard before.

his new song, 'behemoth', has a noisy industrial feel, despite being centered around an acoustic guitar track. with 'behemoth' yuzima has succeeded in two things, making another good song and remaining mysterious.



listen to more here...as i've said before, i've always really loved his tune 'sex city'.

DJ dingo susi - keep cool things

despite his name, german artist DJ dingo susi is bedroom/lofi recorder and not a DJ. he has an upcoming tape on fall break records (due out on my birthday, june 19th), and 'keep cool things' is a preview track off that jammer.

i like it a lot, i'm beginning to think fall break records can do no wrong. the tune begins with a reverby drum machine and then the hazy, chilly, droning guitars come in, followed by a bassy hook and the disaffected, slacker vocals. then some kind of psychedelic riffs. just my cup of tea.



look for the tape here in june, check out some older material here.

replica jesus - muscle meat

replica jesus is a heavy rock band from derby, UK. their first single is called 'muscle meat', and i dig it, i've already played it a few times.

it's a brutal blast of punk, trash and sludge, with a tight rhythm section, some nice shredding, and catchy vocals...but it's also six and half minutes long, it has what feels like a couple different movements or something, which lends a certain psychedelic expansiveness to the taught aggressive vibes...it's a very interesting song. according to a little facebook research these guys play shows with another dark derby act i've covered called unqualified nurse. i bet that would be a good show.



get it for FREE here.

lookout rock recording co. - collected spring 2015

lookout rock recording company is the alias of an alaskan recording artist who has sent me many contributions in the past. he is very prolific and very lofi. his songs are very personal and strange, atmospheric and discordant.

there are a number of things about this artist that make me think of jandek...he goes by a recording company type name, this latest thing is called 'collected spring 2015', making use of a temporally based naming convention, and he sounds like early jandek. i like it, and there is a lot of it to go through, with many things to discover within.



get it here.

l.a. jeff - holidaze inn

this post about 'holidaze inn', the latest full length from cambridge, massachusetts psych rockers l.a. jeff is the MFOA version of breaking news...a dude in the band tweeted the link to me like five minutes ago. true to my ethos, i am writing about it.

l.a. jeff has a high energy fuzzy/scuzzy psych sound. the music has a classicist approach, lysergic  but catchy, hazy but boogie-able. i could imagine one of their shows bringing some psychedelic sunshine to a grim cambridge winter. i can hear shades of contemporary psych luminaries such as the warlocks or the more coherent moments of brian jonestown massacre.



get it here.

jacob milstien - as free as wanting anything

'as free as wanting anything' is the latest of several releases by montana singer/songwriter jacob milstein.

it's very intimate, casual feeling collection, featuring mostly simple man-and-guitar type production, though there are songs with touches of piano, back-up vocals and double bass, or where other people can be heard laughing in the room or off-handedly singing along. this style is ideal for presenting jacob's detailed, literary stories.



get it here.

joão pedro viegas and paulo chagas - the legendary story of a slug and a beetle

'the legendary story of a slug and a beetle' by joão pedro viegas and paulo chagas is a playful series of duo style 'improvised miniatures' for woodwind instruments, such as clarinets (of various sizes), oboes and flutes. the songs have a pervasive sense of whimsy, as is suggested by the title. they feel like brief flights of fancy. the release notes at pan y rosas discos liken the pieces to haikus...i am a big fan of haikus and i think understand the comparison. these brief, airy transportations can show you different colors each time you look at them.



get it here.

kirby jayes - 716 emerson

'716 emerson' by kirby james of beloit, wisconsin, is an album of lofi, heart-on-the-sleeve emo folk punk jams. the guitar is cloaked in a haze of distortion and vocals are full of attitude, heartbreak and bitterness.

the production is sparse but the stories and feelings are complex. on the bandcamp, kirby writes 'i tried my best to make something honest'...i think that sums this up, i think he succeeded.

get it here on cassette, CD, or digital.

keyhole - the synth EP

keyhole is a london based singer/songwriter and producer working in the neo-soul/electronica form. his debut effort is called 'the synth EP', and as the name suggested, the production features lush atmospheres of synth sounds and pads over modern soul and hip hop style percussion arrangements, rapid sire hi-hats and such.

there are retro touches, because the 90's are retro now. this thoughtful music provides a nice background for keyhole's singing and complex high brow pop vocal arrangements.



listen here.

max gowan - big people

max gowan is getting started young...his latest home recording effort 'big people' is his second, and he is still in high school.

he has a fairly mature sound, a lush indie/pop atmosphere built from round, hazy guitars and his smooth doubled vocals. his songs have romantic vibes and memorable melodies.



name your price for it here.

alexander chernyshkov and marina poleukhina - songs about trees

'songs about trees' by alexander chernyshkov and marina poleukhina is an album of improvised sound experiments, recorded live on 'different instruments, mechanical devices and objects'.

these are noisy, glitchy soundscapes, but in a way i feel that they are evocative of their stated subject matter, reminiscent of trees creaking in a stiff breeze or the cicada's numbing drone, or even at times the sound of a tree being cut down. the effect of evoking the sounds of nature through these transparently technological means is interesting.



get it here.

amber edgar - good will rise

amber edgar is a singer/songwriter out of ontario, canada. her latest EP 'good will rise' is a cathartic experience, by turns melancholy and uplifting, that sounds as if it was born out of intense personal struggle.

