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Love Inks

It’s a Wednesday night, we are 4 days away from 2012 and the end of the world, my wife and kids are playing Rock Band in the background and I am searching through all the music that I’ve acquired this year trying to find any hidden gems that didn’t get enough attention when originally purchased. One of those gems is Austin, Texas 3-piece band Love Inks. They describe their sound as “minimalist dream-pop”, using just an electric guitar, bass guitar, and a drum machine, along with the simple, yet satisfying vocals of Sherry LeBlanc.

The songs below are great examples of their minimalist ways. While Love Inks isn’t the most musically or lyrically complicated band out there, their brand of pop music grabs hold of you, and before you know it you’re nodding your head and have listened to these songs several times and you don’t know where the last hour of your life went.

Love Inks – Blackeye from E.S.P (2011)

Love Inks – Leather Glove from E.S.P (2011)

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French Miami

Many a night I will lie in bed with my headphones on, listening to music to help me fall asleep. The other night I was listening to a collaborative woxy.com playlist on Spotify trying to relax and hopefully fall asleep. That hope of sleep was destroyed when “Multi Caliber Rifles” from French Miami started playing through my headphones. The angular guitar riffs mixed with throbbing synths, somewhat reminiscent of Fugazi, made me take notice. Why hadn’t I heard this before?

From what I can find about these guys, they formed in 2006 in San Francisco and now reside in Brooklyn, NY. They released their self-titled debut in 2009 and followed that up with an EP Motor Skills last year. According to their website they are recording a new album now. The songs included below offer a heavy dose of synth and jangly, finger-tapping guitar grooves for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.

French Miami – Motor Skills from Motor Skills (2010)

French Miami – Suge Knight from Motor Skills (2010)

French Miami – Science Fiction from S/T (2009)

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Troubadour Dali

Troubadour Dali | Let's Make It Right | 3hive.com
Troubadour Dali | Let's Make It Right | 3hive.com

Troubadour Dali are out of St. Louis, MO. On their Facebook page they call their genre “a rhythm and groove pop hypnodeathjam explosion”. That’s a pretty good description. They released their second album Let’s Make It Right back in August. The album was recorded all over St. Louis, including apartments, and fallout shelters.

Thirty seconds into “Pale Glow” and I new that this was a band that I needed to hear more of. The smooth, haunting vocal harmonies mixed with the chug of layered guitars and percussion drew me right in, and I can’t get enough of it. “Ducks In A Row” is a little bit more upbeat musically, but still has the haunting vocals like in “Pale Glow”. Go buy this album.

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Wild Flag

Wild Flag is a super group, consisting of Carrie Brownstein, Rebecca Cole, Mary Timony, and Janet Weiss. The members of Wild Flag have played in notable bands including Sleater-Kinney, The Minders, Quasi, Helium, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and others. Their sound is similar to Sleater-Kinney, this is obviously because of Brownstein’s distinctive voice. “Romance” and “Future Crimes” come from their self-titled debut. They are two of the more upbeat tracks on the album. On “Romance” they don’t pull any punches as the opening keyboard and drum beat lure you into a full on vocal assault by Brownstein. “Future Crimes” is a little more subtle yet the song has the same in your face feel to it. Here’s hoping that Wild Flag is here to stay.

Wild Flag – Romance

Wild Flag – Future Crimes

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Mikal Cronin

I’ll be the first to admit that I judge the book by it’s cover. When I saw the album cover for Mikal Cronin’s self-titled debut, I knew I was going to like what I was about to hear. After listening to the two songs available on his bandcamp page, my judgement was correct, I was blown away. After some research i found that Mikal is a frequent collaborator with Ty Segall, they released an album together called Reverse Shark Attack back in 2009. Ty also guests on Mikal’s new album along with John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees. The tracks included are an indie/garage/psych rock fans dream. Full of Beach Boys harmonies, start and stop melodies, scuzzy guitar tones, fuzzy vocals and a smoking flute solo, yes a flute solo. Do you need any other reasons to give these songs a try? Did you see the part about the flute solo?

Mikal Cronin – Is It Alright

Mikal Cronin – Apathy

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Cuckoo Chaos

There isn’t much out there about Cuckoo Chaos other than they’re a five piece band from San Diego. They have posted a list of all the things they are, too many to name here, on their band page on Lefse Records’ site. What I can tell you from listening to the song “Just Ride It”, from their just released debut album Woman, they play super-tight pop/rock music. The song, and album as a whole, reminds me of Vampire Weekend, minus the Paul Simon influences. I hope I don’t get killed for that comparison. The song is full of muted and jangly guitars, combined with a nice bass groove and just enough keys, the song really takes you for a ride, and when it ends your ready to get back on and ride it again. Give this track a go, you will like it I promise.

Cuckoo Chaos – Just Ride It from Woman (2011)

Lefse Records

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Mariachi El Bronx

Mariachi El Bronx is the alter ego of punk band The Bronx. It all started when they were asked to play an acoustic set. Instead of stripping down their music, they decided to take it in a new direction, by exploring and adding Latin sounds.

I would normally try and describe the music to you, but I will be the first to admit, I don’t know anything about mariachi music. And rather than faking it, I will let the music speak for itself. Please enjoy.

Mariachi El Bronx – 48 Roses

 

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Bad Sports

I love punk rock. I love everything about it. I enjoy it in almost all of it’s forms. No matter how broad my musical tastes have become with old age, when I hear good punk rock I get really excited. Bad Sports is good punk rock. Hailing from Denton, Texas, they do everything good punk bands do, including tight guitars, snotty vocals, and songs about girls. Bad Sports play with serious energy, their songs are very catchy and have an old school vibe to them, drawing comparisons to bands such as the Buzzcocks. “Can’t Just Be Friends”, the track below, reminds me a lot of the Ramones with a little Hard-Ons mixed in. Yes, I just wrote that. Their 2nd LP Kings of The Weekend just came out and it’s really good, you should go buy it.

Bad Sports – Cant Just Be Friends from Kings of The Weekend (2011)

www.dirtnaprecs.com

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Ganglians

Ganglians are a band that I stumbled upon tonight while searching the www’s for new music. They are a four member band out of Sacramento,CA. They take their name from a mixture of the words “gang” and “aliens”. I am brand new to these guys and I don’t know anything more about them.

I was pleasantly surprised by the track “Jungle” that is being shared below. It’s equal parts psychedelic and noise pop, with all the fuzz you can handle, all things that get this listener’s ears to perk up, and when this song came on for the first time, they perked. Their new album Still Living comes out on August 23. You should buy it.

Ganglians – Jungle from Still Living (2011)

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Floating Action

I love having people in my life who are just as obsessed with finding new music as I am. This find comes from my cousin Ben, and It’s a pretty darn good find.

Floating Action is from North Carolina, the band consists mostly of one person, Seth Kauffman, who sings and plays everything except the pedal steel on this, his third release Desert Etiquette. The album was written and recorded in a matter of about 4 days, and it shows, but not in a bad way. The songs are loose, but not sloppy, as a whole the album have a very casual feel to it. Both songs included below, “Eye of A Needle” and “Well Hidden” are both chilled out, and laid-back. So get out your chaise lounge, and put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage, and relax to some smooth indie rock.

Floating Action – Eye of A Needle from Desert Etiquette (2011)

Floating Action – Well Hidden from Desert Etiquette (2011)