many of the songs begin with amber's meditative acoustic guitar playing and intimate singing, but they end big, adding a full band as they go along to end in big emotional crescendos.



get it here.

sara syms - fade to blue

sara syms is an alt-country type singer songwriter who has made an assured debut in the form of her new long player 'fade to blue'.

recorded in a very professional manner in a historic upstate new york recording studio, the band on the record swings for sure but takes a back seat in the mix to the outsize presence of sara's voice as she tells her romantic, noir-tinged americana tales.



get it here.

post moves - reset father time

'reset father time' is the third release by shambling portland rockers post moves. it's a dreamy sounding record with hazy-lazy harmonies and loopy guitar melodies colored in atmospheric tones. it's almost aggressively laid back...heavy slacker vibes.

you can get it on cassette in a number of whimsically named color configurations from portland imprint lobby art records.



get it here.

the modern folk - surround me/leather jacket

i have not been in the habit lately of sharing all the music that i make and release on this site, but i recently completed a pair of albums that i am very happy with and i want to post here.

the albums each have nine songs and were recorded over the past six months, and in a way they were birthed from parallel recording processes: 'leather jacket' was recorded quietly in my apartment with an ancient drum machine, and 'surround me' was recorded at top volume in warehouse spaces with a good drummer. the albums share sonic, lyrical and visual themes and even songs but there are also extreme divergences on all these counts. they represent a lot of work. i hope you enjoy them.





get them for free or what you want to pay here.

azores - s/t

harrisonburg, virginia rockers azores have a solid debut on their hands with their self titled album available soon on cassette via funny/not funny records. the songs combine power pop urgency and sweet vocal harmonies with solid grooves and heavy/fuzzy guitar tones.

these songs seem to be about dark partying with bad vibes and a lot of trying to drink until the pills stop working, or they work better, or something. there is a wasted, but tightly performed, swagger to them. these guys make me think of the strokes, basically.



get the tape soon from funny/not funny records. i gotta put emphasis on the fact that care seems to have been taken on this album with all things tone. it sounds good on tape!

the west texas revival group - hastily arranged EP

the west texas revival group is the recording project name for the songs of ohio songwriter eli fishelson. the tunes on his new 'hastily arranged EP' are simply presented but rootsily played, with some good finger picking that doesn't take itself too seriously to grade into folk punk strumming.

the lyrics have a wry and sarcastic point of view, often times twisting towards the darkly humorous. the tune 'are you into the mountain goats' is a pretty funny parody of 'the murder mystery' by the velvet underground and also how drunken conversations between pop music aficionados go. been there, except i've never in my life discussed the mountain goats.



get it here.

matt chapman - sweet southern breeze

somewhat of a classic style MFOA contribution...not really a self styled artist with a bunch of self promotional social media sites, just a youtube link in an email. matt chapman's tune 'sweet southern breeze' is an ode to his home in east tennessee, sung and played with a sweetness like a nice mint julep with a mellow nylon string/fingerpicking approach.



i usually say 'get it here'...but this is all i got!

the star department - this ship won't sail

dublin, ireland band the star department trade in lush, atmospheric indie rock, making them a perfect fit for their label hidden shoal recordings.

their new single 'this ship won't sail' flows along with mellow vibes guided by a current of organs down below and a glitchy drum beat. the vocals float on this stream like new fallen leaves.



check it here.

stella veloce - for a flat

stella veloce is an avante garde composer and cellist from sardinia. her new album is called 'for a flat'. i have to admit that while i listen to a ton of music i am fairly ignorant about classical music, but i believe this album to be on the distant fringe of the classical realm. real distant. the songs feel improvised and they are named after days (friday, saturday and sunday), which implies to me the spontaneous nature of their recording process, though i would not be surprised if there was more to it that escapes my perception. perhaps making the listener imagine there is more to it is the trick that music like this plays

on these songs, the cello grinds with a slow anxiety that builds at times to a crisis of sound. some kind of incidental percussion instruments click and clack. a saxaphone plays incidentally and sporadically. there are snatches of casual conversation. bird songs and field recordings. bent electric guitar noodling. prepared guitar? did i hear some tape manipulation at the end of 'saturday'? in a lot of ways i interpret this as experiencing the weekend with the artist. it's a satisfyingly weird experience.



download it for free here.

todd tobias - savarnabhumi

despite his profile being considerably higher than the stuff i usually feature here, i am always happy to post the music of todd tobias because he approached me himself. also, the music is excellent. todd has a new album on the way, called 'tristes tropiques', which happens to be named after and inspired by an ethnography/travelogue about brazil and the caribbean by french anthropologist claude levi-strauss, which is a great book, one of my favorites honestly.

the lead single 'savarnabhumi' seems to express the lilting breeze and heavy humid atmosphere of the sad tropics with its swelling synths and bubbling guitars. i am excited to see what the rest of this album of painting-like soundscapes holds in store.



it will be available here from hidden shoal recordings or pre-order it here.

valiant bastards - harbinger

valiant bastards are a thrash metal band out of portland, oregon. they have a vintage jean jacket and white high top sneaker sound, like a lot of bands from the 80's/90's that end with the letter 'a'.... glad to have this contribution here!

chugging and pounding devil-horns-in-the-air metal with horror/fantasy-type themes and heavy riffs. classicist in approach, valiant bastards aren't blackened to death. sounds like a good time.



listen to more here.